Sofia

Bulgarian defender Zhivko Milanov signed ? contract with the reigning football champion of Cyprus - Apoel Nicosia.

The contract has a duration of eighteen months with an option for extension.

Milanov started in Levksi Sofia where he has spent the most of his career.

Bulgarian state-owned gas supplier Bulgargaz and private Bulgarian-Russian company Overgaz have signed a contract providing for latter to receive gas from the state supplier and avoid a halt in deliveries to customers from January 1.

Russian Patriarch Kiril is due to travel to Bulgaria's capital Sofia in February of next year, Russian church officials have said.

The Bulgarian National Radio quotes him as saying that an invitation has already been extended to Kiril by his Bulgarian counterpart, Neofit.

A number of buses will remain in service in Bulgaria's capital Sofia both late on New Year's eve and in the small hours of January 1 to help people celebrating the New Year move around the city.

Trains will be available every 20 minutes between Mladost 1 and Obelia stations (most of the Red line) and all along the Blue line going from the neighborhood of Lozenets to Obelia.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov estimated that BGN 5 B will be needed for the completion of two of the country's main motorways - Hemus and Struma as well as section of the I-1 (E-79 European route) in the country's northwest.

Borisov said this on Tuesday at the official opening ceremony of the by-pass around the town of Montana.

The Bulgarian State Agency for Refugees (DAB) is in urgent need of 10 tonnes of flour in order to feed the people accommodated at its shelters in Sofia and Harmanli.

DAB informed of this in an announcement addressed to potential donors made on its website, daily Dnevnik informs.

A move by the Bulgarian government to close down the customs office of Svilengrad, at the border with Turkey, has sparked outrage from officers and municipal councilors in the town.

With two frontrunners for the top job at the United Nations, the Bulgarian government "now finds itself in a possible no-win situation" having to pick either UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova or EU Commission Vice President Kristalina Georgieva, Politico wrote on Monday.

Bulgarian authorities detained on Saturday 32 refugees and one human smuggler near the mouth of the Karaagach river, which flows south of the Black Sea town of Kiten.

Only one of the migrants, among whom were seven women and nine children, was from Syria with the rest being from Iraq.

The US sports magazine Sports Illustrated identified the highest ranking Bulgarian male tennis player Grigor Dimitrov as the disappointment of the year in men's tennis.

According to the magazine, "expectation is continuing to trounce achievement".