Current Events

To improve cooperation between the Mediterranean and the Middle East, Nikos Christodoulides, the President of Cyprus met with the Khalid Al-Falih, the Minister of Investment of Saudi Arabia at Nicosia’s presidential palace.

The event started with Al-Falih conveying the good wishes of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and King Salman to President Christodoulides.

The meeting’s discussions included a review of the relations between countries, avenues for cooperation, as well as ways they can further investment.

Al-Falih also attended the roundtable discussion of Saud and Cypriot leaders, which included the finance ministers of the two countries, and representatives of various public and private sector organizations.

The fields explored included information technology, communications, energy, logistics, transportation and health, among others.

The event ended with the two countries signing a cooperation program agreement.

In what is being considered an alarming number of traffic violations in single weekend, the Cyprus Police stated having issued over 600 tickets within a period of 48 hours.

The range of violations was very wide, and included over 297 people who were handed tickets for speeding and 54 for driving under the influence of alcohol. Yet another 24 were awarded tickets for not wearing their seatbelt, while 8 were given tickets for riding their motorbike sans helmets.

The total number also includes 11 individuals, whose car lacked adequate inspection, and 3 for driving vehicles with tyres unsuitable for the road.

The police in Cyprus have arrested two men for staging an armed robbery.

The men, both aged 55, “stole” a €30,000 bag, which a hotel worker was transporting to the bank.

It was only later that the police understood that the robbery was in fact staged, wherein the hotel worker and his accomplice conspired to steal the bag in the first place.

The police arrested both perpetrators, and are currently trying to find the origin of the bag.

Cyprus Police is currently investigating an incident of harassment and psychological abuse.

The police are investigating a permanent resident of the island nation, aged 33, who allegedly harassed and incited psychological violence on his ex-partner, a woman aged 38.

Michalis Nicolaou, a spokesman for the police said that the accused in question has been found sending aggressive messages to his ex-partner, besides following her and calling on her phone repeatedly.

This, despite the fact that the district court in Paphos issued a restraining order against the alleged perpetrator.

The man, who is now at large, is wanted by the police for disobeying the restraining order.

The police have issued an arrest warrant against him.

A scuffle among some Syrian nationals went brutal, leading to the involvement of stones, wood and other objects being used by the people involved to attack each other.

The Cyprus Police have released a statement on the matter, which says that they received a tip at around 8pm in the evening regarding a fight “between foreigners” in a Limassol apartment.

They reached there to find that over fifteen men – all Syrian nationals, had arrived at the apartment building, fought with and attacked some other resident, who also turned out to be Syrian nationals.

The fighting sent three to the hospital and injured several, who were then treated on the spot.

According to the police’s preliminary investigation, the fight was about labor differences between some of the foreigners.

The Cyprus Police in Limassol are investigating the death of a 7-year-old child.

The child, a Russian national and permanent resident of Cyprus was playing in a park in Garmasogia when he lost his consciousness and soon after died.

The ambulance was called and the boy was wheeled over to the emergency room. The doctors, however, pronounced him dead upon arrival.

According to his health reports, the child suffered from cardiac issues and had undergone a heart surgery a few months prior to his death.

The Cyprus Police in Nicosia is investigation an attempted murder case in a nightclub.

The incident, which took place between two men aged 38 and 24, started out as a fight and escalated quickly into greater violence.

Both men were admitted to Nicosia General Hospital and treated for sustaining stab wounds. They were found by the police at around 3 am.

Witnesses have stated that the younger of the two men were arguing with a third, who then proceeded to stab them with a knife.

The older man, who was working as a security guard then tried to break the fight up, only for the perpetrator to stab him in the chest. The man fled the scene immediately after the fact.

Police are currently on the lookout for the perpetrator. Meanwhile, the condition of the two men appears to be stable.

Over €3,000 were stolen from a petrol station in Polis Chrysochous.

