Bulgaria

The European Commission will warn that schemes in some EU countries that allow wealthy foreigners to buy citizenship or residency could raise risks of money laundering, corruption and tax evasion.

The warnings are included in a draft report, seen by Reuters, that is expected to be published on Wednesday by the European Union's executive.

Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu (C) talks to Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva (L), and Slovakian Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak during an European Foreign Affairs Ministers meeting at the European Council headquarters in Brussels on Jan. 21. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Bulgarian prosecutors have charged five Syrians and a Bulgarian woman with financing terrorist groups in the Middle East, reports Radio Free Europe. 

"The group transferred at least 25 million euros [$29 million] to terrorist organizations over four years," said Rumiana Arnaudova, a spokeswoman for the attorney general, on January 19.

 Today the weather will be mostly cloudy and in some places slight rain is excpected, in the northwestern regions - rain and snow. A weak south-southeastern wind will blow in Eastern Bulgaria and the Struma valley. The maximal temperatures will be mostly between 3 ° and 8 °.

The Bulgarian Prosecution announced on Saturday that it has indicted six people, five of whom are in custody, for the alleged illicit money transfer of over 25 million euros and smuggling at least 100 vehicles to Syria.

Bulgaria will need to wait at least until mid-2022 to join the euro, the EU commissioner in charge of the common currency said on Friday, according to Reuters. 

The country meets the nominal criteria to adopt the euro, with low inflation, healthy public finances and its lev currency already pegged to the euro, but is also the EU's poorest state and has problems at some of its banks.

Environmentalists have achieved a major victory after a court battle to stop a Bulgarian national park being turned into a ski resort, reported the Independent. 

Bulgaria's top court ruled that Pirin National Park, a world heritage site and home to bears and wolves, must be protected from development.

Turkey's interior minister and his delegation on Friday paid an official visit to the Bulgarian capital Sofia, reported Yenisafak News.

During the visit, Süleyman Soylu met with his Bulgarian counterpart Mladen Marinov and Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. Both meetings were closed to the media.

Bulgaria has extradited a Russian indicted by a US court for mounting a complex hacking scheme to the United States, the Russian embassy in Washington said Saturday, reported AFP

The Russian embassy, in a statement on its VK social network, said Alexander Zhukov had been extradited on January 18 and was being held in a jail in Brooklyn, New York.

Bulgaria's balance of trade until November 2018 is negative, and stands at 167.2 million euro, with a deficit of 119.5 million euro for November 2017, the Bulgarian National Bank says, quoted by the Bulgarian National Radio.