November 3, 2013

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

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Mihai Pelin, 03.11.2013, 12:05

A Festival entitled‚ ”the Week of the Radio Orchestras and Choirs on Air since 1928” ends in Bucharest today with a concert given by the Big Band Radio, under the baton of conductor and composer Ionel Tudor. The concert will also include the participation of Analia Selis, a vocalist of Argentinean descent, Romanian cello player Razvan Suma and guitarist Julio Santillan from Argentina. We recall that on November 1st, Radio Romania celebrated 85 years of activity. With three national and nine regional channels, as well as with an international channel broadcasting in 10 foreign languages, in Romanian, and in the Aromanian dialect, Radio Romania is a model of succesful public service.

Tens of thousands are expected to join a rally staged by the ruling coalition in Chishinau, to support the European aspirations of the Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet country with a Romanian speaking majority. The Republic of Moldova is to ratify by the end of the month, at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, an agreement on the country’s EU entry. The communist opposition, which is against the republic’s pro-European orientation and in favour of joining the so-called Eurasian Union has announced its intention to stage a velvet revolution and have its own rally in capital Chisinau. In turn, the breakaway regime in Tiraspol has conveyed a message, that the country’s accession to the EU will broaden the gap between the two banks of the Dniester river. The Russian Federation has also voiced discontent, hinting that getting closer to Brussels could sour the country’s relations with Russia.

Kosovo is today seeing municipal election, the first in which ethnic Serbs are allowed to participate after the province’s secession from Serbia in 2008. The OSCE will be monitoring the voting, which is unfolding under the Brussels accord on normalizing relations between Belgrade and Pristina. According to France Press, the elections involve the participation of the Serbs in northern Kosovo, who do not recognize the authorities in Pristina. Serbia, a country, which hopes to open accession negotiations with the EU shortly, is for the first time encouraging the ethnic Serbs’ participation in the election staged by Pristina. Five EU members, including Romania, have not yet recognized the independence of Kosovo.

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep will be playing Australian Samantha Stosur in the finals of the Champions Tournament in Sofia, with 750 thousand dollars in prize money. 14th seed Halep on Saturday defeated in the semifinals Serbian contender Ana Ivanovici 2-6, 6-1, 6-3. No matter the final’s result, Halep will get on the 11th position in the ATP standings almost equalling the performance of Virginia Ruzici, eighth seed in the 70s and Irina Sparlea, 7th seed in the 90s.

US secretary of state, John Kerry has started a Middle East tour, having high on the agenda the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the war in Syria and the Iranian nuclear file. The first leg of this tour is Egypt, where the American official is to arrive today shortly before the trial of former Islamist president, democratically elected Mohamed Morsi, who has been in military custody since its dismissal in July. John Kerry will next travel to Saudi Arabia for talks with king Abdallah, and will later fly to Israel and to the Palestinian territories. The American official will travel farther to Aman, Abu Dhabi, Algier and Morroco. Kerry also intends to visit Poland’s capital Warsaw.

Romanian Type 22 frigate Queen Marie is to arrive in Constanta on Monday at the end of its mission in NATO’s Active Endeavour operation in the Mediterranean. With a crew of 224, the ship has accomplished all the missions in this operation covering over 57 hundred nautical miles. Active Endeavour was set up in 2001, right after the terror attacks on the United States on September 11th. NATO’s war vessels are patrolling the Mediterranean to monitor the sea traffic and discourage terror activities and illegal trafficking. That was Queen Marie’s fourth participation in operations of monitoring naval and air traffic and the eighth of the Romanian navy.