September 25, 2014
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Bogdan Matei, 25.09.2014, 12:14
Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta in New York today during the plenary of the United Nations General Assembly’s 69th session, is presenting Bucharest’s stance regarding the challenges posed by the present international situation. Fighting terrorism and also presenting Romania’s stance regarding the situation in the region, against the backdrop of the Ukrainian crisis are the key points of Victor Ponta’s presentation today. Yesterday in New York, Romania’s; Prime Minister held talks with representatives of the Romanian community, while tomorrow in Houston Punta will be meeting representatives of leading energy companies, with the clear-cut intention of persuading other investors in this key sector, to come to Romania as well.
French President Francois Hollande has strongly condemned the beheading in Algeria of a French tourist, by militants of a Jihadist group linked to the Islamic State. Hollande described the tourist’s assassination as a cruel and coward deed. The US and the European Union expressed their solidarity with France, while at the UN’s General Assembly, Great Britain announced it could be joining the air campaign against the Islamic State. Militants of a Jihadist group linked to the Islamic State have assassinated French tourist Herve Gourdel. We recall the French tourist was killed after the Jihadist group’s deadline for France to halt air strikes on Islamic State in Iraq ran out. It was the fourth beheading operated by the Islamises, the other three victims .being two American journalists as well as a British one. Meanwhile US’s and its allies’ attacks continued in |Syria, targeting oil refineries controlled by the Jihadist group.
Romania remains fully committed to all endeavor to fight violent extremism, the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister Titus Corlatean has underscored Wednesday at the UN’s security Council summit in New York, according to Romania Foreign Affairs Ministry press release. The source also states that the summit, held as part of the UN’s General Assembly’s 69th session, was chaired by US President Barack Obama. The summit focused on the threats to peace and security, posed by terrorist attacks. Also during the meeting, a resolution was unanimously passed, targeting terrorist fighters, meant to put an end to the overflow of foreign extremists who want to join terrorist organizations worldwide. Romania co-sponsored the resolution, which is mandatory for all member states.
The Highest Court of Cassation and Justice in Romania will today start rulings over the file in which the mayor of Sibiu, in central Romania, Klaus Iohannis has been declared incompatible with his status by the National Integrity Agency ANI. This institution has been accusing Iohannis that he is concurrently holding the position of mayor at the same time being the municipality’s representative in the board of two companies. Earlier another court had infirmed the report, but ANI filed an appeal. Under the law, people declared incompatible with their status, cannot hold a public position for three years. Iohannis is the candidate of the Christian-Liberal Alliance made up of the National-Liberals and Democrat-Liberals in the presidential election in November. According a poll on vote intentions Iohannis will probably go into runoffs with his counter-candidate Prime Minister Victor Ponta. 14 candidates are currently vying for the presidential seat and have announced their candidacies at the Central Electoral Bureau. Among them, the president of the Senate Calin Popescu Tariceanu, independent MEP Monica Macovei and the head of the opposition pro-presidential People’s Movement Party Elena Udrea.
Romania’s women’s table tennis team today will be taking on the team of Portugal. The game is crucial for the qualification to the quarterfinals of European Championships held in Portugal. On Wednesday, in its first Group B matches, Romania, which is the defending European vice-champion, defeated Spain, 3-nil, but it was outclassed by Poland, also 3-nil. In Group D’s men’s version of the championships, toady Romania will be facing the Czech Republic and Croatia. We recall on Wednesday Romania lost its debut game against Russia, 3-2.
The International Radio Orchestras Festival in Bucharest today has on offer a new concert given by the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra, which is one of Germany’s top-flight symphonic orchestras. We recall that in the 1970s the Romanian-born Sergiu Celibidache was the conductor of the orchestra. On Wednesday, the German Orchestra, whose present conductor is Stephane Deneve, accompanied mezzosoprano Ruxandra Donose. Organized by Radio Romania, RadiRo is Europe’s only classical music event exclusively dedicated to radio orchestra. Traveling to Romania were famous radio orchestras from Finland, the Czech Republic, Germany, France and Romania. This year’s musical agenda is dedicated to the creation of Richard Strauss, to commemorate 150 years since the birth of the great German composer.
Romanian policemen took part in the most comprehensive, large-scale operation the European Agency Europol staged last week. The policemen initiated search operations around Bucharest’s’ airport and at the border check points, detaining several persons. The operations, run as Archimedes, targeted Europe’s organized crime infrastructure. All 28 EU member states, alongside other countries, tok part in around 300 operations, with more than twenty thousand policemen getting involved. Targeted were drug and human trafficking perpetrators. Over one thousand traffickers were arrested, and hundreds of victims were saved. Among them, 30 children from Romania, who would otherwise have been forced to prostitute themselves or go begging.
