The huge popularity of Steve Jobs' iPhone made the Apple stock grow 44%, rising the market value of the company to 158.8 billion dollars, more than Google, which is evaluated at 157.2 billion dollars, The Guardian informs. 

The extremely favorable conjuncture in the past ten years, which led to an exceptional economic growth in the Eastern Europe countries, will no last for much longer, The Economist predicts in a thorough analysis. Counting the weaknesses of the Eastern Europe states, the publication considers that the growing inflation, the increasing costs with the salaries, the lack of labor force and the poor infrastructure will affect the regional growth. A rough warning is addressed to Romania and Bulgaria, which are the main candidates to hard landing. The main exceptions are Latvia and Estonia, while the main concern is about Hungary.

Russian president Dmitri Medvedev met German chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday, in Sochi, to discuss the peace process in Georgia. The peace must be restored and guaranteed in South Ossetia, so that no one would get any more "idiotic ideas", said the Russian president. "Unfortunately after what has happened it is unlikely Ossetians and Abkhazians can live in one state with Georgians," Medvedev said at the news conference after the meeting.

The United States are on Georgia's side, said the American president, George W. Bush declared in a press conference on Friday, in Washington. “Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected” , the US leader said, adding, in a strong voice, that bullying and intimidation are not acceptable manners to lead the foreign policy in the 21st century.

Romania has delivered weapons and infantry ammunition, with respect to the UN Charta regulations, the international sanctions regime and the EU code of conduct in weapons export, the Romanian Foreign Ministry announced, as response to a questionnaire sent by the Mediafax news agency. The Defense Ministry has no knowledge about the exports, declaring that, in case weapons were sold in the are, the transactions were made through interims.

For Orthodox Christians, August 15 is the "Holy Mary Day". In laic life, Romania celebrates the Navy Day, an event attended to by Romania President Traian Basescu, himself a former commercial ship captain. "The Navy modernization must be accelerated, since Romania bears, in the Black Sea, the responsibility to protect the state borders, which are also borders of the European Union and NATO", said Basescu on the Navy Day. "The Romanian navy forces assume this responsibility in the name of Europe and its allies", said the head of state.

FIFA decided that Romanian striker Adrian Mutu has to pay 17.17 million euro to the Chelsea football club, as compensations for breaking the contract.  The contract between Mutu and Chelsea was annulled when Mutu tested positive for cocaine consumption. The sentence can still be appealed.