The number of registered unemployed – adjusted for seasonal fluctuations in employment – came to 50,196 in November, a reduction of over 825 people compared with September, the  statistical services have said.

Cystat data showed a small reduction of unemployment from 51,021 in September this year, and 50,584 this October.  Over a 1,000 people are estimated to be employed part-time in the retail sector, as part of a government schemes to contain unemployment by using EU funds to subsidise employment. Others are employed as interns, paid a stipend and social insurance directly by the state that does not oblige employers to pay the interns a wage.

The statistical data, after adjustment for seasonal variation in employment, shows a rising unemployment trend. In November 2009 for example, some 20,502 people were registered unemployed, with the figure rising by a little over 4,000 people by November 2010, then jumping to 31,535 in November 2011, and again in November 2012 when 39,755 people were registered as unemployed following correction for seasonal adjustment. Cyprus’ unemployment level has been hovering above the EU average since 2011, according to Cystat.

An estimated 44 per cent of Cyprus’ under 25s are now unemployed, while over a third of all unemployed in Cyprus have been looking for a job for a year.  Unemployment is expected to rise as the recession in Cyprus deepens, with authorities focusing on containing it as much as possible. The labour ministry has said they are due to announce new measures soon, to focus on smaller businesses and youth unemployment, among others.

Bank deposits from third-country nationals rose slightly in October, the Central Bank (CBC) said, as the total across the banking system fell 22.7 per cent year-on-year.

Compared with September, total deposits dropped by €163 million to around €47.4 billion, the CBC said.

Deposits from third country nationals rose to €12.1 billion from €11.7 billion, the CBC said, as those belonging to Cypriots and other euro area nationals dropped by €461.8 million to €32.5 billion and €107.8 million to €2.6 billion respectively.

To prevent a collapse of its financial system, Cyprus introduced emergency controls on the movement of capital, such as money transfers or cash withdrawals, in March. It has been gradually relaxing those controls ever since.

It was the first-ever eurozone country to do so.

Housing loan rates rose in October, the Central Bank (CBC) said on Wednesday, as consumer loan rates dropped for the first time since June.

The floating rate increased to 4.88 per cent from 4.86 per cent, the regulator said, while interest rates on consumer credit dropped to 7.14 per cent from 7.17 per cent the previous month.

Rates for business loans of up to one million euros also dropped – 6.44 per cent from 6.47 per cent – while those for over a million rose to 6.16 per cent from 6.10 per cent.

By Peter Stevenson

PROTESTERS on Wednesday called on the government not to include the Electricity Authority (EAC) in plans to privatise semi-government organisations (SGO), sending a clear message that such a development could lead to more strikes.

Employees at EAC head offices, regional offices and at power stations stopped working between 9am and 10am as a way of expressing their opposition to the proposed privatisation of the organisation.

Head of trade union EPOPAI-SEK Andreas Panorkos said employees had been faced with a fait accompli and sent out the message that workers would respond accordingly.

Trade unions and workers called on the cabinet not to include the EAC in any privatisation plans, claiming that it would be ‘catastrophic’ for the EAC itself and for Cyprus.

“If any plan is approved which will see the privatisation of the EAC then there will be an escalation of strike measures,” Panorkos said.

In a letter sent to the general manager of the EAC, Stelios Stylianou, the unions EPOPAI, SIDIKEK-EAC, SEPAIK and SYVAIK, say that they had made every effort to convince the relevant bodies and in particular Finance Minister Harris Georgiades that  the possible privatisation of the EAC “will have negative effects on the local economy, the public and society”.

Citing public interest, trade unions have urged Stylianou to make representations to the responsible minister, so that when the cabinet discusses the privatisation plan, he will recommend strongly the exception of the EAC.

According to the unions, during the strike power supply was not affected.

Later in the day, trade unionists met with ruling DISY leader Averof Neophytou.

The privatisation of SGOs is provided in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Cyprus government and its international lenders in order to raise at least €1.4 billion by 2015, Neophytou said.

“This is the reality and it cannot be avoided. There is no other choice. We need to be honest towards the public and workers even if we disagree with the MoU,” he said.

DISY’s leader added that there was no other option. The only other option, he added, would be to exit the MoU which would lead to the bankruptcy of the state and the destabilisation of the banking sector.

“We all need to contribute to maintaining our positions, to keep a calm political climate, to continue our public dialogue so that the public, the economy, consumers and employees from both the public and private sectors can come out winners,” he added.

By Alexander Winning

Celebrity cook Nigella Lawson told a court she had taken cocaine several times including when being subjected to “intimate terrorism” by her millionaire ex-husband Charles Saatchi, in the latest dramatic twist in a trial that has gripped Britain.

A well-known TV star and author in Britain and the United States, Lawson also told the court on Wednesday she had smoked cannabis occasionally in the final year of her marriage to art dealer Saatchi but had “never been a drug addict or abuser”.

