Poachers ‘mafia-like’ operation

2011-06-11

UP TO FOUR million German television viewers have been shown disturbing footage of Cypriot bird trappers assaulting a group of conservationists on a top-rated current affairs programme.

Germany’s largest private free-to-air station RTL broadcast a report titled: “Dirty business – how millions of birds end up as table delicacies”, which featured graphic video of a poacher brandishing a plank of wood whilst attempting to bundle a conservationist into the back of a truck near Paralimni.

Footage of several terrified ornithologists being threatened by an irate poacher was also featured in the film, which was shown on Thursday evening and comes exactly a year after a brutal attack by poachers left several conservationists injured in hospital.

Eighteen years for man who strangled partner

2011-06-11

THE Criminal Court yesterday sentenced a 53-year-old contractor to 18 years in jail for strangling his Bulgarian partner back in January.

Spaska Karamarinova, 42, was found dead in the couple’s bed at their home in the Larnaca village of Alethriko, after her partner of ten years, Andreas Christodoulou, went to police and told them he had killed her.

Officers found the woman on the bed naked with clear signs of strangulation on her throat.

The couple’s six-year-old boy had been sleeping in an adjacent room during the incident.

The court ruled the death a deliberate manslaughter and rejected the defence’s position that it had been accidental, a result of sexual activity.

Mugging victim dies, but attacker unlikely to be found

2011-06-11

A Kazakh businessman who was attacked and mugged last Monday succumbed to his injuries yesterday, in what police said was Cyprus’ first death from a mugging.

Police are now investigating a case of premeditated murder, though they admit there are few leads for finding the culprit.

The 42-year-old man, married with a young daughter, was attacked and robbed outside his internet café business in Limassol at the start of the week in his shop’s car park.

“This is the first time we have had a death as a result of a robbery or mugging,” police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos confirmed yesterday. “Unfortunately, it seems criminals have started to savagely attack their victims.”

Cyprus might seek bailout

2011-06-11

CYPRUS may become the next trouble spot in the eurozone’s debt crisis, as credit rating agencies downgrade it because of exposure to Greece and rising yields suggest investor demand for its bonds is shrinking.

Cyprus does not face any near-term funding problem, and by many fiscal measures it is much healthier than Greece, Ireland and Portugal, which are receiving international bailouts.

But after a 0.8 percentage point jump in government bond yields during May, some analysts think the country might conceivably have to seek a bailout in the long term.

Growth forecast cut

2011-06-11

THE Central Bank cut its growth forecast for the island’s economy to 1.4 per cent in 2011 on Friday from a previous 1.8 per cent, saying growth in the first quarter was weaker than expected.

In a bi-annual report, the Central Bank said it expected an economic recovery to gather pace in 2012, with gross domestic product expected to expand by 2.1 per cent in real terms.

Cyprus has been struggling with anaemic growth since a recession in 2009. Construction and manufacturing business is still shrinking, though tourism and financial services are showing stronger growth.

Spy who came south from the cold

2011-06-11

Arne Treholt is something of a celebrity in Norway.

But in his home town of Limassol he cuts a more discreet figure, giving no hint of his KGB spy days, imprisonment and 26 year battle to clear his name.

All that changed on Thursday, however, when the former diplomat – and Norway’s most infamous cold war spy since his 1985 espionage and high treason conviction – heard that a Norwegian court had rejected his appeal to reopen his case.

As Treholt learned of the court decision, the Norwegian press descended on Limassol to hear his side of the story and, from the RIK studio there, address Norwegian television audiences.

Carelessness largely to blame for spate of fires

2011-06-11

A TOTAL of 22 fires, started by a combination of arson and carelessness, caused widespread damage to fields, houses and other buildings islandwide yesterday and on Thursday night.

Eight fires broke out in the Limassol area alone from midday onwards. All of them were a result of carelessness, the fire department said. Seven of them were brought under control by the evening while the eighth was under partial control.  Fire fighters remained in the area to make sure none of them reignited.

Twenty-five storey buildings on their way

2011-06-11

BUILDINGS in some areas of Nicosia and other cities could reach as high as 25-storeys under new plans being drawn up by the town planning department.

The new proposals for the island’s urban areas are expected to be announced to the public by the end of July though the final environmental impact studies are still being evaluated.

“There are proposals that have to do with the environment; these dimensions of the local zones need to go through the environment service,” the head of the department, Christodoulos Ktorides, said yesterday.

”But the local plans aren’t complete yet, so we can’t give much out. The final proposal is expected to be publicised by the end of July.”

Green technology for Carlsberg

2011-06-11

A TECHNOLOGICAL upgrade has led to a 60 per cent saving in energy loss at Carlsberg’s breweries amounting to planting 300 trees and maintaining them for 100 years, the company announced yesterday.

The presentation took place as part of the celebrations of World Environment Day which fell on June 5.

About one million euros went into installing an energy recovery system to reduce vapours during the brewing process and recover the heat from the vapours to feed it back into the brewing house.

The project was funded by the Commerce Ministry as part of funding reduction in energy use.

Energy conservation is the cheapest and most direct way to manage energy resources Commerce Minister Antonis Paschalides yesterday said.

Conference should only touch external issues

2011-06-11

THE RUSSIAN Federation believes that any international conference on the Cyprus problem must deal with external issues and not with the domestic issues of the state, said the Russian deputy foreign minister Vladimir Titov yesterday.

Speaking after a meeting at the presidential palace with President Demetris Christofias, Titov said the two had very “fruitful and open discussions” on issues regarding bilateral cooperation as well as regional and international issues.

“My visit is a kind of follow up of those decisions which were taken during the state visit of our President (Dmitry Medvedev) to Cyprus last year,” he said.

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.