COMMEMORATION Timisoara, a city in
\nWestern Romania, on Saturday kept a moment of silence in memory of the first
\nvictims of the Romanian anti-communist revolution 33 years ago. Following the
\norders given by dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, officers with the Interior and
\nDefence Ministries opened fire on the peaceful protesters who had taken to the
\nstreets of this martyr-city. The anti-communist revolt broke out in Timisoara,
\non December 16th and extended to Bucharest on December 21st and also to other
\ncities across Romania. Over one thousand people were killed and about 3
\nthousand were wounded in clashes between the protesters and troops of the
\ndefence and interior ministries all over Romania, the only country in eastern
\nEurope where the communist regime was changed through violence and
\nbloodshed. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
SPORT Romanian swimmer David Popovici
\non Sunday won the silver medal in the 200 meter free-style race of the FINA
\nWorld Swimming Championship 25 meters in Melbourne, Australia. The Romanian
\ncame second after South-Korean Sunwoo Hwang with Tom Dean of Britain coming
\nthird in the race. Popovici’s prize closet also includes a European title in
\nthe 200 meter free-style race, which he won in Kazan last year. In 2022 he
\nwalked away with gold in the 100 meter and 200 meter races both in the European
\nand world championships. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
TALKS
\nAfter heated debates on Saturday night, negotiators of the European Parliament
\nand EU Council reached an agreement to overhaul the bloc’s carbon market,
\ncutting planet-heating emissions faster and imposing new CO2 costs on fuels
\nused in road transport and buildings. According to the Czech Environment
\nMinister Marian Jurecka, the agreement will allow the EU to meet climate
\nobjectives within the main sectors of the economy while making sure the most
\nvulnerable citizens and micro-enterprises are effectively supported in the
\nclimate transition. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
GAS Azerbaijan intends to slightly increase its gas exports to Europe in
\n2023, the country’s president Ilham Aliyev has said as Brussels seeks to
\nreplace the diminishing energy supplies from Russia, Reuters reports. On
\nThursday, Gazprom announced its exports to countries outside the Community of
\nIndependent States dropped 45.1% between January 1st and December 15th
\nas compared to the same period in 2021. If Russia completely stops gas
\ndeliveries to Europe and Chinese gas demand rebounded from the Covid-19
\nrestrictions, the EU could face a shortfall of 27 billion cubic meters of gas
\nnext year. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
REFUGEES According to sources with the Interior Ministry in Bucharest,
\nsince the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th,
\n4,396 Ukrainian nationals have applied for asylum in Romania. They are
\nbenefitting all the rights stipulated by the national legislation. According to
\na communiqu\u00e9 released on Sunday, since March 3rd, more than 98
\nthousand residence permits have been issued for those who requested temporary
\nprotection, of which 21 in the past 24 hours. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
TOURISM According to data released by the National Institute for
\nStatistics, foreign tourists traveling to Romania spent about 600 million Euros
\nin the first nine months of the year. More than half of them came to Romania on
\nbusiness trips and almost three quarters of them arrived here by plane. 16.5%
\ncame by car and a little over 5% by bus. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
MESSAGE In his Christmas pastoral
\nmessage, Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church urges believers to
\nshow merciful love and solidarity to everybody but mainly to those suffering
\nfrom war. According to the Church’s Holy Fathers, selfish acts like greed, the
\nlove for money, power and pleasure have a negative effect on the spirit, says
\nthe Patriarch. This negative effect will be further affecting the relationships
\namong people, causing tension, conflicts and even violence, mainly due to the injustice
\nand suffering caused by the greed or will of some peoples to conquer others. At
\nthe same time, the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church has urged believers to
\npray for the Romanians abroad in order to keep the national unity of faith. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
HANDBALL Romania’s vice-champions in women’s handball CSM Bucharest
\nclinched a 27-24 home win against trophy-holder Norwegian side Vipers
\nKristiansand in a group A match counting towards the Champions League. CSM end
\nthe year first in their group with 15 points. In group B, Romania’s champions
\nRapid Bucharest secured a 36-29 away victory against Storhamar Handball Elite
\nalso from Norway. The Romanians are ranking second in their group with the same
\nnumber of points, 14, as the leader, Team Esbjerg of Denmark. In the men’s
\ncompetition of the Champions League, Dinamo Bucharest obtained a 31-all home draw
\nagainst Telekom Veszprem of Hungary. Dinamo rank fourth in their group with 11
\npoints. Bucharest is the only European capital with three sides in the
\ncontinent’s most prestigious club tournament. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(bill)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":105194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[31145,36475,35169,29572,37262,35979,29645,37261],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-106362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-csm","tag-daniel","tag-dinamo","tag-handball","tag-patriarch","tag-storhamar","tag-timisoara","tag-vipers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n