Radio România Internațional

Tag: bombing

  • November 20, 2022 UPDATE

    November 20, 2022 UPDATE

    Conference — The Romanian Foreign Minister, Bogdan Aurescu, will co-chair on Monday, in Paris, the third Ministerial Conference of the Support Platform for the Republic of Moldova, a permanent support tool created at the initiative of the foreign ministers of Romania, Germany and France this spring to mobilize the financial contributions of the international community and to support the necessary reforms for EU accession. According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry — MAE, Minister Aurescu will co-chair this event together with the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France, Catherine Colonna, and the Foreign Minister of Germany, Annalena Baerbock. The conference will enjoy the participation of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu. The meeting in Paris takes place in the context in which the Republic of Moldova is facing major energy, economic, humanitarian challenges and challenges to its resilience, against the background of the brutal war of aggression waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine.



    Children’s Rights — A special government meeting will take place on Monday, in Bucharest, when children will take the seats of ministers, as part of an event organized on the occasion of the World Childrens Day. Thus, the government headquarters will become, for one day, the childrens headquarters – shows a Romanian Government’s communiqué. The children will present their vision and aspirations for Romania through a series of projects that they will propose during the simulation of the Executive session. The event is carried out in partnership with UNICEF Romania. The World Childrens Day is marked annually on November 20.



    Summit — During the La Francophonie Summit, held in Djerba, in Tunisia, Romania has emphasized the serious impact on security and stability at the regional and global level generated by Russias military aggression against Ukraine, as well as the particularly vulnerable situation of the Republic of Moldova (an ex-Soviet state with a majority Romanian-speaking population) in this context. At the Conference of Heads of State and Government from the French-speaking countries, Romania was represented by presidential adviser Sergiu Nistor, the Francophonie representative of Romanias president, Klaus Iohannis. Sergiu Nistor emphasized the need to urgently address the issues of the risk of manipulation and propagation of false information, disinformation and narratives on social networks in the French-speaking digital space. He also highlighted Romanias solid contribution to the promotion of the French language and the values ​​of the Francophonie, underlining Bucharests active commitment to international cooperation and assistance for development in the French-speaking space, by financing programs carried out in French-speaking Africa or in the member states of the International Organization of La Francophonie from Central and Eastern Europe. The representative of the President of Romania for La Francophonie also highlighted the continuation of the main emblematic programs of La Francophonie, run by Romania, such as the “Eugene Ionescu” doctoral and postdoctoral scholarship program or the course intended for officers who will operate within the UN peacekeeping operations carried out in Francophone areas.



    COP27 — COP27, the annual UN climate conference, adopted on Sunday a resolution that provides for the creation of a fund to finance climate damage already suffered by “particularly vulnerable” countries, a decision described as historic by its promoters. The decision was adopted by consensus, in the plenary assembly, at the end of the conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The resolution emphasizes the immediate need for new, additional, predictable and adequate financial resources to help developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the economic and non-economic impact of climate change. The ways of implementing the decision are to be developed by a special committee and will be adopted at COP28 at the end of 2023, in the United Arab Emirates.



    Kyiv — Ukraines Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was rocked by bombings on Saturday night and on Sunday, drawing criticism from the UN nuclear watchdog, which warned that such attacks risked a major nuclear catastrophe, Reuters reports. More than a dozen explosions rocked the largest nuclear power plant in Europe – the International Atomic Energy Agency said. Moscow and Kyiv blamed each other for the bombings. Repeated bombing of the Zaporizhzhia plant, which Russia took control of shortly after invading Ukraine in February, is raising concerns about the possibility of a major accident just 500 km away from the site of the worlds worst nuclear accident that took place in Chernobyl in 1986. (LS)

  • Reactions to the massive bombing of Ukraine

    Reactions to the massive bombing of Ukraine

    It seems hard to believe, but Putin’s Russia manages, through its actions, to continue mobilizing the civilized worlds resources of indignation, which seemed to have run dry after the illegal and unjustified invasion of Ukraine and the atrocities and abuses committed by the Russian military in that country. On Monday Moscow launched dozens of missiles and Iranian-made suicide drones on the capital Kyiv and other large cities in Ukraine, killing and injuring many civilians.



