Romanian prime minister Emil Boc announced before the Parliament on Monday that he dismisses Foreign minister Teodor Baconschi. He made the announcement shortly after apologizing before the joint chambers of the Parliament for communication failures of some members of the Government regarding the protests that have been taking place in Bucharest. By Monday afternoon, an announcement on the Foreign Ministry website said Baconschi was in Brussels for the Foreign Affairs Council.UPDATE PM Emil Boc later said that he dismissed minister Baconschi because dignitaries should not be "encouraged to insult people who are rightfully discontent". For his part, Teodor Baconschi said for news station Realitatea TV that PM Boc informed him by phone about the decision and said it was a political decision as the prime minister had nothing to complain about when it came to government affairs. One possible replacement for Baconschi, according to some sources, might be Cristian Diaconescu, head of the National Union for the Progress of Romania UNPR . [Link] [Cache]

Thousands of people were protesting against current president Traian Basescu and his Democratic-Liberal government in central Bucharest on Thursday evening. Two protests started in the afternoon - one organized by the opposition Social Democrats and Liberals the USL union at the Arcul de Triumf square, and another, popular protest in Universitate Square. While the political protest ended at 7 p.m., many of its estimated 7,000 participants moved to Universitate, where HotNews.ro reporters estimated some 2,000 people were present by 8 p.m..UPDATE The protests concluded about midnight, shortly after a series of confrontations between police and violent protesters took place. The incidents started at about 11.00 p.m., when gendarmes responded with a strong push after several young men, apparently football supporters, provoked them. The gendarmes eventually cleared the Universitate Square of protesters. Meanwhile, a US government official quoted by the AFP urged Romanian authorities and protesters to show restraint from violence. [Link] [Cache]

Romanian President Traian Basescu met the heads of diplomatic missions to Bucharest on Thursday. In his first speech since demonstrations against him and the government started in Romania last week, he said nothing about the protests but focused on the country's international affairs priorities. "2011 was a difficult year in which the economic, financial, humanitarian and sometimes political crises challenged governments and the people", he said. [Link] [Cache]

​Hundreds of people from several cities across Romania were on their way to Bucharest on Thursday for demonstrations to be organized by the Opposition parties later in the day. It is the first official political meeting after popular protests erupted last weekend, peaking with major street violence on Sunday. [Link] [Cache]

Romania enters a fourth day of anti-government and anti-presidential demonstrations after a weekend marked by the most intense street violence the country has seen since the miners protests in Bucharest in the nineties. Peaceful protests took place in many cities across Romania these days, but only the capital city saw a wave of violence, with HotNews.ro recorded videos showing dozens of violent football fans coming to confront the special police forces deployed in the city centre. [Link] [Cache]

​Romanian PM Emil Boc announced on Wednesday that the Government reached the macroeconomic targets for 2011 "without troubles". The economic growth, he said, stood at "almost 2%", as compared to the targeted 1.5%, while the budget deficit target of 4.4% was reached. [Link] [Cache]

The mayor of Romanian city of Sibiu, where a tiger escaped from zoo earlier this week, was quoted by the media on Thursday as saying that he was please with the actions taken to solve the situation despite describing them as chaotic. Mayor Klaus Johannis ordered measures to improve security at the zoo following the escape of the tiger - which was eventually shot in a forest near the city. [Link] [Cache]

Romanian MPs adopted on Thursday the 2012 state budget law with 239 votes in favor and 168 against. While prime minister Emil Boc welcomed the vote noting that it was "the first time in the past 20 years when a budget with no electoral connotations is voted, the opposition protested saying the budget would not meet key objectives and maintains the gap between Romania and other European countries. [Link] [Cache]

Romania's High Court of Justice acquitted ex-PM Adrian Nastase in a major case in which he, a former aide and a former head of the national body dealing with money laundering were charged with acts of corruption. The decision is not final and can be appealed. Anti-graft prosecutors have demanded a 3-year suspended term sentence for Adrian Nastase in the case, commonly known in Romania as the "Aunt Tamara" case. [Link] [Cache]

Romanian President Traian Basescu said on Friday that a Dutch decision to oppose Romania' and Bulgaria's Schengen accession was an "abuse". "Romania has Albita [Eastern border point], they have Rotterdam. The gate for trafficked cigarettes, alcohol and drugs is not Albita", the Romanian head of state said in Brussels, where he attends the European Council. [Link] [Cache]

The most important thing in Cuba is still the necessity to find ways to survive, mostly by taking part in illegal activities ranging from corruption through sex trafficking to various kinds of illicit deeds not thought of by even the most experienced observers. [Link] [Cache]

Cuban workers are virtually defenseless. The reason is that the labour law offices in Cuban work centres, which are supposed to defend worker's rights, are but an extended arm of the government and the Communist Party. [Link] [Cache]

92 years, 7 months and 28 days - this is the total amount of delays in 27 major corruption cases which have been monitored by HotNews.ro. Almost a year and a half since the Romanian-language version of HotNews.ro launched a section dedicated to such major corruption cases, a statistical report on the results were presented on Thursday during a conference organized by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, in the presence of most judicial institutions in Romania and key ambassadors to the country. [Link] [Cache]

