July 7, 2014 UPDATE
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Valentin Țigău, 07.07.2014, 20:05
Bucharest is hosting the first WTA tournament held in Romania, BRD Bucharest Open, with 250 thousand dollars in prize money. The odds on favourite is WTA third-seeded Romanian player Simona Halep, this year’s finalist in Roland Garros and recent semifinalist in Wimbledon. Romanian player Monica Niculescu on Monday qualified for the eight finals of the tournament after a 6-3, 6-0 win against Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic. Among the foreign players attending the Bucharest Open there is also Roberta Vinci and Karin Knapp, both of Italy, Klara Koukalova and Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic, Annika Beck of Germany, Anna Schmiedlova of Slovakia, Polona Hercog of Slovenia and Vania King of the USA.
Tennis players Simona Halep and Horia Tecau, violinist Alexandru Tomescu, soloist of the National Radio Orchestra, former Olympic champion fencer Mihai Covaliu and young inventor Ionut Budisteanu on Monday were declared ambassadors of Romanian tourism. In a ceremony staged in Bucharest, Prime Minister Victor Ponta handed them diplomatic passports. The event is part of a project called ‘Romania promoted through values’ initiated by the Department of small and medium sized business, business environment and tourism with the Romanian government.
The results of the summer session of the Romanian Baccalaureate exam were made public on Monday. Also on Monday students filed their contestations with the final results due to be released on Friday. Partial results released on Sunday by the Education Ministry reveal that over 59% of high school graduates have passed the exam, 3% more than last year. Certain irregularities were reported this year as well, although Minister Remus Pricopie had previously said all fraud attempts would be severely punished.
The founding president of the Conservative Party, Romanian businessman Dan Voiculescu on Monday appeared before the Bucharest Court of Appeal for his official hearing in the fraud case regarding the illegal privatisation of the Institute for Food Research. Sentenced to prison ever since 2008 for having caused the state a prejudice of nearly 60 million euros, Voiculescu had part of his assets seized by prosecutors. As of Friday last week he has been investigated for blackmail. Voiculescu allegedly threatened three business people to launch an aggressive smear campaign against them, unless they signed advertising contracts with his own private and influential media trust. Voiculescu has denied all charges, arguing he does not know any of the plaintiffs.
