September 25, 2016
Penitentiary workers in Romania to stage protests as of Monday; RadiRo festival continues in Bucharest
Newsroom, 25.09.2016, 00:00
MIGRATION – Romania is the second-largest contributor, after Germany, to FRONTEX missions, the Interior Minister Ioan-Dragoş Tudorache said at an international summit on “Migration along the Balkan Route held on Saturday in Vienna. In 2016, 365 Romanian border police took part in such missions. Until the end of the year, 14 border police troops will be part of a joint mission to support the Bulgarian authorities, in which EU countries have increased the resources deployed on Bulgarias land borders with Turkey and Serbia. On the sidelines of the meeting in Vienna, Minister Ioan-Dragoş Tudorache discussed with his Serbian counterpart Nebojsa Stefanovic aspects related to the cooperation on the common border with respect to migrant groups and to the need to implement the EU – Serbia readmission agreement. Bucharest reiterated its interest in organising joint Romanian-Serb border patrols as soon as possible. Attending the meeting in Vienna were EU member states and Western Balkan countries affected by the migration crisis over the past year, namely Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and Hungary. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel pleaded for stepping up efforts to curb illegal migration.
PROTESTS – In Romania, penitentiary workers around the country will initiate protests on Monday, the head of a relevant trade union has announced. The demands include the improvement of working conditions, the employment of an adequate number of staff, addressing salary imbalances and the resignation of the Justice Minister, Raluca Pruna, accused of underperformance. The unionists claim the system needs another 8,000 employees.
RADIRO – The agenda of the International Festival of Radio Orchestras, RadiRo, includes on Sunday a concert by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, which performs every year in Oslo during the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony. The orchestra, conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya, accompanies the pianist Vadym Kholodenko. RadiRo will come to an end on Saturday, October 1, and the concerts are broadcast live in the European Broadcasting Union and the Asia-Pacific platform of public and private radio broadcasters as well. Currently in its third edition, RadiRo is the only large-scale European event exclusively devoted to radio orchestras, and it is organised by Radio Romania.
BOSNIA – Bosnian Serbs vote today, in a referendum, on a proposal to keep January 9 as the national holiday, in spite of a ruling by Bosnias Supreme Court. The Court had ruled that the holiday discriminates between Bosnian Muslims and Catholics, which is why it ought to be changed. The BBC mentions that on January 9, 1992 the Serbs decided to create their own state within Bosnia – Republika Srpska – fuelling an ethnic conflict that left nearly 100,000 people dead.
SYRIA – The UN Security Council convenes today to discuss the military campaign of the Syrian government against the rebel-controlled Aleppo. The UK, France and the US called on Russia to persuade their Syrian allies to give up random bombings. The British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, hinted that last weeks deadly attack on a humanitarian convoy might have been a deliberate action of Russian aircraft, the BBC reports. Russias Foreign Minister, Serghei Lavrov, said that resuming a peace deal in Syria cannot be conditional only on unilateral concessions by his country, but requires a collective effort of all parties.
TENNIS – The Romanian tennis player Monica Niculescu (55 WTA), was defeated in three sets by Spains Lara Arruabarrena (90 WTA), in the final of the tournament in Seoul on Sunday. In the semi-finals of the competition, Lara Arruabarrena had beat another Romanian player, Patricia Ţig.
