December 2, 2016
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 02.12.2016, 12:00
CYBER CRIME The Romanian police have joined authorities from 29 other countries to dismantle the world’s largest computer network responsible for launching cyber attacks the world over, the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police has announced. Code-named Avalanche, the operation was launched last week at the end of investigations that lasted five years. Five people have been detained, 37 buildings searched and 39 servers seized. According to Romanian Police sources, over 500 thousand computers were being affected on a daily basis from this infrastructure, which became operational in 2009. The perpetrators used viruses to hack into computers and withdraw money from the victims’ accounts. Avalanche was the largest police operation of this kind with 800 thousand web domains blocked or closed down in order to be taken out of the hackers’ control. Among the countries involved in the Avalanche operation were Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, Britain and the United States.
HANDBALL Romania’s national handball side leaves for Sweden on Saturday to participate in the European Championship due over December 4th and 18th. In the final tournament’s group D Romania will be playing Norway on December 5th, take on Russia two days later and on Croatia on December 9th. The first three sides in each group will qualify for the second stage, which has two series of six groups each. Romania’s team is being lead by Spanish coach Ambros Martin, who last week replaced Swedish Thomas Ryde, under whose guidance our handballers won bronze at the World Championship in Denmark in 2015. In 2013 and 2014, Ambros Martin was designated the world’s best coach after having won two Champions League’s trophies with Hungarian side Gyor.
UN The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon has expressed appreciation for the significant progress Romania has made in terms of implementing democratic values as well as for Bucharest’s contribution to the efforts of promoting peace, sustainable development and human rights the world over. The UN official has highlighted the activity of Romania’s public servants, including officers in charge of the UN high officials’ protection. Ban Ki-moon and the president of the UN general assembly, Peter Thomson, on Thursday attended the reception offered by Bucharest’s permanent mission at the United Nations on the occasion of Romania’s National Day. In turn Peter Thomson has said he appreciates Romania’s activism and the wide range of commitments assumed at all levels in over 60 years of UN membership.
EUROPOL In a report published in the Hague, the European police, EUROPOL, have warned that the Islamic State has been planning new attacks in Europe in the near future. There is the risk for the refugees from Syria to be recruited and radicalized, while IS fighters can get infiltrated among the refugees, the report says. Experts believe that car bomb attacks can be carried out in France, but also in Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain and Germany. The US Department of State also last week announced there is credible information about the Al Qaeda and the Islamic State and their branches, which are planning terror attacks in Europe around the winter holidays. Jihadists have this year carried out bloody attacks in Belgium, France, Germany and Turkey.
DIPLOMACY Romanian diplomats have announced their surprise and amazement over a decision by the Foreign Ministry in neighboring Hungary to forbid the Hungarian diplomats to participate in receptions and festivities staged on Thursday on the occasion of Romania’s National Day. The Ministry said, upon request from Radio Romania, that such a decision is hard to understand all the more so as the respect for a country’s national symbols and values are an undisputable part of the set of values the European Union and the Transatlantic community are based upon. The Foreign Ministry adds that Romania has been a country deeply attached to such values. We recall that Romania celebrates its National Day on December 1st, to mark the union in 1918 of the province of Transylvania with the Romanian kingdom. The union completed the process of forming the Romanian unitary state after the First World War, when all the Romanian provinces belonging to various multinational empires, united.
