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The Sofia Globe reports that a larger-than-life Roman statue dated to the second or third century A.D. was uncovered during construction work near the coast of the Black Sea, outside the walls of the ancient city of Odessos. The white marble figure depicts a middle-aged man with a short beard. His right hand is missing, and there is some damage to the face. A Greek engraving on the statue's plinth names "G[aius] Marius Hermogenes," who is shown wearing a toga and holding a scroll, which are both symbols of Roman authority. The statue has been transferred to the Archaeological Museum...

An ancient sarcophagus from the Roman era was discovered by chance on the beach near the resort of Saints Constantine and Helena, one of Bulgaria’s most popular tourist destinations...Ancient Varna became a Thracian settlement and later an Ancient Greek colony, and then part of the Roman Empire in 15 AD. The Roman baths or thermae in Varna were constructed in the late 2nd century and used until the late 3rd century.A former policeman on holiday in the area noticed the sarcophagus and reported it to the Fifth Regional Department-Varna. The unattended artifact was located near a newly built but still...

Stand on the sea wall next to the port in Varna and you can see the bits and pieces of South Stream piled up in front of you. Hundreds of long black sections of piping - some on the dockside, and others still stacked on cargo ships. They were supposed to have been laid beneath the gloomy waters of the Black Sea, bypassing Ukraine and bringing Russian gas directly to south-eastern Europe. But - suddenly and unilaterally - Vladimir Putin has declared the project dead. Gas, he said, will be sent to Turkey instead. "It's really not clear what's going...

The Muslim terrorist group Qa’adat el-Jihad claimed responsibility Saturday for a terrorist bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria. The bombing in Bulgaria last week killed five Israelis, one a pregnant woman. The Lebanese paper El-Nashra reported that the group, which has ties to Al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility in an email to the Arab press.

An Extremely Creepy Tour of an Abandoned Soviet Monument in Bulgaria Remember those derelict Bulgarian war memorials that resemble space fortresses? Well, it turns out they're just as otherworldly inside. Here's one intrepid urban explorer's journey into the shadowy corridors of the shuttered Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship memorial in Varna, Bulgaria. It's also a case study on why you never tour old Soviet monuments alone. In its Communist heyday, the "Park-Monument of the Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship" contained an eternal flame, a bomb shelter, and a tourism center. Loudspeakers would also blast Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 on constant loop. The center opened in...