April 27, 2019

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Newsroom, 27.04.2019, 13:54

EASTER Orthodox believers who are a majority in Romania, together with
their Greek-Catholic counterparts will tonight be celebrating Easter, also
known as the Resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ, the most important event of
Christianity. On Saturday in Jerusalem, the Greek Patriarch will be holding the
Ceremony of the Holy Light, a regular Orthodox service during which the
Patriarch is to go out of the Holy Sepulchre and share light with the
believers. A delegation of the Romanian Orthodox Church is in Jerusalem ready to
bring into Romania the Holy Light by means of a charter plane. At midnight,
churches all over Romania will see special services devoted to Christ’s
Resurrection. Roman Catholics and Protestant believers celebrated Easter on
April 21st.

CAMPAIGN An election campaign for the European Parliament, whose elections
are due on May 26th, kicked off in Romania today. Out of the 13
political groups vying for seats in the European Parliament, there are the
ruling PSD and ALDE, UDMR, the Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, as well
as the opposition PNL, the USR-PLUS alliance, PMP and ProRomania, a group
formed by PSD dissidents. There are also other extra-Parliament parties in this
election race, such as the National Unity Bloc, UNPR and the United Romania
Party, PRODEMO, the Romanian Socialist Party, and the Independent Social
Democratic Party. There are also three independent candidates vying for seats
in the European Parliament. Romania will have 33 members in the future European
Parliament, but under a European Council decision, the 33rd mandate
will commence only after Britain’s withdrawal from the bloc has produced
judicial effects. 441 polling stations have been set up for the Romanians
abroad, most of them in Italy, Spain and the neighboring Republic of Moldova.
Concurrently with the aforementioned elections, the Romanians are expected to
have their say in a referendum on justice, initiated by the country’s president
Klaus Iohannis.

TABLE TENNIS Romanian-Spanish pair Ovidiu Ionescu and Alvaro Robles
are today taking on their Chinese opponents Long Ma and Chuqin Wang in the
finals of the World Table Tennis Championship in Budpaest, Hungary. In the
semifinals, Ionescu and Robles secured a 4-3 win against the Portuguese Tiago
Apolonia and Joao Monteiro, while Ma and Wang clinched a 4-0 win against
Jingkun Liang and Gaoyuan. Also on Friday, the board of the European Table
Tennis Federation decided that Romania host the 2021 edition of the European Table
Tennis Team Championships. Romania hosted the European Cadet and Junior Table
Tennis Championship in 2018.

MINI-HOLIDAY Over 22 thousand policemen,
gendarme, border police troops and paramedics have been deployed to crowded
areas in Romania to assist traffic and events unfolding during the mini-holiday
of Easter and Labour Day. According to the Interior Ministry in Bucharest, the over
900 public events due to take place during these days, are expected to bring
together one million people. The Romanian authorities are cooperating with
their Hungarian and Bulgarian counterparts to ease traffic at the most crowded
border checkpoints between these countries.

FOOTBALL Former national champion sides, Astra Giurgiu and Viitorul
Constanta will be playing the finals of Romania’s Football Cup. In the
semifinals, Astra eliminated CFR Cluj, while Viitorul defeated CSU Craiova. All
the four semifinalists are also playing in the domestic championship whose leader
is CFR followed by FCSB, formerly known as Steaua Bucharest.

FREQUENCIES
Dear friends, Radio Romania International has operated new changes into the
frequencies of its transmissions due to come into effect on April 27th.
So, the RRI broadcast at 3:00 UTC to North America, (the West Coast) can be
received on the frequency of 7375 kHz in the analogue system, while our
programmes to India are carried by 13630 kHz in the DRM system.

(translated by bill)