7 April, 2017

Romanian woman wounded in London attack dies./ Romanian border police tighten border-crossing controls, following changes to the Schengen Border Code.

Newsroom, 07.04.2017, 13:41

US air strike. The United States launched cruise missiles on a Syrian
airbase on Thursday night in response to a chemical weapons attack a few days
ago which killed tens of civilians and which Washington blames on Syrian
president Bashar al-Assad’s forces. The airbase, from where the chemical attack
is believed to have been launched, was almost entirely destroyed, while 7
people were killed. This is the first direct military action by the US against
Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which is accused of atrocities against civilians in
six years of civil war.

London attack. Romania’s
ambassador to London has confirmed the death of the Romanian national who
sustained serious injuries in the attack on the 22nd of March in the
British capital and who had been in hospital for two weeks. The 31-year-old
woman fell into the river Thames when the perpetrator of the attack rammed his
car into pedestrians on the Westminster Bridge. Her partner, who was also
wounded, was released from hospital soon after the attack. The Romanian woman
is the fifth victim of the attack. The British-born attacker, who became an
adherent to radical Islam, was shot dead by the security forces near the
British Parliament. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the
attack.

Borders. The Romanian
border police today tightened controls on entering and exiting the country,
with all persons crossing the border being checked against relevant national
and international databases. The measure comes after the enforcement of the
changes to the Schengen Border Code adopted by the European Parliament and the
European Council and meant to improve the security of the European Union and
its citizens. The Romanian border police say they have taken every measure to
reduce waiting time and ensure operative control and strike a balance between
citizen security and the traffic flow.

Conference. Law experts from Romania, France, Greece, Hungary,
Georgia, Poland and Turkey attending an international conference on democracy
in Bucharest are today discussing the relationship between the political
majority and the opposition, on the second and final day of the conference. The
around 100 participants are to present their own countries’ experience in
managing the most difficult aspects of the interaction between the majority and
the opposition and analyse the democratic instruments and processes. At the end
of the conference, the Venice Commission will draw up a report containing
guidelines on how the political majority should behave and interact with the
opposition. The event is organised by the Presidential Administration and the
Venice Commission, with support from the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary
Assembly.

Tennis. The Romanian tennis player Irina Begu, world no. 33, has
qualified for the quarterfinals of the tournament in Charleston, the US, worth
more than 700,000 dollars in prize money. In the previous round, she defeated
Australia’s Samantha Stosur, world no. 17. Begu will play for a place in the
semifinals against Russia’s Daria Kasatkina, world no. 42.