Michalis Nikolaou, a spokesperson for the Cyprus police released a statement, which said that initially the owner of the station had reported his alarm going off late in the evening.

He later went to his workplace to see the glass doors shattered, €300 missing from the cash register, some bank documents, cheques as well as €3,000 euros, which was kept in a leather bag.

According to CCTV footage, the door was broken by a car which rammed into it, being driven by a man wearing a hood.

The Police later identified that the car in question had been as stolen from Paphos in January. They found it abandoned outside Yiolou.

The vehicle is currently being examined to gather further evidence.

7 whales showed up dead on the shoreline of the northern coast of the island nation of Cyprus.

Yet another 3 dead whales from the same whale species were found washed up in the eastern side of Turkish Cyprus.

This the largest large-scale deaths of whales of the same species in Cyprus, which occasionally sees whales despite them not being common in the area.

All of the dead whales belonged to the Cuvier’s beaked whale species (scientific name: Ziphius cavirostris) – famous for having the capacity to dive larger depths and go on longer than other mammals.

According to a statement by Ioannis Ioannou, an official of the Department of Fisheries and Marine Research, an autopsy of the whales is being done to determine the cause of death.

The last such incident happened in 2022, although that involved one animal.

Cyprus and Lebanon have recently signed a military cooperation to increase teamwork and expertise between the two nations.

According to a statement by the Lebanese Armed Forces, Cypriot Army’s Colonel Loukas Hadjikonstantas and Lebanese Armed Forces’ Deputy Chief of Staff (Planning) Youssef Haddad signed the agreement in Cyprus itself.

Overall, the objective of the agreement is to improve mutual cooperation in all sorts of military operations which include (but are not limited to) infrastructure protection, emergency and/or joint operations, search and rescue and sea and air operations.

This agreement functions as a continuation of sorts for the one signed in 2021.

The island nation of Cyprus kicked off its Grand Carnival Parade in Limassol’s Central Makarios Avenue. The parade started shortly after noon and had a live broadcast on state TV.

The event started from the round of Ayios Nikolaos and ended near the Polemidia (Fairways) traffic lights.

The Cyprus Carnival is a nationwide festival, but the one celebrated in Limassol is arguably the most famous.

The carnival is known for people to participate in it by showing up in fancy dresses, people enjoying themselves and an abundance of confetti.

The event caused some traffic jams in Limassol, and on the Limassol-Paphos and Nicosia-Limassol highways.

A 5.5 earthquake has hit central Turkey at around 12 PM, with tremors being felt in neighboring Cyprus.

According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, the earthquake happened 10 km below ground near Emigrazi city.

The quake is being considered as an aftershock coming after three weeks after the major earthquake which hit southern Turkey and claimed the lives of thousands. It also left more than 2 million people without homes and living in container houses, tents and other temporary facilities within the region.

Many are panicking in Turkish Cyprus in the aftermath of the multiple quakes which devastated southern Turkey and happened due to movement over the very Faultline that Cyprus lays upon.

Fearing aftershocks and/or other earthquakes, the government of Turkish Cyprus has speeded up the evaluation of earthquake resistance for all public buildings, especially hospitals & schools.

The party leader Ünal Üstel even had a high-priority meeting with all the eighteen mayors of the island nation to devise a series of measures needed to be taken should an earthquake occur.

An earthquake audit committee was established as a result of this, which started its activities by launching a countrywide building audit, which would start with public buildings.

Additionally, the Civil Defense Directorate demarcated assembly for people in the scenario of a potential earthquake.

The Faultline, popularly called “The Cyprus Arc,” is situated on Hatay’s continuation on the Faultline of Eastern Anatolia, and is a major cause for scare among Turkish Cypriots.

Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar and Nikos Christodoulides, the new President-elect of Greek Cyprus had their first meeting in the buffer zone. They, however, could not come to any conclusions regarding reunification and peace negotiations.

According to a statement by the UN Peace Keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), while the “informal” talk did not have any concrete conclusions, it was a constructive one overall.

