These are some of the top headlines in Bulgarian newspapers on September 15 2008. The Sofia Echo has not verified these stories and cannot vouch for their accuracy.

Politics

Interior Minister Mihail Mikov would be heard in the parliamentary internal security and public order committee to explain the money spent on special surveillance methods in 2006 and 2007, Dnevnik daily said. The sum amounted to nearly 100 million leva.

Nearly 475 000 people had signed the opposition parties' petition against the Cabinet within a week, Sega daily said. Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) leader Tsvetan Tsvetanov presented the figures. The petition will be open until September 22.

Social

The Interior Ministry had asked money from the budget surplus for the purchase of fire-fighting equipment, Dnevnik quoted Mikov as saying, after fires had burnt hundreds of thousands of sq m of forest in Rila Mountain in the past days.

Deputy Prime Minister for European Funds Meglena Plougchieva suggested that Sofia's future refuse processing plant be given on concession to a private company, Dnevnik said.

Judicial institutions should investigate who was to blame for the problem with Sofia's refuse processing plant, President Georgi Purvanov said, as quoted by Sega. "I remember well that a plot was provided, the ministries gave their support and we were close to a solution," Purvanov said.

Smuggled packages of meat that had been banned for import in the EU were being sold in Bulgaria, Monitor daily said. Sausage producers were buying the banned meat on a mass scale.

Economy

After the world financial crisis of the past year, a completely new world would follow, Nobel Prize winners, among whom Myron Scholes, Robert Merton and John Nash told Dnevnik. The long-term chances for economy growth were very good, they said.

Bulgaria ranked as the fifth-best country for taking out loan, a World Bank report said, as quoted by Monitor.