Current Events

With the COVID-19 pandemic waning, several countries are loosening their restrictions and Cyprus is no exception to this. The island nation recently lifted the mandatory use of face masks in indoor spaces after the country’s health authority deemed the situation to have considerably improved.

According to Michalis Hadjipantela, Cyprus’ health minister, the rule, however, will continue to apply to clinics, nursing homes and hospitals, and public vehicles. People suffering from chronic illnesses are also recommended to use face coverings.

Also lifted are the capacity limitations for public places like casinos, churches, stadiums, stores, malls, restaurants, and nightclubs.

The Republic of Cyprus has issued a Navtex revealing that the French Navy has started its military exercise.

Coinciding with this is a “war” Navtex warnings issued between Turkey and the island nation over the BILIM 2 Survey/Research vessel.

So far, Cyprus has slammed Turkey’s Navtex for scientific research. Part of this actually takes place in the continental shelf of the island nation.

This comes after Turkey issued an anti-Navtex where it disputed Cyprus’ sovereignty.

The BILIM 2 was first to the north of Cyprus, where Turkish-majority village Yiallousa is located.

Cyprus has signed a brand-new defense agreement with fellow EU country Romania.

Specifically, the agreement in questions was signed by Cypriot and Romanian Defense Ministers Charalambos Petrides and Vasile Dincu respectively at an informal meeting held around the European Union Foreign Affairs in Prague.

According to Andreas Stylianou, a spokesman for the defense ministry, this agreement will form the basis of a series of cooperative activities, which include personnel exchange, joint personnel training, among other military training-related topics.

The Paphos police has arrested 2 individuals on DUI and narcotics possession charges.

Paphos police has revealed that they stopped a 23-year-old car driver earlier, and upon a search found him to have €1,170 case, along with a scale and 82 gms of cannabis. He has been put under house arrest for 3 days.

The police also stopped a 22-year-old scooter driver. He was later found to have been possessing 0.86 grams, and even tested positive on the police’s drug test.

The police stopped a third vehicle, driven by a man, 23, with 4 passengers. The driver was found with traces of cannabis, two hand-rolled cigarettes, and also tested positive on the narcotics test.

Further investigation by Paphos police is currently underway.

A three-year-old girl has died, hours after she was found unconscious in a hotel pool in Kato Paphos.

The infant, who was found by hotel staff, was with her parents and family members, who intended to stay in the hotel during the weekend.

The police’s preliminary investigation has revealed that while the child had asked her parents to go to the children’s pool, she was found floating in the adults’ one, implying she somehow went there instead.

The hotel staff called a lifeguard the moment they found the girl’s body floating in the pool, but he was unable to save her.

Exactly how she ended up in the adults’ pool is yet to be known. Further police investigation is currently underway.

The digitization process of the now-defunct Nicosia Airport is now complete.

The result of this development includes a “virtual walk” for the old airport, launched under a special scientific project.

The project itself, the product of the collaboration of Climate and Atmosphere Research Center, the Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center and the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus – was first announced in the summer of 2021.

The project’s core is an interdisciplinary 3D visualization and modeling technology developed specifically to create an interactive application for virtual tours. This is important as a real visit to the area has become increasingly unsafe courtesy abandonment and the absence of maintenance.

Cyprus’ Foreign Ministry has officially lodged a complaint to the United Nations, seeking the latter to look into the reports of the Greek Cypriot farmer being harassed by Turkish Cypriot soldiers as he was grazing cattle in the buffer zones between the two divisions.

Cyprus Mail says that the incident in question was reported by the farmer himself, who also stated that he was harassed despite having the license to graze sheep in the area.

Despite said license, the Turkish soldiers asked the farmer to vacate the area, and soon thereafter proceeded to chase him off of the area. One of these soldiers even pointed his armed weapon at him, while another went on to throw rocks at him.

The UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus has responded to the complaint, asking Greek Cyprus to stay calm as they are conducting their investigation into the matter.

A Ukrainian woman has been arrested by the police on grounds of threatening a group of Russians who were celebrating their National Flag Day.

The woman, 55, was wielding a knife when a group twenty Russians were in a gathering waving their flags in Larnaca. They were about to begin a car convoy that would go all the way through the city.

The police have arrested her on alleged charges of public intoxication, assault, possessing a weapon and disrupting a peaceful gathering.

The Ecologists Movement have informed Cyprus’ Department of Fisheries of a mishap that led to the death of a turtle.

The turtle in question died after it got stuck in the engine of the boat of a one of the small cruise lines that were operating in the region.

The line is operated by a tourism agency, which runs its boats around the areas where turtle live so the tourists can see them up close and feed them.

The police in Cyprus have arrested 5 people on alleged trafficking charges after their patrol boat intercepted both with another 32 people from a boat which sank near the southernmost section of the island nation.

The five men – all Syrian nationals between the ages of 46 to 53 are currently facing multiple charges, which include helping people enter illegally to gain financially, and endangering their lives by knowingly transporting them on an unsafe vehicle.

According to Christos Andreou, a spokesman for the Cyprus police, over 37 Syrian nationals, including 7 children, have been picked up from the sea.

All of the five men were arrested almost immediately upon arrival after multiple witnesses claimed them to be “in charge” of the transport.

The police later found one of those five men to have earlier been deported from the country, making him an illegal resident as well.

In the interest of public health and safety, the Cypriot government has brought back the mandate for residents to wear masks indoors.

