What the newspapers say: August 18, 2010 

​All newspapers on Wednesday read about the espionage scandal in Moscow, involving a Romanian diplomat: one newspaper reads that the Russian secret services leaked the tape portraying the arrest of the diplomat. Another topic that made the first page of most dailies today is the tragedy at the Giulesti Maternity in Bucharest: one newspaper reads that prosecutors started to question the medical personnel. Another newspaper quotes a doctor qualifying the tragedy as the most severe cases on the planet. The international press comments the tragedy as well.

The Russian secret services leaked in the Russian press the tape portraying the arrest of the Romanian diplomat Gabriel Grecu, accused of espionage in Moscow, Evenimentul Zilei reads. The newspaper quotes a Russian publication, Komsomolskaia Pravda who declared that the Russian secret services were well aware of the interest of the Romanian undercover spies in Moldovan and Russian citizens.

The interest in a certain Russian citizen who had access to secret data was known even before Grecu came to Moscow, undercover, sources declared for the publication.

Former first secretary of the Romanian Embassy to Moscow, Dinu Pistol, Grecu’s predecessor, already tried to contact and convince a Russian citizen, who had access to the information Romania needed regarding the situation in Moldova and Transniester.

The source reads that the connection was made through e-mail, using different key words and the information was sent through packages left in supermarket boxes. All data sent by the Russian citizen were paid in foreign currency but the information was not secret at all, the newspaper reads.

When Grecu arrived, replacing Pistol, he asked the Russian citizen secret information, including military data. The Russian got scared and announced the Russian secret services, the newspaper reads.

Gandul reads about the tragedy at the Giulesti maternity, in the intensive care unit that took place on Monday, killing four babies and severely injuring another 7. The newspaper reads that prosecutors started to question the medical personnel on duty that day.

The nurse in charge of taking care of the babies declared that she left for a few minutes to go to the toilet and when she returned, she saw the fire and the smoke and alerted other colleagues who called the firefighters.

Three of the babies, who died shortly after they were rescued, were on the tables and not in the incubator, where they were supposed to be.

Romania libera reads about the same tragedy that shocked the whole country. Doctor Dan Enescu, quoted by the newspaper, said that these are the most severe cases in the world. According to WHO statistics, those with the least chances of survival are the newly born and the burnt.

In the tragedy, the newly born were born premature, have half the normal size, an insufficient imunitary system and a faulty functioning of all organs. Add to this that at least 50% of their body is affected by burns.

There are over 100 doctors, medical personnel who attend the little seven babies that survived the tragedy. Enescu explains that , as far as he knows, this is a unique tragedy in the world: he says there were two cases, one in India with two babies and another in the US involving four babies but there wasn’t a case involving so many babies.

The doctor declared that their recovery chances are equal to a 90 year old man. The only good news in the whole event is that the fire affected only the two levels of skin and if they will make it alive, the seven babies have every chance not to have physical faults due to progress made by plastic surgeory.

In the international press, the tragedy was not ignored, on the contrary, it was used to underlined, once more the deficiences of the Romanian Health system. Reuters reads that safety standards in Romania did not change much since the Communist period, and medical services are considered among the weakest in EU.

Italian website TG.com writes that Romania is one of the poorest EU countries with medical services still backward.

France Press reads that an investigation was launched, seeking those accountable and says that the presumed cause is a faulty AC instalation.

CNN informed that the babies were several days old and some of them were made in vitro by women over 35 years old.

Deutsche Press declared that the materity is considered one of the top hospitals of the sort in Romania and was recently rehabilitated.