THE DAY football-lovers all over the world had been waiting for, the last four years, has arrived. The World Cup 2010 kicks of this afternoon in Johannesburg’s, 90,000-seater, Soccer City stadium, with the hosts taking on Mexico. For the next month, hundreds of millions of people will be watching, talking and thinking football, a welcome distraction during the difficult times of a world recession.
ALL STAFF at the CyBC are to have their lungs checked after tests showed the state broadcaster’s premises were suffering from ‘sick building’ syndrome’, the House heard yesterday.
The House Health Committee called an extraordinary meeting yesterday after a number of CyBC employees were hospitalised earlier this week after breaking out in a rash, losing consciousness and vomiting.
The outbreak of illnesses happened after some of the 60-year-old buildings on the complex were fumigated for fleas. The corporation has been plagued by cats, rats and other infestations for years, leading to occasional illnesses and walkouts by staff in.
THE STATE’S decision to inject Eurocypria with €35 million was made despite suggestions to the contrary by two technocratic reports into the viability of the state’s airlines, it emerged yesterday.
The two reports, prepared in February this year before the funds had been approved, were made public by the Finance Minister yesterday, following days of debates and rows with the island’s political parties, who felt they were misled into approving the money.
It is now clear that the government had been aware of the two reports – published in their entirety on Stockwatch.com – before requesting the €35 million boost, which was mainly used to pay off bank loans and taxes owed.
CYPRUS HAS scored top marks in the latest EU annual bathing water report, which shows 100 per cent of bathing areas surveyed in 2009 comply with EU mandatory cleanliness levels.
This is the second year running when every area, including sea, lake and river bathing areas, complies with the guidelines, putting Cyprus above the European average of 96 per cent for coastal bathing areas and 90 per cent for rivers and lakes.
The study measured physical, chemical and microbiological parameters, such as Escherichia coli and Streptococci for six months from May 1st to October 31st 2009, in 111 bathing areas. These areas add up to about 0.5 per cent of total surveyed areas.
Two per cent of EU coastal bathing sites were banned in 2009, mostly in Italy.
THE TURKISH Cypriot authorities have agreed to start negotiations with private Turkish carrier Atlas Jet over its bid to take over the running of Cyprus Turkish Airlines (KTHY).
The announcement came despite mounting protests that culminated on Wednesday in the bizarre theft of Atlas Air’s written partnership proposal from the KTHY offices in the north of Nicosia.
With debts of over $100 million the ‘semi-state’ KTHY recently sought to stave off bankruptcy by offering a partnership tender to private companies wishing to buy a stake.
By the end of the tendering period on Tuesday evening only Atlas’ bid had been received.
THE FIVE permanent members of the UN Security Council have agreed on the text of a draft resolution on the renewal of the mandate of the UN peace-keeping force in Cyprus and on the Secretary General’s Good Offices mission.
Sources told the Cyprus News Agency that in the agreed draft, the controversial paragraph in the preamble, which included a wish for a solution of the Cyprus problem by the end of 2010, has been amended.
It now includes the words “if possible”, in the phrase expressing a wish for ‘the negotiations to be concluded by the end of 2010’.
The move reflects the Greek Cypriot side’s stance on avoiding ‘suffocating timeframes’.
The official sources told the Agency that the amendment has watered down
NO proper consultation with interested parties has taken place in the preparation of a law regulating electronic gambling, it emerged yesterday.
Discussion of the bill in parliament has been frozen until the proper consultations take place, which are expected to be completed by July.
“Our aim is to complete examination of the bill by the first week of July so that it is sent to the European Commission,” for approval, said Ionas Nicolaou, chairman of the House Legal Affairs Committee. “Unfortunately today we found ourselves faced with a new problem which no one expected.”
Nicolaou said they have asked the state to complete the consultations in 15 days.
PATIENTS AT state hospitals are not entitled to have copies of their medical files, making it impossible for them to seek details of their medical history or substantiate cases of medical negligence, the House heard yesterday.
Speaking after yesterday’s session of the House Legal Affairs Committee, chairman, DISY’s Ionas Nicolaou, said his committee was examining a bill that would amend the Freedom of Information Act as far as state archives were concerned.
“This is a necessity that is absent from our legal system, because today unfortunately and unacceptably, it is impossible for someone to acquire a copy of personal documents,” said Nicolaou.
POLICE were yesterday investigating a mother’s complaint that her toddler daughter had been repeatedly bitten while in a private Nicosia kindergarten.
According to police, the girl had marks on her body showing that she had been bitten nine times by another child.
“The circumstances in which the wounds were causes will be determined through the ongoing investigation,” a police spokesman said.
At first, the school thought the child had a rash and called her mother to pick her up.
But a pathologist who examined the girl concluded they were bite marks.
The mother claims that the child was all right before she went to school. The kindergarten claims the bites did not happen on school grounds as the child was never left unattended.
IN LINE with European policy, Cyprus is moving to cut bureaucratic procedures hindering the growth of businesses.
The regulatory environment in which businesses operate influences their competitiveness and their ability to grow and create jobs
“It is well-known that the ever-increasing bureaucracy problem in Cyprus adversely affects people and businesses,” Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis said. “Improving the regulatory framework triggered the promotion of further structural changes needed to be done to upgrade and improve the country’s public sector to better serve people and businesses.”
The European Commission is committed to developing a regulatory environment for business that is simple, understandable, effective and enforceable.
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.
