LONNIE Cooper poured in 22 points including six three-pointers as Keravnos Strovolos trounce Omonoia Nicosia 98-70 in the last game of the national basketball championship’s Round 4 on Monday night at the Tassos Papadopoulos Eleftheria Athletic Center.
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THE RIVALRY between supporters of Omonia and APOEL started decades ago but has only escalated into serious violence in recent years.
The rivalry between the fans also extends across the political spectrum, as they both come from different backgrounds.
APOEL, the Athletic and Football Club of the Greeks of Nicosia, has a right-wing following while Omonia, which was founded by members of APOEL who abandoned the club in 1948, has a left-wing leaning.
Some politicians publicly fuel the flames by openly getting involved in football in Cyprus.
Years ago, it was not uncommon for supporters of both teams to attend a game together, sit on separate terraces and leave the grounds together.
A LEADING criminologist yesterday called for the formation of a task force dedicated to containing sports-related violence, but also to look into understanding the phenomenon.
“We urgently need this. It’s time we stopped talking about hooliganism and started doing something about it,” said Andros Kapardis, a University of Cyprus professor.
Kapardis was commenting on the latest bout of violence – this time between fans of clubs who were not even playing each other – that left one youth in a critical condition.
“We need a long-term national strategy to contain the violence and then reduce it. The first step would be prevention: tougher sentences for offenders, greater powers to the police such as surveillance,” he told the Mail.
DIKO leader Marios Garoyian cracked the whip yesterday, warning party cadres point-blank that insubordinate behaviour would no longer be tolerated.
The party’s Executive Bureau convened in an extraordinary meeting to discuss three items: the need for ‘a uniform political language’, the need for a ‘restructuring’, and the need to clean up the party’s image of insularity and internal bickering.
The most incendiary issue – the party’s continued participation in the government coalition – was left off the agenda. Its inclusion would almost certainly have led to a showdown.
TURKISH Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat used his speech marking the 26th anniversary of the breakaway ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ (TRNC) on Sunday to call on Greek Cypriots to join Turkish Cypriots in efforts to reunite the island.
“The Turkish Cypriot people are ready to share this beautiful island with you. Come and contribute to peace efforts.
“Don’t prevent this island becoming one of friendship and unity,” he said during a rally attended by politicians and military personnel from north Cyprus and Turkey in Nicosia.
Talat also sought to impress on Greek Cypriots the connection Turkish Cypriots have with the island and dispel the notion that Turkish Cypriots were less a part of Cypriot history than their Greek Cypriot counterparts.
THE NORTH’S Immovable Property Commission (IPC) has reacted angrily to a report last week questioning whether the 81 Greek Cypriots who have come to agreement with the north over property compensation claims have been paid.
“If there is anyone who has not received the compensation agreed, let them come forward and say so,” head of the IPC Sumer Erkman told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
While not providing any physical proof of funds paid, Erkman added that due to the sheer volume of work since the summer, some applicants were yet to receive their promised funds.
“Since the summer recess, we have finalised around 30 applications, and some of those applicants are still waiting to be paid,” Erkman said.
STAR GAZERS would be wise to look to the skies over the coming days, with the arrival of the Leonids meteor shower from November 17-19.
The spectacle is scheduled to peak at 11.34pm local time tonight, when forecasters predict as many as 500 meteors per hour.
The Leonids originate from small particles of dust which the comet Tempel-Tuttle 55P leaves in the wake of its passage. Tempel-Tuttle orbits the Sun every 33 years and every November, the Earth passes through the microscopic dust particles left by its passage. These dust particles then burn up in the upper atmosphere, producing the spectacular display. They are called the Leonids as the meteors seem to appear from the constellation of Leo.
THE GOVERNMENT is planning on revising the state maps of rivers and tributaries, to put an end to the practice of buildings in being constructed in flood-prone areas.
The House Environmental Committee yesterday discussed the problem of building in riverbeds and related problems caused by preventing the usual flow of water.
The president of the committee, Andres Facontis, underlined that the problem is prevalent in the district of Paphos. The main cause of concern is the improper registration of river tributaries and streams, many of which do not show up at all on government plans.
INTERNAL disputes between members of the administration of the Cyprus Feline Society are delaying the recognition process of the Aphrodite cat. The Aphrodite is one of two distinct breeds to be identified by international judges as indigenous to Cyprus, the other being the St Helena.
Recently, an Aphrodite cat was entered by special invitation at the European Supreme Cat Show in Berlin, where it won second place, an unprecedented phenomenon in the cat world for a breed without full recognition. On account of its unusually pronounced beauty and size, the World Cat Federation has said it has “a certain interest” in the Aphrodite.
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.
