Oh, what a pity that all those precious euro’s are being spent to upgrade the Mackenzie-Piale Pasha road and before the cement even has a chance to dry, the pavements and walkways are already being used for parking.

Don’t believe me? Just take a wander along there on a weekend. It started with scooters, then small cars, large saloon’s, 4x4s, vans and now HGVs.

It’s only a matter of time before the pedestrian paving slabs are broken and engine oil patches start to appear. I have been coming to Cyprus long enough to remember the first time the pavements were slabbed and Palms were planted in the Mackenzie and Piale Pasha areas in 1987-88 and sadly, then as now little attention was paid to deterring offenders.

I resist suggesting ways to combat the problem but would be interested to hear if others share my concern!

A resident of Piale Pasha

I suspected that  Mr A Dinou would soon be gracing the letters page of the Sunday Mail (March 16th) following your front page article about Archbishop Chrysostomos and his remarks on the gay community as seen in the eyes of the church and “The perverse school of social deviance” as Dinou states in his usual unequivocal  tone.

“Christians are now refused their legal right to even teach their children that homosexuality is anathema,”  he spouts.  Most people, in what we would call the civilised world, have moved on and it is easy to shrug off A Dinou’s comments as the same old ramblings of someone in their dotage.

However, when this and other of his homophobic comments and opinions that have appeared on your letters page are taken seriously by anyone with any power or influence, whether it be a group of ignorant thugs, a political party or religious fundamentalists,  real harm is the result. From vicious beatings, murder and gang rapes in some countries, imprisonment in others like Saudi Arabia and Russia and  the death penalty in some African countries.

Is this the future he wants to see for Cyprus to ease “The erosion of our moral standards”? Can he not see that a Church that espouses the views that he holds is a cruel and heartless Church.

Even The Pope has said of Gay people “Who am I to judge?”

I’m sure Mr Dinou can dig up a couple of lines from the Old Testament, condemning gays but he will also be fully aware that The Bible also states that gathering firewood on a Sunday, eating shellfish and wearing clothes of more than one fibre are all punishable by stoning to death,  however I don’t remember any letters by him speaking on the evils of the prawn sandwich or the cotton polyester shirt.

What is it about the religious that they have this creepy obsession with what happens in the bedroom between consenting adults?
I know a Christian couple (a man and a woman) whose son, in his twenties, is gay.

He was not turned  gay as A Dinou has suggested can happen in previous letters, he was just born as he is and is very much loved by his parents.  I am interested to know how Mr Dinou would react should he find himself in the same position. Somehow I doubt that he would be thinking “Now what would Jesus do?”

Why is it that those like A Dinou find harm when there is none and loathing where there is only love?

Robert Brew, Paralimni

FORMER Central Bank governor Christodoulos Christodoulou is reportedly facing 10 charges in connection with a huge money transfer into his daughter’s business account less than two months after he left office.
Christodoulou has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing regarding the transfer of €1 million from a Greek ship owner’s account to that of a company headed by his daughter.
Daily Politis reported on Saturday that a charge sheet against Christodoulou, his daughter Athina, and her ex husband Andreas Kizourides has been submitted to the Nicosia district court.
The three face 10 counts including conspiracy to commit felony, forgery and filing a false statement to the inland revenue department.
The charges are linked with a document submitted to a Marfin-Laiki Bank branch in Athens, which stated that Kizourides had sold the daughter’s company two plots of land in Strovolos for €1.1 million, Politis said.
The letter was allegedly written to enable the transfer of the €1 million, which was deposited in the company’s account in Greece, to an account belonging to Kizourides in Cyprus.
The land transaction had never taken place, Politis said.
The former CBC boss has previously claimed that the money was a down payment for consultancy services that would have been provided over ten years.
He also submitted a copy of an agreement between his daughter’s company and Focus, a company belonging to Michalis Zolotas.
Zolotas is said to be a close associate of former Laiki strongman Andreas Vgenopoulos whom many hold responsible for the collapse of the island’s banking system.
The transfer in question was allegedly made to the company’s Athens-based bank account in July 2007.
Around two years later, the €1m plus interest was then allegedly transferred to an account in Laiki Bank.

THE BOARD of directors of the dear old Bank of Cyprus have thought of a quite brilliant way to mark the first anniversary of the Eurogroup decision that allowed the bank to take half the money of its depositors and wipe out its shareholders for its recapitalisation purposes.

As a show of respect and deep gratitude to its depositors, the directors of the B of C will be flying to Moscow on March 25 – the actual day, 12 months ago, the Eurogroup made its decision – so they could hold a ‘special anniversary’ board meeting there. The Russian directors will probably already be there, thus saving the bank of the cost of the five business class air tickets.
The directors, who will be accompanied by their spouses, will stay at the super-luxury Ararat Park Hyatt Hotel in the centre of Moscow, a few minutes’ walk from the Kremlin and Red Square for four days, even though board meetings rarely last longer than one afternoon.
The cheapest room at the Hyatt is €362 a night with deluxe rooms costing €432. It is doubtful the directors would have been booked into suites which cost a little over €800 a night as this would have been a bit extravagant in these difficult times for the bank.
The bank’s directors obviously did not want to be accused of spending too much of the money taken from the depositors on the special anniversary holiday. After all the strict Professor Panicos is still the Governor and he might not approve of such profligacy, even though he also had a passion for first class travel and luxury hotels, as long as the Central Bank was picking up the bill.

