A CONVICTED member of a Greek guerrilla group that waged a 27 year campaign of killing appeared in a video on Monday promising to avenge the country’s debt crisis and calling for a revolution against the state.

Christodoulos Xiros, 56, was serving multiple life terms in Athens for being a member of the dismantled Marxist group November 17, when he was let out for a week over New Year.

However, he never reported back to prison – triggering a massive police hunt and acute embarrassment for the authorities.

A video uploaded on the leftist Indymedia website on Monday showed Xiros speaking to the camera with pictures of revolutionary Che Guevara, two Greek independence fighters, and a Communist World War Two resistance leader.

“It is our job to light the fuse,” he said calling on leftists and anarchists to unite against politicians, journalists and police.

“What are we waiting for? If we don’t react immediately, now, today, we will cease to exist as people.”

The Greek debt crisis plunged the country into a six year-recession, forcing thousands of businesses to close and making one in five of the workers jobless.

November 17, Greece’s most lethal guerrilla group, was named after the date of a crushed 1973 student uprising against the then-ruling military junta, was dismantled in 2002 after a bomb exploded in the hands of Xiros’s brother Savas.

More than 10 members of the group were convicted for 23 killings – including of Greek, U.S. and British businessmen, politicians and diplomats – and dozens of bomb attacks spanning three decades.

Greece has a history of leftist violence. In recent years, a number of previously unknown far-left and anarchist groups have claimed a series of small-scale bomb attacks against police, politicians and businessmen in retaliation for austerity measures.

In a separate written statement uploaded on Indymedia, Xiros said that convincing prison authorities to give him leave was “a personal success” and warned he would “wield my rifle again”.

“Your kingdom is over but you don’t know it,” he said.

Central African Republic lawmakers chose their capital’s mayor, Catherine Samba-Panza, to become interim president on Monday and lead the country out of months of sectarian killings towards elections.

Samba-Panza called on mainly Muslim former rebels and the Christian militia battling them to lay down their weapons as people sang and danced on the streets of the riverside city, Bangui, in celebration.

The 59-year old succeeds Michel Djotodia, leader of a mostly Muslim rebel coalition, Seleka, that seized power in March. He stepped down this month under international pressure after failing to halt bloodshed that erupted after the revolt.

Waves of killing and looting by Seleka fighters triggered revenge attacks by Christian militia known as ‘anti-balaka’, fuelling unprecedented cycles of violence between communities that had previously lived side-by-side.

“I am the president of all Central Africans, without exception,” said Samba-Panza, who had to show she had no link to either camp in the fighting to qualify for the post.

“I appeal to my anti-balaka and Seleka children to listen to me and together lay down your weapons,” added the Chad-born who moved to Central African Republic when she was 18.

Central African Republic has seen little but sporadic rebellion and instability since independence from France in 1960.

But the scale of the latest crisis has been unparalleled. Nearly a quarter of the country’s population has fled and a senior UN official warned last week the conflict could slip into genocide.

Samba-Panza defeated seven other candidates in Monday’s contest, winning a second-round runoff by 75 votes to 53 for her closest rival Desire Kolingba, the son of former president Andre Kolingba.

HOPES FOR PEACE

Many of the estimated 500,000 displaced people in sprawling camps dotted around Bangui had been waiting for the outcome of the vote before deciding whether to return home.

A spokesman for a major group of anti-balaka fighters, which had earlier threatened protests against the vote, said they were happy with Samba-Panza’s election.

“It was women who started the resistance to Djotodia. She is a woman who can bring peace,” Sebastien Wenezoui told Reuters.

Samba-Panza became Africa’s third female head of state in the post-colonial era, after Malawi’s Joyce Banda and Liberia’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. A group of women sang outside the National Assembly chamber after her election.

The United Nations said the vote must mark a “new beginning” for the country and an end to “senseless violence”.

French President Francois Hollande’s office congratulated her and reiterated his country’s support. But, underscoring the sense of urgency, the statement also urged Samba-Panza to immediately set about restoring order, reconciling the country and preparing elections.

France deployed 1,600 troops in December under a UN mandate to support a struggling African Union peacekeeping mission.

UN officials say that more than 2,000 people have been killed in clashes since March.

European Union foreign ministers agreed on Monday to send up to 1,000 soldiers to help stabilise the nation, a diplomatic source said, the bloc’s first major army operation in six years.

By Jean Christou

TURKISH Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has spoken over the phone with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the Cyprus issue, urging the international community to take a more decisive stance on the resumption of talks.

According to reports, the initiative was taken by Ban to call the Turkish foreign minister as the start of negotiations on Cyprus continue to stall over the wording of a joint statement. The Secretary General reportedly urged a resumption of talks as soon as possible, Turkish media said yesterday.

Davutoglu said Ankara’s approach to the issue was constructive, and that the international community should take a more decisive role.

On the Greek Cypriot side, deputy government spokesman Victoras Papadopoulos said the National Council would meet on Friday, first and foremost to be briefed on the agreement reached last week with Britain concerning land development in the bases.

Asked about the elusive joint statement Papadopoulos said yesterday it was the wish of the Greek Cypriot side to resume talks on the Cyprus problem “the earliest possible”.

He said President Nicos Anastasiades had the will to enter negotiations but wanted the conclusion of those talks to be safeguarded.

“It should not be a dialogue that leads nowhere and creates more problems for the Cypriot people than those we wish to address,” Papadopoulos said.

“The president has never stopped in his efforts to create the conditions that would allow us to enter into a dialogue where indeed the two sides will get involved with the (necessary) political will to resolve the Cyprus question and not to create the conditions for a probable future secession.”

Papadopoulos said talks were ongoing with UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer who last week met the chief negotiators on both sides.

