April 14, 2017

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 14.04.2017, 13:42

CORRUPTION – The former Romanian deputy Sebastian Ghita was localized and detained by the police in Belgrade last night, after four months since his disappearance. Romanian authorities will take the necessary measures to have him extradited. When he was found, he presented false documents apparently issued by an EU state. Sebastian Ghita disappeared on December 21st, 2016 and a national search warrant was issued on his name as he had violated the terms of the legal restrictions imposed on him pending trial. On January 10th, the High Court issued a European warrant and he was also placed on the Interpols wanted list. Ghita is being tried in two cases of corruption and prosecuted in another two. More on this after the news.

EASTER – Christians across the world, including in Romania, which is a predominantly Orthodox country, are commemorating on Good Friday the crucifixion and the burial of Jesus. This evening, believers will attend masses recalling the burial procession. On Saturday night Christians will celebrate Easter, the Resurrection of Christ. This year, the Orthodox and Catholic Christians celebrate Easter on the same day.

US ATTACK – Last night, Washington used in Afghanistan the largest non-nuclear bomb ever launched by the US. The bomb targeted several grottos and tunnels in the east of the country, where Islamic State terrorists were allegedly hiding. The clashes between the terrorist group and the Afghan forces in the region have grown in intensity lately. The bomb used by the Americans, dubbed the mother of all bombs, weighed some 10,000 kg and was guided by means of a GPS system. According to the Pentagon, the super-bomb is the right weapon to destroy the ISIS hiding places and to carry on the offensive against terrorists. This is the second massive ordinance air blast used by the Pentagon within a week, after the bombing of Shairat airport, controlled by the Assad regime in Syria. The US arsenal contains another 19 such bombs, costing more than 300 million dollars. We recall that Donald Trump promised in his election campaign that he would drop a shower of bombs against terrorists.

NATO – As of today, the Cincu shooting range in Sibiu County, central Romania, is hosting the international military exercise Resolute Castle 17. By September 30th, Romanian soldiers will be training alongside US and British soldiers. The exercise, carried for the third consecutive year, is aimed at ensuring a better training of the forces in order for them to be able to deal with crisis situations. Another goal of the exercise is to increase the level of interoperability between the three countries military engineers and to improve the infrastructure of the training center, the Romanian Defense Ministry has announced. The extremely complex security situation in the region has urged NATO to organize a large number of such exercises, especially involving soldiers from the Baltic countries. 120 Romanian soldiers have already been integrated into the NATO combat force in Poland, and a marine corps is attending the Summer Shield exercise underway in Latvia.

BORDER SECURITY – Romanian check points are getting crowded, because of a new European regulation tightening EU and Schengen border checks, which took effect last week, and because of increased traffic ahead of the Easter holidays. The most crowded is the Vama Siret checkpoint in the north, on the border with Ukraine, where trucks have to wait 10 hours to exit the country and two hours to enter. Also crowded are the checkpoints on the borders with the Republic of Moldova, Bulgaria and Hungary. Authorities say that the borders will remain croweded in the following days, because restrictions have been imposed in Hungary too for the Easter holidays period.

HANDBALL – The Romanian womens handball team and winner of the Champions League CSM Bucharest is playing in Budapest on Saturday against the Hungarian squad Ferencvaros. The match is decisive for qualification into the final four of the most important European competition. In the first match, in Bucharest, the Romanians won 30-25 and became 1 seed. We recall that CSM Bucharest won the Champions League in 2016, playing the final match against another Hungarian team, Gyor.