Romania will be involved in the second phase of the US anti-missile shield, which means it will host only land interceptors – SM-3 block 1B missiles, due to become operational as of 2015, Foreign Ministry explained yesterday. Romania’s participation to the project implies only the installation of land interceptors, not radars, which will be hosted by other countries, according to the same source. The clarifications offered by the ministry come amid heated debates over Romania’s acceptance to host elements of the US administration’s revamped missile shield system in Europe. The decision was abruptly announced by President Traian Basescu last Thursday and has already been green lighted by the country’s Supreme Defence Council. Several politicians and parts of the media slammed the decision as hasty and raised questions about what the country’s participation in the project means and how much it will cost.

As a matter of fact, the foreign...

Weather services issued yesterday afternoon a yellow code warning to local authorities from Bucharest and the counties located in the southern half of Romania: Caras Severin, Mehedinti, Olt, Gorj, Dolj, Valcea, Arges, Teleorman, Dambovita, Prahova, Giurgiu, Ilfov, Ialomita, Calarasi, Constanta, Tulcea, Braila, Buzau, Vrancea, Bacau, Covasna, Sibiu and Brasov. According to the weather forecast, precipitations will go from 20 liters per square meter in Oltenia, Muntenia and southern Moldavia up to 40 liters in the Banat Mountains and Southern Carpathians. “Precipitations will first come as snow, then - during Wednesday night and Thursday morning - they will turn into sleet and rain, especially at plain and in the hills,” the National Weather Administration (ANM) announced. The weather service also warned against the presence of ice on roads.

According to the Director of the National Meteorology Administration (ANM), Ion Sandu, difficult weather conditions will...

The National Anticorruption Department (DNA) yesterday asked the High Court Prosecutor’s Office to extend a criminal probe against former minister of youth and sports Monica Iacob Ridzi. The request will be sent from Prosecutor General Laura Codruta Kovesi to the Chamber of Deputies, which has to give its approval.

It is not yet known whether the new charges relate to the same case in which the former minister is already probed for embezzlement and abuse of position or in a totally different case. According to parts of the media, the charges refer to a new case and also involve several former officials in Ridzi’s ministry, most of them members of the ruling Democrat Liberal Party, like herself.

Ridzi’s lawyer told Agerpres news agency however that no new charges were levelled against his client. Lawyer Alexandru Chiciu underlined that DNA did not extend older charges against the former minister either.

But legal sources quoted by the news...

Following a 226 to 3 vote in the Chamber of Deputies, the MP’s initiative to ban the sale and use of light drugs and ethnobotanicals has turned into law. According to it, the use and sale of hallucinogen and ethno-botanical substances will be punished with prison time from 6 months to 3 years.

The law also stipulates a list of such products, which is to be brought up-to-date by a Health Ministry commission in eight weeks since enforcement.

The Deputy Chamber vote today comes as a result of a draft launched one year ago by independent MP Tudor Ciuhodaru and a group of MPs assuming the draft law. In his turn, state secretary Valentin Iliescu says the MP initiative coincides with a Government emergency norm to be approved in special meeting today. The Government has formally asked the EU in various circumstances for an opinion on the matter and waited for an answer that never came, thus deciding to proceed with an emergency draft law.

Controversies over...

The family of late Toni Tecuceanu, an actor diagnosed with the AH1N1 flu, got in possession of his medical file, according to which, the late actor contracted while in hospital the acinetobacter, a bacteria with a propensity for watery environments, often found in operating room ventilation systems at Intensive Care Units.

According to the Cancan tabloid newspaper, Paul Tecuceanu, brother of the late actor, managed to take hold of his brother’s medical file 31 days after his death. The file mentions the patient contracted the acinetobacter bacteria, and his brother now wants those at the hospital to pay for their deed. ‘I will see a lawyer. Then, I’ll know whether or not to go further,’ Paul Tecuceanu told Cancan.

Originally, the family’s request to receive Toni Tecuceanu’s medical file was denied. Doctor and Health State Secretary Adrian Streinu Cercel said at the time the file could not be handed to the actor’s family,...

Over 90 per cent of the Romanian adolescents use the internet to socialise and 14 per cent talk to unknown people – shows a survey on the internet use by children and adults in Romania, conducted by ‘Save the Children’ and presented on the Safer Internet Day, yesterday. The survey done in partnership with the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work of the Bucharest University was carried out between September and December 2009 on a sample group of 723 children, 400 adolescents, 234 parents and 316 teachers in seven counties. The findings suggest that a majority of adolescents use the internet to socialise (91 per cent) and to download music and other materials (82 per cent). Eighteen per cent of the adolescents say they send to other people private information over the internet and 14 per cent that they engage in conversations with strangers. ‘The first internet-associated risk identified by teenagers is pornography (93 per cent)’.

