Thank goodness, Cyprus airways is now ‘back to normal operations’, according to the website and I have a confirmed booking on a flight home for my son at the weekend. It could have been worse. I have been complaining about the way Cyprus Airways has handled the situation, but I have found an airline that makes them seem positively helpful and my travails all rather minor.
CYPRUS AND Qatar yesterday signed a multi-million euro deal to develop a hotel, residential and commercial complex in central Nicosia, aiming at attracting overseas business to Cyprus.
The deal for the ambitious project was among two agreements and four memoranda of understanding signed between the two sides. Qatar’s leader, Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, presided over the signing.
State-owned Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company and the Cypriot government agreed to set up a joint venture for the development of a five-star hotel, commercial centre as well as offices and apartments on a site close to Hilton hotel in Nicosia.
HOW IRONIC that the state organisation responsible for pulling the tourist industry out of the current malaise and halting its steady decline is a total mess. Things have become so bad at the Cyprus Tourism Organisation that Commerce Minister Antonis Paschalides described the situation as “sick” and issued a public warning to the bickering staff.
He sounded like an exasperated headmaster telling off disobedient schoolchildren on Tuesday at the House, saying he would take control.
“The CTO had its chance and plenty of time. From today, though, no tolerance will be showed to all behaviour. I am prepared to order administrative and disciplinary investigations, so that the organisation will operate properly.”
WITH THE island’s unemployment rate reaching a record 24,336 in March, the Labour Ministry is considering the basis on which it might extend the period for paying unemployment benefits to some 5,000 people who have been out of work for more than six months – the cut-off time for the subsidy.
March’s figure of 4,898 people registered as unemployed for over six months is the highest ever, representing 20.1 per cent of the total unemployed.
This is a slight percentage increase compared to the last twelve months, during which the monthly percentage was usually between 17 and 19 per cent, with the exception of May 2009 when it reached 22.2 per cent of the total.
UNEMPLOYMENT benefit is earnings-related and is made up of a basic benefit and a supplementary amount. The “basic benefit” corresponds to 60 per cent of the “basic insurable earnings” of the previous year on which contributions have been paid, and is determined by law each year. The maximum duration of the unemployment benefit is 156 days.
The “supplementary amount” corresponds to 50 per cent of earnings above the basic in the previous year on which contributions have been paid. The supplementary benefit cannot in any case exceed the basic earnings of the beneficiary which have been received in the previous year.
AROUND five senior state officials have so far agreed to Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis’ call to commit to a 10 per cent cut in gross salary for two years, the Cyprus Mail learned yesterday.
In a letter sent to dozens of the island’s most senior civil servants, independent officials and heads of regulatory bodies earlier this month, Stavrakis asked to follow the example of the president and his ministers and volunteer for a 10 per cent cut, that will be implemented for the first time at the end of this month.
But according to a senior government official, so far only five officials have agreed to do that.
Nevertheless, the official said some more time will be given to those who may be wishing to come forward.
A THIRD suspect in the murder of media boss Andis Hadjicostis was yesterday charged in the Nicosia Assizes Court.
Andreas Gregoriou, who was being treated in Nicosia General Hospital with severe leg injuries after a December bomb explosion, was led to court in an ambulance and with a strong police entourage.
He is the third suspect to be charged, after siblings Elena Skordelli, 42, and 37-year-old Tasos Krasopoulis, pleaded not guilty to seven charges back in February, including that of premeditated murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence.
All three are suspected to be implicated in Hadjicostis’ murder in January.
PRESIDENT OF the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) Alecos Orountiotis said that the number of tourists who did not manage to arrive in Cyprus due to the volcanic ash cloud, has reached 20,000.
In statements after a broad meeting held yesterday at the CTO Headquarters in Nicosia, Orountiotis said that a large percentage of those tourists have agreed with holiday tour operators to visit Cyprus at a later stage.
“But the remaining tourists will not come to Cyprus,” he added, but did not elaborate further on actual numbers.
WITH THE price of basic items marking radical increases over the year and when the cost of living was already considered high– state services still insist we are among the cheapest states in the EU.
The Statistical Services’ report on utility prices for March this year has shown some steep increases compared to March 2009, with water increasing by 30.17 per cent and electricity marking a 24.78 per cent rise.
A GROUP of experts yesterday examined the Interior Ministry’s first ever “comprehensive” action plan for the integration of migrants into Cypriot society.
Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis yesterday said this was the first time a comprehensive plan on how to deal with integration and migration had been put together.
The minister is ready to take the action plan to cabinet for approval once it has passed a consultation round with the relevant authorities and social partners in the next two months.
Sylikiotis chaired the meeting, which included officials from the ministries of health and labour, asylum service, migration department and ombudswoman’s office.
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.
