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Romanian skier debuts at 2013 IPC Alpine World Championships

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 10:23:02 GMT

Wikinews Sports

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Olympics gymnastics finals conclude with wins for Netherlands, United States, China

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 11:11:03 GMT

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

2012 Summer Olympics

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Dutch gymnast Epke Zonderland.
Image: McSmit.

Artistic gymnastics events at the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games concluded yesterday with two gold medal wins for China and gold medals for the Netherlands and the United States.

China's Feng Zhe won gold in the men's parallel bars, just narrowly beating out the German gymnast Marcel Nguyen by 0.166 points.

China also claimed a gold with Deng Linlin scoring a 15.600 in the women's beam. The balance beam proved treacherous for some: Gabrielle Douglas, considered a favourite for the event, came seventh after a dramatic fall. The United States did manage to get a bronze on the beam thanks to Alexandra Raisman who pulled off a routine that received enormous applause. She initially got less points than Romania's Catalina Ponor, but took the bronze after an appeal.

The men's horizontal bar event was a volley of high-scoring, high-difficulty routines. Danell Leyva from the United States started with a strong 15.833 point routine. China's Zhang Chenglong then grabbed the lead by earning 16.266 points. The German gymnast Fabian Hambuchen raised the bar even further with a 16.400 routine. The Dutch gymnast Epke Zonderland performed a near-flawless and immensely difficult routine that earned 16.533 points, earning him both a gold medal and a standing ovation from the audience in the North Greenwich Arena.

Zonderland's performance makes him the first Dutch gymnast to win gold at the Olympics since the win for the Dutch women's team at the Amsterdam Games in 1928. Hambuchen got a silver medal and the Chinese gymnast Zou Kai took bronze.

In the women's floor event, the eighteen-year-old United States gymnast Alexandra Raisman secured a second gold after her success in the women's team event last week. As in the beam event, she narrowly beat out Catalina Ponor from Romania with a score of 15.600 to 15.200. Aliya Mustafina from Russia took home bronze for her 14.900 point routine.

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Sources [edit]

This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.

"Olympic gymnastics: Zonderland takes men's bar gold" — BBC Sport, August 7, 2012
"Olympics gymnastics: Deng Linlin wins women's beam gold" — BBC Sport, August 7, 2012
"Olympics gymnastics: Aly Raisman wins women's floor gold" — BBC Sport, August 7, 2012
"Olympics gymnastics: Feng Zhe of China swings to parallel bars gold" — BBC Sport, August 7, 2012
"Olympics: Epke Zonderland claims high bar gold for Netherlands" — BBC Sport, August 7, 2012

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One Australian male and female archer qualify for Olympics after Ogden event

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 19:38:45 GMT

Wikinews Sports

Sources [edit]

AAP. "Taiwan knocks Australia out of the Games" — The Australian, June 23, 2012
"Olympic Team Qualifying Tournament" — Archery Australia, June 22, 2010
John Salvado. "Aust men's archery team miss Olympics" — NineMSN, June 22, 2010
"World Cup Ogden and Olympic Qualifying Tournament" — Archery Australia, June 21, 2012
John Salvado. "Two Aussie archers qualify for Olympics" — NineMSN, June 21, 2012

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European cold spell kills hundreds

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:39:37 GMT

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Weather

Sources [edit]

"Winter Tightens Icy Grip Across Europe" — Voice of America, February 8, 2012

"Deadly Cold Snap: European Deep Freeze Refuses to Relent" — Spiegel Online, February 7, 2012

"Europe’s deadly cold snap should ease from next week, UN agency says" — UN News Service, February 7, 2012

AFP. "Deadly cold snap 'to get worse'" — The Daily Telegraph (Australia), February 4, 2012

"Europe’s homeless dying in arctic conditions" — Euronews, February 3, 2012

"Cold weather death toll passes 100 in Ukraine" — BBC News Online, February 3, 2012

Laura Smith-Spark. "Europe's cold snap claims more lives" — CNN, February 3, 2012

"Cold snap takes heavy toll in Eastern Europe" — Deutsche Welle, February 3, 2012

"Homeless facing cold all over Europe" — Euronews, February 2, 2012

External links [edit]

For the current warnings across Europe see: Meteoalarm

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Over half of Romanian terminal grade students fail baccalaureate exam

