Radio România Internațional

Tag: Holocaust commemoration

  • January 27, 2020 UPDATE

    January 27, 2020 UPDATE

    PARLIAMENT – The
    Romanian Parliament on Monday met in an extraordinary sitting, which will last until
    Wednesday evening, to discuss the elimination of special pensions and the
    election of mayors in two rounds, with the government seeking to pass the
    latter bill by assuming responsibility for it. The Social Democrats, supported
    by the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, are planning to file
    the motion next week. President Klaus Iohannis said that if the motion passes,
    he will nominate Ludovic Orban again for the position of Prime Minister. With
    regard to the pensions bill, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban says his party is in
    favour of calculating pensions based on the contribution principle, with the
    exception of service pensions for the military. The interim president of the
    Social Democratic Party Marcel Ciolacu says the bill is unconstitutional because
    it also eliminates the special pensions for magistrates.




    COMMEMORATION -
    Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban on Monday attended in Poland the official
    events marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi
    concentration camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Over 200 Holocaust survivors and
    delegations from 50 countries attended the events. Polish president Andrzej
    Duda was joined by Holocaust survivors in paying floral tributes to the Death
    Wall, where Nazi SS troops executed thousands of people. Israeli President
    Reuven Rivlin pointed out racism and anti-Semitism should be combated
    decisively, with determination and zero compromise. The Romanian government has
    reiterated its commitment to continue efforts to assume responsibility for the
    country’s past, to promote education and research on the Holocaust and
    commemorate the victims. Last week, Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis attended
    an international Holocaust remembrance forum in Israel and on Monday he
    decorated several Holocaust survivors.






    MERGER – Talks
    are ongoing in Bucharest over a possible merger between Save Romania Union and
    PLUS, currently forming an alliance. The permanent bureaus of the two parties
    agreed on Monday to summon a congress on this matter in July. The branches of
    the two parties are encouraged to designate common candidates for the upcoming
    local election.




    CORONAVIRUS – The
    authorities in Bucharest are considering whether to introduce thermal scanners
    on airports in Romania. These instruments can detect the persons whose body
    temperature is higher than 38 degrees Celsius, as high fever is one of the
    symptoms of the new coronavirus. There is currently one unconfirmed case in
    Romania, although doctors say it is very unlikely for the patient to be a
    carrier of the coronavirus. In China, tighter measures are being taken to
    contain the spread of the virus, which has already killed over 80 people. In
    Beijing, the authorities have postponed the reopening of schools, more travel
    restrictions are in place and wearing a face mask is becoming obligatory. The
    director of the World Health Organization arrived in Beijing on Monday to
    discuss the possibility of a global outbreak. In China, the number of confirmed
    cases is nearing 3,000. The coronavirus, which originates in animals and causes
    pneumonia, has spread to Europe, the United States and Australia. The symptoms
    include severe coughing, fever and breathing problems, and in some cases
    failure of the vital organs.




    FLU VIRUS -
    Another person has died in Romania because of the flu, with the total number
    reaching four since the beginning of the season. The latest victim is a
    43-year-old man from Sibiu County. Several schooling units have been shot down
    due to viral respiratory infections or the flu virus. Doctors recall that
    vaccination is the only effective prevention measure. The number of people who
    have taken the anti-flu vaccine in Romania is higher than last year, when
    almost 200 people died because of the complications caused by the flu.




    TENNIS – World
    no. 3 Simona Halep of Romania on Monday defeated Belgium’s Elise Mertens, world
    no. 17, in straight sets, in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, the
    first Grand Slam tennis tournament of the year. In the next round, Halep will
    face the Estonian player Anett Kontaveit, world no. 31. A finalist in Melbourne
    in 2018, Halep has won both of her previous matches against Kontaveit, which
    took place in 2017, in Miami and Rome. Also on Monday, in the women’s doubles,
    the Romanian-Japanese pair Monica Niculescu and Misaki Doi lost to Hao-ching
    Chan and Latisha Chan of Taiwan in straight sets in the fourth round. On
    February 3, Simona Halep will become the tennis player with the most
    consecutive weeks in the top 10 WTA among the players born after 1980. She will
    reach the 315 mark, overtaking the current holder of the record, the Swiss
    player Martina Hingis, who spent 314 consecutive weeks in the top 10.


    (Translated by V. Palcu)

  • October 10, 201 UPDATE

    October 10, 201 UPDATE

    COMMEMORATION – The Jewish and Roma victims in Nazi extermination camps were commemorated on Monday at the Holocaust Memorial in Bucharest. The National Holocaust Victim Commemoration Day is celebrated on October 9 in Romania. In a message delivered on this occasion, president Klaus Iohannis said honoring the victims of the Holocaust is a fundamental duty of the Romanian state. In turn, Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos said commemorating the victims of the Holocaust calls for a moment of reflection over some of our national historys dark chapters, learning the lessons of the past so that such tragedies may never happen again. On this day in 1941, the deportation to Transdniester of the Jewish population of Bukovina and Bessarabia began. The Romanian authorities officially accepted responsibility for the Holocaust in Romania in 2004, based on the conclusions of a commission headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Ellie Wiesel.



