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People in the News

December 2004

Fifty-two parties contested Romania's parliamentary elections, and twelve presidential candidates contested the presidential elections; for the parliamentary elections, results showed the PSD-PUR alliance with a slight lead over its main rival, the Democratic Alliance or DA, an amalgam of the PD and PNL, and it was expected that they would combine with one or two of the other parties that received more than five per cent of the vote ñ the far right wingers the PRM (about 15 per cent) or the Hungarians, the UDMR (about 6 per cent) ñ and form a government. In the presidential elections, no candidate received more than 50 per cent of the vote so a run-off is to take place on 11 December between the two top rated candidates, Adrian Nastase of the PSD-PUR and Traian Basescu of the PD-PNL. Election observers reported some instances of voters registering votes on more than one occasion and other fraudulent activity, but this was not considered widespread enough to influence the outcome ñ although Traian Basescu said the election should be run again. A scandal emerged when hundreds of pages of transcripts of meetings of the standing committee of the ruling Party of Social Democracy (PSD) were released to the media. The transcripts show senior government figures scheming over how to control the media, and talking about pressuring the judiciary to protect their own corrupt colleagues. Despite many party figures fretting in the meetings that their control over the media was not complete enough, the scandal was left unreported by the three main television channels. However, the entire print-run of the satirical magazine Academia Catavencu disappeared from newsagent shelves several days before the election. Nine-month GDP figures showed an increase of 8.1 per cent, and Mircea Geoana, who is likely to be the new prime minister, said he could not see a reason why a GDP growth rate of between five and seven per cent could not be achieved every year for the next five years. The Romanian government demanded the return of a US marine who left the country immediately after being involved in a car accident that resulted in the death of Teo Peter, the bass player of the rock group Compact. The marine, who worked as a security guard at the US embassy in Bucharest, reportedly had a blood alcohol reading of 0.09. The rebound of the leu against major foreign currencies continued, with the dollar staying under 30,000 lei and the euro under 40,000. Marcel Toader, a convicted murderer who absconded from a prison sentence after serving eight years of a 20-year sentence and had been on the run since 1999, was arrested in France and returned to prison in Romania. Gheorghe Bunici, a journalist with ProTV, was arrested for using a concealed camera while filming in a duty free shop on the Romanian-Bulgarian border, and could be faced with a jail sentence of three years. Shell said that it would sell MOL its 59 gasoline filling stations; the deal, believed to be worth about $50 million, is part of a worldwide divestment of assets by Shell so that it can concentrate on oil and gas exploration. Snack Ventures Europe, a joint-venture between PepsiCo and General Mills, bought Star Foods, Romania's leading snack food producer. Societe Generale bought the state's 7.3 per cent share of BRD for 43 million euros; the real value of the stock is almost twice that much. Plans for a joint bid with

Hungary to host the 2012 European soccer championships were shelved because of Romania's poor infrastructure, but the Romanian Football Association said it might consider a bid for 2016 or 2020. Wales thrashed Romania at rugby in Cardiff, 66-7. A man who had previously been jailed for two years for lottery fraud won one of Romania's largest ever lottery payouts. A man who had previously been jailed for

Romania gets the better of a lineout during its rugby Test match with Japan in Bucharest, which it won 25-10.

two years for lottery fraud won one of Romania's largest ever lottery payouts.

Ukraine's Supreme Court ruled that a second run-off election should be held between Victor Yushenko, the former prime minister, and Victor Yanukovich, the opposition leader, and declared the results of the first election invalid. The United Nations confirmed plans to deploy 7,000 peacekeeping troops in Sudan's Darfur region, and condemned continuing violence between government-backed militias and the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army. Since March, an estimated 700,000 people have died as a result of the conflict and 1.5 million have been made homeless. US troops, backed by the Iraqi guard, retook the rebel stronghold of Fallujah after several weeks of urban combat. Over fifty US soldiers were killed and hundreds wounded in an operation aimed at bringing stability to the country ahead of elections in January. Although an American commander declared that the back of the insurgency had been broken, violence continued unabated throughout the Sunni heartland. Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, died in a Paris hospital, aged 75. His death brought about a flurry of diplomacy, and hope that the Palestinian-Israeli deadlock could be broken. Israeli PM Ariel Sharon pressed forward with plans for Israel to disengage from the Gaza Strip. More than 400 people died after floods and landslides left parts of the northern Philippines under water. An explosion in a coal mine in central China trapped 166 miners beneath the ground; several days later they were all confirmed to have died. A plane bound for Shanghai exploded in mid-air and crashed into a lake in Mongolia, killing all 53 people on board. The Swiss parliament voted unanimously to begin stem cell research on dead embryos. The Chilean government voted to pay lifelong pensions to 28,000 people who were tortured during the 1974-1990 military government of Augusto Pinochet. Iran, in a deal with Britain, France and Germany, suspended its uranium enrichment programme. President Musharaf of Pakistan said that he had no idea as to the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. The dollar continued its slide against other major world currencies, with the euro reaching record highs of $1.3450. Athur Hailey, the commercially successful author, died, aged 84. England's cricketers played four matches in Zimbabwe despite protests that such sporting contacts offered comfort to the autocratic regime of Robert Mugabe. Spain beat the United States 3-2 in Seville, to win the Davis Cup. Taiwanese soldiers are being urged to eat oranges after a higher than expected crop yield. Huge swarms of locusts invaded the Canary Islands after flying from parts of northwestern Africa. The British parliament banned fox hunting. Lifesavers training in waters off Whangarei, north of Auckland on New Zealand's north island, spoke of how they were menaced by a great white shark before a school of dolphins raced in, rounded them up and then swam in a tight defensive circle for 40 minutes to prevent an attack.