Current Events

The Mediterranean Island nation of Cyprus has not held back in expressing its grief over the synagogue in Jerusalem, Israel.

Cyprus’s foreign minister expressed his horror over a tweet, mourning and loss of lives and echoing the sentiments of thousands of Cypriots.

In what is being considered the worst attack right at the onset of the new year, 7 people were killed and 3 others were wounded after a Palestinian gunman opened fire in a synagogue in Jerusalem.

After the shootout, the Palestinian attempted to flee the scene but was pursued, found and shot dead by the local police.

Cyprus Police has arrested two men who were trying to kidnap another adult male.

In a statement to the press, the police stated that the two men, aged 27 and 26 were in the process of kidnapping a 30-year-old man.

According to the victim, the 26-year-old man approached him, asking for his help with some issue his “friend” apparently had. The 30-year-old then agreed he would speak with them.

The 26-year-old left the house, and soon after returned with two others, which is when all the three tried to force him away from the home.

Fortunately, the man, with some help from his friend, aged 41, fought the assailants off, who then fled the scene.

The victim’s statement to the police said that the assailants were wield knives, crowbars and a club as well. He also mentioned that his car, which was parked outside was attacked.

The police have apprehended the two people, while search for the third is ongoing.

The island nation of Cyprus was hit by a major earthquake.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) reported that the earthquake, recorded 5.9 on the Richter scale, actually originated near the city Rhodes in Greece.

The organization further reported that tremors of the quake were felt within a 500 km radius as far as Turkey, Egypt, Greece, and of course Cyprus.

No reports of damage, casualties or injuries have been reported so far.

A country-wide three-hour strike is set to take place in the afternoon over the Cost of Living Allowance (CoLA) issue.

The strike will involve gathering and protest marches in all major cities of the island nation, in support of indexing wages according to inflation rates automatically.

The labor movement will include workers from the public, private as well as semi-government sectors. This is a deliberate move to demonstrate how this issue unites workers from all walks of life, literally.

The strike itself shall affect almost every public life function, from air traffic to public transport and from schools to (of course) offices of all sort.

The Cyprus Police have finally found a man guilty of murdering his girlfriend by pushing her off a cliff.

The man, aged 30, was presented before a Mixed Jury Court in Syros, which collectively judged the man as guilty of committing premeditated murders.

According to the case history, the man and his girlfriend, then 26, were arguing while driving till their vehicle swerved and went off-road. They then left the car and walked but continued to argue.

The argument ended with the woman falling off the cliff on Folegandros – which the man initially claimed was an accidental occurrence.

However, he later confessed that he had in fact followed his girlfriend to the cliff and then pushed her.

A high-end car was destroyed in a fire in Pegeia.

The car in question belonged to a Cypriot citizen, aged 31, living in an apartment complex in the same area. It was parked right outside the apartment where the owner resides.

According to initial investigations by the fire department, the disaster seems to be an act of arson.

The car’s worth is estimated to be around 40,000 Euros.

Another suspect has been arrested in the attempted murder case in Oroklini.

The Police has arrested a man, 34 in Famagusta, and are currently searching further connected with said suspect.

They have also issued an arrest warrant for another man, 35, who was initially reported missing.

Prior to this, another man, 31, was put in custody for 8 days. He admitted being involved in the case, despite initially claiming that he did not know anything.

The case in question had a moving car with three passengers being attacked by (then) unknown gunmen.

Passengers included two men, aged 42 and 40, along with a 6-year-old boy.

A secondary school in Limassol was attacked and vandalized.

The attackers – a group of youths, threw firecrackers, Molotov cocktails, and smoke bombs. They also attacked a parked car nearby with the same weapons, which caught fire but was extinguished by a civilian before it could spread.

The Police arrived on the scene not long after the disturbance had started – they immediately uncovered the fact that the group was led by some senior school students, who had enlisted the help of some outsiders.

The group fled the scene by the time the officers reached the location. Investigation is currently underway.

The Cyprus Met office has announced that isolated rainfall, along with a considerable drop in temperature levels are to be expected.

They further said that the week would begin with sunny skies, with temperatures of 13 and 21 degrees Celsius in the mountains and inland respectively.

The week, however, will likely soon descend into thunderstorms and rain showers, starting from the west, and then spreading to other areas.

Winds are likely to flow from the northeast to the southeast, while temperatures would drop to 10, 14 and 7 degrees Celsius inland, on the coast and on mountains respectively.

The Met Office has predicted that the middle of the week will see the most rainfall, and the weather shall recover thereafter.

The number of tourists arriving in the country has increased by a significant percentage.

According to reports from the CNA, the total number of tourist arrivals in 2022 surpassed 3 million as of November 2022, which is much more than the numbers from the year prior. This, despite the war in Ukraine and the resulting sanctions impacting Russia,

The island nation’s travel sector took a major hit due to the coronavirus pandemic, and tourism did not get a jumpstart until September 2021, when the island saw over 300,000 visitors.

According to the Tourism ministry, this was over 288.4% higher than 2020, which only saw 87,334 arrivals.

