E.U. FOREIGN ministers agreed in principle yesterday on freezing eight of Turkey’s negotiating chapters and to monitor Ankara annually until 2009.
The decision on a partial freeze was reached after a day of haggling between EU foreign ministers in Brussels in their attempt to avoid derailing Ankara’s accession course.
THE annual police pre-Christmas clampdown on illegal gambling has so far seen 79 people arrested across the island.
Police spokeswoman Chrystalla Demetriou yesterday told the Mail that since November 15, “1,100 random checks have taken place in coffee shops, clubs and associations.”
A BOMB went off outside a pub in Limassol in the early hours of yesterday.
The blast took place at around 3am outside the Golden Glass pub, on Epirou Street. The pub was closed at the time.
A GOVERNMENT request for £1.7 million to convert the old Nicosia General hospital for the use of various ministries was questioned by the House Finance Committee yesterday.
THE BIGGEST private collection of Christmas lights and decorations on the island was lit up last night, producing a dazzling display of colour.
Two homes in the village of Kiti, in the Larnaca district, have been decked out with 36,000 different decorations, including 10,000 lights.
THE prolonged recent dry spell has raised fears of drought, with water reservoirs currently at about 25 per cent of their capacity, according to Meteorological Department director.
Kyriacos Theofilou said the next couple of days might see some rain, but otherwise the forecast was for clear and sunny weather, as it has been for most of the past month.
GREECE’S Piraeus bank has put the squeeze on the Bank of Cyprus (BoC), who has until the middle of the month to make up its mind on whether it genuinely wants collaboration.
Rally call by Christofias as AKEL’s Mavrou lags
AKEL chief Demetris Christofias has issued a rally call to the three-way coalition supporting Eleni Mavrou’s candidacy for the Nicosia mayorship, after polls showing the deputy to be trailing the other candidates.
Nicosia has never had a female mayor before, but this time round two of the four contestants are women.
NICOSIA general hospital staff are in for a grim Christmas this year as staff shortages hit an all time low.
Personnel across all departments are being asked to cover double shifts to cope with the work overload, with many working 18-hour days with only a two-hour break in between.
The ANTIQUITIES Department yesterday said there was absolutely no way they would give Paphos Municipality permission to redevelop the area around the town’s lighthouse.
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.
