November 15, 2014
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Corina Cristea, 15.11.2014, 12:00
There is less than one day before the presidential runoff on November 16th in Romania where more than 18 million eligible voters are expected to the polling stations to elect the country’s president for the next 5 years. In the first round, incumbent Prime Minister Victor Ponta and candidate of the present ruling coalition, made up of the Social-Democrats, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Conservatives, and Klaus Iohannis, the mayor of Sibiu, in central Romania, who was backed by the Christian-Liberal Alliance, from the center-right opposition, obtained the largest number of votes. Romanian nationals living abroad can cast their ballot in 294 stations. Measures have been put in place in order to avoid the situation that occurred in the first election round and facilitate the election process, without opening more polling stations. On November 2nd, some polling stations abroad, particularly in Europe, saw huge queues and some Romanian nationals were unable to cast their vote, a situation, which sparked off protests in many Romanian cities and abroad.
Romania’s national football side on Friday night secured a two-nil home win against Northern Ireland in the preliminaries of Euro 2016 and is currently ranking first in Group F. Romania has so far beat Greece and Finland and ended in a draw their game with Hungary. The game against Northern Ireland was Romania’s first after Anghel Iordanescu had come to the helm of our side. Iordanescu had been declared the coach of the last century in Romania for the results he obtained with the national side back in the 1990s. Iordanescu has replaced Victor Piturca, who stepped down in order to sign a contract with a team from Saudi Arabia.
G 20 leaders on Saturday pledged to make everything possible to eradicate the Ebola epidemic, which has already killed more than 5,000 people in West Africa. G20 leaders have convened in Australia for a summit due to end on Sunday. During the event US president Barack Obama has lashed out at Russia for its involvement in the conflict in Ukraine. According to press agencies, Russia has also been sharply criticized for its alleged involvement in the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner in July, killing all its 298 passengers. Experts believe the plane was shot down with a Russian-made surface to air missile, while Russia showed some satellite images in an attempt to prove the plane had been brought down by a fighter jet.
The world’s third woman tennis player, Romanian Simona Halep, finalist in Roland Garros and in the champions tournament in Singapore has been nominated by the WTA for the player of the year title. Other nominees are Chinese player Na Li, winner of the Australia’s Open, Czech player Petra Kvitova winner of the Wimbledon tournament, Russian Maria Sharapova, winner of Roland Garros and Serena Williams, winner of the US Open and the WTA Finals in Singapore. The WTA site also has a voting section entitled WTA Rising Star, for the player with the most significant progress in 2014, which last year was won by Simona Halep. Tennis lovers can cast their vote at www.wtatennis.com.
The EU is conditioning a conference of donors for Ukraine on the Ukrainian government’s readiness to draw up a detailed economic development programme, the new European commissioner for enlargement Johannes Hahn has said. According to the EU official, such a conference could take place early next year if Ukraine comes up with a coherent strategy with clear economic targets and investment priorities. After president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from power, the EU has concluded an association agreement with Ukraine and granted it loans. The government in Kiev is presently facing a significant degradation of the country’s financial situation, worsened by the armed conflict with the pro-Russia separatists.
