CYPRUS is second in the EU when it comes to road deaths of young people according to statistics gathered by the European Youth Forum for Road Safety (EYFRS).

This year’s forum took place in the Crotone province in Italy between November 27 and 30.

Representatives from the 28 EU countries discussed how to improve road safety for young people.

“It is particularly worrying that the 18-25 age-groups constitute only 20 per cent of Europe’s population but accounts for 30 per cent of deaths in road crashes,” non-profit organisation REACTION Youth for the Prevention said.

In 2010 over 9,150 young lives were lost on European roads, while the period 2001-2010 road deaths exceeded 140,000 for young people.

The youth delegates debated pedestrians’ safety (though the creation of video campaigning), public transport, drink-driving, enforcement through education with youngsters and police forces, social media and the sustainability of the EYFRS.

Head of Reaction Marios Stavrou said that despite the high levels of road safety of young people in Cyprus, there is room for development in all fields.

“Close cooperation with the state is one of the major stepping stones to achieving this goal. Young people in Cyprus can and should be involved in all decisions being taken in relation to road safety,” he said.

THE BODY of a 52-year-old Russian tourist was recovered from the sea in Protaras on Sunday after he drowned, the defence ministry said.

The tourist went for a swim in rough seas and strong winds, with two others in the Pernera region of Protaras

“At around 3.35pm on Sunday, Larnaca’s Search and Rescue Centre was informed by the police port authority that two swimmers were in danger in the Pernera region of Protaras, while another was missing,” a defence ministry statement said.

A helicopter from the air operations unit and a speed boat from the port authority went to the area but strong winds made the rescue difficult.

“Both swimmers managed to return to shore with minor injuries with help from port authority officers. The missing man was then located floating unconscious on the sea’s surface by the Achilles helicopter,” the statement added. He was lifted out and taken to Paralimni GeneralHospital where his death was confirmed.

During the rescue operation, an officer from the port authority sustained minor injuries.

By Peter Stevenson

FOURTEEN new cases of HIV/AIDS were recorded between August and October of this year according to the health ministry.

The numbers were released by the National Epidemiological Data services during a press conference to mark World AIDS Day yesterday. According to their data, between January and October of this year 46 new cases were diagnosed.

“Despite low infections rates of HIV in Cyprus which are estimated at close to 0.1 per cent of the public, there has been a slight increase in cases of Cypriots being diagnosed and a decrease in foreign nationals being diagnosed with the virus,” the health ministry’s acting permanent secretary Christina Yiannaki said yesterday at a press conference.

She added that there has been an increase in cases in recent years. In 2010 there were 41 diagnoses, 54 in 2011 and 58 last year.

“The health services are troubled by the data and are in the process of investigating the cases having made efforts to solve the problem over many years on many different levels,” she said.

Yiannaki added that the government spent €4.3 million in 2012 and €5 million so far this year on administering antiretroviral drugs to patients.

The management of HIV/AIDS normally includes the use of multiple antiretroviral drugs in an attempt to control HIV infection.

Head of the health ministry’s National Programme on Aids, Dr Ioannis Demetriades said that up until October of this year, 46 cases had been diagnosed and of those, 40 are residents of Cyprus, two live abroad, three live in the north and one which was unknown.

“Of the 40 Cyprus residents, 33 are Cypriots (30 men and three women) and seven are foreign (five men and two women),” he said.

Demetriades added that between 1986 and 2012 a total of 793 people had been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS of which 423 were Cypriots and 370 were foreign. Of those Cypriots the ratio of male to female was seven to one, he said.
“The main way the disease is transmitted to men is through sexual intercourse with another man (52 per cent) and heterosexual intercourse (41 per cent),” Demetriades said.

According to the statistics, 66 per cent of those diagnosed were between 20 and 39 years old, 30 per cent were between 40 and 65 years old and four per cent were 19 years old and younger.

World AIDS Day is held on December 1 each year and is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died. World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day and the first one was held in 1988.
Globally an estimated 34 million people have HIV. More than 25 million people between 1981 and 2007 died from the virus, making it one of the most destructive pandemics in history.

