If you were Vlad the Impaler (more commonly known as Dracula) of 15th century Romania, you took revenge on people by simply impaling your victims by forcing them to sit on a sharp and thick pole. The pole was then raised upright and the victim was left to slide further down the pole by his or her own weight.
Often, the pole would emerge through the sternum so that its tip could be placed under the chin to prevent further sliding. It could take the victim three days to die. Vlad did this to between 20,000 and 300,000. It is said he enjoyed having a meal while watching impalements.
A Romanian pensioner has filed for divorce after 50 years because she is fed up with her husband spending their entire pension on stray dogs.
Eliza Barbu, 70, from Focsani, said her husband Mircea had begun giving scraps of food a few years ago to a pair of stray dogs, but he then started feeding a pack of more than 20 strays three times a day, leaving no food for them.
She said she couldn’t accept the fact that we are starving every week while he would use his entire pension to feed the dogs that gather around their house. More and more dogs come every week.
Romanian cities have had a huge problem with packs of feral dogs ever since the country's animal loving dictator Nicolae Ceausescu refused to allow the killing of strays.
Clepotra was born October 6, 2002 in Chisinau, Moldova and is the daughter of Moldovan-Romanian singer, Pavel Stratan. She is the youngest person ever to score commercial success as a singer, with her 2006 album La vârsta de trei ani ("At the age of 3"). She holds the record for being the youngest artist that performed live for two hours in front of a large audience, the highest paid young artist, the youngest artist to receive an MTV award and the youngest artist to score a #1 hit in a country ("Ghita"
in Romanian Singles Chart).
Steaua Bucharest are in the Hungarian capital to play the second leg of a Europa League qualification match against the Budapest team Ujpest Thursday. The Romanian side won the first leg 2-0 in Bucharest last week.
An unknown caller phoned the emergency services from a provincial number at around midnight on Wednesday, claiming to have planted a bomb in the city centre hotel, the police said.
MOTHERWELL will face a trip to former European Cup winners Steaua Bucharest if they can overcome Flamurtari next week.
Jim Gannon's side went down 1-0 to the Albanians in Tirana last night.
But today's Europa League third qualifying round draw handed the Steelmen the chance of a crack at the Eastern European giants.
MORTON are to play Romanian champions Inirea Urziceni at Cappielow on Monday night.
And the good news for fans is that everyone will pay a flat rate charge of only £5 — the exception being under-16s who will get in for nothing.
The Romanian champions, managed by Dan Petrescu, have recenty added Dutch midfielder Edgar Davids to their squad and will provide Morton with a tough test.
The Romanians have pledged to play their strongest team.
Inirea have spent many years in the shadows of the teams from Bucharest and the signing of Edgar Davids shows they have intentions of staying at the summit of the Romanian Liga 1.
Popescu's admission comes just three days after he denied the allegations, calling a newspaper report that he had been a Securitate informant "a big lie."
However, he has now admitted he wrote four notes informing on teammates and other colleagues while he was playing at Universitatea Craiova.
The defender was part of a Romanian team that qualified for three consecutive World Cups starting in 1990 and for two European Championships. He also helped Barcelona win the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1997.
When the allegations surfaced on Monday, the 41-year-old Popescu said he had only signed a document in 1985 promising to "defend the national interests" during the regime of the late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
However, he has now defended his actions under communism.
"Even if I wrote notes, I wrote good things," he said. "I praised (those) people."
During Ceausescu's rule, the Securitate relied on an army of 700,000 informants in a country of 22 million to keep tabs on the population. The regime's security services kept tabs on Romania's athletes, and some players involved in international competitions were reportedly asked to share details of their conversations with foreigners.
Romania's star football player Gheorghe Hagi, who is related to Popescu through marriage, came to his defence, saying sports had brought glory to Romania in the communist era.
"We (sportsmen) were the ambassadors for Romania. They should look elsewhere" for Securitate agents, he said.
Hagi denied that he himself had been an informant, instead accusing Steaua football club owner Gigi Becali of working for the Securitate.
Becali vigorously denied the accusations. "If It is proved I was an informer, I will hang myself," he said in a televised interview. Becali is a member of the European Parliament for the far right Greater Romania Party.
Daily newspaper Adevarul reported Monday that Popescu had been an informant from 1986 until the regime was toppled three years later.
A road rage driver bit a pedestrian in Romania because he took too long to cross the road.
Mihai Nicoara, 36, told police the furious motorist leapt from his car and sunk his teeth into his belly at a crossing in Iasi.
"He just shouted at me and then grabbed me by the belly with his teeth. He tore my shirt and I have a pretty nasty wound now," he said.
Police say driver Radu Becali is now being charged with assault for the attack.
But Nicoara has vowed to hurry up crossing roads in the future.
"I didn't ever think I was slow at crossing the road. But drivers often beep their horns at me and I just thought they were being friendly," he said.
"Now I'll make sure I never dawdle again," he added.
So next time your dawdling about when crossing the road, let's just hope the drivers who are waiting are not Romanian.
The ‘Nadia Comaneci’ Clinic was opened within the ‘Sfantul Spiridon Vechi’ medical and social establishment on Wednesday 8th Jul 2009, in the presence of the former Romanian gymnast and her family. Also present was Ilie Nastase, the Speakers of the two chambers of the Romanian Parliament, Mircea Geoana and Roberta Anastase and representatives of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
‘The idea of this establishment came after a TV programme stating that the clergy was not committed to social welfare. At that time, I consulted with Patriarch Teoctist and commenced the project of the ‘Sfantul Spiridon’ establishment, for which we borrowed the name from the church, and I was so very happy to receive of the support of major personalities like Nadia Comaneci who has been with this project since the beginning’, stated the priest of the ‘Sfantul Spiridon Vechi’ Church, Ioan Iordache.
