Romania’s president Klaus
\nIohannis is attending the nuclear security summit in Washington. Before his
\ndeparture, he emphasised the need for solidarity, responsibility and joint
\naction in the face of terrorist threats, which can take many forms. He also
\nsaid that Romania meets the highest standards when it comes to nuclear
\nsecurity. Today, Klaus Iohannis will visit the Holocaust Memorial in Washington
\nand attend a dinner at the White House hosted by US president Barack Obama in
\nhonour of the participants in the summit. <\/p>\n
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The Bucharest
\nTribunal today looks at a request by anticorruption prosecutors to allow the
\ntemporary 30-day arrest of Craiova’s mayor Lia Olguta Vasilescu. She was
\ndetained on Wednesday on charges of bribe taking, using her influence to obtain
\nundue financial benefits and goods and money laundering. Prosecutors allege
\nthat in 2012, when she was serving as a senator for the Social Democratic
\nParty, Vasilescu convinced a number of business people to finance her mayoral
\nrace by contributing more than 130,000 euros to her campaign. Also today, the
\nHigh Court of Cassation and Justice is considering a new date for the so-called
\nReferendum case, in which the Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea is accused
\nof creating a national system of voter influence that allegedly rigged the
\nreferendum on the impeachment of the then president Traian Basescu on 29th
\nJuly 2012. <\/p>\n
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According to the
\nPentagon, the US will deploy an armoured brigade in Eastern Europe with
\ncontinuous rotations starting in February 2017, as part of efforts to
\ndiscourage possible Russian aggression. The brigade will number 4,200 troops,
\nas well as tanks and other types of armoured vehicles. The troops will rotate
\nin and out of the allied states on the eastern flank, such as Romania,
\nBulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. US combat brigades of the
\nground forces are also stationed in Germany and Italy. About 62,000 US military
\nforces are permanently based in Europe. To reassure its allies in Eastern
\nEurope, NATO took a series of measures in the spring of 2014, such as opening
\nlogistical centres and deploying fighter aircraft in the Baltic states and
\nadditional ships in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. Moscow says the permanent
\ndeployment of troops along its borders violates the NATO-Russia Founding Act
\nsigned in 1997. <\/p>\n
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The Romanian Intelligence Service is investigating,
\ntogether with national and international partners, the use of Romanian anonymous
\npre-paid phone cards in areas with terrorist organisations. The Service has
\nrecently said that persons affiliated to terrorist groups have used pre-paid
\nphone cards in Romania to communicate abroad. The investigation also looks at
\nthe possible use of such cards in the attacks carried out in Europe. <\/p>\n
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The International Criminal tribunal in The Hague today
\nacquitted the former leader of the Serbian Radical Party Vojislav Seselj, who was on
\ntrial for inciting and committing war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia Hertegovina
\nduring the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Held for 12 years at the
\nScheveningen prision from February 2003
\nto November 2014, Seselj was temporarily released on humanitarian grounds. He
\ndid not attend the reading of the verdict. A week ago, the court in The Hague
\nsentenced the former political leader of the Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic to
\n40 years in prison for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. <\/p>\n
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Romania may become an important player on the regional
\nenergy market by 2020 if the BRUA natural gas pipeline is developed, the
\nRomanian economy minister Costin Borc told the Bucharest Forum held by Aspen
\nInstitute Romania. According to the minister, the pipeline, which links
\nBulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria, provides new opportunities for the
\nRomanian energy sector on the European market. He also said Romania must
\ncontinue work on the Arad-Szeged pipeline between Romania and Hungary and on
\nthe Iasi-Ungheni pipeline linking Romania to the Republic of Moldova, which
\nwill allow Romania to consolidate its position as an exporter on the natural
\ngas market. The minister also emphasised the need to develop the country’s
\ntransport and IT infrastructure. <\/p>\n
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Two Romanian women’s handball teams are playing in the
\nChampions League quarterfinals in two home matches. In their first
\nparticipation in this most important club competition in Europe, the Romanian
\nchampions CSM Bucharest face the Russian side Rostov-Don. To qualify for the
\nFinal 4 tournament in Budapest on the 7th and 8th of May, CSM have the difficult
\ntask of defeating the Russian champions, the only team in European women’s
\nhandball to win every match in the last 8 months. The return match is scheduled
\nfor 9th April. The second Romanian team playing today are the domestic
\nvice-champions HCM Baia Mare, who are facing the Montenegrin side Buducnost
\nPodgorica. The return match is scheduled for 10th April. <\/p>\n
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The
\nRomanian-Russian pair Monica Niculescu and Margarita Gasparian on Friday
\nface the Hungarian-Kazakh pair Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova in the semifinals of the Miami tennis
\ntournament worth 6 million dollars in prize money. While this is Niculescu and
\nGasparian’s third tournament as a pair, they pulled of a surprising win over
\nthe Swiss-Indian pair Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza. In the
\nsingles event in Miami, world no. 5 Simona Halep of Romania lost to the Swiss
\nplayer Timea Bacsinszky, world no. 20, in the quarterfinals. <\/p>\n
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(Translated by: C. Mateescu)<\/p>\n
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