Court awards couple €100,000 in property case

2010-09-25

THE FAMAGUSTA district court has awarded a British couple €100,000 in damages for losses incurred through breaches of their contractual agreement with a developer who sold to them in the Famagusta district.

This could be the highest amount awarded by a court in Cyprus for such a case in recent years, if not longer, legal sources said yesterday.

Simon and Jennifer Penney filed a suit against FK&S (Varoshia) Properties Ltd in 2007, claiming the company had breached the contract regarding the sale of a two-bedroom villa in the coastal township of Paralimni.

The couple said the company had constructed the villa with an interior area 13.7 square metres smaller than what was agreed and it had also failed to deliver it on the agreed date.

Our View: Christofias needs to stop deluding himself

2010-09-25

WHEN President Christofias goes to New York for the UN General Assembly, we hear all kinds of boasts. This week we were informed that, during a meeting at UN headquarters, the president had told the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that Turkey was not ready to solve the Cyprus problem. He also accused Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu of engaging in a blame game and of being used in Ankara’s communications game.

The Pope and the atheists

2010-09-25

THE BEST defence is a good offense. A less worldly pope, making a state visit to Britain as the revelations about Catholic priests and bishops abusing the children in their care spread across Europe, might have been reduced to shame and silence. But Benedict XVI knows about the uses of power – he was the late Pope John Paul II’s chief enforcer – and he immediately launched an attack on all the people he sees as the church’s enemies.

Speaking in Scotland last week, he condemned “aggressive forms of secularism” and the threat of “atheist extremism.” Never mind the hundreds or thousands of priests who raped little boys (and occasionally little girls). The real threat is the people who don’t believe in God, and therefore have no morals. He even equated atheists with Nazis.

‘The people of Cyprus have suffered enough’

2010-09-25

PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias yesterday reiterated his desire to meet with the Turkish leadership so he can share his vision for a solution to the Cyprus problem, as he addressed the UN General Assembly in New York.

“From this podium, I repeat my call to the Turkish leadership to meet me, parallel to the negotiating process, so that I can share with them my vision for a solution of the Cyprus problem which would serve the interests of the Cypriots, of Turkey, of Greece as well as of peace and security in the region,” said Christofias.

However, he criticised the Turkish leadership for repeatedly telling the international community that it desired a solution to the Cyprus problem by the end of 2010.

Children in care as parents arrested in drugs raid

2010-09-25

THREE young children were taken into care yesterday when their parents were arrested for allegedly cultivating 100 cannabis plants in Nea Dimata village in Paphos.

The parents, both British passport holders originally from Pakistan, were remanded in police custody for eight days yesterday after the cannabis plants were allegedly discovered at their home.

According to police, more than 100 plants were being cultivated by the husband and wife team in a greenhouse in their garden. The greenhouse was found in an area surrounded by barbed wire and was well camouflaged so that it couldn’t be seen from the road.

Emigration…or state job preferred by young Cypriots

2010-09-25

THE VAST majority of young Cypriots would leave the country if they had the chance, a survey by the University of Nicosia has shown, although given a choice, almost as many would opt for a job in the civil service.

According to the results of the survey, a staggering 87.3 per cent of Greek Cypriot youths – almost nine in ten – would readily leave Cyprus.

The main reasons cited were a better quality of life and increased employment options.

Even in Greece, which is currently implementing stringent austerity measures in a bid to conform to EU targets for controlling public debt and deficit, the figure was much lower at 73.6 per cent.

Cyprus not showing enough EU television programmes

2010-09-25

ALTHOUGH Cypriots are among the top TV watchers in the EU, Brussels says not enough European television programmes are being shown on the island.

The European Commission called on Cyprus, Slovenia and Sweden to show more content from European sources,

The EU’s Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive, which entered into force in 2007, requires member states to make sure that over 50 per cent of programming time is devoted to European works.

The idea is to enrich and promote Europe’s creative industries. Denmark came top of the survey with   84.8 per cent of its content coming from EU sources, followed by Poland with 83.1 per cent and the Netherlands 80.3 per cent. Britain just about made it with 50.7 per cent.

Romanians and Bulgarians biggest EU movers to Cyprus

2010-09-25

15,000 workers have come to Cyprus in the last three years, according to the social insurance department.

The countries that most of these workers come from are Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.

Romanian workers in the last three years have increased by 7,852 and the total number of Bulgarian workers has increased by 5,427.  The total number registered of EU workers in 2007 was 37,470 while   the registered total as of April 2010 is 53,179.

The figures show that in October 2007 Greece had the most workers in Cyprus from an EU country with 8,622,

EU racism body gathers information for new report on Cyprus

2010-09-25

A DELEGATION from the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) visited Cyprus from September 13-17 as the first step for the preparation of a monitoring report.

During its visit, ECRI´s delegation gathered information on the implementation of the recommendations it made to the authorities in its 2006 report and discussed new issues that have emerged since.

The delegation held meetings in Nicosia and Limassol with representatives of all relevant ministries, public officials, human rights NGOs and minority groups.

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.