Noble given green light to drill for gas

2011-06-19

A CABINET decision has paved the way for speeding up the process to start drilling for hydrocarbons in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) before the end of the year, said Commerce Minister Antonis Paschalides yesterday.

Cabinet took the decision on Friday, authorising Paschalides to free Texas-based company Noble Energy from its obligation to hold a lengthy tender process for the supply of equipment to begin drilling for natural gas.

Noble has a concession to explore for hydrocarbons in an offshore field south-east of Cyprus. Bypassing the tender process allows Noble to make use of drilling equipment currently being utilised in Israel’s EEZ, which could be made available in August, opening the way for drilling to start in Cypriot waters as early as September.

Our view: Critical days for Greece and the Eurozone

2011-06-19

GREECE enters one of the most critical weeks in its history today as Eurozone finance ministers meet to decide the release of the fifth tranche of loans to Greece as well as bash out the terms for a new bailout. It is essential that the finance ministers agree on a plan to put before the EU summit on Thursday and Friday. If the plan is not deemed workable analysts predict that “the bond and financial markets will be merciless”.

Former president hits out at public sector

2011-06-19

FORMER PRESIDENT George Vassiliou yesterday highlighted the “urgent need for immediate measures” to tackle the economy’s structural problems, pointing to a first of its kind study on the growth of the public sector since 1960.

Concerned about the growing problems of the economy, Vassiliou embarked on a three-month study with his associate Costas Paschalis on the size and cost of the civil service in the last 50 years.

The results are pretty sobering, depicting a civil service that is already bloated, absorbing 58 per cent of all tax revenue, and getting hungrier.

House prices drop, bad loans rise

2011-06-19

PRICES of houses and apartments fell 2.5 per cent last year and are expected to drop another 2.5 per cent this year as fewer Cypriots buy homes, the Central Bank has said.

Even though transactions involving foreign buyers rose 15.7 per cent in the first four months of 2011 compared to the same period last year, they will not be sufficient to offset the overall decline in demand, the Central Bank said in its semi-annual economic bulletin this week.

Prices for houses and apartments fell in the fourth quarter of 2010 2.6 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively compared to the year before. The biggest drop in house prices was observed in Limassol where they fell 4.8 per cent. For apartments, the worst hit was Famagusta district where they fell 4.2 per cent.

Five year old dies after being hit by car

2011-06-19

THE FIVE-year old boy who was hit by a car while trying to cross the road in Polemi died yesterday in hospital.

According to police the five-year-old from Chloraka village in Paphos died while being treated in the intensive care unit of the Nicosia general hospital, having suffered serious head injuries, internal bleeding and a fractured left leg.

The young boy, Georgios Theodosiou, had been with his dad and grandfather, who were trying to fix a tractor, when he escaped their attention and attempted to cross a busy road in Polemi.

He was hit at around 6.30pm on Grigoris Afxentiou Street by a car driven by a 20-year-old man from Giolou.

Morphou: a dying town, but no longer up for grabs

2011-06-19

THE ALMOST-new dual carriageway connecting it to Nicosia might at first make Morphou, or Guzelyurt as it’s called in Turkish, seem somewhat less far-flung than it used to be. But once in the town, its sense of forlorn abandonment is oppressive.

Barely a soul is on the high street as I watch a couple of middle-aged tourists arrive at the town’s archeology and history museum. Finding it closed, they leave. Barred too is their access to the beautiful church of St Mamas; the key has to be obtained from the museum’s curator, but he’s not around. I see the couple later wandering the streets, clearly baffled as to why the north Cyprus tourist board has listed the place as an attraction.

A practical leader in a time of crisis

2011-06-19

VISITING Greece after an absence of four months, the dramatic change that has rocked this nation is striking.

It is a country and a people in mourning. Gone is the near arrogant self-confidence, the free-spending, casual, laid-back approach. In its place is a country gripped with uncertainty, facing a threatening future. As one inhabitant of Thessaloniki put it over a coffee (which I paid for, under the circumstances), “Everybody is angry, unhappy and worried. People are losing their jobs, have taken cuts in their pay packet and worry about a future for their children.”

Couple attempt to rebuild lives after coin theft

2011-06-19

IT WILL go down in police annals as one of the most professional ever burglaries in Cyprus. But quite how the robbers pulled it off is as yet a tantalising mystery.

This, of course, is no consolation to the victims, Caroline and Barrie Carter, who lost their life savings and retirement fund – 200,000 euros worth of gold coins – when they went for a rare night out earlier this month.

Their treasure was uninsured but secure, they believed. The bullion was in a heavy, hidden safe, guarded by four large dogs inside their locked bedroom. Their daughter, Michelle, 26, was at home – and an ex-Scotland Yard police detective lives next door.

Taking on Wall Street from home

2011-06-19

MY FIRST and only day as a FOREX trader began well.

The sun was shining, the commute was easy and I had a full morning to make my fortune on the markets. It wasn’t until about 20 seconds into my first trade that things started to go wrong.

I’d plumped for a 4,500,000 EUR/USD position at 1.42986 deal rate, from my leveraged account.

A gutsy move I thought: go big, shake up the market and watch my PiPs grow.

Never mind that I had no idea what this meant.

Making the trade was surprisingly easy: once logged in to my newly opened online currency trading account, it took just a handful of clicks to open the position and expose my money to the dizzying maelstrom of global foreign currency exchange – or FOREX for short.

For rent to the Turkish army: desirable summer house in Kyrenia

2011-06-19

 

THE FORTY-seven members of the Council of Europe received a rather unconventional document last week, a contract addressed to Turkey seeking money for the rent of a single property in occupied Kyrenia.

The contract was sent by human rights lawyer Achilleas Demetriades, no stranger to pushing the envelope, and comes on the back of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling in Demades v Turkey on April 22, 2008.

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.