Friday News from Sofia

A few pieces of news:

1) It is an extremely sunny and warm day today (13 degrees C, 55 F)... no need for a jacket... guess it really is too much to hope for snow in Sofia.

2) Traffic has been blocked in the city center by taxi drivers since this morning. The reason? A 51-year old taxi driver from the cab company OK Supertrans was stabbed to death at 3 am this morning :(. Taxi drivers are making demands for their safety, as well as a thorough investigation of this and previous taxi driver murders (sadly, this is not the first time that this has happened). More information, including photos of the protests, on dnes.bg. Yes, they have a point to protest... but at the same time it made getting to work this morning a nightmare for most. Orlov most (a big intersection in Sofia) was completely deserted...and people had resorted to walking instead of using public transportation. All of this reminded me of the protests against the government in 1996-97 and the many public transportation strikes at the time, which forced me to walk the 7-8 kms home from school quite a few times....

3) A big walking demonstration/protest against the death sentences of the Bulgarian nurses in Libya will be held this evening starting at 18h from the National Palace of Culture. Finally, the public is waking up to this tragedy. More and more companies (including all Bulgarian airlines) and people are posting/wearing the "You Are Not Alone" ribbons.

**Apologies that the linked information is only in Bulgarian... I couldn't find English versions anywhere.