Romania

Dracula's castle in Romania offers tourists COVID vaccine

Medics with fang stickers on their scrubs are offering Pfizer shots to everyone who visits the 14th-century Bran Castle in central Romania.

It is part of a government drive to encourage more Romanians to get jabbed.

Some believe the castle inspired the vampire's lair in Bram Stoker's iconic novel Dracula.

Romania has recorded just over a million infections since the pandemic began, and nearly 29,000 deaths.

Powerful storm kills eight in Romania

Most of the victims were in and around the city of Timisoara, where winds of up to 100km/h (60mph) brought down trees and tore off roofs.

Some water and electricity supplies have been cut.

"We weren't warned about this. The weather report only called for rain," Timisoara's mayor Nicolae Robu told TV channel Digi 24.

Romania's emergency services urged people to shelter indoors and avoid going near trees or power lines.

The storm is currently moving north towards Ukraine.

 

Photo caption: The storm brought down trees, damaging cars

Canada defeat Romania 15-17

Gordon McRorie's penalty and a DTH van der Merwe try put Canada 8-0 in front at half-time.

The lead became 15-0 as Jeff Hassler bounced his way out of some tame tackling to touch down.

But number eight Mihai Macovei went over for two late tries and Florin Vlaicu's penalty won it for Romania.

It is the first time Canada have lost all four of their group matches at a World Cup, while Romania can still finish third in Pool D - securing automatic qualification for the 2019 World Cup - if they beat Italy on Sunday.

Romanian PM criticizes Hungary for fence plan

Victor Ponta said Tuesday on his Facebook page that "barbed wire, aggressive laws, prison and brutality will not resolve problems."

Ponta added on Antena 3 television that he was "horrified" to think about what to do "if Hungarian troops begin to shoot or kill children and women."

He said the fence plans show that Hungary "in the heart of Europe, has political decision makers which are no better than those in Syria, Libya or other countries that refugees flee from."