EUROPEAN Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said yesterday a crisis could be averted in membership talks with Turkey if the political will existed for Ankara to fulfil its obligations towards Cyprus.

Rehn, who was on a visit to Ankara told a news conference: “We can really avoid a train crash if we have the political will.”

OUTPATIENT health care under the National Health Plan (NHP), which will include primary care by doctors, secondary care by specialists, as well as medicine and diagnostic examinations, will be available to the public by sometime in 2008, Health Minister Charis Charalambous said yesterday.

Suspected hitman’s associates under scrutiny as plot thickens

A LIMASSOL man, believed to have been working closely with a wanted hitman who was killed in a traffic accident on September 24, has been arrested and remanded in custody.

Parliament to be daubed in pink as part of Europa Donna campaign
PARLIAMENT HOUSE is to be lit up with pink lights next week as part of this year’s campaign to raise awareness of breast cancer on the island, Europe Donna Cyprus announced yesterday

THE GOVERNMENT yesterday said there was nothing untoward with a donation made to President Papadopoulos’ 2003 election campaign by a foreign company.

A TUMULTUOUS session of ruling DIKO’s Executive Bureau yesterday strove to agree on candidates for December’s municipal elections, as party scrapper Nikos Pittokopitis bowed out of the race for the Paphos mayorship.

The party’s top decision-making body was in a marathon session that dragged into the evening.

Media reports suggest Bishop Athanassios has brought out ‘campaigning sisters’

IN WHAT appears to be the latest round of mudslinging in the archbishopric elections saga, accusations have surfaced that a team of 30 nuns have come from Greece to help garner clerical support for Limassol bishop Athanassios. A Limassol Bishopric spokesman has described the allegations as “fantasies”.

THE ISLAND’S first photovoltaics park, showcasing a variety of solar energy options, is due to open next week, but don’t get the kids and the picnic basket ready – this is a purely technological park.

Green Party chides government on World Animal Day

ON THE occasion of World Animal Day, which falls today, the Green Party has said that not enough is being done on the island to safeguard animal welfare.