Romania

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — The Republic of Moldova has turned to a non-Russian natural gas supplier for the first time as the former Soviet republic seeks to avert a looming gas shortage this winter after failing to renew a long-term supply contract with Moscow.

On Tuesday, Moldova received a million cubic meters of gas from Poland in a move aimed at diversifying its energy supply following years of strong Russian influence over the small nation of 3.5 million people.

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania’s president on Thursday nominated a former army general to be prime minister in the latest effort to end a political crisis amid a coronavirus surge that is stretching the country’s health care system to capacity.

After holding consultations with Romania’s parliamentary parties, President Klaus Iohannis asked Nicolae Ciuca of the National Liberal Party to try to form a new government. Ciuca, who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, currently serves as the caretaker defense minister.

BUCHAREST, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Romanian coalition government led by Prime Minister Florin Citu collapsed on Tuesday, losing a censure motion initiated by main opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) and supported by all oppositions in the parliament plus the second largest party in the newly-split ruling coalition.

The motion was passed by 281 votes in favor, much more than the required minimum of 234, or 50 percent plus one in the 467-seat bicameral parliament.

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A fire at a hospital in the Romanian port city of Constanta killed at least seven COVID-19 patients, authorities said Friday.

All the victims were in the intensive care unit of Constanta’s Hospital for Infectious Diseases, said Constantin Amarandei, head of the city’s emergency inspectorate.

Interior minister Lucian Bode said Friday that the early official figure of nine dead was “wrongly” reported. “We are talking about seven people … five in hospital and two after being transferred to other hospitals,” he said.

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — In a packed intensive care unit for coronavirus patients in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, 55-year-old Adrian Pica sits on his bed receiving supplementary oxygen to help him breathe. “I didn’t want to get vaccinated because I was afraid,” he said.

Around 72% of adults in the 27-nation European Union have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but a stubbornly low uptake of the shots in some eastern EU nations now risks overwhelming hospitals amid a surge of infections due to the more contagious delta variant.

BUCHAREST, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Romania's centrist ruling coalition faced possible collapse on Thursday as a junior party withdrew support for the prime minister in a row over the sacking of its justice minister, threatening economic recovery and prolonged instability.

The dismissal of Stelian Ion deepened rifts in the centrist coalition formed between Prime Minister Florin Citu's Liberals, the centrist USR-Plus and the ethnic Hungarian Party UDMR after the national election in December 2020.

BUCHAREST, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- A Romanian military plane returned here on Saturday from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, bringing back 15 Romanian nationals and four Bulgarian citizens.

In a press statement, President Klaus Iohannis stressed that the authorities will continue the efforts to evacuate Romanian citizens who are still in Afghanistan and who want to be repatriated.

BUCHAREST, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Moldova's new cabinet headed by Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita took the oath of office late Friday before President Maia Sandu at the Presidential Palace in central Chisinau, capital of Moldova, soon after receiving a vote of confidence in the parliament.

The head of state urged the new cabinet to rise to the expectations of Moldovans, saying that "I will support you, the parliament will support you... but it is very important to have the support of the citizens."

BUCHAREST, July 15 (Reuters) - A Black Hawk helicopter belonging to the U.S. military made an emergency landing on a Bucharest street on Thursday, tearing down two public street lights and stopping traffic but making no casualties.

The helicopter was part of a group of six which were rehearsing ahead of events to mark Romanian Air Force day and the end of Romanian military presence in Afghanistan on July 20-21. Footage from eyewitnesses show it suddenly losing altitude and flying low above cars until landing nearby in a downtown roundabout which traffic police had cleared.

BUCHAREST (AP) — Moldovan voters go to the polls this weekend in a snap parliamentary election that could decide whether the former Soviet republic fully embraces pro-Western reforms or prolongs a political impasse under strong Russian influence.

The landlocked country of 3.5 million — Europe’s poorest, sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine — has in recent years lurched from one political crisis to another, dogged by instability and stuck in geopolitical limbo between pro-Western and pro-Russia forces.