PROFITS are down and tempers high as the road works plough on in Limassol, this time on the opposite side of the road to the main tourist thoroughfare, dubbed The Strip.

CIVIL aviation workers have refused to hand over an airport bus to a Cyprus Airways (CY) driver to transfer passengers from the controversial transit lounge at Larnaca to the departure area.

AS THE government yesterday released details of its pre-accession economic programme (PEP), the EU said it was worried about the current account deficits of some candidate countries following their individual submissions.

TURKEY cannot avoid executing judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the Council of Europe’s (CoE) Secretary-general Walter Schwimmer said in Strasbourg yesterday.

THE BAD NEWS is that a quarter of all drinking water samples tested last year turned out to be unsuitable. The good news is that regular public health department checks mean most water contamination problems are corrected within a matter of days.

ELECTIONS service chief George Theodorou yesterday told the House refugee committee that voting should become optional from 2004.

Voting in elections is currently compulsory – failing to cast your vote is punishable by a fine of up to £200.

Theodorou told the committee that the trend in Europe was towards non-obligatory voting.

STAFF at the Development Bank yesterday got back to work after striking for two weeks in protest at being left in the dark about a deal to sell off part of the company.

The bank’s bosses yesterday handed employees, who are members of bank workers union ETYK, the text of the agreement to sell off 38 per cent of the bank’s share capital to Greece’s Piraeus Bank.