Problem loading page. Romania virtual gallery turns corruption into art. Image copyright Museum of Corruption Cases of bribery in Romania have become the inspiration for a new virtual art gallery, which aims to highlight the country's corruption problems. The Museum of Corruption can be "toured" online, with a host of unusual bribes depicted on its digital walls, the Ziarul de Iasi news website reports.
Among them, a piece called "Bribe in the Cemetery" relates to Romania's former finance minister, Darius Valcov, who is on trial for corruption and allegedly accepted bags of cash while in a graveyard. The gallery format was chosen because corrupt officials "have managed to raise bribery to the level of art", according to the project's Facebook page. It was developed by digital marketing agency Kinecto Isobar, which tells the BBC that there's an educational aim, highlighting that cash isn't the only way of bribing people. Sheep, mineral water and even a bridge feature among the real cases depicted.
Next story: Rewards for South Korea soldiers who quit smoking. Explicit cookie consent. Russia Calls New U.S. Missile Defense System a ‘Direct Threat’ Video MOSCOW — As American and allied officials celebrated the opening of a long-awaited missile defense system in Europe with a ribbon cutting and a band, the reaction in on Thursday suggested the system had raised the risks of a nuclear war. Russian officials reiterated their position that the American-built system imperiled Russia’s security. But the public discussion in Russia was darker, including online commentary of how a nuclear confrontation might play out in Europe, and the prospect that , the system’s host, might be reduced to “smoking ruins.” “We have been saying right from when this story started that our experts are convinced that the deployment of the ABM system poses a certain threat to the Russian Federation,” the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters in a conference call.
“Measures are being taken to ensure the necessary level of security for Russia,” he said. “The president himself, let me remind you, has repeatedly asked who the system will work against.” Romania Takes Step Toward Restitution to Holocaust Survivors. BUCHAREST, Romania — The Romanian government on Tuesday approved legislation that would give priority to restitution claims by Holocaust survivors for property lost during and under Communist rule. The move was seen as a small acknowledgment of the treatment of Romanian Jews during the war. Most of those affected by the legislation are in their 80s and 90s, and have been trying to recover their property for many years. “This is important because the legislation addresses not only the practical problems, but also acknowledges the history, which is essential,” said Gideon Taylor, the chairman of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, which has held meetings with Romanian politicians over the past year.
Romania, an ally of Nazi Germany until 1944, when it switched sides, had a prewar Jewish population of about 800,000. Many Jews had their land and property seized and were sent to ghettos or labor camps. Ms. “I don’t know if this will help,” she said. Her husband died four months ago. Romanian village blocks Canadian firm from mining for gold. A Romanian village where a Canadian firm is planning a controversial open-cast goldmine has been declared a site of historical interest, granting it protection from mining activity. “Rosia Montana village has been designated a place of historic site of national interest which has a radius of two kilometres [just over a mile],” said Adrian Balteanu, the Romanian culture ministry’s adviser on cultural heritage.
“At such a site, all mining activity is prohibited,” he said on Thursday. The step is a new blow for Canada’s Gabriel Resources which has been trying for 15 years to get an environment ministry permit to extract 300 tonnes of gold from the picturesque village in a project it claims would create hundreds of jobs and boost Romania’s economy. But experts say the project, which would use thousands of tonnes of cyanide, would pose a pollution risk, level four mountains in a historic area of western Transylvania and would also damage Roman-era mining shafts.
Romania wants to break world record for biggest CPR training session. Romania wants to set a new world record for the largest CPR training session during an event to be organized on the National Arena in Bucharest this May. The previous record was set in Germany on September 17, 2013, during a training session that involved 11,840 participants. The event in Romania thus needs to gather more people to set a new record. “If there will be 11,800 people and not 12,000, it will still be a record for us if not a Guinness record, and an advantage for Bucharest. There should be a minimum of 11,900 participants to set a new record,” said Cristian Grasu, president of the Rescue Society Association in Bucharest, cited by local Agerpres. The Association will organize the event in Bucharest, together with the Bucharest-Ilfov Ambulance Service. The event will mark 110 years since the establishment of the ambulance service in Romania’s capital.
