By Constantinos Psillides
THE EU Commission announced on Tuesday that it has started an in-depth probe into whether Cyprus Airways’ (CY) proposed restructuring plan was viable and whether Cyprus acted within EU law when it offered state aid to the cash-strapped national carrier.
“The commission has doubts whether the restructuring plan is suitable to ensure Cyprus Airways’ long-term viability and whether the airline is capable of withstanding likely challenges in the air transport market during the next years,” the commission said.
“It is also uncertain whether the proposed capacity reduction through the cancellation of routes is sufficient to compensate for the distortions of competition created by the state support,” it added.
The probe was expected by both the government and CY, who are now waiting for the EU to either scrap, or give the green light for restructuring.
The government gave CY over €100 million, via a €73 million rescue loan in December 2012, and a €31.3 million contribution to a capital increase in early 2013.
If the EU probe finds that the aid violated EU competition laws, the national carrier would be forced to return the money and thus declare bankruptcy.
According to the press release by the EU Commission, the probe would examine whether the company could effectively implement the restructuring plan on its own, without any aid from the state.
In the report, the EU Commission expresses concerns on whether the restructuring plan proposed will ensure the long-term future of the company.
According to the regulations provided by the EU Commission, a restructuring attempt for state-owned companies can only be given once every ten years, so as “non-profitable companies are not kept alive by artificial means”.
The Commission points out that it already approved a restructuring plan in 2007, which provided the company with state aid. “The company also received aid in 2012 and 2013, according to the new restructuring plan,” noted the Commission.
But while the threat looms in Europe, Cyprus Airways also has to deal with other problems, as Finance Minister Harris Georgiades made clear that he won’t sacrifice government policies in an attempt to save the national carrier.
The minister was referring to the issue of ‘open skies’, a constant source of argument between the government and the national carrier.
Regarding countries outside the EU, Cyprus has included a clause in bilateral agreements stipulating that Cyprus Airways is the only carrier that can fly to and from certain major airports unless it relinquishes the right to do so by not operating any flights for a six-month period.
The finance ministry argues that in some cases the clause is not implemented fully, resulting in Cyprus Airways keeping some destinations “locked” in. The government has been trying to amend the agreements to allow other carriers to compete with CY.
The matter resurfaced on Monday, when CY chairman Tony Antoniou told a CyBC morning talk show, among other things, that the government should rethink the policy to help Cyprus Airways.
The minister responded via Twitter late Monday night, tweeting that “the government pursues an open sky policy. The monopoly of Cyprus Airways to be ended”.
A source inside the finance ministry told the Cyprus Mail that “it was a necessary clarification. We are trying to save the company but not at the expense of government policies that promote competition”.
The source also pointed out that allowing other carriers to compete on equal terms was also an obligation included in the bail-out agreement with the troika of lenders.
Antoniou didn’t respond to the minister’s tweet and did not return calls seeking a comment.

By Tracy Phillips

I thought I was too old to be sobbing at Disney movies. Saving Mr Banks proved otherwise. You can’t believe how annoying it is, having to scrabble around in the deepest recesses of coat pockets looking for a scrap of old tissue during the final credits (and finding nothing but dog treats). In fact, a reasonable amount of the film was watched through a sentimental haze. Call me cynical? Well, not any more. Finding myself in tears at a Disney movie about the making of a Disney movie (Mary Poppins) is about as discomforting as our main character, Pamela Lyndon Travers, the creator of Mary Poppins (played by Emma Thompson), finds “hearing a perfect stranger using her first name”.
If there is anyone out there who hasn’t seen Disney’s Mary Poppins (1964) or read any of the series of books by PL Travers, the first of which was actually published 30 years earlier, they obviously haven’t had children. Or maybe they just don’t like them very much. Ms Travers herself wasn’t too keen, or so we are led to believe. On a flight to LA, when a woman with a young baby tries to be friendly, Travers responds by saying, “is that child going to a be nuisance? It’s an 11-hour flight.” Emma Thompson’s comic timing in the role is brilliant here, as in the rest of the film. PL Travers (real name Helen Lyndon Goff) herself had one adoptive son. Although he was a twin, Travers chose to take only one of the boys on the advice of an astrologer. Needless to say, it didn’t end well, which in itself is a vital part of this woman’s story. But not one that this movie chooses to touch on.
Mr Banks of the movie title, in case anyone needs reminding, is the unhappy banker and father of Jane and Michael in the original Disney film (there are more children in the books but that is the least of the differences); Mary Poppins is the nanny who flies in with her magic umbrella to ‘save’ them, or at least one of them.
According to the film’s interpretation of negotiations between Walt Disney and Travers, Disney mistakenly thinks that Ms Poppins is trying to save the children. Well I guess he would, wouldn’t he? That’s what Walt Disney is all about. This could account, at least in part, for the protracted struggle that took place between Disney and Travers to wrestle control of Mary’s character. It seems Travers could not abide Disney’s fluffy, colourful, jollification of the world for children. Travers’ books are much darker, perhaps reflecting a belief that the role of children’s literature is to prepare them for the disappointments of the adult world, not obscure them. Her abhorrence of Disney, cartoons and fluffy toys seemed to extend to all things American, which provides much of the humour in the film.
The film starts in London in the early 1960s when Walt (Tom Hanks) has been working on Pamela for nearly a quarter of a century to realise his dream of bringing “our beloved Mary” to the big screen; a promise he made to his daughters. Travers would not be considering giving in, were it not for the fact that she is desperately short of money. Money: “It’ll bite you on the bottom.” So says young Pamela’s father, “Don’t ever stop dreaming.” This is great advice from a father who lives just long enough (he died when she was seven) to inspire Pamela’s imagination and mess up her future relationships. It seems all her personal relationships were complicated, not just with her son.
The action shifts between negotiations for the making of the movie in Hollywood and Travers’ childhood in Australia. Her father is a weak and frankly sad little man, a bank manager (making any connections yet?) and an alcoholic dreamer who finds it difficult to keep a job. But in this Disney version of events, if he looks like Colin Farrell then I guess he’s really rather charming! Her mother appears to be weaker still and suicidal. Thank goodness for the mother’s sister, who breezes in, looking rather like the Wicked Witch of the East (and not at all like Julie Andrews) with her umbrella and carpetbag to save the day.
It is a rather compelling story, perhaps over-simplified for a more traditional Disney audience. The message is clear: if Pamela had a few years of therapy, she might have learnt to share Mary Poppins a bit more easily. I don’t think she is meant to be a very sympathetic character. But in Emma Thompson’s capable hands, your heart melts for this strange woman obsessed with controlling a character in her books.
Emma Thompson’s performance is what makes the movie. It is what but you might call (but her character never would) ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.’ She is brilliantly school-marmish, bossy and yet utterly vulnerable at the same time. She hates the idea of dancing cartoon penguins or Mary Poppins being associated with any kind of “prancing”, “chirping”, “twinkling” or “cavorting.” She says it all with a sneer and yet a naïveté that is totally empathetic, moving and hilarious.
She tells the Sherman brothers how to write their wonderful Disney songs and complains that everything in the script is “ghastly”. But you just love her. How ironic then that Thompson has not been nominated for an Oscar. Perhaps because lots of the joy of the movie is based on her character making fun of the Americans and the Disney-fication of her dark Edwardian tales. Mary Poppins was nominated for 13 Academy Awards and won 5. Emma Thompson won’t be getting one, but her performance is superb. This is a very adult Disney movie that is well worth watching. Just take some tissues!

