POLICE were yesterday examining CCTV footage after a pre-season football friendly degenerated into violence on Thursday night.

A LARGE fire that broke out near the village of Lefkara was mostly contained by late yesterday, with authorities remaining on standby for a possible resurgence.

The blaze erupted on a mountain slope next to the Kornos-Delikipos-Lefkara road shortly after 3pm.

THE FINANCE Ministry yesterday advised businesses to allow customers who pay in euro during the dual pricing period to be charged at the fixed rather than market rate to avoid misunderstandings.

Dual pricing comes into effect on September 1. It means all shops and other businesses must show their prices in Cyprus pounds and in euros.

POLICE have launched a manhunt for a 30-year-old man in connection with the brutal slaying of a 63-year-old in Limassol two weeks ago.

Lakis Ioannides, a retired pharmacist, was found dead in his home on the morning of August 12.

He was found half-naked and strangled on his bed.

OFFICIALS of the Cyprus University of Technology are confident of putting their newly-launched institute on the world map despite the difficult days that lie ahead.
Around 800 candidates for each faculty applied to study in the newly-opened university, but only 450 have managed to get in.

THE CYPRUS problem will be the top item on the agenda of the 2008 vote, leaders of the government camp said yesterday.

The meeting at the Presidential Palace that lasted almost two hours was the first brainstorming session aimed at thrashing out strategy ahead of February’s elections.

TWO BROTHERS on the run for assaulting four police men are planning to leave the island with the help of a circle that transports illegal immigrants, Phileleftheros claimed yesterday.

Citing police sources, the paper said Elias and Giorgos Akhtar from Limassol, who have been on the run since August 3, were currently planning their next move in the occupied areas.

UNFICYP yesterday informed the authorities that an unauthorised rubbish dump in the buffer zone area alongside the village of Peristerona, to the west of Nicosia, was believed to contain hazardous asbestos materials.

NEARLY all 7,500 tickets have been sold out with a week to go until the ninth Paphos Aphrodite Festival.

Organisers predict the rest of the tickets to be snapped up within the week.
This year’s festival sees the performance of Verdi’s Il Trovatore by the the Abai State Academic Opera and Ballet theatre from Kazakhstan.