Current Events

On the occasion of Christmas, President Nicos Anastasiades went on social media and wish the public good health, just as the first batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine’s upcoming arrival on Boxing Day.

The President added that with the pending arrival of the vaccines, people should now be hopeful of things becoming “more tangible” in the coming days.

He went on call the vaccine the “the gift of humanity by the scientific community,” and stated that he will be getting the vaccine himself live on television in order to convince the public about the vaccine’s safety.

Proper inoculations will be starting on the 27^th, starting with elderly care home residents.

Cyprus currently has a total of 19,316 COVID-19 infections, with 107 deaths.

In the latest incident, a boat with over 21 migrants reached the shore of Cyprus.

This is the third boat full of migrants to arrive from Turkey in a single week.

According to the state radio, the police in Cyprus intercepted 21 migrants in the early hours of the morning. They were on a boat that was in all possibility transported by smugglers who travelled a total distance of around 70 kilometers.

Interestingly, the police did not find any trace of said smugglers.

The Cyprus police has arrested a Russian national, who has been suspected of fraudulent activities.

The man, 33, has long since been suspected by the Russian authorities for embezzlement and fraud.

The man was located from a tip by Interpol based on information by the Russian Federation. The police in Limassol placed him under arrest, subject to being shown before a judge for arraignment.

The man has allegedly conspired with several people, and defrauded many individuals of a total sum of 68 million Russian rubles.

The crimes seem to have been committed in Russia between the years of 2015 to 2018.

The Cyprus police found and seized 10 Kgs of cannabis and 0.5 Kgs of cocaine in Limassol.

Both varieties of narcotics were found in two separate incidents – one in the flat of a 20-year-old man, and the other with a 34-year-old man.

Both men were originally intercepted while driving in Limassol. The Narcotics police arrested them from their vehicles after they had received a trafficking-related tip-off.

In this case of the cannabis search, the 20-year-old consented his flat being searched. After being arrested for interrogation, the young man was remanded for 8 days at the district court in Limassol.

In the meantime, the 34-year-old cooperated with the police, and admitted to carrying 5 gms cocaine. He was released after being charged in writing.

Eric Schmidt, the former CEO, has his Cyprus citizenship application approved.

According to a report by Recode, as well as an October notice in the Cyprus publication Alithia, Eric Schmidt along with and his family have won the approval to become Cypriot citizens.

The report further added the repercussion of this move, one of them being that the new citizenship will allow Schmidt to move around several travel bans and go more freely within the European Union.

The Cyprus citizenship will also help him get some new tax benefits, given that he did apply via the “Citizenship by Investment” scheme. Unlike other methods, the investment scheme offers strategic tax breaks to foreigners who invest an amount of $2 to $3 million.

Schmidt served as the CEO of Google 2001 to 2011, and then stayed on as the executive chairman of both Google and Alphabet till 2018.

The much-awaited aeronautical military training exercise Medusa 2020 is all set to start on the 30^th of November, and is set to continue till the 6^th of December.

According to a statement by the defense ministry, the joint exercise will be conducted in 3 different phases. These will be dealing with marine formations, cyber warfare, search & rescue, and surface drills.

Held annually since 2017, the Medusa is conducted in honor of the trilateral cooperation between the countries of Egypt, Greece, and of course, Cyprus, Greece and Egypt.

In 2020, the level of cooperation will be further increased as the air forces of UAE and France will also be present.

The exercises shall be conducted in the Cairo FIR region.

The Cyprus Meteorological Service has issued a yellow weather warning in anticipation of intense thunderstorms, which are expected to stay for over a day.

According to them, isolated thunderstorms along with rain are expected, with the rainfall intensity to reach over 35 millimeters an hour.

They further added that for the Troodos Mountains’ peaks, snow can be expected.

Temperatures are set to go up to 9C in the mountains, 19C inland, and 21C at the coasts. During nighttime, they are set to drop to 2C in the mountains, 9C inland, and 11C at the coasts.

Further, albeit isolated – rain and thunder showers are expected till up to 2 days after the main thunderstorm.

