April 28, 2016 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 28.04.2016, 12:30
Orthodox and Greek-Catholic believers the world over, including Romania, which has an Orthodox majority, on Good Friday in the Passion Week, are commemorating the death of Jesus Christ and his burial. Some believers go without food taking part in religious services devoted to this event. On Maundy Thursday believers marked the last Supper and Jesus’ arrest following the betrayal of Judas. On Saturday night Greek Catholic and Orthodox believers will be celebrating Easter — Christ’s resurrection.
Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos will have to nominate another person for the position of Minister of Culture, after Vlad Alexandrescu has announced his resignation. Alexandrescu said he was proud of his accomplishments during the mandate and recalled he started a lot of reforms in spite of facing opposition from various interest groups. Alexandrescu announced on his Facebook page that he steps down amid a row presently underway at the National Opera in Bucharest. Three performances have been cancelled in the past days against the disgruntlement of Opera employees about the successive nominations for the position of director general and about the gap between the salaries of the Romanian ballet dancers and of their foreign counterparts. The Prime Minister’s control committee has commenced an investigation at the Romanian Opera, checking on how people in leading positions have been hired.
The European Commission has called on Germany and Romania to include in the legislation a directive on the safety of offshore oil and gas operations. The directive is aimed at reducing major accidents that might occur in offshore oil and gas exploitation. Under the directive, when granting the license, member countries must get assurances the companies are well-funded and have the right technical expertise. In Romania, these companies are operating off the Black Sea shores.
A series of military and religious ceremonies dedicated to war veterans was staged by the Romanian Defence Ministry in major army units across the country an also at monuments in the Czech Republic, in the Republic of Moldova, a former soviet country with a Romanian-speaking population, Russia, Slovakia and Hungary. The ‘War Veteran’ title was for the first time recognized on April 29th 1902. Back then the soldiers who had fought in the Independence War were declared veterans and besides the statute they received a series of bonuses for a decent living. 15 thousand WWII veterans are living in Romania at present.
