WE WOULD have loved to start 2014 with a message of hope and optimism, something heart-warming that would help customers start the year in a positive frame of mind, but we just couldn’t think of anything that would raise spirits, apart from the fact that this is a World Cup year.

But this means nothing to people who are not of the football faith, while those who are know that the World Cup could be a big disappointment and the high hopes and expectations in the run-up a wasted emotional investment. At best, it can act as distraction for a month, a brief respite from a year of economic and psychological depression.
What else is there to look forward to in 2014? Higher taxes, diminished earnings, high interest rates, less cash in circulation, more businesses closing down, rising unemployment, more NPLs, moaning union bosses, European parliament elections and, worst of all, the sell-off of profit-making SGOs.
How could we approach the year with even the slightest hint of hope when the criminal comrade Tof is a free man living off the taxpayer, that abysmal failure masquerading as a Central Bank governor still enjoys the backing of the ECB, DIKO will be without Garoyian’s visionary leadership and the BoC is under the chairmanship of a guy who seems to care more about his hair-style than the balance sheet.
In view of all this could we really heed the advice of the classic Monty Python song and Always look on the bright side of life? I think we can as Kyproulla would still be a much better place to live in 2014 than Syria.

WE MAY have failed to mention the non-existent prospects of a Cyprob settlement as another reason for psychological and economic depression but that is because it is not. In fact the Cyprob stalemate is the only remaining constant in our lives.
In the previous year everything was turned upside down in Kyproulla, all our certainties shattered by the bail-in and memorandum. We surrendered control of our lives to the troika tyranny, which has been calling the shots, even telling the poor public parasites what times they should go to work.
The only certainty we still have in our lives is our beloved Cyprob. We can still wake up every morning knowing that at least one thing in our life has not changed and remains a beacon of constancy untouched by the meddling tyrants of the troika.
Without any prospect of a settlement it can carry on acting as our one inspiration, our unyielding struggle for a fair and just solution, a reason to live at a time of existential and moral crisis. We sincerely hope the word or words that would allow agreement on a joint declaration are not found in any dictionary because we need our problem intact, to see us through this difficult year.
There was a positive development on Friday when Dervis Eroglu rejected Prez Nik’s latest proposal for a joint statement that would kick off the talks. Given that Nik is hell-bent on finding a solution we would have to rely on unwavering Turkish intransigence to keep our problem in the form and shape we like.

AND NOW it is time for our predictions for 2104, which have been compiled by our two resident coffee-cup readers, assisted by a psychic, a clairvoyant, a gypsy fortune teller and a drunken astrologer.

JANUARY – The government puts back the deadline for the payment of road tax by three months for the owners of Japanese-made cars that are below 1400cc and were manufactured before 1995 as a targeted measure to help vulnerable groups and illegal immigrants. All other car owners are given a three week extension to settle their bill.
Marcos Baghdatis advances to the quarter-final of the Australian Open for the second time in his career but has to withdraw in the third set after he pulls a muscle celebrating winning the second set tiebreaker.

FEBRUARY – Public protests against the privatisation of CyTA intensify, with one union boss dousing himself in petrol and threatening to light himself up if the government did not abandon its plans; at the same time another union leader is on the roof of the Shacolas Tower shouting ‘state ownership or death’ and threatening to jump. Both are eventually persuaded by their colleagues to avoid such drastic action. Instead they join a hunger strike being held by 50 overweight CyTA workers outside the presidential palace.
Paralimni enters the Guinness Book of World Record again, for the longest souvla spit in the world. It measures 60 metres long and barbecues 58 whole lambs in one go. The charcoal is placed in a trench in the ground. The original idea was to use the super-spit to barbecue 2,000 ambelopoulia in one go but it was abandoned after the intervention of the government.

MARCH – A new formula for the joint declaration that would be acceptable by both sides and open the way for the peace talks has been prepared by Big Bad Al and his team of advisors. The declaration will no longer consist of written text but illustrations and cartoons that carry less political meaning. Both sides have warmed to this innovative idea but disagree on the type of cartoons that should be used. Prez Nik prefers the minimalist type used in The Simpsons and South Park, while Eroglu prefers the more elaborate style employed in super-hero comics.
The troika carried out its progress review and commends the government for the fine work it has been doing in implementing the memorandum. Its only criticism was that there were fewer people below the poverty line than it had forecast. The government said it would do its best to meet this target by the next review

APRIL – Prez Nik decides to honour his election promise to legalise marijuana and submits the relevant bill to the House for approval. Many deputies are opposed to the bill, as is the Church and employers federations, which feel easy access to weed would lower productivity. Nik manages to get the bill approved after telling deputies that cannabis legalisation was a commitment of the government under the memorandum; the weed would be taxed, generating additional revenue for the state.

MAY – The hunger strike by the CyTA workers continues even though people have been seen taking food to the protesters after midnight and in the early hours. This may explain why after two months none of the 50 strikers appear to have lost any weight. The government refuses to give in to the protesters even though it has been unable to find anyone willing to buy CyTA even at a 50 per cent discount. Privatisation could still be averted not because of the hunger strike but because no buyer can be found. The troika has not decided what would happen in such a case.

JUNE – Bank of Piraeus has decided to give a gift of €1,000 to every Cypriot citizen to prove that its advert which boasts that the bank was motivated by selflessness and humanity was not grossly misleading as some individuals had claimed. They had complained about the bank’s misleading advertising to the consumers’ association which sought explanations. This exercise will cost the bank about €500 million, but still leave it with a profit of more than one billion from the purchase of the branches of the Cypriot banks in Greece. The donation of the half billion caused jubilation but received negative coverage from the media because their advertising budgets would be cut by Piraeus.

