April 30, 2014
A roundup of Romanian and international news
România Internațional, 30.04.2014, 12:00
Romania unhesitatingly backs the Western countries’ sanctions on Russia against the backdrop of the Ukrainian crisis. Romanian Foreign Minister, Titus Corlatean made the statement at the meeting he had with US Secretary of State, John Kerry in Washington. On that occasion, Corlatean reiterated Romania’s wish for NATO to have a substantial military built-up in Eastern Europe, in countries like Romania and Poland. His talk with the US high official took place on the sidelines of an Atlantic Council conference on Europe.
Canada has sent six CF-18 fighter jets to Romania, as part of its contribution to NATO’s efforts to reassure its allies in central and Eastern Europe, the North-Atlantic Alliance has announced on its website. The six jets will join the US and Romanian air forces to participate in joint training missions. Moreover, on May Day fighter jets from Poland, Great Britain and Denmark will officially take over NATO’s air policing duties over the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. On Monday, four Rafale French aircraft were deployed to Poland to take part in air policing missions and training flights, NATO reports. Recently, the Alliance has announced that it will have more aircraft, more ships and will strengthen the training of its land forces.
A judge and a clerk of the Court of Appeal in Bucharest have been taken in a 30-day preventive custody for corruption. Along with four other persons, they are suspected of bribe taking and influence peddling. According to the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, judge Stan Mustata has repeatedly asked various convicts or accused persons for money in order to cancel their conviction. The judge denies the prosecutors’ charges saying that the investigators’ evidence is not conclusive. Stan Mustata was part of the panel of judges in the case regarding the privatization of the Food Research Institute, in which businessman Dan Voiculescu, founder of the Conservative Party, is accused of money laundering and of the panel of judges looking into the appeal made by the former manager of the Steaua Bucharest Club, Mihai Stoica against his conviction in the file of football transfers.
In Kiev, Interim Ukrainian president Olexandr Turcinov said today at a meeting with the heads of the state regional administrations that the Ukrainian security forces were unable to efficiently control the situation in the Eastern regions, RIA NOVOSTI reports. He went on to say that the situation in the East of the country continued to be particularly tense, especially in Slavyansk, the Donetk region. Earlier, he had denounced the lack of actions and sometimes “betrayal” of the security forces in Eastern Ukraine. Since March, big cities in South-Eastern Ukraine, like Donetk, Kharkov and Lugansk have seen an unprecedented mobilization of the supporters of the country’s federalization, challenging the new pro-European authorities in Kiev and demanding the holding of referendums on the future political status of those regions. In another development, US secretary of state, John Kerry has promised that “NATO will defend every centimeter” of its member states’ territories.
Iraki people are today called to the polls amid heavy security in the first parliamentary elections held since the pull out of American troops three years ago. More than 20 million people are expected to vote in around 50,000 polling stations. Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, running for a third term in office, is likely to win most of the seats, a tough task though given the harsh criticism he has been under and the fury of the Irakis fed up with endemic unemployment, corruption, the lack of public services and the mounting violence, press agencies report. The elections are held against the backdrop of the escalating revolt in Western Irak. The country has been confronted with the most serious incidents since 2008; 160 people were killed last week alone.
The Romanian men’s table tennis team have today defeated the Hungarian team 3-1 in a match in Group C of the World Championships in Tokyo. In the first two matches, Romania was defeated by France and Japan. The Romanian women’s table tennis team are up against the Austrian team and then against the Polish team; on Tuesday, Romania was defeated by China, currently world champion in the third match in Group A of the Championships. In the previous matches, Romania defeated Slovakia and lost to North Korea. At the previous World Championships in 2012, Romania ranked 8th.