DIRECTED BY John Lee Hancock
STARRING Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks
UK/USA 2013 125 mins

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan urged Angela Merkel to throw Germany’s full weight behind his country’s bid to join the European Union but there was no sign the chancellor had been swayed from her sceptical stance on Turkish membership.

In a visit to Berlin overshadowed by EU concerns about his crackdown on the judiciary and police whom he accuses of forming part of a “parallel state”, Erdogan complained that German support was “not currently adequate”.

“We want to see more. I would like to remind you that the population of Turks in Germany alone is greater than the population of many European countries,” he told the German Council on Foreign Relations before meeting Merkel.

Erdogan has purged thousands of police and sought tighter control of the courts since a corruption inquiry burst into the open in December, a scandal he has cast as an attempted “judicial coup” meant to undermine him ahead of elections.

In combination with his heavy-handed tactics against last year’s protests in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, Erdogan’s response has reinforced the view in Berlin and Brussels that Turkey’s fragile democracy may not yet be ready for EU membership.

“I personally said that we are in a negotiation process that has certain outcome and no fixed time frame,” Merkel told a news conference after their talks.

“It is no secret and nothing has changed in my view that I am sceptical about full membership for Turkey,” Merkel said, adding that this should not prevent the talks from going ahead.

Erdogan did appear to have won a concession from Merkel on the unblocking of two crucial chapters in accession talks: Chapter 23 that deals with judiciary and fundamental rights and 24 on justice, freedom and security.

“I am in favour of unblocking 23 and 24,” said Merkel.

The European Commissioner in charge of enlargement, Stefan Fuele, has argued that opening up these chapters would be an effective way of tackling Turkey’s poor human rights record.

WHO NEEDS WHOM?

Ankara began negotiations to join the EU in 2005, 18 years after applying. But a series of political obstacles, notably over the divided island of Cyprus, and resistance to Turkish membership in Germany and France, have slowed progress.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told Erdogan last week that respect for the rule of law and an independency judiciary were pre-conditions for EU membership. Erdogan argues he is only taking action against an attempt to subvert the rule of law.

A draft bill from Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, which is currently on hold in parliament, would give the government greater control over the appointment of judges and prosecutors. The party argues it is needed to curb the influence of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric and his former ally.

Aware of the EU’s concerns, Erdogan – once considered a model of democracy for the Muslim world – said the corruption probe unfairly targeted his followers and was orchestrated by people who “wanted to change Turkey’s direction”.

As well as Berlin, Erdogan has visited Brussels and Paris in recent weeks in a bid to build momentum after the start of a new round of EU membership talks in November, the first in more than three years. Talks had been delayed by EU states over last summer’s crackdown on anti-government demonstrations.

“Many developments like the matters of Syria and Egypt have enabled us all to see that it is the EU which needs Turkey and not Turkey which needs the EU,” said Erdogan, who last week won cautious support for the EU bid from France’s Francois Hollande.

His speech to a diplomatic audience in Berlin elicited only polite applause and a few hundred members of Germany’s Turkish minority of three million people protested at his visit by the Brandenburg Gate. Banners read: “Democracy now, everywhere!”

“He’s trying to turn us into Iran,” said Ajsel Cam, a 45-year-old cook who works at a Berlin hospital. She added that Erdogan’s ally-turned-rival Gulen was “exactly the same”.

“We want true democracy,” said Cam Temuer, a pensioner aged 70. “Everything in Turkey is falling apart.”

Erdogan could expect a warmer welcome later on Tuesday at a political rally at an arena in Kreuzberg, a Berlin district home to many Turkish immigrants.

Campaigning for local elections in March and a presidential election in the summer where Turks living abroad can vote, he boasted of strong economic management in his 11 years in office and said a hike in interest rates by Turkey’s central bank, in response to an emerging markets rout, should only be temporary.

