Beer and luxury brands reach new record sales in Romania. A good combination, able to tell a lot about the Romanian soul. Add that the Transylvania highway demand more hundreds of millions of euro, while the works seem to have ceased for quite a long time, and you'll get the picture of Romania as it is.

Luxury brands see huge sales in Romania. In fact, Romanians are the first in South Eastern Europe in buying luxury goods, the spending for high-end products being double this year, compared to 2007. Most money goes to fashion goods, 55%, but accessories also have an important share, with 45%, Evenimentul Zilei reads.

At the same time, Romania stepped into the top 10 of beer-drinking nations, reaching an average consumption of 89 liters per year, after drinking only 54 liters in 2004. The wine consumption is still at 30 liters per year, Cotidianul notes. Beer sales passed over 1 billion euro per year.

Not to wonder, the Alitalia flight from Rome to Bucharest was delayed on Thursday because of the smell of six Romanian passengers. Other Romanians complained about the stink and threatened to boycott the take-off, but were told by the Police that their scandal is the only thing that can be punished, Gandul reads. So the plane took of along with a lot of body odor and, finally, no one was hurt (there wasn't any nose bleeding recorded).

To end in another kind of bitter note: the Bechtel highway will cost the Romanian Government another 320 million euro in 2009, after the Transport ministry manages to pay the remaining 80 millions it has to pay this year. Bechtel has to complete 25 kilometers of highway in 2008, Evenimentul Zilei informs. Anyway, it will most certainly be Europe's most expensive small highway.