VIRUS Authorities in the
\nPhilippines have reported the first person killed by the cornoavirus outside
\nChina. According to official reports the victim was a 44 year old Chinese
\ncitizen coming from Wuhan, the place where the virus was initially detected.
\nAuthorities in Beijing have today announced the virus death toll has exceeded
\n300 and the army will be deploying 14 hundred of its medical personnel to help
\ncontain the spreading and treat patients in the newly built hospital in the
\nprovince of Hubei. The number of contaminated people has reached 14,400 most of
\nthem living in the province where the virus emerged, which has now been
\nreported in over 20 other countries including European. South Korea, the United
\nStates and Australia have announced they may ban the access of all people
\ncoming from China irrespective of their nationality, a temporary measure aimed at
\nlimiting its spreading. No victims have been reported in Romania so far but last
\nweek, the new coronavirus was declared a global emergency by the World Health
\nOrganisation who specified though that there was no reason to limit trade or travel
\nto China. <\/p>\n
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MEETING Romania’s Prime Minister Ludovic Orban attended the Friends of
\nCohesion meeting in Portugal, an event that brought together heads of state
\nand government and ministers from its members as well as commissioners in
\ncharge of budget issues and cohesion policy. In his address during the meeting,
\nthe Romanian official highlighted the importance of adopting an ambitious
\nbudget capable of offering the union the necessary resources for meeting the objectives
\non its strategic agenda. The budget must also be realistic in terms of ensuring
\na balance between the growth objectives it has to meet and the response to Europe’s
\nnew challenges. Orban also reiterated Romania’s support for reaching as soon as
\npossible a political agreement on the future European budget, which must allow
\nfor the commencement of the next EU-funded programmes and projects in due time.
\nThe participants have signed a joint statement pledging to leave unaltered the
\nEU funds destined to Europe’s less developed regions. <\/p>\n
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MOTION The censure motion against the Liberal
\ngovernment in Bucharest tabled by the opposition PSD will be presented to
\nParliament on Monday. The Social Democrats’ move was decided after the
\nExecutive led by Ludovic Orban had assumed responsibility for a project on
\nreintroducing the two-round election of mayors, almost half a year before the
\nevent. According to the Social Democrats, the present government must step down
\nfor its decision to amend the election law right before the event, which runs
\nagainst European standards and also for endorsing the new amendments
\nunilaterally without talks and debates over the project. According to the
\npresident of the Chamber of Deputies and PSD interim leader Marcel Ciolacu, ‘we
\nare currently facing the severest crisis of abuse of power’. The Liberals,
\nhowever, argue that the new system of voting will increase the candidates’
\nrepresentation and legitimacy. The Social Democrats say the motion could get
\nendorsed by 233 MPs standing chances to clear the threshold. Prime Minister
\nOrban says he is ready for any result and that his objectives are to ensure a
\nstable governance and win the future local and parliament election. <\/p>\n
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BREXIT EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier is expected to make public on
\nMonday his negotiation plan for the future relations the bloc is going to have
\nwith the UK. The Europeans have pledged fair but firm negotiations. None of the
\n73 British MEPs elected last year in May will be allowed to participate in Parliament
\nworks beginning on Monday. 46 mandates have been reserved for the EU’s future
\nmembers, while 27 will be distributed among the other members. Nor will British
\ncitizens be allowed to serve in other EU official jobs and some of them have
\napplied for double citizenship to keep their jobs. The UK left the European
\nUnion on Friday night after 47 years of membership being the first member to leave
\nthe bloc since its foundation. Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has voiced
\nRomania’s regret over Britain’s decision to leave the bloc but he hopes the
\ncountry will remain a close partner and a trustworthy ally sharing the same
\nvalues. Bucharest has as its key priority the protection of legitimate rights and
\ninterests of the Romanian citizens working or studying in the UK, Iohannis has
\nalso added. <\/p>\n
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FILM Romanian director Radu Ciorniciuc’s film
\n‘Acasa, My Home’ reaped the Special Jury Award for Cinematography at the
\nSundance Film Festival in the USA. According to the organizers, the prize went
\nto Mircea Topoleanu and Radu Ciorniciuc for their ‘fluid and tenacious
\ncamerawork’. The film was one of the 12 titles selected out of 14 thousand
\nproductions from the world over vying for a prize in the famous independent
\nfilm festival. Ciorniciuc’s film introduces viewers to the biggest urban delta
\nin Europe, the Vacaresti Nature Park in Romania’s capital Bucharest, through
\nthe eyes of a gypsy family living in the middle of the wetlands. <\/p>\n
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(translated by bill)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Click here for 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":[35347,35339,29125,31525],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-104124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-censure","tag-coronavirus","tag-iohannis","tag-orban"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n