NEARLY half of Cypriots were carrying euro notes on January 2, and over a quarter said they had used only the new currency to conduct transactions, an EU survey published yesterday said.
A FEW isolated incidents of rounding up continued to emerge yesterday as people thronged to the island’s banks for a second day running.
Michalis Kamas, a representative of the Commercial Banks’ Association, said banks were generally busy at this time of the year in any case, but estimated that the Cyprus pound would be totally out of circulation by around January 15.
THE Finance Ministry is running a series of advertisements warning the public to be on the lookout for the Turkish one lira coin, which resembles the €2 coin but is worth about four times less.
Cyprus is particularly vulnerable to the confusion due the circulation of the Turkish lira in the north.
THE chief of police has ordered a criminal investigation against an officer allegedly caught in a gambling joint where a minor also gambled away all his money, reports said yesterday.
State television said the minor had lost a substantial amount of money he had taken from his family without them knowing.
THE FOREIGN Ministry yesterday warned Cypriots not to travel to Kenya because of post-election violence which has left hundreds of people dead.
Due to the irregular domestic situation in Kenya, the Foreign Ministry “suggests to Cypriot citizens to avoid travelling” to the east African country in the present circumstances, an official statement said.
PRESIDENT Tassos Papadopoulos is expected today to announce his decision on whether to send back to Parliament a law barring the energy regulator from issuing private licences for natural gas supplies.
BRITISH AIRWAYS yesterday announced an expansion of its Cyprus operation with new mainline flights to London Gatwick from Paphos from July 1, throughout the year.
A NEWLY-formed protest group calling itself ‘Britain Reconsider’ will gather outside Akrotiri bases tonight to demonstrate against the British Bases’ presence and British policy towards Cyprus.
CYPRIOTS sent double the amount of text messages during New Year’s eve and day than on any other day of the year.
SMS texting is taking over as the new way of wishing loved ones a happy new year, if network figures are taken into account.
THE island’s motorists were caught committing 2,275 traffic offences between December 24 and 30. As part of ongoing efforts to prevent and reduce the number of traffic accidents, police carried out a nationwide traffic campaign in the last week of the year.
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.