JULY – Cyprus gains another entry into the Guinness Book of World Records and this time for something much more serious than a big souvla spit. It becomes the country with the biggest number of refugees as a proportion of its population. Thanks to the government’s decision, supported by all parties, to grant refugee status to children of refugee mothers, Kyproulla now has 600,000 refugees. The Greek Cypriot refugees represent 75 per cent of the population. We have had a 300 per cent increase in the number of refugees since 1974.

Sorry we have to stop here, but our team cannot see beyond the end of July.

ONE OF OUR regulars sent us the full list of the 2013 Darwin Awards which ‘honour the least evolved among us’ or, in more blunt language, ‘the colossally stupid’. No Cypriot politician has won this distinction because it is awarded for actions rather than words as you will see below.
The winner: When his .38 caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach, California would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.
Here is also a selection of those who received honourable mentions:
After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn’t discovered for three days.
A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer… $15.
When a man attempted to siphon petrol from a motor home parked on a Seattle street by sucking on a hose, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal petrol, but he plugged his siphon hose into the motor home’s sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges saying that it was the best laugh he’d ever had and the perpetrator had been punished enough.

THE 294-page report prepared by the three-member committee investigating the purchase of land by the CyTA pension fund could be described as a guide on how corruption takes place in Cyprus. There was the businessman offering backhanders to politicians and political parties to help broker the land deal, the civil servants who ensured that administrative obstacles were overcome, the police who fabricated information to facilitate the transaction and, of course, the party placemen and union reps at the SGO taking the decision for the investment.
Almost everyone seems happy to jump on the corruption bandwagon as the rewards are good, nobody ever complains about these scams and the chances of being caught are practically non-existent. If anything, the CyTA land scam is the exception that proves the rule. Could there be the slightest doubt that backhanders have been collected for every lucrative deal SGOs have signed? These organisations routinely make purchases and sign contracts for services worth tens of millions of euro every year, offering unlimited scope for corrupt dealings for politicians, parties, their placemen on the boards, union officials and rest of the hangers-on.
Invariably it is the taxpayer that foots the bribery bill, not once but twice, because apart from the fact that the backhanders and commissions are included in the final price an organisation or the government pays, the consumer is subsequently asked to pay a higher market price for the services or goods provided to cover the cost of the inflated investment. It was no coincidence that one former finance minister was incredulous at the inflated prices Cyprus Airways had been paying for most of its purchases – the extra cost was passed on to the hapless consumer who, for decades, paid exorbitantly high air fares.
In the case of the CyTA scam it was the organisation’s workers who were robbed as the money used to facilitate the Dromolaxia ‘investment’ was taken from their pension fund, with the consent of their union representatives. Of course the reason they had such a cash-rich pension fund was because their unions, with the support of the political parties and their placemen on the board, had arranged to take a big monthly payment from CyTA for workers’ pensions, which are even higher than those of civil servants. This low level, union-sponsored corruption that exists throughout the public sector ensures the complicity of employees to corrupt practices by their bosses, politicians and board members. As always, the consumer pays the high cost of corruption.
The CyTA scandal exposed the depth and breadth of sleaze in public life because a couple of the protagonists took the unprecedented step of speaking out. For decades there had been honour among thieves, ensuring the pillaging of the state and its organisations was an easy, zero-risk exercise that went largely unnoticed. Interestingly, none of the political parties made anything of the allegation before the investigative committee and included in its report, that two leading AKEL members had taken bribes to facilitate the deal. A businessman claimed that AKEL MP Nicos Katsourides was allegedly paid €500,000 and former interior minister Neoclis Sylikiotis was allegedly given €1m. Additional amounts had been paid to AKEL as a direct contribution to the party and to help pay off the debts of one of its football clubs, leading to the arrest of two party members.
Not surprisingly, none of the other parties have made too much of AKEL’s involvement in this scam, showing they have taken to heart the Bible teaching, let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Justice minister Ionas Nicolaou said that the Attorney-General would decide whether more investigations were needed and if other individuals would be prosecuted. Had Katsourides and Sylikiotis been called in for questioning, if only to refute the bribery allegations against them, or are they untouchable because they are top politicians?
Our politicians might make public pronouncements against corruption and occasionally report minor scandals but the CyTA land scam has shown that it is these very same politicians and their parties that are behind the corruption and graft that have plagued the country ever since independence. It is why nobody is ever caught or punished. And we are very naive to think that the main beneficiaries of this corruption – politicians, unionists, civil servants, police – would take the steps needed to put an end to what has become a self-perpetuating practice. Now if the troika stepped in, there could be some hope.

Portuguese great Eusebio, top scorer at the 1966 World Cup, died on Sunday from a heart attack at the age of 71 with the small Iberian nation mourning him as an “eternal symbol” of their football pride.

The death of the charismatic striker, who was idolised throughout the Portuguese-speaking world and considered one of the game’s greatest players was confirmed by former club Benfica and the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF).

“Portugal is mourning. Eusebio, the King of Portugal’s 1966 team and the eternal symbol of the country, national team and Benfica passed away,” the FPF said in a statement.

The Portuguese government declared three days of national mourning and many fans paid homage by visiting an iconic statue of him erected next to Benfica’s Luz stadium, leaving flowers, scarves and other tributes.

Eusebio, whose full name was Eusebio da Silva Ferreira, was European Footballer of the Year in 1965 but won global acclaim a year later at the World Cup in England, where his nine goals helped Portugal reach the semi-finals.

He earned 64 caps and scored 41 goals for Portugal, records that stood for almost two decades.

