By Nemanja Bjedov
OMONIA and AEK Larnaca joined holders Apollon, APOEL, Ermis Aradippou, Doxa Katokopia, Alki and Enosis Neon Paralimni in the Cyprus Coca Cola Cup quarter-finals after securing aggregate victories in the Round of 16 on Wednesday over Anorthosis and Aris Limassol respectively.

After a 1-1 draw in the first leg at the Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium, Anorthosis approached the game with an attacking mindset and created three good chances inside the first fifteen minutes.
The first chance fell to the visitors after only six minutes, but Valentinos Sielis was unable to hit the target with his header. In the 13th minute, Toni Calvo’s powerful shot from inside the penalty area was well saved by Alexandre Negri, while two minutes later Gonzalo Garcia had another opportunity for the visitors but his shot went wide.
Anorthosis coach Jorge Costa was then forced to take Garcia off in the 23rd minute due to an injury and bring on Andreas Makris, only a few minutes after the referee sent off Andreas Avraam for a second bookable offence.

The hosts eventually got into the game and took the lead two minutes before half-time through Serginho Greene’s header.
Joan Thomas extended the home side’s lead fifteen minutes from time, but Makris made the final few minutes interesting by pulling one back for Anorthosis four minutes from time. However, Nikos Englezou put the outcome of the tie beyond any doubt in the last minute by making it 3-1 on the day and 4-2 on aggregate to send his team into the next round.

Omonia arrived in Limassol with a slim 1-0 advantage after the first leg, but took the lead midway through the first half through Maximiliano Oliva’s own goal.
The Nicosia giants then controlled the game until the final whistle. Aris made sure they didn’t lose the match though, with Davide Grassi’s goal two minutes into injury time meaning a 2-1 aggregate defeat.

After a disappointing 3-3 draw last week in Larnaca, Alki beat the B2 side Onisilos Sotira 2-0 away from home on Wednesday to book their spot in the last eight where they join Enosis Neon Paralimni who progressed past Ethnikos Achnas with a 1-1 draw at the Dasaki Stadium after a goalless draw in the first leg.

International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said on Wednesday that he does not expect to achieve anything substantive in the first round of Syria talks ending on Friday, but hoped for a more productive second round starting about a week later.

His sombre assessment came as the two sides took a first tentative step forward by agreeing to use the same 2012 roadmap as the basis of discussions to end the three-year civil war, though they disagreed about how talks should proceed.

“We talked about the TGB (Transitional Governing Body), but of course it is a very, very preliminary discussion and more generally of what each side expects,” Brahimi told reporters.

Asked his expectations for the first week-long round expected to end on Friday, he said: “To be blunt, I do not expect that we will achieve anything substantive.

“I am very happy that we are still talking, but the ice is breaking slowly. But it is breaking,” he said, adding that he was not disappointed.

Opposition and government sides said they agreed to use the “Geneva communique”, a document endorsed by world powers at a conference in June 2012, and which sets out the stages needed to end the fighting and agree on a political transition.

“We have agreed that Geneva 1 is the basis of the talks,” opposition spokesman Louay al-Safi told reporters.

The Syrian government delegation, which had earlier submitted its own document that it wanted the talks to focus on, said it would use the Geneva communique, with reservations. Syrian state television said the government wanted to discuss the text of Geneva 1 “paragraph by paragraph”.

While the opposition wants to start by addressing the question of the transitional governing body that the talks aim to create, the government says the first step is to discuss “terrorism”.

There was still no sign of a breakthrough in attempts to relieve the suffering of thousands of besieged residents of the rebel-held Old City of Homs, an issue that had been put forward to break the ice and build confidence at the start of the talks.

“We also tried to see what is happening over the humanitarian issues, in particular about Homs. Negotiations between the United Nations and the Syrian authorities are still ongoing,” Brahimi said of the stalled UN aid convoy.

FIRST ISSUE

“Mr Brahimi said tomorrow they are going to discuss terrorism because stopping terrorism is the first issue that should be handled,” said Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Geneva communique refers to the government and “armed opposition groups”, but there is no mention of “terrorism” or “terrorists”, terms used by the Syrian government to describe those fighting to overthrow Assad.

The opposition delegation wants discussion of the transitional governing body to come first, including its size and responsibilities, Safi said.

“They seem to be more ready to discuss that issue, but still they are trying to push it to the back of the discussion. We told them this has to come first, because nothing else can be achieved unless we can form the transitional governing body.”

The opposition says transitional arrangements must include the removal of Assad, which the government rejects.

Despite contradictory interpretations of Geneva 1 by the two sides, organisers of the talks at United Nations headquarters in Geneva have made it a priority to keep the process going and dissuade either side from walking out.

The absence from the talks of powerful Islamist groups opposed to Assad, and of Iran, Assad’s main regional ally, has put a major question mark over what can be achieved.

The United States and Russia, the joint sponsors of the conference, agreed on Wednesday to increase pressure on the two sides to reach a compromise, Russia’s state-run RIA news agency reported, citing an unnamed diplomatic source.

Brahimi said he was in touch with both powers and hoped that they would exert greater influence in the future.

A Western diplomat said it was positive that the parties were still at the table.

“We don’t think this is a process that should last years, but it’s clear that after three years of civil war, a week isn’t going to resolve it,” the diplomat said.

“What we hope is that by the end of the week there will be sufficient common ground so that they agree to meet again and hopefully something tangible comes out on the humanitarian side.”

