PRESS DIGEST - Bulgaria - Nov 2

SOFIA Nov 2 (Reuters) - These are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

GENERAL AND POLITICS

- Bulgaria has declared flu epidemics in three cities of the country, where schools have been temporarily shut down to avoid further spread of the virus, the health ministry said (Dnevnik, Standart, Klasa).

- The national security agency will not be shut down despite the leak of classified reports on organised crime which had exposed Bulgaria's inability to tame corruption and crime, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said (Dnevnik, Sega, Trud, Novinar).

- The new-centre right government of GERB deserves a very good mark for its first 100 days in office because it has managed to stop land swap deals and 19 million euros in pre-accession farm aim have been unblocked by Brussels, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said (Dnevnik, Sega, Standart, Trud, Duma, Monitor, Klasa).

- Some 15,000 people buy their driving licences every year which is among the reasons for the frequent road accidents in Bulgaria, where about 1,000 people die in car crashes annually, Transport Minister Alexander Tsvetkov said (Sega, Trud, Monitor).

MONITOR - Most of the public administration officials will no longer be entitled to an office car and a driver as part of the government's efforts to cut spending in times of economic crisis, Prime Minister Boiko Brosiov said.

ECONOMY

- Bulgaria's base interest rate for November dropped to 0.61 percent from 1.46 percent a month earlier, its lowest level ever, the central bank data shows (Sega, Duma, Monitor, Klasa, Pari).

BUSINESS

DNEVNIK - Fuel distributor Petrol PETB.BB posted a profit of 10.8 million levs ($8.15 million) for the first nine months of the year, down almost 20 times from the same period of 2008.