Radio România Internațional

Tag: SMUGGLING

  • June 23, 2024

    June 23, 2024

     

    PENTECOST Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Christians in Romania celebrate today the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles of Jesus, a feast day also known as the Pentecost and in Romanian as “Rusalii”. The Pentecost is a symbol of the establishment of the Christian Church, 50 days after the Resurrection of Christ and 10 days after Ascension Day. Believers evoke the moment when the Holy Spirit gave the 12 Apostles the gift of speaking many languages to preach to the crowds, and when the first 3,000 people were baptised, thus establishing the first Christian community.

     

    DIPLOMACY Romania has made progress towards inclusion in the US “Visa Waiver” programme, the Romanian foreign minister Luminiţa Odobescu told Radio Romania, at the end of a visit to Washington. According to her, “there has been substantial progress in the legislative area, with the relevant legislation already adopted by the Romanian side. There has also been progress in terms of visa renewal, so as to get the visa refusal rate below 3%. I am taking this opportunity to further request support for visa renewal, because we need as many approved visas as possible, a lot is still to be done and we hope we will be able to reach this goal as soon as possible.” In Washington, the Romanian diplomacy chief had a number of meetings with senior US officials, including the secretary of state Antony Blinken.

     

    MIGRANTS Eleven migrants from Bangladesh, Syria, Ethiopia and Egypt have been caught trying to cross the Romanian border into Hungary illegally. They were hiding in metal rolls carried on a lorry driven by a Turkish national. The illegal migrants, aged 15 to 40, were trying to get into the Schengen area. They are now probed into for attempted illegal border crossing, while the driver may be charged with migrant smuggling.

     

    FITS The 31st Sibiu International Theatre Festival (FITS), offers the public on its 3rd day a wealth of theatre performances, music, circus and exhibitions. Today’s highlights include an organ concert by Stefan Donner, a circus performance titled “YouGur”, and the play “Scandal behind the scenes”. According to the organisers, the 10-day festival comprises 830 events: theatre performances, music, dance, circus, exhibitions and public reading sessions will bring together over 5,000 artists from 82 countries.

     

    EU Next week the European Union starts its accession negotiations with the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. The EU Council’s Belgian presidency announced the official opening will take place on June 25, and that the 2 countries’ accession roadmaps will be assessed separately. The EU Council brings together the 27 Member States, which have already approved the accession and negotiation frameworks for the 2 candidate states. Chişinău and Kyiv submitted their candidacies shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

     

    FOOTBALL Romania lost 2-0 to Belgium, on Saturday night in Cologne, but remains top placed in the most evenly balanced group at the European Football Championship. Romania, Belgium, Slovakia and Ukraine all have 3 points each ahead of the last round in Group E, with better goal differences for Romania and Belgium. Romania’s decisive match for qualification in the eighth-finals is scheduled on Wednesday against Slovakia, in Frankfurt. Moving up into the next stages of the competition are the top 2 teams in each group and the best 4 third-ranking teams in each group. (AMP)

  • May 31, 2019

    May 31, 2019

    POPE FRANCIS Pope Francis is on a 3-day state and apostolic visit to Romania, starting today. The visit, whose motto is “Lets Walk Together, takes place 20 years after John Paul II was the first Pope to come to this mostly Orthodox country. The programme in Bucharest today includes meetings with political officials and civil society members, and with the leaders of the Romanian Orthodox Church. A liturgy will be performed at the St. Joseph Catholic Cathedral. As many as 50,000 believers will be present, in and around the cathedral, and 15 screens will be mounted in Bucharest streets for people to be able to watch the ceremony, performed by the Pope in Latin. On Saturday, Pope Francis will be in Şumuleu Ciuc, in a part of Transylvania mostly inhabited by Hungarian Roman Catholics, and in Iasi, in the north-east, a city that is home to a sizeable Romanian Catholic community. On Sunday, His Holiness will travel to Blaj, in central Transylvania, the spiritual capital of Romanian Greek Catholics, where he will beatify 7 Greek Catholic bishops who died for their faith during the communist regime. The Romanian Greek Catholic Church was outlawed and deprived of its assets shortly after the communists seized power, and many clerics and believers were imprisoned. Also in Blaj, the Pope will have a meeting with members of the local Roma community. The visit entailed high-level security measures in the capital city Bucharest, where road traffic restrictions have been introduced and all schools have suspended todays classes.




    FILM Cluj-Napoca in north-western Romania is hosting, starting today until June 8, the 18th edition of the Transylvania International Film Festival. Running in the TIFF official competition are 12 productions, but more than 200 films will be screened as part of the Festival. This years edition celebrates 3 major film industries: the French, Chinese and Albanian. Romanian filmmakers are also well represented, with over 40 productions. Actor Nicolas Cage will receive an award for his contribution to the development of world cinema.




    EU European Union member states spent in 2016 more than 350 billion euros (2.4% of the Unions GDP) on families and children, accounting for 9% of the total social protection spending, according to data made public on Friday by the European Statistics Office (Eurostat). The lowest annual expenditure for family and child protection, below 200 euro/capita, was reported in Romania and Bulgaria (120 euro each), Lithuania (150 euro) and Greece (170 euro), and the highest in Luxemburg (3,000 euro/capita), Denmark (1,700 euro), Sweden (1,400 euro), Germany and Finland (1,200 euro). The Eurostat data were made public ahead of the International Childrens Day, celebrated around the world on June 1.