UNDER SIEGE

The opposition wants the government to allow in a UN aid convoy for 2,500 people under siege in the Old City of Homs, but the government has said it needs to be sure the food and medicine will not go to armed groups or terrorists.

“It is still stalled, as far as I know,” said Patrick McCormick, spokesman of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

A spokeswoman for the UN World Food Programme, which is waiting to deliver a month’s rations to the Old City, devastated by shelling and fighting, also said there was no movement.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has previously said international law requires all sides to permit free passage of food and medicines, and starvation of civilians as a method of combat may amount to a war crime.

Access to Homs and other besieged areas holding an estimated 250,000 people is seen as a proving ground for the peace talks.

The government has encircled hundreds of thousands of people across Syria, blocking off food and medicine. Rebels have also besieged 45,000 people in two Shi’ite Muslim towns in the north.

The Syrian opposition is willing to lift a siege on three pro-government villages as part of a wider deal, its spokesman said on Tuesday.

Damascus has said women and children may leave the Old City of Homs but that it wants the opposition to provide a list of men seeking to do so, before they may leave, Brahimi said this week.

Icy chaos gripped the US South on Wednesday after a rare winter storm that killed at least six people, stranded children in their schools overnight and paralyzed travel in several states, including hundreds of flight cancellations at the world’s busiest airport.

The storm slammed a region largely unaccustomed to ice and snow – stretching from Texas through Georgia and into the Carolinas on Tuesday and early Wednesday.

In Atlanta, motorists remained trapped in their cars on icy Interstates on Wednesday, some of them having spent as long as 18 hours on the road.

Some 791 traffic accidents were reported in the city but there were no serious injuries, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said in a Wednesday news conference, adding that the focus was now on rescuing stranded motorists.

“We’re going to get those people out of their cars,” he said.

At least five deaths in Alabama and one in Georgia were blamed on the storm.

Airlines canceled thousands of flights at airports from Houston to Atlanta, with some 500 halted early Wednesday alone at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest.

“We are all in this together and we will get through it together,” read a statement from police in Anniston, Alabama. “What was to be a simple dusting (of snow) has turned into something more. None of us were prepared.”

Forecasters predicted little relief on Wednesday, with temperatures unlikely to rise much above freezing for long enough to thaw ice-covered roads and bridges, before dipping below freezing again early Thursday across the Southeast.

Precipitation was expected to ease later in the morning, and the wintry mix of snow, sleet and ice had moved farther to the East Coast on Wednesday from Georgia up through Maryland, where motorists were warned off the roads and schools were being closed or delayed.

TRAFFIC NIGHTMARES

A Facebook page called “Stranded Motorists Help Jan 28, 2014″ which has 9,600 members, already had amassed entries from stranded motorists and volunteers trying to help them after an 18-hour gridlock continued to paralyze the Atlanta metro area.

Echo Garrett of Atlanta said a good friend of hers remained marooned on I-285 Wednesday.

“She’s almost out of cell phone battery, no water, no food. No rescue vehicles,”Garrett said in a message to Reuters.

Businesses and government in Atlanta, where 1 million people work, dismissed employees all at once early Tuesday afternoon, Reed said, causing the traffic crush.

“It hampered our ability to get our equipment on the ground,” Reed said. “If there was one lesson learned in the middle of this challenge, that would be that we need to stagger closings from private sector companies, the government and the school system.”

Atlanta school officials said on CNN that forecasts “drastically changed” after students had already been instructed to come to class.

In Birmingham, Alabama, authorities said a lack of warning about the severity of the ice led to thousands being stuck on roads, in shelters and in schools, with snow clearing vehicles having been initially directed south of the city where the ice was expected to hit.

“We proceeded to have school and have people go to their jobs,” Mayor William Bell said. “When it came, it was too late.”

The roads and Interstates there had begun to clear later Wednesday morning in Birmingham, with no injuries reported and no additional stranded motorists, police said.

Sections of major roadways remained closed in Louisiana near New Orleans, including the 24-mile Causeway Bridge spanning Lake Pontchartrain.

As the ice began to clear in Louisiana, some airlines resumed limited service Wednesday at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport after about 24 hours of canceled flights.

Authorities rescued about 50 school children in Atlanta, whose buses were stranded overnight on an icy roadway, district officials said. Hundreds of other students remained sheltered in schools and other locations.

“We’re feeding them, we’re watching movies, eating pizza,” Principal Matt Rogers of E. Rivers Elementary said of the 95 students staying there. “It’s like a sleepover.”

In Birmingham, about 800 students remained safe and fed in their schools early Wednesday, Bell said.

“We realize that is not good enough for parents who want to hold their children in their arms,” Bell said. “We are doing all we can to reunite children with their parents.”

By Toby Davis
Manchester City enjoyed another goal glut against Tottenham Hotspur, winning 5-1 away to go top of the Premier League as Chelsea’s title ambitions were hit by a 0-0 home draw against West Ham United on Wednesday.

Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure, Edin Dzeko, Stevan Jovetic and Vincent Kompany were on target as City followed their 6-0 thrashing of Spurs in the reverse fixture with another thrilling exhibition of their attacking talents.

They were helped on their way by a controversial decision to send off Tottenham defender Danny Rose for a foul on Dzeko, for which City were awarded the penalty that Toure converted for the second goal.

Yet they ruthlessly exploited the extra man to move to 53 points, one clear of Arsenal and three ahead of Chelsea, who were frustrated by a fiercely resilient West Ham side at Stamford Bridge.