HAPPY BUNNY chairman Christis Hassapis came up with the brilliant idea of combining business (very little) with pleasure (lots of it), wasting the struggling bank’s money on a totally unnecessary trip to Moscow for a board meeting that could have been held in Strovolos at zero expense.
Admittedly, he has every reason to celebrate the anniversary of the Eurogroup decision that gave him his big break in life. He is one of the few people in Kyproulla who benefited on a massive scale from the bail-in, seeing all his dreams come true as a result of it. Overnight he acquired everything he did not have – fame, social status, instant recognisability, power and several suits.
This is why he is always in euphoric mood. He is now in a position to arrange an all-expenses-paid, four-day holiday for the 15 directors of the B of C and their wives/husbands in a super-luxury hotel in Moscow without justifying his decision to anybody.
And his generosity, funded by the bailed-in depositors’ money, is designed to win the loyalty of his fellow directors, whose support could be necessary for him to hold on to the chairmanship. Wining and dining them at Moscow’s very expensive restaurants is not a bad way to win the support of the Cypriot directors. The mega-wealthy Russian directors will not be impressed by his generosity, but they will appreciate going to a board meeting by car rather than by private jet.
Regardless of all this, the truth is the chirpy chairman sent out a reassuring message to the banks’ customers – their seized funds were being put to very good use.

THE HAPPY BUNNY has been using his position to build up his personal power and is said to have developed dictatorial tendencies at the bank. He has decreed that nobody apart from him and CEO John Hourican is allowed to talk to the media.
As Hourican is not interested in talking to the local media, the publicity-crazed chairman has become the only person available to speak to newspapers and television stations. A few weeks ago Christis vetoed plans by the CEO to hire a press spokesperson (a candidate was interviewed before he found out about it) so that he could remain the one and only person with the authority to speak on behalf of the bank.
It is not even as if he comes up with very smart remarks when speaking to the media. In an interview published this week in Dutch business newspaper, De Financiele Telegraaf he said the bank’s financial results for 2013 showed some encouraging signs. It was not clear from the interview translation whether last year’s losses in excess of €2 billion were one of the encouraging signs.
But his most revealing response was that “the experiment of the hair-cut was unfortunate.” While nobody could ever accuse him of allowing such an unfortunate experiment to be carried out on his hair, he should acknowledge that the deposits hair-cut, for him personally, was a very fortunate experiment indeed.
Without it, he would not today be the happiest bunny in Kyproulla.

THE BIG celebrations for the hair-cut anniversary should be taking place at the Bank of Piraeus, which benefitted more than anyone from the Eurogroup decision that forced the sale of the Cypriot banks’ Greek operation to it.
Thanks to the deal, negotiated by Professor Panicos’ favourite consulting firm Alvarez and Marsal, the B of P, which was on the verge of collapse – in a worse financial state than the B of C – overnight became Greece’s biggest bank. And the price it paid was peanuts. As one banker has said, the deal enabled “the transfer of assets worth €4bn to Piraeus and bankrupted the B of C”.
This would not have been possible without the resolution law Panicos drafted in 2012 and kept a carefully-guarded secret until March 22 last year when he submitted it to the legislature warning that if it was not passed the same day the ECB would close down the B of C. The law had a provision allowing the Central Bank to sell assets of banks without the approval of a bank’s board, which is a requirement under company law.
The B of C board had rejected the ridiculously low price Piraeus offered for its assets in Greece, but it was over-ruled by Panicos, who “always acted in the best interest of our country.” In this case, he acted in the best interests of Piraeus and has earned the right to be the guest of honour, if the bank has an anniversary bash.

THE KYPROULLA dream (fame, power and money), which Christis has been living since last September, is coming to an end for Cruella Markadji at the Central Bank who had gone from being just another anonymous secretary to becoming the ultra-powerful PA of the Governor as soon as AKEL appointed Professor Panicos.
Now Cruella’s glory days are coming to an end. With Panicos set to leave in a couple of weeks, she will no longer be able to the waltz around the Central Bank, showing off her power, barking orders and terrorising staff. And the all-expenses-paid trips abroad, accompanying the governor, are over as well.
I hear that the desperately miserable Akelite apparatchik is trying to cope with her pain by writing poetry. A sensitive soul, deep down, she has been posting her depressing poems, about dead-ends, loneliness, crying endlessly on her Facebook page, according to friends that have access to it. Despair often fuels great creativity and Cruella may discover that her real gift is for poetry rather than running a Central Bank.

