ISTANBUL

A Turkish court ordered the arrest of 47 suspects in the Gezi Park case on May 27, while the pioneers of last year’s protest called for a May 31 rally in Taksim to mark the anniversary of Turkey’s largest-ever civil uprising.

American R&B singer Justin Timberlake dedicated one of his songs, “Until the End of Time,” to the victims of Soma mine blast during his concert on May 26 in Istanbul.

Some 301 miners died two weeks ago in Turkey’s worst ever industrial disaster, where an explosion in the Soma coal mine, located in western province of Manisa, caused an underground fire.

Bulgaria is on the top 10 list of most preferred summer vacation spots for Russian tourists, who do not travel in organized groups, reports Interfax. 

The top three positions are taken by Spain, Italy and Portugal. The list is completed by Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, France the Czech republic, Germany and Great Britain. 

By Stathis Kousounis

Athens hotels enjoyed the highest increase on a European level in terms of their average occupancy rate in April, as the latest STR Global report on the continent’s hotels showed that the Greek capital’s rate grew 17.3 percentage points, reaching 64.9 percent.

Notably, Greek Easter was in April this year, while in 2013 it has been in May.

Bulgarian border police detained 32 illegal immigrants onboard a motor yacht near the Black Sea resort of Sozopol.

At 4 pm on Sunday, the radars of the integrated maritime surveillance system at the Burgas regional border police directorate detected a motor yacht traveling to the Sozopol port, according to a media statement of the Interior Ministry.

Dozens of aftershocks rattled the northern Aegean islands of Lemnos and Samothraki yesterday following Saturday’s strong undersea quake, measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, which led to a British tourist being injured on Lemnos and dozens of injuries in western Turkey.

As Bulgarians are voting in the European Parliament elections on Sunday, the first overseas polling station to open was the one in Tokyo.

At 5 am EET on Sunday, the polling stations in Russia, Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates opened, according to reports of news.bg.

The powerful earthquake that rattled Greece and Bulgaria, Saturday, has shaken areas around western Turkey, as well, causing damage and minor injuries.

An earthquake of 6.4 magnitude struck off the coast of northern Greece on Saturday and was felt as far as neighboring Turkey and Bulgaria but there were no reports of casualties or serious destruction, police and fire brigade officials said.

A Greek Orthodox monk pours oil into the lamps at the tomb of Jesus at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday, two days ahead of a the top-level visit by Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios and Pope Francis to the Holy Land.