Anniversary <\/b>Romanians celebrated on
\nSaturday the 97th anniversary of the union of Bukovina, a
\nnorth-eastern province until then under Hapsburg rule, with Romania. In a message on Facebook, president Klaus
\nIohannis said that regardless of the political context, Romanian spirit and
\nidentity survived in Bukovina thanks to the people who never gave up their
\nRomanian heritage. In the spring of 1918, before Bukovina’s union with Romania,
\nthe eastern province of Bassarabia came under Bucharest’s control after being
\nruled for more than a century by Tsarist Russia. The regions of Transylvania,
\nin the centre, and Banat, Crisana and Maramures in the west, which had been
\nunder Austro-Hungarian control, also joined Romania on December 1st
\n1918. Declared the country’s National Day after the anticommunist revolution of
\n1989, December 1st marks the completion of the Romanian nation state
\nbuilding process. In 1940, following an ultimatum, the Soviet troops occupied
\nBassarabia, today in the Republic of Moldova, and the northern part of
\nBukovina, today in Ukraine as a successor state to the former USSR.<\/p>\n
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Parade <\/b>More than 2,600 military and army experts
\nand 360 pieces of military equipment of the defence and interior ministries and
\nthe special services will be taking part in a military parade in Bucharest on
\nNational Day on Tuesday. The Romanian army personnel will be joined by units
\nfrom the neighbouring Republic of Moldova and Bulgaria, as well as from NATO
\nallies the United States, Poland and Turkey. Special ceremonies will be held at
\nall army garrisons across the country. <\/p>\n
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Diaspora <\/b>Representatives
\nof the Romanian communities abroad meet in Alba Iulia and Zlatna in central
\nRomania for the 19th Congress of Romanian Spirituality between the
\n29th of November and the 2nd of December. The congress
\nwas established by the Cultural League for the Union of Romanians Everywhere
\nand aims to promote Romanian culture, strengthen the link between the Romanians
\nliving abroad and Romania and convince Romanian NGOs and authorities to give
\nreal support to Romanian communities abroad. Representatives from 30 different
\ncountries and regions as well as from Romania will attend this year’s congress.<\/p>\n
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Poll <\/b>Most
\nRomanians perceive Russia as their country’s biggest enemy and view the United
\nStates and Germany as the friendliest states, according to a poll conducted by
\nthe Romanian Institute for Polling and Strategy (IRES) cited by the daily Adevarul.
\nMore than half of respondents say Russia poses a security threat to Romania,
\nEurope and the world. In the event of a conflict in the region, 49% of
\nRomanians believe their country should stay neutral, while 39% say it should be
\non the side of the United States and the West. In the opinion of 46% of
\nrespondents, the United States is the country that could best protect Romania,
\nfollowed by Germany, in the case of 24% of respondents. <\/p>\n
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Corruption
\n<\/b>The former head of the National Authority for Property Restitution Crinuta
\nDumitrean and five other persons will be detained for 30 days for corruption,
\nthe High Court of Cassation and Justice ruled on Saturday. Two Liberal MPs,
\nIoan Oltean and Catalin Teodorescu, are also under investigation as part of
\nthis case, with anticorruption prosecutors requesting that their immunity be
\nlifted so that they can also be placed under arrest. According to the
\ninvestigators, Oltean received 600,000 euros in bribe from a businessman to put
\npressure on the property restitution agency to approve compensation that was
\ndeliberately overvalued by 20 million euros. Teodorescu, who at the time was in
\nthe panel establishing the amount of compensation, approved the assessment of
\nthe property in question.<\/p>\n
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Handball
\n<\/b>The Romanian women’s handball team on Saturday defeated the Czech Republic
\n31:26 in a friendly match in France. On Sunday, Romania meet Cuba. On Thursday,
\nRomania lost to France in their first training match ahead of the World
\nChampionship hosted by Denmark between the 5th and the 20th
\nof December. Romania have participated in every single edition of the World
\nChampionship since 1957, winning three medals: gold in 1962 and silver in 1973
\nand again in 2005. <\/p>\n
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(Translated by: C. Mateescu)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romania celebrates 97th anniversary of union with north-eastern province of Bukovina<\/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":[28950,29572,29581],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-100678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-corruption","tag-handball","tag-romania-national-day"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n