“I don’t have a drug problem, I have a life problem,” said Lawson, nicknamed the “Domestic Goddess” after the title of one of her best-selling recipe books.

The 53-year-old was testifying at the trial of two of her personal assistants who are facing fraud charges relating to the alleged misuse of 685,000 pounds ($1.12 million) on a credit card belonging to Saatchi’s company.

Last week the assistants’ defence counsel said there was a tacit understanding they could spend what they liked as long as they did not tell anyone about Lawson’s drug use. The London court has also heard that Saatchi wrote her an email in which he accused her of being “off her head” on drugs.

Lawson said on Wednesday she had taken cocaine on six occasions with her first husband, journalist John Diamond, as he was dying of throat cancer in 2001.

“It was a small amount but it gave him some escape,” said the cook, who is due to feature as a mentor and judge in U.S TV cooking competition show “The Taste” in the new year, on Walt Disney Co’s ABC network.

She said she also used the drug in July 2010. “I was having a very, very difficult time,” Lawson said. “I felt subjected to intimate terrorism by Mr Saatchi,” she said.

“I would say with some shame that I (also) smoked the odd joint in the last year of my marriage (to Saatchi). I am now totally drug-free,” she added.

Lawson and Saatchi, 70, ended their 10-year marriage in July, and he accepted a police caution after newspapers published pictures of him with his hands around his ex-wife’s neck at a London restaurant a month earlier.

The fraud case has exposed the bitter rows between them, once one of Britain’s most famous couples. Interest in the case has also been stoked by the extent to which the assistants allegedly treated themselves to lavish purchases on the credit card and the drug allegations levelled at Lawson.

Flanked by police officers, Lawson arrived at at Isleworth Crown Court in west London on Wednesday to a barrage of flashlights and TV arc lights from jostling media crews from around the world.

SISTERS

Earlier in court, she accused Saatchi of threatening to destroy her with false drug allegations. She said she had been reluctant to give evidence because of such allegations, which she said followed “a long summer of bullying” from Saatchi.

“I felt this would not become a fraud case and I would be put on trial and that is what happened,” she said. “But I’m glad to answer the allegations here and to the world’s press,” she added.

Lawson told the jury that following the “awful incident” at the restaurant in June, false allegations of her drug use began circulating on what she called a PR blog.

Those allegations, she said, had been “dedicated to salvaging Mr Saatchi’s reputation and destroying mine”.

She told the court her reluctance to give evidence in the trial had angered Saatchi. “He had said to me if I didn’t get back to him and clear his name, he would destroy me,” she added.

The court had previously heard that Saatchi wrote her an email in October in which he said the two assistants on trial, Italian sisters Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo, would be able to beat the fraud charge because of her drug use.

“I can only laugh at your sorry depravity,” he said in the email, which was read in court. “Of course now the Grillos will get off on the basis that you … were so off your head on drugs that you allowed the sisters to spend whatever they liked.”

In court last week, however, Saatchi said he had no proof that his ex-wife had ever taken drugs. “Are you asking me whether I think that Nigella truly was off her head? Not for a second,” he said.

The court has been told by the prosecution that in the four months to June 2012 alone, Francesca Grillo, 35, spent an average of 48,000 pounds per month and 41-year-old Elisabetta 28,000 pounds.

At various times during the four years to which the charges relate, the court has heard, the sisters spent lavishly on flights to New York, hotel stays, designer handbags and clothes.

Lawson told the court Elisabetta was a stalwart who had helped her through the death of Diamond. She said the fraud allegations “broke our heart” when revealed to her and Saatchi.

By George Psyllides

CYPRIOT Olympic sailing champion Pavlos Kontides has become the latest athlete to complain about delays in receiving financial support from the state, which sometimes never comes.

Kontides, who won silver in last year’s Olympics and second place in the world cup last month, said the state was late in reimbursing him, something which caused him to lose focus.

“Instead of concentrating on my preparation, I am forced to think about whether the state will actually fulfil what was approved, and of course concern myself on finding additional financial resources to cover the expenses that were never approved,” Kontides told a news conference.

Kontides said he needed support to be able to perform during competitions. He said he could not use all his income on preparation, nor could he burden himself and his family and neglect other aspects of his life.

“Unfortunately what I expected to change after the Olympics, and all that was promised to me was put aside,” he said.

And whatever was put in place was done after a long delay, the Cypriot champ said.

The Cyprus sports organisation (KOA) said it was saddened that Kontides chose to go public with the matter, adding that it had granted the athlete close to €355,000 in 2013.

“In the middle of an economic crisis, food banks, and huge unemployment, we are forced to publish all the figures concerning the athlete’s financial support,” KOA said.

KOA said it has already released €267,704 and an additional €87,226 would be granted in the next few weeks.

The amounts do not include the bonus for the silver medal in the world championship, KOA said.

The organisation acknowledged the delay, but said it was due to the “dramatic financial conditions in our country.”

Several champions have in the past voiced similar complaints against KOA.

