By Patroclos

SCHOOL KIDS that score crap marks in international tests on science and arithmetic would be top of the class if they were tested in mob rule, trade unionism or scrounging off the state. We saw all these appalling skills being demonstrated in the last week by state secondary school kids, as they protested against the government decision to charge them bus fares.

They reacted as if they had been the victims of a grave injustice, boycotting classes for one period on Thursday, blocking traffic in Nicosia and throwing stones at cops that tried to restore order. In Larnaca some got on buses without paying and protested when an inspector asked to see their bus tickets.

We even had to watch these spoilt, spotty teenagers making sanctimonious statements about their right to free education, on our TV screens. “No student should have to pay for transport to and from school,” declared one of the underage socialist leaders, demanding that government rescinded its decision.

It did not occur to him that students were not obliged to pay for transport to school – they could walk or ride their bicycle as thousands of kids used to do in the old days, without moaning, boycotting classes, attacking cops and threatening “more dynamic measures”, if the government did not give to them.

Then again, nowadays they have much better teachers, with high qualifications in scrounging off the state, selfishness, freeloading, union militancy, moaning and victimhood.

THESE lessons are taught much better than maths and science in state schools and this was why the teachers’ unions were by the side of the moaning students during the protest and offering their unwavering support in the media.

Teaching union representatives could not even bring themselves to say it was wrong for kids to boycott classes or to refuse to pay fares, wanting to show solidarity to their future, fellow-freeloaders (or mouchtidjides as we call them in Kyproulla).

We should congratulate the teachers because the protests put on by the kids were very successful, putting the government on the defensive and prompting the Communications Minister Tasos Mitsopoulos to say he would explore the issue more deeply.

It helped that the populist parties all came out in support of free transport and the media pandered to the kids, in the hope of winning the custom of the parents. On Thursday night it was announced that the legislature would be stepping in to tackle the national crisis. The communications committee invited Mitsopoulos to discuss making the fare fairer.

For a few seconds I thought our public-spirited deputies were going to donate the €1000 monthly allowance they receive for the secretarial services they do not use to pay for the fares of needy school-kids, but then I remembered that they are biggest freeloaders of all.

YOU CAN always trust the newspapers to embrace a populist crusade in their desperate efforts to win a couple of extra readers. Phil, for instance, reported as if it were a big scoop that the troika memorandum did not have a provision insisting students pay bus fares.

As if there was anyone who actually thought the troika told the government how it would cut €10m from the massive losses of the public transport system. It did not occur to anyone that when a public service of a bankrupt state is losing tens of millions a year it cannot really offer its services free of charge to anyone.

Needless to say that the newspapers saw nothing wrong with the kids blocking traffic in Nicosia and throwing stones at cops, but had to accuse the police of using “excessive force”. Not excessive enough seeing as though we did not see any cops giving these spoilt brats a good spanking.

The voice of communism and stupidity, Haravghi presented the issue in more dramatic terms. In a tear-jerker editorial claiming that free bus transport was a child’s human right that should not be taken away, it concluded thus: “It is like depriving children of the right to free education or even of the basic right to a plate of food.”

BEFORE anyone accuses us of insensitivity we would like to make it clear that we fully support giving free bus passes to children whose parents are jobless or are on welfare support.

But we object to this mouchtidjistic mentality cultivated in this country and think parents are doing their kids and society a disservice by encouraging them to demand everything free from the state, especially a state that is totally bankrupt.

Teachers and politicians have always scrounged from the state, so they would encourage this nonsense by the kids, but why do parents want their kids to grow up thinking that being a freeloader is a good thing?

Can’t wait to see what a parents’ association would say if the kids carry out their threat to take “more dynamic measures”, like boycotting classes for a week. Teachers, I suspect would fully support a long boycott.

IN THE END, despite their public protestations in the build-up, all the parties attended the end of year semi-governmental organisations’ rusfeti bash. As the bill that is meant to ensure meritocratic appointments to the boards had not been approved yet, they all decided to give the president lists of candidates.

Even the commies of AKEL who had been claiming they would not participate in the sharing of the spoils, eventually gave in and sent the prez a list of names. This was preceded by a smart-ass statement saying that AKEL “would not object if members of the Left were appointed to the boards of SGOs.”

Worst of all though were self-righteous socialists of EDEK who were ranting and raving against the rotten appointment system and claiming they would have nothing to do with it. Edekites are always advertising their moral purity, assuming the role of the virgins of the political system. But the virgins, as always, could not resist having a little sex. The party also handed in a list – but it was not full intercourse, just heavy petting.

THE MOST board seats were handed over to that party of high principle and lofty ideals DIKO which landed 45 plus five chairmanships.

Ethnarch Junior would not have been able to establish himself as new leader without demonstrating that he could secure a maximum number of rusfetological appointments for the “proud people of DIKO”, whom he vowed to make proud again. And nothing makes a DIKO member prouder than an appointment to a board of a SGO.

“What Garoyian could do, I can do better,” was Junior’s message, aware that a credible DIKO leader, apart from being tough on the Cyprob also had to deliver the rusfeti. In a real show of strength, he arranged for his koumbaros, some unknown dentist by the name of George Pipis, who could not have been more unsuitable for the job, to be appointed chairman of the EAC.

The real disappointment was that the highly respected and successful businesswoman Demetra Karantoki agreed to be appointed vice-chairperson to serve under a dentist who knows as much about business as she does about root canal treatment.

THE HEAVYWEIGHT rusfeti contest will be for the post of EU Commissioner, which will soon be vacated by Androulla Vassiliou, and will be fought by two lightweights. This is a different form of rusfeti as it will involve politicians trying to get themselves appointed.

In the blue corner will be Eurocock leader Demetris Syllouris, whose party has lost so much of its support he will not be able to get elected to parliament in the next elections. Abandoning his fast disappearing party is the right career move for Syllouris, especially for a job that apart from its high status pays extremely well.

In the red corner is deposed DIKO leader and former House president Marios Garoyian who, understandably, is not happy with his new life as an insignificant DIKO deputy after the exalted highs he enjoyed as a big-shot official.

Even the gossip web-site Show Biz.cy is no longer interested in him. He and Mrs Garoyian, no longer A celebrities, have been featured only once in the month-and-a-half since he lost the DIKO elections. As Commissioner he would be a big-shot again. And of course there is the moolah, which Garoyian is particularly fond of.

THE QUESTION is, if Garoyian lands the job, would he still be collecting the three grand a month he has been receiving for secretarial services he does not use as a former president of the House? If his penny-pinching record is anything to go by the answer must be affirmative.

He was in the news this week for collecting a total allowance for secretarial services amounting to four grand (one as deputy and three as former House president) which was indicative of how cheap Marios is and how much he loves money. But who would say no to four grand a month (on which no income tax is paid, because it is for secretarial services that nobody employs)?

