IN THE END, the wiser heads prevailed and the legislature did not declare the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advisor Alexander Downer persona non grata. Instead a lukewarm resolution censuring Downer for his “lop-sided and damaging statements,” which “diverge from the UN Charter and UN resolutions on Cyprus” was passed. It also called for the “restoration of the Special Advisor’s objectivity and trustworthiness,” while observing that his comments and actions “constitute an undermining of the Republic of Cyprus as a state.” The resolution, prompted by Downer’s reference in New York to the “Greek Cypriot presidency of the EU,” a slip for which he subsequently apologised, would be sent to Ban Ki-moon. All the fuss the politicians made in the previous week came to nothing. Deputies had elevated Downer to public enemy number one because of his reference to the “Greek Cypriot presidency”, in the aftermath of Greentree, denounced his, supposedly, pro-Turkish stance and planned to de...

Author:  Poly Pantelides AFTER turning against UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer accusing him of hampering the Cyprus negotiations, parties yesterday turned against each other. Just a day after the House passed a unanimous resolution asking for the “restoration of the Special Adviser’s objectivity and reliability”, AKEL and DISY came under fire for opposing a stronger amendment to the resolution from DIKO, which wanted Downer’s removal. Downer has lost favour with parties since the latest talks at Greentree after referring to the taking over of the EU Presidency by Greek Cypriots instead of using the term ‘Republic of Cyprus Presidency’ or ‘Cyprus’ EU Presidency’. His actions stripped him “of credibility… but more importantly they hamper the entire process of talks aimed at solving the Cyprus problem” Thursday’s resolution said. But it seems that not enough blood was drawn. Fotis Fotiou, the spokesman for DIKO, which was part of the government coalition until mid 2011, cam...

THE BUS strike continued for a third day yesterday with drivers warning that if government and companies did not work out their differences, they would escalate measures.  Bus drivers who have been striking over not been paid their January wages said that if nothing changed by Monday they carry out their threat.  “We are thinking of how we can escalate our struggle,” union SEK’s Pantelis Stavrou said. While services resumed in Larnaca on Thursday, commuters in the island’s remaining districts continued being inconvenienced. Stavrou said that if by Monday the situation had not changed that strikers from all districts should get together to decided “what stronger actions we should take”. “We are determined to see this through,” Stavrou’s Paphos colleague Petros Demosthenous said.  The bus companies are saying they have no cash flow because the government has not paid them the agreed subsidies while the government said it had transferred enough cash for companies to pay their...

Author:  Alexis Pantelides A CYPRIOT businessman is suing the investigation department of the Russian Interior Ministry, after he was illegally detained and interrogated during his last visit to Moscow on January 20.  George Philippides, who manages the assets and oversees investments of several offshore Russian companies in Cyprus, had flown to Moscow to negotiate a payoff of a loan owed to the Bank of Moscow. According to Philippides’ lawyer, Christos Clerides, policemen dressed in civilian clothes, barged into his client’s hotel room on the pretext that they were searching for drugs and guns.  The officers confiscated Philippides’ mobile phone, laptop and all his dossiers, including files on other clients.  He was then taken to the police station, where he was interrogated for seven hours “exclusively on the Bank of Moscow loan” Clerides said. After the mediation of his lawyers, Philippides was freed and was allowed to return to Cyprus, where he consulted the Russian-Cypri...

LOW-COST airline Ryanair will open a new route from Paphos to Budapest, it announced yesterday. The airline is celebrating the new route by releasing one million €12 seats for travel in April on more than 1,000 routes within Europe.  The seats are available for booking up until midnight of Monday, February 6. The addition of the new route will bring to 15 the number of Ryanair flights to be operated out of Paphos. For more information look to www.ryanair.com   

Author:  Natalie Hami PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias yesterday laid the foundations stone for the new state-of-the-art University of Cyprus library, which is set to open its doors in September 2014. The library’s collection, which will be housed in an impressive dome-shaped building holding  around 600,000 books, more than 30,000 magazines and 40,000 books all in digital format plus 10,000 audio books and 150 databases. Its contents will be accessible to all Cypriots. “The completion of this particular project, the Stelios Ioannou Information Centre-Library, will constitute a significant core for the development of society’s knowledge, as well as being an architectural landmark,” said Christofias at the ceremony held yesterday. Also present at the ceremony was Education Minister Giorgos Demosthenous along with various government officials and mps. The project , which in addition to the library, includes an information centre, technical support for teaching and a language centre, was desi...

