NEW MPs
Six new MPs were sworn in on May 30. They replace the newly-elected Members of the European Parliament. The new MPs are Bulgarian Socialist Party's Ivan Ivanov, Dobromir Zadgorski and Yana Hitova, as well as Denitsa Gadzheva and Hristo Popov from ultra-nationalist Ataka party and Husein Hamdi from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms.

ON THE ROAD
The entire staff of Sofia's Pirogov emergency centre hospital blocked the traffic on the morning of May 30. The medics protested against low salaries and poor working conditions.

The medics insisted on a more transparent distribution of the money earned by the hospital for clinical treatment of patients and government subsidies for the emergency services.

CORRUPTION LEVEL
Bulgaria occupies the ninth position, out of 36 countries, when it comes to corruption levels in the judiciary and the legal systems, a Transparency International 2007 report said.

First is Paraguay, where 90 per cent of the people said there is corruption in the judicial system. At the other end of the scale is Denmark, where less than 10 per of the citizens believe corruption is bred in the judiciary.

EMERGENCY CALL
The Ministry for Disaster Management introduced a toll free 24 hours hotline 0800 20112 for natural disaster emergencies. All incoming calls will be automatically registered and recorded. The line will be opened until a nationwide emergency number 112 is introduced. The hotline was supposed to be open in January but it was postponed until the autumn because of technical reasons. All calls going to the ambulances, police and fire brigades will be directed to the 112 number.

USAID REWARDED
The end of seven years of assistance and co-operation between Bulgaria's judiciary and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) were marked on May 29. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) awarded its highest honour to USIAD. Over the past seven years the NIJ and its forerunner, the Magistrates Training Center, have received over 1.5 million dollars in assistance.

This sponsored the renovations of the main NIJ building, the furnishings and library materials of the new NIJ Learning and Information Centre, and most importantly, regular assistance in curriculum development and training programmes.

TOLL FREE
Transport Minister Petar Moutafchiev and his Romanian counterpart Ludovic Orban agreed on ruling out public transport tolls between the Danube towns of Rouse and Giurgiu, Focus News Agency said. All other tolls will be payable. The two officials held talks on setting a regular public transport route between Ruse and Giurgiu before the 91st session of the European conference of transport ministers.

TELL US
Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) launched an inquiry as to what commemorative coins to mint in the three years to come. Until June 22, visitors to BNBs website at http://www.bnb.bg/bnb/enquiry-old.nsf/ShowAnketa - are free to share their opinion by casting their votes on the proposed coin models, make recommendations or propose new ideas.