April 11, 2026 UPDATE
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 11.04.2026, 19:57
EASTER Over 24 thousand employees of the Romanian Interior Ministry will be supervising the Easter mini-holiday, the spokeswoman for the Ministry, Monica Dajbog, announced. The ministry’s teams will be having an active presence on the country’s main roads and motorways, tourist resorts where there will be events with high public attendance and in other areas where their presence is required, the spokeswoman says. Public order patrols, firefighters and paramedics will be mainly focusing on churches and other religious places, which are expected to be attended by 2.3 million believers. This month firefighters have trained the clergy on the measures to be taken in case of emergency, Dajbog went on to say.
CHURCH In his pastoral sermon occasioned by the upcoming Orthodox Easter Daniel, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, has mentioned the need to firmly stand for the holiness of marriage, solidarity within the family and among families, the dignity of motherhood and fatherhood against the so-called foreign models, which ignore the Christian values. The Patriarch is urging the Orthodox priests to encourage and support the families who are leading a Christian life and mentions the need to take care of the families with sick children, of the lonely, the elderly, the sick and the needy. He recalls the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church has proclaimed the year 2026 the Solemn Year of Christian Family Pastoral Care and the Commemorative Year of the Holy Women underlying the essential role the Christian family and women have inside the church and in society. Cardinal Claudiu, Archbishop of the Romanian Church united with Rome, has also conveyed in his Easter Pastoral a strong message of hope, light and faith reminding the believers that light cannot be defeated by darkness. The cardinal has called to prayer for those he describes as our brothers in Ukraine and Middle East, so that God grant them the power to resist despair and not to abandon hope in suffering.
TALKS A plane carrying US high officials landed in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad on Saturday for a new round of peace talks with Iran, Pakistani sources, quoted by the press agencies, have announced. Washington and Teheran are to kick off a new round of talks to put an end to the war, which has lasted for six weeks and killed thousands in the Middle East, disrupted oil supplies, raised inflation and slowed the global economy down.
ELECTION Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, has accused his opponents that right before the Parliamentary elections they engaged in ‘an organized attempt to use chaos, pressure and international vilification to call into question the decision of the Hungarian people.’ According to him, ‘the opposition is colluding with foreign intelligence and threatening his supporters with violence.’ ‘Our opponents will stop at nothing to seize power,’ Orban says in a video posted on social media. Orban, who has been ruling the country since 2010, is running for the fifth term in office. According to independent opinion polls, his pro-European conservative opponent, Peter Magyar, is well ahead in the vote set for Sunday. Magyar urged ‘Hungarians no to fall for any kind of provocation’, and called on ‘the departing Prime Minister to accept the judgement of the Hungarian people with due calm and dignity.’ ‘The series of ongoing election fraud carried out for months by the ruling party, Fidesz, along with criminal acts, intelligence operations, disinformation and fake news cannot change the fact that (his party, Tisza) is going to win this election,’ Magyar said in a Facebook post.
POWS Russia and Ukraine exchanged 175 prisoners each on Saturday, the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky and the Russian Ministry of Defence have announced quoted by international news agencies. According to Zelensky, most of the Ukrainian soldiers were being held captive since 2022. Zelensky announcement comes just hours before a temporary ceasefire is set to take effect for the Orthodox Easter.
TENNIS The Romanian women’s tennis team outperformed Georgia 2-0, in a match to avoid demotion from the Europa/Africa Group 1 of the Billie Jean King Cup. In Oeiras, Portugal, on Saturday Elena Ruxandra Bertea secured a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win against Ekaterine Gorgodze, while Carmen-Andreea Herea outperformed Sofia Shapatava 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Following this success, Romania remains in the copetition’s first group. Also on Saturday, the Romanian-Chinese pair made up of Sorana Cirstea/Shuai Zhang qualified for the finals of the doubles contest of the WTA 500 tournament in Linz, Austria, with prizes over one million Euros on Saturday after a two-set win, 7-5, 6-2 against Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway and Quinn Gleason of the USA. The odds-on favourites Cirstea and Zhang won the match in one hour and 20 minutes and will be up against Jesika Malechova and Miriam Skoch of the Czech Republic. Also in the singles semifinals Romanian Gabriela Ruse was defeated by the Russian Mirra Andreeva in a two-setter, 6-4, 6-1.
(bill)
