December 17, 2013
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Leyla Cheamil, 17.12.2013, 13:48
Romania’s Higher Defense Council in Bucharest today will be convening under the heading of President Traian Basescu. High on the agenda are the strategy of the national security industry and prime Minister Victor Ponta’s report on the measures Romania has taken in order to implement international sanctions. Talks will also include Romanian army’s participation in foreign missions over 2014, as well as the national Strategy in the field of civil capacities.
A mourning day is being observed in the western Romanian city of Timisoara today, in the memory of the victims of the December 1989 anti-Communist revolution. 24 years are commemorated today since the army has used live rounds and tanks to quash the uprising of the people in Timisoara, who were brave enough to take to the streets against the former communist presiding Nicolae Ceusescu;s regime. All flags of the city’s main institutions have been lowered down at half-mast. Commemoration masses and wreath-laying ceremonies are also held in the city. We recall the revolution sparked in Timisoara and rapidly spread in other cities across the country. It gained its momentum in Bucharest on December 22nd, the same day as Ceausescu;s regime collapsed.
“The Child’s Pose” a film directed by the Romanian Calin Peter Netzer has been included on the shortlist of the four feature films most likely to receive an Oscar 2014 nomination for the best foreign production, according to “The Hollywood Reporter” publication’s site. Also included on the list are the Danish production ” The Hunt”, the Iranian film “The Past” and the Belgian production “The Broken Circle”. The American Film Academy on December 20 will announce the shortlist including nine films, five of which will then be selected. “The Child’s Pose” was awarded the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2013.
Angela Merkel has been confirmed as a German Chancellor for a third term, with a crushing majority, Bundestag’s president Norbert Lammert has announced today. Merkel will be starting a four-year term and will be at the head of a large coalition made of the Christian Democratic Union, the Social Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party. The new German cabinet has emerged after nearly three months of negotiations that followed general elections. According to the BBC, the so called” grand coalition” is slightly heading towards the left, given that the Social Democratic Party looks set to give more attention to public spending.
