August 13, 2014 UPDATE
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Roxana Vasile, 13.08.2014, 20:06
Pope Francis on Wednesday renewed his appeal to the international community to stop the humanitarian disaster underway in Iraq. In a letter to the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, the Pontiff has asked the UN official to do his best to put an end to violence against the Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities in northern Iraq, forced to flee homes and witness the destruction of their religious heritage by the Islamic fighters. In another development, the European Union decided to summon its foreign ministers on Friday, August 15th to discuss the possibility of setting up an air bridge to supply the refugees with humanitarian aid and provide weapons and ammunition to the Kurdish fighters fighting the Islamists. The USA is also considering options for evacuating the population who fled the Jihadists and took refuge in the mountainous region in northern Iraq and are now braving temperatures of 40-45 degrees Celsius, suffering from thirst and huger.
The estimated number of people killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine between April 15th and August 10th is around 2,100, the UN High Commissioner for human rights announced on Wednesday. According to the same report, nearly 5,000 people have been wounded. In another development Moscow continues its ‘trade war’. The Russian agency for the protection of consumers has banned the consumption of alcoholic drinks imported from Ukraine, which is already facing an embargo of diary products, chocolate and onion. In 2013 Russia’s imports of alcoholic drinks coming from Ukraine stood at 67 million euros. The decision comes almost a week after the massive ban on food imports from countries that have imposed sanctions on Moscow, which the West and Kiev are accusing of supporting the rebels in eastern Ukraine.
An Italian journalist working for the Associated Press, and at least five Palestinians were killed in Gaza in an explosion that occurred during an operation of dismantling an Israeli rocket. The blast took place during the 72 hour armistice observed by both the radical movement Hamas and Israel. Talks went on in Cairo for finding a long-term solution to the conflict in Gaza. Hamas wants the blockade imposed in Gaza in June 2006 to be lifted whereas Israel has conditioned the decision on the demilitarization of the region. Since its beginning on July 8th, the conflict between Israel and Hamas has caused the death of roughly two thousand Palestinians, mostly civilians, and of 67 Israeli soliders.
Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta has visited the Ocean Endeavour offshore drilling rig in the Black Sea, where the companies Exxon Mobil and OMV Petrom are doing exploration drilling for gas deposits. The operations are taking place about 200 km in deep sea at a depth of some 800 m. The Prime Minister hopes that the predictions concerning the reserves found so far might make Romania energy self-reliant. If the gas deposit in the Black Sea turns out to be big enough to be exploited, gas could be sold by the end of the decade.
Direct foreign investment in Romania went down by 10% in the first half of the year as compared to the same period of last year, the National Bank of Romania has announced today. According to the Central Bank, in the first six months of the year, investment amounted to about 1.2 billion Euros. Last year, direct foreign investment had gone up by about 27% as compared to 2012.