At least 600 instructors will participate in the event, called Record for life – 100 years of saving lives. Three arrested after baby 'sold' for thousands of pounds. Police said their suspicions grew after they discovered she had registered the child's birth twice, firstly under her name and then the name of the supposed father. • More than 1,000 arrested over baby trafficking in China The Spanish couple and the Romanian woman were arrested after Spanish police sought the help of authorities in Britain, and the baby was found alive at an address in Cardiff.
A court in Zamora which is co-ordinating the investigation into the case is understood to have commissioned DNA tests to establish whether the arrested man is the baby’s father. A spokesman for Spain's National Police said: "The investigation began when the mother of a baby had told a police officer her 15-day-old son, who had a wound in a vein, had died in the UK during an emergency operation.
"Police doubted the version of events the mother gave and began trying to clarify what had happened. • Child snatchers 'target British family in Cyprus' “The arrests were made in the Rumney area of Cardiff.” Romanian jailer gets 20 years for crimes against humanity. “The sick were not treated or transferred to hospitals; the prisoners’ health was damaged by a lack of food, lack of heat, abusive punishments, and they were also subject to inhuman detention conditions, beatings and violence.”
As many of the inmates at Ramnicu were political prisoners carrying 10-year sentences they had little chance of surviving the institution’s regime. Valentin Cristea, the only living survivor of Ramnicu, described how he had weighed 11 stone when he entered the prison but only eight stone when he left. He also said prisoners were not allowed to talk with each other, and when let out for a solitary 15-minute walk each day they were not allowed to look at the sky. Any transgression resulted in harsh punishment. A relative of one of the prison’s victims welcomed Visinescu’s sentencing but also complained that it had taken so long for him to face justice.
“It [justice] has come very late, but there’s nothing I can do about it,” she said. Romanian MP jailed for bribing voters with 60 tonnes of roasted chicken. Enlisting the help of supporters Florin Popescu distributed 60 tonnes of chicken to voters in an attempt to win another term as a council leader in local elections dating back to 2012 before he entered parliament. A Bucharest court placed the condition of no parole on Popescu’s sentence while also rejecting an appeal by the disgraced politician during the culmination of a case that won him the mocking nickname the “Chicken Baron”.
Anti-corruption investigators had found that Popescu had abused his high position in local politics to secure a supply of roasted chicken worth around £85,000 from a producer. “On April 5, 2012 several people sent by Florin Popescu loaded the chicken into vans and took it to various locations where it was distributed,” investigators said. “All the packages of chicken were distributed for election purposes.”
Romanian MP Florin Popescu The case had come to light after the chicken producer reported Popescu to the authorities. Romania Places the Heart of a Queen in Her Castle. Photo BUCHAREST, Romania — It has been a busy few years for royal remains. In 2012, King Richard III’s bones were found under a parking lot in Leicester, England, and reburied in March. In September, the Russian authorities exhumed the bodies of Czar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra for new DNA tests. Last week, the Russians said the body of the czar’s father, Alexander III, would be dug up for testing, too.
A few hundred people gathered in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, on Tuesday morning for a less macabre occasion: the final journey of the heart of Marie, the British-born queen of Romania. The heart, contained in a small silver box, was moved from the National History Museum, where it has been since 1971, to Pelisor Castle, to be placed in the room where she drew her final breath in 1938. Queen Marie, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of Britain, nursed wounded soldiers during World War I and was beloved for her charitable and diplomatic work.
Romanian nightclub fire leaves 27 dead, scores injured. But a fire that may have been sparked by pyrotechnics late Friday quickly erupted with dark, blinding smoke -- killing at least 27 people and injuring more than 160 others, authorities said. It was almost Halloween at Colectiv, a trendy club built in the basement of a communist-era factory. The band, Goodbye to Gravity, was celebrating a new album with a free concert. The blaze left the 300 or 400 people packed inside scrambling toward the lone exit in one of Romania's deadliest fires in recent memory. Eyewitnesses said many in the crowd believed the first moments of the fire were part of the show. The government declared three days of mourning, and President Klaus Iohannis visited the hospital where many of the injured were taken. The President left flowers outside the club, according to Romanian TV's Antena 3.
"I wanted to see the scene of the tragedy," the station quoted him as saying. Dr. Authorities said the cause of the fire hasn't been determined.