By Charline Evans, 15^th Oct, 2009

Around the World in 80 Schools has been such a success that I have been contacted by schools, business and charitable organisations not featured in the initial project that would like to become part of this ever increasing network.

Around the World in 80 Schools +Plus is an additional feature that will showcase additional schools, orphanages, charities, communities and business around the world that want to come together to make a difference for children around the globe.

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By Nick Fulford, 12 Oct, 2009

Nick enjoying the beautiful weather and the garden

I recently visited Varna at the end of September and I was kindly invited to join the Eurolink Team and the Children for the Barbeque Afternoon that was being arranged at a Villa, in the countryside near Varna, on Saturday 26^th September. I would like to give you a few notes on my impressions of how the afternoon progressed.

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October 7, 2009

The anchored Norwegian Jade liner as viewed from the Varna beach which enjoyed sunny October weather. Photo by BGNES

The 295-meter Norwegian Jade liner called at Bulgaria’s Black Sea port Varna on Wednesday, October 7, 2009.

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by Nedyalka Aleksandrova

“When the new General City Plan is implemented, Varna will look like a butterfly or a bird in flight to the future, seen from outer space”, Prof. Nikiforov said at the Public Deliberations of the Plan which took place on October 1, 2009 at the Community Centre of Konstantinovo.

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source: Narodno delo newspaper

The district of Konstantinovo  will have direct connection to the highways “Black sea” and “Hemus.

The new General City Plan of Varna is the first strategic elaboration to sketch the potential for development of the village of Konstantinovo and the region round it.  For their underestimation until the present moment speaks the fact that in the currently operative city plan, drawn in the 80s, they were not included. As a natural effect of it, a consecution of villa areas and urban formations appeared such as Pripek, Lazur, Panorama, Chereshova gradina and Krushova gradina, which lack the indispensable technical and social infrastructure.

According to Professor Architect Ivan Nikiforov, Head of the Team of the new GCP, the general idea for the development of Varna to the south will transform Konstantinovo in a city area of full value, attractive for living and recreation. This trend will be consolidated to a great degree particularly after the erection of the second bridge over the canal near Kazashko that will enable transport connection to both the city to the north and the seaside resort complexes. In actual fact from Konstantinovo it will be possible to set a connection with the highways “Hemus” and ‘Black Sea”.

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‘In mid-September 2009 the public deliberations about the GCP of Bulgaria’s sea capital Varna will be inaugurated,’ an order, issued by the City Mayor Cyril Yordanov, announces. The first three dates are set for the city regions of “Odessos”, “Primorski” and “Mladost” - respectively on the 17th, 18th and 23rd of September at 6 p.m. in the City Hall’s Plenary Conference Room.

In the first days of the month, the project will be discussed in the villages of Konstantinovo and Zvezditsa.

Citizens can submit written statements on the GCP within a week after the conclusion of the discussions if there are any objections to be raised. The Commission will review all officially submitted remarks along with the protocols of the community discussions within a month’s time. The final stage of the admittance of the GCP will be finalized at a session of the Experts Council of Territorial Development of Varna Municipality after which the GCP will be formally endorsed.

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14^th Sep, Novinite.com

Top Bulgarian culinary show host, Uti Bachvarov (front) together with the award winning chefs of the represented restaurants at the ‘Tastes of Varna’. Photo by Anettevents

The first edition of the “Tastes of Varna” Culinary Festival attracted thousands of visitors for its various events over the week, including Bulgarian show biz stars and food and wine specialists.

The program of the Festival, of which Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) is an official media partner, featured carving and flair shows, event live music performances, kids’ parties, and a competition for ‘Best Banitsa’ (i.e. traditional Bulgarian pastry) organized by one of the sponsors of the event, BELLA Bulgaria. The five-star Helios Spa & Resort complex in the top Golden Sands resort on the Black Sea is the official partner of the culinary fest.