    ARRESTS Four Romanian and 2 Bulgarian citizens are being investigated for migrant smuggling and for forming an organised crime group, after being apprehended by the Calafat Border Police in south-western Romania trying to cross the Danube on a boat with 7 Iranian citizens attempting to enter Romania illegally. The Border Police Inspectorate General announced on Friday that the 4 Romanians said they were helping the group travel to the west of the country, from where they could get into a Schengen country. The police also said that under a Romanian-Bulgarian protocol, the 7 Iranian citizens were handed over to the Bulgarian border authorities.




    TENNIS The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, the defending Roland Garros champion and seed no. 3, qualified on Thursday into the tournaments 3rd round, after defeating Magda Linette of Poland in 3 sets. In the next stage, Halep will play against the winner of the match between Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia and Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine. The game was suspended on Thursday for light. Irina Begu is the other Romanian player qualified in the Roland Garros singles 3rd round. She will take on Amanda Anisimova (USA).



    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • 10 August, 2016

    10 August, 2016

    CONDOLENCES — Romanian and foreign officials offered condolences at Peles Castle in Sinaia for the demise of Queen Anne of Romania, consort to the last king of Romania, Michael I. She is laying in state in the grand hall of the royal mansion, attended by members of the Royal House. In the evening the coffin will be taken to the throne room of the Royal Palace in Bucharest, where a prayer ceremony will be held. Queen Annes funeral is scheduled for Saturday. It will be held in Curtea de Arges, place of rest for Romanian royalty. King Michael is unable to attend the funerals due to failing health. Queen Anne passed away on August 1 in Switzerland.



    BUDGET — The government in Bucharest are discussing the draft executive order to adjust the current budget, in addition to the one on adjusting the social insurance budget for 2016. The project aims at increasing revenue and spending by 2.92 billion lei, about 655 million Euro. The highest amounts go to the ministries of labor, interior, health, and education, while the highest budget slashes are aimed at transportaion. This adjustment, the highest this year, was initiated by the Ministry of Public Finance, which justified it by the fact that the GDP for 2016 is growing, from 746.6 billion lei, around 167 billion Euro, to 757 billion lei, about 170 billion Euro.



    OLYMPICS — Today is yet another competition day for Romanian athletes at the Summer Olympics, underway in Rio de Janeiro. Romania’s women’s national handball team takes on Montenegro, and is in dire need of a win if they want to retain their place in the tournament, having sustained defeats in the two previous fixtures against Angola and Brazil, respectively. In rowing, the women’s coxed eight crew competes in the second qualifying round. Also in the women’s competitions, Romania’s double scull and light double oars crews are still in contention for a medal. In women’s fencing, competing for Romania are athletes in the individual foil event, while in the men’s version of the same competition trying to prove their mettle are fencers in the individual epee event. In swimming, competing for Romania are athletes in women’s 100m freestyle event, while in men’s weightlifting Romanian athletes will make an attempt to lift 69 and 77 kilograms, respectively. In the mixed doubles event in tennis, Florin Mergea and Monica Niculescu face the all-Spanish pair made up of David Ferrer and Carla Suarez Navarro. In the men’s doubles, Flori Mergea and Horia Tecau, as an absolute first, got through to the semifinals, where they take on the all-American pair made of Jack Sock and Steve Johnson. Mergea and Tecau rank as favorites and are highly likely to win the first medal for the Romanian delegation in Rio.



    ORGANIZED CRIME — Organized crime prosecutors went on a raid today in northern Romania as a result of a report broadcast by Sky News, in a weapon smuggling case. British journalists alleged that, after two months of negotiations, they were pointed to an isolated area of Romania where they met weapon smugglers. The weapons were brought in from Ukraine, going to Western Europe and the Middle East. The prosecutors found that some of the weapons were legally held with hunting permits. The go-between in the journalistic investigation is said to be a Romanian freelancer who has been living in Britain for the last seven years, and is currently being investigated. Judicial sources indicate that the investigators believe that the report was staged by Sky News, whose reporters wrote lines for the Romanians that were interviewed, asking them to wear military style clothes. Previously, the Romanian Embassy in London pointed to flaws in the report, which projects a negative image of Romania.



    INVESTITURE — The new Romanian minister for communications, Delia Popescu, who is 38 years old, will be sworn in today by President Klaus Iohannis. PM Dacian Ciolos made the appointment, which was endorsed by the head of state. Delia Popescu has been working since 2003 in development and IT systems for public services and businesses. Since 2014, she has been heading the Romanian Agency for the Digital Agenda, coordinated by the Prime Ministers office. The former Minister of Communications was removed in early July.



    INAUGURATION — US Ambassador Hans Klemm inaugurated today the seventh American Shelf at Panait Istrati County Library Braila. The Ambassador presented the gift to Library Director Dragos Neagu. The book collection includes 136 titles offering access to reference books, classic and contemporary US literature, English language teaching methodology and English language learning, as well as childrens books. This gift continues the initiative that resulted in similar shelves in Botosani, Galati, Brasov, Sibiu, Drobeta Turnu-Severin and Arad, strengthening the strategic partnership betwee the United States and Romania.