However, tensions between Downer and the Greek Cypriot side rose recently after Anastasiades ‘insulted’ the envoy in an interview he gave, implying that the Australian diplomat was not objective. Annoyed, Downer avoided the president during his visit last week.

Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu was yesterday quoted as saying that the move to annoy Downer was a deliberate ploy on the part of the Greek Cypriot side.  In an attempt to be unbiased, Downer would now take an approach that favoured the Greek Cypriot side, he said.

Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was due in Brussels last night for talks on Turkey’s accession. Cyprus was expected to be on the agenda.

By Elias Hazou

THE island’s largest lender, Bank of Cyprus (BoC), as well as the banking system in general, have entered a phase of ‘normalisation’, finance minister Harris Georgiades said on Monday.

“We can say that Bank of Cyprus has already entered a normalisation phase,” Georgiades told newsmen after a meeting with the bank’s chairman Christis Hasapis and its CEO John Hourican.

Georgiades was briefed by the BoC leadership on progress with regard to the implementation of the bank’s restructuring plan.

The meet comes just a week before the arrival of a troika mission for the third review of Cyprus’ adjustment programme.

Georgiades expressed satisfaction over the implementation of the bank’s restructuring plan, noting that “significant progress” has been recorded with regard to management and governance issues.

The minister added that efforts should continue not just at BoC but also at all Cypriot banks.

“Without a doubt we have reached a point that allows us to feel confident over the stabilisation of our banking system,” he said.

BoC chairman Christis Hassapis said the bank is ahead of schedule as it has achieved more than what is envisaged in the restructuring plan.

Responding to a question, Hassapis said the lender is working to contain the rise of non-performing loans (NPLs) that had exceeded 40 per cent by September.

“I think we will have positive results in that area as well,” he said. “There has been a stabilisation of these loans and we believe that there will be a clear reduction of the NPLs in the immediate next period.”

Cyprus’ banking sector was on the verge of collapse last year, when the government reached a €10bn bailout agreement with the international lenders. As part of the deal, BoC was recapitalised through seizing a substantial chunk of uninsured deposits, while Laiki Bank was wound down. Following the agreement, BoC entered a resolution process, which concluded last July.

The lender still relies heavily on emergency funding from the European Central Bank. BoC’s single largest challenge remains its exposure to delinquent or non-performing loans.

Also on Monday, the finance minister saw leaders of the Cooperative Central Bank (CCB). Speaking to reporters later, Georgiades noted his satisfaction with progress so far, but was quick to add that many more steps need to be taken.

Co-operative financial institutions were effectively nationalised as part of the bailout deal with international creditors. In exchange for a €1.5bn capital injection to plug their shortfall, co-ops are required to implement a restructuring plan, including consolidation of branches and slashing the sector’s payroll costs by about 15 per cent.

The payroll reduction is mandatory under the bailout deal, stressed Georgiades.

The minister hinted also that bank working hours ought to be extended. “We cannot be the only country in the EU where banks stop servicing the public at 1.30pm,” he said.

Georgiades was asked to comment on revelations that members of the bank employees’ main trade union ETYK enjoy preferential loan rates from the banks.

A news item appearing in Kathimerini over the weekend reported that, as part of collective bargaining, ETYK members are entitled to extremely low rates – in some cases zero rates – when taking out loans. That in turn meant the cost of these loans was subsidised by the banks, who presumably passed the cost onto other borrowers.

“The super-privileges at the banks cannot continue. We need to understand that the banks manage people’s deposits and that this management must first and foremost serve the interests of the clients and of the shareholders,” Georgiades noted.

The head of the Central Co-operative Bank, Nicolas Hadjiyiannis, announced the establishment within the month of a unit dedicated to recovering loans in arrears.

Non-performing loans account for 40 per cent of the cooperative credit institutions’ total loan portfolio of €13bn.

Cyprus had the biggest decline in the number of monetary financial institutions (MFI) in the eurozone, the European Central Bank (ECB) said on Tuesday.

According to ECB figures, on January 1, 2014 there were 6,790 MFIs in the euro area, compared with 7,059 on January 1, 2013.

In relative terms, the decrease was particularly pronounced in Cyprus (-26 per cent), Greece (-17 per cent), Luxembourg (-16 per cent), Spain (-9 per cent), Malta (-9 per cent) and France (-7 per cent). In absolute terms, Luxembourg (-70), France (-76), Spain and Cyprus (-36) were the main contributors to the net decrease of 269 units in the euro area, the ECB said.

Since 2011 a substantial decrease in the number of money market funds (an MFI sub-sector) has been recorded in the euro area (-658 over three years), partly on account of their new statistical definition, which has been adjusted towards supervisory standards. In addition, the contraction in this sub-sector continued during 2013, most prominently in Luxembourg (-77) and France (-65).

Despite the enlargement of the euro area with the accession of Greece (2001), Slovenia (2007), Cyprus and Malta (both 2008), Slovakia (2009), Estonia (2011) and Latvia (2013), the number of MFIs in the euro area has decreased by 31 per cent – or 3,066 institutions – since January 1, 1999. On 1 January 2014 Germany and France accounted for 42 per cent of all euro area MFIs, approximately the same share as recorded on 1 January 2013.

By Nick Mulvenney
Stanislas Wawrinka brought a dramatic end to Novak Djokovic’s quest for a fourth successive Australian Open title in the quarter-finals on Tuesday when he finally found a way to beat the Serbian in a grand slam five-setter.

The pair held a packed Rod Laver Arena spellbound with four hours of top quality tennis studded with breathtaking rallies before the Swiss emerged a 2-6 6-4 6-2 3-6 9-7 winner to snap a 14-match losing streak against the second seed.
Wawrinka had come close to beating Djokovic in a five-hour epic in the fourth round here last year and another five-set thriller in the semi-finals of the U.S. Open last September – only to fall agonisingly short.
The 28-year-old finished the job on Tuesday, though, riding his thunderous serve and summoning up some brilliant shotmaking, particularly off his backhand, to claim what could be a career-defining win when Djokovic fluffed a volley.