Romania and Israel are interested in developing joint infrastructure, energy and agricultural projects, Romanian PM Emil Boc said in a press conference with his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, on the margins of an inter-governmental meeting in Jerusalem. Iran, Middle East relations and links between Israel and Romania featured prominently during the talks. [Link] [Cache]

A struggle to replace the second highest ranking official in Romania took a major twist on Wednesday, when the Senate voted its speaker Mircea Geoana out of office following him being ousted from the Social Democratic Party PSD, opposition on Tuesday. An interim speaker was named - Senator Petru Filip of the governing Democratic Liberal Party PDL , who will serve until a new speaker is officially elected. According to Romania's Constitution, should the President be suspended or unable to fulfill his duties, the Senate speaker takes his place. The PSD announced earlier this week it would start procedures to suspend President Traian Basescu. [Link] [Cache]

Romania's opposition Social-Liberal Union, formed of Social Democrats PSD and Liberals PNL , decided on Monday to launch a procedure to suspend President Traian Basescu. While leaders of the USL Union said they hoped to have the support of the Romanian people, PM Emil Boc had described a possible such move as demagogic and irresponsible. USL leaders said the official suspension request would be finished most probably within a week. [Link] [Cache]

The leader of Romania's main opposition party, the Social Democrats PSD , spoke kindly of the country's National Anti-corruption Department DNA in an interview with HotNews.ro. PSD leader Victor Ponta, who's party had repeatedly claimed the DNA has been acting politically at the current president Traian Basescu's order, changed the tone in the interview. He praised the DNA for starting to move against the top ranks of the "institutionalized corruption system" in the country. [Link] [Cache]

The leader of Romania's main opposition party, the Social Democrats PSD , said in an interview with HotNews.ro on Thursday that the PSD would accept any court sentence regarding former PM Adrian Nastase, who's the subject of several court cases which the PSD has so far described as politically motivated. PSD leader Victor Ponta's statement comes as Adrian Nastase broke Ponta's lines in a major internal struggle of the party. [Link] [Cache]

​The leadership of the Romanian Senate was undecided on Monday afternoon as the main opposition party, the Social Democrats PSD called on Senate speaker Mircea Geoana to withdraw from the second top job in the Romanian state. The PSD group in the Romanian Parliament later announced it withdrew its political support for Geoana and that it proposed Titus Corlatean, PSD vicepresident and head of the Foreign Affairs Committee, to take over the seat of Senate Speaker. [Link] [Cache]

​A calmer period for financial markets and an assurance that foreign banks will not withdraw capital from subsidiaries on the outskirts of the euro empire are the two key advantages Romania has following the deal of EU leaders on the set of crisis measures. But major question marks persist among authorities and business people in Bucharest. What do the measures decided forcedly in Brussels on Wednesday mean in real terms and what are the key issues of uncertainty following the euphoria of the moment? [Link] [Cache]

Romanian President informed the Romanian public in a press conference on Wednesday night that European leaders who had convened for marathon talks adopted the declaration on bank recapitalization. He used the occasion to underline that all states received guarantees that subsidiaries belonging to banks from other countries will have their capital level maintained for the coming years. [Link] [Cache]

IMF mission head Jeffrey Franks has told HotNews.ro that Romanian "growth in 2012 will be lower than we had previously expected due to the effects of problems in the rest of the European Union." On a possible cut in social contributions, a measure that the Romanian business environment has been pressing for, Franks said "there will be very limited room in the 2012 budget for new initiatives". He also sanctioned the Romanian government progress when it comes to arrears and the reform of state companies. [Link] [Cache]

Several days after the violent incident in which US basketball player Hardy Chauncey died in the Romanian city of Giurgiu, details about the case are yet to be cleared. Official reports of the police and prosecutors say he was beaten by a single person, but reports by local officials and journalists speak of several aggressors. Links of Romanian politicians and public authorities to a Giurgiu underworld clan which is apparently involved in the case have also emerged. [Link] [Cache]

​American basketball player Chauncey Hardy was beaten to death in Romanian city of Giurgiu on Saturday because he put his cap on a girl's head in a club that night, prosecutors investigating the case said on Monday. The victim - Hardy - was thrown to the floor and hit his head some 40 cm away from the place he was hit, according to the file. The case caused two investigations and an uproar among the public at large, considering the involvement of local mob personalities in Giurgiu. [Link] [Cache]

Libya, Afghanistan and the missile defense shield were the key issues covered in top NATO and Romanian officials at the Alliance's Parliamentary Assembly on Monday. While Europe had strong military forces, the gap between the US and its allies has widened for the past years and in Libya, European allies and Canada had most troops contributions but based their activities on US command capacities and essential units, said NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. On the missile defense, Romanian President Traian Basescu said for his part that his country has never asked for or received anti-missile guarantees from anybody and had an obligation to obtain them by themselves through partnerships with allies. [Link] [Cache]