These are some of the top headlines in Bulgarian newspapers on April 11 2008. The Sofia Echo has not verified these stories and cannot vouch for their accuracy.

Politics

- National Movement for Rights and Freedoms (NMSP), one of the three parties in the ruling coalition, will abstain from voting on the motion of no confidence in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev on April 11, Dnevnik daily reported. Unless the party votes in favour of the motion, the Government is unlikely to fall, but NMSP's "dissident behaviour" has reportedly enraged Stanishev, the paper said.

- The United States and Bulgaria could sign a visa-waiver agreement within months, US consul in Sofia Daniel Perrone said in an web-chat, Sega daily reported. The bilateral agreement, however, could annoy Brussels, which wants Washington to deal with all European Union member states at once, rather than with each one separately.

Social

- The price of lamb meat, a staple of the traditional Bulgarian Easter feast, has nearly increased since last year, Monitor daily said. The price is finally aligned to the average in other EU countries, it claimed. Part of the reason was also the fact that Bulgaria will have to import a large amount of lamb meat from abroad, since local farmers preferred to sell their produce abroad, chiefly in Italy and Greece, where they got a better price, the daily said.

Economy

- State-run tobacco company Bulgartabac will raise the price of its slims cigarettes by 20 per cent, Dnevnik daily said, quoting Finance Ministry data.

- Competition between banks for clients was reaching new heights, which benefitted new clients who were wooed with offers of very low interest rates on mortgage loans, Dnevnik reported.

- Alternative telecoms were targeting Black Sea resorts in their next wave of expansion, planning to offer internet access services via wireless networks that used the WiMax standard, Dnevnik said.