A 1970 photo showing Eusebio in his beloved Benfica shirt

Nicknamed the ‘Black Panther’, Eusebio was a European Cup winner with Benfica in 1962 and played in three other finals, including the loss to Manchester United at Wembley in 1968.

Eusebio helped Benfica to 11 Portugues championships and later served as an ‘ambassador’ for the club. He scored more than 300 league goals for the Lisbon outfit.

“The news caught us by surprise brutally, because there are men who should never go away,” a Benfica statement read.

“The life of Eusebio is the patrimony of everyone who loves football.”

As news of Eusebio’s death spread, tributes began pouring in from the football family.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on his Twitter page: “football has lost a legend but Eusebio’s place among the greats will never be taken away.”

Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo, who overtook Eusebio last year to go to the top of the country’s list of top marksmen and trigger a debate on who is the best Portuguese player of all time, shared a picture of him and Eusebio on Twitter.

“Always eternal Eusebio, rest in peace,” read the caption.

THE KING

Eusebio hailed from Lourenco Marques, now Maputo, in colonial Mozambique and as a teenage prodigy was expected to join Benfica’s great rivals Sporting Lisbon but changed his mind at the last minute.

Even though he played for Portugal, he was widely regarded as the best known African player of all-time, until the emergence in more recent times of the likes of Samuel Eto’o, Didier Drogba and Abedi Pele.

“He was one of the great figures of Portugal. I think he is immortal. We all know what he meant for football and especially for Portuguese football,” Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho told Portugal’s state broadcaster RTP.

“He was not only a great inspiration but also an important figure in upholding the values, principles and feelings of football, even after finishing his career,” the former Porto, Inter Milan and Real Madrid coach added.

Eusebio ended his career playing in the U.S. but returned to Portugal to various roles with Benfica and the Portuguese federation. He was referred to as the “O Rei” (the king) in his later years, enjoying widespread affection.

Among the first reactions to his death came from former Benfica and Portugal team mate Toni.

“I told him when he was alive much of what I felt… that it was a privilege to have played with him. We have lost one of the greatest figures of Portuguese sport,” the former midfielder said in a statement.

“There were many princes in football but few kings. He is in the gallery of the greats. He was gifted both physically and technically, he was like a Greek statue,” he added.

Twenty nine people were injured when a Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) Boeing 767-300ER made an emergency landing at Medina airport in the west of the country early on Sunday, the General Authority of Civil Aviation said.

It said 18 of the injured were treated at the airport while 11 were taken to hospital. A spokesman for Saudi Arabian Airlines, who did not give his name, said three people were seriously injured.

The flight, arriving from Mashhad in Iran before dawn, was carrying 315 passengers and suffered a technical malfunction, the authority said. It said the pilot had reported a problem with a rear wheel.

A witness at Medina airport, speaking anonymously because he was not authorised to talk to media, said the plane landed after making two unsuccessful attempts.

The Saudia spokesman said the plane was leased from another company.

“Boeing is aware of reports of the accident and is gathering more information,” the company said.

Photographs and video footage posted online showed the plane on the runway with damage to its right wing. The Saudia spokesman verified the authenticity of the images.

State-owned Saudia is the national carrier of Saudi Arabia. It is in the process of splitting into different units that will eventually be partly privatised.

Car and roadside bombs exploded in commercial areas of Baghdad on Sunday killing at least 19 people, police and medical sources said.

The deadliest attack took place in northern Baghdad’s mainly Shi’ite district of Shaab where two car bombs went off killing at least nine people and wounding 25.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attacks but Sunni Muslim insurgents have stepped up attacks on Iraqi security forces and supporters of the Shi’ite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda and tribal fighters have taken control of Ramadi and Falluja, the main cities in the Sunni Muslim-dominated province of Anbar in a serious challenge to the government’s authority. Iraqi troops and allied tribesmen are trying to retake the province.

In a separate incident, gunmen set up a fake check point on the main road between Baghdad and Kirkuk, killing six drivers, late on Saturday near Udhaim, 90 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

West Ham United’s woes intensified as the Premier League club were knocked out of the FA Cup by second tier Nottingham Forest with Jamie Paterson netting a hat-trick in a humiliating 5-0 third-round rout on Sunday.

The Londoners, who are 19th in the top flight, were undone by an in-form Forest side who scored early in the first half with a cheeky Djamel Abdoun penalty before Paterson netted three times in the second half and Andy Reid added a fifth.

The result heaps pressure on West Ham boss Sam Allardyce, who made nine changes to his starting line-up with one eye on the first leg of their League Cup semi-final at Manchester City on Wednesday.

There were rows of empty seats at Forest’s City Ground, but the fans who had made the trip were treated to a comprehensive victory with the wheels set in motion after 12 minutes when Paterson was tripped in the area by George Moncur.

Abdoun finished with an audacious chipped penalty to put the hosts ahead and Paterson doubled the lead after 65 minutes with a low finish across the keeper for the twice European champions.

Paterson, who had not scored since joining Forest from Walsall in the close season, grabbed his second with another first-time, low finish after 71 and added his third with a well-taken effort on 79.

Reid heaped embarrassment on the visitors with a rifled finish into the top corner in injury time.

After knocking out north London rivals Tottenham from the Cup, Arsenal were drawn to face Coventry City in the fourth round

FA Cup fourth round draw

Sunderland or Carlisle United v Kidderminister or
Peterborough United
Bolton Wanderers v Cardiff City
Southampton v Yeovil
Huddersfield v Charlton Athletic or Oxford United
Port Vale or Plymouth Argyle v Brighton and Hove Albion
Nottingham Forest v Ipswich Town or Preston North End
Southend United v Hull City
Rochdale v Macclesfield Town or Sheffield Wednesday
Arsenal v Coventry City
Stevenage v Everton
Wigan Athletic or MK Dons v Crystal Palace
Derby County or Chelsea v Stoke City
Blackburn Rovers or Manchester City v Bristol City or
Watford
Bournemouth or Burton v Liverpool or Oldham Athletic
Birmingham City or Bristol Rovers or Crawley v Manchester
United or Swansea City
Sheffield United v Norwich City or Fulham

(Ties to be played on weekend of Jan. 25)

Residents of the Midwestern United States on Sunday braced for the coldest weather in two decades, temperatures that forecasters warned would be life-threatening.