Today, many scientific advances have been made in HIV treatment. There are laws to protect people living with HIV and much more is understood about the condition.  “Despite this, people do not know the facts about how to protect themselves and others from HIV, and stigma and discrimination remain a reality for many people living with HIV,” a statement on the World AIDS day official website said.

“World AIDS Day is important as it reminds the public and government that HIV has not gone away – there is still a vital need to raise money, increase awareness, fight prejudice and improve education,” it concluded.

‘BREAK Barriers, Open Doors: for an inclusive society and development for all’ is the message for this year’s international day for persons with disabilities, taking place today.

According to the UN over one billion people, or approximately 15 per cent of the world’s population, live with some form of disability.
“Around the world, persons with disabilities face physical, social, economic and attitudinal barriers that exclude them from participating fully and effectively as equal members of society,” the UN said.

They are disproportionately represented among the world’s poorest, and lack equal access to basic resources, such as education, employment, healthcare and social and legal support systems, as well as having a higher rate of mortality

The Cyprus Paraplegic Organisation (CPO) said that the message for this year’s day is extremely important for countries like Cyprus because the levels of accessibility are very low.

“This level means persons with disability are not treated equally and although there has been progress, it is not to a satisfactory improvement,” the organisation said.

CPO said that local authorities should be troubled that they are only doing the bare minimum to improve accessibility for people with disabilities, especially those in wheelchairs.

“There is insufficient accessibility to buildings,” the CPO said.

CPO is asking the government to ensure persons with disability have ease of access to all buildings so they are on an equal playing field with the rest of the population.

One in four families has a member who has some form of disability, and they have rights on a European and worldwide level following the signing of the UN convention on the rights of persons with disability in 2007.

“We hope this will promote the necessary changes in our country,” CPO said.

CABINET has adopted December 4  each year as Public Consultation Day, following a proposal by the commissioner for volunteerism and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to engage civil society in policy drafting.

The office of the commissioner will act as a coordinator between civil society – organised groups and independent members of the public – and governmental services and ministries.

On the agenda for Wednesday, the first year of Public Consultation Day events, are meetings with various ministries and will be kicked off at 8am by President Nicos Anastasiades who will be meeting with NGOs, the church and volunteer groups to discuss how volunteerism can be supported and modernised.

Discussions with the relevant ministries and bodies will include be road safety, the ports’ industry, implementing environmental laws, participation of women in politics and the public sphere, Cyprus’ energy prospects, and education. The working language will be Greek and discussions will be open to the public who are asked to call ahead to the organising ministries to express an interest in attending to facilitate organising the events. Volunteerism commissioner, Yiannis Yiannaki, will collect the minutes with a view to making them available to the public, the press and information office has told the Cyprus Mail.

List of meetings.

Please conduct the relevant public authority for further details.

December 3:

Justice ministry meeting at 3pm on the participation of women in politics and the public sphere.  Education ministry meeting at 9m on the education ministry’s budget and its educational goals.

December 4:

President Nicos Anastasiades will be hosting stakeholders at the Presidential Palace to discuss volunteerism between 6.30am and 8am. The communication ministry will be discussing road safety at 10am. The ports authority will be discussing the sector at 12.30pm. The foreign ministry will be discussing energy prospects and collaboration prospects with Cyprus’ neighbouring countries at 9.30am. The health ministry will be discussing post-mortem organ donation at 1pm. The commerce ministry will be discussing alternative dispute resolution methods for consumers at 10.30am.

The labour ministry will be hosting a discussion on volunteerism at 9am. The Cyprus Youth Board will be discussing how to better respond to youth needs at 4pm. The Cyprus Sports Organisation will be discussing volunteerism at 5pm.

December 5:

The defence ministry will be discussing illegal drugs and addictive substances with National Guard recruits and their parents at 1.30pm

December 9:

The agriculture ministry will be discussing environmental legislation in Cyprus at 9am.

By Elias Hazou

THE GOVERNMENT yesterday sought to put a positive spin on the downgrading of estimated reserves within the Aphrodite natural gas field, insisting the updated amounts do not affect Cyprus’ plans for an LNG project on the island.

“For the Republic, this changes nothing,” government spokesman Christos Stylianides told reporters.

He was responding to an updated estimate of reserves at the Aphrodite well, announced a day earlier by Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration, Noble Energy’s Israeli partners in the Block 12 concession.