Certainly not an idealistic, bash patriot like Marios who is ready to sacrifice his life for the good of the country as long as the allowance for secretarial services is high enough.

STATE broadcaster, CyBC appears to have embarked on a charm offensive with its overpaid employees hoping to ensure that the restructuring to be undertaken by the government, will not be too drastic. One thing is certain – it is not in danger of being privatised because nobody would buy it.

On Monday the corporation celebrated the 16th anniversary (yes, 16th) of its lunch-time news show, Apo Mera se Mera, with an interview of Prez Nik. This is the show usually presented by the self-important, intellectually challenged, didactic Yiannakis Nicolaou, who has such a high opinion of his personal view he ends up clocking up more time speaking than his interviewees. And he used to wear white socks.

Of course we also had to be told that the show was first presented by that other self-regarding pontificating hack, who dyes his hair an unnatural black, Yiannis Kareklas. If these self-congratulatory shows serve any purpose it is to remind the taxpayer that the €20m plus spent every year on the Rikkies is a complete waste of money.

SPEAKING of SGOs that waste the taxpayer’s money you have to mention the CTO which spends many millions every year on advertising. This year’s advertising campaign was recently launched and one of the ads which featured a crying child received several negative comments in the social media, one being “Omg. Pls remove these stupid ads are just embarrassing.”

Sigmalive tried to find out who had given approval for the ads. It contacted the chairman who stepped down two weeks ago Alecos Oroundiotis, who said the picture of the child was “unacceptable”, but he knew nothing about the campaign. Marios Hannides, the general manager, said he never gave his personal approval for the campaign and did not even know if this was a CTO campaign.

It must have been the office cleaner who gave the approval to the ad agency and forgot to inform the bosses.

THE UN Secretary-General’s special envoy Alexander Downer resumes his contacts with the two sides on Monday, presumably with the aim of finding a common ground that would allow the start of talks. One of the reported options he will explore is the drafting of a short joint communiqué, as suggested by President Anastasiades. But if this satisfied the main conditions set by Anastasiades would it be given the nod by Dervis Eroglu?

An alternative being mooted is that he could invite the two leaders to New York for a meeting with Ban Ki-moon, who would force the two sides to agree to a compromise declaration. Conditions however are not ideal, with Turkey rocked by the government corruption scandal and Prime Minister Erdogan’s bitter feuding with the judiciary, the police force and the army. Erdogan has much more pressing problems at home and this is also an election year.

The climate on the Greek Cypriot side does not seem too favourable to settlement talks either, with the rejectionist parties, in co-operation with the media, raising the ante. The leaders of the smaller parties have all been urging President Anastasiades not to engage in a new round of talks while urging for a ‘new strategy’ and a ‘plan B’. However none of them has proposed what this new strategy should involve other than to repeat the meaningless clichés we have been hearing for decades, about “repositioning the Cyprus problem” and making Turkey suffer a political cost for its occupation.

The anti-talks camp may well embrace the ‘new strategy’ proposed in an interview in Phileleftheros by Ambassador Tasos Tzionis, the right hand man of the late Tassos Papadopoulos and currently the head of the energy desk at the foreign ministry. In the interview, Tzionis argued that the bi-communal talks could not lead to a settlement and that “other methods and procedures should be sought for a solution of our problem.” The way forward was through the forging of “strategic co-operation” for natural gas.

He said: “Cyprus has started to play an important regional role, within the bounds of its capabilities, utilising its geo-political position, which has surfaced mainly as a result of the developments in the field of hydrocarbons in the eastern Mediterranean and the so-called, Arab spring.” He added that we should make the most of this “new situation that is made up of huge interests which, at last, could work in our favour”. Cyprus and Greece were in discussion with Israel and Egypt and “co-operation in the energy field, could constitute an axis for stability in the region,” he concluded.

Of course the reality is that we have still not found the quantities of natural gas that would allow us to play the important regional role Tzionis was talking about – it could take many years before this happens given the snail’s pace at which drilling companies work. As for the strategic co-operation, even if it materialised (it is far from certain) it would not be a security guarantee for the island, as the ambassador likes to believe. It is not enough to think big when you are a small and weak country, as we have constantly been shown, ever since the days of Makarios.

Yet Tzionis’ theories have been promoted by several newspaper columnists as the way forward and it will not be long before they are embraced by the politicians. In reality, they are wishful thinking or another serving of false hopes aimed at creating the illusion that there is an alternative to a negotiated settlement. We have been here before. Before the Annan plan referendum, one of the main arguments to support the no-vote was that a week after the vote Cyprus would become an EU member and be in a much stronger position to secure a just settlement. After almost 10 years of membership, not only has there been no settlement, but even the European Court of Human Rights, which we tried to use to turn the screw on Turkey, has closed its doors to Greek Cypriots making claims against Turkey.

Greek Cypriots have had enough of grandiose plans and false hopes based on the illusory premise that other countries would help bail us out, when we could not even rely on Greece. What is needed is honesty. Opponents of a negotiated settlement should, for once, speak honestly and tell people that partition would be preferable to an experimental, bi-zonal, bi-communal federation that could go wrong, instead of serving them with false hopes and big fantasies. The only Plan B on offer is partition which may well be the only viable solution after all these years, but this should be made clear.

By Peter Stevenson

POLITICAL parties and MPs called for an urgent overhaul of the central prisons on Saturday after reports emerged that an inmate had been gang-raped earlier this week.

The alleged attack followed three suicides in less than six months at the outdated facility which dates back to British colonial times.

News broke late on Friday that a 22-year-old Romanian convict claimed he had been raped by four other inmates on Thursday.

And tensions rose again later on Saturday after a 19-year-old inmate attempted to commit suicide by hanging himself with his bed sheets. The Greek national was rushed to Nicosia General Hospital at around 3pm. His life was not at risk but he was being held for precautionary reasons, police said.

“The current situation is completely unacceptable from every point of view, and I call on authorities to take immediate action so we do not have any more episodes of this nature,” said Soteris Sampson, head of the House legal affairs committee and MP for the ruling DISY party.

He said problems at the central prisons were getting out of hand and warned they could spiral viciously out of control if the authorities did not step in.

Sampson said that the committee was prepared to approve any legislative proposals submitted which would improve the running of the prisons.

“It is our top priority to improve the correctional system and we are ready to approve legislation that would see that happen,” the DISY MP said.

Prison governor Giorgos Tryfonides told the Sunday Mail yesterday that Nicosia CID was investigating the rape and that he was expecting a detailed report from state pathologist Sophocles Sophocleous who had examined the alleged victim.

“Initial examinations indicated that the convict bore signs of rape, but we will not know for sure until the state pathologist completes a detailed report,” he said.

The four suspected rapists have been put in isolation until an investigation has been concluded.

Tryfonides added that Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou has ordered a disciplinary investigation into the matter but that no prison guards had been suspended.

