9 May, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 09.05.2014, 19:57
NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, on Friday termed as inappropriate Russian president Vladimir Putin’s visit to Crimea, the first after the annexation of the peninsula, in March. In the port city of Sevastopol, the Kremlin leader watched the Black Sea fleet parade, celebrating the victory over Nazi Germany in WWII. A big parade was also held in Moscow’s Red Square, with 11 thousand soldiers, fighters and helicopters participating. The military show off was staged against the background of the West’s opposition to the role played by Russia in the crisis in Ukraine, international press agencies report. Crimea’s annexation triggered the most serious political crisis between Russia and the Western countries since the the Cold War. In another development, violence has extended to the south-east of Ukraine, full of pro-Russian secessionist hot-beds.
Against the background of the developments in Ukraine, Russia’s neo-imperial attitude seems to set the layout for a new cold war, said on Friday the Director of the Romanian Intelligence Service, George Maior. He said that Romania will have to solve many political and geo-political problems, because the situation in Ukraine, which adds to the information and technological revolution in the area, will mark the situation in the region. Bucharest authorities will have to make brave decisions and to protect the national, interests, the head of the Romanian Intelligence Office also said.
On Friday the old continent celebrated Europe’s Day, also known as the Schuman Day, named after the French Foreign Minister Roberth Schuman, who in 1950 laid the foundation of the European Community of Coal and Steel, the current European Union. Delegations of the 28 member countries organised activities around the theme “Europe in the world”. Romania joined the EU in 2007. In Bucharest metro stations were named after European countries, and the travellers had the opportunity to enjoy music and dances specific to those countries.
Singers Paula Seling and Ovi will represent Romania at the Eurovision contest’s final held on Saturday in the Danish capital Copenhagen with the song called “Miracle”. 26 countries are participating in the final. Paula Seling and Ovi also too part in the Eurovision contest in 2010, when they won third place with a song called “Playing with Fire”.
Five Romanian pupils will participate in the biggest science and engineering competition in the world, organised by Intel in the US city of Los Angeles. They are Octavian Coca and Stefan Dascalu from Suceava, Daniel Cosovanu from Solca, and Stefan Iov and Alexandru Glontaru from Bucharest. The competition, called Intel International Science and Engineering fair has 5 million dollars in prize money. Last year, the big prize was won by Romanian Ionut Budisteanu, with the project “Low cost unmanned car”.
Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, number 5th in the world, has qualified for the semifinals of the tournament in Madrid, totaling 3.6 million dollars in prize money. In the quarters, Halep, tournament’s favourite no. 4, defeated 11th seeded Serbian Ana Ivanovici 2-nil. Next she will meet Petra Kvitova, from the Check Republic.
