In 2001 the National Assembly elected Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha as the premier.

 

 

 

SOFIA, Bulgaria - Yugoslavia wants its neighbor Bulgaria to join NATO quickly, the Yugoslav foreign minister said Wednesday.

 

Speaking to Bulgarian state radio a day ahead of a visit to Bulgaria, Goran Svilanovic said his country expected "Bulgaria to make its decisive step to NATO very quickly. Then Yugoslavia will have a stable, well integrated neighbor, which is in its interest."

 

Bulgaria hopes to receive an invitation to join NATO at the alliance's November summit in Prague, the Czech capital.

 

Relations between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria turned icy in 1999, when Bulgaria allowed NATO planes to use its air space in the alliance campaign against Yugoslavia. That changed when former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was ousted from power in October 2000, Svilanovic said.

 

"We are turned face to face and so will be for the ages to come," Svilanovic said.

 

Among the issues Svilanovic will discuss during his two-day visit to Sofia is a proposal to build a 160 kilometer (100-mile) highway linking Bulgaria's capital Sofia with Yugoslavia's second city of Nis.

 

 

 

The actress was called the Bulgarian Mona Lisa.

 

Katia Paskaleva died yesterday at the age of 56. Stepping on the heavenly stage, she will always live in our hearts as Maria from the film 'The Goat Horn'. Katia Paskaleva wasn't angry that her name was for ever associated only with her character in the film by Metodi Andonov. She said that it's fine that 'The Goat Horn' will never get old. Katia Paskaleva, the actress, who was called the Bulgarian Mona Lisa, in 1967 graduated from the National Academy of Theatre and Film Art, the drama class of Metodi Andonov. She worked in many theatres. The theatre roles by which Katia Paskaleva will be remembered are Albena from 'Albena' by Yovkov, 'As You Like It' by Shakespeare, Nina Zarechnaya from 'Chayka' by Chekhov. 'Stars in the Hair, Tears in Her Eyes', 'Monday Morning', 'I, the Countess' are only several of the dozens of films in which she took a memorable part.

 

 

Stefan Tashev
Parvoleta Tzvetkova

 

Policemen check bourses and markets because of middlemen's racketeering.

 

Police officers are after middlemen trading in fruits and vegetables, who racketeer producers with low purchasing prices, it transpired yesterday. I already ordered all the regional police directorates to started urgent checkups at the farm market-places and bourses, IM Chief Secretary Boyko Borissov said yesterday. The campaign is targeted to stop attempts to deliberately increase purchasing prices of vegetables and to reduce the number of middlemen. On Monday, BSP MP Peter Mutafchiev appealed to cabinet to take urgent measures against middlemen at the markets. He gave an example with the tomato prices which were 0.05 levs at the bourses and between 0.80 and 1.50 levs at the Sofia markets.

 

 

Evgeni Genov

 

Red tape is tormenting people, the premier admitted delivering an address to the nation.

 

The cabinet succeeded in reducing the number of the unemployed by 4.8 percent despite the cut in the investments due to the unfavourable international situation, said Simeon Saxe-Coburg yesterday in an address to the nation on the occasion of one-year NMS government. He elaborated that in the unemployment sphere the cabinet shifted the accent from social aids to opening new job. In these lines, the PM pointed out that the cabinet is emphasizing on the pragmatic approach in the economy. "We made a stake on the alleviations to give a break to Bulgarian and foreign entrepreneurs and reduced the tax burden. We terminated one fifth of the licences regimens and provided business with freedom," Simeon said further. He did not spare reproaches for the administrative reform but assured that the cabinet would meet their commitments. To him, Bulgarians had serious grounds to be dissatisfied with the inefficiency of the judicial system. To him, the justice and the IM had to be closer to the people. He specified that the Bulgarian Army had become a worthy NATO partner and had contributed its mite to Bulgaria's aspiration for the Treaty.