Current Events

The Cyprus Institute (CyI) is all set to hold its 2^nd International Conference on Climate Change in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East on the 13^th and 14^th of October 13.

These dates come just before the 2021 edition of COP 26, the global climate to be held in Glasgow in November.

The Cyl conference will be held in the hybrid format, with some sessions held in person in Cyprus and being held online.

Participants in the conference will include regional government officials, policymakers, international scientists, and key decision-makers and experts.

They will be discussing various recommendations – based on which they will be prepare the Regional Climate Action Plan for the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (EMME).

The first edition of the CyI conference was held in 2018. It led to the government starting with the Eastern Mediterranean Middle East Climate Change Initiative, which coordinates the regional climate action in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

A woman who had been killed while walking along a highway has been identified.

The Cyprus Police revealed in a statement that the deceased woman was a 52-year-old Bulgarian national, who lived and worked in Cyprus.

The claim comes after the police’s public request to help identify the woman.

She was killed by a speeding car while she was walking along the highway to the airport from Larnaca via the Kalo Chorio roundabout.

The person driving the car was a 65-year-old man, who also suffered injuries and taken to Larnaca general hospital along with the woman.

The woman ultimately succumbed to her injuries. Meanwhile, the man was give a drug and an alcohol test, both of which came back negative.

The police confiscated his car and ultimately found that the woman was in fact walking in the middle of the highway when she was hit.

The woman had no living relatives on the island nation. A friend of the woman helped the police identify her body.

A study has revealed that despite being a relatively cheaper country to live in, Cyprus has costlier prices when it comes to furnishings, food and, communication.

The study conducted by Eurostat, which compared the prices of over ten categories of products in an interactive graph, showed the differences in prices between a country and both of its EU and non-EU counterparts.

The data for Cyprus showed that for most products, the price indices were lesser than the EU’s average. For instance, Cyprus’ footwear and clothing price level index (PLI) stood at 95.3 per cent, much lower than the EU’s average of 100. Hotel and restaurants were at a lower level at 87.3, compared to EU’s 100 average. Cultural and recreational activities stood at 91.3, compared to EU’s 100 average. Tobacco and alcohol was at 91.3 compared to EU’s 100 average. Cyprus also has a remarkably low price index for housing – 26.2 percent – much lesser than most EU countries.

Cyprus, however, did show higher PLI levels when it came to some categories. Food, for instance stood at a 106.9 PLI, high than EU’s 100 average. Similarly, communications were priced at 9.7 above the EU’s average PLI. Last but not the least, the PLI for furniture stood at 2.8% higher than the EU average.

Price level index is calculated by taking the present nominal exchange rate of a country and dividing it by its Purchasing power parities (PPPs).

The Cyprus News Agency has reported that the man will be standing trail for raping a woman.

The man, 24, will be standing trial at the criminal court in Paphos.

Until his court appearance, he will stay in police custody.

The man was arrested after his victim, a 24-year-old female had filed a complaint with law enforcement. She gave a statement on how a stranger dragged her and raped her against her will in the Ayios Antonios church’s courtyard.

She also gave the police a description of the man, which helped the police find and arrest him.

The Cyprus Police has arrested a criminal fugitive from South Africa.

The man, 57, who has been on the South African authorities’ wanted list for theft and fraud, was arrested in Larnaca.

Found in his home in Larnaca, the man is currently being detained at the police station’s holiding cell. He will soon be transferred to court where the proceedings for his extradition to South Africa shall begin.

The Cyprus police found the fugitive through information from the European Union & International Police Cooperation Directorate (EU and IPCD). These received the information from Interpol.

The island nation has elected its first ever female speaker.

Annita Demetriou, 35, a member of the ruling conservative Democratic Rally party shall be presiding over the parliament as speaker.

Backed by the far-right party ELAM, the Democratic Front, and of course, her own party, she will serve as the second highest in hierarchy – right after the president.

Trained formally as a political scientist, Demetriou has proven herself to be one of best politicians of her party.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the United Nations’ head of Peace Operations will be paying four-day-long visit to Cyprus.

