DAYS after being drafted into the National Guard, Antonis Prokopiou Kitas, better known as ‘Al Capone’, went AWOL taking his army-issued rifle with him.
Kitas had joined the commandos – unit of the ‘hard cases’, especially back in the day.
But the devil-may-care attitude soon gave way revealing Kitas’ true nature. Tragically, that was not before he had murdered and raped two women, resulting in his conviction and sentencing to life imprisonment in 1994.
Psychiatrist Yiangos Mikellides, who was working for the state psychiatric services in the 1980s, recalls the army incident. He unequivocally calls Kitas a psychopath.
“He has no moral inhibitions, no remorse. It’s in his DNA,” he told the Sunday Mail... 6 comments

AS ROMAN Catholics from across the region prepare to descend on Cyprus en masse this June to greet His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, the pressure is on to ensure security measures and general sprucing up are completed on schedule.
Security is always the biggest headache for any high-profile visit, but in this case it’s even more of a challenge. The Pope will be staying at the friary of the Holy Cross Church, which lies partially in the buffer zone near Paphos Gate in Nicosia and partially in the Turkish occupied area of northern Nicosia. Surrounding the friary and church are empty, decaying buildings, piles of disintegrating sandbags, and narrow streets, not all of which are controlled either by the government or the UN Peacekeeping Forces... 5 comments

 
OWNERS of hotels, tourist apartments and other businesses along the Tombs of the Kings road in Paphos, outraged that long-running roadworks will continue until the end of the year, have begged local authorities to stop work for the summer months.
“I’m just totally fed up,” said one local businessman, who runs a pub in the area.
“Enough is enough. I can’t see my business making it through the summer at this rate. This road situation will most probably finish us off,” added the man who didn’t wish to be identified.
But despite the pleas for work to stop for June, July and August, Eftychious Malakides, the district engineer of SABBA, the sewerage board said: “This is just not possible... 3 comments

"Did you hide my keys in your bag?"
Pause, breathe, "No."
"Did you hide my keys in your pocket?"
Outside a bird tweets. Then all is silent again. "No."
Then a pause that feels like an eternity. I know what's coming, and draw breath.
"Did you hide my keys in my jacket pocket?"
I focus on steadying my breathing, and repeat. "No."
The polygraph continues to track my vital statistics as the test continues…
I am in a quiet Nicosian suburb to meet Yiannis Saveriades. He is a US certified polygrapher, who’s currently trying to introduce lie detection technology to Cyprus. Intrigued by a flyer that arrived in the Cyprus Mail letterbox, I decided to visit his offices and find out more... 1 comment

LAST MONTH might prove to be just like any month, any February of any year in the calendar cycle. Or it could prove to be the month that saw a fundamental shift in Turkish policy on Cyprus and the obstinate conflict that refuses to be quiet.
Three key Turkish figures in the top echelons of power broke new ground, opening backchannels of communication with Greek Cypriots for the first time in decades.
Mid-February, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu invited Greek Cypriot representatives of academia and civil society to his offices in Ankara to discuss Greek-Turkish relations and the Cyprus problem... 19 comments

THE stated aim of International Women’s Day, celebrated tomorrow, may well be the economic, political and social achievements of women, but for one group of women it is a chance to publicise the plight of divorced women.
The Pancyprian Divorced Women’s Association is marking the day by demonstrating outside the Presidential Palace to demand changes to what the woman say are grossly unfair and out-dated divorce laws.
“Under existing laws women can be forced to pay their ex-husband’s mortgage debts and ex-husbands can take property previously owned by their wives,” says association president Loulla Savvidou. Courts also make inadequate provision for the collection of child support payments, she added... 1 comment

TIME WAS that you went to Syria for a weekend to scoop up cheap carpets and curtains. Nowadays it’s more likely to be in search of a cut-price Hollywood smile.
Cosmetic dental surgery, such as veneers, and dental implants are now de rigeur, but in Cyprus they do not come cheap. In nearby Syria they do, which is why around 800 Cypriots each year are travelling to get the procedures done at a fraction of the cost.
“One whole plane, when I went, was full of people going to get their teeth done!” exclaims 42-year-old Panayiota Christofias, a recent visitor to Syria for dental tourism.
Some years ago, Panayiota had visited a local dentist and been quoted a cost of 10,750 euros to replace a missing tooth with an implant, six veneers and three root canals... 2 comments

March – the month of expectation
 ... Read on

An exhibition in Nicosia next weekend will showcase green technologies available for home owners, reflecting a growing interest in the sector. ELENI ANTONIOU reports
Flipping through a bunch of EU Project Reports on renewable energy, the one thing that catches my eye are the words ‘budget’ and ‘contribution’; the latter is accompanied by ’50 per cent’. This, without a doubt, is one of the main reasons the citizens of Cyprus have finally begun to embrace the government’s attempts to bring CO2 emissions down and put those abundant renewable resources to good use... Read on

As a migraine sufferer NICOLA MAKARITIS has struggled for years but a new pill available in Cyprus has proved to put an end to her pain... 6 comments