TURKISH Cypriot ‘authorities’ yesterday released two Greek Cypriots held since Saturday for trespassing on a restricted military area in the breakaway north.

Former MEP Yiannakis Matsis and Loizos Afxentiou, of the Famagusta Refugees Movement, appeared before a military court in the north. They were charged with illegal entry into a restricted zone, fined €90 each and ordered released.

The two were among a party of MEPs and Christian Orthodox clergymen who had crossed into the north on a tour of derelict Orthodox Christian churches and cemeteries there. The trip included a visit to abandoned Varosha, the fenced-off Greek Cypriot suburb of Famagusta on the island’s east coast that is controlled by the Turkish army.

AN 11–YEAR-OLD girl from Nicosia was hospitalised yesterday after being seriously injured in a Rottweiler attack.

The youngster, who is being treated at a private clinic, had been accompanying the dog’s owner – a friend of the family – for the pet’s daily walk.

Suddenly and without warning, the dog attacked her, throwing her to the ground and straddling her, causing her to suffer deep head, back, arm and leg injuries.

Despite her wounds, the 11-year-old managed to get up and run to a nearby kiosk, where she asked the owner there to call her mother.

The girl underwent surgery on Sunday night and will remain in hospital for six days until she has fully recovered and received medication.

AROUND 50 members of Nicosia Race Club’s (NRC) administrative staff went on indefinite strike yesterday in protest against a five per cent pay cut.

As a result, all races on Wednesdays and Sundays will be affected.

Staff held banners outside the race course reading “our demands are fair” and “a strike is happening here”.

“The club sent a letter to cut five per cent of wages and the employees don’t accept this one-sided decision,” said Pantelis Stavrou, general secretary of SEK’s Federation of Transport, Petroleum and Agriculture Workers. According to Stavrou, no discussions took place and the employees simply received a letter informing them of the cuts that would take place as of March 1.

TWO people connected with internet blog, ‘christofias-watch,’ have sued the Attorney-general for the police seizure of their computers last May, their lawyer, Christos Clerides said yesterday.

The blog administrator, Xeni Xenofontos, and Elena Filippou are seeking compensation from between €500 thousand and two million euros.

Police action was unconstitutional as they used telecommunication data, subsequently obtained a search warrant and proceeded to hold on to the confiscated computers, said Clerides.

THE EU’S top court has ruled that foreign parents of children with EU citizenship have the right to reside and work in the country where their children are nationals.

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled last week that a member state cannot deprive third country nationals of the right to reside and work in that country if their children, who are their dependents, are citizens of that country.

The matter was brought before the ECJ by a Belgian court dealing with an appeal by Columbian national Ruiz Zambrano who applied for asylum in Belgium in 1999. His application was rejected in 2000 and he, along with his wife and child, were ordered to leave the country.

SOME Members of Parliament are purposely delaying passing proposed town planning amnesty bills so that they will not be approved before Parliament dissolves in May, Interior Minister, Neoclis Sylikiotis said yesterday.

“Discussion has been postponed twice already and [they] have twice delayed giving their final stand on the bills,” Sylikiotis said of “a particular group of MPs”.

“Instead of protecting citizen’s rights and the interests of thousands of citizens … [these MPs] are trying to suspend the government’s initiative leaving exposed thousands of ordinary buyers – hostages to the maintenance of the standing interests of the few,” said Sylikiotis.