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2^nd Sep, 2009

The legendary train, described in the novel “Murder on the Orient Express”, by Agatha Christie, passed through Varna, announced a reporter from radio Focus. Orient Express arrived at Varna Railway Station with 100 passengers, yesterday afternoon and was expected by many welcoming people, mainly tourists from France and Germany, who had come to see their fellow-citizens. The guests stayed in the city for almost four hours. However, this summer, no tourists were allowed to board the train for a viewing tour. The reason for that was the fact that as the passengers pay an extremely high price for this VIP trip, it wouldn’t be pleasant for them to be disturbed. This year the train set off from Vienna and through Budapest, Bucarest, Varna and Kapakule will end the tour in Istanbul.

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By Nedyalka Aleksandrova

In the last decade Varna has developed and expanded extensively. At present it is the 80^th largest city in Europe, Bulgaria’s second-largest metropolis and the biggest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.

The impetuous development of Varna raised the need of a new general city plan as to the west it has reached its maximum of territorial enlargement. The lake of Varna will have a leading role in the process, the authors of the new GCP say. It will become an element for another city enlargement as a tourist agglomeration. The principal aim is to avoid here the tendency of urbanization of the entire coast. The GCPlan safeguards the so called ‘natural breaks’. In practice, they will guarantee that apart from being a European harbour and a logistic centre, Varna will remain a holiday centre of a European scale, as it has been in the last decade. The Black Sea highway will become the axis of the economic development in the region.

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By Lili Gospodinova,

One of Bulgaria’s most gifted comedy actors Georgi Kaloyanchev made an appearance in front of a crowd of film lovers in Varna. Photo by log.bg

The ‘Love is Folly’ International Film Festival, held every year in Varna, runs this year from August 28 to September 3.

The Festival was officially opened by Culture Minister, Vezhdi Rashidov, in the Black Sea city at 19:00.

Tatyana Lolova, Georgi Kaloyanchev and Nikola Anastasov made appearances in front of a crowd of film fans. 50 films from 20 countries from three continents will be shown, all of which have themes relating to love, passion and the folly that these emotions engender.

The russian movie, ‘Admiral’ by Andrey Kravchuk had the honour of opening the festival. There is no doubt for the interest that the two movies with bulgarian participation provoked. They are ‘Prima Primavera’ starring Vesela Kazakova and Djoko Rosich and ‘St. George Shoots the Dragon’ with Stefan Danailov in one of the main roles.

Saturday will be the first time that the Festival has focused on Indian Films. One of the highlights of the Festival will be the showing of ‘East Meets Barry West’, an English-Bulgarian joint production, starring rapper Misho Shamara.

There will be two panoramas, dedicated to the Bulgarian movie heritage. One of them is in memorial of the great Bulgarian actor Petar Slabakov and the other is dedicated to the work of the script writer Georgi Mishev.

Main accent in ‘Love is folly’ will be the newest german cinema. The Bavarian program includes six movies. Among them you can see the winner of the Silver bear prize of this year’s Berlinale - ‘All the other’, directed by Maren Ade. Another accent in the program is the panorama of the movies with the russian actor Oleg Yankovski. You will be able to remind masterpieces like ‘Tsareubiytsa’, ‘Flying Asleep and Awake’, ‘My Tender’ and ‘Affectionate Beast’.

Among the guests of the festival will be the Georgian director Nana Dzhordzhadze and the American director Celik Kayalar. Their movies - ‘The Rainbowmaker’ and ‘Moonlight sonata’ are also included in the program.

Novinite.com, August 20, 2009

Bulgaria’s largest Black Sea city of Varna is a more popular tourist destination than the country’s second largest Black Sea city of Burgas.

This becomes clear from data announced Thursday by the Territorial Statistical Bureau in Varna.

Even though the Varna District, which occupies most of Bulgaria’s northern Black Sea coast, has fewer hotels and accommodation spots, and fewer beds, it attracted more visitors than the Burgas District, which takes up Bulgaria’s entire southern Black Sea coast, in the second quarter of 2009.

The Varna District has a total of 403 accommodation establishments (hotels, motels, camping sites, etc) with 53 448 beds. It registered 231 000 hotel stays in April-June 2009.

This is 10,1% more visitors than the 209 800 hotel stays in the Burgas District, which has 870 accommodation spots and 85 649 beds.

