September 24, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news.
România Internațional, 24.09.2014, 12:02
An Algerian jihadist group, on Wednesday, released a video that appears to show the beheading of French tourist Herve Gourdel, aged 55, who was seized on Sunday. The militant group Jund al-Khilafa had set a 24-hour deadline on Tuesday for France to halt air strikes in Iraq. French President Francois Hollande rejected the ultimatum.
Europol, the law enforcement agency of the European Union announced that 1027 individuals have been arrested as part of the largest ever coordinated operation against organised crime. Between 15 and 23 September, law enforcement authorities from 34 countries, coordinated and supported by Europol from its headquarters in The Hague, joined forces in Operation Archimedes.
The Romanian Foreign Ministry announced it repatriated 22 Romanian citizens from Syria with the help of the Embassy in Beirut. Almost 600 Romanian citizens have been repatriated from Syria since the beginning of the conflict in this country.
14 candidates will be running for president of Romania this November, the Central Electoral Bureau announced on Tuesday night, right after the deadline for submissions of candidacies expired. The favourite in the race is the current Prime Minister of Romania, the Social Democrat Victor Ponta. Next comes the main representative of the centre-right opposition, Klaus Iohannis, the mayor of Sibiu, in central Romania. The first round is scheduled for November 2nd, and the second for November 16th.
The proceedings of the 69th UN General Assembly started on Wednesday in New York, at the request of the US President Barack Obama. The main issues on the agenda of talks are international terrorism and the UN’s activity over the past year. Participating are heads of state and government, foreign ministers, high-ranking officials, business leaders, celebrities, media representatives. Romania is represented at the summit by Prime Minister Victor Ponta.
Romanian Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean attended the informal meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers hosted by New York, on the sidelines of the UN summit. During the talks on the Ukrainian crisis, Minister Corlatean stressed the importance of observing the cease-fire agreement, as a solution to avoid a new frozen conflict in the Black Sea area and stressed Romania’s firm support to the Kiev authorities in overcoming this difficult moment.
A large scale NATO exercise started on Wednesday in Poland. Participating are over 12 thousand people, of which 750 soldiers from another 8 states members of the alliance, namely Estonia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, the Check Republic, Hungary, Canada, Great Britain and the US. Organized every two years since 2006, under the code name of Anaconda, the exercise’s goal is to prepare the rapid reaction forces for emergency situations. Poland and the Baltic countries have several times voiced worries about their security, following Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula and the support granted by Moscow to separatists in eastern Ukraine. At the summit in June, NATO announced the setting up of a permanent military presence in region, including in Romania.
The RadiRo International Festival of Radio Orchestras continued in Bucharest on Wednesday with the performance of another prestigious orchestra: the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra, which in the 70s was headed by the great Romanian conductor and composer Sergiu Celibidache. The orchestra is now headed by Stephane Deneve. RadiRo, the only European festival devoted entirely to radio orchestras, brings together famous orchestras from Finland, France, Romania and the Check Republic.
