Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 11-12-29

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From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>

CONTENTS

[01] Cyprus will address any potential threat from Turkey Defence

Minister says

[02] Cyprus receives part of loan from Russia

[03] PIP breast implants rebranded and sold by company registered in

Cyprus

[04] Census records 21.7% increase in population

[01] Cyprus will address any potential threat from Turkey Defence Minister says

Eliades speaking after a meeting of the Standing Ministerial Crisis Management Group on Search and Rescue, held at the Rescue Coordination Centre in Larnaka, which the Ministers of Defence, Interior, Justice and Public Order, Foreign Affairs and Communications and Works attended, said that they discussed issues of coordination and efficiency, so that Cyprus can exercise its sovereign rights effectively, including fulfillment of search and rescue operations, within its FIR and EEZ.

He underlined that especially after recent developments in the EEZ, rescue cases will appear more often, as was the case recently with two incidents that had to be coordinated by the Centre for Search and Rescue operations involving transfer of two injured from the platform of Noble.

For these reasons he continued, ``we put effort and coordinate so that the state can interfere effectively and deal with emergency situations.

Replying to a question regarding cooperation of the Republic with neighboring countries on search and rescue the Minister of Defence said Cyprus cooperates with Greece, Israel and other neighboring countries, pointing out that joint exercises are being planned.

He added that Cyprus has also agreements with a number of countries, while agreements with other countries are being drafted, so that Cyprus could be developed and function as a regional center for search and rescue in cooperation with neighboring states.

[02] Cyprus receives part of loan from Russia

According to an official press release, the final agreement for the loan was signed on December 23, by the Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Sergey Storchak on behalf of the Government of the Russian Federation and by the Minister of Finance Kikis Kazamias on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus.

[03] PIP breast implants rebranded and sold by company registered in Cyprus

According to statements by the Cypriot Minster of Health Stavros Malas, the Ministry is investigating whether M-implants of Rofil company have been used for women in Cyprus that have undergone plastic surgery.

As he explained, PIP and M-implants are exactly the same thing, but the latter are produced by Rofil, a company which is registered in Cyprus and operating in the Netherlands.

``It is a type of implants called M - implants, which is of the same packaging and manufacturing as PIP implants, but they were `rebranded` by a company registered in Cyprus and operating in Europe,`` he said.

[04] Census records 21.7% increase in population

The results of the census, which began on October 1 and was concluded on December 23, were announced by Director of the Statistical Service George Georgiou.

The distribution of the population by gender was 51.3% women and 48.7% men, with Nicosia holding 38.8% of the total population, Limassol 28%, Larnaca 17.1%, Paphos 10.5%, and Famagusta 5.5%.

The district with the highest population rise in 2011 compared to 2001 was Paphos with a growth rate of 33%, followed by Larnaca with 24.4%, Famagusta with 23.1%, Limassol with 19.6%, and Nicosia with 19%.

Georgiou noted that the increase in the population was also due to the number of foreign nationals, which reached 21.4% of the total population, compared to 9.4% in 2001. A total of 179,547 foreigners were recorded, of which 62.6% from EU countries and 37.4% from third countries.

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