November 3, 2013 UPDATE
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Roxana Vasile, 03.11.2013, 12:31
A Festival entitled‚ ”the Week of the Radio Orchestras and Choirs on Air since 1928” ended in Bucharest on Sunday with a concert given by the Big Band Radio, under the baton of conductor and composer Ionel Tudor. The concert also included the participation of Analia Selis, a vocalist of Argentinean descent, Romanian cello player Razvan Suma and guitarist Julio Santillan from Argentina. We recall that on November 1st, Radio Romania celebrated 85 years of activity. With three national and nine regional channels, as well as with an international channel broadcasting in 10 foreign languages, in Romanian, and in the Aromanian dialect, Radio Romania is a model of succesful public service.
Over 100 thousand on Sunday joined a rally staged by the ruling coalition in Chishinau, to support the European aspirations of the Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet country with a Romanian speaking majority. The Republic of Moldova is to ratify by the end of the month, at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, an agreement on the country’s EU entry. The communist opposition is against the republic’s pro-European orientation and in favour of joining the so-called Eurasian Union. The Russian Federation has also voiced discontent, hinting that getting closer to Brussels could sour the country’s relations with Russia.
Romanian Type 22 frigate Queen Marie is to arrive in Constanta on Monday at the end of its mission in NATO’s Active Endeavour operation in the Mediterranean. With a crew of 224, the ship has accomplished all the missions in this operation covering over 57 hundred nautical miles. Active Endeavour was set up in 2001, right after the terror attacks on the United States on September 11th. NATO’s war vessels are patrolling the Mediterranean to monitor the sea traffic and discourage terror activities and illegal trafficking. That was Queen Marie’s fourth participation in operations of monitoring naval and air traffic and the eighth of the Romanian navy.
The Romanian Foreign Ministry firmly condemns the abduction and killing of two Radio France journalists in Mali. Such deplorable acts are unjustified and must be vehemently condemned, while murderers must be brought to court, says a communiqué of the ministry. In the aforementioned communiqué, Romania has reiterated its commitment against terrorism. We recall that the dead bodies of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, a journalist and an experienced technician, who went to Mali for a report have been found in the north of the country. At the end of an emergency session on Sunday, French president Francois Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the two were killed in cold blood.
About 1.7 million people were called to the polls on Sunday in Kosovo, in the first municipal election after the region’s secession from Serbia in 2008. Serbia, which hopes to open EU accession negotiations soon, has urged the Serbs living in Kosovo to participate in the election, whose first returns are expected on Wednesday.
US secretary of state John Kerry has voiced optimism regarding the Middle East peace process, adding that he expects progress in the following months. On Sunday Kerry flew to Cairo, the first leg of a two-week tour, which will also take him to Saudi Arabia, Israel and Palestinian territories, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Algeria and Morocco. High on Kerry’s agenda are the Middle East peace process, the war in Syria and Iran’s nuclear file.
