ON THE eve of the Christmas spending spree, over 4,000 lorry drivers responsible for the transport of goods throughout the island went on “indefinite strike” yesterday, threatening to descend on the Presidential Palace unless their demands were met by tomorrow.
THE GOVERNMENT has done the best it can for Cyprus in the run-up to Fiday’s European Union summit which decides whether to open accession negotiations with Turkey, government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said yesterday.
A LINE of lorries from all over Cyprus snaked around the Presidential Palace yesterday, with truckers determined that this was the only way for them to make their voices heard.
The drivers are demanding a suspension of EU harmonisation laws regarding their sector.
WITH many Turkish Cypriots still reeling in shock over the Greek Cypriot rejection of the Annan plan last April, many believe a veto of Turkey’s accession negotiations by the Cyprus government could put already strained relations between the two communities under further threat.
THE EDUCATION Ministry said yesterday there was no room for hippies in schools, after the near expulsion of a long-haired student from a lyceum earlier this year.
A NICOSIA judge yesterday warned two juvenile delinquents that they would end up in jail if they came up in court again, slamming the state for having ignored the problem of young offenders for years.
“Cyprus has filled up with young thieves,” judge Nicos Sandis thundered while delivering the sentence for two boys, aged 13 and 14.
OIL importers yesterday denied that kerosene, used by many households for heating, would no longer be freely available on the market, attributing the recent shortages to the timing of shipments and a sequence of adverse events.
AUTHORITIES yesterday shed some light on how large amounts of contaminated foodstuffs found their way to store shelves, three days after revelations that consumers could be at risk.
GREEK Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and Democratic Rally (DISY) leader Nicos Anastasiades yesterday agreed that every possible effort should be made to link Turkey’s European path with the Cyprus problem and promote the full normalisation of relations between Cyprus and Turkey through specific references to be included in the European Council’s final conclusions on December 17.
RULING DIKO, the Greens and new-kids-on-the-block European Democrats staged their separate party congresses over the weekend, as the proceedings offered up few surprises.
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.
