“AT SOME point we are confident we will overturn the (whaling) moratorium. It is becoming a reality,” said Joji Morishita, a member of Japan’s huge delegation to the annual morality play that the International Whaling Commission’s meetings have become.
Teachers’ strike called off THE SECONDARY School Teachers’ Union (OELMEK) called off strike action, after a joint meeting with the Education and Finance Ministers yesterday. OELMEK delivered an ultimatum to the Education Ministry last Thursday, warning that if the Ministry did not act to solve the problems in secondary schools, industrial action would follow.
A STRANDED yachtsman, his boat flames off the shores of Kyrenia, is unlikely to care if his rescuers speak Turkish or Greek but the topic of who patrols the island’s waters has been a bone contention for almost 30 years.
FORMER COMMERCE and Industry Minister Nicos Rolandis yesterday blasted the decision to shelve plans to upgrade the Larnaca Petroleum Refinery to meet with EU standards. In a letter yesterday, Rolandis said the decision to upgrade the refinery was taken in 1995 following a study which showed that it was the cheapest option.
THE CENTRAL Bank of Cyprus released a circular to commercial banks giving advice on how to approach applications by Turkish Cypriots to open up bank accounts in the government-controlled areas. The circular advises banks to apply the same principles and requirements for opening a savings account for Turkish Cypriots as they would for Greek Cypriots.
A JOINT Financial Times FTSE Med 100 index involving the Cyprus, Athens and Tel Aviv stock exchanges was launched officially in Nicosia yesterday. Five Cypriot listed companies – the Bank of Cyprus, Laiki Bank, Hellenic Bank, Louis Cruise Lines and Tsokkos Hotels — are represented on the new Med 100 index, along with 60 Athens listed companies and 35 Israeli firms.
A CYPRIOT documentary has won the first prize in the Huston World Film and Video Festival ahead of 86 other entries. The documentary My Country Alone won the Gold Special Jury Award in the Ethnic-Cultural category. Thirty-seven countries with 4,500 films took part in the festival.
TURKEY yesterday announced it would be unconditionally paying the compensation ordered by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of a Greek Cypriot refugee. The ECHR found Turkey guilty of preventing Titina Loizidou from gaining access to and peacefully enjoying her property in Kyrenia.
PETROLEUM refinery employees yesterday said they would not strike on the condition that the Commerce and Industry Minister kept his promise to find them other jobs when the site closed next year. At a press conference on Wednesday, Lillikas said the government was going to do “everything within its power” to find alternative employment for those who found themselves out of a job.
GREEK PRIME Minister and outgoing EU president, Costas Simitis said yesterday that if Turkey wanted to join the EU a solution to the Cyprus problem must be reached in line with UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan’s plan Simitis was speaking to journalists during a visit to the press centre at the EU summit in Thessalonica at the end of Greece’s stint in the six-month rotating presidency c
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.