Pakistan’s much-awaited talks with the Taliban got off to a shambolic start on Tuesday after government negotiators failed to turn up at an agreed time following days of confusion over who should represent the insurgents.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif surprised his country last week when he announced he would give peace talks another chance just as speculation intensified that his government was preparing for a military offensive against Pakistani Taliban strongholds.

The Pakistani Taliban are fighting to topple the central government and establish Islamic rule but have recently shown willingness to come to the negotiating table.

On Tuesday, a group of bearded negotiators representing the Taliban arrived at an agreed venue in central Islamabad at 2 pm (0900 GMT) for what had been scheduled to be the first round of talks.

“We arrived on time for the meeting but the government side didn’t turn up,” a visibly angry Maulana Sami ul-Haq, one of the Taliban negotiators, a radical cleric known as the Father of the Taliban, told reporters after a two-hour wait.

But he added: “Our doors are still open for talks. It’s a golden opportunity and we should not waste it.”

Confusion marked the days leading up to what was expected to be the first historic day of informal talks on Tuesday, with the Taliban nominating a list of public figures to represent them without seemingly consulting them first.

Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan immediately declined the Taliban’s request, and so did Maulana Fazlur Rehman, a hardline cleric.

“We don’t want to be part of a process where they use us as a decoy,” said Jan Achakzai, Rehman’s spokesman.

“If you are nominating every person on earth, how can they have negotiations?” he said. “The proper mechanism is very important if you really want to engage.”

It was not clear when the talks would resume. The government’s four-member negotiating team was not immediately available for comment.

Haq said the government team did not come because they had sought clarifications about the composition of the Taliban committee. “They said they are confused about our committee since it has been reduced to three members,” Haq said.

DOUBTS OVER SUCCESS

Many in Pakistan doubt that talking to an insurgent group which stages near daily attacks around Pakistan would yield any result.

In a pattern seen repeatedly in Pakistan through the past decade, the Taliban would often use ceasefire accords with the government to regroup, find new resources and strike back.

The al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban are allied with the Afghan Taliban but the Afghan militants, bent on forcing foreign troops from Afghanistan, do not fight the Pakistani state.

Pakistani Taliban militants have stepped up attacks against security forces in Pakistan since the beginning of the year, prompting the army to send fighter jets to bomb militant strongholds in the ethnic Pashtun region of North Waziristan, along the Afghan border, and triggering talk that a major ground offensive was in the works.

Thousands of villagers have fled their homes in North Waziristan since then for fear of another military operation.

Pakistan’s all-powerful army has not said anything on the latest revival of the talks idea but it has traditionally favoured a military approach.

“A further constraint on successful negotiations is the apparent lack of the army’s input in the decision to begin talks,” Eurasia Group said in a note.

“The army’s silence thus far about the government’s prioritisation of talks versus military operations raises the possibility of heightened army-government tensions – particularly if talks fail, as expected, and the security situation continues to deteriorate.”

The United States, which views Pakistani cooperation as vital to its strategy in neighbouring Afghanistan, is also watching. It wants Pakistan to do more to tackle militancy and views peace talks with suspicion.

Even negotiators themselves have doubts.

“It’s an uphill task. It’s not an easy task. In the past such efforts could not bring any fruit and miserably failed,” Irfan Siddiqui, a journalist picked by Sharif to represent the government, said ahead of Tuesday’s scheduled talks.

“So although we are very optimistic, we can’t say with full surety that we will be able to do the thing and bring them to the table.”

BLAST OUTSIDE MOSQUE KILLS EIGHT

A suicide bomber killed at least eight people on Tuesday near a mosque frequented by minority Shi’ite worshippers in a densely populated neighbourhood of the Pakistani city of Peshawar, police and doctors said.

Najeeb Rehman, a senior policeman, said the attack, possibly the work of more than one suicide bomber, had taken place as worshippers left the mosque and walked towards a local hotel.

“We have found the body parts of the attackers,” he said.

Hospital sources in Peshawar, a sprawling, dusty city on Pakistan’s unstable frontier with Afghanistan, said at least 28 people had been wounded.

The explosion, which echoed around the city centre, happened at a time when the government is trying to engage Pakistani Taliban militants in peace negotiations.

Any major assault on civilians or security forces could upset those efforts. Some radical Sunni splinter groups operate outside central Taliban control, and the Taliban were likely to distance themselves from the attack.

By Jean Christou

The joint declaration, on which the resumption of Cyprus talks depends, appears to have been agreed even though the government spokesman avoided confirming it on Wednesday.

The government is not ready to officially announce anything until consultations with the party leaders and with Athens have been completed The Cyprus Mail was told.

The development saw a flurry of activity at the presidential palace on Wednesday morning.

But when commenting,  government spokesman Christos Stylianides used the word “finalising” rather than ‘agreed’.

He said: “Substantial consultations remained to be done in connection with finalising the communiqué, which, understandably, require delicate handling, seriousness and responsibility.”

President Nicos Anastasiades has called a meeting of party leaders for Thursday morning after which he will travel to Athens in the afternoon to meet the Greek leadership before returning home early on Friday. Stylianides said the party leaders meeting was to “ensure the necessary unity on the domestic front”.

Despite an official meeting being called, party leaders were seen coming and going from the presidential palace on Wednesday morning. Also seen was former DIKO leader Marios Garoyian, CyBC reported.

Politis said current DIKO leader Nicolas Papadopoulos, during his visit to the palace had expressed strong reservations to Anastasiades about the joint statement. The Cyprus Mail was told he had threatened to leave the coalition. Reports also said he was furious that Garoyian had been called to the palace.

Stylianides said he would not go into the details surrounding the issue of a joint communiqué, because “it is very sensitive” and would be better to avoid public debate on the issue, which he said could interfere with further progress.

