General News
Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
For Cyprus, 2013 was the year it joined the Crisis Club in Europe, along with Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, in needing either a bailout or financial help disguised as one.
The fiscal woes immediately undermined newly-elected President Nicos Anastasiades who had campaigned against the idea that private bank accounts could be seized to help pay for the rescue aid.
After some protesting, he succumbed to pressure from the Troika and accepted a 10 billion euro ($13.67 billion rescue package) but the conditions included the government coming up with 13 billion euros ($17 billion) in revenues and austerity.
That led to a raid on depositors with more than 100,000 euros who lost 47.5 percent of their money as protests proved fruitless, just as they have in Greece for more than 3½ years.
“This is a challenging program that will require great efforts from the Cypriot population,” Christine Lagarde, the IMF’s Managing Director said in an understatement.
Lagarde said Cyprus needed to make substantial spending cuts “to put debt on a firmly downward path,” including in areas like social welfare programs. But she said the plan sought to be evenhanded.
Cyprus was pushed into near-insolvency when its state banks suffered 4.5 billion euros ($5.75 billion) in losses in its holdings in Greek bonds that were devalued by 74 percent and in bad loans to Greek businesses that failed during that country’s crushing economic crisis.
The government imposed capital controls that were supposed to be quickly lifted but were still in place by year’s end, limiting depositors to only 300 euros per day ($410) per day withdrawals and businesses were strapped with similar restrictions if more lenient.
In November, former president Glafcos Clerides, who ushered the country into the EU but couldn’t convince his countrymen to accept compromise and work with Turkish Cypriots who unlawfully occupied the northern third of the island for reunification, died at 94.
And so the same problem beset Anastasiades, who had only one sit-down dinner with his Turkish counterpart, Dervis Eroglu before declaring the Turks were intransigent and the negotiations over.
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza (AP) — An international team of doctors visiting a hospital in central Gaza was prepared for the worst.
NASHVILLE, ΤΝ – With a special event organized by the Hellenic Institute of Cultural Diplomacy - U.
ASTORIA – Greek Minister of the Interior Niki Kerameus offered an informative presentation on postal voting in the upcoming European Union elections for Greek citizens in a well-attended event held at the St.
NICOSIA - A meeting between the ministers of energy for Cyprus and Israel - George Papanastasiou and Eli Cohen - led to an agreement that the countries would make an underwater electric cable link a top priority, linking them to Europe.
LONDON (AP) — The British Museum on Thursday appointed National Portrait Gallery chief Nicholas Cullinan as its new director, as the 265-year-old institution grapples with the apparent theft of hundreds of artifacts and growing international scrutiny of its collection.