Nadia Comaneci said she had accepted the idea of Father Iordache because it sounded special to her. ‘I felt honoured to be invited to take part in this project and now I am enchanted to see that our ideas have come to life and I would like to share my joy with all my friends whom I invite to continue supporting this wonderful establishment where people in need will receive actual assistance’, Comaneci said.
Grammy-winning Jamaican artist Shaggy will return to Romania in order to perform a concert tonight in a club in Bucharest.
The singer had a previous Romanian concert last August, on a beach in Mamaia.
The show in Bucharest will take place at the Turabo Society Club, and the price of a ticket is RON 50. (£10 or $15).
Shaggy was an international Ambassador for the reggae movement from the very beginning, and the only living Jamaican Artist to win a Diamond Record.
He appeared on the music market at the beginning of the 90s, with a remix of the ska song “Oh, Carolina” – his first underground dancehall reggae recording that instantly topped the charts.
After he launched the internationally successful album “Boombastic,” Shaggy was granted a Grammy Award at the “Best Reggae Album” Category.
The year 2000 brought the launch of the album “Hotshot,” which became the best-sold album of the year 2001. It was also sold in 13 million copies worldwide, and had two chart-breaking singles: “It Wasn’t Me” and “Angel.”
In 2002, Shaggy released the album “Lucky Day,” followed a year later by “Friends Reunited: The 90s.”
The year 2005 brought the launch of “Clothes Drop,” hitting the charts with singles such as “Wild2Nite” and “Ready Fi Di Ride.”
Up to this moment, Shaggy sold over 20 million copies of his albums, but the artist is not content, knowing that the only delight of records is surpassing them. 2007 brought the launch of his recording “Bonafide Girl,” followed by “Intoxication.”
Cars in Bucharest have a rough ride - persecuted by dirt from building sites, exhaust fumes, mud in the winter and dust in the summer - not to mention stray dogs marking their ownership of every bumper in a less than dignified fashion.
A clean-up is a regular necessity. But risking the traffic to drive to the car wash can take hours out of a busy person's schedule. Here ex-journalist Raluca Nicoara realised a space in the market in which to manoeuvre - a mobile car-cleaning service. A driver can stay inside their home or workplace, call up Nicoara's new business, Blink Wash, and a team of two will arrive at the door, clean the car's outside in a chemical solution, wipe the windscreens, mirrors and the dashboards, vacuum the carpets, then perfume and wax the car.
Not only convenient, Blink Wash also displays green credentials. The business uses a Brazilian system of car-washing discovered by Nicoara from the Internet - a plastic three-wheel trolley filled with biodegradable cleaning products, which is self-sufficient in energy and water. While a typical car wash uses around 100 litres of water per vehicle, Blink Wash has reduced this to five. Nicoara employs young men living in hostels or children's homes, such as Bucharest's Sfantul Petru si Pavel orphanage.
Angered by the number of youngsters without families who are exploited by local employers, she offers a fair deal to her staff - they receive a decent salary, plus food tickets, a mobile phone, on-the-job training and she is also looking to give them private medical insurance. "I want a big family business." says Nicoara, "and to coach new employees to take on future managerial roles."
Services which are simple, eco-friendly and with a social conscience often factor in these moral benefits at a higher price, but Blink Wash can clean-up the car's interior, exterior and throw in a wax for a highly competitive eight Euro. So is Nicoara making money? "We're already looking to expand," she says.
Elena Bianca Constantin smiles after she was crowned Miss Universe Romania in Bucharest June 27, 2009. Constantin, 20, will represent Romania at the Miss Universe beauty pageant due to be held in Paradise Island, Bahamas, on August 23, 2009.
After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Ploieşti has experienced rapid economic growth due to major investments from foreign companies.
The city is situated just 60 km north from Bucharest, with promising infrastructure and many development projects currently underway.
Ploieşti is a strong industrial center, focused especially on the oil production and refining industry. Although oil production in the region is declining steadily, there is still a thriving processing industry through four operating oil refineries, linked by pipelines to Bucharest, the Black Sea port of Constanţa and the Danube port of Giurgiu.
Ploieşti is also a textile manufacturing center.
Ploiesti concentrates many foreign investments: OMV-Petrom, Lukoil, Shell Gas, Timken, Yazaki, Coca Cola, Efes Pilsener, British American Tobacco, Interbrew. Many retailers like Carrefour, Metro, Selgros, Kaufland, Billa, Bricostore, Praktiker, Intermarche, Profi, Mega Image found in Ploieşti a continuously growing market.
In Ploieşti can also be found two McDonald's restaurants, and only one KFC restaurant opened in 2006. The German retailer Tengelmann expects to have some 30 stores this year and has set itself a target of 120 stores by 2010, investing €200 million. To facilitate its growth, Tengelmann built a depot in Ploieşti.
With its Interex operation, the French independent retailer Intermarché intends to become a distribution leader in the Balkans. In Romania the first Interex store was opened in June 2002 in the city of Ploieşti.
Unilever has a detergent plant in Ploieşti. By transferring their food production to Ploieşti, the company will concentrate their full activity in Romania to the same location. At the beginning of March 2006, Unilever announced they would invest EUR 3 million to build one production center in Romania, and the construction of the new food plant is part of this plan.
