Новости за 08.09.2016

Unspoiled lands are disappearing from the face of the Earth at an alarming pace, with about 10 per cent of wilderness regions – an area double the size of Alaska – lost in the past two decades amid unrelenting human development, researchers said on Thursday. South America, which lost 30 percent of its wilderness during […]

Three women arrested on Thursday in connection with a car laden with gas cannisters that was found abandonned near Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral were likely planning an imminent attack, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said. “These three women aged 39, 23 and 19 had been radicalised, were fanatics and were in all likelihood preparing an […]

Helicopters are being sent to rescue 110 people stuck at over 3,000 metres altitude in a cable car that links France and Italy near Europe’s highest mountain, the Mont Blanc, police said. The scenic cable-car journey is 5km long and usually takes 35 minutes, but passengers have been stuck there for about two hours. “We […]

AUDITOR-general Odysseas Michaelides will hand over to the attorney-general information collected by his office about irregularities at the Paphos Antiquities Department. According to the Cyprus News Agency, the evidence collected by the audit service appears to implicate at least one employee. Michaelides told the agency that it was up to the AG to decide “whether, […]

The European Parliament has named Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister and arch-foe of eurosceptics across the continent, to represent it in forthcoming Brexit negotiations with London. Verhofstadt, 63, leads the liberal bloc in the legislature, where he has railed against nationalists like Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party, who described the Belgian […]

LIMASSOL police believe they have busted a gang of thieves from abroad following the arrest of four Romanians in connection with two recent burglaries in the coastal town. “Based on the information and evidence we have, it is believed they are a gang that arrived in Cyprus for this reason, to carry out burglaries and […]

Italy’s largest trade union urged its members to vote ‘No’ in a forthcoming referendum on constitutional reform, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who has staked his political future on the ballot. Renzi says the reform will increase political stability and, by curbing the powers of parliament’s upper house, end decades of revolving-door […]

They say that rolling stones gather no moss. Well, if we look at the band that’s been rolling for the last 50-something years, we will see that they surely haven’t got rusty. We might not all be able to rock ’n’ roll, but we can all surely learn new skills to help us move forward […]

PROJECTS concerning the prevention of flooding in the Aradippou area and the relocation of oil and gas installations are moving forward, a government official said on Thursday. “There was an evaluation of the development of projects planned in these two municipal areas,” acting Interior Minister Ionas Nicolaou said after two successive meetings with the Aradippou […]

THOUGH the majority of Nicosians said they were satisfied with cultural facilities such as concert halls, theatres, museums and libraries, the rate has dropped by nine percentage points from 2012, from 67 per cent to 58 per cent in 2015, the biggest drop among all EU capitals. According to a Eurostat report, this places Nicosia […]

THE Greek Cypriot side on Thursday refused to be drawn on new reports in Turkish daily Milliyet outlining parts of the property discussions in the ongoing negotiations. Government Spokesman Nicos Christodoulides, when asked to comment, said in general press reports “particularly recently” do not correspond to reality. It is possible, he said, such reports “are […]

OWNERS of entertainment centres such as restaurants, lounges and bars, were unhappy on Thursday with the cabinet-approved bill that bans smoking in public buildings and open air spaces, even for electronic cigarettes. The bill aims to replace the existing law on smoking controls and to align national legislation with the European Union’s Tobacco Products Directive. […]

Soviet-era documents show that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas worked in the 1980s for the KGB, the now-defunct intelligence agency where Russian leader Vladimir Putin once served, Israeli researchers said on Thursday. The Palestinian government denied that Abbas, who received a PhD in Moscow in 1982, had been a Soviet spy, and it accused Israel of […]

CUSTOMS officers seized close to 21 kilos of hookah (shisha) tobacco at the Ayios Dhometios crossing point, it was announced on Thursday. The tobacco was found in a Turkish Cypriot vehicle on Wednesday evening, customs said. Officers found the hidden tobacco that the Turkish Cypriot driver said he had procured in the north. He was […]

WE are not close to a solution of the Cyprus problem, but if one is agreed we need to be very careful in ensuring that it is a viable one, because there is no coming back if it fails, prominent lawyer and advisor to President Nicos Anastasiades Polis Polyviou said on Thursday. Polyviou made headlines […]

US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton chastised Republican rival Donald Trump on Thursday for hinting about things he learned in classified intelligence briefings, calling it “totally inappropriate and undisciplined.” Speaking to reporters the morning after a New York security forum featuring separate appearances by the two candidates, Clinton also slammed the businessman for praising Russian President […]

IN an unprecedented move, the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) has decided to refer the chairman of the footballers’ union to a disciplinary committee because of comments he made about the state of the game to Britain’s The Guardian newspaper. Spyros Neofitides confirmed the decision, which he saw as an effort to silence him. He told […]

Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate in the 2016 US presidential race, was questioned about a major flash point of the Syrian civil war on Thursday and asked, “What is Aleppo?” The gaffe came during an MSNBC interview about the Syrian crisis and the ongoing battle in that country’s biggest city, Aleppo, which has been […]

Turkey has agreed to allow German lawmakers to visit soldiers stationed at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey in October, signalling some progress in easing strains between the two NATO allies, Germany’s Foreign Minister said on Thursday. Turkey had banned German lawmakers from visiting the base in response to a parliamentary resolution declaring the 1915 massacre […]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative allies in Bavaria have drawn up a list of demands on migrant policy, including a burqa ban, deepening the rift between the two parties before next year’s federal election. The ruling conservative bloc suffered a blow on Sunday when Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) were pushed into third place in the […]

FOLLOWING former Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) governor Athanasios Orphanides’ explosive testimony in two successive House Ethics committee sessions, police investigating possible crimes that led to the collapse of the economy have also asked for a written testimony on particular events, police spokesman Andreas Angelides confirmed on Thursday. Speaking on state radio, Angelides said Orphanides, […]

Serena Williams will be wary of another semi-final slip-up when she takes to the Arthur Ashe Stadium court on Thursday to face 10th seed Karolina Pliskova for a spot in the U.S. Open final. A year ago Williams arrived at the semi-finals on the cusp of a rare calendar slam when unseeded Italian Roberta Vinci, […]

Cyprus and Jordan expect to sign a number of agreements before the end of the year, Government Spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said on Thursday following the visit of Jordan’s King Abdullah II. He said the meeting between the king and President Nicos Anastasiades had been very constructive and they had discussed the strengthening of bilateral economic […]

Playboy won a legal fight to stop a website from posting links to images published without permission on Thursday, a decision which could have far wider consequences across the internet. The European Union’s top court decided that posting such links infringes copyright when the website doing it is seeking to profit from pictures published without […]

The recently-announced changes to the Champions League are detrimental to domestic football in Europe and will increase the gap between the wealthiest clubs and the rest, the European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) said on Thursday. The EPFL, the umbrella grouping for 24 European domestic leagues, also called upon the next UEFA president to reconsider the […]