US Open – Murray and Tsonga eliminated in last-16 stage
Tennis players Andy Murray (UK, top seed number 2) and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France, number 7) have been eliminated from the US Open on Tuesday after losing their games in the last-16 stage. Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez (number 11) defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga with a score of 3-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-4. Murray lost to Croatia’s Marin Cilici (number 16), score 5-7, 2-6, 2-6. Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro (top seed number 6) went on to the quarterfinals after defeating Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero (number 24), score 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. Rafael Nadal, the world’s number 3 tennis player, also qualified for the quarterfinals after defeating France’s Gael Monfils (number 13), score 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 6-1, 6-3.
Juventus wants no involvement in Mutu-Chelsea case
Juventus Torino has announced that it does not want to be involved in the litigation between Adrian Mutu and Chelsea London after Mutu’s sports manager Giovanni Becali stated that the Italian club should pay a part of the EUR 17 M that the Romanian player owes to the English club, the Italian press informs being quoted by Agerpres. ‘Until now we have received no legal notification concerning this case; however we have already alerted our lawyers who are monitoring the situation. I continue to believe that this thing concerns only the player, not our club,’ Alessio Secco, the sports director of Juventus, stated for ‘Giornale della Toscana.’
The club official made these statements after Giovanni Becali, who recently returned to being Mutu’s sports manager, stated in the Italian press that Juventus should pay a part of the sum that the Romanian player owes to Chelsea because it had transferred the player for free after he was fired by Chelsea in October 2004.
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Fly Taxi loses exclusivity at Otopeni
Fly Taxi will lose its monopoly at the Otopeni Airport, ‘Gandul’ daily reports. The management of the Henri Coanda Otopeni International Airport will publish today the tendering announcement for the awarding of taxi permits. The tendering procedure may be held as the exclusivity agreement concluded in 2004 with Fly Taxi for five years expires this year. At that time, Fly Taxi was held by businessmen Dan Besciu and Sorin Vulpescu – owners of the Golden Blitz restaurant and of Euroconstruct Trading 98 construction company. Back in 2004, the tendering procedure caused many suspicions as the requirements seemed to have been written in such a way that only Fly Taxi could have won the contract.
Becali, without impunity
European MP Gigi Becali has no parliamentary impunity, because it applies only to the deputies and senators who are members of the Government, the businessman’s lawyer, Bogdan Vlad announced on Wednesday. The financier of football club Steaua Bucharest, Gigi Becali was interviewed Wednesday for three hours at the Prosecutor’s Office of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, in a case that has him accused of kidnapping several people. Gigi Becali gave a three-page statement, after prosecutors interviewed, these days, 16 witnesses proposed by the businessman’s lawyers. The lawyer explained that Becali may be sent in court and even arrested if he infringes the restrictions imposed by judges. After the hearing, Becali said he is convinced he won’t be sent in court, because he is innocent.
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France supports Romania to obtain Agriculture portfolio
France supports steps taken by Romania which wants to obtain the post of European commissioner for agriculture, the French state secretary for European affairs, Pierre Lellouche, declared in an interview published by the electronic edition of the daily ‘La Croix,’ quoted by Mediafax. Asked if Paris claims the post of commissioner for the internal market, Pierre Lellouche declared that “this depends on the negotiations between the President of the Republic (Nicolas Sarkozy – editor’s note), the other heads of states and governments and the president of the Commission. France expresses its wishes. It supports for example Romania which requests the post of commissioner for agriculture. But no state can claim the property of a position. The Commission is independent.” On another hand, the state secretary stressed that Paris does not intend to present a candidate for the position of president of the European Commission denying the assertions according to which France would support the present Premier, Francois Fillon, for this position.
Ambassador: Spain has wagered on Romania’s future
Spain is one of the countries that have made a real wager in what concerns Romania’s future, Estanislao de Grandes Pascual, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to Bucharest, stated on Monday during a meeting that the Romanian Senators had with the Spanish businessmen in Romania. ‘It was a very inspired initiative belonging to Senator Viorel Badea and the Romanian-Spanish friendship group. Spain is one of the countries that have made a real wager in what concerns Romania’s future, we have excellent bilateral relations,’ the Ambassador stated.
