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Romanian President fined for racist remarks about Roma

Bucharest, Romania, 12.2.2014 17:58, (ROMEA) Romanian President Traian Basescu must pay a fine in the amount of 600 Romanian new leu (approximately EUR 134) for making offensive remarks about Romani people during a state visit to Slovenia in 2010. Basescu said at the time that "very many Roma don't want to work" and that "many of them traditionally make their living through thievery".  full story

Russian MP makes excuses for racist photo montage of the Obamas

Russia, 11.2.2014 18:43, (ROMEA) Irina Rodnina, once a famous figure skater, is now an MP for a pro-Putin party in Russia. Recently she was given the honor of lighting the Olympic flame in Sochi together with former hockey player Vladislav Tretiak.  full story

Czech Govt to fight antigypsyism and anti-Semitism, beef up ombud and social housing

Prague, 11.2.2014 17:47, (ROMEA) Addressing social housing, fighting marginalization and a robust performance against antigypsyism and intolerance are all promised in the Czech Government's draft program declaration. The cabinet also wants to get a handle on the "trafficking in poverty at overpriced residential hotels."  full story

Hungarian Jews may boycott government Holocaust commemoration

Budapest, Hungary, 10.2.2014 19:11, (ROMEA) The Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (FHJC) will not be attending this year's official Holocaust commemoration unless the role played by Hungarians in the deportation and murder of Hungarian Jews is more clearly described during the event. The group, which is the main Jewish organization in Hungary, voted on the decision today.  full story

Romanian defenders of Roma: French President inciting racism

France, 10.2.2014 18:36, (ROMEA) One of the main organizations defending the rights of Roma people in Romania has charged French President François Hollande with inciting racism. Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports the group is responding to a recent attack against Roma in Paris.  full story

Czech Republic: Young adults inherit debt from day one

Most, 10.2.2014 17:39, (ROMEA) News server Peníze.cz has published an interview with Alena Zieglerová, who worked for many years as the head of the Labor Office in the Czech town of Most. She knows the Chanov housing estate, which has a large Romani population, and the problems of people "on the margins" of society firsthand.  full story

Russian MP who racially insulted US President lights the Olympic flame

Sochi, Russia, 8.2.2014 23:07, (ROMEA) Irina Rodnina, a Russian MP and former Olympic figure skating champion who lit the Olympic flame yesterday together with legendary former hockey goalie Vladislav Tretiak, is also known for having published a racist photograph of US President Barack Obama last September. Rodnina used Twitter to send out a photo montage of Obama and his wife Michelle looking at a banana.  full story

Italy: Jewish institutions in Rome receive pigs' heads by mail

Rome, Italy, 8.2.2014 21:24, (ROMEA) Several days prior to International Holocaust Remembrance day on 27 January, Jewish addresses in Rome were targeted with an insult. The Italian media reported that three Jewish institutions received packages by mail with pigs' heads in them; anti-Jewish graffiti turned up in several places in Rome as well.  full story

France refuses return to deported Romani girl, she threatens suicide

Paris/Prishtina, 7.2.2014 20:04, (ROMEA) A French court has refused to grant a residence permit to the parents of Leonarda Dibrani, a Romani girl from Kosovo who was deported from France last year under scandalous circumstances. Wire services reported at the end of January that the teenager has responded to the court's decision by threatening to commit suicide.  full story

Slovakia: Growing support for Fascists puts the legislature in reach

Bratislava, Slovakia, 7.2.2014 19:27, (ROMEA) A public opinion surveyby the MVK agency in Slovakia finds that the popularity of the ultra-right People's Party - Our Slovakia (Lidová strana - Naše Slovensko, or LS-NS) has grown to such an extent that the party, led by right-wing extremist Marian Kotleba, could be seated in the legislature if elections were held today. Last fall Kotleba surprised the country by winning direct elections to become the governor of the Banská Bystrica Region.  full story

Czech town uses EU funds for police assistant to restrain unruly pupils in the schools

