TOTAL expenditure on scientific research and development on the island reached £31.9 million in 2005.
According to the latest figures released by the government’s Statistical Service, this corresponded to 0.41 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product.
SIX or seven big foreign companies have expressed an interest in permits to explore for oil and gas off the island’s coast, Commerce Minister Antonis Michaelides said yesterday.
Michaelides was speaking after a meeting with Chinese ambassador Zhao Yali, whom he briefed on the progress in the exploration issue. He said China was also interested.
A BRITISH man who was stabbed in a mass brawl in Ayia Napa has told police that he will sort the matter out once he gets back to London.
According to police, the 21-year-old man was stabbed in the stomach during a brawl involving two groups of men in Ayia Napa square.
The fight took place at around 5.30am yesterday morning.
A MAN who ran over a police officer while trying to escape arrest was yesterday remanded in custody for eight days by a Larnaca Court.
According to police, officers belonging to the drug squad, YKAN, moved in when they spotted the 35-year-old suspect handing a suspect package to a 45-year-old from Larnaca.
A MAN handed a life sentence for the rape and premeditated murder of a Slovakian woman last year, yesterday clapped and mocked the judges after being told that he would spend the rest of his life in prison.
Panayiotis Netzadi, 32, had been found guilty of the kidnapping, rape and murder of 20-year-old Janka Kovacova by the Larnaca Criminal Court.
THE SOUVLA on our plates during the August holidays will be cheaper to buy as demand for red meat goes down.
Butchers’ Association President Costas Livadiotis yesterday told the Mail that meat production has been steadily decreasing. “In 2005, we produced 8,000 tons, 7,000 a year later, with the figure for 2007 expected to be even less.”
A GREEK- Cypriot spokesman condemned the expulsion of an Abbot from a monastery in the north yesterday.
Government Spokesman Vasilis Palmas denounced the expulsion of an Abbot by Turkish- Cypriot police during yesterday’s church service. The monastery carries the name of Apostle Varnavas who is the founder of the autocephalous Church of Cyprus.
INTERIOR Minister Christos Patsalides yesterday met the co-ordination committee for the communities of the Akamas, who are up in arms again over the government’s plans for the area.
CYPRUS is receiving around 5,000 asylum applications a year, has 8,000 cases pending, and approves only 1.5 per cent of applicants, Interior Minster Christos Patsalides said yesterday.
CANCER patients, diabetics and quadriplegics are among those affected by the Labour Ministry’s decision to cut back on welfare benefits.
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.
