Radio România Internațional

Tag: Berlin attack

  • December 28, 2016 UPDATE

    December 28, 2016 UPDATE

    NOMINATION – Sorin Grindeanu is the new nomination for the position of Prime Minister made by the coalition of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, which hold the majority in Parliament. The announcement was made on Wednesday by the Social-Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea, at the end of the meeting of the partys Executive Bureau. Aged 43, Sorin Grindeanu is a former Minister of Communications in the Government led by Victor Ponta and is the current president of the Timis County Council. The Social-Democrats proposal follows one day after President Klaus Iohannis rejected the nomination of Sevil Shhaideh for the office of Prime Minister. Liviu Dragnea said one of the options on the table is launching proceedings to have the president suspended, but the Social Democrats decided to make a new proposal for the position of Prime Minister in order to avert a political crisis. The interim president of the National Liberal Party in opposition, Raluca Turcan, sees the latest nomination as a last-resort, temporary solution.



    BUSINESS – The business environment will be worsening in Romania in the next 12 months, with the national currency, the Leu, dropping in value against the Euro. This is the conclusion of the latest poll run by the Romanian Association of internationally certified financial analysts. Tax consolidation, needed after salary hikes, tax cuts and the drop in the VAT, as well as the fact that Romania will no longer have the same economic growth, given that the peak of the economic cycle has already been reached, will have an effect on investment, the poll shows. At the same time, Romania is a small and open economy, affected by the macroeconomic worsening of conditions globally. At the same time, it is expected that the Leu will drop against the Euro in the next 12 months. The Association shows that the increase in interest rates in the US has caused a rearrangement of exchange rates in all emerging countries, depreciating the local currency. The Associations Romania Macroeconomic Confidence Indicator was launched in May 2011, representing the forecasts of financial analysts in terms of Romanian economic activity for a year.



    EARTHQUAKE – Romania has not sustained damage from the 5.3 magnitude earthquake that occurred on Wednesday night in the Vrancea seismic region, at a depth of around 100 km. The National Earth Physics Institute revised twice the magnitude after the quake, which was also felt in the south east of Romania, the Republic of Moldova, Bulgaria, and the west of Turkey. The last tremor of this size occurred on September 24, felt all across the country, as well as in the Republic of Moldova. According to the National Earth Physics Institute, the strongest earthquake in the last few years occurred on the 22nd of November, 2014, with a magnitude of 5.7 on the Richter scale.



    CRASH – The second black box of the Tupolev 154 Russian aircraft that crashed in the Black Sea has been found, the Russian Defense Ministry reports. The most likely cause of the crash was a fault in the flaps, the Russian press quotes investigators as saying. The Russian security services said there were no indications to support the possibility of a terrorist act. The aircraft had landed on Sunday at Sochi for refueling, after taking off from Shkalovski airport near Moscow, heading for Latakia, Syria. It vanished off radar screens after 20 minutes. 92 people were on board, 83 of them passengers, most of them members of the military orchestra Aleksandrov, along with a number of journalists. They were scheduled to hold a holiday show on the Syrian base at Khmeimim. There were no survivors.



    ARREST – The German authorities on Wednesday placed under pre-trial arrest a 40-year-old Tunisian national, suspected of having ties with Anis Amri, the alleged perpetrator of the December 19 attack in the German capital, which killed 12 people and wounded 50. According to the Federal Prosecutors Office, the attacker had the Tunisians phone number saved in his phone, which was telling of his involvement. Anis Amri was shot dead on December 23 by the Italian Police, in a train station in Milan. Sources close to the investigation say the alleged attacker drove to Milan via the Netherlands and France. We recall that a lorry ploughed into a crowd at a Christmas Market in Berlin, an attack claimed by the Islamic State terrorist organization.


    (Translated by C. Cotoiu and V. Palcu)

  • 24 December 2016, UPDATE

    24 December 2016, UPDATE

    Romania holidays. The Romanian authorities have taken special measures for
    the winter holidays. An additional 22,000 police troops, fire-fighters and
    gendarmes will be on duty every day over the Christmas holidays across the
    country. The interior ministry in Bucharest said the border police would work
    overtime at the border crossing points to minimise waiting time. Also, nine
    hospitals and the Bucharest ambulance service will provide emergency medical
    assistance in the capital city on Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Across the
    country, emergency departments in all state hospitals will be open. At least
    one pharmacy will be open in every big city in the country.




