WEATHER IN ROMANIA – Romania will continue to be affected by extremely cold weather in the next 24 hours as well. The sky will be mostly overcast and snow will be present in a number of regions. Meteorologists have extended the yellow code alert for blizzard until Sunday night, for half of Romanias counties. In the east, southeast and the mountain areas the wind may reach 75 km/hour. Also, a yellow code alert for severe cold is in force until Monday for the entire country, with temperatures expected to drop to minus 16 degrees Celsius during the day and to minus 25 degrees Celsius during the night. Kindergartens, schools and several universities will be closed on Monday and Tuesday in the capital Bucharest and three counties. Two people died in the south-east of the country due to the bad weather. The heavy snowfall left several localities without electricity and the road, rail and air traffic have been disrupted. Tens of national roads have been closed, a number of trains have been cancelled with many others having reported delays. All Black Sea ports have been closed because of the strong wind. The Board of Bucharests Public Transport Authority has been dismissed because of the improper manner in which they have handled the situation.
WEATHER IN EUROPE – The severe winter weather is affecting a number of European countries, including the south of the continent. In only ten days, the extreme cold killed 10 people in Poland, where temperatures plunged below minus 20 degrees Celsius. In Moscow, minus 30 degrees Celsius were registered on Friday night. A snowstorm paralyzed the Turkish city of Istanbul, while in Bulgaria road and rail traffic was seriously disrupted because of the heavy snowfalls. Ukraine is also in the grip of severe cold and blizzard while Moldova, Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia face weather-related problems as well. Things dont stand better in Western Europe either. A cold front from Scandinavia sent the mercury plummeting in France. In Italy, strong winds are reported in most of the country. In Sicily, a Romanian homeless, aged 45, died in an abandoned building due to winter weather.
ST. JOHN – Orthodox and Greek Catholic Christians in Romania on Saturday celebrated St. John the Baptists feast day. Called by the Church the Forerunner, St. John foretold the coming of the Messiah in the person of Jesus Christ, whom he later baptized in the waters of Jordan. St. John died a martyr, beheaded for having the courage to scold the Jewish King Herod in public for his debauched marriage to his brothers ex-wife. Nearly 2 million Romanians celebrated their name day on Saturday. Also on Saturday, Russian, Ukrainian, Armenian and Serbian nationals observing the old Julian calendar celebrated Christmas, 13 days later compared to the modern Gregorian calendar.
NATO – The United States has started to strengthen its military capabilities in Eastern Europe and is transporting military equipment to Romania, Poland and the Baltic states via Germany, Der Spiegel reports. The first military transport has reached the German port of Bremerhaven on Friday. We remind you that in July 2016 NATO decided to consolidate its presence in Eastern Europe with the deployment of thousands of military in Poland and the Baltic states. A multinational allied structure is to be dispatched in Romania. Moreover, NATO has taken over the defensive anti-missile shield that has interception elements in Deveselu, southern Romania.
GOVERNMENT – The Romanian Government on Friday approved an increase in the national minimum wage from about 280 euros to 320 euro as of February 1. The Government also raised public pensions, with the minimum guaranteed social pensions set to reach 115 euros as of March 1. However, representatives of the Committee for social dialogue have said that the Governments social measures should be doubled by economic measures. The opposition in Parliament and the head of state, Klaus Iohannis, have asked for explanations over how the 3% budget deficit will be maintained, while the Central Bank Governor, Mugur Isarescu, is waiting to see how the 2017 state budget is shaped up.
TENNIS – The team made up of the Romanian Raluca Olaru and the Ukrainian Olga Savciuk was defeated on Saturday in two sets, 6-1, 7-5 by the Czech Andrea Hlavackova and Shuai Peng of China, in the doubles final of the WTA tournament in Shenzhen, China, with 625,000 dollars in prize money. This is the second WTA final for Olaru and Savciuk after the one in Tashkent in 2008, when they won the title. In Shenzhen, back in 2014, Romanian tennis player Monica Niculescu won the titled together with Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic, while in 2016 she won the same tournament alongside the American Vania King. Romanias best-ranked tennis player, Simona Halep, number 4 in the world, won the singles tournament in Shenzhen in 2015. (Translated by Elena Enache)