Should you or shouldn’t you have a dog around the house? MARIA SOCRATOUS weighs it up ‘MUM, why don’t I have a little brother or sister?’ ‘Dad please come and play with me. I don’t have anyone to play with.’ Sound familiar? One-child families are used to listening to such patter from their only child.
De Soto to launch shuttle talks with time running out THE UN said yesterday it was calling a halt to direct talks between the two leaders in Cyprus, switching to negotiating separately with the two sides, just one week before the deadline for an agreement.
ALITHIA: “De Soto: No extension” No extension to the talks leading to the referenda would be given and there was no plan B should the talks fail, the daily said quoting special UN envoy Alvaro de Soto after his meeting with Greek Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis.
CYPRUS football teams are in danger of being excluded from top European competitions next year, according to one football official. Nicos Nicolaou said yesterday the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) would complete its assessment of the football clubs by April 9, after which the association will decide which teams get a licence to compete in European competitions next year.
THREE foreigners, including a man claiming to be a prince of Congo, were remanded in custody for five days yesterday after spending three nights at the Presidential Suite of the Hilton Hotel in Nicosia without paying. The three, aged 38, 41 and 55, stayed at the hotel from Sunday to Wednesday, running up a £7,867 bill. They were arrested late in the evening when they refused to pay.
CYPRUS has more dentists, produces more rubbish and uses more fertilizers per capita than all the other EU acceding countries. According to figures from Eurostat, Cypriots produce 704 kilos of rubbish per capita each year, only 45 kilos less than the average American, but 185 kilos more per person than the average European.
DRIVERS frozen out by insurance companies will now get a chance to secure cover in an effort to stem the growing number of people driving without car insurance. Under new rules, the Joint Insurance Company and the Insurance Registrar will issue cover to those individuals refused insurance by at least three insurance companies.
THE HELLENIC Bank spread its wings further to the port of Piraeus this week, opening its 20th branch in Greece and following closely the trail of the other main banks in Cyprus, Bank of Cyprus and Laiki. The Cyprus-based Hellenic Bank increased its presence in Greece with the opening of another branch in the port area of Piraeus on Polytechnic Heroes Avenue on Wednesday.
A BI-COMMUNAL Internet forum calling itself ‘e-voices Cyprus’ is inviting Greek and Turkish Cypriots to participate in an open dialogue on ways to use internet technology to “enhance democracy through citizen participation in decision and policy-making processes”.
Fact of the day: The Single Market provides businesses with the opportunity to operate in a huge, relatively wealthy market of 450 million consumers. For multinational corporations, the rules and regulations might be a little annoying to start with but at least they are uniform across the region, and so don’t hinder expansion too much.
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.