In what regards...

A ‘virtual cube’ that can be used for treating phobias such as the fear of heights, of talking in public or of traveling by plane, for research on space flight and for military applications has been inaugurated at the Faculty of Psychology within the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj. Psychologist Daniel David, the project’s coordinator, has stated for Mediafax that this was a double inauguration, namely that of an Avalon platform (Advanced Virtual Applications Laboratories of Naocensis – editor’s note) and of a Platform of Robotic Therapy and Psychotherapy through Virtual Reality (the ‘virtual cube’ dubbed Matrix). The ‘virtual cube’ had a cost of EUR 1 M, while the Avalon platform had a cost of EUR 2 M. David explained that the best description of the way in which the cube works would be to compare it to the movie ‘Avatar.’ The ‘virtual cube’ has four walls on which 3D images are screened, with the software...

Justice minister Catalin Predoiu declared yesterday at Targu Mures that he is not very optimistic about the intermediary report on Justice of the European Commission because certain measures have stagnated on the background of the “political turmoil.” “The latest report from June registered a range of progresses, we await another report in February. I am not very optimistic about it, since a range of measures have stagnated in the last six months especially because of, let’s say, the political turmoil of the institutional, constitutional difficulties, and we are lagging behind with certain reforms, such as the completion of this project of adoption of the Procedure Codes, a series of issues connected with the human resources from the judicial sector, and so on,” Predoiu said at a meeting with the students from the Faculty of Law of “Petru Maior” University.” “Which are our difficulties? A range of measures that we planned could not...

The Metropolitan Archbishop Ioan Robu and Auxiliary Bishop Cornel Damian were received on Monday in audience by the Sovereign Pontiff Pope Benedict XVI, on which occasion the latter voiced his concern about the present situation of St. Joseph Cathedral. According to a press release of the Roman-Catholic Archbishopric from Bucharest, remitted to Agerpres, Metropolitan Archbishop Ioan Robu and Auxiliary Bishop Cornel Damian, together with other Catholic bishops from Romania went to Rome on the occasion of the visit “ad limina Apostolorum” (February 8-13). The visit to the Apostles tomb is the periodical visit that the Catholic bishops from the whole world pay to the tombs of the Saint Apostles Peter and Paul, “pillars” of the Church. The Sovereign Pontiff inquired about the situation of the Catholics from the archdiocese, of the clergy and of the consecrated persons (monks and nuns), the relations with the majority Church and the other religious denominations...

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...

Over 2,200 children under one year old died in Romania in 2009

Over 2,000 children under one year old died in Romania last year, when the registered mortality rate was concerning. The head of Elias Hospital Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Prof. Dr. Radu Vladareanu, told a press conference yesterday that a total of 2,230 children under 1 year of age had died in Romania in 2009, accounting for a concerning mortality rate of 10.1 per cent, the highest in Europe. The hospital official noted that 30 per cent of the infants under one year old had died from pneumonia and viral respiratory infections, an unacceptable situation in any other civilised country. According to the doctor, another cause of newborn death is represented by congenital malformations.

Almost 200 foreigners in Romanian prisons

Almost 200 foreign citizens - 42 from Turkey, 27 from R. Moldova and 19 from Bulgaria – are serving time in Romanian prisons, according to...

Meteorologists issued a rain watch which comes in force today in 30 counties, between 2:00 and 20:00. In the aforementioned interval, rain will fall in Banat, Crisana, Maramures, Transylvania, Moldavia and in all mountain areas, and the quantity of water may surpass, on wider areas, 20-25 l/sq m, and, on patches, 40-50 l/ sq m. There will be showers, possibly in torrents, complete with lighting and hail. Wind speed will intensify in all regions, particularly in the mountains. These phenomena will appear more frequently in Western and central regions, for now, and, tomorrow, will move eastwards. In other regions, such phenomena will cover a more limited ground. Later yesterday, hydrologists also issued a flood watch valid for today, between 4 a.m. and midnight, in 12 counties, mostly in the centre and eastern part of the country, according to Realitatea TV....

The Coalition of Chronic Patients’ Organisations (COPAC) accused the National Health Insurance House (CNAS) of recently modifying the price of medicine that they benefited from free of charge and demanded that the change be reverted because it was not previously discussed with patients, Mediafax reported.

CNAS rejects such a possibility, saying that the change is aimed at helping provide wider coverage for free-of-charge treatment.

