December 25, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 25.12.2014, 19:10
Pope Francis Thursday delivered his “Urbi et Orbi” message and blessing to the over 80 thousand pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square. In his Christmas message, he condemned the trafficking, abuse, exploitation and violence that children are victim to, and the “brutal persecution” of minorities, the killings and hostage taking around the world, and called for dialogue between the Israelis and Palestinians.
NATO’s eastward enlargement will lead to a major military and political change in Europe and the world, and Russia will take the adequate measures in response, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday. According to him, the decision of the Ukrainian Parliament to strengthen ties with NATO, at the initiative of President Petro Poroshenko, was taken at a time when positive prospects emerged for settling the crisis in south-eastern Ukraine. The Russian official said the change noticed in Kiev’s domestic and foreign policy is hardly likely to contribute to putting an end to Ukraine’s deep economic and political crisis.
Four Romanians who got stranded together with another 120 foreign tourists in the Taman Negara National Park in Malaysia were rescued, the Romanian Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday. The national park, which covers over 430 thousand hectares of rainforest, was hit by the heaviest rainfalls and floods in four decades.
