A SURPLUS production of watermelons will drive 2,000 tonnes back into the ground to rot this season in an effort to balance flagging market prices. Fruit producers are exasperated, as the bout of heavy rainfall and good weather has led to a surplus production of 5,000 tonnes, threatening market saturation and unprofitable price levels.
E.U. Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said yesterday that the European Commission’s postbag was full of letters from visitors to Cyprus expressing concern for the island’s environment.
THE URBAN Taxi Federation (POAT) yesterday agreed to suspend its strike until negotiations were completed between the Communications Ministry and the union co-ordinating committee.
CHARALAMBIDES Dairies yesterday officially announced its takeover by the Greek company Delta in what it said was the biggest-ever investment by a firm from an EU country in the food industry in Cyprus.
PARLIAMENT this week made an attempt at better regulating drug use and possession laws, but critics yesterday claimed half measures were the order of the day, saying the government was still neglecting the demand side of the issue.
SUSPECTED British drug smuggler Brian Wright, who has been living as a fugitive in the north, has fled his hideaway just hours before he was to become the first Briton to be deported from the unrecognised breakaway regime, British newspapers reported yesterday.
SECURITIES and Exchange Commission (SEC) chief Marios Clerides yesterday confirmed that Cyprus was co-operating with an American SEC investigation into a company named Millennium Financial Services, in which Cyprus-based investors have reportedly lost several million pounds.
THE SAGA of the Petros Patsalides case wound down yesterday, when the former fugitive and shooting suspect was sentenced to seven months’ imprisonment for escaping police custody.
AS OF Monday, the use of rear seatbelts will be mandatory in all vehicles equipped with the safety devices.
THE PANCYPRIAN Parents Association (PPA) called for stricter legislation to combat the “threat of Satanist beliefs trickling into children’s minds”, reports said yesterday.
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.
