November 16, 2014, UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 16.11.2014, 21:09
The two candidates running for president of Romania on November 16th, the representative of the ruling Alliance made up of the Social Democratic Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Conservative Party, the Social Democrat PM Victor Ponta and the representative of the Christian Liberal Alliance (the center right opposition) and the mayor of Sibiu, Klaus Iohannis, have obtained equal scores, according the exit polls made 2 hours ahead of the closing of the polling stations. The difference between the two of almost 2% is within the error margin of surveys, two survey institutes saying that Victor Ponta is the winner, while another two say Klaus Iohannis is the winner of Sunday’s elections. The vote turnout 2 hours ahead of the closing of the poling stations was 58.66%, almost 12% higher than in the first round. Upon the announcement of the exit polls Klaus Iohanis said: quote “Dear Romanians, today you have been heroes, the voting was phenomenal, the vote turnout was enormous. Thank you all for going to vote the president of Romania”. Social Democrat Liviu Dragnea, the deputy prime minister, said in turn: “I want to thank all Romanians who went to the vote today in such great numbers. The score is very tight. According to our assessments Victor Ponta is the winner by a narrow margin. We ask all our colleagues in the polling stations to be very careful during the ballots counting.”
The US Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, Rose Gottemoller, will be paying a visit to Romania on Monday and Tuesday. She will meet with Romanian officials for talks regarding international security. According to a press release by the Department of State, Mrs. Gottemoeller will give a speech at the National Defense University in Bucharest. Romania is the second leg, after Jordan, of a tour that the US official is taking over November 14th — 26th. The tour also includes India, Russia and Great Britain.
On the last day of the summit held in Brisbane, Australia, the G20 leaders committed themselves to adopting reforms aimed at boosting world economy. The agreed that world economy is fragile and structural reforms are needed, at a time when monetary and fiscal policy measures are not easy to take. They also committed to adopting reforms that would improve the labour market situation and the member states promised to restrain from using national currencies to get competitive advantages.
The British Prime Minister David Cameron David Cameron has condemned the latest Islamic State video purporting to show the beheading of a US aid worker as the work of a “depraved organisation”. The French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, has too firmly condemned what he called a new barbaric act. In a video recording posted online on Jihadist sites on Sunday, the terrorist group claims the beheading of 26 year old Kassig, kidnapped in Syria in 2013. The organization has so far beheaded five western hostages, 2 American and 2 British. A French citizen was killed in the same way in Algeria, by a group affiliated to Islamic State.
The evacuation of fragments of the Boeign 777 aircraft, owned by Malaysia Airlines, which was shot down in July in a conflict area in eastern Ukraine, have started today, Dutch officials have announced. The plane fragments are to reach the Netherlands, where they will be examined by the Security Investigation Office, in charge with establishing the causes of that tragic accident. 193 of the 298 victims were Dutch. Kiev and the West claim the Malaysian plane was taken down by a Russian ground-air missile, which the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine got from Russia. Moscow on the other hand, blames the Ukrainian army for the tragedy.
Sunday was the last day of the 32nd Romanian Tourism Fair. Over 200 companies from 14 countries have displayed their offers for the winter holidays and also for next summer. One first at this year’s edition was the participation of Palestine, through the National Tourism Authority. According to the organizers, the fair is the right place to learn about Romania’s top tourist destination, but also about destinations abroad.