The announcement was made at the UN Headquarters during their routine international briefing, where Secretary General Stéphane Dujarric communicated the news to the spectators and the public.

Lacroix main mission in Cyprus would be to oversee the UN Peacekeeping mission. To that end, he will be visiting the representative of the Greek and Turkish communities.

The peacekeeping mission was set up in the island nation due to its reunification issue.

Cyprus has been a divided island since 1974, after the Turkish military invaded the island’s northern half and seized the area.

In its bid to keep COVID-19 out from its shores, Cyprus has banned travelers with a recent history of visiting India.

The logic behind the step is to keep away and be safe from the B.1.617 variant – a new and deadlier variant of COVID-19 that originated in India and predominantly circulates there.

The rule, however, does not apply to those who are citizens and legal residents of the island nation.

Those belonging to this category need to undergo a PCR test and test negative for COVID-19 72 hours before arrival, and then get tested immediately upon arrival. Furthermore, they will have to stay in quarantine for 10 days, regardless of the result.

Aside from the original variant, the UK variant of COVID-19 currently predominated in Cyprus. The B.1.617 variant, however is slowly creeping in the population as well.

Over 40% of the country’s population has been administered the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Cyprus Police has arrested a 29-year-old man for unlawfully staying in Cyprus.

The man – an Indian national, was arrested from the Paphos airport after being flagged by immigration authorities for overstaying his visa permit period.

Upon further checking, it was found that the man was staying in the island nation as an EU citizen’s dependent. His permit, however, revealed that the limit of his stay passed in November 2020.

The man is currently detained at Polis Chrysochous police station, pending his immigration and deportation procedures.

The Cyrpus Police announced the fining of 9 persons after checking over 3,000 persons for violation of the Covid curfew.

The check, carried out on a series of 3 days, led to 9 people being fined in total – 5 on the first day, 3 on the second and 1 on the third.

The fine incident happened in Paphos and Famagusta. Meanwhile no violations were reported in Morphou.

The marine authorities also made over a hundred checks but did not report any violations.

The reasons for breaches were cited as not having a face mask, and not following the 1am curfew without a legitimate reason, along with other traffic violations.

In response to a forced passenger jet landing, the government of Cyprus has banned all incoming flights from the country of Belarus.

Cyprus has joined the long line of EU countries that has previously imposed the same restriction.

According to a statement by the Cypriot ministry of transport, the island nation has prohibited by law all incoming flights registered in Belarus from entering the Cypriot airspace. In return, all Cyprus registered flights will also not be entering the Belarusian airspace.

The issue that has sparked this outrage is the Belarusian authorizes forcefully getting a Ryanair plane landed, and having a dissident journalist who was on board the plane.

The only exemptions to the law are in case of medical or humanitarian emergencies.

The Cyprus Police recently arrested a middle-aged woman for illegally staying on the island nation.

According to a statement from the police, the arrest was made after the woman was discovered in a block of apartments in Paphos’s Tafoi Vasileon Avenue.

The woman, an asylum seeker had submitted a request for it in the first week of March 2019 – which was rejected in January 2021 after more than a year and a half.

The woman continued to stay in Cyprus after not appealing for a stay order within the 38-day stipulated period, and then seemed to have gone missing altogether.

The Criminal Investigative Department of Paphos police are investigating a case of attempted murder, which was sparked off from a an argument in a parking lot.

The argument began when a 43-year-old man visiting relatives in an apartment building in

According to the police, a man, 43, who had visited relatives at an apartment building in Chlorakas, began to argue with an asylum seeker, 39, over a space in the building’s parking lot.

After the argument, the 43-year-old went on to purposely drive his car towards the 39-year-old, hit him and then fled the scene. The younger man suffered fractures in his right leg.

Once the police obtained evidence, they arrested the 43-year-old man. He will be presented in court at a later date for sentencing.

An elderly woman was caught trying to take an exam while posing as her daughter.

The woman, 67, had showed up to take what would be her daughter’s state university entry exams using the ID papers belonging to her daughter, 25.

