SERVICE Pope Francis delivered a religious service in the St.
\nPeter’s Basilica in Rome on Palm Sunday urging believers to stay close to those
\nin need and suffering. On Palm Sunday, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, made his
\ntriumphal entry in Jerusalem where he was welcomed by many with Palm branches.
\nFive days later He was crucified, died and came back to life again. In the past
\nyears, on Palm Sunday, the day marking the beginning of the Holy Week before
\nEaster, tens of thousands used to take to the St. Peter’s Square with palm and
\nolive branches in hands for an outdoor religious service. This time, due to the
\npandemic restrictions, only 120 believers were allowed to join the Pope and the
\n30 cardinals in the basilica. Italy is presently seeing a national quarantine
\nexpected to end after Easter. The Vatican, a sovereign state in downtown Rome,
\nhas applied similar restrictions. However, unlike one year ago, the Church of
\nthe Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem remained open to visitors on the Catholic Palm Sunday
\nallowing believers to attend the service. This year, Catholic believers are
\ncelebrating Easter on April 4th while the Orthodox, a majority in
\nRomania, are to celebrate Christ’s resurrection almost a month later, on May 2nd.
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TENNIS Romanian tennis player Horia Tecau and Marcelo Arevalo of
\nSalvador have qualified for the round of 16 of the Miami Open ATP Masters 1000,
\na competition with over three million dollars in prize money. The two secured a
\n6-4, 6-3 win against Henri Kontinen of Finland and Edouard Roger Vasselin of
\nFrance. This new pair will be up against top-seeded Juan Sebastian Cabal and
\nRobert Farah in the eighth finals. <\/p>\n
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DST
\nDaylight Saving Time began in Romania on Saturday night when clocks were set
\none hour forward and the difference between the local time and GMT became of
\nthree hours. DST was first introduced in Romania back in 1932 but this might be
\nthe last hour change as the European Parliament in 2019 voted in favour of
\nscrapping this measure inside the EU. Each member state is to decide whether to
\nkeep implementing the DST or not. Countries willing to keep the summer hour
\nmade the change last night, whereas those preferring the winter hour are to
\nmake the final change in the last Sunday of October. <\/p>\n
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MEASURES A new series of measures aimed at fighting the Covid-19 pandemic came
\ninto effect in Romania as of Sunday. The new measures include a weekend night
\ncurfew starting at 20 hours in regions with an infection rate that exceeds four
\nper thousand. In these regions shops are to close down at 18 hours while in
\nareas with an infection rate over 7.5 per thousand, restrictions will be in
\nforce during the entire week. According to the latest data published by the
\nauthorities, over 44 hundred new infections have been reported in Romania in
\nthe past 24 hours most of them in Bucharest. A year on from the onset of the
\npandemic, 930 thousand infections have been reported in Romania with a death
\ntoll over 23 thousand. The number of Romanians who got at least a dose of the
\nanti-Covid vaccine has exceeded 1,900,000. Half of them have also been given
\nthe booster dose. <\/p>\n
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(bill)<\/p>\n
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