700 Roma gypsies living in France face deportation by the end of August. The French government has announced plans to deport 700 Roma gypsies as Romania warns about the possibility of a xenophobic backlash. “I am worried about the risks of populism and xenophobic reactions in a context of economic crisis,” Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi said in an interview with Radio France... 

Traveller minorities blocked the bridge near Bordeaux in protest at plans to remove them Roma (Gypsies) have blocked a major road bridge near Bordeaux in protest after hundreds of them were evicted from an illegal campsite. Around 250 vehicles blocked the bridge for five hours on Sunday, causing tailbacks of up to five kilometres on a public holiday weekend. More than 40 illegal camps have been closed... 

Romanian gendarmes guard a path leading to the crash site. An open source intelligence report says the Israeli military helicopter that crashed in Romania last week was simulating a military attack on Iran. On Monday, six Israeli soldiers and a Romanian flight captain aboard a CH-53 transport helicopter were killed when the chopper crashed in a mountainous region of central Romania. The Jerusalem-based... 

France is saying that the Roma question must be dealt with within a European framework, but starting with the countries of origin France’s Europe minister, Pierre Lellouche, pressed Romania to tackle the question of “integration” of Roma communities on Monday. He softened his tone from a week before by underscoring that all European states had a responsibility in which he laid the... 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday ordered authorities to expel Gypsy illegal immigrants and dismantle their camps, amid accusations that his government is acting racist in its treatment of the group known as Roma. Sarkozy called a government meeting Wednesday after Gypsies clashed with police this month following the shooting death of a youth fleeing officers in the Loire Valley. Sarkozy... 

CH-53 helicopter The IAF has begun to understand it must pay a certain price for two very important dividends: experience in challenging situations and building possible future alliances. The veteran NCO at Tel Nof air base in Israel displays parentlike pride when showing off the Israel Air Force’s Yasur helicopters with their upgraded capabilities, and sometimes even slips in a sly hint or two... 

VAT and the flat tax remain unchanged, while wages in the public sector will drop 25%, President Traian Basescu announced on Thursday, after a meeting with IMF experts and politicians from the governmental coalition. Here are the main ideas put forward by the Romanian president: * There are 3 million people working the real economy and public sector spending transferred on those who work. The... 

“Roma” from Romania The website of the Daily Telegraph has been hit by hackers who defaced it with a screenshot from ‘Romanian National Security’. Chris Boyd, malware researcher at Sunbelt Software, said that vulnerabilities were found on the site back in March involving database access, and this has led to a ‘hacking group’ going in and defacing two subdomains. These were... 

Russia has serious concerns about U.S. plans to deploy missile interceptors in Romania, the Foreign Ministry said Friday. The statement from ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko reflected Moscow’s irritation about the U.S. missile defense plans and signaled tensions in relations with Washington. Nesterenko said that Russia has been annoyed to learn about the move from the media. “We... 

U.S. plans to place elements of its global missile shield in Romania pose a real threat to Russia’s national security, a Russian military analyst said on Friday. Romanian President Traian Basescu said on Thursday his country was ready to host U.S. medium-range interceptor missiles to counter a potential ballistic missile attack, but stressed that they would not be directed at Russia. “We... 

Across Europe thousands of Roma (Gypsy) children are being forced onto the streets to beg and steal, and law enforcement agencies are seemingly powerless to prevent it. Cash machines in Madrid are a particular target for street crime. The cardholder is distracted at the crucial moment by one person, allowing a child to dive in, grab the money and run off. Thirteen-year-old Daniela says she can make... 

The Romanian Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Association (ARCA) announced on Wednesday that it will launch in October the country’s first space rocket, in what is the final rehearsal for a 30 million dollar astronautic contest for landing a privately built spacecraft on the moon, initiated by the Google corporation. The rocket dubbed Helen will be launched from a Black Sea platform and is a three-stage... 

Soft touch Britain, created by successive Tory and Labour regimes, has generated so many foreign scroungers that an entire town in Romania lives off benefit fraud, an investigation has revealed. According to a report in The Times newspaper, an estimated £1 billion a year is defrauded from the benefits and tax credits system, with tens of millions of pounds lost to organised crime. There is, according... 

Romanian authorities arrested two Israeli fertility doctors under investigation in Bucharest, Israeli Consul in Romania Lili Ben Harush announced on Tuesday evening. It was not immediately known why Prof. Nathan Levitt and Dr. Genya Ziskind were arrested, but it was assumed to be after an alleged attempt to escape the country and obstruct the local investigation into the suspected illegal activities... 

A Romanian city mayor has outraged Jewish and pro-democracy groups after he goose-stepped with his son in World War Two German uniforms at a fashion show. Wearing Nazi uniform is illegal in the eastern European country. The Centre for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism (criticism and/or disliking Jews which are almost immune everywhere in the world has sent a letter to the country’s general...