The “buffer” zone where they met was in fact the residence of Canadian diplomat Colin Stewart, who additionally holds the post of the Deputy Special Advisor at the UN Secretary General, Cyprus. The residence itself lies in the UN-administered buffer zone which divides the island nation’s capital, Nicosia.

Several issues were addressed at the informal meeting, which includes (but is not limited to) the Ukraine war and the Turkey-Syria earthquakes. Both expressed their condolences and acknowledged the death of Turkish Cypriots who lived in Turkey.

In the latest incident, the Cyprus police have arrested 10 people who were found gambling in a Paphos pub.

The police carried out the operation, after a citizen tipped them about the activity.

The ten people in question are currently in custody and being charged; their court appearance is due. They were found playing Texas Holdem Poker.

Further investigations revealed that five of these ten people already had outstanding warrants.

A road accident claimed the life of the Romanian woman who was a permanent Cypriot resident.

The woman, Adriana Mocanu, 53, was in the rear seat of a car which collided with a different car at the intersection of Neofytos Nicolaides Avenue and Gregori Afxentiou Street. Adriana was killed on the spot.

The car in question was being driven by a 31-year-old, another Paphos resident, with another woman, 29, as co-passenger. Neither of them was injuries.

Meanwhile, the other vehicle, being driven by a 53-year-old, sustained minor injuries.

Both drivers tested negative on a blood alcohol test.

Cyprus Airways has been a mainstay of the Cypriot aviation sector, and its long history and legacy has now been celebrated in a brand new exhibition.

The exhibition was inaugurated in Nicosia on January 9 – the date of the company’s shutdown in 2015. It continued to operate till January 13, whereupon gave visitors a tour of Pallouriotissa’s Old Market.

The legacy and history of Cyprus Airlines was shown through various photographs, which include, but are not limited to – the logo of Cyprus Airways, iconic achievements and milestones and rare mementos.

The opening night also saw the screening of an hour-long film, features employee interviews and airline contributions, along with major incidents such as the accident in Ankara in 1961, the final landing of 1974, the Beirut hijacking in 1985 and the plane explosion in 1967.

All visual content has been created by Alexis Sophocleous, a producer, who worked as a flight attendant at Cyprus Airways for over 25 years.

Larnaca-based KENTHEA (Centre for Education about Drugs and Treatment of Drug Addictions) has revealed that no less than 150,000 Cypriots over the age of twelve are clinically suffering from substance addiction.

Said substance ranges from alcohol and nicotine to psychotropic drugs & illegal substances.

KENTHEA also found that this number is significantly higher than the total number of people suffering from a chronic heart ailment, cancer and diabetes combined – which they believe is a major cause for concern.

It is estimated that only one out of ten people suffering from addiction issues actually seek out any treatment.

A total of six road deaths have been recorded in all of twenty-four days.

The latest of these casualties is a 24-year-old man, Kyriakos Oxynos, a recent university graduate, who was killed when his car collided first with an island, and thereafter a tree nearby.

The loss of Oxynos, who was a champion footballer and exceptional swimmer, was mourned by Olympiakos football club in Nicosia as well as the Cyprus Swimming Federation.

It was only a cruel irony that this development happened hours after the Cypriot Ministry of Transport reported an 18% reduction in road accident deaths in the previous year.

The Meteorological department issued a warning, stating that the air all over Cyprus will have high dust concentrations.

They further advised people to spend as less time as possible in open areas.

According to the Department of Labour, the dust levels per square meter at noon are as high as 85.4 μg, 133.8 μg, 65.4 μg, 45 μg, and 49.6 μg in Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca, Paralimni, Paphos respectively.

They advised the vulnerable – especially those with chronic health issues, the elderly and children to stay indoors and keep themselves protected from dust particles. They also urged employers to take adequate measures for their organizations and assess and rectify any risks their employees might face should they need to work in open spaces.