In the latest incident, the island nation has canceled its mail service due to a worldwide air carrier shutdown.

With over 22 countries having fallen victim to the crisis, Cyprus has forcefully stopped its mail services to several countries, seeing as there are no carriers for pickups and deliveries.

The countries for which mail has been canceled include Finland , Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Argentina, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Norway, Hungary, Ukraine, Croatia, Belarus, Latvia, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Poland, Slovenia, as well as some other European Union countries.

That being said, the country still has the more expensive Quickpost international courier available for all countries.

The police are currently investigating a case of minors being forced into marriages.

The case involved the discovery of 2 minor girls being forcefully married to adults belonging to the same nationality.

The girls were initially brought into the country on false pretenses and then married to the adults. The police went on to remove their “husbands” as they made the arrests.

The “husbands” have been booked under violation of the Law N° 91(I) of 2014 on Preventing and Combating the Sexual Abuse and Sexual Exploitation of Children and Child Pornography.

A massive tornado hit Turkish Cyprus’ Girne (or Kyrenia) district, causing considerable damage to structures and particularly destroying the power grid.

The tornado caused roofs being ripped off of rooftops, trees being uprooted, and power lines being completely tangled and disturbed. Some people were also reported to be injured.

In particular, the areas of Lapta Hotels Region, Çatalköy, Karşıyaka and Ozanköy were badly affected.

The biggest damage of all, however, was that to the The Teknecik Power Plant – Turkish Cyprus’ largest electricity plant. A transformer got blown up due to the storm, which caused a widespread blackout in Girne and its nearby settlements.

A recent surge in COVID-19 cases has led to all of the island nation’s southwest being put under a 19-day lockdown period.

The lockdown entail a complete shutdown of all non-essential businesses, as well as non-essential people movement. This comes after the current set of restrictions failed to curb the surge in infection numbers.

According to Constantinos Ioannou, the Cypriot Health Minister, the lockdown was practically unavoidable given the circumstances, and after strategic consultations with the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, it was finally deemed as absolutely essential.

The alarming statistic that caused this development was the increase in infection rates in Paphos and Limassol by 70% and 28% of the national average in a period of six weeks.

In the meantime, the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients being treated shot up to around two-thirds.

As a part of the  lockdown, a curfew will be maintained between the hours of 8 p.m to 5 a.m. Movement to and from both the districts concerned will be banned bar emergency and essential goods and service-related trips. Religious services will conducted sans worshippers. Ever form of public gathering, schools, colleges, universities, malls, parlors, salons, gyms, pools, casinos, non-essential goods stores, will all be shut. Educational activities, private offices, and non-essential government office operations will all be conducted remotely. Like the three-month-long lockdown that happened this year, the aim of this one is to bring down the number of new novel coronavirus infections.

Cyprus is continuing to see its temperatures soar, even as the island nation is approaching winter season.

Said temperatures currently stand on an average of 36 degrees Celsius, which is over 10 degrees more than the season’ average.

And with Temperatures remaining steady at 40 degrees Celsius, October may turn out to be the hottest month for island nation.

It is currently only second to the 40.6°C record of 2^nd and 3rd October 1943.

The island nation has already recorded its hottest August and September, with 44.6°C and 46.2°C recorded respectively.

A spike in new novel coronavirus cases means that Cyprus will be rolling out a new set of restrictions to curb the spread of the disease.

The restrictions will be imposed on its most populous districts – Nicosia and Limassol.

Gatherings in both private and public areas will be limited to 10 persons, children included. Religious service attendance is to be restricted at 75 persons per gathering. Sports arenas are banned from having sectators.

Receptions for baptism and wedding is prohibited. Meanwhile attendance at theaters, cinemas, restaurants and bars is capped at 150 persons outdoors and 75 indoors. Any eating place can have a maximum of 10 persons per table.

In light of the recent controversies surrounding the ‘Golden Via’ passport, the Cypriot government has announced that it will suspend its scheme.