“He’s an amazing champion, he never gives up. I’m really, really, really, really, really, really happy,” said Wawrinka, whose path to a first grand slam final is blocked by Czech Tomas Berdych.
“After losing two times against him in grand slam in five sets, I’m really happy to take that one. It’s great for me.”

Defeat for Djokovic in his first major tournament under new co-coach Boris Becker ended his run of consecutive grand slam semi-finals at 14, his winning streak in tour events at 28 matches and his unbeaten run at MelbournePark at 25.
“This is probably the court where I had most excitement in my tennis career,” said the four-times champion.
“These are kind of matches that you work for, you live for, you practice for. Unfortunately somebody has to lose in the end. This year it was me. I lost to a better player.”

Czech Berdych came out on top 6-1 6-4 2-6 6-4 in a three-hour arm-wrestle against David Ferrer to reach the last four at the year’s first grand slam for the first time.
Canadian teenager Eugenie Bouchard had earlier kept her poise in the biggest match of her life to oust Ana Ivanovic5-7 7-5 6-2 and set up a semi-final against China’s Li Na, who dispatched Flavia Pennetta 6-2 6-2.

The highlight of the day was always going to be the final match of the night, though, and Djokovic started in the same vein as in his impressive fourth round victory to claim the first set.
Wawrinka stormed back to take the second and third sets but Djokovic again pounced to claim a break at 4-3 in the fourth, letting out a huge roar before sending the contest into a fifth stanza.
When the Serbian grabbed an early break in the decider, it looked like it might be a case of deja vu for Wawrinka but he lived up to his ‘Stanimal’ nickname by muscling his way back into the contest.
“It was a really tough battle,” said the Swiss. “Didn’t want to let him win that one. Got a bit lucky there in the last one. He missed easy shots.”
Big-serving Berdych has made a habit of steaming through the first week in Melbourne before falling victim to the first top seed he encounters and he made the most of his kind draw against baseline hustler Ferrer.

After cruising to a two-set lead over the Spaniard, he faltered in the third before finishing off the third seed for his first ever victory on the centre court at Melbourne Park.
“It’s really great feeling,” said the seventh seed. “It’s been a very special match for me. I’m extremely happy to go through.”
Ivanovic had cleared her own path to the final by upsetting world number one Serena Williams in the fourth round but was unable to take advantage against Bouchard.
The Serbian looked on course for a first grand slam semi-final since her 2008 French Open triumph after clinching the first set but Bouchard charged straight back into the contest to tie it up at 1-1 on an Ivanovic double fault.

Ivanovic tried to wrest back the momentum but as much as she ramped up her formidable forehand, there was no putting this particular Genie back in the bottle.
“It’s not exactly a surprise,” said 19-year-old Bouchard, the first Canadian to reach the last four in Melbourne.
“I always expect myself to do well. I’m not done. I have a match on Thursday. I’m just looking forward to that.”
Bouchard lost her composure only once, when she was asked in her on-court interview who she would most like to date and declared a liking for pop star Justin Bieber.

Li’s victory was, by contrast, a stroll by the banks of the Yarra River as she blasted her 28th-seeded opponent off the court to reach the semi-finals for the fourth time in five years.
After her victory, Li entertained the crowd on Rod Laver Arena with another of the interviews that have made her a firm favourite at Melbourne Park – this time about how she would never smash a racket as she considers them friends.

It was left to her fellow thirtysomething Pannetta to assess the former French Open champion’s form.
“I think she’s just improved her game a lot in the last year,” said the Italian, who was 2-2 in career meetings with Li going into Tuesday’s match.
“She’s really consistent. Today she was much better than me in the court.”

The Thai government declared a 60-day state of emergency to start on Wednesday, saying it wanted to prevent any escalation of more than two months of protests aimed at forcing Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from power.

The decree, which covers Bangkok and surrounding provinces, allows security agencies to impose curfews, detain suspects without charge, censor media, ban political gatherings of more than five people and declare areas off-limits.

Yingluck said her government has no intention of confronting the protesters, who have been allowed to close off several government buildings, including her own. The military, involved in several previous coups, has so far stayed neutral.

“We will use peaceful negotiations with the protesters in line with international standards … We have told the police to stick with international standards, to be patient with the protesters,” she told reporters on Tuesday.

She said police, not the military, would mainly be used to maintain control.

“We need it because the protesters have closed government buildings, banks and escalated the situation, which has caused injuries and deaths. The government sees the need to announce the emergency decree to keep the situation under control,” Labour Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung told a news conference following a cabinet meeting.

Yingluck has called an election for February 2, which she will almost certainly win and which the opposition plans to boycott.

However, the Election Commission said it would seek a Constitutional Court ruling on Wednesday on whether it can delay the vote. It says that the protests have prevented some candidates from registering which means that there would not be a quorum to open parliament after the election.

The protests, now in their third month, have closed off parts of the capital in the latest instalment of an eight-year political conflict that has seen sporadic outbreaks of violence.

They pit the middle class and royalist establishment against the mainly poorer supporters of Yingluck and her brother, ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled by the military in 2006.

FARMERS THREATEN TO JOIN PROTEST

Led by 64-year-old anti-government firebrand Suthep Thaugsuban, the protests were triggered by Yingluck’s moves last year to grant amnesty to her brother, the self-exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra whom Suthep accuses of nepotism and corruption.

Nine people have died since they began in November, the worst violence since 2010. It was Suthep, at that time a deputy prime minister, who sent in troops to end mass protests by pro-Thaksin supporters. More than 90 people died in that unrest.

He is demanding Yingluck step down and a “people’s council” be appointed in place. He has given only vague details on the reforms he wants but analysts say his chief aim is to eradicate Thaksin’s political influence.

