Sofia - A Sofia court late Monday sentenced two officials from the Bulgarian road agency for corruption, providing a legal epilogue to one of the scandals which deprived the poorest European Union member state of development funds in 2008.

The court sentenced Lybomir Lilev, the man who was in charge of distributing EU funds, and his subordinate Ivan Vladimirov for demanding a bribe to implement a project.

Sofia  - Bulgarian Premier Sergei Stanishev has been re- elected as chairman of the governing Socialist party, the country's election commission said Sunday.

The commission said that Stanishev won 809 votes from among the 853 delegates at the party's congress, confirming him to another term as head of Bulgaria's oldest and largest political party.

Stanishev, 42, has headed the Socialist party since 2001. He proclaimed his goal of leading the party to victory again in national and Europan parliament elections in 2009.

Sofia  - The chief executive of the European Union's anti- fraud watchdog OLAF warned Bulgaria Thursday that it must begin convicting corrupt officials, or risk losing the battle against organized crime.

OLAF director Franz-Hermann Bruener met Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev, Deputy Premier in Charge of EU Funds Management Meglena Kuneva and other officials and press to review the results in probes into embezzlement of development aid sent by Brussels.

Sofia - Bulgarian police seized a 70-kilo shipment of heroin and arrested a German national carrying it, the authorities in Sofia said Monday.

The man with two packets of the drug in a bunker of his car was arrested in Ruse, a town with the only bridge linking Bulgaria with Romania across the Danube.

Bulgaria straddles the key routes of international trafficking in narcotics, chemicals for drug-production and people. It incinerated 19 tons of various drugs over the past eight years.

Sofia (Bulgaria), Nov 17: The marble head of a statue of a Roman emperor was delivered in the National History Museum (NHM) in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, from “Sofia Airport – Customs”.

Sofia - Officials in Sofia ordered checks on buildings Sunday after two small earthquakes jolted the Bulgarian capital overnight, causing minor damage but no casualties. 

Some 2,000 worried residents called an emergency number for advice after the quakes measuring 4 and 3.5 on the Richter scale struck on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. 

The capital lies in an area at risk from earth tremors. Many buildings in the city have been converted to restaurants and business premises in recent years, raising fears about their safety.