The National Anti-Corruption Directorate yesterday asked Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu to notify Parliament toward the Legislative’s go-ahead for the arrest of Catalin Voicu, a senator with the Social Democrat Party (PSD). Prosecutors say that during July-September 2009, Catalin Voicu, ‘taking advantage of the prerogatives resulting from his senatorial capacity, received from a businessman, in two instalements, RON 250,000, , and 200 euros in exchange for interceding with judges at the High Court of Cassation and Justice toward a verdict in favor of a trade enterprise where the businessman was a partner.’ According to prosecutors, In August 2009, Catalin Voicu demanded and received from another businessman RON 119,000 in exchange for a promise to intercede with police officers at the Bucharest General Police Department towards persuading them to recommend a favorable solution in a criminal case involving that businessman. ‘In order to dissimulate...

Snowfall has disrupted traffic in Bucharest and other areas. Although snow clearing vehicles had intervened, some streets saw bumper-to-bumper traffic. Hundreds of vehicles were stuck in traffic after a blizzard that lasted for hours. The blizzard also disrupted public transportation in Bucharest. The passengers complained that the tramways, the buses and the trolleybuses had significant delays. All of the above happened after the meteorologists issued a yellow code alert for snowfalls. The alert, issued for Bucharest and 10 Counties, expired last night at 9 PM.

The snowfall also caused 150 fender benders and 10 road crashes that left 11 persons injured in Bucharest in the last 48 hours. Moreover, according to Daniel Pistea, main inspector within the Bucharest Traffic Police Brigade, traffic lights were out of use in five intersections: Ficusului – Aerogarii, Viitorului – Mihai Eminescu, Drumul Taberei – Brasov Street, Schitu Magureanu – Regina...

Craiova Mayor Antonie Solomon who is currently detained on corruption charges was yesterday suspended from duty, under an Arges court ruling, daily ‘Romania libera’ reports. Dolj Prefect Eugen Georgescu received the court’s verdict yesterday afternoon and will soon sign the order to suspend Solomon from office. “I will follow procedures although it’s not easy because Solomon is my friend and it’s very tough in situations like these,” Georgescu added.

Solomon was detained last week, on charges of taking bribe from a businessman in order to speed up authorisation procedures for a new hypermarket in Craiova. He denies all...

Independent Senator Serban Mihailescu, also known as Micky Spaga (Micky Bribe) for his alleged involvement in various corruption cases while serving as a minister in Adrian Nastase’s cabinet, visited the National Anti-Corruption Department yesterday. Last week, the MP went to DNA to be presented evidence gathered against him on charges of receiving illegal gratuities and violation of weapons and ammunition regulations. Next procedural steps are the completion of the case by prosecutors and referral to court or discharge of the suspect.

On January 22, Mihailescu was informed of charges against him in a hunting rifle case. On June 10, 2009, the Senate allowed the Prosecutor General’s Office to prosecute Mihailescu, who was a PSD member at the time. The decision was made in his absence. Seventy-seven of the 108 attending senators were in favour and 29 opposed. Two votes were cancelled. The former Social-democrat is charged by DNA with the receipt of illegal...

State secretary for strategic affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, will participate in the session of the Working Group of Resettlement States in a partnership with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), held on Wednesday and Thursday at Timisoara. PM Emil Boc is also expected to attend the event, according to Government representatives. Bogdan Aurescu will speak about Romania’s participation in the international humanitarian community’s effort regarding refugees’ protection, and the necessity to render the protection mechanisms more efficient, through development of the human security concept. On the meeting agenda there are aspects connected with the urgent resettlement and the analysis of the efficiency and future development of the emergency transit centres, after the model of that from Timisoara, and debates about the development of the mechanisms in the domain of refugee asylum and protection. According to MAE, the Emergency Transit Centre for Refugees from...

Recent controversial statements made by a Copenhagen Police spokesperson, who accused Romanians of being able to ‘kill’ for a few pennies, prompted a tough reaction from the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest.

FM Teodor Baconschi told RFI yesterday that he will send a verbal note to his Danish counterpart. “The things said are, indeed, shocking, unfair and unacceptable,” Baconschi said. The minister however added that such statements had been generated by lower authorities and had been reproduced by Ove Dahl, spokesman and chief-investigator of the Copenhagen Police. In fact, Minister Baconschi insisted that the incident should not be overheated and added that international diplomatic incidents should not be generated by something a lower-rank official said. He further stated that entire states and governments should not be blamed for such matters either. “The core of the matter is different. Romanian citizens commit criminal offences in several...

The government decided yesterday to declassify the last remaining data and information in the 1989 Revolution case. “We declassified the documents belonging to the Revolution Case that were marked as state secret, secret and top secret,” PM Emil Boc said, adding that the uncovered information could no longer harm any of those involved. The declassified information will become publicly available after the Government Decision is published in the Official Journal. “This is another extremely important step towards providing all the needed information to make the case as transparent as possible, as far as state authorities are concerned,” the PM also said. He also thanked Defence Minister Gabriel Oprea “for his prompt answer to the request.”

The decision was made by the Executive a month ago, on the request of the Ministry of Defence. The Government Secretariat general was saying at the time that a total of 7,617 pages of “state secret...

