Radio România Internațional

Tag: abduction

  • July 15, 2018

    July 15, 2018

    EU COUNCIL PRESIDENCY – Getting young people involved in the process of preparing for and holding the EU Council Presidency is vital, Romanian Minister Delegate for European Affairs, Victor Negrescu said on Saturday at a news conference about the young people’s participation in public policies. The conference, that focused on drawing up Romania’s agenda at the helm of the EU Council, highlighted topics such as consolidating European instruments for the improvement of the education and training system, equal opportunities for the young people and increasing their capacity to adjust to labor market challenges.




    BREXIT – British Prime Minister Theresa May warned her divided party on Sunday that there may be “no Brexit at all” if they undermine her plan to forge a close relationship with the European Union after leaving the world’s biggest trading bloc. “My message to the country this weekend is simple: we need to keep our eyes on the prize,” May wrote in the Mail on Sunday newspaper. “If we don’t, we risk ending up with no Brexit at all.” Two senior ministers resigned last week in protest at Mays plans for trade with the EU after Britain leaves the bloc next March. May also wrote in the Mail on Sunday article that Britain would take a tough stance in its next round of negotiations with the EU.




    PROJECTS — The Agency for the Financing of Rural Investment will open between July and September this year several sessions for project applications, worth a total of 846 million euros, the Romanian Agriculture Ministry reports. The Agency has so far received, for the 2014-2020 timeframe, applications for financing worth more than 7.20 billion euros and signed over 49 thousand financing contracts for which 3.85 billion euros have been allocated. Under the 2014-2020 National Programme for Rural Development, non-repayable funds from the EU and the Romanian Government are being granted, for the economic and social development of Romania’s rural area. The financial allocation exceeds 9 billion euros.




    MEETING – French president Emmanuel Macron is today holding talks in Moscow with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, ahead of their attending the World Cup final in Moscow, pitting France against Croatia. The meeting takes place a day before the Summit in Helsinki. Macron and Putin will discuss topics related to Iran, Syria and Ukraine, BBC reports.




    ABDUCTION — A Romanian engineer is believed to have been abducted on Saturday from one of Libya’s largest oilfields, local media reports. The Romanian is believed to have been taken hostage alongside another three people, by an armed group. Two of the hostages are said to have been released, but it’s uncertain whether the Romanian is among them. The Romanian Foreign Ministry on Saturday activated a crisis cell to deal with the situation. The Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu said that the top priority was to verify whether a Romanian citizen was indeed taken hostage, what his situation was and what group is involved in the kidnapping. The case is being managed by the Romanian Embassy to Libya relocated in Tunis.




    FOOTBALL — CFR Cluj, Romania’s football champion, won the Super Cup following Saturday’s win over FC U Craiova 1948, 1-nil, away from home. This is CFR’s third Super Cup title. They will be representing Romania in the Champions League preliminaries. As many as three Romanian teams are playing in the Champions League preliminaries, namely, U Craiova, FCSB and FC Viitorul.




    WORLD CUP – France is playing the World Cup final today, against Croatia. For the latter, qualification to the final is a premier. France won the world title in 1998, when it organized the final tournament, and Croatia won the bronze. On Saturday, Belgium defeated England, 2-0, in the third-place playoff of the World Football Championship hosted by Russia, thus obtaining bronze. Belgium already played in a third-place playoff at the 1986 World Cup, when it was defeated by France. A world champion in 1966, England fought for bronze in 1990 but it was defeated by Italy.


    (Translated by Elena Enache)

  • July 2, 2017 UPDATE

    July 2, 2017 UPDATE

    COUNCIL MEETING — Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis has summoned the Supreme Defense Council on Tuesday. The main point on the agenda is the 2017-2026 framework for modernizing the country’s military. Talks follow after Romania this year allotted 2% of its GDP to defense spending. Also on the agenda is a review of the activity of the Romanian Intelligence Service in 2016. The Council will also address Romania’s contribution to external missions and operations in 2018.



