Semi-government workers will hold work stoppages on Tuesday as parliament is scheduled to vote again on a privatisation bill, the previous version of which was rejected last week, jeopardising continuation of the island’s international financial assistance.

Unions are not satisfied with the provisions of the bill.

They want jobs to be secured and parliament to have a say at every stage of the privatisation process.

Electricity authority workers will stop working between 11am and 2pm but no disruption to the supply of electricity is expected.

State telecoms CyTA employees will also hold a three-hour strike between 11am-2pm.CyTA unions have asked their members to attend a protest outside parliament.

CyTA shops will remain closed between 12pm and 1pm.

However, one CyTA union, EPOET SEK, called on its members to strike for one hour between 1pm and 2pm and remain at their workplace.

Ports authority unions apart from one, SEK, have also decided to go on a two-hour strike from 12pm to 2pm.

They will hold demonstrations at the entrances of the ports in Limassol and Larnaca.

Lawmakers last Thursday rejected the roadmap for privatisations and put an international bailout programme at risk.

The vote was split evenly, with 25 lawmakers in favour and 25 against, and five abstentions — out of eight MPs — from DIKO. The bill needed a simple majority to pass.

AKEL, EDEK and the Greens voted against.

The government re-submitted the bill on Friday amended to accommodate concerns over workers legacy rights.

By Andreas Vou
WITH talks of reunification of the island hot on the agenda, a consequence of a unified island that may seem minor at first thought may just form a crucial link for peace and understanding between Turkish and Greek-Cypriots.

The Cypriot national football team was drawn in the same group as Bosnia and Herzegovina for the 2016 European Championship qualifying phase last week, and there is something that Cyprus could learn from their Bosnian counterparts’ past.

While the Cyprus problem is long, complex and contains extremely delicate emotions which need to be acknowledged, it is certainly not unique. Many countries across the globe exist whereby there are long-standing conflicts between different ethnic and racial groups, and Bosnia and Herzegovina is a nation that fits that profile.

Having changed hands a number of times from Ottoman rule to the Yugoslavian division after World War II, the country has always suffered from inter-communal violence. Modern day Bosnia is predominantly made up of three ethnic groups: Bosniaks (48%), Serbians (37%) and Croats (14%) and, furthermore, each with their own respective religions.

But the recent success of its national football team has seen the beginnings of a new attitude and culture toward togetherness and harmony. In the 2010 World Cup qualifiers they reached the playoffs while last year they achieved the unthinkable – qualifying for the world’s biggest football tournament set to be staged this summer in Brazil.

The manager who guided them to the World Cup 2010 playoffs was Miroslav Blazevic, a Bosnian Croat who led Croatia to third place in the 1998 World Cup. Now, Safet Susic, a Yugoslavian international in his playing days, has guided Bosnia to their first World Cup appearance. The captain, Emir Spahic is a Bosnian Croat, co-captain and the nation’s most capped player Zvjezdan Misimovic is a Bosnian-Serb while their record goal scorer is Edin Dzeko who is Bosniak. While one cannot deny that certain tensions do still exist between the different ethnic groups, elements of unity have helped to be formed thanks to the national football team.

This belief was echoed by the team’s manager. In a recent interview with World Soccer Magazine, Susic said: “A few years ago you couldn’t imagine Bosnian Serbs or Croats supporting the team, but that has changed now.”

The very thought of a national team including Turkish-Cypriot players seems farfetched for some; some oppose it for ideological reasons and others may be worried that it could cause further disputes, but what if I told you a Cypriot national team already does have Turkish Cypriot players?

Our most successful Cypriot national team, the rugby team, is showing that co-existence is not only a possibility, but quite easy. The presence of a Turkish-Cypriot player in the team, a first for any Cypriot national side, proves the sport can be an emblem for unity on the island.

Scrum-half Burhan Torgut is a much-loved figure among the squad, has made 14 appearances for the team and has stated that rugby can bridge the existing divide. For him, there is no ‘Greek’ and ‘Turkish’ Cypriot: “At the end of the day, we are all Cypriot,” he says.
Perhaps it is less of an issue for the rugby players as many of them grew up in multi-cultural nations where the two communities live side-by-side, but it’s no excuse for our football team not to follow suit.
So, would it be possible? It certainly wouldn’t be a bed of roses from the beginning, with many still clinging to ideologies which are neither feasible or progressive but those who want to see a new, lasting, united Cyprus could take Bosnia’s success as evidence that sport can have a huge influence on culture and society, for the good of the island.

Wielding pistols, two hooded men pounced on two female McDonalds workers in the early hours of Tuesday in Yermasoyia in Limassol, robbing them of  €41,600 in takings accumulated over the long weekend.

The robbery took place at around 1.40am, police said.

The perpetrators entered through an emergency exit when one of the employees opened it from the inside.

They went in and asked a second employee to open the safe, which contained the takings of the weekend and bank holiday Monday.

Police said there were customers in the restaurant at the moment but the robbers, who spoke Greek, did not seem fazed.

It was the second time the particular McDonalds outlet was targeted, again after a long weekend.  Last summer, a robber got away with €56,000.

Police were studying the footage from security cameras but their work was made difficult by the fact that the robbers had their faces covered.

Ayia Napa’s quaint fishing harbour is to have its own little mermaid as part of a makeover to ‘restore its identity’, Mayor Yiannis Karousos said on Tuesday.

Karousos told the Cyprus News Agency that in recent years the harbour had become a place to avoid rather than to visit. The makeover is part of the EU programme for the reconstruction of fishing shelters and will have a budget of €380,000.

The first change will be the erection of a Fisherman’s Monument, which will be dedicated to the traditional fishermen of Ayia Napa, and the second will be a ‘little mermaid’. There will also be a number of sundials and a large anchor over three metres in height, the mayor said.

Karousos also said traditional boats would be bought for landscaping purposes and the harbour would be illuminated at night while two jetties would be created to improve the appearance of shops in the area, which will be brought under a single roof.

“The owners of the premises have agreed to drop illegal constructions,” said Karousos.

Bids for the shops’ project are expected within days, and construction will begin in November, the mayor said.

He said he had consulted with the fisheries department to ensure that large yachts visiting the harbour would no longer be intermingled with the traditional fishing boats.

