January 28, 2016 UPDATE
Click here for an update on domestic and international news
Newsroom, 28.01.2016, 12:15
The Romanian PM’s control body started an investigation at the National Forestry Authority — ROMSILA regarding their activity in the past 2 years, government sources announced on Thursday. On Tuesday the main professional forestry associations in Romania organized a protest action before the government building in Bucharest. They expressed discontent with the activity of the state-owned company ROMSILVA, which they accuse of having blocked the entire wood industry in Romania after increasing by 300% the minimum starting price at timber auctions.
The ultimatum given by the leaders of the protesters to the Moldovan authorities expired on Thursday. The protesters are calling for the resignation of the president and of the government and for holding early elections. They announced they would decide, Friday, on the timetable of their future protest actions. Ahead of the expiry of the ultimatum, the Parliament speaker, Andrian Candu, invited the leaders of the protesters to hold talks on Friday, but they refused the invitation. After the investiture, last week, of a new government headed by Pavel Filip, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets, urged by the pro-European civil society and two pro-Russian parties, denouncing the politicians’ corruption. The protesters warned that they would block certain national roads besides civil protests. On Tuesday Pavel Filip made his first visit aboard in his capacity as PM to neighboring Romania. Both the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and the PM Dacian Ciolos have assured the Moldovan PM that Romania would support Moldova on its European integration path while asking the Moldovan authorities to speed up reforms and the anti-corruption measures.
Romania is ranked 3rd in the classification of states with the biggest number of trials at the European Court of Human Rights, in which at least one infringement of the European Convention on Human Rights has been reported. According to the annual report made public by the European Court of Human Rights on Thursday, in 2015 the countries with the biggest number of trials were Russia (109), Turkey (79), Romania (72), Ukraine (50), Greece (43) and Hungary (42). The Court president, Guido Raimondi, underlined the need for each member state to make sure that endemic problems are solved at internal level, rather than being brought before the European Court of Human Rights.
The Zika virus has an explosive spread on the American continent, said Thursday the WHO director general Dr Margaret Chan, who called an emergency meeting on Monday. The virus, which causes microcephaly – babies born with abnormally small heads, is not a threat for Romania at present, professor Alexandru Rafila, the president of the Romanian Microbiology Society has said. The virus, which is transmitted by a mosquito living in the tropical areas, is the cause of the infections reported in the two Americas. The most affected country is Brazil. Thousands of people have been infected in Brazil and the virus has spread to more than 23 countries in the region. The WHO announced that the virus spread in at least 6 European countries: Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Denmark and Switzerland.
At least 24 migrants, among whom ten children, have died in a new shipwreck offshore the Greek island of Samos in the Aegean Sea, close to the western coast of Turkey. This country has been the gate to Europe for hundreds of thousands of migrants since early 2015. Another 11 people have been reported missing. On Wednesday, in the Aegean Sea, a shipwreck resulted in the death of two children, while last Friday 45 migrants lost their lives. The total number of people who have reached Europe since January 1st, after crossing the Mediterranean Sea, amounts to more than 40,200 people. 80% of them come from countries located in conflict areas, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported. 200 people have died or have been reported missing, according to the same source.
(news translated by Lacramioara Simion)
