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

Politics

- Bulgaria's opposition parties can clean up the mess created by the current Government, GERB chairman Tsvetan Tsvetanov claimed, as quoted by Novinar daily. The party, which won most votes at the local elections in November, is pushing for snap polls.

- Bulgarian secret services are trying to keep ambassadors out of the scope of the country's commission for declassification of secret service archives, Dnevnik daily reported.

Social

- The low turnout at the Bourgas local referendum on the proposed Bourgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline surprised analysts and pollsters, who expected close to 60 per cent of the city's residents to vote, Dnevnik daily wrote. Final turnout figures are expected to be half as big.

Economy

- Flaws in the law regulating the activity of the Registry Agency could result in chaos, as thousands of applications would flood the agency daily for the next four months in Sofia alone, Sega daily said.

- Swedish and Greek companies are interested in buying Bulgarian hospitals, which are no longer banned for privatisation, daily 24 Chassa reported, noting that it would take months before the first deal of this type goes through, given that Parliament has to pass additional legislation on the issue.