July 27, 2014 UPDATE
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Bogdan Matei, 27.07.2014, 19:23
Romanian rowers have walked away with three medals, one gold, one silver and another one of bronze from the under–23 World Rowing Championships held in Varese, Italy. The Romanian women’s double, made up of Viviana Bejenariu and Ioana Vranceanu reaped gold, Andreea Asoltanei and Ionela Lehaci came second in the race of women’s lightweight double, while the Romanian men’s four stepped onto the third step of the podium. Romania has managed to qualify seven out of all its eight teams in the World Championships.
The Islamist movement Hamas on Sunday called for a new 24-hour ceasefire agreement in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Hamas is violating its own call for a brief stoppage in violence. The Israeli army operations in Gaza, aimed at breaking the military strength of Hamas commenced on July the 8th since when at least 1000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and over 40 Israeli soldiers have been killed.
A MIG 29 fighter jet on Sunday crashed during a training flight in southern Russia killing the pilot, the head of the Russian air forces Viktor Bondarev has told the news agencies. According to the Russian official, the crash was caused by technical faults. Similar accidents involving MIG 29s occurred between 2011 and 2012. The plane, which entered service in early 1980s, is still in use in the Russian air forces and has been exported to numerous countries, such as India, Iran, Syria and Ukraine.
People in the Ukrainian region of Cernauti, close to Ukraine’s border with Romania are protesting a decision by the authorities in Kiev for staging a new partial mobilization in a bid to handle the bloody conflict in eastern Ukraine. The protesters, mainly Romanian ethnics, have set up barricades on several main roads disrupting traffic in the area. They are afraid of being dispatched to the conflict area, where many Cernauti residents have lost their lives. Parliament in Ukraine last week approved a partial mobilization in order to cope with the pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country. The army continued their advance towards Donetsk, a stronghold of the pro-Russia separatists. In another development, the Netherlands and Australia have been considering a police mission to secure the crash site of the Malaysia airliner allegedly downed by the pro-Russian separatists, when 298 people on board were killed. An inquiry has been launched into the disaster. With half a million people, the Romanian community in Ukraine is concentrated in the West of the country, in the territories annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, which now belong to Ukraine.
The Romanian city of Sighisoara, Europe’s only medieval city still inhabited, on Sunday saw the end of the 22nd edition of a famous Medieval Art Festival, which takes place here every year. The present edition’s main theme was ‘knighthood’, inspired by the personality of the last grand master of the Temple Knights Jacques de Molay, who lived more than 700 years ago. The event included shows of dance, costumes and parades as well as medieval art exhibitions. Temple Knights of Romania, France and Serbia staged a parade last night.
The British government has spent 80 thousand pounds for the repatriation of 200 immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria in the first three months of the year, but many of them came back to Britain within weeks, writes Daily Mail, which pretends to be quoting official figures. According to the same paper the tickets for the repatriation of the 200 immigrants, mostly beggars, have been paid by the British Home Office, and the measure comes as part of Prime Minister David Cameron’s tougher stand on the EU citizens who are rough sleeping or begging in the streets of Britain. We recall that although frequently mentioned by the media as well as by populist politicians, the invasion of the Romanian workers, after work restrictions had been lifted on January 1st didn’t happen. Only few of them have chosen the UK as a destination.