STAYING on banking issues, you have to admire the ability of the obnoxious bully Loizos Hadjicostis, President of the bank employees union ETYK, to always get his way. Some 10 days ago, the collective agreement was renewed for his members and they got everything he was demanding in exchange for agreeing to small pay cuts.
Bank employees will carry on paying a paltry 0.58 per cent on housing loans and one per cent on other loans that the rest of us are paying seven and eight per cent for. They are paying less interest than the banks are offering to attract deposits – another example of the B of C putting the money it took from depositors to good use.
But insufferable Hadjicostis’ greatest achievement was to secure the extension of the retirement age to 65, despite very strong opposition from the banks which felt this would be a very costly measure, as it would mean keeping on its highest paid employees for longer. However the bully was as intransigent as a Turk on this issue and got his way. Without the extension he would have been obliged to retire and step down as president of the union. He would have called an indefinite strike at all banks rather than allow that to happen.

OUR LEADING daily Phil has found a very clever way of generating money in these cash-starved times. It finds a sponsor to pay for the publication of a glossy magazine about some issue of supposed public interest, sells advertising in it and offers it free to its readers.
In January it did one about our economic woes and the challenges we would face in 2014. It consisted of some 50 articles, most of them mind-numbingly boring, written by ‘local personalities’. The issue was sponsored by the generous B of P.
In February it published a similarly uninspiring mag on the challenges and prospects of tourism. It was sponsored by the Cyprus Tourism Organisation, to the tune of €35,000. Why is the CTO wasting money funding Phil’s vanity publishing? Thirty-five grand would have been much more usefully spent promoting Cyprus in a publication abroad. Someone should inform the CTO general manager Marios Hannides that his organisation’s mission is to attract tourists from abroad and not to waste the taxpayer’s money helping out local business.

THE SUPPORTERS of the annexation of Crimea by Vladimir Putin, re-discovered their voice this week, urging Prez Nik to oppose any proposed sanctions against Mother Russia at the European Council.
In the end the sanctions were so innocuous, even Nik was able to support them, without fearing a backlash from the supporters of Mummy Russia’s right to invade, occupy and annex another country. As EDEK reliably informed us there were no similarities between Russia’s actions and what Turkey did in Cyprus. “Support for the principles of international law is one thing and the intentional confusion and distortion of dissimilar events and situations another thing.”
That makes no sense at all, but I doubt it was EDEK’s intention to do anything more than confuse us.

APPRENTICE Makarios, Yiorkos Lillikas urged Nik to put the national interest above everything else and not align himself with the US and other countries that wanted to impose sanctions on Mother Russia. “We expect him to consider the cost to the Cyprus problem and the Cyprus economy of siding with the US,” warned the Paphite demagogue.
He needn’t have got so stressed about the issue. The Cyprus economy will suffer a cost, not because of our support for sanctions, but because in his last address to his people, the ultra-nationalist Putin vowed to bring back all offshore companies to Russia. As for the Cyprob, I am sure Russia will carry on offering the help it has always given – changing words and phrases in Security Council resolutions that we object to.

US AMBASSADOR John Koenig, in a speech he made at Larnaca Rotary Club last Tuesday, related a story told to him by the late Galfcos Clerides, when he was serving in Cyprus in the mid-nineties. This is what he said:
“One of the first times I met him (Clerides), he told a story about what it was like to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Cyprus in the very early years of the Republic.
“He was lucky to have been sent out by President Makarios to try to increase awareness of the Cyprus situation among the leaders of the Commonwealth. He had been seated next to the President of India one afternoon in New Delhi when it was quite warm. The (Indian) President seemed to be deep in thought, hands in front of him in this caged fashion, as Clerides rolled through the various aspects of the Cyprus issue over about 20-30 minutes. He was getting into some of the more cogent reasons India should be more interested in Cyprus, and then suddenly, he got to the conclusion. Mr. President, it has been a pleasure to see you, and the President of India said: ‘I am glad to hear that the situation in Jamaica is really coming along’.”
The late, great Spy Kyp, who visited India as president many years later had a very different experience. On his return home he triumphantly announced, “there is great interest for the Cyprus problem in India.”

SPEAKING of India, I hear that it is being seriously considered for the next board meeting of the B of C, but the happy bunny has still not decided on a city.

By George Psyllides

DEFENCE Minister Tasos Mitsopoulos died on Saturday, a day after suffering a ruptured cerebral aneurysm. He was 48. His funeral will be held on Monday in Larnaca.

He was being treated at Nicosia general hospital’s intensive care unit after the ruptured aneurysm on Friday caused extensive haemorrhaging.

On Saturday morning, doctors said his condition had deteriorated and was considered irreversible.

President Nicos Anastasiades, who visited his minister and friend later on Saturday morning, said “only prayers can help at this point”.

Despite doctors’ efforts, Mitsopoulos died at 1.30pm.

His death was officially announced shortly afterwards.

“His family and Cyprus have lost an exceptional man, an exceptional politician,” Health Minister Philippos Patsalis told reporters outside the hospital.

He was married to Katerina Vati and had a son and a daughter.

