Foxcrawl

Crin Antonescu willing to appoint incumbent President Traian Basescu as future prime minister of Romania

Posted by foxcrawl at 1:46 am No Responses »

May 222013

Being invited to Realitatea TV, Romanian PNL leader Crin Antonescu said that in the event he would become country’s president on the forthcoming elections, does not rule out the possibility of appointing Traian Basescu as the head of the government. Antonescu explained that this situation would be possible only if Basescu comes as the main candidate of a winning party for this job.

Crin Antonescu unveiled that Traian Basescu might become Romania’s Prime Minister

Asked during the “Power Games” (Jocuri de Putere) show in what circumstances he would name Basescu prime minister, Antonescu stated: “It is not excluded, theoretically. Let’s say that a party or coalition that win the parliamentary elections come to me and tell me: We won the parliamentary elections, and Traian Basescu is our official candidate for the function of premier. At that point, he [Basescu] would be appointed as the Prime Minister of Romania. I think that won’t happen but not because of my wish.”

The liberal leader has made it clear that he will not reassess Traian Basescu. Furthermore the USL co-president revealed also that he can not co-operate with Basescu. “It is possible a cohabitation pact in the sense that I, as the leader of a majority, no matter what sort of bad opinion I would have about the past behavior of those from opposition, I will always respect their rights as opposition embers. But cohabitation hinting at the following scenario: “I forget today what I said yesterday”, it’s not acceptable to me,” added Antonescu. Source: Realitatea TV

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta did NOT plagiarize PhD thesis. Prosecutor General drops charges

Posted by foxcrawl at 12:38 am 2 Responses »

May 222013

Prosecutor General of Romania decided on Tuesday not to sue country’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta who has been for nearly a year at the center of a plagiarism scandal involving his 2003 PhD thesis on the International Criminal Court. After a “detailed” analysis of the data provided by various committees, the prosecutors concluded that Ponta did not plagiarize. The decision comes just days after Tiberiu Nitu was named as the head the Prosecution Office.

Prosecutor Office say that PM Victor Ponta didn’t plagiarise his PhD thesis. The decision comes after many conflicting verdicts on this case (Facebook)

The Ethics Committee of the University of Bucharest had announced in July 2012 that the PhD thesis of Prime Minister Victor Ponta is a rude plagiarism as 115 out of the 303 pages contained sections literally copied “by taking full text blocks, lines or combined text blocks without referencing the sources.”

“The Committee express (…) serious doubts about the quality of the scientific work in this case,” reads the report of the Ethics Committee.

The report highlighted “various paragraphs across the thesis that were copied and the way they were plagiarized”.

According to documents, the copying methods used in Ponta’s thesis show that dozens “excerpts were copied as they were published in the original work.” Sometimes it was used a so-called “assembly technique “, ie by taking different text fragments from the source works and making up self-attributed paragraphs obviously without complying with the minimum citation regulations,” reads the statement of the Commission.

The decision of the Ethics Committee of the Bucharest University was announced a day after the National Ethics Council (subordinated to Ministry of Education) said that Victor Ponta’s PhD title in Law was attained in accordance with the legislation in force in 2003 and the plagiarism accusations can not be maintained.

“The title of Doctor in Law was obtained by Mr. Victor Viorel Ponta in accordance with the 2003 legislation and the plagiarism charges related to the PhD thesis entitled “International Criminal Court” can not stand anymore” it was shown in the official final report of the government ethics board.

Romanian mogul Gigi Becali sentenced to three years in jail

Posted by foxcrawl at 12:06 am 2 Responses »

May 212013

The Supreme Court of Romania sentenced the politician and Steaua Bucharest owner Gigi Becali to three years in prison in a case linked to a land exchange affair with the Ministry of National Defense (MND). The news dropped like a bomb on the landowner from Pipera.

Gigi Becali experiences a real-life nightmare after being convicted to 3-year jail term (libertatea.ro)

After learning the sentence given by The High Court of Cassation and Justice (Romanian: Înalta Curte de Casație și Justiție), Becali announced that he will give himself in but not before saying goodbye to his family.

Sitting in the car on his way home, Becali was visibly affected and surprised by the court’s definitive decision. He was probably thinking at both the imprisonment period ahead and also his family who was heavily affected by the shocking news. His sister seems to have been mostly touched as she fainted when hearing that his beloved brother is gonna spend 3 years in a prison cell.

Dozens friends, relatives and acquaintances gathered at Becali’s residence to show him support during these tough moments of his life.

Now countless controversial reactions heated up the blogosphere with many folks praising the justice system while others claiming that Becali is a good man who should be free.