By Adrian Croft and David Brunnstrom

Russia criticised “aggressive actions” by Ukrainian demonstrators and the Western response to the protests on Wednesday, saying outsiders should not interfere in Ukraine’s affairs.

President Viktor Yanukovich’s decision last week to spurn a trade and cooperation pact with the European Union in favour of closer ties with Russia has triggered days of mass protests.

“I do not quite understand the scope of the aggressive actions on the part of the opposition,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference after talks with NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

Ukraine’s government had used its sovereign right to decide whether or not to ratify an agreement, Lavrov said.

“I hope that Ukrainian politicians will be able to bring the situation into a peaceful vein. We encourage everybody not to interfere,” Lavrov said, speaking through an interpreter.

NATO foreign ministers responded to scenes of Ukrainian police using batons and stun grenades to break up pro-Europe protests over the weekend by issuing a statement on Tuesday condemning the use of “excessive force” against protesters.

Lavrov said he did not understand “why NATO adopts such statements”.

A senior U.S. State Department official who accompanied Secretary of State John Kerry to the Brussels meeting said Lavrov had asked NATO foreign ministers whether their statement meant the alliance had plans to intervene in Ukraine.

“All allies made clear that this was firmly about supporting the aspirations of the Ukrainian people for a European future, that there was no military operation planned in Ukraine, and it was provocative to discuss that,” he said.

ROAD MAP

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton asked Kerry in a separate meeting to work together with the EU to help the cash-strapped Ukrainian government and the opposition work on a road map back to Europe and to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

Lavrov said he argued in the talks with NATO ministers that the alliance would have no need to push ahead with its plans to build a missile defence system if Iran and world powers reached a final agreement on Tehran’s nuclear programme.

U.S. and NATO plans to build an anti-missile shield around Western Europe to protect against attack from Iran and North Korea have been a major irritant in relations with Russia, which fears the system’s interceptors could eventually shoot down its long-range nuclear missiles.

Last month, Iran and six world powers, including Russia, clinched an interim deal to curb the Iranian nuclear programme in exchange for initial sanctions relief.

“We noted that if the arrangement is implemented fully … then there will be no reasons for creating a missile defence system in Europe,” Lavrov told reporters.

Kerry and other alliance foreign ministers strongly disputed Lavrov’s contention, the senior State Department official said.

In separate talks with Lavrov, Kerry argued that missile defence protection was needed because “it is not only about Iran’s nuclear programme, it’s also about its ballistic missile programme, which allows it to deliver other forms of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) as well,” the official said.

FINANCE minister Harris Georgiades said the government decision on privatisations would satisfy bailout terms and provide time to roll them out in a way that will maximise benefits and limit risks and sensitivities.

The government must decide on a privatisation roadmap as part of the terms of the island’s €10 bln bailout from its international lenders.

Unions, however, have vowed to fight privatisations and threatened to escalate their industrial action if the government went through with its plans.

“I expect that (today) there will be a very logical and well thought first step that will ensure meeting the bailout obligation on one hand, and will give time and room so that privatisations are implemented in a way that will maximise benefits and limit risks and sensitivities,” Georgiades said in Washington D.C.

He added that the cabinet will take the initial decision that will allow the procedure to start gradually.

As part of its bailout obligations, Cyprus must raise at least €1.4bn between 2016 and 2018.

Georgiades said international lenders considered the matter a priority.

“We recognise our obligation and we will move within the framework I mentioned,” he said.

Earlier yesterday, Georgiades met his US counterpart Jacob Lew.

On Tuesday, Georgiades met IMF official Reza Moghdam and the organisation’s mission chief for Cyprus Delia Velculescu.

The minister was scheduled to speak at the Peterson Institute on Thursday afternoon (US time) and depart for Cyprus in the evening.

Winter has officially arrived as a smattering of snow settled in Troodos on Thursday while rainfall is expected over the weekend.

“There was around 2cm of snowfall in Troodos overnight which melted relatively early,” the meteorological office’s Sophia Louca said.

She said that rain was expected to fall on Friday and Saturday, followed by isolated showers on Sunday.

The met office’s weather report shows Thursday afternoon temperatures at 17 degrees Celsius in Nicosia, eight degrees Celsius on the mountains, and 18 degrees Celsius on the north, south, east and west coastlines. Temperatures were due to drop in the evening, to 10 degrees Celsius in the capital, four degrees Celsius on the mountains, and up to 12 degrees Celsius in coastal towns.

THE Nicos and Elpida Shacolas Foundation, in cooperation with the Shacolas group, will continue to give out free breakfasts to primary school children until the end of the 2013-2014 academic year.

“Mr Nicos Shacolas’ offer had been until the end of December of this year but he decided to extend the offer into 2014 taking into consideration the increased needs of children and in response to the Education Ministry’s request,” a Shacolas group statement said.

The breakfasts are prepared with fresh ingredients, adequately preserved and delivered daily to Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca and Paphos.

