What the newspapers say: August 7, 2008

After a couple of days above 40 degrees centigrade, newspapers seem to survive only on old news or news without any trace of relevance. In fact, in the middle of the summer, except for new editorial content such as „How to avoid losing your baby on the beach. Ten simple rules”, it seems that nothing ever happens.

On the road towards China, where he will participate in the official opening of the Olympic Games, president Traian Basescu made a quick pit stop, in order to mention one last thing about the Government and the Justice system. „There would be a mistake to politicize the European Commission report on Romania”, said Basescu, pointing at the politicians who insist to take some advantage on the EC criticism against the Romanian Justice.

Basescu believes that the report was fair, noting both the progress recorded and the commitments Romania failed to respect, Cotidianul notes.

Two articles about fuel and oil make Romania sound at least exotic. The first is that Petrom, the former national oil and gas operator, now owned by OMV, reported a new record-breaking profit for the first half of the year: 1.66 billion RON (some 461 million euro), 88% more than in the first half of 2007. Still, the growth was less than expected, the shares on the stock market dropping a few points, Evenimentul Zilei reads.

On the other hand, one of the very few networks specialized in stealing oil products ever apprehended in Romania was turned loose yesterday, the six Police officers involved in the thefts claiming that they didn’t have time to hire lawyers, same Evenimentul Zilei reads. Meanwhile, the preventive arrest warrants expired, the court didn’t decide in favor of appoint lawyers for the defense, so that the policemen are now free to flee. And, as a conclusion: there may still be huge profits, after the huge losses, right?

In the „What are Romanians spending for” chapter, laptops are the new „it”: laptop sales now count for 43% of all computer sales, after the percentage was 33 in 2007 and 22 in 2006. Desktops are still selling well, but the fast decreasing price for laptops, from 3,000 euro a few years ago to 500-700 euro today, makes the portable computers much more attractive, Gandul found out.

Last, but not least among the very few news on Thursday, the Transylvanian buffalo is a species that may soon disappear in the Italian salami. Out of 210,000 buffalos existing in the ’80’s in Transylvania, only some 40,000 still exist and one or two thousands are sold every year in Italy, where they are turned into salami.

The hope of the species lies with the UK honorary consul in Brasov, professor Stuart Meikle, who opened a farm with 580 beasts, but with a milk processing capacity of 3,000 buffalos, Gandul reads in a feature story.