Sokolov, 7.2.2014 17:26, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that in the Czech town of Sokolov a new reinforcement to the municipal police has begun addressing truancy with troubled families and will even be sitting as an observer next week in classrooms where instruction is disrupted by undisciplined pupils. The police assistant mission is being started at the Primary School on Křižíkova Street, where most of the children (approximately 40) from a recently closed, so-called Romani primary school were reassigned a year and half ago.  full story

German authorities reject award-winning Bosnian Romani man's asylum request

Berlin, Germany, 7.2.2014 0:32, (ROMEA) Nazif Mujić, a Romani man from Bosnia, was the star of last year's Berlinale film festival, winning the Silver Bear for Best Actor for his performance in the docudrama "An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker". As of the end of last month, he and his family were living in a residential hotel for refugees on the outskirts of Berlin and waiting to learn whether they would have to leave Germany against their will.  full story

Czech Police looking for man who gave the Nazi salute in the Prague metro

Prague, 7.2.2014 0:00, (ROMEA) Police officers from a local station in the Vysočany quarter of Prague and detectives investigating extremism are working on the case of an aggressor who verbally assaulted his fellow passengers on the metro before giving the Nazi salute at the Kolbenova metro station. On Monday, 27 January at about 11:30 AM, the man reportedly shouted racial epithets at a tourist from France while riding in a metro car between the Vysočanská and Kolbenova stops.  full story

UK: Right-wing extremists use social networks to propagandize through kidnapping hoax

London, 6.2.2014 22:56, (ROMEA) British newspaper The Independent reports that during the past week, thousands of British users of social networking sites have been sharing a poster calling on people to help a little girl allegedly kidnapped by an "Asian gang". Little "Amy Hamilton", however, doesn't exist - she is the creation of an ultra-right group, Britons against Left-Wing Extremism, who have been using the image for propaganda purposes.  full story

Czech media ignores trial of 2013's most serious racially-motivated attack

Teplice/Ústí nad Labem, 6.2.2014 21:47, (ROMEA) At the end of January, the Regional Court in Ústí nad Labem reviewed last year's most serious case of racially-motivated violence (according to the indictment). During the celebration of the opening of the spa in Teplice, a local recidivist stabbed a man to death and seriously injured several others with a hunting knife.  full story

videoStudent life: Roma Students in Central Eastern Europe

Budapešť, 6.2.2014 12:27, (ROMEA) This year Central European University (Budapest, Hungary) is hosting more than 5o Roma students both MA students and Roma Access Programs students. CEU is well known in Central Eastern Europe for its higher education programs for Roma students. Currently there are two ongoing programs: Roma Graduate Preparation Program and Roma English Language Program.  full story

Museum of Roma Culture director: Today's anti-Roma sentiment recalls interwar society

Brno/Prague, 6.2.2014 0:25, (ROMEA) In the Czech Senate on 27 January, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, speeches were made by Senate chair Milan Štěch, the vice-chair of the Chamber of Deputies MP Jaroslava Jermanová (ANO movement), Auschwitz survivor Luděk Eliáš, and the director of the Museum of Roma Culture, Jana Horváthová. News server Romea.cz brings you Ms Horváthová's speech in full translation below.  full story

Greek neo-Nazi party to run even if banned

Athens, Greece, 5.2.2014 20:56, (ROMEA) The Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn will find a way to participate in local elections and elections to the European Parliament even if harsh measures are adopted against it. Party spokesperson Ilias Kasidiaris issued the party's official statement on the issue this past Saturday.  full story

MEPs agree greater protections for LGBTI rights

Strasbourg, France, 5.2.2014 17:37, (ROMEA) The rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and intersex persons in the European Union should be better protected from now on. MEPs have agreed today to approve a plan to combat homophobia and discrimination in the EU on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.  full story

FXB Center, Harvard University: Violence and Attacks Against Roma Should Sound Alarms in the International Community

Boston/Cambridge, 5.2.2014 12:06, (ROMEA) Harvard University’s FXB Center for Health and Human Rights released a report documenting “Accelerating Patterns of Anti-Roma Violence in Hungary”. The report is intended to alert the United Nations and the international community to the persistent patterns of violent attacks and actions against the Roma (pejoratively called Gypsies).  full story