Armed robbery at Timisoara betting office

A sports betting office in Timisoara was robbed yesterday by a young man who threatened one of the two female employees with a gun and then took off with RON 17,000, Timis Police Inspectorate spokesperson Emil Matei said, quoted by Mediafax. Both female workers at the betting office were locked in the bathroom by the assailant, who is still being sought by police. “Unfortunately, the only person who could have given information about the attack is the seller, but she suffered severe emotional trauma and was hospitalized. The victim was not assaulted by the thief and sustained no physical injuries,” Matei said.

Baccalaureate pass rate, 50 per cent lower compared to 2009

The graduation rate reported in Bucharest after the second session of the exam and before the filing of grade contestations stood at 40.97 per cent, in contrast to 82.7 per cent in 2009, Marian Banu, spokesperson of the Bucharest School...

Some fifty Roma gathered yesterday in front of the French Embassy in Bucharest, fuming against Paris expulsions policy. Most of the protesters were wearing T-shirts reading ‘rom pakivalo’ (respectable Roma, e.n.). Put together by Roma Civic Alliance the spontaneous protest came in reaction to the Immigration Summit held on Monday in Paris that was due to tackle the Roma issue as well. Chanting the already famous French Revolution lines, “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité!’ the Roma were yelling “Stop Sarkozy!” “Summit of Shame!” “Stop indentation!”

Some tens of Roma also put together a protest in Timisoara as well in front of the Prefect’s Office, raging against expulsion. ‘ Roma= Romanian= European’ or ‘EUR 300, the right to free pass’ were some of the messages written on their banners.

Leonard Bebi, the head of Parudimos Association claims the protest was attended by many of the people who were ‘tricked’ by the French State into leaving the country for a promised sum...

Repeat offender Daniel Uta, accused of hitting a police officer and leaving him in a coma in a pub in Targoviste, was detained on Monday for 24 hours, being accused of attempted murder, Mediafax informs. Uta was heard by prosecutors for over five hours. According to investigators, during the hearing he did not admit to having committed the crime. On Monday the prosecutors were expected to ask the Dambovita Court for a 29-day arrest warrant on Uta’s name. Uta, member of a crime group known in Targoviste as the ‘Ghenosu’ clan, was caught on Sunday evening in an apartment in Bucharest. According to police sources, before being transported to Targoviste, Uta was taken to Floreasca Hospital in Bucharest because he had consumed hallucinogenic plants. The young man was involved in a violent incident earlier this year too, being accused of hitting the daughter of the head of the police precinct in Pietrosita. The 19-year-old girl was taken to hospital after Uta, her ex-boyfriend, beat and...

The poor results in the first, eliminatory task of the National Institute of Magistracy (INM) admission competition stand for ‘a mordant failure’, Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu stated at the Council of Magistracy (CSM) meeting held yesterday. In his view, several explanations are possible: candidates had been very poorly trained, questions had been incorrectly conceived, the way in which the recruitment mechanism was used was wrong, the mechanism is faulty or all the above. ‘If we want to deal with the issue, besides the unlocking of vacancies which is quite predictable in the judiciary, we need to see if our HR policies and the way in which we recruit magistrates are correct’, the minister said according to Agerpres.

In plenary sitting, CSM decided with a majority of votes the number of candidates selected for the next stages of the competition would be the one resulting after the first exam and that, on Thursday, the Council would look into the opportunity of...

A total of 5,537 serious accidents were reported in the first eight months of the year, 12% less than in the first eight months of 2009 when the figure was 6,299, Romanian Police reported by press statement on Saturday. In addition, the number of fatalities also decreased by 17.59 per cent, from 1,666 in the first eight months of 2009 to 1,372 in the analysed period this year.

Unfortunately, last weekend was also full of bad road accidents with deaths and injuries. Sunday morning, a 20-year-old from the County of Dolj was killed and two people ended up in hospital after the vehicle they were in fell into the Jiu River Pass in a very dangerous area. ‘When we arrived there, the men had already been taken by the paramedics and the young woman was found dead in the back seat of the car. Nothing could be done for her’, said ISU Gorj spokesman Mihai Avramescu.

