Radio România Internațional

Tag: Khamenei

  • January 12, 2020

    January 12, 2020

    Government — The ruling Liberal government in Romania is considering all the ways for adopting the law on electing mayors in two rounds of voting. The PM Ludovic Orban does not rule out assuming responsibility for the law or issuing an emergency decree, although he believes there are chances for the law to be passed by Parliament. He pointed out that the Liberal Party would designate its candidate for the Bucharest City Hall following a survey. As to the law providing for the doubling of allowances for children, the PM is in favor of postponing the deadline for adoption, until the government is able to ensure the necessary financial resources from the state budget, through budget adjustment, after July 1. The PM made these statements in the context in which President Klaus Iohannis announced that he would promulgate the respective law which was passed in December following an initiative of the former governing Social Democratic Party.



    Iran – In Teheran thousands of Iranian protesters called on the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to resign after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed that they had downed a Ukrainian plane with 176 people on board, mostly Iranians and Canadians. According to the Iranian authorities, the plane was downed by mistake. The American President Donald Trump warned Iran not to transform protests into a massacre and hailed the protesters’ courage in a Twitter post, in English and Farsi. The police intervened to disperse the protesters. The British ambassador to Iran was detained for several hours by the police, as he was filming the manifestation against Ali Khamenei at the Amitkadir University and the Iranian papers wrote that the ambassador allegedly instigated the students to protest. The Iranian president Hassan Rohani phoned his Ukrainian counterpart Volodimir Zelenski to apologize for the incident. The Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said that Iran had to take whole responsibility for what happened, adding that such a tragedy should not have happened in a period of increased tensions.



    Talks – The Russian President Vladimir Putin and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who visited Moscow for the 1st time in the past two years, talked about energy policies, with focus on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, and also about several international issues such as the situation in Libya, Iran and Syria. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent to Moscow, at the end of the their talks, the two officials confirmed their determination to complete the building of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which was suspended last month under the threat of American sanctions. The Kremlin leader reiterated that Russian would be able to finalize the works on its own, but admitted, for the first time, that the exploitation of the pipeline can be postponed for the end of 2020 or even for the first quarter of 2021. The project has been criticized by the US, Poland, the Baltic states and Ukraine, because it would increase Western Europe’s dependence on Russian gas and would give Moscow an instrument for political pressure.



    Handball — Romania’s national men’s handball team has qualified to the 2nd stage of the preliminaries of the 2021 World Handball Championship, being ranked 1st in the group with 4 accumulated points. The Romanians on Saturday defeated Kosovo 32-21 and Georgia defeated Italy 28-25 in Benevento (Italy). Sunday is seeing the last two matches between Kosovo and Georgia and Italy and Romania. However the Romanian team cannot lose its position in the group irrespective of today’s results.



    Tennis – The Romanian tennis player Sorana Cîrstea (74 WTA) defeated its conational Irina Begu (101 WTA) 6-2, 7-6 (9) in the last qualifying round to the main singles table at the WTA tournament in Hobart (Australia), which has prizes up for grabs worth 275,000 dollars. Cîrstea, top seeded in this stage, will be up against Kristyna Pliskova (The Czech Republic) in the first round. The two players previously met once in 2013, in the 2nd round of the Australian Open, when Sorana defeated Kristyna. Simona Halep, world’s no. 3 player, was designated 2nd seed of the WTA tournament of Adelaide (Australia) which will start on Monday, having total prizes of 848,000 dollars. (translation by L. Simion)

