The civic initiative “People Against Racism” is appealing [en] to the Municipality of Sofia and the Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria with the request to ban an international neo-Nazi racist conference scheduled for Feb. 17 and a neo-Nazi torchlight procession known as the “Lukov March” on Feb. 18. Every year since 2005, Bulgaria's far-right, neo-Nazi, and ultra-nationalist groups have commemorated the death of Gen. Hristo Lukov, who supported Nazi Germany during WWII. Lukov March 2011 drew protests from many civic groups and human rights organizations, including the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, the Jewish organization B'nai B'rith, and People Against Racism. (More about Lukov March; a 2010 video.) Written by Ruslan Trad · comments (0) Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

GV Author Ruslan Trad is tweeting - here, here, here, and here - about the severe flooding in southern Bulgaria, which was caused by heavy rainfall of the past few days and has killed at least eight people in the village of Bisser. The latest tweet came about an hour ago: “Breaking: Maritsa River’s dike broke close to the village of Generalovo, municipality of Svilenhrad, huge wave.” More photos from the disaster in the village of Bisser - at the Facebook page [bg] of the Bulgarian National TV's fundraising effort to help the victims. Written by Veronica Khokhlova · comments (0) Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Since last week, the Balkans have been hit by massive snow storms, the likes of which have not been seen in over a decade, if not longer. After an unusually long period of nearly no real signs of a typical Balkan winter, last week brought what seems to be non-stop snowfall throughout the region, including the seaside areas around the Adriatic that seldom get any snow. Men shoveling snow from a street in Sarajevo. Record snowfall has paralyzed transportation in the Bosnian capital, where a state of emergency has now been declared. Photo by Sulejman Omerbasic, copyright © Demotix (5/02/12). Serbia's national television network, RTS, and other media reported on Friday 3 February, 2012, that a state of emergency has been declared by the government, while citizens have been reporting critical situations throughout the country and that municipal services have been doing a poor job of tackling the snowfall in many urban areas. In an article titled “Serbia Blocked by Snow, State of Emergency in 27 Municipalities, Recommendation to Call Off School Attendance” [sr], the Head of the State of Emergency Sector of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Predrag Maric, is reported to have stated on Friday: 27 municipalities in Serbia have declared a state of emergency due to heavy snowfall. Maric has told Beta news agency that the most difficult situations are in Sjenica, Ivanjica, Prijepolje, Crna Trava and Surdulica, where the height of snow has reached approximately 2 meters. According to him, power supply is “relatively good,” outages are being fixed quickly and there have been no long power outages. Maric also announced the possibility of declaring a full state of emergency nationwide, which the Government did on Sunday evening, cancelling school throughout Serbia at least until Friday, February 10, among other things. Several actions have been organized by the online community in Serbia and the region to fend off the snow and to attempt to regain a functional state in urban areas at least, such as a #lopataup (”#shovelup”), organized by one online community leader, Zoran Torbica, and other local Twitter users. In the meantime, Al Jazeera Balkans, the recently established regional office of Al Jazeera news network in the region, has joined forces with the team from Ushahidi to set up a platform for tracking verified information on everything from road blocks, power outages to other critical points and information in the entire region. Ushahidi is an open-source platform for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping, which was also used in Serbia just after the earthquake in Kraljevo in November 2010 to map and track damage in the area. Haris Alisic, who heads the New Media team for Al Jazeera Balkans, launched the platform on Sunday evening, and many members of the online community, including some of the region's GV authors, have joined the Al Jazeera-Ushahidi team in curating, tracking and verifying reports from the region. The adapted Ushahidi platform can be located on Al Jazeera's official site, while reports can be sent in by anyone using the following channels: - via SMS to +387644218661 - via Twitter by using the hashtags #kolaps #sneg #snijeg #lopataup #iskljucenje - via email to oluja2012@aljazeera.net - or by entering information directly into the form on the”pošaljite izvještaj” tab on the Al Jazeera page If you would like to volunteer your time to help map critical areas and are familiar with using online tools, please contact the author of this article, or Haris Alisic via Twitter, or leave a comment here on Global Voices, and we will contact you for more information on what you can do to help. We also ask that you all begin reporting from your area on Twitter and using the above-mentioned hashtags on Twitter, which are automatically collected by the platform and then reviewed and verified by Al Jazeera and volunteers. Bosnian men are trying to push a car away from the deep snow. Photo by Sulejman Omerbasic, copyright © Demotix (5/02/12). Written by Danica Radisic · comments (1) Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