Another accident where people were killed and injured happened in Agigea, Constanta County, Saturday night. One...

A police officer is fighting for his life in Bucharest’s Floreasca Hospital. Underworld member Uta Daniel, the one who brutally assaulted the daughter of the head of the police precinct in Pietrosita commune, hit the police officer with a bottle on Saturday night. According to County Police representatives, police officer Codrut Oprea, who was off duty at the time, was taken to Floreasca Hospital in a state of severe coma. 21-year-old George Uta Daniel, also known as “The Dane,” fled from the crime scene, Mediafax informs. An alleged underworld member in Targoviste, Uta was involved in another violent incident this year back when he was accused of hitting the daughter of the head of the police precinct in Pietrosita. The police officer assaulted now was one of those involved in investigating that case and preliminary investigations show that this event could have been motivated by...

Tens of thousands protested across France on Saturday against a clampdown on immigrants, launching a week of action over policies on which President Nicolas Sarkozy has staked his political reputation. Demonstrators opposed to measures including repatriation of Roma to Eastern Europe waved flags and placards and chanted slogans including “Stop repression” and “No to Sarkozy’s inhumane policies.” Bands and drums made the atmosphere friendly rather than combative. Critics see expulsions of Roma gypsies as part of a drive by Sarkozy to revive his popularity before 2012 elections and divert attention from painful pension reforms and spending cuts. The president, who says security measures are needed to combat crime, faces a bigger test on Tuesday when workers hold a nationwide strike and protests over the pension reforms, which he says are essential to help cut the budget deficit. “This weekend’s demonstrations will be a first indicator of the country’s mood during this turbulent return...

Dr. Adrian Toma, the head of Giulesti Maternity Hospital’s intensive care ward where five newborn babies died in a fire, will be criminally prosecuted, being charged with negligence. “The evidence gathered until now have revealed that the defendant, as head of the newborns’ ward, erroneously managed the existing human resources and failed to take the necessary managerial measures in order to have two medical staff members within the newborns’ intensive care ward as stipulated by law, against the backdrop in which the number of newborns in the ward was constantly surpassing the allowed number,” a release from the prosecutor’s office points out. Five babies died and six were injured in a severe fire that gutted the Giulesti Maternity’s intensive care ward on August 16. Florentina Cirstea, the nurse that was not present in the ward when the fire started has been placed on 29-day remand. Vasile Dima, head of the hospital’s technical service is investigated at large. The maternity...

Despite the sudden cooling of the weather in the past days, owing to the intrusion of a cold air mass on Romanian soil, autumn hasn’t settled in to stay. Meteorologists announce the weather will get slightly warmer in the following days. “In September, October even, we may be in for warm spells,” meteorologist Elena Cordoneanu stated, quoted by Realitatea TV. “In this interval, temperatures shouldn’t rise above 28 degrees, as we’re barely reaching 24-25 degrees in the Southern half, and may rise up to 27 degrees in the Danube Plain,” the specialist added. The rest of the country, particularly the North and centre, will remain slightly colder, with the highest temperatures stopping around 20-21 degrees. Rains will also ebb progressively, and we may expect showers only in the North and centre. Next week the weather will continue to get warmer, but only slightly. “Temperatures will amount to about 25 degrees, mostly in the Southern half, on Saturday and Sunday, they may reach 25-27...

Three lawyers and one bank director involved in real-estate scams

Organised Crime and Terrorism Investigation Department (DIICOT) – Bucharest prosecutors have heard yesterday 45 persons picked up at the end of several searches conducted in Bucharest and suspected of running real-estate scams. Three members of the Bucharest Bar Association, a chief keeper of records within District 1’s Land Deeds Service, and a bank director are among those charged in this case. According to a DIICOT release, quoted by Mediafax, the members of the crime group have conned ten persons by selling them, with false paperwork, plots of land and buildings for sums ranging from EUR 100,000 to EUR 400,000. The damages are currently estimated at approximately EUR 1 M.

Violent Romanians in Italy

Two Romanians, aged 29 and 26, are charges with murdering a 77-year-old man in Italy. The two broke into the elderly man’s house in order to steal and stabbed the old man several...

