March 11, 2016 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 11.03.2016, 12:30
Great Romanian Olympic champion Iolanda Balas Soeter died on Friday at the age of 79. According to the Romanian Athletics Federation, she had been admitted to a hospital in Bucharest following some gastric complications. Considered an icon of the Romanian athletics, Iolanda Balas was a multiple world and Olympic record holder. She became Olympic champion in the high jump event in Rome in 1960 and four years later in Tokyo. She set 14 world records and won 105 consecutive competitions, a unique world performance. She obtained two gold medals in the European Athletics Championships in Stockholm in 1958 and in Belgrade in 1962 and became silver medallist in Bern in 1954. Between 1988 and 2005, Iolanda Balas Soeter led the Romanian Athletics Federation.
On Friday Spain commemorated 12 years since the Al Qaeda attacks in Madrid, which killed 190 people, including 16 Romanians. At least 18 hundred people were wounded in the blasts, while others suffered injuries and psychological traumas. Following the attacks in Paris last year, the Spanish government lifted the alert level close to the highest one. The threat of further terror attacks is still present, but security forces are now working on fighting international terrorism. A special attention is given to social networks largely used by Jihadi terrorists for propaganda. Over 600 suspects have been arrested since 2004 in Spain alone, while 39 others outside the country as a result of cooperation with foreign security forces.
The Constitutional Court ruling must be observed and the justice
system has to do its duty for the good functioning of the rule of law, Romanian
president Klaus Iohannis said on Friday at the end of the Higher Defence
Council’s special session. High on the Council’s agenda was a Constitutional
Court ruling that bans the Intelligence Service from doing surveillance in
criminal cases. The ruling has caused concern with anti-corruption prosecutors
and the Direction for Investigating Organised Crime, who pointed out the
decision could jeopardize investigation in several thousands criminal files.
The Higher Defence Council has endorsed a government solution that the
Intelligence Service’s structures could still be used if no participation from
its personnel was required and only with the direct involvement of prosecutors
and the Judiciary Police. After the Higher Defence Council has endorsed the
ruling the government is expected to give the green light for the law under an
emergency ordinance.
The EU interior ministers gathered in Brussels have announced they might soon reach an agreement regarding the setting up of a European Border and Coast Guard. They have also voiced worries that, by closing the Western Balkan route, immigrants might look for alternative ways. At the meeting, the Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has stated that, once the Western Balkans route closed, his country might be faced with a wave of refugees from Greece, through Albania and the Adriatic. According to the latest official figures, there are some 40,000 refugees in Greece. On the other hand, Berlin and Athens believe that closing the Balkan route is a unilateral measure, unable to solve the current crisis. The two countries claim that only a coordinated plan with Turkey can provide a sustainable solution.
