AROUND 150 Syrian Kurds were uprooted in the early hours of Friday morning as a police raid came down on the demonstrators that had been camped outside the Ministry of Interior in Nicosia for weeks.

Police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos, said the raid happened “in line with law and order enforcement and execution of detainment and deportation legislations regarding aliens who have been denied asylum”.

The overnight operation between 3am and 5am yesterday on Byron Avenue has led to the disappearance of the conspicuous row of bright orange and green tents that had been home to around 250 Kurdish asylum seekers, including 65 children, for almost four weeks.

The Turkish president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Mevlut Cavusoglu, yesterday referred to Cyprus’ “tragic past” when repeating the aim for a lasting and comprehensive solution to the Cyprus problem.

Speaking at the European Speakers’ Conference yesterday, Cavusoglu said he hoped negotiations between the two community leaders would have a positive result as soon as possible, while he reiterated the UN’s estimations that a solution was within grasp and the opportunity should be seized.

”We know that the island has a tragic past,” said Cavusoglu. “The Council of Europe, including its Parliamentary Assembly, has returned to the Cyprus issue on many occasions and with many initiatives.”

THE GOVERNMENT is preparing a bill that will enable repatriates from third countries – mainly South Africa – to receive pensions and other benefits.

According to the Chairman of the House Labour Committee, AKEL’s Andreas Fakontis, based on current legislation, someone must have lived in Cyprus permanently for at least 20 years to be entitled to a pension.

“The timeframe creates problems for our repatriates, who have been living in South Africa and aren’t covered by an insurance plan and don’t receive benefits, either from the country they are coming from or the Cyprus Republic,” said Fakontis after his Committee had discussed the matter on Thursday.

IRREGULARITIES in the market can’t be solved with price ceilings, patch-up measures and disposable solutions, the President of the Committee for the Protection of Competition (CPC) said yesterday.

Costakis Christoforou was commenting on a law that was passed on Thursday enabling the Commerce Minister to set a ceiling on the wholesale and retail price of fuel.

“The dysfunctions of a market aren’t resolved with ceilings,” said Christoforou. “The weaknesses are handled with corrective measures; measures of political, structural and corrective policy.”

He said by ordering a ceiling, the government is effectively freezing the problem without dealing with it and it arises at a later date.

ARSONISTS set fire to a 35-year-old Limassol man’s club during the early hours of yesterday, said police.

The premises suffered extensive damage.

According to the Fire Department Chief, George Makariou, the blaze broke out just after 4.30am inside the club and was brought under control within 20 minutes of fire fighters arriving on the scene ensuring it did not spread to adjacent buildings.

Police said fire fighters managed to remove the club’s computer which was connected to the club’s CCTV cameras which will be examined in close detail.

Limassol CID Chief Yiannis Georgiou said investigations so far had determined the emergency exit door had been tampered with and the club’s interior had been doused in a flammable substance.

TWO ARMED robbers yesterday stormed into a Limassol Bank of Cyprus branch and made off with an unknown amount of cash, said police.

The incident occurred at 10.45am at the Ayios Athanasios bank. Dressed in black clothes and wearing helmets, the two men entered the branch waving a hunting rifle and demanded money from the cash register. There were three other customers and seven employees in the bank at the time.

According to Limassol CID the assailants, who according to eyewitnesses spoke with a Cypriot accent, fled the scene on a high-powered motorbike.

Police immediately launched a manhunt for the two suspects and a police helicopter was also called in to help try and locate the duo.

TWO LIMASSOL men and a woman were yesterday arrested in connection with an illegal land transfer of Turkish Cypriot property worth €3.5 million.

According to reports on CyBC the woman, who has been an employee at the Limassol land registry office for the past three years, transferred three plots of land in Polemidia to two Greek Cypriot men in the last 10 days. The land originally belonged to Turkish Cypriots, but the woman allegedly made the transfer without ever asking permission from the Guardian of Turkish Cypriot Properties.

ARCHBISHOP Chrysostomos II said yesterday that Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu had proposed to him that the Holy Synod celebrate yesterday’s mass honouring St Barnabas at the Church of St Barnabas in the occupied areas but that he had refused as he did not think it would be appropriate. Instead the mass of the patron saint of Cyprus was held by him at a church in Dasoupolis the Republic, while the mass in the occupied areas was held by the Bishop of Famagusta.

CALL ME a sad sod, bur ever since Big Chief I Spy sent me a red feather for spending hours down the garden looking for insects in the cabbages to tick off in my spotters guide I’ve worn my geek badge with pride

Yesterday’s kick off gave all of us covert anoraks and fact absorbers the perfect chance to study form and become instant experts on the back row of Honduras. Of course, it’s all bluff, I haven’t really got a clue who’s who and 442 sounds more like my bra size, but the great thing about fantasy football is that it gives you a reason to become acutely interested in men is shorts form faraway lands with names you struggle to pronounce.