Pafos Live 1 October 2026
As part of the ongoing campaign of the Police to combat the phenomenon of electronic gambling, members of OPE Paphos, carried out a search yesterday afternoon on the basis of a court warrant, in a property in Paphos owned by a 35-year-old man.
During the search, which was carried out in the presence of the 35-year-old owner, a total of nine computer towers were located and confiscated, which are believed to be used to conduct casino gambling and other items.
The 35-year-old owner of the premises was summoned to report to the offices of the Paphos Police Department for further proceedings, while the computers were received for further scientific examinations.
Inside the premises, there were two persons, against whom court orders for fines were pending. They were arrested and taken to the Paphos Central Police Station where they settled their outstanding issues and were released The Paphos TAE in collaboration with the Paphos OPE continue the examinations.
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Pafos Press
A 20-year-old man is in prison for 15 years for the attempted murder and rape of a 26-year-old woman
A 20-year-old man was sentenced by the Permanent Criminal Court of Famagusta to a total prison sentence of 15 years, who was found guilty of attempted murder and rape of a 26-year-old woman, in a hotel in the province of Famagusta, in August 2024. A concurrent sentence of 12 years was imposed for the rape.
The 20-year-old was found guilty of the offenses of attempted murder, rape and assault causing actual bodily harm, regarding an incident that occurred in the early hours of August 31, 2024, in a hotel in the province of Famagusta. The Criminal Court had found the 20-year-old guilty on July 30, 2026, after a hearing.
According to the Court's findings, the defendant and the 26-year-old complainant met in a nightclub and then went to the hotel where the woman was staying.
The accused launched a particularly violent attack against her, with repeated blows, while at some point the 26-year-old completely lost consciousness. The Criminal Court ruled that the defendant's actions demonstrated an intent to kill the complainant.
After the woman lost consciousness, the accused raped her and then left her bloodied and helpless in the room, believing her to be dead.
The 26-year-old was rushed to the Hospital, where she was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and remained for 48 hours, until she was out of danger. He was then hospitalized for several more days before being discharged.
The conviction was based on, according to the Court, the credible testimony of the complainant, which was supported by forensic and scientific findings, DNA tests, testimonies of independent witnesses and surveillance footage.
The Criminal Court rejected the defendant's version as unreliable.
In measuring the penalty, the Court underlined the seriousness of the offences, noting that they are directed against fundamental goods such as human life and sexual freedom, and that they require severe and dissuasive penalties.
Particular emphasis was placed on the circumstances of the commission of the offences, with the Court referring to the defendant's prolonged and repeated attempt to kill the complainant, using extreme violence, and raping her while she was no longer conscious.
The sentences of 15 and 12 years will run concurrently, while the time during which the convicted person was in custody for the case will be deducted from the period of the sentence, i.e. from September 11, 2024.
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Filenews
The presence and action of the Police last night was intense, throughout Cyprus, with organized patrols in key points of urban areas, with the aim of preventing serious criminal acts, ensuring public order and increasing the sense of security of the public.
As a result of the preventive police operations, four persons were arrested for various offenses such as illegal employment and traffic offenses.
As part of these operations, during the night, 556 vehicles were stopped for inspection and 662 persons on board were checked. At the same time, 54 inspections were carried out in premises with the aim of dealing with delinquency phenomena, during which 4 complaints emerged.
During traffic checks carried out, 342 complaints were made, concerning various traffic violations, while 12 investigated cases of traffic violations also emerged.
Of the complaints made, 106 concerned exceeding the speed limit, while as part of the police examinations, 5 vehicles were detained.
124 alcohol tests were carried out, from which 10 complaints emerged, as well as 3 preliminary drug tests with a positive result.
Policing operations, for the prevention and suppression of crime, continue daily, with an increased/enhanced police presence, targeted controls and immediate operational action, with the aim of increasing the sense of security of citizens/protecting citizens and ensuring public order.
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YKAN investigators are looking for the link between the two major ketamine cases, after a new quantity was found in an apartment in the area of Amathus. At the center of the investigations are two young Israelis, 23 and 24 years old, who were arrested last Tuesday, with authorities examining whether the 27 kilograms of ketamine found in their possession are linked to the previous seizure of 390 kilograms.
At the same time, the investigators are unraveling the tangle of their movements and contacts in Cyprus, looking for answers about their role in the case. The two suspected interrogators chose to respect the right to silence.
The authorities estimate that Israel is the final destination of ketamine while our country has simply been used as a stopover.
For this reason, the movements of the two suspects since their arrival on the island, their contacts and the places where they stayed are expected to be mapped, while at the same time any persons who may be connected to them are being sought.
The two suspects were brought before the Court yesterday, which approved and ordered their pre-trial detention for 8 days.
According to the evidence put before the Court, the two young men arrived in Cyprus on September 20 as visitors and had a residence permit until December 19.