  • 04.01.2020

    04.01.2020

    Das rumänische Au‎ßenministerium hat, angesichts der jüngsten Eskalation im Nahen Osten, vor Reisen in den Irak gewarnt. Den bereits dort lebenden Rumänen wird empfohlen, überfüllte Orte, an denen Versammlungen oder Demonstrationen stattfinden, zu meiden. Ihnen wird empfohlen ihre Anwesenheit der nächstgelegenen diplomatischen Vertretung oder Konsulat zu melden, um im Notfall kontaktiert werden zu können. Tausende Iraker, darunter auch die wichtigsten Vertreter des Landes, haben am Sonnabend an einem Trauermarsch für die Opfer des amerikanischen Drohnenangriffs teilgenommen, bei dem auch der iranische General Qassem Soleimani und Abou Mehdi al-Mouhandis, der Vertreter Irans im Irak, ums Leben gekommen sind. Der 62-jährige General Soleimani galt als der zweitwichtigste Führer nach dem geistlichen Führer Ali Khamenei. US-Präsident Donald Trump sagte, mit der Tötung Soleimanis solle ein Krieg gestoppt, nicht aber einer ausgelöst werden. Die BBC schätzte jedoch, mit dieser Tötung werde an der Gewaltspirale zwischen dem Iran und den USA geschraubt. Teheran hat mit Rache an den USA für die Ermordung des Generals gedroht.



    Über 21 Tausend Mitarbeiter des rumänischen Innenministeriums waren in den ersten drei Tagen dieses Jahres im Dienst, um die Sicherheit der Bürger während der Winterferien zu gewährleisten, hei‎ßt es in einem Bericht des Ministeriums. Laut denselben Quellen wurden bei den 180 kulturell-künstlerischen Veranstaltungen, die von fast 320.000 Menschen am Silvesterabend besucht wurden, keine grö‎ßeren Ereignisse gemeldet. Die Polizei griff in 7.300 Fällen der öffentlichen Ordnung ein, die unter der Notrufnummer 112 gemeldet wurden. Auf den meist befahrenen Stra‎ßen waren bis zu 1.500 Stra‎ßenpolizisten mit rund 270 Radargeräten im Einsatz. Darüber hinaus waren über den Feiertagen 4.000 Grenzpolizisten an den Grenzkontrollpunkten des Landes im Einsatz, um die Einreise der ausländischen Touristen, sowie der Rumänen, die für den Winterurlaub nach Hause gekommen waren, zu erleichtern.



    Verheerende Buschfeuer in Australien haben die Behörden veranlasst, Zehntausende zu evakuieren. Hohe Temperaturen und starker Wind haben die Buschfeuer, die an einigen Orten au‎ßer Kontrolle geraten sind, weiter angefacht. Seit Anfang September, als das Feuer ausbrach, sind rund fünf Millionen Hektar Land verbrannt, mindestens 19 Menschen getötet und mehr als 1.400 Häuser zerstört worden.



    Der rumänische Premierminister Ludovic Orban wird vom 7.-9. Januar zu dem europäischen Institutionen und dem NATO-Sitz in Brüssel reisen. Dabei kommt er mit der Vorsitzenden der Europäischen Kommission, Ursula von der Leyen und NATO-Generalsekretär, Jens Stoltenberg zusammen. Vorgesehen sind auch Treffen mit den Vorsitzenden des Europäischen Rates, Charles Michel und den Vorsitzenden des europäischen Parlaments, David Sassoli.



    35 Athleten werden Rumänien bei den Olympischen Jugendspielen 2020, die am 9. und 22. Januar in Lausanne, Schweiz, stattfinden werden, vertreten. Laut einem Kommuniqué des rumänischen Olympischen und Sportkomitees werden die rumänischen Athleten in verschiedenen Disziplinen wie Biathlon, Bob-Schlitten, Eishockey, Eisschnelllauf, Schlitten, Skispringen, Alpinski, Skilanglauf und Snowboard antreten. Bei der letzten Ausgabe im norwegischen Lillehammer gingen die ersten Medaillen in der Geschichte der Teilnahme Rumäniens an einer solchen Veranstaltung an Eduard Casaneanu, der beim Eishockey Gold und Mihaela Hogas, die Bronze im Eisschnelllauf gewann.

  • January 4, 2020

    January 4, 2020

    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 yesterday is being
    buried today. 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’. Tehran 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.










    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)