Education, Research, Youth and Sports Minister Daniel Funeriu on Monday met with the Spanish and Chinese ambassadors to Romania, according to ministry press release. Spanish Ambassador Estanislao de Grandes Pascual praised bilateral co-operation in education, mainly in what regards academic exchanges and bilingual classes, voicing appreciation for Romanian students’ fluency in Spanish. “Our bilateral ties in the area of education and culture are at a high level and I believe we should make the most of it, take things forward and step up exchanges. We have an excellent co-operation and we wish to look into introducing Spanish as second foreign language in as many Romanian schools,” the Spanish ambassador said after the talks. In the context in which Spain is now holding the EU rotating presidency, Minister Funeriu asked for support with the initiative of introducing a common EU policy for Roma ethnic groups’ education. Funeriu also expressed his support for the...

One dead, one injured in Hungary collision

A pickup truck driver lost his life on Monday evening near Abony locality (90 kilometers east of Budapest) after frontally colliding with a truck that had Romanian license plates, MTI informs. The Romanian truck was heading towards Budapest when it entered the opposite lane and smashed into the pickup truck. The impact threw the latter into a ditch, Zoltan Orosz, the police spokesperson, explained. The pickup truck’s driver died on the spot, while the Romanian driver was hospitalized with serious injuries.

Motor coach involved in road crash in Bulgaria

A motor coach with Romanian citizens onboard overturned on Monday night near Pernik, in Western Bulgaria, after it skidded on the road and fell into a canal, the Novinite.com website informs. There were no victims. All 45 Romanians were offered shelter in the nearest village. The incident caused a pile-up in which two other cars were involved....

The Romanian Embassy’s driver Marius Trusca yesterday was called to testify in a Singapore inquest into the December deadly hit-and-run involving diplomat Silviu Ionescu, the web edition of ‘The Straits Times’ reports. Trusca (43) testified on the fifth day of the Coroner’s inquest into the death of Tong Kok Wai. He was able to appear in court as a witness after the Romanian Government had waved his diplomatic immunity, ‘The Straits Times’ notes. The night before the accident, Trusca had driven Ionescu and a Korean soprano to the Shangri-La Hotel, where they attended a reception offered on Kazakhstan’s national day. After the reception ended at about 9pm local time (3pm Romanian time), Trusca drove them to Ionescu’s home in River Valley. ‘I removed the Romanian flag and I kept it. I then handed the black Audi to Ionescu,’ he said.

Romanian diplomat Silviu Ionescu originally claimed his car had been stolen and that,...

The media group under the control of Sorin Ovidiu Vantu is meeting with financial difficulties. The media agency Reuters has recently requested the Bucharest Tribunal to open the insolvency procedure against the Romanian TV channel Realitatea TV and the wire service NewsIn, both of them part of Realitatea-Catavencu group, controlled by Sorin Ovidiu Vantu. Reuters lawyers filed the applications with court on March 5, and the Bucharest Tribunal judges set the first hearing on June 3. Insolvency is the first step towards opening the bankruptcy procedures for the two companies. The law says a company is entitled to asking the court to declare insolvent another firm only if the volume of the debts that it has to recoup exceeds RON 30,000. In the case of the two media institutions from Realitatea-Catavencu Group, the debts to Reuters amount to RON 60,000. If the Bucharest Tribunal considers grounded the demands of the international media agency, Realitatea TV and NewsIn can avoid bankruptcy...

The paging alert system will be reintroduced in emergency medical services in the entire country next week. Parcels with pagers have reached all hospitals, and the software will be installed next week. Doctors say pagers are cheaper and more convenient than telephones and they do not depend on signal either. A proposal made by Under-Secretary of State for Emergency Medicine at the Ministry of Health Raed Arafat two years ago, will be implemented at the beginning of next week. ‘We expect a ministerial order at the end of this week, after which the software will be installed. Most hospitals have already received the pagers.

The devices will be primarily used by ER medical staff’ Raed Arafat told ‘Adevarul’ daily. He added a pager is much more useful than a mobile phone because, once the software has been installed, it needs no credit unlike the cell phone, therefore no money is spent on it in the future, it does not depend on network signal, is smaller,...

‘SF. Ioan’ Hospital doctors have reduced by 80 per cent the stomach capacity of a patient weighing over 300 kilos and created a gastric sleeve.

‘It is one of the latest obesity surgery methods most widely used in Europe. I have operated on more than a thousand patients using the method with good results, my last patient actually having the most significant body weight. The stomach stapling method consists of reducing 80 per cent of capacity and creating a gastric sleeve, thus preventing patients from eating the way they used to’, Dr. Ioan Capacescu said. According to him, the patient could be discharged at the end of the week, but the success of the surgery can only be ascertained six months later, as the patient ought to reach a body weight smaller than 200 kilos. During his stay in hospital, the man lost a few kilos, as a mandatory requirement for the procedure, the surgeon also explained. Twelve hours after surgery the patient is feeling fine, Dr....

A 14 year old girl from Dambovita claims she was raped, sequestrated and forced to have sex with 40 men. Andreea Stancu, from Gura Sutii (Dambovita county) went shopping one day, but she didn’t come back home. Her parents announced the Police, and Andreea came home traumatized several days later. According to daily “Adevarul,” she told her parents she had been approached by an acquaintance in the street. “Some men took her away and raped her for four days in a row!” the girl’s father, Niculae Stancu, told social assistants. The girl also says that she was hit by two of the men who took advantage of her. Andreea avoids speaking about what happened to her those days. “They took me in a house and locked me in,” are the only words that the young girl told in the presence of the social assistant.

The case came under the attention of the Prosecutor’s Office which is seeking those who took advantage of the underage. “We...

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....