February 22, 2015
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Corina Cristea, 22.02.2015, 12:00
Romanian tennis player Simona Halep has been designated the second favourite of the WTA tournament in Doha, Quatar, with 731 thousand dollars in prize money due to start on Monday. Halep, who reaped the title in Dubai on Saturday, is the en titre champion in Doha and has made it directly to the eighth finals; there she will be playing the winner of the game pitching French Alize Cornet against the best qualified player. The tournament’s odds on favourite is Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic whom Halep defeated in the finals in Dubai coming back to the third position in the WTA standings.
US military operation Atlantic Resolve will be extended to Romania and Bulgaria at the end of March against the background of mounting tension in the region, Ben Hodges, commander of the US forces in Europe, has announced. Launched in April last year in the Baltic States and Poland, the operation represents a way to prove NATO’s commitment to a region, which is presently facing new challenges in terms of security. The inclusion of Romania and Bulgaria also involves a bigger military participation in the Atlantic Resolve operation, from 900 strong at present up to 19 hundred. The USA presently boasts 29 thousand soldiers stationed in Germany, Italy and Belgium, but according to press agencies, Washington has recently beefed up its troops in Europe, to convey a clear message to Russia as well as to its NATO partners.
Ukraine is this week marking a year since the events in the Independence Square in downtown Kiev, known as Maidan, between November 2013 and February 2014, which led to the ousting of pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych. 100 protesters and 20 policemen died in the events. Several European leaders, including European Council President Donald Tusk, German president Joachim Gauk and the Moldovan leader Nicolae Timofti are today participating in a dignity march in Kiev. According to police sources, almost 35 thousand people took to the streets of Moscow on Saturday to protest the ‘chaos’ in Ukraine, which they are blaming on the West.
Romania assures 4% of the EU’s entire agricultural production, ranking eighth after France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Poland, whose farming sectors produce over 10 billion euros annually. According to data released by the EU Statistics Institute Eurostat, three quarters of Romania’s agricultural output account for vegetables, whereas at EU level, cereals, fruit and vegetables stand at only a little over 50%. In terms of dairy and meat production, Romania is below the European average.
US secretary of defense Ashton Carter has today been flown to the airfield in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan in order to discuss plans for closing down this large military facility, France Press reports. The visit to Afghanistan has been the first paid by the US official since he took office in early February. On Saturday, after seeing president Ashraf Ghani and other Afghan officials, the US Defense Secretary evoked the possibility of a slower pullout of troops than expected in order to protect the progress achieved so far in the field. The 10 thousand strong US contingent in that country is to be trimmed to 5 thousand by the end of 2016, when president Obama’s mandate comes to an end.
