Bucharest

President Traian Basescu pointed that his term in office ends on December 21; he announced that afterwards he will join the People's Movement Party (PMP).

The WKC Romanian Karate Federation got the first place among the federations participating in the World Union of Karate-Do Federations (WUKF) World Championships for children, cadets and juniors in Szczecin, Poland. Romanians won 23 gold, 22 silver and 40 bronze medals at the competition that ended on Sunday.

President Traian Basescu said on Wednesday he has never asked for a list of the undercover officers and insisted former Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE) chief Teodor Melescanu is lying in this respect.

Great singer Corina Chiriac, one of the grand ladies of Romanian pop singing, gladly remembers a still sweet Bucharest in her childhood where men would wear felt top hats and greet the ladies, who would still wear muffs, with ''sărut mâna!'' [kiss your hand!].

Singer Mirabela Dauer said in an interview with AGERPRES that Bucharest has lost some of the romantic charm of its past, and the only romantic location still in place in Bucharest is the Old City Centre. "Bucharest is gorgeous, but it's no longer as romantic as it used to be," she said.

In an interview to AGERPRES under 'MY CITY, BUCHAREST' project, painter Zamfir Dumitrescu says that if possible, he would rather choose to live in the yesteryear's Bucharest because of the somehow romantic atmosphere of those times.

[ View the story "Orașul meu, București" on Storify]

In an interview to AGERPRES, author Florin Iaru says that Bucharest is his motherland and that he feels at home in the city.

The inauguration of the Gabroveni Inn opens up, on Thursday, the series of events dedicated to celebrating 555 years since the first documented mention of Bucharest.

'Proconsul' band frontman Bogdan 'Bodo' Marin said in an interview with AGERPRES, given as part of the 'MY CITY BUCHAREST' project, that he is dependent on this city 'because his roots are firmly anchored' here.

In an interview with AGERPRES for the 'MY CITY, BUCHAREST' project, actor Vlad Radescu says that he loves the city and feels attached to these places. 'I belong to Bucharest and Bucharest belongs to me, I see it as being mine,' says Vlad Radescu.