Bucharest

Anti-graft prosecutors in Romania on Tuesday detained Alina Bica, the former Chief Prosecutor for Organised Crime and Terrorism, and Serban Pop, the former head of the Tax Authority, for allegedly taking bribes from a businessman to resolve a court case in his favour.

Romania is playing an important part in basic Photonics research, Chairman of the Romanian Academy Ionel-Valentin Vlad said Tuesday in the opening speech to the ROMOPTO Micro/Nano Photonics international conference in Bucharest.

The member countries of NATO from Central and Eastern Europe are planning to hold a summit in Bucharest on November 3 and 4.

The former Eastern bloc countries of Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are expected to participate in the summit.

Former conservative New Democracy minister Michael Liapis has put up his Mykonos mansion for sale. The same former, arrested at beachside Loutsa in December 2013 for traveling with fake license plates, now lives in Greece and Romania.

Bulgarian hypermarket chain for baby and children's goods Hippoland begins its overseas expansion, with a store set to open in Romania's Bucharest on August 1.

The Bucharest-based store, located in the Auchan commercial center in the Drumul Taberei district, spans an area of over 1400 square meters.

Resistance is growing in Bucharest to a giant mosque proposed for the city and financed by Turkey, as part of its push to build religious centres in major cities outside the country.

The Romanian government has given 11,000 sqm of terrain next to the exhibition centre 'Romexpo' with a market value of ?3.9 million for free to the Mufti of the Romanian Muslim Community, Murat Yusuf.

Inspired by the legend of Dracula, the fictional vampire from Bram Stoker's horror story, organisers of the Untold music festival in Transylvania have launched a campaign to encourage blood donation in Romania.

Music Festival Encourages People to Donate Blood|Photo by Untold Festival 

Dozens of flights, takeoffs and landings were delayed on Wednesday at Bucharest's Henri Coanda International Airport after air traffic controllers went on strike for two hours.

"Our plan is to build a mosque with a capacity to hold 1,000 people, a small park for kids, a fountain, a place for ablution and a small summer school for the study of the Koran. Nothing more," Mufti Iusuf Murat, head of the Islamic community in Romania, said on Tuesday.

Romania's anti-corruption directorate, DNA, on Monday indicted Prime Minister and Social Democreatic Party leader Victor Ponta with forgery, being an accessory to tax evasion and money laundering. They also seized some of Ponta's assets.

The accusations relate to Ponta's previous activity as a lawyer for a law firm owned by a former minister, Dan Sova, a close friend of his.