October 8, 2013 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Florentin Căpitănescu, 08.10.2013, 12:00

The Romanian women’s table tennis team has lost the finals of the European Championship, held in Austria to the national team of Germany. It is for the second time in a row when Romania’s players have lost a continental title. Romania’s national women’s team boasts three European titles, which our athletes won in 1992, 2002 and 2005.

The report over the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism for Romania will be presented by the European Commission at the beginning of 2014, most likely in January, the spokesman for the commission, Mark Gray said. Initially the document was to be published in December, but the Commission has been notified by several NGOs about the present situation at the National Anti-corruption Directorate, DNA, currently witnessing disputes over the appointment of some prosecutors. According to Gray, the situation at the DNA will be analyzed in the following report of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism for Romania.

The IMF has trimmed forecasts over the economic growth around the world and in the USA for this year and the next, but it improved forecasts for the euro zone, shows a report published on Tuesday. The IMF has not changed its forecast on Romania’s economic growth, which remains at 2% this year and at 2.2% in 2014. The world’s GDP is to grow by 2.9 % this year and by 3.6 in 2014. The IMF has also revised upward the 2013 forecast for the euro zone with 0.1 points and a contraction of 0.4% and maintained the forecast for next year with a 1% growth thanks to the resilient French and German economies.

On Tuesday Belgian Francois Englert and British Peter Higgs were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their research in elementary particles. The two 80-year-old scientists were given the prize for having developed a mechanism, which helps understanding the origin of subatomic particles. The Nobel Prize in chemistry is to be awarded on Wednesday and in literature on Thursday. The winner of the Nobel peace prize — the only one given by Norway, according to the wish of the one who founded the prestigious award, Alfred Nobel — will be announced on Friday.

The lower chamber of the Romanian Parliament met on Tuesday in a solemn session to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust in Romania. This entire week ceremonies were held all over the country to remember the over quarter of a million Jews killed and deported starting in 1941, mostly in Bessarabia and the north of Bukovina, as well as Transdnestr. The Holocaust has been officially commemorated in Romania since 2004, after a special commission issued its report on the deportations during WWII.

Crown Princess Margaret of Romania, while on a three-day visit to the Republic of Moldova was awarded a medal by the Academy of Sciences for supporting Romanian culture and the collaboration with education institutions in the Republic of Moldova. This is her first visit to that state. On her schedule are a number of official meetings, including meetings with PM Iurie Leanca and President Nicolae Timofti.

Romanian violinist Razvan Stoica won the New Talent competition in Bratislava, the most important competition for young instrumentalists run by the European Radio Union. He is the first Romanian to get this distinction in the 44 years since the competition has been first organized. He is a graduate of the George Enescu conservatory in Bucharest and the conservatory in Amsterdam. The 26 year old violinist won in 2009 the Strad Award in Salzburg, and has been granted access to a 1729 Stradivarius.

Bucharest hosts Anim’est, the biggest animation festival in Romania, with 38 films competing. 1040 animation films made in 65 countries will be screened until October 13, many of them historic movies. Anim’est is a member of the Cartoon pan-European circuit, with over 20,000 viewers in the audience.

Over 50 Romanian companies in the food industry take part in the ANUGA 2013 international fair, the most important such event in the world, according to the Bucharest Ministry of the Economy. The most important exhibits that Romania boasts at the fair are wheat products, mineral waters, herbal teas, wines, dairy products and vegetable oils. In 2012, Romania exported over four billion Euro worth of food products.