COMMERCIAL banks yesterday brushed aside mounting calls for them to slash stifling interest rates on housing and business loans. Their hands are tied, they say, because right now they can’t afford to lend cash with impunity.

‘If we had the same positions right from the start, the problem would have been solved before we began’

PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat yesterday continued direct talks on the issue of the legislature.

BOOKINGS from the UK for next year will most likely be down, but Cyprus is doing a bit better than some other countries, Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) Director General Phoebe Katsouri said yesterday.

Katsouri was speaking from the World Tourism Fair in London, where tourism bosses hope to gauge to some extent the effects of the global crisis on next year’s arrivals.

FOUR men were yesterday remanded in custody in connection with a cocaine bust.

The Larnaca district court remanded two of the men, aged 62 and 32, for eight days custody and the other two, aged 32 and 43, for six. All four are accused of conspiring to commit a felony and the illegal possession of drugs with the intent to supply.

A 19-MONTH-old baby is in critical injury after he fell from the second floor of his apartment block yesterday lunchtime, police said.

Police are investigating how the little Russian boy toppled out of his bedroom window at around 12.50pm on Galileos Street in Larnaca.

THE final decision on whether the planned Limassol Conference Centre will be finished on time to host the 2012 Cypriot EU Presidency meetings and conferences will be reached within the month. A meeting between involved stakeholders and the Ministers of Commerce and Finance has been set for November 17, and a clear picture of when the conference centre will be ready is expected to emerge.

A BRITISH man was left devastated after delinquents vandalised his collection of Christmas lights in the run up to Advent.

“Around €2,500 worth of lights and ornaments were destroyed or stolen. None of them were insured unfortunately. Everyone is very upset about this incident. I didn’t think kids here would do such a thing,” said Peter Holman.

THE HEALTH Ministry said yesterday bad halloumi was the culprit in last week’s school food poisoning outbreak.

“From the investigation that followed the incident through the food trail involved in making the sandwich at the school canteen, it seems it was the halloumi that caused the food poisoning,” the Ministry said in a written statement.