    ABDUCTION — Romanian Iulian Ghergut, who was abducted in 2015 in Burkina Faso, has called on Romania’s president and the Government in Ouagadougou to negotiate his release. A task force in Bucharest is overseeing his situation and has acknowledged Ghergut’s message, the Foreign Ministry reports. According to the American centre for online monitoring of jihadist organizations, the Romanian features in a video released by the Mali branch of Al Qaeda. The video contains similar messages of another five foreign hostages, as well as that of an alleged abductor, who says that no negotiations for their release have been started so far. According to the Ministry, the video is standard MO for abductions of this kind.



    ROMANIAN POLICE — Romanian police officers have started their mission on the Bulgarian Black Seacoast. For two months they will assist fellow Bulgarian law enforcers in preventing crime, carrying out public safety activities and providing counselling to Romanian tourists spending their holidays in Balchik, Albena, the Golden Sands and Nessebar. This is the eighth consecutive year the Romanian Police is conducting this mission.



    MIGRANTS — Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti on Sunday called on European states to open their ports to rescue boats with a view to easing pressure on his country. Minniti made the statement ahead of his meeting with Gerard Collomb and Thomas de Maiziere, his French and German counterparts respectively. Italy accuses Europe of leaving Italy to face the migration crisis on its own and has invited its European partners to show signs of solidarity. Since the beginning of the year, Italy has had over 83,000 arrivals, up by 19% as compared to the same period of 2016.



    PROTEST — Over 8,000 people staged a peaceful protest on Sunday in Hamburg, Germany, against the upcoming G20 summit. Protesters call for a change of policy in the fair sharing of wealth and the protection of the environment. Dozens of anti-G20 protests are scheduled throughout next week, accompanying the summit of the world’s most industrialized countries. Authorities fears protests might turn violent. Over 20,000 law enforcement officers will be deployed in Hamburg. Heads of state and Government will meet next week on Friday and Saturday.



    TENNIS — Romanian tennis player WTA no. 2 Simona Halep on Monday is playing Marina Erakovic of New Zealand, 129 WTA, in the first round of the Wimbledon tournament. Last year Halep reached the quarterfinals, while her best performance at Wimbledon was the 2014 semi-finals. Also in the first round, Monica Niculescu, 51 WTA, will go up against Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia, WTA no. 85. Sorana Cirstea, 62 WTA, will play Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands, 24 WTA, while Irina Begu, 69 WTA, will take on Naomi Broady, 108 WTA. Finally, Ana Bogdan, who for the first time qualified to the main draw, will play Ying-Ying Duan of China, 64 WTA. In the men’s competition, Marius Copil, 85 ATP, will play Peter Gojowczyk of Germany, 140 ATP. (Translated by V. Palcu)

  • July 2, 2017

    July 2, 2017

    ABDUCTION — Romanian Iulian Ghergut, who was abducted in 2015 in Burkina Faso, has called on Romania’s president and the Government in Ouagadougou to negotiate his release. A task force in Bucharest is overseeing his situation and has acknowledged Ghergut’s message, the Foreign Ministry reports. According to the American centre for online monitoring of jihadist organizations, the Romanian features in a video released by the Mali branch of Al Qaeda. The video contains similar messages of another five foreign hostages, as well as that of an alleged abductor, who says that no negotiations for their release have been started so far. According to the Ministry, the video is standard MO for abductions of this kind.



    COUNCIL MEETING — Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis has summoned the Supreme Defense Council on Tuesday. The main point on the agenda is the 2017-2026 framework for modernizing the country’s military. Talks follow after Romania this year allotted 2% of its GDP to defense spending. Also on the agenda is a review of the activity of the Romanian Intelligence Service in 2016. The Council will also address Romania’s contribution to external missions and operations in 2018.



    PROTESTS — New anti-government protests were announced on Sunday, three days after Mihai Tudose’s Cabinet was sworn into office. Several NGOs have condemned the slow pace of the fight against high-level corruption. Five months ago large-scale protests were staged against the Government’s attempt to ease criminal legislation and help influential politicians and officials evade criminal investigations.



