Radio România Internațional

Tag: istanbul attack

January 17, 2017

ROMANIAN INTELLIGENCE SERVICE A special commission of the Romanian Intelligence Service has today announced that the analysis of the activity carried out by the first deputy-director Florian Coldea has revealed no elements that would constitute violations of laws or regulations in force. Florin Coldea was suspended last week, and his responsibilities were taken over by the director of the institution Eduard Hellvig, following accusations made by the former deputy Sebastian Ghita, who had accused Coldea of illegal activities. The executive board of the Romanian Intelligence Service has decided to put the first deputy director back in office. However, Coldea has asked to be released from office and placed at the disposal of the institution, invoking reasons that have to do with military dignity and honour. The Director of the Romanian Intelligence Service has asked Romanias President Klaus Iohannis to grant Coldea the reservist status.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT The 751 Members of the European Parliament are electing in Strasbourg today their new president, who will replace the German Social-Democrat Martin Schulz. The election is going to be tight, given that the pro-European parties have not managed to find an agreement on a single candidate to represent them. Therefore, there are six politicians now running for the seat of president: three Italian, one Belgian, one British and one Romanian from the Eurosceptics group. The Romanian candidate is Laurentiu Rebega, vice-president of the Europe of Nations and Freedom group, co-presided by the French nationalist Marine Le Pen. The new president of the European Parliament will start working right after the validation of the voting. The 14 Vice-Presidents and 5 Quaestors will be elected tomorrow.

BREXIT The British Prime-Minister Theresa May is to present in London today the list of Brexit priorities. Downing Street sources say that Mrs. May prefers a full divorce, rather than an agreement under which Great Britain would be half in half out of the EU. The British PM is thus very likely to announce that Great Britain will leave the single market, the European Customs Union and the European Court of Justice. She will also insist on the need for her country to sign its own trade agreements with the Commonwealth countries, the Asian giants and the US. Seven months after Britains historic vote in favour of the Brexit, Theresa May promises to start the exit procedure by the end of March. Negotiations with Brussels will last two years.

MOLDOVA The new president of the Republic of Moldova, the pro-Russia socialist Igor Dodon, is today holding talks in Moscow with the Russian president Vladimir Putin. The Moldovan president wants to obtain the lifting of restrictions on the import of Moldovan agricultural products. Restrictions were imposed by Moscow in the aftermath of Moldovas signing an association agreement with the EU. The president also hopes that the status of the 500,000 Moldovan citizens working in Russia will be regulated. Another issue is that of Transdniestrs debt to Gazprom, standing at 4 billion dollars. The Transdniestr issue will be approached also against the background of the recent meeting between the president of Moldova and the new leader in Tiraspol Vadim Krasnoselski. Transdiestr came out of Chisinaus control in 1992, after an armed conflict that claimed hundreds of lives, settled by the intervention of the Russian troops on the separatists side.

ATTACK The man who shot and killed 39 people on New Years in a club in Istanbul has been arrested in a neighborhood of the European part of the city. According to authorities, the perpetrator, an Uzbek aged 34, member of a terrorist cell in Central Asia, has admitted his guilt. Another four people have been detained in this case, a Kirghiz, the owner of the apartment he was caught in, and three women. More than half of the victims of the attack were foreign citizens, from Israel, India, Lebanon, France, Tunisia, Belgium, Kuwait and Canada. The attack has been claimed by the Islamic State organization, as an act of retaliation against Turkeys involvement in Syria.

NATO The Romanian Army Chief of Staff Nicolae Ciuca is attending the proceedings of the 176th NATO Military Committee in Brussels. According to the Romanian Defense Ministry, the agenda of the meeting includes topics such as the Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan and the recent threats against NATO. Also, sessions will be held devoted to NATOs partnerships with Ukraine and Georgia.

AUSTRALIAN OPEN Two Romanian tennis players Monica Niculescu and Ana Bogdan have today lost matches in the first round of the Australian Opens singles. Niculescu was defeated 2-1 by the Russian Ana Blinkova and Bogdan lost 2-0 to Elena Vesnina, also from Russia. On Monday, in the inaugural round, Sorana Carstea beat 2-nil the Russian Irina Hromaceva, and Irina Begu defeated in three sets Iaroslava Svedova of Kazakhstan. Another two Romanian players have been eliminated. Simona Halep, number 4 in the WTA rankings, was surprisingly defeated by the American Shelby Rogers, ranked 57th in the same classification. Patricia Tig was eliminated by the Puerto Rican Monica Puig, in two sets.

