Current Events

Cyprus’ House of Representatives has approved a bill that was sent in by the country’s Education Ministry.

The bill in question was about introducing stricter provisions about operating and establishing foreign university branches on the island nation.

While establishing the branches themselves is allowed as of 2015, but the law that the bill shall enunciate how the branches will be established and run.

Peter Andre, most famous for his song, The ‘Mysterious Girl’ has said that he would like to retire on the island nation of Cyprus.

While the artist was born and raised in the UK, he is of Greek-Cypriot origin (both his parents are Cypriots) and even owns a house in Cyprus.

Andre says that he has taken quite a liking to Cyprus and might sell his UK house to spend his later years on the island nation.

His column in the OK! Magazine spoke about his house in Cyprus, and he could either move there if his family was alright with it, or use it as a suitable retirement destination.

Fow now, he is spending Christmas with his family the traditional way, but is also looking to visit Australia to see his mother, Thea. She suffers from Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s disease.

He plans to see both his parents and is traveling with his brother, Michael to spent time with their parents and their sister.

The remains of eleven different individuals, who went missing during 1963-64 and in 1974 have been successfully identified.

A dual communal organization dedicated to finding out what happened to Greek as well as Turkish Cypriots who went missing during these time periods when the island nation went through turbulent times.

The Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus’s representative Leonidas Pantelides presented the data pertaining to this matter – further clarifying that in that case all eleven were Greek Cypriots.

7 of these were found on the missing people’s lists, whereas 4 others are assumed to be fallen soldiers.

In 2024, the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) in Cyprus conducted diggings at one-hundred-and-two different locations.

The remains were found in the unexplored areas of Lapithos, Trachoni, Aroa, Bellapais and Karavas – this includes both military and civilian areas.

The CMP has so far identified one-thousand-and-fifty-one individuals out of over two thousand who had gone missing during the aforementioned periods.

Two-hundred-and-sixteen of these are not listed in an official capacity. Investigation for the remainder is currently underway at varying levels of success.

In 2024, Cyprus participated in the World Travel Market.

The international event, held in London had fifty-five exhibitors – and the island nation was one of them.

Held over a period of three days, the event is attended by scores of owners and operations within the global tourism industry worldwide, so as to find room for collaboration and for opportunities, with the prime focus being the successful promotion of all countries’ products.

The Cypriot delegation to the event includes Cypriot tourist organizations, tourism companies, hotels, and member of Cyprus’ nation and state tourism boards.

The event shall be headlined by Costas Koumis, the Deputy Minister of Tourism, who shall meet with the UK’s best tourism companies and air carriers, along with those from other countries.

Mr. Koumis shall also attend the Ministerial Summit, which will discuss the relationship between evolving AI technology and tourism development.

Nikos Christodoulides, the president of Cyprus has congratulated US President-Elect Donald Trump on his triumph in the elections, while also speaking about his wish to fortify the bilateral relations between them.

On social media platform X (formerly, Twitter), Christodoulides mentioned how he is looking forward to working with the US under the upcoming administration to expand their partnership, and to advance trans-Atlantic interests at large.

The congratulations come right after the Cypriot President’s meeting with US counterpart the current President Joe Biden, where topics of discussion included opportunities for investments, cooperating on energy matters, making and strengthening partnerships in the security and defense spaces, Cyprus being potentially included in the Visa Waiver Program, and of course the reunification issue.

Cyprus has joined ninety-four other countries, while its Pharmaceutical Services has joined 107 other partner companies – to participate in the 9th Med Safety Week worldwide campaign.

This week-long campaign will focus on using medicines properly and reporting any adverse incidents related to them.

People are being encouraged to promote the campaign through the hashtag #MedSafetyWeek, and reposting social media posts by Pharmaceutical Services.

The public are being made aware of authorities’ pharmacovigilance activities, that put in place systems for tracking the safe use of medicines and reporting any misuse of the same.

A great benefit of this system is that it allows authorities to understand more about possible side effects & safety matters, to better help shape the types of warnings that can be put on a medicine.

All patients, care givers, and of course health care professionals can report unexpected reactions via the Yellow Card reporting system, available to all in Cyprus.

These reports are thoroughly reviews and evaluated, so that suitable measures can be made the right course of action can be taken in time.