Author:  Jacqueline Agathocleous THE COMMUNICATIONS Ministry is preparing a bill that will increase penalty points and impose heftier fines for traffic violations. If the new changes are passed into law, drivers could lose their licences for up to two years if they keep reoffending.  In a meeting at the ministry– headed by Minister Efthymios Flourentzos with representatives of the Supreme Court, Police Traffic Department and the ministry’s Road Safety Unit – the final changes were decided. The bill will now be sent to the Attorney-general to check the legal aspects, before being sent to the Cabinet for approval and then Parliament to be passed into law. According to Georgios Morfakis, the head of the Road Safety Unit, the ministry hopes the bill will reach the House in the next few weeks. “A bill was prepared regarding, among others, the points system that is applied in Cyprus,” Morfakis said yesterday. “But before it was promoted to parliament, the Communications Minister felt it sh...

Author:  Simon Bahceli CALLS were renewed yesterday for a repeal of the north’s antiquated homesexuality laws after two prisoners appeared in court charged with carrying out “unnatural sex acts” in their prison cell.  The two, one of whom is a Nigerian national, were ordered to be “remanded for no longer than a month” to await trial. The Nigerian is already on remand facing charges of larceny, while the other, a Turkish national, is serving ten months for forgery.  Local activists’ calls for homosexuality charges against the two men to be dropped were yeseterday backed by the European Parliament’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Intergroup. In a letter sent to Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu and the media, LGBT Intergroup called on the north to stick to promises he twice made to London MEP Maria Yannakoudakis to repeal the outdated and draconian laws. It attacked Eroglu for not sticking to his word.  “Dr. Ero?lu has twice promised me that the northern p...

Author:  Jacqueline Agathocleous PARLIAMENT has finally started discussions on the EU harmonising bill for blue cards, which will allow employment of highly qualified non-European nationals into the country. Speaking after the meeting, Committee Chairman, AKEL’s Yiannos Lamaris said the EU directive should in fact have been ratified at the start of 2011. “The Blue Card is valid indefinitely; however, if the beneficiary remains unemployed for over a period of three months, the card will be revoked,” Lamaris explained. “The directive offers EU member states the ability to acquire people with high expertise in specific sectors,” said Lamaris, adding that strict conditions would be included in the law to ensure local scientists weren’t aversely affected. More specifically, the blue cards will be issued to third country experts, provided there are no Cypriots to fill the position. Lamaris said the directive gave member states the right to determine the amount of cards that can be issued, as we...

Author:  Alexis Pantelides MURDER suspect Elena Skordelli was so envious of Sigma channel colleague Elita Michaelidou that the psychic she was visiting .

The revolt against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, inspired by uprisings which toppled three Arab leaders in 2011, has taken a sectarian slant as most of the protesters trying to topple the president are Sunnis. Assad is from Syria's minority Alawite sect and critics say the president has filled senior political and military posts with Alawites to impose his rule through sectarian loyalty. THE ALAWITE SECT -- Sunnis Muslims make up 74 per cent of Syria's 22 million population, Alawites 12 per cent, Christians 10 per cent and Druze 3 per cent. Ismailis, Yezidis and a few Jews make up the rest. -- The clannishness, secrecy and tenacity of Syria's power elite around Assad have deepened Sunni Muslim suspicions about the enigmatic Alawite faith. -- An oppressed minority for most of their history, Alawites suddenly cemented their control in Syria in 1970 when Assad's father Hafez staged a coup that sidelined the Sunnis. He built a ferocious security apparatus based on fellow Alawite officers. -- Allying with...

