August 21, 2017
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 21.08.2017, 14:18
VISIT French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Thursday will be paying a formal visit to Romania at the invitation of his Romanian counterpart Klaus Iohannis. The visit was agreed upon during the talks the two officials had on the sidelines of the European Council session in Brussels in June. On that occasion, president Iohannis voiced Romania’s determination to remaining France’s staunch partner and to supporting with France the process of kick-starting the European project. The talks between the two leaders are expected to be focussing on the development and deepening of the bilateral relation of the strategic partnership and also on the main topics on the international and European agendas. The economic issues to be tackled include boosting bilateral trade, including by diversifying cooperation fields. Against the background of the tradition and the cultural affinities between the two states the talks in Bucharest will also focus on cooperation during the cultural season Romania-France 2018 — 2019.
MIGRANTS Romanian Coast Guard last night intercepted in the Black Sea a small boat carrying about 50 clandestine migrants. According to the authorities their nationality will be verified at the Navy base in Mangalia, southeastern Romania. At the end of last week a motor-yacht under Turkish flag with 69 migrants on board was also intercepted by a Coast Guard vessel in Romania’s territorial waters.
ISIS The driver of the van that killed 13 people in Barcelona last week has been identified, the Catalan police have announced. The name of the 22-year-old Moroccan Younes Abouyaaquoub has been made known to all the police forces in Europe. Hours after the attack in Barcelona, police shot dead five terrorists while trying to launch an attack in the resort of Cambrils. The masterminds of the two attacks, claimed by ISIS, were part of a Jihadi cell of 12 people. 14 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils.
TENNIS Romania’s best tennis player Simona Halep was trounced by Spanish challenger Garbine Muguruza 6-1, 6-0 in the finals of the WTA tournament in Cincinnati with over two million and a half dollars in prize money. Halep, the world’s second best tennis player has for the third time missed the chance of becoming WTA number one. We recall the Romanian player lost the Roland Garros finals to Jelena Ostapenko and the quarters in Wimbledon to Johanna Konta. Simona also lost the finals in Cincinnati to Serena Williams in 2015 and was stopped in her tracks last year in the semis by Angelique Kerber.