He added that the solidity of bilateral relations has been proven by the recent visit that the Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess of Asturias, paid to Romania but it is also confirmed by the presence of more than 4,000 Spanish companies in Romania.
Emil Boc – Mark H. Gitenstein meeting
The US Ambassador to Bucharest, Mark H. Gitenstein, was received on Wednesday at Victoria Palace by Premier Emil Boc.
On the agenda there were issues related to the world economic crisis and its influence over the two countries. PM Boc presented the government’s decisions adopted in order to reform the state, to simulate the economy and the business environment and to attract foreign investments. On that occasion, the American diplomat said that his great grandparents were of Romanian origin, the documents in his possession pointing to the fact that they lived in Braila or Iasi. “According to my understanding, it appears that it is for the first time than we have an American Ambassador with Romanian roots, with Romanian origins,” Premier said when he received the American Ambassador. “I think that my paternal great grandfather was from Braila. I made some investigations at Braila, and I believe that he was from there, although I saw documents which seem to suggest that actually he was from Iasi,” the US Ambassador explained.
He also asked Premier if he was born in Cluj, and Emil Boc told him that he is from Transylvania.
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Puscas: Three options for European Commissioner post
“We need a multiple proposal, of at least three – both for portfolios and for persons. The future commission may have five-six different portfolios vs. the present formula,” Vasile Puscas, minister for European Affairs, declared in an interview given to the daily “Adevarul.” Asked which would be the political mechanism for the designation of the candidate to the position of European Commissioner, Puscas answered that we don’t have such a custom, the Government being that which makes the designation. “Considering that the nomination regards also the foreign policy, the President of Romania will also be consulted, and the proposal will be sent to the Commission. Usually, the president of the European Commission carries the negotiations with the member states,” the minister added.
Referring to the moment when it will be known if President Barroso will obtain the vesting by the European Parliament, Vasile Puscas estimates that this will happen by the middle of this month. “From that moment on, the president of the Commission will work to the construction of his team. Logically, we would deduct that until the end of this month we should finish the debates,” he explained. Asked about the hypothesis that PSD would not support Jose Manuel Barroso for a new mandate at the head of the European Commission, Vasile Puscas declared that he has not heard about such a discussion within PSD.
Over 50 medics from Floreasca hospital left Romania
Floreasca Emergency Hospital has a significant deficit of medics specialized in anaesthesia, intensive care, imagistic and dialysis, after over 60 medics have left this year abroad for bigger salaries, the director of the hospital, Mircea Beuran, declared. “The biggest problem is in the anaesthesia and intensive care sections, where the number of medics is twice smaller now than three years ago. There are around 30 medics, and they cannot cope with the big number of surgical operations, with the patients they must take care of, although they work night and day,” Beuran added, quoted by Realitatea TV. According to the manager of Floreasca Hospital, the positions which remained free are blocked, according to law, and can be occupied only in exceptional conditions. “For the time being we cannot unblock the posts, and the number of medics who leave the country is growing. In this hospital alone, hundreds of doctors left in the last 10 years because of the small salaries,” Mircea Beuran added. According to the security blanket salary law, the maximum coefficients for the senior medics were increased from 5.25 to 5.1 minimum salaries, while the maximum coefficient of the hospital manager remained at 6.8 minimum salaries in the state system.
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PM Tudose to Bodog: What happens at Health Ministry could be the object of structures that are part of the ministry: psychiatry
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OTP Bank Romania interested to buy a bank to double its network
OTP Bank Romania wants to increase in the next five years its network of branches from 106 to 200, either by opening new ones, or acquiring smaller banks, the general director of the bank, Laszlo Diosi, declared yesterday in a press conference on the occasion of the completion of five years of activity of the bank in Romania. The same pointed out that they are already having discussions in this respect. “The banks are now at crossroads. There are orders in the market already to sell, and we have started to carry discussions with several banks for a possible acquisition. Romania is a place to invest because the market is solid and has a good future,” Diosi explained.