“It seems that these two companies, with which the Republic is cooperating, are pressing ahead within the timetables and at exactly the same pace,” he added.

Stylianides said the new numbers quoted by the Israeli companies fell within the range announced earlier.

In a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Delek Group said reserves have dropped to 4.1 trillion cubic feet (tcf) from a previously estimated 5.2 tcf.

The Israeli companies said their latest announcement of 4.1tcf was based on the findings of their assessors, consultants Netherland, Sewell & Associates.

The statement said also there are “significant” amounts of condensate – estimated to reach 8.1 million barrels. The group previously thought there were not commercial quantities of condensate at the field.

In early October, and following the completion of appraisal drilling at the Aphrodite-2 well, the field’s operators Noble Energy had updated their estimate of gross resources from 3.6tcf to 6 tcf, with a mean of approximately 5tcf.

These were the preliminary results from the appraisal work; Noble said at the time that it would announce their own updated results by the end of this year.

Delek and Anver, listed on the Tel Aviv bourse, have different reporting schedules to US-based Noble. Noble operates offshore Block 12 with a 70 per cent working interest; Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration each have 15 percent working interest.

Delek’s statement said also the total volume of resources in the Aphrodite reservoir “in the low scenario rose by 30 per cent while this volume declined by 25% in the high scenario. Reduction of the range between the high scenario and the low scenario is received with the progress of the reservoir appraisal plan.”

The Israelis added that “it is not possible to set an estimated schedule for preparation and/or implementation of a development plan for the Aphrodite reservoir until the various plans to commercialize and develop the natural gas in the reservoir have been explored and prepared.”

Delek went on to note the “possibility for integrating its development with the development plans for adjacent fields within Israel’s exclusive economic zone, including the Leviathan natural gas reservoir.”

The latest updated reserves from the Israelis are considerably lower than the initial estimates from the exploratory drilling carried in 2011, which had yielded a gross resource range of 5 to 8 tcf, with a gross mean of 7 tcf. Estimates are typically revised and refined in the industry.

But the latest findings may force a rethink of strategy, said Charles Ellinas, executive chairman of the Cyprus National Hydrocarbons Company (CNHC).

“The natural gas scene in the eastern Mediterranean is shifting constantly,” he told the Mail. “Now, the downgrading of Aphrodite makes the option of pooling Aphrodite’s reserves with those of Leviathan even more significant.”

So far the Block 12 reserves are not sufficient to make a mooted LNG project on the island commercially viable. An LNG plant with a single train (or production line) is thought to require at least 5.5 tcf.

Noble is mulling additional exploratory drilling at two other locations in the Block 12 concession, which may – or not – substantially increase the overall amount of reserves. But this drilling would take place in late 2014.

And the ENI-KOGAS consortium – with concessions on blocks 2, 3 and 9 – is expected to conduct exploratory drilling in mid-2014, with the results coming in 2015.

All this points to further delays in gas development compared to the dates initially mooted by officials.

Neither is the presence of 8.1 million barrels of condensates within the Aphrodite well a game-changer, said Ellinas.

Assuming a barrel of condensate goes for the same as a barrel of oil ($100), the 8.1 million barrels would fetch gross revenues of $810m (€600m) over the entire development period for the field – around 20 years. That works out to about $40m gross revenues (not including costs) per year.

Within the strata, the condensates (vapour droplets) are mixed in with the natural gas, which is composed of 98 per cent methane.

Condensates contain a high calorific value, boosting the BTUs of energy that can be extracted from burning natural gas – so it might make more sense not to separate the condensates from the natural gas, explained Ellinas.

By Constantinos Ptsillides

EMPLOYEES in semi governmental organisations (SGO) are holding warning strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday to express their opposition to privatisation plans.

Cyprus telecommunications authority (CYTA) and Cyprus port authority (CPA) employees will go on strike today, while the electricity authority (EAC) employees are going on strike Wednesday.

The privatisations of SGOs were requested by the troika of lenders (European Central Bank, European Commission and the International Monetary Fund). Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said a week ago that the government will proceed with the privatisation plan, unless the unions can find another way of saving 1.4 billion euros. The minister jokingly added that the government would have to win the lottery for that to happen.

