Prosecutor’s office will, from now on, be able to refuse the right to a phone call to persons detained or indicted for up to 48 hours, writes Sega. This is envisaged in amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure which the Ministry of Justice has released for public debate. At the moment, the prosecutor’s office has the right to detain someone for a period of up to 72 hours, with the obligation of notifying the detainee’s family and employer, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs if the detainee is a foreign national.

Bulgaria tackles engineer shortage by recruiting from Tunisia, reads a headline in Monitor newspaper. For the first time this year around 30 employees from the African country have obtained permits to design and construct buildings in Bulgaria. Due to the shortage of engineers and qualified technical staff, employees have been coming from abroad for years, though so far the country has relied mostly on Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and Serbia for this. In the period from the beginning of the year until September, the National Employment Agency has issued work permits to 517 people from 47 non-EU countries; with the greatest number of permits issued for citizens of USA who come to Bulgaria mostly as teachers.

Bulgaria among countries with fastest growing IT companies in Europe, writes Standart newspaper. The Bulgarian company Bulpros is 24^th in the Deloitte Fast 50 for fastest growing IT companies in Central and Eastern Europe. Deloitte’s ranking is of technology companies with the biggest revenue growth rate over the past five years.

Belgium’s top sommelier Eric Boschman is representing Bulgarian wines at Megavino, the biggest wine event in the Benelux, Standart writes. Eric Boschman, professional sommelier and wine columnist, holder of dozens of prestigious awards, among them master sommelier of Belgium conducted a masterclass with all Bulgarian wines presented at Bulgaria’s Megavino pavilion.

Village restores monastery school and church belfry, writes Trud. For 17 years the people of Smolyanovtsi village, Northwestern Bulgaria have been collecting  funds and… bricks, so as to be able to restore the old school and the church belfry, erected by their forefathers but then razed to the ground. The initiative for this belongs to the local priest Vassil.

Compiled by Miglena Ivanova

English version: Milena Daynova