December 16, 2014
For a roundup of domestic and international events, click here.
România Internațional, 16.12.2014, 12:00
CABINET — Social Democrat Victor Ponta’s 4th Cabinet is being sworn in today after receiving Parliament’s vote of confidence on Monday. The new Government will be made up of representatives of the Social-Democratic Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania, the Conservative Party and the Reformed Liberal Party, the latter replacing the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians, which stepped down from the ruling coalition after the November 16 presidential elections. 14 ministers have kept their portfolios, while some 8 new ministers are on the list. In another development, the draft budget for 2015 will be debated on Wednesday in Parliament’s budget and finance committees. The budget is grounded on a deficit of 1.8% of the GDP, an inflation rate of 2.2% and an economic growth of 2.5%.
1989 — The city of Timisoara in western Romania is as of today celebrating the fallen heroes of the 1989 anti-communist revolution. The first event on the order of the day was a visit to the prison where the first protesters were taken 25 years ago. Tonight people will march with lit torches, retracing the steps of revolutionists. The authorities attempt to evacuate Calvinist priest Laszlo Tokes was the spark that started street protests and fighting, between December 16 and 25, which led to the demise of the Ceausescu dictatorship. Over 1,000 people were killed and 3,400 wounded. Romania was the only country in the Eastern Bloc where the demise of the communist regime resulted in bloodshed and in the execution of the leaders.
MEETING — Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta is today attending the third meeting of Central and Eastern Europe and China. Prime Ministers will look at the status of implementing cooperation recommendations made in the previous meeting held last year in Bucharest. The agenda of the meeting includes talks about ways of furthering cooperation by means of projects in such fields as transport, trade, investment and energy. Last year’s summit resulted in the adoption of the Bucharest Guidelines, a document providing for promoting investment and business in infrastructure, SMEs, agriculture, rail transportation, telecommunications and IT.
TERRORIST ATTACK — Some 100 people, mostly children, were killed and dozens of others wounded this morning in a Taliban bomb attack on a military school in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan, Reuters reports. According to the local press, some 500 students and teachers were inside the building at the time of the attack and are being held hostage. Responsibility over the attack was claimed by the Tehreek-e–Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorist cell, the main rebel faction in the country, in response to the military offensive on tribal areas close to Peshawar, an insurgent representative has told France Presse news agency.
HELICOPTER CRASH — The Military Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into the circumstances of the crash of a helicopter belonging to the Mobile Emergency Service for Resuscitation and Extrication (SMURD), which crashed on Monday in a lake in southeastern Romania. The four people on board, the pilot, the co-pilot, a medic and a medical nurse lost their lives. The helicopter was returning from a mission after having transported a patient to the hospital in Constanta. The EC 135 aircraft was relatively new and one of the safest of its generation. This is the 5th SMURD helicopter to crash in the last 12 years in Romania, bringing the number of victims killed in medical air crashes to 14.
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT — The Constitutional Court of Romania is to issue a ruling in the case of dispositions referring to the incompatibility of local officials elected on the boards of enterprises with local or national interests. Several local officials declared incompatible by the National Integrity Agency have challenged the Agency’s decision, referring it to the Constitutional Court, including president elect Klaus Iohannis. His case was referred to the Supreme Court and will be judged in January 2015.
RSF — 66 journalists were killed in 2014, of whom 2 were beheaded, by 7% less than in 2013, while the number of journalists kidnapped stood at 119, up by 37% as compared to last year, the Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières — RSF) organization has announced. Two thirds of life attempts on journalists were produced in areas of conflict, such as Syria, the Palestinian territories, Ukraine, Iraq and Libya. Most kidnappings occurred in Ukraine, Libya and Syria. In 2014 most journalists were detained in China, followed by Eritrea, Iran, Egypt and Syria. At present some 40 journalists are kept hostage worldwide.
ATTACK — The Australian police has launched an investigation into the tactical operation that ended Monday’s hostage crisis at a coffee shop in central Sydney, which killed two hostages as well as the attacker. A counter-terrorist unit stormed the building where the hostages had been kept for nearly 16 hours. The Police say the attacker was an Iranian refugee aged 49, with a history of terrorist violence. The attacker had sent threatening letters to the families of military who had fought in Afghanistan, for which he had received a prison sentence. The attacker is also suspected of having been involved in the assassination of his ex-wife and in several cases of sexual abuse. Fears of a new terrorist attack have spiked in Australia, a country which in September raised its terrorist threat level following several threats sent by jihadist cells, due to its participation in international military operations against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
