August 5, 2014 UPDATE
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Florentin Căpitănescu, 05.08.2014, 20:17
Romania’s football champion, Steaua Bucharest will be up against FK Aktobe of Kazahstan in a home game on Wednesday counting towards the second round of the Champions League’s third leg. The first match held last week ended in a 2-all draw. If it qualifies for the Champions League’s play-offs, Steaua will be playing in Europa League’s groups, a competition where Romania is represented by three sides. So, Astra Giurgiu and Petrolul Ploiesti from southern Romania, are meeting Slovan Liberec and Viktoria Plzen respectively, both from the Czech Republic. In the first game Astra clinched a three-nil win, while Petrolul ended their game in a draw, one-all. CFR Cluj, from north-western Romania, was defeated in the first game one-nil by Dinamo Minsk from Belarus.
The Foreign Ministry in Bucharest is recommending Romanian citizens to avoid traveling to the three West African countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone affected by an Ebola epidemic. The Romanian Foreign Ministry is advising the Romanian citizens already in the region to pay attention to the messages transmitted by the local authorities and observe the recommended hygiene rules. In another development the World Bank has pledged 200 million dollars in emergency funding to help the three West-African countries to contain the spread of Ebola infections. A WHO report says that since the beginning of the year 880 people have been killed by Ebola, which, according to experts is a lethal disease.
Israel has pulled out all its troops from Gaza, after the coming into effect on Tuesday morning of a ceasefire agreed upon with Hamas and brokered by Egypt. In the past 29 days the conflict claimed the lives of 1850 Palestinians, including 400 children and almost 70 Israeli soldiers. Hundreds of buildings have been destroyed and a heavy blow has been dealt to an economy already in tatters. According to a France Press report 270 thousand people have so far been evacuated from the Gaza Strip. The damage to the Palestinian economy, where unemployment stands at 40%, has been estimated at 6 billion dollars.
NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmusen on Thursday will be paying a visit to Ukraine, sources in Kiev have announced. The visit, whose agenda includes a meeting with president Poroshenko, is aimed at preparing the proceedings of the Ukraine-NATO committee on the occasion of the Alliance’s summit to be hosted by Britain next month. In another move, according to a UN report, about 730 thousand Ukrainians have fled to Russia in the context of the conflict in the east of the country. The Ukrainian army has been engaging the pro-Russia rebels in Donetsk, the latter’s main stronghold.
The National Bank of Romania on Tuesday lowered the monetary policy interest rate from 3.5% to 3.25% per year. Also, the board of the Central Bank has decided to maintain the reserve requirements for national and foreign currency liabilities at 12% and 16% respectively. The Bank recommends commercial banks to maintain the rates for deposits and to resume lending. In June this year, the annual rate of inflation dropped to 0.66%, as compared to 0.94% in May.
