All newspapers on Monday recall the achievements of renowned Romanian actor Stefan Iordache who died this Sunday. Also on Monday, school starts for pupils across Romania. And politicians stir up the electoral battle as the fall parliamentary elections approach.

All newspapers mourn the death of the renowned Romanian actor Stefan Iordache who died of leukemia, aged 67 this Sunday. Born in 1941, Iordache was one of the great actors in his generation who offered memorable plays.

His first role was in 1964 after which he played for nearly half of century in both theater plays and films. Dozens of actors, friends and colleagues mourn his death, recalling his valuable contribution to the theater.

Elsewhere in the news, today all pupils across Romania mark the beginning of a new school year. Cotidianul quotes the latest performance study that class Romanian schools last due to teaching methods and school programs. According to the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 study, Romanian pupils' performance score places them below their international colleagues.

What's more, the results of the study reveal even worse results than those registered in 2001 and 2003. With a national score of 489 points of 1000, Romania was ranked 36 of 45 in the PIRLS 2006 study. Best countries are the Russian Federation with 565 points, Hong Kong (564), Singapore (558) and Luxembourg (557).

Most pupils taking the test are aged 10 and they've attended school for at least 4 years. The results of the test reveals that only 4% of Romanian pupils are in the advanced international performance level with over 625 points.

Evenimentul Zilei reads about which party promises the biggest salaries and pensions schemes, in this new auction for votes. Thus, Social Democrats promise to increase the minimum salary to 1,000 Romanian Ron while Liberals declare that by 2012, the average salary will reach 800 euro/month. Democrat Liberals push for 900 euro/month for average salaries.

Another promise made by the Liberals is that Romania will become the seventh power in Europe by 2012 by increasing the GDP/capita to 10,000 euro/person. In other words, this translates into a gross average salary of 800 euro and an average pension scheme of 350 euro.

On the other hand, Democrat Liberals are even more generous when it comes to promises: they offer an average pension scheme of 400 euro and an average gross salary of 900 euro which is slightly higher than the numbers put forward by the Liberals. However, Social Democrats tend to lean more on pensioners as they propose monthly increases of the pensions scheme, in accordance with inflation growth.

Another hot electoral topic is infrastructure: while Social Democrats launched a pack of proposals to cover the building of some 1,000 km of highway, the improvement of over 1,000 railway tracks and 2 bridges over the Danube river, Liberals on the other hand promise to allocate 7% of the GDP for transports infrastructure.

Democrats Liberals came up with a national agreement for highways which promises the rehabilitation of over 5,883 European roads, 10,000 national ones and 10,000 county roads.

With this in mind, lets see what post election policies bring about!