Daily Archives: July 5, 2007

TWO MORE forest fires broke out in the Paphos and Larnaca districts yesterday, following the weekend’s devastating fires in the Saittas area.

According to the Fire Services, the first blaze started at 10.35am in an area between Holetrion and Nata villages, with the second three hours later at Kalavassos in Larnaca.

THE FUTURE of the coalition government was in doubt last night as the two main parties, left-wing AKEL and ruling DIKO appeared to be going their separate ways in backing different presidential candidates.

MEPs unhappy with EU’s progress in the north

THE E.U. has failed to deliver on promises made to the Turkish Cypriots, and the north remains as economically and politically isolated as ever.

THE MINISTRY of Education came under fire this week for allowing dubious ‘summer schools’ to function despite not offering any form of solid certification, not having to meet any requirements and having no real in-class education.

But no sooner had the allegations been made, when it became clear that no specific ministry was willing to take responsibility for the schools.

THE CYPRUS Coast Guard is calling on members of the public to be extra vigilant this summer with locals and tourists expected to flood the beaches in July and August.

CYPRUS HAS completed the programme for the destruction of stored anti-personnel mines, thus fulfilling its obligations to the Ottawa Convention.

To mark this occasion, the government will be holding a special ceremony on July 10, at the National Guard shooting range near the village of Tseri, south of the capital Nicosia.

MARFIN Popular Bank yesterday got a slap on the wrist from the competition regulator for having breached mergers and acquisitions laws.

MPB was fined £5,000 for not notifying the Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC) before it acquired a stake in Bank of Cyprus.

A HIGH-PROFILE libel case in Nicosia has been adjourned until September on technical grounds.

Tassos Papadopoulos & Co are suing the Financial Times for suggesting the law firm facilitated the siphoning of billions of dollars out of the former Yugoslavia at a time when UN sanctions were in force.

SHIPS CARRYING up to a hundred international volunteers are set to travel from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip in August to mark the fortieth anniversary of the capture of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem by Israeli forces in the 1967 Six Day War.

The action is meant to test the legitimacy of Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territory in 2005.