Two passengers were killed yesterday as freak 30ft waves hit a luxury cruise ship. The Cypriot owned Louis Majesty, with 1,350 on board, was battered by heavy seas near the French port of Marseille. Reinforced windows were smashed as tons of water cascaded into the forward section of the ship, killing one German and one Italian tourist. A coastguard spokesman said: “At least six other people were hurt. It was like a mini tsunami.”

By Mirror

Gas station owners in Cyprus on Thursday ended a three-day strike protesting a government-imposed cap on retail gasoline prices. Owners’ association President Stefanos Stefanou said all 280 privately owned gas stations island-wide have reopened and he apologized for the inconvenience to motorists. A small number of stations owned and operated by petroleum companies had stayed open through the strike, but could hardly cope with demand. The southwestern coastal resort of Paphos was left without any open gas stations.

Petroleum companies operating on the island include Russia’s Lukoil, Greek EKO, ESSO and Egypt’s AGIP. Owners shut their pumps to protest a temporary government decree capping 95 and 98-grade gasoline to euro0.95 ($1.28) and euro0.97 ($1.31) per liter, respectively, and diesel to euro0.875 ($1.18) per liter. Most privately owned cars on the island run on 95-grade gasoline with the price hovering between euro0.954 ($1.29) and euro0.973 ($1.31) per liter. Most commercial vehicles run on diesel.

Commerce, Industry and Tourism Minister Antonis Paschalides said he enacted the caps for eight days to prevent price gouging at the pumps. But station owners said the caps made their business unprofitable. They agreed to end the strike and sell at price cap levels after a deal with Paschalides — an appointee of the left-wing government of President Dimitris Christofias — to draft new legislation enabling his ministry to cap wholesale gas prices. A cap on wholesale prices would not cut into the station owners’ profit margin.

By BusinessWeek