Daniel Mihailescu / AFP - Getty Images
A man stretches a giant flag of the European Union in front of Romania's parliament building in Bucharest on May 9, 2013.
A private TV station installed the flag, weighing over 1,750 pounds and measuring 459 feet by 328 feet, to mark Europe Day. The stars were sewn on by hand after the giant flag was laid out at an aerodrome near Bucharest.
Romania joined the EU as part of its most recent expansion in 2007.
-- Agence France-Presse
Andreea Alexandru / AP
An elderly woman lights a fire next to a grave in a cemetery in the village of Copaciu, southern Romania, early on May 2.
On this day in the Orthodox Holy Week, known as Maundy Thursday, Romanians visit the graves of their loved ones, light fires and share food with community members in memory of the departed. Orthodox worshippers celebrate Easter on May 5.
Andreea Alexandru / AP
A woman carries a stone cross in a cemetery in the village of Copaciu, southern Romania, early on May 2
Previously on PhotoBlog:
Bogdan Cristel / Reuters
A man performs during a male striptease show held in celebration of International Women's Day at a club in Bucharest, March 2.
Romanians dedicate both March 1, which is traditionally Romania's first day of spring, and March 8 to honor women and their contribution to society. International Women's Day is March 8.
Bogdan Cristel / Reuters
Women watch a male striptease show.
Vadim Ghirda / AP
A bear chews the bars of a cage at the estate of Ion Balint, known to Romanians as Nutzu the Pawnbroker, a notorious gangster, in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Authorities along with specialists of the animal welfare charity Vier Pfoten removed four lions and two bears that were illegally kept on the estate of one of Romania’s most notorious underworld figures who reportedly used them to threaten his victims. Balint was arrested on Feb. 22, with dozens of others on charges of attempted murder, depriving people of their freedom, blackmail and illegally holding arms. Read the full story.
Vadim Ghirda / AP
A sedated lion is positioned in a transport cage, at the estate of Ion Balint.
Vadim Ghirda / AP
An artist of the French art company Cie entre Terre et Ciel performs during a street theater festival in Bucharest, Romania, Sept. 13, 2012.
Andrei Pungovschi / AFP - Getty Images
A Roma boy climbs on the top of a ramshackle house, torn down by local authorities, in Craica, a shantytown on the outskirts of Baia Mare, Romania. All pictures taken on June 14, 2012 and made available on June 19.
Human rights groups have accused authorities in a Romanian town of violating legislation and trampling on the dignity of Roma gypsy inhabitants by forcibly evicting hundreds of them and relocating them to a chemical plant closed down over pollution concerns.
Authorities in Baia Mare began moving dozens of families in May from poor neighborhoods where they had lived in 20-year-old improvised buildings with no water, sewage or power supplies.
Amnesty International expressed concern following local media reports that 22 children and 2 adults had become ill after they were rehoused in the former industrial facility.
The vast majority of Romanian Roma live on the margins of society in abject poverty and pro-democracy groups say the state does not do enough to prevent discrimination.
-- Agence France Presse and Reuters contributed to this report
Andrei Pungovschi / AFP - Getty Images
Roma children play outside a former Cuprom chemical plant turned into a housing project in Baia Mare.
Andrei Pungovschi / AFP - Getty Images
A bulldozer prepares to tear down a ramshackle house in Craica.
Andrei Pungovschi / AFP - Getty Images
A Roma child sits on a couch in Craica.
Andrei Pungovschi / AFP - Getty Images
Roma people go through waste debris looking for useful materials, after several ramshackle houses were torn down by local authorities in Craica.
Andrei Pungovschi / AFP - Getty Images
A Roma man looks on as authorities prepare to tear down houses in Craica.
Andrei Pungovschi / AFP - Getty Images
A Roma child sleeps in a ramshackle house in Craica.
Balazs Mohai / EPA
Children wait for an eye examination in the kindergarten of Lunca de Sus in Transylvania, Romania. Volunteer doctors travel around Hargita county twice a year to examine and treat children in need at local hospitals and schools. Pictures taken between May 7 and May 10, 2012 and made available today.
European Pressphoto Agency photographer Balazs Mohai followed a group of volunteer doctors and dentists this month as they dispensed treatment to children living in rural communities in Romania's Hargita county, part of the historical region of Transylvania.
The International Children's Safety Service sends a team of medical professionals around Hargita twice a year to examine and treat children in need at local hospitals and schools, irrespective of national, political or religious affiliation.
Related stories:
Balazs Mohai / EPA
Volunteers Adrienn Szabo, left, and Eniko Grozdics examine children in a kindergarten in Armaseni.
Balazs Mohai / EPA
Volunteer dentists Daniel Kepes, left, and Kiyan Ojtun Arda examine a boy in Sandominic.
