24 December 2016
Western Orthodox, Greek-Catholic and Catholic Christians celebrate Christmas Eve./ Moldovas new president Igor Dodon to meet Russias Vladimir Putin on 17 January.
Newsroom, 24.12.2016, 12:00
Western Orthodox,
Greek-Catholic and Catholic Christians celebrate Christmas Eve today in
preparation for the Nativity of Christ, one of the biggest Christian holidays.
In Romania, which is a majority Orthodox country, children went carolling on
Friday night. Carollers symbolise the angels and the shepherds who were the
first to announce the birth of Jesus. They go from house to house and convey
wishes for the household, being rewarded with fruit, bagels, sweets or money by
their hosts. Today, priests go from house to house bearing an icon depicting
the nativity of Christ and announcing his birth. Christmas is celebrated through special services held in churches and monasteries, as well as beautiful
traditions and rich family meals.
The new
president of the Republic of Moldova Igor Dodon on Friday night met the Russian
deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin who was due to attend Dodon’s swearing-in
ceremony but whose flight was delayed because of the fog. According to Radio
Chisinau, Rogozin told the Moldovan president that Vladimir Putin would meet
him at the Kremlin on the 17th of January. Dodon had already
announced that his first visit abroad would be to Moscow, where he would try to
restore his country’s strategic partnership with the Russian Federation. As far
as his domestic policy is concerned, Dodon said he would be in opposition to the
pro-European government in Chisinau and even try to dissolve Parliament and
call early elections. One of his priorities is to ban organisations calling for
the union of the Republic of Moldova with Romania.
The Romanian border police have caught ten Iraqi citizens, including
nine adults and one child, who were trying to cross the border illegally from
Bulgaria to Romania through the green border, near Darabani, in the
south-east. The migrants were handed over to the Bulgarian border police for
further investigations. According to the Romanian authorities, the ten
migrants, aged between 12 and 50, identified themselves as Iraqi and said they
were planning to reach a country in Western Europe. They were carrying
documents showing they had applied for asylum in Bulgaria.
Princess Margaret, the Custodian of the Romanian Crown,
sent a Christmas message to the Romanians at home and abroad on behalf of her
father, King Mihai I. She emphasised that the values her father has been
promoting all his life are more important today than at any other time in
history, namely kindness, loyalty, a sense of duty, love of country, competence
and restraint. Princess Margaret also said the events in Europe and the world
show that democracy is facing a moment of instability and weakness, and that
prosperity does not automatically ensure balance and security.
The UN Security Council on Friday night passed a
resolution asking Israel to put an end to its illegal settlement building in
the Palestinian territories, with the US abstaining from vote and thus refusing
to block the resolution. The Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu called the UN’s
decision shameful and said his country would not abide by it. Jordan has
described the UN vote as historic.
The Italian police have shot dead the Tunisian national
by the name of Anis Amri, the main suspect of Monday’s attack in Berlin, when a
lorry smashed into a crowded Christmas market killing 12 people and injuring
48. The Italian interior minister Marco Minniti said the man was shot during a fire exchange with the
police in Milan. German investigators are now trying to assess whether the
Tunisian attacker was part of a network and to find out how he managed to avoid
deportation orders and why the authorities stopped his surveillance, although
he was suspected of links with terrorist organisations. German chancellor
Angela Merkel said the authorities would tighten security measures in the wake
of the attack claimed by the Islamic State. (Trans. by: C. Mateescu)