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 02:13:19 GMT

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Romania

Other stories from Romania

25 February 2013: Romanian skier debuts at 2013 IPC Alpine World Championships
8 August 2012: Olympics gymnastics finals conclude with wins for Netherlands, United States, China
23 June 2012: One Australian male and female archer qualify for Olympics after Ogden event
8 February 2012: European cold spell kills hundreds
6 July 2011: Over half of Romanian terminal grade students fail baccalaureate exam

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Location of Romania

To write, edit, start or view other articles on Romania, see the Romania Portal

File photo of students taking an exam
Image: Whitecirius.
(Image missing from commons: image; log)

Only 44.47 percent of Romanian high school students passed last week's 2011 baccalaureate exam, according to the results published by Romanian education authorities on Sunday. The baccalaureate exam in Romania is the secondary school educational qualification test, and passing it attests that a student has graduated high school and may be admitted to a university. This is dramatically different from 69.3 percent last year and 81.4 percent in 2009.

	The moment of truth has come. Success rates topping 80 percent were not possible. We were simply deluding ourselves.
—Liliana Romanciuc, school inspector

Sunday's passing figures are a record low since the exam was introduced in Romania and comes after new anti-fraud measures cut back on student cheating. These included installing cameras in examination centres and forbidding students from paying teachers to obtain higher scores. For this exam, 665 high school students were caught cheating, double the number from last year, and at one high school it was found that the exam answers were given to 111 pupils prior to the exam.

Caras Severin County reported the lowest rate with 24.82 percent graduation, and Suceava reported the highest with 65.03 percent, down from 87.39 percent in 2010. In Bucharest the rate was 42.03 percent, the lowest since the 1989 revolution.

The release of the results started a national debate on the possible causes of the drastic drop in scores, from the failure of parental participation, poor teacher pay and pay cuts, to student disinterest and lack of motivation. Critics say the educational system depends on rote learning and students are not taught to think independently. Students say the school curriculum is boring and out-of-date.

At a press conference on Monday, Education minister Daniel Funeriu said, "These results are a mirror of our society. Romania is now at a crossroads...The nation should choose to encourage people who like to work rather than those who prefer cheating".

Cristian Alexandrescu, chief education inspector for Bucharest, argued that the exam was not taken seriously by students and the results prove that a student cannot obtain a diploma without effort.

"The moment of truth has come," Liliana Romanciuc, a school inspector in north-eastern Romania, told Mediafax. "Success rates topping 80 percent were not possible. We were simply deluding ourselves."

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Sources [edit]

Mihaela Rodina (AFP News). "Romanian school system flunks test after cheating" — Yahoo News, July 5, 2011
Associated Press. "Bulk of Romanian high school students don't qualify for university entrance" — Winnipeg Free Press, July 4, 2011
de V.O.. "Romania 2011 Baccalaureate shocks nation as less than half students pass exam" — HotNews.ro, July 4, 2011

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Azerbaijan win 2011 Eurovision Song Contest

Sun, 15 May 2011 13:57:51 GMT

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Eurovision Song Contest

Sources [edit]

"Eurovision Song Contest 2011 Final" — Eurovision, May 14, 2011
"Azerbaijan wins the Eurovision Song Contest" — BBC News Online, May 15, 2011
"Winner's Press Conference: "We want to bring Europe together"" — Eurovision.tv, May 15, 2011
"Eurovision 2011: Semifinals results revealed" — ESC Today, May 15, 2011

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UN workers killed by Afghans over burning of a Qur'an in Florida

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 16:27:51 GMT

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Afghanistan

Sources [edit]

Tom A. Peter. "UN staff killed by Afghan mob enraged over Florida Quran burning" — The Christian Science Monitor, April 1, 2011
Mohammad Bashir. "Worst attack on U.N. in Afghanistan kills at least 7 staff" — Reuters, April 1, 2011
Dean Nelson. "Seven killed in worst-ever attack on UN workers in Afghanistan" — The Telegraph, April 1, 2011

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Romanian father, son convicted of sex trafficking, forced prostitution in UK

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 00:14:15 GMT

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Crime and law

Sources [edit]

"Father and son sex traffickers facing jail over Small Heath prostitution ring" — Birmingham Mail, January 19, 2011
"Sex traffic father and son guilty" — Sussex Express, January 20, 2011

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EU to send police officers to Haiti

