These are some of the top headlines in Bulgarian newspapers on April 10 2008. The Sofia Echo has not verified these stories and cannot vouch for their accuracy.
Politics
- The ruling coalition's council, unsurprisingly, did not dismiss Interior Minister Roumen Petkov on April 9, Dnevnik daily said. The leaders of the three parties in the coalition - Bulgarian Socialist Party, National Movement for Stability and Progress and Movement for Rights and Freedoms - met to discuss the corruption row, which has been raging in the ministry for a month now. Top politicians from all parties, however, admitted that they already knew how the meeting would end up even before it started.
- Bulgarian Cabinet’s ineffective fight against organised crime resulted in sharp reaction of the international community on April 9, Dnevnik said. US senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama advised US ambassador-designate to Bulgaria to aggressively help Bulgarian institutions in the fight against corruption and organised crime. Earlier, European Commission spokesperson Mark Gray said again that urgent measures were needed to fight crime.
Social
- Bulgarian institutions' efforts to fight corruption and organised crime were unsatisfactory, a poll of German - Bulgarian Trade und Industry Chamber showed, Dnevnik said.
Economic
- Sofia City Court, Kyustendil Regional Court and Bourgas Regional Court impounded assets and properties worth of Bulgartabac Holding executive director Hristo Lachev nearly a million leva, Dnevnik said. The rulings were issued at the request of Bulgarian Criminal Assets Forfeiture Commission.
- US company ITT planned to invest more than $400 million in Bulgaria, its representative in Bulgaria Balkantel said, as quoted by Dnevnik. The company would present its investment plants on April 11.
- Sofia city hall was about to concede part of a street to a private businessman to help him enlarge their plot, Sega daily said. The businessman would give the municipality 171 sq m of his plot and would receive 827 sq m and would pay the difference. Sofia's municipal budget committee decided that the businessman has to pay 900 000 leva, or 634 euro per sq m.
- Yacht importers in Bulgaria expected the number of yachts sold in the country in the next three years to reach 1500, according to Dnevnik. The increasing number of yacht port construction plans was evidence enough that the market was growing, they said.