Icy conditions snarled travel across the region and thousands of flights were canceled or delayed, some officials preemptively closed schools, and at a New York City airport a plane skidded off a runway into snow days after the Northeast was hammered by the first winter storm of the season.

“The coldest temperatures in almost two decades will spread into the northern and central U.S. today behind an arctic cold front,” the National Weather Service said in an advisory posted on its website on Sunday. “Combined with gusty winds, these temperatures will result in life-threatening wind chill values as low as 60 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit/ -51 Celsius).”

In weather that cold, frostbite can set in on uncovered skin in a matter of minutes, experts warned.

But fans of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers vowed to brave the weather to see a playoff matchup that could stand as one of the coldest ever games in league history.

In Green Bay, Wisconsin, football fan Jacquie Tucker Braun, 44, was undaunted by a forecast for temperatures below 0 F (-18 C) when the Packers match up with the San Francisco 49ers at 3:40 CT (2140 GMT).

“It’s going to be a challenge to stay warm, but we’re up to it,” said Braun, who plans to bring her 14-year-old son Gryphon to the game. She is bundling up for the game, wearing four layers on top and three layers on the bottom, along with a two pairs of socks and two pairs of gloves.

“We will see the game to the end unless there was some type of emergency,” she said. “Being a Packers fan is in your blood, hereditary even.”

Officials at the Packers’ Lambeau Field promised fans two free hot cocoa or coffee drinks during the game, ESPN reported.

Elsewhere in the Midwest, forecasters warned Chicago and Indianapolis could see overnight lows of -12 F (-24 C), Minneapolis -29 F (-34 C) and Fargo, North Dakota, -31 F (-35 C). The coldest temperature reported in the lower 48 states on Sunday was -36 F (-38 C) in Crane Lake, Minnesota, according to the National Weather Service.

The northeast was forecast to see a brief thaw before intense cold returned late Monday.

About half of all flights arriving and departing Chicago O’Hare International Airport had been canceled on Sunday, according to FlightAware, which tracks flight statistics.

Nationwide, about 2,855 flights had been delayed nationwide by midday and 2,332 had been canceled.

In New York City, John F. Kennedy International Airport was closed for a couple of hours Sunday morning after a Bombardier jet skidded off a taxiway soon after landing. The Delta Connection flight had landed safely after arriving from Toronto with 35 passengers on board, and no injuries were reported, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, which runs the airport, said.

Officials in several states asked residents to use extra precautions when outdoors.

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has ordered all public schools in the state closed on Monday to protect children from dangerously cold weather.

Chicago schools will be open Monday despite the cold, but officials, in a statement, advised parents to “use their own discretion in deciding whether to send their child to school.”

Between six inches and one foot (15-30 cm) of snow was predicted from Chicago to Detroit, AccuWeather said, while icy sleet and rain was forecast for much of the Northeast.

Manchester United suffered a stinging 2-1 home defeat by Swansea City in the FA Cup third round on Sunday as their former fortress of Old Trafford was ransacked for the fifth time this season.

Reduced to 10 men for the closing stages after Fabio was sent off, Swansea’s battering ram striker Wilfried Bony climbed high to head home a powerful 90th-minute winner and leave United boss David Moyes to face questions about his management.

West Ham United’s woes intensified as the Premier League club were thrashed 5-0 by second tier Nottingham Forest, increasing the heat on their manager Sam Allardyce.

Forest’s Jamie Paterson netted a hat-trick in the humiliating rout, but the spotlight was on Allardyce who was accused of waving the white flag by making nine changes to his starting line-up with an eye on the League Cup semi-final at Manchester City on Wednesday.

Chelsea showed their fellow Londoners how to negotiate a potentially tricky Cup tie in the east Midlands, winning 2-0 at second tier Derby County.

Liverpool avenged last season’s Cup defeat by Oldham Athletic, winning 2-0 at Anfield with Iago Aspas scoring his first goal for the club, and Sunderland also came through 3-1 against Carlisle.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he would not oppose the retrial of hundreds of military officers convicted on coup plot charges, a case that underlined civilian dominance over a once all-powerful army.

Turkey’s appeals court in October upheld the convictions of top retired officers for leading a plot to overthrow Erdogan’s government a decade ago.

The military last week filed a criminal complaint over the court cases, saying evidence against serving and retired officers had been fabricated.

“There is not a problem for us about retrials as long as the legal basis is established. In terms of regulations, we are ready to do what we can,” Erdogan told reporters late on Sunday before leaving on an official visit to Asia.

He said he had a “positive” meeting on Saturday with the head of the Turkish bar association at which the cases were discussed and the justice minister was working on the issue.

The military complaint came as Erdogan’s government is weakened by a wide-ranging corruption investigation which has led to the resignation of three members of his cabinet and highlighted concern about the independence of the judiciary.

Erdogan’s backers accuse Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based Turkish cleric with strong influence in the police and judiciary and a former ally of the prime minister, of connivance in the corruption investigations. Gulen denies the allegation.

Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party is widely held to have relied on Gulen’s influence in breaking the power of the army – which carried out three coups between 1960 and 1980 and forced an Islamist-led government from power in 1997 – including by pursuing suspected coup plotters through the courts.