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:20:49 GMT

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

2010 Haiti earthquake

Sources [edit]

"EU to send police force to Haiti" — BBC News Online, January 25, 2010
"EU sending police officers to Haiti" — Agence France-Presse, January 25, 2010
Agence France-Presse. "EU rallies police for Haiti, but Britain opposed" — Khaleej Times, January 25, 2010

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2009–10 UEFA Champions League: Round of 16 field set

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:24:58 GMT

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Wikinews Sports

Sources [edit]

"Quartet complete last-16 picture" — UEFA, December 9, 2009
"Champions League Tables" — BBC Sport Online, December 9, 2009

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No-confidence vote initiated against Romanian cabinet

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:10:10 GMT

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Romania

Other stories from Romania

25 February 2013: Romanian skier debuts at 2013 IPC Alpine World Championships
8 August 2012: Olympics gymnastics finals conclude with wins for Netherlands, United States, China
23 June 2012: One Australian male and female archer qualify for Olympics after Ogden event
8 February 2012: European cold spell kills hundreds
6 July 2011: Over half of Romanian terminal grade students fail baccalaureate exam

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Location of Romania

To write, edit, start or view other articles on Romania, see the Romania Portal

The Romanian main opposition National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians (UDMR) both filed a vote of no-confidence against the cabinet on Tuesday.

The opposition has said that the cabinet is illegal and lacks parliamentary support, now that members from the Social Democratic Party (PSD) have quit their posts, over the sacking last week of Interior Minister Dan Nica. Their duties were assumed by other ministers from Prime Minister Emil Boc's Liberal Democrats (PDL).

If the motion passes, the cabinet may continue working, but will be unable to make any key decisions until a new cabinet is selected. Earlier in the day, Boc announced that his cabinet will seek a vote of confidence on the pension bill, which envisions gradually increasing the retirement age for women. A similar process will be applied to men, in a bid to keep them in the workforce longer to boost the economy.

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Sources [edit]

This article is based on No-confidence vote initiated against Romanian cabinet by Southeast European Times, which freely, or compatibly, licenses their original content.

Radu Marinas. "SCENARIOS-Romania faces political deadlock until December" — Reuters, October 7, 2009

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Romanian trade unions threaten more protests

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:02:02 GMT

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Romania

Other stories from Romania

25 February 2013: Romanian skier debuts at 2013 IPC Alpine World Championships
8 August 2012: Olympics gymnastics finals conclude with wins for Netherlands, United States, China
23 June 2012: One Australian male and female archer qualify for Olympics after Ogden event
8 February 2012: European cold spell kills hundreds
6 July 2011: Over half of Romanian terminal grade students fail baccalaureate exam

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Location of Romania

To write, edit, start or view other articles on Romania, see the Romania Portal

Thousands of Romanian public sector workers gathered outside government headquarters in Bucharest on Wednesday to rally against the planned downsizing of the public sector. They protested planned pay cuts and growing job insecurity, as well as the so-called single wage bill, which will in effect freeze pay in the sector for an indefinite period.

Threatening further protests, union leaders called on voters to boycott the November 22nd presidential elections. The government, meanwhile, faces a no-confidence vote next week.

Bogdan Hossu, leader of Cartel Alfa Union, recalled that President Traian Băsescu had told reporters he would not seek a second term if the number of unemployed reaches one million people.

As many as 15,000 people from all over Romania joined Wednesday's demonstration. It followed a one-day strike Monday, when up to 800,000 teachers, doctors, nurses, policemen, clerks and other public sector employees took to the streets in what has been described as Romania's largest protest in the last 80 years.

The catalyst was adoption of reform measures aimed at cutting the swollen budget deficit and meeting commitments spelled out in an IMF-led financial rescue package worth nearly 20 billion euros.

"We need these measures to be taken now. If not, it could lead to a prolonged recession," the AFP quoted Nicolae Chidesciuc, senior economist at ING Romania, as saying Wednesday.

But the government's recent move to reform the public pay scale — ending intricate bonus programmes and effectively reducing the wages of most employees in the public sector — caused an uproar.

Chanting "thieves! thieves!", the participants in Wednesday's rally demanded that the government to resign. "You promised us, then you forgot us," they shouted.

"The authorities forced us to the streets again; we did not want this to happen today, on the World Day for Decent Work, as we are now celebrating indecent work," said Aurel Cornea, vice-president of the Teachers' Union, one of the four trade unions that organised the rally.