17 January 2017
December 11, 2016 UPDATE

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS According to exit polls, the left-wing Social Democratic Party won Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Romania with 44-46% of the votes, followed by the National Liberal Party with 21-22%, the Save Romania Union with 9-10%, and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians with over 6%. The People’s Movement Party, established by the former president Traian Basescu, is close to the 5% threshold. The leader of the Social Democratic Party, Liviu Dragnea, has stated that Romanians’ votes must be respected and has stressed that Romania is an island of stability in the region. Dragnea has also said that on Sunday Romanians voted for economic growth, more money in their pockets, lower taxes and fees, support for the business environment, better paid jobs for the youth. He has also stated that negotiations are to start with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for the formation of a majority. The President of the National Liberal Party Alina Gorghiu has voiced hope for a good final result for the liberals. The leader of the Save Romania Union, Nicusor Dan, believes that for a party which was born in February 2016 to become the third biggest political force in Romania is exceptional and a victory for democracy. He has also stated that if the Social Democratic Party forms a majority, the Save Romania Union will not be part of it. The president of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania Kelemen Hunor has stated that result of this year’s parliamentary elections has resumed the Union’s rightful place on the Romanian political scene. The voter turnout in this year’s parliamentary elections was of approximately 40%, less than in 2012. More than 105,000 Romanians voted abroad.

MOURNING Romanias President Klaus Iohannis and the Romanian Foreign Ministry have firmly condemned the double bomb attack that rocked Istanbul on Saturday night and sent messages of condolences to the families of the victims. Both the Romanian President and the Foreign Ministry reiterated Romanias commitment to the world efforts to fight terrorism. The US, Great Britain and NATO have also condemned the Istanbul attacks. Turkey has declared a day of national mourning after the two attacks, which claimed 38 lives, mostly police officers, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey will fight terrorism “to the end.” The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a radical group linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), has claimed responsibility for the attacks carried out in Istanbul.

Foreign Affairs Council On Monday, Romanias Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu will attend in Brussels, alongside his EU counterparts, the monthly meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council. According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the agenda of talks includes topics such as migration and the relation between the EU and Africa. Also, the participants will discuss the latest developments in Syria.

CORRUPTION Pediatric surgeon Gheorghe Burnei, Head of the Pediatric Surgery and Orthopedic Clinic of the Marie Curie Hospital in Bucharest, was taken into custody on Saturday. A celebrity in his field of activity, doctor Burnei is suspected of acts of corruption, after several parents complained he had requested money from them to perform surgeries on their children and he reportedly made non-homologated experiments on children. Also on Saturday, the former manager of the Malaxa Hospital in Bucharest, doctor Florin Secureanu, was placed in preventive arrest for 30 days. In one of the most resounding corruption scandals on the Romanian medical scene, Secureanu is accused of bribe taking and aggravated embezzlement. The national anti-corruption prosecutors who investigate the case claim that, in the May 2009 – November 2016 period, the former manager designed and applied a scheme to illegally cash in sums of money from the hospitals pay office on a daily basis, accouting for some 500 thousand Euros.

ROME The Italian President Sergio Mattarella received the acting foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni at the Quirinal Palace on Sunday and asked him to form a new government, after Matteo Renzi stepped down following the failure of the referendum on the constitutional reform, held on December 4, the Italian presidency has announced. Paolo Gentiloni, 62, a close of Renzis, will form the cabinet and then will face Parliament for a vote of confidence. The Prime Minister designate has mentioned the elimination of the effects of the recent quakes in central Italy and the adoption of a new electoral law among its top priorities.

ACCIDENT Bulgaria has declared a day of national mourning for the victims of the accident in Hitrino, in the north-east of the country, where at least eight people died and dozens were wounded following a gas explosion on a derailed tanker train early Saturday. One of the two tank cars, carrying propane-butane and propylene, exploded and the deflagration destroyed 50 buildings. After the incident, the entire village was evacuated and the intervention teams started a complicated operation to gather the liquid gas in other tanks.

