BTV

Police are still negotiating with Petar Kodzheykov, a retired police officer who barricaded himself at his home on Saturday evening with his wife, Bulgarian Interior Ministry officials say.

On Sunday morning the man fired shots at a police officer who was trying to convince him to leave the building. 

The Bulgarian authorities had detained 10,406 illegal migrants at the country's border with Turkey in 2015, an increase of 73% over the previous year, private broadcaster bTV reported on Wednesday.

The number of Illegal migrants detained at Bulgaria's border with Greece increased by 43%, reaching 467 last year, bTV said, citing Border Police data.

Ukraine plans to seek the extradition of Bulgarian national Georgi Bliznakov from Bulgaria over suspected participation in a battalion of pro-Russian rebels fighting government forces in Donbas region, Sofia-based bTV broadcaster reported on Monday.

The Chief Prosecutor's Office of Bulgaria is "very centralized and hierarchic", French Ambassador to Bulgaria Xavier Lapeyre de Cabanes argued on Saturday.

In an interview with private bTV station's mornign program he said that everyone working for the institution depended "on a single person": "there is no Chief Prosecutor's Office in Bulgaria, there is a Chief Prosecutor".

Bulgarian police have detained 34 foreign nationals, all of them males, who have illegally crossed the border from Turkey, bTV reported on Thursday.

A man was detained on Monday evening after a shootout in a boulevard not far from the center of Bulgaria's capital Sofia left two people injured.

The wounded men, 21 and 30, have a criminal record, police said. They were taken to hospital after being shot in the legs.

The Bulgarian state is beginning an ambitious programme on reviving the country's poorest regions, which foresees the investment of BGN 5 B in these regions over the next ten years.

The programme targets the northwest region, the Strandzha-Sakar mountain range, the Rhodope mountains, the mountainous and border regions.

Some BGN 1 M will be spent on electric cars for civil servants working in the state and municipal administration, Bulgaria's Environment Minister Ivelina Vasileva said on Wednesday.

In an interview with private national bTV station, she opined the move would set an example for citizens to follow.

UK Ambassador to Bulgaria Emma Hopkins said on Tuesday the EU needs to jointly manage common borders and apply stricter control as part of a "new Schengen stage".

In an interview with private bTV station, Hopkins opined Europe was facing an unprecedented threat requiring a more efficient control of the bloc's external borders.

An investment forum bringing together Chinese and Bulgarian businesses is due on Monday, ahead of the Fourth China-CEE summit in Shanzhou on November 25-27.

The bilateral business event will be held in Shanghai and will involve small and medium enterprises working in agriculture, tourism, cosmetics, and winemaking, the Bulgarian National Radio has said.