“We have asked that the yachts dock on the southern breakwater so that the northern breakwater will only have boats that have a traditional character,” he said.

“The department of fisheries is also proceeding with plans, as promised, for an artificial reef in the area of ​​Pernera,” added Karousos.

By Preston Wilder

If you trust the Oscars, David O. Russell may be the greatest director of all time. His last three films have won three acting Oscars (and 25 total nominations) in three years, with potentially more to come in tonight’s little shindig. He landed nominations in all four acting categories for Silver Linings Playbook, which hadn’t happened since 1981 – then did it again this year with American Hustle. Only a handful of films have ever won nods for Best Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress, then the same director does it two years in a row. That’s never going to happen again.

I think I see why. Nearly a quarter of Academy members (the people who hand out the Oscars) are actors, and actors must adore the kind of acting in Russell’s movies. They must look at the screen and think: ‘I wish that I were me up there’. The actors in American Hustle – primarily Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence – get to do so much: they dance, laugh uproariously, go on jazzy riffs as they spit out Russell’s logorrheic dialogue. Jazz is an explicit point of reference, Duke Ellington getting prominently name-checked, and that’s what Hustle aims for, a kind of loose improvisatory energy; all three leads are in each other’s faces before we even get to the opening title. Reviews have been excellent, so it obviously works for some people – but I’ve watched it twice now and I think it’s a scam, nervy sound and fury signifying nothing.

“Some of this actually happened” says an opening caption, though the factual credentials are apparently tenuous. Bale and Adams are small-time con-artists forced into the big time by ambitious FBI agent Cooper; the time is the 70s, with much retro-kitsch detail – a taste for the grotesque, starting in the opening minute with Bale’s elaborate comb-over, toupee and flabby belly. But the film tries to have it both ways: Cooper gets a scene with his hysterically Catholic family – his terrifying mum prays for her son to get married and have babies so the Pope can have “more followers” – but the tone shifts abruptly, and the scene concludes in a tender mother-son moment. It’s part of Hustle’s (and Russell’s) nervy energy that we never really know where we stand.

Jennifer Lawrence, as Bale’s unstable wife, puts it in a nutshell when she talks of a nail varnish that’s fragrant like perfume yet a little rotten as well. That’s the tightrope Hustle tries to walk: everyone’s a hustler yet they’re soulfully, sincerely following their dreams at the same time. The film keeps spinning on a dime, the actors switching gears in mid-speech. I’ll make him believe that I like him, says Adams (of Cooper) – or “maybe I do like him”, who knows, she adds unsettlingly. I’m sorry if they scared you, says Cooper (to Adams) – or “maybe it was my idea, maybe I wanted to scare you, maybe I’m a little off the beaten path”. This is ‘dynamic’ acting, just as the style is ‘dynamic’ filmmaking. Russell’s camera swoops, songs explode on the soundtrack, the voice-over bangs the drum like a constant backbeat. Bale as narrator expounds on his passion for Adams, then gives Lawrence the kind of intro any actor would kill for: “She was the Picasso of passive-aggressive karate”.

Lawrence, in fact, is the only performer who transcends this neurotic push-and-pull. Her devious Rosalyn is a selfish monster, but so charismatic that she won’t be denied; she takes the film to a whole other level. Cooper, on the other hand, is just obnoxious, Bale too heavy for this material, while Adams gets forgotten in the second half. She’s the one who longs for something “real”, at one point yelling at Bale that it’s all “bullshit”, he’s bullshit, their relationship is bullshit. These hustlers are looking for love, just like you and me. Don’t you know “we’re all conning ourselves, one way or the other”?

Yeah, whatever. The real problem is that Hustle is undernourished. The plot is a thin, loose-fitting thing with at least one big moment – when [Surprise Celebrity Cameo] speaks Arabic – that’s a total red herring. The film assaults you with energy, like a fast-talking salesman; it grabs the audience by the lapels and doesn’t let go – but it’s showy actors’ energy, and when it proclaims itself to be humane and empathetic I, for one, find myself resisting. It creates a facsimile of substance, then tries to pass it off as the real thing. It’s a bit like when Bale and Adams are showing off a fake painting, and marvel at how accurate it is. What is truth, asks Bale rhetorically, pointing at the fake: “Who is the master? … The painter? Or the forger?”. I say it’s the painter. And, when it comes to American Hustle, I call bullshit.

DIRECTED BY David O. Russell
STARRING Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence
US 2013 138 mins

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has the 50^th anniversary of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) could provide an impetus to the ongoing negotiations.

“I trust that in the period ahead, both sides, with support from the United Nations, will strive for such a comprehensive settlement so that Cyprus may be united again,” Ban said in a written statement.

UNFICYP’s mandate in Cyprus was established by Security Council resolution 186 of March 4, 1964. It was given a three-month mandate in response to the outbreak of intercommunal violence in late 1963. By June 1964 there were 6,500 UN troops stationed on the island.

Ban said the Security Council had mandated UNFICYP to contribute to a return to normal conditions following the violence. “Over the past fifty years, UNFICYP has played a crucial role in preventing a recurrence of fighting and contributing to the resolution of issues that affect the everyday lives of Cypriots across the island,” Ban added.

He expressed his gratitude to the 32 countries that have contributed either troops or police or both to the mission, and their peacekeepers, He also paid tribute to the 184 peacekeepers who lost their lives in support of peace in Cyprus.

President Vladimir Putin ordered troops involved in a military exercise in western Russia back to base on Tuesday in an announcement that appeared intended to ease East-West tension over fears of war in Ukraine.

Russian financial markets rebounded after sharp falls on Monday, and the euro and dollar rose in Japan, though Moscow’s forces remained in control of Ukraine’s Crimea region, seized bloodlessly after Russian ally Viktor Yanukovich was ousted as Ukrainian president last month.

Russia paid a heavy financial price on Monday for its military intervention in Ukraine, with stocks, bonds and the rouble plunging as Putin’s forces tightened their grip in Crimea, whose population is mainly ethnic Russian.

The Moscow stock market fell 10.8 percent on Monday, wiping nearly $60 billion off the value of Russian firms, but Russian stock indexes rose more than 4 percent early on Tuesday before slipping back again slightly, though still up on the day.

