These are some of the top headlines in Bulgarian newspapers on September 4 2008. The Sofia Echo has not verified these stories and cannot vouch for their accuracy.

Politics

- Russia was satisfied with Bulgaria’s balanced and pragmatic stand over the conflict in South Ossetia, Russia Embassy counsellor Andrey Shabanov said, as quoted by Dnevnik daily.

- Bulgarian Socialist Party’s (BSP) partners in the ruling coalition, National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP) and Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) were sceptical about generous promises over BSP promises to allocate some of the budget surplus to social spending, Sega daily said. NMSP and MRF called for caution to avoid the impression that some groups would benefit from the surplus only because of coming elections.

Social

- Francesco Gulino, aka Piccadilly, the only agent from Bulgarian intelligence suspected of the murder of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov, was trained by the Bulgarian secrets services in 1978, Dnevnik said. Gulino was awarded a medal in Bulgaria soon after Markov’s murder.

- The provision of direct state subsidy for the Bulgarian dairy producers was unacceptable for the European Commission (EC) and other options for supporting the sector would be sought, Dnevnik said. The news was announced after a meeting between Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister responsible for European Funds management Meglena Plougchieva, Agriculture Minister Valeri Tsvetanov and EC commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mariann Fischer Boel.

- Only the intelligence service did not know the identity of the corrupt magistrates, but everyone else does, Sega daily quoted Konstantin Penchev, head of the Supreme Administrative Court, as saying.

Economy

- In August 2008, only one fifth of mortgage credits for lodgings were used for buying property in panel buildings, consultancy company Credit Centre said as quoted by Monitor daily.