Category Archives: Cyprus

Cyprus to begin treating island’s sick cats with anti-Covid pills

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Vets receive medication originally meant for people amid virulent feline coronavirus that has killed thousands of cats

Veterinary services in Cyprus have received a first batch of anti-Covid pills, from a stockpile originally meant for humans, as efforts intensify to stop the spread of a virulent strain of feline coronavirus that has killed thousands of cats.

The island’s health ministry began discharging the treatment on 8 August – long celebrated as International Cat Day – in what is hoped will be the beginning of the end of the disease that has struck the Mediterranean country’s feline population.

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Briton tells Cyprus court wife begged him to end her cancer pain

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David Hunter, who denies premeditated murder, tells trial his wife Janice’s life had become unbearable

A euthanasia case that has gripped Cyprus for more than a year has entered its final phase as a British pensioner accused of murdering his cancer-stricken wife told how she “begged” him to end the excruciating pain that made her life unbearable.

David Hunter had waited a long time to have his day in court and in electrifying evidence before a three-member tribunal in Paphos on Monday, the 76-year-old described the circumstances that he said led him in the run-up to Christmas 2021 to fatally smother his wife, Janice, his teenage sweetheart and the woman he had loved for more than half a century.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or by emailing jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 988 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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Cyprus handed 800-page US dossier on Russia sanctions breaches

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Report details how local people and firms helped Alisher Usmanov’s conceal immense wealth

Cyprus has received an 800-page dossier from the US government detailing sanctions breaches by local individuals and entities that are alleged to have enabled the Russian billionaire, Alisher Usmanov, to conceal his immense wealth.

As the island’s leader Nikos Christodoulides vowed to push ahead with the prosecution of law and audit firms that had aided the oligarch, Washington released documents that amounted to a toolkit to facilitate the process. At least two other dossiers are expected to follow.

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‘Our credibility must be safeguarded’: Cyprus in turmoil after Russia sanctions

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Island shuts 10,000 Russian bank accounts as US and UK put Cypriot lawyers and accountants under sanctions for enabling oligarchs including Roman Abramovich

Back-to-back meetings, an air of discernible panic, policymakers engaged in frantic damage limitation and Cyprus once again in the eye of a Russia-related storm. It’s been an unusually fraught fortnight for the Mediterranean island’s newly installed president, arduous in ways that Nikos Christodoulides might never have imagined when he assumed office on 1 March.

First came the news that 13 Cypriot entities and individuals had been placed on Anglo-American sanctions lists for enabling Russian oligarchs. The measures were aimed at dismantling the financial networks of Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov, both close allies of Vladimir Putin. Overnight, bank accounts and other assets belonging to their alleged “financial fixers” were frozen.

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Cypriot court setback for retired British coalminer accused of murdering wife

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Defence team had argued David Hunter’s confession should be ruled inadmissible as evidence in trial

A court in Cyprus has ruled that the confession of a retired Northumberland coalminer accused of murdering his terminally ill wife was obtained lawfully and can be used in evidence against him.

In what will amount to a major setback for David Hunter, 75, who has campaigned to be tried on the lesser charge of manslaughter, Judge Michalis Droussiotis announced that statements of admission made by the Briton were admissible.

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Nikos Christodoulides elected Cyprus’s president with 52% of vote

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Former foreign minister, who ran as independent, was backed by groups hostile to talks on island’s reunification

Nikos Christodoulides, a former foreign minister, has been elected the eighth president of Cyprus, beating the career diplomat Andreas Mavroyiannis in a high-stakes, closely fought race.

Christodoulides, 49, won 51.92 per cent of the vote compared with 48.09 per cent for his opponent, who had been backed by the leftist party AKEL. A mere 15,041 ballots had divided the loser from the winner.

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Cyprus presidential election goes to runoff with ex-foreign minister in lead

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Nikos Christodoulides emerges as frontrunner and will face Andreas Mavroyiannis in vote next Sunday

The race to become the eighth president of Cyprus will extend into a second week after the Mediterranean island’s former foreign minister Nikos Christodoulides emerged as the frontrunner but failed to gain enough support to win outright.

The 49-year-old independent will face Andreas Mavroyiannis, a veteran career diplomat backed by the leftist Akel party, in a runoff on 12 February.

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Cyprus needs two-state solution, claims head of Turkish-occupied north

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Ersin Tatar, president of unrecognised Turkish republic, says north will otherwise become more dependent on Turkey

Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus will become ever more dependent on Turkey, and the hydrocarbon reserves surrounding Cyprus could be left unexploited, unless a solution to the 50-year dispute over the partitioned island is reached soon, Ersin Tatar, the president of the unrecognised “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”, has said.

Speaking from his presidential palace in the divided city of Nicosia, right by the UN-policed green line with Greek Cyprus, Tatar is trying to find ways to persuade others to “think out[side] the box” and join him in advocating for a two-state solution for the island.

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British man in Cyprus faces murder trial after refusal of plea bargain

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David Hunter not able to admit lesser charge of manslaughter over death of his terminally ill wife, Janice

An elderly Briton accused of murdering his terminally ill wife in Cyprus has been denied the chance to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter, almost a year to the day after Janice Hunter died.

The state prosecutor Andreas Hadjikyrou said he could not accept a deal that would have allowed David Hunter, aged 76, to make the guilty plea, which had raised hopes of the retiree being released by Christmas.

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British pensioner who killed terminally ill wife to appear in Cyprus court

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David Hunter, who has admitted smothering wife, Janice, ‘desperate’ for case to be heard, says lawyer

A British pensioner charged in Cyprus with the premeditated murder of his terminally ill wife says he is “desperate” to have his day in court ahead of the trial opening on the island.