Author:  Philip Pullella A ruling by Italy's highest appeals court that said those charged with gang rape do not always have to go to prison while awaiting trial has outraged women's groups and some politicians who fear it will make rape a "third-class crime". The court, ruling on a point of law in the appeal of two 19-year-old men charged with gang raping a 13-year-old girl, said on Thursday that judges could decide on a case-by-case basis whether to prescribe jail, house arrest or other forms of detention such as checking in with police once a day while they were awaiting trial. Pre-trial custody was previously obligatory for those charged with gang rape while house arrest was permissible in some cases of those charged with rape committed by an individual, particularly a minor. Critics fear the ruling could encourage some judges to mete out lenient sentences in future gang rape cases. "This is a ruling that risks making gang rape a third-class crime," said Giulia Bongiorno, one of Italy's most famo...

Author:  Parisa Hafezi Iran’s supreme leader threatened on Friday to retaliate against the West for sanctions, a day after a US newspaper said defence secretary Leon Panetta believed Israel was likely to bomb Iran within months to stop it building a nuclear bomb. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's defiant televised speech marking the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution was the first time the top authority has spoken publicly about the impact of the new sanctions, which have strangled the Iranian economy since the start of the year. The long-simmering confrontation between the West and Iran over its nuclear programme entered a decisive phase last month. Iran began enriching uranium at a deep underground bunker and the United States and Europe imposed new sanctions to prevent Tehran selling oil, putting its economy in a downward spiral. Iran holds a parliamentary election in a month – its first since a 2009 presidential vote triggered a failed popular uprising – and its tightly-controlled political ...

Author:  Philip Pullella A ruling by Italy's highest appeals court that said those charged with gang rape do not always have to go to prison while awaiting .

The revolt against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, inspired by uprisings which toppled three Arab leaders in 2011, has taken a sectarian slant as most of the protesters trying to topple the .

Author:  George Georgiopoulos Where have the billion of euros Greeks have pulled out of their crisis-hit banks gone? Mostly home in cash or into safety .

Fitch Rating downgraded on Thursday three Cypriot banks by one notch since finding p

Consumer prices fell by 1.6% compared with the previous month in January despite another increase in electricity tariffs, while the annual in

Author:  Nemanja Bjedov APOEL manager Ivan Jovanovic is hopeful his team can turn the tables on AEL tomorrow afternoon at the Tsirion Stadium after suffering two consecutive 1-0 defeats to the Limassol side this season. “It will be a very difficult match against a high-standing team. What troubles me is that we have lost the last two matches against them,” said Jovanovic. “When we played them we showed no composure, but our aim is always to win.” The Serb revealed that Gustavo Manduca will rejoin the team by the beginning of next week and that Aldo Adorno has a slight injury problem after last weekend’s victory over Apollon, while Helder Souza is suspended. After a long absence Ailton has begun training and will have a late fitness test before the match. “As a manager you always have some ideas you want to test. For example, you could switch players’ positions. Adorno and Esteban Solari do not do the same job for me, as each of them has a specific style of play, but the final team selec...

Russia’s Deputy Minister of Energy Yury Sentyurin will be visiting Cyprus

Author:  John Mehaffey   FOUR different champions in as many years underlines the difficulty of predicting a winner in this season's Six Nations championship starting tomorrow. "I'm not a regular reader of the odds but I imagine they're tight because it's as tight a championship as there's ever been," Ireland coach Declan Kidney said at the official Six Nations launch. "The championship could be decided by points difference. Each match is like a Cup final in its own right." The tournament's format, in which teams hold home advantage for three of their five games on alternate years, is as useful a starting point as any in seeking a potential champion with early indications pointing to a France-Wales finale in Cardiff on March 17. France, who ran New Zealand desperately close in last October's World Cup final, are the bookmakers' favourites with home matches against Italy, Ireland and champions England. They travel to Cardiff for the final day of the championship to meet a Welsh side who will have...