CyTA’s one hour strike today will last from 1:15 pm until 2:15 pm. In a statement released to the press, the EAC unions say that their reason for going on strike is that the government is implementing “a privatisation plan without first briefing the employees”. The EAC unions made clear that no services will be affected by the strike.

CPA employees will strike today, from 9:00 to 11:00

Cyprus port authority unions are demanding that the SGO be excluded from the privatisation proposal. “The goal of the workers is to avert privatisations and to preserve the national wealth and the public interest,” a statement released to the press said. “If we move towards that direction we will give to private interests state revenue and millions in CPA investments.”

The Cyprus electricity authority (EAC) unions met on Friday and decided that they will proceed with a two hour warning strike on Wednesday. The EAC unions’ rhetoric mirrors that of their colleagues in the other two SGO.

In a letter sent to EAC manager Stelios Stylianou, the four unions (EPOPAI, SIDIKEK, SEPAIK and SIVAIK) say that they made every effort to convince finance minister Harris Georgiades on the “negative impact a possible privatisation of EAC will have on the economy, the citizens and society in general” but didn’t get any results.

“We are saddened that in spite the severity of this issue, there has been a veil of secrecy when it comes to dealings regarding the privatisation. We are against privatisations because we are sure that it will have minimal impact on the island’s dire financial situation,” their statement said.

“We have a moral obligation to defend our country’s economy and the national resources of our semi-occupied state for future generations,” they said.

Unions said that their intention was not to inconvenience people, so essential personnel will be excluded from the strike.

THE FINANCE ministry yesterday submitted a supplementary budget to parliament to cover a further €43.2 million spent in the 2013 budget.

The majority of the budget, some €30.1 million has gone towards Cyprus Airways, ostensibly to cover losses and administrative expenses resulting from a ban on Cypriot traffic over Turkish airspace. It had already been factored by the government and has been sanctioned by the EU, the finance ministry’s report to parliament said. An additional €10m for the state carrier will be credited by the finance ministry’s budget on extraordinary expenses.

Some €4m will cover the health ministry’s expenses for medical supplies. An additional €5m will represent services to those entitled to health care coverage by the state, and has been covered by savings made elsewhere by the health ministry. Health authorities spent €14m of the allocated €19m available for sending health care beneficiaries for healthcare abroad, spending the remainder in covering Cyprus-based healthcare needs.

Some additional €3 million has also gone towards the National Guard’s defence needs.

The House Defence committee discussed the National Guard budget behind closed doors but the committee’s head, Giorgos Varnava, said they had extracted a commitment by the President that Cabinet would sanction requests for a supplementary budget in 2014, to cover defence needs, including buying any new defence systems or maintaining current ones.

By Constantinos Psillides

THE Transparency International corruption perception index ranks Cyprus 31^st in 2013, two spots down from 2011 when the island ranked 29^th, according to the annual index results published on Tuesday.

Cyprus ranks 16^th among Europeans countries while Greece is in last place.

The corruption perception index is based on studies conducted by large private and international organisations and it’s considered an indication of the spread of corruption. For the 2013 results, 13 independent studies from ten organisations were utilised.

The corruption perception index gave Cyprus 63 points, making it 31^st among 177 countries included in the study. The Cyprus evaluation was based on five independent studies.

In 2012 Cyprus ranked 29^th while in 2011, 2010 and 2009 it ranked 30^th, 28^th and 27^th respectively.

Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Singapore are the six countries topping the index chart. Somalia, Sudan, North Korea and Afghanistan are perceived to be the most corrupted countries.

Thirty-one European countries were included in the study and Cyprus ranks 16^th among them, while Greece ranks last. But Greece ranks 80^th globally, a major leap from the 94^th position the country was in 2012.

A press release from transparency international cites two major reasons for Cyprus decline. “Political party interference with the business environment, failure to enact rules and regulations to deal with corruption effectively and the financial crisis that favours the increase in corruption related cases.” said the report.

The Cyprus branch of transparency international has registered all problems and presented president Nicos Anastasiades with a number of suggestions to deal with corruption related issues.

The United Nations, following a proposition by transparency international, established December 9 as international anti –corruption day. The NGO, in collaboration with local media outlets, is organising a number of events for international anti-corruption day, including television programmes on the effects of corruption and the protection of whistleblowers.

