June 29, 2014
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 28.06.2014, 13:02
On Sunday, Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta, Defence Minister Mircea Dusa and deputy prime minister Gabriel Oprea, who were attending a ceremony in Kandahar, Afghanistan, were evacuated in armoured vehicles and taken to safe place after the NATO base was attacked with rockets. The Romanian officials were attending, in Kandahar, a ceremony marking the beginning of the Romanian troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan. No one was injured and the visit’s agenda has been resumed. According to PM Ponta, Romania is now safer and more respected by its NATO allies thanks to the sacrifice and courage of the Romanian military who carried out missions in this country. The 23 soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan will forever be Romania’s heroes, the PM has said. The Romanian troops, numbering 25,000 soldiers, were deployed in Afghanistan in 2002, where they took part in military and humanitarian missions. At present, the Romanian contingent in this country numbers 2,000 military, who will return to Romania over the next few months. About 200 Romanian soldiers will remain in Afghanistan to help with the training of the Afghan army.
Pro-Russian separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine have released a second monitoring team from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) after a month of being held in captivity. Two groups of unarmed observers from the Vienna-based European security organisation, totalling eight international monitors and a Ukrainian translator, were detained three days apart in late May. Separatist leaders on Thursday freed the first group they had detained on May 26 in the Donetsk region.
Over 500 thousand Romanians celebrate their name day today on the occasion of the Orthodox celebration of Saints Peter and Paul. It is a liturgical feast in honour of the martyrdom, in Rome, of the two apostles.
On Saturday evening Romanian tenis player Simona Halep qualified to the round of sixteen in Wimbledon with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Belinda Bencic of Switzerland. Halep will next play against Zarina Diyas of Kazahstan. The WTA 3rd ranked, Simona Halep is seeded third in the women’s singles in Wimbledon. Halep reached the fourth round of the 2013 U.S. Open, the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in January and came within a set of capturing the French Open earlier this month.