The protesters want to suspend what they say is a democracy commandeered by the self-exiled billionaire Thaksin and alter electoral arrangements so that his allies are unable to return to power.

In a potentially worrying development for Yingluck, whose power base depends heavily on rural support, some farmers have threatened to join the protesters if they do not get paid for the rice they have sold to the state.

A scheme under which farmers are guaranteed an above-market price for their rice has been a centrepiece of the government’s programme but, as financing strains mount, some are complaining they have been waiting three or four months to be paid.

The protests are also beginning to undermine Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy.

On Monday, the Thai subsidiary of auto giant Toyota Motor Corp, one of Thailand’s biggest foreign investors, said it might reconsider a $600 million spending plan and even cut production if the unrest drags on.

And some economists expect the central bank will be forced to further cut interest rates when it meets on Wednesday to give a lift to the economy

Cyprus Turkish Airlines (CTA), the defunct carrier of the breakaway state in the north is to reborn as Karpas Airlines, reports said on Tuesday.

CTA went bellyup in 2010. According to Star Kibris newspaper a new company has been registered in Turkey under the name Karpas Airlines and a flight licence has been issued. The airline will be majority owned by the ‘state’ in the north, the reports said.

The inaugural flight will reportedly take place in April.

By Josh Reich
Manchester United must shrug off the disappointment of their league title aspirations being all but ended if they are to retain hope of claiming domestic silverware in David Moyes’ troubled first season in the Old Trafford hot-seat.

Sunday’s 3-1 defeat at Chelsea virtually extinguished their slim chances of retaining the Premier League crown and defeat by Swansea City in the FA Cup third round means the League Cup is United’s last chance of a major English trophy this season.

They meet Sunderland in Wednesday’s second leg after losing the first match 2-1 at the Stadium of Light, with the winners progressing to the final and an almost certain date with red-hot Manchester City in March.
The loss to Chelsea was the latest in a poor run of results for United who have slumped to seventh in the league, 14 points behind the leaders and six short of fourth spot and entry into next season’s Champions League.
Although the United supporters have continued to back Moyes in the face of very disappointing results, the Scot, who replaced Alex Ferguson this season, said a good performance at home was vital to boost spirits.

“We’re going to go out and do everything we can to get through,” he told the club’s website (www.manutd.com) after the Chelsea loss, their seventh in 22 league matches.
“I want to give the supporters something to cheer about.
“There’s not been an awful lot and I’m fully aware of that but I thought how we played on Sunday was not bad. The players played well but if you are going to defend the way we did then we are going to find it tough.”

United have suffered in the absence of strikers Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney, but other than 18-year-oldAdnan Januzaj the rest of the squad has largely failed to fill the void left by the absence of their two best players.
Rooney is nearing fitness after missing the last four matches with a groin injury, although no decision has been made on his participation against Sunderland, and United will definitely be without defender Nemanja Vidic, who will miss three matches after being sent off against Chelsea.

Sunderland snatched a first-leg advantage through Fabio Borini’s 65th-minute penalty, and Gus Poyet’s side came from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Southampton on Saturday as they continue to fight for their top-flight lives.
Midfielder Craig Gardner said the battling draw was a boost as they bid for a place in the final.
“Every game is a big game now, there’s the semi-final, and although we’ve got the advantage it’s going to be a very tough game at Old Trafford,” he told Sunderland’s website (www.safc.com).
“We’ll go there knowing what we need to do and the players have got the confidence to go out and try and achieve that.”

The winners will almost certainly face a daunting clash with City in the final as they hold a 6-0 lead over West HamUnited from the first leg ahead of Tuesday night’s return match in London.

West Ham manager Sam Allardyce acknowledged that overturning the deficit was unlikely, but said West Ham were determined to put in a good performance as they search for form and a way out of the Premier League relegation zone.
“It’s about playing a competitive game of football and trying to win it. We’re playing for pride and we want to play well,” he said.
“Hopefully, we can give Manchester City a really tough game tomorrow night.”
City have named Jack Rodwell and Stevan Jovetic in their squad as they return from injury layoffs.

The charred remains of a 58-year-old blind man were found in his home after it caught fire on Tuesday at around 4pm in Trachoni in Limassol, police said.

Panayiotis Ioannou’s remains were found after firefighters managed to put out the blaze which had burnt his house down.

According to reports Ioannou, who was blind, may have tipped over an ashtray as he was a smoker, setting the house on fire and was then trapped inside.

Bases police are investigating the incident.

By Peter Stevenson

THE number of vehicles that have not had their road tax renewed and will be removed from circulation has doubled compared to last year, acting head of the Road Transport Department (RTD) Petros Xenophontos said.

This year up until now around 46,000 vehicles have been immobilised while last year during the same period 23,000 vehicles were immobilised, Xenophontos told the Cyprus Mail.

There has been an increase though in the rate of renewals compared to the same period last year according to statistics released by the communications ministry.

In a statement, the ministry thanked the public for paying their road tax in a timely manner.

“On January 20, 2013 a total of 173,005 road tax renewals had been made which comes to 26.62 per cent of vehicles while this year up until the corresponding date a total of 223,092 road tax renewals were made which comes to 34.33 per cent of vehicles,” the ministry said.

It also that the RTD’s proposed amendment to the new road tax legislation that is aimed at re-establishing the previously abolished payment ceiling will be discussed at parliament.

“The amendment will be up for discussion as the first matter of business during Thursday’s plenum,” Xenophontos said.

The move is in response to complaints from pick-up truck and van owners, who under the new legislation, were in some cases forced to pay out €200 extra on their road tax.

The amendment has to be voted by the House before February 9, the deadline set for paying the tax.

According to an announcement form the RTD, the problem arose when the old ceiling of €299 was abolished. Under the new legislation, every car would be subjected to a road tax according to its horse power.

