ATTACK The
explosion in front of the Parliament building in Ankara on Sunday morning was a
terror attack, the Turkish Interior Ministry has announced. Two terrorists
came with a light commercial vehicle in front of the entrance gate of the
General Directorate of Security of our Ministry of Internal Affairs and carried
out a bomb attack the Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya says adding that
two policemen have been wounded. According to the same sources, one of the
terrorists blew himself up and the other was neutralized. According to the
Turkish media, several ministries and the building of Parliament are located in
the aforementioned district. The country’s president Recep Erdogan was set to
attend the opening of Parliament’s new session at 7 hours local time.
BRATISLAVA Former Prime Minister Robert Fico and his populist, leftist
party, SMER-SD have won the early Parliament election in Slovakia after 99.9%
of the votes cast on Saturday were counted. The result contradicts the exit
polls, which indicated the victory of the pro-European Progressive Slovakia.
SMER-SD, which promoted anti-NATO and EU messages during their campaign and
pledged to cut the military support given to Ukraine, has mustered 23.3% of the
votes, 6% more than the Progressive Slovakia. Radio Romania correspondent in
Slovakia says that a coalition is envisaged involving SMER, Hlas, which is a
splinter group from Fico’s party and the Christian-Democrats, which together
have most of the Parliament seats. Robert Fico was forced to step down in 2018
amid protests caused by the killing of an investigative journalist.
ART Almost
100 works of art by Romania’s famous sculptor Constantin Brancusi are on
display as of Saturday in Timisoara, western Romania, in the most important
exhibition dedicated to this major artist in the past half a century. The
exhibition includes sculptures, photos, archive documents and film footages on
display at the local National Art Museum until late January. The exhibits’
total insured value stays around half a billion euros. Under the suggestive
title, Brancusi, Romanian sources and universal prospects the exhibition
invites the public to explore the way in which Brancusi managed to cross all
geographic, historical, formal and gender borders in order to ensure that
special place unattached to any artistic current. The exhibition has on view a
series of artefacts borrowed from the National Museum of Modern Art, Pompidou
Center, in Paris, the Tate Gallery in London, the Guggenheim Foundation, the
National Art Museum in Bucharest, the Art Museum in Craiova and some private
collections. Among the famous artefacts visitors can admire in Timisoara, there
is the Bird in Space, the Kiss, Mademoiselle Pogany or Sleeping Muse. The
aforementioned exhibition is part of the programme Timisoara – European Capital
of Culture.
RUGBY Romania’s
national rugby side lost their third game in group B of the World Cup in
France. On Saturday in Lille, our rugby side came a cropper in their match
against Scotland 0-84, the most dramatic defeat in its history. Our players
have so far lost to world leader Ireland and the en-titre champions South
Africa and will be playing their last game against Tonga on October 8.
WEATHER The
weather is incredibly warm for this time of the year, especially in Romania’s
southern and south-eastern regions. Showers have been reported in the north,
center and east and also in the mountains. The highs of the day are ranging
between 18 and 30 degrees with a noon reading in Bucharest of 30 degrees
Celsius.
(bill)