These are some of the top headlines in Bulgarian newspapers on June 5 2008. The Sofia Echo has not verified these stories and cannot vouch for their accuracy.

Politics

- Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev asked Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov to talk to State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (SEWRC) on the electricity and heating prices and whether their increase was reasonable, Dnevnik daily said. Earlier this week, SEWRC announced a shocking price increase of 18 per cent for electricity and 14 per cent for central heating, starting from July 1.

Society

- The insufficient training and experience of prosecutors was the main reason for some of the latest failures of the Prosecution, Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev said, as quoted by Dnevnik. "I never comment on the courts' decisions and I accept them for true and reasonable. I always tend to search for the reasons with ourselves [the prosecution]," Velchev said.

- Hidden unemployment became a hidden employment, Monitor daily said. It was no secret that a large number of people who receive welfare benefits and work illegally. Some 28.2 per cent of welfare recipients admitted that they had al least one more source of income, the daily said.

Economy

- The increase in the cost of road construction after a contract has been signed would reach new record-breaking levels, Dnevnik said. The price of the first 4.5km of Sofia's ring road would double to reach 100 million leva, according to the explanations of Regional Development and Public Works Minister Assen Gagaouzov.

- Sega daily quoted Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev as saying that value-added time cut could not be considered this year and it was not the right time for discussion on the issue. Stanishev's statement comes after opposition parties demanded that the tax was cut by two percentage points as a means to fight inflation.