The Bulgarian parliament on Wednesday adopted on a first reading a 2009 national budget that will slash annual growth and foreign investment targets in response to the tightening global outlook.

The budget foresees economic growth of 4.7 percent and counts on attracting foreign direct investment of 5.3 billion euros.

SOFIA, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - The government Friday hailed a deal allowing the name of the single European currency to be spelt 'evro' in the cyrillic alphabet as a victory for Bulgaria.

'The problem of how to spell the name of the common European currency in cyrillic in the official documents of the EU was solved in Bulgaria's favour,' Minister of Public Administration Nikolay Vassilev was quoted as saying by the state BTA news agency.

'We won this battle for about 220 million other people around the world who use the cyrillic alphabet,' the minister added.

SOFIA, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - Thousands of Bulgarian teachers took to the streets again Thursday to demand higher pay as schools around the country remained effectively closed for a fourth week.

Police estimated the number of protestors gathered in front of the government building at between 20,000 and 25,000, while organisers put the crowds at around 50,000.

Blowing whistles and beating drums, the marchers called for the government to resign.

SOFIA, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - The Bulgarian parliament passed an amendment to its penal code Thursday making the practice of so-called 'vote-buying' punishable with heavy fines and/or up to three years in prison.

With just 10 days to go before nationwide municipal elections, the amendment imposed a three-year jail term, or a suspended sentence plus fines of up to 2,500 euros (3,500 dollars) on anyone caught bribing voters to cast their ballot for a given political party.

Those who accepted the bribes could face up to one year in prison, if caught.

SOFIA, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - The Bulgarian government faces a vote of no-confidence next week in the wake of an unprecedented teachers' strike that has effectively closed schools across the country for the past three weeks.

Four Bulgarian right-wing and nationalist opposition parties tabled a no-confidence vote in the centre-left coalition government on Monday over what they saw as the 'failure of state policy in the education sector.'

LUXEMBOURG, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - European ambassadors on Monday overcame a dispute over the spelling of the word 'euro' which had threatened to scupper an EU rapprochement deal with Montenegro.

Bulgaria had insisted that the word be spelt in the cyrllic alphabet in its version of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA).

The SAA is important for Montenegro as it is the first formal step towards possible EU membership.

The deal was to be signed by EU and Montenegrin officials later, on the sidelines of an EU foreign ministers' meeting.

SOFIA, Oct 13, 2007 (AFP) - Bulgaria's unemployment rate fell to 6.78 percent in September, the lowest figure registered for that month since the start of statistics by the national employment agency in 1991, the agency said in a statement Saturday.

The jobless rate edged 0.22 percentage points lower than the August figure of 7.0 percent. It also fell by 1.66 percentage points on a 12-month basis.

The number of registered unemployed in September was 251,091, or 8,219 fewer than in August and 61,622 fewer than last September.

BRUSSELS, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - The EU will sign a rapprochement deal with Montenegro next week as planned, despite an earlier Bulgarian threat to block it amid a row over how to spell 'euro', the EU's presidency said Friday.

A brief EU presidency statement late in the evening said only that the signing of the Stabilisation and Association agreement (SAA) on the margins of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday 'is maintained,' without detailing how the problem had been overcome.

SOFIA, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - Bulgaria's bizarre linguistic row with the European Union over the spelling of the euro on Friday threatened to spike a pact Montenegro is due to sign with the bloc.

Sofia said it would not ink Montenegro's Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU if the Bulgarians were not allowed to spell the currency as 'evro' in their version of the document.

Bulgarian linguists say there is no phonetic equivalent of the sound 'eu' in the Cyrillic alphabet used in Bulgaria and other Slav nations.

BRUSSELS, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - The European Union will not sign an agreement on closer ties with Montenegro next week unless Bulgaria lifts on Friday its objections to the spelling of the word 'euro', the EU's presidency said.

'Either we solve the problem today or we don't sign the agreement: it's as simple as that,' said a Portuguese official, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency until the end of the year.