Large engine vehicles, such as vans and pick-up trucks, were listed under the new legislation as ‘van’, a category that had a higher index for calculating the amount due. The index number was increased from 0.14 per cent to 0.19 per cent.

The RTD apologised to the car owners affected, making clear that anyone who had already paid the road tax would be reimbursed.

Police are investigating a case of alleged rape after an 18-year-old woman reported that her father sexually assaulted her.

The matter was reported to a police station in Fasouri in Limassol where the pair live, during the early hours of Tuesday.

According to her statement, the 18-year-old was driven to a deserted area in Fasouri on Monday night where her 53-year-old father allegedly raped her.

She claimed that her father had told her he was going to take her to her grandmother’s house to sleep but drove her to Lady’s Mile instead where she said the assault took place .

The 18-year-old was examined by state pathologist Nicholas Charalambous and her clothes were taken as evidence to see whether tests show her father’s DNA on them, police said.

According to sources the 53-year-old has a history of getting in trouble with police. He has served three years for attempted rape, two years for robbery, two years for holding a woman against her will and has a history of domestic violence.

Investigations are ongoing as police search for the 53-year-old.

By Jean Christou

EU LEADERS on Tuesday threw their weight behind calls for movement on Cyprus following a meeting in Brussels with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and ahead of today’s Security Council briefing by UN envoy Alexander Downer.

President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy spoke of the urgent need to find a Cyprus solution at a joint news conference with Erdogan.

Both EU leaders said a Cyprus solution would have a positive outcome on Turkey’s EU course, which was one of the issues discussed in Brussels along with trade, energy, counter-terrorism, the crisis in Syria, and the political situation in Turkey.

“We also agreed on the urgent need to find a comprehensive settlement to the Cyprus issue,” said Barroso of his meeting with Erdogan. “This is surely in our common interest, and a decisive move in this field would no doubt also be conducive to progress in Turkey`s wider relations with the European Union. Progress in this matter is of fundamental importance. This is a message that we have been conveying also to the parties in Cyprus,” he said.

Van Rompuy urged all parties to resume negotiations as soon as possible.

Erdogan said Turkey was committed to progress on Cyprus. “We will continue in this direction with Mr [Nicos], hoping that there will be a positive approach on behalf of southern Cyprus, because this would be beneficial for all, for Cyprus, and for Turkey as an EU candidate country,” Erdogan said.

President Nicos Anastasiades, pre-empting Erdogan’s visit to the Belgian capital, had spoken by phone with Van Rompuy on Monday, and on Tuesday  with Barroso plus European Parliament President Martin Schulz to brief them on efforts to reach a deal on the joint statement aimed at kickstarting stalled Cyprus talks.

The lack of a joint statement is also likely to be in focus in New York on Wednesday when Downer, is expected to brief the UN Security Council during an informal session on the Secretary General`s Good Offices Mission.

Downer will meet UN officials earlier Wednesday, and on Thursday he will meet representatives of Cyprus, Greece and Turkey, as well as the representative of the Turkish Cypriots.

Downer left Cyprus last week, after getting nowhere on bridging the gap between the two sides on the elusive statement, although contacts are ongoing with the chief negotiators of both sides. The UN envoy has also found himself increasingly at odds with the Greek Cypriot side after Anastasiades recently suggested in an interview that he was not objective.

Syrian and international delegates arrived in Switzerland on Tuesday for peace talks that few believe can succeed as the three-year-old civil war and geopolitical acrimony it has brought show no sign of abating.

Opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, pressured to attend Wednesday’s first direct negotiations by their Western backers, cited new, photographic evidence of widespread torture and killing by Syria’s government in renewing their demand that Assad must quit and face an international war crimes trial.

War crimes lawyers said a vast, smuggled cache of images from a Syrian military police photographer gave clear evidence of systematic abuse and murder of about 11,000 detainees. One of three former international war crimes prosecutors who signed the report compared the images from Syria with the “industrial-scale killing” of Nazi death camps.

The delegation from Damascus, led by Assad’s foreign minister, was briefly held up at Athens due to an argument over whether EU trade sanctions permitted refuelling of the plane. Assad has insisted he may be re-elected later this year and says the talks should focus on fighting “terrorism” – his term for his enemies.

The United Nations, along with co-sponsors Russia and the United States, may at least be relieved if and when the two sides sit down at the Montreux Palace hotel on Lake Geneva. A day of diplomatic chaos on Monday had threatened to scupper the event, after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gave a last-minute invitation to Iran, Assad’s main foreign supporter.

The invitation was withdrawn after a boycott threat from the opposition, Western pressure and Iran’s insistence it had never agreed to the condition Ban set for attendance – that it endorse a previous peace conference, at Geneva in 2012, which called for Assad to make way for a transitional administration.

Narrowing the gap between the warring parties seems a tall order and diplomats at the  United Nations stress the meeting at Montreux on Wednesday, to be followed possibly by further talks in Geneva from Friday, is only a beginning. It could produce some deals to ease civilian suffering and exchange prisoners.

Not only are both sides still committed to a fight on the frontlines, where victory continues to elude either party, but most of the myriad rebel groups have disowned the National Coalition opposition group for agreeing to talk at all.

And while the United Nations mediator, Lakhdar Brahimi, notionally has the consensus support of world powers, the uproar over the invitation to Tehran illustrated how the war has divided Western powers from Russia and set the Sunni Arab states which back the rebels against Shi’ite Iran.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama had a “businesslike and constructive” conversation about Syria by telephone, the Kremlin said. Their foreign ministers, Sergei Lavrov and John Kerry, were to meet later in Montreux.

BEIRUT BOMB

The spread of violence, which has already killed more than 130,000 and driven a third of Syria’s 22 million people from their homes, has, however, given a new, common impetus to international efforts to end the bloodshed.

