The Romanian government was thrown into turmoil today over public strikes against cuts, with the interior minister resigning, the opposition demanding the prime minister go too and top police officials holding emergency talks with the president.

FRANCE defied mounting international criticism of its crackdown on Roma and Gypsy minorities yesterday, sending another planeload back to eastern Europe.

The Romanian government narrowly survived a no-confidence vote today after the opposition failed to muster the votes needed to topple it over unpopular cuts in wages, pensions and benefits.

A 40-YEAR-OLD Romanian horticultural engineer and politician, Dr Dacian Ciolos, is the new European Commissioner designate for agriculture and rural development.

Romanian-born German writer Herta Mueller won the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature today.

AN 11-year-old girl who was reportedly raped by her uncle can have an abortion in Romania on exceptional grounds, the country’s government ruled.

The Romanian government will decide today whether to allow an 11-year-old Romanian girl to travel to Britain for an abortion.

ROMA gypsies are being rounded up and expelled from Italy on foot of a decree rushed into law last week allowing the country to take such action against anybody who threatened security.

Since the foundation of the State, this country has been in the relatively stable position of having little or no racial problems, as there was no real immigration.

The Romanian Ambassador to Ireland is accusing members of the Roma family living on a motorway roundabout in Dublin of misleading the Irish public.

DEBT and Development Coalition Ireland yesterday called on the Irish Government to take steps to stop “vulture funds” from undermining debt cancellation by pursuing debts from poor countries.

At least 10 people have been killed and two are missing as storms and floods hit large areas of the eastern Balkans, leaving thousands of people stranded.

Two car bombs exploded near government offices in the Iraqi capital today, killing 18 and wounding three dozen as insurgent attacks against security forces left at least eight others dead.

THOUSANDS of people desperate to adopt a child are being urged to lobby their MEPs to force Romania to relax a blanket ban on foreign adoptions.

A Romanian woman was in a stable condition today after an eight hour operation to remove a 176 pound benign tumour.

A medical team led by a renowned US plastic surgeon began a marathon operation in Bucharest today to remove a 176lb benign tumour from a Romanian woman.

The head of the Romanian Dambovita Child Protection Agency has said that the Dundalk woman taking care of four-year-old orphan Mihaela Porumbaru will not be allowed to adopt the girl.

A four-year-old disabled Romanian girl has been forced to return to her native country over a visa dispute.