October 13, 2016 UPDATE

Music legend Bob Dylan wins Nobel Prize for Literature

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Newsroom, 13.10.2016, 12:15

NOBEL – The Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to Bob Dylan “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”. Aged 75, Bob Dylan, regarded as the voice of a generation for his influential songs from the 1960s onwards, is the only singer-songwriter to win the award.

PROSECUTION – Romanian President Klaus Iohannis announced on Thursday his intention to green light the prosecution of former deputy prime minister and interior minister Gabriel Oprea, as requested by anti-corruption prosecutors. Oprea is changed with manslaughter. He resigned his position as senator on October 1st. Under Romanian law, the prosecution of former or current ministers, who are not MPs, for deeds committed while in office, requires the President’s approval. Gabriel Oprea is investigated for manslaughter after a police officer escorting him died in a motorcycle accident.

APPOINTMENT – On Thursday, the UN General Assembly officially appointed the former Prime Minister of Portugal Antonio Guterres as UN Secretary General. Guterres will replace the South-Korean Ban Ki-moon and his term will last 5 years, as of January 1st. Antonio Guterres is the first head of government to reach this position and, according to diplomatic sources in New York, is very likely to use his leadership skills and expertise in refugee-related issues to take over the initiative of regulating the main current crises, especially the one in Syria.

DOPING – The International Olympic Committee has withdrwn Romanian weightlifter Gabriel Sîncrăian the bronze medal he won at the Olympic Games in Rio, after having failed the doping test as established by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Sincraian, who won the bronze medal at the 85 kg category, was disqualified because he had taken testosterone.

KIDNAPPING – The Romanian Foreign Ministry has announced that the Romanian engineer kidnapped in Nigeria on October 10th has been released. The ministry reiterated its firm recommendation that the Romanian citizens in conflict areas or in security high-risk areas should contact the closest Romanian diplomatic missions and announce their presence in the region, in order to benefit from proper protection and assistance.

COHESION POLICY – A quarter of the total government investments in Romania, in the 2007-2013 period, is the result of the EU cohesion policy, according to an independent evaluation made public by the European Commission. Over 15 billion Euros have been invested in transportation, enterprise support programs, research and environmental protection projects, under the European regional development program. Also, within the same time frame, the cohesion policy helped create 35,000 jobs. At European level, the number of jobs created in that period stood at one million, accounting for one third of the total number of jobs in the whole of the EU created during the same interval. According to the Commission, the cohesion policy has benefited all the EU member countries and has supported them in difficult times from an economic point of view.

EU-ASEA – The Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu is attending in Bangkok, Thailand, the 21st joint EU – Association of Southeast Asian Nations ministerial meeting that started on Thursday. Previously, the Romanian Foreign Minister went to Jakarta, Indonesia, where he talked with his counterpart Retno LP Marsudi about boosting bilateral political, economic and commercial dialogue. The two officials attended the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries chambers of commerce.

MOLDOVA – According to an opinion poll, in the Republic of Moldova, 34% of the citizens would vote for this former Soviet countrys unification with neighbouring Romania. According to the latest public opinion barometer, quoted by the Radio Romania correspondent in Chisinau, 51% of those questioned would vote for Moldovas EU integration, and 43% for the countrys joining the Russia -Belarus- Kazakhstan Customs Union. 42% of the respondents would vote for Chisinaus accession to NATO. The results of the polls were made public in the run up to the presidential elections due on October 30th. According to political analysts, the stake is not just political, but also geo-political, because the battle will be carried out between pro-Russia and pro-Western candidates.

(Translated by Elena Enache)