As the heat wave promises to leave Romania, politics still don’t make any news, except maybe for the new (unimportant) quarrel on whether should president Basescu have a Romanian Air Force One or not.

Some polls make some waves, showing that Liberal supporters are the most permissive in sexual habits, but the number of Liberals is still low enough to have Romanians as a whole a gay-unfriendly people.

The drought and the extreme heat made the prices for cattle go at an all times low” less than 100 euros for a cow, instead of the usual 500 - 700 euros. “Smart investors” round up the herds and sell the cows seven times more expensive to slaughter houses, Cotidianul reads.

Since the heat wave is in all the news, Romania Libera informs its public that 2007 is just the beginning and that experts’ prognosis indicate a 2008 summer at least just as hot as this year. More tropical days and no snow during the winter in South Romania, this is the picture weather specialists already see for the coming year.

In a different approach, Evenimentul Zilei counts the victims of the heat waves and sees that hurricanes and frost cause a lot less casualties than extreme heat. Some 2,200 people died in the US between 1992 and 2001 because of the heat, while hurricanes caused the death of 150 people and floods “barely” made it to 880 victims.

In 2003, 35,000 Europeans died because of the heat waves, out of which 15,000 in France.

In other news:

Evenimentul Zilei: Iuliu Winkler, the second favorite in the race for the European elections, representing the Hungarian Democratic Union (UDMR), may replace Zsolt Nagy as IT&C Minister. Nagy is currently investigated in an espionage criminal file, accused of unveiling secret data in energy privatizations.

Cotidianul: UDMR and far-right Great Romania party fell for the firs time under the 5% electoral threshold.

Gandul: UNICEF Romania breaks the international rules of the organization and accepts a 25,000 euros donation from weapon producer Gigi Becali. In the international arena, UNICEF refused donations from Nestle simply because the company produced milk powder, while UNICEF supported breast feeding.

Gandul: Romanian society still rejects homosexuals. 52% of Romanians say that homosexuals shouldn’t be seen as a normal person and 77% would be bothered or extremely bothered in case they found out that a close friend is gay.