What the newspapers say: April 12, 2011

The two Democratic Liberal candidates for the highest position in the party announced their decision to run, presenting their platforms. However, a third candidate can decide the results of the internal struggle. Elsewhere in the news, one newspaper reads about the Romanian inventors who won the golden medals at the Geneva inventions expo and their inventions. Another Romanian was awarded in the US for a solution that might save the Earth from the danger of asteroids. Last but not least, the Bucharest International Film Festival starts tonight.

All newspapers today read about the declared intentions of two main candidates and a third quoted with few chances to win the presidency of the Democratic Liberal Party. Evenimentul Zilei quotes Boc saying that he knows what to do to keep the party in the government in 2012 local and Parliamentary elections.

He urges PDL members to give him another shot blaming on bad luck that the party reached the government in times of crisis. On the other hand, his main counter candidates, Vasile Blaga says PDL needs to break the rhythm and have a new approach so that the party can win elections in 2012.

Even though most newspapers read that the third candidate, Theodor Paleologu, former Culture minister, has no chance whatsoever, Romania libera reads that he can influence the second round of elections in the party if neither Blaga nor Boc win from the first round.

Paleologu is counting on those who are dissatisfied with both platforms presented by the two main candidates and said he will start his campaign across the country. Paleologu says he decided to run to exercise the internal democracy principles and have a debate of ideas within the party.

Even Paleologu admits that he does not stand a chance to win elections but his influence might be considerable if the president is not elected from the first round.

Gandul presents some of the Romanian inventors awarded with the highest distinctions at the Geneva inventions expo. Romanians Raluca Ioana van Staden and Jacobus Frederick van Staden obtained the golden medal for an invention that might cut the price of drugs based on Ibuprofen or Ketoprofen.

They declared that they have offers from around the globe for the prototype but that they do not plan to sell the idea, but keep it in Romania. Another inventor, Elena David created a technology that can obtain 99.95% pure hydrogen. She told the newspaper that there were many companies interested in her invention especially Austrian ones.

Elena David owns 12 invention patents. In the same vein, Gandul reads about another Romanian awarded in the US for an idea that could save Earth from an impact with asteroids. Romanian researcher Virgiliu Pop from the Romanian Space Agency obtained the first prize at the international symposium for reducing the impact and exploiting asteroids.

Pop claims that a possible solution to avoid an impact would be to involve private companies that should be allowed to exploit the wealth of the space (minerals) and will be able to categorize asteroids way better than any governmental institution and will decrease, through exploitation the danger of a collision.

Romania libera notes that the Bucharest International Film Festival kicks off tonight, marked by the presence of director Danis Tanovici, who will open the festival with his recent movie, Cirkus Columbia, launched in Sarajevo.