Gigi Becali (George Becali) is a controversial politician and one of the richest magnates of the country but known also as the owner of the Steaua Bucureşti football club. He was a Member of the European Parliament between June 2009 and December 2012 and a Member of the Romanian Parliament as of December 2012 up until his sentencing on Monday. He was convicted by the country’s Supreme Court to three years imprisonment in the case of property exchange with the Romanian Army. Former Minister of Defense Victor Babiuc and former Chief of Staff General Dumitru Cioflină were also sentenced and each of them must serve a two year prison term.

Becali’s land exchange case!
According to the prosecutors, during 1996-1999, The Ministry of National Defense (as legal administrator of the state’s public property in Voluntari, northern Bucharest) operated two illicit exchanges of land with Gigi Becali. The overall swapped area was 28.89 hectares of arable land and the “business” had the effect of prejudicing Romania of a total amount of 892.758 dollars.

Thanks to the suspicious deals with the Romanian Army, Becali received land plots that were worth much more than the land he gave up. As Bucharest saw a boost in the real estate prices, he sold the land to some corporations which built residential areas and in consequence he became a millionaire.

As for the Romanian Army, the exchange turned out to be a bad business as the plot received from Becali was located in Ştefăneştii de Jos (about 15 km from Bucharest) where the land was not valuable.

False bomb threat sparks alert at Bucharest’s Henri Coanda airport

Posted by foxcrawl at 2:52 am No Responses »

Apr 282013

An Italian citizen called the emergency number 112 Saturday evening claiming that a bomb would be on board a flight from Rome to Bucharest. After the search of the airplane it turned out to be just a false alarm.

False bomb alarm at Otopeni airport emerged after 112 call (rtv.net)

“A few hours ago someone made a phone call to 112 saying that a plane flying en route to Bucharest carries an explosive device. Both the jet and the passengers were investigated. Pyrotechnical and SRI crews checked the aircraft and no problems were found. It was a false threat,” said SRI spokesman Sorin Sava.

The last bomb alert at Henri Coanda (Otopeni) Airport took place in October 2012. At that time, an airplane bound to Kiev was grounded just before take-off because of alleged threats.

Video: Formula 1 car developed and built at Cluj University

Posted by foxcrawl at 2:21 am No Responses »

Apr 052013

A team of students and researchers at the Technical University of Cluj in Romania, have built from scratch, an F1 single-seat, open-cockpit racing car for a German company. The bolide is set to be sent abroad for assembly and might compete on the Grand Circuits if completion of its tests turn positive.

Formula One super-car emerged from labs at Technical University of Cluj Napoca, Romania (realitatea.net)

Most of vehicle’s components were produced right in Cluj, at the technical workshop of the university, but the secrets behind the technical details will be well guarded.

The single-seater is gonna be taken to Germany in the coming days in order get an engine and further assembly. If passing the safety tests, the car could take part in Formula 1 races.

The construction of the Romanian F1 car began in the second semester of 2012 and the project was supervised by Paul Bere, a team leader who had previously carried out research activity in Germany.
Source: Realitatea.net

Video: Students and research engineers at Technical University of Cluj built-up Formula One racing car

Madalina Ghenea and Gerard Butler split, rumors say

Posted by foxcrawl at 2:38 pm No Responses »

Mar 192013

Italian media suspect that Romanian model Madalina Ghenea and Scottish actor Gerard Butler would have split.

Madalina Ghenea and Marco Borriello in club “Plastic” from Milano (rtv.net)

Although they looked like being be busy with wedding preparations in the past period, Ghenea and Butler are now likely to have broken up.

Italian gossip outlets claim that a reason behind the alleged split would be Madalina’s former boyfriend, Marco Borriello.

The model was photographed while enjoying her time in a Milano club with Marco, and both seemed to be quite intimate.

A photograph of footballer Marco Borriello -who plays as striker for Genoa- and Madalina Ghenea was published by famous Italian journalist, Selvaggia Lucarelli on his Twitter account. He posted the photo along with the capture: “People in “Plastic” (club’s name) do nothing but talk about Madalina Ghenea and Boriello who were intimate last night. I just found the picture.”

Furthemore it is rumored that the twosome spent the weekend together, according to information circulating the Italian tabloids. Ghenea’s contact with former lover Marco Borriello is considered a clear sign that something happened between her and the Hollywood star.

Madalina Ghenea and Gerard Butler have been together for 8 months. The two were engaged and the actor spoke several interviews about his beloved Romanian fiancee.

Irina Petrescu dead at 71. Romanian actress died at Elias hospital in Bucharest

Posted by foxcrawl at 12:55 pm No Responses »

Mar 192013

Irina Petrescu died at Elias Hospital in the Romanian capital of Bucharest. She was 71.