In Beirut on Tuesday, a suicide bomber killed four people in a stronghold of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi’ite militia. It has sent fighters to help Assad, a member of Syria’s Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

At a camp in Lebanon, a Syrian named Abu Shadi said the refugees just wanted a deal to let them return to their towns:

“Hopefully they will find us a solution in this conference so we can go back home,” he said. “Find us a solution so that we can go back home. We’re really tired of this.”

It has been 18 months since the previous international peace conference, dubbed Geneva-1, ended in failure, and all other diplomatic initiatives have also proven fruitless.

“At best, Geneva 2 will reconfirm agreements made during the first Geneva conference, call for ceasefires, maybe prisoner swaps and so on,” said one Western diplomat.

“At the same time, those taking part in the talks are de facto giving legitimisation to Damascus. They are talking to Assad’s government on the other side of the table.

“And so the show would go on while Assad stays in power.”

Speaking on his arrival in Switzerland, Badr Jamous, secretary-general of the opposition National Coalition and member of its negotiating team, told Reuters: “We will not accept less than the removal of the criminal Bashar al-Assad and changing the regime and holding the murderers accountable.”

The talks could increase the already ferocious internal strife among rival opposition factions, however. The conference is being boycotted by the powerful Sunni Islamist factions that control substantial territory inside Syria. They have denounced the exiled political opposition as traitors for attending.

The main ethnic Kurdish faction, which controls a swathe of the northwest, has not been invited.

The UN secretary-general arrived in Geneva, having nearly torpedoed the talks with his invitation to Iran. Aides shielded him from reporters’ questions about the affair.

Western countries have long insisted Tehran sign up to the final statement from Geneva-1 before it could attend other talks. Ban said Iran’s foreign minister had told him Tehran accepted the 2012 statement, which includes a requirement that Syria set up a transitional government.

But Tehran said it had agreed to no such thing.

A Western diplomat described the day as “a real mess” and said Ban had made a gaffe that had almost led to the conference being cancelled and replaced by a bilateral meeting between Russia and the United States.

EMACIATED AND ABUSED

The bleak consequences of the war were illustrated starkly in photographs of the emaciated and abused bodies of detainees, released in a report commissioned by a London law firm hired by Qatar, an avowed enemy of Assad. Its timing ensured the issue dominated international headlines before the talks began.

The report, by three senior lawyers who have worked for international war crimes tribunals and three forensic experts, said they believed the pictures and the photographer’s account were credible evidence Assad’s government had systematically tortured and killed as many as 11,000 detainees.

They said they had been shown 55,000 images, most of which were provided by a source who identified himself as a Syrian police photographer whose job included documenting deaths in Assad’s jails on behalf of the authorities.

“The bodies … showed signs of starvation, brutal beatings, strangulation and other forms of torture and killing,” they wrote. “In some cases the bodies had no eyes.”

One of the authors, Desmond de Silva, former chief prosecutor of a war crimes tribunal for Sierra Leone and one of Britain’s top lawyers, said the evidence documented “industrial-scale killing” reminiscent of Nazi death camps and was “clearly” the work of the government.

“Some of the images we saw were absolutely reminiscent of pictures of people who came out of Belsen and Auschwitz,” said de Silva, who also noted that Assad’s enemies were accused of some crimes. He added that the 11,000 dead were from only one area, saying: “It is the tip of the iceberg.”

Turkey’s purge of the judiciary and police has brought a corruption investigation shaking the government to a grinding halt and could undermine confidence in state institutions, senior legal figures and the opposition said on Wednesday.

Ninety-six judges and prosecutors were reassigned overnight, the biggest purge of the judiciary since a graft scandal erupted on Dec. 17 with the arrest of businessmen close to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and three ministers’ sons.

Erdogan has portrayed the corruption inquiry as an attempted “judicial coup” orchestrated by U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose network of sympathisers, known locally as “Cemaat” (religious community), hold considerable sway in many parts of the state including the police and legal system.

The government’s response, transferring thousands of police officers and seeking to tighten its grip on the courts, has brought sharp criticism from the European Union, which Turkey has been seeking to join for decades, and rattled investors, helping send the lira to record lows.

“Turkey is ablaze with the justice agenda,” said Metin Feyzioglu, chairman of the Turkish bar association.

“Everyone in the country has started to ask when there is an investigation or trial what side the judge, prosecutor or police officer is on,” he said. “The foundation of the state and the country’s legal order has been shaken.”

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told Erdogan, on his first visit to Brussels in five years on Tuesday, that respect for rule of law and independence of the judiciary were basic principles of democracy and essential conditions for EU membership.

Erdogan, a feisty leader who bristles at open criticism, scolded EU leaders for raising the dispute in public.

The roughly 120 judges and prosecutors reassigned since the graft scandal broke make up a fraction of the 13,000 working in Turkey as a whole, but the move has put sensitive cases on hold and shaken confidence within the profession.

“While the government claims that it is fighting against a parallel structure, it is actually closing off the corruption investigations … It is taking away those who know their cases best. It causes a great deal of harm,” said Murat Arslan, chairman of the YARSAV association of judges and prosecutors.

“It is quite clear there is political intervention here … they are quite clearly intimidating the whole of the judiciary. It is sending the message that ‘you cannot conduct an investigation which touches me’,” he told Reuters.

The state plays a strong role in Turkish political culture, often at the expense of individual liberties. The sight of open institutional feuding can only raise public concern where crises in the past have taken the form of army coups.

Erdogan has essentially banished the army from politics in 11 years in power. His popularity seems as yet largely unaffected by the current turmoil and there is no sign of the summer demonstrations that shook his government reigniting on a similar scale. He will, in short, be trusting voters will flee towards the elected power.