Author:  Elias Hazou   THE HOUSE of Representatives adopted a resolution last night accusing UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer of lacking credibility and of hampering the Cyprus negotiations. It stopped short of calling for the Australian’s replacement however, despite calls by some deputies to do so.  The resolution, passed by unanimous vote, will be addressed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. It calls for the “restoration of the Special Adviser’s objectivity and reliability.” “The House of Representatives deems that the lop-sided and damaging statements and actions of the UN Special Adviser diverge from the provisions of the UN Charter and UN Resolutions on Cyprus,” the resolution read. Downer run afoul of Greek Cypriot parties after they interpreted a reference he made to Greek Cypriots taking over the EU presidency as ‘Greek Cypriot EU Presidency”. Instead he should have used ‘Cyprus’ or ‘Republic of Cyprus’ Presidency, critics said. The backlash following t...

NOBODY should be surprised about the dispute between the government and bus companies over the level of the state assistance the latter should receive. Like so many projects undertaken by the government, the bus project was pursued without adequate study and planning and less than two years after its introduction the two sides are at loggerheads. Bus drivers were on strike Wednesday, because they had not been paid for January, the companies blaming the government, because it had not transferred adequate sums. The dispute is over how much the government should pay companies. The agreement was for the companies to be paid €2.92 per kilometre – a very generous rate – but the communications ministry has realised that this rate was too high and has unilaterally lowered it by citing accounting arguments about capital. Predictably, the law firm representing the bus companies issued a statement accusing the ministry of “arbitrary, unjustified, illegal and anti-conventional behaviour,” and it had a point...

FITCH Ratings has downgraded the Bank of Cyprus (BOC), Marfin Popular Bank (MPB) and Hellenic Bank's (HB) long-term and short-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDR), Support Rating Floors (SRF), Support Ratings and Viability Ratings (VR) following the sovereign rating  action taken on Cyprus. Fitch downgraded BOC, MPB and HB's long-term IDRs and SRFs to 'BB+' from 'BBB-' and their short-term IDRs to 'B' from 'F3' and removed them from Rating Watch Negative. These actions were the direct consequence of Cyprus' sovereign downgrade last week to a notch shy of junk, as well as Fitch's reassessment of the potential support available to the banks, the agency said. Fitch said that while the Cypriot government's propensity to support banks remains unchanged, its ability to do so has been reduced as reflected in the downgrade of Cyprus' rating. The Negative Outlook on the banks' long-term IDRs indicates that any further downgrade of Cyprus' sovereign rating and/or any change that reduced the likelihood of internat...

Author:  George Psyllides THE bus strike continued in most districts yesterday and was set to continue for a third day today as the government and companies failed to bridge their differences despite intensive talks. Services resumed in Larnaca yesterday and according to Communications Minister Efthimios Flourentzos Famagusta would follow suit today. He also said he expected the Nicosia company to have services running today but last night there was no sign that the strike had been called off in the capital. Differences remained with Limassol and Paphos companies, which were expected to continue with the strike despite successive meetings at the ministry. Bus drivers went on an indefinite strike because they had not been paid January wages. Their bosses say the government has not paid them the agreed subsidies and they had no cash to pay employees. The government said it had transferred enough cash for the companies to pay staff and accused them of using strike action as leverage to get more money. F...

Author:  George Psyllides THE government will look into selling a majority stake in Cyprus Airways, Finance Minister Kikis Kazamias said today, as the national carrier struggles to remain afloat. Speaking at the annual hoteliers’ conference, Kazamias said the ministry has prepared a proposal, asking for a decision that the government is prepared to negotiate with an investor, without ruling out sale of its majority stake. “Only this way we can get someone to show interest in a company, which has given and is giving a lot to the country, especially tourism, but from an economic view, it seems it was not doing well in the last decades,” the minister said. The proposal will be tabled before the cabinet during its next meeting or the one after that, the minister said. The government currently owns 69.57 per cent of the company, while the remaining 30.43 per cent is owned by private investors.  Kazamias said “we have reached zero hour” and a catalytic move must be made. He added that any mo...

