Current Events

Two women were arrested in Paphos for staying on the island illegally, in addition to forging documents as well as circulating forged ones.

The police revealed in a statement that the immigration police, while carrying out a search in a Coral Bay hotel found two women from Georgia staying illegally.

The women, aged 49 and 41, were working as cleaning staff when they were arrested.

Upon being questioned, their employer told the police that said that they were from Latvia when they were being hired, and that they had ID cards while they were identifying themselves. He admitted to having no clue that said IDs were actually fake.

Meanwhile, the ladies, when questioned, admitted that the forged documents they were using were bought overseas for €100 each.

A man and a pregnant woman – both Congo nationals were arrested at Larnaca airport after they were caught trying to travel to Munich with false IDs and passports.

While the man was remanded for 4 days post-court appearance, the woman was released and places in a hotel.

The police said in a statement that the couple was trying to fly out from the Larnaca airport when they were caught. While the man was holding a 19-year-old French national’s ID card and passport, while the woman was holding 35-year-old French national’s document.

They were intercepted by passport control officers once they determined that the people in fact did not look anything like the photos on their documents, and thus came to the conclusion that the pair arrived in Cyprus on an illegal basis in the first place.

The island nation’s authorities have arrested and charged over two dozen individuals for living and working in Cyprus illegally.

The arrests were made in the aftermath of a raid conducted at a construction site in the city of Larnaca. Where the police arrested 25 nationals from outside the European Union for working on the island nation sans permit. Upon being charged, they were released pending their court appearance.

Additionally, the police fined four employers for illegal employment.

The European Commission is seeking clarification from Cypriot authorities regarding the granting of citizenship to 26 individuals under its newly minted investor scheme.

While there were no spokesmen available from the Cyprus government, the European Commission did send a to Nicosia asking if it would be investigating what could a possible misconduct when it comes to granting people with “high-risk” profiles citizenship only on the basis of investment. A deadline for January 6, 2020 has been reportedly set for a response.

In addition to Cyprus, the European Commission has additionally asked Malta to clarify on how it would be addresses the shortcomings of the Bank of Valletta over its lack of monitoring of foreigner who have allegedly taken undue advantage of the Maltese “golden passport” citizenship scheme.

The police rushed to an Engomi nightclub after being alerted of a victim’s relative of an attempted murder being present at the nightclub.

According to a statement by the police, officers reached the night club upon being alerted another 30 people besides the relative was present. Meanwhile the relative himself was accompanied by a second person.

The officers went to the nightclub with the intention to preventing another potential incident. Given that, they conducted checks on all people, including the relative and the individual and gave them permission to leave once the checks were carried out.

2 men are currently in custody in connection with said attempted murder after an altercation with the victim and his brother – which took place at the Engomi club.

The Larnaca district court has remanded a 30-year-old man who was arrested in for conducting multiple burglaries in the Larnaca and Nicosia region.

The man is one out of two suspects who were arrested after the police found that the jewelry in their possession was in fact not theirs.

The men, aged 33 and 33, were caught whilst attempting to sell jewelry for cash in a Larnaca gold shop by Nicosia police officers who were en route to investigate a jewelry theft case. When asked as to how they could have come in possession of the jewelry, the men failed to give a suitable explanation – putting them on the police’s radar.

Other objects found with the remanded 30-year-old included some clothes, a knife, and three credit cards that were found to have been reported as stolen in Nicosia.

Upon questioning, the man ultimately allegedly admitted to carrying out one burglary in Nicosia and ten in Larnaca.

A surprisingly concerning statistic has revealed that children in Cyprus fall below the average line when it comes to math, science and reading.

According to a report that was published by the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) after studying scores by comparing those of 2018 with those of 2015, the organization found that children in 2018 have scored quite a bit worse that what they did in 2015.

When it comes to reading, scores on an average have gone down from 442 in 2015 to a 424 average as of 2018 – which is quite the downward trend.

As far as science as math is concerned, these have shown an improvement – with scores for science having improved from 433 in 2015 to 439 in 2018; and that of math having gone up from 437 in 2015 to 451 in 2018 – all of the scores still fall well below the average of the 79 nations that were part of the study.

On the top of the list were Eastern Asian countries, especially China, followed by Singapore (which had previously topped the chart in 2015), both of which outperformed almost every other country. The top performer in Europe was a title bagged by Estonia.