YKAN examinations show that they had rented an apartment in the area of Amathus since September 24. The case was revealed when, on Tuesday morning, the owner of the apartment went to the property to find out whether the tenants had left, as their agreed stay ended at 11 am.
The two men were not in the apartment. However, the owner found a travel suitcase, four protein bags and an airtight sealing device. When she checked the suitcase, she found that it contained drugs and immediately informed her husband, who called the Police.
Members of YKAN went to the apartment and with the consent of the owner, proceeded to investigate. Inside the suitcase, 341 grams of cannabis, 172 grams of cocaine, 2 kilograms and 492 grams of ketamine, 776 grams of mephedrone and 233 grams of MDMA were found.
The large amount of 24 kg of ketamine was hidden in the four protein bags, while the total amount found amounts to 27.5 kg.
The case took on even greater dimensions when, while the members of YKAN were in the apartment, the two young men appeared from the internal stairs of the apartment building and headed towards the specific apartment. The police stopped them for a check and revealed their status.
One attacked a member of YKAN, hitting him in the face, while the second pushed another police officer and tried to run away. The former was arrested after resisting his arrest, while the latter was stopped nearby and also arrested.
The investigators' investigations continued in a second apartment, in the presence of the two suspects. A scattered amount of ketamine, about 35 grams, was found there, as well as scraps from protein bags, which seem to be connected to the bags in which the large amount of ketamine was hidden in the Amathus department.
At the same time, the investigations found a sum of about €10,000, in various banknotes
At the same time, yesterday a search was carried out in a specific hotel and then in another apartment, where, according to what one of the two suspects reported, he had stayed for two days, having booked through an apartment rental platform.
The prosecution amended the indictment against the two ophthalmologists who performed the operation in question on patients in a private hospital in Nicosia. After this development, the two doctors pleaded guilty to the charge they face for the eight persons.
What differs is not the accusation of negligent and reckless acts, but the details of the offenses mentioned in the indictment. Previously, the two doctors were accused of causing blindness by reusing a consumable.
Now, however, the wording has changed and is limited to mentioning that they "endangered human life or are likely to cause bodily harm to another" by reusing disposable disposables.
The patients had suffered blindness in one of their eyes, as after the operation in October 2020 they were infected with the multidrug-resistant strain pseudomonas aeruginosa and lost their vision.
The District Judge, Pavlos Agapitos, set the next hearing on October 29, when the representative of the prosecution, Elena Konstantinou, will set out the admissible facts, while the defense attorney, Marios Spyrou, will expose the mitigating factors for his clients. A new hearing will be set for the announcement of the sentence against the two doctors who are in their sixth decade of age.
The trial was also attended by lawyers of the patients and their families, who have filed a civil lawsuit for compensation.
He photographed bases, air installations and military aircraft. The case of a Limassol resident, who faced charges of, among other things, terrorism and espionage, reached the Supreme Court where the judges unanimously rejected his appeal and ruled that the procedure followed by the Police for the examination of digital evidence was legal. The accused had questioned the legality of a court warrant that allowed the Police to gain access to private communication content from electronic devices and other evidence that had been confiscated from his apartment.
The Court rejected all four grounds of appeal, essentially upholding the first-instance decision by which the appellant had not been allowed to proceed with an application for the issuance of a privileged order of certiorari.
The case concerns a warrant of the Limassol District Court, dated June 25, 2025, which was issued following a unilateral request by the Police, under the relevant legislation for the protection of the confidentiality of private communication. The warrant allowed access, inspection and reception of private communication content that was recorded or stored in specific documents.
The appellant had argued that the Police had already gained access to the contents of the seized devices prior to the issuance of the warrant and that the subsequent judicial approval was an attempt to legalize the prior access and processing of data.
According to the evidence examined by the Court, the appellant had been arrested under a court warrant for various offences, including under anti-terrorism and espionage laws. The police testimony showed him moving in areas near the British Bases of Episkopi-Akrotiri, Paphos Airport and the "Andreas Papandreou" Air Base, having with him a large camera and three mobile phones, while he allegedly took photos, talked on the phone and took notes.
During the search of his apartment, two mobile phones, three SIM cards, a laptop, a camera and a camera memory card were confiscated. A large number of photos and videos of military and other facilities, as well as aircraft and helicopters, were found on the devices.
The Supreme Court examined in particular the actions taken by the investigating authorities between 21 and 25 June 2025, prior to the issuance of the warrant at issue. For the computer, the hard disk had been removed and a forensic copy had been created, and then an automated analysis of its contents was carried out. From mobile phones and SIM cards, the contents were forensically extracted and copies were stored in electronic folders.
The Supreme Court ruled that the specific actions did not constitute access to "recorded content of private communication", as defined in the relevant legislation. As he explained, the creation of forensic copies and their storage, as well as the analyses described, did not prove to involve access to private communication content.