“PARALLEL STATE”

Judges and prosecutors across the country – from Istanbul in the west to the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, and from the southern border region with Syria to the northern Black Sea coast – were reassigned in the move announced late on Tuesday.

The High Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), already headed by the justice minister and set to fall further under government control under a ruling party bill before parliament, said the 96 were being transferred to new locations.

The government denied involvement.

“These appointments have absolutely nothing to do with our ministry. This is completely at the discretion of the relevant (HSYK) chamber,” a senior justice ministry official said.

Arslan estimated around half of those moved may have applied for a transfer, but said others were given no prior notice, finding out from the HSYK website. They were given two weeks to move if their appointment was in another province, otherwise were expected to start their new role the same day.

Nearly 500 police, mostly in Ankara, were also removed from their posts and reassigned on Wednesday, media reports said, bringing the total since Dec. 17 to several thousand.

Erdogan’s supporters say the police and judiciary are dominated by Cemaat sympathisers and that the government’s actions strengthen not weaken their independence. Erdogan himself refers to a “parallel state” within the judiciary.

But Aykut Erdogdu, the chief corruption investigator for the main opposition CHP, said the purge had become so broad that many of those removed were not even linked to Cemaat.

“We’ve reached the point where members of these institutions are unable to do their job,” Erdogdu told Reuters.

“More important is the damage done to these institutions. It can take decades to build up competent staff to run the institutions of state. Moreover, it will take years to undo the memory of this among prospective candidates in the future.”

Among those reassigned overnight was the chief prosecutor in the major western city of Izmir, Huseyin Bas, who had been handling a corruption investigation into the state railway company. He was transferred to Samsun on the Black Sea.

CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu held up in parliament on Tuesday what he said was a “horrifying” statement written by Bas saying the justice ministry had demanded he halt the probe.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag acknowledged his undersecretary had called the prosecutor but denied there was any request to stop the inquiry.

By Nemanja Bjedov
GUSTAVO Manduca scored the only goal of the game at the Tsirion Stadium in Limassol yesterday as APOEL recorded a 1-0 win over AEL for an aggregate 2-0 victory over last season’s beaten finalists in the Cyprus Coca Cola Cup Round of 16.

The home side had the initiative in the early stages of the game and their first goal-scoring opportunity came in the 11th minute when Argentinean midfielder Esteban Sachetti headed the ball narrowly wide after a corner kick. Despite their initial superiority, AEL failed to break the deadlock and towards the end of the first half it was the visitors who took control of the game.

Tomas De Vincenti had a great chance to put the Cypriot champions ahead when he had a one-on-one with AEL goalkeeper Karim Fegrouch in the 36th minute, but his shot was not powerful enough and Fegrouch managed to pull off a good save and keep his team in contention.

After the interval APOEL continued to dominate and influential Brazilian midfielder Manduca opened the scoring in the 64th minute, converting De Vincenti’s cross, to secure the Nicosia giants’ progression into the quarter-finals for the first time since the 2009-2010 season, also getting revenge over AEL who knocked them out at this stage of the competition in the last two seasons.

In another Round of 16 second leg played yesterday afternoon, cup holders Apollon beat Nea Salamina 3-1 at the Ammochostos Stadium in Larnaca to seal a 4-1 aggregate victory and their spot in the last eight of the competition.

The hosts cancelled out Apollon’s first leg lead two minutes before the interval through Sinisa Dobrasinovic, but the Limassol side responded well in the second half, and after Stergios Psianos scored an own goal to level the scores ten minutes after the break and Marcos Gullon made it 2-1 three minutes later, the visitors’ job got much easier and Camel Meriem eventually set up the final score two minutes before the final whistle.

At the GSZ Stadium in Larnaca, Alki could only manage an entertaining 3-3 draw against Onisilos Sotira in what was the first leg of their Round of 16 clash.
The top-flight side took a a 3-1 half-time lead, but the visitors, who are bottom of the B2 division with only three wins from 17 games, managed to score two goals and get a promising result ahead of the return leg next week in Sotira.

Syria’s government and opposition, meeting for the first time, vented their mutual hostility on Wednesday but a UN mediator said the warring sides may be ready to discuss prisoner swaps, local ceasefires and humanitarian aid.

Russia said the rival sides had promised to start direct talks despite fears that a standoff over President Bashar al-Assad’s fate at the meeting in Switzerland would halt the push for a political solution to Syria’s civil war, which has killed over 130,000 and made millions homeless.

Even if the sides are willing to talk about limited confidence-building measures, expectations for the peace process remain low, with an overall solution to the three-year war still far off.

Western officials were taken aback by the combative tone of Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem at the one-day a UN peace conference in Montreux, fearing follow-up negotiations would never get off the ground due to the acrimony.

However, international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi signalled that both sides were ready to move beyond rhetoric. “We have had some fairly clear indications that the parties are willing to discuss issues of access to needy people, the liberation of prisoners and local ceasefires,” he told a news conference.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also told reporters that he had urged the Syrian government to release detainees as a confidence-building measure.

Russia, which co-sponsored the Montreux meeting with the United States, said the rival Syrian delegations had promised to sit down on Friday for talks which were expected to last about seven days.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov played down the recriminations on Wednesday, when the opposition called for Assad to hand over power – a demand dismissed by Moualem, who in turn graphically described atrocities by “terrorist” rebels.

“For the first time in three years of the bloody conflict … the sides – for all their accusations – agreed to sit down at the negotiating table,” he told reporters.

Lavrov, who said he held talks with Moualem and Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Jarba on Wednesday, urged the opposition and its foreign backers not to focus exclusively on leadership change in Damascus.

Wednesday’s meeting at an hotel in the lakeside city exposed sharply differing views on forcing out Assad both between the government and opposition, and among the foreign powers which fear that the conflict is spilling beyond Syria and encouraging sectarian militancy abroad.