They arrive every morning promptly at children’s schools with up to 2,800 breakfasts delivered daily according to the statement.

“The Shacolas group would like to express its satisfaction because through its cooperation with the Education Ministry, its offer towards needy children is being effectively implemented,” the statement added.

KNOWING when and how to vote can be tricky, but to make it easier, the European Parliament has launched a special website on the 2014 European elections.

At the following link, http://www.elections2014.eu/, one may find information regarding the elections for the European Parliament, taking place throughout the EU on May 22-25 next year.

The site includes a constantly updated news section and all relevant information on the member states and the European political parties taking part.

The new website will include data sheets on each member state, with information on issues such as the economy, technology, jobs, education, environment, energy and society.

It also offers a list of the European political parties taking part in the election.

Apart from getting informed through the website, readers can also join the debate on Twitter using the #EP2014 hashtag.

By Zoran Milosavljevic
Following in Alex Ferguson’s footsteps was never going to be an easy task for David Moyes but few Manchester United fans would have anticipated the English champions slipping 12 points behind the Premier League leaders with only a third of the season gone.

Wednesday’s 1-0 home defeat by Everton, United’s fourth of the campaign, exposed all the chinks in the armour of a team who won their 20th league title in May after Ferguson masterfully papered over the cracks in his squad.

It would be unfair to put all the blame on Moyes who is still learning the ropes at Old Trafford after 11 years at Everton where he might have viewed finishing in the Premier League’s top six as success with a much tighter budget and limited squad depth.

But the 50-year old Scot has to take some responsibility for failing to inject fresh blood into a ponderous midfield palpably lacking a playmaker and struggling to protect a shaky defence when Michael Carrick is unavailable.

Former England and Newcastle striker Alan Shearer, now a pundit for the BBC, summed up United’s engine-room frailties after the Everton defeat.
“They missed Carrick against Everton and a dominant midfielder who is going to create and score goals,” Shearer said after Moyes cut a forlorn figure trudging down the tunnel.
“It was too easy at times for Everton to run at United’s back four.”

Recruiting Marouane Fellaini from his former club looks more and more like an ill-judged decision by Moyes, with the towering Belgian resembling a square peg trying to fit into a round hole in United’s normally creative midfield.

The defence, with ageing centre backs Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic well past their prime, has been vulnerable too as the alternatives have failed to show that they are adequate long-term replacements.

Moyes has a plethora of wingers and strikers to choose from and even with Robin van Persie out injured, Unitedhave racked up goals thanks to the good form of Wayne Rooney who clearly thrives as a lone striker with a three-pronged support cast.

Hence it is unlikely that Van Persie’s return to full fitness will solve United’s mounting problems, although the champions could have done with his lethal finishing against Everton as they missed several chances before Bryan Oviedo struck a late winner for the visitors.

Moyes can take comfort from United’s good form in the Champions League, where they have booked a last-16 berth with a match to spare, but domestic inconsistency will in all likelihood force him to bolster the squad during the January transfer window.

Otherwise, United may face the unfamiliar concept of finishing among second-echelon Premier League teams this season as predicted by former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler, also a BBC pundit nowadays.
“I don’t think they will win the league,” said Fowler. “I think they may even struggle to finish in the top four. I know a lot of people will say ‘oh he’s just an ex Liverpool player going on about Manchester United’ but they have been very poor this season.”

Battling for a Europa League spot is a situation Moyes knows all too well from his Everton days but neither he nor the Old Trafford faithful, used to a steady inflow of silverware, will settle for second best.

Still United’s best passer of the ball at the age of 40, their most decorated player Ryan Giggs acknowledged that the English champions need to show the grit and determination which regularly ground out results in the face of adversity under Ferguson.
“We cannot feel sorry for ourselves for too long,” Giggs told the club website (www.manutd.com).
“We need to get on a run. Before (the Everton defeat) we were on a 12-game unbeaten run in all competitions and we have to get over this disappointment.
“We’re just not getting the rub of the green or taking our chances when we should. If you don’t do that, you’re going to get punished like we did against Everton.”

Former United defender Phil Neville, now Moyes’ assistant, also remained upbeat.
“We can go 20 games unbeaten at any time and the rest of the league knows we can do that,” he said.
But judging by United’s patchy form and inability to sign a world-class player who pulls the strings in midfield like Paul Scholes did in his prime, that may well be easier said than done this season.

Hurricane-force winds disrupted transport and power supplies in Scotland and threatened coastal flooding in England as they closed in on north Europe in what meteorologists said could be one of the most powerful storms to hit the continent in years.

British authorities said the Thames Barrier, designed to protect London from flooding during exceptional tides, would shut last night and warned of “the most serious coastal tidal surge for over 60 years in England”. Prime Minister David Cameron called a meeting to discuss strategy.

One person was killed as winds of up to 225 km per hour slammed into parts of the Scottish highlands, the Met office said. More than 80,000 homes were left without power, according to energy company SSE.

