January 8, 2016 UPDATE

ROMANIA WEATHER — Weather is frosty in most regions of Romania. Because of the frost, snow and blizzard that have affected, as of Thursday night, many regions of Romania, the schools in 20 counties will be closed on Monday. The measure will be maintained Tuesday for 16 counties. The heavy snowfalls have left many villages without electricity and have disturbed road, rail and maritime traffic. Many roads have been closed down, tens of trains cancelled and several flights have reported big delays. The Black Sea ports were re-opened on Sunday but those on the Danube, in Călăraşi and Olteniţa remain closed. Perseus icebreaker, the biggest in Romania, was used on certain areas on the Danube to break the ice formed there. Due to the bad weather around 15 cars registered in Romania were blocked in the northeast of Bulgaria. The Romanian Foreign Ministry wrote in a communiqué that the Bulgarian authorities provided help to the Romanian citizens and accompanied them to the border with Romania. In the next 24 hours weather continues to be frosty with lows ranging from minus 24 to minus 12 degrees C. Maximum temperatures will range between minus 16 and minus 6 degrees C. Light snowfalls will be reported locally in the northeast, west and south and on isolated areas in the other regions of the country.

Newsroom, 08.01.2017, 19:22

ROMANIA WEATHER — Weather is frosty in most regions of Romania. Because of the frost, snow and blizzard that have affected, as of Thursday night, many regions of Romania, the schools in 20 counties will be closed on Monday. The measure will be maintained Tuesday for 16 counties. The heavy snowfalls have left many villages without electricity and have disturbed road, rail and maritime traffic. Many roads have been closed down, tens of trains cancelled and several flights have reported big delays. The Black Sea ports were re-opened on Sunday but those on the Danube, in Călăraşi and Olteniţa remain closed. Perseus icebreaker, the biggest in Romania, was used on certain areas on the Danube to break the ice formed there. Due to the bad weather around 15 cars registered in Romania were blocked in the northeast of Bulgaria. The Romanian Foreign Ministry wrote in a communiqué that the Bulgarian authorities provided help to the Romanian citizens and accompanied them to the border with Romania. In the next 24 hours weather continues to be frosty with lows ranging from minus 24 to minus 12 degrees C. Maximum temperatures will range between minus 16 and minus 6 degrees C. Light snowfalls will be reported locally in the northeast, west and south and on isolated areas in the other regions of the country.

EUROPE WEATHER – A wave of cold weather has hit the whole of Europe. Following the very low temperatures reported across the continent at least 20 people have lost their lives in the past 2 days, most of the victims being from Italy and Poland. Immigrant and homeless people are among the victims of the frost. A Romanian man from Messina, Sicily died because of the cold weather. Russia has experienced its coldest Orthodox Christmas in 120 years, temperatures dropping to minus 30 degrees C. Very cold weather has also been reported in Germany, France, Switzerland, Greece and Poland. The Adriatic Coast has also been hit by the wave of cold, the coastal region of Split registering the lowest temperature in the past 50 years. Istanbul was also hit by a snowstorm on Saturday, which disturbed air, maritime and road traffic. Romania’s neighbors have also been affected by the wave of cold weather which was caused by a mass of arctic air coming from Scandinavia.

ILLEGAL WORK — More than 200 companies were penalized and 261 foreigners who were doing business illegally were identified in 2016 as part of the actions undertaken in Romania to combat foreigners’ illegal work- writes a press release of the General Inspectorate for Immigration. For the irregularities found, the police issued fines worth more than 1 million lei, that is around 230 thousand euros. The General Inspectorate for Immigration shows that, at present, there are almost 5,900 foreign citizens in Romania who are doing business. Most of them come from China, Turkey, the Philippines, India and Serbia. They account for 9% of the total number of foreigners in Romania.

JERUSALEM ATTACK — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Palestinian attacker, who rammed his lorry into a group of soldiers on Sunday, killing 4, was a suspected supporter of so-called Islamic State. The attack took place in East Jerusalem being the bloodiest of the past months in Israel. 4 soldiers were killed and at least 15 were wounded by a Palestinian lorry driver who was shot dead by soldiers.

NATO — The first 250 American soldiers, part of an armored brigade of the US army, landed on Saturday in Wroclaw, in western Poland, in a move included in the plan to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank. The purpose of the mission is to maintain stability in the eastern states of the Alliance, following the annexation of Crimea by Russia and Moscow’s support for the separatists in the east of Ukraine. On Friday the first military equipment, including tanks, reached the German port of Bremerhaven. The equipment will be sent to Romania, Poland and the Baltic States. In July 2016 NATO approved a plan meant to consolidate its military presence in Eastern Europe which includes the deployment of thousands of soldiers in Poland and the Baltic States. An allied multinational structure is to be stationed in Romania. Moreover, NATO has taken over control of the anti-missile defense shield system in Deveselu, in the south of Romania, which includes interception equipment. The move has caused Russia’s discontent. (translation by Lacramioara Simion)