Former Romanian President to give evidence about 1989 revolution

The former Mayor of the Romanian city of Timisoara, where the anti-communist revolution began eight years ago this week, has narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.

The former mayor, Viorel Oancea, was a member of an commission investigating the army's role in the deaths of more than one-hundred demonstrators during the 1989 uprising.

He told the BBC that he had been stabbed by a well-armed man with a knife, who had not run away when discovered.

In the capital, Bucharest, the former President and current opposition leader, Ion Iliescu, has been summoned by a military prosecutor investigating the death of hundreds of people in December 1989.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service