I watched so many hours of French Open quarter final tennis yesterday afternoon and evening that it was late before I switched on the news. When I heard that some middle-aged taxi-driver had taken a hunting rifle and gone on a three-hour shooting spree through the villages of west Cumbria, in the north of England, like most people, I was shocked. This kind of mass murder happens very rarely in the UK, (Hungerford 1987 and Dunblane 1996) because of strict gun laws but when it does happen you have to ask yourself, why and what on earth was this guy thinking?

THERE is only one party in Cyprus that consistently questions conventional beliefs and traditional thinking – DISY. It is a healthy that there is at least one party, in these populist times, prepared to challenge official doctrine, for the good of the economy and the country, irrespective of the political cost.

THE NUMBER of cabarets and artistes has fallen in Cyprus but sex trafficking is managing to find new outlets through bars and even rural coffee shops dubbed ‘sex cafes’, the House Crime Committee heard yesterday.
The Committee heard that there has been a radical reduction in women arriving on the island as artistes, with 365 women currently registered in this category compared to around 1,200 in recent years. This is mainly due to a change in how the women are processed by the authorities, which has abolished the ‘artiste visa’
Deputies noted that even though efforts were being made by the current government – and some progress has been achieved  – Cyprus was still far from ridding itself of its bad reputation when it comes to human trafficking.

JASMITHA Marharajasingh, the courageous young Sri Lankan girl from Paphos who survived a brain tumour and heart surgery, is to be blessed by Pope Benedict  during his visit tomorrow.
Jasmitha’s’ mother Sathiye told the Cyprus Mail yesterday: “I received a telephone call from the Vatican and the embassy in Nicosia to tell me that the Pope would be blessing Jasmitha personally.”
According to Sathiye, Kathleen Houliotis, a former teacher of her daughter, and her godmother, started the fundraising campaign to get Jasmitha the life-saving treatment, asked the child’s religious instruction teacher to write to the Pope to request his blessing.
“Jasmitha knows all about the Pope and has been learning her catechism at class every Saturday morning,” said Sathiye.

PAPHOS is in the frantic throes of last-minute preparations for the visit tomorrow of Pope Benedict.
The Pontiff is expected to land at Paphos airport at lunchtime and will be greeted by President of Demetris Christofias, his wife Elsi, Archbishop Chrysostomos, Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops.
Father Jim Kennedy, from the Catholic church in Paphos said: “We have been preparing for a long time and a lot of organisation and meetings have taken place. We have had to find out exactly what is required of the church and of us all here, to make sure everything runs smoothly on the day.”
Father Jim said it was good to remember that the Pope was coming to Paphos on a pilgrimage,

THE CYPRIOT authorities, and the British Bases (SBA) have still not traced the origins of excrement found on the Curium beach last August, which according to some eyewitnesses this week, had made a reappearance.
Two days ago a caller to the Cyprus Mail said the unidentified faeces was back. Tony from Limassol said he had alerted lifeguards to the problem but they had told him that the British Bases knew about the issue and had told them it was “turtle poo”.
“So I rang the CTO and they said they also know about it and it was being looked into but they didn’t elaborate further,” he said. “It was definitely human excrement,” added Tony.