Aston Villa emerged with the spoils from the night’s most entertaining fixture, edging a seven-goal thriller 4-3 against midlands rivals West Bromwich Albion having fallen 2-0 down after nine minutes.

Sunderland moved out of the relegation zone with a 1-0 win over Stoke City.

A British bases court remanded a 50-year-old Cypriot man for four days on Thursday in connection with a case of sexually abusing a man with special needs.

Akrotiri police station received a report on Wednesday afternoon that the alleged victim had been sexually abused on a number of occasions by the suspect, Sovereign Base Area acting superintendant George Kiteos said.

Both men live in the village of Akrotiri.

Kiteos added that a state pathologist has been flown over from Greece to examine the alleged victim.

According to reports the abuse took place on more than one occasion.

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The economic sentiment indicator in Cyprus improved for the ninth consecutive month, according to data released by the European Commission.  

The Commission’s paper notes the fact that among the countries under economic adjustment programme, in Cyprus the indicator reached its highest level since July 2011.

In Cyprus, the indicator rose from 90.3 points in December 2013 to 91.3 in January 2014, the highest since July 2011, when a munitions blast at a naval base killed 13 people and incapacitated the island’s biggest power station.

The indicator has been improving continuously since April last year when the EU agreed to bail Cyprus out but imposed harsh terms on its banking system.

As regards the services sector, it rose by 7.7 points in one month, while improvement was seen in other indicators apart from consumer confidence which recorded a decrease.

In particular, Cyprus showed improvement in industry (up by 1.5 points), retail trade (+1.4), construction (+3,1), services  (+7,7), while consumer confidence index dropped by 2.8 points.

Rainfall so far this month was only 36 per cent of the average for the period, according to statistics released by the Meteorological Services on Thursday.

Rainfall in the government controlled areas between those dates came to 36.6mm while the average for the month is usually 102.4mm.

The average rainfall over the last 24 hours came to 1.9mm.

The largest amount of rainfall between January 1 and 30 was recorded in Pano Panayia at 81.2mm which corresponds to 53 per cent of the normal rainfall for that area. The next was Paphos Airport with 80mm (85 per cent of the normal amount), Platania with 66.1mm (35 per cent) and Stavros Tis Psokas with 64.3mm (38 per cent).

The least amount of rainfall was recording in Nicosia (in Athalassa) at 9 mm which corresponds to 19 per cent of the normal rainfall for January. Next was Peristerona with 9.9mm (20 per cent of the usual amount), Athienou with 11.2mm (20 per cent) and in Kornos with 13.9mm (16 per cent).

The “Restoration and Management of Oroklini Lake Special Protection Area” LIFE project on Thursday announced the release of a 15-minute documentary regarding bird activity in the lake.

The documentary is available for free viewing at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrMUrTwqY4A.

According to a press release by the project’s press office, the documentary “is a glimpse of the bird diversity of the lake, its rare vegetation as well as providing an overview of actions to protect the wetland under the LIFE Oroklini project.

The filming lasted about a year in order to capture the changeable habitats of the lake throughout the seasons and various unique moments from life on the lake. Migratory birds, Spur-winged Lapwings grooming their chicks and Black-winged Stilts defending their nests, are only some of the unique wildlife images captured”.

The documentary was produced by the Environment Department within the framework of the project “Restoration and Management of Oroklini Lake Special Protection Area, in Larnaca” with the contribution of the LIFE financial instrument of the European Union.

The makers of the documentary urged people to watch and share the documentary, “to raise awareness raising purposes so we can spread the message of the importance of this wetland and the need to protect it as well and other threatened wetlands”.

THREE NEW cases of HIV were recorded in the first 20 days of the year, according to the head of the support centre for people with HIV/AIDS Stella Michaelidou.

Speaking in parliament after briefing the House Health Committee on the campaign to tackle AIDS in Cyprus, Michaelidou said three new cases of HIV among young Cypriots were recorded between January 1 and January 20, noting a small increase in the incidence of HIV among young Cypriots aged 19-30.

During the same period last month, six new cases of HIV were recorded, all Cypriot.

Michaelidou warned that the economic crisis would bring more infections and called for greater public awareness campaigns.

According to the support centre head, increased unemployment and falling wages has caused financial problems among HIV-positive people, adding that in the last six months, there has been an increase in the number of HIV-positive sex workers.

The main factors leading to the increase in recorded cases are risky sexual behaviour, migratory flows and increased drug use.

Fryni Venardi, head of the Grigoriou Clinic charity organisation, argued that the number of HIV/AIDS cases was on the up because public awareness campaigns “have stopped completely”.

She called for greater enlightenment and awareness campaigns on television and in armies and schools.

In December, during a press conference to mark World AIDS Day, the health ministry said the infections rate of HIV in Cyprus is estimated at close to 0.1 per cent of the population.

In 2010 there were 41 diagnoses, 54 in 2011 and 58 in 2012. By the end of October, 2013, 46 cases had been recorded.

The ministry’s acting permanent secretary Christina Yiannaki said the government spent €4.3 million in 2012 and €5 million in the first 11 months of 2013 on administering antiretroviral drugs to patients.

UKRAINE President Viktor Yanukovich went on sick leave on Thursday after a bruising session of parliament, leaving a political vacuum in a country threatened with bankruptcy and destabilised by anti-government protests.

The 63-year-old president appears increasingly isolated in a crisis born of a tug-of-war between the West and former Soviet overlord Russia. A former president said this week the violence between demonstrators and police had brought the country to the brink of civil war.