The list of demands they submitted Wednesday called for the minimum wage to be increased from its current level of around 145 euros to 176 euros per month in 2010 and to 310 euros per month in 2014, and for an improvement of the salary scales under the unitary pay law for the public sector. They also urged authorities to scrap provisions introducing a mandatory unpaid leave of ten days a year.

According to Romanian media reports, the unions are also pressing the government to increase economic investment, support economic agencies, create jobs, protect workers and ensure decent pensions.

Romania has been hit badly by the global economic turmoil. According to IMF estimates for 2009, the country's budget deficit is expected to top 7.3% of GDP and the economy will shrink by 8.5% this year.

Prime Minister Emil Boc, whose government faces a no-confidence vote in parliament on Tuesday, has urged the unionists to halt their protests until after next month's presidential elections.

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Sources [edit]

This article is based on Romanian trade unions threaten more protests by Southeast European Times, which freely, or compatibly, licenses their original content.

"Romanian trade unions threaten more protests" — SETimes, October 8, 2009
"Romanian workers protest low wages" — CBCnews.ca, October 8, 2009

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Romanian coalition government collapses

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:26:01 GMT

Friday, October 2, 2009

Romania

Other stories from Romania

25 February 2013: Romanian skier debuts at 2013 IPC Alpine World Championships
8 August 2012: Olympics gymnastics finals conclude with wins for Netherlands, United States, China
23 June 2012: One Australian male and female archer qualify for Olympics after Ogden event
8 February 2012: European cold spell kills hundreds
6 July 2011: Over half of Romanian terminal grade students fail baccalaureate exam

...More articles here

Location of Romania

To write, edit, start or view other articles on Romania, see the Romania Portal

Romania's coalition government fell apart on Thursday, after all of the Social Democrat (PSD) ministers resigned, protesting the firing of another cabinet member.

Location of Romania in map of Europe
Image: Quizimodo.

PSD member Dan Nica was fired earlier in the week after he made a statement suggesting the possibility of election fraud in November's upcoming presidential ballots. The PSD party leader, Mircea Geoană, said that the entire PSD had resigned to protest against Nica's sacking.

"All PSD ministers, supporting Dan Nica, are announcing their resignation from government. The president succeeded in triggering a political crisis, Geoana said.

	The president succeeded in triggering a political crisis.
—Mircea Geoană

The other major party, the Liberal Democrats (PD-L), will be able to rule by itself until the elections come. However, appointments for new ministers will have to be approved by the parliament.

The collapse has prompted concerns that Romania will not be able to meet the International Monetary Fund's fiscal targets in exchange for US$29 billion in aid given to the country in 2009.

Koon Chow, a strategist for Barclays Capital said to the Reuters news agency that "one needs to see how a minority government, if that's what we do get, can continue to adhere to the IMF programme. That's key. The worst that could happen is that the next tranche will be delayed for a few months, I don't think the next government will walk out of the programme."

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Sources [edit]

"Romanian government falls apart" — BBC News Online, October 1, 2009
"Romanian government collapses" — Al Jazeera, October 1, 2009

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Gisela Dulko knocks Maria Sharapova out of Wimbledon

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:13:07 GMT

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Former champion Maria Sharapova of Russia saw her comeback attempt come to an early end, as Argentina's Gisela Dulko beat her, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. Dulko faces 10th-seeded Nadia Petrova in the third round, after the Russian beat Shahar Peer of Israel, 6-3, 6-2.

Gisela Dulko.

Second-seeds Roger Federer of Switzerland and Serena Williams of the United States have advanced to the third round of the Wimbledon tennis championships in London.

Williams took advantage of her big serve and powerful groundstrokes Wednesday as she dominated Australia's Jarmila Groth, 6-2, 6-1. Federer eliminated Spain's Guillermo García-Lopez, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4.

Federer is trying to pass American Pete Sampras as the sport's most successful major tournament winner by capturing his 15th Grand Slam title.

Eighth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus had an even easier time, dumping Ioana Raluca Olaru of Romania by the so-called "double-bagel" score of 6-0, 6-0.

In men's play, fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia beat Germany's Simon Greul, 7-5, 6-1, 6-4. His next opponent will be number-28 American Mardy Fish, a four-set winner over another Serb, Janko Tipsarevic (6-4, 3-6, 6-1 ,6-4).