“Our goal is to contribute in the strengthening of society and in the improving of the quality of public and private governance in Cyprus. We want to promote transparency, integrity and accountability. One of our priorities is to increase public perception on the effects of corruption and to encourage citizens in participating in the fight against it,” the NGO report said,

Prompted to action by the transparency international report, President Anastasiades met yesterday with all responsible bodies to formulate an action plan aiming at ensuring transparency and attracting investors. In that direction, the government decided to sign an international convention that deals in managing information regarding taxation and business information exchange.

Head of the Cyprus certified accountants association, Yiannos Charilaou, said to the press that the goal of the meeting was to “make decisions to restart the economy and reclaiming the market confidence Cyprus once had”.

Charilaou expressed his satisfaction, saying that the government seems to be determined to tackle with transparency issues.

By Nemanja Bjedov

Juventus, the most successful club in the history of Italian football, are set to sign 15-year-old Cypriot prodigy Grigoris Kastanos when the youngster turns 16 on January 30th of next year, according to numerous sources.

Kastanos, who was on trial with the Italian powerhouse during the summer, impressed coaches and it is believed Juve wanted to close the deal immediately to thwart Serie A side Udinese and Manchester City, who were both following the young Enosis Neon Paralimni prospect.

This is not the first time Juventus have added foreign players to their Primavera squad, as seen in the case of Norwegian midfielder Vajebah Sakor, who is now one of the most influential players in the Juve programme.

Primavera coach Andrea Zanchetta will now have to decide whether to use Kastanos as a striker or on the wing, since the Cypriot, who already featured for his country’s U17 national side, can play both positions and uses both feet equally well.

Seventeen-year-old Greek Anastasios Donis, Spaniard Sergio Buenacasa and Younes Marzouk of Morocco are some of the strikers Zanchetta currently has available, and Kastanos will clearly face tough competition to secure a regular spot in the starting line-up.

Employees from telecoms company CyTA and those from the  Ports Authority went on strike Tuesday to protest against mooted privatisation of semi-government organisations.

Cyprus Port Authority (CPA) employees stopped working at 11am for two hours. Their unions are demanding that SGOs are not privatised. “The goal of the workers is to avert privatisations and to preserve the national wealth and the public interest,” a statement said. “If we move towards that direction we will give to private interests state revenue and millions in CPA investments.”

CyTA’s one hour strike on Tuesday was due to last from 1.15 pm until 2.15 pm. In a statement, CyTA unions said that their reason for going on strike was that the government was implementing “a privatisation plan without first briefing the employees”. CyTA unions made clear that no services will be affected by the strike.

By Peter Stevenson

Two investigations were ordered on Tuesday by the chief of police after a 20-year-old man was injured by police gunfire following a high-speed chase in Paphos late on Monday.

Three men were in the car at the time of the incident, the 22-year-old driver and two 20-year-old passengers, one of whom was injured. They were driving along the road which connects Kissonerga and Peyia at around 10.45pm on Monday night when two officers from the motorcycle Z Unit had signalled them to stop.

Officers were carrying out a routine check when they spotted the car approaching them which had no licence plates. When the driver spotted the officers he allegedly performed u-turn and sped away on a dirt road.

According to reports, the officers gave chase and fired five times at the car in an attempt to shoot-out the tyres, injuring the 20-year-old in the process.

The car was found abandoned on Tuesday morning in a farming area. The ballistic report indicated that a bullet had entered through the rear of the car, passed through the passenger seat and exited via the windshield.

Four unused shotgun cartridges and tools which are believed to be used in burglaries were found in the car, police said.

According to reports, the 22-year-old driver of the car told officers during questioning that he did not stop because there were drugs in the vehicle.

The young men had initially managed to get away but police caught up with them when at around 3.45am on Tuesday, the 20-year-old who was injured by a bullet to the left shoulder went to Paphos General Hospital’s emergency department. Due to his condition he was taken immediately to surgery.

According to the head of the hospital, Spyros Georgiou, the injury is not serious or life threatening. He is being held in the orthopaedic ward of the hospital under police guard.

