August 2, 2017 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 02.08.2017, 20:08
FOOTBALL The Football Federation in Turkey has reached an agreement with Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu to train the country’s national eleven. Lucescu, 72, will be replacing Fatih Terim who resigned last week. We recall that in early 2000, Lucescu coached Turkish side Galatasary, which subsequently won Europe’s Supercup. Lucescu next moved to their rivals Besiktas. In 2004 the Romanian coach started training Shaktaar Donetsk, which dominated the domestic football competition in Ukraine and became one of Europe’s major football clubs. Lucescu was under no contract after leaving Russian side Zenit Sankt Petersburg.
UNDESIRABLE The Court of Appeal in Bucharest has declared a Tunisian man living in Romania undesirable for 10 years for his involvement in terrorism-related activities. According to the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), the man arrived in Romania in 2008 and subsequently went through stepped up Islamic radicalization. At the same time the man got involved in on-line propaganda activities for the Islamic State and was on a list of people providing funding for ISIS. The man was taken into custody by the General Immigration Inspectorate and will be expelled from Romania.
SWINE FEVER Romania keeps its statute of a country free of swine flu, a statute it obtained in May this year, the head of the National Sanitary-Veterinary and Food-Safety Authority Geronimo Branescu said. According to him, the swine flu and the African swine fever recently confirmed in northwestern Romania are completely different diseases. The African swine fever is a deadly disease for pigs, which cannot be transmitted to humans. However, because the African swine fever could bring the Romanian pig breeders on the verge of bankruptcy, they have called on the authorities to urgently approve the necessary measures to contain the epidemic. The African swine fever has so far affected Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and the Czech Republic.
NON GRATA Russia’s deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozyn on Wednesday was declared persona non grata by the Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet Romanian-speaking country. The decision was made by the government in Chisinau upon a proposal from Foreign Minister Andrei Galbur, after the Russian official had voiced his readiness to visit the Republic in September. We recall that last week his plane was denied permission to fly over Romania to land in the Republic of Moldova. The Russian official reacted angrily threatening the authorities in Bucharest. The deputy prime minister is one of the most senior Russian officials slapped with an EU visa ban in 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