Shortly after his office announced he had developed a high temperature and acute respiratory ailment, Yanukovich defended his record in handling the crisis and accused the opposition, which is demanding his resignation, of provoking the unrest.

“We have fulfilled all the obligations which the authorities took on themselves,” a presidential statement said, referring to a bill passed late on Wednesday granting a conditional amnesty for activists who had been detained.

The amnesty offered freedom from prosecution to peaceful protesters, but only on condition that activists left official buildings they have occupied – something they have rejected.

Several members of Yanukovich’s own party voted against the bill, even after he visited parliament himself to rally support, and some of his powerful industrialist backers are showing signs of impatience with the two-month-old crisis.

Prime Minister Mykola Azarov resigned on Tuesday after a sharp escalation of the street unrest, which began in November when Yanukovich rejected a European Union deal in favour of closer ties and a bailout deal with Russia.

The president, under pressure from Moscow not to tilt policy back towards the West, has yet to appoint a successor. Serhiy Arbuzov, Azarov’s first deputy and a close family friend of Yanukovich, has stepped in as interim prime minister.

The bare announcement on his health gave no sign of when he might be back at his desk or able to appoint a new government, which Moscow says must be in place before it goes ahead with a planned purchase of $2bn of Ukrainian government bonds.

Some opposition figures said they suspected Yanukovich might be giving himself a breathing space after being forced into concessions to try to calm the unrest on the streets.

“This smacks of a ‘diplomatic illness’,” said Rostislav Pavlenko, a member of boxer-turned-politician Vitaly Klitschko’s Udar (Punch) party. “It allows Yanukovich not to sign laws, not to meet the opposition, absent himself from decisions to solve the political crisis.”

The president has not had a history of ill health. He has full control over the government and still has solid backing in parliament but there are signs of discontent in his Party of Regions over the continuing crisis on the streets.

He replaced his long-standing head of administration in mid-January and has since sacked his press secretary.

Ukraine’s richest entrepreneurs, whose support Yanukovich has had and needs now, are now taking a more neutral line.

Chemical and gas billionaire Dmitry Firtash called on all sides in the conflict to find a compromise by negotiations that would yield “real” results. Ukraine’s richest man, steel magnate Rinat Akhmetov, made a similar appeal earlier this week.

Yanukovich’s most urgent task now is to appoint a successor to Azarov, who served him loyally for four years, while the opposition is anxious that he also signs into force a repeal of anti-protest legislation.

Ukraine badly needs a new government. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday Moscow would wait until one was formed before fully implementing the $15bn bailout deal.

The cost of insuring Ukraine’s debt against default rose to a new one month high yesterday, and Ukraine’s central bank intervened for a fourth successive day, offering dollars on the inter-bank market to prevent a serious slide in the national currency, the hryvnia, from its peg at around 8 to the dollar.

The statistics agency said the economy, dominated by steel exports, had ground to a halt in 2013. Analysts expect output to fall this year.

By Stefanos Evripidou

THE UN Security Council (UNSC) on Thursday  unanimously approved a resolution renewing the mandate of UNFICYP on the island for a further six months.

The passing of UNSC Resolution 2135 extends UNFICYP’s presence in Cyprus until July 31, 2014.

According to Cyprus News Agency, the resolution is exactly the same as the previous one passed last July, except for paragraph four relating to the ongoing efforts for a Cyprus solution.

While noting the efforts undertaken to date to resume peace talks, the Security Council expressed disappointment that official negotiations have yet to start and calls on the sides to agree in a meaningful way to move forward as soon as possible.

It is the first time in two years that the Security Council unanimously adopts a resolution on UNFICYP. Previously, Azerbaijan and Pakistan – who are no longer members of the 15-seat UNSC- would either vote against or abstain during votes on Cyprus. The two countries were deemed to be allies of Turkey and adopted positions similar to those of Ankara on the Cyprus issue.

Meanwhile, efforts to resume the peace talks are ongoing with the US playing a much more active role, in an attempt to bridge the gap between the Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots and Turkey on the draft text of the joint communiqué.

The US Ambassador in Cyprus John Koenig is believed to be acting as a go-between, sending messages from Ankara to the Presidential Palace in Nicosia and back on the draft text.

Koenig and to a lesser degree British High Commissioner Matthew Kidd have taken on a greater role in the peace effort in recent months, in contrast to the more subdued presence of the US and UK the previous five years.

The two diplomats are in frequent contact with President Nicos Anastasiades, Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu and UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer while the foreign secretaries of both the US and the UK, John Kerry and William Hague, have had direct contact with the Turkish leadership in Ankara to specifically discuss efforts to conclude on a joint communiqué.

The heightened diplomatic activity between Nicosia and Ankara has troubled Eroglu, who was at pains to stress that the Turkish Cypriots are the ones calling the shots, in close cooperation with the “motherland”, Turkey.

According to sources, the Turkish government and Eroglu do not always see eye to eye on the peace talks, with Ankara’s positions believed to be more aligned with those of Turkish Cypriot ‘foreign minister’ Ozdil Nami.

Turkey’s high-level involvement in the talks was made clear when Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited Eroglu on December 14, the same day a new draft proposal on the joint communiqué was submitted to the UN.

Anastasiades rejected the draft and sent back a revised version which Eroglu rejected. Efforts continue to find a middle ground on the wording of the joint communiqué.

Following a rare invite, Eroglu went to Ankara on January 15 to meet with the Turkish leadership and discuss the Cyprus problem, the immoveable property commission in the north and economic issues.

