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SEVEN in ten people hired in the hotel industry will now be Cypriots as part of an EU-funded scheme, commerce minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis said yesterday. He was briefing the House Commerce Committee on measures to support the tourist industry – one of the biggest contributors the Cyprus economy – at a time of austerity and cutbacks. Lakkotrypis said that President Nicos Anastasiades was due to announce a raft of measures today on the economy, including the plan to increase employment in hotels for Cypriots. The labour minister and hoteliers had already agreed on the plan, which "will make a difference," Lakkotrypis said. ... 7 comments

OVER THE last week most Cypriots have watched the dramatic events unfold with morbid fascination, aware that their lives were about to change in ways not seen since the Turkish invasion. Yesterday as the denouement approached and the island’s fate was being brutally thrashed out in Brussels, the public response was a combination of fear, anger and plain fatigue.“Do you understand what’s going on? Cyprus is destroyed,” a 55-year-old Cypriot woman living in London said. “I’ve been crying for days now.““It’s all horrible. I keep watching the news. I am depressed,” 56-year-old Margarita Xenofontous said.“No one knows what they are doing, with no exceptions,” said Christina Theophilou, a 33-year-old mother of two who is pregnant with her third... 10 comments