Acting police spokeswoman Nikoletta Tyrimou said that the first investigation would take place to establish why a gun was used and the second to investigate why the two police officers in question used their weapons and did not immediately report it.

Tyrimou added that the two officers would be suspended and that none of the three men who were in the car which took part in the high-speed chase were under arrest.

Authorities have said that drinking water drawn from the Kouris dam, which supplies the Nicosia district has been supplemented with desalinated water after residents complained their tap water looked murky and smelled badly.

General Manager of the Nicosia Water Board Nikos Zambakides said water development board checks gave the water the all clear. He said a technical issue arose over the weekend and the Kouris dam – the largest reservoir on Cyprus – has since been supplemented with desalinated water as well as water from the smaller Lefkara dam in the Larnaca district.

By Tuesday or Wednesday the latest, the pipes should be supplying just the cleared-up water, he said. The Water Development Board said that an aeration system, designed to circulate the water in the dam to keep it fresh, had failed but has since been repaired.

By Poly Pantelides

OVER100 accounts in the Bank of Cyprus UK, a bank subject to UK financial regulations, were shut down by British regulators as high risk accounts for money laundering, the governor of the Cyprus Central Bank (CBC) has said.

Panicos Demetriades told lawmakers during a House Ethics committee the accounts, mostly belonging to unnamed Cypriots, had been shut down as part of anti-money laundering checks on politically exposed persons (PEPs) who were considered high risk customers.

It was not immediately clear when the accounts were shut down but main opposition AKEL MP Irene Charalambidou, who first raised the issue, said her information suggested “those accounts were opened during a key time for Cyprus”.

She added that an official with Inland Revenue said they were launching an investigation.

The UK’s 2007 anti money laundering regulations define as a “politically exposed person” as any individual who has had a “prominent public function” by a state other than the UK, a community institution or an international body “at any time within the preceding year”.

Family members such as spouses and children and their spouses, or close associates are also considered to be PEPs, and regulations provide for increased monitoring and due diligence.

The definition of close associates includes individuals who have a close business relation or has sole or joint “beneficial ownership of a legal entity or legal arrangement” related to a politically exposed person. This includes setting up legal entities to benefit politically exposed persons.

Head of the Watchdog Committee Demetris Syllouris said they were meeting with the attorney-general’s office to discuss the matter further and had asked to receive more data on the accounts.

He avoided saying whether he would make public the data, saying that “if there is any information that we must discuss publicly we will do so”. So far, Syllouris and the House Ethics Committee have avoided naming anyone in their month-long discussions of bad banking practices.

The banks’ lack of adequate supervision and subpar governance was exposed at large after a botched bailout and the near-devastation of the country’s entire banking system, but the Ethics committee has avoided names even when specific individuals were identified and discussed in the media.

Those who feel it should snow around Christmas time will be happy to learn the weatherman has promised snow by the beginning of next week though be warned that the same cold air mass that could bring snow might also bring hail.

The meteorological office’s Panayiotis Mouskos has said snowfall is likely by the end of the week or beginning of next, caused by a cold air mass coming Cyprus’ way from the north.

He said this made snow or hail likely, as the temperature is expected to take a plunge on Sunday.

The met office’s weather report shows Tuesday’s afternoon temperatures at 19 degrees Celsius in Nicosia, 15 degrees Celsius on the mountains, and 22 degrees Celsius on the west coastline, around Paphos. Temperatures were due to drop in the evening, to 11 degrees Celsius, 9 degrees Celsius on the mountains, and up to 15 degrees Celsius in coastal towns.

Mouskos said the temperatures would remain the same throughout the week, although it might rain.

But at the end of the week “the temperature will drop sharply,” he warned.

The met office has said the drop could be as much as five degrees Celsius compared with current temperatures.

The fourth edition of the World Giving Index, which looks at charitable behaviour across 135 countries, ranks Cyprus in 24th place with 43 points out of a possible 100.

The Index score is based on an average of three measures of giving behaviour – the percentage of people who, in a typical month, donate money to charity, volunteer their time, and help a stranger.

Cyprus was 37th in helping a stranger, 27th in donating money and 34th in volunteering. 54 per cent of the country’s residents that took part in the survey said that they do help a stranger in a typical month; 47 per cent give money to charity and 27 per cent volunteer their time.

