Новости за 02.02.2017

Police late on Thursday announced that the following roads in Nicosia will be temporarily closed to traffic on Friday during the protest by taxi drivers: Between 7am and 9am: On Strovolos Avenue, in a direction from Strovolos toward downtown Nicosia, about 200 m before the traffic lights connecting with Athalassa Avenue, the left lane only […]

A day after the two leaders said they were aiming for a new conference on Cyprus in early March, international players including Ankara, Athens, Moscow and Berlin began weighing in with German Chancellor Angela Merkel calling for a speeding up of the negotiations. “The process on Cyprus must be speeded up and there should be […]

The case involving the road signs scam that cheated Paphos municipality out of an estimated €300,000 has been filed with Paphos district court. The first hearings in the case have been scheduled on February 8 and 13. The development comes after the attorney-general’s office determined there was sufficient evidence to press charges. The scam was […]

AKEL is expected on Friday to submit an official request for a ballot recount for the mayor of Limassol in December’s local elections. Their intention to demand a re-checking of the votes was confirmed earlier this week by a senior Akel cadre. The recount request will be considered by an electoral tribunal. Akel is challenging […]

Two plays make their debut on Saturday. The first is Smiley by Catalan author Guillem Clua at Theatro Ena in Limassol, and the other is The Human Voice by Jean Cocteau at Space in Nicosia. Theatre Versus and director Marinos Anogyriatis will present us with Smiley, “an ode to love” as described by its author. […]

Greek national Kyriacos Magiras, who had been wanted on a European arrest warrant for a bribery-related case in Cyprus, has reportedly been released on conditions after turning himself in to Greek authorities. Magiras was placed under arrest in Athens on Wednesday after turning himself in to police. Appearing next before a magistrate, he challenged Cypriot […]

Colombia’s second-biggest rebel group, the ELN, freed a politician it held captive for almost 10 months on Thursday, meeting a government requirement for delayed peace talks with the group to begin. The National Liberation Army released Odin Sanchez, 62, to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which will accompany him on a flight to […]

Cyprus has made important changes as regards policies and with regard to the operation of the state prisons and is awaiting the remarks of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou said on Thursday. Nicolaou, following a meeting with a CPT delegation, […]

President Nicos Anastasiades and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will have consultations, on a political level, in either Nicosia or Athens but definitely before a new conference on Cyprus, according to CNA sources. Well informed diplomatic sources have said that most probably the Greek Premier will visit Cyprus and both sides are in consultation to […]

Lorry drivers on Thursday urged the government to take into consideration the huge delays in  delivery and pick up of containers at Limassol port when checking drivers for exceeding driving limits. Despite reassurances by Cyprus’ EuroGate unit, which on Sunday assumed responsibility for the container operations at the port, that they were gradually picking up […]

Taxi drivers will block main roads in Nicosia on Friday during a protest over better working conditions. An announcement of the association said the roads will be closed between 6.30am and 11am. The drivers did not provide the names of the roads they planned to close. The association said their strike was not an end […]

Israeli police dragged nationalist youths out of a barricaded synagogue on Thursday, completing the forced evacuation of an illegal outpost in the West Bank even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to build evicted families a new settlement. Some 100 youngsters protesting against the removal of some 300 settlers from Amona, an outpost built without […]

Britain will do its utmost to negotiate a divorce deal with the European Union that is mutually beneficial, Brexit minister David Davis said on Thursday, setting out the government’s strategy in an official policy document. The publication of the “White Paper” is part of an attempt by Prime Minister Theresa May to keep lawmakers on […]

The Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) urged consumers on Thursday to be vigilant as it had received complaints that people posing as employees of the utility visit homes to offer advice on how to save energy. In announcement, the EAC said that consumers had complained that lately they received house calls from individuals claiming they […]

Authorities in the north decided on Thursday to raise the minimum monthly net wage by €40, to €435 in a bid to offset the increase in the cost of living. The responsible committee decided that the minimum hourly wage will be €2.80, daily wage €23, and weekly wage to be €115. The committee set the […]

US President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to cut funding to the University of California at Berkeley after protesters smashed windows and set fires at the liberal-leaning school, forcing the cancellation of an appearance by a far-right Breitbart News editor. “If UC Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with […]

Striker Eden Hazard picked Arsenal and Manchester United as Chelsea’s main rivals in the Premier League title race and said he expected Tottenham Hotspur to fade away due to their relative lack of experience. Chelsea, who have won 15 of their last 17 league games, hold a comfortable nine-point gap over second-placed Tottenham and third-placed […]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed the importance of freedom of opinion in talks with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday, during a visit meant to help improve frayed ties between the two Nato allies. In her first trip to Ankara since a failed military coup in Turkey last July, Merkel said she had discussed Syria […]

The 6.2 per cent increase in the deposits held by Cypriots banks last year to €49bn in December, the highest level since July 2013, represents improved funding conditions and is a credit positive for Cyprus, Moody’s Investors Service said. “It also points to households’ increased capacity to service their high levels of debt, a significant […]

The telecoms and post regulator fined the post office €100,000 for violating its obligations after one of its staff stole around 200 mail sacks over a period of some 18 months. The 37-year-old was arrested in October 2016. The post office, according to a statement, had violated the terms of its licence, specifically the obligation […]

Artificial intelligence has made history by beating humans in poker for the first time, the last remaining game in which humans had managed to maintain the upper hand. Libratus, an AI built by Carnegie Mellon University racked up over $1.7m worth of chips against four of the top professional poker players in the world in a […]

Four years after the 2013 banking crisis, the Central Bank of Cyprus is favouring the setup of a specialised unit to jointly manage the Cypriot banks’ non-performing loans mountain, the Cyprus News Agency reported citing an unnamed central bank official. Such a scheme would be based on concept of a separate unit announced on January […]

British Prime Minister Theresa May believes that Scotland‘s bid for independence was settled by a referendum in 2014, a vote that was “legal, fair and decisive”, a spokeswoman for the leader said on Thursday. May has repeatedly said she sees no need for a second referendum in Scotland, even after the country’s vote to stay […]

This is one of a series of articles from our new feature ‘Background briefing: The Divided Island‘. It is a comprehensive interactive information guide on the Cyprus problem which we are publishing at this critical moment in the settlement negotiations. There is a menu bar to the full package to the right of this article. […]

UEFA has handed out a total of 150 million euros to clubs who released players for the Euro 2016 qualifying matches and final tournament, European football’s governing body said Thursday. UEFA said that 641 clubs from 54 national associations had benefited from solidarity payments which were made under an agreement to appease clubs who often […]