By Christina Farr
Apple Inc quarterly results smashed Wall Street expectations with record sales of big-screen iPhones in the holiday shopping season and a 70 percent rise in China sales, powering the company to the largest profit in corporate history.
The company sold 74.5 million iPhones in its fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 27, while many analysts had expected fewer than 70 million. Revenue rose to $74.6 billion from $57.6 billion a year earlier.
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The new Greek government of leftwing Syriza will freeze plans to privatise the country’s dominant power utility PPC, its energy minister said on Wednesday.
“We will halt immediately any privatisation of PPC,” Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis told Greek television.
The previous government had passed legislation last year to spin-off part of PPC and privatise it as part of its efforts to liberalise its energy market.
On Tuesday the new government announced that it was stopping the planned sale of…
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By Maria Gregoriou
The Droushia Heights Hotel in Paphos is not all about the relaxation, the bonding with nature and the sightseeing, it also has an educational side to it.
Anyone who is in Paphos on Friday can get a taste of what the hotel has to offer in terms of lectures as it will be hosting Wally Oppenheim (a retired history teacher) who will be talking about Cyprus in the First World War.
Although our island was never a…
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By Elaine Lies and Takashi Umekawa
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday termed as “despicable” a new video appearing to show Islamic State captive Kenji Goto saying he had 24 hours to live unless Jordan released a would-be suicide bomber.
The voice on the video added that another hostage, Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh, had a shorter time to live.
“The video is despicable and I feel strong anger,” Abe told reporters.
The voice said Japanese national Goto would be…
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Defending champion Stan Wawrinka avenged his U.S. Open quarter-final defeat to Kei Nishikori in style with an emphatic 6-3 6-4 7-6(6) victory to charge into the semi-finals of the Australian Open on Wednesday.
The fourth-seeded Swiss has worked his way slowly into the year’s first grand slam but put his foot to the floor at a sun-drenched Rod Laver Arena, dominating Nishikori with raw power and compiling an exhaustive highlight reel of cleanly struck winners.
Wawrinka’s backhand was particularly deadly,…
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By Jean Christou
The high number of Caesarian births, the absence of legalised abortion and a lack of knowledge on the use of antibiotics were among the factors keeping Cyprus on the lower end of the Euro Health Consumer Index (EHCI), a new report said on Tuesday.
Cyprus was placed 25th out of 36 countries around Europe for 2014 with a score of 619 out of 1,000, the same level as the previous year. Countries are scored on 48…
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THE GOVERNMENT knew since the beginning of September that French oil giant Total had decided not carry out any exploratory drilling in its offshore concessions. The surveys the company had carried out in blocks 10 and 11 had not identified any potential drilling targets and, justifiably, it decided not to proceed to exploratory drilling that was scheduled for this year. It informed the government of its intentions on September 11.
There had been negotiations between the two sides regarding the…
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By Bejay Browne
DESPITE a number of suggestions for the removal of a ship which ran aground in Paphos more than three years ago, it remains lodged on the rocks in an area of outstanding natural beauty.
The Sierra Leone-flagged, EDRO III, has remained stranded in the sea caves area of Paphos since December 8, 2011.
Nicos Attas, a marine surveyor from the department of merchant shipping told the Cyprus Mail that until now, all suggestions to remove the ship…
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Greek and Turkish Cypriots should both agree to suspend the search for offshore natural gas until they have reached a settlement, chief Turkish Cypriot negotiator Ergun Olgun told Reuters in an interview yesterday.
Olgun accused the Greek Cypriot side of using gas exploration as “a pretext to continue with the perpetuation of the status quo in Cyprus”. Both sides should agree to suspend exploration to open the way for a resumption of the peace talks, he said.
“We will hopefully…
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By a Staff Reporter
Turkish Cypriot ‘foreign minister’ Ozdil Nami was quoted on Tuesday as saying that the Turkish seismic vessel Barbaros could resume its exploration activities in the coming days.
The Barbaros is currently anchored off Famagusta where it has remained since its first navigational telex (NAVTEX) for exploration in Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) expired on December 30.
The move to issue the NAVTEX had prompted the Greek Cypriot side to withdraw from the talks last October….
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By Jean Christou
Around half of businesses in Cyprus are more or less clueless or ignore the labour laws, often don’t know how many hours a day or a week people should work, and have no maternity or sexual harassment policies, according a report on Tuesday.
