COMPLAINTS are already being voiced about the negative effects of the electricity rates hike which was introduced this month. A 1.9 per cent hike has been imposed to cover the fines – in the region of €20 million – the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) has to pay for carbon emissions this year.

Business leaders have already issued warning that the price hike would simply be passed on to consumers, making many products even more expensive. Cyprus hotels and industry were already paying the highest electricity rates in Europe, said the chairman of the Employers and Industrialist Federation (OEV), Andreas Pittas who suggested funds for the fines were found from elsewhere.

TURKISH PRIME Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s statement supporting the basis for a solution in Cyprus was hailed as “very significant” by UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer yesterday.

Speaking after the two leaders met for a five-hour discussion on the economy chapter, Downer noted that Erdogan’s “positive remarks” in an interview with three Greek Cypriot newspapers, including the Cyprus Mail, last weekend helped to improve the “atmospherics” of the place.

“It was the first time the Prime Minister of Turkey has been so specific and so clear about Turkey’s support for a bizonal, bicommunal federation, with political equality and a single international personality,” he said.

‘The inference is that Cyprus is a Turkish island’

THE LATEST history books in the north have reverted to an “ethno-centric, nationalist and militaristic approach, both in terms of discourse and images used”, according to a new comparative study on education textbooks.

The POST Research Institute has conducted extensive research into the history textbooks of high schools in the north since 1971 up to the present, concluding that in 2004, for the first time in 30 years, Mehmet Ali Talat’s Republican Turkish Party (CTP) revised the history books to highlight the common experiences of Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities.

THE pending completion of a new marina in the north of Cyprus has again highlighted the delays in the south of tapping into the nautical tourism market.

Karpaz Gate Marina, located in the Karpas peninsula, is due to be finished on schedule in the spring of 2011.

According to a report in the latest edition of the Karpaz Times, the under-construction marina will boast some 300 berths and have access to an expansive 18,000sqm dry dock for refit and repairs to aid with both maintenance and storage. Another enhancement is a 300 tonne crane.

Paphos Aquarium has closed its doors for the last time.

Owner Takis Tsiolis told the Cyprus Mail, “The business is no longer viable for us. We have been losing money hand over fist for the last two years and we can no longer sustain these kinds of losses. It’s a very sad situation.”

The aquarium closed on March 1, fourteen years after it opened in Paphos at an initial cost of £500,000.

The privately owned attraction opened in 1996 and has been popular with visitors and locals in the past. No expense was spared in creating a natural environment for the residents and fish and marine life from oceans, seas and rivers graced the venue’s specially designed and filtered tanks.

Seventy-two tanks held the creatures, including a crocodile tank.

PAPHOS HAS seen a slight rise in holiday bookings for the coming high season over the last few weeks, reversing a steady downturn, according to Themis Philipides, the president of the local branch of the hoteliers association.

The comments, which were made on a local radio station, provide a glimmer of hope for anxious local businesses in the coastal town, many of who depend on tourism for their incomes.

Although Philipides also pointed out a reduction in the number of arrivals to Paphos airport by around seven per cent compared with the same period next year, he believes that if the tourist product is updated, Paphos could reverse the decline in tourist numbers.

TEAMS of teachers, children and employees from various organisations raised over €30,000 for a Leukaemia charity in a sponsored head-shaving event in Nicosia yesterday.

Thirty eight people, divided into 14 teams, competed to raise the most sponsorship at the event, held the Da Capo Cafe on Makarios Avenue in aid of the Leukemia Charity Challenge4Life.

Da Capo’s team came first, followed by Phileleftheros newspaper in second, and the Ministry of Health in third, all raising undisclosed sums for the charity.

Health Minister Christos Patsalides and Nicosia Mayor Eleni Mavrou also attended the event

REDUCE, MERGE and privatise was the message from Strovolos Mayor Savvas Eliofotou, who has called for the civil service to be streamlined so municipalities can in turn be effectively modernised.

“The efficient merging of services can be done to the extent that we are ready to accept … the redundancy of excess personnel and the provision of services from private enterprise in some instances,” said Eliofotou.

Eliofotou’s remarks were made in reference to an ongoing plan by Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis to modernise and restructure local government in Cyprus over the next ten years.