HANDBALL On Sunday, Romanias national womens handball team defeated Hungary 29-21, in the first match of the so-called main groups of the European Championship hosted by Sweden. Next, Romania will face the Czech Republic, on December 13, and Denmark a day later. In the first stage of the competition, Romania lost 21-23 to the defending European and world champion Norway, defeated the Olympic champion Russia 22-17, and outperformed Croatia 31-26. Romanias national team is coached by a Spaniard, Ambros Martin, who last month replaced the Swedish Tomas Ryde, under whose guidance Romania won the bronze medal at the 2015 World Championships in Denmark.

11 December 2016
December 11, 2016 UPDATE (8p.m.)

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS– Over 18 million Romanian citizens are called to the polls today, to elect their MPs. Almost 6,500 candidates are running for a total of 466 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The number of MPs will be lower in the future legislature, after Romania relinquished the uninominal vote and returned to the party list system, which was last used at the 2004 elections. The Romanian diaspora will be represented by two senators and four deputies. According to the latest data, some 95 thousand Romanians abroad have already cast their votes, most of them in the Republic of Moldova, Italy and Spain. As a first, postal voting has been introduced for the Romanians living outside the borders of the country. Also as a first, ballot counting will be video-recorded, and the minutes will be filled in electronically, in order to eliminate suspicions of rigging. Thirteen hours after the start of the voting, the turnout at national level stood at 38.6%. The highest turnout was registered in the southern counties, whereas the lowest in the west and the north. In Bucharest, which is home to a tenth of the total number of Romanian voters, the turnout stood at 40.2%. Since the start of the voting, more than 200 complaints and notifications of possible contraventions and offences related to the electoral process have been registered at national level, the Romanian Interior Ministry has announced. 33 people are being investigated for potential infractions, most of them concerning vote fraud. No major public order incident concerning the unfolding of the electoral process in good conditions has been reported so far.

MOURNING-Romanias President, Klaus Iohannis and the Romanian Foreign Ministry have firmly condemned the double bomb attack that rocked Istanbul last night and sent messages of condolences to the families of the victims. Both the Romanian President and the Foreign Ministry reiterated Romanias commitment to the world efforts to fight terrorism. The US, Great Britain and NATO have also condemned the Istanbul attacks. Turkey has declared a day of national mourning after the two attacks, which made 38 victims, mostly police officers, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey will fight terrorism “to the end.” The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a radical group linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), has claimed responsibility for the attacks carried out in Istanbul.

CORRUPTION– Pediatric surgeon Gheorghe Burnei, Head of the Pediatric Surgery and Orthopedic Clinic of the Marie Curie Hospital in Bucharest was taken into custody on Saturday evening by prosecutors and was brought to court on Sunday, with the proposal of preventive arrest. A celebrity in his field of activity, doctor Burnei is suspected of acts of corruption, after several parents complained he had requested money from them to perform surgeries on their children and he reportedly made non-homologated experiments on children. Also on Saturday, the former manager of the Malaxa Hospital in Bucharest, doctor Florin Secureanu, was placed in preventive arrest for 30 days. In one of the most resounding corruption scandals on the Romanian medical scene, Secureanu is accused of bribe taking and embezzlement in continued form. The national anti-corruption prosecutors who investigate the case claim that, in the May 2009 – November 2016 period, the former manager designed and applied a scheme to illegally cash in sums of money from the hospitals pay office on a daily basis, bringing a prejudice of some 500 thousand Euros.

ROME– The Italian President Sergio Mattarella received the acting foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni at the Quirinal Palace on Sunday and asked him to form a new government, after Matteo Renzi stepped down following the failure of the referendum on the constitutional reform, held on December 4, the Italian presidency has announced. Paolo Gentiloni, 62, a close of Renzis, will form the cabinet and then will go to Parliament for a vote of confidence. The Prime Minister designate has mentioned the elimination of the effects produced by the recent quakes in central Italy and the adoption of a new electoral law, among its top priorities.

MACEDONIA– Early legislative elections, deemed by both the power and the opposition as a referendum on the future of the country, are held in Macedonia today. According to pundits the ballot should put an end to the political crisis started in the spring of 2014, when the Social-Democratic opposition accused the conservative government of rigging the elections. The international community announced it would closely monitor the electoral process in the former Yugoslav republic, and that by holding correct and democratic elections, Macedonia will come closer to the European Union and NATO.

