Should the tourists bother coming?

2010-04-11

The weather forecast is 16 degrees and heavy rain today. That would really annoy me if I had come out from the UK for an expensive holiday in the sun, with no sun…. A friend sent me a message on Facebook saying that the sun was shining in London and it made her think of me in Cyprus; she was jealous. Well nothing to be jealous of at the moment. Went to lunch at a friend’s house in Larnaca yesterday, sat outside and nearly froze before I had to borrow an overcoat. The prospect is even worse today.

Russian man attacked, beaten and robbed in his Paphos home

2010-04-11

A RUSSIAN national was yesterday being treated in hospital after he was assaulted and robbed of €10,000 at his home in Paphos as police busted two gangs of thieves that have netted some €700,000 in stolen goods.

The 57-year-old, permanent resident said he was attacked by three individuals on Friday night.

The robbers broke into his home at Coral Bay through a veranda door and after beating and tying him they stole €10,000 and fled.

The man managed to free himself shortly afterwards and notified the police.

He was taken to Paphos hospital with a fractured skull where and was kept for treatment.

His condition is stable.

Tales from the Coffeeshop: Let’s call the whole thing off

2010-04-11

 

OUR ESTABLISHMENT was bitterly disappointed that our illustrious and enlightened comrade leader’s desperate calls for national unity fell on deaf ears.

Now, more than at any other time is unity a national imperative. The Cyprob is going through its most critical phase, since the last critical phase two months ago, our European partners are shafting us at every opportunity, public finances are heading for meltdown, Eroglu is set to win the pseudo-elections, the Archbishop is scheduled to meet Erdogan and tomatoes are selling for more than €3 per kilo.

Government pledges to ‘take seriously’ report on gay partnerships

2010-04-11

THE GOVERNMENT will take “seriously” the Ombudswoman’s latest report recommending legal reforms to allow same-sex partnerships, said Interior Ministry Permanent Secretary Lazaros Savvides yesterday.

“No decision has been taken. It is something we have to study a bit further. We have not closed the issue, it remains open,” he said.

Ombudswoman Iliana Nicolaou said in a report last week that the legal recognition of same-sex partnerships in Cyprus was imperative in today’s society. She argued the legal vacuum on same-sex partnerships constituted direct discrimination against EU citizens based on sexual orientation, while impacting on a range of issues including insurance, pension, tax and property.

Our View: Christofias is wasting his time seeking consensus

2010-04-11

THE PURSUIT of consensus is one of the biggest follies that plagued our public life in last 30 years. It worked once, in the aftermath of the Turkish invasion, when the so-called social partners – government, unions and businesses – agreed on a plan of action that would help the recovery of the ailing economy. But once the economy was on a growth path again, consensus became a euphemism for giving in to all but the most outrageously unreasonable demands made by unions, in particular those representing white collar workers.

Man dies in boat collision

2010-04-11

A 30-YEAR-OLD man was killed yesterday and three others were injured after two boats collided near the Limassol port, police said.

The man, who was a passenger in an inflatable boat died from massive head injuries he sustained during the pre-dawn collision with a speed boat at the Prasinos Faros area near the entrance to the port.

A marine police spokesman said the 30-year-old was found unconscious around 200 metres from the point of collision.

“He was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival,” Haris Christodoulou told reporters.

State pathologist Nicolas Charalambous suggested the man was dead before falling in the sea.

When George went to the IPC: the sequel

2010-04-11

HOW MANY family homes and businesses were lost in 1974, when up to 200,000 Greek Cypriots and 60,000 Turkish Cypriots were made homeless? For an approximation, allow four members to each family for the number of homes then divide again by four for the number of businesses lost and the amounts owed in compensation are not incalculable.

The IPC (Immovable Property Commission) is prepared to indemnify all bona fide Greek Cypriot claimants, but most cannot expect to receive much for a village mud and stone one-room house or hillside olive grove, village coffee shop, butchers or candlestick makers. Rich and well-endowed Cypriots were few in number in 1974.

‘Some of the best years of our lives’

2010-04-11

LIKE so many of that generation, the lives of sisters Saziye and Akile Shevket were fundamentally changed by the Second World War.

As members of a small and select group of Cypriot women who joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) in the 1940s, they had access to a working and social life that was forbidden to many women of the time.

Now aged 91 and 93, Saziye and Akile sit side by side while one helps the other get comfortable on their living room sofa in northern Nicosia. The Turkish Cypriot sisters never married and have barely spent a day apart in all their lives.

New plant heralds end of stinking dumps

2010-04-11

Cape Greco dump to close this year

 

DESPITE being five years late, there has been widespread praise for the new state-of-the-art waste processing plant near Larnaca, which spells the end of small uncontrolled rubbish dumps across the south-east.

The impressive €40 million site in Koshi consists of a large landfill, recycling and waste sorting plants and an organic refuse composting facility.

Similar units are slated to be constructed in Limassol and Nicosia, with Paphos also earmarked to have one in the future, all built with EU subsidies.

Inspired by New Zealand

2010-04-11

I HAVE just returned from another trip to New Zealand. I find it a lovely place, still with some old world charm about it. The shops all close at 5pm and town centres can be deserted after that time. Restaurants serve up superb meals but quite early and it is not exceptional to find the kitchens closed around 8 or 9 o’clock. The evening meal is still referred to as ‘tea’, a relic of the first settlers I suppose. All these early evenings no doubt give more time to work outside, for New Zealand is certainly the place to go for lovely gardens.

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.