    Prosecutions. Romania’s first
    post-communist president Ion Iliescu said he has nothing to blame himself for
    after being indicted for crimes against humanity, alongside other former
    dignitaries, as part of an investigation into miners’ riots of 13-15 June 1990.
    According to prosecutors, the defendants ordered, planned and coordinated a
    generalised and systematic attack on the people protesting in central Bucharest
    against the left-wing government that came to power after the fall of the
    communist dictatorship in December 1989 and against the citizens of Bucharest.
    Prosecutors say the attack involved forces of the interior and defence
    ministries and the Romanian Intelligence Service, as well as more than 10,000
    miners and workers from other parts of the country. After some violent
    incidents which the army had already managed to control, Ion Iliescu said a
    right-wing coup was being staged and called on the population to defend the
    democratic institutions. The miners’ arrival in Bucharest, where they attacked
    the University building and the headquarters of opposition parties and a number
    of independent newspapers, left 4 dead and over 1,200 wounded.




    Republic of Moldova. The new
    president of the Republic of Moldova Igor Dodon on Friday night met the Russian
    deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin who was due to attend Dodon’s swearing-in
    ceremony but whose flight was delayed because of the fog. According to Radio
    Chisinau, Rogozin told the Moldovan president that Vladimir Putin would meet
    him at the Kremlin on the 17th of January. Dodon had already
    announced that his first visit abroad would be to Moscow, where he would try to
    restore his country’s strategic partnership with the Russian Federation. As far
    as his domestic policy is concerned, Dodon said he would be in opposition to
    the pro-European government in Chisinau and even try to dissolve Parliament and
    call early elections. One of his priorities is to ban organisations calling for
    the union of the Republic of Moldova with Romania.




    Migrants. The Romanian border police have caught ten Iraqi citizens, including
    nine adults and one child, who were trying to cross the border illegally from
    Bulgaria to Romania through the green border, near Darabani, in the
    south-east. The migrants were handed over to the Bulgarian border police for
    further investigations. According to the Romanian authorities, the ten
    migrants, aged between 12 and 50, identified themselves as Iraqi and said they
    were planning to reach a country in Western Europe. They were carrying
    documents showing they had applied for asylum in Bulgaria.




    Christmas message. Princess Margaret, the Custodian of the Romanian Crown,
    sent a Christmas message to the Romanians at home and abroad on behalf of her
    father, King Mihai I. She emphasised that the values her father has been
    promoting all his life are more important today than at any other time in
    history, namely kindness, loyalty, a sense of duty, love of country, competence
    and restraint. Princess Margaret also said the events in Europe and the world
    show that democracy is facing a moment of instability and weakness, and that
    prosperity does not automatically ensure balance and security.




    Berlin attack. Three Jihadists suspected of links with the Tunisian
    national Anis Amri, who is believed to have carried out the terrorist attack at
    a Christmas market in Berlin, have been arrested in Tunisia. The three,
    including Amri’s nephew, were part of a terrorist cell. In the meantime, the
    German authorities have come under increased criticism over the fact that the
    alleged attacker has managed to flee the country, all the more as he had been known to the German police for a long time. German chancellor Angela Merkel said the authorities would
    tighten security measures in the wake of the attack claimed by the Islamic
    State, in which 12 people were killed and 48 wounded.


    Israeli settlements. The UN Security Council passed a resolution asking Israel
    to put an end to its illegal settlement building in the Palestinian
    territories. The Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu called the UN’s decision
    shameful and said his country would not abide by it. The resolution was
    approved after the US, Israel’s traditional ally, abstained from vote instead
    of using its veto powers. The Palestinian Islamist organisation Hamas has
    hailed the resolution, which Jordan has described as a historic decision.





  • December 23, 2016 UPDATE

    December 23, 2016 UPDATE

    THE 1990 MINERS RAIDS FILE – Several former Romanian dignitaries, among whom the former president Ion Iliescu, the former prime minister Petre Roman and the former head of the Romanian Intelligence Service, Virgil Magureanu, on Friday were accused of crimes against humanity in the file “The Miners Raids of June 13-15, 1990. According to the prosecutors, the accused masterminded, organised and coordinated a generalised and systematic attack on those protesting in downtown Bucharest against the leftist Power, which ruled the country after the fall of the communist dictatorship in December 1989, as well as on the population of the capital city. The prosecutors claim that participating in the attack were forces of the Interior Ministry, the Defence Ministry and the Romanian Intelligence Service, adding to over ten thousand miners and workers coming to Bucharest from several regions of the country. Against the backdrop of violent incidents, that the Army had already stifled, the then president, Ion Iliescu, mentioned an attempted coup by the far right and called on the population to defend the democratic institutions. The Jiu Valley miners raids on Bucharest, where they stormed the University, the headquarters of the opposition parties and the offices of several independent newspapers, left four people dead and 1,200 injured. In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights issued a ruling imposing on Romania to continue investigations in the Miners Raids of June 1990 file.



