LEFT-wing opposition party AKEL looks set to emerge from the May parliamentary elections as the largest party for the first time in 20 years, according to an opinion poll conducted by AMER and commissioned by Politis newspaper.
ECONOMISTS said yesterday that tax cuts proposed by DIKO on Tuesday would crackdown on widespread tax evasion but harm the poor, as the country shifts from direct to indirect taxation.
OPPOSITION parties yesterday expressed shock that the Larnaca desalination unit had been inaugurated on Monday before the water was fit for human consumption.
ELECTIONEERING has spilled over into Cyprus Airways (CY), with board members at each other’s throats over media leaks on major company decisions.
Simerini newspaper yesterday reported details of heated board meetings exposing differences of opinion between chairman Haris Loizides and other members.
LIMASSOL has had 27 cases of viral meningitis this year, 14 of them this month, and faces the spectre of a major outbreak this summer, medical experts warned yesterday.
“There are definite indications that if we continue at this rate there will be an epidemic in the summer,” senior district health officer Christalla Hadjianastasiou said yesterday.
THE EUROPEAN Commission has given a guardedly optimistic forecast for the Cyprus economy in the coming year, saying there will be a slight contraction due to a slowing of domestic demand, and warning that the country is becoming overly dependant on the tourist industry.
THE GOVERNMENT yesterday confirmed that two Cyprus-based companies had been named as central to the supply of illicit arms to rebels of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).
THE CABINET said yesterday that no criminal offences had been committed by members of the Paphos Hellenic Co-operative, including its chairman and DIKO vice-chairman Nicos Pittokopitis, under investigation over allegations of irregularities.
CYPRUS has its first MOT test centre, in Nicosia’s Pallouriotissa suburb. KMPM Autovision (Cyprus) Ltd has spent in excess of £150,000 setting up the state-of-the-art facility, in partnership with one of France’s leading roadworthiness test companies, Autovision.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
