Radio România Internațional

Tag: penitentiaries

  • October 3, 2018

    October 3, 2018

    NATO — Brussels is hosting, as of today, a two-day meeting of the NATO Defense Ministers, the first such meeting after the Alliance’s summit in July, which marks the beginning of the implementation stage of the Declaration adopted in summer. Defense Minister Mihai Fifor represents Romania at the meeting. Developments on NATO’s eastern flank and the reform of the Alliance’s command structure are high on the meeting’s agenda, which also includes talks about setting up support teams trained to counteract hybride and cyber attacks.




    EC – European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans has warned Romania’s government that it might end up in court if it continues its policies to relax the fight against corruption. Timmermans made the comments on Monday, October 1st, at the civil liberties committee in the European Parliament ahead of a plenary debate on Romanias rule of law on Wednesday, with Romanian prime minister Viorica Dancila. Romania has made progress in the past, sometimes even spectacular progress, but it’s moving back in a way that would be damaging not only for Romanian democracy but for the place Romania has built as an EU member state,” Timmermans said. Attending the debates on Wedensady, PM Viorica Dancila asked for Romania to be treated as an equal partner within the EU and said that nobody could prevent the country from continuing its European path.




    RULING — Romania’s Constitutional Court rejected on Wednesday the notification submitted by the country’sKlaus Iohannis, regarding modifications to the Law on the Romanian territory’s administrative organisation, Agerpres news agency reports. Iohannis had signalled the presence of some major dirfferences in terms of legal content, between the versions passed by the two Parliament chambers.




    AGRICULTURE – Romanian Agriculture Minister, Petre Daea is today travelling to Brussels to discuss with European Commission represenatives about additional funds to be paid to farmers who were affected by the African swine fever. Around 11.5 million euro worth of damages have so far been paid to 5,000 Romanian farmers. Over 960 sine fever hotbetds have been confirmed in Romania, and hundreads of thousands of pigs have been culled.




    LAWS – The offshore law, regulating gas exploitation in the Black Sea, was debated on Wednesday in the Chamber of Deputies’ plenary sitting, that decided to send it back to the expert committees. The Social Democratic Party’s deputies made some important changes to the law adopted by the Senate last week. PSD’s amendments were criticized by the opposition MPs as well as by deputies of their coalition partner. Oil companies have expressed concern about the new offshore law, saying that it may discourage new investment in the Black Sea. This is the second time this law is being voted. The Parliament initially adopted the offshore law in early July, but president Klaus Iohannis sent it back for review.




    PENITENTIARIES – Hundreds of trade unionists with the Romanian penitentiaries have decided to protest today, in front of the Justice Ministry’s headquarters, against the poor working conditions and the unpaid overtime. They say their protest is also against the “indolence and incompetence” of the Justice Minister Tudorel Toader, and ask for the resignation of the general director appointed unlawfully. If their demans are left unanswered, protests will be taken to the next stage, by blocking the penitentiaries’ activity, trade unionists have warned.

  • August 30, 2018

    August 30, 2018

    Swine fever — Romania is in the grips of African swine fever with cases confirmed so far in 165 localities from 10 counties from the southeast and northwest of the country. In order to control the epidemics, experts recommended the setting up of road blocks, to identify attempts at taking out from the swine fever hotbeds sick animals and products made from their meat. In another move, the Romanian authorities opened criminal files against those who illegally introduced in Romania products from meat infected with the African swine fever virus, said the state secretary with the Interior Ministry, Raed Arafat. Geronimo Branescu, the president of the National Sanitary Veterinarian Authority, explained that the virus spread in Romania by means of infected pork products brought into the country.



    Air missions — 135 military with the Royal Canadian Air Forces and 5 Hornet fighter aircraft will participate in the coming 4 months at the Mihail Kogalniceanu air base in Constanta county (southeastern Romania) in air policing missions together with MIG 21 LancerR planes of the Romanian army. The Canadian detachment will replace the British one, which has so far conducted air policing missions together with the Romanian pilots. According to the Romanian Defense Ministry representatives, a ceremony was held at the Mihail Kogalniceanu base on the occasion of the detachment replacement. In the past 4 years, the Canadian pilots have undertaken another 3 missions in Romania, one at the Campia Turzii air base in central Romanian and the last 2 in Mihail Kogalniceanu.



    Football – Romania’s football champions CFR Cluj (from northwestern Romania) and the vice-champions FCSB, formerly known as Steaua Bucharest, are today playing on home ground the return matches of the Europa League playoff. CFR Cluj will take on the team from Luxemburg Dudelange after a surprising defeat in the first round, 0-2. FCSB will play against Rapid Vienna. In the first match the Austrians won 3-1. If none of the two Romanian teams manages to qualify, Romania will have no representative in the continental football competitions.



    Penitentiaries — The Romanian justice ministry will submit for debates a project for the procurement of feasibility studies for the construction of new detention locations within the system of the National Penitentiary Administration. Latest data show that the penitentiary administration system is holding in custody more than 22 thousand detainees, which points to a deficit of almost 4 thousand places. The project shows that by 2024 thousands of detention spaces will be built so as to comply with the standards required by the Council of Europe. According to the line ministry, in 2017 the European Court of Human Rights resolved though decisions and resolutions a total number of almost 400 applications, through which damages worth more than 2.2 million Euros were granted to detainees held in the Romanian penitentiary system for the improper detention conditions.



