January 4, 2018 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 04.01.2018, 19:48
COUNCIL — Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis on Friday is attending the meeting of the Superior Council of Magistracy. The meeting will occasion the election of the president and vice-president of the Council and a review of the institution’s activity in 2017. We recall the recent modifications to the justice laws have been challenged both in Parliament by opposition parties as well as in the street by civil society, as well as some magistrates. The three laws referring to the statute of magistrates, judicial organization and the functioning of the Superior Council of Magistracy have been referred to the Constitutional Court by the National Liberal Party and the High Court of Cassation and Justice. The opposition believes the laws go against the Constitution and generate confusion. The most controversial point refers to the material accountability of magistrates, the setup of a special unit within the Prosecutor General’s Office charges with investigating justice-related crimes and the statute of the Judicial Inspection.
RESERVES — The hard currency reserves of the National Bank of Romania amounted to 33.5 billion euros in December last year, over 430 million euros more than at the end of November, but almost 750 million less than at the end of 2016, the Central Bank has announced. The gold reserve has remained at almost 104 tonnes, accounting for over 3.5 billion euros. Experts say the reserves are at a comfortable level for the time being and recall that a large portion of the IMF loans went to increasing reserves, which leads to a boost in investors’ trust and the stabilisation of the Romanian economy.
ELEANOR – Storm Eleanor, the fourth this winter to hit western Europe, with gales of up to 160 km/hour, has caused the death of three people and injured dozens others. Violent winds and rain have swept across France, Britain, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain. Airports were paralysed in France, railway travel disrupted and tens of thousands of homes were left without electricity. In Paris, Tour Eiffel was closed for several hours because of wind. Activity on the Schipol Airport in Amsterdam and the airports in Frankfurt and Zurich took place with difficulty. Road travel was suspended in some part of Germany, and a number of passes were closed in Switzerland. In the Netherlands, all the five big dams protecting the shores from the North Sea were temporarily closed for the first time to prevent floods.
EXPEDITION –Romanian mountain climbers Zsolt Torok and Vlad Capusan on Thursday started a new expedition. They are seeking to become the first Romanians to summit the Cerro Torre peak in Argentina, an extremely difficult mountain top lying at an altitude of 3,100 m. Reaching this peak is considered one of the most important achievements in a climber’s career. The last big ascent on Cerro Torre took place in February 2013 by the Austrian climber Markus Pucher. In 2016, Zsolt Torok and Vlad Capusan were the first in the world to conquer a wild peak in the Himalayans. They were also the first to reach Peak 5.
IRAN — The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for further violence to be avoided in Iran and for all demonstrations to be peaceful. More than 20 people have been killed in Mashhad, in the north-east, since protests began on the 28th of December against economic hardships and corruption and then quickly spread across Iran. According to official data, 450 people have been arrested in Tehran and other several hundred in the rest of the country since Saturday night. The United States has again dismissed Tehran’s accusation that the country’s enemies are to blame for the wave of protests.
TENNIS – Simona Halep and Irina Begu will face each other on Friday in the singles semi-finals in Shenzhen, China in a tennis tournament worth more than 600,000 dollars in prize money. In the quarterfinals, Simona Halep, who is world no. 1, defeated Arina Sabalenka of Belarus in straight sets, while Irina Begu, who is seeded fourth, has defeated Hungary’s Timea Babos. In the other semi-final, Russia’s Maria Sharapova faces the Czech player Katerina Siniakova. In the doubles, the all-Romanian pair Simona Halep and Irina Begu on Friday are playing the Russian-German pair Ana Blinkova and Nicola Geuer.
HANDBALL — The Romanian men’s handball side on Friday is facing Bahrain in Calarasi, in the south, in the semi-finals of the Carpati Trophy. Tunisia face Portugal in the other semi-final. On Saturday, the losing teams will play the third-place play-off, while the winners will play for the trophy. The Romanian players, who are coached by the Spanish manager Xavier Pascual, are also training for the first round of the 2019 World Championship preliminary matches to take place between the 11th and the 13th of January in Bolzano, Italy, where they face Ukraine and the Faeroe Islands, as well as the host country. Only the winners of the six preliminary groups qualify for the World Championship play-offs in June this year.
(Translated by C. Mateescu and V. Palcu)
