July 6, 2014
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 06.07.2014, 13:45
Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Turkey are participating for a week in a joint NATO exercise in the Black Sea. Besides search and rescue missions and sea traffic monitoring, soldiers are also conducting artillery drills. Romania is represented by the “Alexandru Axente” dragger and the “Regina Maria” frigate. Russia too started large scale military maneuvers in the Black Sea on Friday, involving 20 military and auxiliary ships, over 20 fighter planes and helicopters, as well as navy infantry and artillery troops.
The Ukrainian government has announced that the offensive against the pro-Russia separatists continues, following the seizing of two of their strongholds on Saturday. According to news reports from Ukraine, the separatists in the east of the country have regrouped in Donetsk and Horlivka, as the government forces are now controlling some of their strongholds, including Sloviansk. President Petro Porosenko has stated that the victory in Sloviansk has a major symbolic value, but has warned that it’s too early to celebrate.
2 thousand 5 hundred employees of the Freight Division of the Romanian National Railway Company, CFR Marfa, owned by the Romanian state, will be made redundant in keeping with a restructuring and reorganization program. Depending on seniority, people will get 12 to 14 salaries part of the severance package, standing at a maximum of 370 Euros per month. Also, they will get 6 gross salaries, the equivalent of 205 Euros. The restructuring program is aimed at reestablishing the balance between the volume of freight and the number of employees, so that competitiveness should increase. CFR Marfa had a 54.8% market share in 2013. The turnover was 210 million Euros, 5% lower than in 2012.
Italy is very much alone in the fight against the huge wave of immigrants trying to land on the European coast and calls for help from the other EU countries. The Commander- in- chief of the Italian Navy, admiral Filippo Maria Foffi, believes this is an unsustainable task for just one single member of the EU and therefore all the EU countries should get involved in improving control on the EU borders. According to authorities, the number if immigrants is on the rise. 66 thousand have arrived since the beginning of the year, as compared to 43 thousand last year. In October 2013, a few days after the tragedy in Lampedusa, where over 360 immigrants died, Italy launched the “Mare Nostrum program”, in an attempt to save the immigrants fleeing Libya to Europe on board improvised boats.
Argentina and the Netherlands have qualified for the semifinals of the World Football Cup in Brazil, after beating in the quarter finals Belgium 1-nil and Costa Rica 4-3 respectively. On Friday, also in the quarter finals, Germany defeated France 1-nil, and the host team beat Columbia 2-1. Brazil and Germany will play on Tuesday for a place in the final. The other semifinal is scheduled for Wednesday.
