‘Too much talk but no action on teen violence’

2012-04-01

 

TWO TEENAGERS who violently attacked a classmate in a Paphos school, sending him to hospital with serious head injuries were yesterday charged with grievous bodily harm and released from police custody after two days on remand.

Child Commissioner Leda Koursoumba told the Sunday Mail that the latest violent attack by teenagers against a classmates on school premises was another example of all talk and no action by the authorities.

“We should finally ask ourselves: what we have done since last time something of this sort broke in the news?” she said. “Every time something like this happens, we end up discussing whether the children should be prosecuted and what we should do with them.”

Our View: National health scheme needs the go-ahead now

2012-04-01

 

THE IDEA for a universal healthcare system in Cyprus was first floated by the Vassiliou government in 1991. Everyone applauded it and the Clerides government, which followed, prepared legislation on how it would operate and be funded in 2001. The bill was approved in that year but it was left to the Papadopoulos government to start work on the logistics of administering and funding of what is likely to be the most complex public project ever to be undertaken.

I can't believe it's not halloumi? Plans to register two PDOs

2012-04-01

 

THE AGRICULTURE Ministry is still in a quandary over how to handle the halloumi recipe but sources have told the Sunday Mail, they may have a solution – registering two separate Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) applications.

“This issue cannot be allowed to go on,” said the source. “By the time we get around to registering halloumi as a PDO it will be too late and the Danes will start mass producing it like they did with feta. They still have three months of the EU presidency left so anything could happen before we get our hands on the big chair in July. We need to act.”

‘We’re not going to resign’ says CyBC board

2012-04-01

 

THE board of embattled state broadcaster CyBC said it would not resign, as it rejected opposition charges of acting as a government mouthpiece.

DISY and DIKO are refusing to approve the broadcaster’s budget resulting in the employees remaining unpaid for March; in turn, they staged a four-hour strike on Thursday and warned with more, if they do not receive what is due to them.

Chairman Makis Symeou reiterated that the staff had been caught up in a political game, as he announced that the board would not be stepping down — as some opposition MPs are demanding – since that would mean confirmation of the unfounded accusations.

AKEL to name its presidential candidate in June

2012-04-01

 

RULING AKEL will announce its candidate for the presidential elections in June, its leader said yesterday, after consultations with all parties except main opposition DISY.

DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades has already said he will be contesting next February’s election.

“AKEL will not support Mr. Anastassiades so we don’t consider it appropriate to meet DISY,” Andros Kyprianou said. 

Asked if incumbent Demetris Christofias will stand again, Kyprianou said it was a question that should be put to the president himself.

“Demetris Christofias puts himself at the disposal of AKEL. From then on we will consult and make the decisions that we consider serve the struggle of the Cypriot people in the best way,” Kyprianou said. 

Two arrested for racing in Limassol

2012-04-01

 

POLICE have arrested two men who were racing in the streets of Limassol in their souped-up cars, a senior officer said yesterday.

The two, aged 21 and 22, were arrested after a report that they were racing on Yiannos Kranidiotis Avenue, near the Spyros Kyprianou sports centre, at around 10.15 pm.

“Unfortunately some do not seem to realise the dangers caused by such unacceptable behaviour – for them and unsuspecting citizens,” Limassol traffic police chief Michalis Katsounotos said.

The men claim they do not know each other and that they met there by chance and decided to put their cars to the test.

Police however are looking into reports that they had (their own) spectators.

Tools for schools to take on the missing

2012-04-01

 

WHEN THE wife of a missing person went to find her husband some years ago at a site where he had reportedly been buried decades earlier, she honestly believed she would find him alive under the earth and rubble. 

 That she could believe that is testament to the horrific stain the issue of the missing has left on Cyprus’ modern history and one that continues to painfully consume the lives of those left behind. 

According to official statistics, 1,464 Greek Cypriots and 494 Turkish Cypriots were recorded missing in Cyprus during the violence of the 1960s and 1970s. 

THOK showpiece: bright, shiny and very late

2012-04-01

 

THE Cyprus Theatre Organisation’s (THOK) new showpiece is big, bright and shiny. It’s also more than two years late in opening, and still counting.

Certainly contemporary in design and viewed as comparable with its European counterparts, the Nicosia theatre has transformed the site of the old GSP stadium and will, when finally opened, provide Nicosia with a theatre it’s lacked since part of the old municipal theatre collapsed in 2008.

But why has it taken so long?

Why Christofias deserves a second term

2012-04-01

 

AS MANY tried to interpret the ‘messages’ sent by President Christofias in the news conference he gave 10 days ago, this column also gave it a shot.

After a thorough and in-depth analysis of everything he said, I have concluded that the message was just one: the president deserves a second term. I cannot agree with EUROKO, which said, rather indelicately, that only a psychiatrist could explain the president’s ramblings.

What Christofias said was so simple and easy to understand that even the dumbest villager would have had no trouble getting the message. He would need neither a psychiatrist nor a clairvoyant to explain it to him.

A response to: am I an illegal alien?

2012-04-01

 

I REFER to the article in the Sunday Mail (March 26). I am the former vice-president of the Cyprus International Businesses Association (CIBA) and the author of the CIBA Immigration Manual for International Business Companies in Cyprus. To compile this manual (we had all relevant EC directories at hand, translated the relevant Cyprus laws in English and had numerous meetings with a whole range of officers at the civil registry and migration department, including abundant information and assistance from the director, Anny Shakalli. 

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.