Новости за 29.02.2016

A union representing hotel employees on Monday gave a resounding ‘no’ to a compromise agreement Labour Minister Zeta Emilianidou offered in a bid to avert strikes in the industry. The dispute between unions and hoteliers stems from collective agreements signed in 2013 providing a 15 per cent cut in benefits. Now expired, employees want their […]

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team has visited the Tymbou (Ercan) airport in the north, Turkish newspaper Milliyet reported on Monday. The delegation assigned to assess the financial situation on both sides of the island in light of the ongoing negotiations to resolve the Cyprus problem, visited the airport and was briefed as to how […]

By James Davey and Kate Holton Amazon has launched its biggest foray into food outside of the United States with a deal with British supermarket Morrisons to offer fresh and frozen goods to customers, in some places as quickly as under one hour. Enabling the online retail giant to compete with Britain’s biggest supermarket stores […]

New FIFA president Gianni Infantino said on his first full working day he still did not know what he would be paid as head of football’s global governing body. The Swiss said he expected the bidding process for the 2026 World Cup, delayed last year by a scandal which has engulfed FIFA, should begin in […]

At least 27 people were killed when a bomber detonated his explosive vest at a funeral for the relative of a Shi’ite Muslim militia commander in the eastern Iraqi province of Diyala on Monday, security and medical sources said. The attack in Muqdadiya, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad follows the deadliest bombing inside […]

Larnaca district court was on Monday considering an extradition order for a 50-year-old man to the UK after he came to Cyprus while he was out of prison on condition he did not travel abroad. Antonis Antoniou, from Ora village in Larnaca was sentenced in 2005 by Nottingham criminal court to a life sentence (14 […]

The health ministry is expected to table soon a bill providing for six-month contracts for nurses to replace the much shorter ones that had been on offer so far and for giving all nurses working at state hospitals for 30 months open-ended employment contracts, the head of the House labour committee Andreas Fakontis said on […]

By Elias Hazou Both the government and the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) on Monday voiced reservations on a legislative proposal aiming to compensate bondholders stricken in the 2013 financial meltdown. The bill, tabled by House Speaker Yiannakis Omirou, would have the banks – essentially Bank of Cyprus – offset bondholders’ loans against the nominal […]

The Central Cooperative Bank (CCB) on Monday announced a 2015 loss of €167.4mln due to increased provisions, compared with a €41.2mln profit the previous year. The CCB said it had recorded a 60.6mln profit in the Q4 2015. The CCB said it had managed to limit the €228mln loss incurred in the first nine months […]

Seven Griffon Vultures (Gyps fulvus) have been found dead and although authorities and conservationists suspect poisoning, they have been unable to confirm the exact cause of death to date. Three of the dead birds were part of around 20 imported from Greece in a bid to boost the island’s dwindling population and three were natives. […]

By Alexandros Avramidis and Lefteris Karagiannopoulos Macedonian police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of migrants who stormed the border from Greece on Monday as a deeply divided Europe traded barbs over the biggest humanitarian crisis in decades. As frustrations boiled over at restrictions imposed on people moving through the Balkans, migrants trapped on the […]

Clashes with police broke out on Monday as work got underway to clear part of the shanty town outside Calais in northern France where migrants are trying to reach Britain. Police fired tear gas around midday, about 150-200 migrants and activists threw stones, and three makeshift shelters were set ablaze, according to a Reuters photographer […]

By John Irish and Stephanie Nebehay Countries sponsoring the Syria peace process met in Geneva on Monday amid complaints that a new cessation of hostilities deal was quickly unravelling, with France demanding information about reports of persisting attacks on rebel positions. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the cessation arrangement was holding by and large […]

By George Psyllides A cut in mandatory military service accompanied by recruitment of professional soldiers would have an immediate cost, Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said on Monday, but it would be outweighed by the long term benefits. “There is an immediate fiscal cost because professional soldiers will be paid more than the nominal salary paid […]

By Naomi Tajitsu Japan’s Robot Taxi aims to forge partnerships with carmakers to develop a driverless taxi service in time for the 2020 Olympics, the technology company said, holding its first tests on public roads and joining a global race to develop self-driving cars. The joint venture between gaming software maker DeNA Co and robotics […]

Police are still searching for 46-year-old Annie Constantinou who was reported missing last week. Constantinou, who is married, has been missing from her house in Makedonitissa since Last Tuesday morning. She is described as 1.65m tall, with red hair. According to the Nicosia police spokesman, Harris Evripidou, when she left her house she was wearing […]

The municipality is shortly going to involve shop owners in the process of upgrading Ledra and Onasagorou streets in Nicosia’s old city, municipality spokesman Makis Nicolaides said on Monday. “We will present our proposal to the shop owners in an open meeting within the next two weeks,” he explained. “We will give them guidelines on […]

By Padraic Halpin Ireland’s two biggest parties said on Monday they would each try to form their own government over the next 10 days, after an inconclusive election, a task analysts say will almost certainly fail and force them to contemplate an alliance many resist. Irish bond yields were little changed after Friday’s election produced […]

Fledgling forward Marcus Rashford is keen to build on his ‘crazy’ start in Manchester United’s first team after impressing with two more goals in Sunday’s 3-2 win over title-chasing Arsenal The 18-year-old’s double against the Gunners came after he scored twice on his first team debut in the 5-1 dismantling of Danish side Midtjylland in […]

President Nicos Anastasiades on Monday expressed the hope that Turkey would demonstrate genuine political will to reach a Cyprus settlement, not using rhetoric, but through the adoption of concrete steps. Anastasiades was speaking at a formal ceremony at the presidential palace, during which he received the credentials of the Ambassador of Honduras to the Republic […]

By Evie Andreou The creation of a modern pulmonary clinic in Kyperounda will help revive the Troodos area, the community’s leader Georgios Panayiotou said on Monday. He was responding to last week’s announcement that a €2.5m state of the art pulmonary clinic will be added to the community’s existing tuberculosis sanatorium that dates back to […]

Yanis Varoufakis, the self-described “erratic Marxist” who alienated his euro zone colleagues during his time as Greece’s finance minister, has secured a new role advising Britain’s opposition Labour Party. Jeremy Corbyn, who has sought to take the party of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown further to the left since he became leader in 2015, said […]

Russian police wrestled to the ground a woman in a hijab brandishing the severed head of a child outside a Moscow metro station on Monday and charged her with murder, in an incident that stirred fears of an Islamist terrorist attack. The macabre episode was caught on camera by passers-by, with footage showing the unnamed […]

By Joseph Ax A U.S. Air Force veteran charged with trying to join the Islamic State is set to go on trial in New York on Monday, one of the first of more than 75 Islamic State-related cases brought against Americans to reach trial. Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh, 48, was detained by Turkish authorities in […]

By Preston Wilder Can dumb jokes be told by clever people? Actually, it happens all the time. You have to be smart to make it in Hollywood, not just street-smart but high-IQ-smart (there are meetings to take, pitches to be made, producers to impress) – but all those smart people have no problem leaving their […]