THE GOVERNMENT is being forced to change the planned location for a detention centre to house the influx of Turkish Cypriot gypsies after a backlash from local residents.

THE CENTRAL Beaches Committee yesterday postponed its decision on granting a licence to the Anassa Hotel, run by the family of former Foreign Minister Alecos Michaelides, pending a visit to the luxury tourist complex.

PRICELESS golden icons and precious jewellery items have been missing for the last seven years from the Apostolos Andreas monastery in the occupied Karpass peninsula and the Turkish Cypriot authorities have refused to reveal where they are items are, DIKO deputy Zacharias Koullias told the House Refugee Committee yesterday.

THE GOVERNMENT and the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority yesterday called a glitzy news conference to convince the public that CyTA would be a winner in the pending project to liberalise the telecommunications sector.

PREPARATORY work on the National Health Scheme (NHS) will be paid for entirely from Health or Finance Ministry funds provided in the state budget, Health Minister Frixos Savvides said yesterday.

TURKEY has reportedly been attempting to delay a resolution from the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers asking it to comply with a July 1998 European Court order to pay $900,000 in compensation to Greek Cypriot refugee Titina Loizidou.

THE TRIAL of two archimandrites accused of conspiring to defame Bishop Athanassios of Limassol came to a formal end at a summary hearing yesterday after the state filed for suspension of the case citing reasons of public interest.

Archimandrites Andreas Constantinides and Chrysostomos Argyrides had been on trial since February.

RULING right-wing DISY yesterday called on political parties to follow its example in releasing details of investments on the Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) before the parliamentary elections next month.

Centre-right DIKO responded by issuing its own details later yesterday. DISY released details of its CSE dealings on Monday, parliamentary spokesman Panayiotis Demetriou said. He said the party had not acted illegally by buying shares on private placement, although it had come under fire at the time.

SERBIAN gold flew into Larnaca airport in sealed wooden crates between 1995 and 1998, where Laiki Bank staff collected it, deposited it in their safes then meted it out to offshore Serbian companies in Cyprus – according to a front-page report in Alithia yesterday.

LIMASSOL may soon become the home of the world’s largest doner kebab, which will contain 1,300 kilos of chicken meat and serve up to 15,000 portions at a charitable event scheduled for May 6.