The Council of Ministers met on Saturday evening, where Mitsopoulos’ place was taken by a photograph and a bunch of white flowers.

It was decided to declare three days of mourning during which flags in public buildings will fly at half mast.

News of his death prompted a wave of tributes on social media, with ordinary people extolling the late minister’s ethos and integrity.

Mitsopoulos was highly respected across the political spectrum. He was considered a rare breed of politician at a time when public trust in politicians is at an all-time low.

“We are losing a friend, a colleague, but mainly we are losing an honest politician, with ethos, who was never seduced by the temptation of power,” Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides said. “A rare phenomenon in the country’s political life.”

Main opposition AKEL said Mitsopoulos’ death was a loss for the country’s political life, especially under the current circumstances.

“Tasos Mitsopoulos was distinguished for his political and human ethos, his dignity and political moderation,” a party statement said. “He was polite to everyone, always.”

Born in Larnaca on May 30, 1965, Mitsopoulos got involved in politics from early on.

He was a member of DISY’s youth and the student organisation Protoporia (1978-2000) as well as a member of the leadership of the Youth of Greece’s New Democracy between 1988-1990.

Mitsopoulos served as director of the office of the DISY chief (Anastasiades) (1997-2005) and as spokesman (1999-2008).

He was elected MP twice, a post he served for seven years until March last year when he was appointed communications minister.

Mitsopoulos assumed the defence portfolio during a reshuffle earlier this month.

DISY chief Averof Neophytou said Cyprus had lost “a wonderful man with a unique ethos. He will be missed.”

“During our time with you even though it was short you taught us a lot. You will be forever in our hearts as the man with the wide smile and great courtesy,” a statement released by the ministry of defence said.

The House Defence Committee will have a special meeting on Monday morning to honour the minister.

Mitsopoulos was found unconscious in his office by his secretary, at around 10.30am on Friday.

He previously had a meeting with the Greek ambassador Vassilis Papaioannou and was scheduled to meet with US ambassador John Koening.

When he ran late for the second meeting, his secretary tried to call him on his office and on the mobile.

When Mitsopoulos didn’t pick up, she knocked on the door and decided to enter when she got no response.

Upon finding the minister unconscious, the secretary called an ambulance and notified a clinic next to the defence ministry.

Doctors from the clinic rushed to the office and performed CPR until the ambulance arrived and took the minister to Nicosia General for emergency surgery.

Reports said Mitsopoulos had complained about having a bad headache on Thursday evening but he only took a couple of over-the-counter pain killers and went to bed.

His wife had asked him to cancel Friday’s appointments and visit his doctor but he refused.

PUBLIC finances may have been brought under control in the last year, as the government never tires of telling us, but the wealth-creating part of the economy continues to slide deeper into recession a year after the Eurogroup decision that supposedly saved the country from bankruptcy. We say ‘supposedly’, because the decision finalised in the early hours of March 25 is increasingly looking like a temporary reprieve rather than a permanent solution to problems faced by the banking sector which affect the whole economy.
One year later, banks and businesses are stuck in a deep hole from which there seems to be no obvious escape route for both at the same time. Whichever attempts to climb out is pulled back down by the other in what has turned into a cut-throat, no-win situation. What prospects of recovery could there be in one, two or three years when the cost of survival is proving so high? Would anything be left standing, when the only departments of the banks doing business would be those dealing with loan recoveries? And with the economy contracting, would the number of businesses unable to service their loans not increase?
Currently, everyone is talking about the non-performing loans (NPL), which stood at about 50 per cent and the banks are having great difficulty recovering. No law has been passed to facilitate foreclosures yet, but bankruptcy notices are appearing in the newspapers while there is information that banks have been taking over the administration of some of their bigger debtors. But the fact is that NPLs have been rising as a result of the worsening economic conditions. In June 2013 the Bank of Cyprus’ NPLs were 36 per cent but by the end of the year had reached 53 per cent; the co-ops are faced with the same problem.
The issue is further complicated by falling property prices which means that the security held by the banks as collateral for loans is inadequate. Banks have been trying to persuade customers to provide additional security, according to associations representing the latter, but with very little success. More significantly, because of the weak legal framework the banks are having great difficulty dealing with debtors that refuse to pay anything. They could take them to court and wait two to three years for a ruling, but in the meantime they will have received nothing of what they are owed.
Businesses fighting to stay afloat, meanwhile, make the calculation that by not making loan repayments they could ensure their survival until things improve or the bank secures a court ruling against them. There is no real incentive for them to opt for the restructuring of loans that the Central Bank has proposed, especially given the extortionate interest rates charged by the banks – at eight per cent, by far the highest in the Eurozone. These high interest rates, which are essential for the survival of the banks, are making repayments difficult even for businesses that have not defaulted on their loan repayments, and could lead to an increase in NPLs. As the economy continues to contract, fewer businesses would be able to pay the interest on their loans, let alone repay the capital.
The Troika’s proposed remedies for the banking sector may seem correct in theory but in practice they are a disaster for the economy. Perhaps the lenders want a complete clean-up of the economy with a big proportion of so-called struggling businesses to close down and only for the fittest to survive; ditto for the banks. This may be the way they believe the Cyprus economy would be put on a healthy footing again, ignoring the human suffering that will be caused along the way because the unemployment rate will soar well above the 19 per cent that is forecast for this year.
There is a way to avoid the total meltdown but the banking sector would need the support of the European Stability Mechanism, which exists to bailout a member-state’s financial sector if it is a stability threat in need of re-capitalisation. We know that Cyprus is, technically, ineligible for help from the ESM, but if an exception were made and assistance were provided to the banks it would not only help restore confidence in the banking sector but it would give some breathing space to businesses, which are suffocating. Every possible avenue of securing additional help for the banks from the EU must be explored by the government. This should be made its number one priority because without it, talk of recovery would be nothing more than a joke in poor taste.

