PAPHOS’ harbour has many weaknesses and needs to be upgraded soon so as “not to mourn more victims,” the town’s mayor Savvas Vergas said.“I am afraid that if we do not speed up these procedures (to upgrade) we will mourn more victims,” Vergas said, after a parliamentary meeting which coincided with the tragic death of a police officer during an operation near the harbour to rescue a capsized yacht carrying a Russian family.A 30-year-old woman is still missing, while her husband swam to safety and their two children were rescued with the yacht finally reached the shore... 3 comments

BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown last night urged all sides in Cyprus to show “huge courage” in the settlement negotiations.“Let there be no doubt - reaching an agreement on Cyprus will require huge courage on all sides,” Brown said after a meeting in London with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan . “It will require bold leadership and a spirit of compromise but I believe that progress is being made. I applaud the leadership being shown by both leaders. But the parties must now maintain that momentum and turn the dream of peace into a reality for all the people of Cyprus... 9 comments

THE GOVERNMENT is considering the building of a new prison to replace the current overcrowded one based on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) proposal, said Justice Minister Loucas Louca yesterday. Louca said he would present the study to cabinet once completed. The BOT scheme would allow the private company to build modern prison facilities, and take charge of providing food for the prisoners and maintenance of the prison while security will be handled by the state. ... 1 comment

DHERYNIA Municipality, Police and the UN have teamed up this week to catch a pack of "wild and cruel" stray dogs that has been terrorising locals.For the past six months, the pack of around ten dogs has been crossing the buffer zone and attacking guinea fowl, rabbit and chicken farms in the Dherynia. In recent weeks, however, the number of attacks reported by local farmers has increased, and the authorities are now concerned for residents’ safety.Dherynia Mayor, Andreas Shiapanis, said: "There is a pack of ten wild and cruel dogs that is attacking the farms. This started six months ago, but recently they have attacked a number of farms." Two weeks ago the dogs had managed to destroy animal cages. “They are wild but clever," he added... 5 comments

THIRTY FIVE flamingos are thought to have died after consuming lead shot in Larnaca's salt lake, it emerged yesterday.Samples taken from the birds' livers last week indicate that fatal levels of lead, likely to have come from lead shot left behind after the closure of waterside clay pigeon shooting range, were the cause of death.Nicos Kassinis, Wildlife Biologist for the Game Fund, has spent 10 years working with the flamingos. He said yesterday: "We sent liver samples to the Veterinary Department, and the results showed their livers had several times the toxic level. We have also had a few deaths in Akrotiri, where the birds sometimes fly onto. However, we cannot say there is a correlation between the two yet." ... 2 comments

THE NICOSIA Water Board will not increase tariffs during 2010, Board president Argyris Papanastasiou announced yesterday. A fourth straight increase was unnecessary, he said, because the 10 per cent increase in tariffs the Board implemented over the last three years resulted in a small surplus.Papanastasiou also announced that the Cabinet had decided to delay settling the debts of the Water Boards of Nicosia, Limassol and Larnaca, which run to over €20 million in total.The Cabinet had originally aimed to settle the debts through a Ministerial Committee by the end of 2008... Read on

AS IMPATIENCE continued to grow in political circles to learn the detailed content of the Finance Ministry’s proposed package of economic measures, government party AKEL and opposition DISY yesterday traded accusations of “tax-raids on society and the economy” and “protecting tax-evaders”.Tempers flared yesterday over the proposed measures – designed to reduce the public deficit – on CyBC’s lunchtime current affairs programme “Apo Mera se Mera, when DISY Deputy President Averoff Neophytou appeared alongside AKEL spokesman Stavros Evagorou... Read on

THE CYPRUS Ports Authority’s system for levying duty on imported cars is “in scandalously bad shape”, a situation that is depriving the state of “significant revenues”, House Scrutiny Committee chairman Georgios Georgiou said yesterday.Georgiou, whose committee among other things monitors public expenditure, told reporters that there are grounds for “reasonable suspicions” of favourable treatment being given to certain vehicle importers, made possible by the lack of transparency in the CPA’s invoicing.Georgiou said that under the current system, the CPA assesses cars purely on their weight rather than, for example, on a sliding scale in relation to engine capacity, and the only measure is whether a vehicle weighs less or more than two tons... 7 comments

THE GOVERNMENT yesterday broke its silence and conceded it has spent €232,000 on new cars for various officials including President Demetris Christofias.Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou sought to put the record straight “because a lot is said and written … which is a distortion of reality.”“The purchase of a car for the President of the Republic is done in the framework of buying a total of eight cars worth €232,000,” Stefanou said. “The renewal of the vehicles was deemed necessary due to mechanical and other problems they face, especially the presidential car,” Stefanou said.The vehicles – all Mercedes -- were chosen after a tender... 5 comments