    TALKS – President Klaus Iohannis and his Slovakian counterpart Andrej Kiska discussed the consolidation of bilateral relations at political, economic and cultural level in Bucharest. Talks also tackled hot topics on the European agenda, given that Slovakia is holding the six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council. The two presidents also exchanged views referring to the EU Enlargement Policy and the Eastern Partnership, as well as regarding the future of the EU, a topic approached last month at the informal EU Summit in Bratislava. As part of NATO cooperation, president Iohannis reasserted the importance Romania gives to boosting NATOs capability of responding to current security challenges, against the backdrop of the recent developments in the Black Sea region. On the other hand, Iohannis and Kiska highlighted that the Slovakian minority in Romania and the Romanian community in Slovakia have a substantial contribution to the development of ties between the two states. On Tuesday, President Andrej Kiska will meet with representatives of the Slovakian minority in Romania in Nadlac, western Romania.



    MOTION – The Social-Democratic Party on Monday filed a simple motion against Justice Minister Raluca Pruna, who publicly admitted she lied at the European Court of Human Rights regarding funding allotted to the prison system. Last week at the Supreme Defence Council meeting Raluca Pruna said she lied when saying that Romania allots a 1-billion-euro budget to seven prisons. The information provided to ECHR judges was based on official documents, whereas in fact the money was not stipulated in the budget. According to the Chamber of Deputies regulations, the Government is not compelled to sack the Justice Minister, even is Parliament votes for the motion.



    VISIT – EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation Carlos Moedas is on Tuesday paying an official visit to Bucharest. He will meet with Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, Education Minister Mircea Dumitru, the president of the National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, Mihai Robert Dima, and with Romanian Academy president Ionel Valentin Vlad. Additionally, Commissioner Moedas will visit the ELI-NP laser project in Magurele.



    TOUR – As of Tuesday the Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu will go on a four-day tour of Asia. According to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the tour includes an official visit to Indonesia, aimed at boosting diplomatic bilateral dialogue and consolidating economic cooperation with this country. On Thursday and Friday, the Romanian Foreign Minister will attend the 21st Ministerial Meeting of the European Union – Association of South-East Asian Nations (EU-ASEAN) in Thailand. On the sidelines of the meeting, Lazar Comanescu will hold a series of bilateral relations with his counterparts from ASEAN countries.



    NOBEL PRIZE – The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Monday announced the names of the winners of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Professor Oliver Hart and Professor Bengt Holmstrom of the Massachusets Institute of Technology were awarded the prize, for their insights into how best to write contracts. Their work paved the way for institutions and policies in many fields, from bankruptcy legislation to constitutional policies, the jury explained. The winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was the American professor Angus Deaton, for his analysis of consumption, poverty and welfare. The Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences has been awarded since 1968 by the Central Bank of Sweden, unlike the other prizes which are financed by the Nobel Foundation. The 2016 Nobel Prize season concludes this week with the award for literature.



    US PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE – The nominees of the Republican and Democratic parties in the US election, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Sunday night clashed in the second presidential debate. According to a CNN poll, 57% of the American viewers believe the debate was won by Hillary Clinton, while 34% say the winner was Trump. Also, 39% of the respondents said Hillary Clinton did better than in the first debate. Donald Trump attacked ex-President Bill Clinton, Hillarys husband, and accused her of having “deleted 35,000 emails that had allegedly ruined peoples lives. In turn, Hillary Clinton claimed Russia was getting involved in the US election in order to have Donald Trump win the race. The two candidates also disagreed over the way to handle the crisis in Syria, but according to commentators none of them suggested a concrete solution.



    FOOTBALL – Romanias football team is playing on Tuesday in Astana against the national team of Kazakhstan, in its third preliminary game in the 2018 World Cup in Russia. On Saturday, in Erevan, Romania defeated Armenia, 5-0. In the same group E, Poland won 3-2 against Denmark, and Montenegro beat Kazakhstan 5-0. With 4 points each, Romania, Montenegro and Poland top the group table. Last month the national team drew at home against Montenegro, 1-1, in the first game with the German Cristoph Daum as the first foreign manager of the Romanian team. This autumn Romania is to also play at home against Poland, on November 11.



    TENNIS – The best-ranking Romanian tennis player, Simona Halep, is as of Monday no. 4 in the WTA standings, one place up since last week. Halep is already qualified into the WTA Finals, a tournament that brings together the best 8 players of the world and held this year in Singapore, between October 23 and 30. Angelique Kerber, of Germany, is the WTA leader, followed by American Serena Williams and Polands Agnieskza Radwanska. Four other Romanian players are in the WTA Top 100: Irina Camelia Begu (no. 28), Monica Niculescu (no. 50), and Sorana Carstea (no. 83).



    (Translated by A.M. Popescu and V. Palcu)