November 15, 2014 UPDATE
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România Internațional, 15.11.2014, 12:30
Over 18 million eligible voters are expected to the polling stations this Sunday in Romania to elect the country’s president for the next 5 years. In the first round, incumbent Prime Minister Victor Ponta representing the present ruling coalition, made up of the Social-Democrats, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Conservatives, and Klaus Iohannis, mayor of Sibiu, a city in central Romania, who was backed by the Christian-Liberal Alliance, from the center-right opposition, obtained the largest number of votes. Romanian nationals living abroad can cast their ballot in 294 polling stations. Measures have been put in place in order to facilitate the election process and avoid the situation that occurred in the first election round on November 2nd, when several polling stations abroad, particularly in Europe, saw huge queues and not all the voters were able to cast their ballot. The situation sparked off protests in many Romanian cities and abroad.
Romania’s national football side on Friday night secured a two-nil home win against Northern Ireland in the preliminaries of Euro 2016 and is currently ranking first in Group F. Romania has so far beat Greece and Finland and ended in a draw its game against Hungary. The game against Northern Ireland was Romania’s first after Anghel Iordanescu had come to the helm of our side. Iordanescu had been declared the coach of last century in Romania for the results he obtained with the national side back in the 1990s. Iordanescu has replaced Victor Piturca, who stepped down in order to sign a contract with a team from Saudi Arabia.
G 20 leaders on Saturday pledged to do ‘what is necessary’ to extinguish the Ebola epidemic, which has already killed more than 5,000 people in West Africa. G20 leaders have convened in Australia for a summit due to end on Sunday. In another development, Western leaders have cautioned Russia to observe the ceasefire accord in Ukraine in order to avoid fresh sanctions. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the EU was considering the alternative of imposing fresh sanctions against Russia against the background of the crisis in Ukraine, while the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy has called on Moscow to step up pressure on the separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine. US president Barack Obama has described Russia’s actions in Ukraine as ‘a threat to the world’. Russian president Vladimir Putin said the sanctions imposed by the EU and Russia are a mistake and run against international laws adding they might affect the world’s economy as well as Russia’s.
The world’s third woman tennis player, Romanian Simona Halep, finalist in Roland Garros and in the champions tournament in Singapore has been nominated by the WTA for the player of the year title. Other nominees are Chinese player Na Li, winner of the Australia’s Open, Czech player Petra Kvitova winner of the Wimbledon tournament, Russian Maria Sharapova, winner of Roland Garros and Serena Williams, winner of the US Open and the WTA Finals in Singapore. The WTA site also has a voting section entitled WTA Rising Star, for the player with the most significant progress in 2014, which last year was won by Simona Halep. Tennis lovers can cast their vote at www.wtatennis.com.
The EU is conditioning a donor conference for Ukraine on the Ukrainian government’s readiness to draw up a detailed economic development programme, the new European commissioner for enlargement Johannes Hahn has said. According to the EU official, such a conference could take place early next year if Ukraine came up with a coherent strategy including clear economic targets and investment priorities. After president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from power, the EU has concluded an association agreement with Ukraine and granted it loans. The government in Kiev is presently facing a significant degradation of the country’s financial situation, worsened by the armed conflict with the pro-Russia separatists.
