Romani people

Roma people in the Bulgarian village of Garmen have not yet started to remove buildings erected illegally in the Kremikovtsi neighborhood,  officials say.

According to the Ministry of Regional Development, all buildings have remained intact since mid-May when tensions started to build up in the southwestern Bulgarian village.

At least 30 people have been detained in Bulgaria's capital Sofia after the second night of protests that began Saturday evening over loud music played in the Orlandovtsi neighborhood.

Police say the main goal of security forces now is to prevent further incidents, apart from boosting security in a neighborhood that has been recently marked by Bulgaria-Roma tensions.

The municipality of Stara Zagora is preparing to tear down 60 illegally set up residential buildings in the Roma neighborhood of Lozenets, located on the territory of Borova Gora Park.

Residents of Garmen, a village in southwestern Bulgaria, are set to stage a demonstration on Tuesday to vent their anger at what they call a state of lawlessness in the Roma neighborhood.

Security has been stepped up, and additional police forces have been deployed to prevent any major escalation.

Merely a day prior to the mass protest to be held in Garmen in opposition to illegal Roma buildings in the region, Roma people will get the chance to purchase their homes from the municipality.

Starting Monday, each and every person residing in the minority neighborhood will be able to purchase their piece of land at a price of BGN 1,10 per square meter.

Three gunmen opened fire on a street wedding held by members of the Roma community in the western province of Bursa, leaving three people dead and six others injured.

Two Bulgarian citizens who cooked 17 endangered turtles and ate them have been arrested in the country's southern town of Krumovgrad, police say.

The detainees, aged 59 and 26 respectively, have been charged with trying to exterminate an endangered species, according to private national TV7 channel.

No details about the exact species were immediately available.

Security has been stepped up in the village of Garmen, southwestern Bulgaria, ahead of a protest against illegal buildings and settlers in a Roma neighborhood.

Anti-riot police have been deployed around the Kremikovtsi neighborhood to preserve the order as locals have held rallies every evening in the past few days, calling for an end for lawlessness there.

Police in Sparta, in the Peloponnese, have arrested two Roma couples after DNA tests confirmed they were not the biological parents of their two children, a boy and a girl, both aged 4.

Early reports said the two children were not of Roma origin.

They also said the Athens-based charity Smile of the Child had assumed the care of the two children.

A new model for housing Roma has been introduced in Serbia, officials of the Serbian government and the UN have announced.