Petrescu started an architecture and philology career just to end up acting. For her, the chance and occurrence played a major role across her life.

According to Dr. Dana Safta, the actress had been transferred from Floreasca Emergency Hospital Elias Hospital, two weeks ago.

Irina Petrescu was born on June 19, 1941 and graduated the Institute of Theatre and Film “IL Caragiale” Bucharest, promotion 1963, a generation led by teachers Ion Şahighian and David Esrig. Petrescu made herself noticed while still a student, and her talent was discovered by then director Savel Stiopul.
Stiopul called her for test performances for a film project that failed to emerge, but Petrescu was seen by Liviu Ciulei, who cast her in the lead role Anna Strejan from “Valurile Dunarii” (“Danube Waves”) (1960).

Known for her elegance and classic beauty, Irina Petrescu played major roles in film, theater, radio and TV drama, directed by prestigious names such as: Liviu Ciulei, Lucian Pintilie, Gheorghe Vitanidis, Mihai Iacob, Virgil Calotescu, Ion Popescu – Gopo, Dinu Tănase, Andrei Blaier, Manole Marcus, Iulian Mihu, Dan Piţa, Mircea Veroiu, etc.
Source: Realitatea

Romanian actress Irina Petrescu passed away at Bucharest’s Elias hospital after a long sufferance. She was 71 (realitatea.net)

Michaela Niculescu dead at 31. Abracadabra star died of hepatic cirrhosis

Posted by foxcrawl at 4:09 pm 2 Responses »

Mar 142013

Michaela Niculescu, known as Mica on the Abracadabra show, died in a hospital from Bucharest, Romania, after she had been fighting a merciless disease, i.e. hepatic cirrhosis. She was only 31-year-old.

Michaela Niculescu, aka. “Mica from Abracadabra” passed away after battling liver disease (Facebook)

Niculescu who was known as Mica on the children show Abracadabra, died Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. (local time) at Fundeni Hospital in the Romanian capital after a harsh struggle with liver cirrhosis that was discovered a year ago. Michaela had been hospitalized following a crisis when she threw up plenty of blood and was induced a coma after her lungs had succumbed.

Michaela Niculescu became known for her performance on the television show “ABRACADABRA” when she was a child. Thereafter, she followed and graduated the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literature before going to study abroad where she obtained two doctorates (PhD), summa cum laude at the universities of Oxford and Vienna.

She worked as a translator, university lecturer, IT specialist and editor and producer for a publisher.

Mica had claimed 2 PhD’s after quitting a showbiz career (Facebook)

Romanian soldier Florinel Enache injured in Afghanistan visited by US President Barack Obama in US hospital

Posted by foxcrawl at 12:22 am 3 Responses »

Mar 092013

A photo provided by the White House and posted on the Facebook page of the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest, shows U.S. President Barack Obama standing by the side of Romanian soldier Florinel Enache who lies on a hospital bed at Walter Reed National Military Center from Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.

Injured Romanian Soldier Florinel Enache and US President Barack Obama shake hands in an Afghanistan hospital (Official White House Photo / Pete Souza)

“The White House delivered us a photograph portraying the meeting between Romanian military Florinel Enache and President Obama. What’d you tell Florinel?”, says the message accompanying the picture in which the White House leader shake hands with the Romanian.

Sergeant Florinel Enache who was part of the Battalion 280 Infantry that carried out missions in Afghanistan’s Zabul province, got seriously injured in May last year.

The sub-officer (NCO) suffered severe wounds from the blast of an improvised explosive device while being on a scouting land mission to secure an objective on A1 highway in Afghanistan.

VIDEO: Horse-drawn carriages racing on Romanian high-speed freeway

Posted by foxcrawl at 6:07 pm No Responses »

Feb 252013

A video showing 2 draymen steering their horse-carts on a Romanian freeway, is most likely gonna make the rounds on the internet. The two carters were filmed while riding their horse-towed vehicles on the Romania’s “Sun” motorway which links country’s capital of Bucharest to the Black Sea resort city of Constanta.

Harness racing can sometimes take place on a freeway in Romania,,so watch the speed limit

“Ferrari” horse Vs “Mustang” horse!!!
The unique footage was shot by a car driver who was left in shock when he saw that the two guys could not find a better place for their harness racing than the high-speed motorway, where the carriages are obviously not allowed there.

“That’s the entry to the freeway .. No, these guys are not sane” was the reaction of the driver who captured the original images. Meanwhile, the two carters kept their harnesses tight and whipped their horses to win the heated race.

Video: Horse-pulled carts competing on Romanian freeway

Page 1 of 22 1 2 3 … 21 22 Older Entries