April 26, 2014 UPDATE
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Ştefan Stoica, 26.04.2014, 18:33
The Ministry of Public Finances in Bucharest hails Moody’s decision to raise Romania’s credit rating outlook from negative to stable adding that the move confirms both the economic progress of the past year and the fact that Romania stands out as a factor of stability and growth in the region. In a communique published on Friday, the agency said the good macroeconomic evolution of 2013 would continue. Romania last year managed to curb the budget deficit to 2.3% of the GDP thus complying with the conditions agreed upon with the IMF and the European Union. Inflation has also been trimmed down to 1.6%, the volume of exports increased, while imports have been kept at a low level. According to Moody’s, Romania will continue to register a growth in the GDP supported by exports and the absorption of European funds. However, consumption and crediting could still remain below the level before the crisis.
Up to a million Catholic believers from around the world are expected to pour into St Peter’s Square in Rome on Sunday to see Pope Francis canonise not only Pope John Paul ll but also Pope John the 23rd, an Italian pontiff who reigned in the 1960s. Concurently with the historic event on Sunday, the present pontiff, Francis, will be receiving the heads of state and government who are participating in the event in Rome. The ceremony will also be attended by Romanian archbishop Ioan Robu as well as by numerous priests, monks, nuns and believers from all over Romania.
In a communiqué made public on Friday, the Romanian Foreign Ministry has specified that it has been closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine, being in permanent contact with the Romanian embassy in Kiev. The ministry has been in touch with the Romanian members of the OSCE monitoring team, who weren’t implied in the incident in eastern Ukraine. At the same time, the diplomacy in Bucharest has voiced profound concerned about a situation like this in which the lives of members of an OSCE team are being threatened and put at risk in an independent and sovereign country that boasts OSCE participation.
Title holder Lukas Rosol from the Czech Republic and 16th seeded Grigor Dimitrov from Bulgaria have made it to the finals of the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy, a tennis tournament with 420 thousand euros in prize money. In the semis on Saturday Rosol outperformed Dutch Robin Hasse, while Dimitrov defeated French Gael Monfils. In the doubles contest, Romanian-Dutch pair made up of Horia Tecau and Julie Rojer has made it to the finals after outperforming British Jamie Murray and Australian John Peers. Top-seeds Tecau and Rojer will be playing on Sunday the Polish pair Frystenberg/Matkowski.
EU ambassadors will be meeting in Brussels on Monday for talks on further sanctions against Russia, France Press reports. Also on Monday the G7 group of the world’s most industrialized countries could announce further sanctions against Russia, which they accuse of having taken no concrete measures in order to implement the last week’s accord in Geneva meant to defuse tensions in Ukraine. In another development Russia has denied the information provided by Pentagon that its jets had repeatedly violated Ukraine’s airspace in the past 24 hours. The pro-western authorities in Kiev are blaming Moscow for trying to trigger a third world war, saying that Russia is preparing for an invasion in Ukraine and is trying to destabilize the political situation in that country before the snap presidential election on May 25th. In another move, pro-Russian separatists have accused the OSCE observers, whom they are holding captive in eastern Ukraine, of being NATO spies. The OSCE observers were captured on Friday in Slaviansk, a stronghold of the pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine.
Nine doctors of a state-run hospital in Bucharest, including its director, as well as the employee of a private clinic have been placed under legal investigation in a file on illegal plastic surgery. According to prosecutors, who are to call for the culprits’ preventive arrest, those involved used fake diagnosis and surgery interventions in a scheme aimed at raking in money from the National Health Insurance system. For their services, the medical staffers under investigation would allegedly have received between 450 and 3500 euros in bribe. Hundreds of thousands of euros have been found in the culprits’ houses and offices following a search operation. 26 people, 16 doctors, a nurse and 9 patients are currently being investigated for bribe taking and giving in this file.
