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Romania through international eyes

People in the News

September 2005

Nine thousand soldiers were deployed after torrential rains in the country’s north-eastern regions claimed 36 lives, caused the evacuation of about 20,000 people, and washed away livestock, bridges, roads and a power station. Romania’s Prime Minister, Calin Popescu Tariceanu reshuffled his cabinet, replacing the ministers of finance, health, European integration and economic sectors. The performance of all four had been widely criticised. The governing Democratic Alliance easily led the main opposition PSD in opinion polls, by about 50 per cent to about 30 per cent. Teodor Atanasiu, the defence minister, said he hoped Romania could withdraw some of its 800 troops and military personnel from Iraq by the beginning of 2006. About 80 per cent of Iraq’s indebtedness to Romania of $2.5 billion is to be cancelled. Dacia said that it would lay off about 900 workers. Petrom, the former state oil company, which is now majority owned by OMV, Austria’s largest listed industrial company, reported a half-yearly profit of 164 million euros. The National Bank of Romania announced that it had sold lei to the value of about one billion euros, in an effort to curb inflation. Sports equipment retailer SSD-Lotto reported sales of 4.2 million euros for the first half of 2005. Police in Arges said they had arrested some people involved in a human trafficking ring, which had sent 56 women to Spain, where they had been forced into prostitution. A 36-year-old woman from Iasi was detained by French police after allegedly stabbing to death Brother Roger, a 90-year-old priest, in front of a congregation of 2,500 people in Taize, in the Burgundy region of France. About 35 Romanian and Western Greenpeace activists were fined after staging a protest against Cernavoda, the nuclear power plant in south-eastern Romania. The British government began an advertising campaign in Romania to try to discourage illegal immigration. El Kapitan, the popular lakeside restaurant in Snagov, became the third restaurant to burn to the ground this year, after Café Ole and Bamboo. Radu Roman, the writer and TV chef, died, aged 57. Romania beat the Czech Republic 2-0 in a World Cup qualifier in Constanta. Constantina Tomescu-Dina came third in the London marathon, behind the winner Paula Radcliffe. The Romanian Gymnastics Federation said it had disbanded the women’s team, which won four gold medals at last year’s Athens Olympics, after two of its members returned from a Bucharest night club in the early hours of the morning. Romania’s three top-rated male tennis players – Andrei Pavel, Victor Hanescu, and Razvan Sabau – all exited the US Open after defeats in the first round. Mike Tyson, the recently retired boxer, who had been holidaying on a yacht in Turkey, sailed into Constanta and attended a kickboxing contest in Mamaia. Matei Paun, a founding writer for Vivid, married Adina Covaceanu. The Death of Mr Lazarescu, a film directed by Cristi Puiu, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Copenhagen Film Festival.

Salvation at last: a New Orleans woman and her two children are airlifted to safety after being stranded for six days in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

One of America’s worst ever natural disasters occurred when a hurricane slammed into the United States Gulf Coast and ruinous floods wreaked havoc in low-lying New Orleans; days later, the city was gripped by despair, privation and violent lawlessness as its filthy, teeming Superdome became the primary shelter for tens of thousands of desperate refugees. Federal government disaster relief services were severely criticized for their slow response, as Iraq-tested troops were given shoot-to-kill orders to restore law and order. In Israel, more than 40,000 police and soldiers oversaw the withdrawal of 9,000 Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip. The country’s security forces also dragged the last of the protestors out of the remaining two West Bank settlements that had to be evacuated under the current peace plan. George W. Bush continued to defend his foreign policy, despite plummeting poll ratings on the way he has handled Iraq, and the Pentagon sent a further 1,500 troops there while a new constitution remained undecided by a committee comprising Shias, Sunnis and Kurds. As many as 1,000 people were killed in a mass stampede in northern Baghdad, after a deadly mortar attack was launched against Shia pilgrims. A Helios Airways aeroplane traveling from Larnaca in Cyprus crashed just short of Athens, killing all 121 people on board. As oil prices approached $70 a barrel, Sheikh Ahmed al-Fahed al-Sabah, the head of Opec, said he would ask the cartel to increase output. KPMG, the accounting firm, agreed to pay a fine of $456 million rather than face criminal charges, for selling illegal tax shelters to clients in the late 1990s. China said that it would close nearly a third of its 24,000 coal mines, in a bid to reduce the high number of fatal accidents which occur in them; this year, at least 3,000 miners have been killed. King Fahd, who had ruled Saudi Arabia since 1982, died, aged 82. Ibrahim Ferrer, who sang with the Cuban band Buena Vista Social Club, died, aged 78. David Lange, the former prime minister of New Zealand who banned American nuclear powered warships from entering New Zealand waters, died, aged 63. Phil Mickelson won the USPGA tournament, his second Major win. Ethiopian athlete Kenenisa Bekele set a new world record for 10,000 metres, of 26 minutes, 17.53 seconds. A 4,200-year-old hoard of gold, comparable to the fabulous treasures of Troy, were unearthed in an ancient tomb in Dalene, 75 kilometres east of the Bulgarian capital of Sofia. Scholars said that the objects, including 15,000 ornate golden rings, may have been made by a race predating the ancient Thracians. A survey showed that the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Australia were the most generous of the world’s developed countries in terms of aid donations, and Japan was the least generous. Victoria Beckham, the singer, and the wife of David Beckham, the England footballer, said, ‘I haven’t read a book in my life. I don’t have the time. I prefer listening to music, although I do love fashion magazines.’ In Swaziland, 50,000 topless virgins paraded before King Mswati III, vying to become his 13th wife and queen.