August 24, 2014
A roundup of domestic and international news.
România Internațional, 24.08.2014, 13:42
August the 23rd marks 75 years since Hitlers Germany and Stalins Soviet Union signed the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The pact meant unimaginable sufferance for millions of Romanians with effects that can still be felt today, Romania’s Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean said in a message. According to Corlatean, the observance of international norms and principles, of the territorial sovereignty and integrity and of the human rights is a guarantee that such tragedy will never happen again. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the Nazi German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was a non-aggression pact signed in Moscow in August 23, 1939. The pacts publicly stated intentions were a guarantee of non-belligerence by either party towards the other and a commitment that neither party would ally itself to or aid an enemy of the other party. In addition to stipulations of non-aggression, the treaty included a secret protocol that divided territories of Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia into Nazi and Soviet “spheres of influence” anticipating potential “territorial and political rearrangements” of these countries. Hundreds of thousands of Romanian ethnics fled their homes or were deported to Siberia. The Romanian territories annexed by Stalinist Russia belong today to the ex-Soviet republics of Moldova, with a majority Romanian-speaking population, and to Ukraine, that is home to almost half a million Romanians.
Iceland has closed its airspace after indications of a small-scale eruption of the Bardarbunga volcano, located under the biggest glacier in Iceland, Vatnajokull. Seismic activity is continuing and eruption can cause ash clouds. That is why Iceland has issued a red alert to aviation, the highest warning on the countrys five-point scale. A Europe-wide alert has also been upgraded. European air safety agency Eurocontrol said it would produce a forecast of likely ash behaviour every six hours. The eruption of another volcano in Iceland, Eyjafjallajokull, in April 2010 caused the largest closure of European airspace since World War Two, with losses estimated at between 1.5 billion and 2.5 billion euros .
Ukrainian President Petro Poroşenko has today promised to allot over 2.2 billion euros to the army, to be reequipped. Porosenko said in a speech that war was inflicted upon Ukraine from the outside and that his country is likely to be under constant military threat for the long run. The European Union does not recognize the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by Russia, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday upon her visit to Kiev. Merkel is the most important high-ranking official from Western Europe to visit Kiev since the outbreak of the crisis. Her visit is seen as a sign of support by pro-Western authorities.
An earthquake measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale took place in Romania this morning. The tremor was located in the Vrancea area in southeastern Romania and has not been felt in Bucharest. Located at the junction of three tectonic plates, Romania is one of the European countries most exposed to earthquakes. The most devastating of them, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale took place in March 4, 1970, and killed 1,500 people.
Simona Halep, of Romania, the 2014 French Open finalist, Wimbledon semi-finalist and currently Seed no. 2 in women’s singles at the 2014 US Open will meet Danielle Collins in the competition’s first round. Four other Romanian players will take part in the competition. Monica Niculescu will be up against Kazahstan’s Iaroslava Svedova, Sorana Carstea will play against Britain’s Heather Watson, Irina Begu will meet Silvia Soler-Espinosa of Spain while Alexandra Dulgheru will take on Kristyna Pliskova from the Czech Republic.