That number was expected to rise with road connections blocked by fallen trees and debris. A lorry driver was killed and four people injured when his vehicle overturned and collided with other vehicles in West Lothian, police said.

All train services in Scotland were suspended shortly after 8 a.m. until further notice due to debris on the tracks caused by storm Xaver. Glasgow Central station was evacuated after part of a glass roof collapsed, ScotRail said.

Authorities in Germany’s northern port city of Hamburg issued public warnings about the winds, which some forecasters are saying could be as powerful as a deadly storm and ensuing flood that hit the city in 1962 and killed 315.

The city on the Elbe River was preparing for a direct hit by yesterday’s storm. Hamburg airport cancelled all flights in Germany’s second city as the storm neared and many schools and Christmas markets were closed.

Ferries to the North Sea islands were kept in ports and some companies, such as machinery-maker Krones in Flensburg, closed their plants.

“Xaver has developed into hurricane force and it’ll be quite dangerous along the North Sea shore,” said Andreas Friedrich, a German weather service meteorologist.

“The truly dangerous thing about this storm is that the winds will continue for hours and won’t let up. The danger of coastal flooding is high.”

Friedrich said people were being advised to stay indoors across northern Germany because of the dangers such as trees being toppled and parts of roofs blown off. The weather service has issued an extreme weather warning for the northern states of Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and Bremen.

In Denmark, railroad company DSB said it would stop operating most trains during the storm. Airline company Alsie Express cancelled all domestic flight. The 6.8-km long Great Belt Bridge, which includes a 1.6-km long suspension bridge section, was closed.

Trains in the northern Netherlands were halted as a precautionary measure, Dutch Railways said, as stormy weather disrupted transport across the country.

At Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, Europe’s fourth busiest, airlines cancelled 50 flights, an airport spokeswoman said, adding that there could be further cancellations.

Authorities in Rotterdam, Europe’s largest port, did not expect any interruptions or serious flooding because they thought high waters would hit only after winds had peaked.

Northern Ireland Electricity said 6,500 homes were without power after severe gale force winds with gusts of 100 kph damaged the power network while another 10,000 customers lost power but had their services restored during the night.

Britain will impose a capital gains tax on foreign property investors from 2015 in a bid to allay fears that wealthy foreign buyers are inflating a London-led property bubble which is pricing locals out of the market.

The acquisition of housing ranging from opulent mansions to modest apartments by purchasers including Russian oligarchs, Indian tycoons and Europeans fleeing the euro zone crisis has helped fuel a London-led rise in prices. That has stoked concerns ahead of the 2015 election that many Britons may never be able to afford their own homes.

To roars of approval in parliament, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said that from April 2015 he would introduce a capital gains tax on future gains made by non-residents who sell a residential property in the U.K.

“Britain is an open country that welcomes investment from all over the world, including investment in our residential property,” Osborne said in a budget update.

“But it’s not right that those who live in this country pay capital gains tax when they sell a home that is not their primary residence – while those who don’t live here do not. That is unfair.”

Britons typically pay capital gains tax at 28 per cent on any profit from selling property that is not considered their primary residence.

Property prices in London, which has a residential housing stock worth more than $1.8trn, have jumped by about 10 per cent in the last 12 months and increases in some parts of the capital have been greater.

In November house prices rose at their fastest pace in three years and mortgage approvals have hit a nearly six-year high.

Bank of England chief Mark Carney last month unexpectedly put the brakes on a programme to give banks cheap credit for mortgage lending.

Foreign investors have bought about 70 per cent of newly built properties across central London, according to Savills, while 30 per cent of luxury London homes worth 1m pounds or more were bought by non-UK residents in the year to June, Knight Frank said.

Property lawyers and estate agents said foreign owners would be relieved the tax will not apply to historic gains before 2015. But they cautioned that the overall impact could be marginal as many foreign investors see London property as a safe and profitable place to park capital.

“Tax is not the primary driver for the majority of international buyers of residential property in London,” Knight Frank’s head of global research, Liam Bailey, said.

“It is important to note that the change to CGT rules brings the UK in line with other key investor markets, such as New York and Paris, where equivalent taxes can approach 35-50 per cent depending on the owner’s residency status.”

Britain last year introduced stamp duty of up to 15 per cent for purchases of more than 2m pounds through a company, a move which some agents have blamed for stalling the 10m pound-plus market in London.

Ukrainian police gave demonstrators five days to leave public buildings they have occupied in protest against a government policy lurch back towards Russia, as ministers at a European security conference urged a peaceful end to the confrontation.

Prime minister Mykola Azarov defended his government’s handling of the crisis since Kiev walked away from a trade deal with the European Union, and clashed with Germany’s foreign minister over charges that police had used excessive force against the protesters.

“Nazis, extremists and criminals cannot be, in any way, our partners in ‘eurointegration’,” the government website quoted Azarov as telling Germany’s Guido Westerwelle, referring to protesters who have blockaded the main government offices and occupied other public buildings.