“As I said before, at the same time, we may be very close and very far away [from a statement]. A word can often make the difference. For this we insist that these consultations are sensitive and should currently be at the level of political leaders and in consultation with Athens,” he said.

Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides met the ruling DISY leadership on Tuesday and told them a deal was close. He said much the same to CyBC in an interview on Tuesday night.

The developments come on the heels of a visit by US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland who met both leaders on Tuesday.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said the weekend the US was “working on Cyprus quietly”. “You’re not hearing about it,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Security Conference in Munich on Saturday where he had a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.

Around 240,000 people visited Christmas Avenue which had been set up on Makarios Avenue in the capital during the Christmas and New Year’s holiday period, Nicosia Municipality said on Wednesday.

Between December 6 and January 6 a total of 238,992 visited the area, surpassing the municipality’s expectations.

Around 7,500 people visited per day while most people visited on Saturdays and Sundays in December, as was expected. On Sunday December 22, some 23,900 people visited Christmas Avenue, on Sunday December 8, around 22,918 visited and on December 15 a total of 21,767 visited the festivities, the municipality said.

“For a whole month, Nicosia Municipality, in cooperation with volunteer group ‘Lefkosiazo’ offered a special place with festive shops, games and activities for small children in an effort to revive the area,” the municipality said.

The municipality went on to thank the company Body & Mind for their generous contribution of counting visitors to Christmas Avenue.

Nicosia municipality has announced changes to its opening hours and that of the municipal cashier’s office.

Public service opening hours at Nicosia Town Hall will be between 7.45am and 3.45pm while public service hours at the municipal cashier’s office and the technical service’s office will be from 8am until 3pm from Monday to Friday, the municipality announced.

To better serve the public, the opening hours for the new co-op Kaimakli on Stasinou Avenue will be between 8am and 1pm from Monday to Friday. The Citizen’s Help Centre will be open to the public from 7.45am until 3.45pm, and from 3.45pm until 6.30pm for emergencies only on the phone number 22797007.

By Peter Stevenson

UNIONS have accused building contractors of not paying employees on time, of cutting wages, and in some cases having not paid workers for months.

Employees do not speak up because the fear being fired, the unions said.

According to trade unions PEO and SEK, around 90 per cent of builders have not been paid on time and in many cases have not had their social insurance paid for months and possibly years in certain cases.

Yiannakis Ioannou from SEK said that some builders who are paid on a weekly basis have been left unpaid from anywhere between one and five weeks and that some construction companies only last week managed to pay their employees for working during the Christmas period.

“Instead of giving their employees salaries some companies are giving them letters of notice letting them go,” he said.

Asked why employees have not gone on strike or protested, Ioannou said workers do not want to enter into a conflict with their employers.

“But those who have been let go instead of being paid will not sit idly by and you will see a reaction,” he said.

Ioannou added the fact social insurance had not been paid for many meant they would have trouble with pension payments down the line.

“There is a dictatorship in the construction sector today, people are afraid to speak and they have had all their rights, which they have been fighting for years to obtain, taken away,” he said.

Michalis Papanicolaou from PEO said that construction companies were taking advantage of the current financial situation and withholding salaries and wages.

“It is our responsibility to try and remove that sense of fear and spread the message that there needs to be understanding between construction companies and builders,” he said.

Papanicolaou added that if action was not taken then there was a real fear of the building sector collapsing.

The Cyprus Federation of Associations of Buildings Contractors (OSEOK) head Costas Roushias said he feels the current situation has been exaggerated.

“All employers are worried about is how they will pay their employees so they have money to put food on the family table at the end of the week so people claiming that companies are withholding salaries is far-fetched,” he said.

He said that if there are circumstances where people are not being paid or payment is being delayed then it needs to be investigated.

Roushias said he believes the majority of cases involve sites that have had to stop working because investment has run out and contractors were forced to take loans to pay off their employees.

He added that he hoped trade unions and OSEOK could work together to find a solution to the problem as it was in everyone’s interest to come to an amicable solution.

By Karolos Grohmann
WHILE Sochi scrambles to get ready in time for Friday’s opening ceremony, the International Olympic Committee cast its eyes past the most expensive Games ever staged and began to look for ways of revamping the global sporting spectacular.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has staked his personal and political prestige on hosting a successful Games and turning the Black Sea resort into a more attractive tourism destination.

Ratings agency Moody’s said in a report on Wednesday that the Sochi Games, which have cost a reported $50 billion, were unlikely to provide much of a boost to the Russian economy.

The IOC, who picked Sochi in 2007 despite it having virtually no venues in place, said it was time to take another look at the cost, size and bidding process for the Games.
Several cities have already pulled out of the race to host the 2022 Winter Games amid concerns about rising costs.
Protests in Brazil ahead of this year’s World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics have further highlighted the problems associated with hosting mega sports events.

“We believe we should do more to support better bid cities in their engagement,” IOC Vice President John Coates said at the start of the IOC session on Wednesday.
“Are we not asking too much too soon (from bid cities)? Should the bidding procedure be more an invitation of potential bidders rather than a tender for a franchise? The cost of the bids concerns us all,” the Australian said.

The discussions, part of the IOC’s Olympic Agenda 2020 launched by President Thomas Bach, comes as athletes arrive en mass at the Black Sea resort.
While organisers continue to deal with teething problems including accommodation issues and an outcry over the fate of stray animals being rounded up in Sochi, teams were already hitting the training facilities.

For one new Olympic event, friendship will outlast the competition.
American slopestyle snowboarder Sage Kostenburg told Reuters he hoped the sense of friendship with his fellow competitors would not melt away when qualifying begins on Thursday in the new event aimed at attracting a younger audience.
“I really hope not, we’re all pretty good friends and we get on well, so it would be a shame if all that was to change and everyone turned up tomorrow all serious,” the 20-year-old said, grinning.

