Our View: EAC monopoly is the major reason for EU’s highest electricity bills

2012-02-19

COMPLAINTS about the electricity bills people have received in the last couple of weeks have become louder and more widespread. It is a perfectly justified reaction as in these hard times, with people struggling to make ends meet, the electricity bill is taking a bigger chunk of a household’s monthly income. 

Bills have been hiked by seven per cent to cover the damages caused by the Mari blast and from next month will be even higher thanks to the increase in VAT from 15 to 17 per cent. But we were already paying the highest electricity bills in the EU before the blast. According to Eurostat figures, last year we paid the highest rates and in 2010 the second highest, Malta taking the top spot. 

Ministry issued licences to unqualified electricians

2012-02-19

AROUND 130 electricians have had their licences revoked after it emerged they had been issued certificates even though they had failed their qualifying exam.

The case is currently in the hands of Attorney-general Petros Clerides who will investigate whether any criminal offences have been committed within the electrical and mechanical services department of the communications ministry which issues the licences.

The competency certificate allows an electrician to install electrical wiring and equipment.

“The investigation took place within the department after it was discovered by an official there that an electrician had failed his exam in 2005,” the communications ministry’s permanent secretary Alecos Michaelides said yesterday.

Skiers take advantage of bitterly cold weather

2012-02-19

CYPRIOTS flocked to the ski slopes yesterday following recent days of snowfall on the mountains as well as semi-mountainous regions.

According to the meteorological services, on Friday night snow fell in lowland areas such as Shia, Lythrodontas and Klirou too.

There is currently 1.70m of snow on Mount Olympus and 1.05cm at Troodos square. Police warned the public that all the roads leading to Troodos are open only to vehicles equipped with snow chains and four-wheel drive vehicles. Drivers are urged to be careful and drive at slow speeds.

Meanwhile, sleet fell in parts of Nicosia yesterday due to unusually low temperatures expected to continue at least until today.

Second round of licensing announced in government gazette

2012-02-19

CYPRUS’ second round of licensing for the offshore explorations of hydrocarbons in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) was announced on Friday in the government gazette, according to Commerce Minister Praxoulla Antoniadou.

The notice invites licence applications in the next 90 days to search for mineral deposits inside the island’s 51,000 square kilometre EEZ.

It was also published in the official journal of the EU last week.

Applications for the explorations must be submitted within 90 days of its publication in the EU journal.

Peace marchers call for removal of all troops

2012-02-19

A SMALL but vocal group of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots marched through the streets of old Nicosia yesterday, calling for peace and a social revolution.

Around 100 people, members of the Occupy the Buffer Zone in Nicosia along with members of the public, marched along Ledra Street to Eleftheria Square and from there to the Paphos Gate, where their Turkish Cypriot counterparts were waiting on the Roccas bastion.

Popular chants included “only one solution, revolution”, “one Cyprus” and “armies out”.

“We want to live together,” was repeatedly chanted once the two set of marches met on either side of the barbed wire at Paphos Gate. 

Media slammed over treatment of foreigners

2012-02-19

THE media ethics committee has slammed the way the media deals with foreigners’ deaths, raising issues of “adverse discrimination”.

The committee decided to issue an announcement this week following a complaint it received about the way the media covered the death of a young man from Moldova last December in a car accident in Nicosia.

“The victim’s identity was determined solely by his national descent and he was repeatedly referred to as ‘the foreigner’,” said the committee.

The complaint, it added, said this was blatant discrimination against non-Cypriots, making them seem like “second-class citizens”.

New bill to aid transfer of development rights

2012-02-19

LAWMAKERS have tabled an addition to the bill for transferring development rights from one property to another, calling for the measure to apply to properties owned in the occupied areas as well.

The proposal, submitted by all parties except ruling AKEL, has been added to the bill which hopes to regulate problems that arise for owners whose properties are affected, either by public works or the area being deemed environmentally protected. The plan is for building rights to be transferred to government-owned land elsewhere, in areas that will be specified by the Interior Ministry.

Fifteen MPs submitted the proposal to the House Interior Committee yesterday, calling for 12 per cent of the value of people’s occupied properties to be transferred to land in the Republic.

Paphos burglaries

2012-02-19

PAPHOS police are investigating two burglary complaints from Friday night, in which personal items estimated at around €15,000 were reported stolen.

A computer, clothes and jewellery – all worth over €10,000 – were reported stolen between the hours of 8am and 4.45pm on Friday from a 45-year-old woman’s house in the area of Koloni.

Jewellery worth around 5,000 euros was reported stolen after the house of a 63-year-old in Yeroskipou was broken into on the same night.

Meanwhile, police have arrested two Paphos residents in connection to two different investigations of burglaries and robberies. 

Bus set alight

2012-02-19

A BUS was set on fire during the early hours of yesterday while it was parked in an open space in Limassol.

The fire department was called to the scene at around 1.45am and was able to put out the fire, while police have already launched an investigation into the reasons behind the fire.

Possible kidnapping

2012-02-19

LARNACA police are as of Friday night investigating an abduction claim of a 41-year-old woman.

According to the victim’s 51-year-old husband, at around 8.45pm on Friday night, three unknown individuals stormed into their house and forced the 41-year-old to go with them.

Her husband has not heard from her since, while there have reportedly been no calls for ransom.

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.