March 30, 2016

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România Internațional, 30.03.2016, 12:00

SUMMIT – Romania is in the front ranks of the states fully abiding by their nuclear security commitments, having a clear nuclear programme and a responsible conduct. President Klaus Iohannis made the statement in Bucharest before leaving for Washington hosting the nuclear security summit over March 30th-April 1st. President Iohannis went on to say that Romania reiterated that it was an active and responsible member of the restricted group of states with relevant nuclear facilities, having the whole cycle of nuclear fuel and being firmly committed to promoting the global structure of nuclear security and of fighting nuclear terrorism. On his visit to the USA, president Iohannis will visit the Holocaust Memorial and will have talks with representatives of the Romanian community.

AmCham – In Bucharest, the American Chamber of Commerce has tabled the second Romanias competitiveness report. The demographic growth, healthcare, infrastructure, brain drain, research, agriculture, education and the coherence of public policies are the priority areas which need an immediate intervention. The areas which have registered a positive evolution since the first Competitiveness Report was made public in 2011 include the fight against corruption, inflation and labour legislation.

FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION – The Chamber of Deputies of Romanias Parliament is today debating and voting on the request of the head of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi for deputy Sebastian Ghita to be detained and taken into preventive custody. On Tuesday, the Chambers Legal Commission complied with the detention request, but the arrest request lacked the necessary number of votes to be complied with. A person close to former Social-Democrat prime minister Victor Ponta, Ghita is accused of a number of crimes, including bribe-giving, blackmail, influence peddling and driving a car without a driving license. The deputy has dismissed the accusations saying that they actually target Victor Ponta.

MIGRATION – The Romanian ship “Stephen the Great on a 90-day international mission in the Mediterranean has saved 252 illegal migrants who were in two inflatable boats off the coasts of Sicily. The migrants will be taken to ports in Sicily or Calabria. Romanian border police officers are participating in the TRITON European border security operation coordinated by the FRONTEX European Agency. In late January, Romanian police officers on a mission in Italy saved 119 migrants who were in a small inflatable boat close to the port of Lampedusa. Over one million migrants have reached Europe over the last year, most of them taking refuge from such conflict areas as Syria, Irak and Africa. The refugee crisis has rendered tense the relations among the EU member states and has put to the test the commitments under the Schengen agreement.

SYRIA – Opening a conference on the Syrian refugee issue hosted by the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Geneva today, UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon said that the Syrian refugee crisis demanded an exponential increase in global solidarity. Ban Ki-Moon called on all countries to receive nearly half a million Syrian refugees by 2018. 90 countries are attending the conference which aims to share the countries global responsibility for the refugee crisis sparked by the war in Syria. The 5-year conflict has left more than 250,000 dead and nearly 5 million refugees. On Tuesday, the British charity Oxfam made public a report saying that the rich countries had received only 1.39% of the 4.8 million Syrian refugees. The organization called on those countries to receive at least 10% of the refugees, most of them being in Syrias neighbouring countries.

VOLLEYBALL – The Romanian womens volleyball team CSM Bucharest are today up against the Turkish team Trabzon Idman Ocagi in the Challenge Cup final first leg on home turf. The return match is scheduled in Turkey on April 3rd. In the semifinals, the team CSM Bucharest having an Italian coach beat the Turkish team Bursa BBSK, that own the trophy. Is for the first time that a Romanian womens volleyball team play the final in a European cup.

TENNIS – Number five seed Simona Halep of Romania has been defeated by number 20 seed Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 in the quarter finals of the Miami tournament in the USA. In the womens doubles, Romanian Monica Niculescu and Russian Margarita Gasparyan have qualified to the semifinals beating American Vania King and Russian Ala Kudriavteva. In the eights finals, Niculescu and Gasparyan had defeated the main favourites Swiss Martina Hingis and Indian Sania Mirza.

(Translated by A.M. Palcu)