September 1, 2013
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 01.09.2013, 19:30
Bucharest and several Romanian cities are hosting as of Sunday September 1st until September 28th the 21st edition of the George Enescu International Music festival, one of the most prestigious festivals in Europe. The opening concert will be given in Bucharest by the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra under the baton of famous conductor Daniel Barenboim. Soloist in the concert will be Romanian born pianist Radu Lupu. Over 150 events are scheduled to take place as part of the festival which, according to organizers, offers this year a unique cultural mix focusing on world famous composers such as George Enescu, Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi and Benjamin Britten who are commemorated this year, and Schoenberg, Mahler and Beethoven. Classical music lovers will have to opportunity to attend, for one whole month, numerous concerts, recitals, opera and ballet shows, conferences and composition workshops. The George Enescu festival is held every two years and it was set up in 1958 to honor the genius of the great Romanian composer, George Enescu.
The Romanian Parliament will resume its activity on Monday in this year’s 2nd ordinary session. The parliamentary parties have already set up their legislative priorities for the current session. The main priorities for the governing Social Liberal Union are the 2014 budget, the country’s regionalization and decentralization. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, in opposition, says the three issues are also their legislative priorities. The opposition Liberal Democratic Party’s priorities focus on creating jobs and reforming the education system.
Romania’s women’s coxed eight crew on Sunday won the silver medal in the World Rowing Championship hosted by Chungju, South Korea. The gold medal went to the competition’s big favorite, the USA, world and Olympic champion while the bronze medal was won by Canada. This is Romania’s 2nd medal at this championship. On Saturday Romania’s women’s pair made up of Roxana Cogianu and Nicoleta Albu also won the silver medal.
Gymnast Diana Bulimar on Sunday won gold in the beam and floor events and bronze in the uneven bars event and Sandra Izbasa got silver in the floor event at the competition hosted by Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. On Saturday Diana Bulimar won gold in the individual all around event final. The two gymnasts are preparing to participate in the World Gymnastics Championship to be hosted by Belgium which will start on September 30th in Antwerp.
As of 2003 the Day of Romanian Diplomacy has been marked on September 1st. This year the event was preceded by a meeting of the Romanian diplomats- which made possible the assessment of the diplomatic activity of the past year as well as the setting up of the main guidelines for the future. This year’s meeting, that took place between August 27th and 29th, had two special guests: the Lithuanian foreign minister, Linas Antanas Linkevicius, whose country is holding the presidency of the EU, and the Moldovan minister of foreign affairs and European integration, Natalia Gherman.
The American President, Barack Obama, has officially called on the Congress to authorize the start of military action against Syria. Obama pointed out that the operation would be on short term and would not involve ground troops. Its main aim is to discourage the Syrian regime from using chemical weapons against civilians. The American secretary of state, John Kerry, said that fresh laboratory tests indicate sarin gas was used in an August 21st attack in Syria that Washington blamed on al –Assad’s regime. France, which announced it would support the US intervention in Syria, said it would ask for the approval of Parliament. In Damascus the opposition expressed disappointment as to the decision of the American president to ask for the vote of the Congress before starting an attack against the Syrian army. Since the start of the uprising against Bashar al –Assad’s regime, which subsequently turned into a civil war, more than 100 thousand people have lost their lives- shows a death toll published by the UN.
