August 8, 2014
US president Barack Obama has approved airdrops of humanitarian supplies to thousands of minorities in Iraq. According to White House sources, air strikes against the Jihadists are also being considered in order to avoid a genocide among the minorities threatened by these Islamic militants. The White House leader said that no ground troops would be deployed. The humanitarian supplies would go to assist tens of thousands of Yazidis trapped on a mountain without food and water. The Yazidis, who follow an ancient religion influenced by Zoroastrianism, fled their homes after the Islamic State group issued an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a religious fine, flee their homes or face death. The UN Security Council, which has convened in an emergency session on Friday, has voiced support for the authorities in Baghdad in their fight against the Islamic militants and has invited the international community to assist the Iraqi authorities in their efforts to protect the refugees in northern Iraq.
România Internațional, 08.08.2014, 13:56
A court in Bucharest is expected to give the final sentence in a file involving several people including businessman Dan Voiculescu, founder of the co-ruling Conservative Party. Voiculescu has been charged with influence peddling and money laundering in a file on the fraudulent privatisation of the Bucharest-based Insitute for Food Research, whose very attractive premises have been purchased by a holding that belongs to him. The institute’s assets had been significantly overrated and the prejudice caused heightened to more than 60 million euros. Voiculescu was given a five-year prison sentence last year, but now the prosecutors are calling for harsher sentences for him and all those involved in the case. The businessman says he is a victim of a political setup.
Israel has announced it resumed air strikes in Gaza after Palestinian fighters launched no less than 18 rockets against its territory shortly before the end of a three-day ceasefire. The Israeli army has described the latest Hamas attack as ’unacceptable, intolerable and shortsighted’. Palestinian militant group Hamas, which is controling Gaza, earlier rejected any extension of the ceasefire saying that Israel had failed to meet its demands. According to the BBC, close to 1900 people have been killed since the onset of the conflict between Israel and Hamas a month ago.
In late 2013 Romania was ranking fourth among the emerging countries in Europe in terms of car manufacture output, with roughly 411 thousand units produced. According to the EU Cluster Observatory, more than 3.5 million vehicles rolled off the assmbly lines in Central and Eastern Europe last year alone. First in the rankings comes the Czech Republic, followed by Slovakia and Poland. In terms of jobs in this industry, Romania comes third with 117 thousand, after Poland and the Czech Republic. In 2013 Romania reported more than 900 companies in the car-making industry, including Ford and Dacia, but as far as vehicle production per capita is concerned, Romania lagged behind the other countries with only 16 cars.
According to the World Health Organization, the Ebola epidemic in West Africa must be considered international public health emergency. The WHO committee, which convened in Geneva on Wednesday and Thursday, considers that a coordinated international response is needed to contain the spread of Ebola infections. The epidemic is currently affecting four countries in West Africa, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast with a death toll of 930 people. The number of infections stands at 17 hundred and the first European infected, a 75 year old Spanish missionary, was repatriated yesterday. Specialised institutions in the US are at the highest response level to fight the worst Ebola outbreak in history.
The Russian counter-ban on American food products will have an insignificant impact on the US economy, according to US Deputy Treasury Secretary David Cohen, as AFP reports. He added that he believed the Russians have in fact imposed sanctions against their own people. At the same time, Brussels announced it reserved the right to take even further measures against Russia, which has imposed a total ban on most food products from the US and the EU. This one year ban on beef, pork, poultry, fish, dairy and produce applies to the US, the EU, Australia, Canada and Norway. Russian PM Dmitri Medvedev specified that the interdiction is in retaliation for western economic sanctions against his country.
