November 21, 2015
Click here for a roundup of Romanian and international news
Newsroom, 21.11.2015, 12:00
Another person injured in the fatal fire of October 30th at the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest died on Saturday in a hospital in the Romanian capital city, raising the death toll to 59. According to the Health Ministry, 40 patients were still hospitalised, ten of whom are in a critical condition. Around 30 others are receiving care in foreign clinics. A tribute was paid to the victims of the fire, on Friday night, when hundreds of people gathered for a concert in University Square in Bucharest.
The new Government of Romania, headed by the independent Dacian Cioloş convened on Saturday in an informal meeting. The talks focused on next year’s public budgets, the sector priorities for the coming months, the improvement of the institutions that manage the European fund absorption and on outlining the principles for an administrative reform. According to the PM, such informal meetings will be held on a regular basis, at the weekend, and will focus on the priorities in the governing programme. The technocratic cabinet headed by Dacian Ciolos was sworn in early this week.
The Gaudeamus International Book Fair, organised by Radio Romania, carries on today with tens of book launches and cultural events. The fair will end on Sunday. This year’s edition is held under the motto “The Most Read Book Fair from the Most Listened to Radio.” Gaudeamus brings together over 300 publishers and 700 events. The guest of honour in this year’s fair is the Group of Francophone Embassies, Delegations and Institutions in Romania.
The Brussels metro was shut on Saturday after the Belgian authorities raised the terrorist alert status to the highest level, warning people to avoid crowds because of a “serious and imminent” threat, news agencies report. One week after the Paris attacks, perpetrated by ISIS members, and with one of the suspects, based in Brussels, still at large, the city was placed on the top level, 4, of the government’s threat scale. The decision was taken hours after a suspect arrested in Belgium was placed under terrorism charges in relation to the attacks that killed 130 people in Paris on November 13th.
The UN Security Council Friday unanimously approved a resolution introduced by France, which calls on all nations to strengthen and coordinate actions to prevent further terror attacks from the IS group and other terrorist organisations. The resolution describes the IS jihadist group as an unprecedented global threat to the international security and peace. The document authorises UN member states to use any means to dismantle the shelters the terrorists have established in a sizeable part of Iraq and Syria. The Resolution also calls on the international community to block the flow of foreign fighters to Iraq and Syria and to crack down on terrorist financing, the Radio Romania correspondent in Washington reports.
The Romanian Florin Mergea and Indian Rohan Bopanna Saturday qualified in the finals of the London ATP World Tour, after defeating Ivan Dodig / Marcelo Melo (Croatia/Brazil), 6-4 / 6-2. In the other doubles semi-final, another Romanian, Horia Tecau, and his partner, Jean-Julien Rojer (Netherlands), are facing the No 1 seeded American twins Bob and Mike Bryan. It is for the first time that Romania has two players in the ATP World Tour Finals, which has 7 million US dollars in prize money and brings together the best-ranking 8 players of the season and the top 8 men’s doubles teams.
(Translation by: Ana Maria Popescu)
