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 — With major travel companies such as Aegean Airlines forcing customers to take vouchers instead of refunding ticket prices when flights were canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Union is going after them, including on Cyprus.
Aegean and some travel companies have violated the EU law by offering only vouchers, doing so with the backing of their countries’ governments but the European Commission said it won’t let that happen.
The EU said it would begin an infringement procedure against ten EU member states that have not taken action to ensure that travelers receive full cash refunds within two weeks.
National legislation in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece, France, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Slovakia still violates EU rules, reported the Cyprus Mail.
“Many companies in the transport sector have been faced with unsustainable cash flows and revenue situations. Throughout this crisis, the Commission has consistently made clear that passenger rights remain valid in the current unprecedented context and national measures to support the industry must not lower them.
“These nations have adopted legislation allowing carriers to offer vouchers as the only form of reimbursement,” the Commission said, giving the countries 10 days, or until July 13 to meet the requirements or face fines.
The Cyprus Consumers’ Association has repeatedly called for vendors to provide refunds instead of vouchers and said people should demand their money back from travel agents even if they had already agreed to a voucher.
The association said customers and clients were legally entitled to a refund instead of a voucher despite the recent law amendment allowing businesses to issue vouchers instead of cash refunds for cancelled bookings.
The European Consumer Organisation has called the launching of infringement proceedings “good news,” insisting that “consumers should not be used as cheap credit to bail out the travel industry,” with Aegean asking Greece’s government for even more financial aid.
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.
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.
Mykonos’ run has been going on for a long time, bringing hordes of tourists, but it’s being cut down by its reputation for being rowdy, expensive, overcrowded and gouging diners while businesses evade taxes.