Greece finds itself at the bottom of the overall ranking (135th). The USA is the most charitable country, followed by Canada, Burma, New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

The report is compiled by the UK-based Charities Aid Foundation and is based on more than half a million interviews conducted by Gallup since 2005/06, as part of their World Poll survey.

This year’s report shows that, though the pace of economic expansion has slowed, the levels of involvement in giving – for all three measures – have increased on last year`s results.

ENERGY Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on energy cooperation between Cyprus and Palestine following a meeting with chairman of Palestine’s Energy Authority Dr Omar Kittaneh.

The MoU, signed during a meeting of Cypriot and Palestine delegations in Nicosia, provides for the establishment of a Joint Committee, which will set out the framework for conducting dialogue between the two sides on energy-related issues.

It provides for the holding of meetings, exchange of information and staff and the realisation of joint training initiatives.

The memorandum covers the exploration of opportunities for cooperation in the field of energy, notably in the sectors of electricity and renewable energy sources.

Yasser Arafat was not the victim of poisoning, French forensic scientists concluded on Tuesday, countering a Swiss report on the 2004 death of the Palestinian leader that found he was probably killed with radioactive polonium.

The French conclusions were immediately challenged by his widow, Suha Arafat, who has argued the death was a political assassination by someone close to her husband. A senior Palestinian official dismissed the report as “politicised”.

“You can imagine how much I am shaken by the contradictions between the findings of the best experts in Europe in this domain,” Suha Arafat, dressed in black and reading from a written statement, told a news conference in Paris.

“I am accusing no one. This is in the hands of justice and it is just the beginning,” she said, requesting that the Swiss report be made available to French magistrates examining the case following a legal complaint she filed.

Separately, the French public prosecutor involved in that case confirmed the investigation would continue.

Arafat, who signed the 1993 Oslo interim peace accords with Israel but then led an uprising after subsequent talks broke down in 2000, died aged 75 in a French hospital in November 2004. His death came four weeks after he fell ill after a meal, suffering from vomiting and stomach pains.

The official cause of death was a massive stroke, but French doctors said at the time they were unable to determine the origin of his illness. No autopsy was carried out.

Swiss forensic experts stirred controversy last month by announcing that results from their tests of samples taken from Arafat’s body were consistent with polonium poisoning, while not absolute proof of the cause of death.

The report handed to Suha Arafat will not be published, but the French public prosecutor’s office said it concluded: “In sum, death was not due to poisoning with Polonium 210…

“Measurements of Polonium 210 and other radioactive substances taken from biological samples of the body are consistent with a natural environmental origin.”

That could lead the magistrates to close the case, unless they have other incriminating evidence.

DIVERGENT EXPLANATIONS

A Palestinian official dismissed the French findings.

“The French report is politicised and is contrary to all the evidence which confirms that the president was killed by poisoning,” senior Palestinian official Wasel Abu Yousef told Reuters in Ramallah.

“This report is an attempt to cover up what happened in Percy hospital,” he said of the French military hospital near Paris where Arafat was taken for treatment in 2004.

Many Palestinians believe Israel killed him – a charge Israel denies. Earlier, a Palestinian investigator said he would soon name the people he believed were behind Arafat’s death, almost a decade after he started searching for suspects.

“We are in the last 15 minutes of the investigation,” Tawfiq Tirawi told Palestine Today television.

There are few known cases of polonium poisoning, the most famous recent example being that of defecting Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who drank a poisoned cup of tea in a London hotel in 2006.

“We have no doubt that the most comprehensive and thorough report that examined all aspects of this case remains the Swiss report,” Suha Arafat’s lawyer Saad Djebbar told Reuters, calling it “the only show in town”.

A radiation scientist who examined the Swiss and the French reports for Suha Arafatsaid both studies had found similar levels of Polonium 210 in Arafat’s body but differed in their explanations of how it got there.

The French report concluded that some of the radioactivity could be explained by the presence of radon gas in the tomb where Arafat was buried. The Swiss experts said on the contrary that the level of radon gas was due to the radioactivity in his body.

By Mike Collett
FIFA will go ahead with its controversial decision to stage World Cup matches at midday in tropical venues, president Sepp Blatter said as football’s governing body announced a bafflingly complex procedure for Friday’s draw.