THE HEALTH Ministry is considering a change in legislation that would introduce increased fees for treatment at state hospitals. According to news reports yesterday, the bill includes a €10 fee for A&E visits, as well as €0.50 on every pharmaceutical purchased from state pharmacies. The fees will have to be coughed up by everyone, whether they hold a medical card or not. Furthermore, to register at the hospital, all patients except pensioners will have to pay €5. The new bill will also provide a 30 per cent increase in the cost of all health services offered, as well as €10 registration fee for visits to the Accidents and Emergencies Unit. This latter move hopes to reduce the number of people who visit A&E for the wrong reasons. The bill is expected to reach the House “very soon”, the reports said. Health Minister Stavros Malas said yesterday he could not confirm the details but conceded that there were “thoughts” of upping the charges.

Author:  Jacqueline Agathocleous PATIENTS must follow the proper procedures when it comes to the reimbursement of charges paid to private hospitals, otherwise they will receive nothing, they were warned yesterday. The House Health Committee yesterday discussed complaints from members of the public who said they had been sent for treatment to private clinics due to shortages at state hospitals, and then told by the Health Ministry that they would not have their money reimbursed. “In recent months, we have heard of various cases where patients were turned away from Nicosia General Hospital due to lack of space and told to seek treatment privately, with the assurance that their medical bills will be reimbursed,” said EDEK’s Roulla Mavronicola, who tabled the matter for discussion. “They are then left with massive bills when the ministry refuses to pay them...or in the worst cases, the patient dies and relatives are left to pick up the bill.” Explaining the procedure, the Health Ministry’s pe...

THE GOVERNMENT is monitoring Turkish plans for onshore oil drilling in the occupied north and aims to report such actions to the United Nations, Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis has said. She said authorities have information that the drilling will take place either in the occupied village of Singrasi or near the archaeological site of Engomi. Whichever the case may be, Marcoullis said, in the event these reports are confirmed the Republic would be reporting these “illegal acts” to the European Union and other international organizations. Earlier this month Turkish Cypriot daily Haberdar published what it claimed was the exact location of planned land-based drilling for oil and gas in the north. The paper said the drilling site was in hilly terrain between the villages of Lapathos and Singrasi. It said the drilling operations – to be undertaken by Turkey’s national petroleum corporation TPAO – would get underway in late February.

RUSSIA’S Deputy Minister of Energy Yury Sentyurin will be visiting Cyprus next week for the Russia-Cyprus Business and Investment Forum to take place on February 10 in Limassol. Sentyurin will be moderating a panel discussion entitled “Business Opportunities”. Phidias Pilides, President of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) which is co-organising the event, noted the importance of Sentyurin’s visit, adding that “energy issues as well as other matters are of high interest for the Russians”. Cyprus is preparing to launch a second licensing round for hydrocarbons exploration and Russian companies are reportedly interested in participating.  

Author:  Jacqueline Agathocleous TEN OUT of 30 different supplement pills tested last year in Nicosia and Limassol were found to contain dangerous and banned substances, and the state has still not acted on it, the House Health Committee heard yesterday. The alarming news was revealed by the head of the Cyprus Anti-Doping Authority, Michael Petrou. “Among our duties is to ensure the safety of supplements, so we carried out our own investigation,” Petrou told MPs. “We checked 30 supplements in the Limassol and Nicosia districts and found 10 containing substances that are very dangerous for human health.” He said the message was immediately relayed to the Health Ministry, as well as the police. “However, over a year has passed and we have heard nothing back. We are seeking a law amendment to bring the situation under control.” Petrou said there were many cases where athletes were forced to quit or even ended up in hospital, after consuming dodgy supplements. The Health Ministry’s permanen...