Putin declared at the weekend that he had the right to invade Ukraine to protect Russian interests and citizens after Yanukovich’s downfall following months of popular unrest. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has a base in Crimea.

But the military exercises in central and western Russia, which began last week and raised fears that Russia might send forces to neighbour Russian-speaking regions of east Ukraine, were completed on schedule.

“The supreme commander of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, gave the order for the troops and units, taking part in the military exercises, to return to their bases,”Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

Although the end of the exercises had been planned, the announcement sent a more conciliatory message than much of the rhetoric from Russian officials, who say Moscow must defend national interests and those of compatriots in Ukraine.

Putin is dismayed that the new leadership in Ukraine, the cradle of Russian civilisation, has plotted a course towards the European Union and away from what had been Moscow’s sphere of influence during generations of Soviet Communist rule.

Moscow’s UN envoy told a stormy meeting of the Security Council that Yanukovich had sent a letter to Putin requesting he use  Russia’s military to restore law and order in Ukraine.

WESTERN RESPONSE

The United States has begun spelling out its response to Russia’s incursion, announcing a suspension of all military engagements with Russia, including military exercises and port visits, and freezing trade and investment talks with Moscow.

President Barack Obama had more than two hours of talks on Monday with his national security advisers to discuss what steps the United States and its allies could take to “further isolate” Russia, a White House official said.

“Over time this will be a costly proposition for Russia. And now is the time for them to consider whether they can serve their interests in a way that resorts to diplomacy as opposed to force,” Obama told reporters.

The State Department said the United States was preparing to impose sanctions on Russia over the intervention, although no decisions had yet been made.

Members of the US Congress are looking at options including sanctions on Russia’s banks and freezing assets of Russian public institutions and private investors, but they said they wanted European states to step up their involvement.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will propose ways for a negotiation between Russia and Ukraine to be overseen by a multilateral organisation when he visits Kiev on Tuesday, Obama said.

An International Monetary Fund mission is also in Kiev to discuss financial assistance for Ukraine to help it avoid bankruptcy. Kiev’s new leaders want a financial package worth at least $15 billion, with a quick release of some of the cash.

The European Union has threatened unspecified “targeted measures” unless Russia returns its forces to their bases and opens talks with Ukraine’s new government.

Western leaders have sent a barrage of warnings to Putin against armed action, threatening economic and diplomatic consequences, but are not considering a military response.

There was no immediate sign of any new movements by Russian forces in Crimea overnight although Ukraine’s acting president said on Monday that Russia’s military presence on the Black Sea peninsula was growing.

Ukrainian officials said Russia was building up armour on its side of the 4.5-km wide Kerchstrait between the Crimean peninsula and southern Russia.

Russian forces shipped three truckloads of troops by ferry into Crimea after taking control of the border post on the Ukrainian side, Ukraine’s border guards spokesman said. A Reuters news team reported no sign of more troops arriving from Russia on Tuesday and said the situation was static.

Kiev’s UN ambassador, Yuriy Sergeyev, said Russia had deployed roughly 16,000 troops to Crimea since last week.

ECONOMIC DAMAGE

Both sides have avoided bloodshed, but the market turmoil on Monday highlighted damage the crisis could wreak on Russia’s vulnerable economy, making it harder to balance the budget and potentially undermining business and public support for Putin.

Ukraine called up reservists on Sunday after Putin’s action provoked what British Foreign Secretary William Hague called “the biggest crisis inm Europe in the twenty-first century”.

NATO allies will hold emergency talks on the crisis on Tuesday, for the second time in three days, following a request from Poland, a neighbour of Ukraine.

EU foreign ministers held out the threat of sanctions against Russia if Moscow fails to withdraw its troops from Ukraine, while offering to mediate between the two, alongside other international bodies.

EU leaders will hold an emergency summit on Thursday.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, said it was trying to convene an international contact group to help defuse the crisis after Germany said Chancellor Angela Merkel had persuaded Putin to accept such an initiative.

Switzerland, which chairs the pan-European security body, said the group could discuss sending observers to Ukraine to monitor the rights of national minorities.

“There will be very, very broad consensus for that monitoring mission. We call on Russia to join that consensus, make the right choice and pull back its forces,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland told OSCE envoys in Vienna.

The Russian central bank raised its key lending rate by 1.5 percentage points on Monday after the rouble sank to all-time lows. The rouble edged up against the dollar on Tuesday.

Tension over Ukraine also knocked 2 to 3 per cent off European stock markets and 1 per cent off Wall Street on Monday, and sent safe haven gold to a four-month high

By Bejay Browne

Hector’s Café Lounge Bar in Paphos’ Coral Bay is owned and run by well established stalwart of the Peyia nightlife scene Tony Theo.

Good pub grub and well priced drinks are reason enough to visit this venue found on a side street on the main tourist hub of the resort. But Hector’s offers so much more than that including regular live entertainment, Friday night karaoke, quiz nights, live DJs, a darts team and five screens to watch major sporting events. A pool league is on the way and Hector’s is also home to local football team – St. George’s FC.

The venue is simply decorated and includes a long wooden bar. Ample seating is provided in different areas.

Although many other bars in the area close during the winter period as tourists numbers drop off, Hector’s is open all day, every day and is managing to pull in the punters with a varied programme to cater for clients of all ages. Most of the customers are British ex pat residents – the rest is made up of tourists and a few Cypriots.

Hector’s serves a good range of snacks and meals from an excellent full English breakfast to tasty evening meals. A homemade steak pie with all the trimmings will set you back €6.95 and on Monday nights, a special offer menu means guests may order one of three main meals for only €3.95.

Theo says the house specialty cocktail is a ‘Shrek juice’ which tastes like Refresher sweets and is ‘moorish.’ This is a great drink to enjoy with friends as it’s priced at €8.95 and contains enough for four glasses. A pint of Becks beer costs €1.95 and small individual bottles of wine costs €2.95.

The venue is family friendly and also hosts a number of special events, such as birthday and anniversary celebrations. This bar has also established itself as an important part of the local community and supports charity fundraisers on a regular basis.

Theo says he recently introduced a customer loyalty card which entitles card holders to a 10 per cent discount on food and drink.