As the name suggests, “Golden Visa” allowed foreigners to gain a Cypriot passport if they could a make a substantial investment in the island nation.

According to Kyriakos Koushos, a spokesman for the government, the move has been made due to the scheme’s inherent weaknesses and exploitation by applicants.

As of November 1, 2020, the scheme will go on the fritz.

Discussions will be made to create a new scheme, which will be replacing the Golden Visa.

The move comes years after Cyprus being pressured to suspend the Golden Visa scheme, mainly on the basis that the situation makes something as sensitive as the Cypriot as ‘up for sale.’

The scheme was originally set up in 2013.

Cypriot interior minister Nicos Nouris has announced that the Sun City project will have to demolish 2 of its floors.

According to the town planning department’s notice, the illegal floors violate both the urban planning permit and the environmental impact assessment, and will therefore have to be taken down.

The Sun City project, which is located near the marina in the Ayia Thekla, has the Giovani Group involved. Their former head, the former Akel deputy Christakis Giovanis resigned from his post after an undercover Al Jazeera video caught him helping a Chinese businessman with a criminal record.

The five-star resort had originally received permission for a ground floor and basement, five stories and seven levels, along with 203 rooms. They have, however, managed to violate that adding another two floors during constructions.

This goes against the rules of the Sotira Municipality’s tourist zone T2a, which mandates hotels to keep their floors to a maximum of five levels.

A horrific car crash has claimed the life of three people.

The persons, all of whom are Zimbabwean students studying at the European University of Lefke in Cyprus passed away while on their way home from an outing.

The 3 students in question were identified as current students Dean Tafara Marufu and Elliot Simbarashe Kanofema, along with the recently graduated Electious Vhere.

They were killed in what was a head-on collision on the Guzelyurt-Nicosia highway.

The European University of Lefke later posted the tragic news on their website.

This latest incident has a man beaten and shot. The police are currently investigating a robbery incident during which this person was both assaulted and shot in Nicosia.

The man, a 28-year-old resident of Larnaca, was taken to the hospital immediately. There, he was diagnosed with a head injury, a broken nose and various abrasions.

The man was discharged after being given first aid.

In the course of investigations, he reported to the police that the attack, which happened in the evening hours, was done by persons who he could not identify. They went on to snatch his cellphone and car keys.

The attackers, one of whom was a woman, proceeded to flee in his car, as well as rental one.

A top astronomy event has been canceled due to a spike in the number of new coronavirus cases.

The event, which was due to be held at the Nicosia town hall, had a lot of preparations done, including arranging special facilities for those who are disabled.

The organizers of the event issued a statement, citing an increased number of COVID-19 cases. The cancellation was made in the interest of public health.

Cyprus has been facing a recent increase in the number of coronavirus cases, but that hasn’t stopped the island nation from slipping off their safety list.

It remains on the UK’s ‘Green List,’ meaning that those traveling to the UK from Cyprus have unrestricted access and do not need to isolate.

However, they are required to have celebrated the entirety of their previous 14 days in Cyprus, or at least on another country that is on the green list.

In case they have visited anywhere not on the green list, they will need to self-isolate for 14 days.

The only country removed so far from UK’s green list is Liechtenstein.

A team of archeologists in Northern Cyprus have excavated over 137 pieces of artifacts that are around 3,200.

It is estimated that the artifacts pertain to various works done during the latter part of the Bronze Age in all of the eastern Mediterranean region.

According to Bülent Kızılduman, chief of eastern Mediterranean Cultural Heritage Research Center (DAKMAR), the team of archaeologists were investigating commercial and political relations between the Cypriot and the Anatolian civilizations, and carrying out expeditions within the Karpas peninsula.

Known as “King’s Hill,” the site literally located on a hill in the Kaleburnu village, around 1.5 kilometers near the sea.

Kızılduman said that the site belongs to one of the then several important kingdoms that date back around 3,200 years. He went on to state how a significant number of bronze artifacts were found here.

The aim for the team is to preserve the artifacts in their DAKMAR conservation and restoration laboratory, to later exhibit those in a soon-to-be-opened museum.