“Obviously I would be so stoked to win an Olympic medal, but just the fact that slopestyle is in the Olympics for the first time is so sick. Not many people get to do this, you know?”

For some snowboarders, however, the focus is on the Olympic course that has already claimed one victim.
Norwegian slopestyler Torstein Horgmo broke his collarbone on Monday and the course has since been modified after athletes expressed concern.
“The big jumps are very big, especially for the girls,” Russia’s Sarka Pancochova told reporters after Wednesday’s practice runs.
“We are very little, we have 30 kilograms difference to the guys. It’s hard to get the speed you need. It’s just a game, we have to figure it out.”

By Peter Stevenson

IF THE Commerce Ministry is unhappy with what petrol stations are charging at the pumps then it should set a price cap, the head of the station owners’ association Stefanos Stefanou said yesterday.

Responding to a monthly survey issued by the Ministry showing that despite fuel suppliers charging 1.5 cents less from January 24, half the petrol stations had not reduced their prices, Stefanou said that “every petrol station has its own policies so it is not possible to check who has raised their prices and who has reduced them.

“In some areas and due to competition, some operators have reduced their prices to three cents lower than the rest,” he said.

Stefanou explained that some petrol stations had already reduced their prices in order to attract more business, but would not have been able to reduce cut prices any further.

“Our industry has a roughly a five cent profit margin so if we were to reduce prices further we would be operating at a loss,” he said.

He added that some petrol stations try to operate with a ten cent profit margin but it is a free market and the public can choose whichever petrol station they want.

There are a total of 286 petrol stations but based on the population size there should only be 177, which means people have more of a choice, Stefanou explained.

“Generally, when there is a reduction in price from suppliers then petrol stations reduce their prices too and vice versa, but some stations’ operating costs can be higher or lower depending on the size and whatever services they offer, so according to that the price can go up and down,” he said.

A spate of bombings in Baghdad killed at least 34 people on Wednesday, including several blasts near the heavily-fortified “Green Zone” and a busy square in the centre of the capital, Iraqi security sources said.

The blasts came a day after two rockets were fired into the Green Zone, home to the prime minister’s office and Western embassies, and are likely to heighten concerns about Iraq’s ability to protect strategic sites as security deteriorates.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings, but Sunni Islamist militants have been regaining ground in Iraq, particularly in the western province of Anbar, where they overran two cities on Jan. 1.

More than 1,000 people were killed in violence across the country in January alone, and last year was the bloodiest since 2008, when sectarian warfare began to abate from its height.

On Wednesday, security sources said two parked car bombs went off opposite the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, killing 11.

The Interior Ministry gave a different version, blaming the “cowardly” attack on a suicide bomber on a motorcycle.

“At around nine o’clock this morning, a terrorist suicide bomber riding a motorcycle tried to enter the security area of the Ministry,” it said in a statement. “A group of guards stopped him at a checkpoint and denied him access so he blew himself and the bike up.”

In a separate incident, a suicide bomber driving a car detonated himself along with the vehicle outside a restaurant close to a checkpoint one street away from the Green Zone, killing eight people, the security sources said.

An explosion near Khullani Square in central Baghdad left four more people dead, and later in the day, three car bombs blew up in quick succession in the southeastern Jisr Diyala district, killing a further 11.

“Iraqi political leaders should show national unity in dealing with such threats and unite against terrorism,” said the UN envoy to Iraq, Nikolay Mladenov, in a statement.

FALLUJAH SIEGE

The city of Fallujah is currently being surrounded and shelled by the Iraqi army in preparation for a possible ground assault to drive out anti-government fighters, which include members of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The violence has halted exports of crude oil from Iraq to Jordan, which used to be trucked across the border through Anbar.

In a short speech broadcast on state television on Wednesday, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said local authorities and tribal leaders in Anbar would unveil a joint initiative to end the standoff in the coming days, without elaborating.

“The goal of this initiative is to unify positions to end the battle against al Qaeda,” said Maliki, who is also commander in chief of the armed forces. “The battle is on the threshold of conclusion.”

Maliki has appealed for international support and weapons to fight al Qaeda, but critics say his own policies towards Iraq’s once-dominant Sunni community are at least partly to blame for reviving an insurgency that had peaked in 2006-07.

Some tribes in Sunni-dominated Anbar support or have aligned themselves with ISIL against Maliki’s Shi’ite-led government, which they accuse of abuses against their sect.

Others deplore ISIL’s violent tactics and have joined forces with the army to fight against the group and its allies in and around the city of Ramadi, which was also overrun by militants last month but is now largely back under government control.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said ISIL’s acts of violence amounted to crimes against humanity, citing the recent execution-style killing of four members of Iraq’s SWAT forces near Ramadi, for which the militants claimed responsibility.

“These abhorrent killings are the latest in a long list of ISIL atrocities, at a time when civilians in Anbar province are stuck in the fighting and getting abused by all sides,” said HRW’s deputy Middle East director Joe Stork on Wednesday.

“Together with the ISIL car bombs and suicide attacks targeting civilians, they are further evidence of crimes against humanity.”

A planned extension of the Panama Canal, one of the world’s most important shipping routes, was thrown into doubt on Wednesday after a group of companies said its talks with Panama’s government over how to expand the canal had fallen apart.

Group United for the Canal, a consortium led by Spanish builder Sacyr , said in a statement that the government’s canal authority had broken off talks on who will pay some $1.6 billion needed to complete the ambitious project. The Panama Canal Authority said it would hold a news conference at 9 am local time.

The breakdown in talks is the latest setback to a project mired in disputes since the consortium, which also includes Italy’s Salini Impregilo as well as a Belgian and Panamanian firm, won a bid to double the capacity of the near 80 km transoceanic cargo route.

