Hundreds of employees with the Oltchim Râmnicu Vâlcea chemical works in southern Romania today carry on protests against the judicial administrator’s plan to lay off around 1,000 people. The unions, which protested last week as well against the redundancies, claim the measure is illegal and demand the resignation of the judicial administrator and a meeting with prime minister Victor Ponta. Yesterday the Economy Minister, Varujan Vosganian, announced yesterday, after talks with Oltchim trade union leaders, that the overdue salaries of employees will be paid by mid-April. He added that all those who will be laid off will receive severance packages. Oltchim, which is undergoing insolvency procedures because of its huge debts, is one of the large state-owned companies to be privatised.

In Bucharest and several other Romanian cities, ceremonies have been held today, occasioned by the celebration of 163 years since the establishment of the Romanian Gendarme Corps. The Interior Minister, Radu Stroe, said the primary goal of these units is to strengthen citizen safety. He also congratulated the Romanian gendarmes involved in foreign security missions in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Georgia. According to Stroe, the international esteem gained by the Romanian gendarmes by professionally completing NATO and UN missions proves that they are trained and educated to be providers, guarantors and defenders of peace and justice.

Transactions involving the stock of Bank of Cyprus and Cyprus Popular Bank will be suspended until April 15th, so as to protect the shareholders of the leading banks in Cyprus, the stock exchange in Nicosia has today announced. The Cypriot authorities last week accepted to close down the country’s second-largest bank, Cyprus Popular Bank, under the pressure of international lenders, the IMF, EU and ECB, after tough negotiations that threatened to cause new turmoil in the world financial markets and to reignite the debt crisis. On Monday the central bank of Cyprus decided to suspend the operations of Bank of Cyprus in Romania for a week, with customers only able to use the bank’s ATM network during this period.

North Korea announced it would restart all installations at its main nuclear facility, Yoggbyon, including a uranium enrichment unit shut down in 2007. The decision comes amid growing tensions between this country and South Korea and the USA, and will enable Pyongyang to produce enriched uranium that may be used in producing nuclear bombs. Last week North Korea announced entering a “state of war” with South Korea. The USA deployed a warship off the North-Korean coast, in a display of support for Seoul against the recent threats coming from the communist regime in Pyongyang. North Korea has tested three nuclear bombs since 2006, much to the disapproval of the international community.