Free Republic

Bulgarian-born artist Christo, best known for wrapping buildings and famous landmarks in fabric or plastic, has died at his home in New York, aged 84. He passed away of natural causes on Sunday, according to a statement posted on the artist's official Facebook page. Christo, who always worked with his wife Jeanne-Claude, famously covered the Reichstag in Berlin and the Pont-Neuf in Paris with reams of cloth. His artworks "brought people together" around the world, the statement says. "Christo lived his life to the fullest, not only dreaming up what seemed impossible, but realising it," it reads, adding that the...

A reporter from TVN told AFP, “We are in shock. In no way, under any form, never have we received any threats – aimed at her or the television.” But that assertion was contradicted by Asen Yordanov, the owner of the investigative website, bivol.bg, who told AFP that he had received information that his reporters were in danger of being assaulted. He said Marinova was linked to bivol.bg’s investigations because its reporters had appeared on her show. “Viktoria’s death, the brutal manner in which she was killed, is an execution,” Yordanov said. “It was meant to serve as an example,...

Baku-APA. Bulgaria closed the border for undocumented migrants amid deteriorating crisis, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said Saturday, APA reports quoting Sputnik. “Bulgaria closed the border for illegal migrants. Anyone who wants to cross legally will pass, the rest – no,” Borissov said, as quoted by the Bulgarian OFFNews website. The country’s authorities cooperate with the Turkish police holding migrants 25 miles off the border with Bulgaria, the prime minister added. On Thursday, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry pledged to deploy up to 1,000 troops to strengthen its border with Turkey. The European Union is grappling with a migrant crisis as hundreds...

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church’s governing body, the Holy Synod, has decided to include a blessing for Simeon Saxe-Coburg as “His Majesty Simeon II, Tsar of the Bulgarians” in public and private worship. The proposal was made to the Holy Synod by Nikolai, Metropolitan of Plovdiv. Born in 1937, Saxe-Coburg became king of Bulgaria in 1943 after the sudden death of his father, Boris III. Because he was a minor, there was a regency of three. On the communist takeover in Bulgaria at the end of World War 2, a “People’s Court” process was initiated which led to thousands of deaths,...

More than a quarter of a million Romanian and Bulgarian nationals now live in Britain – a figure that has risen by almost 50,000 over the past 12 months. The number based here has increased more than fivefold in eight years – making up the equivalent of a city the size of Wolverhampton. The figures, which are published today by Oxford University’s respected Migration Observatory, are based on analysis of the official Labour Force Survey.

In the aftermath of the bombing of a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, the Obama administration included an Iranian-American anti-Israel group in a White House meeting and characterized the terror attack as a “tit-for-tat” reprisal by Iran. Wednesday, officials from the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC) attended a White House roundtable event for Iranian-American community leaders that featured Valerie Jarrett, one of President Obama’s closest advisers. NIAC bills itself as an Iranian-American community organization, but its work focuses on softening U.S. policy toward Iran. It advocates removing sanctions on Iran and attempted to scuttle Dennis Ross’s promotion to an Iran...

ATHENS -- A Bulgarian baker was arrested after serving cocaine-sprinkled cookies to guests at a Greek funeral, news website Novinite reported Wednesday. Mourners phoned for help after the traditional Greek cookies caused them to act strangely, and police discovered the cookies were sprinkled with cocaine instead of powdered sugar. The baker, who is a Bulgarian national, was involved in drug trafficking and sent the cookies to the funeral service by mistake, police said.

A British woman has been stabbed and beheaded in Tenerife, according to reports. The woman was reportedly attacked in a supermarket in the town of Los Cristianos on the island. A Bulgarian man has been detained by Spanish police. Spanish media reported that witnesses saw the man enter a Chinese supermarket at the Valdes Shopping Centre and, without saying a word, attacked the woman with a knife, cutting her head off. Manuel Reveron, a local a councillor for citizen security said: "Apparently this gentleman without any motive or any reason, although for this there is no reasoning, entered the shop...

Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, December 3, 2009 Two Foreign Nationals Sentenced for Roles in International Money Laundering Scheme Involving Online Sales Two Bulgarian nationals have been sentenced in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia for their roles as money launderers for a transnational criminal group based in Eastern Europe, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division. Ivaylo Vasilev Pletnyov, 39, of Svishtov, Bulgaria, was sentenced yesterday to four years in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman for conspiracy to commit money laundering. Pletnyov was...

A luckless Bulgarian farmer who was been married three times has decided to try his hand at marriage one last time - with a goat. Stoil Panayotov exchanged his third wife with Elena the eight-year-old goat at a livestock market in March - because she couldn't provide him with a child. The extraordinary deal was concluded in front of a stunned crowd in the market town of Plovdiv, central Bulgaria. advertisement"The day before a friend told me that he has had no luck with women and that he really liked my wife," says the 54-year-old. "The deal was reached when...

Police stumbled upon a bomb-making factory Sunday in the home of a Columbia professor who specializes in the spread of infectious disease - and are investigating whether he and his roommate have terror ties. Cops evacuated the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood around the Remsen St. home of Michael Clatts, a medical anthropologist, after finding seven pipe bombs fitted with fuses in his flat, police sources said. The frightening cache was discovered almost by accident - Ivaylo Ivanov, the man living with Clatts, accidentally shot off the tip of his left index finger and sought police help in the street about 1:15...

