November 12, 2014
A roundup of Romanian and world news.
România Internațional, 12.11.2014, 13:49
Romanian Foreign Minister, Teodor Melescanu and Minister Delegate for Romanians Abroad, Bogdan Stanoevici today have talks about the organisation of the presidential runoff on November 16th with members of the Chamber of Deputies Commission for the Romanian Diaspora. The talks take place against the backdrop of accusations regarding the way in which the first round of voting was organized abroad on November 2nd. Back then, thousands of Romanians could not cast their vote, blaming the small number of polling stations and staff in the election commissions. The Romanian Foreign Ministry has already taken measures for the smooth running of the election process, without however setting up more polling stations. The Central Election Bureau has repeatedly said that such a decision can only be made by the Foreign Ministry. The left candidate, Prime Minister Victor Ponta and the right candidate, the mayor of Sibiu, Klaus Johannis will run for president in the second round of voting on Sunday, November 16th.
The Minister of Economy of the ex-Soviet Republic of Moldova with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population, deputy prime minister Andrian Candu said that the Moldovan authorities intended to extend the Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline as far as Chisinau. The gas pipeline is aimed to reduce Moldova’s dependence on Russian gas. The cost of that project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2016, amounts to over 200 million Euros, about ten times as much as the cost of the Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline, which benefited from Romania’s support and EU funds. Chisinau has again asked for the support of the EU, which has already stated its readiness to provide 5% of the infrastructure spending.
The European Space Agency’s Rosetta space probe is trying to drop a small lander onto the surface of a comet to explore the evolution of the solar system. The manoeuvres will take place over 500 million km far from the Earth. The lander will touch down on the comet and will provide the first footage ever made on a comet. It will also study the nucleus of the comet. The European Space Agency, the German Space Agency and the French Space Agency are involved in the project. Launched in March 2004, the Rosetta probe has already covered over 6 billion km in space. It has orbited the Earth three times and Mars once to get the speed it needed to reach the comet.
The UN is today holding an emergency meeting on the situation in Eastern Ukraine, where fighting reportedly continues despite the conclusion of ceasefire accords in Minsk in September. The situation worsened particularly after elections had been held in the breakaway regions on November 2nd. According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Russia has beefed up the deployment of military, combat technology and heavy equipment in the rebel-controlled Lugansk and Donetk areas. Furthermore, Russia continues to deploy military units close to the border with Ukraine, according to relevant evidence confirmed by Ukraine’s international partners, like the USA, NATO and the European Union. However, Moscow denies any involvement in the conflict. According to the OSCE, more than 4000 people have died in Ukraine since the onset of the conflict in April.
Last night, a mosque in the West Bank was the target of an arson attack, Israeli settlers being held responsible according to Palestinian security officials. For years, extremist settlers and far-right activists have been resorting to assaults and vandalism against the Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, Muslim or Christian places of worship and even against the Israeli army. The incident occurs against the backdrop of rising tension in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israeli Arab localities, tension marked by clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli riot police, as well as by Palestinian attacks. The Israeli army has deployed additional troops in the West Bank and the police have extended their forces throughout Israel.
The pair made up of Romanian Horia Tecau and Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer are today playing their second match in Group A of the Champions’ Tournament in London against the main favourites, American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan. In their first match on Monday, Tecau and Rojer lost to Alexander Peya of Austria and Bruno Soares of Brazil. The London Tournament rallies the top 8 singles players and the top 8 doubles teams in the world in 2014. Horia Tecau takes part in the Champions’ Tournament for the third time, being for the first time joined by Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer. In 2011 and 2012, Tecau and Swedish Robert Lindstedt were eliminated in the group stage. We recall that this year, three-seeded Romanian Simona Halep lost the final of the WTA Finals in Singapore to world leader Serena Williams.
