Sun, Nov 08 2009
"Even if billions are poured into the healthcare system, they will sink in unknown channels," heart surgeon Alexander Chirkov told private broadcaster Nova Television. Some 8.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) should be allocated for healthcare, according to Chirkov. Hospitals in Bulgaria should be closed not because of the lack of money, but as a result of the lack of specialists and good equipment. There are more hospitals in Bulgaria than necessary, he said.
"There is a storm in DSB [Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria], but it is small because DSB is very small," DSB member of Parliament Neno Dimov told Nova Television. "DSB allowed itself to turn from a partner everyone desired four years ago to a partner no one wants." The crisis in the right-wing parties consisted in the fact that they were "a pathetic alternative" to a failed government. According to Nenov, the ruling three-way coalition was "comical" and the authorities - "tragic". Current situation in Bulgaria resembled a financial pyramid from the 1990s - the right-wing parties and especially their leaders pretended to be pharaohs in pyramids, who want someone to invest in them, while they offered benefits from taking part in the government.
Belene nuclear power plant construction "will have a positive impact on the social and economic development of Belene and the region," Belene mayor Petar Doulev told Bulgarian National Television. "I believe that yesterday's actions [turning of the first sod of the plant] abolished all doubts about whether the plant will be built," he said. The construction would decrease unemployment in the region and would attract new investment. "The seismic studies made by the most prominent companies in the world showed that there are no doubts about the security of the new plant construction," Doulev said.
Kindergartens to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis and universities to decide for themselves whether to suspend classes.
Five illegal immigrants from Iran and Iraq caught by Bulgarian police in Sliven.
Leonid Lavchev sent an intermediary to collect 1000 leva from a dairy farm in Haskovo, investigators say
Former labour minister Emilia Maslarova follows the example of Socialist party leader and former prime minister, Sergei Stanishev, in requesting that her MP immunity is lifted
Health Minister: Influenza strain is not seasonal flu, it is swine flu. More than 100 000 Bulgarians are down with the H1N1 strain.