On Thursday, Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Ozkan Yorgancioglu and Nami were also in Ankara to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Yorgancioglu returns to the north on Friday, accompanied by Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay, Minister of Forestry and Water Affairs Veysel Eroglu and Energy Minister Taner Yildiz.

The three ministers will attend a ceremony in occupied Kyrenia on Saturday where a foundation stone will be laid to mark the installation of infrastructure to receive a water pipeline connecting Turkey with the occupied areas.

According to a Turkish Water Ministry announcement, the necessary infrastructure will cost 123 million Turkish Lira (€40m) and include a water purifier, which will purify 200,000 cubic metres of water daily, and a pipeline from Kyrenia to Nicosia. Also, 160km of water distribution pipes will be installed in the Kyrenia area.

The ministry notes that on completion of the project, 75 million cubic metres of water a year will be transported to the north, of which 50.3 per cent will be potable and 49.7 per cent used for irrigation purposes. The project is expected to cover the needs of the breakaway regime for the next 50 years, said the announcement.

UK Cypriot Demis Hassabis, co-founder of an artificial intelligence company, has sold his firm to Internet giant Google for £242m (€300m).

A former child chess prodigy and neuroscientist, Hassabis has attained legendary status in the computer gaming industry.

At 17, he co-designed and was lead programmer on the classic Theme Park with famous game designer Peter Molyneux.

Now 37, Hassabis started his professional games career at the age of 16 working at Bullfrog Productions, and after getting his degree at Cambridge joined the newly founded Lionhead Studios. In 1998 he founded and ran his own 60-person development studio, called Elixir Studios, producing games for Microsoft and Vivendi Universal. He has contributed to many best-selling and award-winning games.

Attaining a doctorate in Cognitive Neuroscience from University College London in 2009, Hassabis left academia in 2012 to found DeepMind Technology. He has published influential papers on memory and amnesia.

According to the Guardian, DeepMind has reportedly competed with Google and other major artificial intelligence companies for talent and Google’s chief executive Larry Page is said to have led the deal himself. Facebook reportedly failed to acquire DeepMind in December 2012, according to Forbes.

DeepMind describes itself as a “cutting-edge artificial intelligence company.” It combines techniques from machine learning and systems neuroscience to build powerful general-purpose learning algorithms.

The company was founded by Hassabis, Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman. Its first commercial applications are in simulations, e-commerce and games.

DeepMind published a study in December that claimed to show the firm’s AI technology learning to play some Atari computer games better than expert human gamers.

BRITISH blue-chip shares fell for the seventh time in eight days on Thursday, led lower by Diageo after the company said weakness in emerging markets was hurting its sales.

The FTSE 100 index was down 0.1 per cent, or 5.83 points, at 6,538.45 by the close, nearing its lowest since mid-December. It has suffered in recent sessions from a sell-off in emerging markets that continued on Thursday.

Shares in Diageo dropped 4.6 per cent, taking the most points off the FTSE. The world’s biggest distilled-spirits company said net sales growth slowed because of weakness in China, Thailand and Nigeria. It blamed problems in markets such asTurkey and Russia for similar struggles last October.

“Diageo will be very disappointed with Asian sales, as they were looking to tap into demand from those growing markets for the more chic spirits,” said Alastair McCaig, an analyst at IG.

Peer SABMiller also fell, by 1.6 per cent, and other consumer staple stocks dropped on expectations that emerging- market turmoil, which hit earnings in the summer of 2013, would again erode their results.

Social unrest and currency problems in emerging markets such as Thailand, Turkey and Argentina have knocked back global equities this week, accentuated by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to trim its stimulus programme further.

“Emerging markets are a concern, certainly in the short term. We’ve been down this road before, however, and there won’t be as big a reaction as the global economy is in a good enough shape this time around to take us out of the mire,” said Mike McCudden, head of derivatives at Interactive Investor.

“Companies that do have big exposure to emerging markets, such as Diageo, will be impacted, but as a company it is well placed to get through it.”

Despite the concern over emerging markets, many investors still expect the FTSE to hit a record 7,000 points in the first quarter, helped by signs of a gradual rebound in the British and world economies.

Among top gainers were BSkyB and Royal Dutch Shell after they delivered reassuring earnings reports, in contrast to Diageo. Shell’s report included steps to improve returns after a profit warning two weeks ago knocked its stock price.

So far this earnings season, 87 per cent of those companies on the FTSE 100 who have reported results have met or beaten expectations, although some reports had been preceded by profit warnings.

“Earnings are coming in line or beating expectations as a whole, but there is a lot of guidance that is considerably less confident. It’s more than just downplaying expectations, as a lot of companies seem genuinely worried,” IG’s McCaig said.

The latest profit warning came from embattled mid-cap outsourcer Serco, which fell 16.9 per cent after saying profit could be as much as 20 per cent below forecasts. Its blue chip-peer G4S fell 3.8 per cent.

A UNITED Nations agency delivered food to a rebel-held Damascus district on Thursday, alleviating the plight of thousands of people trapped for months by a Syrian army siege.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which cares for Palestinian refugees, said it had begun distributing 900 food parcels in Yarmouk camp, its biggest delivery there yet.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said the aid was the first to reach Yarmouk since January 21 when 138 food parcels were sent in. Each parcel can feed a family of five for 10 days, meaning the needs of the population still far outstrip aid deliveries.

“We hope to continue and increase substantially the amount of aid being delivered,” said Gunness. “With each passing hour their need increases.”

