More than 530,000 Social Democratic Party members cast
\ntheir ballots on Sunday to elect a new leader. Since July, the party has been
\nled by interim president Liviu Dragnea, who is in fact the only candidate to
\nbecome the leader of the Social Democratic Party, the largest member of the
\nruling coalition in Romania. The former leader of the party, Romania’s prime
\nminister Victor Ponta stepped down as party leader amidst a corruption scandal. He is on trial for forgery, complicity in tax evasion and money laundering. Liviu Dragnea himself received a one-year suspended prison sentence in May from a court of
\nfirst instance for fraud during the 2012 referendum on the impeachment of the
\nthen president Traian Basescu.<\/p>\n
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\n
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The Romanian education ministry and trade unions in the education system
\nwill have final talks on Monday to establish by how much teachers’ salaries
\nwill go up. Education minister Sorin Cimpeanu said in a television interview
\nthat salaries may increase again as of December 1st, having first
\nwent up by 5% in March and again by 5% last month. According to Sorin Cimpeanu,
\nsalaries in the education system should grow gradually in the next 4 years to
\nmake the system attractive for young graduates. In another development, the
\neducation ministry plans to reform the school curriculum between 2017 and 2020
\nto shift the focus from the assimilation of information to the acquisition of
\nskills.<\/p>\n
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A technical mission of the International Monetary Fund will travel to
\nBucharest to discuss next year’s budget and the possibility to sign a new
\nagreement with Romania, as the Fund has recently made an upward revision of the
\ncountry’s economic forecast. The GDP is thus expected to grow by 3.4% this year
\nand by 3.9% in 2016. Romania’s fourth consecutive agreement with the
\nInternational Monetary Fund, of a precautionary-type and worth 2 billion euros,
\nexpired last month without Romania having had to make use of the available
\nfunds. Finance minister Eugen Teodorovici recently said Romania would
\nofficially request a new agreement with the Fund. <\/p>\n
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From Monday to Thursday, military from the Romanian Navy
\nForces are carrying out exercises in the Black Sea international waters
\ntogether with military from the Bulgarian, American and Ukrainian navy. The
\nRomanian frigate Queen Marie will have on board a Puma Naval helicopter and a
\nspecial operations forces group. The air forces will contribute to the exercise
\nwith two MiG 21 Lancer planes. The US will bring a USS Porter destroyer and a
\nmaritime patrol aircraft, while Bulgaria and Ukraine will each take part with a
\nfrigate. According to a release by the Romanian Navy, the exercises form part
\nof a US support programme for its NATO allies and partners in Eastern Europe. <\/p>\n
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\n
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Thousands of people paid tribute on Sunday to the victims
\nof Saturday’s twin attack in Ankara, the deadliest in Turkey’s history, with
\nmore than 95 people killed. They also blamed the government for escalating
\ntensions three weeks before early parliamentary elections. The bombs went off
\nnear Ankara’s central station, where people had gathered to take part in a
\nrally calling for an end to the conflict between the Turkish state and the
\nWorkers’ Party in Kurdistan, the PKK. With no group claiming responsibility,
\nthe Turkish government said the Islamic State group or the PKK could have
\ncarried out the bombing. Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis said Romania firmly
\ncondemned the criminal attacks in Ankara and reiterated his country’s full
\nsupport for Turkey. <\/p>\n
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\n
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Romania’s rugby team on Sunday lost to Italy 32-22 their
\nlast match at the Rugby World Cup hosted by England and Wales, thus failing to
\nbook their ticket for the next edition of the World Cup. Romania also lost to
\nIreland and France and won against Canada, when they recovered from 15-0 down
\nto beat Canada 17-15 and complete the biggest comeback in World Cup history.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of local and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":100004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[28877],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-100518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-newsflash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n