POLICE said yesterday they had busted a crime ring organising marriages of convenience between local women and foreigners seeking residency permits.
Eight women have been arrested and a further 19 warrants were issued for suspicion of taking part in marriages of convenience and for attempting to cover-up an offence. The suspects are women and men, Cypriot and non-Cypriot.
Asylum seekers pleased with promise but set to stay put until they see action
HOUSE President Demetris Christofias yesterday pledged to find a solution to asylum seekers’ woes and said he would meet with the government on their behalf.
NICOSIA C.I.D. are currently looking into the theft of a chequebook, which has led to the detention of three people after they all attempted to cash in the cheques.
The third man was detained for six days yesterday on suspicion of attempting to cash a stolen cheque at a Nicosia bank on Wednesday.
The prosecution is set to charge him with six counts of theft and forgery.
THE GOVERNMENT has a clear indication of the main reasons behind last August’s Helios crash in Grammatiko, and that is why it has appointed the Investigative Committee, the Government Spokesman said yesterday.
George Lillikas was responding to opposition DISY’s claims that the government planned the appointment of the committee to coincide with the crucial pre-election period.
A NICOSIA man was yesterday handed a three-year suspended sentence for setting fire to a pub in Strovolos last year because he was in love with one of the women who worked there.
According to the man’s defence lawyer, the man had set fire to the pub after he had argued with a woman who was working there. She is now his third wife.
ONE OF two 27-year-old men whose brutal beating at the hands of Nicosia plain clothes officers last year was captured on tape, was yesterday back in Cyprus to assist criminal investigators with their inquiry.
THE EXECUTIVE Committee of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on port state control has decided that Cyprus will be upgraded from the grey to the white list of detentions.
The Committee, which met on Wednesday, acknowledged the significant improvement Cyprus has achieved on its detention rate and security standards of the Cyprus fleet.
THE GREEN party yesterday said it had found nitrate concentration levels almost double the permissible levels in vegetables taken from three different fruit markets.
NORWEGIAN shipping tycoon John Fredriksen, Norway’s richest man, has gained Cypriot citizenship, according to reports from Oslo yesterday.
Bloomberg financial wire suggested that Fredriksen, who is estimated to be worth $7 billion and is often described as the “modern-day Onnassis”, has made the move to avoid high taxation in Norway.
Pilot programme looks to increase involvement for better results
THE EDUCATION Ministry yesterday confirmed plans to go ahead with a revolutionary pilot programme in select state schools, giving more autonomy to head teachers and hopefully involving students, teachers and parents more in school life.
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.
