Several roads closed down, traffic disrupted, car crashes. Temperatures set to rise by weekend.
Although it is almost mid-March, southern Romania experiences blizzards and snowfalls. Traffic was again disrupted both on national and county roads and in the cities. In Bucharest traffic was tough, severely testing drivers’ patience, with snow clearing vehicles being once again “a sight for sore eyes.”
The meteorologists have announced that snowfalls will end and normal temperatures for this time of year will return this weekend. ‘The spring weather will arrive starting this Sunday. On Sunday we will have maximum temperatures of 5-10 degrees, with 10-12 degrees in Bucharest,’ Aurora Bell, director of forecast within the National Meteorological Administration (ANM), stated for Realitatea FM. The winter season will continue only at the mountainside, but the tourists are warned that the avalanche risk alert is still on. The mountain rescuers have issued a new alert yesterday, advising the tourists to stay off the Bucegi Mountains because there is...
The National Executive Council of PSD yesterday agreed to set up an Honorary Council of party founders.
PSD President Victor Ponta is uncomfortable with presenting the National Council (CN) as “the last battle” for jobs in PSD. According to Mediafax, he said yesterday, at the beginning of the Executive Committee meeting, that “unfortunately for the party,” the next meeting of the National Council is described as “the last battle, the last frontier” - with reference to the elections for the CN president.
Acting CN president Adrian Nastase ran for a new term at the Council and was given as certain winner. His only rival...
Bucharest’s budget may double if district mayor’s offices are dissolved, under a draft law on the capital’s administrative reorganisation promoted by the Interior Ministry, daily ‘Romania libera’ reported. “The City Hall budget is currently EUR 1.3 bln but the budgets of all six districts reach a total of EUR 1.7 bln. The new Bucharest would mean a total budget of EUR 3 bln,” said Save Bucharest Association’s programme director Nicusor Dan. District 6 Mayor Cristian Poteras also claims that by administrative centralisation, the capital’s budget would amount to 35...
At a press conference held in Bucharest, on Wednesday, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Mevlut Cavusoglu, stated that Romania’s efforts in the area of judicial reform and fight against corruption are insufficient. Cavusoglu added that PACE demands Romanian authorities continue such efforts. The PACE president wanted to encourage Romanian authorities to step up anti-graft efforts and, in particular, to reform wealth watchdog National Integrity Agency as soon as possible. He urged that judicial reforms be continued and...
SANTIAGO - Yet another powerful earthquake struck Chile yesterday morning - this time a 7.2 magnitude quake in the central part of the country, including Santiago, according to New York Daily News. The quake shook the country as President-elect Sebastian Pinera and hundreds of high powered Chileans gathered for his swearing in ceremony in the capital city.
Images of the ceremony showed a somewhat concerned but mostly unfazed crowd. The ceremony continued as planned. No news on the extent of the damage was immediately available.
Chile’s...
Public and private sector workers went on strike on Thursday, grounding flights, shutting schools and halting public transport.
ATHENS - Athens’ streets echoed with loud-speakers blaring slogans calling for the rich to pay for a severe debt crisis, as thousands marched against cuts in civil servants’ income, tax hikes, a pension freeze and increase in the retirement age. “No sacrifice for the rich!” protesters chanted, beating drums and holding banners reading: “Where did the money go?” Under pressure from European Union partners and markets to do more to stem a crisis that has shaken the euro, the government last week unveiled a 4.8 billion euro ($6.51...
KIEV - Ukraine’s new prime minister Mykola Azarov, declaring state coffers were empty, promised on Thursday to meet all obligations to the International Monetary Fund and push through a realistic 2010 budget. President Viktor Yanukovich has moved swiftly to consolidate power since his election last month to end years of dysfunctional government and economic backsliding under the leaders of the 2004 Orange Revolution. “The country has been plundered, the coffers are empty, state debt has risen threefold,” Azarov, a former finance minister and a...
Government will allow companies to pay first the principle of the arrears owed to state, and not just the corresponding penalties and will reduce the number of monthly tax statements companies need to be filled out in order to pay their contributions into the state budget, Mediafax reported Premier Emil Boc as saying. ‘We now give you the possibility to pay not only the penalties, but the debt-principal, too, as it is the latter that is continuously generating the former,’ the PM told company representatives attending the signing ceremony of project...
Adriean Videanu, Minister of Economy, Commerce and Business Environment, says that the industrial production is growing slightly, with the electric energy and natural gas sectors helping the economic recovery this year.
“In October 2009 the electric energy and natural gas sectors put a stop to the economic downturn and this year they will help the economic recovery. The industrial production is on a slight upward trend. The overall premises for exiting the recession are being created,” Videanu told a press conference, Mediafax reports. When...
