May 27, 2015 UPDATE
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Roxana Vasile, 27.05.2015, 12:30
At least one person is reported to have been killed by the latest heavy downpours and flash floods that swept across several regions in the north, north-west and central Romania on Tuesday night. Numerous households have been flooded, scores of people evacuated and huge surfaces of farmland have been destroyed. In the following 24 hours temperatures are expected to drop and the weather to be cooling particularly in the country’s east and southeast. Rainshowers are still expected but the quantity of water will be insignificant. The highs of the day will be around 13 and 22 degrees centigrade.
Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, the world’s third best player and last year’s finalist in Roland Garros was trounced by Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 7-5, 6-1 on Wednesday in the Paris tournament’s second round. Another Romanian, Alexandra Dulgheru, has also been eliminated from competition by French player Alize Cornet. In the doubles contest, Romanian-Dutch pair Horia Tecau — Jean Julien Rojer and Romanian-Indian pair Mergea — Bopanna has qualified for the second round of this Grand Slam tournament. Another pair, made up of Romanian Irina Begu and Lara Arrubarrena of Spain has made it to the next leg of the women’s doubles. In the mixed doubles, Romanian — Slovene pair made up of Horia Tecau and Katarina Srebotnik has made it to the eighth finals.
The European Commission on Wednesday called on EU member countries to host in the following two years 40 thousand asylum seekers from Syria and Eritrea who had made it to Greece and Italy. Romania is expected to offer shelter to 1023 asylum-seekers who are currently living in Italy and 682 coming from Greece as well as to 657 from outside the EU who are in need of international protection. EU Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos has pleaded for a minimum of solidarity for coastal states coping with refugees. Most of the refugees are likely to be received by Germany and France, while Cyprus and Slovenia are expected the smallest numbers. The measure is still to be approved by member states, which have proved quite reluctant for now.
Members of the National Federation of Unions in Administration were protesting on Wednesday in Bucharest for higher wages for public servants in Romania, as well as regulating as of 2015 the issue of food vouchers, a type of employee benefit widespread in Romania. The federation warned it would call all federations in this sector to an all-out strike blocking all local public administration, unless demands are not met. This is the third protest this year, after a warning strike in February and an all-out strike in April that lasted one day.