At least 17 workers were killed and many feared trapped when a half-built apartment block collapsed in the Indian resort state of Goa, police and media said on Sunday, the latest disaster to draw attention to safety standards amid a construction boom.

The multi-storey building in Canacona, just over 4 km (two and a half miles) from the popular Palolem beach in the western state, collapsed on Saturday.

Around 50 people were working at the site at the time and at least a dozen were still trapped under the concrete, according to witness accounts cited in media reports. One report put the number of people trapped as high as 60.

India’s booming construction industry is set to be worth $1 trillion by 2025, which would make it the world’s third largest, according to a report by Global Construction Perspectives and Oxford Economics.

But this dazzling growth has often come at the expense of safety standards.

At least 50 people were killed when a five-storey apartment block in India’s financial centre, Mumbai, collapsed last September.

A collapse in April killed 72 people in Thane, a satellite city just outside Mumbai. Officials said the structure was built with poor materials and did not have proper approvals.

Goa police have registered a case – using a process known in India as a “first information report” – against the real estate development firm building the Goa block.

“Legal action will be taken against all who are responsible for this,” Mishra said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has fractured her pelvis in a cross-country skiing accident and is walking with the help of crutches, forcing her to call off some foreign visits and official appointments, her spokesman said on Monday.

Merkel fell while skiing over the Christmas vacation. What she first thought was heavy bruising turned out to be a partial fracture, meaning she must take it easy for three weeks and work from home where possible, said her spokesman Steffen Seibert.

The news comes a week after Germany was shocked by the far more serious skiing accident of former Formula One champion Michael Schumacher, who is in critical condition in a French hospital.

“The chancellor is of course able to work and is in full communication,” said Seibert. He added that Merkel’s accident occurred “at low speed” but he declined to give further details.

The 59-year-old chancellor, a keen hiker who has said she prefers cross-country to downhill skiing, has postponed a visit to Warsaw scheduled for Wednesday and a meeting in Berlin with Luxembourg’s new prime minister, Xavier Bettel.

But she will lead her first cabinet meeting of 2014 on Wednesday. Merkel began her third term last month after sealing a “grand coalition” of her conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).

Merkel will not attend the World Economic Forum later this month but not because of her skiing accident, Seibert said, adding that the meeting in Davos at the end of January clashed with a scheduled German government meeting.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday halted same-sex marriages in Utah – permitted for less than three weeks – while the state appeals a lower-court ruling legalizing them, as the justices again left their imprint on the debate over gay nuptials.

The high court granted a request from state officials appealing a federal judge’s Dec. 20 ruling that had allowed same-sex weddings to go ahead in the heavily Mormon state.

The action by the court means that gay weddings in the state are on hold for now while the case is appealed to the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Hundreds of gay couples in Utah have received marriage licenses since the ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby.

The Supreme Court’s action on Monday was only on the matter of whether there should be a stay of Shelby’s ruling. The high court’s order was two sentences long, with no justices writing individual opinions indicating where they might stand on the merits of the case.

But the fact that the court granted the stay was enough to put the spotlight on where the justices stand on the issue six months after their two high-profile decisions on the matter.

One ruling struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a federal law that denied federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples. The other paved the way for gay marriage to resume in California.

In both cases, the court avoided making any sweeping pronouncements about a right to gay marriage in the United States.

The appeals court has already agreed to hear the Utah case on an expedited schedule, with a Feb. 25 deadline for court papers.

Terry Henry, a Utah special education teacher who took advantage of Shelby’s decision to marry Penny Kirby, said she was surprised by the decision to grant a stay.

“The world seems a little less stable today,” Henry said.

Henry, 47, added that she wonders what impact the stay might have on her newly minted family’s rights. Having a marriage license allowed Henry to add the unemployed Kirby, 51, to her work-based health insurance just last week.

Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes gay marriage, characterized Monday’s high court action as a repudiation of Shelby’s decision.

“The actions of this activist judge are an affront to the rule of law and the sovereign rights of the people of Utah to define marriage,” he said in a statement.

‘FREEDOM TO MARRY’

Gay marriage supporters including the American Civil Liberties Union sought to downplay the high court’s action.

“Despite today’s decision, we are hopeful that the lower court’s well-reasoned decision will be upheld in the end and that courts across the country will continue to recognize that all couples should have the freedom to marry,” ACLU lawyer Joshua Block said in a statement.

Utah become the 18th state – at least temporarily – where gay marriage was permitted when Shelby sided with three same-sex couples in their lawsuit challenging a voter-passed amendment to the Utah state constitution that defined marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman.

Little more than a decade ago, none of the 50 U.S. states recognized same-sex marriage. Since then, attitudes have changed rapidly in some parts of the country.

At the time of the Supreme Court rulings in June, only 12 states and the District of Columbia recognized gay marriage. Since then, more states have followed, some via legislative action and others due to court rulings. Hawaii, Illinois and New Mexico are the most recent states where gay marriage has become legal.

Shelby had declined to stay his ruling pending appeal, meaning gay couples were able to marry in Utah immediately. The appeals court also had declined to stay the ruling, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court as the state’s last recourse.

Shelby’s decision came as a shock to many of Utah’s 2.8 million residents, nearly two-thirds of whom are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mormon doctrine states that sexual relations outside opposite-sex marriage are contrary to the will of God.

Utah’s stay application relied in part on the high court’s June decision in United States v. Windsor, which, although it struck down DOMA, also said the definition of marriage was largely a matter of state law.

In the Windsor case, in which the court was split 5-4, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority that the federal law violated the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection

A blast of Arctic air gripped the mid-section of the United States on Monday, bringing the coldest temperatures in two decades, forcing businesses and schools to close and causing widespread airline delays and hazardous driving conditions.