    Reuters news agency wrote that attacks on such a scale against the Ukrainian cities were registered only in the first days of the war. The Russians also targeted civilian infrastructure objectives, leaving parts of Ukraine without electricity, water or heating, and disrupting electricity supplies to the European Union. The attacks came three days after a powerful explosion damaged the bridge over the Kerch Strait linking Russia to occupied Crimea, an explosion which Moscow blamed on Kyiv.



    President Vladimir Putin declared that the bombings were a response to what he called the terrorist attack of Ukraine and threatened, at the same time, with further such attacks. ‘I strongly condemn Russia’s horrific missile attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure. The killing of innocent people must stop. We will continue to support Ukraine in its fight against the aggression of the Kremlin’, reacted the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis. The PM Nicolae Ciucă equally condemned Russia’s massive attacks and underlined that these actions represented ‘war crimes’ that violated the UN Charter.



    The European Union denounced what it called a new war crime committed by Russia, a state which, according to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, represents terror and brutality. The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, wrote on Twitter that the indiscriminate attacks on civilians are war crimes. And the American President Joe Biden denounced the attacks and promised that the United States would deliver high-performance anti-aircraft defense systems to Ukraine.



    Great Britain labeled the attacks as unacceptable, and France spoke of a war crime. Russia has demonstrated, once again, that it is a terrorist state, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UN stated at the UN forum. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres described Monday’s bombings in Ukraine as a new, unacceptable escalation of the war that civilians are paying for. In another development, three of the missiles launched by the Russians also flew over the territory of the Republic of Moldova, located between Romania and Ukraine. Chişinău labelled the violation of its airspace as unacceptable and demanded an immediate end to the bombing of Ukraine. (LS)

  • 19 April, 2016

    19 April, 2016

    MINISTER — In Bucharest today, the newly appointed labor minister, Dragos Paslaru, takes up his term under difficult circumstances, with trade unions protesting the planned emergency executive order on state wages. On Monday, 200 teachers protested outside the government building, demanding a 35% raise.



    VISIT — Spanish Minister of Justice Rafael Catala is on an official visit to Romania on Tuesday and Wednesday. He is scheduled to hold talks with Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu, his counterpart Raluca Pruna, and head of anti-corruption, Laura Kovesi. These meetings are part of the intense cooperation between the two countries, considering the huge Romanian community in Spain, and the common interest displayed by the two countries in creating an international court for prosecuting terrorism. Spain has the largest community of Romanians living abroad, amounting to around one million.



    CUSTOMS CODE — Romanian goods will gain access to the entirety of the EU starting on May 1, 2016, when the Union Customs Code comes into effect. The document sets common procedures, harmonized across the EU, facilitating trade.



    INVENTION — Romania got 19 gold medals, 14 silver medals, two bronze medals, and 30 special prizes at the Geneva International Invention Salon. Romanian teams submitted 30 inventions, including a method to recycle safety glass and a device to pinpoint cancer cells. Over 1,000 inventions from 40 countries competed in the event, half of them from Asia, predominantly from China. Last year, Romania got 28 medals. Two years ago, the Grand Prize was won by a Swiss company for technology created by a team of Romanian researchers.



    CINEMA — The 12th edition of the Bucharest International Film Festival, running from Monday to Sunday, opened with the film Soy Nero, submitted by Iranian director Rafi Pitts. It tells the story of a deported Mexican who manages to enlist in the US armed forces in order to gain citizenship. The festival consists of 15 movie screenings for films from Spain, France, the US, Iran, Romania, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Argentina and Bulgaria.



    EARTHQUAKE – The Ecuadorian government announced that 400 people are known to be dead and around 2,500 injured after the 7.8 Richter scale quake on the Pacific coast of the country. The search for survivors continues, while reconstruction costs are estimated to reach billions of dollars. President Rafael Correa said this is the worst tragedy in the last 70 years for his country. On Monday, officials with USAID announced it would join UN rescue teams, sending teams of experts to Ecuador to support recovery after the earthquake.



    BOMBING — Around 30 people were killed and over 300 injured in a suicide bombing in Afghan capital Kabul, according to police sources. The attack was claimed by the Taliban, and targeted a government building housing security personnel.



    PULITZER — The winners of the Pulitzer Prize were announced in New York. The Associated Press won the prize for a public service. Reuters and the New York Times won the prize for breaking news photojournalism in relation to the refugee crisis. The Los Angeles Times won the prize for breaking news reporting on the San Bernardino massacre, while the Tampa Bay Times and the Sarasota Herald Tribune won prizes for investigative journalism.