Current Events

The organization, which has of recent been trying to find ways to make its services more effective and efficient, has found a way to incorporate modern technology into its practice. According to an statement made by Andreas Gregoriou, Director of the Department of Postal Services to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), the Cyprus Post is looking for a suitable way to utilize unmanned drones which can deliver parcels of up to 4kg to recipients.

Gregoriou added that the department is maintaining contact with the University of Cyprus KIOS Research Centre to come up with a suitable and practical plan. He went on to explain how the post was “at a very satisfactory level” as regards seeing the potential of utilize drone technology to make the Cyprus postal services more efficient in delivering correspondence – and especially parcels and small packages within time.

According to Gregoriou, the Cyprus Post should be in a position where it could utilize drones for delivery later in this year, pending Civil Aviation approvals.

A retired pensioner, who had been missing for close to two weeks has been found dead. Eleni Plakidi, 69, was discovered dead in the Akamas region after being missing from her home in Argaka since January 10.

According to reports, her body was found at a distance from where her car was previously found. Initial reports could not determine any concrete cause of death – a post mortem will soon be done to determine what really is the cause of the death.

Ms. Plakidi disappeared from her home on January 10. She had left home to buy something from a nearby kiosk and was not seen or heard from since. Police discovered her car near the local beach around a day after her disappearance.

Ms. Plakidi’s family, who were the ones to report her missing have stated that she was suffering from the effect of memory problems.

In what can be considered a very surprising move during the height of Brexit, a well-known British shipping company has registered an entire fleet of ships to Cyprus. P & O Ferries has registered its English Channel operating fleet in Cyprus after having two of its ships re-flagged.

Said ships, which were set to be named “Pride of Britain” and the “Pride of France” – operate between Dover, England and Calais, France.Other ships from the fleet which have been registered in Cyprus include the “European Seaway,” “Pride of Burgundy,” “Pride of Kent”, and “Pride of Canterbury”.

According to a statement made by a spokesman of the shipping company, the decision, which has been made in advance of the official Brexit in March 2019, has been made after thorough review of the flag status of all ships on the English Channel. After much consideration, the decision to re-flag all ships under Cyprus has been made.

He added the reason for choosing Cyprus over any other country – the island nation stands as a member of the “white list” of both the Paris and Tokyo “Memoranda of Understanding”, and will allow for more seamless maritime activity due to lesser ship inspections and other operational delays. The move will also allow the fleet to have a more benefiting tax system, since the ships will be flagged under a country that is a member of the European Union.

The 62-year-old man who was arrested on Sunday for shooting a dog dead has been released after being charged.

The man was arrested following a complaint from the owner of the dog, another 53-year-old from Paphos, who had seen the older man shooting both his dogs in his own front yard, one of whom was shot dead while the other injured.

According to the shooter, he did so in defense of the dogs earlier getting into his yard and killing his rabbits. He did try to throw water first to shoo them away but resorted to shooting them as when they became aggressive.

The Police are currently investigating the matter and looking into whether the owner of the dogs did in fact taken precautions to secure them. The man has claimed innocence, saying that the dogs must have run out when no one was looking and one of the gates was open.

The dead dog and rabbits were taken by the vet department while the injured dog was taken to a vet for treatment.

The vet department confirmed that the cause of death for the dog’s was gunshot wound caused by the hunting rifle. It also confirmed dog bite marks on the rabbits.

In a spree of traffic arrests made by the police, a 28-year-old man who was driving on a speed that was twice of the prescribed limit was stopped near Latsia.

The man was seen to have been driving on the Limassol Nicosia highway at a speed of 214km/hour, which is more than twice the speed limit.

A routine police operation ended his driving spree. Upon testing his blood, it was found that his alcohol intake was also over the set limit – while the first showed 45μg (twice more than the allowed 22), the second test failed to get any reading.

The man was arrested by the police and will be produced before court in the near future.

After the launch of casinos in Nicosia and Limassol, Larnaca sees the launch of its first casino.

The casino, which is launched by Cyprus Casinos (C2), is located at the Larnaca airport, features forty-two high-end slot machines that stand across in two separate spaces within the airport terminal. The first of these terminals is accessible exclusively to departing passengers, while the second is accessible to the general public.

