Nokia Romania, 500m-euro turnover in two years

Finland’s Nokia, world’s biggest mobile phone producer, with annual sales of above 50bn euros, has quietly reached half a billion euro turnover in Romania, becoming thus one of Romania’s 40 largest companies, ahead of companies such as E.ON, Posta Romana (Romanian Post Office) or Holcim. The company’s turnover climbed from 6.6m euros in 2007 to 455.6m euros in 2008 after the opening, in February 2008, of a mobile phone plant in Jucu commune of Cluj county, in the wake of investments worth 60m euros.

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Romanian opposition says president hit boy in face

Romania’s government has collapsed and its economy is in shambles but its presidential campaign has been dominated in recent days by a video that appears to show the president striking a 10-year-old boy in the face. The 18-second film shot in 2004 shows Traian Basescu, then Bucharest mayor, crouching at the edge of a stage at a campaign rally and talking to a visibly upset woman in the crowd. He reaches for her hand while looking away. Ten-year-old Bogdan Istratoiu reaches up and puts his hand in the president’s.

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