These are some of the top headlines in Bulgarian newspapers on July 14 2008. The Sofia Echo has not verified these stories and cannot vouch for their accuracy.

Politics

- Relations between Defence Ministry high-level officials and the general staff were tense after the explosions at the military warehouse near Sofia on July 3, Dnevnik daily said. Defence Minister Nikolai Tsonev accused high-level officials of protecting the head of the military base despite the numerous tip-offs about alleged malfeasances at the base.

- External auditors would examine the 1028 projects funded under the European Union pre-accession Sapard programme after June 26 2006, according to a plan drafted by Bulgarian officials to lift the moratorium on payments under three Sapard measures, Dnevnik said. The final version of the plan would be presented to the European Commission (EC) by the end of July.

Social

- Insurance reforms that would make the state an official insurer were little more than accounting gimmicks, Dnevnik said. Workers would not benefit at all from the draft amendments in the social insurance code, while the employers would decrease their expenses by two percentage points and the state would only transfer money from one budget item to another, the newspaper said.

- Seven Bulgarian medics, who were imprisoned in Libya on charges of deliberately infecting hundreds of children with HIV but were later transferred to Bulgaria and released, planned to launch a series of trials to protect their dignity and rights, Sega daily said. The medics wanted to sue the Libyan officers who allegedly tortured them, as well as journalist Grigor Lalov for his statements in a book about the case.

- The average teachers’ salary of 650 leva, which had to be reached by July 1, remained only a dream for most of the teachers in the small schools, Sega reported. Only teachers in big schools could hope to receive such salaries, the daily said. The amount was promised after teachers protested for more than a month at the beginning of the school year in 2007.

Economy

- Bulgaria would have to buy back the Indje Voivoda dam, which was privatised ‘by mistake’, from an Ukrainian businessman, Standart daily said. Despite the fact that it is public state property, the dam was given to a private company, Regional Development and Public Works Minister Assen Gagaouzov was quoted as saying. The dam could prevent water shortages along the Southern Black Sea coast, the newspaper said.

- Interest on loans would continue growing, although their growth would be restricted because of the competition among banks, Dnevnik said. Bulgaria would be carried by developments on the international markets, where inflation and the credit crunch forced banks to raise interest rates.