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 – A ban on Russian airlines entering the European Union as part of sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine has cut deep into Cyprus’ tourism sector just as it was beginning to recover from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The losses are expected to be some 600 million euros ($613.83 million) is a key market for Russian visitors and ex-patriates and there are so many on the island that some billboards are in Russian.
In the record-busting year of 2019 – before the Coronavirus hit early in 2020 – there were some 3.9 million arrivals, including 780,000 from Russia but they can’t fly to the island directly and have to find other means to get there.
Panicos Michail, who works at Alion Beach Hotel in Agia Napa, told Euronews that it’s put a big dent in his clientele as “Russians and Ukrainians used to represent 25 to 30 percent of guests.”
He told the site that he’s trying to find travelers from other countries. “Our hotel always had a good reputation and caters to markets like Central Europe, such as Switzerland, Germany and Austria, and England.”
Christos Angelidis, President of the Pancyprian Association of Hotel Managers, said that “Nobody was prepared for this huge change, it’s a difficult problem to deal with but somehow we’re trying to cope with it. We have somewhat limited the damage but it’s impossible to replace this huge number of customers.”
Adding to their woes, hoteliers are facing prohibitive electricity costs as the invasion has set off ripples affecting energy as well and paying those bills is second only to wages for their workers.
Haris Loizides, President of the Cyprus Hotel Association said that many hotels have sent him examples of their bills, and some were being asked to pay between “100,000 to 150,000 euros ($102,310-$153,460) for only one month.”
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.