The mandate, which makes it compulsory for all above the age of 12 to wear masks indoors, has come after a fresh surge of COVID-19 cases being recorded.

According to a statement from the government, the spike in infection follows a global one where people are largely infected with the BA.5 and BA.4 strains of the virus.

The Health Ministry numbers reveal that in a total population of 916,000, 147,623 were submitted between 25th June to 5th July. Out of these 19,503 samples were returned positive – a fairly high number.

These numbers exclude the 250,000 people who reside in the separated Turkish or Northern Cyprus, based on ethnic grounds.

While indoor mask wearing does not mean that people have to wear masks at home and when with family members (or others you may live with) in a vehicle, it applies to all other spaces with an indoor setting. Masks are also not compulsory for athletes, cooks when they are grilling, and those suffering from deformities or ailments that make it difficult for them to wear masks.

Those who violate the mandate – including individuals and businesses – will be awarded a fine of 300 euros on the spot.

The employees of Paphos Municipality went on a 2-hour-long strike in the morning hours on grounds of the management of violating labor agreements that should have been honored in 2021.

According to an announcement by the trade unions DEOK, SEK, and PEO, the Paphos Municipality failed to implement the filling in of 22 positions in labor, which it should have already wrapped up by the end of 2021.

According to the agreement, the management should not have taken any later than January 31, 2022 at the most.

Both the staff and the unions have also spoken out against the prolonged operating hours of the Traffic Department of Paphos Municipality as a hot topic.

In what appears to be an attack motivated by racism, the Cypriot Police have arrested a 30-year-old man for striking another man with a pipe over the head.

The victim, a 27-year-old man was seriously injured, and subsequently taken to the emergency department of the Limassol general hospital, but later got a discharge. over the head with a pipe.

The attack, which happened at the city center near Kitiou Kyprianou street, appears to be racially motivated.

The police have announced their arrest, declaring that the suspect has been taken in custody and will not be permitted bail, while the police is investigating the case. The charges being investigated at the moment include public intoxication, bodily harm, and of course racial discrimination.

A new group of immigrants have been spotted trying to cross over into Greek Cyprus.

The migrants were seen arriving in the village of Kato Pyrgos, who’s leader Nikos Kleanthous says that this is actually a frequent phenomenon.

In the latest instance, the group of migrants, which had a total number of 29 people including two children, came to the coastal village on foot in search for better opportunities.

Several locals spotted them walking in the village at around 2.30am.

The police are currently handling the situation. They have refused to give a statement, based on humanitarian grounds.

Unal Ustel, the Turkish Cypriot leader or self-proclaimed ‘prime minister’ of Northern Cyprus has revealed to Turkish Cypriot media that he has fired two people for using the wrong photo on their lottery tickets.

The mistake happened as the ticket, which was supposed to depict Turkish Cypriots, was in reality portraying an image of Greek Cypriot Eoka members celebrating after having captured an area previously occupied by the Turkish Cypriots.

The inclusion of this image led to a bitter political war in the media, and led to officials landing in hot water.

The two people being fired are Osman Uzun – who will now be replaced by Turgut Sunalp as the head of the lottery division; and Huseyin Cahitoglu – who will now be replaced by Berhan Ongan as the head of the sports division.

The lottery tickets, which were issued in memory of the battle of Tylliria, are now being recalled on a mass scale.

The fire that had broken out near the Mosfiloti village has been brought under control.

The forest department had earlier issued a warning about the same fire, claiming it had already burned through wooded land worth 4 hectares – mostly composed of wild olive and pine trees.

A total of 47 members of the forestry department battled the blaze with the help of 4 planes and 10 vehicles. Firefighting services, on the other hand, dispatched 4 fire trucks and 12 personnel.

Despite the fire being under control now, firefighters will continue to stay on site to make sure that flare ups don’t spread.

Investigations on what caused the fire is currently underway.

The Larnaca Criminal Court has released information that the 22-year-old man who has been charged with the rape of three tourists in the Ayia Napa area will appear in court on August 31.

The original hearing for this was meant to take place on July 14. However, the man ended up requesting legal aid, which led to the process of a defense counsel being appointed the following Monday.

That Monday was also the day the court received the report from the welfare office, before the date for the next hearing was set.

The man is currently facing charges in relation to having abducted and sexually assaulted three tourists. He was arrested after a citizens recognized him from a photograph and forwarded his details to the police.

The Cypriot Meteorological Department has issued a fresh Yellow Warning in anticipation of high temperatures prevailing in the island nation.

Temperatures in the week are expected to rise as high as 40C in the interior areas.

The warning shall remain in effect for around one and a half days, and might be extended if the situation continues to prevail.

A tourist from the UK was found dead in a swimming pool in a hotel in Cyprus.

The tourist, a 21-year-old man was found floating in the water in a prominent Paphos hotel at around 6pm.

The lifeguards, who initially spotted his body, hauled him out of the pool and tried their best to revive him – which included emergency CPR. They were, however, unsuccessful in their efforts.

The man was then rushed to Paphos General Hospital, where he was intubated, but still could not be revived.

He was then pronounced dead at around 9pm the same evening.

Cyprus Police arrested a man on grounds of public nuisance. The man, 24, was intoxicated and in state of near-undress, disturbing passers-by.

The man continued to behave offensively towards police officers when they approached to warn him about his conduct.

The police then arrested the man and took him into custody. They proceeded to charge him in writing and then released him, subject to being summoned at a later date.