April 10, 2015 UPDATE
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Corina Cristea, 10.04.2015, 12:15
On Good Friday, Orthodox and Greek-Catholics from all over the world, including from Romania (a country with an Orthodox majority) recollected the Passions of Lord Jesus Christ. In the Jiu Valley, southern Romania, close to 2,000 people attended a religious procession called the Stages of the Cross. Over a distance of 10 kilometers pilgrims carried a cross of 120 kilograms and two meters in length up to a hermitage situated at an altitude of 1,400 meters. In the county of Arad in Western Romania, believers went on a similar procession to the monastery of Hodos-Bodrog, the oldest Orthodox church dating back to the year 1177. On Saturday night, Orthodox believers and Greek-Catholics from all over the world will be celebrating Easter.
Romanian tennis player Irina Begu (ranking 36th in the world standings) will be playing fifth-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany in the quarter finals of the WTA tournament in Charlston, south Carolina, with 731 thousand dollars in prize money. Begu made it to the quarter finals after Russian Ekaterina Makarova, her opponent in the eighths had withdrawn from competition. Kerber had defeated Lara Arrubarrena of Spain in two sets. Another Romanian tennis player Andreea Mitu, seeded 107th, had been eliminated by American player Madison Keys.
The annual inflation rate in March in Romania was 0.79%, up 0.4% from the all time low reached a month ago, according to official data published by the National Institute of Statistics. Compared to the same month last year, prices have gone up in all categories. In the fist quarter of this year, the average monthly rise in prices was 0.4%, similar to the rise last year. At the same time, in the last 12 months (April 2014- March 2015), the average rise in consumer prices was 0.9% as compared to the previous 12 months.
The Romanian Foreign Ministry continues to evacuate and repatriate Romanian citizens from war torn Yemen. So far, 25 Romanian citizens and 3 family members have been repatriated. Three of them reached the country on Thursday. They came in with support from the Romanian embassy in Abu Dhabi. Romanian diplomats collaborate with international organizations involved in the evacuation procedures and with the states who have citizens still in Yemen and who are working towards their evacuation.
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has sent the new law on funding political parties and election campaigns to Parliament for reassessment. Among other things, the Romanian president has pointed to the provision under which political parties can get loans, including cash, from individuals as well as from legal persons other than the credit institutions subjected to close monitoring which are meeting minimum conditions in terms of bad loans risks. The president believes that under this provision the political environment’s reliance on the business sector continues at the same time sidestepping established ceilings either for loans and disguised donations whose reimbursement cannot be requested. Furthermore, Iohannis said, the law the Legislature sent for promulgation is faulty in terms of Parliamentary law-passing procedures, as well as from the aspect of transparency.