Disagreements over cost overruns have already reached international courts and talks between the two sides over how to find the additional cash to finish the project had already been extended twice.

It was unclear whether Wednesday’s breakdown was final. In its statement, GUPC – the Spanish acronym by which the consortium is known – said the failure of the talks meant the expansion and up to 10,000 local jobs were at immediate risk.

But the company said it was still seeking a solution for completion of the project, which had been scheduled for 2015.

If the partnership between Panama and the builders is indeed abandoned, it would likely mean further delays while Panama seeks financing and a new construction group.

That in turn, would be a setback for companies worldwide eager to move larger ships through the Panama Canal, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) producers who want to ship exports from the US Gulf Coast to Asian Markets. Delays could also cost Panama millions of dollars in projected revenue from toll charges.

Last month, Panama President Ricardo Martinelli said that Panama had the resources to complete the expansion of the Canal even if talks with GUPC ended.

“We will finish the Canal in 2015 no matter what happens, rain, thunder or lightening,” Martinelli told an audience of international investors and executives gathered in Davos, Switzerland. He did not give details as to who would pick up the work or the tab.

Shares in Sacyr plunged over 8 per cent on the news before recovering some lost ground while Salini Impregilo fell 1.9 per cent.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Panama already had a plan B,” said a Madrid-based trader who asked not to be named. “As for Sacyr…they’ll push forward with new contracts, but everything they do will be looked at with a magnifying glass from now on.”

MONEY RUNS OUT

Disputes over the expansion of the Canal set in almost immediately after GUPC won the bid in 2009. At the time, officials and diplomats expressed concerns over the consortium’s ability to complete the project since its requested tab was $1 billion lower than the nearest competitor.

Over the past months, the two sides had been discussing how to fund the $1.6 billion needed to complete the project through a co-financing deal. Disputes about liabilities for the cost overruns, which tally with the amount the consortium say it will cost to finish the work, are being fought out within the terms of the contract and may end up in international arbitration courts.

Spain’s public works minister flew out to Panama earlier in the year to mediate talks while the European Commissioner for Industry Antonio Tajani had also offered to mediate negotiations, an offer rejected by the Panamanians.

In its Wednesday statement, the Spanish-led consortium said the Panama Canal Authority had broken off the latest talks, but it did not spell out why. The GUPC said that, in its latest proposal, it had offered $800 million in new and existing funds, while asking the Panama Canal to put in $100 million in funds. It also asked the Canal to extend the deadline by which the consortium needs to return $785 million in advance payments made by the Canal in order to free up cash.

“It is unjust and impossible for the PCA and Panama to expect that private companies will finance $1.6 billion in costs on a project that was to be fully funded by PCA,” the consortium said in the statement. It said the Panama Canal had not paid a pending $50 million invoice that had meant to cover salaries this week for subcontractors and workers.

“Without an immediate resolution, Panama and the PCA face years of disputes before national and international tribunals over their steps that have pushed the project to the brink of failure,” the consortium added.

For Sacyr, which has 48 percent of the consortium, the work brings in a quarter of its international revenue. Like most Spanish builders, the company relies heavily on foreign orders to offset a sharp economic downturn at home.

Sacyr has provided 476 million euros in cash advances and guarantees to the project. One analyst said this was the worst-case scenario in terms of what losing the project would mean for the builder.

“But the actual impact will only be determined after several years in the courts if there is no final agreement,” said Juan Carlos Calvo, analyst at Espirito Santo, adding that losing the contract would not represent a cash outflow for Sacyr as it affected cash advances already paid.

Any loss of the contract would also affect insurer Zurich , which had been involved with discussions. The insurer had proposed converting $600 million of surety bonds into a loan that would free up money to help complete the project a source with knowledge of the matter had said.

By Constantinos Psillides

DEFENCE minister Photis Photiou is going ahead with plans to reduce military service from 24 months to 14 and implementing a plan to modernise the National Guard, according to a Ministry source.

Photiou is expected to present his plan to the House Defence Committee next Thursday, discuss any changes and subsequently take it to the cabinet for final approval.

Reactions regarding military service were sparked on Wednesday after the daily “Alithia” reported that decisions regarding military service were imminent.

Although Photiou hasn’t officially confirmed the report, deputy DISY leader Lefteris Christoforou expressed his satisfaction that things are moving forward with reforming the armed forces. “We, as a party, fully support the minister’s plans to modernise the army and will support any proposals that will lead to reducing military service,” he said, adding that the time has come to modernise the National Guard.

Defence committee chairman George Varnava told reporters that committee members are more than willing to discuss any proposals regarding the army and military service but made clear than nothing had been put before them yet.

“We are willing to discuss, provided that the proposal wont undermine the National Guard in any way”, he said.

Reducing military service was a key point of president Anastasiades’ election campaign. After the first cabinet meeting on March 2013, Anastasiades told the press that his aim was to “fully modernise and restructure the National Guard, in an attempt to create a flexible, semi-professional army, with a 14-month term of duty.”

By Iacovos Constantinou

Apoel continued their impressive form with a well deserved 2-1 win over Anorthosis and coupled with the unexpected draw of leaders AEL closed the gap at the top to four points.

Anorthosis began the game brightly and went close to taking the lead in the first few minutes but Makris opted to cross instead of shooting from a good position.

In their first genuine attack Apoel won a penalty after Aloneftis, put through by Morais, was upended by keeper Veiga who was lucky to get away with just a yellow card. De Vincenti sent the keeper the wrong way to give Apoel the lead in the 18th minute.

From that point on Apoel controlled play with ease and should have increased their lead but for poor finishing especially from right back Solomou. Anorthosis appeared stunned and were on the backoot for most of the half.