The Court also made special reference to the photographic material found on the devices, pointing out that mobile phones are multifunction machines and can also function as cameras. The examination of photographs or videos as photographic material is not in itself a matter of private communication, unless the material in question has been sent in some way to another person.
Therefore, the Supreme Court held that the Court of First Instance was right to rule that there was no debatable issue justifying the granting of permission to register an application for certiorari.
The claim that the principle of proportionality was not considered was also rejected. The Supreme Court found that the Court of First Instance had examined the issue and concluded that the principle of proportionality was not violated.
The appeal was dismissed unanimously.
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An unprecedented lawsuit is being brought before the Cypriot court, with a young girl claiming damages of more than €2 million. for serious complications in her health, which she claims were caused by the use of baby powder from the well-known company Johnson & Johnson.
The girl's legal advisors have already sent the company a relevant letter with their client's demands and if she does not respond, a lawsuit will be filed.
The case is the first to be promoted in Cyprus, but in foreign countries the manufacturing company has been in court for years, after lawsuits filed by women.
In the demand letter, the woman claiming compensation, in addition to the medical file she invokes, also cites photographic material related to operations she has undergone and which, as she claims, were the result of the company's powder use.
The complainant claims that as a result of the use of the powder she was affected by mesothelioma, which develops in the mesothelium.
She claims, in her statement, that she used children's powder from this company on a daily basis, not only when she was a child (from birth) but also when she became an adult.
She further claims that she received treatment, including operations abroad, and that she suffered significant expenses and financial losses.
According to her lawyer, the woman is still facing health consequences. She found out about the problem relatively recently and has been suffering ever since. In fact, she claims that other problems were created for her, as a woman, which could not be addressed.
The plaintiff's lawyers are the law firms Kleopa & Paraskeva LLC and Leonidas Georgiou.
It is noted that in a relevant text in the "Nomiki Bibliothiki", dated July 30, 2026, it is stated that the company announced a proposed settlement agreement of 5.5 billion to settle tens of thousands of lawsuits in the United States, through which it was claimed that the baby powder and other talcum powder products it produced were linked to ovarian cancer.
The same text clarifies that the amount of 5,5 billion dollars is an estimate and not the ceiling.
According to the same report, quoted by Reuters, the agreement, which could end a legal dispute that has lasted more than a decade, concerns about 76.000 existing claims.
"The Reuters article is one-sided, false and incendiary," the company's response said, calling it an "absurd conspiracy theory." "Johnson & Johnson baby powder is safe and asbestos-free. Studies of more than 100,000 men and women show that talc does not cause cancer or asbestos-related diseases. Thousands of independent tests by regulators and the world's leading laboratories prove that our baby powder never contained asbestos."
According to other reports, 69,000 cases are pending in state and federal courts. The final agreement will only enter into force if it is accepted by at least 90% of the plaintiffs.
It is noted, however, that the company Johnson & Johnson continues to deny that talcum powder products (skin care products) cause cancer.
The lawsuits abroad are based on the claim that long-term use of talcum powder, particularly in the genital area, may be linked to the occurrence of ovarian cancer.
According to the Nomiki Bibliothiki, the company, for its part, characterizes the lawsuits as "unfounded", arguing that the talc it used in its products was safe and did not contain asbestos. It also claims that the agreement is not an admission of responsibility on its part but is a settlement settlement aimed at resolving existing claims without continuing the court proceedings.
International litigation and settlements
In the United States and Canada, the company stopped selling talc-based baby powder from the year 2020. Subsequently, in 2022, it announced that it would discontinue, in 2023, the sale of talc-based baby powder on a global basis and replace it with products made from corn starch. And in this case, the company did not admit that the products it withdrew cause cancer, attributing its energy to consumer preferences.
However, the company also won some lawsuits, while in other cases the original decisions against it were overturned in the appeals process.
Nevertheless, it is proceeding with out-of-court settlements and, according to reports citing the company, about 95% of mesothelioma lawsuits have already been settled, as well as all claims based on US state consumer protection laws and disputes with talc suppliers.
The issue is also of concern to Britain, where court proceedings have also been initiated over related claims. In fact, in the case of Britain, claims were made that the company was aware of the potential risks of using talc but continued to market its products. The claims mainly concern ovarian cancer and mesothelioma.
In addition, according to relevant reports, lawyers representing the plaintiffs confirmed the settlement agreement, describing it as satisfactory. However, for the matter to be closed in the US, the agreement must be accepted by at least 95% of the relevant plaintiffs/applicants.
A car arson in a village in the province of Larnaca is under investigation, with the fire breaking out around 2.40 in the morning in a vehicle parked outside the house of its 39-year-old owner.
The fire was extinguished by the 39-year-old himself, who informed the Police about the incident around 7 in the morning.
From the examinations carried out at the scene, it was found that the fire was set maliciously using flammable material.
The case is being investigated by the Zygi Police Station.
