Romania Goes on Austerity Diet

Romania raised the retirement age for men and women and plans health care and welfare cuts as part of a package of measures aimed at lowering public spending, local media reported Thursday.......

Romania's parliament on Wednesday passed changes to the pension law, setting the retirement age for both sexes at 65, an increase of 18 months for men and 5.5 years for women......

Among austerity measures it agreed upon in talks with the IMF, the government promised to lay off more than 70,000 public servants in 2009 and 2010.
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Basescu beats Communists in Romania

Incumbent President Traian Basescu was headed for victory in a tight presidential runoff in Romania, election authorities said Monday, in a race Romanians hope will pull the country out of its worst political and economic crisis in 20 years. With 99.13 percent of the vote counted, election authorities said centrist Basescu polled 50.37 percent of the vote, while former foreign minister Mircea Geoana received 49.62 percent.......

Basescu argues that he will modernize and reform Romania, saying much of the economy is under the control of corrupt oligarchs and media moguls with whom he links Geoana, a charge that has resonated with voters amid Romania's economic woes.

Geoana, 51, who served as Romania's ambassador to the U.S. and then as foreign minister, heads the Social Democratic Party, the successor to the Communist Party