Maritsa

Bulgarian law enforcement authorities have detained 12 illegal immigrants crammed in a Mercedes SUV, the Interior Ministry said in a press release on Monday, reports Xinhua. 

Greek political leaders Thursday paid homage to Maritsa Mavrapidi, one of the three "Lesvos grannies" who became a symbol of the Aegean islanders' solidarity with refugees after their image sitting side by side bottle-feeding a refugee baby went viral at the peak of the migration crisis in 2015.

Plovdiv, the oldest city in Bulgaria, has been officially inaugurated as the European Capital of Culture for 2019, reported USA TODAY. 

Some 50,000 people gathered on a central square Saturday to watch the opening show dubbed "We are all colors" with 1,500 local and foreign artists on several stages.

The mayor of Edirne, a province near Turkey's border with Greece and Bulgaria, has come under fire for congratulating the New Year of tourists with multilingual posters in which the city's name was written in Greek as Adrianoupolis. 

Europol officers with expertise in counterterrorism and curbing organized crime are to be sent to locations in Evros, northern Greece, and regional airports in the coming months to intensify inspections on undocumented migrants entering the country from the land border with Turkey and gather information on crime networks, Kathimerini understands.

Miners and energy workers will protest in Sofia to protect power generation from Bulgarian coal. The rally is organised by Podkrepa trade union through the centre of the capital city, starting from Knyaz Aleksandar I Sq. at 1.00 pm, reports Focus News Agency. 

Greek police discovered the bodies of three women on Oct. 10 near the banks of the River Evros (Maritsa or Meriç) which marks the border with Turkey, and is a crossing for migrants and asylum seekers.

Greek authorities say the bodies of three women who are believed to have entered Greece illegally from Turkey were found in a northeastern border region.

Police said the bodies were discovered Wednesday close to the River Evros, which runs along the land border between Turkey and Greece.

The number of irregular migrants crossing the Meriç (Evros or Maritsa) River to enter Greece from Turkey has more than doubled in the first nine months of 2018, compared with the whole year of 2017.

At least 154 people, who attempted to escape to Greece and Bulgaria, have been intercepted in Turkey's border province of Edirne over the past two years, media said.

Hurriyet said Aug 14 that Turkish military have, so far, rounded up 154 people for trying to flee Turkey to neighboring two countries through Edirne province.