“On Monday the prison committee will meet to see whether any guards acted inappropriately and need to be suspended,” he said.

Opposition party AKEL expressed its concern on Saturday with head of the party’s legal office, Aristos Damianou using the latest incident to launch a personal attack on the justice minister.

“Unfortunately the rape of a convict has now been added to the three tragic suicides which have taken place at the central prisons,” he said.

Damianou added that in the light of the suicides, rape and other unfortunate events during Nicolaou’s ten month tenure, he wondered when the justice minister would take action.

“We recall that in the recent past, the minister insisted that his predecessor resign to show political culpability following an incident where a convict managed to escape,” he said.

The Green Party said that the situation at the central prisons was more alarming and critical than ever.

“We feel that the central prisons are a pot which is ready to boil over, and there could be casualties. There would appear to be a violation of human rights but other than a number of inconclusive investigations nothing else is happening,” the Greens said.

EDEK called on the justice minister to abandon what they described as “his passive methods” of dealing with the problems at the prisons.

“He needs to act and act now,” EDEK said.

Nicolaou responded to the criticism saying that there would be a full investigation.

“I do not want to get into details but the decisions will show the government’s decisiveness on the matter,” he said.

Nicolaou added that the current situation at the prisons is worrying but that action would be taken.

“We are not blind, we know that repairs need to be made to a prison system that is decades behind,” he said.

The minister said that instructions had been given to the central prisons’ governor on how to deal with cases of rape and suicide. He added that the current government was trying to deal with the problems rather than sweep them under the rug like previous administrations had in the past.

In December Nicolaou ordered a disciplinary and criminal investigation into the suicide of a 27-year-old Kurdish convict from Syria who hanged himself with his shoe-laces even though he had been put on death watch.

Last August, another convict also hanged himself in his cell.

The 26-year-old man, who had been diagnosed with mental illness, had been jailed for 12 years for killing his sister by hitting her over the head more than 50 times with a laptop in the family’s Nicosia home in January 2012.

Nicolaou ordered an investigation into the suicide a few days later but no result has been announced by the justice ministry.

On July 18, a 42-year-old man who was in prison awaiting trial on charges of arson, fixed for September, also committed suicide in his cell.

Manchester City went top of the Premier League after securing a controversial 2-0 win at Newcastle United on Sunday with an early Edin Dzeko goal and a stoppage-time effort from Alvaro Negredo.

Liverpool also won away with an astonishing 5-3 victory at Stoke City after the home side battled back from a two-goal deficit to level the match at 2-2 by halftime.

The results lifted City to the top of the Premier League on 47 points, one ahead of Chelsea and two clear of Arsenal, who will return to the summit if they win at Aston Villa on Monday.

Liverpool climbed above Everton and Tottenham Hotspur into fourth place on 42 points.

The outcome could have been very different at St James’ Park if a stunning 34th-minute volley from Newcastle’s Cheick Tiote had not been disallowed after a contentious decision by referee Mike Jones.

He ruled that Newcastle’s Yoan Gouffran was offside and had unsighted City keeper Joe Hart, a claim hotly disputed by Newcastle boss Alan Pardew.

One blot for City was a potentially serious knee injury suffered by France international Samir Nasri who was carried off on a stretcher late in the game.

An eight-goal thriller at Stoke ended with Liverpool winning with two goals from Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez, the top scorer in the Premier League this season who took his tally to 22 goals.

An own goal from Ryan Shawcross, a penalty from Steven Gerrard on his 650th Liverpool appearance and a fine individual goal from substitute Daniel Sturridge on his return from injury completed Liverpool’s scoring.

Stoke’s goals came from former Liverpool duo Peter Crouch and Charlie Adam, and Jon Walters.

By Constantinos Psillides

A SMUGGLING ring that brought over goods from the occupied areas was busted on Sunday, police said.

Four persons were arrested, according to the police report.  Two women from Larnaca aged 43 and 45, a 49-year old man also from Larnaca and a 52-year old man from Nicosia.

The 43-year old woman was arrested on Sunday noon, after police acted on a tip off. She was charged, fined €900 and then released.

The other three were taken before the Larnaca District court on Monday. The court ordered that the 49-year old man be remanded for two days while the others should be released, after paying a fine.

According to the police, the 43-year old woman was arrested after a number of suspicious items were found in her house in Larnaca..

The house was searched by officers from the Crime Prevention Unit.

Officers found 20 cartons of cigarettes, six boxes of tobacco and €47,810 in the woman’s house.

Later on Sunday police arrested the second woman, also from Larnaca, along with the two men. In her Larnaca home they said they found 80 cartons of cigarettes and 49 boxes of erectile dysfunction pills and gels.

After searching the 49-year old man’s house, police said they found 89 cartons of cigarettes, 21 boxes of tobacco, a case of cigars, 115 boxes of erectile dysfunction pills and 12 kilos of snails.

At the home of the 52-year old man in Nicosia, police found 13 cartons of cigarettes, 13 boxes of tobacco and 121 boxes of erectile dysfunction pills.

The confiscated items are estimated to be worth around €15,000.

By Warren Strobel

SYRIA’S government and some rebels may be willing to permit humanitarian aid to flow, enforce local ceasefires and take other confidence-building measures in the nearly three-year-old civil war, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday.

Kerry said that he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “talked today about the possibility of trying to encourage a ceasefire. Maybe a localized ceasefire, beginning with Aleppo,” Syria’s largest city. “And both of us have agreed to try to work to see if that could be achieved.”

Syrian rebels backed by Washington have agreed that, if the government commits to such a partial ceasefire, “they would live up to it”, Kerry said.

Given the history of failed attempts to end the war, which has killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions, it remains far from clear that even a partial ceasefire can be achieved or, if it is, can hold.

It also seems unlikely to be honoured by powerful militant islamist rebel factions, some of whom are at war with both Damascus and other rebel groups backed by the West and Gulf states.

But diplomats are trying to persuade the combatants to agree to a series of steps to improve the atmosphere for Syrian peace talks planned for Switzerland on Jan. 22.

Kerry spoke at a press conference in Paris with Lavrov and Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN Secretary General’s top Syria envoy.

Lavrov, whose government backs Assad, said the Syrian government had indicated it might provide access for humanitarian aid to reach besieged areas. He specifically cited the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta, where 160,000 people have been largely trapped by fighting, according to the United Nations.

“We await similar steps by the opposition,” Lavrov said.

Kerry expressed some scepticism that Assad’s government would follow through.

“The proof will be in the pudding, as we say,” he said. “This news of a possibility is welcome.”

Kerry said he and Lavrov had also discussed a possible exchange of prisoners between the sides.

The opposition is ready to put together a list of prisoners and “are prepared to entertain such an exchange”, he said.

But Russia and the United States remained sharply divided over whether Iran, which is a major player in the Syria conflict, should attend the peace talks, which will convene in Montreux, on the shores of Lake Geneva.