    Film — The 75th edition of the Venice International Film Festival kicked off with the screening of the film “First Man” which is the favorite for the Golden Lion trophy. The film tells the story of astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the Moon, which is impersonated by actor Ryan Gosling. The feature film “Sunset” by Hungarian filmmaker Laszlo Nemes featuring two Romanian actors Vlad Ivanov and Levente Molnar and the Romanian co-production “The Sisters Brothers” by Jacque Audiard are among the 21 films selected for this edition of the Venice festival. The films will be juried by a panel presided by Guillermo Del Toro, who last year won the Golden Lion for the film “The Shape of Water”. (translation by Lacramioara Simion)

  • July 30, 2018

    July 30, 2018

    WEATHER – The weather is unstable in Romania, particularly in the centre, east and north. The authorities have issued a code yellow alert against rainfalls, thunderstorms and gusty wind valid for those regions until Monday evening. Rain water might exceed 20 l/square meter and even 50-60 l/square meter in places. The highs of the day range from 24 to 33 degrees Celsius. Hydrologists have issued code yellow and orange alerts along several rivers in the country, valid until Wednesday, at midnight. At least two people lost their lives because of heavy rains and flooding over the past few days, many households have been submerged and traffic has been disrupted on several national and county roads. The noon reading in Bucharest was 27 degrees.



    BREEZE 18 – Three ships belonging to the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group are currently docked at the Constanta Military Port on the Black Sea Coast, until Tuesday. The participating ships include ROS Lt. Lupu Dinescu, TCG Anamur, and FGS Rhein. The ships have made stops in the ports of Burgas, Bulgaria and Odessa in Ukraine. They participated in the multinational exercise BREEZE 18, in Bulgarias territorial waters and in the Black Sea international waters, and took part in joint exercises at sea, with Ukrainian ships. Exercise BREEZE provided training to the participants in various fields of maritime warfare and enhanced interoperability among NATO Navies. On Sunday, the ships were open to visitors.



    GREECE – 91 people died in the wildfire that devastated the eastern coast of Attica in Greece, the latest provisional death toll made public by the Greek authorities shows. Several children are among the victims, as well as four foreign nationals-two Poles, an Irish and a Belgian citizen. An investigation carried out by the Greek fire-fighters shows a local would be at fault for starting the first fire and the Greek authorities know who he is. PM Alexis Tzipras has said he assumes full political responsibility for the tragedy, whereas the Opposition has accused the Government of being incapable of protecting the citizens lives. We recall the two Romanian military aircraft, one used for extinguishing fire and the other one providing logistical support, which were sent to Greece by the Bucharest authorities shortly after the wildfire broke out, completed their mission on Saturday and returned to Romania.



    SUMMER SCHOOL – The Bucharest University is organising until August 6, the 58th edition of the Romanian language, culture and civilisation Summer School, which enjoys the participation of 28 foreign students from Europe and the US. This years edition is dedicated to the celebrations occasioned by the Centennial of the Great Union of 1918 Centennial and to the commemoration of the Romanian poet Nichita Stănescu. The young people have the opportunity to attend Romanian language courses, workshops and conferences on Romanian culture and civilisation, cultural events and to visit museums. A novelty this year is the introduction of two workshops “’Mass-Media and Advertising and “Comics for beginners.



    PENITENTIARIES – Trade unions in the Romanian penitentiaries have today made public the timetable of protests against what they call “the indolence and incompetence of the justice minister Tudorel Toader and against the Governments lack of involvement in solving the problems they are facing. They call for the resignation of the minister, better working conditions, the elimination of payment disparities and drafting the status of policemen working in penitentiaries. Trade unionists also warn they will go on a token strike on August 10 and will take part in a rally and protest march on October 3.



    HAMANGIA CULTURE – Bulgaria and Romania will join efforts to create a tourist product meant to promote the Hamangia prehistoric culture which existed on both sides of the border between the two countries. Tourist landmarks of the archaeological reserve in Durankulak will be developed during the project called ”Hamangia: the first civilization of old Europe”, run by the cities of Shabla in Bulgaria and Cernavodă in Romania, according to the administration in Shabla. The project will benefit from 1.5 million Euro funding, under the European program Interreg V-A Romania-Bulgaria 2014-2020.



    ANTHEM – The national anthem, consecrated by the Romanian Constitution as a national symbol alongside the national flag, the countrys coat of arms and seal, is one of iconic elements which define the Romanians national identity and is a unique musical and symbolical synthesis of the Romanian spirit, according to a communiqué issued by the Romanian Foreign Ministry. This year, too, the Romanian diplomatic missions, consular offices and Romanian cultural institutes abroad have organised a series of events of public and cultural diplomacy to mark the Anthem Day. Celebrated on July 29, the National Anthem Day was proclaimed in 1998. The current anthem, considered to be a national symbol is “Awaken Thee, Romanian! and it was chosen after the fall of the communist regime, in December 1989. It is based on the patriotic poem by Andrei Mureşanu, published in 1848, and a tune collected by Anton Pann.



    TENNIS – Romanian tennis player Simona Halep continues to be no.1 WTA, according to the world ranking made public today. She is followed by Denmarks Caroline Wozniacki and the American Sloane Stephens. Halep is no.1 for the 39th week, thus equalling the performance of French Amelie Mauresmo. Other best ranking tennis players are Mihaela Buzărnescu (24), Sorana Cârstea (54), Irina Begu (56), Monica Niculescu (60) and Ana Bogdan (87).