Romanian forest attack highlights illegal logging ‘scourge’

By STEPHEN McGRATH
Associated Press

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romanian authorities say two journalists and an environmental activist have been beaten up by suspected illegal loggers in a forest in northeast Romania while making a documentary about illicit deforestation. The attack in Suceava County involved 11 people who are being interrogated, a police spokesman said Friday. The victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries Thursday, and their recording equipment was destroyed. Successive governments in Romania have struggled to tackle widespread illegal logging, which has drawn strong criticism from the European Union, to which Romania belongs. There have been several other violent incidents — some fatal — in the past involving suspected illegal loggers, and authorities have been accused of not doing enough to stop the problem.