Meteorologists said temperatures were dangerously cold and life-threatening in some places, with 0 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 18 Celsius) recorded in Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis. The chill was set to bear down on eastern and southern states as the day wore on.

The frigid temperatures in the United States mirrored or outdid those in such parts of the world as Almaty, Kazakhstan where it was minus 2 degrees F (minus 19 C); Mongolia, where temperatures reached minus 10 degrees F (minus 23 C) and Irkutsk, in Siberia, where it was minus 24 degrees F (minus 31 C).

In the United States, temperatures were 20 to 40 degrees below average in parts of Montana, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Nebraska, according to the National Weather Service.

It issued warnings for life-threatening wind chills in western and central North Dakota, with temperatures as low as minus 60 F (minus 51 C).

“Cold temperatures and gusty winds associated with an arctic airmass will continue dangerously cold wind chills as far south as Brownsville, Texas and central Florida,” the National Weather Service said.

The last time Chicago was this cold was February 1996, according to Accuweather.com.

“The Arctic cold front responsible for the frigid blast will move through the East Coast Monday into Monday night and bring the coldest temperatures some have experienced in twenty years,” said Accuweather.com weather writer Mark Leberfinger.

Oklahoma City and Tulsa schools were closed because of the extreme temperatures.

“It’s a far cry from the days when our parents used to say ‘I used to walk uphill both ways in a snow storm to get to school,’” said Oklahoma City filmmaker Cacky Poarch, 45, the mother of two children.

“Now, we just say, ‘It’s cold. No school today,’” Poarch said.

The Arctic airmass will slam the eastern two-thirds of the country through mid-week, the National Weather Service said.

Indiana was particularly hard hit. Offices and schools were closed in Indianapolis and businesses were asked to close at least until noon, if not all day, due to temperatures and wind chill conditions.

Widespread wind chill warnings and advisories were issued from eastern Montana and Wyoming through Minneapolis, Chicago and St. Louis to the Atlantic seaboard.

The extreme cold can cause frostbite or hypothermia in people and in pets in as little as five or 10 minutes, according to meteorologist Fred Allen in a report for WeatherBug.

Excessive delays were reported at airports in Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland and St. Louis.

Farmers in the Plains states of Nebraska and Kansas were worried that the subzero temperatures would kill off part of the new winter wheat crop which, while typically hardy, cannot always tolerate extremely low temperatures.

Ranchers in South Dakota were keeping an eye on cattle herds, as hundreds of calves were being born in the life-threatening cold.

In Kansas City, where wind chills were forecast at -20 to -40 degrees F (minus 29 C to minus 40 C), schools were closed. Some roadways were shut down after slick conditions triggered multiple early-morning collisions.

Lake-effect snow was set to barrel in off the Great Lakes, dumping two to three feet of snow to the east and southeast through Wednesday, meteorologists said.

Arsenal and England forward Theo Walcott has been ruled out for at least six months after rupturing knee ligaments and will miss this year’s World Cup, the club said on Monday.

Walcott suffered the injury during the 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup third round on Saturday and he left the field on a stretcher.

“Theo will have surgery in London in the near future and is expected to be out for at least six months, therefore missing the remainder of the season and the World Cup in Brazil in the summer,” the club said on their website.

Walcott had only recently returned from an abdominal injury.

Princess Cristina, the younger daughter of Spain’s King Juan Carlos, has been charged with tax fraud and money-laundering, piling further scandal on the once-beloved but increasingly unpopular royal family.

Palma de Mallorca Examining Magistrate Jose Castro said in a 200-page ruling after a lengthy investigation that there was evidence that Cristina, 48, had committed crimes.

He summoned her to appear in court on March 8, possibly paving the way for an unprecedented trial of a Spanish royal.

The princess‘s defence lawyer, Miguel Roca, told Spanish television he would appeal the summons, saying “I am absolutely convinced of her innocence”.

Her husband, former Olympic handball player Inaki Urdangarin, was earlier charged with fraud, tax evasion, falsifying documents and embezzlement of 6 million euros in public funds through his charitable foundation, which put on sports business conferences in Mallorca and elsewhere in Spain. Urdangarin has denied any wrongdoing.

The case is one of many high-level corruption scandals in Spain that have undermined faith in public institutions at a time of economic crisis marked by deep cuts in public spending.

Opinion of the royal family in particular has sunk to its lowest level ever.

A Sigma Dos poll published on Sunday showed almost two thirds of Spaniards want King Juan Carlos to abdicate after 38 years on the throne and hand over to Prince Felipe, who is still well regarded and is not implicated in his sister’s case.

Juan Carlos became king with the restoration of the monarchy in 1975 following the death of the dictator General Francisco Franco. He won respect from Spaniards for his role in the transition to democracy, notably his actions in foiling a coup attempt in 1981.

But various scandals, shows of extravagance, and incidents such as an elephant-hunting trip to Africa at the height of the crisis in 2012 have tarnished his standing along with the Urdangarin affair.

While they have been under investigation, Princess Cristina and her husband have ceased to participate in public appearances. She and the couple’s four children moved last year to Geneva where she works for a Spanish bank’s charity. Urdangarin remains in Spain.

The case is centred on Urdangarin’s non-profit Noos Foundation. He is accused of using his connections to win public contracts to put on events in Mallorca and elsewhere in Spain. Judge Castro has said there is evidence the foundation overcharged for organising conferences and hid the proceeds abroad.

In his ruling, Castro detailed dozens of personal items the princess paid for – from Harry Potter books to home redecorations – out of a shell company the judge said was used to launder proceeds from the Noos Foundation.

