Provinces of Bulgaria

The municipalities of Galabovo, Batak, Mineralni Bani and Yakoruda have issued a state of emergency Monday.

The announcement was made by Parvan Sekiranov from the Directorate General of the Fire Safety and Population Protection in an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio.

Monday is the third consecutive day with continuing state of emergency in Bulgaria after the prolific snowfalls.

Power supply to more than 800 locations in southern Bulgaria has been disrupted as of Sunday evening due to heavy snowfall now in its third day.

Some villages and towns in the regions of Smolyan and Kardzhali as well as the southernmost areas of Pazardzhik region have remained without water supply, too, as water pumps were idled by the lack of electricity.

A code red warning has been issued for Friday in two municipalities in the south of Bulgaria, the national meteorology institute has announced.

In the regions of Smolyan and Kardzhali, snowfall of up to 70 l/sqm is expected, according to the National Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology at the Bulgarian Academy of Science.

After a landslide in the area of ??the Kresna Gorge, a stretch of highway E-79 between Sandanski and Kulata was closed Thursday.

No injuries have been reported at this time and no cars have passed in the critical section of the motorway in the Blagoevgrad municipality.

Torrential rains have managed to break the landslide preventative net.

According to unconfirmed information, there already is a suspect held on account of the murder of 23-year old student Viktoriya Zdravkova in Veliko Tarnovo.

The local Police Office is currently investigating a man under the nickname Slona (The Elephant) who most probably also has an accomplice, NOVA TV reported. It is believed that the reason for the murder has been theft.

Bulgarian tobacco producers are staging a nationwide protest over the distribution of state subsidies.

Tobacco producers will organize road blocks at the Danube Bridge, the road to Greece at Gotse Delchev, and the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing point on the Bulgarian-Greek border at noon on Friday, according to reports of Sega daily.

US-based ContourGlobal said on Friday any change in its long-term contract for electricity sales from its Bulgarian power plant Maritsa East 3 should safeguard the investments it has made.

A twenty-six year old Romanian skier passed away on Friday after an incident in Bulgaria's ski resort Bansko.

The Bansko rescue service received a signal on the case today at around 11 am.

It appears that the skier has had a dangerous fall on a ski track number 11, connecting the Todorka mountain peak with the Plato valley.

Bulgarian tourism remains a quite attractive investment segment with projects worth approximately BGN 2.9 B to be launched across the country in months.

The construction of one of the most ambitious tourist projects in the region is expected to be launched in April or May the latest.