January 5, 2016 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 05.01.2016, 12:15
Although temperatures are slightly increasing, the weather remains very cold for this time of the year in Romania. Snowfalls are still reported in the south-east and north-west. The highs range between minus 8 and 5 degrees Celsius, with a minus 6 degree reading in Bucharest at noon. Over the past few days, 3 people died because of the biting cold, and 42 others have been rescued by the authorities. Road, railway and air transport is disrupted by the snow and wind.
The importance of guaranteeing the freedom of the press is vital to any democratic country, particularly in a EU member state, said the Liberal Deputy Ionuţ Stroe, the head of Romania’s delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In a statement to Radio Romania, he described as disquieting the fact that a law drafted by the new Conservative power in Poland, under which the directors of the public radio and television stations are to be appointed by the finance minister, was passed by the Parliament in Warsaw without public debate. On Monday, 4 international media freedom watchdogs filed a complaint in this respect with the Council of Europe. They criticise the law as threatening the independence of public media. The authors of the protest urge the Polish Conservative party “Law and Justice” to immediately scrap this law, which is pending for promulgation by President Andrzej Duda, from the same party.
The president of the Republic of Moldova, Nicolae Timofti, on Tuesday resumed consultations with parliamentary parties in order to appoint a new candidate to the position of prime minister. Consultations are held after on Monday the prime minister designate, the technocrat Ion Sturza was not voted because of the lack of quorum in Parliament. If the PM fails to be appointed after a second nomination, President Timofti will have to dissolve Parliament and call for early elections. The previous cabinet, led by the Liberal Democrat Valeriu Streleţ was dismissed on October 29th through a no confidence motion filed by the pro-Russian Socialists and Communists and also by the Democratic Party, known as a pro-western party.
The Romanian tennis players Irina Begu and Monica Niculescu will play, on Wednesday, in the eighth finals of the Shenzhen tournament in China which has prizes up for grabs worth 500 thousand dollars. Begu, seeded 3rd in the tournament, will take on the German Anna-Lena Friedsam, while Niculescu will play against Timea Babos of Hungary. The best known Romanian tennis player, Simona Halep, world’s no. 2, has withdrawn from the Brisbane tournament, in Australia, with prizes worth almost 900 thousand dollars, because of a medical problem. Halep announced that, next week, she would participate in the Sydney tournament, also in Australia.
The UN Security Council vehemently criticized the attack on Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Teheran. Saudi Arabia has severed diplomatic relations with Iran after its embassy in Teheran was stormed by violent protesters, who were discontent with the fact that the authorities in Riyadh executed a Shiite cleric, Nimr Baaqer al-Nimr, a virulent critic of the Sunni dynasty in power in Saudi Arabia. Against the backdrop of escalating tension between Riyadh and Teheran, Russia expressed availability to invite the foreign ministers of the two countries for negotiations. In turn, the EU and the US have launched an appeal to calm following the severance of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia, a country with a majority Sunni population, and Iran, with a majority Shiite population.
Copenhagen announced temporary controls on its German border, shortly after Sweden had taken similar measures at its border with Denmark. The Danish PM Lars Lokke Rasmussen warned that unless the EU managed to protect its borders, several countries would have to tighten security checks. He explained that, following the restrictions imposed by Sweden, Denmark might be faced with a large number of illegal immigrants. In turn, the Swedish authorities claim that they are trying to reduce the number of refugees reaching their country. Last year, 160,000 people applied for asylum in Sweden, the largest number in Europe after Germany. Denmark and Sweden are the last states to introduce border checks in the Schengen zone. In September 2015, Germany introduced controls on its Austrian border, and last week Norway, which is not an EU member but is part of the visa-free area, announced that travelers without a visa would be denied access to the country.
