PRESS DIGEST - Bulgaria - Nov 4

SOFIA, Nov 4 (Reuters) - These are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

GENERAL AND POLITICS

- Foreign Minister Rumyana Zheleva says she will demand that Bulgaria's ambassadors in Turkey and the U.S. be recalled over violations committed in polling stations at the July 5 general elections (Dnevnik, 24 Chasa, Trud, Duma).

- The police broke up a ring for car thefts run by an organised crime group which included police officers, the interior ministry said (Dnevnik, 24 Chasa, Trud, Sega, Monitor, Standart).

- Healthcare workers, including physicians, dentists and nurses, plan a national protest over the 2010 budget for health care which was cut as a result of the economic crisis, trade unions and branch officials say (Dnevnik, Sega, Duma).

- The Justice ministry has proposed amendments in the penal code which envisage the heaviest punishment for kidnapping people for ransom to be imprisonment for life, following the rising numbers of abductions in the country (24 Chasa, Trud, Sega, Duma, Monitor, Standart, Klasa).

NOVINAR - A 35-year-old woman from the northern own of Vratsa died from the H1N1 flu, bringing death toll to four, the health ministry said.

ECONOMY

- At informal meetings, the government has asked commercial banks to lower gradually the interest rates of loans in bid to boost Bulgaria's economy in times of crisis, Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said (Dnevnik, 24 Chasa, Trud, Monitor).

- Wholesale natural gas prices may jump by up to 15 percent as of Jan. 1 depending on the U.S. dollar rates, the state energy regulator said (Duma, Monitor, Standart, Klasa).

BUSINESS

DNEVNIK - Bulgaria drug producer Sopharma SOFAR.BB posted a profit of 30.9 million levs ($23.30 million) for the first nine months of the year, up two times on an annual basis, mainly due to increasing sales abroad.