Hector’s is ideally situated close to a number of hotels, not far from Coral Bay and Corallia beaches and parking close to the venue is easy to find. Staff here are warm, welcoming and friendly and if you’re originally from the UK and missing a taste of home, this is the place to visit. What makes the experience even better is that it’s all topped off with Cyprus sunshine.

Hector’s Café Lounge Bar
Where: Coral Bay, Paphos
When: 9am until 2am
Price: Becks beer €1.95, Keo beer €2.60, Wine (small bottle) €2.95
Contact: 26 623034, www.hectorsbarcyprus.com

By Stephanie Robb

Sometimes all you need is a short drive out of Limassol to the surrounding villages to discover what seem to be hidden culinary gems. One of these is Manolas Tavern, located in the hillside village of Kellaki, roughly a 20 minute drive from Limassol.

A family owned business, Manolas is operated by its original and extremely warm owners. And what makes your dinner experience even more special is the warm welcome and close attention each customer receives from the management.

Manolas is as traditional as they come; a stone building enclosing a restaurant that does not feign to be anything other than simply traditional. A small museum encasing many Cypriot antiques is one of the restaurant’s crowning jewels. The other is the large outside dining area which is ideal in the warm afternoons of the summer. However, since the cold seems to be settling in for another month or so, the wood burner inside is more than enough to add to the peaceful and cozy atmosphere of the restaurant.

Once seated it’s mezes for everyone and it should be your duty to try every single dish as they are little pieces of mastery. Our traditional meal at Manolas started off as one would expect with Village Salad with all the accompanying dishes. All the ingredients were extremely fresh, making every bite savoury. The halloumi and lountza that followed were both up to par of what you would expect from a village tavern. Next up, macaroni pasta and delicious greens with eggs. That could have been enough for me but as a practiced meze diner I held back and was grateful that I had left room for the meat.

Meat dishes we were served were the delicious Kleftiko, sausages and the traditional souvlaki. All were cooked to perfection and divine. The kleftiko melted in your mouth and offered an explosion of flavour with every bite. It was the perfect combination of marinating the wine and letting is slowly cook.

But, the highlight to my dining experience was the delightful ticha. Never heard of it? Neither had I. Ticha is quite simple in theory and absolutely amazing in practice. It is made by using the filling of traditional sausages, marinating them in wine for a while and serving them with eggs. This might not sound like a groundbreaking dish, but it is utterly delicious.

To round of your meal there are a selection of homemade traditional deserts.

Sure there are many dishes that are similar from tavern to tavern, yet the originality that Manolas serves up every single time is something that should not be put off. If you are willing to take that short drive make sure you make a reservation, especially during the weekends, so you don’t leave disappointed.

Vital statistics
SPECIALTY Traditional Cypriot taverna food
WHERE Manolas tavern, R. Pheraiou, Kellaki Village
CONTACT 25 622107
PRICE €15-20 per person, including drinks and dessert

Parliament on Tuesday approved a controversial bill on privatisations that was rejected last week, putting the island’s international financial assistance in jeopardy.

Thirty MPs voted in favour and 26 against.

Ruling DISY, DIKO, and two MPs, EVROKO’s Demetris Syllouris, and Zaharias Koulias, an independent, approved the bill.

AKEL, EDEK, the Greens, and Citizen’s Alliance deputy Nicos Koutsou, voted against the legislation.

Lawmakers had rejected the bill last Thursday putting an international bailout programme at risk.

Approval of the bill was necessary for the release of the next bailout tranche.

The government re-submitted the bill on Friday, amended to accommodate concerns over workers legacy rights.

However, workers belonging to state telecoms CyTA, the power company, EAC, and the ports authority, continued to have concerns.

On Tuesday they held three-hour strikes and protested outside parliament.

They want jobs to be secured and parliament to have a say at every stage of the privatisation process.

Renowned Cypriot artist Stass Paraskos has died aged 81.

Paraskos was the founder of the Cyprus College of Art in 1969 in Famagusta but after 1974 relocated to Lemba village in the Paphos district.

It is one of the oldest art institutions in Cyprus

The artist’s works form part of several collections in Britain, including at the Tate Gallery, London, Leeds City Art Gallery, the Arts Council Collection and University of Leeds, as well as collections in Cyprus, the US, Canada and Denmark.

Paraskos was born in Anafotia village in Larnaca in 1933.

During the period 1956-1958 he studied at Leeds College of Art and then worked as a lecturer in the department of undergraduate studies at Leicester College of Art and painting department at Leeds Polytechnic.

Police raided two Nicosia district cafes on Tuesday night after suspicions that illegal gambling was taking place.

A total of 13 people were charged and €359 confiscated along with 210 gambling chips, and playing cards.

Police at Lakatamia and Pera Chorio are investigating.

Student body PSEM on Wednesday warned of ‘dynamic  measures’ unless the government immediately reduce bus fares as promised

The students and parents said they were shocked on Tuesday when they went to buy monthly tickets, expecting them to be reduced to €10 as pledged by the transport minister, but instead they were charged €15 for the month of March.

A statement from PSEM said they were told there had not been enough time to print the monthly cards with the €10 fare and that it would become effective from April 1.

“I went to give my son his €10 and only found out minutes later,” said one mother . “It’s an outrage”.

The students and parents do not want to pay anything for the bus fares and have been holding protests on and off since the beginning of the year. During an abstention from classes last week, they were promised by Transport Minister Tasos Mitsopoulos that the best he could do was to reduce the controversial fare from €15 to €10. Vulnerable groups were to be exempted but the compromise has proved just as unpopular.

PSEM said no one was official informed of the change of date. The student body also said that at this stage it was a pointless exercise even if the fare came down next month because two weeks of that time would be taken up by the Easter holidays so students would end up paying €10 for two weeks. Two weeks after that, on May 16, schools would be closing. “So we will end up paying €20 for two half months,” the statement said.

However, the €10 fare does cover the students for fares outside of school journeys, which was part of the compromise.

“We expect the House communications committee to call on the government to keep its promises and to account for yesterday’s (Tuesday’s) farce. After the day-long abstention from classes last week, we expect the reaction from the state and depending on developments, we will not hesitate to take dynamic measures. Do not push us over the cliff,” the statement concludes.

The Pancyprian Coordinating Committee for the Technical Schools Parents Association also expressed their disappointment saying the mockery being made of students and parents was never-ending.

