February 18, 2024 UPDATE
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news.
Newsroom and Daniel Bilț, 18.02.2024, 19:28
SPORT Romania’s selections obtained new wins on Sunday at the World Table Tennis Championships in Busan, South Korea. In the women’s Group 7, Romania has scored its third win out of three games, 3-1 against Singapore after those against Sweden and Canada. In their last game in the group, on Monday morning, the Romanians will be playing Serbia. In the male’s competition, in Group 8, after 0-3 with Portugal and 3-0 with Egypt, on Sunday Romania clinched a 3-1 win against Thailand. Our men’s side will be playing Iran on Tuesday. 40 teams from all over the world are playing in the men’s and women’s contests in Busan. The world championships are a qualification criterion for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, where the first 8 teams are qualified.
HOMAGE Several people gathered in front of the Russian embassy in Bucharest on Sunday to pay their homage to the deceased Russian dissident, Aleksei Navalnyi. They lit candles and laid flowers in memory of the man who opposed the present regime at the Kremlin. Some of the participants carried placards reading ‘You cannot win free election by killing opposition’. As early as Friday the Romanian politicians have conveyed their messages paying homage to the Russian dissident. According to Russian sources, Navalnyi 47, died in the arctic penitentiary he was detained since December last year. The opposition, the Russian independent press as well as the Western foreign ministries have unanimously accused the Russian president Vladimir Putin for having ordered the death of the man who had been the Kremlin’s number one enemy for 15 years.
CONFERENCE On the sidelines of the Security Conference in Munich, Romania’s Foreign Minister, Luminita Odobescu, had a meeting with a group of veterans from the Russian-Ukrainian front. On this occasion, the minister has conveyed a firm message of solidarity with the neighboring Ukraine and its people, ‘in their legitimate fight to defend the independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of their country in the illegal aggression war Russia is waging on Ukraine. According to a press communiqué the Romanian Foreign Ministry released on Sunday, minister Odobescu had earlier participated in the second day of the Conference in Germany in an event devoted to the situation of Afghan women and had talks with her counterparts and with representatives of the international think-tanks.
POLO Polls drawn on Saturday have placed Romania’s national water polo side in group A together with Croatia, Italy, Greece, the United States and Montenegro at the Olympic Games in Paris. The International water polo federation had earlier announced Romania’s unexpected qualification, as our athletes ended on the tenth position at the World Championship in Doha, Qatar. Only the first eight sides are qualified but South Africa had declared forfeit for Paris. So, Romania, the best placed side among those unqualified, has thus ensured their tickets for Paris. Water polo is the only team sport with Romanian participation in the aforementioned Olympics. Romania ranked 8th at the European Championships in Croatia a month ago.
SCULPTURE A sculpture by Romania’s greatest sculptor Constantin Brancusi, which was believed, lost or destroyed until last year, has been put on display at the Artmark Galleries in Bucharest. The sculpture known as ‘Bust of a Restaurant Patron’ is actually depicting a waiter in the Parisian café where the artist worked as dishwasher shortly after his arrival in Paris. The sculpture was made around 1905-1906 and has been recently bought at an international auction in Paris by a Romanian collector.
