ELECTION CAMPAIGN<\/strong>
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MOLDOVA <\/strong>Sunday will see the
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PROTESTS<\/strong> Demonstrations have
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TALIBAN ATTACK<\/strong> NATO has
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FOOTBALL
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RUGBY<\/strong> Romania’s national
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A roundup of domestic and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":75903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[29156,31128,31173,31171,31172],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-101480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-2018-world-cup","tag-moldova-presidential-election","tag-pershing-cup","tag-romanian-parliament-elections","tag-taliban-attack"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nThe campaign for the December 11th parliamentary elections in
\nRomania started on Friday. Some 6,500 people, both party members and
\nindependent candidates, have registered for the race to get one of the 466
\nseats in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The system used this year is
\nthe party-list proportional representation system, used back in 2004. The
\nparties standing the biggest changes of being represented in the next
\nParliament are the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party, the Save
\nRomania Union, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats and the People’s Movement
\nParty.<\/p>\n
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\nsecond ballot of the presidential elections in the neighboring Republic of
\nMoldova, the former Soviet country with a predominantly Romanian-speaking
\npopulation. Competing are the pro-Russia socialist Igor Dodon and the pro-West
\nreformist Maia Sandu. Some 3 million citizens are thus expected to the polls to
\nelect their president, for the first time after 16 years in which the president
\nwas designated by Parliament. Pundits say that the stake of the ballot is not
\njust political, but also geo-political. Dodon wants his country to join the
\nRussia-Belarus-Kazakhstan Union, while Sandu stands for reform and European
\nintegration.<\/p>\n
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\nbeen held for three nights in a row in big cities and university campuses in
\nthe US against the president – elect Donald Trump. Protesters say that,
\nalthough they know they cannot change the result of the election, they want to
\ndraw attention to the fact that there are many reasons for people to be unhappy
\nwith the future president, whose campaign included lots of insulting remarks
\nagainst women, as well as threats such as the one about building a wall between
\nthe US and Mexico to keep immigrants away. Initially, Trump said that
\nprotesters were professional rioters, incited by the media. Later he
\nreconsidered his position, saying the protesters were people who loved their
\ncountry and made an appeal to unity.<\/p>\n
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\nannounced that Bagram, the largest American base in Afghanistan, near capital
\nKabul, has been hit by an explosion, which killed 4 people. The attack has been
\nclaimed by Taliban insurgents. The Bagram base is a regular target for the
\nTaliban. Six American soldiers were killed in December last year, when a
\nTaliban riding a motorcycle blew himself up near the base. That was one of the
\nbloodiest attacks against the foreign troops in Afghanistan in 2015.<\/p>\n
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\n<\/strong>On Friday night in Bucharest, Romania’s
\nnational football team lost the match against Poland 0-3. The national squad
\nnow stands less chances of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup hosted by Russia.
\nWith only 5 points, Romania ranks 4th in the preliminary group E,
\nafter Poland with 10 points, Montenegro with 7 points and Denmark with 6. In
\nthe same group, also on Friday, Armenia defeated Montenegro 3-2, and Denmark
\nbeat Kazakhstan 4-1. On Tuesday, the Romanian national squad will take on the
\nRussian team in a friendly game hosted by Grozny. The next official game of the
\nRomanian national football team is scheduled for March, on home turf, against
\nDenmark.<\/p>\n
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\nrugby team is today playing in Bucharest against the US squad a test-match at
\nthe end of which the winner will get the Pershing Cup. The trophy has been
\nawarded by the Romanian rugby Federation since 2014, in memory of the game held
\nat the Inter-Allied Military Olympics organized in 1919 by the Commander of the
\nAmerican Expeditionary Force, General John Joseph Pershing, to mark the end of
\nthe first world war. Seven of the eight games held so far have been won by the
\nUS.<\/p>\n