UNSIGHTLY buildings could be demolished and up to 10,000 low quality tourist beds could be got rid of if a multi-million pound plan currently being worked on by the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) is implemented. At the end of last September, the total number of tourist beds on the island was close to 96,000, most of which were hotel and hotel apartment beds.

ALITHIA: “Bell helicopters remain grounded”. Three military Bell helicopters grounded after one crashed in July 2002, killing National Guard Chief of Staff Evangelos Florakis and four other officers, are still stuck at the Andreas Papandreou air base in Paphos, the paper reports.

CYPRUS had the highest migratory flow of all acceding EU states in 2003, almost five times the natural birth rate, according to new Eurostat figures. The island also had the lowest death rate per 1,000 people of the acceding states, a figure also lower than in many member states.

A NICOSIA woman who discovered that her husband had died after finding his grave during a visit to her mother’s grave has demanded that the body be exhumed so that forensic examinations be carried out to determine the cause of his death.

HUNDREDS of thousands of pounds worth of damage was caused to roads, cars and houses from the three days of torrential rain and strong winds that swept across the island.

THE Defence Minister yesterday once again played down the importance of military documents found dumped in a Larnaca landfill, though he admitted it was wrong to dispose of government papers in such a manner. The discovery of the National Guard documents comes after a scandal last summer when highly sensitive Cabinet documents were found in bin liners under a Health Ministry staircase.

SPECULATION was again rife yesterday over who would be appointed as the island’s European commissioner in Brussels. Many names have been mooted, but reports yesterday said President Tassos Papadopoulos was preparing to surprise everyone with his choice. One report insisted that the President’s prime candidate was Commerce and Industry Minister, George Lillikas.

CYTA is set to lower the price of international calls by up to 84 per cent on some lines from February 1. Calls to Greece, Britain and the USA from a landline to a landline will be slashed by 21 per cent. The cost of calls to Germany will be cut by 34 per cent. The greatest reductions – 84 per cent – will be made to calls to Surinam, Swaziland and Turkmenistan.