The idea was to change the way Romanian military salute each other, but a print error telling soldiers to raise their middle finger in the traditional obscene gesture left defense ministry officials red-faced on Friday. The new regulation tells soldiers that when they are not wearing a cap they should salute pointing their middle finger to their temple, the daily Jurnalul National reported. Capt. Gelaledin [...]
Commander Of Garrison Where Ceausescu Was Executed Gets 10-Year Prison Term, 5 Jul 2000, By ANCA PADURARU, Associated Press Writer
A reserve general commanding the garrison where dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was executed a decade ago was found guilty Wednesday of separate murder-related charges and convicted of 10 years in prison. Andrei Kemenici was found guilty of "improper participation in very serious murder," because two soldiers under his command at the Targoviste garrison died during the 1989 revolutionary events which toppled the communist regime and led to [...]
With crops across Romania scorched by a heat wave and no rain in the forecast, farmers are turning their eyes to the skies to pray for relief. "Drought, drought, and drought again - people are either in the fields, watching them in despair, or at church to pray for rain," said Dumitru Popescu, 60, a retired mechanic who worked for an 8,000 hectare (19,760 acre) farm [...]
Playboy magazine has reprimanded the chief editor of its Romanian edition for publishing an article that advocates violence against women. The article, titled "How to Beat Your Wife Without Leaving Traces," described a step-by-step procedure for abuse, and implied that good beatings could lead to great sex. "This article flies in the face of Playboy's 46-year history of strongly opposing any visual or editorial [...]
Hackers label lawmakers as corrupt on Romanian Senate web site, 24 Apr 2000, By ANCA PADURARU, Associated Press Writer
Hackers broke into the Senate Web site, replacing it with text alleging that all lawmakers are corrupt and working for their own financial well-being, a newspaper reported Monday. The modified Web page, described in detail in Monday's daily Adevarul, said of the lawmakers: "You are guided by the words 'hefty allowances and bribes.'" [...]
Cyanide Spill In Baia Mare Reveals Romania's Most Polluted City, 11 Mar 2000, By ANCA PADURARU, Associated Press Writer
After the second major pollution spill in six weeks, most residents of his northwestern town agree that they live in Romania's most polluted region. But the mines and factories that foul the air, poison the rivers and ruin the soil also provide jobs in a country where there aren't many. “It's a simple argument. Rather than dying of hunger now, I would prefer to die later [...]
Hackers label lawmakers as corrupt on Romanian Senate web site, 24 Apr 2000, By ANCA PADURARU, Associated Press Writer
Hackers broke into the Senate Web site, replacing it with text alleging that all lawmakers are corrupt and working for their own financial well-being, a newspaper reported Monday. The modified Web page, described in detail in Monday's daily Adevarul, said of the lawmakers: "You are guided by the words 'hefty allowances and bribes.'" [...]
After the second major pollution spill in six weeks, most residents of his northwestern town agree that they live in Romania's most polluted region. But the mines and factories that foul the air, poison the rivers and ruin the soil also provide jobs in a country where there aren't many. “It's a simple argument. Rather than dying of hunger now, I would prefer to die later [...]
Romanians Take A Step Toward Accepting Gays In Society, 15 Jan 2000, By ANCA PADURARU, Associated Press Writer
When the curtain dropped and applause thundered through Bucharest's Odeon theater, actor Marius Stanescu could only feel relief. Afterall, it was only a year ago that Romanian Orthodox Christian groups and other protesters lambasted Tony Kushner's "Angels in America: Millennium Approaches," a Pulitzer Prize winning play about homosexuality. "We had to cross over a mental barrier, just like the public does," said Stanescu, one of several [...]
Elderly Are The New Poor In Post-Communist Romania, 23 Dec 1999, By ANCA PADURARU, Associated Press Writer
Just out of hospital after major surgery, the elderly woman sits in her dimly-lit one room apartment, wondering whether she will find the money to pay her bills. ``After I've paid for my medicine and utilities, I have 200,000 (dlrs 11) lei left for food,'' Doina Popescu, 64, said. Her monthly pension is 746,000 lei (dlrs 41) and she needs medicine after her gall bladder was [...]
If buyers haven't managed to snap up anything in the last four auctions, they now can purchase former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's pajamas and his wife's fur coats at a new shop that opened Thursday. There was no Christmas crush at the opening of The Second-Hand Shop. Dozens of journalists, some firefighters from the building, and the staff of the state company that organized the auctions were [...]
Power Grids - A Y2k Worry In Former East Bloc, 20 Dec 1999, By ANCA PADURARU, Associated Press Writer
The official line in much of eastern Europe goes like this: Computers aren't used as much as in the highly automated West, so the Y2K problem is less of a concern. True, many computers in former East bloc nations are late-generation, increasing the chances that they are bug-free. And much government record-keeping is still manual, like Romania's Social Security records. ``I am not worried; things are [...]
Ten Years After Communism, Romanian Teen-Agers Look To America, 11 Nov 1999, By ANCA PADURARU, Associated Press Writer
Alin Stan listens with a mixture of boredom and amusement as the Luxembourg Orchestra plays waltzes and polkas on an open air stage. He's waiting for what he considers the main event at the concert: Romanian hip-hop bands. ``Hip-hop represents us,'' the 17-year-old says. ``We recognize ourselves in it. It shows life as it is here.'' His friend, Catalin Burca, 18, agrees. For him, the pieces [...]
Romanian ship owners launched a three-day blockade of the Danube River Monday to protest the international community's indifference to the Serbs' control of river traffic. Only passenger, police and firefighting boats will be allowed to pass through the blockade of eight barges, four ships and two motorboats at the Danube port of Calarasi, some 100 kilometers (62 miles) southeast of Bucharest [...]
Equation For Success: World's Top Young Mathematicians Vie In Olympiad, 21 Jul 1999, By ANCA PADURARU, Associated Press Writer
American students equate success at the International Mathematics Olympiad with a high-flying Wall Street career. Others see it as a chance for a future in the West. The 40th annual competition brought 500 math geniuses from 81 countries for two days of combined algebra and geometry tests that ended Wednesday. ``The tests were easy,'' said Dremov, a lanky 16-year-old Russian, who finished eighth and was one [...]
