August 6, 2019 UPDATE
Romanian students won four medals at the International Geography Olympiad / Investigations in the Caracal case continue
Newsroom, 06.08.2019, 19:38
Medals. Romanian students won four medals — one gold, two silver and one bronze – at the 16th edition of the International Geography Olympiad, held between July 30 and August 5 in Hong Kong, China. After a gold medal won in 2018 at the Olympiad in Canada, Andrei Sandu, a 12th grade student with the National College in Iasi, has won another gold medal this year. Bianca Elena Solomon from Iasi and Marian Razvan Popescu from Bucharest won silver medals while Alexandru Gabriel Chivu from Braila won bronze. More than 190 students from 48 countries have taken part in the International Geography Olympiad this year.
Caracal killings. More detailed searches were conducted on Tuesday in the Caracal case, where the investigations into the disappearance of two teenage girls, 15-year-old Alexandra Măceşanu, who went missing in July, and 18-year-old Luiza Melencu, who has been missing since April, led to the arrest of a 66-year-old man, Gheorghe Dincă, who has confessed to killing the two girls and burning their bodies. The ashes collected at his home only showed traces of Alexandra Măceşanus DNA, the teenager who went missing on the 24th of July and who the following day managed to call the emergency hotline, with the authorities reaching her location too late to save her. On Monday, in a forest near Caracal, in southern Romania, investigators found, in a place indicated by Dincă, a bag full of charred bone fragments and ash. Tests will be conducted to establish if they belong to Luiza Melencu. The unacceptable series of mistakes made by the authorities in this case has already led to dismissals and resignations.
Budget. The government in Bucharest this week plans to make its first budget adjustment this year. According to the finance ministry, this is a positive adjustment that will ensure a budget deficit of 2.76%. More money will be allocated to the ministry for regional development, the Romanian Intelligence Service and the justice ministry. The finance ministry will also receive additional funds, large part of which accounting for Romanias contribution to the European Union budget. The education ministry and the ministry of European funds and research will see their budgets slashed. The finance ministry says the budget adjustment bill ensures the necessary funds for pensions and salaries.
Communications. The Romanian minister of communications and information society Alexandru Petrescu is having talks in the US with the leadership of the main federal institutions with responsibilities in the area of technological development and communications, namely the State Department, the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Defence, the Cyber Security Agency, the National Security Council and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, as well as with telecommunications operators and global providers of communications equipment and technology. Petrescus talks focus on the development of the communications sector, the intensification of international communication in the field of information technology and the tightening of cyber security.
Climate. July, which saw very high temperatures in Europe, was the hottest in recorded history, as confirmed by satellite data. The findings come from the Copernicus European programme for climate change, whose experts say this is the most recent sign that the Earth is seeing unprecedented warming. According to Copernicus, the average temperature in July was by 0.56 degrees Celsius higher than the average in the period between 1981 and 2000 and 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the UN experts reference basis for climate. July saw a brief but intense period of extreme heat in Western Europe, where record high temperatures were reported in countries like Germany, Belgium and Holland. Temperatures were also above average in the Nordic areas such as Alaska, Greenland and parts of Siberia, as well as Central Asia and regions in Antarctica. The World Meteorological Organisation estimates that the period from 2015 to 2019 may be the five hottest years on record.
Tennis. World no. 4 Simona Halep of Romania faces Jennifer Brady of the US in her opening match of the WTA tournament in Toronto, in Canada, worth 2.83 million dollars. Brady, who is no. 76 in the world, on Monday defeated Frances Kristina Mladenovic, world no. 50. Halep, who won the title in Toronto last year, will be facing Brady for the first time on the professional circuit. In the doubles, Halep and the 16-year-old Canadian player Leylah Fernandez are playing against the seventh seeds Nicole Melichar of the US and Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic. Another Romanian player, Raluca Olaru, pairs up with Chinas Zhaoxuan Yang, facing the American-Latvian pair Sofia Kenin and Anastasija Sevastova in the first round.
(Translated by Elena Enache)
