Romanians dead in Italy quake, brought home
The bodies of three Romanians, members of the same family, who died during the earthquake in Italy, were brought to Timisoara yesterday afternoon, with a Carpatair plane that arrived from Rome. According to Mediafax, the Carpatair plane that brought the bodies of the three Romanians – Darinca Mirandolina Bobu, Laurentiu Ghiorceanu and their five-month old son Antonio – to their home country landed at approximately 2.00 PM on the International Airport “Traian Vuia,” where several relatives of the deceased were waiting for them. Moreover, the lifeless body of Adriana Enasoiu, aged 48, another Romanian woman who lost her life in the earthquake that occurred in Italy a week ago, was brought back to Romania in the early hours of Monday.
Serban Nicolae, new MAI secretary of state
Former Social-Democrat Senator Serban Nicolae has been appointed by PM Emil Boc as secretary of state at the head of the Schengen Department within the Ministry of Administration and Internal Affairs. He will replace chief commissioner Tiberiu Trifan, Mediafax informs.
The Schengen Department is the national authority that coordinates the procedures for the gradual elimination of checkups at EU borders.
Serban Nicolae was Presidential adviser from 2001 to 2004 and subsequently the delegated Minister for the Relation with Parliament.
Revolutionists attend protest at the gates of PSD
Approximately 100 revolutionists gathered yesterday to the PSD residence, in order to protest against the appointment of Emilian Cutean in the leadership of the State Secretariat for Revolutionists, Agerpres reported. The protesters demanded the Social-Democrat leadership to dismiss Cutean from his position due to his involvement in a corruption-related trial. The protest was attended by several associations of revolutionists affliated to the National Block of Revolutionists. They yelled slogans such as “We want an offence-free Government” and “We want communication.” The representatives of the revolutionists submitted three proposals for the position of State Secretary, were Emilian Cutean to be dismissed: George Costin, Rudolf Schumutzer and Nicolae Banutoiu. The revolutionists also expressed their discontentment to the fact that the State Secretary is involved in a number of lawsuits, as he is tried for fraud worth ROL 12.5 billion, committed during his previous mandate at the State Secretariat for Revolutionists’ Issues.
Weather cools off
After two weeks of spring with warm weather and clear skies the clouds are starting to gather around and rainfalls will be registered in the southern half of the country where thunderstorms will also be registered, ‘Evenimentul Zilei’ wrote yesterday. Moreover, sleet will be registered in the Southern Carpathians at altitudes higher than 1,800 meters. White frost will also be registered in isolated pockets. The maximum temperatures will range from 12 to 22 degrees Celsius, while the minimum temperatures will range from 1 to 7 degrees Celsius. In Bucharest the weather cooled off considerably following a sunny weekend. The sky was variable yesterday and the meteorologists have forecast rainfalls and low temperatures for today, with a maximum temperature of 13 degrees Celsius.
Tomorrow the weather will warm up slightly and the rainfalls will concentrate in the Carpathians’ outlying regions and in the mountainous areas. The maximum temperatures will range from 12 to 22 degrees Celsius, while the minimum temperatures will range from 1 to 9 degrees Celsius.
Piranha IFV acquisition program on pause
The seven Piranhas delivered as part of the second batch of infantry fighting vehicles in October 2008 have technical problems and the MoD will not accept them until the problems will be remedied, Ionel Lascu, secretary of state within the MoD, stated for ‘Ziua’ daily yesterday. Mowag, the Swiss company that produces the Piranha IFVs, has been working on the technical problems identified by the MoD representatives for well over six months so the MoD was unable to complete the acquisition process for them. Thus, for the time being the IFVs cannot be used in any mission. Lascu pointed out that the IFVs ‘would certainly not be sent to foreign theatres of operations until the repairs, the tests and the evaluations included in the contract take place.’ At the same time he stated that in the future the MoD could consider introducing supplementary contractual clauses that would not exclude the possibility of negotiating with other producers if the supplier fails to respect its commitments.