SMOLYAN: At a prison nestled deep in Bulgaria’s southern Rhodope mountains, Georgi Filyanov stirs a large tank of curdling milk to make traditional feta-like cheese in the facility’s dairy operation.
Filyanov is the latest success story to emerge from the dairy located inside Smolyan prison, where about 15 selected inmates produce some of Bulgaria’s highly sought-after cheese and yogurt.
“Work is interesting — not too hard, not too easy,” said 30-year-old Filyanov, who was handed a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence for drug dealing. He has since been released early after having his sentence reduced by prison labor.
The “Gerzovitsa” dairy is the brainchild of former prison director Hristo Solakov, who was looking for ways to produce everything in-house while helping inmates to prepare for life outside jail.
From tending to herds of goats and cows, to making white cheese, prisoners are involved throughout the entire process.
Coveted by cheese lovers and often sold out at specialty stores outside prison, production has not been able to keep up with demand.


The prison is located about 20 minutes from the nearest town of the same name, in a narrow gorge surrounded by conifer-covered hills.
Once the headquarters of several Communist-run uranium mines, which were shuttered after 1989, the building is now home to around 100 inmates, who serve time in the semi-open prison for drink-driving, theft but also murder.
Prisons are not overflowing in Bulgaria, the poorest country in the European Union, which has seen a considerable exodus by those seeking a better life abroad. According to Eurostat figures, the country has only 86 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, trailing far behind France (111).
Nonetheless, poor conditions in Bulgaria’s prisons that have been exacerbated by dilapidated facilities and chronic staff shortages repeatedly drew criticism from the Council of Europe.
Smolyan, however, stands out — not least because of its dairy that opened in 2010.
To date it is Bulgaria’s only such rehabilitation project that enables prisoners to earn early release and a small salary of several hundred euros per month they can spend while they are inside or access upon their release.
“At first, we only kept cows, sheep, and goats — but it wasn’t profitable: the milk sold for less than the costs we had,” said Solakov, who came up with the idea of setting up a dairy in a bid “to close the circle.”
“It’s a job with responsibilities,” prisoner Ivan Patazov, 31, told AFP.
Tasked with cutting, packaging and labelling the cheese, he hopes to continue in this line of work after he gets out.
“He won’t be the first,” said Solakov, 62, adding that a former inmate successfully opened his own dairy after being released.
He praised the prison’s “high-quality” dairy products, which do without “any artificial preservatives or additives.”


With demand soaring and production capacity limited, the dairy products are sold at a higher price than comparable items.
While about half of the production is destined for other Bulgarian jails, the rest is sold at markets and grocery shops.
A few specialty stores across Bulgaria also sell various types of cheese and yogurt from Smolyan prison.
A few kilometers outside the prison, a herd of about 100 goats are grazing on a mountain meadow, where the air is thick with the scent of thyme.
Another prisoner called Pavel, who declined to give his surname, looks after the herd. Even though the meadow is close to the border with Greece, running away has never crossed his mind.
“In the old days, we used to raid dairies — now the dairy is in prison,” Solakov quipped, referring to Bulgarian partisans, who infamously robbed farmers during World War II.
But he hopes to secure funding for a new project to expand the dairy and start producing kashkaval cheese.

HUNT, United States: Rescuers searched Saturday for 27 girls missing from a riverside summer camp in Texas, after torrential rains caused devastating floods that killed 50 people in the US state.

Multiple flash flood warnings remained in place across central Texas after water surged through communities, with the Guadalupe River rise by 26 feet (eight meters) in just 45 minutes.

The Kerr County summer camp where hundreds were staying was left in disarray, with blankets, teddy bears and other belongings caked in mud.

“We have recovered 43 deceased individuals in Kerr County. Among these who are deceased we have 28 adults and 15 children,” said Larry Leitha, the sheriff of the flood-ravaged region.

Multiple victims were also found in other counties, bringing the death toll to 50.

Texas Department of Emergency Management chief Nim Kidd said air, ground and water-based crews were scouring the length of the Guadalupe River for survivors and the bodies of the dead.

“We will continue the search until all those who are missing are found,” he said.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he was expanding a state disaster declaration and was requesting additional federal resources from President Donald Trump.

The flooding began Friday — the start of the Fourth of July holiday weekend — as months’ worth of rain fell in a matter of hours.

The National Weather Service (NWS) warned that more rain was forecast, and that “excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations.”

In Kerrville on Saturday, the usually calm Guadalupe was flowing fast, its murky waters filled with debris.

“The water reached the top of the trees. About 10 meters or so,” said resident Gerardo Martinez, 61. “Cars, whole houses were going down the river.”

Flash floods, which occur when the ground is unable to absorb torrential rainfall, are not unusual.

But scientists say that in recent years human-driven climate change has made extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heatwaves more frequent and more intense.

On Saturday, Sheriff Leitha said 27 children from Camp Mystic in flooded Kerr County were still missing. Around 750 girls were attending the camp along the banks of the Guadalupe.

US media reported that four of the missing girls were dead, citing their families.

The windows of camp cabins were shattered, apparently by the force of the water.

Michael, who only gave AFP his first name, was searching the camp for his eight-year-old daughter.

“I was in Austin and drove down yesterday morning, once we heard about it,” he said, adding that he was hoping for a “miracle.”

The obituary section of the Kerrville community news site was dotted with tributes to victims, including Camp Mystic’s owner and director Dick Eastland.

The director of Heart O’ The Hills summer camp located about a mile from Camp Mystic, Jane Ragsdale, was also confirmed dead.

Elsewhere in Texas, four people were confirmed dead in Travis County, northeast of Kerr, and 13 people were missing, public information office director Hector Nieto said.

A 62-year-old woman’s body was found in the city of San Angelo in Tom Green County, along the Concho River, police said.

Two more people died in Burnet County, the area’s emergency management coordinator Derek Marchio said, bringing the state-wide death toll to 50.

Department of Homeland Security head Kristi Noem said Trump wanted to “upgrade the technologies” at the weather service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

“We need to renew this ancient system,” Noem told a press conference.

Scientists and disaster management agencies have criticized Trump for cutting funding and staffing at the NOAA, in charge of weather forecasts and preparedness, and the NWS.

When asked about claims that residents were given insufficient warning of the floods, Noem said she would “carry your concerns back to the federal government.”

Officials and residents alike were shocked by the speed and intensity of the flooding.

“We didn’t know this flood was coming,” Kerr County official Rob Kelly said Friday.

“The predictions were definitely off,” and the rain was “double of what was anticipated,” Kerrville city official Dalton Rice said.

Rice added that rescuers were facing “very difficult” conditions, and declined to give an overall figure for how many were missing.

Soila Reyna, 55, a Kerrville resident who works at a church helping people who lost their belongings, witnessed the devastation unfold.

“It has been years since we had a flood, but nothing like this,” Reyna said.

“Nothing like as catastrophic as this, where it involved children, people and just the loss of people’s houses... It’s just crazy,” she added.