May 8, 2016

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 08.05.2016, 12:03

Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis is
today receiving the US Deputy Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who is on a
two-day visit to Bucharest. Yesterday, during his meeting with the US official
and in the run up to the NATO summit in Poland on July 8th and 9th,
the Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu pleaded for a robust and balanced
rotating presence of the US and NATO forces on the eastern flank, including in
Romania. Comanescu also stressed the strategic importance of the Black Sea area.
Antony J. Blinken has also met with the Romanian Defense Minister Mihnea Motoc,
with whom he discussed, among other things, bilateral defense cooperation
within the framework provided by the Romania – US Strategic Partnership.

All military units in Romania
and abroad will on Monday host military and religious ceremonies to commemorate
the two soldiers who died in Afghanistan on Saturday. Another Romanian soldier
was wounded, but his condition is stable now. According to the Romanian Defense
Ministry, the Romanian soldiers were training Afghan policemen at a training
camp near Kandahar, when individuals wearing Afghan security forces uniforms
started firing at them. The Romanian soldiers reacted in keeping with the
procedure applicable in such situations and fired back, killing the
perpetrators and securing the area. The two soldiers who died will be
posthumously promoted to the rank of sub-lieutenant. President Klaus Iohannis,
Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos and the Defense, Interior and Foreign Ministers
have extended their condolences to the victims’ families. Since 2002, Romania
has lost 26 soldiers in Afghanistan. Some 150 have been wounded.

Starting today,
all sanitizers and disinfectants used in Romanian hospitals are to be tested,
under a decision announced by the Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos after
an emergency meeting with representatives of the Health and Interior
Ministries. All substances will be checked for concentration and effectiveness.
Also starting today, the samples taken as part of the first investigation
conducted at 50 hospitals in the country will be analyzed at the National
Institute for Research and Development in Chemistry and Oil Chemistry. The
General Prosecutor’s Offices is probing too into this case, which concerns the
use of diluted disinfectants in hospitals. 25 hospitals have already been
searched, as well as the offices of the company that has provided the
disinfectants, accused of supplying hospital units with substances that do not
observe the legal quality standards. Following verifications conducted in
dozens of medical units in Romania, many irregularities have been found. The
Health Ministry has stated that all measures have been taken to avoid putting
patients at risk.

Today is World Red Cross and
Red Crescent Day, marking the anniversary of the birth of the Swiss business
man Henry Dunant, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. The organization has
a 100 year long tradition of ensuring first aid, assisting people in need and
training volunteer nurses. The Romanian Red Cross has over 5 thousands members,
47 branches and some 2000 secondary branches all across the country.

Romanian authorities are
investigating the death of the Dinamo football player Patrick Ekeng, of Cameroon,
who on Friday night collapsed on the football ground without anybody touching
him, during the Dinamo Bucharest – Viitorul Constanta game. The Prosecutor’s
Office has started an investigation into a potential case of manslaughter, and
the police have conducted verifications with the private emergency service that
took over the player. The company is also being checked by the Health Ministry
and the Emergency Situations Department. Patrick Ekeng was urgently taken to
hospital and specialists tried to resuscitate him, but he could not be
saved. Several matches have been
postponed, including the Romanian Cup’s final, and many athletes, supporters
and officials have paid homage to the late football player.

Romanian tennis player Simona
Halep, ranked 7th in the WTA classification, on Saturday won the
final of the WTA tournament in Madrid, with 5 million dollars in prize money.
She defeated number 38 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-4 and, as a
result, on Monday she will climb the rankings up to the 5th
position. Halep also played the final of the Madrid tournament back in 2014,
when she was defeated by Maria Sarapova. Also in Madrid, two Romanians are
opponents in the men’s doubles. The pair made up of the Romanian Horia Tecau
and the Dutch Jean Julien Rojer is today taking on the Romanian Florin Mergea
and the Indian Rohan Bopanna. The two pairs last met in the Champions
tournament’s final in London, in November 2015, when Tecau and Rojer won 6-4,
6-3.

The Romanian
women’s handball champion CSM Bucharest has qualified for the final of the
Champion’s League, after defeating in Budapest the Macedonian squad Vardar
Skopje, 27-21. In today’s final, the Bucharest team will face the Hungarian
side Gyor. In the first semi-final, Gyor passed by the Montenegrin team
Buducnost Podgorica, 21-20.