August 21, 2018

New hotbeds of African swine fever in Romania, Measles epidemic in Moldova

Newsroom, 21.08.2018, 13:20

Swine fever — The Romanian sanitary-veterinarian authorities have confirmed new hotbeds of African swine fever. The situation is worrying especially in the farms where bio-security measures have already been taken. In all private households where people are breeding domestic pigs the experts are trying to limit the spreading of the virus by setting up disinfection filters. Despite the proliferation of the disease among pigs, food safety for the population is not endangered.

Transgaz — Transgaz will invest 360 million Euros in the construction of a pipeline meant to transport gas extracted from the Black Sea and channel it into the export pipelines, shows the report for the first semester of the year published by the Romanian company administrators. The major target of this investment is to build a conveyance pipeline measuring 308 km in length meant to transport the natural gas resources to the Black Sea shore and the corridor linking Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria. According to Transgaz officials natural gas will thus be conveyed to Bulgaria and Hungary through the existing interconnecting pipelines between Giurgiu and Ruse and between Nadlac and Szeged.

Prague Spring — Czechs and Slovaks are today commemorating 50 years since the repression of the Prague Spring reform movement. On August 21, 1968 the former Czechoslovakia was invaded by the tanks and troops of the Warsaw Pact Socialist countries. The Warsaw Pact was a military alliance of the Eastern bloc countries against NATO. The invasion was meant to halt the reforms started in the spring of 1968 by the then new leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Alexander Dubček. After the economic crisis which Czechoslovakia had faced, Dubček launched a program of reforms that included, among others, greater freedom of the press, the possibility of multi-party governing, the setting up of trade unions and freedom to travel to the West. Fearing an expansion of the reforms across the entire Communist bloc, the Soviet Union decided to take military action against the political experiment in Czechoslovakia. Romania refused to send troops to Prague. Scores of people were killed following the invasion of Czechoslovakia. On Monday as many as 300 people gathered in front of the Russian Embassy in Prague. “We will never forget” and “Stop the Russian imperialism” were two of the slogans written on the banners carried by the people who were summoned by several NGOs. The people also carried flags of the Czech Republic, Ukraine, EU and NATO.

Tennis –The Romanian Simona Halep, world’s no. 1 tennis player, will not participate in the WTA tournament of New Haven, Connecticut, the US, because of an Achilles tendon injury of her right foot, the organizers of the competition announced. She was the top seed of the tournament and was to play directly in the eighths finals of the tournament that precedes the last Grand Slam tournament of the year, the US Open, to start on Monday in New York. Simona Halep had two intense weeks in North America, where she won the tournament in Montreal and played in the Cincinnati final on Sunday, which she lost to Dutch Kiki Bertens.

Chisinau — An orange code alert for measles has been issued in Romania’s neighboring country, Moldova, after several children have lately come down with measles. The authorities speak of a rapidly spreading hotbed, thus the pupils who have not been vaccinated yet should be immunized against childhood diseases by September 1 when a new school year begins. So far, almost 100 cases of measles have been confirmed mainly in the south of Moldova, but the number is set to increase. Measles cases have reached a record level in Europe. In the first half of the year, 41,000 cases were registered in both children and adults, almost double the number reported last year, the World Health Organization announced. In Romania, in almost two years since the outbreak of the measles epidemic, the total number of measles cases reached 15,000. 59 people have died of measles. (news translated by Lacramioara Simion)