“I’m convinced that practicality and pragmatism … require that Iran should be invited,” Lavrov said.

Other countries have already been invited “who do not want the conference to succeed”, he said, in apparent reference to Gulf Arab countries who are arming rebel groups.

Brahimi has also argued that Iran should attend the planned talks. Discussions on the matter are continuing, he said on Monday.

But Kerry reiterated the US view that Iranian delegates should come only if they are willing to accept an agreement reached at a June 2012 peace conference in Geneva that calls for a transitional government body to be established in Damascus “by mutual consent”.

The United States interprets that language as requiring Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s departure from power; Russia disagrees.

“Iran’s participation or non-participation is not a question of ideology. It is a question of practicality and common sense,” Kerry said.

“I invite Iran today to join the community of nations, the 30 nations that are already prepared to come, and be a constructive partner for peace,” he said. “That’s the invitation.”

The main Syrian opposition group backed by the West has said it will decide on Friday whether to attend the peace conference, known as Geneva 2.

“If we want to end this war, there is no other solution than to talk. Talk means negotiate. That’s the objective of Geneva 2,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told BFM-TV.

“We hope Geneva 2 takes place, but it’s not set yet. Bashar (al-Assad) and the terrorists are doing the utmost to prevent negotiations.”

The ruler of Dubai, a Gulf trade and investment hub with strong links to Iran, said in remarks broadcast on Monday that the international community should ease sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Under a deal struck in November, Iran is expected to curb its nuclear activity in exchange for a limited easing of the international sanctions. The pact will come into force Jan. 20, Iran and world powers agreed on Sunday.

Asked whether he thought it was time to lift the sanctions, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, told British broadcaster the BBC:

“I think so and give Iran a space… Iran is our neighbour and we don’t want any problem, he said, adding that “everybody will benefit”.

Despite a decade of sanctions, Iran has managed to get most of the commodities and goods it needs via Dubai’s flourishing re-export market, although new embargoes imposed by the United States and its allies in late 2011 and early 2012 have hit it hard.

The vast majority of trade between Iran and its Gulf Arab neighbours is routed through Dubai, home to tens of thousands of ethnic Iranians and one of seven emirates making up the United Arab Emirates.

Iran says its atomic energy programme is aimed purely at electricity generation and other civilian purposes, although past Iranian attempts to hide sensitive nuclear activity from UN non-proliferation inspectors raised concerns.

“I think they’re telling the truth when they say just for civilian power,” Sheikh Mohammed said in the interview.

Shortly after the Nov. 24 deal, Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif went to the UAE to try and improve relations with the US ally.

Across the Gulf from Iran, the UAE stands to benefit directly from any easing of sanctions under the nuclear deal that have dampened regional trade.

Zarif met Sheikh Mohammed during his December visit and the UAE was the first Gulf Arab state to cautiously welcome November’s nuclear deal. The UAE foreign minister flew to Iran days after the agreement was signed, on a trip planned before the deal, calling for a partnership with the Islamic Republic.

The six Sunni Muslim-ruled members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are wary of Iranian power in the Middle East, fearing the Shi’ite Muslim-led country is seeking regional dominance and stirring sectarian tension. Tehran denies this.

But they have also welcomed Iran’s “new direction” under President Hassan Rouhani and said Tehran should do more to promote stability in the region.

Sheikh Mohammed also said Egypt, which is due to vote on a constitutional referendum this week, was better off without Islamist President Mohamed Mursi who was deposed by the army in July after mass protests against his rule.

The UAE is deeply mistrustful of the Muslim Brotherhood and relations soured when Mursi became Egypt’s first freely elected president after the downfall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

The UAE, along with Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia, have championed army chief General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi who deposed Mursi, and have poured billions of dollars to shore up the country’s beleaguered economy since Mursi’s downfall.

There has been widespread speculation about whether Sisi, who is depicted by his supporters as a saviour who will restore stability to the shaken country, would run for presidential elections slated for later this year.

Sheikh Mohammed said Sisi was better off in the army, saying: “I hope he stays in the army. And someone else (stands) for the presidency.”

On Syria, Sheikh Mohammed said the UAE was only comfortable supporting displaced Syrians in Jordan and Turkey, as opposed to providing support to rebel groups, some of whom are extremist in nature.

THE first trestles of the jetty at the y under-construction oil storage terminal of VTTV at Vasiliko have been installed, it was announced on Monday.

The trestles were made in Greece and shipped to Limassol for assembly, by specially trained staff, an announcement said.

The “EDT Niki”, a 46m length barge with deck cargo capacity of 1,132 tonnes, was utilised for the transportation of the trestles. Qualified staff with offshore experience conducted trial tests prior to the actual trestle installation.

The jetty which will extend 1.2 km into open sea will comprise 42 trestles in total.

The Managing Director of VTT Vasiliko Ltd, George Papanastasiou, said: “We are very proud to have successfully completed another phase in the construction of the oil storage terminal of our company. The jetty, currently constructed at Vasiliko, is unique in the Mediterranean, and will be used for loading and unloading ship-tankers with oil products as well as for oil products’ transhipment between ship-tankers, which currently takes place in the open sea with all the risk that this entails. This terminal will be making Cyprus an oil products’ trading hub.”

The terminal will serve more than 500 ships per year, which is approximately the number of ships currently being handled at Limassol. Construction works for the jetty as well as for the first phase of the terminal will be completed in July 2014 when the jetty and Terminal will be put into operation.

VTT Vasiliko Ltd is a company registered in Cyprus, a subsidiary of VTTI B.V. VTTI, a joint venture of two companies, owns and operates oil storage terminals in 14 countries with a total capacity of 8.6 million m³. VTTI’s shareholders are the Dutch energy giant Vitol, the largest private energy trading company in the world, and MISC, a leading international shipping company, owned by the Malaysian state oil company Petronas.

THE Registrar of Companies officer will operate electronically by next March, President Nicos Anastasiades said on Monday.

Anastasiades, accompanied by the commerce minister and the commissioner for the civil service reform, visited the offices and met Registrar Spyros Kokkinos.

Anastasiades expressed his satisfaction at the pace of digitization. “By March all services will be electronic, and this applies to the companies section, bankruptcies and liquidations section, and even the intellectual and industrial property section,” said Anastasiades.

He also said that suggestions by a team of experts of the UK Public Administration and the World Bank on public service reform were ready.

ANYONE who provides information that leads to the arrest of the murderers of the cat found near the village of Kornos, will be rewarded with €4,000, said an animal rights activist group.

According to a statement released by animal rights activists  PAWS, (Protecting Animals Without Shelter), the money was collected through an online fundraiser.

The activists jumped into action after a cat was found impaled and hanged on a fence behind a church near the village of Kornos in the Nicosia district.

