These are some of the top headlines in Bulgarian newspapers on March 13 2008. The Sofia Echo has not verified these stories and cannot vouch for their accuracy.
Politics
- Bulgaria's ruling coalition decided to restore the powers of the investigative service, despite European Comisision recommendations, Dnevnik daily says. The EC wants the police to be in charge of investigations, rather than the service, which is part of the judicial branch. The Supreme Judicial Council has approved amendments in the Penal Procedure Code, which give the investigators wider-ranging powers, the newspaper says.
- A top crime-fighting official has been leaking sensitive information about police investigations against firms that sponsor the Socialist party, the senior partner in the ruling coalition, Sega daily reported. Democrats for Strong Bulgaria member of Parliament (MP) Atanas Atanasov, a former counter-intelligence chief, showed the evidence on terrestrial television, claiming that a deputy chief of Bulgaria's crime-fighting police unit kept businessmen briefed on the progress of investigations against them.
- The US State Department human rights report, which criticised the large-scale vote-buying at last year's local elections in Bulgaria, failed to impress Bulgarian politicians, who dismissed it as old news, Novinar daily said.
Social
- Food prices have increased by 22 per cent since last February, Monitor daily said. The price of vegetable oil alone had risen by 5.8 per cent in a month.
- Nurses in Bulgaria are ready to resign en masse and have threatened to go on a mass protest in May over the lack of dialog with state institutions, Dnevnik daily reported.
- A short circuit was the cause of the deadly train fire that took the lives of nine people last month, Monitor claimed.
Economy
- Brussels is unhappy with the answers it got regarding the investigation of the National Road Infrastructure Fund and is demanding more information from Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski, Dnevnik reported. The EC also wants the distribution of funds to be audited by foreign firms.
- Plovdiv airport plans to attract low-cost air carriers, which it sees as the only chance to step out of the shadow of next-door neighbour Sofia, Dnevnik said.
