January 12, 2015 UPDATE
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România Internațional, 12.01.2015, 12:15
In Bucharest the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis obtained the consensus of the parliamentary political parties on a political agreement meant to ensure a threshold of at least 2% of the GDP for defense in 2017. The President also obtained the approval of all political decision makers in the ruling coalition and in opposition to maintain this target for at least 10 years, namely until 2027. Klaus Iohannis believes that in this way the predictability of military expenses could be ensured, mainly as regards training and strategic endowment programs. Last week the PM Victor Ponta said that the idea of properly funding the Defense Ministry launched by President Iohannis was correct and it had to be assumed based on a cross-party agreement. The main political parties had already announced their support for the idea last week. The document will be signed on Tuesday.
France is mobilizing 10,000 troops, as of Tuesday evening, to boost security in sensitive areas, after last week’s deadly attacks in Paris, the defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. He made the announcement after a meeting of the French government regarding internal security. The interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, announced that as many as 5 thousand policemen and gendarmes would be mobilized to protect the 717 Jewish schools and places of worship across France. The meeting took place one day after a historic solidarity march against terrorism was held. More than 50 heads of state and government, among whom Romania’s President, Klaus Iohannis, were in Paris together with the French President, Francois Hollande, and with almost 2 million people to show solidarity with the victims of the attacks. Across France over 3.7 million people participated in the largest solidarity rally every held in the country’s history. 17 people were killed Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in Paris- journalists with the satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, policemen and civilians taken hostage in a shop. The anti-terror action ended with the killing of the 3 Jihadists involved. In Bucharest the director of the Romanian Intelligence Service, George Maior, said Monday that there would be more attacks on Europe and that attempted attacks also existed in Romania but they could be prevented in due time.
The Romanian tennis player, Simona Halep, seed no. 3 in the WTA rankings, is in Sydney where she is participating in the Premier 700 level tournament hosted by the Australian city. The Romanian tennis player is the main favorite of the competition and on Tuesday she will play directly in the eighth finals against Karolina Pliskova from the Czech Republic. Halep won Saturday the WTA tournament in Shenzhen (China). In the final she defeated the Swiss Timea Bacsinszky in 2 sets. Halep, who won the 9th WTA title of her career, had received 280 WTA points and a check worth 111,163 dollars. The Sydney competition will be followed on January 19th by the Australian Open, the year’s first Grand Slam tournament. Lat year in Melbourne Halep was eliminated in the quarter finals.
The film “Boyhood” won Sunday in Los Angeles the best drama award at the 72nd edition of the Golden Globes Awards. The film follows the transformation undergone by a teenager during 12 years of life, since he was 6 until he came of age. Director Wes Anderson’s film “The Grand Budapest Hotel” got the best comedy award while the Russian production “Leviathan” obtained the Golden Globe for best foreign film. Julianne Moore won the best actress award in a leading role in the drama “Still Alice” while Eddie Redmayne got the Golden Globe for best actor in the drama “The Theory of Everything”. Best actor in a comedy was designated Michael Keaton (in Birdman) while Amy Adams was best actress in a comedy (Big Eyes). George Clooney was honored with the lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes.
