YOU NEVER know which straw will finally break the camel’s back, but it may have been Wednesday’s summit between President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The public endorsement that Bush gave to Sharon’s abandonment of the ‘peace process’ in favour of ‘unilateral disengagement’ was mostly symbolic, since the Israeli leader was committed to doing it anyway.
WITH the ‘no’ vote a near certainty in the Greek Cypriot community, yesterday’s pre-donors’ conference in Brussels seems a tad pointless. A few weeks back, it did make sense, assuming a close-run race and the possibility that generous pledges might tilt the balance among those worried about the economic cost of a solution (remember, that was a big issue back then…).
ALITHIA: “How Tassos gave away the Karpas peninsula”. The issue of the return of the Karpas peninsula under Greek Cypriot administration was kept quiet because if it was made public it would result in more Greek Cypriots voting yes in the referendum, something which President Tassos Papadopoulos didn’t want to happen, the paper reports.
ALL eggs sold in Cyprus will need to have a certification stamp on their shell for reasons of traceability to come into line with EU directives of food safety. Kyriacos Charalambous from the poultry sector of the Agriculture Department yesterday told the Cyprus Mail that three changes would be made to the law regarding the sale and distribution of eggs in Cyprus.
COMMANDARIA has been recognised as an inimitable and indigenous product of Cyprus by the Canadian government, which has given the island the exclusive patent rights to the popular desert wine. The decision was reached by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and Registrar of Trademarks, who issued a certification mark to the Cyprus Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism for Commandaria.
PEOPLE must know the truth about the Annan Plan and must not just be influenced by the opinions of certain political leaders, according to Nicos Mesaritis, organiser of a conference that will be held today to explain the plan. ‘The Power of a United Cyprus’ will bring together deputies from AKEL, DISY, smaller parties, movements and NGOs.
A FULL-size replica of the ancient Cypriot vessel, the Kyrenia ship, sets sail for Athens from Limassol tomorrow, carrying copper for the bronze medals for this year’s Olympic Games.
DISY deputy Panayiotis Demetriou said yesterday that Cyprus would have a lot of fence mending to do in Europe following the Greek Cypriot side’s negative reaction to the final Annan plan.
American, British and EU donations would fall well short of amount needed AMERICA, Europe and Britain yesterday promised aid totaling almost three quarters of a billion dollars for the reunification of Cyprus at a pre-donors’ conference in Brussels, but the offer came with dire warnings for the Greek Cypriot side in the event of a ‘no’ vote in the referendum on April 24.
GREECE yesterday gave cautious backing to the Annan plan, saying it had more positive than negative points, but Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis made it clear that the final decision would rest with the people of Cyprus.
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.
