July 20, 2016 UPDATE

Click here for an update on domestic and international news

Warning: Trying to access array offset on null in /home/web/rri.ro/public/wp-content/themes/rri/template-parts/content.php on line 98
Newsroom, 20.07.2016, 12:15

Romania’s Constitutional Court decided on Wednesday that the law on the local officials’ pensions was unconstitutional. In February the government notified the Constitutional Court of this law which, according to the PM Cioloş, would affect the state budget, since local budgets are mainly supported from the state budget. The money that was to be spent on those pensions amounted to almost 90 million euros per year. The government also contests the retroactive enforcement of this law, which would introduce special pensions for mayors, deputy mayors, presidents and vice-presidents of county councils. Also on Wednesday, the Constitutional Court decided that the citizens’ proposal to revise the Constitution in the sense that a family can be established between a man and a woman, meets the conditions for acting upon this initiative. In May an NGO forwarded this proposal to the Senate. The initiative, supported by three million people, is meant to prevent same sex marriages.

Turkey is a key-partner for Romania and the EU and it needs stability, said Wednesday the Romanian PM Dacian Cioloş. He pointed out that after the failed coup d’etat attempt, Turkey should return to constitutional order and the observance of the rule of law and of human rights. Over the past days, tens of thousands of people, including soldiers, policemen, magistrates and public servants were arrested or dismissed. Several media companies have been closed. After the attempted coup President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched a campaign against the supporters of his political adversary, the Muslim cleric Fehtullah Gulen who is currently living in the US. He was accused of being behind the Turkish opposition and of having masterminded the coup. Fehtullah Gulen denied the accusations and claimed that Erdogan was using the coup as a pretext to consolidate his power.

The Romanian Health Ministry announced Wednesday it identified a 2^nd case of infection with the Zika virus of a Romanian citizen from outside the country. The person is a 10-year old boy who lives in the French Guiana. He came on a visit to Romania on July 12. The first case of contamination was of a woman who had returned from a trip to Martinique earlier this month. Discovered in Uganda in 1947 the Zika virus causes a viral infectious disease in humans called Zika fever that is transmitted through mosquito bites or sexually. Experts say that babies born by mothers infected with the Zika virus can develop neurological disorders and congenital malformations. There is no vaccine for Zika, a virus that has affected more than 15 countries from Latin America and the Antilles, especially Brazil.

The great Romanian actor Radu Beligan, a living legend of Romanian theater, died Wednesday at 97 in a Bucharest hospital. He had a rich career in theatre, cinematography, television and radio drama. On December 15 2013 he was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest active professional theatre actor. In his long career he had more than 80 roles in theatre plays and 30 roles in movies. From 1969 to 1990 Radu Beligan was the manager of the National Theatre in Bucharest. In 2002 he was awarded the prestigious French order of distinction the Legion of Honor, being the first Romanian actor who received such a distinction.

One week after the attack in Nice, the state of emergency in France was extended by six months. The state of emergency, which had been declared in November last year after the Jihadist attacks in Paris, facilitates searches and house arrests as well as access to and use of computer and mobile phone data. The French socialist government has called on the French citizens to mobilize and help the security forces in the anti-terror fight. 84 people, a Romanian citizen included, died in the Nice attack and more than 200 were injured. 4 Romanians were wounded, of whom two are in a critical state, though stable.

(news translated by Lacramioara Simion)