Craig Ballantyne, C2’s Property President of City of Dreams Mediterranean showed his happiness regarding the expansion and went on to talk about the latest addition to the C2 portfolio. He stated that the latest casino will a unique entertainment experience to tourists as well as locals travelling within the island nation – something that has never been done before.

The launch was announced by Eleni Kaloyirou, CEO of Hermes Airports.

The casino, which will be open 24/7, will allow visitors of a minimum of 21 years of age, and will observe all of C2’s responsible gaming policies posted both online and at all locations.

C2 will open another 2 satellite casinos in Ayia Napa and Paphos. These will also be also known as Cyprus Casinos ‘C2’.

According to a study conducted by the national agency for demographic and family policy, the average age for marriage in the island country has shifted to 30 years old.

Statistics have revealed that men in Cyprus enter their first marriage at age of 31.2 years on an average whereas women do so at around 29.4 years. Said figures tend to be lower in the rural areas.

In 2017, 1,896 men within the age group of 30-34 entered marriage for the first time, while in 2018 249 men and 118 women got married, along with 36 women who had crossed 60 years of age.

The total number of marriages in a year have also decreased. In 2017 this figure stood at 13,062 from 13,558 in 2016. The downward trend is expected to continue in 2018.

2017 saw a grand total of 9,120 civil weddings, with 2,301 weddings being held in September, Cypriot’s month of choice for marriage ceremonies.

Other statistics, such as that of divorce, were also revealed. With every 1 in three marriages leading to divorce, divorce rates in Cyprus reached 307.7 per 1,000 marriages in 2017 – more than seven time from the very low rate 41.6 in 1980.

According to a survey, Cyprus has been found as the best and most popular winter destination for Britons in 2019, followed by Canary Islands Lanzarote and Tenerife.

The research, which was conducted by the UK Post Office’s Travel Money team, considered factors such as the cost of a one-week holiday package and the cost of dinner (including wine), as well as the average price of beer and coffee.

Within Cyprus, the city of Paphos proved to be the most popular destination, with trips costing around £381.98pp on an average.

The biggest reason contributing to Cyprus’ popularity is perhaps the fact that temperatures in the island nation are not too hot, and definitely much more pleasant than the brutal winter months of the UK. Not only is there an abundance of sunshine, the temperatures go up to around 16C.

Though not exactly the ideal weather to laze on the beach, it is quite suitable for people who like exploring and sightseeing.

Other popular destination on the list included Dubai, Phuket and Cancun.

An explosion on a product tanker off Cyprus’ southern coast had started a massive fire that has at least five crewmembers injured.

The explosion took place on Athlos, a 7,000 dwt product tanker that has left the port of Larnaca on a ballast voyage. The blast happened sometime during amidships and had 5 crew members going to the side. Two of these, both Indian nationals, sustained serious injuries in the shape of severe burns.

All the five were rescued by Cypriot responders, who ferried them to the shore to get treated. The two severely burnt were sent to hospital in Nicosia, while the remaining three, who only suffered minor burns, were given first aid.

Responders included the fire department, the health ministry, local harbor tugs, the JRCC Larnaca, and the Cypriot port and maritime police.

The cause of the explosion is yet to be known and is current being investigated by authorities. Meanwhile, the Athlos will remain in Cyprus pending a detailed examination.

In a move that will serve to bring in more economic revenue to Cyprus, the island nation has appointed its first ever tourism minister.

Savvas Perdios, former hotel executive is all set to be sworn in as the first ever deputy minister for tourism.

The move is part of its strategy to help develop the nation’s tourism sector, which is by far its biggest, and replace the Cyprus Tourism Organization (CTO), a 50-year-old organization which has so far singlehandedly overseen the tourism sector.

The CTO has been highly criticized for being “too slow” on account of its lack of legislative powers. The tourism ministry aims to correct this with better improvements and more power.

With the tourism sector going stronger by the day, it only makes sense to have an body that is dedicated to its development, and has more power than its predecessor.

There are a few commentators however, who doubt the potential of the ministry. The author of an editorial in the Cyprus Mail, for instance, has stated his lack of confidence, saying that the deputy ministry might not be turn out to be efficient in taking decisions and implementing policies after all, given the ever-changing conditions in the tourism market.

Such a line of criticism was also echoed in the local Financial Mirror, where it was stated the ministry might just end up seeing the same fate as the CTO, given the restrictive nature and anti-progressive “civil service” mentality of the government.

