Radio România Internațional

Tag: fog

  • January 2, 2023 UPDATE

    January 2, 2023 UPDATE

    FLIGHTS Many flights scheduled to land on or depart from the Avram Iancu International Airport in Cluj-Napoca, north-western Romania have been delayed or cancelled because of the fog. The airport’s normal schedule was completely disrupted, with flights diverted to other airports in the country or in neighbouring Hungary. Hundreds of people are queuing and complaining that the delays or cancellations had not been announced by airlines. Cluj County is subject to an extended code yellow alert for fog, with visibility below 200m and in some cases even below 50m.

    DRUGS Over 1,000 people were arrested for drug trafficking in Romania in the first 11 months of 2022. Many of them formed organised crime groups, and 55 such groups were dismantled. Over one tonne of risk and high-risk substances were seized, the Romanian Police announced on Monday.

    PENSIONS As many as 4,787,920 pensioners were registered in Romania in December 2022, with the average pension benefits standing at roughly EUR 350, according to data centralised by the National Public Pensions Agency (CNPP). Nearly 700,000 of them had worked in agriculture, with pensions only amounting to EUR 100 in their case.

    RECYCLING All traders in Romania that sell bottled water, soft drinks or alcoholic drinks in plastic, glass or metal containers between 100 ml and 3 l are bound to register within 2 months on the platform of a guarantee-return system (SGR). Otherwise, they risk fines between EUR 4,000 and EUR 8,000. The authorities want the system to become operational at the end of November 2023. Shops will also have to arrange packaging return centres. The prices of drinks will include the roughly EUR 0.10 packaging guarantee, which consumers will collect when returning the bottles. Romania will thus have the second-largest such system in Europe, after Germany, the environment minister Tanczos Barna said recently.

    NATO Western countries must be prepared to provide long-term support to Ukraine as Russia shows no signs of relenting, NATO’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said. In an interview to the BBC, Stoltenberg said military support would ensure the survival of Ukraine as a sovereign country and force Russia to sit down and negotiate an end to the war. According to Jens Stoltenberg, Russia’s partial mobilisation programme, ordered in September, indicated that Moscow had no desire to end the war, and NATO must make sure that Ukraine stays in a strong position in the event of negotiation talks between the two sides.

    UKRAINE At least 63 Russian troops were killed in a Ukrainian attack on Makeevka, in the east, the Russian defence ministry announced on Monday, quoted by international media. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, the Russian defence ministry’s spokesman, said four missiles hit a point of temporary deployment of the Russian army in Makeevka, a town under Russian occupation. Moscow, which very rarely discusses its losses, has never reported such a large number of casualties in one strike since the start of its invasion in Ukraine on February 24 last year. The media had previously released information on the attack in Makeevka, saying it had taken place on New Year’s Eve, and that a building hosting recently mobilised reservists had been affected. The strike was facilitated by the soldiers’ extensive use of mobile phones, which enabled the Ukrainian army to identify their location, Russian sources say.

    POPE Thousands of believers have gathered in Vatican to pay their respects to the former Pope Benedict XVI, who died on Saturday aged 95 and whose body is lying in state at St Peter’s Basilica ahead of the funeral scheduled for Thursday. On Sunday Pope Francis paid tribute to his dearest predecessor, emphasising his sacrifices offered for the good of the Church. Benedict XVI, who announced his resignation from the papacy in 2013 on account of his ill health and age, was a highly praised theologian. The funeral will be presided over by Pope Francis, and it will be the first time in the 2,000-year long history of the Catholic Church that a Pope will be buried by his successor.

    TENNIS The Romanian tennis player Irina Begu (34WTA) started the year 2023 on the right foot, defeating Shelby Rogers 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-1, on Monday, in the first round of the WTA 500 tournament in Adelaide (Australia). In the round of 16, Irina Begu will take on the winner of the match between Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic) and Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia). (AMP)

  • November 19, 2016

    November 19, 2016

    STUDY – Around 60% of Romanians see their financial situation as average, with incomes that barely cover their basic needs. According to a recent study, 15% of respondents say that the money Romanians earn are often spent before the end of the month and are insufficient even for their basic needs, while 58% say they can cover their daily needs but they can hardly cover any other unexpected cost. On the other hand, 18% of Romanians can afford anything they want and can cover even costs that come up unexpectedly. Only 8% of the people interviewed say they can buy anything they want and they can even make savings. We remind you that the average salary in Romania is among the smallest in the EU, the equivalent of 280 euros per month.




    GUIDE – The Romanian Foreign Ministry has launched the “Guide of the Romanian Voter Abroad” offering information to Romanian citizens in the Diaspora about how to exercise their right to vote in the December 11 legislative elections. Romanians living outside the country’s borders can cast their votes at one of the 417 polling stations available, by 111 more than at the 2012 elections and by 123 more than at the presidential elections of 2014. We remind you that two years ago, due to organisational problems, thousands of Romanians abroad were unable to cast their votes.




    TOURISM – Mountain climber Alexandra Marcu, known for having conquered the world’s highest volcanoes has been declared “Ambassador of the Romanian tourism”. In January 2015 Alexandra Marcu succeeded to climb Chile’s Ojos del Salado, the highest volcano in the world measuring 6,893 meters high. Alexandra, aged 17 at that time, became the third woman in the world that has ever climbed this volcano. This is also Europe’s youngest mountain climber to conquer Pico de Orizaba of Mexico, and the youngest Romanian to get on top of the Kazbek massif in Georgia.




    MOLDOVA — The Central Electoral Committee in Chisinau on Friday night announced the official results of the presidential election in the Republic of Moldova, won by the pro-Russian Socialist Igor Dodon with 52% of the votes. The Committee dismissed the over 170 appeals submitted by Dodon’s challenger, the pro-European reformer Maia Sandu, who claimed there had been many irregularities and requested that the election be invalidated. The Committee also rejected more than 3,000 complaints filed by Moldovan citizens living abroad, who claimed their constitutional right to vote had been violated. According to the head of the Central Electoral Committee, Alina Rusu, quoted by Radio Romania correspondents, the respective irregularities were minor and could not have influenced the outcome of the election. Also on Friday, Dodon resigned as president of the Socialist Party, whose leadership will be taken over by the chief of the Socialist group in Parliament, Zinaida Greceanîi, a former PM during the communist rule.




    CELEBRATION – The Bucharest subway is today celebrating 37 years since becoming operational, in 1979, after five years of construction works. At present, Bucharest’s subway network covers almost 70 kilometres and has 51 stations. Over 600 thousand people take the subway every day, accounting for 20% of the total number of people using public transport.




    BOOK FAIR — The Gaudeamus International Book Fair organised by Radio Romania is under way in Bucharest. Among the dozens of cultural activities scheduled for today is the final of a national contest initiated by Radio Romania in 2002 in order to promote reading among high school students. The fair, which comes to an end on Sunday, brings together hundreds of publishers and more than 850 events. This year’s guest of honour is China. Gaudeamus is organised by Radio Romania, the only public radio station in the world to initiate and develop a programme of such magnitude to support print culture.




    WEATHER – It is warmer than usual in Romania for this time of the year with maximums ranging between 7 and 18 degrees Celsius. The noon reading in Bucharest was 10 degrees. Fog was reported in the first part of the day in several areas. A terrible car accident that killed 3 people and injured 15 took place in the morning near the capital Bucharest. Fog also disrupted air traffic with delays being reported at the Cluj-Napoca international airport in central Romania.


    (Translated by Elena Enache)