RESPONSE<\/strong> – Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis is expected to make a
<\/p>\n
COLECTIV <\/strong>– On
<\/p>\n
CURRENCY<\/strong> – Romania’s national currency, the Leu, has
<\/p>\n
TOURISM<\/strong> – The number of foreign tourists who visited Romania in
<\/p>\n
NATO<\/strong> – The Dutch Minister of Defense Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert has
<\/p>\n
REACTION<\/strong> – The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has
<\/p>\n
CRASH<\/strong> – The crash of the Russian military plane in the Black Sea
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":[29431,13794,31378,31379,31380],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-101577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-colectiv","tag-nato","tag-romanian-pm-nomination","tag-romanian-tourism","tag-tupolev-154-crash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\ndecision regarding the second proposal made by the Social-Democratic Party and
\nthe Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, which hold the majority in Parliament,
\nfor the position of Prime Minister. The first nomination, Sevil Shhaideh, was
\nturned down. Sorin Grindeanu, the second nomination, met with the president on
\nThursday. Aged 43, Grindeanu is currently the president of the Timis County
\nCouncil and has been a member of the Social-Democratic Party for 20 years. He
\nwas Minister of Transportation in the Government led by Victor Ponta. The
\nDemocratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, which has concluded a
\ncooperation protocol with the Social-Democrats and the Alliance of Liberals and
\nDemocrats, has not yet expressed its support for this second name. Opposition
\nparties on the other hand say they will not vote for a Cabinet led by Sorin
\nGrindeanu. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
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\nThursday, the Bucharest tribunal ruled that the trial should commence in the case
\nconcerning Colectiv, the Bucharest club where, on October 30th 2015,
\na fire broke out during a rock concert, killing 64 people and wounding more
\nthan 100. The three owners of the club are charged with manslaughter, bodily
\ninjury and failure to take the necessary occupational health and safety
\nmeasures. Also on trial are the owners of the company that took care of the
\nfireworks show, one of their employees and two legal advisors. We recall that
\nthe tragedy triggered large-scale rallies denouncing the corruption in the
\npublic administration. At the pressure of the protesters, the then Social
\nDemocrat Prime Minister Victor Ponta resigned. <\/p>\n
\n
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\nthese days hit its lowest value in the last three years against the top hard
\ncurrencies. Specialists however say that this trend is no reason to worry, as
\nRomanian economy is currently stable. They expect the Leu to go up, especially
\nagainst the Euro, once the domestic political turmoil settles down, a new
\nGovernment is sworn in and the budget for 2017 is adopted. In turn, the US
\ndollar has gone up against the rising optimism in American society, which in a
\nfew weeks is due to have a new president and administration. This tendency
\nmight continue over the first months of 2017, experts say. In Romania, the
\nLeu-dollar exchange rate has triggered a hike not only in fuel prices, but also
\nin the price of house appliances made in Asia, of vegetable and fruit imported
\nfrom Turkey, and raw materials imported from other continents. <\/p>\n
\n
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\n2016 stands at some 1.3 million, which is 20% more than in 2015. Most tourists have come from Germany,
\nFrance, the UK, Italy and Spain. Representatives of the travel industry say
\nthis good figure is the result of the favourable position Romania enjoys at
\nEuropean level, as our country has been one of the safest countries in the
\nregion this year. 2016 was also the best year for the Romanian seacoast, where
\nthe number of tourists went up by as much as 15%. 11% more Romanians visited
\nthe seacoast this year, while the number of foreign tourists also increased by
\n10% as compared to 2015, standing at around 50,000 people. Ranking at the top
\nof tourists’ preferences was the resort of Mamaia. <\/p>\n
\n
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\nannounced that the Netherlands will contribute two chiefs of general staff to
\nthe Multinational NATO Brigade in 2017, which will be rendered operational in
\nCraiova, southern Romania, the Romanian Defense Ministry reports. At the same
\ntime, the Dutch Minister spoke of the possibility of Dutch troops taking part
\nin other multi-purpose military drills which the brigade is to carry out. We
\nrecall that the Rovine 2nd Infantry Division, stationed in Craiova,
\nsouthern Romania, will become a NATO Multinational Brigade, a decision taken as
\npart of a series of measures adopted at the NATO Summit of Warsaw this summer.
\nThe announcement follows the commitments of other states to contribute to the
\nNATO brigade. Germany will deploy chiefs of staff, Bulgaria will contribute 400 soldiers, and Poland will deploy
\nsome 250 military. Romania will in turn deploy 250 soldiers to be part of the
\nbrigade in Poland. The brigade will also be cooperating with a military unit
\nfrom the United States. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
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\ncondemned and termed as biased a recent speech delivered by the US Secretary
\nof State John Kerry, whose mandate is coming to a close. In his speech, Kerry
\ndefended the Obama administration’s decision to allow the UN Security Council
\nlast week to adopt a resolution whereby Israeli colonies were declared illegal.
\nJohn Kerry warned that Israeli settlements were a danger to the two-state peace
\nsolution. Netanyahu has stated that
\nKerry’s speech focused obsessively on Israeli settlements, making hardly
\nany reference to Palestinian violence. The Israeli Prime Minister has said the
\nPalestinians’ refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a state remains
\nthe crux of the problem. <\/p>\n
\n
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\nwas caused by a technical malfunction, the Russian Transport Minister Maxime
\nSokolov said on Thursday. Preliminary
\ndata decoded from the aircraft’s two black boxes suggest the pilots lost
\ncontrol over the plane due to the faulty wing flaps, which put the plane at a
\ncritical angle. The 154 Tupolev aircraft was headed to Latakia, Syria and was
\ncarrying 92 people on board, of whom 83 were passengers, most of them members
\nof the Russian Army Choir. They were scheduled to hold a holiday concert at the
\nSyrian base in Khmeimim. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"