A 27-year-old pizza delivery man was physically assaulted in Limassol as he was delivering pizza.

The robbery took place at 7.30pm in Limassol’s Neapolis area as three men surrounded the delivery worker and stole €300 worth of restaurant takings from him. They also stole the pizza that was on his way to deliver.

The man, who has been traumatized by the event, could not identify the perpetrators as they had their faces covered.

Cyprus Police is currently on the hunt for said perpetrators.

An eye-opening statistic on the earning trends in Cyprus has revealed that the average Cypriot employee earns 1,827 euros every month.

According to provisional statistics put forward by the Cyprus Statistical Service (Cystat), the figure has increased by over 3.1 percent from last year’s 1,772 euros.

According to Cystat, the data used to calculate the statistic comes from transactions made in the third quarter of the year. Given that payments at this time includes payments made to employees of Cyprus Cooperative Bank at its closure, the increase is more than the expectation.

Cystat further revealed that average monthly earnings with seasonal adjustment for the third quarter of 2018 stood at 1,950 euros, an increase of over 1.6 percent over the second quarters average of 1,920 euros.

Also revealed was the gender-wise breakdown of average monthly earnings – while the average earned by male employees for the third quarter of 2018 was 1,960 euros, that of female employees was considerably less at 1,666 euros. Compared to last year, there has been an increase of 2.8 percent and 3.3 percent respectively.

Cyprus has always been a well-known and popular tourist spot, and in the last two years has managed to secure a record number of tourist visits.

The island nation is yet again on its way to break records as official figures have revealed that the number of tourists coming to it has surpassed a whopping 3.8 million – something that has never happened before.

According to a statement from the Cyprus Tourism Organization, the number of tourist arrivals in November had gone up to 160,000 – more than 10 percent from what it was the same time last year. Overall, arrivals went up by over 7.8 percent on an average.

Tourism is one of Cyprus’s biggest source of economic revenue, most of which comes from Britain – it’s former colonial power.

Surprisingly, there was notable increase in tourists from Ireland – an increase of over 180 percent.

Kathleen Doherty, the US ambassador in Cyprus, has visited the ExxonMobil drilling site in Cyprus’s EEZ. The high-ranking diplomat was flown to the area by helicopter along with Cypriot ministers of energy and foreign affairs, Giorgos Lakkotrypis and Nikos Christodoulides respectively. Also present in the helicopter was Exxon vice president Tristan Asprey.

In the meantime, in a four-day visit to Greece, Elizabeth Neumann, the US Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for threat prevention and security policy, said that her talks would work as “important basis” for the upcoming US-Greece Strategic Dialogue.

According to the US Embassy in Athens, Greece, Neumann visited Greece in context of the Greece-US counterterrorism and law enforcement cooperation, along with seeing to the preparations for the first US-Greece Strategic Dialogue.

The refugees, who included over 75 people from Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Ethiopia, had previously abruptly landed in Cyprus after the boat they were traveling to (with Italy as their intended destination) capsized in 1998. While these individuals were recognized as refugees, they were barred from entering Britain by the then interior minister Theresa May on grounds of them pursuing a legal challenge.

They have since been living on the Dhekelia base – a British sovereign territory.

In a speech made by a spokesman of the British interior ministry, it was announced that the UK government had decided to end the long-standing legal issue of settlement of the refugees in question, and courtesy their very unusual circumstances will allow them to leave Dhekelia and settle down in the UK.

They also have the option of claiming asylum in Cyprus, but none have opted for the same claiming the feeble of finding both work and permanent residency there.

The refugees, who have been living within the boundaries of the seven-square-kilometer (three-square-mile) outpost, have been there for over 20 years, with some refugees even marrying and having children of their own.

In a bid to join the global battle against plastic use and subsequent pollution, a TV slot for ‘Cyprus says no to plastic straws’ has been launched. Said slot featured ‘Salina the flamingo,’ who symbolizes the animals whose existence has been threatened by the use of plastic drinking straws. The students of Ayios Spiridonas, a special school in Larnaca have made their aim to save these animals. Officially presented at a press conference in September, the initiative is being headlines by the special school.

The initiative students as groups of volunteers from the school replacing all plastic straws with reusable and/or biodegradable straws – all of which will be given students in schools all over Cyprus.

The initiative plans to have all pupils of all schools across the island nation take a reusable straw each home, before seeing a presentation on why plastic straws must be boycotted.

