ARCHBISHOP Chrysostomos II crossed the island’s divide for the first time since 1974 yesterday on a mission to salvage the ancient Apostolos Andreas monastery in the north.

The controversial cleric also made news by revealing that a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an was on the cards for next month.

Yesterday’s surprise visit to the north aimed to draw attention to the plight of the crumbling monastery and gain support for restoration work, which the Archbishop wants to begin soon after Easter.

Apostolos Andreas, on the island’s northeastern tip, is one of the most important religious monuments for Greek Cypriot pilgrims.

ARCHBISHOP Chrysostomos’ visit to the Apostolos Andreas monastery yesterday took everyone by surprise.

Chrysostomos, the figurehead and frequent financial backer of the rejectionist camp, was the last person we would have expected to go through the checkpoint and travel across the occupied territory to the tip of the Karpas peninsula. After all, this was the man who had previously publicly censured Orthodox bishops who had crossed to the north and held services in occupied churches.

THE ECONOMIC crisis was not the only thing on the President’s mind during yesterday’s televised press conference as the public also got to hear about his 20 years driving a Lada, the rise of the underworld, taxing the church and the good old days of price caps.

Following his speech on domestic affairs, President Demetris Christofias was asked about the government’s decision to buy a new fleet of cars. He replied that he had reached breaking point with the current crop of presidential vehicles, which broke down on him three times in the last two years, including during the recent visit of the Lebanese President.

NICOSIA Municipality will be sprucing up the old town this Saturday and Sunday, Mayor Eleni Mavrou announced yesterday.

The cleanup effort comes under the campaign banner, “Together We Clean Old Nicosia.” The municipality also plans to clean other areas of the city at different times during the year.

The municipality is asking residents of the old town to set unwanted furniture, household appliances, and other rubbish on the street so that cleaning crews may pick them up. Crews will also be moving old cars, other large rubbish, and unused building materials out of the centre, washing pavement and open residential spaces, painting over graffiti, and trimming grass and overgrown vegetation.

PRIMARY school parents’ associations yesterday demanded that they be allowed to run school canteens given what was currently on offer and the prices children were forced to pay.

”It is the only solution that can solve in a definitive way the problem of managing school canteens and the chaotic situation that exists today with the unsuitable products being offered by many school canteens. This can’t go on any longer,” said the head of the Pancyprian Confederation of Parents’ Associations of Primary Schools, Chrysanthos Pieri.

THE PARENTS of the two Cameroonian girls who fell victim to a smuggling ring and were brought illegally to Cyprus last November took a step closer to being permanently reunited with their daughters yesterday, when the French Embassy in Nicosia started to consider their application for long-term visas to France.

Stepfather Rene Chesnel said: “Our reception at the embassy was very different to what we feared and expected; there was no sense of mistrust or suspicion. The Vice-consul put us at ease from the very beginning, which we really didn’t expect. Then again, he did mention that he had read the press reports about us, so he already had an idea about what we had been through.”

THE CYPRUS attempt to form the world’s longest toilet queue yesterday to mark World Water Day proved to be a bit of a bummer when only 16 people showed up for the event at the municipal public facilities.

Like dozens of organsiations around the world, the Soroptimist International Club of Nicosia attempted to create the “World’s Longest Toilet Queue to highlight the value of water.

Lining up by the public toilet in the park between Eleftheria and Solomou Squares, participants had hoped to amass enough people to qualify for the Guinness Book of World Records.

However  only 16 people turned up to the event in Nicosia, half of them club members.