August 27, 2016

Saturday is a day of national mourning in Italy.

Newsroom, 27.08.2016, 13:30

ITALY QUAKE – A day of national mourning has begun in Italy for those over 290 people who died when a powerful earthquake hit the country’s mountainous central regions. Country officlas will attend state funerals in the regional capital, Ascoli Piceno, for 50 of the victims from the town of Arquata. No survivors have been found since Thursday. Italian authorities say they will continue to search until they are certain everyone is accounted for. Over 1,000 aftershocks have been reported and many of the buildings still standing risk collapsing, which makes rescue operations even more difficult. Most victims were Italian, but several foreigners were among those killed, including 10 Romanians. Also, 16 Romanians are reported missing. A consular team from Bucharest travels today to the affected areas to support the Romanian diplomatic missions in Rome and Bologna, the Romanian Foreign Ministry announced.

GOVERNMENT – Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has met today in Suceava, north-eastern Romania, with his Polish counterpart, Beata Szydlo. After the meeting, PM Ciolos has said that the relations between Romania and Poland are very intense and that there are excellent premises for them to be strengthened. The two officials tackled bilateral ties in the context of the Strategic Partnership between the two countries, and also topics on the European agenda, such as Brexit’s impact on the EU, the EU budget and the revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework. Also approached was cooperation in the field of defense and the developments at the EU’s eastern border. The two officials will also have a meeting with representatives of the Polish community in Romania.

MOLDOVA – Romania reaffirms its full support for Moldova’s bid for the European Union and the process of democratic reforms and modernisation of the state, in keeping with the expectations of the neighbouring country, the Romanian Foreign Ministry said in a release on Saturday. Chisinau marks today 25 years since gaining its independence. Ceremonies devoted to this event will be more modest than in previous years, due to the economic crisis the country is going through. On August 27, 1991 the Republic of Moldova proclaimed its independence from the USSR. Romania was the first country to recognise Moldova’s independence.

CELEBRATION – Romania marks today one hundred years since the country entered WWI. At the end of this war, on December 1st, 1918, the process of setting up the Romanian unitary nation state was finalized, following the union of all Romanian provinces with a majority Romanian-speaking population previously included in the neighbouring multinational empires. On August 27, 1916, Romania declared war on Austro-Hungary and the army crossed the Carpathians to Transylvania, which at the time was part of the Kingdom of Hungary. Over 330 thousand soldiers died in this war and as many as 76 thousand were crippled. Ceremonies devoted to this day are held in Fundata, in central Romania, where the first Romanian officer was killed, but also in Curtea de Arges, at the tomb of King Ferdinand. On this occasion, the Romanian Royal House conveyed a message that reiterates the role that King Ferdinand played in Romania’s participation in WWI and the setting up the Romanian unitary nation state.

TENNIS – The Romanian-Indian team made up of Monica Niculescu and Sania Mirza, WTA’s seed no. 2 in women’s doubles, defeated on Friday night the Slovenian team Andreja Klepac and Katarina Srebotnik in the semi-finals of the tennis tournament in New Haven, the US, with 695,900 dollars in prize money. In the final, Niculescu and Mirza will be up against Katerina Bondarenko of Ukraine and Chia-Jung Chuang of Taiwan. The US Open, the last grand slam of the year, kicks off on Monday. Niculescu, seed no. 57, will play against the Czech Barbora Strycova, seed no. 19. In the first round of the competition, Romanian Simona Halep, no. 5 in the world, will play against Belgian Kirsten Flipkens WTA’s 68th seed, while another Romanian, Irina Begu , seeded 22nd, will be up against Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko, seed no. 80. In the same competition, Romanian Patricia Maria Tig, seed no. 129 will be up against Laura Siegemund of Germany, while Ana Bogdan, seed no. 117, will play in the first round against another Romanian, Sorana Cirstea, WTA’s 88th seed.

(Translated by Elena Enache)