By Angelos Anastasiou
WHEN legislation governing the National Health Scheme in Cyprus was passed in 2001, the consensus was that the country was one giant step closer to the goal of implementing it, following discussions and wishful thoughts that had lasted for decades. However, an incredible 13 years later it is still a plan on paper only.
And Cyprus is still coming up with reasons to delay implementation. Apparently, we’ve gotten so good at it that we even convinced the notoriously unbending Troika of the need for a six-month extension to full implementation, to mid-2016.
It hasn’t helped that the Health minister’s office is all but equipped with revolving doors – since Phrixos Savvides’ stint at the ministry ended in 2003, the post saw nine occupants succeed each other, while last week the current government, barely one year into its term, has already had to replace its Health minister due to party politicking. New ministers take time to catch up with the latest developments in the NHS, ask questions and bounce ideas off their staff, and formulate a personal take on key challenges.
The current plan leaves private insurance companies out of the picture in favour of the state-run Health Insurance Organisation which will administer and fund the NHS, reducing them to a minor role where citizens will have the option of buying private healthcare insurance to complement NHS coverage.
The government is hiding behind the Troika to justify the ban on insurance companies but the reason for the decision itself is shrouded in mystery. The only argument presented against insurance companies is that they are ‘uncompetitive’ – but the easiest way to get rid of an uncompetitive company is to let the competitive market do it.
Insurance companies are understandably unhappy about their exclusion, but being left out offers them little leverage to influence decisions. Nonetheless, they have found a powerful ally in the newly-organised private doctors, whose union ENIK was founded in February 2013.
Private doctors number 80 per cent of the total population of doctors in Cyprus, and the scheme can’t function without their active participation. They claim that the current plan makes baseless assumptions and is financially unsustainable.
“The proposed NHS, with monopolistic insurance coverage, cannot be efficient and is certain to collapse within a few years, saddling the country with losses running in the billions,” said Marios Theodotou, ENIK’s head, adding “just look at what’s happening in Greece”.
“The Netherlands, which is considered to have the best NHS in Europe, offers multiple insurance options, while a comparable monopolistic system, England’s, has created four- and five-month waiting lines,” he said.
So why is the government insisting on leaving insurance companies out? Nanny stateism, says Theodoros Panayiotou, head of CIIM and vocal advocate of insurance competition under the NHS.
“The government thinks it can do this alone – but already it is making all kinds of erroneous assumptions, primarily having to do with costing,” he said, before reformulating the private doctors’ prediction of being left with a gaping budgetary hole which citizens will be asked to fill.
Employers’ contributions are another bone of contention. The NHS is designed to be funded by dedicated contributions by the government, employers and employees. As an organised group, employers are unhappy about anything that might drive up labour costs – all the more so with anything that is sure to do so – and the employers’ association has warned that it will not accept employer contributions to exceed the legally mandated maximum.
“We are in favour of the NHS, as long as it comes with controlled expenses,” Michalis Pilikos, head of employers’ association OEV says.

Mr Anastasiadis wants a bizonal, bicommunal federation. Since the 70s, endless rounds of talks have failed to make headway on attempts to unite Cyprus as a union of two autonomous regions with one central government.  You cannot force two people to live together when there is no trust, suspicion and a brutal bloody past from both sides.

Mr Anastasiadis change course sit down with Mr Eroglu and work out a “land for recognition formula” In other words the RoC gets addition land say Varosha and the Kokkina enclave and in return recognise the TRNC.

The RoC Government needs to think that by forcing a union with the TC and supporting Turkey’s EU bid it would lead to a demographic nightmare for both the RoC and Greece.

What is to stop a future EU Turkey sending millions of Turks as EU citizens to the RoC and Greece and changing the demographics forever?
Greece is prepared to recognise “FYROM” with a geographic qualifier as Republic of Northern Macedonia or Upper Macedonia even though most of the Macedonian region is in Greece.

Greece says it will not recognise a Turkish state in Northern Cyprus even though most of the Cypriot land is in GC hands. You be the Judge.
Plan B for the Turkish Cypriots is if the talks fail they will seek International recognition through the OIC Organisation of Islamic conference which has 57 Muslim states and the TRNC already has observer status.

