THE ADMISSION by Israel’s deputy Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, that the “liquidation” of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was an option should come as no surprise. It is perfectly consistent with the Sharon government’s monumentally misguided military campaign to solve the Palestinian issue by crushing Palestinian militant groups.
SIMERINI: “Papadopoulos-Simitis tele-conference via Hellas Sat”. Communication Minister Kikis Kazamias flew to Athens on Sunday in order to appear at a tele-conference between President Tassos Papadopoulos and Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis. The conference was held yesterday at 1.35pm through the Greco-Cypriot satellite Hellas Sat.
THE BRITISH Bases were yesterday investigating complaints that the British Ministry of Defence website had referred to Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash as “President of the Cyprus Republic” and presented former president Glafcos Clerides as “leader of the Greek Cypriot community”.
THE government has received applications from three companies to participate in next month’s public auction for the first mobile phone licence to be awarded to the private sector.
OPPOSITION DISY has tabled a bill that would introduce juvenile courts to deal with the growing number of young offenders. The bill follows an increase in cases of arson, break-ins, theft, and drug offences involving underage offenders, said DISY deputy Ionas Nicolaou. “It is a crime to try minors and to treat them using sanctions provided by common criminal justice,” he said.
BRITAIN’S Independent Television Commission has ruled that a TV documentary about drunken British squaddies in Cyprus was not unfair to the army.
THE DEPARTMENT of Customs and Excise will be cracking down on the illegal smuggling of drugs, cigarettes, alcohol and other products into the country with a new ‘electronic eye’ system. The integrated customs information system, codenamed ‘THESEAS’, will inspect all the containers and merchandise that arrive in Cyprus as well as goods being transported across the island.
A BRAWL outside a Limassol club in the early morning hours of Sunday led to three policemen and four youths being injured, after it took teargas to disperse the troublemakers. According to reports, two groups of about 50 youths started the fight at a parking lot outside a club. By some accounts, the brawlers hurled sticks, stones and broken beer bottles at one another.
POLICE have unleashed a manhunt after a McDonald’s outlet in Nicosia was yesterday robbed of some £20,000. The heist was carried out around 4am by two hooded men, who walked into the restaurant, holding the employees at gunpoint. The employees were then forced to enter a storeroom and locked inside, as the two suspects broke into the safe and collected the proceeds of the last three days.
THE HOLY Synod yesterday unanimously ordered a probe into allegations of embezzlement and mismanagement after being shown the findings of an internal audit on the state of the Church’s finances. The audit scrutinised the finances of the Hellenic Mining Corporation, of which the Church is the major shareholder, and of the Archbishopric, which is owed over £20 million.
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.