Westerwelle, who is in Kiev for a foreign ministers’ meeting of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), expressed concern about police behaviour at the protests last weekend.

“Recent events, in particular the violence against peaceful demonstrators last Saturday in Kiev worry me greatly,” said Westerwelle, who visited the main protest centre on Independence Square.

“Ukraine has a responsibility to protect peaceful demonstrators from any kind of intimidation and violence. The way it responds to the pro-European rallies is a yardstick for how seriously Ukraine takes the shared values of the OSCE,” he added, echoing comments of other ministers at the meeting.

The crisis has again exposed a tug-of-war in Ukraine, which has oscillated between the EU and its former masters in Moscow since the Orange Revolution nine years ago overturned the post-Soviet political order.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, however, accused some of his European counterparts of over-reacting to president Viktor Yanukovich’s abrupt decision last month to pursue closer trade relations with Moscow.

“This situation is linked with the hysteria that some Europeans have raised over Ukraine which, using its sovereign right, decided at the current moment not to sign any agreement which experts and authorities considered disadvantageous,” Lavrov said on the sidelines of the OSCE meeting.

The stand-off between pro-EU protesters and the government, is taking a toll on Ukraine’s fragile economy. The central bank has twice been forced to support the currency this week and the cost of insuring the country’s debt against default has risen further.

But Yanukovich, who is visiting Beijing, suggested some relief could be on the way, signing documents for deals with China on agriculture, infrastructure improvement and energy.

“We have not yet calculated what the equivalent in money will be,” he was reported as saying by Interfax news agency. “But earlier we reckoned that we are talking about $8bn of investment into the economy.”

Ukraine faces huge problems in financing its current account deficit, with outside funding needs estimated at $17bn next year to meet debt repayments and the cost of imported natural gas. Severely depleted central bank reserves are also putting Ukraine at risk of a balance-of-payments crunch.

The street protests were triggered by Yanukovich’s government abruptly announcing on November 21 that it was suspending preparations for signing an association and trade pact with the EU after years of careful negotiations and reviving trade ties instead with Russia.

The Kiev government says it has not walked away from a deal with Europe, but is taking a strategic “pause” while it seeks to negotiate a new “roadmap” with Russia to help it patch up its economy.

Azarov’s deputy, Serhiy Arbuzov, who is preparing to head Ukraine’s first high-level delegation to Brussels soon to repair some of the political damage, suggested the government might be ready to consider one of the opposition’s demands – early parliamentary elections.

In his comments to Westerwelle, at a face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the OSCE meeting, Azarov spoke only of not giving in to “extremist” views from the streets.

Desperate civilians in a swathe of Syria from Aleppo in the north to the southern border are largely out of reach of aid workers, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said yesterday.

Throughout the country, the wounded are often denied medical treatment by either government officials or rebels, while hospitals and ambulances remain targets of unlawful attacks, ICRC President Peter Maurer said.

The ICRC is seeking 105.3m Swiss francs ($116.27m) in 2014 for Syria.

Syria accounts for one-tenth of its 1.29bn Swiss franc emergency appeal for 80 countries, the largest in the 150-year history of the independent humanitarian agency.

“Syria will remain a top priority for 2014. Winter is coming with no improvement in sight. More death, injuries and displacement are causing immense suffering and tearing apart families in besieged areas. Many civilians have not had proper access to food, water, medical care or electricity for more than a year,” Maurer told a news conference.

“Despite all our calls to the parties to the conflict to respect people’s rights to medical care without any discrimination, we are not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

In the last four months, the ICRC has been able to increase the number of Syrians it reaches with food and water to about 500,000 from 200,000 previously, according to Maurer.

“Where we haven’t been particularly successful is in increasing our medical activities in Syria, which remain below our expectations,” he said.

Areas of heavy fighting in the western part of Syria, from Aleppo in the north down through Homs, Hama and Damascus to the southern border, as well as the eastern province of Deir al-Zor bordering Iraq, remain virtually off limits, Maurer said.

 Nelson Mandela guided South Africa from the shackles of apartheid to multi-racial democracy, as an icon of peace and reconciliation who came to embody the struggle for justice around the world.

Imprisoned for nearly three decades for his fight against white minority rule, Mandela emerged determined to use his prestige and charisma to bring down apartheid while avoiding a civil war.

“The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come,” Mandela said in his acceptance speech on becoming South Africa’s first black president in 1994.

“We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation.”

In 1993, Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, an honour he shared with F.W. de Klerk, the white Afrikaner leader who freed him from prison three years earlier and negotiated the end of apartheid.

Mandela went on to play a prominent role on the world stage as an advocate of human dignity in the face of challenges ranging from political repression to AIDS.

He formally left public life in June 2004 before his 86th birthday, telling his adoring countrymen: “Don’t call me. I’ll call you”. But he remained one of the world’s most revered public figures, combining celebrity sparkle with an unwavering message of freedom, respect and human rights.