By the Government’s Ordinance 18/ 2010, for the rectification of the 2010 state budget, the Minister of Health will be allotted RON 2,960 M for the National Healthcare Fund (FNUASS), the Ministry of Finance announced, in a press release. Hospitals were allotted RON 859,863,000, out of which they are expected to pay overdue loans, which haven’t been paid by June 30, 2010. The rest of the amount will cover the cost of drugs, with or without the patient’s contribution, medical services and medical equipment. At the end of August, the Ministry of Public Finance approved credit lines out of the FNUASS budget, amounting to RON 1 bln, in the first instalment, out of which RON 616.5 M will go to public healthcare units, with bed facilities, and RON 383.5 M to cover medication, with or without the patient’s contribution. In the following days, credits of another RON 947 M will be opened to cover debts for drugs, with or without the patient’s contribution, medical services and medical...

Starting September 14, retired airplane pilots, diplomats, MPs and court clerks, along with the staff at the Court of Audits and Parliament will see their pensions significantly reduced, up to levels 20 times lower than those they have received until now, after the recalculation process started by government. The Executive says special pensions being eliminated will create monthly savings of nearly 21 M RON to the state budget. According to data centralized so far by the National House of Pensions and other Social Insurance Rights (CNPAS), the biggest cut was operated to pilot pensions, down from RON 31,827 to 1,957, or from RON 1,928 to 1,839. The former employees at the Court of Audits, with pensions as high as RON 15,081, will now receive RON 2,193. Public servants working at Romania’s Parliament will have their pensions cut from RON 10,523 to 1,742, or from RON 1,466 to 1,397. Diplomats’ pensions will be reduced from RON 14,421 to 2,693, or from RON 12,361 to 2,515, yet, there are...

Cristian Olteanu, president of PNL’s District 5 branch, was beaten in the street on Wednesday evening. He is the father of the girl beaten by babysitter Lovinica Dinu. The latter was sentenced on Wednesday for assault. The man is hospitalised within Bucharest’s Emergency Hospital in a serious condition. “He is in a serious condition; he has three skull fractures and cerebral haemorrhage. He could remain hospitalised for longer and could even undergo surgery,” Dr. Bogdan Popescu, spokesperson of Bucharest’s Emergency Hospital, stated for Mediafax.

Cristian Olteanu’s party colleagues claim there are no clues that the assault was politically motivated. Police officers are searching for the perpetrators and have not ruled out the possibility that they might be connected to the babysitter that is displeased with having been sentenced for assault. The Bucharest Court sentenced the babysitter to paying a penal fine of RON 1,000 and RON 1,000 in moral damages. Her case was the first...

The number of victims that suffered injuries in the miners riot on June 13-15, 1990 amounts to more than 1,350 people, according to an indictment-report by the Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism and Memory of the Romanian Exile (IICCMER), based on the documents of the prosecution indictment, issued at the headquarters of the 21 December 1989 Association, yesterday, Agerpres informs. The concussions of the report also suggest that the youngest victim of the events was only nine years old and that 60 per cent of the victims were inflicted head injuries and that there were four cases of young people who committed suicide following the ill treatments and rapes they suffered while on illegal detention. The president of the 21 December 1989 Association, Teodor Maries, accused the General Prosecutor’s Office of purposefully making no obvious progress in the investigator of the revolution and miners riots cases and said he would see President Traian Basescu on Friday,...

Turkish ship sinks near Constanta

A Turkish flag ship loaded with scrap iron sank near the Port of Constanta yesterday, Mediafax reports. Wednesday morning at about 4:30, the ship started to lurch. Two other vessels were sent to the area to rescue the ship, but failed. The 17 sailors onboard were rescued. No one knows for sure what caused the distress, but two options are being considered: adverse weather conditions or the wrong loading of the vessel. The port authorities opened an investigation to determine the cause of the shipwreck.

