October 2, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news.
România Internațional, 02.10.2014, 12:15
The former political leaders of the Serbs in Bosnia, Radovan Karadzic, was not aware that thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica were being slaughtered back in 1995, Karadzic’s legal advisor, Peter Robinson, said on Thursday. Karadzic said he takes “moral responsibility” for crimes committed by Bosnian Serbs but denied he ordered killings. He is accused in The Hague of genocide and other crimes, with one charge relating to the Srebrenica massacre. Prosecutors have called for him to be given a life sentence if convicted. The 69-year-old political leader of the Bosnian Serbs in the 1990s was handed over to the tribunal when he was arrested in 2008 after 13 years on the run. Karadzic, who conducts his own defence, faces 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Court’s ruling will be delivered no later than 2015. The war in Bosnia made 100.000 victims and over 2 million refugees.
Prime Ministers of Romania and Ukraine, Victor Ponta and Arseni Iateniuk signed on Thursday in Kiev an accord on small-scale cross-border trade between the two countries. Ponta was accompanied in Kiev by his Moldovan counterpart, Iurie Leanca. The Romanian head of government stated, once again, Romania’s support for Moldova’s and Ukraine’s democratic development and EU integration efforts.
Heavy fighting between Kurdish forces and Islamic militants have been reported around the Syrian city of Kobane, close to the border with Turkey. At leat 160 thousand people crossed the border to seek refuge in the neighbouring Turkey. This is believed to be the heaviest fighting since the start of the offensive. UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said 11 million people inside Syria needed urgent aid, warning that without extra funding the “World Food Programme will be forced to end its operations completely within two months”. A UN report on Iraq offered fresh evidence of human rights violations by militants of the Islamic State. The report mentions mass executions, kidnapping of women and girls to be used as sexual slaves and of children to be turned into fighters. The document says these systematic deeds might be considered war crimes.
The election campaign for the presidential elections due next month is officially starting on Friday. The first round of elections is scheduled for November 2nd, and the second one on November 16. As many as 14 candidates will be competing for the presidential seat. Prime minister Victor Ponta, supported by his Social Democratic Party and his junior partners in the ruling coalition, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Conservative Party, is one of the candidates. His main rival is Klaus Iohannis, the candidate of the centre-right opposition represented by the Christian Liberal Alliance made up of the Liberal Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party. Other presidential candidates include Elena Udrea, the leader of the pro-presidential People’s Movement Party and her former colleague Monica Macovei, currently a member of the European Parliament, who runs as an independent. It is for the first time in Romania that two women run for the highest office.
Paris Motor Show kicked off on Thursday. Organisers say there will be more than 100 global reveals. The industry is recovering slowly, particularly in Europe where many executives expect to see the market return to healthy numbers only in 2016 or 2017. At this year’s edition of Paris Motor Show, the Romanian brad Dacia, owned by Renault, will launch the Stepway versions of Lodgy and Docker and will have two premieres, Duster Air and Sandero Black Touch.