Anorthosis began the second half with some urgency but without being able to create any chances and once Apoel weathered the early storm they took control once again. Both De Vincenti and Sheridan should have made the game safe for Apoel but were unable to convert.

Against the run of play, and after a melee in Apoel’s penalty box, Colautti slotted the ball into the net with a quarter of an hour left on the clock.

Anorthosis though, were level for just a few minutes. Sheridan made amends for his earlier miss as he raced onto a Vinicius through ball to beat keeper Valverde from close range.

The game was marred by the injury to Apoel’s coach who had to be stretchered off after being hit by an object(s) thrown from the home team’s fans as he was celebrating his Apoel’s winning goal.

AEL were red hot favourites to record an easy win against fellow Limassolians Aris but knew they had a game on their hands when Aris missed two golden opportunities early on in the game to take the lead.

Aris finally took a deserved lead in 39th minute after AEL’s keeper Fegrus fumbled a longe range effort from Timoff, the ball bouncing off his chest and into the net.

As expected, AEL stepped up the pressure in the second half with Tom Caanen’s outfit defending in numbers but still dangerous on the break. AEL finally managed to break down Aris’s resolute defence when Intampntelai pounced first to knock the ball into the net after Moreiro’s header had come off the crossbar.

Omonia continued their disappointing season and suffered another setback when they failed to overcome Doxa Katokopias at GSP. In fact it could have been a lot worse as it was the visiting team that had the best opportunities to to break the deadlock.

Omonia’s coach Lotina once again juggled around with players and positions but failed again to find the correct balance and players and coaching staff were booed off the pitch by disgruntled fans.

With a goal in each, half Nea Salamina recorded their first win in 2014 over a disappointing AEK Larnaca. The goals came from their January signings Mengolo in the 30th minute and Eze with practically the last kick of the game.

AEK Kouklion moved into 10th place after defeating Alki withgoals from Akosta and de Bruno who netted twice.

Turkey’s parliament has approved internet controls enabling web pages to be blocked within hours in what the opposition decried as part of a government bid to stifle a corruption scandal with methods more suitable to “times of coups”.

Under a bill passed late on Wednesday, telecommunications authorities can block access to material within four hours without a prior court order, tightening restrictions imposed in a widely criticised law adopted by the EU candidate in 2007.

Social media and video sharing sites have been awash with alleged recordings of ministers including Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and businessmen close to him, presented as evidence of wrongdoing. Reuters has been unable to verify their authenticity.

“This is against the constitution. Bans like this exist in times of coups and have not been able to conceal any corruption,” Umut Oran, a deputy from the main opposition CHP, told the general assembly.

Erdogan’s critics say his response to the corruption scandal is further evidence of the authoritarian tendencies of a man long held up by the West as a potential model of democratic leadership in the Muslim world. The Turkish lira has fallen sharply amid the political uncertainty.

The internet legislation, which still needs the approval of President Abdullah Gul, will also allow for the storage of individuals’ browsing histories for up to two years, and was roundly attacked by opposition MPs.

The scandal erupted on Dec. 17 with the arrest of businessmen close to Erdogan and three cabinet ministers’, sons and has spiralled into one of the greatest threats to his 11-year rule, months ahead of local and presidential elections.

Erdogan has portrayed the scandal as an attempt by a U.S.-based cleric with influence in the police and judiciary to undermine him in the run-up to local and presidential elections. The cleric, Fethullah Gulen, denies the accusation.

His government has responded by purging the police and judiciary, reassigning thousands of officers and dozens of prosecutors. It says Gulen’s Hizmet movement represents a challenge to legitimate, democratically elected government.

Erdogan has won three elections in a row since his AK party was first voted to power in 2002. Local polls next month will provide a test of whether his popularity will hold up, or even grow, amid the graft scandal and power struggle with Hizmet.

The government says the reforms, sent to parliament before Dec. 17 but broadened in recent weeks, are aimed at protecting individual privacy not gagging its critics.

“The latest regulations are not censorship and are not a ban,” AK Party deputy Necdet Unuvar said in comments on his personal website. “They are regulations needed to protect the confidentiality of private life.”

TIGHT RESTRICTIONS

Turkey already has strict Internet laws under which thousands of websites have been blocked, from news portals viewed as close to Kurdish militants to gay dating sites.

More than 40,000 sites are blocked, according to Turkey’s engelliweb.com, which tracks access restrictions.

The 2007 law prohibits insults to modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as well as the encouragement of suicide, sexual abuse of children, the supply of illegal drugs, promotion of prostitution, and unauthorised gambling.

Access to the video sharing site YouTube was blocked between 2008 and 2010 because it hosted content viewed as insulting Ataturk, who founded the modern secular republic just over 90 years ago.

Under the new law, decisions to remove material taken by the telecoms authority (TIB) will be subject to judicial review and a court will rule within 24 hours. TIB will be able to appeal.

“This reform proposal … gives the powers of the legislative, executive and judiciary completely to the TIB, which is turning into an intelligence agency,” two professors from Istanbul’s Bilgi University and Ankara University said in a report this week.

“From the perspective of fundamental rights and freedoms it indicates the start of a period of great darkness,” professors Yaman Akdeniz and Kerem Altiparmak wrote.

Parliament, where Erdogan’s AK Party has 319 of 550 seats, voted in favour of the articles but the wider reform package of which they are part has not yet been adopted as a whole. It is expected to pass later on Thursday.

Ahead of the adoption of the articles, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ internet advocacy coordinator Geoffrey King said the changes to an already restrictive Internet law would “compound a dismal record on press freedom”.

Nicosia police arrested two people and confiscated a number of computers and televisions from a betting shop in Strovolos as part of an operation to stamp out illegal gambling on Wednesday.

