October 22, 2022

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 22.10.2022, 13:57

COVID The European Centre for Disease
Prevention and Control has cautioned against the spread of a new Omicron
subvariant, which is expected to increase the number of infections in Europe,
the EFE Agency has reported. Preliminary surveys conducted in Asia have shown
the aforementioned subvariant could evade the immune response of the human
body. Andrea Ammon, director of the aforementioned institution has called on European
states to remain vigilant about the spread of the new subvariant and monitor the
number of infections as well as the hospital treatment of patients. According
to the same institution, raising the vaccination rate remains a priority, and
that risk groups, such as the elderly and the people with comorbidities, need
additional booster doses.

TENNIS Romania’s best tennis player and
two-times major winner, Simona Halep, has been provisionally suspended after
testing positive for a banned anti-anemia blood-booster called roxadustat at
the latest edition of the US Open. The world’s former number one, Halep
described the ban as ‘the biggest shock of her life’ and denied knowingly
taking any banned substance. Throughout my whole career, the idea of cheating
never even crossed my mind once, as it is totally against all the values I have
been educated with. Facing such an unfair situation, I feel completely confused
and betrayed, the athlete wrote on Twitter. The 31 year old Romanian athlete
and winner of the Roland Garros tournament in 2018, says that her fight was not
about ‘titles and money’ but her honour and that she hoped the truth would
eventually come out.

PERMITS Specialised structures with the
Romanian Interior Ministry have in the past 24 hours issued 302 residence
permits for Ukrainian refugees. A total of 78 thousand such permits have been
issued since March. According to authorities in Bucharest only one Ukrainian
citizen has applied for asylum in the past 24 hours. Roughly 44 hundred
Ukrainians have applied for asylum in Romania since the beginning of the
conflict and they are benefitting from all the rights stipulated in the
national legislation. According to the same sources, 83 thousand people have
crossed the borders into Romania in the past 24 hours, out of which 93 hundred
are Ukrainian citizens.

HANDBALL Romania’s vice-champions in
women’s handball, CSM Bucharest are today playing defending champions Vipers
Kristiansand of Norway in an away match counting towards the Champions League
group A. In their previous game, CSM managed to outperform the last side in the
group’s ranking Banik Most of the Czech Republic. CSM ranks second in the group
after German side Bietigheim and before Kristiansand. Romanian champions Rapid
Bucharest is also ranking second in the Champions League’s group B after
Hungarian side Gyor. Rapid will be playing a home game against the Norwegians
of Storhamar on Sunday. Rapid comes after a draw against Buducnost Podgorica of
Montenegro.

VISIT The use by Russia of the nuclear
weapon would be ‘an act of hostility against humankind’, Japanese Prime
Minister Fumio Kishida said during his visit to Australia on Saturday, France
press reports. The Russian intimidation concerning the use of nuclear weapon is
a severe threat to the peace and security of the international community and is
absolutely unacceptable, says the leader of the only country ever hit by a
nuclear weapon. In 2023, Kishida is expected to welcome the G7 leaders in
Hiroshima, the town which was razed to the ground by an atomic bomb in 1945
when 140 thousand people died. The city of Nagasaki was also bombed three days
later. In another development, Australia and Japan on Saturday signed an agreement
on security issues aimed at offsetting China’s military power in the region.

(bill)