42 towns and cities from
\nRomania join global Earth Hour celebrations today. Earth Hour is the world’s
\nlargest environmental event where people switch off their lights for one hour
\nin a symbolic gesture to raise awareness of climate change. The government
\nbuilding, as well as the headquarters of ministries and public institutions in
\nBucharest will also go dark for one hour. More than 7,000 towns and cities from
\n160 different countries around the world are taking part in Earth Hour this
\nyear. The event has been celebrated in Romania since 2009, two years after it
\nstarted in Australia. <\/p>\n
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A passenger jet operated by the FlyDubai budget airline
\ncrashed on Friday night in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, killing
\nall 55 passengers and 7 crew on board, the Russian authorities have announced.
\nThe Boeing 737 aircraft coming from Dubai missed the runaway during its second
\nattempt to land amid high winds, rain and poor visibility. <\/p>\n
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\n
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At
\nleast four people were killed and 36 others wounded today in a bomb attack in
\ncentral Istanbul. 12 foreign nations are among the wounded, according to the
\nTurkish health ministry. The attack targeted the biggest pedestrian and
\nshopping area on the city’s European side. Last Sunday, an attack in Ankara
\nclaimed by a Kurdish militant group killed 37 people. <\/p>\n
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The former president of Romania Traian Basescu
\nconfirmed on Friday that both he and his wife had applied for citizenship of
\nthe Republic of Moldova, an ex-Soviet state with a majority Romanian-speaking
\npopulation. During his term in office, he said repeatedly that he would apply
\nfor the Moldovan passport when his term was over out of love and respect for
\nthe country and its people. His application is still being processed before
\nbeing approved by the Moldovan president Nicolae Timofti. Although the legal
\ndeadline for a response to the application is one year, Traian Basescu’s
\nrequest may be processed sooner, given his special status, the Moldovan
\npresident’s senior PR advisor Ana Samson told Radio Chisinau. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Andrei Marius Gag of Romania today won
\nthe silver medal in the Shot Put at the World Indoor Championship in Portland,
\nthe United States, the first medal for Romania in an indoor event in the last
\n12 years. Another Romanian athlete, Tiberiu Useriu today won the 6633 Arctic
\nUltra race. He covered 566 km of ice road in one week, battling temperatures of
\neven minus 62 degrees Celsius. 12 competitors from around the world took part
\nin the race this year, including three Romanians. Since 2007, the race has
\ntaken place in Canada in the Polar Circle area and is billed as the toughest
\nfoot race in the world. <\/p>\n
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Romania’s rugby team face
\nGeorgia today in Tbilisi in a match that will decide the winner of the European
\nNations Cup. Romania have won all their four matches so far, against Portugal,
\nSpain, Russia and Germany. Last autumn, Romania, who are coached by Lynn
\nHowells, took part in the Rugby World Cup hosted by England, where they beat
\nCanada and lost to France, Ireland and Italy in the group stage. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Romanian women’s handball today face Uruguay in
\ntheir second match at the Olympic qualification tournament in the Danish city
\nof Aarhus. Romania are one step closer to the Olympic Games in Rio following
\ntheir Friday win against host country Denmark. A bronze medallist at the World
\nHandball Championships last year, Romania face Montenegro on Sunday in their
\nfinal match. The two best-ranked teams out of the group’s four will qualify for
\nthe Rio Games in August. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(Translated by: C. Mateescu)<\/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":[30069,30067,30068,30070],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-100902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-andrei-marius-gag","tag-earth-hour","tag-european-nations-cup","tag-tiberiu-useriu"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n