Focus News Agency

A 45-year-old tourist from Israel drowned on Sunday in the Black Sea off the resort of Slanchev Bryag (Sunny Beach), police say.

His body was taken out late on Sunday evening. The man was drawn deeper into the water by a rip current, Focus News Agency reports.

He had been on a holiday at the Black Sea since August 07.

A wildfire in the Rila Mountain in Southwestern Bulgaria has now been fully contained, the local firefighters' service says.

Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) Governor Ivan Iskrov has voiced his commitment to resigning as early as this week, Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov has said.

Speaking to reporters, Goranov has explained that "whether it will be today [Monday] or tomorrow, this is of course a personal decision of the acting Governor of the BNB."

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has said he will join demonstrations of business unions against planned hikes in electricity prices if such action is called.

Tensions are mounting in the village of Garmen, southwestern Bulgaria, as a protest of locals against illegal Roma buildings is entering into its third hour.

The political crisis into which Macedonia has plunged over the past years is affecting neighboring states as well, the country's opposition leader has said while on a Friday visit to Sofia.

Bulgaria's reactions to the situation in Macedonia raise suspicions about the country's "true intentions" about Macedonia, Sputnik News wrote on Tuesday.

Natural disasters that struck Bulgaria last year cost some BGN 990 M, an Interior Ministry official has said.

Intelligence services in Bulgaria are closely following developments in neighboring Macedonia, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has said.

He has also made an apparent reference to his own resignation in 2013 after tensions were accumulated in society with large-scale protests rocking the country.

Construction of the gas interconnection grid between Bulgaria and Greece will begin in March 2016 and will be completed by the end of 2018, Bulgaria's Energy Minister has said.

Under initial plans, the infrastructure was to be in place and become operational sometime in 2018.