Greek authorities arrest station manager in Larissa over deadly train crash

The manager of the train station in Larissa has admitted that it was human error that led to the tragic train crash in northern Greece. The reason is the non-working electronic system in the trains for years, writes the site greekreporter.com.

The 350-passenger high-speed train from Athens to Thessaloniki was traveling on the railway line designated for trains traveling south. The president of the train drivers' association, Kostas Genidounias, said the electronic systems that warn drivers of impending danger have not been working for years.

"Nothing works, everything is done manually," he added, talking to the national television ERT.

According to another railway worker Giannis Ditsas, the two trains ran on the same line for 10-12 minutes without any electronic device operational to warn the drivers of the danger of the collision.

Romanian PM introduces world’s first AI advisor to inform about opinions of citizens

The Romanian government already has a robot called Ion. It will be an artificial intelligence adviser to Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă. "The robot was created entirely by our researchers and teachers who want to give a voice to Romanian citizens. ION will inform us in real time about their problems and wishes. It will also propose solutions so that we can support them better", Ciucă announced.

The robot will use artificial intelligence to quickly and automatically capture Romanians' points of view, opinions and complaints, using public information.

Through the ion.gov.ro platform, via tags, messages, sharing or posting, Romanian citizens can communicate directly with ION and it can be their closest timely link to the institutions.

Turkish authorities sanction TikTok over data protection flaws

The Turkish data protection authority has fined the social network TikTok 1.75 million Turkish lira (85,341 euros) for distributing personal information of children and illegally collecting data, reports Anadolu Agency.

The decision is due to illegal processing and storage of personal data of users in the social network, as well as many software flaws.

An investigation has found that following an update to the social network's privacy policy in January 2021, the default privacy setting for accounts of users between the ages of 13 and 15 was changed to "private."

At the same time, users' consent was not required for the cookies used by the social network, which is also inconsistent with Turkish law.

Authorities in North Macedonia impose freeze on price of bread

From March 1, 450 grams of white and semi-white bread in North Macedonia cannot be sold for more than 33 denars (50 euro cents). The regulation led to a partial shortage of the mass type of bread, and the Group of the Milling Industry boycotted the new price, reports BTA.

The opposition from VMRO-DPMNE accused the authorities of taking the country back to a period when essential foods had to be purchased with coupons.

The ruling SDSM party stated that the opposition is "on the side of the profiteers who abuse the measures to help citizens. With the help of the state for a much lower price of electricity at the current prices of flour, fuels and gas, 450 grams of bread should not cost more than 33 denars, including with 6 denars of profit that remains for the bakers", answered the SDSM.

EU has officially announced its plan for normalizing ties between Kosovo and Serbia

The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo held talks on February 27 in Brussels. Aleksandar Vucic and Albin Kurti said there had been no breakthrough and stressed they were not making concessions despite strong pressure from Europe and the US to reach an agreement, AFP reported.

After the meeting, the European Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, officially announced the EU's plan for Kosovo. It envisages the development of "good neighbourly relations" according to the UN charter on the "basis of equal rights", recognition of "national symbols, including passports, diplomas, registration plates and customs stamps" and without "blocking the other country's progress towards the EU". The countries exchange permanent missions and "commit to respect the implementation roadmap" of the agreement.

Negotiations will continue in mid-March.

Compiled by Ivo Ivanov

Photos: EPA/BGNES, gov.ro, Pixabay