Romania should improve relations with Russia spoiled by Basescu

BUCHAREST, November 28 (Itar-Tass) -- Romania "has lost the
competition for the participation in the South Stream gas project to
Bulgaria over Romanian President Traian Basescu's negative statements
towards Russia," the former Romanian president Emil Constantinescu said in
an interview with the Romanian portal Inpolitics.
"South Stream is a very important project for such European country as
Romania. It envisaged new jobs in the country and new investments. We have
also lost enormous money of approximately two billion euros, about which
Vladimir Putin was speaking in Bulgaria," Constantinescu noted. He noted
that this failure was caused by "unreasonable statements, which Basescu
and his associates have made that resulted in the full loss of trust in
Russia and European partners." The former president gave as an example
"Basescu's irresponsible statements that 'Gazprom is the Red Army' and
'the Black Sea is a Russian lake.'"
Emil Constantinescu noted that "Romania should improve the relations
with Russia," underscoring regretfully that this "will take much time" now.
The former Romanian president said with regret that "Romania lost its
role in the regional European foreign policy in the last few years, lost
the regional leadership over the loss of trust from foreign partners." "We
have finally lost this trust during Traian Basescu's presidency," he noted.
Emil Constantinescu has been Romania's president in 1996-2000, but
then refused to run for this post. Constantinescu was born in November
1939 in the city of Tighina (currently Bendery - Moldova). During his
presidency the first proposals for the unification of Moldova and Romania
were actively made. Romanian-Russian relations have deteriorated at this
period of time.

.Artillery fire being waged inside North Korea.

SEOUL, November 28 (Itar-Tass) -- Several artillery salvoes were heard
again in the area of South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea on
Sunday, officials in the South Korean Chiefs of Staff Committee reported.
The South Korean military officials affirm that "the traces of the
artillery shelling were found" in the area of this island, but the shells
did not explode on the island. They believe that the artillery fire is
being waged inside North Korea.
Over the joint naval exercises with the U.S. 7th Fleet launched on
Sunday south of the border between the Koreas the South Korean forces are
monitoring closely the North Korean coastal artillery.
North Korea deployed air defence systems SA-2 with a fire range from
13 to 30 kilometres. Other missiles, including Samlet and Silkworm, with a
fire range up to 95 kilometres, were also put on the launchers.
The previous order for an urgent evacuation of about 20 local
residents and journalists, who were still staying on the Yeonpyeong
Island, to the bomb shelters is cancelled.

.Russian identified among Il-76 dead crewmembers.

ISLAMABAD, November 28 (Itar-Tass) -- A Russian citizen, who was
onboard a cargo airplane Il-76 that crashed in Karachi, was identified.
Alexander Ulyanov was on the crew of the crashed airplane, a source in the
Russian Consulate in Karachi said on Sunday. Other seven crewmembers are
being identified.
It was earlier reported with a reference to the Pakistani Civil
Aviation Authority that all eight crewmembers killed in the Il-76 crash
were Russian citizens. However, the Russian Embassy in Islamabad refrains
from any comments before all crewmembers are identified.
It is unclear yet what air company operated the crashed airplane. The
Pakistani authorities reported that the private air company Sunway
Airlines charted the airplane that was en route to Sudan from the United
Arab Emirates. Meanwhile, the Russian Embassy in Islamabad reported that
no information is available about Russian airplanes flying via Karachi.
Other crewmen could be citizens of other CIS states.
-0-baz