The traffic on Tetovo - Gostivar highway, near the village of Zerovjane, is still blocked. The blockade was set Friday afternoon, MIA's correspondent reports.

 

Interior Department says 200 persons from Albanian nationality block the traffic on the highway near the restaurant Lovec.

 

Persons demand release of the former commander of so-called NLA Berzat Bejtulahu, known as "commander Caki" from prison.

 

Frequent volleys of gunfire and sporadic shootouts have been heard during Friday night in Tetovo region, which stopped early Saturday.

 

Also gunshots have been heard from the villages of Gajre, Lisec, Novo Selo, Mala Rechica, Palatica and Odri.

 

Shootouts have been heard in Tetovo from the Teke, the reformatory, Sipad, Gorna Carsija and Kupenik settlements, apartment block 82 and other areas.

 

 

 

The blockade on Tetovo - Gostivar highway near Lovec restaurant, the village of Zerovjane, has been lifted Saturday at 13:35 hours, MIA's correspondent reports.

 

Interior Department from Tetovo says the traffic is normalised on two directions of the highway.

 

The traffic on Tetovo - Gostivar highway was blocked since Friday at 14:30 hours by 200 ethnic Albanians who demanded release of Berzad Bejdulahu, known as "commander Caki" of the disband NLA, from prison.

 

Standartnews
Nevena Mircheva
Victoria Seraphimova

 

The power-vested made the gift of the year to themselves presenting Bulgartabac to their favourite firm Tobacco Capital Partners. Yesterday the Privatization Agency (AP) asked the cronies of the power-vested to prove the origin of their funds in a 20-day term: 110 million euro for the holding, 71 million euro for investments and 38.5 million euro to pay off the liabilities of the tobacco holding to the fisc. And 100 million more to buy out the tobacco. The contract with the winner has to be signed in a 45-day term. To Apostol Apostolov, executive director of the AP, it could take place till end-September. The trade unions were the first to react. "We are ready to go on a strike, on Monday we shall voice our particular actions," the CITUB and Podkrepa trade unions warned. The UDF convened their leadership urgently. "We expect legal proceedings to be initiated," Kemal Ejup from the MRF said. "The tobacco holding will be sold out in separate businesses," Krastyo Petkov from the left-wing Coalition "For Bulgaria" forecast.

 

 

 

Protesting farmers spilled milk-cans along the lanes in Slanchev Bryag (Sunny Beach) sea resort nearby the holiday home of the Council of Ministers. A dozen of policemen stopped the rally. They blocked their way to the home and forced the farmers to pass down the walkway.

 

 

Hungary is providing 45,000 sandbags for shoring up levees on the Bulgarian bank of the Danube, Vidin Municipality Spokeswoman Doushana Kostova said, as quoted by BTA. The delivery was agreed at a meeting between the Hungarian Ambassador to Bulgaria, Dr Bela Koloszy, and the Mayor of Vidin, Dr Ivan Tsenov, in Sofia on Thursday. The bags will arrive in Vidin before the end of the day on Thursday, from where Civil Protection will distribute them among the rest of the riverside population centres. The US Embassy has also shown interest and willingness to help the local government's efforts to make Vidin as flood-proof as possible against the contingency of the Danube reaching a critical water mark, Kostova said. As from Thursday, the Danube water level is displayed on two notice boards in front of City Hall. The information is updated twice a day, at 7.30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Four Bulgarian islands in the Danube were submerged into up to 22 cm deep water Thursday: Bezimen at Novo Selo, Malak Bliznak between Lom and Vidin, Lyaskovets at Oryahovo, and Vetren at Silistra, said the desk officers at the Danube Waterway Study and Maintenance Executive Agency. The narrow strip of land between Lom and Oryahovo has been inundated for several days now. Experts predict that another three or four islands may come under water on Friday. At Rousse, the water level rose 20 cm on Thursday, 26 cm on Wednesday, and 35 cm on Tuesday. The swelling expands the area of the Roussenski Lom River, which flows into the Danube at the city.