Officers from the crime prevention unit who are specially trained in online gambling matters carried out a number of checks between 3pm and 6pm on Wednesday at betting shops in the Strovolos area.

Following a search at one of the betting shops officers found ten computers connected to banned online betting websites and five televisions transmitting illegal horse races from abroad. In total, officers confiscated €1,320 in cash, 11 computers, a thermal printer and eight televisions.

Police arrested the 22-year-old betting shop manager and the 44-year-old owner and held them for questioning.

BirdLife International launched the Spring Alive 2014 on Thursday, an annual activity programme that deals in bird-watching and observing migratory patterns of birds in Europe.

According to a press release, Spring Alive is now nine years old and aims at bringing together children, their teachers and families to observe and record the arrivals of five species of migrant birds: Barn Swallow, White Stork, Common Cuckoo, Common Swift, and European Bee-eater.

Spring Alive began as a European project to create a real-time online map of the northward and back spread of these spring migrants.

BirdLife encourages volunteers and participants in the programme to “get more involved in a variety of indoor and outdoor events ranging from bird watching outings to actions for the conservation of migratory birds. You will find them all on the Spring Alive website, just get ready to go out and act for nature!”.  Learn more at www.springalive.net

According to BirdLife, over the course of eight years, participants from 49 countries looked out for winged heralds of spring within the framework of Spring Alive.

“Birds know no borders and this is why they can unite people who share the same interests but come from different countries on different continents”, said the release.

President Nicos Anastasiades  said on Thursday there were “serious prospects” that long-stalled talks to reunify the island could resume between the estranged Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities.

Anastasiades said negotiations between the two sides on drafting a joint communique outlining principles of a settlement were at a “delicate point”.

“Today, it appears serious prospects are being created for a substantive joint communique, which satisfies … the basic principles of the solution of the Cyprus problem,” Anastasiades said during a televised address.

The President said he had briefed the party leaders earlier on the developments and was departing for Athens for talks with the Greek leadership.

“With the conclusion of the consultations, I intend to address the people of Cyprus and inform them analytically, but also in depth, about the actual facts. That is why I avoid commenting on what is being said,” Anastasiades added.

“At the same time, I want to stress that the effort to reach agreement on a joint communiqué is the beginning of a big and arduous effort to at last achieve a solution to the Cyprus problem, and certainly the joint communique is not the end.”

In response to a reporter’s comment that political leaders were requesting he did not move forward with negotiations, the President said: “First, I said that I respect the various views, second, as I have said, I will address the people of Cyprus providing the real dimensions, but also the true content, of the joint communique, based also on the advice that I have from the team of advisors that were proposed to me by the parties.”

Asked if there was a response from the Turkish Cypriot side on the joint communique, the President said: “We don’t have a response. We are at the stage of consultations of a big effort in order to reach agreement on a joint communique. It seems that some concerns that are being expressed by our side, for example, on sovereignty, also preoccupy, in a contrary way, the concerns of the other side.”

Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu was quoted as saying that there had not been a deal on the joint statement.

“Minor but important differences” still exited and negotiations were ongoing to overcome them, Turkish Cypriot press said.

Asked whether the text was still being negotiated, Anastasiades said: “No, as far as our side is concerned we said whatever we had to say and it remains for the other side to respond.”

Police are searching for Loizos Petrides, 39, from Larnaca in connection with a number of cases including forgery, obtaining property under false pretences and the use of counterfeit credit cards at petrol stations in Larnaca and Nicosia.

Anyone who may know of his whereabouts is asked to get in touch with Larnaca CID, their closest police station or the Citizen’s helpline on 1460.

THE euro rose against the dollar on Thursday after the European Central Bank gave no sign of an imminent interest rate cut while better-than-expected U.S. unemployment data helped lift major world stock prices.

Relative calm in vulnerable emerging markets such as Turkey and South Africa also supported riskier assets and drew investors away from safe-haven U.S. and German government bonds.

The ECB left its main interest rate at 0.25 per cent Thursday but the central bank’s president, Mario Draghi, surprised markets by not signalling a near-term rate cut during remarks to reporters despite deflation worries in the 18-country euro zone.

Draghi’s remarks sent the euro, which had lost ground against the dollar immediately after the decision, to a one-week high of $1.3619 before easing to $1.3608 and pushed up German bund yields.

European stocks were up 1 per cent on the day, while U.S. stocks rose, boosted by data showing fewer Americans than expected filed for first-time jobless benefits last week.

U.S. jobless claims “are still higher than where they were six weeks ago but are still consistent with a decent job market,” said Craig Dismuke, chief economic strategist at Vining Sparks in Memphis. “The underlying trend is still positive.”

National U.S. employment data due on Friday is expected to show the economy added 185,000 new jobs last month. Smaller-than-expected job gains in December have raised concern about the strength of the U.S. recovery, which sped up in late 2013.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 133.32 points, or 0.86 per cent, at 15,573.55. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up 13.51 points, or 0.77 per cent, at 1,765.15.

The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 39.05 points, or 0.97 per cent, at 4,050.61.

The MSCI world equity index rose 1 per cent, while the yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasuries rose to 2.7 per cent after the ECB announcement encouraged risk appetite and investors positioned ahead of Friday’s U.S. jobs report.

Relative calm in the capital-hungry emerging markets of Turkey, South Africa and India also lifted developing stocks, after a rout that drove safe-haven bids to U.S. Treasuries and the yen.

Emerging stocks were up 1.2 per cent after hitting five-month lows earlier this week, while the Turkish lira and South African rand held above recent troughs.

The banking sector was in the spotlight after Credit Suisse missed expectations with a marginal uptick in fourth-quarter net profit, and its shares were down more than 2 per cent.

U.S. crude oil rose $1.11 to $98.49 a barrel.