ELECTION
\n– The second round of the presidential election is today taking place in
\nRomania. Romanians have to choose between the acting president, Klaus Iohannis,
\nsupported by the National Liberal Party and the former Social-Democrat Prime
\nMinister, Viorica Dancila. 2 hours before polling stations close, some 48% of
\nthe total of 18.2 million voters cast their votes. In the Diaspora the voting
\nprocess started on Friday at noon and will end on Sunday at midnight. Some
\n17.500 people living abroad voted by post. The total number of voting stations
\nabroad stood at 838. So far some 860 thousand Romanians living abroad have cast
\ntheir votes. <\/p>\n
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FRIGATE – The King Ferdinand frigate has returned to the military port of
\nConstanta after five weeks spent in the Mediterranean. The frigate took part in
\nthe NATO-led Sea Guardian 19 operation and in the Dogu Akdeniz 19 multinational
\nexercise, during which it carried out joint missions to deter illegal
\nactivities on the eastern flank of NATO and the EU, by means of monitoring
\nmaritime traffic, under Allied Maritime Command. <\/p>\n
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POPE FRANCIS
\n– During his tour of Asia, which also included Thailand, Pope Francis visited
\nJapan on Saturday, where he conveyed an emotion-evoking message against nuclear
\nweapons. The Pope visited Nagasaki, one of the two cities struck in the Second
\nWorld War. The Pope told Japanese bishops he hopes to meet some of the victims
\nof the nuclear attacks, as well as the survivors of the Fukushima nuclear power
\nplant disaster. Another goal of his visit to Japan is to encourage the Catholic
\ncommunity in this country, where only 1% of the population is Christian, half
\nof which is Catholic. This is the first visit by a Pope to Japan in the last 38
\nyears and the second one in history. <\/p>\n
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EUROPEAN COMMISSION – Ambassadors of EU Member States have
\nagreed that the new European Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen should
\nstart its activity on December 1 without a British Commissioner on the team,
\nafter the British Government refused to make a nomination. Ambassadors have
\nadopted the list of the 27 Commissioners, which further requires Parliament’s
\nvote, slated for Wednesday. Since Brexit has been postponed for January 31,
\n2020, Great Britain was bound by EU treatises to make a nomination. Boris
\nJohnson’s Cabinet stated that no nominations can be made ahead of a British
\nelection, as this country will host early legislative elections on December 12.
\nFollowing London’s refusal, the European Commission launched infringement
\nprocedures against Great Britain on November 14. <\/p>\n
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GAUDEAMUS – The Gaudeamus International Book Fair, organized in Bucharest by
\nRadio Romania, came to a close on Sunday. On the last day of the fair, the
\nawards of the 26th edition were presented. The Gaudeamus awards went
\nto the Humanitas, Polirom and ART publishers. The award for the most
\nsought-after book went to Radu Paraschivescu’s volume, The Man who moves
\nClouds. 7 Stories, released by Humanitas publishing house. In the media awards
\nsection, Evenimentul Zilei grabbed the award for best print publication, Pro TV
\nwon the award for best TV station, while Europa FM won the radio award. In the
\nnews agencies section, the award went to the national news agency Agerpres. The
\nAward for Excellence went to the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi
\nPublishing House. The Antoaneta Ralian translation prize went to Luminita
\nMunteanu, for her translation of the Orhan Pamuk series into Romanian, as well
\nas to Daniel Ionita, the coordinator of the bilingual edition of the anthology
\nTestament. 400 years of Romanian poetry, released in Australia. 8,000 book
\nstands were put up as part of this edition, devoted to the 30 years since the
\nanti-communist revolution of 1989. A total of 900 different events were
\nscheduled, including book launches, debates and book signing sessions.<\/p>\n
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HANDBALL – Romanian handball club AHC Potaissa Turda is playing ZRHK TENAX
\nDobele of Latvia in the second round of the men’s Challenge Cup. In the first
\nleg, the Romanian side won 38-35 away from home. Potaissa Turda won the
\nChallenge Cup in 2018 after defeating the Greek side AEK Athens. On Saturday,
\nanother club, CSM Bucharest, advanced to the Challenge Cup’s round of 16
\ndespite losing to HC Masheka of Belarus, 28-25 away from home, in the second
\nleg of the competition’s third round. Title holders CSM Bucharest had won the
\nfirst leg 34-28 on Friday. <\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
(Translated
\nby V. Palcu)<\/p>\n
<\/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":[14005,33162,29053,32414,35124,29663,35203],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-103943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-brexit","tag-challenge-cup","tag-european-commission","tag-gaudeamus-fair","tag-king-ferdinand-frigate","tag-pope-francis","tag-presidential-election-runoff"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n