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.
NICOSIA — The European Union's executive chief has pledged "more support" to Cyprus from the bloc's border agency Frontex to stem the flow of migrants to the eastern Mediterranean island nation from neighboring countries including Turkey.
Visiting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday offered no specifics on how Frontex would help but said that the EU's European Asylum Support Office would step up its efforts to help Cyprus expedite asylum applications.
Cypriot officials say the country is stretched to its limits and can hardly cope as the number of migrants and refugees who have either received or applied for international protection in Cyprus now amounts to 4% of the country's population.
EU figures show that the vast majority of the 4 437 migrants who reached Cyprus so far this year crossed a United Nations-controlled buffer zone into the ethnically split country's internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south from the breakaway, Turkish Cypriot north. The number of arrivals represents a 30% increase from the same period last year.
Most migrants fly from Turkey to Cyprus' north before crossing southward.
Cyprus was split along ethnic lines in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup aimed at union with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence and maintains more than 35,000 troops in the north.
Cyprus has formally asked Frontex to help prevent migrant arrivals from Turkey and has also asked the European Commission to help relocate to other EU countries a "significant number" of people from war-torn Syria who have been granted international protection.
The Cypriot government says Turkey has ignored the island in implementing its 2016 deal with the EU to stop migrant flows into the bloc.
Von der Leyen said the EU is currently negotiating a new migration deal with Turkey that will include a clause sending back failed asylum seekers.
EU leaders last month approved to give Turkey another 3 billion euros ($3.6 billion) over the next few years to provide fresh assistance to Syrian refugees on its territory and to help the country boost border controls.
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.