ALVARO de Soto, the United Nations mediator for the proximity talks on a Cyprus settlement, will take up residence on the island in June.

TRACHONI villagers are claiming to have witnessed the miraculous appearance of a long-dead saint levitating outside a chapel named after him.

They also claim that the vision — of Saint George the Hodjevite — left behind evidence confirming the authenticity of earlier ‘miraculous’ signs at their village outside Limassol.

TWELVE shots were exchanged on the Green Line at Dherynia on Tuesday night, Unficyp confirmed yesterday.

Unficyp spokesman Charles Gaulkin told the Cyprus Mail that they had contacted the Turkish Cypriot authorities about the incident.

THE CONSUMER faces a double whammy of utility price rises with both telephone and electricity bills on their way up.

The cost of local phone calls is set to triple by April next year (though long distance rates will fall in line with global trends), while higher oil prices on the world market are forcing their way into our electricity bills.

LIBRA Holidays said yesterday it has signed an agreement to take a 78 per cent stake in British-run Sabre Airways in a deal worth nine million pounds sterling.

Sabre, a charter carrier, operates from Gatwick Airport and is scheduled to carry more than 400,000 passengers this year, Libra said in a news release.

WHAT STARTED as a spat between the Church and the State yesterday descended into strife within the Church itself.

Kiti Bishop Chrysostomos yesterday called on everyone to unite in the common struggle for liberation of the island.

A NICOSIA psychologist yesterday refuted claims by the Health Minister that he had ulterior motives when he reported him for speeding.

LARNACA Mayor George Lycourgos pledged yesterday his city and its Development Council would sue officers of the government in the Supreme Court for alleged deception and irregular and illegal acts in building the Larnaca desalination plant.

And he vowed to continue pursuing his court action to halt the plant’s construction.

MECHANICAL faults were to blame for the mini-bus accident that killed seven people near Moniatis 10 days ago, a technical committee probe has reportedly found.

According to Phileleftheros, the mini-bus involved in the deadly accident had burnt-out brake pads and a faulty handbrake, clutch and rear tyre.

A HUGE fire gutted a factory and a warehouse and threatened to engulf homes in the Omonia area of Limassol town yesterday.

Homes around the furniture factory and engine oil warehouse on Deinokratous street had to be evacuated in the early hours while fire-fighters fought a three-hour battle with the flames.