February 15, 2018 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 15.02.2018, 21:14
JUSTICE Some offenders are trying to attack and discredit Romania’s Anti-corruption Agency (DNA) as well as its leadership and this attempt is pathetic and unconvincing, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday. According to Iohannis, the DNA and its leadership are doing a very good job and this attack is proof of that. The Romanian president said he had met Prime Minister Dancila and the Chamber of Deputies president Liviu Dragnea on Thursday with whom he tackled various issues including the legal ones. Iohannis was informed the Prime Minister had held talks with the Justice Minister and gave him the green light to settle the DNA issue. Romania’s justice minister Tudorel Toader has announced that he will submit to Parliament in plenary session a report on the activity of the Romanian Anti-corruption Agency (DNA), of DIICOT and the Public Ministry. He said he would make public the conclusions on the DNA activity next Thursday. Toader made an emergency return to the country from Japan upon a request from the Prime Minister amid a scandal involving several anti-corruption prosecutors who had allegedly introduced false evidence in some major files they were prosecuting. DNA chief, Laura Codruta Kovesi, on Wednesday said the attacks against the institution that she leads were aimed at bringing the state to its knees and humiliating the Romanian society. Kovesi added that the prosecutors with the DNA Ploiesti, in southern Romania, didn’t cave in to pressure and that she would not resign as in recent years the Agency had obtained the best results since its foundation.
NATO Romanian Defence Minister Mihai Fifor participated in the meeting of NATO defence ministers held in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday. According to a communiqué issued by the Romanian Defence Ministry, Fifor on Thursday met the US defence secretary James Mattis, who voiced his readiness to pay a visit to Bucharest. In Brussels the defence ministers have agreed to modernize the Alliances command structures by creating two new strategic general headquarters, one for maritime communication with the US, the other for land mobility in Europe, also discussing the sharing of the financial burden between allied members. The meeting also agreed to set up a new cybernetic center. Also under discussion was the sensitive issue of financial contribution by member states, under pressure from the United States, which announced a 35% boost in the budget for American deployment in Europe. The main fear from the American side, which, according to NATO diplomatic sources, was joined in this respect by Canada, Norway, Iceland and Albania, is the closing of European armament markets to the benefit of European companies.
TENNIS The world’s number two tennis player, Romanian Simona Halep, on Thursday qualified for the quarterfinals of the WTA tournament in Doha, Qatar with 3.1 million dollars in prize money after a two set win, 6-4, 6-3 against Anastaija Sevastova of Latvia. Simona will next take on young American player Catherine Bellis who beat the world’s number fifth player Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic. Three other Romanians, Sorana Carstea, Mihaela Buzarnescu and Monica Niculescu were eliminated from the competition’s round of 16 on Thursday. Carstea came a cropper in a game against Garbine Muguruza 6-0, 6-4. Monica Niculescu lost to the world’s number one Caroline Wozniacki, 7-5, 6-1 and Buzarnescu to Julie Goerges 6-2, 6-2.