Last week Mitsopoulos said the students were essentially asking for water from a well that had dried-up. He said the government was taking a big hit itself by reducing the fees from €15 to €10 and that it would struggle to cover the money it had expected to rake in as part of the original fees.

He had promised his ministry would also examine the revenue it has received by July to see whether the more cuts to the fares could be made .

Yesterday he said:  “Issuing new cards and tickets is a time consuming procedure. Printing them at the government printing office and distributing them to the bus companies will take up to three weeks. Due to recent political developments the cabinet couldn’t make a decision on the matter in time so we postponed enforcing the new fee until April,” he said.

He was referring to developments in the Cyprus problem, the SGO privatisation debate in the House and the departure of DIKO from the coalition.

Mitsopoulos said there was a mechanism in place at every school to identify students who cannot  afford to pay the fare. These cases can be dealt with efficiently by school officials he said.

Secondary school students who take school buses had to start paying the new fares in January of this year. The fare, formerly subsidised in full by the state, was introduced by the previous government in a December 2012 but implementation was pushed back from October 2013 to January 2014 in the face of severe public pressure.

Cyprus Tourism Organistion Director Marios Hannides said on Wednesday he was cautiously optimistic of a boost from the German market in 2014.

Hannides, along with a delegation that includes Tourism Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis , were in Berlin on Wednesday to attend the annual tourism fair, where he said he had significant contact with German stakeholders.

He said the German tourist market, although it is one of the most dynamic worldwide with total annual travel costs of German tourists exceeding $80 billion has been steadily declining in recent years.  Ten years ago, German tourists were the second highest in arrivals after the UK but have been overtaken in the past five years or so by booming Russian arrivals.

Last year, barely 99,000 German tourists visited Cyprus compared to 130,000 in 2003 and 215,000 in 2001.

To reverse the negative trend, Hannides said, the first issue that would need addressing would be improving accessibility to Cyprus.

“Despite the difficult starting point and the difficulties we have with the German tourism market , there is room for improvement, provided that we move quickly and highlight to German tourists the comparative advantages our tourism product , ” said Hannides.

“Much will depend on the efforts we make to establish steady weekly flights from Germany to Cyprus but also our responsiveness to the views of the major German tour operators during the meetings we have with them.”

China announced its biggest rise in military spending in three years on Wednesday, a strong signal from President Xi Jinping that Beijing is not about to back away from its growing assertiveness in Asia, especially in disputed waters.

The government said it would increase the defence budget by 12.2 per cent this year to 808.23 billion yuan, as China seeks to develop more high-tech weapons and to beef up coastal and air defences.

The increase follows a nearly unbroken run of double-digit hikes in the Chinese defence budget, second only to the United States in size, for the past two decades.

“This is worrying news for China’s neighbours, particularly for Japan,” said Rory Medcalf, a regional security analyst at the independent Lowy Institute in Sydney.

Those who thought Xi might prefer to concentrate on domestic development over military expansion in a slowing economy had “underestimated the Chinese determination to shape its strategic environment”, he added.

The 2014 defence budget is the first for Xi, the ‘princeling’ son of a late Communist Party elder, and the increase in spending appears to reflect his desire to build what he calls a strong, rejuvenated China.

Xi also recently urged China’s military leadership to work faster to get the country’s sole aircraft carrier combat-ready.

The spending jump is the biggest since a 12.7 per cent rise in 2011.

Within hours of the announcement, officials in Japan and Taiwan expressed disquiet over the absence of any details on how Beijing will spend the money – concerns long echoed in Washington with China’s defence budgets.

China and Japan, a key US ally in the region, are increasingly locking horns over uninhabited rocky islands each claims in the East China Sea.

Beijing also claims 90 percent of the 3.5 million sq km South China Sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan claim parts of those waters.

Speaking at the opening of China’s annual session of parliament, Premier Li Keqiang said the government would “strengthen research on national defence and the development of new- and high-technology weapons and equipment” and “enhance border, coastal and air defences”.

“We will comprehensively enhance the revolutionary nature of the Chinese armed forces, further modernise them and upgrade their performance, and continue to raise their deterrence and combat capabilities in the information age,” Li told the largely rubber-stamp National People’s Congress.

He gave no details.

FORCE PROJECTION

China’s military spending has allowed Beijing to create a modern force that is projecting power not only across the disputed waters of the East and South China Seas, but further into the western Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Much military spending likely takes place outside the budget, however, and many experts estimate real outlays are closer to $200 billion. The US Defense Department’s base budget for fiscal 2014 is $526.8 billion.

The budget spike comes as Asia reacts nervously to a string of recent moves by China to assert its sovereignty in disputed territory, expand its military reach and challenge the traditional dominance of US forces in the region.

Chinese fighters and surveillance planes now routinely patrol a controversial new air defence identification zone that covers disputed Japanese-administered islands in the East China Sea. Meanwhile, Beijing’s aircraft carrier went on its first exercises in the South China Sea late last year.

At a time when Washington has stepped up its military presence in the region as part of a strategic “pivot” toward Asia, China is building new submarines, surface ships and anti-ship ballistic missiles, and has tested emerging technology aimed at destroying missiles in mid-air.

Nevertheless, experts say it could be decades before China’s military is a match for America’s armed forces.

CHINA URGED TO BE TRANSPARENT

Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, said China’s lack of clarity in its defence policy and spending was a global concern.

While noting the “substantial” spending increase was needed to modernise China’s military, David Lo, a spokesman for Taiwan’s Defence Ministry, said much remained hidden.

“The transparency of China’s defence budget has always been questionable, as it is widely seen there are a massive amount of military items hidden,” he said.

In Washington, David Helvey, US deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, told a US Senate committee hearing on Tuesday that the Pentagon was seeking to build “healthy” ties with China’s military, but said Beijing needed to be more open about its armed forces buildup.

The United States last month said it was concerned that China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea were an effort to gain creeping control of oceans in the Asia-Pacific region.

“We remain concerned about a lack of transparency regarding China’s growing military and its increasingly assertive behaviour in the maritime domain,” Helvey said.

China has repeatedly said that the world has nothing to fear from its military spending, which it says is needed for legitimate defensive purposes and to modernise outdated equipment.

