December 2, 2016 UPDATE
For a roundup of domestic and international news, click here.
Newsroom, 02.12.2016, 12:15
DIPLOMACY Romanian diplomats have announced their surprise and amazement over a decision by the Foreign Ministry in neighboring Hungary to forbid the Hungarian diplomats to participate in receptions and festivities staged on Thursday on the occasion of Romanias National Day. The Ministry said, upon request from Radio Romania, that such a decision is hard to understand all the more so as the respect for a countrys national symbols and values are an undisputable part of the set of values the European Union and the Transatlantic community are based upon. The Foreign Ministry adds that Romania has been a country deeply attached to such values. We recall that Romania celebrates its National Day on December 1st, to mark the union in 1918 of the province of Transylvania with the Romanian kingdom. The union completed the process of forming the Romanian unitary state after the First World War, when all the Romanian provinces belonging to various multinational empires, united.
CYBER CRIME The Romanian police have joined authorities from 29 other countries to dismantle the worlds largest computer network responsible for launching cyber-attacks the world over, the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police has announced. Code-named Avalanche, the operation was launched last week at the end of investigations that lasted five years. Five people have been detained, 37 buildings searched and 39 servers seized. According to Romanian Police sources, over 500 thousand computers were being affected on a daily basis from this infrastructure, which became operational in 2009. The perpetrators used viruses to hack into computers and withdraw money from the victims accounts. Avalanche was the largest police operation of this kind with 800 thousand web domains blocked or closed down in order to be taken out of the hackers control. Among the countries involved in the Avalanche operation were Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, Britain and the United States.
PROTEST Around 15 hundred workers protested on Friday morning in front of Romanias biggest carmaker Dacia, in Mioveni, southeastern Romania, denouncing the condition of commuter buses assuring the transport of employees and the drivers lack of experience. Production was stopped for an hour at the plant. The protest has been triggered by two collective accidents, the first in early August, when 13 people were wounded, and another one last week, when 17 other people were wounded. Trade union leaders have cautioned this is only the first in the series of protests that will follow unless their claims are met. We recall the first Dacia car was produced in Romania in 1966. Since 1999 the brand has belonged to French group Renault accounting for roughly 30% of the French carmakers sales.
UN The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon has expressed appreciation for the significant progress Romania has made in terms of implementing democratic values as well as for Bucharests contribution to the efforts of promoting peace, sustainable development and human rights the world over. The UN official has highlighted the activity of Romanias public servants, including officers in charge of the UN high officials protection. Ban Ki-moon and the president of the UN general assembly, Peter Thomson, on Thursday attended the reception offered by Bucharests permanent mission at the United Nations on the occasion of Romanias National Day. In turn Peter Thomson has said he appreciates Romanias activism and the wide range of commitments assumed at all levels in over 60 years of UN membership.
EUROPOL In a report published in the Hague, the European police, EUROPOL, have warned that the Islamic State has been planning new attacks in Europe in the near future. There is risk for the refugees from Syria to be recruited and radicalized, while IS fighters can get infiltrated among the refugees, the report says. Experts believe that car bomb attacks can be carried out in France, but also in Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain and Germany. The US Department of State also last week announced there is credible information about the Al Qaeda and the Islamic State and their branches, which are planning terror attacks in Europe around the winter holidays. Jihadists have this year carried out bloody attacks in Belgium, France, Germany and Turkey.
UNESCO – Traditional handwoven fabrics from Romania and the Republic of Moldova are starting Friday part of UNESCOs immovable cultural list. These tapestry works are produced in local communities of craftsmen and are considered genuine works of art, used to decorate the interior of homes, but also part of certain celebrations. UNESCO added to the same list the El Callao Carnival of Venezuela, the puppet theatre of Slovakia and the Czech Republic and traditional pottery from Cini, Turkey.
HANDBALL Romanias national handball side leaves for Sweden on Saturday to participate in the European Championship due over December 4th and 18th. In the final tournaments group D Romania will be playing Norway on December 5th, take on Russia two days later and on Croatia on December 9th. The first three sides in each group will qualify for the second stage, which has two series of six groups each. Romanias team is being lead by Spanish coach Ambros Martin, who last week replaced Swedish Thomas Ryde, under whose guidance our handballers won bronze at the World Championship in Denmark in 2015. In 2013 and 2014, Ambros Martin was designated the worlds best coach after having won two Champions Leagues trophies with Hungarian side Gyor.
(Translated by D. Bilt and V. Palcu)
