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1. German Health Minister: 'Vaccinated, recovered or dead' by the end of winter

New calls for an increase in vaccinations were made on Monday by the German Minister of Health, Jens Span. The Minister warned about a very difficult winter to come due to a pandemic, while discussions to extend the deadline for persons to get vaccinated are intensifying around the country....

2. Commissioner slaps fine in spy van case

An Israeli-owned company in Cyprus known for its role in the country’s spy van case agreed to pay nearly one million in fines despite no evidence of spying on citizens, after an independent commissioner found there was no doubt that actions by WiSpear had at the very least breached principles relating to personal data...

3. Greek PM defends migration policy in heated exchange with journalist (video)

Mitsotakis, whose center-right New Democracy party came to power in 2019, defended his government’s migration policy, calling it “tough but fair”, and said Greece was rescuing hundreds of people at sea since 2015 when it was on the frontline of Europe’s migration crisis....

4. Cypriot experts dissent from government decisions

A frustrated local epidemiologist in Cyprus is calling on the government to reevaluate its latest response to the pandemic, saying politicians are ignoring local data on how vaccinated persons continue to spread the coronavirus...

5. Rule stickler mayor left hanging with stroke of pen

President Nicos Anastasiades used the stroke of a pen on Wednesday to block the closure of a department store in Paphos, a move that left the town’s mayor hanging after he had warned his municipality would not tolerate illegal operations without permits...

6. Cyprus’ civil service secret out in the open

Thousands of civil servants have been found to run private businesses or direct companies without permission from the state, with officials calling on violators to comply with the law and some politicians calling for an investigation into possible conflicts of interest...

7. Mistrust results in a rise in COVID cases in Eastern Europe

Latvia imposed a new lockdown on Thursday, with hospitals in Bulgaria and Romania struggling to cope with an increase in patients with covid-19, while Poland is selling extra doses of vaccine....

8. YouTuber mafia boss shakes politics in the north

The Turkish Cypriot political landscape has been shaken to the core after an ex-con mafia boss turned YouTube sensation threatened to release videos starring prominent politicians in private sex encounters...

9. Anastasiades Pandora reference hangs in the balance

Intense debate dominates in corridors of the European Parliament this week on whether specific references to Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and other leaders should be included in a draft resolution that calls for investigation into politicians who have been linked to offshore dealings in the Pandora Papers...

10. Lebanon: Explosions and shootings in Beirut with dead and wounded

At least two large explosions were heard Thursday morning in the Lebanese capital Beirut,...

11. The City of London Is Hiding the World’s Stolen Money

In 1969, two years after the Cayman Islands, a British territory, passed its first law to allow secretive offshore trusts, an official government report struck an ominous note....

12. More than 330 current and former politicians identified as beneficiaries of secret accounts

A huge leak of financial documents published by several major news outlets on Sunday reportedly linked world leaders to secret wealth stockpiles, including King Abdullah of Jordan, Czech Prime Minister Andrzej Bremen and Prime Minister Andrei Bredo....

13. Cyprus holds military parade to mark independence

The Republic of Cyprus celebrated on Friday its independence with a military parade in Nicosia, marking mark 61 years since the island gained sovereignty from the British...

14. Hope for a new perspective on the Cyprus issue

The meeting of the President of the Republic Nikos Anastasiadis with the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, lasting 20 minutes, did not seem to change the climate that exists in the Cypriot view in view of next Monday's appointment with the Turkish leader Ersin Tatar....

15. Athens and Istanbul can do their part

During one of the deepest troughs in bilateral relations in the fall of 1999 following the arrest of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, Greece and Turkey went from being on the brink of war to a rapprochement, spearheaded by their foreign ministers, George Papandreou and the late Ismail Cem....

16. Cyprus’ spy van case too close to the bone

A police investigation in Cyprus has concluded there was no proof of illegal phone tapping in the spy van case, but prosecutors are still going after the main suspects on lesser charges despite reports of alleged contacts in the past with local officials...

17. Al Jazeera publishes prequel to The Cyprus Papers

A new documentary by Al Jazeera on football corruption in Britain includes allegations that a Cypriot minister flew to London to arrange paperwork at a consular office for a Russian national who was wanted by Interpol and unable to travel under his real name...

18. NSO denies knowledge of hacked list in Cyprus

Israel-based NSO Group is pointing the finger at customers who may misuse its Pegasus surveillance software, following reports that a list hacked in Cyprus contained thousands of mobile phone numbers believed to have been be targeted by the proprietary malware to spy on journalists and activists around the globe...

19. Asylum seekers stuck in Cyprus' buffer zone

Cypriot Interior Minister Nikos Nouris says the ordeal of three Cameroonians currently stuck in the buffer zone could end if EU fellow members agreed to take them in, with reports saying the bloc is still looking for consensus on migration policy but nothing has been agreed to date...

20. Erdogan Cyprus visit redraws lines of division

The lines of division on the island of Cyprus are expanding beyond the traditional split along ethnic lines, with a visit by the Turkish president this week expected to cause friction within the Greek Cypriot community over the fate of Varosha but also within the Turkish Cypriot community over political values...

21. Cyprus cases just shy of quadruple digits

An unprecedented surge in covid cases in the middle of the summer has prompted officials in the Republic of Cyprus to seek more scientific guidance after new daily infections reached 993 on Thursday....

22. Cavusoglu visit sets threshold in Cyprus talks

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says Ankara does not accept the mentality that Turkish Cypriots are a minority in Cyprus, accusing Greek Cypriots of denying equality between the two communities while also pulling favors from the European Union...

23. Protesters want cops on trial in Orestis case

A group of protesters on Wednesday called on the state attorney to order criminal prosecution against police in Cyprus’ serial killer case, following reports that officers could potentially face at most disciplinary action because witnesses would not come forward in a trial...

24. Tatar on defense over PassportGate

Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar says he would give up his Republic of Cyprus documents if there was a way, following new political controversy over citizenship on the divided island, with the newly-elected chief clarifying there were many reasons why his constituents in the north use passports issued in the south...

25. US-Turkish alliance at a critical crossroads

The rift between Joe Biden and Recep Tayyip Erdogan runs deep as the American president – in contrast to his predecessor – attaches a great deal of importance to respect for democratic values and does not see his Turkish counterpart as willing to cooperate in the framework of a world order based on shared principles and rules, Ian Bremmer, the head of Eurasia Group, tells Kathimerini in an interview....

26. Stars in Al Jazeera video face committee

27. Charges dropped against Brit expat who called mayor 'useless'

Charges were dropped on Tuesday against a British woman arrested in front of her child last week after describing the mayor of Mandria village Kypros Michaelides as ‘useless’ in a Facebook comment....

28. Alan Duncan publishes book ahead of Geneva

Sir Alan Duncan who irritated Greek Cypriots two years ago when he said sovereignty over waters off the island was 'under dispute' has written a book, in which he says the British High Commissioner felt betrayed by President Nicos Anastasiades...

29. Gloves are off again over golden passports

Cyprus’ auditor general told a House committee this week that the Cabinet used old rules to approve over two hundred golden passports after the cutoff date for an investigation ordered by the attorney general, who pushed back on the criticism saying there was 'no bottom to the abyss'...

30. Cyprus hurries to clean up company registry

Energy Minister Natasa Pilides has called on business stakeholders in Cyprus to embrace a new effort of recording and updating true information about beneficiaries of companies, saying a new digital registry can bolster transparency on the island...