February 1, 2014
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Bogdan Matei, 01.02.2014, 12:00
The weather remains cold in central, southern and eastern Romania where maximum temperatures will stay around minus 10 degrees Celsius. The noon reading in Bucharest went to minus 9 degrees. 13 national roads in the southeast are still unusable after the heavy snowfalls of last week. Speed limits have been imposed on seven railway sections and 98 trains have been cancelled. Due to the gale-force winds navigation was restricted on the Romanian-Serbian sector of the Danube. Scores of towns and villages are still isolated, and the snow layer goes up to almost three meters in some areas. As they were unable to properly handle the situation caused by the latest wave of cold in Romania, the prefects of the counties of Constanta, Braila and Buzau have been sacked.
Romanian president Traian Basescu, currently on a working visit to Germany, will participate in the Security Conference underway in Munich. On Friday, the Romanian official held talks with his German counterpart Joachim Gauck on the importance of involving state authorities in the anti-graft fight. Also high on the talks agenda were the security risks in the Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet republic with a predominantly Romanian-speaking majority, posed by the pro-Russian separatists in the regions of Transdniester and Gagauzia. Earlier Basescu said in Berlin the political relation between Romania and Germany is excellent, both at bilateral level and in the European structures. He added that the volume of the bilateral trade exchanges this year is estimated at 20 billion euros, 8% higher than last year.
Romania’s national tennis team is being led by Ukraine two-love after the first two single matches counting towards the Davis Cup Europe-Africa Group one. On Friday, Adrian Ungur was outperformed by Serghei Stahovski, while Victor Hanescu lost to Ilia Marcenko. Today will see the doubles game pitching Hanescu and Tecau to the pair made up of Denis Molcianov and Serghei Bubka jr. A victory in this match will qualify Ukraine for the second round of the competition and the results in the last two singles due on Sunday will not influence their qualification.
The new Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code have come into effect in Romania today. The government announced that new amendments are to be operated on the procedure code next week. The Romanian president, the opposition parties and the magistrates have voiced concern about an article in the code, which is banning wire tapping before the beginning of the criminal prosecution. In another move Prime Minister Victor Ponta pledged the abrogation of an article limiting the freedom of the press.
Arseni Iateniuk and Vitali Kliciko will today meet US secretary of state John Kerry. Staged as part of the security conference underway in Munich, the conference comes against the Western concern about the situation in Ukraine. The host of this event, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has said the Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych does exactly see how grave the situation is. In Kiev, the opposition has accused the army of trying to intimidate the pro-Western protesters and called for their immediate release without the pre-condition of leaving the administration institutions they are occupying at present.