Whether defending himself at his own treason trial in 1963 or addressing world leaders years later as a greying elder statesman, he radiated an image of moral rectitude expressed in measured tones, often leavened by a mischievous humour.

“He is at the epicentre of our time, ours in South Africa, and yours, wherever you are,” Nadine Gordimer, the South African writer and Nobel Laureate for Literature, once remarked.

Mandela‘s years behind bars made him the world’s most celebrated political prisoner and a leader of mythic stature for millions of black South Africans and other oppressed people far beyond his country’s borders.

Charged with capital offences in the 1963 Rivonia Trial, his statement from the dock was his political testimony.

“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination.

“I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities,” he told the court.

“It is an ideal I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

DESTINED TO LEAD

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, destined to lead as the son of the chief councillor to the paramount chief of the Thembu people in Transkei.

He chose to devote his life to the fight against white domination. He studied at Fort Hare University, an elite black college, but left in 1940 short of completing his studies and became involved with the African National Congress (ANC), founding its Youth League in 1944 with Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu.

Mandela worked as a law clerk then became a lawyer who ran one of the few practices that served blacks.

In 1952 he and others were charged for violating the Suppression of Communism Act but their nine-month sentence was suspended for two years.

Mandela was among the first to advocate armed resistance to apartheid, going underground in 1961 to form the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto weSizwe, or ‘Spear of the Nation’ in Zulu.

He left South Africa and travelled the continent and Europe, studying guerrilla warfare and building support for the ANC.

After his return in 1962, Mandela was arrested and sentenced to five years for incitement and illegally leaving the country. While serving that sentence, he was charged with sabotage and plotting to overthrow the government along with other anti-apartheid leaders in the Rivonia Trial.

Branded a terrorist by his enemies, Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964, isolated from millions of his countrymen as they suffered oppression, violence and forced resettlement under the apartheid regime of racial segregation.

He was incarcerated on Robben Island, a penal colony off Cape Town, where he would spend the next 18 years before being moved to mainland prisons.

He was behind bars when an uprising broke out in the huge township of Soweto in 1976 and when others erupted in violence in the 1980s. But when the regime realised it was time to negotiate, it was Mandela to whom it turned.

In his later years in prison, he met President P.W. Botha and his successor de Klerk.

When he was released on Feb. 11, 1990, walking away from the Victor Verster prison hand-in-hand with his wife Winnie, the event was watched live by television viewers across the world.

“As I finally walked through those gates … I felt even at the age of 71 that my life was beginning anew. My 10,000 days of imprisonment were at last over,” Mandela wrote of that day.

ELECTIONS AND RECONCILATION

In the next four years, thousands of people died in political violence. Most were blacks killed in fighting between ANC supporters and Zulus loyal to Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party, although right-wing whites also staged violent actions to upset the moves towards democracy.

Mandela prevented a racial explosion after the murder of popular Communist Party leader Chris Hani by a white assassin in 1993, appealing for calm in a national television address. That same year, he and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Talks between the ANC and the government began in 1991, leading to South Africa’s first all-race elections on April 27, 1994.

The run-up to the vote was marred by fighting, including gun battles in Johannesburg townships and virtual war in the Zulu stronghold of KwaZulu Natal.

But Mandela campaigned across the country, enthralling adoring crowds of blacks and wooing whites with assurances that there was a place for them in the new South Africa.

The election result was never in doubt and his inauguration in Pretoria on May 10, 1994, was a celebration of a peoples’ freedom.

Mandela made reconciliation the theme of his presidency. He took tea with his former jailers and won over many whites when he donned the jersey of South Africa’s national rugby team – once a symbol of white supremacy – at the final of the World Cup in 1995 at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park stadium.

The hallmark of Mandela‘s mission was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which investigated apartheid crimes on both sides and tried to heal the wounds. It also provided a model for other countries torn by civil strife.

In 1999, Mandela, often criticised for having a woolly grasp of economics, handed over to younger leaders – a voluntary departure from power cited as an example to long-ruling African leaders.

A restful retirement was not on the cards as Mandela shifted his energies to fighting South Africa’s AIDS crisis.

He spoke against the stigma surrounding the infection, while successor Thabo Mbeki was accused of failing to comprehend the extent of the crisis.

The fight became personal in early 2005 when Mandela lost his only surviving son to the disease.

But the stress of his long struggle contributed to the break-up of his marriage to equally fierce anti-apartheid campaigner Winnie.

The country shared the pain of their divorce in 1996 before watching his courtship of Graca Machel, widow of Mozambican President Samora Machel, whom he married on his 80th birthday in 1998.

Friends adored “Madiba”, the clan name by which he is known. People lauded his humanity, kindness, attention and dignity.

Unable to shake the habits of prison, Mandela rose daily between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. to exercise and read. He drank little and was a fervent anti-smoker.

An amateur boxer in his younger days, Mandela often said the discipline and tactics drawn from training helped him to endure prison and the political battles after his release.