The row began when CNAS earlier this year published a new list of compensated medicine, which provides that only the costs of cheaper medicine will be partially or totally supported by the health insurance house. As of tomorrow, an additional list of medicine only for chronic patients will come in effect, but working on the same principle – only cheaper drugs will be 100 per cent covered by the CNAS. This gave birth to fears among patients that they would no longer benefit from free treatment. However, CNAS president Lucian Duta insists...

The Civic Alliance of Roma in Romania yesterday launched a call for a wide-scale protest against a summit on immigration issues that Paris is planning to host next Monday. According to a press release sent to Agerpres, the protest would be organised simultaneously in several locations, on September 6, starting from 11:30 a.m.

The protest is initiated and supported by the Civic Alliance of Roma and by Roma community leaders in several Romanian counties. “This infamous summit is directed against Roma everywhere. This summit proposes stigmatising the entire Roma people. We are protesting against the French government’s ethnic cleansing policy against Romanian and Bulgarian citizens of Roma origin, against mass expulsions and repressive measures against this entire ethnic group,” the release reads. The Alliance also called for a boycott of all French products and services, so that French leaders are reminded of the fact “fundamental rights are non-negotiable.”

Recently,...

The Bucharest Court decided, yesterday, that the nurse Florentina Cirstea, charged with manslaughter and causing severe injuries, should remain in custody until the 29 days’ preventive arrest warrant expires. The court debated the nurse’s contestation of the Bucharest Sector 6 Court’s preventive arrest decision in the case of the maternity fire. The nurse, who was to keep watch of the infants on the night of August 16, when the fire started at the intensive care ward at the Giulesti Maternity Hospital, was arrested on August 24 for 29 days. Her lawyer petitioned the court yesterday to allow her investigation out of custody, on the grounds that she couldn’t possibly foresee, as a medical cadre, the occurrence of a fire or of any other unexpected event. At the same time, the lawyer stated that, according to the nurse’s job description, there was no obligation for her to remain, at all times, in the ward. According to the latter, the nurse was under the obligation to keep an eye on...

EUR 6.2 M lottery prize won in Iasi

The EUR 6.2 M top lottery prize was won on Sunday. According to the Romanian Lottery, the lucky ticket was played in Iasi and had a cost of RON 20.5. The ticket consisted of three simple variants and a special draw variant. According to the aforementioned source, the ticket had a cost of RON 20.5. This was the largest prize won this year. The winning numbers were 28, 21, 12, 7, 23 and 11. The top prize was previously won on March 7 and stood at EUR 1.7 M. The largest prize in the Romanian lottery’s history was won on January 27, 2008 and stood at approximately RON 47 M.

Has Dan Diaconescu’s party reached 20 pc?

In a blogary.ro blog post, presidential adviser Sebastain Lazaroiu says he got his hands on a poll indicating some spectacular changes since the spring surveys. “A very recent opinion poll (I am not going to disclose the name of the pollster, if they want to publish the results of the poll they can...

Former Cluj Prefect Calin Platon was detained for 24 hours after being heard by the traffic police yesterday in relation to a car accident he caused, killing a three-month baby and severely injuring his mother. Platon was to be taken to before a court with the proposal to be remanded, on charges of manslaughter, Realitatea.net reported.

After being interviewed by police for more than two hours and a half, he was taken to the Cluj Judge Hall Prosecutor’s Office to be heard by prosecutors as well, Mediafax said.

On his way to the Prosecutor’s Office, Platon told reporters that he deeply regretted “this terrible tragedy and I will answer in front of the law.” He also said that when the accident occurred, he was “blinded by sunlight” and saw the two victims on the pedestrian crossing in front of him when it was too late to hit the brakes. Platon added that he wasn’t speeding at the time.

A spokesperson for the Cluj County Police, Gina Pop, told Mediafax that...

Just one day after the hottest day of the year, autumn is here. Across the nation, yesterday, the tropical air was replaced by a wave of polar air. While meteorologists announce that heat wave temperatures will go down by up to 12C, doctors draw attention such sudden temperature variations are likely to create medical problems, Realitatea TV reports.

Saturday, mercury rose to 39C at Calafat and Bechet, the highest temperature this year. Saturday night however was a different affair, as a cold air front crossed the country, with temperatures going down by 10-12C. That resulted in a sudden drop in temperature in areas struck by heat wave Saturday. “On Sunday, the significant drop in temperature will be felt across the areas where the heat wave hit on Saturday. For example, those places where temperatures registered 38C will now see temperatures as low as 28C,” duty meteorologist Oana Paduraru told Realitatea.net. The cold air front brings with it precipitations and gusty wind,...

