Six people have been charged with human trafficking in Bulgaria following the incident Prosecutors in Bulgaria have charged six people with human trafficking following the discovery near the capital, Sofia, on Friday of an abandoned truck containing the remains of 18 Afghan migrants who died of suffocation. “The victims died …
Read More »Russia halts gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria
Russia halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland on Wednesday for rejecting its demand for payment in roubles, taking direct aim at European economies in its toughest retaliation so far against international sanctions over the war in Ukraine. The step was denounced by European leaders as “blackmail”, and comes as …
Read More »Flaming bus crash in Bulgaria kills 45 North Macedonian tourists
A bus carrying North Macedonian tourists crashed in flames on a highway in western Bulgaria before daybreak on Tuesday, killing at least 45 people, including 12 children, officials said. The cause of the accident was unclear but the bus appeared to have hit a highway barrier either before or after …
Read More »Bulgaria exit polls: President Radev set for election victory
Early exit polls showed Bulgarian President Rumen Radev ahead of his rival, academic Anstas Gerdzhikov, in the decisive runoff round of the presidential vote. Bulgarian President Rumen Radev is projected to win another term with nearly two-thirds of the vote, according to exit polls published after the Sunday election by …
Read More »Ukraine summons Bulgarian envoy over president’s Crimea comments
Ukraine summoned the Bulgarian ambassador on Friday after Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said the Crimean Peninsula was part of Russia after being annexed from Ukraine in 2014. In a presidential debate ahead of Bulgaria’s run-off presidential vote on Sunday Radev said Western sanctions against Moscow were not delivering the expected …
Read More »Bulgaria sends soldiers to tackle migrant influx from Turkey
Bulgaria on Monday deployed 350 soldiers to the border with Turkey to help police cope with the growing influx of migrants, the defense minister announced. “Soldiers arrived at the Bulgarian-Turkish border since today to back up the border police,” Georgi Panayotov told the private bTV channel. The 350 troops deployed …
Read More »Police raid homes, businesses across Germany, Italy, Bulgaria in Italian mafia probe
Police in Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria raided 46 residential and commercial buildings on Wednesday as part of a European probe into the Italian mafia, German police said. They said they would release more information after the raids had been completed. The synchronized raids were the result of a European investigation …
Read More »Hundreds protest against Bulgaria’s COVID health pass
Hundreds of anti-vaccine protesters joined some political leaders in Sofia on Wednesday to demonstrate against Bulgaria’s decision to make a COVID-19 “Green Certificate” mandatory for access to restaurants, theatres, and shopping malls. The interim health ministry announced the move on Tuesday to try to slow a surge in infections and …
Read More »Bulgaria to set up its own ‘blacklist’ after US graft sanctions
Bulgaria will set up its own “blacklist” of companies and people associated with three Bulgarians and 64 entities that the United States has imposed sanctions on over alleged corruption, preventing state dealings with them, the interim government said late on Friday. The United States this week blocked assets and cut …
Read More »US blacklists 3 Bulgarians, 64 companies over corruption
The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on 64 companies and three Bulgarians over corruption, including an oligarch accused of planning to create a conduit for Russian political leaders to influence the Bulgarian government. A statement by the Treasury Department said the move was its single biggest action targeting graft …
Read More »Bulgarian PM calls for constitutional overhaul, offers to resign
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov called on Friday for an overhaul of the constitution in an apparent effort to defuse weeks of anti-government protests by mostly younger Bulgarians weary of endemic corruption in the European Union member state. Three-times premier Borissov promised to resign if lawmakers approved his call for …
Read More »Bulgarian PM and EU summit delegates test negative for coronavirus
Second coronavirus tests of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and his political team who attended an EU summit this week came out negative, the government said on Friday, after earlier tests showed positive for one member of the delegation. Borissov went into quarantine after the head of his political office, …
Read More »Bulgarian PM overhauls government to quell protests
Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov replaced key ministers on Thursday in a government reshuffle designed to quell a wave of anti-corruption protests that have called for his resignation. Borissov dismissed the ministers of finance, economy and interior, whom he had asked to resign last week to stop speculation that they …
Read More »Bulgarian fossils show early arrival of Homo sapiens into Europe
Researchers say DNA from the five fossils from Bulgaria’s Bacho Kiro cave demonstrated they belonged to anatomically modern Homo sapiens. The research pushes back by thousands of years the arrival of Homo sapiens in Europe. Fragmentary bone fossils and a molar found in Bulgaria dated to roughly 45,000 years ago …
Read More »Quake with 4.5 magnitudes felt in Bulgaria’s capital
A 4.5-magnitude earthquake shook central Bulgaria on Friday but there were no reports of any injuries or damage. The quake occurred just after 2 p.m. local time (1101 GMT) in the Balkan nation. Its epicenter was 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of Bulgaria’s second-largest city of Plovdiv at a shallow …
Read More »Euro Adoption Breakthrough Is Near, Bulgarian Central Bank Says.
Bulgaria’s efforts to set itself on a firm path to adopt the euro single currency have entered the “final stretch,” its central bank chief said. “Bulgaria is really very close to a strategic breakthrough on its path of European integration,” Bulgarian National Bank Governor Dimitar Radev said Tuesday at a …
Read More »International cyber-crime gang busted.
An international crime gang which used malware to steal $100m (£77m) from more than 40,000 victims has been dismantled. A complex police operation conducted investigations in the US, Bulgaria, Germany, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. The gang infected computers with GozNym malware, which captured online banking details to access bank accounts. …
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