Archaeological studies of the medieval necropolis around the temple of St. George the Martyr in the village of Trudovets, Botevgrad region confirm the performing of a ritual in which young women were "incorporated" into the foundations of the temple. This custom was performed in these lands in the past with the belief that immuring into the base of a beautiful woman would make the construction strong enough to last forever.       Photo: BGNES

In the yard of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food a farmers’ expo opened displaying the produce of protected areas in the West and Central Balkan regions. The farmers display their production:  cow milk brine cheese, sheep and buffalo yogurt and cheese, cow milk yellow cheese, organic bee honey, various kinds of wild fruit jam and organic eggs.     Photo: BGNES

Representatives of the Ministry of the Interior marked their professional day with a flag sanctifying ceremony at the Monument of the Unknown Soldier. The ceremony also included laying of wreaths in commemorating the servicemen of the Interior Ministry who have lost their life in the line of duty.      Photo: BGNES

An exhibition of live tropical butterflies from the Nature and Science Museum in the Black Sea city of Burgas are on display in one of the halls of the Flora Expo Center in the city’s seaside park. The show includes ten species of butterflies coming from three continents – South America, Africa and Asia. For the purpose, the butterflies have been transported to Bulgaria in their pupa stage.       Photo: BULFOTO

Kilometers long queues of trucks are winding through Silistra along the road from Dobrich in the direction of the border checkpoint with Romania. During the day they cover about 2 kilometers, but at night the line reaches 4 kilometers. According to the drivers, the reason for changing their itinerary through Silistra are the repair works at Danube Bridge, but the major one is that the Romanian carrier across the Danube has so drastically reduced travel fees that they are almost the same as the ones across the bridge at Russe. In this way transport companies, especially those from the Middle East, avoid much longer distances along their destination towards the former Russian republics. Furthermore, at the Silistra checkpoint there is no weighing device for heavily loaded trucks and no one is monitoring for overloaded vehicles. There are about 170 trucks passing through Silistra on their way to Romania, as well as about 250 automobiles and busses with over 1 000 passengers, passing through the service of only two checkpoint employees per shift.      Photo: BULFOTO

The Council for Security with the Council of Ministers discussed today and approved the draft bill for counteracting terrorism. The aim of the document is to create an efficient mechanism for interaction among institutions in planning measures for the prevention of and the answer to potential terrorist threats.     Photo: Council of Ministers

Vrazhdebna Airport is the venue of a multinational flight training of military transport aviation. The drill is entitled Balkan Spartan 2016.    Photo: BGNES

This year’s harvest started first in the region of Vidin, northern Bulgaria. The first harvesters started work in the village of Vruv, on the bank of the Danube River, where wheat is to be harvested from 600 hectares. Volunteers from the village re-enacted an old ritual giving the start to the harvest, known as “zazhunvane” and the campaign was blessed by the local priest. Before the harvesting machines to enter the fields, women in traditional costumes started harvesting with sickles, singing folk songs. Young and old joined the chanindanse. Taking part in the start of the harvest campaign were also a number of families of foreign nationals – British, Swiss, Americans, Czechs and Russians, who have settled in the place several years ago.    Photo: BTA

Fourteen Bulgarian photographers are distinguished with prestigious awards in this year’s 9^th international and 13^th national edition of the International Photography Salon Varna 2016. This year’s event brought together a record high number of participants from six continents, which turned it into the hardest photography competition ever launched in Bulgaria.    Photo: BGNES

The National Military History Museum marks its 100^th anniversary with a unique exposition of valuable exhibits very rarely shown before. The exhibition opens today displaying one of the most precious royal symbols – the official scepter of King Boris III (left). Other unique exponents are the order For Bravery of Alexander I Battenberg (center) and the necklace order of the St. St. Cyril and Methodius equal to the Apostles, which is the highest order of the Kingdom of Bulgaria (right), whose only bearer and Greater magistrate is the monarch himself. Besides the display of the exponents, for the first time the museum would allow its visitors to have a look at its storage premises.  Photo: BULFOTO