    ROMANIAN POLICE — Romanian police officers have started their mission on the Bulgarian Black Seacoast. For two months they will assist fellow Bulgarian law enforcers in preventing crime, carrying out public safety activities and providing counselling to Romanian tourists spending their holidays in Balchik, Albena, the Golden Sands and Nessebar. This is the eighth consecutive year the Romanian Police is conducting this mission.



    CONFEDERATIONS CUP — Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be attending Sunday’s final of the Confederations Cup, hosted by his hometown Saint Petersburg, pitting Germany against Chile. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov did not provide an explanation for the president’s absence. Putin attended the opening game between Russia and New Zealand. According to the Russian mass-media, Deputy Prime Minister Vitali Mutko, who is also the head of the Russian Football Federation, will be in the stands.



    TENNIS — Romanian tennis player WTA no. 2 Simona Halep on Monday is playing Marina Erakovic of New Zealand, 129 WTA, in the first round of the Wimbledon tournament. Last year Halep reached the quarterfinals, while her best performance at Wimbledon was the 2014 semi-finals. Also in the first round, Monica Niculescu, 51 WTA, will go up against Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia, WTA no. 85. Sorana Cirstea, 62 WTA, will play Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands, 24 WTA, while Irina Begu, 69 WTA, will take on Naomi Broady, 108 WTA. Finally, Ana Bogdan, who for the first time qualified to the main draw, will play Ying-Ying Duan of China, 64 WTA. In the men’s competition, Marius Copil, 85 ATP, will play Peter Gojowczyk of Germany, 140 ATP. (Translated by V. Palcu)

  • October 12, 2016 UPDATE

    October 12, 2016 UPDATE

    WISDOM OF THE EARTH — The Romanian government on Wednesday adopted an emergency ordinance which provides for setting up a fund to purchase works of art. The fund will be financed by donations, sponsorships and allotments from the state budget. The Romanian government has decided not to extend the public subscription to purchase the sculpture “Wisdom of the Earth”. The purchasing price of the work of art by the world famous Constantin Brancusi is 11 million Euro, of which the state initially announced it would provide 5 million Euro, also launching a public subscription in order to cover the rest of 6 million Euro. Only 1.2 million Euro has been collected from donations, so the government will pay some 10 million Euro for the work of art, belonging to private persons from Romania, to get into the possession of the Romanian state.



    JAKARTA — Romanian foreign minister, Lazar Comanescu, will attend the 21st ministerial meeting of the EU- Association of South East Asian Nations (EU-ASEAN) in Bangkok, Thailand, on Thursday and Friday. Earlier, the Romanian foreign minister had travelled to Jakarta, Indonesia, for talks with his counterpart Retno L.P. Marsudi about ways to boost bilateral dialogue at political, economic and commercial level. The two officials attended the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the National Chambers of Commerce of the two countries. Lazar Comanescu and trade minister Enggartiasto Lukita agreed to encourage Romanian and Indonesian companies to participate in economy-advertising events. During the talks with transport minister, Budi Karya Sumadi, the Romanian foreign minister underlined Romania’s capacity to become a sea gateway to Europe for Indonesia.



    KIDNAPPING — The Bucharest Foreign Ministry has activated an emergency response centre after a Romanian engineer has been abducted in Nigeria. The ministry said that they follow closely the situation through the embassy in that country, keeping in touch with Nigerian authorities, as well as with the Romanian citizens family and employer. The Nigerian police and media claim the man was abducted as part of the wave of rebel attacks against oil and gas installations.



    PENITENCIARIES — The employees of penitentiaries in Romania on Wednesday picketed the headquarters of the National Administration of Penitentiaries. They are discontent about the level of salaries and improper working conditions. Trade unionists denounce the shortage of personnel, prompting them to work extra hours and criticize the delayed procedures to hire personnel.



    WEATHER– As of Tuesday evening, heavy downpour has caused flooding in several regions of the country. Counties in eastern, southern and southeastern Romania have been particularly affected. A red code alert against flooding has been instated in the southeastern county of Galati, where, waters have affected hundreds of households. Scores of people have been evacuated and schools have been closed down. Railroad traffic has been disrupted in the same county. Many streets and houses have been flooded in Bucharest, too, where road traffic has also been disrupted.