A former deputy is arrested in Los Angeles for threatening to kill his mistress. A former banker is charged for commanding the assassination of a business rival. Pollution in the Galati steel plant kills thousands of times more people. But we have more important problems to deal with.
The governing parties move their dispute onto the Internet, liberals being called to post as many messages as they can on forums and newspapers' sites. Funny place to be, the Romanian virtual space!
Former social-democrat deputy Raj Tunaru is in prison in Los Angeles, being arrested after his mistress filed a complaint, showing that he threatened to kill her.
In September, Tunaru was arrested for beating his mistress, but his wife managed to gather 500,000 dollars for bail. Still, after his renewed threats, he was once again arrested and, this time, the one million dollar bail proved to be unaffordable, Evenimentul zilei reads.
Back in Bucharest, controversial businessman Sever Muresan was arrested, at the demand of French authorities, being charged as accessory to murder. Besides the tax evasion, embezzlement and money laundering, Sever Muresan is believed to have ordered the killing of a Swiss rival, Jurnalul National informs.
The Mittal Steel Galati, in exchange, is guilty of destroying the environment, or at least that's what The National Environment Guard (GNM) officials say. Commissioner general Silvian Ionescu already filed criminal charges against Mittal Steel, after finding that the company managed to cover only 20% of the Environmental Compliance Plan for 2006.
An independent laboratory still conducts extensive researches in the area, but the file is as good as opened, Gandul reads.
Pollution may cause various diseases, but Romanian deal with it. A recent poll indicates that 54% of Romanians blame their jobs for their illness, compared with an European average of 35% (Greece leads with 68%) and a perfect job environment like UK - 20%.
Still, Romanians are the ones who almost never "call in sick". Only 15% of the employees ever demand one or several days off, due to various affections, compared to an European average of 22%, and a top 45% in Finland, same Gandul informs.
Anyway, things may change when the highways in Romania are built at last, so we may find our way easier towards holiday destinations.
Not necessarily cheaper, since the Transport Minister is firmly defending his idea to charge 5 euros per 100 kilometers of highway, regardless the kind of funds used for construction, Cotidianul reads.
Speaking of transport: the US ambassador to Bucharest, Nicholas Taubman, pleads for the trans-Atlantic air travel liberalization, days before the historic meeting on the "Open Sky Plus" agreement. Read the entire article in Cotidianul.
Back to the politics, things are quite the same as usual. The Parliament tries to reduce the presidential influence as much as possible, the latest initiative being designed to transfer the international representation charges to the Prime Minister, Gandul reads.
PM's party, Liberals, were already instructed to take over the Internet forums and publish opinions against the president, according to Cotidianul. The reporters found a series of e-mails proving the "political order to fight president Basescu".
The good news is that Bucharest prepares for the "Fashion Week" (Jurnalul National), hopefully an event of glamour, not quarrel.
