Minister’s funeral to take place today

The funeral of Cyprus’ Minister of Education and Culture Pefkios Georgiades will take place today at 1430 local time (1230 GMT), at Panagia Evagelistria Church at Nicosia’s eastern suburb of Pallouriotissa.
President Tassos Papadopoulos, a personal friend of Pefkios Georgiades, the Primate of the Church of Cyprus, Archbishop Chrysostomos, House of Rerpresentatives President Demetris Christofias, political party leaders and other officials will attend the funeral.
The Council of Ministers will hold a special session under President Papadopoulos to honour Georgiades.
The island’s parliament will observe a one-minute silence at the start of its weekly plenary session this afternoon.
All schools in the free areas of the Republic are closed.
Pefkios Georgiades died of heart attack this afternoon, at the age of 72. He served as Minister of Education and Culture since President Papadopoulos assumed office in 2003.
In the morning, he attended the Council of Ministers’ weekly session. Early afternoon he attended a seminar in Nicosia, where he felt unwell and he was rushed to Nicosia General Hospital where he suffered a heart attack.