Bulgaria News, Sofia News: The Sofia Echo - Bulgaria English-Language Newspaper

What would prevent two people who love each other from getting married? Often, in a made-for-TV climax, the question “If there is anyone who objects to this union, please speak now or forever hold your peace” is wrapped up in suspense and intensifies the tension. But that scene read more

Blighting Bulgaria’s beachesElitsa Grancharova

The main problem causing the defilement of Bulgaria’s Black Sea beaches was not a lack of refuse bins or a failure to empty them frequently, but the behaviour of tourists, according to the Commission for Consumer Protection (CCP). A commission spokesperson told The Sofia Echo read more

Spillover or makeoverElena Koinova

World Bank experts arrived too early to estimate the toll of conflict-related damages on the Georgian economy. The Georgian-South Ossetian conflict is yet to subside. Watershed decisions are made every day amid an ongoing military build-up, with dozens of countries making known read more

Features

From man’s best friend to public enemy number oneLibby Gomersall

In most European countries – particularly in the Balkans – it is not unusual to see stray dogs on the streets, especially in rural areas. Dogs and cats are part of the scenery. They generally spend their time roaming the area, looking for food or a place to curl up and shelter. read more

READING ROOM: The unkindest cutThe tale of an English Patient in a Bulgarian hospital will leave you in stitches. It did him.Rory Parsons

Lying flat on my back on an operating table, I stare up at the 1970s lights above me that are flickering dimly like the disco headlights of an old Lada. The lung machine next to me is being readied for action by a nurse with a fabulous chassis. Hiss, phweeee, hiss, phweeee. It read more

FILM REVIEW: The X-Files: I Want to Believe/Досиетата Х: Искам да повярвам Pavel Ivanov

The X-Files: I Want to Believe is an oddly timed attempt at re-launching a moderately profitable franchise, but it serves as a sad final nail in the coffin of this once hugely influential TV series. It is meant as a stand-alone thriller that does not require any previous read more

Comment

FROM THE EDITOR: On the roads

As August and the peak of Bulgaria’s summer holiday season headed to an end, there were media reports of blood banks running dry and emergency ward surgeons being overstretched. The reason? Once again, the festive feel of summer has been tempered by road deaths and injuries, read more

TO THE EDITOR: Rabies in Sofia – inadequate municipal reactions

“On August 1, an infected wild fox attacked a home dog in the Vladaya suburb. All animals in Vladaya are now under quarantine. There is a danger of rabies spreading among street dogs in Sofia. Forty cases of rabies are registered annually in Bulgaria, and almost half of them read more

Opinion

OFFLINE: your_domain-bulgaria.comRene Beekman

Over the years, a constant source of fun and teasing for me has been the type of domain names that Bulgarian companies and organisations have a tendency to use. More often than not, those domains would end in -bg.com or -bulgaria.com instead of simply with .bg, making little or read more

RANDOM: Cocaine-red sharkMagdalena Rahn

It was going to be abhorrent that I have started to drink sugarfree Red Bull on a daily basis at work until I realised that it was an Austrian product, and not another capitalistic US takeover. It is my choice, yes, to drink such concoctions, but when the choice in Bulgaria is read more

MACRO: Fools never dieAlex Bivol

Over the past couple of weeks, Bulgarian classifieds websites have been full of adverts recruiting “credit consultants” for Dubai Investment, a company that says it would start giving low-interest loans come October. The name sounds serious, and ever so close to the Persian read more

Sport

‘We don’t fix matches’Petar Kostadinov

Speculation that has been floating around Bulgaria’s football world for the past 19 years was finally addressed on August 25, when three former football referees talked openly about alleged corruption and match-fixing by top Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) officials. read more

Bring it home

Alberto Contador is the favourite to win this year’s Vuelta a Espana and restore domestic domination of the year’s last Grand Tour, which was won by riders from the former Soviet Union over the previous three years - Russia’s Denis Menchov (twice) and Kazakhstan’s Alexandre read more