July 25th, UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 25.07.2014, 12:19
Fifteen Romanian tourists who had been blocked in the West Bank arrived in Bucharest last night, the Romanian Foreign Ministry announced. The Ministry also advises the Romanian citizens to avoid traveling to areas near the Gaza Strip, which for quite some time has been the theater of a Palestinian-Israeli conflict. We recall that in the last two weeks, against the backdrop of mounting instability in the Gaza Strip, the Romanian Foreign Ministry has repatriated 103 Romanian citizens from the region alongside members of their families.
The Romanian Foreign Ministry has announced that the presence of a Romanian citizen in the Air Algerie plane that crashed on Thursday in Mali could not be confirmed until now. The information related to the number of passengers and their citizenship is contradictory — a ministry communiqué made public on Friday shows. The Romanian Foreign Ministry sent firm instructions to the Romanian embassies to ask for clarifications regarding these issues. The plane, running from Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou to Algiers, had 110 people of different nationalities on board. This is the 3rd plane crash occurring in 7 days time, after the crash of the Malayan aircraft in Ukraine and of TransAsia Airways plane in Taiwan, all these accidents leaving behind 460 people dead.
The Romanian authorities have launched a campaign for the promotion of Romania as a safe tourist destination in the current geopolitical context. The tourism minister delegate, Florin Jianu, says this campaign is necessary so that potential foreign tourists, especially non-Europe tourists, should understand that Romania is not affected by the conflict in neighboring Ukraine. Jianu said that, in the first half of the year, the number of foreign tourists who came to Romania grew by more than 10%, and the World Tourism Organization and the European Travel Commission chose Bucharest as destination where to hold their autumn meeting.
The Romanian Liberals and Liberal Democrats (the center-right opposition) will gather Saturday for a joint congress to approve the statute of the new electoral alliance “The PNL PDL Christian Liberal Alliance” which will support a common candidate in the November presidential election. The candidate will be designated following sociological research, upon the request of the leaderships of the two parties. According to analysts, who are considering his position in the polls, the presidential candidate of the right is likely to be the Liberal leader Klaus Iohannis. Of German origin Iohannis, who has been mayor of Sibiu for many years, is considered the virtual challenger in the second round of the Social Democratic PM Victor Ponta who announced his candidacy on Thursday.
The Hungarian Conservative PM Viktor Orbán is participating on Saturday in the works of the Summer University held in Baile Tusnad spa, in central Romania. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent to Budapest Orban will deliver a speech before the participants who are members of the Pro Minority Foundation from Hungary and of the Hungarian Youth Council from Romania. He will also meet with leaders of the Hungarian community in Romania, which lives in the center and west of Romania, numbering almost 1.5 million people, that is 6% of Romania’s population. The main Hungarian party, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, is a member of the government coalition in Bucharest.
Three Romanian football teams have made headway into the Europa League’s third preliminary round. The competition’s upcoming fixture will see western Romanian team CFR from Cluj taking on Dinamo Minsk from Belarus, as this past Thursday CFR secured a 1-nil away win against Serbian team FK Jagodina, while on home turf the Romanian team only managed a blank draw. In the Europa League’s same stage, southern Romanian team Petrolul from Ploiesti are pitted against Czech vice-champions Viktoria Plzen. Petrolul snatched two wins in the two matches against Albanian squad Flamurtari Vlora, 3-1 and 2-nil, respectively. Romania’s vice-champion team Astra Giurgiu, winner of Romania’s Cup and Supercup, respectively, qualified straight into Europa League’s 3rd preliminary round, will be facing Czech team Slovan Liberec. Another Romanian team, Steaua Bucharest have qualified for the Champions League’s 3rd preliminary round, as Wednesday night on home turf Steaua snatched a 2-nil win against Norwegian champions Stroemsgodset FK. Having secured a 1-nil win in the first match away from home, Steaua rank as favorites even ahead of the double-legged tie against Kazakh team FK Aktobe.
The US and the UN on Friday urged Israel ad the Palestinian movement Hamas to conclude a ceasefire agreement during which a long-standing truce could be negotiated. Diplomatic efforts continue against the backdrop of an increasing number of victims: so far, as many as 800 Palestinians have died during the Israeli offensive in Gaza, alongside 33 Israeli soldiers and 2 Israeli civilians and a Thai citizen. The Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel would carry on with the operations in Gaza.
The Romanian Foreign Ministry informs the Romanian citizens who are in Norway or intend to travel to that country that the Norwegian authorities have announced they hold credible information related to a potential terrorist attack. The Romanian Foreign Ministry recommends the Romanian citizens to show caution and vigilance until the lifting of the alert.
