A 27-YEAR-OLD Nicosia man was arrested in the early hours of yesterday morning, charged with threatening two motorists with a knife.
According to reports, two young women, aged 18 and 20, were stopped at traffic lights when for reasons unknown, the suspect approached their vehicle and pulled a knife on them. The terrified women fled the scene and called the police.
The man was later stopped and searched by police, who discovered an 8cm switch-blade. The man was arrested and pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a knife, he was charged and released to appear in court at a later date.
Drug arrest
POLICE ARRESTED two young men, aged 19 and 20, in connection with illegal possession and use of drugs. According to the report, police raided the 19-year-old man’s home at around 8.30pm on Monday where they found the 20-year-old and two cigarettes in the ashtray that are believed to have contained drugs. Police also found a precision scale inside a car that had been parked on property that belonged to the 19-year old as well as two flower pots that had two small cannabis plants growing. Police confiscated the evidence and then moved to search the 20-year-old man’s home where they found another cigarette in the ashtray that is believed to contain drugs and a pipe. The two men were later released pending drug analysis results.
Weapons compared
THE GOVERNMENT’S decision keep their defence expenses at 2.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, which amounts to just £198.4 million is proof of a change of priorities in the defence area and in their obligations toward the EU and the strategy they follow concerning the Cyprus problem, stated the Intercollege’s Research Center Head of the Strategic Studies Unit, Dr Aristos Aristotelous, during a news conference yesterday.
Aristotelous his annual report for 2006 entitled ‘Military Forces in Cyprus’ and mentioned that for every National Guard soldier there are 3.6 Turkish soldiers as opposed to three soldiers in 2000 and for every piece of military weaponry, there are another three in the north compared to 2000, when they were only two. According to Aristotelous, this report highlights the current differences between the two forces, especially with the possible commencing of negotiations between the two sides. The human military power in the north, Aristotelous added, has been maintained to 36,000 compared to the 30,000 that it was in 2000 while the National Guard maintains the same number – at 10,000 soldiers – since 1974. Aristotelous finished by saying that the Turkish weaponry is at 449 pieces for the past five years, compared to the 300 in 2000 while the National Guard maintains only 145, the same amount that existed in 2000.
House theft
A 43-YEAR-OLD woman from Larnaca has told police that various pieces of jewellery worth around £1,000 and £300 in cash were stolen between March 20 and 23. After brief investigations police discovered evidence that pointed to the woman’s housemaid, who is now wanted for questioning and is currently missing.
Car theft
A CAR SALESMAN from Nicosia reported to police that thieves broke into his showroom between 1.30pm on March 25 and 8.30am on March 27 and damaged many of the cars to the tune of £1,030 pounds and also stole various parts and radios worth around £800.
Factory fire
A FIRE broke out in a Nicosia company’s car at around 4.30pm on Monday. The car had been parked inside one of the company’s warehouses, in the Lakatameia industrial area and the fire destroyed the front of the vehicle and went on to destroy 76 heating appliances worth around £4,000. The fire was quickly put out by the Fire Department while preliminary investigations suggest that it began by faulty wiring in the car’s engine.
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