“These sums were used on strictly personal spending…And they should have been declared in income tax statements… But it is evident that neither Inaki Urdangarin nor Mrs. Cristina de Borbon ever did so, which means they repeatedly defrauded the tax authority,” he wrote in his ruling.

However, the judge also said it was not clear whether the princess had evaded more than 120,000 euros in taxes a year, the division between an infraction and a felony.

The charges brought on Tuesday are known as an “imputacion” in Spanish, and could be thrown out before trial.

An “imputacion” is not as strong as an indictment that would immediately precede a trial, but it is more significant than a subpoena of an accused party because the judge argues there is evidence of specific criminal activity.

Castro, who opened his investigation into the royal couple three years ago, has struggled to make charges stick against Princess Cristina.

In April last year he ruled there was evidence she had aided and abetted Urdangarin. A higher court threw out those charges in May, saying the evidence was not sufficient, but gave Castro more time to investigate alleged tax fraud.

In bringing the new charges, Castro went against the recommendations of the anti-corruption prosecutor on the case, who has argued there was not evidence she committed crimes.

In Spain, the prosecutor and the judge on a case carry out separate investigations and may disagree on proceedings.

Activist anti-corruption group Clean Hands has filed a criminal complaint against Princess Cristina, and is a party to the judicial investigation. The group disagreed with the public prosecutor and recommended the judge bring criminal charges.

In Spain, civic groups can force prosecutors and judges into action by filing criminal lawsuits known as “people’s accusations”. Clean Hands has spurred action on several ongoing corruption cases in Spain, by filing this sort of lawsuit.

By Angelos Anastasiou
SECONDARY school students who take school buses had to start paying on Tuesday and will today announce measures in protest of the move, which comes as part of the bailout deal with the troika.
The €15 monthly fare comes amid heavy criticism and warnings of retaliatory measures from both students’ and parents’ associations bodies.
The fare, formerly subsidised in full by the state, was introduced by the previous government in a December 2012 decision but implementation was pushed back from October 2013 to January 2014 in the face of severe public pressure.
Students boarding buses were asked to pay yesterday and have been told they must pay up in the next couple of days before checks to see if they have a monthly pass are carried out although early reports said that a lot of them were refusing.
The pass will be valid for school routes only, with unlimited routes costing an additional €5. Students whose families qualify for state welfare benefits will not have to pay, and it is limited to two students per family.
Student body PSEM on Tuesday announced a nationwide one-period abstention from classes for Thursday, demanding the revocation of the decision, and secondary education parents’ associations declared their full support to the students’ cause.
PSEM president Panayiotis Monoyios has warned that “very few students will pay the fare”, calling for the government to rescind its decision as “no student should have to pay for transport to and from school”.
“We cannot accept ‘nothing can be done’ as an answer. There is great tension among parents and we will try to foster a dialogue in order to save whatever can be saved,” parents’ associations head Stefanos Stefanou said.
The two bodies will hold a joint press conference on Wednesday to announce further action.
Permanent secretary at the ministry of communications Alecos Michaelides said “there is no room for re-examining the bus fare decision” as the only way for it to be rescinded would be for the price of other public transport fare categories to be raised instead, which would cause “deeper social unrest and greater difficulty”.
Socialist party EDEK on Tuesday accused the government of hiding behind the Troika in imposing the levy. “The Troika never demanded the imposition of bus fares on students; it only asked that a specific amount is secured from public transport,” it said.
Greens’ press officer Eleni Chrysostomou cited “many long-term studies” indicating that the systematic use of public transport by students “enhances their social skills and collective outlook”, arguing that such use must not be disincentivised.
Both parties’ statements fell short of proposing alternative ways of raising the required cash.
Ruling party DISY’s spokesman Prodromos Prodromou responded to the opposition’s charges by pointing out that the Troika-required money “must come from somewhere” and that the measure has been implemented using a “targeted approach”, exempting primary-school students and children of those on welfare benefits.
Prodromou conceded that further targeting is possible for other vulnerable groups but added that “the policy of hand-outs, besides being socially unfair, has left our economy in a state where we can’t afford even the most basic of government policies”.

Payment for new road tax started on Tuesday, aiming to be concluded by February 9. Information on the taxation can be found at mcw.gov.cy, where the public can also make payments.

The road tax can also be paid at any commercial bank, at the Road Transport Department and Citizens Service Centers.
The road tax for 2014 was increased across the board.
Road Department officials warned that no extensions will be made this time and that anyone who pays the road tax after February 9 will be fined an extra €30 plus ten per cent over the road tax owned.
Police also warned that anyone caught not having paid the road tax will be fined €85.

By Larry Fine
Olympic downhill champion Lindsey Vonn, one of the biggest attractions in winter sport, will miss next month’s Sochi Games because she requires surgery on her injured knee.
The 29-year-old American broke the news on her Facebook page on Tuesday.

“I am devastated to announce I will not be able to compete in Sochi,” said Vonn, the girlfriend of world number one golfer Tiger Woods.
“I did everything I possibly could to somehow get strong enough to overcome having no ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) but the reality has sunk in that my knee is just too unstable to compete at this level.”

Vonn, a four-times overall World Cup champion and the standout name in women’s Alpine skiing, badly injured her right knee in a world championship super-G in February.
She hurt her knee again while training for the season-opening World Cup downhill at Beaver Creek, Colorado but appeared to be back on track after racing at Lake Louise, Alberta.
Vonn then travelled with the U.S. team to Europe and, with Woods watching her for the first time at a World Cup race, injured her knee once more in Val d’Isere, France.