General Secretary Jerome Valcke caused general bewilderment as he tried to explain the workings of the draw which will decide which teams comprise the eight first-round groups at next year’s tournament.

“It’s not easy to understand it the first time, I agree with you” he said. “It took me some time to be sure I had the right explanation.”
Each group will consist of one team from each of four pots with Pot 1 featuring the top seeds: Brazil, the host nation, alongside Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Switzerland.

The other pots will be based on geographical criteria so that countries from the same confederations are kept apart.
Pot 2 will contain the five African teams, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria and Cameroon, plus the non-seeded South American teams Chile and Ecuador and a European team to be moved out of Pot 4 in a pre-draw.

Pot 3 will feature Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia, United States, Mexico, Costa Rica and Honduras while nine European sides, Bosnia, Croatia, England, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia and France, will comprise Pot 4.
Valcke revealed that a pre-draw will be held to move one of the nine European teams into Pot 2 where they would then be drawn against one of the four seeded South American teams to preserve the geographical balance of thedraw.

To complicate matters further, the four South American seeds would form a temporary Pot X and the three not drawn against the European team in Pot 2 will return to the main draw.
A seeded team’s place in the draw will determine how much travelling around the vast hinterland of Brazil, the world’s fifth largest country by area, will be involved and may therefore not be so beneficial as in the past.

The seeded team in Group H will have a relatively easy first round schedule with matches in the milder conditions of Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
But the seeds in Group G will play in the intense heat of northeastern cities Fortaleza, Natal, Salvador or Recife.
The team that meet Brazil in the opening game – position A2 in the draw – will face a 3,880-km flight to Manaus in the Amazon for their next match before a 4,508-km flight to Recife for their third game.
Any team surviving that probably deserves a place in the last 16 for stoicism alone.

Kickoff times could also pose a threat to a team’s chances depending on whether they play in the humid north or the chilly south.
From June 12 until June 22 when there are three matches a day – the programme switches to four a day from June 23 to June 26 for the last round of group games – matches are due to start at 1pm, 4pm and 7pm local time which is 6pm, 9pm and midnight Cyprus time to maximise European television audiences.

However, the early kickoff time has sparked some unease as it will be very hot in the northeast at that time of day.
Brazil, already allocated position A1 in the draw, will kick off the World Cup on June 12 in Sao Paulo, where two construction workers were killed last week when a crane collapsed on to the stadium staging the opening match.

In such a vast country, there was an early plan to revert to the arrangements once used in World Cups where teams were based in one region instead of travelling all over the country but Brazilian organisers did not want one region to stage all of Brazil’s first round games.

As that was not politically expedient, FIFA agreed every team had to travel all over, resulting in the huge distances covered, apart from those in Group H where the venues are relatively close.

The team drawn in position E3 has the unenviable task of playing in the wintry cool of Porto Alegre then the tropical heat of Salvador in its first two group matches.
With the World Cup less than 200 days away and with roads, airport buildings, stadiums and other infrastructure projects unlikely to be ready or abandoned altogether, Brazil’s problems seemed a long way away in the idyllic resort setting of Costa do Suape in Bahia state where the draw takes place.

Representatives of the eight countries to have won the World Cup will assist in the draw with organisers saying that Pele would be included.

Friday’s glitzy ceremony being shown live in 193 countries around the world, will, for 90 minutes at least, mask all the problems Brazil still faces to be ready in time for next year’s big kickoff.

Famagusta CID is investigating two cases of burglary in Xylotymbou with a total of €2,550 worth of jewellery and other valuables stolen, police said.

In the first case, a 57-year-old woman reported to police that between September and December 3 her home had been burgled with €1,900 worth of jewellery and other valuables stolen.

There were no signs of a break-in but officers believe the burglar or burglars managed to get into the house through the kitchen door which was closed but left unlocked, police said.

The jewellery and valuables were not insured and the house does not have an alarm system.

In the second case, a 49-year-old woman reported to police that her home had been burgled and jewellery worth €650 stolen.

Again there were no signs of a break-in and officers believe the burglars or burglar managed to gain entrance to the house via a side door which had been closed but left unlocked.

Famagusta CID is investigating both cases.