Body found as floods ravage northwest England

2009-11-20

 

TORRENTIAL rain of “biblical proportions” caused serious flooding in northerwestern areas on Friday as rescuers hunting for a policeman who vanished when a bridge collapsed found a body.

Flood defences in Cumbrian towns were overwhelmed by unprecedented downpours that officials said could be expected only once in 1,000 years.

The Meteorological Office said the amount of rain expected during the entire month of November had fallen in 24 hours. The Environment Agency reported 314 mm had fallen in one area in 24 hours which it said was a record for England.

“It was described to me this morning, this particular flood, as of biblical proportions,” said Tony Cunningham, MP for Workington, one of the worst affected towns.

Our View: Academics should go on resisting control by the state

2009-11-20

THE COUNCIL and the Senate of the Cyprus University appeared to have come to an agreement about their respective authorities at Wednesday’s meeting. The Senate will carry on being responsible for academic matters, while the Council will ensure that the correct procedures are followed and there is compliance with the law before ratifying decisions.

It seems rather peculiar that there had to be a meeting for the two bodies to iron out their differences and agree on the obvious. Was Charis Charalambous, the chairman of the Council of the University, not aware of the fact that academic affairs were the sole responsibility of the Senate? How ironic that the man in charge of the body that ensures correct procedures are followed did not know where his authority ends.

E-procurement now mandatory for tendering in Cyprus

2009-11-20

IT HAS now become mandatory for all government tenders to be submitted to the state online through the Public Procurement Directorate of the Treasury yesterday.

The move has been deemed a great success for the Accountant-general office, which has completed the project in line with the Lisbon deadline.

“Until recently more than 1,500 businesses from Cyprus and abroad, as well as all state contracting authorities have been registered  on the e-procurement system,” said Accountant-general Lazaros Lazarou.

EAC owed over €1million by customers who pay up late

2009-11-20

THE ELECTRICITY Authority of Cyprus (EAC) is owed over €1million by customers who have been late in paying bills, according to the annual report of Auditor General Chrystalla Yiorkadji.

They are also owed €689 000 by two strategic partners, the telecommunications companies PrimeTel and CableNet, the report says.

“We’re doing what we can, within the bounds of the law, to retrieve the monies owed.” said the EAC’s Costas Gavrielides. “This is what we did five years, ten years ago and what we will do five years from now and ten years from now.”

The report also highlighted the overtime which employees of EAC are paid.

In one instance an employee was said to have been paid €30,000 in overtime alone.

Trachoni tackles graffiti menaces

2009-11-20

THE BRITISH Bases police got together with a group of disaffected youth to paint the Trachoni high school which had fallen prey to a lot of graffiti, according to an SBA press release.

The Community Policing Sector for Trachoni of the SBA police is working very closely in collaboration with the village head and the community council to find a unique way to handle the problem of graffiti in the village.

Following research carried out by the SBA police within the Trachoni village community, they discovered that a large group of young men had a lot of free time on their hands.

For this reason, they felt bored so they passed their time in the evenings “decorating” the village walls with graffiti.

Cyprus to have a national health system by the end of 2011

2009-11-20

THE HEALTH Ministry plans to introduce the island’s national health system in the second half of 2011, lawmakers heard yesterday.

According to the Ministry’s budget report for 2010, submitted before parliament yesterday, the scheme will be introduced in the second half of 2011 with services provided to external patients.

Health care provision to inpatients is scheduled between six and 12 months later.

For 2010 the ministry has allocated around €5.6 million to prepare for the implementation of the scheme.

The current public health system, established during the colonial period, is generally regarded as having failed to keep pace with the realities of a modern healthcare system required to serve a growing and ageing population.

Grieving relatives of man murdered for €540 disrupt court hearing

2009-11-20

TENSIONS flared at the Nicosia district court yesterday at a trial concerning the brutal killing of a 23-year-old student.

Defendant Andreas Spyrou, 21, pleaded not guilty to the charge of the premeditated murder of Stavros Georgiou on October 23rd.

Black-clad relatives and friends of the victim erupted in anger when the defendant took the stand and entered a plea of not guilty. They began shouting and jeering Spyrou, who had to be whisked out of the courtroom by police.

The defendant’s lawyer said later his client would admit to the charge of manslaughter, not premeditated murder.

In a statement to police, Spyrou had confessed to stabbing the victim and dumping the body in the middle of a busy road in the Dhali Industrial Estate.

Paphos Mayor under fire for demolishing Town Hall wall

2009-11-20

PAPHOS Mayor, Savvas Vergas faced a barrage of criticism from all sides yesterday following an apparent lone decision to demolish a wall in the Town Hall garden on Wednesday morning.

The wall, which had been erected as part of the proposed revamping of the garden, was completely pulled down.

Local deputy and former Mayor, Fidias Sarikas decisions were being taken without them even being discussed.

He said as far as he knew the municipal council was unaware of Mayor’s decision.

Sarikas said the Mayor had given the impression there was a ‘secret’ agreement between him and the Church, which is the legal owner of the park.

Internet becomes part of daily life in Cyprus

2009-11-20

AFTER a slow start, the internet has finally become part of the social fabric in Cyprus with 42 per cent of Cypriots logging on.

Most of those with internet access (54.3 per cent) get online once a day or more, with the majority of them (70 per cent) spending an hour or more per day.

The results come from a recently completed study carried out by OgilvyOne consulting and Evresis Loyalty Management, two firms who wanted to establish a clear picture of internet usage trends in Cyprus.

Most people who use the internet in Cyprus do so to inform themselves about local and world affairs (62.3 per cent); 28.2 per cent for general recreation and web browsing; and 22.1 per cent for updates on sports news.

Ban on hotel wedding services a blow to tourism

2009-11-20

THE AYIA Napa and Paralimni municipalities were up in arms yesterday over the state’s intention to ban civil wedding ceremonies from being conducted at hotels.

Ayia Napa mayor Antonis Tsokkos said the new limitations, if implemented, would cancel the arrival in the resort of thousands of tourists from Britain and other countries.

Tsokkos said civil marriages hold a substantial market share in Ayia Napa and the municipality and hoteliers actively try to attract them.

Ayia Napa alone receives around 30,000 visitors per year who are guests in weddings.

Tsokkos said banning these weddings in hotels would greatly hurt the economy of the area.

Just Ayia Napa this year – a year of economic crisis – hosted around 1,100 civil weddings.

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.