Bucharest General Mayor Sorin Oprescu stated on Saturday that, if the assets of the Giulesti Maternity Hospital are placed under sequestration, this would block the activity of the unit. Oprescu voiced hope that the court would reach a “balanced” decision, arguing that sequestration would be excessive, but that, “in the end, it’s up to the judges.” According to Oprescu, there are no hospital assets in the absence of which activity may continue undisturbed. The mayor’s statements come in response to a statement made by Chief Prosecutor Marius Iacob, the coordinator of the investigation in the Giulesti Maternity Hospital fire, arguing that prosecutors are considering precautionary measures related to the hospital assets, which would not affect the operation of the hospital. Prosecutors of the High Court initiated criminal prosecution against the Giulesti Maternity-“Panait Sarbu” Hospital, and sanctions may go as far as dissolving the healthcare unit.

As far as the...

A United Nations human rights body rebuked France on Friday for its crackdown on Roma and urged the government to try to integrate members of the EU’s biggest ethnic minority as part of a Europe-wide solution, Reuters reported. The 18 independent experts voiced concern that some of the hundreds of Roma flown to Romania in recent weeks under what France calls a voluntary repatriation programme had not been fully informed of their rights or had not freely consented to returning to their homeland.

“We understand that a state has a right and a responsibility to deal with security issues and issues of illegal immigration. But our view is when you are doing so, it should not be on a collective basis, you should not be targeting a group as a whole,” said Pierre-Richard Prosper, vice-chairman of the U.N. Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). “There is an appearance of discrimination,” Prosper told a news briefing. Patrick Thornberry, a British committee...

Traffic beneath the Basarab overpass will resume on both lanes on September 15, with the exception of the Plevnei – Gara Basarab perimeter, Bucharest General Mayor Sorin Oprescu stated on Saturday. While visiting the construction site Oprescu pointed out that traffic beneath the overpass will resume on the evening of September 14, with traffic on the overpass itself set to start in January-February 2011. “I don’t want to open it for traffic while still having to put the finishing touches. No! We will open it for traffic at the end of the year like I promised,” the Bucharest General Mayor stated. He added that after the construction works are completed the overpass will be tested for a month’s time. According to him, the sum spent so far this year for the Basarab overpass stands at RON 164 M, with the final cost tending to reach RON 248-250 M by the time it is completed.

Oprescu also talked about the existence of some “brakesmen” that would like to prevent the completion of...

EU foreign policy chief visits Romania’s Expo Shanghai pavilion

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton yesterday visited Romania’s pavilion at Expo 2010 Shanghai, where she was greeted by Bucharest’s Expo 2010 General Commissioner Ferdinand Nagy and consul Florin Tacu, according to a press release from the Foreign Ministry. Ashton visited a photography exhibition and the museum presenting Romanian history and civilisation inside the pavilion. She also attended a chamber music concert by the Romanian Piano Trio. Ashton “Declared herself impressed with the pavilion’s design, the arrangement of exhibition spaces and the cultural and artistic programmes conducted within the pavilion,” the release said.

Interior Minister presents Schengen accession stage at Salzburg Forum

Minister of Internal Affairs Vasile Blaga presented in the Ministerial Conference of the Salzburg Forum, the stage of...

International cooperation in the area of Japanese studies, as well as a mounting interest in Japanese culture have led to the need to set up a Centre of Japanese Studies with the purpose of supporting research activity in the field. During the opening of the centre – the first of its kind in Romania – centre director Anca Focsaneanu explained to ‘Nine O’Clock’ that the intention of the project was to diversify research studies and train young people in the area of Japanese studies. It is seen as a way to facilitate the exchange of expertise and the establishment of an international reputation by cooperating with prestigious centres and associations of Japanese studies in Japan and worldwide. “The modernisation of Romania is down to studies, and the Japanese department is a highly dynamic one, having come a long way,” the rector of the Bucharest University, Prof. Ph.D. Ioan Panzaru, said. He also noted it was time to develop Romanian-Japanese relations and that the objective of the...

This weekend a new edition of the “National fair of organic, traditional and natural food” awaits Bucharesters with hors d’oeuvre prepared in cast-iron kettles, bread baked on a hearth, Transylvanian salami and sausages, jams prepared in monasteries, Arges County tuica and Maramures cookies. “At this fair of truly traditional products I provoke you to think with a light heart about serious things. What do you crave in autumn? Is there any dish you consider a legend of autumn? If so, tell us about it! One of our cooks will prepare it for you and you will receive a prize if none of them happens to know how to do it,” Daniela Popa, Media Link Businss manager, stated for Agerpres. The fair will also feature a book exhibition organised by the “Romanian Hospitality Association – tradition and evolution.” Ion C. Rogojanu, the president of the association, will present cook books, woodcuts featuring gastronomy subjects, menus authored by some painters and kitchen utensils....