September 12, 2015 UPDATE
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 12.09.2015, 12:15
From London to Copenhagen tens of thousands of Europeans took to the streets on Saturday to call for more generosity towards the refugees who come in great numbers to Europe. In exchange, several EU countries, Romania included, expressed opposition to the policy of compulsory migrant quotas promoted by Brussels. Hungary announced that, as of next week, the migrants who would try to illegally enter the country would be arrested. The Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann firmly criticized the prime minister Viktor Orban, comparing the treatment of migrants on the Hungarian territory with what happened during the Nazi regime. According to the International Organization for Migration as of January over 430 thousand immigrants and refugees from the Middle East and northern Africa crossed the Mediterranean to reach Europe, of whom as many as 2,750 lost their lives or are reported missing.
The Russian president Vladimir Putin on Saturday hailed the cessation of military operations by the Ukrainian forces and the pro-Russian separatists in the east of Ukraine, saying this is the outcome of efforts made for instating peace in the region- Reuters reports. On September 1st a ceasefire was decreed in order to avoid disturbing the new school year in eastern Ukraine, where the violent clashes have killed almost 8 thousand people since the start of the armed conflict in April 2014. Kiev and the West accuse Moscow of supplying weapons to the rebels and also of having deployed troops in the area. Russia has categorically denied the allegations. The Ukrainian PM Arseni Iatseniouk called on the West not to lift sanctions imposed on Moscow for its involvement in the conflict unless a durable peace agreement is reached.
The governor of the Mecca region in Saudi Arabia ordered an investigation in the case of a crane crash into a part of the Grand Mosque. As many as 100 people lost their lives in the crash and over 200 were wounded. Shortly before the accident the city was hit by a strong sand storm. The Mosque is surrounded by many cranes as works are under way to increase the area of the mosque to accommodate up to 2.2 million pilgrims at once.
The Euro zone ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Saturday expressed no worries in the run up to the early parliamentary elections scheduled for September 20 in Greece. They don’t believe the elections will question the pledges recently made by Athens to its international creditors in exchange for a 3rd financial aid package meant to help the country avoid collapse, since Greece had defaulted on payments for several months already. This is the 3rd time in a year that Greeks are called to the polls. Next Sunday’s elections were scheduled following the resignation, at the end of August, of PM Alexis Tsipras, which was caused by discontent in his own party, the radical leftist Syriza party, over the agreement the Tsipras government reached with the international creditors.
The former Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci posted on Saturday in her Facebook page a photo in which she appears together with Simona Halep, whom she calls the “queen of tennis”. She posted the photo a few hours after Halep, the world’s no. 2 player, failed to qualify in the US Open final, being defeated by Italian Flavia Pennetta. Nadia Comaneci has been a staunch supporter of Halep at the matches played in Flushing Meadows, New York. Qualification in the semifinal of the US Open is the best result of Halep in the 2015 Grand Slam tournaments, after qualification in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, in the 2nd round of the Roland Garros tournament and in the first round of the Wimbledon tournament.
