ATTACK France’s security alert status was raised to the highest
level after the terror attack in Nice, which left three people dead, the
country’s Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Thursday. The Prime Minister
denounced the attack, which he described ‘as cowardly as it is barbaric’ adding
that the government’s response would be firm, implacable and immediate.
According to witnesses, the assailant repeatedly shouted Alahu Akbar (Allah is
great). The attack has shocked the entire nation in the eve of a fresh lockdown
for containing the Covid-19 pandemic and a couple of days ahead the Roman
Catholic All Saints holiday. It also comes two weeks after the beheading of a
French teacher who showed his students caricatures of Prophet Muhammad.
AWARD Romanian film ‘Contraindications’ directed by Lucia Chicos
has been awarded the third prize in the Cinefoundation
section of the Film Festival in Cannes, this year staged as a mini-edition
held on three days. 17 productions were vying for the big prize, which this
year went to Catdog, directed by Ashmita Guha of India. The second prize was
won by ‘My Fat Arse and I’ by Polish director Yelyzaveta Pysmak. Lucia Chicos
is a second year graduate student at the National University of Theatre and
Film in Bucharest and her film, ‘Contraindications’, is focusing on the
dialogue between a mother and her daughter at a tense moment in their
relationship.
SENTENCE The former Liberal President of the Bucharest Chamber of
Deputies, Bogdan Olteanu, on Thursday was sentenced to 5 years in prison for
influence peddling in a case in which he is accused of receiving one million
euro from a controversial businessman. The sentence is final. Olteanu led the
lower chamber of Parliament between 2006 and 2008, and in 2009 he was appointed
deputy governor of the National Bank. He resigned after being detained by
anti-corruption prosecutors in 2016, to be heard in the influence peddling
case.
COVID-19 A record number of 6,481 new cases of people infected
with SARS-CoV-2 have been registered in Romania in the last 24 hours, following
36,169 tests performed nationwide, the Strategic Communication Group has announced.
The number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 was 83, bringing the total number
of victims to 6,764. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 229,040 cases of
people infected with the new coronavirus have been confirmed in Romania, and
163,852 patients have been declared cured. 868 patients are admitted to
intensive care, 7 more than the previous day. The highest infection coefficients
per 1,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days are registered in the counties of
Cluj, Sălaj, Alba, in the capital Bucharest and in the counties of Timiş and
Harghita. These areas are subject to the red scenario that imposes additional
restrictions, such as wearing a mask in all open spaces. The good news comes
from abroad, where there have been no new cases of infection or death among
Romanians in the last 24 hours. So far, 6,851 Romanian nationals have fallen
ill and 126 have lost their lives abroad.
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