What the newspapers say: December 27, 2007

The winter holidays experience brings a bit of hope for the drivers on the verge of nervous breakdown, after some 200 new Road Police officers proved that traffic in Bucharest may be less chaotic. But that is almost all the good news for this Christmas, when even the Orthodox Churches proved to be unable to respect the spirit and fell into unwelcome controversies.

„Not a single large crossroad without its policeman” seems to be the new motto for the Bucharest Police. After bringing to Bucharest over 100 officers to assist the road traffic, the Police realized that the problem may be somewhat solved and opened 300 new jobs, out of which 200 only for Bucharest. The intervention of the 100 supplementary agents proved to be efficient this winter, Evenimentul Zilei reads.

Meanwhile, „computer geeks” who tried to spent their holidays acting like hackers and making an extra-buck saw another kind of „IP traffic Police” knocking at their doors. A small, obscure Romanian city, Ramnicu Valcea, has recently won the title of „international capital of Internet and credit card frauds”. Secret Service agents and eBay employees try to apprehend Romanian hackers in this city, Gandul reports, adding that Romania is currently considered as the fifth most problematic countries in this field.

Santa did not bring any good news for the rich, either. Romania richest businessman, Dinu Patriciu, sees his company, Rompetrol, involved in a scandal about to become explosive. One of the Rompetrol employees, Irina Berar, is accused of handling Justice Ministry confidential files using Rompetrol offices and computers. Berar was a member of the panels deciding the notes of prosecution office candidates. Therefore, the accusations against her show that personal and career information regarding prosecutors were available beyond any control in Rompetrol computers, Gandul informs. Rompetrol and Dinu Patriciu were a constant target of the National Anti-Corruption Prosecution Office during the past few years.

Finally, despite the Christmas spirit that was supposed to make all people better, at least for a few days, the Ukraine Metropolitan Church reopened the conflict with the Romanian Orthodox Church on the very Christmas Eve night. Metropolitan bishop Vladimir, subordinated to the Russian Patriarchy, once again condemned the opening of three Romanian eparchies in Ukraine. „Ukrainians in Romania are members of the Romanian Orthodox Church, all Romanians in Ukraine are in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Who is unhappy with this?” asked Vladimir.