November 16, 2014
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 16.11.2014, 13:17
Sunday is the day of the presidential runoff in Romania. Romanian voters are expected to the polls to elect their president for the next five years. They can choose between the Social Democrat Prime Minister Victor Ponta, representing the alliance made up of the Social Democratic Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Conservative Party, and the mayor of Sibiu, Klaus Iohannis, running on behalf of the center-right Christian Liberal Alliance. According to the Central Electoral Bureau, 8.52% of the voters went to the polls in the first three hours after the start of the voting. Romanian citizens living abroad can vote at one of the 294 polling stations organized in several European cities, such as Paris, Turin, Madrid, Munich, London, Chisinau and Vienna. Bucharest authorities have taken measures for the smooth running of the voting process abroad, to prevent the problems reported at the first round on November 2nd, when, at some polling stations abroad, people stood in huge queues and many of them were not able to cast heir vote. That triggered protests both abroad and in the country.
The US Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, Rose Gottemoller, will be paying a visit to Romania on Monday and Tuesday. She will meet with Romanian officials for talks regarding international security. According to a press release by the Department of State, Mrs. Gottemoeller will give a speech at the National Defense University in Bucharest. Romania is the second leg, after Jordan, of a tour that the US official is taking over November 14th — 26th, which also includes India, Russia and Great Britain.
Sunday is the last day of the 32nd Romanian Tourism Fair. Over 200 companies from 14 countries have presentedtheir offers for the winter holidays and also for next summer. One first at this edition was the participation of Palestine, through the National Tourism Authority. According to the organizers, the fair is the right place to learn about Romania’s top tourist destination, but also about destinations abroad.
On the last day of the summit held in Brisbane, Australia, the G20 leaders committed themselves to adopting reforms aimed at boosting world economy. The agreed that world economy is fragile and structural reforms are needed, at a time when monetary and fiscal policy measures are not easy to take. They also committed to adopting reforms that would improve the labour market situation and the member states promised to restrain from using national currencies to get competitive advantages.
The Islamic State terrorist organization has claimed in a video recording posted online today the beheading of the US hostage Peter Kassig, aged 26, who was kidnapped in Syria back in 2013. Kassig was born in the US state of Indiana and was a humanitarian aid worker. The organization has so far beheaded five western hostages, 2 American and 2 British. A French citizen was killed in the same way in Algeria, by a group affiliated to Islamic State.
The evacuation of fragments of the Boeign 777 aircraft, owned by Malaysia Airlines, which was shot down in July in a conflict area in eastern Ukraine, have started today, Dutch officials have announced. The plane fragments are to reach the Netherlands, where they will be examined by the Security Investigation Office, in charge with establishing the causes of that tragic accident. 193 of the 298 victims were Dutch. Kiev and the West claim the Malaysian plane was taken down by a Russian ground-air missile, which the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine got from Russia. Moscow on the other hand, blames the Ukrainian army for the tragedy.