RAINBOW NATION

But prison and old age took their toll on his health.

Mandela was treated in the 1980s for tuberculosis and later required an operation to repair damage to his eyes as well as treatment for prostate cancer in 2001. His spirit, however, remained strong.

“If cancer wins I will still be the better winner,” he told reporters in September of that year. “When I go to the next world, the first thing I will do is look for an ANC office to renew my membership.”

Most South Africans are proud of their post-apartheid multi-racial ‘Rainbow Nation’.

But Mandela‘s legacy of tolerance and reconciliation has been threatened in recent years by squabbling between factions in the ANC and social tensions in a country that, despite its political liberation, still suffers great inequalities.

Mandela‘s last major appearance on the global stage came in 2010 when he donned a fur cap in the South African winter and rode on a golf cart, waving to an exuberant crowd of 90,000 at the soccer World Cup final, one of the biggest events in the country’s post-apartheid history.

“I leave it to the public to decide how they should remember me,” he said on South African television before his retirement.

“But I should like to be remembered as an ordinary South African who together with others has made his humble contribution.”

By Ed Cropley
Former South African President Nelson Mandela died peacefully at his Johannesburg home on Thursday at the age of 95  after a prolonged lung infection, President Jacob Zuma said.
Mandela, the country’s first black president and anti-apartheid icon known in South Africa by his clan name of Madiba, emerged from 27 years in apartheid prisons to help guide South Africa through bloodshed and turmoil to democracy.

In a nationally televised address, Zuma said Mandela would have a full state funeral. He ordered flags to be flown at half mast.
“Fellow South Africans, our beloved Nelson Rohlihla Mandela, the founding president of our democratic nation, has departed,” Zuma said.
“He passed on peacefully in the comfort of his home.”

Mandela rose from rural obscurity to challenge the might of white minority apartheid government – a struggle that gave the 20th century one of its most respected and loved figures.
He was among the first to advocate armed resistance to apartheid in 1960, but was quick to preach reconciliation and forgiveness when the country’s white minority began easing its grip on power 30 years later.

Mandela, imprisoned for nearly three decades, was elected president in landmark all-race elections in 1994 and retired in 1999.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, an honour he shared with F.W. de Klerk, the white Afrikaner leader who released from jail arguably the world’s most famous political prisoner.

As president, Mandela faced the monumental task of forging a new nation from the deep racial injustices left over from the apartheid era, making reconciliation the theme of his time in office.

The hallmark of Mandela’s mission was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which probed apartheid crimes on both sides of the struggle and tried to heal the country’s wounds. It also provided a model for other countries torn by civil strife.

In 1999, Mandela handed over power to younger leaders better equipped to manage a modern economy – a rare voluntary departure from power cited as an example to African leaders.
In retirement, he shifted his energies to battling South Africa’s AIDS crisis and the struggle became personal when he lost his only surviving son to the disease in 2005.
Mandela’s last major appearance on the global stage came in 2010 when he attended the championship match of the football World Cup, where he received a thunderous ovation from the 90,000 at the stadium in Soweto, the neighbourhood in which he cut his teeth as a resistance leader.

Charged with capital offences in the infamous 1963 Rivonia Trial, his statement from the dock was his political testimony.
“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination.

Host nation Brazil will kick off next year’s soccer World Cup against Croatia in Sao Paulo on June 12, while holders Spain and 2010 runners-up Netherlands will meet again in the group stages following the draw on Friday.

Brazil were grouped with Croatia, Mexico and Cameroon while Spain and the Dutch have a tough Group B which also contains Chile and Australia.

The complicated draw procedure also put England, Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica together in Group D, but most of the big soccer nations will be happy with the outcome.

Bosnia, the only one of the 32 teams taking part in their first World Cup finals, face Argentina, Iran and Nigeria.

The final is in Rio de Janeiro on July 13.

Group A
1. Brazil
2. Croatia
3. Mexico
4. Cameroon

Group B
1. Spain
2. Netherlands
3. Chile
4. Australia

Group C
1. Colombia
2. Greece
3. Ivory Coast
4. Japan

Group D
1. Uruguay
2. Costa Rica
3. England
4. Italy

Group E
1. Switzerland
2. Ecuador
3. France
4. Honduras

Group F
1. Argentina
2. Bosnia
3. Iran
4. Nigeria

Group G
1. Germany
2. Portugal
3. Ghana
4. United States

Group H
1. Belgium
2. Algeria
3. Russia
4. South Korea

Click on complete fixture list below to enlarge:

Presidential palace staff on Friday wished President Nicos Anastasiades a happy name during a small event which took place at the palace itself.

Head of the President’s office, Panayiotis Antoniou gave Anastasiades a present on behalf of the staff and said: “The present is accompanied by immense appreciation and love”.

The President thanked his staff and said that their love moved him. “Without you the Presidential Palace cannot operate so I owe you a lot,” he said.