October 21, 2014
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Florentin Căpitănescu, 21.10.2014, 00:00
The European Union by the end of this week will appoint a European coordinator for the fight against the Ebola virus, the European Union members states’ Foreign Ministers decided in Luxembourg yesterday. The Ebola outbreak so far has claimed the lives of 4,500 people in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. Belgium joined France and Great Britain, countries that took up the American model and set up checkpoints at airports and railway stations for travelers coming from the Ebola-hit countries. Meanwhile the World Health Organization has announced the outbreak has been eradicated in Nigeria, since no Ebola infection case has been reported for that country in the last 42 days. The first Ebola-contaminated person outside Africa, a Spanish nurse, is no longer infected with the virus, according to the medical authorities.
The vice-president of Romania’s Chamber of Deputies Viorel Hrebencuc, a member of the ruling Social Democratic Party, has handed in his resignation from Parliament today. We recall the National Anti-Corruption directorate had previously demanded that Hrebenciuc be kept in custody. The Romanian high-ranking politician has been facing accusations of getting involved in the illegal returns of tens of thousands of hectares of farmland and forests, jointly with other magistrates and deputy Ioan Adam and senator Ilie Sarbu, both members of the Social Democratic Party. According to the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, the damage for the National Forestry Authority Romsilva stands at over 300 million euro.
The European Union, Ukraine and Russia in Brussels are today having talks focusing on the issue of Russian gas delivery resumption. We recall last week Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian president Vladimir Putin reached a consensus regarding the natural gas issue. According to the AFP, the agreement is meant to avoid the blocking and transiting of natural gas supplies for quite a few community states this coming winter, given that an appreciable quantity of Russian gas transits Ukraine. Russia’s natural gas delivery to Ukraine were put to a halt as early as June, on account of a pending debt Russia estimates stands at 4. 5 billion dollars. The fight over natural gas is one of the Ukrainian file’s main points which after the end of the Cold War has turned into an unprecedented bone of contention between Russia and the West, according to the AFP.
The United States has hailed Turkey’s decision to allow Iranian Kurdish fighters to cross its territory on their way to defend the Northern Syrian town of Kobane, which for quite some time has been under siege by Jihadist Islamic State, according to the AFP. The Government in Ankara has made public the decision yesterday. Turkey’s decision has occurred in the wake of a tremendous amount of pressure coming from the international community and the Kurdish minority. Concurrently the United Sated yesterday for the time ever, have parachuted weapons and ammunition for the Syrian Kurdish troops that have been defending the city for a month now. The US Secretary of State John Kerry is on a visit to south East Asia, in a bid to demand the states in the region so step up their effort in the fight against the Islamic State. We recall the extremist group has seized large amounts of territories in Iraq and Syria.
Romania’s banking system has a comfortable degree of capitalization, which is well above the one before the outbreak of the crisis, Romania’s Central Bank Governor Mugur Isarescu has said today. Isarescu attended the large-scale Bucharest meeting focusing on economic development in south-east Europe. The meeting is organized by the prestigious British publication The Economist. In the first day of the meeting, representatives of “The Economist Intelligence Unit” underscored that economic growth prospects for the region were still on an upward trend, yet the region’s recovery process would still be difficult. Attending the meeting is a large number of specialist and business people. Joining them are former Italian and Greek Prime Ministers, Enrico Letta and George Papandreu, respectively, who underscored the key part Romania can play in south-eastern Europe.
The Romanian tennis player, WTA 4-th seed Simona Halep on Wednesday will be facing WTA leader the American Serena Williams, in a game counting towards the Red Group of the Champions’ Tournament in Singapore. In the first matches of the group, Halep and Williams both managed to win their fixtures; the Romanian managed a 2-nil win the game against Eugenie Bouchard, while Williams defeated Ana Ivanovic from Serbia, also 2-nil. The first two tennis players will be making headway into the semifinals of the tournament that brought together the world’s top eight lady tennis players. Securing Simona Halep’s ticket for the Singapore tournament were her two finals wins of the Doha and Bucharest tournaments, her presence in the Madrid and Roland Garros finals, as well as her playing the semifinals of the Wimbledon tournament. Halep is Romania’s third representative in the Champions Tournament, following Virginia Ruzici, in 1983 and 1984, respectively, and Irina Spirlea, in 1998.
The crews of USS Cole guided missile destroyer and USS Mount Whitney, the two military ships that have moored in the Romanian port of Constanta, in the coming days will have a joint training stage with Romanian navy military. Mount Whitney has been in the Black Sea since February 2014, while the destroyer Cole has been in the area for the first time. The joint exercises will simulate complex situations related to maritime interdiction, searching and destroying submarines, and will also rehearse air target tracking procedures. The exercise is a sequel of the joint Romanian-American military action, with a view to boosting up confidence and the security level in the Black Sea.
