These are some of the top headlines in Bulgarian newspapers on April 16 2008. The Sofia Echo has not verified these stories and cannot vouch for their accuracy.

Politics

The European Commission (EC) wanted “blood, sweat and tears” to restore funding to Bulgaria, Dnevnik daily said. It was unlikely that EC would restore funding under the pre-accession Ispa and Sapard programmes until May 2008.

Three high-level officials from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), including Interior Minister on leave Roumen Petkov, will participate in a Cabinet discussion of recent events. The agenda was proposed by Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, Monitor daily said. The discussions start today, April 16, and will still include Petkov despite his recent resignation.

Two of the main parties in Bulgaria, Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) and BSP, who claim to be major rivals, turn out to have the same sponsors, Bulgarian National Audit Office report read, as quoted by Dnevnik. The sponsors were the main economic groups in the country.

Social

Private companies are set to construct the infrastructure of two of Sofia's residential districts in Sofia, Manastirski livadi and Malinova dolina, Sofia's chief architect said, as quoted by Sega daily. The city hall would launch tenders to select the constructors.

Economy

Leasing interest, both for companies and individual clients, has increased over the past several weeks, Dnevnik said. The increase follows the bank loan price increase of 0.25 to 0.5 per cent. The reason cited is once again the global crisis in the financial markets.

Lakshmi Mittal had offered only 100 million euro for the majority share in Bulgaria’s steel mill Kremikovtzi, Monitor quoted The Times of India as saying. The sum was nearly 50 million euro lower than the figure sought by the current owner, Pramot Mittal.