Cyprus has publicly criticized the DPRK launching their intercontinental ballistic missile.

The foreign ministry expressed their views on social media platform X (formerly, Twitter), stating that they are calling on the DPRK to fulfill their obligations according to the UNSC guidelines.

They quoted a statement given by Josep Borrell, a High Representative for the European Union. He had recently criticized the DPRK himself.

Borrell said how the launch, which had no legal basis, showed how the DPRK is continuing to deliver WMDs and violating several UNSC resolutions.

A teenage student took thousands worth of cash to his school, and triggered a police investigation.

The teenager had over 15,000 Euros, some of which was distributed to his class fellows.

Alpha News said that the student presented €3,500 to one classmate, who intended to use the money. He presented €500 to another classmate, and lesser amounts to yet others.

The parents of one of the other students reported the matter to the Strovolos police station, the area’s local law enforcement.

The school got in touch with the children’s parents and asked them to give the money back.

The parent’s complaint further alleged that a teacher was also among the recipients, having accepted 50 Euros.

The matter is currently under investigation by the Ministry of Education as well as the Police.

The island nation of Cyprus was hit by a huge storm that caused widespread disruption to life and work.

The storm, which hit Paphos by around 5:30 PM in the evening, brought with it hail, rain and strong wind forces, causing major damage in the area.

The storm caused a lot of littering, with the streets filled with hail and the remains of several trees.

Because of this, many vehicles were forced to stop in the midst of the road.

The storm also caused damage to property as many streets were completely flooded.

The storm also affected Limassol – as the strong winds uprooted trees and caused the fire department to work on overdrive.

Cyprus’ Meteorological Department has issued a yellow warning due to the ongoing strong winds.

Details of the warning reveal that Cyprus will face strong winds of over 7-8 on the Beaufort scale in the coastal areas and 6-7 everywhere else on the island.

Another yellow warning was issued for incoming storms, which has since been withdrawn.

Expected situations include clouds, some localized showers, a potential temperature drop inland, and some snowfall in the mountainous areas.

Larger quantities of snow and rains are expected to continue through the night and well into the coming week. The temperature is then expected to rise but shall still remain at lesser-than-average levels.

To maintain safety, the Cypriot Civil Defense services have asked people to remove any and all objects that the winds could blow away, including holiday season decorations.

A joint study has revealed the shocking statistic of nearly half of all Cypriot women being victims of violence.

The study, done by the collaborative efforts of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and Eurostat, revealed that this distressing average stands higher than those of other EU countries.

According to the study, roughly 44.5 percent of women in Cyprus are victims of partner-initiated sexual, psychological and/or physical violence.

This is far higher than the European Union 31.8 percent average.

Cyprus also scored higher on being sexually harassed in the workplace, with over 39.9 percent having reported being victims, as opposed to the 30.8 percent EU average.

The Cyprus Police has announced that they have arrested over eighty people as a part of their raids.

The police made said as a part of a Cyprus-wide joint operation, with various police divisions and the Aliens and Immigration Service as major participants.

The authorities have deported one-hundred-and-forty-six people, who were living illegally (i.e. did not have any permits). They were all deported to their country of origin – and 5 of them were transported via a FRONTEX-coordinated return flight, with the Belgian government, Coast Guard Agency and European Border as organizers.

This is the fourteenth FRONTEX operation that has the island nation’s police force as a participant.

The Larnaca Police has arrested a man for assaulting a sailor from a ship temporarily stationed on the island nation.

The arrest came after the sailor lodged a complaint with the police, claiming that a man waved his pistol, shouted at him, shoved said pistol in a bag and went forward to attack him.

The sailor hit back and ran, only to be followed by another 3 individuals who started throwing stones at him. He did manage to run away to safety on his boat.

The doctor on board who examined him found that he had sustained various head injuries.

The police’s investigation led them to finding the man with the pistol who initially attacked them. They then arrested him on the basis of a court-issued warrant.

The man, aged 47 has been charged for multiple offenses – including possessing explosives without any license, possessing and transporting a firearm illegally and physical assault.

A bomb exploded while it was in a car.

The car was being driven by an elderly man with no passengers in the early morning before it suddenly exploded.