By Caren Bohan and Tsvetelia Ilieva SOFIA (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Monday it was a high priority for the United States to win the release of five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya for infecting children with HIV. Ending an eight-day European tour in Bulgaria, Bush also called for an exchange of information with Russia on the planned U.S. missile defence shield in central Europe and said he regretted the collapse of an immigration bill back home. "We strongly support the release of the Bulgarian nurses in Libya," Bush told a news conference in Sofia....

Ancient Bulgarian Sanctuaries "Older" than Egyptian Pyramids 16 May 2007, Wednesday Bulgarian scientist will try to prove their hypothesis that the rock sanctuaries of Tatul and Perperikon in the Eastern Rhodopi Mountains are more ancient than Egyptian pyramids. To prove their hypothesis, the scientists will organize the biggest archaeology expedition in the country that will be situated near the southern town of Kardzhali. The top Bulgarian archaeologist Nikolay Ovcharov will lead the expedition. The hypothesis of the rock sanctuaries' age was voiced some months ago by two Bulgarian historians. According to them the first cuts in the rocks there date...

COLUMBIA, S.C. — More than two dozen men and women are accused of arranging or participating in marriages with Bulgarians to help the foreigners evade U.S. immigration laws, a federal prosecutor said Thursday. The scheme, which involved U.S. citizens being recruited and paid to marry Bulgarians, appears to have started in 1997, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald said. He would not comment on money amounts. "The allegations are that this was a ring, a conspiracy, to engage in fraudulent marriages," he said. A federal indictment charged 13 Bulgarians and 15 U.S. citizens with conspiring to arrange or participate in the...

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov was re-elected in a run-off election against Volen Siderov, leader of the nationalist Attack party, Bulgaria's Central Electoral Commission announced on Monday. Parvanov's re-election strengthened the dominant position of his Socialist Party in Bulgaria's governmental institutions, ahead of its accession to the EU on Jan. 1, 2007. Parvanov, a former leader of the Socialist Party, was first elected president in 2001 for a five-year term, and took office in 2002. During his first five-year term as president of the Balkan country, Parvanov managed to smooth the ties of his ruling Socialist Party with other political parties,...

Romanticized and persecuted, celebrated and shunned, Gypsies have become a growing presence in the world music circuit since the fall of Communism -- yet the everyday prejudice they face across Europe has persisted, and sometimes worsened. Even the word "Gypsy" is a misunderstanding, based on the notion that they are descended from Egyptians, though their ancestors actually migrated in the 11th century from Rajasthan in northwestern India. In recent years, the name they call themselves in the Romani language, Roma, has been increasingly embraced. By the 15th century, there were Roma communities in Eastern Europe, as well as the Iberian...

Border guards seized a British lorry on its way to make a delivery to the Iranian military - after discovering it was packed with radioactive material that could be used to build a dirty bomb. The lorry set off from Kent on its way to Tehran but was stopped by officials at a checkpoint on Bulgaria's northernborder with Romania after a scanner indicated radiation levels 200 times above normal. The lorry was impounded and the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NPA) was called out. On board they found ten lead-lined boxes addressed to the Iranian Ministry of Defence. Inside each box...

DIYALA PROVINCE, Iraq, June 23, 2006 – Charged with providing security at the Multinational Force Iraq Temporary Interview and Protection Facility here that houses nearly 200 protected people and refugees, the First Guard Company from Kazanluk, Bulgaria, received the personal congratulations of its nation's ambassador to Iraq at a formal ceremony here yesterday. Bulgarian Ambassador to Iraq Valeri Ratchev speaks to Bulgarian and American soldiers, June 22. The ambassador was on hand to witness the First Guard Company's completion-of-training ceremony. The Bulgarians are responsible for security of the Multinational Force Iraq Temporary Interview and Protection Facility in Iraq's Diyala...

Bulgarian archeologists uncover treasure of thousands of golden ornaments Canadian Press Wednesday, August 17, 2005 SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - Archeologists working a dig in central Bulgaria have unearthed some 15,000 miniature rings and other gold ornaments that date to the end of the third millennium BC - a find they say matches the famous treasure of Troy, scholars announced Wednesday. The 4,100- to 4,200-year-old golden ornaments have been gradually unearthed over the past year from an ancient tomb near the central village of Dabene, 120 kilometres east of the capital, Sofia, according to Prof. Vasil Nikolov, the consultant on the...

A Bulgarian who was, by his description, a Kosovo freedom fighter (KLA-Kosovo Liberation Army) or, as he now calls himself, a paid mafia mercenary, tells HUGH FRASER about his experiences during the 1999 conflict. IVAN, 39, is a well-dressed, war-scarred Bulgarian national who is no longer in the country. He seldom smiles; he gave this interview because he wants to purge himself of his deep and dark secrets. Ivan is not his real name; he is being sought, he says, for war crimes against humanity. His dark brown eyes seem to reflect images of death; some of his secrets will...