Court adjourned

A COURT in the north yesterday adjourned the hearing of MEP Marios Matsakis, charged with stealing a Turkish flag, until February 3.

Matsakis was released from Turkish Cypriot custody on an £18,000 bond after spending two days in jail on January 2. The charges relate to the maverick MP pulling down a Turkish flag from an unmanned sentry post close to Louroudjina in November.

The court needs to ascertain whether Matsakis enjoys immunity from prosecution drawn from his status as a member of the European Parliament, prosecutors said.

High praise for tennis star

PRESIDENT Tassos Papadopoulos yesterday congratulated tennis player Marcos Baghdatis, who has made it into the quarter finals of the Australian open after beating Denis Gremelmayr of Germany yesterday.

“He has my heartfelt congratulations,” Papadopoulos said before departure for Moscow on an official visit.

The government, he said, acknowledged Baghdatis’s talent by giving him an exemption from his national service duty.

Baghdatis takes on third seed Andy Roddick of the U.S. in the Grand Slam on Sunday.

Eggs found to be safe

THE VETERINARY Services have announced conclusive tests have found no trace of salmonella from the Glafkos Schizas farm in Evrychou. The tests related to batch number 1 CY 4121.22, and therefore the public can safely consume eggs from the farm, the Veterinary Service added.

Suspicious behaviour

A 25-YEAR-OLD man from Nicosia was arrested by police yesterday on suspicion of attempting to accost a young woman on a walk with her husband in the capital on Thursday evening.

Police said the couple noticed the man acting suspiciously and later urged the woman to get into his car when he noticed she was on her own. The suspect drove off at high speed when her husband intervened.

The suspect was arrested several hours later after a description given by the couple. Police found a set of tools, including a sharp implement, a woolen cap and a large number of sports shoes in his car.
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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.