“We want those responsible for this brutality to be apprehended,” PAWS said in a statement. Members of the group reported the case to Kofinou police.

PAWS criticised the police, the veterinary services and the local authorities, accusing them of criminal tolerance that led to the increase in animal-related violence on the island.

“We call upon the chief of Police, the justice minister and the attorney general to intervene and instruct the police to act swiftly to cases such as this”, the statement writes.

By Constantinos Psillides

MARCOS Kyprianou on Monday launched his political comeback, putting forth his name as a candidate for the seat of deputy head of DIKO, the centre-right party founded by his father and former President Spyros Kyprianou in 1976.

The son of the former president vanished from the spotlight in 2011 when he stepped down after the Mari naval base blast.

Kyprianou, who served as foreign minister for the Christofias administration at the time was one of those taken to court over the blast, which killed 13 people.

He was acquitted of all charges on July 9, after the court accepted that the former minister was acting under orders from the former president, regarding the storage of explosives at the Evangelos Florakis base.

The attorney-general’s office appealed the acquittal and a decision by the Supreme Court is expected this week.

In his bid for deputy chief of the party, Kyprianou will be up against some DIKO “heavyweights”, chief amongst them DIKO’s European parliamentarian Antigoni Papadopoulou.

Both filed their candidacy at the DIKO headquarters, as a part of the process leading to the party convention on February 9.

The seat of deputy head of the coalition party is also sought after by longtime DIKO members Giorgos Constantinou, Yiannis Ioannou, Constantinos Panagi and Costas Mavrides.

Talking to the press after filing his candidacy, Kyprianou said that he doesn’t seek election for personal gain or to use the position as a stepping stone for something more.

“It’s a chance for me to work and help fortify the party and Cyprus in these troubled times. I grew up in DIKO, the people of DIKO know who I am and my candidacy is question towards them. What part do they want me to play in the party? Im ready to roll my sleeves and work hard, as long as they want me to,” said Kyprianou.

Papadopoulou filed her candidacy late in the afternoon, only minutes before the 5pm deadline. DIKO members will also decide on other positions in the higher echelons of the party.

Ioannis Armeftis, mayor of Pafos SavvasVergas, Constantinos Panagi and former minister Health and Interior Christos Patsalides will be after the vice president position.

For the position of general secretary, five people have put forward their candidacies. Themis Themistocleous former head of CyBC, Stelios Ieronimidis former DIKO MP, Marinos Mousiouttas, Nestoras Nestoros and CyTA union boss Alekos Tryfonides.

Themistocelous told the press that his experience in running various organisations both in Europe and Cyprus would benefit the party.

Tryfonides is a vocal advocate against the government’s privatisation policy and has publicly criticised the party’s stance on the issue.

Lastly, DIKO MP Fitos Constantinou and Avraam Solomou will compete for the position of the general-secretary of the organising committee.

DIKO is expected to validate the candidacies and announce the final list on Tuesday.

Marcos Kyprianou was expected by many to be a candidate for head of the party in the December 1 elections but never filed his candidacy to measure up against Marios Garoyian and Nicolas Papadopoulos, also the son of a DIKO chief and a former Cypriot President, Tassos Papadopoulos.

Portugal and Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo was named the world’s best footballer for the second time on Monday, preventing his great rival Lionel Messi from winning the award for a fifth year in a row.

Argentine Messi, hampered by uncharacteristic injury problems at Barcelona late in the year, and Frenchman Franck Ribery of Bayern Munich were the other candidates for the prize, officially known as the FIFA Ballon d’Or.

“Thank you to everyone, my team mates, the national team and my family, to everyone here. Eusebio and Mandela were very important for me, I can’t speak,” an emotional Ronaldo said at the awards ceremony.

Jupp Heynckes, now retired, was named coach of the year for the first time after his Bayern Munich team won an unprecedented Champions League, Bundesliga and German Cup treble.

Ronaldo was also voted FIFA Player of the Year in 2008, before Messi began a run of four successive titles.

In 2010 and 2011, the award was fused with the Ballon D’Or award previously handed out by FranceFootball magazine.

Although Ronaldo did not win any major titles last season, he has been unable to stop scoring goals.

The 28-year-old has 20 La Liga goals this season for Real Madrid and netted a record nine times in the Champions League group stage.

The high point of his year, however, came with Portugal when he scored a stunning hat-trick and almost single-handedly beat Sweden 3-1 in the second leg of their World Cup playoff tie to send his country through to the finals.

The team of the year featured Manuel Neuer in goal, Philipp Lahm, Sergio Ramos, Thiago Silva and Dani Alves in defence, midfielders Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Ribery with Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Messi in attack

By Justyna Pawlak

Big powers and Iran are likely to start talks on a final settlement to the long dispute over its nuclear ambitions in February, shortly after a six-month deal curbing its atomic activity takes effect, a diplomatic source said on Monday.

If successful, the next round of negotiations could head off the risk of lingering mistrust spiralling out of control into a wider Middle East war over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme.

Led by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the talks will face the challenge of defining a permissible scope of Iranian nuclear activity that would lay to rest Western concerns that it could yield an atomic weapon.

In return, Iran – which denies having any intention to “weaponise” the enrichment of uranium for nuclear energy – wants governments in the United States and Europe to end painful economic sanctions.

The source said the first meeting in the new phase of diplomacy between Iran and six powers – the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany – would include Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

“It won’t happen in January, because of the Chinese New Year, but it is very, very, very likely in February,” the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Senior diplomats from the seven countries and the EU will discuss an agenda ahead of the meeting. Ashton herself announced plans on Monday to go to Tehran in the coming weeks in preparation for more talks.

Iran says its atomic energy programme is aimed purely at generating electricity and producing isotopes for medical care. But past Iranian attempts to hide sensitive nuclear activity from UN non-proliferation inspectors raised global concerns.

Reached on Nov. 24, the interim six-month agreement freezes Iran’s most sensitive atom work – higher-level enrichment – in return for an estimated $7 billion in relief from sanctions.

Iran and the six powers said at the weekend the deal would go into effect on Jan. 20, pending verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Tehran is meeting its end of the bargain.

The preliminary accord appeared to arrest a drift towards regional war during which the United States and Israel have both refused to rule out military action against Iranian nuclear sites if the matter cannot be resolved diplomatically.

Underscoring the challenge of the new talks, Zarif said on Monday that the interim agreement was “the beginning of a long and difficult road”.

“There is a very serious confidence deficit vis-a-vis the West in Iran. Our people believe that our peaceful nuclear programme has been dealt with in a totally unfounded way,” Zarif told a news conference during a visit to Lebanon.

Later in the week, he is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russian officials said on Monday.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement welcoming the weekend decision to launch the interim accord on Jan. 20.

“We hope that a successful implementation of the primary phase will create the necessary conditions for working out agreements going further that will result in a final and comprehensive settlement in regard to Iran’s nuclear programme,” the ministry said.

