January 6, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of the main stories in Romania today.
România Internațional, 06.01.2014, 18:31
The former Romanian prime minister Adrian Năstase, who was sentenced on Monday to 4 years in prison for bribe taking, described his sentence as “terrible, unjust and act of revenge” before turning himself in to the police and being taken to a prison in Bucharest. His wife Dana was received a 3-year suspended sentence and was stripped of certain rights for a period of 4 years for accessory to bribe taking. Năstase, who served as the country’s prime minister between 2000 and 2004, was indicted for receiving directly or through his wife, undue benefits worth 630,000 euros. He already served 9 months in prison in another case related to fund raising for his election campaign of 2004, when he ran for president on behalf of the Social Democratic Party, today a member of the ruling coalition.
Christians in Romania celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany on the 6th of January, also known as the Baptism of the Lord. On Tuesday, they celebrate the Feast of St. John the Baptist, who baptised Jesus in the Jordan river and presented him to the people as their saviour. Along with Epiphany, the Feast of St. John marks the end of the winter holidays and those associated with the Nativity of Christ. Almost 2 million Romanians are named after St. John. Also on Tuesday, old rite Orthodox celebrate their Christmas. Romania is home to over 1 million old rite Orthodox Christians, including ethnic Ukrainians, Russians, Armenians and Serbs, as well as Romanians.
Romanian delegate minister for higher education Mihnea Costoiu is on a one-week official visit to the US. He will be attending the International Space Exploration Forum in Washington. He is due to meet representatives of the US State Department and academics of Romanian origin from the Washington area, promoting Romanian higher education and research. He will also meet representatives of the Romanian Cultural Centre in Portland, Oregon, to discuss creating a school teaching in the Romanian language and to explore future collaboration between Romanian researchers in the US and Romanian universities.
The Romanian police has set up a special security zone with restricted traffic in the Romanian village of Pungesti, Vaslui County, the place in the east of the country where the American energy giant Chevron is setting up its first shale gas exploration facility. The first incidents that prompted this action occurred a month ago, when protesters clashed with gendarmes. Locals and green activists claim that shale gas extraction pollutes underground water and causes small-scale earthquakes.