The home consumption of fast-moving consumer goods in H1 dropped by 4 per cent in national currency from a year earlier, being the first decrease recorded in the last ten years, with personal care products and home cleaning goods being the most affected, a GfK press release issued yesterday states. Among the categories with the steepest volume falls the ones that stand out are deodorants (-21 per cent), universal cleaning products (-19 per cent), chocolate tablets (-18 per cent), the decrease being primarily due to the fact that they were purchased by fewer...
For the last few weeks, regional elections of March 28 and 29 have been the central point of Italy’s politics. The ruling party led by Premier Silvio Berlusconi seems more interested than ever, since it came to power, by a local confrontation that might bring it in control of 13 important regions, such as Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Veneto, Campania, Marche, Umbria, Lazio, Basilicata, Calabria and Puglia.
Maybe this explains the row sparked by the failure to register in due time the electoral lists of PDL in Lazio and Lombardy. As it is known, in Lombardy, the list topped by Roberto Formigoni has been invalidated because it lacked all the required valid signatures. In Lazio, on the other hand, the list led by Renata Polverini reached the Electoral Bureau 45 minutes after the deadline. After various statements, including one by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, the government passed late last week a decree aimed at providing magistrates...
MADRID - Big-spending Real Madrid failed to qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals for the sixth straight season when Olympique Lyon dumped the Spaniards out 2-1 on aggregate on Wednesday.
Real’s dream of winning a 10th European title at their Bernabeu stadium in May was shattered by Miralem Pjanic’s 75th-minute strike, which secured a 1-1 draw for visiting Lyon in...
NEW YORK - Rafa Nadal made a smooth start to his bid to capture the one grand slam that has eluded him when he wore down Russia’s Teymuraz Gabashvili 7-6 7-6 6-3 in the first round of the U.S. Open on Tuesday.
Dressed menacingly in an all black outfit, Nadal had to dig deep to see off the stubborn Gabashvili after three hours of intense shotmaking from both men at Arthur Ashe...
All but two of FC Vaslui’s players boycotted the team’s morning training session on Wednesday, under the pretext that club owner Adrian Porumboiu gave them several days of holiday. Porumboiu is displeased with head coach Juan Ramon Lopez Caro’s performance, the team being 14th in the standings with only 5 points in 6 games, but hesitates sacking him. FC Vaslui finished last season on a...
For the first time in Romania world’s biggest heavy metal bands will perform on the same stage. Iconic Metallica, Heaven&Hell, Rammstein, Alice in Chains and Slayer are on the menu.
Romexpo will host next July some of the biggest bands of the world metal scene, in an unprecedented event for Romania. For the first time, Sonispehere Festival gets to Bucharest and brings the Big Four of heavy metal in one tour: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax. “Who would have thought that, 25 years since their creation, the masters of metal will be more popular than ever and will...
The National Theatre Festival (FNT) will present, in its 20th edition, the latest play directed by Silviu Purcarete – Le Roi se meurt (Exit the King), by Eugene Ionesco, an international production. The show premieres on September 15, within the Ex Ponto Festival in Slovenia, and will be presented, then, within the FNT, before touring to France, Italy, Montenegro, Macedonia and Croatia. This new...
The legendary Jazz musician is for the first time in Romania.
The Palace Hall will sound of the best in jazz sounds this fall, as on October 29 as of 8 pm, a unique and first-time concert featuring Herbie Hancock will delight quality music fans.
Herbie Hancock is a true icon of modern music. Throughout his explorations, he has transcended limitations and genres while still maintaining his unique, unmistakable voice. The musician’s success at...
The Oradea Court of Appeals will ask the Romanian Intelligence Agency (SRI) and the Organized Crime and Terrorism Investigation Department (DIICOT) to declassify evidence on Syrian Omar Hayssam’s escape from Romania. The court held a new hearing in the case yesterday, daily ‘Romania libera’ reported. Since Hayssam’s whereabouts are not exactly known, the court heard the...
Turkish ship sinks near Constanta
A Turkish flag ship loaded with scrap iron sank near the Port of Constanta yesterday, Mediafax reports. Wednesday morning at about 4:30, the ship started to lurch. Two other vessels were sent to the area to rescue the ship, but failed. The 17 sailors onboard were rescued. No one knows for sure what caused the distress, but two options are being...
Secretary of State Bogdan Aurescu says Romania will not tolerate discrimination against its own citizens, EC calls for Roma integration in both native country and where they choose to settle.
During talks with European Commissioners Viviane Reding (Justice and Fundamental Rights) and Cecilia Malmstrom (Internal Affairs) in Brussels on Tuesday, French ministers defended their controversial crackdown on the Roma minority, insisting that repatriations fully comply with European law.
France has been facing mounting criticism for its decision to demolish illegal nomad camps and...
home
