December 15, 2015 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 15.12.2015, 12:15

The death toll of the tragedy
that hit the Colectiv’ nightclub in
Bucharest on October 30, has reached 62. Some 40 people are still undergoing
treatment in hospitals in Bucharest and abroad. The Romanian Health Ministry is
now looking into the possibility of building a new burns hospital in Bucharest.
Also, three burns centers will be built in Iasi (north-east), Targu Mures
(centre) and Timisoara (west) under a program with the World Bank.

Ceremonies and
other events have been held to commemorate
26 years since the flame of the Anti-Communist Revolution of December
1989 sparkled in the Western Romanian city of Timisoara. Started on December 16th,
1989,
by the Timisoara inhabitants’ opposition to an abusive measure taken by the
local authorities, the Revolution spread to the whole country at a fast pace.
It culminated on December the 22nd, when dictator Nicolae Ceausescu
left power and fled Bucharest. 1,000 people died and some 3,400 others got
injured between December 16th
and 25th 1989. Romania was the only country in the former Eastern
Bloc that violently overthrew the communist regime and executed its communist
leaders.

The so-called
‘anti-smoking’ law was adopted on Tuesday by the Romanian Chamber of Deputies,
the decision-making forum in this matter. The law bans smoking in all closed
public spaces, at work, playgrounds, in health-care, education and
child-welfare institutions. Also, the law bans branding on cigarette packs
and provides for the organization of
information and awareness raising campaigns on the cigarettes’ content of tar,
nicotine and carbon monoxide. The bill had been already passed by the Senate
back in 2011.

On Tuesday, the Romanian
State Secretary for European Affairs George Ciamba attended in Brussels the
General Affairs Council meeting, where European officials discussed the topics
on the agenda of the European Council Summit due on December 17-18th,
focusing on migration, the fight against terrorism, the consolidation of the
Economic and Monetary Union, the internal market strategy and the relationship
between the EU and Great Britain. Also, the participants adopted the GAC conclusions with regard to enlargement
and the process of stabilization and negotiation.

Following the terrorist
attacks in Paris on November 13th, security interviews on Romania’s
border checkpoints have increased considerably, the Romanian Intelligence
Service has announced. According to the Service, checks of this type
have tripled in number in the past month, reaching 80. So far, nine thousand
people have been put on the border alert list. The list does not include people
who intended to transit or to stay in Romania, but the measure is
precautionary, depending on the intelligence provided by the external partners,
the Service has also explained.

The Russian
President Vladimir Putin and the US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed in
Moscow on Tuesday means of putting an end to the almost four years of civil war
in Syria. According to international news agencies, the meting was held against
the background of the US’s hoping that Russia would bring to the negotiations
table the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad at the meeting due in New York on
December 18th. Over 250,000 people have died and several millions
have fled the country because of the civil war that has been ravaging Syria
since 2011.

Foreign direct investments in
Romania increased by 270 million Euros in October, exceeding 2.8 billion Euros in the first ten months of the year. The
figure exceeded by almost 1.2 billion Euros the amount registered in the same
period of 2014. According to the National Bank of Romania, share capital contributions, including the estimated reinvested net profit, stood at 2.7
billion Euros.

Some 1.75 million foreign
tourists visited Romania in the first nine months of the year, spending here
approximately one billion Euros. According to the National Institute for
Statistics, most non-resident tourists came to Romania on business, followed by
those who participated in congresses, conferences, fairs and exhibitions or
attended courses and by holiday makers. Approximately half of the tourists who
arrived in Romania in the first nine months of the year had their stays
organized by a travel agency, and over 28% made their travel plans by themselves.
The main means of transportation was the plane.

The
Romanian national women’s handball team on Wednesday will be taking on the host
country’s national squad, in the quarterfinals of the World Handball
Championship, underway in Denmark. In the three other fixtures at this stage of
the competition, France is pitted against the Netherlands, Poland will be
taking on Russia, while Norway will go against Montenegro. With Poland grabbing
a surprising win over Hungary in the eighth finals, Romania will have to earn
at least the 7th position in the final rankings in order to make headway into
next year’s pre-Olympic tournaments in Rio. Romania is the only country to have
participated in all final tournaments of the World Championships, since 1957,
boasting three medals: gold in 1962 and silver in 1973 and 2005, respectively.