October 17, 2025
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 17.10.2025, 13:55
Blast – Three people have lost their lives in the extremely powerful explosion that occurred, on Friday morning, at a residential building in Bucharest. 13 victims, among who two in a serious condition, were rushed to the hospital. Two floors of the eight-story building were affected. The head of the Department for Emergency Situations (DSU), Raed Arafat, declared that “the building was at risk of collapse” and was completely evacuated. He specified that the area would remain secure. A nearby high school was evacuated. A RO-ALERT message was also issued warning the population to avoid the area if they do not absolutely need to go there.
Corruption – The Commander of the Central Military Hospital in Bucharest, Major General Florentina Ioniţă-Radu, and 18 other military are being prosecuted by anti-corruption prosecutors in a case related to irregularities in the payment of salary rights to several employees of the medical unit involved in a project financed from non-reimbursable European funds. The head of the hospital has been subject to legal restrictions pending trial since Thursday. She is being investigated for committing the crimes of usurpation of office if the public servant has obtained for himself or another an undue benefit in a continuous form, abuse of office with particularly serious consequences, in a continuous form, and accessory to abuse of office. The defendant allegedly ordered the illegal hiring of experts in various positions related to a project financed from European funds, outside the organizational chart of the medical unit. Through these steps, she would have caused total damage to the EU budget, the state budget and the budget of the military medical unit of over 8 million lei, the equivalent of 1.6 million Euros.
Tennis – The Romanian tennis player Sorana Cîrstea (51 WTA) qualified for the semifinals of the WTA 250 tournament in Osaka (Japan), which has total prizes up for grabs worth 275,094 dollars, after defeating the Swiss Viktorija Golubic (60 WTA) score 6-2, 2-6, 6-2. In the last but one match, Sorana Cîrstea will face the Canadian Leylah Fernandez, the fourth seed. The Romanian tennis player Jaqueline Cristian also qualified for the semifinals without playing, after the Japanese Naomi Osaka, the main favorite, was forced to forfeit before the scheduled match, on Friday, in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Jaqueline Cristian (47 WTA) will face the Czech Tereza Valentova, who defeated the 6th seeded Serbian player Olga Danilovic.
Inflation – The annual inflation rate in the European Union increased to 2.6% in September, from 2.4% in August, and Romania remains the country with the highest level of inflation, with an annual price increase of 8.6%, show data published on Friday by the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat). Last month, the EU member states with the highest inflation rates were Romania (8.6%), Estonia (5.3%), Slovakia and Croatia (both 4.6%). In the case of Romania, according to data previously published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS), the annual inflation rate rose to 9.88% in September, from 9.85% in August.
Reform – The Development Minister Cseke Attila said it was essential for the Romanian government and the governing coalition to quickly make a decision on the reform of local administration. He also warned that prolonging the discussions affects the political process and efficiency at the local level. Cseke Attila said that the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), the party he belongs to, advocates a differentiated approach from one locality to another, because it is not fair to force even the city halls that have proven efficient to make spending cuts. (LS)