On Jan. 14, some 15,000 protesters came out in the streets of at least 12 Bulgarian cities, as well as in London, Paris and Copenhagen, to call for a moratorium on shale gas tests through hydraulic fracturing and to demand a new law that would ban this potentially dangerous practice. Facebook group “We are against a Bulgarian Chernobyl - shale gas exploration” [bg] now has nearly 56,000 members; a photo from the rally in Sofia, posted by one of the group's members, is here. One of the videos from the rally is here. Written by Ruslan Trad · comments (0) Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Vastagbőr blog collected [hu] some internet memes about the President of Hungary Pál Schmitt, the newest of which appeared after hvg.hu news site published an article titled ‘Serious Suspicion of Plagiarism in Pál Schmitt's Ph.D. Dissertation‘ [hu]. According to hvg.hu, the President had allegedly plagiarized his dissertation ('Analysis of the Modern Olympic Games Program') from the text of a Bulgarian sports expert Nikolai Georgiev. The Presidential Office claims [hu] that Schmitt and Georgiev knew each other well personally, collaborated and used the same sources. Written by Marietta Le · comments (0) Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

An anti-discrimination Roma flash mob/dance duel in Bucharest (video - here), and a report by Bulgarian Roma students on media coverage of Roma-related issues - at TOL's Roma Transitions blog. Education for the Roma children in the UK, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - at the Economist's Eastern Approaches blog. (Update: TOL's East of Center also has a post on “the Czech Republic’s segregated education policy” for the Roma students.) Written by Veronica Khokhlova · comments (1) Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Spotted by Locals: Experience cities like a local features a few dozen locations, including CEE cities of Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Krakow, Ljubljana, Prague, Riga, Sofia, Tallinn, Vilnius, Warsaw, and Zagreb. A random sample post from Zagreb, Croatia: Hrelić Flea Market – The Aleph of Zagreb; from Bucharest, Romania: The Haunted House – Armenian Neighbourhood; from Sofia, Bulgaria: Nissim – A True Old-School Bookstore. Written by Veronica Khokhlova · comments (0) Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

East of Center writes about “Eastern Europe’s ‘obsession with normality'” and suggests this New Year’s resolution: “In the true spirit of Václav Havel, why don’t we get abnormal for a change?” Written by Veronica Khokhlova · comments (0) Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Jovana Tozija wrote lovingly about making ajvar, a traditional favorite winter provision in Macedonia and some other post-Ottoman countries. Written by Filip Stojanovski · comments (0) Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

According to the trade unions, between 25,000 and 30,000 people protested in Sofia on Wednesday against the new pension reform, social cuts and the cancellation of the majority of trains in the country (a photo; videos - here and here). The police sent to contain the rally supported the people's demands by wearing ribbons in the colors of the Bulgarian national flag on their uniforms. MPs from the ruling party tried to talk with the protestors, but were booed. The protests will continue because of the cancelation of talks between the government and the trade unions. Written by Ruslan Trad · comments (0) Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

A new protest is being planned for Nov. 26 in Sofia, part of a series of protests against Chevron's shale gas extraction in northeast Bulgaria. On Nov. 20, nearly 500 people attended a rally in the coastal city of Varna, which didn't receive adequate media coverage. Several Facebook groups have been created: Sofia: BULGARIA can count on us - not shale gas! [bg, 740 members], We are against a Bulgarian Chernobyl - shale gas extraction [bg, 30,815 members]. Written by Ruslan Trad · comments (0) Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