Pisa is an international survey that triennially evaluates education systems all over the world via testing 15-year-old children’s knowledge and skills.

The Cyprus Refugee Council will be organizing the first ever careers fair meant exclusively for refugees, International Protection candidates and asylum-seekers.

Known as the ‘Refugees@Work Career Fair,’ the event, which will bring employers and the aforementioned category of jobseekers under the same roof, will be held at the Nicosia Multipurpose Centre. As of now, there are at least twenty-five companies and organizations from all over the island nation working as registered participants.

According to a statement on the website of the Cyprus Refugee council, one of the best ways to increase productivity of Cyprus while benefitting people at large would be to employ refugees and asylum seekers. Not only would it help them become economically independent, it would also help with the current workload that the island is currently facing and utilize the domestic human resource that is available at hand.

The event will be held in conjunction with Nicosia Municipality and the UNHCR in Cyprus.

Well-known Burger King will now operate in Turkish Cyprus under its own name in an official capacity, marking the end of the years-long blockade posed by its Greek counterparts.

Whilst Burger King has been operating there for as long as 20 years, it has been doing so under wraps and using the name “Burger City” to combat the pressure that the Greek Cypriot administration had created.

After several key negotiations, however, it is now decided that Burger King will now operate under its original and official banner – starting with a brand-new branch that it opened along the Nicosia-Kyrenia highway.

Reports are saying that with time, all of the restaurants that are operating under the name ‘Burger City’ will be changing to the entire official branding template of Burger King.

The Cypriot president has said that the island nation’s authorities is all set to launch legal action against Turkey at the Hague’s International Court of Justice.

In a statement to the press, President Nicos Anastasiades explained how the Cypriot government has its full intentions to utilize every legal mean that it possibly can in order to defend the rights of Cyprus and its ethnic situation. He further added that Turkey has been given a notification of said legal actions via the Turkish embassy in Athens.

Turkey has acted as a great disdain to Cyprus by not recognizing the country as a state and using that as a “reason” to drilling in waters where of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone since July 2019. Thus far, it has claimed over half of said exclusive economic zone, which it claims is being done in the interest of “defending the rights of the Turkish on the island.”

Compounding the Cyprus issue of separation and reunification is the fact that Cyprus has now approached the UN Security Council to help reach an agreement on the issue of Varosha.

The Security Council will begin planning of the discussion of the threat of Turkey to settle in the fenced town of Varosha in Famagusta. This was done after Andreas Mavroyiannis, the Permanent Representative of Cyprus to the UN sent an official request to the international organization. Once the discussion will be conducted during a closed session, the date of the official discussion shall be finalized.

Once the official discussion is done, a presidential statement will be issued to reaffirm the relevant resolutions on the matter.

In addition to the official request, Mavroyiannis will be sending letters to the General Assembly President as well as the Security Council President detailing how the Turkish are threatening to make Varosha their personal settlement. Said letters will be circulating as official documents of the UN.

3 honey-producers from the country have won huge accolades at the London Honey Awards in 2019.

Winner include – Ayii Anargyri’s Thyme Blossom Honey, which won the Gold Honey Award, and Mount Machairas and Thries Honey, which each won the Silver Award.

Ayii Anargyri was founded in 1975, and besides the Thyme Blossom Honey, produces the Orange as well as the Mountain Blossom Honey. Meanwhile, Silver award winners Mount Machairas, which was founded in 1983, additionally produces pure pollen and genuine Cypriot royal jelly. Thries Honey, on the other hand was founded in 2012 as a small family business and was named after the 3 Thries Nymphs who were known for their love for honey.

The London Honey Awards included participants from over 150 different companies from all over Europe – many from Greece and Italy. The “blind” method of tasting product samples to judge its taste, features and quality were used by judges.

The migrant crisis has been going on a head-to-head level, and circumstances do prove that there is very little to alleviate it.

According to the Cyprus News Agency, 12 irregular migrants have been picked up wandering around in Peristerona early in the morning. The migrants – consisting of 10 grown men and 2 youths, all male and of Syrian nationality were transferred to the Kokkinotrimithia temporary accommodation centre.

According to a statement from authorities, it has been a struggle to cope with the surging increase in asylum seekers, which in comparison to population size is literally the highest in all of the European Union.

According to Interior Minister Constantinos Petrides, the percentage of applications for asylum seeking has increased by over 130% in 2019 from what already was a higher number in 2018.

