Radio România Internațional

Tag: bushfires

  • January 7, 2020

    January 7, 2020


    VISIT Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis is paying a working
    visit to the German state of Bavaria. The Romanian official has attended a
    session of the local government and held talks with Markus Soder, the Minister
    President of Bavaria and president of the Christian-Social Union CSU. ‘It is very important to signal that our relation both for Romania and for
    the ethnics Germans from Romania who are now living in Bavaria is a special
    bridge between Romania and Bavaria’, president Iohannis said adding that a
    meeting of the mixed Romania-Bavaria committee would be talking place shortly,
    a very important event not only for the political relations but also for
    economy. Markus Soder has congratulated Ionannis on his second term in office
    as president of Romania underlining that Romania is a major partner. ‘We
    believe that Europe isn’t led from Brussels alone, and it’s not moving between
    Germany and France, but there is an interest in this partnership between
    Europe’s smaller states. ‘From a geographical point of view,
    Romania is very important for Europe’, Soder added. Iohannis will be
    participating in the annual meeting of the CSU group in Bundestag, the German
    Parliament’s lower chamber and will have talks with the president of Bavaria
    Parliament, Ilse Aigner.










    TALKS Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban begins a three-day
    working visit to Brussels for talks with European and NATO officials. Orban
    will also be attending a meeting of the European People’s Party group within
    the European Parliament. The visit kicks off with a bilateral meeting with
    Charles Michel, president of the European Council. Also today the head of the
    Romanian executive will be received by Frans Timmermans,Executive
    Vice President-Designate of the European Commission and will be having talks
    with the EU chief negotiator for Brexit Michel Barnier. Orban’s delegation will
    also be meeting European commissioners for neighborhood and enlargement Oliver
    Varhelyi and for budget and human resources Johannes Hahn. In Brussels Orban
    will be holding talks with the head of the European Commission Ursula von der
    Leyen, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and with the president of the
    European Parliament David Sassoli.










    APPEAL Romania’s Interior Ministry has responded to an appeal launched
    at European level and has resources ready to be deployed to Australia to help
    this country deal with the devastating effects of the bushfires. The EU has
    activated its Civil Protection Mechanism and Romania’s President Klaus
    Iohannis, who has been briefed on the available resources, has given the
    greenlight for the assistance and rescue operations. The EU intends to make
    available to the Australian authorities a rescue unit and resources that the
    latter can access totally or partially according to their needs. Bushfires in
    south-eastern Australia have destroyed over 8 million hectares of vegetation,
    killed at least 25 people and destroyed the wildlife in the region. Thousands
    of houses have been destroyed or damaged while some towns and villages have
    been left without electricity, communications or drinking water.








    St. JOHN The
    majority Orthodox believers and Greek Catholics in Romania are today
    celebrating Saint John, the prophet of the New Testament, the one who baptized
    Jesus in Jordan River. John the Baptist as he is also known, was imprisoned and
    beheaded by king Herod. Nearly 2 million Romanians are today celebrating their
    name day, which puts and end to the winter holiday season in Romania. Old Rite Christians annually
    celebrate Christmas Day on January 7 to remember Jesus Christ’s birth,
    described in the Christian Bible. This date works to the Julian calendar, that pre-dates
    the Gregorian calendar, which is
    commonly observed.






    (translated by bill)

  • January 4, 2020 UPDATE

    January 4, 2020 UPDATE

    VISIT Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis will be paying a working visit
    to Bavaria, in southern Germany for talks with Markus Soder, Minister President
    and leader of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria. The Romanian president will
    be attending a session of Bavaria’s government and will be having talks with
    members of this institution on the bilateral relations and the latest European
    developments. President Iohannis will also be meeting the CSU group in
    Bundestag, where he is expected to present Romania’s vision on the future of
    Europe. A member of the German community in Romania, Klaus Iohannis, backed by
    the ruling National Liberal Party, is presently at his second term in office
    after the landslide win in last year’s presidential election against his
    opponent, the country’s former Social-Democratic Prime Minister Viorica
    Dancila.










    DUTY
    Over 21 thousand employees of the Romanian Interior Ministry were on duty in
    the first three days of this year to ensure citizen safety during the winter holidays, a
    ministry report reads. According to the same sources, no major events were
    reported at the 180 cultural-artistic events attended by almost 320 thousand
    people on New Year’s Eve. Police intervened in 73 hundred cases involving
    public order reported at the emergency number 112. Special attention was paid to preventing
    serious accidents and to streamlining road traffic to the most popular tourist
    resorts. Up to 1,500 road police were on duty on the most circulated
    thoroughfares, with around 270 radar speed guns, to safeguard the lives of
    drivers, passengers and pedestrians. A series of measures were implemented and
    4 thousand border police were on duty at the country’s border checkpoints to
    streamline traffic and ease the access of the foreign tourists who had chosen
    Romania as a holiday destination and also of the Romanians who traveled abroad
    for the winter holidays.












    RECOMMENDATION The Foreign Ministry in Bucharest is recommending the Romanian
    citizens to avoid traveling to Iraq unless necessary, given the latest
    escalation of tensions in the Middle East. The Romanians already there are
    advised to avoid crowded places, where meetings or demonstrations are taking
    place. They should report their presence to the closest diplomatic mission or
    consulate in order to be contacted in emergency situations. The controversial
    Iranian general Qassem Soleimani killed in a US raid in Iraq on Friday was
    buried on Saturday. The 62 year old general was considered the second in
    importance after leader Ali Khamenei. US president Donald Trump said that
    Soleimani’s killing was meant to stop a war not to start one, but according to
    the BBC ‘the killing marked a major escalation in tensions between Iran and the
    US’. Teheran has vowed revenge against
    the US for killing the general.










    BUSHFIRE Devastating bushfires in Australia have prompted the authorities to evacuate
    tens of thousands. The hot weather and strong winds have intensified the
    bushfires, which in some places have got out of control. Since early September
    when the fire started around five
    million hectares of land have burned, at least 19 people have been killed, and
    more than 1,400 homes have been destroyed.










    HANDBALL Romania’s national handball side is continuing its training campaign
    for the qualification for the World Men’s Handball Championships in 2021 in
    Egypt. Over January 10th and 12th the Romanians will be
    playing Italy, Georgia and Kosovo. Selector Rares Fortuneanu, who is also
    coaching French side Saint Raphael has voiced hope for Romania’s qualification for the final
    tournament, the first with 32 sides attending. The Romanian women’s handball
    side made it to the group stage of the Women’s World Handball Championship held
    in Japan last month.












    YO 35
    athletes will be representing Romania at the 2020 Youth Olympics due in
    Lausanne, Switzerland over January 9 and 22. According to a communiqué issued
    by the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee the Romanian athletes will be
    competing in several disciplines, such as biathlon, bob-sleigh, ice hockey,
    speed skating, sledge, ski-jumping, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and
    snowboarding. At the previous edition in Lillehammer, Norway, the first medals
    in the history of Romania’s participation in such an event went to Eduard
    Casaneanu, who walked away with gold from the ice-hockey event and Mihaela
    Hogas, who won bronze in the speed skating race.






    (translated by bill)