Author:  Balazs Koranyi Made a safe haven for global capital by its oil-driven prosperity, Norway is struggling to contain the sort of housing market bubble which launched four years of global financial turmoil. Having bounced back from a recession in 2009 with the help of its huge reserves of rainy-day oil cash, low interest rates have kept Norwegians borrowing at the sort of pace that prompted banking and housing crashes in the UK, US, Spain and Ireland. Borrowing this year is expected to grow twice as fast as wages and households' debt is set to top 200 per cent of their disposable incomes – more than twice that in Germany and a third more than the peak in the US before its crash. That has already made house prices almost unaffordable for some and the question is what happens if and when interest rates or unemployment rise from near record lows. "If my mortgage rate goes up one percentage point, our vacation to Malaga would be gone," says Erik Aasland, a 32-year-old professional in Oslo. "If the...

Author:  Jonathan Saul Up to five ships carrying grain to Iran have been diverted to new destinations as European Union sanctions hold up payments and start to hamper staple food supplies to the Islamic Republic, ship tracking data showed on Thursday. Around 400,000 tonnes of grain has been held up on at least 10 vessels for as long as three weeks outside Iranian ports, trade sources told Reuters. AIS live vessel tracking on Reuters showed on Thursday up to five vessels had diverted to destinations including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore after waiting mainly outside the Bandar Imam Khomeini, one of Iran's largest grain terminals. The EU agreed last week to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank as part of further sanctions aimed at stepping up pressure on Iran's disputed nuclear programme. The tougher trade embargo has meant major EU banks have pulled back from financing grain shipments to Iran, a major importer of foodstuffs and animal feed. "While the primary objective of US and E...

Consumer prices fell by 1.6% compared with the previous month in January despite another increase in electricity tariffs, while the annual in

Author:  Marton Dunai   Hungarian villagers were scavenging for coal with their bare hands on Thursday as a blast of Siberian air killed scores in Eastern Europe and looked set to keep its icy grip on the continent for another week. At least 139 people have died across Eastern Europe and Germany since the cold snap began, interrupting what had been an unusually mild European winter. In the Hungarian village of Farkaslyuk, people clambered up a 30-metre spoil heap from a disused mine to scrape together enough coal to heat their homes and cook for a few days. "This saves us from going to prison," said Jozsef Bari, a Roma and father of three who used to work in the mine, standing in a three-metre-deep pit dug in the slag heap. "If we had not had this, we could all go to steal wood (in the forest), and then we would all be chased (by police)." Temperatures in the mountains near Farkaslyuk, meaning "wolf's den", have fallen to minus 22 Celsius (minus 8 Fahrenheit). The cold snap for central Europe is...

Author:  Nemanja Bjedov MARCOS Baghdatis demolished Lukasz Kubot of Poland 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of the ATP World Tour 250 PBZ Zagreb Indoors yesterday afternoon. The Cypriot, seeded six, served excellently in the first service game of the match, but Kubot then replied in the same fashion. However, the Limassol native managed to break Kubot in his next service game and never looked back, eventually taking the first set 6-4 while not giving Kubot a single break point opportunity. He then continued to play at the same level in the second set as he broke the Pole instantly to take a 2-0 lead. While leading 4-2 and with Kubot on serve, Baghdatis moved in for the kill. A net chord helped the Cypriot to go 40-30 up and he easily converted the break point to take a 5-2 lead and then calmly served out the match. Baghdatis will now take on the winner of the match between fouth-seeded local favourite Ivan Dodig and Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the quarter-finals.  

EMIRATES, one of the world’s fastest-growing international airlines, announced on Thursday that it has renewed its sponsorship with Hamburger SV (HSV) for another three seasons until June 2015. In addition to being the football club's main shirt sponsor, the deal includes prominent branding at Imtech Arena, the home of HSV, as well as promotional and hospitality rights. Emirates has been the main sponsor of HSV since 2006. Emirates’ impressive football sponsorship portfolio also includes Arsenal, PSG, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Olympiacos, the Asian Football Confederation and the Saudi Professional League. Emirates is Official Partner of FIFA, the Official Airline of 14 international golf tournaments and supports a range of high-profile horse racing, tennis, rugby, sailing, and cricket events across the globe. (left to right): Hamburg’s Dennis Aogo, Dennis Diekmeier, Paolo Guerrero and Marcell Jansen. ( Photo: Witters)

Author:  Marton Dunai  Hungarian villagers were scavenging for coal with their bare hands on Thursday as a blast of Siberian air killed scores in .

