MPs are undecided on whether to pass a European Union directive reducing the size of homes entitled to lower 5% VAT or face hefty financial penalties, while the construction industry wants authorities to ignore it. Arguing the VAT change will endanger the economy’s recovery, a group of small developers and services providers based in Paphos
More
Justice reform, a long-overdue process to slash legal proceedings by half the time and decongest the courts, is begrudgingly getting underway, but Cypriots have lost confidence and trust in public institutions. Historical archives are digitised, court clerks see reduced paperwork, and stenographers use fast and efficient dictating systems, making a judge’s time more productive to
More
Environmentalists are not ‘buying’ official promises that a local development plan will not threaten Akamas, the island’s nature reserve, home to unique fauna and endangered species. Despite promises from government officials, including Agriculture Minister Costas Kadis, that the reserve will be preserved and allowed development which will not alter the ecosystem, environmentalists disagree. Hundreds gathered
More
The new discussion about what happened in Crans Montana brings some old but not forgotten issues to the limelight. What happened at that conference? What has happened since the meetings? Where does the Cyprus problem stand today? All evidence indicates that the President and his close associates managed a big opportunity for our country in
More
The publication of the proposed new law on common charges is most welcome, not so much for the proposal’s content but more for the interest, the Law Commissioner shows. It is a start to the existing unacceptable and unworkable state of the prevailing law, although the two previous proposals failed without much debate in Parliament.
More
A 25-year-old British tourist has been jailed for one year and his license suspended for 18 months after being found guilty of the hit-and-run death of a Swedish mother in Ayia Napa. The Briton was involved in the killing of 46-year-old Camilla-Christina Pamdahl, who was on holiday with her five-year-old daughter, on 4 May. She
More
By Craig Erlam Markets saw choppy trading on Friday, heading into the weekend amid a flurry of economic data from across Europe. Things got underway with a plethora of PMI readings, although most were revised figures that aren’t typically subject to large revisions, meaning the market impact is relatively minimal. The euro area inflation data
More
A meeting called by President Nicos Anastasiades with Energy and Finance Ministers to ease the pressure from hiking energy prices did not deliver any immediate relief to the cost-of-living crisis. President Anastasiades called an emergency meeting on crippling prices Friday with the energy and finance ministers, along with the Cyprus Energy Regulation Authority (CERA) and
More
A 54-year-old grandfather was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of repeatedly raping his 11-year-old granddaughter. The Larnaca-Famagusta Criminal Court Friday passed sentence on the man after finding him guilty of 26 accounts of sexually abusing a minor, including rape, indecent assault, and domestic violence against his then eleven-year-old granddaughter. The
More
Long-awaited construction work on the €300 mln Paphos-Polis Chrysochous highway officially began on Friday in the presence of Transport Minister Yannis Karousos, who described the start as “historic”. He said the project was announced as a priority by President Nicos Anastasiades. The first phase concerns a two-lane road of 15.5 kilometres, with valley bridges and tunnels
More
