July 30, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 30.07.2014, 20:25
At a meeting of the Emergency Management Council on Wednesday, Prime Minister Victor Ponta called on the local authorities in the south and south west of Romania, seriously affected by flooding, to stay alert, given the warnings issued by metereologists. Code orange rain and strong wind alerts have been issued for three counties in the area, valid until Thursday. At the same time, a code red alert for flooding in seven counties has been extended until Friday. According to the latest tolls, one person has died and four are reported missing. Over 11 thousand people have been evacuated and 185 towns and villages have been affected. Two thousand households have been destroyed and 17 thousand hectares of land flooded.
The Romanian Foreign Ministry has issued a warning to all Romanian citizens to exercise caution and look up on special websites information in case they were planning to travel in and through Croatia and Hungary, due to extreme weather conditions. The ministry informs that the region of Dubrovnik in Croatia is under code red alert for rain, code orange for storm and code yellow for wind. Also, the Romanian Foreign Ministry informs that neighboring Hungary is under code orange alert for torrential rain with hail and strong winds of up to 80 km/h. At the same time, the center and north are under code yellow alert. The extreme weather is expected to spread on Thursday over the entire territory of Hungary, which is under code yellow alert, but mostly in the south and center, which are under code orange alert.
A study published early this month, ordered by the central Romanian daily Adevarul, shows that Romanians have an overwhelmingly positive image of western European countries. First place is taken by Germany, with 84% positive opinions, followed by the UK and Spain. All top three countries are favorite destinations for Romanians who go to work abroad. At the opposite end of the scale are Ukraine, Hungary and Russia, in that order. 51.4% of Romanians said they have a rather negative opinion of Moscow, for both historical reasons and because of the latest turmoil in Ukraine. The data in this study was collected before the downing of the Malaysian flight over Ukraine, which left 298 dead. The sample was 1,055 people, representative of the population 18 and older in Romania.
The Republic of Moldova will take part for the first time ever in a NATO summit, which is scheduled for September in the UK. The announcement was made by Moldovan minister of foreign affairs and European integration, Natalia Gherman. She said that her country, a former Soviet republic, expects her new NATO allies would reiterate their request for Russia to withdraw its troops from Transdnestr, a pro-Russian breakaway region which self proclaimed independence following an armed insurrection. Recently, the US Senate has passed a resolution in support of Moldova’s territorial integrity, and of strengthened relations between Washington and Chisinau.
The number of Russian soldiers deployed along the border with Ukraine is on the rise, exceeding 12 thousand, said on Wednesday General Philip Breedlove, Commander of the NATO troops in Europe, Reuters reports. Previously, the Pentagon had stated that Russia continued to supply weapons to separatists. The conflict between the Ukrainian armed forces and the Pro-Russian rebels in the south east is escalating. According to CNN, government troops have fired short range ballistic missiles, the most destructive weapon used by them in this conflict, which started on April 15th. So far, the violence has left over one thousand civilians dead and significant material damage.
On Wednesday in Gaza, the Israeli army killed at least 70 Palestinians, part of the offensive against Hamas. Most victims were reported after the bombarding of a UN school in the north of the strip, where many Palestinians had found shelter. In all, over one thousand three hundred Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed since July 8th, when the Israeli offensive started. In turn, Israel has announced it has lost 56 soldiers, the biggest toll since the war against Hezbollah in 2006. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that the operation will continue until all the tunnels used by Islamist fighters to infiltrate into the south of Israel are destroyed. On the other side, the military wing of Hamas has rejected any truce and has stated it will not stop fighting until Israel stops the bombing.
“Toto and his sisters” by Romanian director Alexander Nanau has been selected to run in the race for the Kutxa — New Directors award at the San Sebastian Film Festival in September. According to the organizers, “Toto and his sisters” was selected alongside another 12 productions and co-productions from all over the world. This is the Romanian director’s first participation in this festival. in 2010 Alexander Nanau won the Emmy award for the documentary “The World Seen by Ion B”. The film tells the story of a 10 year old boy and his sisters, who live in a poor neighborhood and are waiting for their mother to be released from prison.
Romanian pupils won a gold medal and two mentions at the International Linguistics Olympiad held in Beijing, the Romanian Education Ministry announced on Wednesday. The gold went to Dan Mircea Mirea, from the “Fratii Buzesti” National College of Craiova. Participating in this year’s edition were 39 teams from 28 countries.
In Kazkhstan, Romania’s football champion team Steaua Bucharest on Wedesnday ended in a draw (2-2) the match against the Kazakh side FK Aktobe, counting towards the first leg of Champions League’s third preliminary round. In the other continental competition, Europa League, representing Romania will be three teams, schedulled to play their games counting towards the first leg of the third prelimianry round. Winner of Romania’s Cup Astra Giurgiu and Petrolul Ploiesti will be facing on home turf the Czceh side Slovan Liberec and Plzen respectively. CFR Cluj will be taking on Dinamo Minsk from Belarus, away from home.
