These are some of the top headlines in Bulgarian newspapers on April 18 2008. The Sofia Echo has not verified these stories and cannot vouch for their accuracy.

Politics

- Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev was not afraid of possible snap elections, Sega daily said. "If there is not enough support in Parliament for a cabinet line-up or a certain policy, we will head for snap elections and we will see [whether that happens] next week," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

- Parties in the ruling coalition were blackmailing each other ahead of talks on the upcoming Cabinet re-shuffle, Monitor daily said. The three parties had different expectations concerning the agenda of the talks.

Social

- Despite all the promises for a drastic change in the management of Sofia, mayor Boiko Borissov had breached the law by handing a shady contract to a private company without a tender, Sega daily said. As a result, the company Profuds would make millions from managing the area around Ariana pond in Borisova Gradina (Boris’s garden) park.

- Justice Ministry is drafting an administrative penal code, according to which fines of less than 100 leva would not be a subject of appeals, Sega said. Currently, only fines up to 10 leva cannot be appealed and courts complain that they are swamped with numerous appeals of small fines.

- State administrative services payment would be available online from October 2008, Dnevnik said. After a tender, the State Administration Ministry picked local company Datamax to set up the system, which will use the popular ePay.bg payment system.

Economy

- Bulgaria’s Cabinet passed amendments in the law on concessions, according to which joint ventures between state or municipal companies and private investors would receive concessions without a tender, Dnevnik said. Still, the private partner would have to be selected after a tender.