Russia and Iran are also negotiating an oil-for-goods swap worth $1.5 billion a month, sources have told Reuters.

Russian and Iranian sources close to the barter negotiations have said final details are being discussed for a deal under which Russia would buy up to 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil in exchange for Russian equipment and goods.

US President Barack Obama said on Sunday that he had “no illusions about how hard it will be” to secure a comprehensive agreement with Iran, but it was vital to do so “for the sake of our national security and the peace and security of the world”.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said an exact date for the resumption of the next talks had yet to be set.   (

PRESIDENT Nicos Anastasiades will visit London for four days at the invitation of the British government, which will include a meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron.

Anastasiades will be accompanied by his wife Andri, Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides, Finance Minister Harris Georgiades, Energy Minister Giorgos  Lakkotrypis,  Government Spokesman Christos Stylianides  and other officials.

The President is due to arrive in London on Tuesday afternoon and in the evening will speak at a Diaspora event with a dinner in his honor.

On Wednesday^, the President and his entourage will attend a breakfast meeting with British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

At noon the same day, he will meet Cameron at 10 Downing Street. The meeting will look at issues related to bilateral relations between Cyprus and Britain and ways to further strengthen their relations of the two countries in the broader level of the European Union, Cyprus, economic cooperation and issues in general such as economic and investment and energy topics.

In the evening, the Cypriot delegation will attend a dinner hosted by Britain’s Energy Secretary Michael Fallon.

On Thursday Anastasiades will have a breakfast meeting with members of the House of Commons and House of Lords, and then will speak at an event at University College London on maritime law.

He will also lay a wreath at Westminster Abbey  and Thursday afternoon will speak at an event at the London School of Economics.

On Friday Anastasiades will attend a breakfast meeting with the Lord Mayor of the City of London Fiona Woolf. He will also give interviews to media.

On the sidelines of the visit of the President of the Republic, ministers accompanying him will have separate contacts.

The delegation returns home later on Friday.

CLOSE to 100 participants will take part in the five-day Famagusta Ecocity Project Design Studio launching on Thursday to draft a range of design proposals for turning the ghost town of Varosha and the wider Famagusta area into a model reunited ecocity, fit for the 21st century.

The design studio, led by MIT professor and ecocity specialist Jan Wampler, will work with 16 architecture graduate students from the University of South Florida, 11 Cypriot students, both Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot, as well as dozens of stakeholders and experts from both communities.

“Our aim is not to come up with a single plan but to promote a dialogue between stakeholders, experts, designers and interested members of the public on the range of possibilities that this unique and deeply loved city offers not only Cyprus, but the entire region” said project founder and filmmaker, Vasia Markides, who will be recording the studio for an upcoming documentary with money raised from a successful crowd-funded Kickstarter campaign. (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/320929240/the-famagusta-ecocity-project-a-documentary).

In keeping with the bi-communal spirit of the project, the studio will take place on both sides of the UN-monitored buffer zone. On Thursday  January 16 the students and team members will kick off the project with a tour of the Venetian walled city of Famagusta and a meeting with the mayor of Famagusta on the Turkish Cypriot side, Oktay Kayalp, who will give his perspectives on the challenges and opportunities of revitalising Famagusta.

Later on the same day, the group moves south of the buffer zone to the Famagusta Municipality Cultural Centre in Derynia, for the launch of the specialist panels in an opening ceremony at 1.30pm addressed by the Famagusta Mayor, Alexis Galanos and Nobel Laureate Professor of Economics Christopher Pissarides.

Welcome speeches will also be given by the chairman of the Famagusta Chamber of Commerce & Industry George Michaelides and former KTTO president, Hasan K. Ince, by the Ambassador of Austria, Karl Mueller who has been a keen supporter of the project, by Prof Jan Wampler and by the Famagusta Ecocity Project’s initial visionaries, mother-and-daughter pair Dr Emily Markides and Vasia Markides.

From Thursday to Saturday the design studio will be located at the Famagusta Municipality Cultural Centre in Derynia and all events there will be open to the public. These events will be structured around nine bi-communal specialist presentations and panel discussion sessions: 1) Famagusta Revival: Business Stakeholders; 2) Economics for Sustainable Job Creation; 3) History, Culture and Community; 4) Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution; 5) Coastal and Environmental Engineering; 6) Renewable Energy and Sustainable Agriculture; 7) Civil Engineering; 8) Urban Planning for Sustainable Cities; 9) Architecture.

Each panel will consist of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots – mostly Famagustians – with expertise in their specific field. A small number of specialists from abroad will also participate in some panels.

“We found that nine subject-specific discussion panels open to the public was the best way to ensure as wide a stakeholder and expert participation as possible”, said Famagustian and Cyprus-based project director George Lordos.

On Sunday morning the design teams will work within the Walled City at the MASDER building, and on Monday 20^th at 2pm the students and team members will return back inside the Walled City where the student-led design teams will make their presentations at a public discussion inside the building of St. Peter & Paul (Bugday Cami), which was recently restored. All events will be in the English language.

“People fall in love with a place which forms an endless bond nothing and no one can ever replace. Famagustians will gather together after 40 years with a shared love for their city,” said Ceren Bogac, who grew up in a house overlooking the ghost city of Varosha.

With only enough money from private donations and the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung to fund part of the costs of hosting the studio and making the film, the Famagusta Ecocity Project has been a labour of love for the core team members, Vasia Markides, Ceren Bogac, George Lordos, Armando Garma-Fernandez, Emily Markides and Fiona Mullen.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to discuss ways to ensure not only our peaceful coexistence as united Famagustians, but also to consider the vastly changing global ecological landscape around us and our future role within it,” said Emily Markides.

For more information visit www.ecocityproject.com

For a detailed schedule and invitation to the public events visit http://bit.ly/19VWlvB

If you would like to attend the opening ceremony or public presentations, please email rsvp@ecocityproject.com to reserve a place.

Wimbledon champion Andy Murray surprised himself as he showed no signs of rustiness in confidently dispatching Japan’s Go Soeda 6-1 6-1 6-3 in his Australian Open first round match on Tuesday.

Four months after having back surgery, the three-times Australian Open runner-up cruised to victory over his 112 ranked opponent in 85 dominant minutes on Hisense Arena.

Having played only two competitive matches in the build-up, Murray was worried that he might be under-cooked but in temperatures that hit 42.2 Celsius at one stage he was rarely troubled.

“I played well today,” fourth seed Murray told reporters, in typically understated manner.

“Maybe didn’t expect to play as well as I did today, but the signs have been good in practice. I started the match off very well and did everything solid.”

Murray decided to have surgery on his back after 18 months of playing through pain and said he felt much freer on court against Soeda.

“Not every shot hurt my back before but on certain shots I’m a lot freer in the movement just now,” he said. “I hope that continues.

