To combat congenital birth defects and educate and assist women in the first stages of pregnancy, Ioana Popescu Tariceanu, Emma Nicholson and the WHO helped launch a new charity, Fundatia Copii Sanatosi (Healthy Children's Foundation) at the Howard Johnson. “It's not enough to assume that the Government will do everything,” said Nicholson, who called for more corporate and individual sponsors for the new charity, among whom include prime minister Tariceanu and Maximilian von Habsburg

Kids were rewarded for being clever with computers as InfoMatrix, the International Informatics Project Competition sponsored by Lumina Educational Institutions and Microsoft Romania, awarded the best students and teachers who took part in the competition co-organized by the Romanian Ministry of Education. Among the guests were Ambassador of Turkey Ahmet Okcun, Varujan Pambuccian, president of the IT&C Commission and Elena Udrea, Counsellor of President Basescu.

. “Romania still needs to create a culture of care, giving and volunteering,” said US charge d'affaires Thomas Delare at the official launch of the United Way Romania, a foundation dedicated to corporate social responsibility activities and philanthropy. United Way board member and Raiffeisen Bank Romania president Steven van Groningen added: “As businesses we receive requests from NGOs daily, there is a big need for funding, but it is difficult for corporations to form an opinion every day on where the money should go.” While Radu Florescu, local Saatchi and Saatchi managing director, said it was the best time to give to charities, as the new fiscal law allows one per cent of taxes to be set aside for donations.

Romanian fashionista Doina Levintza, Pakistani designer Mehdi and flamboyant Italian Pal Zideri showed off their posh frocks and new trousers at a benefit organised by Unicef and ABN Amro at the Crowne Plaza Bucharest in support of Romanian children affected by HIV/AIDS. Calin Popescu Tariceanu and his wife Ioana, the Pakistan charge d'affaires Arshad Jan Pathan, European Commission delegation head Jonathan Scheele and UN Ambassador Soknan Han Jung were among those present

“We have come to a point when we are aware of the freedom of the press,” said minister of justice Monica Macovei at a recent seminar held by the Center for Independent Journalism and the Norwegian Embassy. “The press and the national prosecutor's office are on the same side of the barricade, so the hostility between the journalists and prosecutors is unjustified.” The debate saw how the least corrupt country with the most independent press in Europe, Norway, could help teach the new European country with the most corruption and the least liberated media. “Can the EU help Romania to fight corruption?” asked Rune Ottson, professor of journalism in Oslo. “The job has to be done here. And don't forget that EU has his own problems.”