October 13, 2018 UPDATE
President Klaus Iohannis pays 4-day official visit to Italy, Romanians run in Sundays local elections in Belgium
Newsroom, 13.10.2018, 18:34
Rome – The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis is paying a 4-day official visit to Italy, the first visit by a Romanian head of state in the past 45 years. According to a communiqué of the Presidential Administration he is to meet his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella, the PM Giuseppe Conte, and the speakers of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati and Roberto Fico. His agenda also includes meetings with the representatives of some religious denominations and of the Romanian community, which is the most numerous community from outside Romania, numbering around 1.5 million people. The visit takes place in the context of the celebration of the Great Union centennial and of 10 years since the relation between Romania and Italy reached the level of Consolidated Strategic Partnership.
Elections — The Ministry for Romanians Abroad has hailed the involvement of the Romanian citizens in Sunday’s local elections in Belgium. Through their presence on the Belgian political scene, these Romanian citizens honor their country of origin, writes the aforementioned ministry in a communiqué. 46 Romanians are running on the lists of several parties from Belgium, for local councilor positions in several cities including the capital Brussels. According to a communiqué of the Ministry for Romanians Abroad as many as 40 thousand Romanians are living n Brussels and more than 70 thousand across Belgium.
Kuala Lumpur — The Romanian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur is following with priority the situation of the 3 Romanians imprisoned in Malaysia — the Romanian Foreign Ministry officials announced on Saturday. They have been detained for drug trafficking. Two of them have received a definitive death sentence while the trial of the third one is still under way. At present the Malaysian law provides for the death penalty by hanging for crimes such as murder, kidnapping, possession of firearms and drug trafficking. Recently the government in Kuala Lumpur has agreed to abolish the death penalty, and an amendment in this regard is to be submitted to the vote of Parliament on Monday. The Romanian Foreign Ministry recalls that in Romania a citizen’s right to life is inalienable.
Marathon — Bucharest is hosting this weekend the International Marathon, a competition that has been organized for 11 years to promote a healthy and active lifestyle in Bucharest. The races for children and teenagers have been scheduled for Saturday and Sunday will see the classical race of about 42 km, followed by a semi-marathon and a relay race. This year’s edition of the Bucharest International Marathon has gathered around 19 thousand people from more than 70 countries.
Football — Romania’s national football team is playing Sunday in Bucharest against the Serbian eleven, in a match counting for Group 4 of League C of the newly-created Nations League competition. Last month in Belgrade the two teams drew the match 2-all. In the group’s standings Serbia is the leader with 7 points being followed by Romania with 5 points, Montenegro with 4 points and Lithuania with 0 points. On Friday evening Romania’s Under-21 team defeated the team of Wales on home ground 2-0 in Cluj (northwest), in the last but one match of Group 8 of the preliminaries of the 2019 European Championship. In their last match of the group, on Tuesday, the Romanian team will take on, also on home ground, in Ploiesti, south, the team of Lichtenstein. Romania leads the group and needs an equal score in the last match to be able to qualify again, after 20 years, to a final Under-21 tournament. (news translated and updated by Lacramioara Simion)
