30 April, 2017

British PM Theresa May says Brexit talks would be difficult./Romanian-Pakistani duo Florin Mergea and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi win Barcelona doubles title.

Newsroom, 30.04.2017, 13:40

Brexit. British prime minister Theresa May on Sunday told
the BBC that the Brexit talks would be difficult. She thus responded to the
tough position adopted by the EU leaders on Saturday. The latter warned the
British not to make illusions about obtaining quickly a new relationship with
the community bloc on the access to the single market. May said she is ready to
abandon talks and leave the EU without an agreement unless she agrees with the
terms proposed by Brussels. The EU’s number one priority in the Brexit
negotiations is guaranteeing the rights of the EU and British citizens affected
by this process. Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis said the guidelines
underlying the EU’s talks with London, which were adopted unanimously, are
aimed at ensuring these citizens’ right to residence, employment and pension.
Iohannis underlined that Romania wished the talks to take place quickly and to
clarify all aspects referring to the Romanian nationals living and working in
the UK.

Vaccination. European Immunisation Week aimed at raising
awareness about the importance of vaccination has ended today. Romania is faced
with a drop in vaccination rates against the main transmissible diseases, its
rate being considerably lower than that recommended by the World Health
Organisation. A consequence of this recent trend is a measles epidemic that has
caused 32 deaths in several months. 95% of the 5,000 cases confirmed so far
have affected people who have not been vaccinated. According to family
physicians with experience in the implementation of the vaccination programme,
the campaign initiated by the healthcare ministry at the end of 2016 to contain
the epidemic has not had the desired results.

Labour Day.
Around 40,000 tourists are spending the Labour Day holiday on the Romanian
Black Sea coast. May 1st officially marks the start of the summer
season in this country. Mamaia and Vama Veche are the busiest resorts.
Thousands of people have also travelled to the mountains. More than 26,000
interior ministry staff, mainly police and gendarmerie forces, have been
deployed to enforce law and order during this short holiday.

Trump 100 days. US president Donald Trump celebrated his
100 days in office at a rally in Pennsylvania. He touted his accomplishments in
front of his supporters, including bringing jobs back to America, and attacked
his critics, in particular the media, which, in his view, is incompetent and
unfair. Turmp’s rally was held on the same day as a protest against his stance
on climate change where thousands of people surrounded the White House and
which also coincided with the White House correspondents dinner in Washington,
which Trump and his staff have skipped.

Tennis. The Romanian-Pakistani duo Florin Mergea and Aisam-ul-Haq
Qureshi on Sunday defeated the German-Austrian duo Philipp Petzschner and
Alexander Peya in straight sets to win the men’s doubles finals of the
Barcelona tournament worth more than 2.3 million dollars. In the semifinals,
Mergea and his doubles partner defeated the Romanian-Dutch pair Horia Tecau and
Jean-Julien Rojer. This is Mergea and Qureshi’s first doubles final together and
Mergea’s seventh ATP doubles title. In another move, world no. 5 Simona Halep
of Romania lost on Saturday night to the German player Laura Siegemund, no 49
in the world, in the semifinals of the Stuttgart tournament worth around
710,000 dollars.