TURKISH Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash said yesterday he would travel to New York to meet UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan on Tuesday, hours after saying the date fixed by the UN was a cruel imposition. Speaking on arrival in the north after intensive consultations in Ankara, a tired Denktash said his trip to the US did not mean he accepted Annan’s terms for the resumption of talks.
THE NICOSIA Municipality, in collaboration with the European Commission and the Cyprus Co-ordinating Office, will be handing out information pamphlets to the public today and tomorrow on Eleftheria Square. The aim of the campaign is to inform the public of Europe Direct, the EU’s free information service, as part of efforts to raise awareness about EU accession.
FOR THE first time, a bi-communal business co-operation event will be held to promote communication between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in the business sector today. Dr Yiannis Laouris, who is organizing the event, yesterday told the Cyprus Mail that they had decided to include a combination of events in order to avoid antagonism and to promote initiative.
AN EXPLOSIVE device was yesterday found outside the house of beleaguered Paralimni Mayor Nicos Vlittis. Police evacuated Vlittis’ home and the area after the mayor’s wife Kyriaki found a strange item on their balcony at 7.30am. The CID immediately visited the scene and confirmed the item was indeed a bomb. An explosives expert was also present who attempted to deactivate the device.
TROODOS has not had this much snow in over a decade, with skiers in for a real treat this year as people in the business predict this year’s snowfall will last right through until the end of April. “It snows enough to ski every year, but this year it’s different.
THE telecommunications regulator yesterday withdrew an injunction that had prevented CyTA from cutting international call rates. The injunction had been issued around a week ago following a CyTA announcement of up to 95 per cent reductions to some international destinations.
TURKEY wants next week’s Cyprus reunification talks in New York to succeed and has already shifted its position to achieve a compromise, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said yesterday. EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said after meeting Gul he believed the fresh talks indicated the Greek and Turkish sides had basically agreed on a settlement.
AS RECENTLY as 20 years ago, rational political debate did not really exist in Cyprus. Fanaticism reigned supreme and public discussions about the national problem often degenerated into abusive exchanges. The most common form of abuse directed at those who had the audacity to question government policy or thinking on the Cyprus problem was that that they were unpatriotic.
IT’S MY front door buzzer. A courier looking like a soaked black spaceman is at the door. He asks me to sign for a parcel, while his radio controller is making a crackling sound in the background, and then disappears into the cold, snowy street. I open the parcel: it’s a men’s deodorant.
ONE MILLION women are diagnosed with breast cancer worldwide per year. In the European Union alone, a new diagnosis is made every 2.5 minutes and a woman dies from the disease every six. In Cyprus, 300 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year.
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.
