RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE  25 January 2000

HUNGARY, AUSTRIA TO CLEAR DANUBE BRIDGE DEBRIS. According to
a Hungarian-Austrian joint report, the ruins of three bridges
in Novi Sad destroyed during NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia
could be cleared from the Danube in two or three months at a
cost of some $24.1 million. Representatives of the two
countries on 24 January presented the document in Budapest to
Helmuth Strasser, chairman of the Danube Commission. Strasser
said that if a consensus is reached the commission will
forward the document to the EU which will then seek bids from
member-states and other countries. MSZ

CRIMINAL CASE LAUNCHED AGAINST CLUJ MAYOR. The chief
prosecutor of a regional appeals court on 24 January indicted
Cluj Mayor Gheorghe Funar on suspicion of abusing his public
position and harming private interests. The government has
suspended Funar from his position pending an investigation.
The indictment relates to a legal dispute in which the
private company Alimentara claims the mayor gave it a permit
to build a supermarket and then withdrew it. Funar, who also
chairs the chauvinist Greater Romania Party, said the
indictment is part of a political campaign against him,
Hungarian TV reported. He said he will organize
demonstrations in Cluj and Bucharest against his suspension.
VG

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