January 5, 2014
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România Internațional, 05.01.2014, 12:00
EPIPHANY-Orthodox and Greek Catholic believers in Romania are fasting to prepare for Epiphany, the Baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan River. The religious feast, to be celebrated on January the 6th, alongside St. John the Baptist’s Day on Tuesday mark the end of the winter holy days. Special masses are given in churches, to consecrate water, which is believed to have healing powers and a spiritual purifying effect. In another move, the Orthodox believers preserving the old calendar are celebrating Christmas Eve. Romania is home to over one million Orthodox believers who observe the old calendar: ethnic Russians, Armenians, Serbs, Ukrainians as well as some Romanians. There is a 13-day difference between the old and the new calendars.
POLL– Although elections for the European Parliament are scheduled for the month of May 2014, some 90% of the Romanian voters are unaware of this and a third of them don’t know the name of a Romanian MEP-an opinion poll made public on Saturday shows. Also, 63% of the respondents say they don’t know anything about the voting procedure in the EP elections. 78% of them do not know who the president of the European Commission is. The poll also shows that only 7% of the respondents are satisfied with the activity carried out by Romanian MEPs, whereas a quarter of them are not satisfied. The main reason evoked by those who are discontent about MEPs is the fact that they haven’t defended the Romanians’ rights. The poll was carried out over the phone, on January the 2nd and 3rd 2014, on 1,210 people, aged over 18. The error margin was of plus-minus 2.8%.
EXTREME COLD-A wave of extreme cold is likely to hit the northeastern regions of the US as of today. Meteorologists warn that temperatures might drop below minus 30 degrees Celsius, and in some places they will plummet below minus 50 degrees. The authorities take specific measures for the population, especially children, to be protected as well as possible. Since the start of the year, the region has been swept by snowstorms, which claimed 16 lives. Air and road traffic have been disrupted, an increasing number of institutions have suspended their activity and many events have been cancelled. Also in Canada, a wave of cold hit most eastern regions of the country. In the Quebec region, temperatures read minus 44 degrees C. Over 100,000 households have been left without electricity, because of heavy snowfalls in the northeast of the country, in Labrador and Terra Nova.
SPORTS– A legend of Portuguese football, Eusebio, 71, died in Lisbon of a cardiac arrest on the night of Saturday to Sunday, the Lusa news agency quotes Eusebio’s former football club, Benfica, as saying. Considered to be one of the best footballers of all time, Eusebio da Silva Ferreira, nicknamed “the Black Panther”, was born on January the 25th 1942 in Mozambique. He played for Benfica Lisabona for 15 years, scoring no less than 638 goals in 614 matches. Together with his teammates from Benfica, Eusebio won Portugal’s championship 11 times, Portugal’s Cup 5 times and the European Cup in 1962.