Fu Ying, a spokeswoman for the parliamentary session, reiterated that policy on Tuesday, saying China was seeking peace through “strength”.

China would “respond effectively” to provocations by those ready to sabotage regional security and order, she added.

India’s mammoth parliamentary election will start on April 7, authorities announced on Wednesday, kicking off a race that pits charismatic Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi against the unpopular Nehru-Gandhi family’s ruling Congress party.

Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath said 814 million people had registered to vote, a number larger than the population of Europe, making this the biggest election the world has ever seen. Results are due to be announced on May 16.

Voting will be held in nine stages, staggered until May 12, to allow security forces to be effectively deployed during an exercise that has often been marred by violence, ballot-rigging and buying votes.

“Credible elections conducted at regular, prescribed intervals are the very soul, or hallmark, of any democratic system,” Sampath said, adding that he was particularly concerned about over-spending by candidates and parties.

“The use of money power is a matter of concern for the election commission,” he said. Indian politicians frequently spend well beyond permissible limits, set at a maximum of 7 million rupees ($113,000) for most constituencies, and clampdowns by “flying squads” in previous polls have yielded suitcases of cash.

Since the last national election in 2009, about 100 million people have been added to the electoral rolls, in part reflecting the country’s growing young population.

Modi has emerged in opinion polls as the favourite to head the next government, buoyed by his strong economic track record as chief minister of the state of Gujarat and reflecting popular anger over corruption as well as a sense that the centre-left Congress government has frittered away opportunities for rapid growth.

Exuding self-confidence, Modi has won the support of many middle-class Indians who even a year ago would not have voted for a man accused by critics of failing to stop, or even tacitly encouraging, a spasm of Hindu-Muslim bloodshed in Gujarat in 2002. Modi has denied any wrongdoing and the Supreme Court has said there is not enough evidence to pursue investigations.

“I think everyone is looking for strong leadership. This places Modi at an advantage. He’s showing that he’s a strong leader,” said Mohan Guruswamy of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a Delhi-based think-tank.

With half of India’s population under 25, a record number of first-time voters will participate in the election. Many appear open to Modi’s promises of job creation and efficient government.

“There was so much corruption with Congress, scam after scam,” said Ravinder, a 19 year-old business administration student attending a Modi rally in the heartland state of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday. “Now we see hope, there is someone talking about development, and he seems sincere.”

NOT ASSURED

However, India’s fragmented political landscape and first-past-the-post system for parliamentary seats makes results notoriously hard to predict, and that means a victory is by no means assured for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Recent polls show the BJP well short of a majority of the 543 lower house of parliament seats at stake, but widening its lead over Congress, which has ruled for more than two-thirds of the 67 years since independence but may now be headed for its worst-ever electoral defeat.

A multi-headed group of regional parties is also eyeing power, however, a reflection of the growing clout of state-based leaders. A ‘third front’ government made up of regional groups with diverse agendas could prove unwieldy, a potential problem for Asia’s third-largest economy, whose growth has skidded due to the slow pace of reform on the Congress party’s watch.

Leading the campaign for the Congress party is Rahul Gandhi, the latest in line in the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has given India three prime ministers and its most powerful contemporary politician, his mother, Sonia Gandhi.

This time, after two consecutive Congress-led governments headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, India seems unlikely to make another Gandhi prime minister.

Adding to the uncertainty, a new anti-corruption party has emerged as a serious player. The Aam Aadmi (Common Man) Party is not likely to win many seats, but is setting the agenda for other parties by harping on high utility prices and crony capitalism.

The election comes as the economy is on course to grow at below five percent for the second year running, which would be the worst performance since the 1980s for a country that a few years ago was confident of matching China’s run of double-digit expansion.

Modi has the backing of big business, which wants him to replicate his Gujarat state model of good roads, 24/7 electricity and less red tape. Last week, he promised to simplify laws if elected, and to put trade at the heart of foreign policy.

As the election drumbeats get louder, overseas investors have extended a buying streak of Indian shares, total ling $800 million in a run of 13 sessions until Tuesday.

Businesses have put investment plans on hold ahead of the elections, leading to a contraction in capital formation and worsening a slowdown that could, however, be reversed after results are declared in May.

“Irrespective of who wins, pent-up demand is set to be released after the elections are over,” HSBC said in a research note. “Companies that have shelved expansion plans will at some point start investing and hiring.”

The Israeli navy seized a ship in the Red Sea on Wednesday that was carrying dozens of advanced Iranian-supplied rockets made in Syria and intended for Palestinian guerrillas in the Gaza Strip, the military said.

The disclosure came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the United States to press his case for tougher international action against Iran over its disputed nuclear programme and support for Islamist guerrilla groups.

The Panamanian-flagged cargo vessel Klos C was boarded in international waters without resistance from its 17-strong crew in a “complex, covert operation”, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner told reporters.

Lerner said dozens of M302 rockets were found aboard the Klos C, a weapon which could have struck deep into Israel from Gaza and would have significantly enhanced the firepower of the Palestinian enclave’s Hamas rulers and other armed factions.

“The M302 in its most advanced model can strike over 100 miles, and if they would have reached Gaza, ultimately that would have meant millions of Israelis under threat,” he said.

Hamas dismissed the Israeli announcement as a “silly joke”.

“This is a new Israeli lie aimed to justify and prolong the blockade of Gaza,” said Taher Al-Nono, an advisor of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

There was no immediate comment from Iran or Syria.

Military footage showed the Israeli navy chief, Admiral Ram Rothberg, inspecting a rocket on the floor of a ship hold, with cement bags labeled “Made in Iran” in English next to it.

Lerner said the rockets were flown from Syria to Iran, from where they were shipped first to Iraq and then towards Sudan. Had they reached the African coast, they would have probably been smuggled overland through Egypt to Gaza, he said.

NETANYAHU IN US

Israel and Islamist Hamas last fought a major conflict in November 2012. Hamas has largely held fire since but Israel says it has been trying to build up its capabilities. That has been made difficult, however, by a new military regime in Cairo which has cracked down on the Egyptian border with Gaza.

Netanyahu’s office said that the prime minister, who was in Los Angeles on Wednesday after holding a White House meeting and addressing a pro-Israel lobby in Washington, had approved the ship seizure after consultations with his security chiefs.

