January 14, 2016
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 14.01.2016, 12:00
The Parliament majority in the Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet country with a Romanian-speaking majority has again called on president Nicolae Timofti to designate Democrat candidate Vlad Plahotniuc for the position of Prime Minister. A statement issued on behalf of the majority points to the fact that the reasons invoked by the president to reject Plahotniucs candidacy are ungrounded. The president has invoked Plahotniucs doubtful integrity, which he says that under the Constitution makes him incompatible with the position of Prime minister. A Democratic Party member backed by a heterogeneous majority ranging from pro-European liberals to former Pro-Russia communists, Plahotniuc has been described by his opponents as an oligarch and has repeatedly been accused of involvement in illegal activities that can tarnish the Republic of Moldovas image. Unless a new executive is instated until January 29th the president will be forced to dissolve Parliament and announce early election.
On Thursday and Friday Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu will be participating in an informal meeting on foreign policy and security entitled Snow Meeting 2016 in response to an invitation by his Lithuanian counterpart Linas Linkevicius. The event brings together decision makers in the field of security and foreign policy of NATO and EU members, high-ranking officials of the two organisations and representatives of academia. The latest developments in the environment of security of NATOs southern and eastern vicinity as well as the Alliances response to these developments are high on the agenda of Snow Meeting 2016. Participants will also be focusing on the upcoming NATO summit in Warsaw and also on the implementation of the decisions made in the previous summit held in Britain in September.
As part of a ceremony to be held in Budapest on Thursday, Romania will be taking over from Hungary the yearly presidency of the Steering Group of the “Tisa Engineers Battalion. It is a regional initiative, where joining Romania and Hungary are Slovakia and Ukraine. According to the Romanian Defense Ministry, in its capacity, Romania, among other things, will be organizing a series of expert-level meetings and well as the ”Blonde Avalanche 2016” multinational exercise, with engineering structures of the four member states taking part in the exercise. The Romanian Defence Ministry has also specified Romania had previously held the presidency of the initiative in 2002, 2004, 2008 and 2012.
At least six people have been killed and 39 others wounded in a bomb attack on a police precinct in the Turkish southeastern province of Diyarbakir on Wednesday night, France Press and Reuters report. Nobody has yet claimed the attack, but the Turkish authorities have accused the PKK militants who are very active in the aforementioned province with a Kurdish majority. More than two years on from the ceasefire, fighting between the Turkish police and PKK resumed last summer hamstringing the peace talks initiated in 2012 aimed at settling a conflict that has claimed 40 thousand lives since 1984. A suicide bomb attack attributed to the Islamic State killed 10 people in Istanbul on Tuesday. Turkey had been placed on a state of alert after the bloodiest attack in its history that took place in front of the central station in Ankara in October and left more than 100 dead.
The worlds number two tennis player, Romanian Simona Halep, will today be taking on Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals of the Sydney tournament with 687 thousand dollars in prize money. Also in Sydney, Romanian-Indian pair Florin Mergea – Rohan Bopanna has defeated Australian pair Sam Groth – John Peers 6-2, 6-4 and has thus qualified for the semis where they will be playing Thomasz Bellucci of Brazil and Leonardo Mayer of Argentina. Another Romanian tennis player Monica Niculescu will today be playing Heather Watson of Britain in the eighth finals of the Hobart tournament in Australia.