The latest incident has the police looking for two youths first led the police on a car chase, then crashed the car and proceeded to flee the scene of the crime.

According to Michalis Nikolaou, the chief of Paphos police, the incident happened just after dispatch received the report of the youths breaking traffic rules in their car.

A police patrol car spotted the car and signaled it to stop near Tasos Papadopoulou Avenue, but the car continued to speed away instead.

The patrol unit proceeded to follow them, leading to the car crashing twice before their vehicle was immobilized. The suspects then left the car and walked out.

In addition to contraband, the police recovered several military-issued bullets from the car.

The Holy Synod of Cyprus has announced that the island nation’s new archbishop shall be announced soon.

The announcement comes after the potential list of successors to Chrysostomos II were narrowed down to a total of three candidates.

The three candidates in question are Limassol Bishop Athanasios, Paphos Bishop Georgios, and Tamassou Bishop Isaias, each of whom received 35.68%, 18.39% and 18.1% votes respectively.

Cypriot bank RCB’s license has been suspended by the European Central Bank (ECB), months after the latter imposed restrictions upon the former.

The restrictions came right after RCB partnered up with Hellenic Bank to sell a performing loan portfolio worth over €556 million.

While the ECB allowed the deal to operate, other parts of the bank’s business were put under restrictions.

According to a statement by the ECB, the decision has been made in light of the voluntary phase-out of RCB’s banking operations.

RCB began operations in 1995, most of which were aimed to serve Russian clients. This was stopped earlier in 2022.

Over half a million Cypriot citizens will be voting to elect their new president, who will be succeeding Nicos Anastasiades.

The information, which has been published in a decree, issued by the island nation’s Chief Election Office mentions the 12th of February as the date of the election, and the 5th of January, 2023 as the deadline for applying for candidacy.

However, it is certain that President Anastasiades will not be returning in 2023 since he explicitly announced that that he shall not stand as a candidate, having served as the president for two terms already.

So far, ten candidates have already announced themselves.

A police chase in Nicosia on the Nicosia highway has resulted in a traffic mishap.

The chain of events started when the Police spotted a speeding motorbike within minutes of receiving complaints about someone creating a nuisance around the Athalassa Avenue area.

The police first signaled a stop sign to the driver, who proceeded to ignore them and drive on.

They then started chasing the man, but instead of stopping, he proceeded to drive away from them, and committed various other traffic offenses in the process.

He eventually met an accident after colliding with another vehicle at the end of Pera Chorio Nisou.

The Police took the motorist to Nicosia General Hospital. Some drugs were found on him.

In what is being considered a great move towards preserving the environment, The Forestry Department of Cyprus organized ‘Tree Week’ – to spread awareness and better practice of conservation.

The week-long event kicked off with a distribution of free saplings to the local residents.

Costas Kades, the Agricultural minister of Cyprus, who was at the event held at Agios Dometios’ School, gave a speech, emphasizing on how everyone should work for a greener and more sustainable future.

He further mentioned the various benefits that come with conserving forests, environmental and otherwise.

The week will see several of such events being held all over the island nation.

The Cyprus Police is on the lookout for a man who has committed fraud by wrongful representation.

According to Michael Nicolaou, a spokesman for the Paphos Police, the case in question was brought to them by a man, 38, who is the real owner of the vehicle.

He lodged a complaint with the police, claiming that he had given the car to his friend for safekeeping while going abroad for holiday – only to return and find it sold.

He claims that when he returned back, his friend started to hesitate and made unnecessary delays in giving back the vehicle.

He then reported the matter to the police – early investigation revealed that his friend had in fact sold the vehicle to another party.

Since then, the police have been on the lookout for this man – there is an active arrest warrant against him.

The value of the car is estimated to be approximately 10,000 Euros.

The Cyprus Foreign Ministry has announced that it will begin to charge Russian nationals for tourist visas.

The charges will be 80 Euros for adults, and 40 Euros for children between the ages of 6 to 12.

The development comes into practice after the European Union ended its simplified visa regime with Russia in early-September.

The European Commission has further recommended its member states have a more stringent approach when issuing Russians’ Schengen visas.

Thus far, countries bordering Russia such as Poland, Czechia, Finland and the Baltic states have banned entry for Russian tourists.

Cyprus’ Traffic Police has reported that a car erupted in flames on the streets of Nicosia.

The car, which had Greek Cypriot number plates burst into flames on Pentadaktylos mountain near Kyrenia road.

The driver, age undisclosed, was found unharmed.

According to investigators, the fire started due to an electrical issue in the engine. Firefighters did extinguish the flames, but the car was completely destroyed.

In what is being considered an unfavorable development, a clash between two groups at a migrant center led to an eruption of migrants.

A scuffle between the two largest migrant groups, those from Nigeria & those from Congo escalated and turned violent, leading to fires being lit and stones being hurled at each other.

Ultimately, the police had to intervene and fire tear gas to bring the situation under control.

Firefighters were also brought on scene to extinguish the fire, which they were successful at.

One person was admitted to the hospital for treatment, while others were treated by paramedics on site.

The police also reported that several of the tents were burned down.