Jarba accused Assad of Nazi-style war crimes and demanded the Syrian government delegation sign up to an international plan for handing over power. Moualem insisted Assad would not bow to outside demands, denouncing atrocities committed by rebels supported by the Arab and Western states which were present in the room.

“Hope exists but it’s fragile. We must continue because the solution to this terrible Syrian conflict is political and needs us to continue discussions,” said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. “Obviously when we hear Bashar al-Assad’s representative, whose tone is radically different, we know it will be difficult.”

Moualem called on foreign powers to stop “supporting terrorism” and to lift sanctions against Damascus.

Referring to rebel acts, he said: “In Syria, the wombs of pregnant women are cut open, the foetuses are killed. Women are raped, dead or alive … Men are slaughtered in front of their children in the name of the revolution.”

He insisted Assad’s future was not in question, saying: “Nobody in this world has a right to withdraw legitimacy from a president or government … other than the Syrians themselves.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry echoed the rebel view that there is “no way” Assad can stay under the terms of a 2012 international accord urging an interim coalition. But Lavrov said all sides had a role and condemned “one-sided interpretations” of the 2012 pact.

Saudi Arabia, which backs the Sunni rebels, called for Iran and its Shi’ite Lebanese ally Hezbollah to withdraw forces from Syria. Iran, locked in a sectarian confrontation across the region, was absent, shunned by the opposition and the West for rejecting calls for a transitional government. Its president said Tehran’s exclusion meant talks were unlikely to succeed.

The conference has raised no great expectations, particularly among Islamist rebels who have branded Western-backed opposition leaders as traitors for even taking part.

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

UN chief Ban opened proceedings by calling for immediate access for humanitarian aid convoys to areas under siege.

“After nearly three painful years of conflict and suffering in Syria, today is a day of fragile but real hope,” Ban said, condemning human rights abuses across the board. “Great challenges lie ahead but they are not insurmountable.”

But there was little sign of compromise on the central issue of whether Assad, who inherited power from his father 14 years ago, should make way for a government of national unity.

He himself says he could win re-election later this year and his fate has divided Moscow and Washington. Both endorse the conclusions of the 2012 meeting of world powers, known as Geneva 1, but differ on whether it means Assad must go now.

Opposition leader Jarba called for the government delegates to turn against their president before so-called Geneva 2 negotiations start: “We want to make sure we have a partner in this room that goes from being a Bashar al-Assad delegation to a free delegation so that all executive powers are transferred from Bashar al-Assad,” the National Coalition leader added.

“My question is clear. Do we have such a partner?”

IRAN SCEPTICAL

Lavrov repeated Moscow’s opposition to “outside players” interfering in Syria’s sovereign affairs and prejudging the outcome of talks on forming an interim government. He also said Iran – Assad’s main foreign backer – should have a say.

The Kremlin is wary of what it sees as a Western appetite for toppling foreign autocrats that was whetted in Libya in 2011. Moscow opposes making Assad’s departure a condition for peace. Speaking of the Geneva Communique, Lavrov said: “The essence of this document is that mutual agreement between the government and opposition should decide the future of Syria.”

Kerry also spoke of “mutual” agreement among Syrians, but in a sense that excluded Assad.

“We see only one option – negotiating a transition government born by mutual consent,” he said. “That means that Bashar al-Assad will not be part of that transition government.”

Despite the differences, however, some participants believe common interests in reining in violence could rally the West, Russia and possibly even Iran behind some form of compromise.

A last-minute invitation from Ban to Iran was revoked after the Syrian opposition threatened to boycott the talks – a move that threatened to undermine months of US and Western efforts to cajole Jarba’s National Coalition into taking part.

President Hassan Rouhani said from Tehran that Iran’s exclusion made it unlikely the conference could succeed.

WAR RAGES IN SYRIA

During the speeches in Montreux, the war went on in  Syria.

The  Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported clashes and air strikes around the country. Around Damascus, government artillery hit villages and rebels clashed with the army in the neighbourhood of Jobar on the northeast fringe of the capital, it said. Activists also reported clashes in Hama, Aleppo and the southern province of Deraa.

The release of photographs apparently showing prisoners tortured and killed by the government was cited by Jarba and Western ministers. The Syrian government rejected the report as not objective and aimed at undermining negotiations.

In Damascus, where life limps on amid bombardments and checkpoints, weary residents cautiously hope for better.

“I really don’t think much will come out of it, but the alternative is no talks at all, and that’s not much better,” said Ruba, a mother of two.

JEWELLERY valued at around €10,000 and close to €1,000 in cash were stolen from an apartment in Polis Chrysochous on Tuesday.

The incident was reported just before midnight on Tuesday by the Cypriot owner who said that between 6pm and 11.30pm that evening, while away, his home was broken into and a safe he had in his bedroom closet was stolen with €10,000 worth of jewellery inside. A wallet containing €930 was also taken.

AROUND €13,000 in cash was stolen from a company-owned van while it was parked outside a kiosk in Paphos on Wednesday afternoon.

Police said the driver of the van entered the kiosk at around 1.40pm when the car’s window was broken and a purse with €13,000 inside was stolen.

Police are investigating whether the getaway vehicle was later involved in an accident.

THE Green Party and the young Greens will be sponsoring unemployed people aged under 30 with two euros for every tree they plant.

“The party’s goal is for 8,960 trees to be planted between 2011 and 2016, living up to our pre-election commitment in 2011 to plant a tree for every vote we received,” the Greens said.

So far, 6,262 trees have been planted as part of this programme and the party said that it hopes to plant all of the rest by May 2016.

Tree planting will also take place in cooperation with clubs, organisations, communities and municipalities with the aim for a greener Cyprus.

“During a time of crisis and recession, poverty and despair, by planting a tree we plant the seed of hope. We turn the black into green,” the Greens said.