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 a