Syria’s state news agency SANA confirmed the aid delivery, saying Yarmouk’s residents were “held hostage by armed terrorist groups” – its usual description of rebel forces.

UNRWA had blamed the authorities for preventing its convoy from reaching the neighbourhood on Sunday. Two weeks earlier, aid convoys turned back after a government escort was fired on.

Some 15 people are reported to have died from malnutrition in Yarmouk, originally an impoverished Palestinian refugee camp which now houses 18,000 Palestinians, as well as some Syrians.

Opposition activists say the government is using hunger as a weapon of war. Damascus accuses rebels of firing on aid convoys and says it fears food and medicine will go to armed groups.

At peace talks between the two sides in Geneva, the United Nations is trying to negotiate passage for an aid convoy for 2,500 people also under siege in the Old City of Homs.

Gaining access for relief groups to reach an estimated 250,000 people trapped by fighting in Yarmouk, Homs and other areas is seen as a test for the peace talks, which began last week and have not yet produced substantive results.

Syria’s conflict began with popular protests against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, but evolved into a civil war after a crackdown by security forces led to an armed uprising. More than 130,000 people have been killed and about six million have fled their homes.

Famagusta district court on Friday remanded two men aged 23 and 35 four five days in connection with a case of damage caused to the house of an officer from the drug squad in Paralimni in November.

Police received a statement on Thursday that the two men from Dherynia and Paralimni respectively had thrown a Molotov cocktail at 1.30am on November 8 at the house of an officer from the drug squad in Paralimni.

The cocktail caused a fire which damaged the outside of the house but no lives were put at risk.

New registrations of motor vehicles fell by 28.1 per cent last year compared to 2012 according to the statistical services.

The total number of newly registered vehicles in 2013 came to 18,567 in comparison to 25,829 the previous year.

The number of privately owned saloon cars that were registered last year fell by 29.6 per cent, reaching 13,679 in total compared to 19,420 in 2012. Of those saloon cars, 6,245 or 45.7 per cent were brand new while 7,422 or 54.3 per cent were second hand cars.

Registrations of vans and trucks came to 1,646 in 2013 compared to 2,517 in 2012 which is a decrease of 34.6 per cent.

The number of light duty trucks registered fell by 33.7 per cent, reaching 1,380 in 2013 compared to 2,083 in 2012.
Heavy-duty truck registrations fell by 31.1 per cent to 206 last year, from 299 the year before.

Tow-truck registrations decreased by 55.6 per cent to 60 in 2013 compares to 135 in 2012.
According to the statistical services registrations of motorbike over 50cc fell by 21.6 per cent to 207 last year compares to 264 the previous year. The number of registrations of motorbikes under 50cc decreased by 19.2 per cent, reaching 1,675 in 2013 compares to 2,074 in 2012.
 

A TOTAL of 19 organisations will take part in a demonstration against the troika of lenders on Saturday February 8 at 10am, in an attempt to form a human chain around the finance ministry in Nicosia.

The organisations, protesting against austerity measures, include workers unions PEO, DEOK, the teachers unions POED, the pensioners union EKYSY, the Journalists Union, associations against privatisations and parents associations.

In a joint news conference on Friday, representatives from the 19 organisations told reporters their aim was to showcase the public’s anger against austerity measures and government policies

Andros Apostolides, deputy head of teachers union POED told the press that the organisations “reject the disassembly of the state, selling-off public wealth and the unjust distribution of burden when it comes to economic measures”.

Apostolides added that all the organisations think that the government shouldn’t strictly follow troika suggestions “as their policies has been proven not to lead to progress and recovery”.

He urged everyone to attend the demonstration.

A deputy of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party accused the government on Friday of “protecting thieves” and resigned from the party over purges of police and judiciary involved in a corruption investigation.

Turkish media reported that at least 700 more police officers had been reassigned over the investigation portrayed by Erdogan as part of a plot to undermine the country’s economy and his government.

Muhammed Cetin’s resignation was the eighth since the corruption scandal broke in December, though the party still controls 319 of 550 seats in the assembly.

“Unfortunately the AK Party has of today become blackened. It has become the architect of a process in which corruption is covered up, thieves are protected and the unlawful has become the law,” Cetin told a news conference in parliament.

“There are many members of parliament who cannot stomach what is happening.

Cetin is close to Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan accuses of using influence in police and judiciary to engineer the corruption accusations ahead of local elections next month. Gulen denies any part in the investigation.

A photograph in the Hurriyet daily on Friday showed staff at Istanbul’s main courthouse carrying boxes of documents which the paper said were from the offices of two prosecutors removed from the investigation this week.

The turmoil generated by the investigation and the ensuing power struggle has added to woes in Turkey’s financial markets that prompted the central bank to raise interest rates sharply this week to support the ailing lira.

More than 5,000 police officers have been dismissed or transferred in total since police raids on Dec. 17 that led to the arrest of businessmen close to Erdogan and three cabinet ministers’ sons.

In the latest move, hundreds of police were transferred from their posts in Ankara and Izmir on Thursday, and dozens more were affected in Istanbul and the southeastern city of Gaziantep, Radikal newspaper reported.

A spokesman at police headquarters in Ankara could not immediately confirm the reports, but Cetin condemned the mass transfers.

“Thousands of people and their families have been dismissed and transferred to other places in arbitrary fashion without evidence of wrongdoing,” he said.

UPHEAVAL IN JUDICIARY

A similar shake-up in the judiciary has left the fate of the corruption investigation unclear, with some 200 prosecutors and judges reassigned, halting an investigation which Erdogan has called a “judicial coup.”