As it stands 60% of the land is in GC hands 37% in TC hands and 3% the British bases. The worst GC case scenario of a forced union will mean the TC will one day become the majority.

There are already 300.000 Turks and TCs as well as 40.000 Turkish troops plus 180.000 foreigners on the GC side. Do the math Mr Anastasiadis.

In Ireland there are two states surrounded by water, there is the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland why is the international community not pushing the two Irelands to unite?

Why the sudden urge by the UN to unite Cyprus and not Ireland or Sudan?
Personally I can live with the idea of a Republic of Cyprus (EU member) and a northern Cyprus side by side with some land adjustments and compensation for both sides who lost land in 1974. At the very least the GC would keep their Hellenism.

George K Georgiou, Australia

Turkish armed forces shot down a Syrian plane on Sunday which Turkey said had crossed into its air space in an area where Syrian rebels have been battling President Bashar al-Assad’s forces for control of a border crossing.

“A Syrian plane violated our airspace,” Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told an election rally in northwest Turkey. “Our F-16s took off and hit this plane. Why? Because if you violate my airspace, our slap after this will be hard.”

Syria condemned what it called a “blatant aggression” and said the jet was pursuing rebel fighters inside Syria. It said the pilot had managed to eject before the plane crashed.

The Turkish general staff said one of its control centres detected two Syrian MIG-23s around 1 pm (1100 GMT) and warned them four times after they came close to the Turkish border.

One plane entered Turkish airspace at Yayladagi, east of the Kasab border crossing, it said. A Turkish F-16 fired a rocket at the Syrian jet and it crashed around 1,200 metres (1,300 yards) inside Syrian territory.

Amateur video released by rebel fighters showed smoke rising from wooded hills in the border area where they said the plane had come down.

The rebels have been fighting since Friday for control of the Kasab crossing, one of several counter-offensives since they retreated this week from a crusader castle near the Lebanese frontier and town on a vital cross-border supply route.

Assad’s soldiers, backed by Iran and Shi’ite forces from Iraq and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, have been pushing rebels back in the centre of the country around Damascus and Homs, but are still weak in northern and eastern Syria.

“UNPRECEDENTED” TURKISH INTERVENTION

The incident occurred six months after Turkish warplanes shot down a Syrian helicopter which crossed into Turkish airspace in the same border area.

Once a close ally of Assad, Erdogan became a fierce critic of the president’s military response to Syria’s uprising and has sheltered and supported rebels battling to overthrow him.

Authorities in Damascus say this week’s Islamist rebel offensive around the Kasab border crossing marked a new escalation, accusing Turkey of firing tank and artillery shells into Syria to provide cover for the fighters.

A source at Syria’s foreign ministry called Turkey’s actions “unprecedented and unjustified”, state news agency SANA said.

More than 140,000 people have been killed in Syria’s conflict, while 2.5 million refugees have fled to neighbouring countries and millions more need humanitarian aid.

Assad’s forces have already lost control of most border crossings with Turkey during the three-year civil war but had held on to Kasab, gateway to the coastal province of Latakia which has remained an Assad stronghold.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said heavy clashes continued for a third day around Kasab, where rebels have seized control of the border crossing but Assad’s forces, who still control the nearby Kasab village, have been fighting back, supported by air power.

The British-based anti-Assad Observatory said rebels also launched another attack in Latakia on Sunday in the village of Solas, about 25 km (15 miles) south of Kasab.

In the northern city of Aleppo, rebels said they had captured a former police station on the edge of the city’s ancient citadel, as well as installations in the Layramoun district and a nearby hill overlooking the main road into Aleppo from the northwest.

NATO’s top military commander said on Sunday Russia had built up a “very sizeable” force on its border with Ukraine and Moscow may have a region in another ex-Soviet republic, Moldova, in its sights after annexing Crimea.

Russia was acting more like an adversary than a partner, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove said, and the 28-nation alliance should rethink the positioning and readiness of its forces in eastern Europe.

Russian troops, using armoured vehicles, automatic weapons and stun grenades, seized some of the the last military facilities under Ukrainian control on Saturday in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russian President Vladimir Putin formally annexed the day before.

Breedlove was one of several Western officials and politicians to warn on Sunday that Russia may not stop there in a crisis that has taken East-West relations lurching back towards the Cold War since pro-Western protests in Ukraine ousted Moscow-allied President Viktor Yanukovich last month.

“The (Russian) force that is at the Ukrainian border now to the east is very, very sizeable and very, very ready,” the NATO commander told an event held by the German Marshall Fund think-tank.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken said the build-up might just be aimed at intimidating Ukraine’s new pro-Western leaders but that Russia could invade the country’s mainly Russian-speaking east. “It’s possible that they are preparing to move in,” he told CNN.

Russia said it was complying with international agreements and had no plans to invade. It has called the soldiers who took over Ukrainian bases in Crimea “self defence forces”.

