July 12, 2015
A roundup of domestic and international news.
Newsroom, 12.07.2015, 14:02
The European Union summit initially scheduled for today in Brussels has been cancelled, so that the difficult negotiations to reach an agreement on a third bailout plan for Greece should continue, the European Council president Donald Tusk has announced. The Greek Parliament adopted a reform package on Friday evening. Greece wants a three-year financing package, and commits to adopting a new pension law by this autumn and to come up with a new fiscal legislation. Greeces debt currently amounts to 320 billion euros, of which 65% to Eurozone countries and the IMF, and 8.7% to the European Central Bank. Starting July 1, Greece has technically defaulted on its payments and needs a third financial rescue package to avoid leaving the Eurozone.
Horia Tecau of Romania and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands won the men’s doubles title in Wimbledon on Saturday. Tecau and Rojer beat Jamie Murray of Britain and John Peers of Australia 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-4 on Centre Court.This is Horia Tecaus first first victory in the mens doubles at a grand slam tournament. Tecau previously won a Grand Slam, but in the mixed doubles at the Australian Open in 2012. The Romanian also played the mens doubles final in Wimbledon in 2010, 2011 and 2012 alongside Robert Lindstedt of Sweden but they lost each time. Horia Tecau is the second Romanian tennis player to win the mens final in Wimbledon, after Ilie Nastase who played toether with the American Jimmy Connors in 1973.
The film “Box, directed by the Romanian Florin Serban won the prize of the International Federation of Film Critics, known as the FIPRESCI prize, at the Karlovy Vary international film festival, in the Czech Republic, now at its 50th edition. Five years after his first feature, “If I Want to Whistle I whistle won the Berlinale Jury Grand Prix, Florin Şerban is presenting “Box, a drama about Anghel (Rafael Florea), a 19-year-old boxer, and Cristina (Hilda Péter), a 30-year-old mother who come from very different backgrounds.
The EUs foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, voiced solidarity with the Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic. Outrage erupted at Saturday’s commemoration of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia, as a shouting crowd threw bottles and rocks at Serbia’s Prime Minister, forcing him to flee. Several European leaders and the Bosnian presidency have condemned the incident. This was a heated moment in an otherwise solemn event where world dignitaries and thousands of others gathered to remember the largest single atrocity in Europe since World War II -the slaughter of almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys by a Bosnian Serb army 20 years ago.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack at the Italian Consulate in Cairo which has so far claimed one life. The Romanian Foreigm Ministry has firmly condemned the attack and voiced support for Egypt in its fight against terrorism. Egypt faces threats from numerous extremist insurgent groups, including Islamic State, coming across the Sinai Peninsula.
Some one thousand young people from the Republic of Moldova crossed the Romanian border on Saturday morning, where they met with one thousand Romanians, advocating the unification of the two states. They will reach Bucharest today and will hand president Klaus Iohannis the declaration of unification adopted on July 5 signed by 30,000 citizens of Moldova as part of the great national assembly. The rally was called by NGOs from the two states, according to which “only if we stand united can we face future challenges, live well in our own country and enjoy a larger country, without internal borders and setbacks, with a common and prosperous destiny for all Romanians. The event was held in the public square which hosted the great anti-Soviet protests of 1989-1990 and where in August 1991 the Great National Assembly hailed Moldovas independence from Moscow. We recall the Moldova emerged as an independent state on part of Romanias eastern territories annexed by the USSR in 1940.
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