May 23, 2014
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 23.05.2014, 12:00
The campaign for the European Parliament elections to be held on Sunday in Romania comes to a close on Saturday at 7 a.m. 15 alliances and political parties and 8 independent candidates are competing for the 32 seats Romania is entitled to in the EP. More than 18 million Romanians with the right to vote are expected to the polls on Sunday. The Romanian citizens from aboard can vote in 190 polling stations set up at the headquarters of Romania’s diplomatic and consular missions abroad, at the Romanian cultural institutes and also in the theaters of operations in Afghanistan. The elections for the EP already started on Thursday in such countries as Great Britain and the Netherlands.
Businessman Dan Adamescu, the second richest man in Romania with an estimated wealth of almost 1 billion euros, is being prosecuted in a file involving 4 magistrates that were arrested this week for bribe taking. Adamescu is accused of giving the magistrates bribe to obtain favorable court verdicts related to his businesses. In another move, 3 physicians from a famous oncological hospital in Bucharest, 2 heads of pharmacies and 4 representatives of several drug companies have been put under preventive arrest. The physicians are accused of having issued more than one thousand false recipes for which money was fraudulently recuperated from the Health Insurance Company. The damage stands at 1.8 million euros.
The interim president of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turcinov, has called on the Ukrainian people to go to the polls on May 25th for the presidential election. He pointed out that these elections would have as a result the formation of a legitimate and responsible Ukrainian government. Over 36 million people with the right to vote are expected to the polls on Sunday after months of political crisis when the stepping down of the former president Viktor Ianukovych and the escalation of violence brought the country on the brink of civil war, France Press reports. The elections take place against the backdrop of tension in the Russian-speaking regions in the east controlled by the pro-Russian separatists where the Ukrainian government troops are staging an anti-terrorist offensive. On Friday 5 people were killed in the clashes between the Ukrainian soldiers and the pro-Russian insurgents near Donetsk. We recall that the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk proclaimed their independence in mid May following a referendum unrecognized by Kiev and the West.
2 people have died in Istanbul during Thursday night’s clashes between protesters and the police, France Press reports. The police used tear gas and water tanks against the protesters who accuse the government of neglect in the mining accident of May 13th. According to the first results of the investigation, the mine did not have a special room where miners could have taken refuge in case of accidents. This resulted in the death of 300 people and triggered off a wave of protests across Turkey.
The EU and the US have condemned the coup d’etat in Thailand, Reuters and France Press news agencies report. The Thai army on Thursday took over power and suspended most of the people’s individual freedoms, after 7 months of political crisis and street clashes. Since it became a constitutional monarchy in 1932 Thailand has faced 18 coups d’etat or attempted coups d’etat.