The Nov. 16 protest against Chevron's extraction of shale gas in northeast Bulgaria had been organized through Facebook event. The poster on this photo reads: “Why did you sign, Boyko [PM Borisov's first name] - out of stubbornness?” Protesters chanted slogans against the government, calling them “traitors” because of the signed agreement for extraction of shale gas. Written by Ruslan Trad · comments (0) Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Bulgarian activists announced that they would join in the global #Ocuppy action on Oct. 15. There is a Facebook event and a group call for action, real democracy and #OccupyBulgaria. The activists have been inspired by the protests in Greece, the United States and Spain. Written by Ruslan Trad · comments (2) Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

Violent clashes in the Bulgarian village of Katunitsa, near Plovdiv, broke out Friday night, following the death of a 19-year-old ethnic Bulgarian local, Angel Petrov, who had been run over by a vehicle driven by a man linked to the local Roma clan leader. According to Focus Information Agency: 127 people were arrested in the southern village of Katunitsa where Bulgarian and Roma communities entered into clashes, following a fatal road accident involving relatives of a Roma boss - Kiril Rashkov, dubbed Tsar Kiro. The arrested were indicted for vandalism, arson and numerous other offences. The clashes involving some 2,000 people started when relatives of a teenager who was run over by a Rashkov family vehicle attacked the Roma patriarch's home. Another person died and five others were injured. Three policemen and two civilians were hurt in the riots, while a 16-year-old at the scene who suffered from heart problems was taken to hospital, where he later died. […] Online responses to the riots reflect very well the dangerous tensions on the ground. On Facebook, there is a page [bg] demanding death to the Roma boss Kiril Rashkov (”An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.)” - and more than 23,000 people appear to “like” this cause. One of the page members wrote: We are Bulgarians, we are in Bulgaria - enough of this torment! In our own country we feel as foreigners! They want war? We will give them war! Another Facebook page [bg] has been created in support of the ethnic Bulgarian rioters arrested in Katunitsa - as of now, 41,001 people have “liked” this page. Riot police in the village of Katunitsa. Photo by Georgi Kozhuharov/Dnevnik.bg, used with permission. Hot debates are taking place elsewhere on Facebook as well. On the Anti-Racism Movement in Bulgaria page, people have reported more than ten pages and groups with hate-speech content. One member of the Anti-Racism Movement wrote [bg]: Racism is awful because of the association of ethnicity with crime. There is a proverb saying “Because of our Elijah, I started to hate Saint Elijah” [”Pokrai nash Iliq namrazih i Sveti Iliq.”] Rashkov (Tzar Kiro) is one of the many criminals and traffickers in Bulgaria and he uses the ethnicity trump card without a second thought. If the authorities take care of this kind of criminals by legal means then this will reduce many times the ethnicity tensions, which are created by the same criminals to affirm their control over the given minority. One of the places where people are organizing protests against the Roma people is the Facebook fan page [bg] of the football team “Botev” (Plovdiv). One of the fan group's members wrote this [bg]: The dirty Roma scum must be cleaned! On the Bulgarian blog Bai Dalai [bg], the author wrote another opinion: It is easy to see that this is an uprising against the painful social injustices, against the fact that the authorities are protecting the rich criminals but they are unable to provide basic security for the common people. On Twitter, @lazarov (Alexei Lazarov) wrote [bg]: Racial clashes in Katunitsa, Putin will run for president again - time sometimes seems to be moving backwards. Written by Ruslan Trad · comments (3) Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper

A silent meeting in support of Palestine's bid for a UN seat and independence took place in Sofia on Sep. 20, organized by the Bulgarian-Palestinian Association for Friendship and Development. There was coverage by Press TV and here are photos from the event on Facebook (Bulgaria to support independent Palestine in UN). Written by Ruslan Trad · comments (0) Share: Donate · facebook · twitter · reddit · StumbleUpon · delicious · Instapaper