First autumn day brings first snow in the Retezat Mountain

The first autumn day of the year has also brought along the first snowfall of the season. It snowed in the Retezat Mountain (Hunedoara County) on Wednesday, with air temperatures dropping massively below what it is considered as normal for this time of the year, Agerpres informs. “The coat of snow was 7 to 10 cm thick at 2,000 metre altitude. But this...

During talks with European Commissioners Viviane Reding (Justice and Fundamental Rights) and Cecilia Malmstrom (Internal Affairs) in Brussels on Tuesday, French ministers defended their controversial crackdown on the Roma minority, insisting that repatriations fully comply with European law.

France has been facing mounting criticism for its decision to demolish illegal nomad camps and repatriate Roma to their countries of origin, mostly Romania and Bulgaria, with left-wing opposition, international human rights groups, EU officials and the UN human rights body voicing concern about the measures.

“I explained the principles on which we acted,” said French Immigration Minister Eric Besson in Brussels after meeting Reding and Malmstrom. “Everything is in total conformity with European law, the 2004 [freedom of movement EU] directive, French law and the republican principles of France,” he said, quoted by ‘The Guardian.’ He added that no collective expulsions were...

Having assembled the fossilised skeleton of what they believed to be a velociraptor, scientists were surprised to discover in Romania a new species of carnivore dinosaur that lived in Europe 70-80 million years ago, according to a study published Monday, cited by AFP. This biped dinosaur dubbed the ‘Balaurul bondoc’ (stocky dragon) was ‘stocky built’ and had a pair of claws attached to its rear limbs, with which it caught the prey. The animal was 1.80 to 2.10 metre-long, including the tail. “The dinosaur is a new species of predator dinosaur different from what we knew,” Stephen Brusatte, a researcher at the University of Colombia, said. “The dragon could have been one of the largest predators in the European ecosystem at the time, given palaeontologists discovered not a single large dinosaur tooth in over one century of research,” Zoltan Csiki of the University of Bucharest, who co-authored the study, said in his turn. “The fossilised remains of the dragon have been known for more...

Romanian researchers discovered a type of cells which, together with stem cells, may encourage the regeneration of the heart muscle, after an infarction, Mediafax reports. Specialists at the Victor Babes Institute found serendipitously, while studying cells in the intestine, tiny cells which contribute to organ regeneration.

According to Laurentiu Popescu, the head of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the “telocite” cells were discovered by Romanian scientists, and their existence was confirmed by independent teams in Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and China. Alongside stem cells, telocites may contribute to the regeneration of vital organs, such as the heart and brain. “If we manage to isolate them, to multiply them together with the stem cells, we may use them efficiently in treating myocardial infarct,” Popescu added.

Telocites are small bodied cells, but with extremely long extensions (akin to the neuronal extensions), present in most body organs. They have...

Despite international criticism over its crackdown on Roma minorities, France will move ahead with repatriations and demolition of illegal nomad camps, with Immigration Minister Eric Besson pledging on Monday to increase expulsions of foreign thieves and beggars, according to Mediafax.

In a joint press conference with Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux and Secretary of State for European Affairs Pierre Lellouche, Besson said French authorities had no intention of rowing back on the crackdown, which has provoked concern from the UN, the EU and many leading figures of French society.

Besson’s comments came just hours after the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe joined the global outcry and denounced the Roma expulsions. But despite criticism, France insists that repatriations are fully in line with EU legislation and that the action is the result of keeping to the law – that the EU’s freedom of movement should not be abused, that the “insalubrities”...

Two people were killed after being infected with the West Nile virus from mosquito bites, from a total of seven cases of infection confirmed in Romania so far, Health Minister Cseke Atilla told a press conference on Monday, quoted by Agerpres. Three more cases are awaiting confirmation, he said. The two people who died from the virus came from Bucharest and Constanta, were both elderly people. The deaths were reported on August 19 and 22 and were caused by health complications, given the patients’ advanced age and the fact they were suffering from other health problems as well, the minister explained.

“The Health Ministry demanded stepped up actions to prevent the spread of the virus,” Cseke also said. He added that from the total number of infection cases, a small portion, about 15 per cent, risk developing meningitis, which is the most severe effect of West Nile, while the death risk is of one per cent. Health Ministry officials say children and elderly people are most...