“At the same time that it is talking to world powers, at the same time that Iran is smiling and saying all kinds of honeyed words, that same Iran is sending lethal weaponry to terrorist organisations and it is doing so in a complex web of covert, worldwide operations,” Netanyahu said from Los Angeles.

In a speech to the AIPAC lobby on Tuesday, Netanyahu had reiterated his unhappiness with the prospect that world powers negotiating a curb on Iran’s nuclear programme would let it retain some technologies with bomb-making potential.

The Islamic republic denied seeking nuclear weapons and accused its arch-foe Israel of being the real regional menace.

Iran had orchestrated the shipment, Lerner said, describing the process as months in the making. The Klos C was being brought to the Israeli port of Eilat where its contents would be more fully inspected and displayed to the public.

Lerner said the crew came from a number of different countries – but none from Iran - and there was no immediate indication that they knew the nature of their cargo.

According to tracking data, the Klos C was previously at Bandar Abbas port in Iran in early February 2014 and prior to that in Port Said in January.

Followers of the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez took to the streets on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of his death, a sad but welcome distraction for his successor, who has faced a month of violent protests.

A year after Chavez succumbed to cancer, his self-proclaimed “son”, President Nicolas Maduro, faces the biggest challenge to his rule from an explosion of anti-government demonstrations that have led to clashes with security forces and 18 deaths.

Wednesday’s military parade and other events to honor ‘El Comandante’ were a chance for Maduro, 51, to reclaim the streets and show opponents that he too can mobilize.

“This anniversary is enormously sad. There’s not a single day I don’t remember Hugo,” Chavez’s cousin, Guillermo Frias, 60, said from Los Rastrojos village in rural Barinas state, where the pair used to play baseball in the street as kids.

“He changed Venezuela forever, and we cannot go back. Maduro also is a poor man, like us. He’s handling things fine. Perhaps he just needs a stronger hand,” he told Reuters.

Tens of thousands of red-clad ‘Chavistas’ were gathering for rallies in Caracas and elsewhere in honor of the socialist whose 14-year rule won him the adoration of many of Venezuela’s poorest, while alienating the middle and upper classes.

Maduro will preside over a parade in the capital before going to the hilltop military museum where Chavez led a 1992 coup attempt that launched his political career, and where his remains have been laid to rest in a marble sarcophagus.

“Chavez passed into history as the man who revived Bolivar,” said Maduro, who often hails Chavez as South America’s second “liberator” after independence hero Simon Bolivar.

UKRAINE-STYLE CHANGE UNLIKELY

Chavez’s own humble roots, anti-US rhetoric, network of grassroots political organizations and lavish spending on slum projects made him a hero for many.

Yet his often tough line against opponents, some of whom ended up in exile or jail, his sweeping nationalizations, and his rigid economic policies such as price and currency controls angered many others.

One year after his death, though, debate in Venezuela is no longer about Chavez, but his would-be heir Maduro.

The former bus driver and union activist lacks Chavez’s charisma and personal grip on the ruling Socialist Party, and has been unable to fix Venezuela’s many problems, ranging from soaring prices, to deteriorating services, and runaway crime.

Yet ‘Chavistas’ largely remain loyal to their hero’s dying wish that they support Maduro. So far, the protests have not spread far from a middle-class core, and the military seems loyal, making a Ukraine-style change unlikely.

A long weekend national holiday for Carnival and now the anniversary of Chavez’s death have taken some of the wind out of the protests, but a hard core of students and radical opposition leaders are still on the streets.

Some opposition leaders called for a day without protests on Wednesday to show respect for Chavez’s memory.

But students said they would not stop, and firebrand legislator Maria Corina Machado announced a march in the western city of San Cristobal, which has seen the worst of the unrest.

“They’re killing people and holding a national party, so why should we respect the day of Chavez’s death?” said Jose Garcia, 26, wearing a balaclava and clutching stones to throw at police in Caracas’Plaza Altamira.

“CHAVEZ DIDN’T DIE”

The numbers of demonstrators seldom go beyond a few thousand, a far cry from the vast street protests against Chavez that led to a brief military coup against him in 2002.

State media have rolled out round-the-clock hagiographical coverage of the late president. Some Chavez loyalists seem barely able to use the word “death”, preferring euphemisms such as his “physical disappearance” or “sowing in the sky”.

“Chavez didn’t die, he multiplied!” read a scrolling headline on state TV.

Government supporters interviewed by Reuters were disdainful of the demonstrators, but were also frank in their criticism of Maduro for failing to right the economy or forge his own path out of his mentor’s shadow.

“This year has been one to remember our commander, and then rebuild our revolution. First we were in shock, but we had to breathe deep and keep fighting,” said Marisol Aponte, a diehard ‘Chavista’ and teacher from a poor zone of west Caracas.

“Maduro’s had it tough. He has to find his own path, his own ideas, his own speech. He’s not Chavez. The commander is gone, we can’t mourn him permanently. There’s so much work to do, errors to correct.”

She added that Maduro needs to purge his Cabinet and modernize Chavez-era social programs.

Some of Chavez’s highest-profile friends, including leftist leaders from around Latin America, were in Caracas.

“We’re here, not only to remember the death of our comrade and brother Hugo Chavez, but also his struggle for Latin American unity, democracy and peace,” Bolivian President Evo Morales said on arrival.

“We also want to proclaim our solidarity for the Venezuelan people, the Bolivarian revolution. It’s our duty to defend elected presidents … we do not accept coup attempts,” he added, standing next to Maduro at the presidential palace.

RE-APPOINTING Giorgos Lakkotrypis as energy minister would not be a problem for former coalition partners DIKO but re-appointing all four of the party’s ministers would be considered a provocation, DIKO deputy head Marcos Kyprianou said on Wednesday.

Speaking to CyBC radio, Kyprianou said now that Lakkotrypis had resigned from the party he was just an ordinary citizen and the president was free to re-appoint him to his position as energy minister if he so wished.

“But if the president keeps all of the DIKO members in his cabinet, it will be considered as a political move aimed at DIKO and will be dealt with accordingly,” said Kyprianou.

DIKO’s four ministers, education’s Kyriakos Kenevezos, health’s Petros Petrides, and defence’s Fotis Fotiou, along with  Lakkotrypis, handed in their resignations to the president on February 28, with the other members of the cabinet.