    POSTPONED DESIGNATION OF PM – Romanias President Klaus Iohannis has postponed until after Christmas the designation of a new Prime Minister. He made the announcement after consultations held on Wednesday and Thursday with representatives of the political parties that made it to Parliament following December 11th legislative elections. The coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats has proposed for the office of prime minister the Social Democrat Sevil Shhaideh, a former Development Minister and the proposal of the Peoples Movement Party was Eugen Tomac. The National Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union have announced that will stay in the opposition and will not support a government formed around the Social Democratic Party. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania has signed a parliamentary collaboration agreement with the majority coalition.



    RADIO AND TV LICENCE FEE– Romanias President, Klaus Iohannis, has called on Parliament to reassess the law on the elimination of several taxes and of the radio and TV licence fee, because, although the law has been declared constitutional, its reassessment is necessary given the impact on the Romanian citizens. According to a communiqué issued by the Presidential Administration, the reduction of taxes should be accompanied by the improvement of administrative procedures and budgetary discipline. As regards the television and radio public media services, the president says the problems these institutions have been facing are old and systemic, and they are mainly generated by the legislative framework which regulates their functioning. According to the Romanian president, the debate on the elimination of the two licence fees and covering from the budget the functioning costs of the two radio and television public media services cant be limited to a simple question, namely whether or not it is necessary to collect a fee to support these institutions. The elimination of the radio and TV licence fee has been harshly criticised by Romanian and international media organisations which say the measure will affect the editorial autonomy of the two public media services.



    COMMEMORATION – A mass commemorating the martyr heroes of the 1989 anti-Communist revolution in Romania was held on Friday morning at Otopeni Airport near Bucharest. 27 years ago, 40 of the 82 soldiers sent to enhance security at Otopeni airport died, killed by the airport local security, who thought they were terrorists. 8 civilian airport employees, who were on their way to work by bus were also killed in the accidental shooting. The anti-Communist revolt started 27 years ago in Timisoara, western Romania, to then quickly spread all across the country. Over December 23-25, dictators Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were caught, tried and executed. More than 1,000 people died in the revolution, and some 3,400 were wounded. Romania was the only country in the Eastern Bloc where the regime was changed violently and its communist leaders were executed.



    ALL POINTS BULLETIN – In Romania, the former Social– Democrat MP Sebastian Ghita, prosecuted for corruption and subject to legal restrictions pending trial, has disappeared and is now wanted by authorities. The Interior Minister Dragos Tudorache has called on the head of the police to carry out an internal investigation into the circumstances under which Ghita disappeared. The former MP, a close collaborator of the former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, is banned from leaving the country and must present himself to the police once a week. He is being prosecuted, among other things, for bribe-giving, influence peddling, money laundering and blackmail.



    SWEARING IN CEREMONY – The President -Elect of the Republic of Moldova, the pro-Russian Socialist Igor Dodon, officially started his term in office on Friday, in a solemn Parliament session. Dodon announced that his first visit abroad will be to Moscow, where he will try to resume the strategic partnership with the Russian Federation. Domestically, Igor Dodon will oppose the pro-Europe government in Chisinau and will try to dissolve Parliament in order to force early parliamentary elections. During his election campaign, Dodon said that his first decree would annul a law endorsed by parliament, under which the loan granted to the banking system in 2014 as a result of a 1 billion dollars embezzlement was turned into state debt. His announced priorities include banning the organisations that plead for the unification of the Republic of Moldova with Romania.



    SAFETY AND SECURITY MEASURES – The Romanian Interior Ministry has announced that some 22,000 police, fire fighters and gendarmes will be mobilised every day across Romania during the Christmas holidays. Also, the border police will operate at full capacity in order to reduce the waiting time for those who travel across the border. In Romanias mountain resorts, some 200 gendarmes will join the existing squads in order to be able to rapidly intervene should the tourists need it, the Interior Ministry has also stated.