Michael Higgins, the President of Ireland will be visiting Cyprus in in response to an invitation from Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades.

The first such visit in Cyprus by Irish president since 2006 following President Anastasiades’ official Ireland visit in 2016. Said visit will include the discussion of the issue of the violation of the island country’s Exclusive Economic Zone by Turkey, along with others like Brexit and the bilateral relations between Cyprus and Ireland.

Additionally, President Higgins will be shown the buffer zone. He will also visit the Irish civilian police currently serving with Unficyp and will be addressing the House.

According to a statement issued by Ireland, the visit is a great opportunity to renew the bilateral relationship between Ireland and Cyprus and will publicly recognize Ireland’s contribution to the Unficyp.

In the case of a tragic accident, three people were killed and two were injured in a massive traffic collision on Turkish Cyprus’ Strongilos-Marathovounos road.

According to a statement from the Turkish Cypriot media, the accident involved a direct collision between two cars during the evening. One of these cars were carrying a family of four, while the other had only one driver.

Among the family of four, both parents – aged 42 and 40 were killed as their children aged 18 and 13 were critically injured. The second car’s driver, 30, was also injured.

4 people were arrested in Larnaca for trying to orchestrate a false marriage.

The four people in question include a 23-Year-Old woman and three men of ages 22, 23 and 41. They were arrested early morning right outside the municipality of Larnaca.

According to the police, the 23-year-old woman had arrived in Cyprus for the sole purpose of marrying one of the three men – a Cyprus citizen – and was to offer payment in exchange for her ‘service.’

All of the four were arrested and are currently due to appear in court in order to be remanded.

A team of four doctors – heart specialists from Israel arrived at the Cypriot hospital with the technology to save a woman in medical distress.

The patient in question was a 29-year-old woman resident of Nicosia who was suffering from childbirth-induced cardiac issues. With the lack of time and the appropriate technology to save her life, the doctors went on to issue a call for emergency that was later answered by doctors at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel.

The Israeli doctor gave the woman an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine, who’s function is to oxygenate the blood of a patient outside their body and allow their lungs and heart to get rest.

Once the Israeli doctors stabilized the woman, they transported her back to the Leviev Heart Center the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, which is where she is currently recovering.

Christopher Pincher, the Minister for Europe and the Americas has arrived in order to meet with the Foreign Minister and the President of Cyprus.

Aside from meeting President Nicos Anastasiades, the Minister will be discussing Brexit will be welcoming the latter Government’s offer that will be guaranteeing UK nationals’ rights to live in Cyprus.

Besides the President, Mr. Pincher will also meet Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides as well as Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci. He will further visit British Sovereign Base Areas and visit the members of the British military who were serving in Cyprus.

Mr. Pincher had nothing but great words for the Cypriot community and emphasized on the relationship between the two island nations, and how they will continue to grow in spite of Brexit.

The Cyprus Cannabis Association has been established with the blessings of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, popularly known as Keve.

The first ever meeting of the newly minted organization was held at the Chamber’s offices, where the main aims were discussed. These were – representing the interested organizations and stakeholders which will benefit from the cannabis industry, representing said industry at every government level to for education, research and promotion of its growth; and the creation of an economically practical and sound and prosperous cannabis industry on the island nation.

Founding Members of the Association include Harneys Law firm, Remedica Ltd, Quality Group, Deloitte Ltd, Alexander College Education Ltd, Constantinos Hadjiandreou, Logera Consulting Ltd, Olivier Sigolet, Magda Kozikowska, Athos HQ Group Business Services (Cyprus) Ltd, and KPL Biomedical Labs. Key officials of the Association include Andria Andreou (the President),  Konstantinos Hadjiandreou (the Vice President), Magda Kozikowska (the Secretary), and Kyriakos Lambrou (the Treasurer).

A British Airways airplane that had taken off from Larnaca in Cyprus made an emergency landing in Athens in Greece due to smoke being detected in its cabin.

The media in Greece has reported that the flight, that was originally intended to land in London in the UK instead ending up making an emergency landing at Eleftherios Venizelos airport in the country at around 7pm in the evening once smoke was detected in its cabin when the airplane was over Lemnos island.

The plane, specifically Flight BA2673 had 152 passengers and 6 crew members was in fact bound for Gatwick Airport.

Once the airplane made its emergency landing, the passengers were taken off of it as the technical servicemen checked it to find where the problem originated. The true cause of the problem is yet to be identified.