UKRAINE The US
\npresident Joe Biden Tuesday praised the Ukrainians’ resilience in the face of
\nthe Russian invasion launched nearly a year ago. Speaking at a rally in Warsaw,
\nhe emphasized that the US support for Ukraine remained unwavering and that the
\nfree world condemned Russia’s aggression. Biden added that he also wanted the
\npeople of the Republic of Moldova to be truly free, and called on participants
\nto applaud Moldova’s president Maia Sandu, attending the assembly. Previously,
\nin Moscow, president Vladimir Putin announced Russia would suspend its
\nparticipation in the New START treaty with the US on the reduction of strategic
\nnuclear weapons. The statement was made at the end of his state-of-the-nation address,
\nahead of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24th February,
\nand after the US president Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv. On Wednesday,
\nBiden is due to meet the leaders of Bucharest Nine, a group of NATO countries
\nfrom central and eastern Europe formed after Russia’s annexation of Crimea at
\nthe proposal of the presidents of Romania and Poland, Klaus Iohannis and Andrej
\nDuda, respectively. The NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said that
\nwith Russia’s decision on the latest START Treaty full arms control
\narchitecture has been dismantled. Speaking at a press conference in Brussels
\nwith the participation of Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs,
\nand Josep Borrell, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, Stoltenberg added
\nthat Moscow was the aggressor in Ukraine, after Vladimir Putin had claimed that
\nthe West was trying to destroy Russia.<\/p>\n
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\n
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PENSIONS In Bucharest, USR and the Force of the Right parties in opposition
<\/p>\n
TURKEY Rescuers
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CULTURE Two
Click here for a roundup of local and world news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":105208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[29614,30160,30904,29079,29120,31085,32366,29934,35476,36044,29310,37402,32594,34123,29159,28905],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-106492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-biden","tag-brancusi","tag-culture","tag-earthquake","tag-eu","tag-funding","tag-pensions","tag-putin","tag-recovery","tag-resilience","tag-russia","tag-start","tag-support","tag-treaty","tag-turkey","tag-ukraine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nTuesday tabled a simple motion against the labour minister Marius Bud\u0103i, whom
\nthey accuse of incompetence and carelessness. They argue that Bud\u0103i is
\nprotecting special pensions (which are not based on contributions to pension
\nfunds) thus jeopardising the EU funding Romania should receive under the
\nNational Recovery and Resilience Plan. Meanwhile, the Senate has once again
\npostponed the bill reforming special pensions, for 2 weeks, until relevant ministries
\nhave submitted estimates of its impact on the budget and stated whether the
\nbill complies with Resilience Plan benchmarks. The World Bank is also expected
\nto state its view on the matter.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
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\nin Turkey are carrying out new searches for people trapped under the rubble as
\na new quake hit the south-east of the country on Monday night, in the same
\nregion as the devastating earthquakes that took place two weeks ago. According
\nto official reports, six persons were killed and 200 wounded in the latest
\ntremor. Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is running for a new term
\nin May if elections are held on schedule, says his country would start building
\ntens of thousands of new homes next month, a move estimated to cost at least 25
\nbillion dollars. Erdogan’s rapid reconstruction plans worry architects and
\nengineers, who are concerned that the lack of urban planning and careful
\nassessment of building safety may lead to a new disaster. <\/p>\n
\n
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\nbooks about Constantin Br\u00e2ncu\u015fi were launched in Timi\u015foara, which this year is
\nholding the title of European Capital of Culture. The books, which recently
\nappeared in France, are written by Doina Lemny, art historian and researcher at
\nthe National Museum of Modern Art and the Pompidou Centre in Paris. The launch
\npreviews an extensive exhibition dedicated to the great Romanian sculptor next
\nautumn at Timi\u015foara’s Museum of Art. According to the city’s mayor Dominic
\nFritz, around 60,000 people attended the over 130 different events held in
\nTimi\u015foara this weekend during the official opening of the European Capital of
\nCulture programme. The city will be playing host to around 1,000 different
\ncultural events all year long. (AMP, CM)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"