“That was the whole point of having the surgery. So if I was still in pain and stiff and sore then I’d be a bit worried about the next few years.

“But I’m hoping it was the right decision. I felt freer today than I did for the last 18 months.

Murray was relieved that his match – the second of the day on the show court at Melbourne Park – was played largely out of the sunlight.

“I was a bit nervous before the match but obviously when the shadow comes across the court it cooled down a little bit,” he said.

“Still, the air is extremely warm. I was glad to get off quickly.”

Murray now plays Frenchman Vincent Millot after the world number 267 beat American Wayne Odesnik in five sets.

Odesnik was banned for two years after pleading guilty to importing human growth hormone (HGH) into Australia in 2010.

The ban was halved to a year after Odesnik reportedly gave “substantial assistance” to anti-doping authorities, since which he has been largely shunned in the locker-room.

Murray refused to be drawn on whether Odesnik should be allowed to play on the Tour but made his feelings known.

“I haven’t played or practised against him before and I haven’t seen any of his matches. So I’ll try and watch a bit of video of his match from today to see how he plays.

“But I’m glad he won.”

FED AND ED UP AND RUNNING

Roger Federer’s partnership with Stefan Edberg got off to a winning start as the Swiss made light of brutally hot conditions to reach the second round of the Australian Open.

Edberg took part in his first training session at Melbourne Park on Monday after agreeing to coach Federer for 10 weeks this year.

And there was nothing to worry about for the watching Swede, who somehow managed to look cool in the 40C heat, as Federer eased to a 6-4 6-4 6-2 victory over Australian wild card James Duckworth.

Edberg, who won six grand slam titles, was Federer’s idol when he was growing up, but there were not too many glances from the sixth seed towards his support box during the match.

He said: “I realised after a set that I hadn’t looked up once. I thought, ‘I better check if he’s actually sitting there’. He was wearing sunglasses. ‘Okay, he is there’.

“I don’t look up too much. I stopped doing that way back when because you just can’t be dependent on these looks all the time. Being coached from the sidelines, that’s not how I grew up.

“Clearly when I did look up, it’s nice seeing him sitting there. Even if he wasn’t my coach, it would be nice. Plus he’s in my corner. It’s great.”

Federer thinks dealing with the heat is more of a mental challenge than physical.

He said: “If you’ve trained hard enough your entire life, or just the last few weeks, and you believe you can come through it, there’s no reason (you can’t). If you can’t deal with it, you throw in the towel.”

Thirteenth seed John Isner did retire from his match but it was an ankle injury rather than the heat that put paid to the American’s chances.

Isner surprised himself by winning the ATP Tour title in Auckland last week despite the problem but called it day trailing qualifier Martin Klizan 6-2 7-6 (8/6).

That section of the draw is now wide open after 21st seed Philipp Kohlschreiber pulled out before the start of play because of a hamstring problem.

One of those two had been expected to reach the fourth round, where they were seeded to meet world number four Andy Murray.

Isner is, though, expecting to be fit to take on Murray’s Great Britain side in Davis Cup the week after the Australian Open.

Tenth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was a comfortable 7-5 6-3 6-3 winner over Italy’s Filippo Volandri while Japanese 16th seed Kei Nishikori needed a punishing three hours and 41 minutes to defeat Australian Marinko Matosevic in five sets.

Canadian Frank Dancevic was one of the worst victims of the heat, the qualifier collapsing on the court during his match against 27th seed Benoit Paire.

Remarkably, Dancevic carried on but unsurprisingly lost in straight sets.

Eleventh seed Milos Raonic and Grigor Dimitrov, seeded 22nd, both came through in four sets.

NADAL THROUGH AS TOMIC PULLS OUT

Bernard Tomic was jeered by the crowd at his home Australian Open when he retired hurt after losing the opening set of his first round match against world number one Rafa Nadal on Tuesday.

Tomic, who has been criticised in the past for “tanking” – or deliberately not playing to his full ability during matches – had appeared uncomfortable from the outset under the lights at Rod Laver Arena, and took a medical time-out at the change of ends when leading 2-1.

The 21-year-old later ripped a bandage off his high left thigh at the urging off his camp and played out the set restricted and grimacing after points.

With the set lost at 6-4, 57th-ranked Tomic returned to his chair and shook his head at medical staff. After walking over to Nadal to tell him he would no longer go on, sections of the crowd booed, underlining local fans’ frustration with a talent long criticised for lacking wholehearted commitment.

“It was sad. It’s unfortunate. This opportunity I had to play against Rafa was huge for me,” Tomic told reporters.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t compete. It was very difficult for me to say sorry to the crowd. I don’t think they quite knew what was wrong with me.

“After, when he got that break (at 4-4), he was serving for the set, hit one ball, and I felt it even more. I thought, ‘Am I really going to do this, spend a few more hours on court hurting my body?’

“I feel sorry because the crowd came and it was difficult for me. I did what’s best for me. The crowd have to understand that.”

Top seed Nadal, who will play 17-year-old Australian wildcard Thanasi Kokkinakis in the second round, had sympathy for Tomic, who was kicked off Australia’s Davis Cup team in 2012 for attitude problems.

The Spaniard retired hurt during the 2010 quarter-finals when two sets down against Briton Andy Murray.

“I felt really sorry for Bernard. I was in that situation a few years ago and I know how tough is to take that decision,” Nadal told reporters.

“But if you feel bad, there is no reason why you have to continue. You put in risk the next tournaments for nothing.”

Spaniard Nadal, the 2009 winner at Melbourne Park, missed last year’s tournament with a stomach flu which delayed his comeback from a knee injury, but could take little from his opening match barring the fact that he conserved energy on a stifling evening.

President Francois Hollande aims to lay out plans for the French economy on Tuesday but a news conference is set to be dominated by talk of his private life after his partner went into a hospital following reports he had an affair.

His New Year’s encounter with journalists in his Elysee Palace will be his first public appearance since a celebrity magazine on Friday published photos it said showed Hollande making a nocturnal visit to French film actress Julie Gayet.

His office complained of breach of privacy but did not deny the affair. The saga took a surprise new turn on Sunday when it emerged that his long-term partner, Valerie Trierweiler, had been admitted to hospital in a state of shock.

Hours before the news conference, it was the personal saga, rather than the economy, that dominated French news broadcasts.

The episode threatens to undermine the authority of Hollande, a Socialist who has already become the least popular French president in modern times, even as he aims to revive a stalled economy by cutting taxes on business, a lurch to the political centre that has irked unions and left-wing allies.

“This major political event must remain a major political event,” David Assouline, spokesman for Hollande’s Socialist party, said of the 1530 GMT news conference, an annual setpiece which could last as long as two hours.

Rivals also said the scandal should not take the president’s focus off of policy announcements: “This is not a soap opera,” Jean-Louis Borloo, leader of the centrist UDI party, told BFM television.