HANDBALL– Romanias national womens handball team is today facing Hungary, in the first group-stage match of the European Championships, in Sweden. On Saturday evening, the Romanians could not train according to the schedule, because of a fire alert in the sports hall where they were supposed to train. Romania will face the Czech Republic on December 13 and Denmark a day later. In the first stage of the competition, Romania lost 21-23, to the defending European and world champion, Norway, defeated the Olympic champion, Russia, 22-17, and outperformed Croatia, 31-26. Romanias national team is coached by a Spaniard, Ambros Martin, who last month replaced Swedish Tomas Ryde, under whose guidance Romania won the bronze medal at the 2015 World Championships in Denmark.

11 December 2016
Reactions in the Aftermath of the Istanbul Attack

Previously regarded as a pretty safe country, Turkey is now the site of extreme violence either by the separatist PKK party or by ISIS, the terrorist organization that controls extended areas in Syria and Iraq. On Tuesday night, Istanbul, which is Turkeys commercial, cultural and historical center, was the site of a new bloody attack that claimed the lives of dozens of people and injured 150. Several foreigners have been reported among the victims, but most of them are Turks.

The suicide attack, held in full tourist season, targeted the Ataturk airport, the third busiest airport in Europe. Three attackers started shooting at people close to the international flights terminal, using automatic weapons, and after an exchange of fire with security forces they blew themselves up. Authorities in Ankara suspect ISIS as having masterminded the attack. “We call on the world, especially on the Western countries, to take a firm stand against terrorism,” the countrys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said soon after the attack.

The Romanian authorities have condemned the attack and emphasized the need for joint international efforts to deter such actions. President Klaus Iohannis has conveyed a message of condolence, and defined the attack as an atrocity, a cruel act against innocent citizens. President Iohannis has reiterated Romanias firm commitment to fighting terrorism. Romanias Foreign Ministry has too condemned the attack and stressed Romanias pledge to combat all forms of terrorism, also highlighting the need for joint international efforts to fight this plague.

A series of attacks have been staged in Turkey as of July 2015, when a man blew himself up among a group of young Kurds in a city at the border with Syria, and killed dozens of them. Also last year, in autumn, over one hundred people died in Ankara during a protest of the Turkish opposition, following a double suicide attack. The wave of attacks has continued this year, turning the area into a dangerous place.

29 June 2016
June 29, 2016 UPDATE

EUROPEAN COUNCIL– It is essential to understand that the EU is the only option to maintain the Romanian citizens prosperity, safety and security, President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday, fresh from the European Council meeting in Brussels. He said the EU leaders reiterated their commitment to maintaining the Unions cohesion. According to Radio Romanias correspondent to Brussels, Iohannis also added that, during the negotiations with Great Britain, Bucharest will take action in the interest of the Romanian citizens. Actually, British PM, David Cameron, assured President Iohannis that the Romanian citizens will be allowed to stay and work in the United Kingdom and expressed regret over the xenophobic incidents which occurred in the wake of the Brexit referendum. President Iohannis also said that during talks on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada, (CETA), he reiterated the importance of waiving mandatory Canadian visas for Romanian nationals.

ISTANBUL ATTACK– The spokesperson for the Romanian Government, Liviu Iolu, said on Wednesday that the available information shows there are no Romanians among the victims of the Istanbul terror attack. He said the Romanian Government vehemently condemns the terror attack and added that PM Dacian Ciolos has sent a message of condolences to his Turkish counterpart, Binali Yildirim. Earlier, both the Romanian Foreign Ministry and President Klaus Iohannis firmly condemned the triple suicide attack at the Istanbul airport, which left over 41 dead and more than 200 wounded and gave assurances that Romania would remain a staunch and reliable partner in the international anti-terror fight.

CORRUPTION– Former Romanian agriculture minister, Stelian Fuia, on Wednesday received a final three-year jail sentence for abuse of office. The accusations levelled against him by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, were related to a series of actions he committed in his capacity as the director of an agricultural research institute near Bucharest, before taking over the agriculture portfolio in 2012, for only three months. In turn, the former president of the Constanta County Council, Nicusor Constantinescu, was given a five-year prison sentence for abuse of office. Also on Wednesday, the anti-corruption prosecutors sent to court MP Sebastian Ghita, imposing on him bail conditions and legal restrictions pending trial. He is accused of having committed eight crimes, among which bribe giving, buying influence, money laundering and blackmail. In the same case, people, who were holding leading positions in the Prosecutors Office and the Police at the time of the crimes, were also sent to court.

