November 21, 2014
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România Internațional, 21.11.2014, 12:00
The Constitutional Court of Romania has today validated the election of Klaus Iohannis as the fourth president of the country since the 1989 Revolution. The incumbent Mayor of Sibiu will take over the office after December the 21st, when Traian Basescu’s term in office comes to an end. The validation took place after the Central Electoral Bureau sent to the Constitutional Court the results of the vote in the runoff held on November the 16th. The candidate of the Christian Liberal Alliance, Klaus Iohannis, won 54.43% of the votes, while his challenger, representing the ruling left-wing coalition, Victor Ponta, won 45.56%. The turnout was 64.10%. In the polling stations abroad, Klaus Iohannis won some 90% of the nearly 380 thousand votes.
The prosecutor general of Romania, Tiberiu Niţu, said he was deeply disappointed after the head of the Directorate for Organised Crime and Terrorism Investigations Alina Bica was held in a corruption case. On the other hand, Tiberiu Nitu voiced his satisfaction with the work of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, which is conducting this investigation. Alina Bica is accused of having approved excessive compensation payments in 2011, when she was a state under secretary with the Justice Ministry and a member of the commission in charge with the return of landed property to former owners. The estimated damage stands at more that 60 million euro.
A Puma Socat military helicopter from the Campia Turzii air base has crashed this morning in a forested area in central Romania. The helicopter was heading for Cincu, where Romanian and American troops take part in the “RUBICON 2014” training programme. According to Defence Minister Mircea Duşa, of the ten people on board, eight died and two are injured. Similar incidents involving this type of aircraft belonging to the Romanian Defence Ministry have been reported in the past as well.
Romania is taking part, for three days, in the largest ever multinational cyber defence exercise organised by NATO in Estonia. The exercise is intended to test the rapid sharing of information and the capacity of the participating countries to coordinate collective cyber defence efforts. NATO officials warn that “the cyber threat is not just a potential threat, it is daily reality.” Ambassador Sorin Ducaru, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges told the Romanian public radio station that Romanian experts have played a special part in putting together the scenario and virtual environment for this complex exercise.
In Bucharest, the Gaudeamus International Book Fair organised by Radio Romania carries on. Taking part in this 21st edition of the fair are more than 300 Romanian and foreign publishers, printing houses, education institutions and cultural institutes, presenting books for all age categories and from all fields. This year’s guest of honour in the fair is Russia.
Ukraine is today marking a year since the start of the pro-European protests in Kiev, dubbed “the Revolution of Dignity,” which forced the former president Viktor Yanukovyc and his team to leave the country. On November the 21st, 2013, thousands of people gathered in Kiev’s Independence Square to protest the president’s refusing to sign the EU Association Agreement in Vilnius, and to call for Ukraine’s European accession efforts to be continued. According to sociologists, the pro-European protest spread to include some 20% of the country’s population. After the fall of president Viktor Yanukovyc, the EU signed the association agreement with Ukraine. Kiev is currently struggling with a substantial decline of the country’s financial situation, deepened by an armed conflict with the pro-Russian separatists.