But President Nicos Anastasiades asked the cabinet members to remain to their posts until March 15, when he is expected to reshuffle.

The DIKO ministers’ resignations were prompted by the party’s decision to leave the coalition, citing disagreement on the way the Cyprus problem was being handled. After heated discussions within the party, DIKO leader Nicolas Papadopoulos asked all the party’s ministers to resign from their posts. All four disagreed with Papadopoulos’ decision.

Lakkotrypis subsequently announced his resignation from the party itself, leaving the way open for him to be re-appointed.

Russia said on Wednesday it could not order “self-defence” forces in Ukraine’s Crimea region back to their bases ahead of crucial ministerial talks in Paris aimed at easing tensions of over Ukraine and averting the risk of war.

The European Union meanwhile offered Ukraine’s new pro-Western government 11 billion euros in financial aid in the next couple of years provided Kiev reaches a deal with the International Monetary Fund.

Russia and the West are locked in the most serious confrontation since the end of the Cold War over influence in the former Soviet republic, a major commodities exporter and strategic link between East and West.

Ukraine pulled out of a trade deal with the EU under Russian pressure last year, sparking months of protests in Kiev and the February 22 ouster of President Viktor Yanukovich, a Russian ally.

Russia has effectively occupied Crimea, where its Black Sea fleet is based, raising international tensions and provoking sharp falls in financial markets on Monday, although they have since stabilised.

Speaking before meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry and other Western ministers in Paris, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov repeated Moscow’s assertion – ridiculed by the West – that the troops that have seized control of the Black Sea peninsula are not under Russian command.

Asked whether Moscow would order forces in Crimea back to their bases, Lavrov told a questioner in Madrid: “If you mean the self-defence units created by the inhabitants of Crimea, we give them no orders, they take no orders from us.

“As for the military personnel of the Black Sea Fleet, they are in their deployment sites. Yes, additional vigilance measures were taken to safeguard the sites… We will do everything not to allow any bloodshed.”

Russia did not attend a meeting with Kerry, British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia of the so-called Budapest group created to assure Ukraine’s security after it abandoned nuclear weapons in 1994.

But Kerry and Hague said they would try to bring the Russian and Ukrainian ministers together later in the day.

Poland’s foreign minister tweeted that he would attend a meeting in Paris with those two ministers plus the United States, Germany, Britain, France and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

There was no immediate confirmation that all sides would attend the French-brokered session, which could be the first step towards a diplomatic mediation process.

SANCTIONS

Lavrov was later due to hold the first face-to-face talks with his US counterpart since the crisis escalated, on the sidelines of a conference on Lebanon attended by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

NATO and Russia planned parallel talks in Brussels amid concerns that a standoff between Russian and Ukrainian forces in Crimea could still spark violence, or that Moscow could also intervene in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.

The West is pushing for Russia to return troops to barracks, accept international monitors in Crimea and Ukraine and negotiate a solution to the crisis through a “contact group” probably under the auspices of a pan-European security body.

France said European Union leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday could decide on sanctions against Russia if there is no “de-escalation” by then. Other EU countries, including Germany, are more reticent about sanctions.

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday defended Russia’s actions in Crimea, which used to be Russian territory, and said he would use force only as a last resort.

This eased market fears of a war over the former Soviet republic after sharp falls on Monday, although Russian shares and the rouble slipped again on Wednesday and Ukraine’s hryvnia dropped against the dollar.

Russian forces remain in control of Crimea, where Interfax reported they seized control of two Ukrainian missile defence sites overnight, and Putin gave no sign of backing down.

“What he wants above all is a new empire, like the USSR but called Russia,” former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko told France’s Europe 1 radio.

EU READY TO HELP

In Brussels, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the EU would deliver assistance to Kiev in coordination with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank.

Some of it would be contingent on Ukraine signing an IMF loan deal, which will require painful economic reforms such as ending domestic gas subsidies and letting the hryvnia float.

“The package combined could bring an overall support of at least 11 billion euros over the next couple of years, from the EU budget and EU-based international financial institutions,” Barroso told a news conference. The United States offered Ukraine $1 billion in loan guarantees on Tuesday.

US President Barack Obama acknowledged that Russia had legitimate interests in Ukraine but said that did not give Putin the right to intervene militarily.

“President Putin seems to have a different set of lawyers making a different set of interpretations,” Obama said on Tuesday. “But I don’t think that’s fooling anybody.”

A senior administration official said Obama spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and discussed a potential resolution to the crisis. The Russian-speaking German leader has good relations with the German-speaking Putin, and Berlin is Russia’s biggest economic partner.

The official said Obama, in his phone call with Putin last Saturday, had discussed what officials called an “off-ramp” to the crisis in which Russia would pull its forces in Crimea back to their bases and allow international monitors to ensure that the rights of ethnic Russians are protected.

G7 MAY MEET SOON

At his first news conference since the crisis began, Putin said on Tuesday that Russia reserved the right to use all options to protect compatriots who were living in “terror” in Ukraine but that force was not needed for now.

French President Francois Hollande raised the possibility of sanctions if Putin does not step back and accept mediation, taking a tougher public line than Merkel, who has avoided talk of sanctions so far.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said early measures could include restrictions on visas, the assets of individuals and existing discussions on economic ties with Russia.

Putin told his cabinet on Wednesday he did not want political tension to detract from economic cooperation with Russia’s “traditional partners”. But the Russian Information Agency said Moscow was preparing counter-measures against Western firms if necessary.

A senior US official said Washington was ready to impose sanctions in days rather than weeks.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said after speaking to Obama at the weekend that the Group of Seven leading industrialised nations were considering meeting in the near future, a move that would pointedly exclude Russia. The G7 became the G8 in 1998 when Russia was formally included.

Lavrov told European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton that an EU-brokered agreement signed by political leaders in Kiev on Feb. 21 should be the basis for stabilising the situation in Ukraine, his ministry said on Wednesday.

He said the agreement foresaw constitutional reform which would take into account the wishes of all regions in Ukraine. Russia says the deal was broken by the removal of Yanukovich.

No major incidents were reported in Crimea on Wednesday and Ukraine’s top security official said he hoped the crisis could be ended soon.