“It was Tiger’s first time at a World Cup race and I was really hoping to win my 60th as a present for him,” said Vonn who with 59 victories in the competition is three short of the women’s record held by Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell.

Vonn still believed she could recover in time for Sochi, aiming to compete at her fourth straight Olympics, but faced the grim reality on Tuesday.
“After the incident in Val d’Isere an MRI showed an MCL (medial collateral ligament) sprain which, coupled with the torn ACL, has made it impossible to stabilise her knee and be ready to safely ski again next month,” Vonn’s public relations team said in a statement.
“She will have surgery shortly and is expected to make a full recovery in time for the 2014-15 World Cup season and the 2015 world championship.”

Vonn tried to put an optimistic spin on her personal disappointment.
“On a positive note this means there will be an additional spot so that one of my team mates can go for gold,” she said in a statement released by the U.S. skiing team.
“Thank you all so much for all of the love and support. I will be cheering for all of the Olympians and especially team USA.”
Bill Marolt, president of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, said he expected Vonn to be back at full strength next season and that it was time for her compatriots to step up in Sochi in her absence.

“I have every ounce of confidence that Lindsey will be at the starting gate at the next World Cup season ready to compete. She knows the hard work it takes to get to the top and still has significant goals to achieve in what has been an incredible career,” said Marolt.
“While Lindsey won’t be in Sochi we have a strong team that is well prepared to challenge. Now is the time for those athletes to step up.”

Vonn is a six-times World Cup downhill champion, a four-times World Cup super-G winner and a triple World Cup super combined champion.
She landed the downhill gold medal at the Vancouver Olympics four years ago and also picked up the bronze in the super-G at the same event.

Syria has started moving chemical weapons materials out of the country in a crucial phase of an internationally backed disarmament programme that has been delayed by war and technical problems.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said on Tuesday that “priority chemical materials” were transported to the port of Latakia and onto a Danish vessel which was now sailing towards international waters.

Syria agreed to abandon its chemical weapons by June under a deal proposed by Russia and agreed with the United States after an August 21 sarin gas attack that Western nations blamed on President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. Damascus blames rebels for the attack.

War, bad weather, bureaucracy and technical issues meant a December 31 deadline for the removal of the most deadly toxins from Syria was missed.

The OPCW did not disclose what percentage of Syria‘s toxic arsenal — which totals 1,300 tonnes in all — had been removed but said nine containers of the most dangerous chemical materials were on the Danish cargo vessel.

“The vessel has been accompanied by naval escorts provided by Denmark and Norway, as well as the Syrian Arab Republic,” a statement said. “It will remain at sea awaiting the arrival of additional priority chemical materials at the port.”

Maritime security was being provided by Chinese, Danish, Norwegian and Russian ships.

Government forces have taken back control of the highway linking Damascus to the coast which is needed to transport the toxins. Rebel were ousted from three towns along the road but activists say convoys moving along it will remain vulnerable to rebel ambushes.

Washington welcomed the removal of chemical materials and said Assad’s government appeared to be sticking to the deal.

“Much more needs to be done,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a news briefing, adding: “We have no reason to believe that the regime has gone back on any aspect of their promise.”

REBEL INFIGHTING

On the battlefield, Syria‘s bloodiest bout of rebel infighting since the war started nearly three years ago prompted the head of an al Qaeda-linked rebel group to called for a ceasefire between opposition factions.

An audio recording from the leader of the powerful Nusra Front, known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, laid much of the blame for the fighting on an al Qaeda splinter group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

While both groups have roots in the global Islamist network and welcome foreign militants, the Nusra Front has cooperated more with other rebel groups and has largely avoided the power struggles that ISIL has faced since wresting control of many opposition-held areas from other groups.

“Many rebel units have committed transgressions, just as the mistaken policies followed by played a prominent role in fuelling the conflict,” Golani said.

ISIL has also been fighting in Iraq, where it faces an onslaught by army tanks and artillery around the city of Fallujah, whose local leaders have urged the Qaeda-linked militants to leave before being attacked.

ISIL gunmen want to reconquer Iraq’s Anbar province in pursuit of their goal of creating a radical Islamic state out of the chaos of neighbouring Syria‘s civil war.

More than 274 people have been killed in the rebel-on-rebel clashes in Syria since they began Friday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group.

LEGAL COUNCIL

Golani proposed forming an Islamic legal council to resolve feuds among the rebels and called for the militants to return to their shared goal of fighting Assad’s forces, as the campaign to oust the Syrian leader nears the end of its third year.

It was not possible to verify the audio statement, but it was posted on a Twitter account used by the Nusra Front.

“This unfortunate situation has pushed us to launch an initiative to save the battlefields from being lost. This will be done by forming an independent legal council by all the (rebel) factions in addition to a ceasefire,” Golani said.

Rebel groups, many of them also hardline Islamists, last week launched what appeared to be a series of coordinated strikes against ISIL in northern and eastern Syria after months of increasing tensions with the group, which has alienated many Syrians in rebel-held regions.

In one northwestern region of Syria alone, other rebel groups appear to have killed 34 foreign fighters from ISIL, the Observatory said.

Golani urged rebels not to become divided between foreign and local fighters, arguing that all were needed to launch jihad, or holy war, in the country.

The campaign to topple Assad has degenerated into a civil war with several sectarian and ethnic struggles emerging, as well as the internecine fighting now plaguing the rebels.

Golani urged rebels to exchange prisoners and open roads to all opposition units.

A Limassol night club was burned down on Tuesday morning, according to police.

Police were called to the scene after neighbours saw smoke rising from the establishment and notified the fire department.

The fire caused extensive damages to the nightclub, although total damages are yet to be estimated by the owner.

According to preliminary reports, the fire was a result of arson.