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.
AKROTIRI, Cyprus – Despite widespread reports that a United Kingdom military base on the island would be a launching spot for airstrikes on Syria for using chemical weapons, the Cypriot government said it knew nothing.
Four Royal Air Force Tornado jets from the Akrotiri base in Cyprus fired Storm Shadow missiles at a military facility near Homs where it was assessed that Syria had stockpiled chemicals, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said. ?“Cyprus did not have any participation in this operation and conditions of full security exist in our country,” Cypriot government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou said in a statement, the news agency Reuters said.
That came three days after Kathimerini said Tornado bombers at RAF Akrotiri were on standby and ready to strike against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, just days after a US missile destroyer left Larnaca port.
A lot of activity was taking place at Britain’s Tornado base in Cyprus, according to the British press but apparently the Cypriot government didn’t know, given the response from President Nicos Anastasiades’ government.
“The Authorities of the Republic of Cyprus have been monitoring the situation from the first moment, however, Cyprus did not receive any prior briefing,” Prodromou said.?Neither the airspace of Cyprus, or its flight information region – a huge swathe of eastern Mediterranean airspace – was used, he said without explaining where the jets flew when they took off from the island.
“We hope that it will subsequently be possible for military operations to be avoided in Syria and that sources of danger in this neighboring country will be addressed with peaceful means and through dialogue,” he said even though that path has failed utterly.?Britain retains two sovereign bases in Cyprus, a colony until independence in 1960. There are about 3,100 British troops on the island.
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.
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.
ATHENS - The European Union needs to get involved in the case of the two-year jail sentence given ethnic Greek Fredi Beleri who was elected Mayor of the seaside town of Himare and said the trial was a farce to get him and protect Prime Minister Edi Rama’s business friends.
Brace yourself for what could be another scorching summer in Greece as scientists are anxious that a warm winter - the warmest January recorded - and climate change will continue to bring weather anomalies.