The explosion happened at around 3 AM in the morning, and alarmed locals living in Limassol’s Agios Athanasios.

Police arrived on the scene soon after, sealed the crime scene and had the Fire Department assist them.

The Limassol CID is investigating the case, which is still in its preliminary press.

No information has been revealed thus far, but the Police has promised to release updates as soon as they have solid materials.

In the meantime, they are expecting statements from the old man’s family members.

The man, aged 78, died on the spot. Some of his remains have been recovered.

The Cyprus Police has arrested a man for trafficking illegal narcotics.

The man, aged 27, was trying to get into the country via Larnaca Airport with several bags of such drugs.

The Police has reported that they found Twenty-Four kgs of cannabis distributed across Forty-One packets upon conducting their search of the man’s belongings.

The young man has been arrested and booked for trafficking narcotics and attempting to import illegal drugs.

As he remains in police custody, further police investigation is underway.

In the wake of large-scale diversion of flights to Cyprus, the airports in the island nation have been put on high alert citing security concerns.

The development comes after Iran launched a missile attack with Israel as its target, which caused several flights to be diverted to Cyprus.

Specifically, 2 Israel-bound flights that took off at Prague and Milan have landed at the Airport in Larnaca.

All airports in Cyprus are currently on standby in case any other Israel-related flights need to be safely landed to avoid additional undesirable circumstances in the already tense current situation.

The island nation recently celebrated its Independence Day with a Military Parade.

The parade, held on the 1st of October in Nicosia’s Iosif Hadjiosif Avenue, had several eminent Cypriots in attendance, from a variety of fields such as politics, religion, and armed forces.

The Greek President, several ambassadors from abroad as well as a few armed forces attachés from abroad were present.

The common people witnessed the parade, having arrived hours prior to 11 AM (starting time for the parade) and saw the flag hosting and 21-gun salute, which kicked off the event.

The national anthem was then sung, with the Cypriot parliament members in the forefront.

The parade then started, beginning with a presentation of National Guard choppers and some British Army aircrafts. This was followed by other presentations from Ambulance Service, Search and Rescue Centre, Fire Department, Civil Defense, Forest Department and of course, the Police.

The parade received high praise from everybody on account of its organization and humble, yet formidable display of the nation’s security strength.

Giorgos Petrou, the Chairman of The Electricity Authority (EAC) has released a statement on the status of a cyber-attack on the organization.

He confirmed that the EAC successfully thwarted the attack – the third one made in the course of 48 hours.

He also explained that given the circumstances, the EAC is periodically monitoring its system and has installed further defense mechanisms in place to shield itself from attacks.

They have also temporarily initiated a special protocol, that is set to activate the moment an attack is being anticipated.

Nikol Pashinyan, the Prime Minister of Armenia has sent his hearty congratulations to Cyprus’ President Nikos Christodoulides on the occasion of the island nation’s Independence Day.

In his letter to the President, Pashinyan expressed his happiness, adding how the nation of Armenia values the warm relations they have with them.

He emphasized on their historical ties, and how they and the island nation have always stood by each other – both on their good and their bad days.

He also expressed his satisfaction on their cooperation in the public sphere, and constructive political stances.

He ended his letter by saying that he hopes their relations go from strength to strength, and that the two nations experience more prosperity as the days pass by.

Military experts are of the opinion that while Cyprus getting caught in the crossfires of Middle Eastern missiles are slim, they could nonetheless happen.

This statement comes after several Cyprus residents saw explosions and light flashes in the sky (especially in the coastal areas), which led to citizens being concerned and seeking answers.

According to Andis Loizos, a Retired Army Colonel Cyprus is not in of Iran’s scope of operations. Furthermore, Cyprus is protected by superpowers like the US, which recently signed several tactical cooperation agreements with the island nation. Last but not least, Iran is currently not in any position to diversify beyond Israel, which itself is a formidable enemy

That said, he cautioned that thanks to Turkey’s involvement in this, there is a small chance of the island nation falling in the line of fire in the future. At the very least, it could mean using North Cyprus and its resources to support Lebanon in the near future.

More importantly, there is a higher (but still, slim) chance of accidental missiles landing in the country.

He also spoke of the British presence in Cyprus, explaining how it also works as a buffer against Iranian attacks.