What the newspapers say: June 12, 2008

Once again, there is little time for general news today, since Romania is about to play against Italy on Friday, in the European football championship, and the second ballot for local elections is scheduled for Sunday. So, most news on Thursday are about the general health of the Romanian populace, the never-ending problem of the roads and – as not a day goes by without it – some details about the reasons why the anti-graft campaign will never function as it should.

Romanians eat pills for breakfast, lunch and dinner: the consumption of various medications increased 71% during the past 10 years, a study by Cegedim reveals. The study explains that the aging population, the increasing importance of the health status and the growing purchasing capacity are the main reasons for this evolution, Evenimentul Zilei reads.

On the other hand, 3.22 million Romanians risk to grow ill during the following years. The governmental program for obligatory health checks for everyone brought over 8.6 million people to their doctors during the past 9 months, out of which 37.9% were assessed as presenting risks to develop various affections, Gandul informs.

In politics, Cotidianul managed to find out how the „press book” president Traian Basescu receives every morning looks like: media monitoring experts put up all imprecations targeting him. Into the top of all curses, the Intact press group journalists are by far the champions. An evening TV show that gathers Ion Cristoiu, Victor Ciutacu, Roxana Iordache, Radu Tudor and Valentin Stan adds dozens of pages of imprecations addressed to the president, the newspaper found out.

Back to everyday problems: the A2 highway, from Bucharest to the seaside, may be finished in two years. The works for the last 52 kilometers may begin this fall, but costs are not yet estimated, Jurnalul National reads.

On the other hand, the existing national roads will be filled with radars and policemen until August 16, in an attempt to reduce the skyrocketing number of accidents. According to a recent study, 60% of all deadly accidents take place on national roads, Cotidianul informs.