“With nearly a third of his mandate gone, it’s about time he seriously laid out how he plans to turn the country around – even if it’s not exactly going to be rock ‘n’ roll.”

Hollande plans to use the event to detail a proposed “responsibility pact” with business in which firms will be offered tax cuts and less red tape in return for hiring commitments aimed at reducing 12 percent unemployment.

But the reports of the affair are likely to hijack the agenda. A similar event staged by predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy after his 2007 divorce was dominated by curiosity over his romance with singer Carla Bruni, whom he subsequently wed.

REFORM WINDOW TIGHT

Although France does not have an official First Lady title, Trierweiler has her own office in the Elysee, a chauffeur and adviser, and accompanies Hollande on visits. Many pundits say it is legitimate now to question what her actual status is.

“She knows it must be cleared up because the debate has turned political,” Frederic Gerschel, a reporter for daily Le Parisien, told RTL radio after speaking to Trierweiler.

Her office said she would remain in hospital for the time being, with an aide saying she needed “peace and quiet”.

Signalling the growing disquiet among Hollande’s allies over the matter, Socialist senator Francois Rebsamen advised Hollande to scrap the function now occupied by Trierweiler.

“This arrangements are outdated and out of keeping with the times and should be ended – he even said it himself once,” Rebsamen, a close ally of Hollande, told RTL radio.

Argentinian film director Santiago Amigorena, ex-partner of Gayet, told French radio that whatever had gone on between the actress and Hollande, “there was no wrong done, no deception”.

Worries are growing in the euro zone that France, its second-largest economy, will hold back a nascent recovery – fears borne out by December manufacturing data that showed a strong pick-up in most countries except France.

France’s blue-chip CAC 40 stock index – home of bellwethers such as drugmaker Sanofi, cosmetics group L’Oreal and oil major Total – is down 0.8 percent, the worst performance among European bourses in 2014.

Philippe Varin, chief executive of troubled carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen, urged Hollande to cut taxes on companies and to follow countries such as Canada and Sweden in making welfare spending more efficient.

“(For growth) you need improved competitiveness, which is only possible with better corporate margins which in turn are crucial for investment and therefore job creation,” Varin told Le Figaro newspaper.

REGULATORS in Cyprus are investigating transactions made by now-defunct Laiki Bank and arranged by Germany’s Commerzbank. The probe comes after a local lawmaker said the deals might have broken laws that bar a company from purchasing its own stock.

House of Representatives member Irene Charalambides sent a letter, seen by Reuters, to the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CSEC) and to Germany’s financial watchdog Bafin, alleging that Commerzbank sold two structured products that acted as vehicles for Laiki to buy stock in itself and affiliates.

There are limits on companies buying their own stock without obtaining shareholder approval, to prevent them from surreptitiously inflating their own market price.

Charalambides is campaigning to help depositors in Laiki, once Cyprus’ second-largest bank, after they lost about €4.3 billion last year when the bank collapsed and Cyprus required an international bailout.

“We have received a complaint, which the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating in cooperation with German regulators, to ascertain if there is a case or if any violation of laws occurred,” Demetra Kalogerou, president of the CSEC, told Reuters.

Kalogerou said the CSEC had sought information from Bafin because a German bank was mentioned in the complaint.

Bafin declined to comment.

Charalambides said Commerzbank should have questioned the commercial rationale of the transactions and that if regulators upheld her complaint, they should consider asking Commerzbank to refund Laiki depositors the amount they lost through the products, which she estimated at €50 million.

A spokeswoman for Commerzbank declined to give details about the investment securities, saying it would be a breach of client confidentiality to do so, and said the bank’s initial research showed there was “no indication of any wrongdoing by Commerzbank” related to them.

A copy of the letter from Charalambides, who is a member of the committee charged with examining Cypriot banks’ governance and lending practices, was also sent to Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank. The ECB declined to comment.

The administrators for Laiki were not available for comment.

The collapse of Laiki under the weight of losses on investments in Greece is currently under investigation by regulators in Cyprus. ®

The National Health Scheme (NHS) is ready to be implemented Health Minister Petros Petrides said on Tuesday.

The plan to gradually implement the NHS was to be presented to Cyprus’ international lenders via tele-conference in the afternoon.

“We will discuss it when they come back to the island,” Petrides said. The minister refused to go into further detail.

During the second troika review the government managed to obtain an extension on presenting a plan which would see the introduction of the NHS. This was done in order to ensure the NHS would not further burden vulnerable groups to the point that they would not be able to meet their financial obligations.

According to the conditions of the bailout, the NHS would need to be introduced by the end of 2015 and for that reason the troika had asked the government to present a detailed plan by January.

A troika delegation is expected on the island for its third review on January 28 and will leave on February 12.

By Belinda Goldsmith
The first in a list of ageing celebrities accused of sexually abusing young fans over many years went on trial on Tuesday in an investigation that has rocked confidence in the BBC, Britain’s national broadcaster.
One of Britain’s best-known radio DJs in the 1970s and 1980s, the BBC’s Dave Lee Travis, who counted Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi among his fans, is facing 14 charges involving 11 women aged from 15 upwards that date from between 1976 and 2008.
UK-based Australian entertainer Rolf Harris was also due in court on Tuesday to enter a plea to 16 offences dating back to the 1980s, one allegedly involving a girl aged seven or eight.
The charges stem from a police investigation launched after the 2011 death of one of the BBC’s top TV presenters, Jimmy Savile, who turned out to have been a prolific sex predator over six decades.
There are now several investigations into Savile’s case with victims mulling compensation and calling for a single judge-led inquiry into how the DJ was able to evade justice for so long.
The BBC has ordered an independent review into revelations that Savile abused hundreds of children in hospitals and on BBC premises. The report is due within weeks.
To date, police have arrested 16 former celebrities and show business figures, laying charges against four, releasing six on bail and taking no further action against six.
Critics have asked why the BBC and police did not act at the time when victims complained. Some celebrities have voiced concern the investigation has become a “witch-hunt” with innocent people linked to paedophile Savile but never charged.
Child welfare campaigners said the publicity had encouraged people to speak up. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) said reports of sex abuse of children aged under 11 rose 16 per cent last year.
Travis, 68, arrived at Southwark Crown Court in London to a waiting scrum of media.
The presenter, who also hosted the TV show Top of the Pops in the 1980s, has denied 13 counts of indecent assault and one of sexual assault. His trial is set to last six weeks.
Rolf Harris is due to stand trial in April on 12 charges of indecent assault and four counts of making indecent images of a child. The alleged offences date from 1968 to 2012, with one involving a girl aged seven or eight.
Harris, 83, a family favourite in Australia and Britain for over 50 years, has indicated he will plead not guilty.
The inquiry has also led to charges being laid against celebrity publicist Max Clifford who faces trial in March. A former BBC chauffeur who was also charged and due to stand trial committed suicide last October.