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Sources [edit]

This article includes material from Maria Sharapova Out of Wimbledon by VOA News, which is in the public domain.

Wikipedia has more about this subject:

2009 Wimbledon Championships

VOA Sports. "Maria Sharapova Out of Wimbledon" — Voice of America, June 24, 2009
Christopher Clarey. "Dulko Sends Sharapova to Another Early Exit" — The New York Times, June 24, 2009

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Europeans go to the polls to elect Members of the European Parliament

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:07:15 GMT

Monday, June 8, 2009

European Parliament logo

Over the course of the last four days, people across the European Union went to the polls to elect Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) as part of the European Parliament election, 2009. Voting began on Thursday in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and parts of Ireland. It continued on Friday across the rest of Ireland and parts of the Czech Republic. On Saturday the countries of Cyprus, France (for part of Outre-mer), Italy (day 1), Latvia, Malta, Slovakia and the Czech Republic all voted. On Sunday, the final day of polling, the remaing countries of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy (day 2), Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden voted. Votes were released last night and will continue to be released over the course of today with the exception of Netherlands, which has broken rules and partialy released them on Friday.

The current President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering

The European Parliament is divided into constituencies, which have a group of representatives (the MEPs). Each constituency elects them proportionaly. The amount of MEPs representing a political party depends on the percentage of votes they gain. For example, if 50% of the electorate of a constituency vote for the x party then 50% of the MEPs in that constituency will be from the x party. In total there are 736 MEPs up for election by approximately 500,000,000 Europeans across 27 member states making it the largest transnational election in history.

The elections didn't quite go to plan across the Netherlands, as the European Commission have asked that Dutch officials give an explanation to results they released. As countries across Europe vote on different days, the results of the election can only be released on the last day (Sunday), so that the results in other countries will not influence the decission made by people in countries that are still voting. Despite this, the Netherlands released some of their results on Friday: 92% of the votes have currently been counted. Further controversy arose from the results themselves. Results so far show that far-right Dutch Member of Parliament, Geert Wilders's party the Party for Freedom (PVV), appears to have come second behind the Christian Democratic Appeal. Wilders is facing prosecution in the Netherlands for an anti Islamic statement and was refused entry to the United Kingdom on grounds of the intent to incite hatred.

It had initially been foreseen that the Treaty of Lisbon would have entered into force by the time of these elections, making them the first to be held under its provisions. However, primarily because of the failure of the referendum in Ireland, the framework established by the Treaty of Nice will be used again. Amongst other differences, the number of MEPs to be returned depends upon which rules are in effect: while 736 MEPs will be elected under the Nice rules, this number would have increased to 751 if the Lisbon Treaty were in force. A further change that Lisbon would have brought was an increase to the powers of Parliament, including powers over the appointment of the President of the European Commission.

In the previous election, German Hans-Gert Pöttering of the centre-right EPP-ED won with 34% and Martin Schulz of the Socialists came second with 26%. Despite this, during the last term the two leaders shared, each serving approximately two years in office.

European Parliament election, 2004 - Final results at 20 July 2004
Group		Description	Chaired by	MEPs
	EPP-ED	Conservatives and Christian Democrats	Hans-Gert Pöttering	268
	PES	Social Democrats	Martin Schulz	200
	ALDE	Liberals and Liberal Democrats	Graham Watson	88
	G–EFA	Greens and Regionalists	Daniel Cohn-Bendit Monica Frassoni	42
	EUL– NGL	Communists and the Far Left	Francis Wurtz	41
	ID	Eurosceptics	Jens-Peter Bonde Nigel Farage	37
	UEN	National Conservatives	Brian Crowley Cristiana Muscardini	27
	NI	Independents	none	29	Total: 732	Sources: [1][2][3][4][5]

Europeans have also been voting in local elections of County Councils in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

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Related news [edit]

Wikipedia has more about this subject:

European Parliament election, 2009

"United Kingdom elects first British National Party members of European Parliament" — Wikinews, June 8, 2009

Sources [edit]

"Dutch far right in poll triumph" — BBC News Online, June 5, 2009
"Final round of marathon EU vote" — BBC News Online, June 7, 2009
"Voting in 19 EU states for Parliament" — RTÉ, June 7, 2009

External links [edit]

European Election results

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