Attracted by fabulous sums of money, Romanians hit by recession doubled the lottery’s profit. Elsewhere in the news, three Romanian women from Buzau will join the first line of operations against Serbian and Albanian troops in Kosovo. Last but not least, The US ambassador to Romania Mark Gitenstein announced that an American company will invest "in the near future" 300 million dollars in Romania.

Attracted by fabulous sums of money, Romanians hit by recession doubled the lottery’s profit, Evenimentul Zilei reads. The number of lottery tickets bought in Romania for Loto 6/49 increased significantly last year. Over 100 million combinations have been submitted to chance last year, according to Romanian Lottery chief Gheorghe Benea, 20% up in comparison with 2008. He believes both the recession and the big wins were to blame and that the introduction of the second draw acted as a real incentive. The Thursday draw brought 30% of the 2009 profit.

Sociologists say this is desperate behaviour, with a far winning perspective being resorted to. The Lottery's studies indicate that one third of the players are taking part every week in both draws. An average 2 out of 14 million combinations are keeping players on the tip of their toes every week. This means that a combination has 20% maximum winning chances. Lottery players have made the Romanian Lottery one of the state's most profitable institutions by doubling its profits in 2009 against 2008 figures: from 114 to 238 million lei (57.7 million euros). The Lottery is planning to hire 2,000 more staff.

Three Romanian women from Buzau will join the first line of operations against Serbian and Albanian troops in Kosovo, Adevarul reads. The 86 members of the Parachutist Battalion 60 from Buzau help to maintain peace under the NATO command, serving for six months. Three of them are women: one is officer and two are volunteer troops, the first women in the Romanian army guarding regional peace. Sub-lieutenant Iuliana Fondos (27), soldier Alina Voicu (20) and frontrunner Claudia Tudorache (21) will patrol Albanian villages and organise filters at the border.

The Romanian soldiers will fly on Sunday morning from Boboc aerodrome. Parachutists Battalion 60 are part of Division 1 Infantry Dacica and this is their second mission in Kosovo. They prepared for the mission alongside Turkish military in October 2009. In Kosovo, the Romanian troops will join the West Multinational Force Group, which includes Italians, Slovenians, Hungarians and Turks. The military base will be in Villagio Italia from Pec. Romanians will engage in escort, force protection, traffic control, patrol and cooperation missions with KFOR reserve battalion.

The US ambassador to Romania Mark Gitenstein announced that an American company will invest "in the near future" 300 million dollars in Romania, according to Gandul. The announcement was made during a meeting with Romanian Economy minister Adriean Videanu. The two met on Tuesday in Bucharest to "analyse economic bi-lateral relationships and the interest domains to increase US investments to Romania", Mediafax reads. Gitestein stated that American companies retain their interest in the Romanian market. The 300 million dollars are to be invested in industrial equipment.

Romanian economy minister Adriean Videanu said that the Americans are also interested to invest in energy production. In fact, Videanu presented the US ambassador with a plan to restructure the Romanian energetic sector through Hidroenergetica and Electra societies. In January, American group General Electric sealed an eight-year contract with the only nuclear station operator in Romania Nuclearelectrica. General Electrica will provide maintenance services for nuclear reactors 1 and 2 from Cernavoda station. The agreement is worth up to 146 million dollars. At that point, Gitenstein stated that general Electric was interested to supply equipment for reactors 3 and 4 from Cernavoda, a project estimated to be worth four billion dollars.

In September, a US companies reps delegation came to Romania, looking for opportunities to take part in the construction of reactors 3 and 4 (Cernavoda) and in the construction of a new nuclear power station. Some of the American companies expressing these interests are MEC, Autodesk, Babcock and Wilcox, CH2M Hill, Froehling and Robertson, Hill International, Honeywell, Mathey Dearman, NuScale Power, Trax International and Westinghouse.