FINANCIAL– Romanias budget deficit in the past five months has reached 0.1% of the GDP, standing at roughly 172 million euros, while the National Fiscal Administration Agency has cashed in sums higher by 3% than envisaged by the Romanian Finance Minister Anca Dragu. According to Dragu, public investment has increased by 25% as compared to the same period last year, while additional spending has been reported whipped up by a 5% pension rise, doubled child benefits, accrued wages and related expenses. In another development, the government has adopted a series of fiscal facilities for the field of research and development and decided to cut down the VAT for services in agriculture from 20% to 9%; measures expected to have a major budget impact.

EXCHANGE RATES– Here are the exchange rates set by the National Bank of Romania on Wednesday: 1 Euro stands at 4.5220 lei, 1 US dollar is being traded for 4.0871 lei, 1 Swiss franc stands at 4.1656 lei, 1 pound sterling is being traded for 5.4693 lei and 1Moldovan leu stands at 0.2053 lei. (Translated by D. Vijeu and D. Bilt)

29 June 2016
19 March, 2016 UPDATE

The Romanian foreign ministry says there
is no justification for actions such as the suicide attack committed on Saturday in Istanbul. The ministry has also reiterated Romania’s firm commitment to
combat all forms of terrorism and emphasised the need to intensify
international efforts to fight this phenomenon. At least five people, including
the attacker, were killed in the suicide bombing that took place on a busy
shopping street in Istanbul. Three Israeli nationals and one Iranian were among
the victims, according to hospital sources quoted by the Turkish media. A third
of the 36 people wounded are foreign citizens, say Turkish officials.
This is the fourth attack committed in Turkey this year and came only six days
after 37 people were killed in an attack in Ankara claimed by a Kurdish
militant group.

FlyDubai on Saturday ruled out a criminal act was behind
the crash of its passenger jet in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
Airline officials will fly to Russia to work with local investigators to
establish the cause of the crash that killed 62 people. Investigators say they
are looking into the possibility of a technical failure or pilot error in
difficult weather conditions. The plane crashed while attempting a second landing amid high winds, rain and poor
visibility.

The former president of Romania Traian Basescu
confirmed on Friday that both he and his wife had applied for citizenship of
the Republic of Moldova, an ex-Soviet state with a majority Romanian-speaking
population. During his term in office, he said repeatedly that he would apply
for the Moldovan passport when his term was over out of love and respect for
the country and its people. His application is still being processed before
being approved by the Moldovan president Nicolae Timofti. Although the legal
deadline for a response to the application is one year, Traian Basescu’s
request may be processed sooner, given his special status, the Moldovan
president’s senior PR advisor Ana Samson told Radio Chisinau.

Andrei Marius Gag of Romania on Saturday
won the silver medal in the Shot Put at the World Indoor Championship in
Portland, the United States, the first medal for Romania in an indoor event in
the last 12 years. Another Romanian athlete, Tiberiu Useriu today won the 6633
Arctic Ultra race. He covered 566 km of ice road in one week, battling
temperatures of even minus 62 degrees Celsius. 12 competitors from around the
world took part in the race this year, including three Romanians. Since 2007,
the race has taken place in Canada in the Polar Circle area and is billed as
the toughest foot race in the world.

Romania lost to Georgia
38:9 on Sunday in Tbilisi in the European Nations Cup in rugby. Romania thus
finished the competition in the second place. Before meeting Georgia, Romania
had won all their previous matches against Portugal, Spain, Russia and Germany.
Last autumn, Romania, who are coached by Lynn Howells, took part in the Rugby
World Cup hosted by England, where they defeated Canada and lost to France, Ireland
and Italy.

CSM
Bucharest men’s handball side on Saturday defeated the Spanish side Helvetia
Anaitasuna 27:24, in a home match as part of the EHF Cup Group D. CSM are now
last but one in the group ahead of the Spanish side, with only theoretical chances
of advancing into the competition. The French side Chambery top the group
followed by the Swedish side Ystads.

19 March 2016