The survey ‘Healthy Employee Relations, Modern Enterprises’ was carried out by the Employers and Industrialists Federation (OEV) with the European Social Fund, interviewing 801 companies.
It found that though most companies believe they comply…
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Chelsea reached the League Cup final after Branislav Ivanovic’s towering extra-time header secured a 1-0 victory over Liverpool in a rip-roaring semi-final second leg at an electric Stamford Bridge on Tuesday.
The Serbian defender powered a header past Liverpool keeper Simon Mignolet four minutes into the extra period to secure a 2-1 aggregate win for the four-times winners days after their humiliating FA Cup exit to third-tier Bradford City.
Both sides had good chances in normal time and were grateful…
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A Troika technical mission began contacts in Nicosia on Tuesday to review the implementation of Cyprus’ bailout adjustment programme.
The contacts are taking place at the Central Bank (CBC), the finance ministry and the Directorate General for European programmes, Coordination and Development.
They are part of the review of the programme’s implementation since the last technical mission in November, CBC spokeswoman Aliki Stylianou said, adding that the mission will also hold contacts with credit institutions.
The mission is not a…
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By Evie Andreou
Around two hundred university students gathered outside the education ministry on Tuesday afternoon to protest against a proposed bill to change eligibility criteria for student grants.
The protest, organised by members of the Student Association of Tepak, AKEL student branch Proodeftiki and the student association of the Higher Hotel Institute, took place despite the fact that the education minister Costas Kadis had announced on Friday that he will freeze the bill, after admitting the threshold was low.
…
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By George Psyllides
The state owes €430 million for properties that have been appropriated, MPs heard on Tuesday, as authorities try to end disorderly practices of the past still causing serious problems today.
Officials said the state rescinded appropriations worth €140 million between 2012 and 2014, which ended with the state owing €480 million.
Government officials conceded that the procedures in the past were uncontrolled but stricter criteria have been put in place to tackle the phenomenon, which caused the…
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A 67-year-old woman died on Tuesday two months after she was hit by a car on Limassol’s busy Makarios Avenue.
Evangelia Periclous was trying to cross the road on November 26 when she was hit by a car driven by a 73-year-old woman.
She was rushed to hospital where she was placed on a ventilator but she died on Tuesday morning.
Police said the exact cause of death will be determined by a post mortem that is scheduled for Wednesday.
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Greek and Turkish Cypriots should agree to suspend the search for offshore natural gas until they have reached a settlement to reunify the divided island, the chief Turkish Cypriot negotiator said on Tuesday.
Ergun Olgun accused the Greek Cypriot side of using gas exploration as “a pretext to continue with the perpetuation of the status quo in Cyprus”.
Both sides should agree to suspend exploration to open the way for a resumption of the peace talks, he told Reuters in…
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By Angelos Anastasiou
The privatisation of several state and semi-state organisations, including the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CyTA), is scheduled to take place in 2015, according to the finance ministry despite heavy protests by employees and unions anticipated in the coming days.
Privatisation of state-owned companies is part of Cyprus’ economic adjustment programme – a set of economic and administrative reforms – agreed with international creditors in 2013 in exchange for a €10-billion emergency bailout loan, in order to raise €1.4…
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Forty nine pieces of evidence were on Tuesday submitted to Paphos court by police as the trial relating to a suspicious land zoning case involving Aristo Developers got underway.
Aristo Developers founder Theodoros Aristodemou, his wife Roula, designer Christos Solomonides, and former Paphos municipality engineer Savvakis Savva are facing charges of – among others – forgery, conspiracy to defraud, abuse of power, and legalising moneys obtained from illicit actions.
Prosecution witness Andreas Tsekouras, a police officer who was part of…
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A Russian business mogul residing in Limassol has leased the services of the Police Rapid Response Unit (MMAD) and Counter-Terrorism Squad (EAO) to move a number of paintings worth hundreds of millions to his estate.
A police source told the Cyprus Mail that the paintings will arrive on the island on charted flights and are under heavy security.
The police mission is to escort the armoured trucks carrying the paintings to the Russian’s estate.
“The operation is expected to last…
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Long time Cyprus Mail contributor and former CyBC reporter Rosie Charalambous kicks off a series of weekly podcasts covering politics, current affairs and culture every Friday. NEW For the latest Cyprus News Digest episode click here
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