Saturday, September 08, 2007

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President Basescu undergoes surgery


The President of Romania Traian Basescu is to undergo surgery today in the Military Hospital, Bucharest because of a thyroid gland trouble. Whether it is cancer or not it will be found out afterwards. Nicolae Vacaroiu, a president of the Romanian senate, is taking over the President's attributions for the hours the latter will be under total anesthesia.
Autonomous knot on the right thyroid lobe, the President's disease, was detected last June. The surgery, which Presidency Administration describes as routine, is to be supervised by experts coming from three different hospitals, one of them the C.I. Parhon Endocrinology Institute.
Despite the calming information coming from Cotroceni Palace, specialists say things are not that certain. Apart from the risks involved in any surgery, they mention some form of cancer can't be out of question.
Cancer or hyperthyroidism ?
Since the press releases from Presidency Administration are so vague, Romanians are wondering what thyroid disease is President Basescu suffering from and why is the surgery necessary, since it isn't about cancer. The endocrinologists ZIUA has talked to have tackled it, starting from the very scarce information and medical clues leaking from Presidency Administration yesterday, with the latter institution trying to muffle the President's real state of health.
Civil society seems shocked to hear the news about the surgery President Basescu must absolutely undergo in a Romanian hospital, given the tragic denouement of the surgery performed on His Holiness the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
The first press release from Cotroceni Palace used key-word to confuse public opinion. Endocrinologist Dan Peretianu, a Ph. D. in medical sciences, opines the use of a word such as "routine" next to "surgery" in the communique from Presidency "is misleading, inducing the idea there is no severe health problem". (...)
"Thyroid cancer is usually settled by surgery", doctor Peretianu explains. It is therefore a mystery why patient Basescu did not undergo a biopsy by modern means that exclude surgery. (...)

D.E.I. & S.A.
Ziua Sambata 8 Septembrie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Prostitutes removed from Bucharest streets

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Bucharest policemen have taken action to remove prostitutes from streets this autumn. The action is now in progress because most sanctions have proved inefficient. Christian Ciocan, a spokesman for Bucharest Police, explains that since the beginning of 2007 until now 2,666 prostitutes were fined and the state budget is to cash over 6 million RON.
Mediafax Agency informs there are 289 criminal cases on prostitution and another 289 against pimps. The spokesman explains: "Given the inefficiency of fines and sometimes of criminal cases, an action to fight such kind of crimes will be taken in Bucharest in September 1 - November 31, 2007".
The Police official says this is meant to drive prostitutes away from the streets of the city. He mentions that last year only about 30% of the prostitutes fined paid the fines. He comments: "These girls have actually got nothing: no properties and belongings. Their address is in fact in a different locality. Even if the fines reach these places, they aren't paid".
Dialogue with journalists
Bucharest Police took such action together on Thursday night and the prostitutes caught red-handed could talk to the journalists accompanying the policemen. The employees of Police Station 8 in Bucharest picked up 7 such prostitutes, after having caught 2 of them red-handed.
First they wouldn't talk to the press, but then some of them spoke up. A woman in her late twenties told us serenely: "I have 3 children, the oldest one is 8. I took up prostitution two years ago because I couldn't afford to buy them food, but I have got to like it". She told the police would catch her weekly and lately every day and she told she had a lot of fines to pay. "I go back anyway and they can pick me up again", she said.
Adriana is a 29-year-old go-between. She explained: "I have 6 or 7 girls to see to. I stop clients on the street, I tell them the prices and I get 10% for myself. I must earn a living somehow. I have a 4-year-old child to take care of". She added it was the only "job" she could manage to have.
Flori is 29 and her experience in the field is 3 years. She told journalists: "I have got a lot of fines to pay. I had a criminal case for prostitution and the court fined me. That fine is the only one I paid". She just added she hated her way or making a living. (...)

Adrian Ghiciusca
Ziua Sambata 8 Septembrie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english