THERE was bad news for main opposition party Akel yesterday, with one of its deputies announcing he was jumping ship to become an independent.

WHY DID two government doctors have to travel down to Paphos with Diko leader and House president Spyros Kyprianou as he opened a museum and diocesan headquarters last Sunday?

LIKE Christ on Golgotha, the people of Cyprus continue to suffer a Calvary of persecution in their struggle for freedom from Turkish occupation, Archbishop Chrysostomos has said in his Easter message.

PARTIES yesterday issued their messages to the nation ahead of Orthodox Easter Sunday tomorrow, invariably focusing on the Cyprus problem.

Governing Disy said Cypriot Hellenism was preparing to celebrate Easter "with the deep faith that after Golgotha comes the resurrection."

THREE people were killed and another 3 injured in two traffic accidents in the Limassol area on Thursday night.

The first accident happened just after 10pm when a car collided with a motorcycle as it tried to turn into Kolonaki Street.

DEMETRA made its entrance on the stock market at a premium of 16 per cent yesterday as one of the largest listings to date opened at the top end of analysts’ predictions.

BOTH Commerce Minister Nicos Rolandis and Zacharias Ioannides, Director-general of the Cyprus Hotel Association said they were satisfied with yesterday’s "consensus" over re-imposing two old taxes on hotels.

RICHARD A. Boucher, US ambassador to Cyprus 1993-96, has been appointed as spokesman for the US State Department headed by Madeline Albright.

It will be Boucher’s second innings in the job, which he held from 1989 to 1993, but he is confident that the challenges are still fresh.

COMMERCE Minister Nicos Rolandis yesterday said the question of whether or not to upgrade or close the Larnaca petroleum refinery had been deliberated by a special ministerial committee and would go before the Council of Ministers "sometime in May."