EDUCATION REFORM is entering a “crucial stage” with the first stage of the new school curriculum being implemented this school year, Education Minister Andreas Demetriou said yesterday.
The committee of experts responsible for education reform handed a new school curriculum for every class from nursery school up to the first grade of lyceum to Demetriou yesterday.
After two and a half years of dialogue and preparation, the new programmes are finally ready as part of the government’s pledge for education reform.

A GREEK Cypriot refugee awarded compensation by the north’s Immovable Property Commission (IPC) was manipulated into paying back 25 per cent of the amount as a sweetener.
According to Politis, the man reached a settlement with the IPC, under which he was awarded 600,000 pounds sterling. Although the award decision was issued several months ago, it was only a few days ago that the case was closed and the compensation given to the Greek Cypriot applicant.
Initially the man had an arrangement with his Turkish Cypriot lawyer for a fee of five per cent on the value of the compensation.

THE police and possibly the Secret Service will look into reports that mobsters based in the occupied areas are primed for a major credit card fraud caper.
Daily Alithia claimed yesterday the criminal operation, which involves stealing credit card information and emptying out bank accounts, is being mounted from the north, out of reach of Cypriot authorities.
The paper said the ‘gangs’ had the equipment to crack credit card codes, and that the haul could be €5 million or more.
Police spokeswoman Lefki Solomontos said this type of crime was currently on the decline, but urged the public to exercise caution when using their credit cards, be it at ATMs or online, and to regularly check their bank account balance.

OPPOSITION DISY yesterday cautioned against celebrating too early over recent positive signs displayed by the economy.
“Indeed, some dim yet positive signs of recovery of the Cypriot economy have been observed, but this does not allow for celebrations,” DISY deputy chairman Averof Neophytou said.
The preliminary growth rate for the second quarter of the year is expected to be 0.4 per cent of gross domestic product compared to the previous one, it was announced earlier this month.
Neophytou said serious reflection should continue because even with the positive signs “we all forecast that, unfortunately, the public deficit in 2010 will not be reduced.”

THE COMPETITION regulator is expected to announce today in parliament whether the milk industry is operating a cartel.
The Committee for the Protection of Competition (CPC) met yesterday morning to discuss the conclusions of their investigation into the possible existence of a milk cartel operating between 2005 and 2007. Later in the day, the board held a meeting at the Commerce Ministry on the same issue, chaired by Minister Antonis Paschalides.
No statements were made after either meeting though CPC chairman Costakis Christoforou is expected to speak on the matter in parliament today in the House Commerce Committee.

THE Committee for Missing Persons (CMP) called on relatives of missing persons to honour their absent loved ones on the occasion of International Day of the Disappeared yesterday.
“Missing persons is not only a humanitarian problem or a political issue,” said a press release from the tripartite committee, tasked with tracking down the remains of Greek and Turkish Cypriot missing from the intercommunal troubles of the 1960s and the Turkish invasion.
“It is first and foremost the human tragedy, the problem of a profound pain. The pain that does not differentiate, that has no nationality, no religion, has no race or age. Slicing through individual human hearts, it leaves deep bleeding wounds in a society at large.”

THE LABOUR Inspection Department yesterday carried out measurements of the waves emitted by metal detectors and x-ray machines used at Larnaca airport to check workers, who claim the equipment could be harmful to their health.
“Until at least today, the measurements done, not only in Cyprus but internationally, have shown that as regards the archway … and the hand-luggage x-ray machine … the levels of radiation are at least 1000 times lower than the reference levels provided for by international regulations,” Communications Minister Erato Kozakou Markoullis said.
Around 60 air traffic controllers, meteorological service personnel, telecommunications technicians and others claim their daily exposure to the electromagnetic waves emitted by archways were dangerous.