The increasing level of cooperation between Cyprus and the United States has several countries in doubt, Russia being one of them. The country’s capital recently warned Nicosia, saying that the increasing military cooperation between the island nation and the US to keep away from Russian influence might just backfire and end up with destabilizing consequences for itself.

According to a speech by Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, that the American military buildup might just force Moscow to take response measures. She added that her comments were based on special information that DC is planning to make a dominating military presence on the island nation,

Said comment came only two days before Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s a visit to Moscow, and 2 weeks before the United States-backed Greece-Israel-Cyprus trilateral summit.

Increasing military relations between Cyprus and the US have been going on for a while no, with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades’ declared expectation to have the US express its interest in taking part in said trilateral summit.

Ms. Zakharova also said that the US wants all but to stay hidden – they want to counter the growing Russian influence under the guise of cooperation – in response to the Russian military’s recent successful operations in Syria.

In response to the warning, Nicos Christodoulides, Cyprus Foreign Minister contacted Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister to keep tensions at bay. Prodromos Prodromou, spokesman for the Cypriot government even went on to claim that “militarizing Cyprus” has never been – and will continue to not be their intention.

According to the Turkish Cypriot media, the floods happened due to uninterrupted rain that went on for days. Some resident even went on to claim it as the heaviest they had seen in years.

At least 4 lives were claimed by an accident caused the rains. Said accident occurred when a car carrying 4 people got swept away during the heavy rains.

While Cyprus is known to see some flash flooding every year – even from isolated downpours, sustained floods are rare, if they ever occur.

The bad weather led to the met office issuing a severe 24-hour weather alert warning.

Resident were shocked by the developments, with one claiming how astonishing it was to see the sky go from sunshine to freezing cold with thunder within minutes. Within hours, people began sewing sandbags to keep water from seeping through window seals and under doors.

Social media was abound with images, which showed several scenes, from cars being swept into the sea to vehicles submerged in flood water and water flowing through homes.

The rains caused rivers to burst their banks, which caused damage to people and property in Nicosia and forcefully led to the part-closure of the motorway that linked Kyrenia, a historic harbor city to the northern coast. Schools, offices and even several public buildings were shut down.

The previously American-wide tradition-gone-global, which first came to significance in Cyprus around three years ago, was seen being observed with great pomp in the island nation.

Black Friday refers to the day after Thanksgiving and since 1952 has been known to mark the first day of USA’s shopping season.

The holiday is known for goods being sold at hefty discounts, enticing buyers to wait in lines at store entrances before embarking on a wild shopping spree. While these are mostly done in good spirit, some “fights” have been known to go to an intense level, causing violent incidents. The US alone is said to have faced 10 casualties and 111 injuries caused due to violent incidents on Black Friday sales.

That said, the situation in Cyprus is visibly calmer, partially due to the lower population and partially since discounts on goods on the island nation don’t go to as high as they do in shops in America. Leading online flyer-making and aggregating portal Portofolakis has revealed that Black Friday discount levels in Cyprus have increased alongside the numbers of participating stores from last year’s 20% to around 30-40%, this year. According to Antonis Papadopoulos, Portofolakis’ Marketing Manager, Black Friday is very much a growing tradition in Cyprus, given the entry of “standard players” like Public and Stephanis, along with newer entries from verticals like air travel. The discount shopping section is also on a rise, given the 180 offers and counting on the site’s Black Friday list this year.

Apart from Black Friday, Cyber Monday is also gaining momentum. Cyber Monday refers to the first Monday after Black Friday, where discounts are offered online.

Nicos Anastasiades, the President of Cyprus has publicly apologized for the pardon and subsequent early release of a man, who was previously convicted on grounds of sexually exploiting a minor.

Speaking at an event on fighting sexual abuse against minors, the Cypriot President went off-script and admitted that the decision was indeed hushed and not thought out as properly as it should have been. He added that the error was caused by his belief that sex offenders who were convicted of abused minors above the age of 13 could be released before their due along with other eligible convicts in line with a custom to grant pardons on a new president’s election.

The President was clearly unhappy with the state of affairs and voiced his feelings by saying that corrective steps had been undertaken to make sure that no future president will ever make the same mistake.

The sex offender, who was released six months before his scheduled release after a three-year sentence caused widespread public scorn.