There is as yet no sign the graft scandal and Erdogan’s purging of police and judiciary he sees as engineering it has produced any significant fall in his popularity.

The AK Party has won three elections since 2002. A hitherto-weak opposition sees local elections next month and a presidential poll later this year as an opportunity to make inroads into his vote.

When the corruption investigation first came to light, anti-government newspapers showed photographs of police removing shoeboxes full of money from an official’s house.

The investigation has since faded from public view, and the removal of more prosecutors from the case this week has fuelled uncertainty about the inquiry.

The removal of the prosecutors was part of a reshuffle in which some 90 prosecutors were reassigned by newly appointed Istanbul chief prosecutor Hadi Salihoglu.

Erdogan’s government has also relieved state employees of their duties at other institutions including the banking and telecoms regulator and the public broadcaster, firing dozens of executives.

Ratings agency Moody’s said on Friday that pressure on the lira was likely to continue despite a rate hike of some 500 basis points this week, which it said had also significantly weakened Turkey’s growth prospects.

In the midst of Argentina’s biggest currency devaluation in a decade, with the peso’s plunge rattling financial markets worldwide, President Cristina Fernandez’s first public address in weeks was silent on the matter.

She didn’t say a word about the currency, but instead took to national television last week to announce the latest government measure – a new form of high school scholarship.

While the president has avoided mention of currency policy, the increasingly unpredictable messages from her ministers have amplified the risks weighing on the peso.

An announcement last week suggesting long-awaited relief from currency controls for ordinary Argentines in practice meant a trickle of U.S. dollars for an affluent minority.

Officials also promised to cut the tax rate on spending dollars overseas, but revoked the measure just two days later.

Critics say the government’s erratic decision-making is the biggest risk looming over the volatile peso, as the policies that triggered the currency crunch have only become more contradictory as the crisis unfolds.

The stakes aren’t what they were in 2002, when a record sovereign default shook the global economy, as Argentina has since been ostracized from global credit markets. Still, the sense of a government without its bearings is familiar to some.

“Every day it’s a different argument,” said former central bank president Aldo Pignanelli in a radio interview, pointing the finger at brash 42-year-old Economy Minister Axel Kicillof.

“In 2002 we got things right and wrong, but we faced the storm. I see what this kid is doing and it gets me furious, because we’re losing precious time to take coherent measures.”

Even the dynamics of the peso’s 15 percent drop last week are shrouded in uncertainty. At the start of the historic slide, on Wednesday, there was no government intervention, but by Thursday the central bank was intervening heavily to hold the line, as it has this week. Officials blamed a “speculative attack” in the tightly controlled interbank market.

With the right mix of policies, the devaluation could have helped boost exports and brought relief for Argentina’s dwindling foreign reserves. But the chaotic approach has meant the central bank is burning more quickly through reserves and there is even more pressure on perilously high inflation.

As veterans of previous crises, Argentines have assumed a familiar defensive crouch, hoarding any dollars they have and spending pesos like they are going out of style.

“Right now all you can do is buy. Today. Not tomorrow,” said Walter Yofre, 41, an accountant on a bustling retail boulevard in Buenos Aires. “I just got a memory chip for 268 pesos. This morning the store was charging 245!”

Trade on a major grains exchange has dried up as farmers stockpile their soybeans rather than taking pesos. Goods are backing up at the border as officials try to slow the impact of more expensive imports.

And ordinary supply chains are frozen with uncertainty in a country where the dollar is a reference for everything from real estate to raw materials.

“You pick up the phone and 90 percent of your suppliers will tell you they’re out of stock,” said Gaston Luccisano, who runs a kitchen goods store in the middle-class neighborhood of Caballito. “The guy could be staring at a stack of plates but he won’t sell until he knows what it will cost to restock.”

Many economists say officials are obsessing over symptoms while aggravating the illness with an improvised approach.

Economy Minister Kicillof, a former professor of Marxist, spent this week chasing down what he calls speculative price gouging by major corporations.

In daily meetings with business leaders, he and top officials have warned cement makers to avoid “unpatriotic” pricing and forced retailers to roll back new price tags.

BLEEDING RESERVES

Devaluations can help exporters and eventually slow the drain on Argentina’s foreign reserves, which fell over 30 percent in the past year to below $29 billion. But shock and uncertainty over the measure has also fueled the rush for dollars.

Reserves have fallen more than $2.3 billion so far this month as the central bank fights to defend the new exchange rate – more than ten times what was lost in all of December.

“There is no doubt: this crisis has been entirely self-inflicted by confused policies,” said Eric Ritondale, senior economist for Econviews in Buenos Aires.

Making matters worse, the spike in import costs and a stampede of shoppers trying to lock in prices for durable goods is now feeding Argentina’s inflationary demons.

Consumer prices have risen about 4 percent in four weeks, according to economic consultancy Elypsis, who put the annual inflation rate near 30 percent. Private economists reported inflation of about 25 percent last year – more than double the price increases recognized in the government’s official index.

To interrupt the inflationary feedback loop, the government would need a coordinated program to cut back deficit spending, stop the money presses at the central bank and keep wage hikes under control, economists say.

The central bank has taken some tentative first steps since the devaluation, hiking a key interest rate this week and signaling tighter monetary policy.

The best case scenario, according to Ritondale of Econviews, would be interest rate hikes triggering a sharp economic slowdown. The economy could shrink 3 or 4 percent this year, he said, cooling inflation and restoring enough of a trade surplus to replenish foreign reserves.