Novinite.com, 17 Aug, 2009

Borisov was speaking after opening a new section of renovated road close to the Varna train station. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria PM Boyko Borisov has pledged to invest BGN 20 M in the road infrastructure in the Black Sea city of Varna.

Borisov stated that the money will be invested as soon as the Varna municipality comes up with the necessary projects, BGNES reported Saturday. He was speaking after opening a new section of renovated road close to the Varna train station.

Currently BGN 23 M has been spent on the renovated section of Devnya street in Varna, BGN 14 M of that has come out of the municipality budget.

The new investment will most likely be used to renovate sections of roads between the Varna neighborhoods and the center as well as the main central boulevards and the section of tarmac outside the Metro hypermarket.

The Black Sea highway will include expansion and connection of already existing roads. Photo by BGNES

Russia approved the project to build a highway around the entire coastal line of the Black Sea for the amount of USD 1 B. The news was reported by the Bulgarian Information Agency, BTA.

The highway will be 7,140 kilometers long and will pass through 12 countries. It will connect Turkey, Georgia, Russia, the Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. It will have at least four lanes while construction works will include the expansion and connection of already existing roads.

The project’s deadline is yet to be set.

NOVINITE.COM

Topsport - The contract for F1 will be signed on Friday

By Svetla Dimitrova

The track will be constructed most probably near Varna because of its infrastructure.

The president of the Bulgarian Federation of Motor-cycling (BFM) Bogdan Nikolov announced, that Bulgaria would sign a contract to host the F1 Grand Prix with the promoter of the World Championship Bernie Ecclestone on Friday, July 10, 2009, the online edition of the newspaper Dnevnik announced.

The Chairman of the Organization Committee of Bulgaria’s Grand Prix Mr. Rumen Petkov, representatives of private investors and the Deputy Minister of Finance Kiril Ananiev, should meet with Ecclestone before Germany’s Grand Prix at Nürburgring, where the contract should be signed.

The meeting is under question because Ecclestone would not travel on Thursday, due to his recent problems caused by his extreme statements about Hitler, but most probably he would join the Grand Prix at Nürburgring later on. READ MORE »

The Bulgarian flag and the flag of Europe were put on the highest pylons with flags in Europe. This project was organized and initiated by the Ministry of State Administration and Administrative Reform of Bulgaria. ‘Varna is number 1, by another indicator’, said Minister Nikolay Vassilev at the official raising of the flags.

The Mayor of Varna, Kiril Yordanov, the Regional Governer, Hristo Kontrov and hundreds of citizens of Varna were present at the ceremony. The Bulgarian and European Union anthems were performed by the Naval Force brass-band.

The pylons are located near the Sea Garden, by the Varna-Golden Sands motorway. The flags are more than 294 sq.m (21.5 m. x 13 m.), which is the size of the biggest flag in Europe situated in Madrid.

According to minister Vassilev the ambition was the sea capital to have the highest pylons and the biggest flags on the European continent. They are 52 m. high, and are lit in the night and can be seen from the whole gulf of Varna and from almost every place in the city, said minister Vassilev.

The initial project for a new General Town Plan (GTP) of Varna was approved by the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, Asen Gagauzov, and admitted to public discussions and consultations during the joint working conference of the National Expert Counsel for Territorial Structure (NECTS) and the Municipal Expert Counsel for Territorial Structure (MECTS), which began yesterday, announced a reporter from radio Focus, Varna. The participants at the meeting accepted the generalized stand, proposed by the Director of Territorial Structure and Projects Department of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works (MRDPW), Lidia Stankova, that the major part of the proposals and the notes to the project have been reflected, it is stabilized and the procedures for public discussions and consultations for the GTP and the ecological assessment of the project can be revealed with the shortest possible delay. The working group agreed that the additional notes and propositions put forward during the 2-days conference, will be submitted to the designers and they must be reflected in the final version of the project, along with the opinions and recommendations which will arise during the discussions and consultations. The decision was made on the basis of all standpoints covered at the conference by experts from NECTS and MECTS, Varna, the regional associations of the Chambers of Architects and Engineers, from regional municipalities and independent appraisers. Lidia Stankova generalized that according to all raised opinions the acceleration of the procedures for public discussions and consultations, as well as procedures for adopting the project will have a stabilizing effect and will be to the benefit of the local public.