    BERLIN ATTACK – The suspected perpetrator of the Berlin attack, the 24 year old Tunisian Anis Amri, was shot dead on Thursday to Friday night by the Milan police, the Italian Interior Ministry has announced. An international warrant had been issued for his arrest. He was fatally shot after firing at police who had stopped his car for a routine identity check. The Tunisian had connections with members of the Islamic State terrorist organisation, which claimed the attack in Berlin. We recall that the perpetrator drove a truck into a packed Christmas market in Berlin, Germany, on Monday, killing 12 people and injuring 48. In another move, on Thursday night, German police officers arrested two men suspected of having planned an attack on a shopping centre in Oberhausen, in the west, one of the largest shopping areas in Germany.



    HIJACKING – A Libyan plane with 118 people on board, on a domestic flight, landed in Malta, after having been hijacked. At the end of hours of negotiations with the Libyan authorities, the two hijackers released the passengers, the crew-members and turned themselves in. According to international news agencies, they are allegedly loyalists to former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.(Translated by M.Ignatescu and Diana Vijeu)

  • December 23, 2016

    December 23, 2016


    PM DESIGNATION Romanias President Klaus Iohannis has postponed until after Christmas the designation of a new Prime Minister. He made the announcement after consultations held on Wednesday and Thursday with representatives of the political parties that made it to Parliament following December 11th legislative elections. The coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats has proposed for the office of prime-minister the Social Democrat Sevil Shhaideh, a former Development Minister, and the proposal of the Peoples Movement Party was Eugen Tomac. The National Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union have announced they will stay in the opposition and will not support a government formed around the Social Democratic Party. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania has signed a parliamentary collaboration agreement with the majority coalition.



    COMMEMORATION A mass commemorating the martyr heroes of the 1989 anti-Communist revolution in Romania was held in the morning at the Otopeni Airport near Bucharest. 27 years ago, 40 of the 82 soldiers sent to enhance security at the Otopeni airport died, killed by the airport local security, who thought they were terrorists. 8 civilian airport employees, who were on their way to work by bus were also killed in the accidental shooting. The anti-Communist revolt started 27 years ago in Timisoara, western Romania, to then quickly spread all across the country. Over December 23-25, dictators Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were caught, tried and executed. More than 1,000 people died in the revolution, and some 3,400 were wounded. Romania was the only country in the Eastern Bloc where the regime was changed violently and its communist leaders were executed.



    CORRUPTION In Romania, the former Social – Democrat MP Sebastian Ghita, prosecuted for corruption and subject to legal restrictions pending trial, has disappeared and is now wanted by authorities. The Interior Minister Dragos Tudorache has called on the head of the police to carry out an internal investigation into the circumstances under which Ghita disappeared. The former MP, a close collaborator of the former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, is banned from leaving the country and must present himself to the police once a week. He is being prosecuted, among other things, for bribe-giving, influence peddling, money laundering and blackmail.



    SECURITY The Romanian Interior Ministry has announced that some 22,000 police, fire fighters and gendarmes will be mobilised every day across Romania during the Christmas holidays. Also, the border police will operate at full capacity in order to reduce the waiting time for those who travel across the border. In Romanias mountain resorts, some 200 gendarmes will join the existing squads in order to be able to rapidly intervene should the tourists need it, the Interior Ministry has also stated.



    BERLIN ATTACK The suspected perpetrator of the Berlin attack, the 24 year old Tunisian Anis Amri, was shot dead last night by the Milan police, the Italian Interior Ministry has announced. An international warrant had been issued for his arrest. He was fatally shot after firing at police who had stopped his car for a routine identity check. The Tunisian had connections with members of the Islamic State terrorist organisation, which claimed the attack in Berlin. We recall that the perpetrator drove a truck into a packed Christmas market in Berlin, Germany, on Monday, killing 12 people and injuring 48. In another move, on Thursday night, German police officers arrested two men suspected of having planned an attack on a shopping centre in Oberhausen, in the west, one of the largest shopping areas in Germany.



    MOLDOVA The pro-Russia socialist Igor Dodon, the President – Elect of the Republic of Moldova, the former Soviet state with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population, is to be invested today during a solemn Parliament session. Also today, the capital Chisinau is likely to host protest rallies staged in the centre, where Dodon is expected to lay flowers. The new president has announced that his first visit abroad will be to Moscow, where he will try to resume the strategic partnership with the Russian Federation. Domestically, Igor Dodon will oppose the pro-Europe government in Chisianu and will try to dissolve Parliament in order to force early parliamentary elections. During his election campaign, Dodon said that his first decree would annul a law endorsed by parliament, under which the loan granted to the banking system in 2014 as a result of a 1 billion dollars embezzlement was turned into state debt. His announced priorities include banning the organisations that plead for the unification of the Republic of Moldova with Romania.