David Hunter is due to appear before an assize court in the coastal city of Paphos on Monday, almost nine months to the day after he admitted smothering his 75-year-old spouse, Janice, to death.

In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Hotlines in other countries can be found here

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Briton jailed for a year in Cyprus over hit-and-run death of Swedish woman

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Tourist found guilty of causing death through reckless act while on drugs, and of fleeing the scene

A British tourist has been jailed for a year after a Cypriot court convicted him over the hit-and-run death of a Swedish mother in a holiday resort on the island.

The Famagusta district court also revoked the 25-year-old’s driving licence for 18 months on Friday, but authorities did not release his name.

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Cyprus unity in fight against wildfires hailed as ‘very positive’

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With relations between island’s two communities at a low, assistance from Greek Cypriots has been welcomed

There is not much that can bring Greek and Turkish Cypriots together these days. But when wildfires raged across the Mediterranean island last week, they put differences aside to jointly combat the blazes. So rare was the sight that on Monday the war-split country’s permanent UN representative praised the “very positive” show of unity.

“It illustrates a fundamental point about this island, and that is the solidarity among Cypriots,” Colin Stewart said on Monday after meeting the Greek Cypriot leader, Nicos Anastasiades, whose forestry department had rushed to help extinguish the blaze.

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Tortured to death: the 14 Cypriot men killed by British in 50s uprising

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Book reveals fate of EOKA guerrilla fighters at the hands of the army during the dying days of empire on the Mediterranean island

At least 14 Cypriots were tortured then murdered by UK forces during an armed uprising in the late 1950s, according to newly unearthed evidence that raises fresh questions over another shocking chapter of Britain’s colonial history.

Testimony from British veterans and Cypriot rebel fighters, along with postmortem and morgue records, as well as previously undisclosed material from Cypriot archives, suggest that the victims died after being interrogated by UK officers. The dead, all men aged between 17 and 37, were arrested on suspicion of being part of the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters, a paramilitary organisation known as EOKA, which orchestrated a guerrilla campaign to overthrow British control in Cyprus.

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Cypriot police urged to reinvestigate gang rape of British woman

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Student found to not have had a fair trial two years after being wrongly convicted for making up allegation

Authorities in Cyprus are being urged to launch a fresh inquiry into a gang rape complaint by a British woman after the country’s supreme court acquitted her of fabricating the claim that she had been sexually assaulted at a holiday resort.

The 21-year-old’s legal team said it was incumbent on the island’s police force to reopen the investigation in the wake of the landmark ruling. “It’s our next big battle,” said the human rights lawyer Nicoletta Charalambidou.

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UK woman accused of making up Cyprus gang-rape claims has conviction quashed

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Cypriot supreme court throws out case, acknowledging 21-year-old was not given fair trial two years ago

A British woman accused of fabricating claims of being gang-raped in a holiday resort on Cyprus has had the conviction overturned by the Mediterranean island’s supreme court.

Two years after the then teenager received a suspended four-month sentence for fomenting public mischief, the tribunal threw out the case, acknowledging she had not been given a fair trial.

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Rising anger with Turkey drives calls for reunification in crisis-hit northern Cyprus

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With the economy in freefall and allegations of political interference, people have taken to the streets to advocate for federal future

In his sun-filled office in north Nicosia, Şener Elcil is plotting his next protest. Anger, he says, is in the air in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus.

The economy is in freefall, thanks to the self-declared republic’s financial and political dependence on Turkey. Thousands have taken to the streets, spurred by inflation rates that have left many struggling to make ends meet; ahead of parliamentary polls later this month, calls for a boycott are mounting, while a blacklist of Turkish Cypriot dissidents, reportedly drawn up at the behest of Ankara, has spawned consternation and fear.

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Israel accuses Iran of attack attempt against Israelis in Cyprus

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Nicosia says an armed individual was arrested after crossing from Turkish-controlled north

Israel has accused Iran of orchestrating an attempted attack against Israelis in Cyprus after police on the Mediterranean island said an armed individual had been arrested.

“This was a terrorist incident directed by Iran against Israeli businesspeople living in Cyprus,” Matan Sidi, spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, said in a statement.

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‘Climate crisis on our shores’: Mediterranean countries sign deal after summer of fires

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Region’s leaders make joint declaration vowing to step up efforts to address extreme weather

With the catastrophic effects of this summer’s unprecedented wildfires still being counted, leaders from around the Mediterranean – the European region most at risk from climate breakdown – have vowed to intensify their efforts to tackle the challenges posed by extreme weather.

A joint declaration, signed in Athens, has fired the starting shot on what is hoped will bring groundbreaking change in how the neighbouring states shore up their defences against natural disasters.

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Cyprus prepares for Mediterranean oil spill from Syrian power plant

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Officials in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus say 20,000 tonnes of oil is approaching its coastline

Turkish Cypriot authorities have taken emergency action to stop an oil slick blamed on a faulty power plant in Syria from wreaking environmental havoc along some of the island’s finest unspoilt coastline.

Officials in the war-partitioned country’s breakaway north erected what local media described as a 400 metre barrier off the Karpas peninsula to prevent the slick reaching its pristine shores.

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Cyprus: row erupts as passports of Turkish Cypriot officials rescinded

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Head of Turkish-controlled north, Ersin Tatar, calls move by Greek Cypriot government ‘racist’ and ‘anachronistic’

A war of words has erupted on Cyprus as the divided island’s two ethnic communities exchange barbs over the decision by the Greek Cypriot government to rescind the passports of senior Turkish Cypriot officials.

Ersin Tatar, who heads the Turkish-controlled north and is among those affected, described the policy as “an assault” on attempts to find a solution to the country’s partition. Previously he had called the move “racist” and “anachronistic”.

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