The working group also agreed that a proposition for the signing of the prepared scheme for combining procedures provided in each of the four laws concerning the admittance of the GTP project, should be directed to the Mayor and the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works.

The initial GTP project should be admitted by the end of the year at the earliest. This became obvious at the conference. The launching of the procedures will be announced in a ten-day-period from signing the conference protocol. However, experts commented upon the possibility that terms may be lengthened due to the fact that during the consultations and discussions negative standpoints may occur, which will lead to amendments being made to the project. According to the Team Leader of the department working on the ecological assessment of the GTP, Ljudmil Ikonomov, discussions may be prolonged in case they are carried out with the intervention of additional methods acknowledged by the European Union as reputable practices, which would legally stabilize the project.

Interview by Veselina Sapundzhieva, 26^th May, 2009

Translation: Lili Gospodinova, PR of Eurolink Investment Group

Prof. Nikiforov giving a lecture at a conference held by Eurolink Investmenmt Group in 2008, The Eagle Has Landed

Prof. Architect Ivan Nikiforov is a Doctor of Architectural Science and the team leader of the group of specialists who prepared the General Town Plan (GTP) of Varna. He has a long professional experience gained from his engagement in developing many towns. A couple of days ago he was granted the prestigious award ‘Varna’ for his work on the GTP and his book ‘History of town development’.

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Novinite.com, May 26, 2009

Sunseeker Superhawk 43 Quantum of Solace, James Bond’s yacht, has been shown in Bulgaria’s Varna. Photo by A Team

Sunseeker Superhawk, the model of James Bond’s yacht, was shown in Bulgaria’s Varna during a yachting parade.

Bond’s yacht was exhibited during the traditional Bond Label party, an annual event bringing together celebrities and wealthy Bulgarians.

The Agent 007 yacht Sunseeker Superhawk 43 Quantum of Solace from the limited edition specially created for the Bond movie Quantum of Solace was the top attractions of the event organized by A Team agency. Bond’s yacht is imported by LZ Yachting.

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Bulgaria Gazzette, 24^th May, 2009

Varna will have a multifunctional culture center before 2019, when the city is expected to become the European capital of culture. The news was announced by the chairman of the Municipality council Borislav Gutsanov.

The new art center will replace the old harbour Varna-east and will be the analogue of the Australian Sidney Opera, said Gutsanov. Still, the project will not copy the architecture of one of the symbols of Australia. The concert hall is the key point of the make-over of the harbour complex into an attractive, culture center.

To complete the project, the municipality will announce an international competition, which will likely attract prominent architects from all over the world. The lack of a proper-size modern concert hall that is suitable for spectacles and music performances of various ranges is one of the serious problems for the people of art in Varna. It is also a major stopper of visits of foreign artists.

Kerin Hope, FT’s Athens correspondent, January 17 2009

Archaeologist Teo Rokov watches intently as a mechanical digger raises a bucket of soil from a building site in Varna’s Gratska Mahala, or Greek Quarter (where the offices of Eurolink Investment Group are located). Mixed in with the earth, he spots fragments of medieval pottery. “This is plain old household stuff but you never know,” he says. “We track every construction project in this neighbourhood. If something important comes up, the developer covers the cost of a full-scale excavation.”

The scene is indicative of life in Bulgaria’s largest Black Sea port, which was settled two-and-a-half millennia ago by colonists from Miletus, a Greek city on the Asia Minor coast and is now, as the country’s second fastest growing city, coping with a big influx of new residents.

Originally, and for centuries under Greek, Roman and Turkish rule, Varna was a hub for traders shipping salted fish, grain, furs and gold to the Mediterranean and beyond. By the early 1900s Armenians, Jews and Bulgarians had joined Greek merchants and many took part in a grand urban revival of the city, launched by King Ferdinand. New mansions designed by Italian architects were painted in pastel colours appropriate to a fashionable European resort with a pier, wooden bathing huts and a Sea Garden (a stretch of parkland planted with rare trees under the supervision of a renowned Czech botanist and landscaper).

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