THE communications minister yesterday urged people to leave their cars at home and embrace buses in a bid to decongest the island’s roads.

Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis yesterday morning observed a demonstration – the so-called Munster experiment – designed to show people how many cars could be removed from the road if their drivers opted to take the bus instead.

Makarios Avenue in Nicosia was shut briefly as some 50 cars lined up in three rows, demonstrating how much space is necessary to accommodate them.

Their drivers and passengers then boarded a bus, showing they could all fit in, sparing the city the congestion and the exhaust fumes.

TAXPAYERS could soon be lumbered with a multi million euro fine, when the European Union takes the government to court for disobeying an ecological conservation directive, the Green party said yesterday.

In a statement, Green Party MP George Perdikis slammed the government’s decision to disobey the EU directive by allowing one businessman to develop land around Paralimni Lake, which is home to an indigenous and endangered Cyprus grass snake ( natrix natrix cypriaca)

A FORMER Norwegian diplomat who was convicted of spying in Norway in 1985 and who since emigrated to Cyprus could soon come in from the cold after it emerged key evidence in his trial might have been falsified.

Arne Treholt, 67, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for treason and spying for Iraq and Russia. After his early release in 1992, he moved to Cyprus via Moscow and is now vice president of Limassol based FOREX trading firm, United World Capital.

However, according to a recently released book, Forfalskningen (“The Falsification”) and an alleged testimony from an officer in the Norwegian intelligence service (PST) who worked the case, some pieces of evidence that were used to convict Treholt were falsified.

TWO burglars attacked and hit a 50-year-old company employee with crowbars after he walked in on them on Friday night.

The 50-year-old suffered contusions to the head and scratches but his condition was not life-threatening yesterday as he was being treated in hospital.

The man, along with two other company employees, aged 20 and 21, went to the office to check the entrance 20 minutes before midnight.

They found the door had been tampered with and immediately notified the owner.

But when they tried to go inside, they were attacked by two individuals wielding crowbars.

The assailants hit the 50-year-old and threw him down the stairs before fleeing the scene.

A BOMB blast yesterday damaged the interior of a Paphos betting shop that belongs to two men, 42 and 55-years-old, police said.

Bomb experts said the blast had been caused by low intensity improvised explosive device, which had been placed at the shop’s entrance.

The cost of the damage was not reported.

THE CYPRUS Republic may be celebrating only 50 years of existence but the island’s heritage dates back at least ten thousand years, President Demetris Christofias said yesterday.

Christofias was addressing the Annual Ranieri Colloquium on Ancient Studies “Archaeologies of Yeronisos off Cyprus: The island beyond the island”, in New York, organised in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Republic of Cyprus, as well as the 20th anniversary of the New York University Yeronisos Island Excavations.

“A country’s history and cultural heritage is without doubt one of the most important factors that shape its relations with the outside world, but also its internal development,” said Christofias.

FIFTY years on from the establishment of the Republic; 46 years since the institutional separation of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities; 36 years since partition and 33 years since the first, internationally-brokered, High Level Agreements aimed at establishing a bizonal, bicommunal federation.