The arrest was made after the police received a complaint from someone at Larnaca High School regarding an older woman giving exams suspicious.

Weirdly, there was no record of anyone fitting the description of the daughter to have ever expressed interest in giving such exams, let alone showing up for them.

The 67-year-old woman has been charged in writing for the time being. She will be presented in court at a later date.

Turmoil, the marine fuel supplier company has hired a new bunker trader. The hired bunker trader is none other than Dmitry Gruzintsev, who joined the company on June 1st, 2020.

According to a statement by the company, Dmitry is clearly the best choice for the position, having extensive experience in the Russian Far East, the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. Within these, he has further experience in working with a wide variety of people, including trading companies, surveyors and physical suppliers.

The announcement comes after Termoil’s recent one where they had rehired Bjarke Staal as the company’s general manager.

The Cyprus Police is on the lookout for a 56-year-old woman, who has reportedly been missing since Saturday.

The woman, a Russian citizen, was last seen by passers-by on the day she was to leave the island nation.

She has been described as Ekaterina Romanova – a Russian woman – 1.75 meters tall and of average built. Witnesses placed her last holidaying in coastal region of Larnaca, wearing black top and white trousers.

A 39-year-old woman has died after a blood clotting incident, allegedly from complications arising after taking the COVID-19 vaccine.

The woman, a citizen of the UK, who was under treatment in the ICU section of the Nicosia General Hospital, had received the AstraZeneca jab’s first dose.

Her symptoms began days after this development. Eventually, she died of excessive blood clotting, which irreversibly impaired her bodily functions.

According to Charalambos Charilaou, a spokesman for the government health services, the incident is being taken very seriously, and will be further investigated by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Incidentally, the island nation is currently investigating 3 other – but more “mild” clotting incidents caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine, and 1 by the Pfizer vaccine.

The lockdown restrictions are being eased in view of the decrease in novel coronavirus cases.

For starters, the limits to gatherings have been increased to 20 – minors and permanent residents included. Furthermore, the maximum capacity in indoor public spaces (such as casinos, fairs, places of worship, performing arts centers and theaters) has been increased to 50% of the total capacity. Entrants are still required to carry their SafePass to access them.

Indoor dining in restaurants has been relaxed, subject to the individual venues’ health protocols, as has the group tutorials for kids below the age of 18.

All of the above only apply so long as the citizens have a negative COVID test that is less than 72-hours-old.

The overnight curfew from 00:00 to 5:00 AM shall remain in effect until further notice.

The European Environment Agency has declared Cyprus to have the cleanest swimming waters in all of the European Union.

According to a report by the environmental watchdog, the swimming waters of the island nation received the coveted 100% excellence score, defeating Austria, Greece, and Malta – which stood 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th respectively.

The European Environment Agency tested over 112 swimming spots all over the island between the dates of May 1^st to October 31^st, 2020.

The news is being regarded as a great one by Cypriot authorities, as they reckon it will help boost confidence amongst prospective holiday goers – after seeing more than a year of tourist rates plunging by over 85% percent since 2019. This is an alarming statistic for a country for tourism makes up for over 13% of the GDP.

According to a statement by Costas Kadis, the Environment Minister, the results shall be extremely beneficial, for the basic reason that tourism is directly impacted by the quality of bathing water – something that is particularly of interest after the rise of the coronavirus pandemic.

Amidst a spike in COVID-19 cases, the country is set to receive over 400,000 doses of the vaccine.

The batch to be delivered to the island nation will contain all the four vaccines that the EU has currently approved for emergency use.

According to the Cyprus News Agency, the doses will be very helpful in preventing further spread of the deadly disease.

According to the Cypriot Ministry of Health, the current situation vis-à-vis COVID-19 has been very disappointing as of late. The number of positive cases rose by over 10,000 in the second and third weeks of April – higher than anything the country has ever seen before.

Surprisingly, the number of younger people contracting the disease has increased – over 65 percent of the affected were between the ages of 20 and 59, whereas 23.2 percent consisted of children below the age of 19.