Tag: cyprus

Early summer heatwave claims first victim in Cyprus

NICOSIA, June 14, 2024 (AFP) – A 91-year-old woman became the first death from an early heatwave gripping Cyprus as the island sweltered under record June temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) on Friday. Health officials said a woman died at Nicosia General Hospital suffering from heatstroke; another five elderly patients were being treated in hospitals with severe symptoms of heatstroke. State health organisation spokesperson Charalambos Charilaou told reporters the woman suffered a cardiac […]

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Extreme heat brings Cyprus to a halt

NICOSIA, June 5, 2024 (AFP) – Outdoor work and food delivery services were suspended in Cyprus on Wednesday as the first heatwave of the year brought scorching temperatures to the Mediterranean island. The meteorological department issued an orange warning as the mercury hit 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit) in Nicosia, 38 degrees on the coast and 34 in the mountains. Due to the extreme heat alert, the labour department issued a decree stating that all […]

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Nature’s cleaners: Cyprus returns rare vultures to wild

KORFI, Cyprus (AFP) – With a wingspan as wide as a basketball hoop is tall, it took just a few flaps for the vulture to soar to freedom towards the glittering seas off Cyprus. Griffon vultures, birds that perform the vital job of clearing carcasses that could otherwise spread disease, are on the “brink of extinction” on the Mediterranean island due to poisoning, experts warn. But 15 have been returned to the wild in recent […]

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Middle East heating nearly twice as fast as global average: report

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AFP) – The Middle East is heating at nearly twice the global average, threatening potentially devastating impacts on its people and economies, a new climate study shows. Barring swift policy changes, its more than 400 million people face extreme heatwaves, prolonged droughts and sea level rises, said the report released ahead of the UN’s COP27 climate summit in Egypt later this year. The study found an average increase of 0.45 degrees Celsius per […]

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Wildlife rebounds in divided Cyprus ‘dead zone’

by Peter Martell Agence France-Presse VARISEIA, Cyprus (AFP) – In a long-abandoned village in the UN buffer zone that divides Cyprus, an endangered curly-horned wild sheep offers hope not only for wildlife but that bitter ethnic divisions might slowly be healed. The mouflon, a majestic breed endemic to the Mediterranean island, is one of many species flourishing in the no-man’s-land created when inter-communal strife sliced Cyprus in two in the 1960s. “Without human influence, the […]

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Alleged hybrid coronavirus mutation ‘Deltacron’ discovered in Cyprus likely result of lab error: experts

  PARIS, France (AFP) — Experts said Monday that an alleged hybrid coronavirus mutation dubbed “Deltacron” reportedly discovered in a Cyprus lab is most likely the result of a lab contamination, and not a new worrying variant. Cypriot media reported the discovery Saturday, describing it as having “the genetic background of the Delta variant along with some of the mutations of Omicron”. While it is possible for coronaviruses to genetically combine, it is rare, and […]

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6.6-magnitude quake hits off west coast of Cyprus: USGS

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AFP) — A 6.6-magnitude quake hit off the west coast of Cyprus early Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said. The relatively shallow quake was centered 48 kilometers (30 miles) west-northwest of the town of Polis on the Mediterranean island, the USGS said. © Agence France-Presse

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Climate change a double blow for oil-rich Mideast: experts

by Frank ZELLER Agence France-Presse PAPHOS, Cyprus (AFP) – The climate crisis threatens a double blow for the Middle East, experts say, by destroying its oil income as the world shifts to renewables and by raising temperatures to unliveable extremes. Little has been done to address the challenge in a region long plagued by civil strife, war and refugee flows, even as global warming looks likely to accelerate these trends, a conference heard last week. […]

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Cyprus huge forest blaze fully ‘under control’

by Charlie CHARALAMBOUS NICOSIA, Syria (AFP) — Firefighters in Cyprus said Monday they had brought under full control the island’s worst blaze on record, which ripped through mountain forests and farmland, killing four people and destroying scores of homes. Water-bombing planes from Greece and Israel and British aircraft from bases on the Mediterranean island helped douse the huge fire, which blackened 55 square kilometres (21 square miles) of the Troodos Mountains. The Cyprus Forestry Department […]

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Cyprus worst forest fire in decades kills four

by Valentine girl with Charlie Charalambous in Larnaca ARAKAPAS, Cyprus (AFP) — Cyprus said a deadly forest fire that was the worst to hit the island in decades was close to being brought under control Sunday after water bombing by Greek and Israeli aircraft. Fanned by strong winds, the fire broke out Saturday afternoon and swept through the southern foothills of the Troodos mountain range as the country grappled with a blistering heatwave. The fire […]

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Cyprus drops charges against 15 police in serial killings

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AFP) — Cyprus on Monday dropped its prosecution of police officers for alleged negligence and racism over the disappearance of seven foreign women and children who were victims of a serial killer. Prosecutors could not prove “beyond reasonable doubt” that the 15 officers had been criminally negligent, the office of attorney general George Savvides said in a statement. “It is clear from case law that ‘error, however serious, negligence, stupidity, inadequacy or incompetence’, […]

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British woman dies in Cyprus after AstraZeneca jab

  NICOSIA, Cyprus (AFP) — A 39-year-old British woman died in a Cypriot hospital after a blood clotting incident after receiving the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, the official Cyprus News Agency said Monday. Charalambos Charilaou, the spokesperson for the state health services, told CNA that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) would investigate the death. The woman, treated at Nicosia General Hospital’s intensive care unit, received the first dose of the vaccine on May 6 in the […]

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