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511. Airport video shows no social distancing

Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos has reacted to viral photos that showed passengers crowding each other at the Larnaca airport terminal, arguing that face masks are the next best thing where social distancing is not an effective measure...

512. Bus driver death marred by bus wars

A labour union is calling for a full investigation into Monday’s fatal accident involving a bus driver, with reports of bus wars emerging in the background over the company’s plan to introduce a new split-shift schedule...

513. Turkish court rules to let Hagia Sophia return as mosque

514. Divided Cyprus reacts to Hagia Sophia

Cyprus has weighed in on Turkey’s controversial decision to allow Muslim prayer inside Hagia Sophia, with different reactions across the divided island and amid reports of nuanced differences in President Erdogan's statements in two different languages...

515. Cabinet green lights creation of deputy ministry for culture

The cabinet on Wednesday gave the green light for initial efforts to be made toward setting up a deputy ministry for culture....

516. North draws criticism over virus declaration

Turkish Cypriot authorities declared the coronavirus a “dangerous infections disease” over the weekend, prompting criticism over the basis and timing of the announcement...

517. Arrivals keep divided Cyprus on toes

Discussions on virus risks are taking place publicly between officials and health experts on both sides of the divided island, with the north scrambling to find the right formula before July 1 and the south moving to correct a number of issues...

518. Turkey says Macron suffers 'eclipse of the mind' over Libya

Turkey hit back on Tuesday at French criticism of its intervention in Libya, saying President Emmanuel Macron must have suffered an "eclipse of the mind" to oppose Ankara's support for the internationally recognised Tripoli government....

519. Police to explain laws in foreign languages

Law enforcement authorities say they have been planning to issue public service announcements in multiple languages that would explain certain laws of the Republic, following the latest slain of a young man in downtown Nicosia...

520. Cypriot FM to visit Israel in a hurry

Cypriot Foreign Minister Nicos Christodoulides will pay a last minute visit to Israel on Tuesday, days after President Nicos Anastasiades called off his trip citing coronavirus concerns and just before debate in the neighbouring country is expected to peak over annexation plans in West Bank...

521. Police raid 'brothel' in Nicosia

Nicosia police arrested a local man and took seven women into protective custody following a raid at an old hotel described as a front for prostitution...

522. Bill criminalises prostitution in Cyprus

A proposed legislation making paid sex a crime in the Republic of Cyprus is drawing criticism, after the country’s left wing declared the female body is not for sale and cannot be bought...

523. Man jailed in another Ayia Napa rape case

A man has been sentenced to eight years for the rape of a young British woman, who said she was raped after being driven in a dark remote area outside Ayia Napa last year...

524. Bill calls for videotaping police interrogations

The House is looking into legislation that would make mandatory the videotaping of custodial interrogations, a move that would allow the Republic of Cyprus to join other modern states in the way suspects are being treated by police...

525. Deputy mayor draws back racist declaration

Limassol’s deputy mayor Nikos Sykas has issued a statement following widespread criticism over a post on Facebook when he self-identified as a racist...

526. Greece, Turkey exchange barbs over migrants

Greece on Thursday pushed back on criticism by Turkey that is violating the rights of refugees and migrants attempting to reach the country, saying Ankara has “instrumentalized human suffering”...

527. Republic of Cyprus starts its biggest engine

A new presidential address to the nation on Wednesday is expected to set the tone as the Republic of Cyprus is gearing up for the summer season but debate over health concerns and social distancing still rages on...

528. All asylum seekers at Pournara locked in

Health ministry officials say going in and out of the migrant facility in rural Nicosia is temporarily forbidden due to a scabies infestation, with the government defending migration policies amid criticism over living conditions and restriction of freedom of movement at the camp...

529. Officers in serial killer probe lawyer up

A local report hints at legal wars brewing within prosecution agencies in the Republic of Cyprus, following the attorney general’s decision to prosecute fifteen police officers in the serial killer case...

530. Twitter unfreezes Chinese ambassador account

China's ambassador to the Republic of Cyprus was back online Wednesday night after Twitter unblocked his account following a two-day freeze...

531. Cypriot health minister speaks from the heart

Cyprus Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou says that his responsibility and that of the government is to protect people’s health, adding it is an obligation stemming from the Constitution as well as his own conscience...

532. Greece's response to coronavirus working, Mitsotakis tells CNN

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday night, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that the measures his government has taken to curb the spread of the coronavirus appear to be working and thanked the Greek people for their cooperation, conceding however that “the hard work is still ahead of us.”...

533. Fight against pandemic hangs in the balance

Authorities in the Republic of Cyprus are closely monitoring the effectiveness of stricter measures against the spread of the coronavirus, with health experts saying more cases resulting from lack of social distancing are now starting to emerge...

534. President: stricter measures necessary, but undergoes 'severe crisis of conscience'

In a Facebook post on Tuesday President Nicos Anastasiades said he undergoes “a severe crisis of conscience” every time the Government is required to enforce stricter measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic, but said that current circumstances necessitate that tougher measures are taken....

535. China's ambassador responds to US criticism

The Chinese ambassador in Nicosia is firing back at US and media criticism over his country’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, adding that he believes Cyprus will win the battle against the coronavirus...

536. Help from China on the way

The Chinese ambassador in Nicosia says Cyprus has recently taken “powerful and appropriate” measures in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, adding that help from China is on the way...

537. Hospitals the Achilles heel of the pandemic

The suspension of patient admissions at all four state General Hospitals was one of the initial fears that was expressed by the state health services organization (SHSO), which oversees the island’s public hospitals that have borne the brunt of the coronavirus outbreak....

538. Checkpoint closures to be extended until Monday

The closure of four crossing points last Saturday, in what the Government said would be a one-week temporary precaution against coronavirus outbreak, will be extended until Monday, the National Council agreed on Thursday....

539. Woman in the north tests negative for coronavirus

Samples taken from a suspected coronavirus carrier in the north were sent to Turkey for examination, as per the request of the World Health Organization, Turkish Cypriot ‘Health Minister’ Ali Pilli said on Monday. The results came back negative, Turkish Cypriot media reported....

540. Greek PM meets with five EU leaders over bloc's budget

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis held talks in Brussels on Friday with the leaders of Germany Angela Merkel, France Emmanuel Macron, Spain Pedro Sanchez, Italy Giuseppe Conte and Portugal Antonio Costa in a bid to break a deadlock in negotiations for the European Union’s 2021-2027 budget....