Leasing market dropped 73 pc, to EUR 776.6 M
The leasing market dropped in H1 by 73.6 per cent, to EUR 776.65 M, subject to the value of the financed assets, on the background of the significant decrease in the segment of the vehicles and industrial equipment, because of the financial crisis. Mediafax informs. In the first six months of the past year, the value of the financed goods at the level of the whole market was EUR 2.94 bln, up 35.5 per cent against the same period of 2007. The funding for the acquisition of vehicles dropped in H1 this year by 75.8 per cent, to EUR 507.14 M, from EUR 2.1 bln in January-June 2008, according to the data presented yesterday by the president of the Association of the Financial Societies – ALB Romania, Jean-Claude Boloux. The expected fall could conduct to a value of the goods financed at national level of EUR 2.89-3.13 bln, level which would be below that from 2006, when the market was at EUR 3.26 bln.In the segment of the equipment the value of the financed goods decreased by 81.88 per cent, to EUR 117.3 M, while the real estate segment decreased by 20.94 per cent, to EUR 152.19 M.
Basescu wants a red Dacia SUV H79
President Traian Basescu and the general manager of Renault group, Patrick Pelata, agreed on Tuesday evening that the first Dacia SUV H79, reserved for the Head of State, will be red. President Traian Basescu received on Tuesday, at Cotroceni Palace, a delegation headed by the general manager of Renault group, Patrick Pelata, consisting of Jacques Chauvet, general manager Dacia, Francois Fourmont, manager of Titu Engineering Center, Philippe Prevel, and Dacia vice president Constantin Stroe.
Automobile Dacia produced the Dacia car no. 3,500,000, a red Sandero Stepway 1.6 MPI model, intended for the German market, the car maker owned by the French group Renault announced yesterday, Mediafax informs.
Last year, Automobile Dacia produced 242,415 vehicles, up 8.8 per cent over 2007. The Logan MCV (break) and Logan Sedan models accounted for 70 per cent of the total being followed by Sandero, the newest car from the auto-maker’s range.
Half of Romanian families do not save money
Almost half of all Romanian families do not save, the probability of saving being higher in Bucharest than in the rest of the country, says a survey conducted by the Bank Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGDB), cited by Mediafax. Only households with an income higher than RON 2,500 present a higher likelihood of saving any money, according to the same survey. Saving probability and easiness do not differ statistically base don age. Generally, Romanians prefer saving in RON – over 67 per cent – the survey also shows.
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The second IMF mission comes to Romania in October-November
An IMF mission will come to Romania for the second assessment of the stand-by agreement at the end of October or the beginning of November, the IMF representative for Romania and Bulgaria, Tonny Lybek, declared, Mediafax reports. He also said that the report regarding the first evaluation of the Stand-by agreement with Romania will be discussed by the Executive Council of IMF most probably in the second half of September, but the final date has not yet been established. The next two tranches from the IMF loan, of 1.718 bln Special Drawing Rights (almost EUR 1.9 bln), respectively 1.409 bln Special Drawing Rights (EUR 1.5 bln), are set to be granted in September and December, according to the technical memorandum of understanding accompanying the IMF agreement.
Romania – 64th in global competitiveness
This year Romania is 64th in the global competitiveness table, climbing four places since last year, Mediafax informs. According to the 133-state table compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Romania scored low when it comes to infrastructure, health and education.
The Romanian economy is also 24th among EU member states, climbing two places from the last but one place that it held in 2008, back when Bulgaria was the only EU member state that ranked below our country when it comes to competitiveness. The WEF report is based on statistic data from 2008 and on an opinion poll conducted this spring on a sample of managers.
Andreea Vass: Gov’t comes with beneficial economic solutions
The non-taxation of the reinvested profit and the EUR 500 account for each newborn are the best measures for which the Government will assume responsibility, declared PM’s counselor on economic problems, Andreea Vass, Realitatea.Net informs. The first effects of the anti-crisis measures for which the Government assumes responsibility will be felt hardly in 2015, Vass also said, adding that certain measures will be felt rather brutally, especially at the level of the families which are confronted with unemployment.
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