The United States and the European Union have targeted some of Putin’s closest political and business allies with personal sanctions and have threatened broader economic sanctions if Putin’s forces encroach on other eastern or southern parts of Ukraine with big Russian-speaking populations.

Ukrainian marine standards were still flying on Sunday alongside the Russian flag at the Crimean base of Ukraine’s top military unit in Fedosiya, but the Ukrainian troops were getting ready to leave after the Russian military takeover.

“Our only issue is that we want to leave this place with honour, weapons and vehicles,” one Ukrainian soldier said.

Blinken said Washington was considering all requests for military assistance from the government in Kiev, but that it would be unlikely to prevent an invasion of Ukraine, which is not part of NATO. Breedlove said the military alliance needed to think about its eastern members, particularly the former Soviet Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

“We need to think about our allies, the positioning of our forces in the alliance and the readiness of those forces … such that we can be there to defend against it if required, especially in the Baltics and other places,” Breedlove said.

“VERY WORRISOME”

Breedlove said NATO was very concerned about the threat to Transdniestria, which declared independence from Moldova in 1990 but has not been recognised by any United Nations member state. About 30 percent of its half million population is ethnic Russian, which is the mother tongue of an overall majority.

Russia has 440 peacekeepers in Transdniestria plus other soldiers guarding Soviet-era arms stocks.

Russia launched a new military exercise, involving 8,500 artillery men, near Ukraine’s eastern border 10 days ago.

“There is absolutely sufficient (Russian) force postured on the eastern border of Ukraine to run to Transdniestria if the decision was made to do that, and that is very worrisome,” Breedlove said.

The speaker of Transdniestria’s parliament has urged Russia to incorporate the region, which lies to the west of Ukraine. The new leaders in Kiev have said Moscow could seek to link up pro-Russian regions in Moldova and Georgia to Ukraine’s east in a destabilising southern corridor with Crimea in the middle.

Russia’s Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov was quoted by the state’s Itar-Tass news agency as saying Russia was complying with international agreements limiting the number of troops near its border with Ukraine.

Moscow’s ambassador to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, said Russia did not have “expansionist views”. Asked to give a commitment that Russian troops would not move into Ukrainian territory outside Crimea, he told Britain’s BBC. “There is no intention of the Russian Federation to do anything like that.”

U.S. Senator John McCain, a Republican foreign policy specialist, told the same BBC show that Putin’s actions in Ukraine were akin to those of Adolf Hitler in 1930s Germany.

“I think he (Putin) is calculating how much he can get away with, just as Adolf Hitler calculated how much he could get away with in the 1930s,” McCain said.

“PANDORA’S BOX”

Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier underscored the huge potential repercussions of Russia’s bid to redraw national borders in Europe.

“I’m very worried the unlawful attempt to alter recognised borders in our European neighbourhood, 25 years after the end of the Cold War, will open Pandora’s Box,” he said.

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia, accepted on Sunday that Crimea was now “de facto” a part of Russia, but said the annexation set a “bad precedent”.

Speaking to reporters in Minsk, Lukashenko said Ukraine, which shares a long land border with Belarus, should remain “a single, indivisible, integral, non-bloc state”.

Western sanctions lost some of their sting on Sunday when Russia’s SMP bank, whose main shareholders were targeted by U.S. sanctions, said Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc had resumed payment services for its clients.

The bank said it was glad the two biggest international payments systems had listened to its arguments to reverse Friday’s suspension of services as it was wrong to target the bank, which was not itself subject to any sanctions.

A spokesperson for Mastercard confirmed it was again serving clients of the bank but did not say why it reversed its decision. Visa said it had been informed by the U.S. government to lift sanctions against SMP bank and two other Russian banks because they did not meet the criteria for sanctions.

Putin and Russian media had mocked the sanctions, which did not stop the Russian military completing its takeover of Ukraine’s military bases in Crimea. Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its flag was now flying over 189 Ukrainian military installations on the peninsula.

A referendum held a week ago after Russian troops had seized control of Crimea overwhelmingly backed union with Russia but was denounced by Washington and the European Union as a sham.

The EU emphasised its support for the new pro-Western government in Kiev, signing a political agreement with interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk last week.

It also promised financial aid for the government – which Moscow says came to power by a coup to overthrow Yanukovich after he rejected an EU trade deal in favour of closer ties with Russia – as soon as Kiev reaches a deal with the International Monetary Fund. The IMF will report on Tuesday.

By Amy Sawitta Lefevre

Anti-government demonstrators in Thailand resumed street protests on Monday after lying low for weeks, piling pressure on increasingly beleaguered Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who is expected to face impeachment within days.

Her opponents were emboldened by a Constitutional Court decision on Friday to nullify last month’s election, delaying the formation of a new administration and leaving Yingluck in charge of a caretaker government with limited powers.

Yingluck’s opponents first took to the streets in late November. Twenty-three people were killed and hundreds wounded in the political violence before the protests began to subside earlier this month. But the court ruling appears to have given her foes a second wind.

