Yordan Hristoskov

Ivaylo Kalfin, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labor and Social Policy, has been appointed Chair of Bulgaria's National Council for Tripartite Cooperation.

Vladislav Goranov, Finance Minister, will also be a representative of the government on the Council, according to the press office of the Council of Ministers.

Caretaker Prime Minister Georgi Bliznashki and other ministers in his cabinet are to be questioned by lawmakers for the first time since assuming office on August 6.

Bliznashki and his colleagues are to cast more light on certain issues related to the government's general policies.

Police officers, fire fighters, rescuers, prison guards and military personnel protested in downtown Sofia against the planned pension age increase, reports the Nova TV national channel.

The several hundred protestors wore red clown noses and demanded the resignation of the caretaker Labour and Social Policies Minister Yordan Hristoskov.

Hundreds of miners protested on Friday in the town of Madan, in southern Bulgaria, against proposals to increase pension age, BNR radio reported.

The protest, organized by the KNSB and Podkrepa trade unions, targeted proposals by Labour and Social Policy Ministry experts to increase retirement age for metal ore and coal miners by 8-1/2 years as part of a much-delayed pension reform.

Bulgaria's General Labor Inspectorate has issued a decree to close the explosives plant Midzhur, hours after a blast in the factory razed it to the ground killing 15 employees.

The plant, which is owned by the company Vitex JSC, will be prevented from operating only temporarily until the details around the explosion have been settled, the Executive Agency said in a statement.

A specially equipped team of Bulgaria's Ministry of Interior is to enter the site of the explosion near the village of Gorni Lom.

A powerful blast at a privately-owned explosives plant near the northwestern village of Gorni Lom at around 5 pm on Wednesday left 3 injured, with 15 people feared dead.

Bulgaria's caretaker Labor Minister Yordan Hristoskov informed that the explosives factory near the village of Gorni Lom, which was stricken by a powerful blast on Wednesday, had been issued a number of penalty notices.

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The main union representing the staff of Bulgaria's Interior Ministry will take hundreds of employees to the streets if social rights of those working in the security sector are slashed.

Trades unions and employers' organisations have refused to take part in the Monday meeting of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation on the budget update proposals.

The European Union will allocate EUR 105 M to fighting youth unemployment in Bulgaria, according to caretaker Labor and Social Policy Minister Yordan Hristoskov.

Speaking Friday in Plovdiv, Hristoskov announced that the program would be launched in October and it would include 8000 young people.