Author:  Balazs Koranyi Made a safe haven for global capital by its oil-driven prosperity, Norway is struggling to contain the sort of housing market bubble .

Seventy-four people were killed when supporters clashed at an Egyptian soccer match,

Finance Minister Kikis Kazamias today said he would suggest the sale of the majority share package of national carrier Cyprus Airways at the next cabinet meeting.  Speaking at the 34th annual hotel conference in Nicosia, Kazamias said that CY had reached "crunch time" after several years of being unable to achieve viability on its own.  The minister clarified that the government, which is the majority shareholder in CY, would be willing to sell off over 51 per cent of the company to investors in a last ditch attempt to keep the company afloat. The government currently owns 69.57 per cent of the company, while the remaining 30.43 per cent is owned by private investors.  In October last year it emerged that some sort of talks were taking place with potential investors but nothing else has been heard on the matter since. The government last year gave CY a €20-million cash injection earmarked as compensation for damages incurred due to the Turkish ban on the airline using its airspace. It fol...

Author:  Alexander McCowan THE Cyprus Rugby Federation's director of rugby sevens, John Long, has given an interview to the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation where he outlined the future for Cyprus in the game. He also emphasised that his policy will be on producing home-based players, the development of the game in schools, and the need for specialist coaching. Rugby Sevens has a World Cup and will be an Olympic sport at the 2016 Games, with Cyprus currently ranked 20th in Europe out of a total of fifty countries. Laurence Vasilliades, president of the Cyprus Rugby Federation stated: “As the youngest member of the European Rugby Federation, we are delighted to have secured the services of John Long, the former Romanian coach and one of the most experienced sevens coaches in Europe, with a pedigree that stretches back over 25 years. “John has been a supporter of the Moufflons since our inception and witnessed some of our major victories. He has volunteered his services to Cyprus and resigned from h...

Author:  Nemanja Bjedov ERMIS manager Nicos Andronikou was delighted after his side eliminated Apollon Limassol in the round of 16 of the Coca Cola Cup after a 3-1 second leg extra-time victory at the Ammochostos Stadium. The Aradippou side went through 4-3 on aggregate. “This win represents a great opportunity for our younger players to get some first team experience,” he said. “The game itself was very interesting. We did not play well in the first half and after they took the lead they had a chance to kill off the tie if they had scored from the penalty spot. “We managed to improve our performance in the second half and scored two goals which forced extra time. Then we managed to score again early in the first extra period and that proved to be enough to advance,” Andronikou added “This is a great day for our club and I will surely give an opportunity to our youngsters in the next round regardless of the opponent,” he concluded. After winning the first leg 2-1, things were looking go...

Electronic signature will be introduced in Cyprus, according to a new bill that will

Author:  Alexis Pantelides and George Psyllides   THOUSANDS of people were inconvenienced yesterday by bus strike in all districts as the government and the transport companies continued to disagree over the interpretation of an agreement whose conditions have raised questions. Bus drivers working for companies operating in the Republic’s five districts went on an indefinite strike because they had not been paid January wages. Their bosses say the government has not paid them the agreed subsidies and they had no cash to pay employees. The government said it had transferred enough cash for the companies to pay staff and accused them of using strike action as leverage to get more money. Communications Minister Efthimios Flourentzos said the drivers were effectively pushed to strike, an accusation denied by the companies.  The ministry was locked in negotiations all day yesterday and by last night bus drivers in Larnaca agreed to suspend their measures. The other bus companies said they woul...