That would be an orderly adjustment compared to the crisis set off in 2001, when a string of presidents resigned amid riots and looting as the unemployment rate climbed to more than 20 percent.

There is little or no risk a similar financial collapse, as Argentina’s exclusion from international credit markets since then has left the country with few foreign debts.

Most Argentines are also numbed by years of an overheating economy, discussing the latest prices like the weather. “So, have you bought anything?” is a common conversation starter.

But the potential for social conflict is real.

The test may come in March, when labor talks will have powerful unions out in force, threatening strikes and protests to keep wages rising with consumer prices. Labor disruptions are as regular as the seasons in Argentina, but broader economic frustration this year could make things volatile.

The pressure would be difficult for an avid inflation hawk – and the president is anything but. At a political rally after a stinging primary defeat in last year’s midterm elections, Fernandez showed her colors.

“Do you know what it means when they say we should govern according to inflation targets?” she shouted to flag-waving supporters. “I will translate it for you. It means they want to cap your wages.”

BACK AND FORTH

If the government’s fight against inflation has been inconsistent, currency measures have been downright contradictory.

Two years ago, officials attacked the “dollarization” of the economy, discouraging the listing of apartments and cars in anything but pesos. Last year they reversed course, printing central bank paper indexed to the dollar and facilitating dollar-denominated commerce despite the scarcity of greenbacks.

In May, Fernandez dismissed critics suggesting the possibility of a devaluation: “They are going to have to wait for another government.”

Yet last week her government oversaw the peso’s biggest daily drop since 2002.

The recent loosening of currency controls was equally unexpected.

Last week, officials announced access to dollars for private savings for the first time in two years, creating even more demand for scarce foreign reserves. Until then Argentines could only turn to far more expensive dollars on the black market.

But by Monday it became clear the new currency market would be tightly controlled, with just one in four Argentines meeting salary requirements and only a fifth of their wages eligible.

Officials also promised last Friday that the tax rate on Argentines’ overseas credit cards bills would fall in line with the new market for dollar savings.

That is, until Kicillof scrapped the idea two days later.

While some have read the waffling as signs of moderation, others see a government without a plan.

“They have been reacting more than anticipating,” said Daniel Marx, Argentina’s finance secretary from 1999 to 2001 and the head of consultancy Quantum Finanzas. “Their strategies haven’t worked as planned, so they’ve had to correct course. The question is whether they are clear on their goal.”

UKRAINE’S embattled President Viktor Yanukovich signed into law on Friday an amnesty for demonstrators detained during mass unrest and repealed anti-protest legislation, in a fresh bid to take the heat out of the political crisis.

But the move by Yanukovich, who remains politically active despite going on sick leave on Thursday, was not likely to be enough to end the sometimes violent anti-government protests on the streets of Kiev and beyond.

Many protesters rejected the amnesty outright, because it is conditional on occupied buildings being cleared of activists, while a radical Ukrainian nationalist group behind much of the violence pressed for new tough demands.

The 63-year-old leader, who looks increasingly isolated in a tug-of-war between the West and former Soviet overlord Russia, suddenly withdrew from view on Thursday, complaining of a high temperature and acute respiratory ailment.

He has been under pressure since November, when his decision to accept a $15bn loan package from Moscow instead of signing a trade deal with Europe infuriated many of his compatriots and sparked huge protests in the capital.

The crisis forced Prime Minister Mykola Azarov to resign, and as yet there is no sign of a successor. Serhiy Arbuzov, Azarov’s first deputy and a close family friend of Yanukovich, has stepped in as interim prime minister.

Underlining its economic leverage over Ukraine, Russia says a new government must be in place before it goes ahead with a planned purchase of $2bn of Ukrainian government bonds.

That reluctance, and the turmoil more generally, contributed to a 2.5 per cent fall in the value of the hryvnia currency against the dollar on Friday to its lowest level for 4-1/2 years.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry plans to meet opposition leaders, including boxer-turned-politician Vitaly Klitschko, on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich.

“Our message to Ukraine’s opposition will be the full support of President Obama and of the American people for their efforts,” Kerry said in Berlin before the meetings.

“But we will also say to them that if you get that reform agenda… we would urge them to engage in that because further standoff, or further violence that becomes uncontrollable, is not in anybody’s interests.”

Kerry also called on Russia to keep its distance.

“We would … say to our friends in Russia this does not have to be a zero (sum) game, this is not something where Ukraine should become a proxy and trapped in some kind of larger ambition for Russia or the United States.”

With opposition leaders away in Munich and freezing night temperatures gripping the capital, protest organisers have not called for a big rally on Sunday, when the biggest demonstrations tend to be held on Kiev’s Independence Square.

An anti-government activist who vanished a week ago appeared on television yesterday, his face badly beaten and with wounds to his hands, saying he was kidnapped and tortured by his abductors who had “crucified” him.

Dmytro Bulatov, 35, who was one of the leaders of anti-government protest motorcades called ‘Automaidan’, was taken to hospital after he appeared on Ukrainian television.

A far-right nationalist group called Right Sector, seen as being behind violent clashes with police in Kiev, meanwhile demanded the release of activists held by police, threatening to take the law into their own hands to free their comrades.

Right Sector, a paramilitary group whose violent actions have appalled opposition leaders and peaceful protesters, also said it wanted to play a direct role in any negotiations for a settlement between Yanukovich and opposition leaders.