Novinite.com - 7/04/13

Anti-government protests in Bulgaria will be held Thursday for the 21st day in a row. Photo by BGNES

The 20th consecutive day of protests against Bulgaria's Socialist-endorsed government of Plamen Oresharski was one of the largest ones held in the capital Sofia in the last 15 years.

Over 25 000 gathered Wednesday evening in front of the Council of Ministers in downtown Sofia to request the resignation of the Cabinet Oresharski.

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Euronews - 7/02/13

For more than two and a half weeks now Bulgarians have been taking to the streets, demanding their newly appointed socialist government step down.

The protests were originally sparked by the controversial appointment of businessman and MP Delyan Peevski as the new head of the State Agency for National Security. Public anger eventually led to his removal but the demonstrations have continued, with the people demanding reforms that will bring greater transparency to Bulgarian public life, which they claim is fraught with corruption.

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Space.com - Megan Gannon, 7/01/13

Though only about dozen potentially habitable exoplanets have been detected so far, scientists say the universe should be teeming with alien worlds that could support life. The Milky Way alone may host 60 billion such planets around faint red dwarf stars, a new estimate suggests.

Based on data from NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft, scientists have predicted that there should be one Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of each red dwarf, the most common type of star. But a group of researchers has now doubled that estimate after considering how cloud cover might help an alien planet support life.

Video and more: Space.com

UTSanDiego.com - Mark Zeigler, 6/30/13

Protesters gather near a line of security blocking a road that leads to Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, June 30, 2013. Anti-government protesters marched Sunday near the Maracana football stadium before a major international match, venting their anger about the billions of dollars the Brazilian government is spending on major sporting events rather than public services. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana) — AP

Think about it: Millions of people across Brazil spent three weeks relentlessly protesting in the face of a sport that is their religion, their passion, their identity.

The Washington Post - By Anthony Faiola and Paula Moura, 6/28/13

Protest movements around the world: From Turkey to Brazil to Bosnia, a range of society takes to the streets.

Indeed, on the heels of the Arab Spring, Spain’s “indignados” and the U.S. Occupy movement, some observers see a new class of protest emerging among the global citizenry. If the 1960s were about breaking cultural norms and protesting foreign wars, and the 1990s about railing against globalization, then the 2010s are about a clamor for responsive government, as well as social and economic freedom.

“These are a group of people who are better educated and more connected through technology,” said Robin Niblett, director of Chatham House, the London-based think tank. “In parts of the developing world, this is a new middle class, where the definition of success is not survival. It’s about quality of life, about future opportunity and freedom of expression.”