‘VICTORY for the workers’, read the front page, banner headline of Wednesday’s edition of AKEL mouthpiece Haravghi, with regard to the deal struck between the Employers and Industrialists’ Federation (OEV) and the two main unions PEO and SEK. The headline was accurate as OEV’s misguided initiative to help ailing businesses completely backfired, making things more difficult than they were before this unnecessary deal was reached. OEV’s original demands included a freeze of wages and CoLA for two years, reducing overtime by bringing back the 40-hour week, suspension of employer contributions to provident funds. In the deal brokered on Tuesday by the unashamedly biased, Labour Minister Sotiroulla Charalambous, a former union official, who mediated, OEV secured one of its demands – the possibility of zero pay rises for 2012 and 2013. CoLA would still be paid by all companies, while businesses ‘not facing particular financial problems’ annual pay rises would be given, in line with the collect...

Author:  George Psyllides THE DISPUTE is over how much the government should pay companies.  The agreement signed in 2009 was for the companies to be paid an average of €2.92 per kilometre but the communications ministry, after some 18 months since the service started, has realised that this rate was too high and has unilaterally lowered it. Speaking on a morning news show on state broadcaster CyBC, Flourentzos said the cost per kilometre should be around €2.20. “What happened all this time is they were being paid the ceiling agreed in 2010 when no data existed,” Flourentzos said, adding that the companies would still be viable. The companies believe they are entitled to a reasonable profit on the capital employed – the investment necessary for the business to work – while the state argues that a reasonable profit should be paid on own capital – the entrepreneurs’ contribution towards the company. “No own capital has been put up,” Flourentzos said. The companies have said tha...

Author:  Jacqueline Agathocleous THE GOVERNMENT yesterday announced a series of measures to boost employment and also development projects. These include two schemes offering incentives to businesses to hire young people and the long-term unemployed, the creation of a guarantees fund for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), and consultations to reduce bank interest rates. Following a meeting with Finance Minister Kikis Kazamias yesterday, the head of Cyprus’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Phidias Pilides, revealed the government’s plans for over €28 million to be used to reduce unemployment figures. “What we can say is €28 million will be made available to the Human Resource Development Authority to develop various methods, which will encourage the employment of new people,” said Pilides. He also confirmed that efforts were being made to reduce bank interest rates. “We all comprehend this and the banks want the same result, to loan out with cheaper interest rates,” said Pilide...

Author:  Stefanos Evripidou NOBLE Energy is considering building a natural gas terminal for the domestic market and for exports from Cyprus, Noble’s vice president Terry Gerhart said yesterday after meeting President Demetris Christofias.  Gerhart said he had a “very good meeting” with the president during which Noble officials updated him on progress with the well in Block 12, south of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone.  “As everyone is aware we drilled a successful well and made an announcement at the end of the year, said Gerhart, adding, “Somewhere between 5 and 8 trillion cubic feet of gas were found and we look forward to progressing it and bringing it to reality for the Cypriot market.” The Noble vice president highlighted it was “going to take quite a bit of time to analyse all of the data that we have” which the company is in the process of doing.  Asked about a pipeline ashore and processing plant, Gerhart said: “That is certainly one of the options and we a...

Author:  Stefanos Evripidou THE PEOPLE of Cyprus and its leaders need to focus more on the substance of the negotiations and less on the person facilitating the talks, suggested UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer yesterday.  The UN diplomat met President Demetris Christofias yesterday to discuss how to move the process forward after last week’s Greentree meeting in New York between the two leaders and UN chief.  He also met with Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu on Tuesday.   Downer has run into trouble with Greek Cypriot parties after he – supposedly deliberately -- referred to the ‘Greek Cypriot EU Presidency’ in response to a question in New York, rather than using ‘Cyprus’ or ‘Republic of Cyprus’ Presidency.  A UN source told the Cyprus Mail the slip-up was an honest mistake made after a long day, not worthy of the attention it has received.  The backlash following the lack of progress at Greentree focused almost entirely on Downer’s choice of words....