Balazs Mohai / EPA
A girl waits for an eye examination in the kindergarten of Lunca de Sus.
Balazs Mohai / EPA
Children play outside a kindergarten in Armaseni as they wait for a medical examination.
Balazs Mohai / EPA
Volunteer medical workers have dinner in Sandominic after completing their work for the day.
Mihai Barbu / EPA
A child plays in a nomadic Roma camp near Bucharest, Romania. All photos for this post were shot by EPA photographer Mihai Barbu on May 10, but made available to msnbc.com today.
A family in a nomadic Roma gypsy camp near Bucharest, Romania.
A Roma family in a nomadic gypsy camp near the village of Valea Stanii, east of Bucharest, Romania.
Roma children gather in a nomadic gypsy camp near Bucharest, Romania.
Fewer and fewer nomadic gypsies still wander the roads of Romania as people have stopped buying their traditional hand-made pans and buckets. Most Romas abandoned the gypsy way of life and left to work in western Europe or switched to collecting scrap metal in Romania.
All photos for this post were shot by EPA photographer Mihai Barbu on May 10, but made available to msnbc.com today.
Robert Ghement / EPA
Designated Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta, left, reacts as he chats with Florin Geogescu, right, designated Finance Minister and Interior Affairs Minister Ioan Rus, center, during the validation vote session in front of both parliament chambers, in Bucharest, Romania, May 7. Ponta, one of the main opposition leaders, was nominated as prime minister by the Romanian president Traian Basescu April 27, after the last government, lead by Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, collapsed during a no-confidence vote.
Vadim Ghirda / AP
Romanian Premier designate Victor Ponta, left, prepares to address a parliament session in Bucharest, Romania, May 7. Romanian lawmakers are voting on whether to approve the prime minister designate's left-leaning Cabinet, which is expected to continue a slate of economic reforms.
I wonder what was being discussed? Caption contest anyone?
Full story: Romania parliament set to back new leftist government
Vadim Ghirda / AP
Bogdan Cristel / Reuters
The train is made of 4,700 meters of material. The dress makers used 1,857 needles while making their creation.
A model rides in a hot air balloon to show the world’s longest wedding dress train during a Guinness World Record attempt in Bucharest, Romania on March 20, 1012. The 1.86-mile long ivory train, which took 100 days to stitch, was showcased dramatically on Tuesday on the boulevard leading up to the palace built by late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, seen in background.
Radu Sigheti / Reuters
A couple write love messages on a board as they take part in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest love letter in Bucharest on Friday during Dragobete, the traditional Romanian lovers' day which is similar to Valentine's Day. The previous record for the longest love letter was set in the U.S. in 2008 and involved 1,075 contributions.
Radu Sigheti / Reuters
A girl writes a love message which reads, "Love is like a multi-colored flower, Make it grow" as she takes part in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest love letter in Bucharest.
Check out other world record attempts in PhotoBlog.
Bulent Kilic / AFP - Getty Images
A young girl walks in front of a tent, in which she has lived since last year's earthquake, in Van on Friday. A powerful quake shook the Van province, on October 23, 2011, killing more than 600 people and injuring around 2,600. It was followed on November 12 by a 5.6 magnitude tremor that killed another 40 people in the same area.
Daniel Mihailescu / AFP - Getty Images
A man climbs on snow as he gets out from a small cottage in the village of Varasti village, 100km east from Bucharest, on Friday. The death toll caused by the Siberian cold wave continued to widen Friday in Romania, to 57 deaths, said the Ministry of Health.Sixteen people died in the last 48 hours, thirteen in the night from Thursday to Friday, while nearly 150 have been treated for frostbite and hypothermia.Some 60,000 people were isolated in the east, their supplies of food and water being depleted, according to local authorities. Fifty communities were without electricity.
Robert Ghement / EPA
Romanian peasant woman Rodica, 41, shovels around one of her car buried in snow, in the affected village of Maineasa, 30 kilometers north-east from Bucharest, Romania, on Friday. Some 13 deaths were register in Romania due to severe hypothermia in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 57 since first cold wave hit the country on 27 January. Heavy snowfalls are expected over the weekend in eastern and south of Romania.
AP reports from Turkey, where some people made homeless by October's earthquake are still living in tents:
Gonul Meral, 33, has two children and has been homeless since October, when her landlord evicted her after an earthquake left her husband unemployed. She says her tent is so cold that water inside it is freezing solid.
"It is so hard, I had to fight to get a tent and I don't know whether they will let me keep it because those whose houses were damaged have priority," Meral said by telephone. "I am doing the dishes now, but the water in the basin is frozen and I have to heat the water again."
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