The protests are the latest instalment of an eight-year political battle broadly pitting the Bangkok middle class and royalist establishment against the mostly rural supporters of Yingluck and her billionaire brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.

There are growing fears that Thailand could be heading towards serious civil unrest. After months of restraint, Thaksin’s “red shirt” supporters have begun making militant noises under hardline new leaders.

They plan a big rally on April 5, possibly in Bangkok, and the political atmosphere is expected to become even more highly charged in coming days.

Yingluck has until March 31 to defend herself before the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) for dereliction of duty over a ruinous rice-buying scheme that has run up huge losses.

If the commission recommends her impeachment, she could be removed from office by the upper house Senate, which is likely to have an anti-Thaksin majority after an election for half its members on March 30.

In a sign of the potential trouble ahead, one hundred red shirts blocked entrances to the NACC’s offices in north Bangkok with sandbags on Monday to prevent officials there from working as police formed a wall to stop the group from facing off with anti-government protesters gathered nearby.

Earlier, red shirt supporters attacked a Buddhist monk, slightly injuring him, near the NACC offices after he insulted them for blocking a road in front of the complex.

CLOCK TICKING

The Constitutional Court annulment of the election could offer a way out of the political stalemate if the main opposition Democrat Party, which boycotted the Feb. 2 poll, decides to run in a fresh vote. So far, however, the Democrat Party has given no clear indication on what it plans to do.

The Election Commission, which is in charge of organising the new poll, met on Monday to decide how to proceed. Its chairman has said it would take at least three months to organise a new vote once a date is agreed.

It is increasingly uncertain whether Yingluck will last that long, due to the mounting legal challenges.

The prospect of her removal has bolstered the confidence of protest leaders.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban has said he will lead a march every day this week to urge supporters to join a “massive” rally in Bangkok on Saturday to press for political reforms before a new vote takes place.

“Our rally will be the biggest signal to Yingluck Shinawatra and the Thaksin regime that the Thai public does not want elections before reforms,” Suthep said in a speech on Sunday.

His supporters prevented voting in 28 constituencies on February 2, providing grounds for the Constitutional Court to annul the election. Yingluck’s supporters say the court, set up after the 2006 coup that removed her brother, has a record of ruling against parties linked to the former premier.

At the height of the protests more than 200,000 people took to the streets to demand Yingluck’s resignation and to try to rid the country of the influence of Thaksin, whom they accuse of nepotism.

The protesters want an unelected “people’s council” installed to oversee electoral changes that would, among other things, prevent close Thaksin allies from running for office.

By Jean Christou

A 15-MINUTE ‘circular’ workout incorporated into a Limassol lyceum’s PE class, which lasted for two months twice a week significantly improved the overall health of the teens who took part.

Forty students from the Ayios Antonios lyceum voluntarily took part in the pilot study, jointly created with the sports science department of the University of Nicosia.

The control group made up of other students who merely continued normal PE classes showed no improvement in their well being, according to a statement marking the conclusion of the programme.

According to the results, the 40 students who took part, all showed increased cardio-respiratory capacity, had a small but significant decrease in body fat, and a reduction in blood pressure at rest. They also showed improvements in upper limb strength and jumping ability.

The study came about after school students at the school were tested for general PE effectiveness at the beginning and end of the 2012-2013 school year.

In September 2012, an assessment on the fitness of the children showed that 20 per cent of students had increased body fat and only 35 per cent had acceptable cardio-respiratory levels.

Such low aerobic capacity is associated with later health problems such as high cholesterol, poor circulation and hypertension.

At the end of the same school year, the children were evaluated again following a full school-year’s worth of standard PE classes. The results showed that there was no substantial change in cardio-respiratory capacity, body fat, speed, jumping ability, and strength of upper limbs.

“Although through such monitoring we cannot draw conclusions as to the cause of the absence of improvement it is certain that the small number of fitness classes in schools in Cyprus is a major negative factor,” said the announcement.

To see if some changes could be made, the pilot programme involving the ‘circular workout’ similar to those at some gyms where people spend two or three minutes on a workout machine and then move on to the next one in a circular direction, was introduced to see if it would make a difference.

“The professors at the University of Nicosia wanted to offer an innovative programme in the context of physical education to see if they could achieve a substantial improvement of the health of students,” said the announcement.

The advantage of the circular workout is that it takes place at a moderate to high intensity in a short period of time.

“The test results are quite encouraging, since with a small controlled and targeted intervention in the context of physical education we can achieve improvements in the health of adolescent students,” the announcement said.

Researchers are now examining how the initiative could be extended to other schools in collaboration with education ministry.

THE BRITISH bases said on Monday that in cooperation with the agriculture ministry, aerial spraying around mosquito breeding sites will be conducted between March 26-28.

The spraying will take place on sites to the north of the LimassolSaltLake (Cherkes-Asomatos area) and to the south, at Livadhi, in Akrotiri.

Aerial spraying will take place between 7am and 10am and access roads to the sites will be closed during that period

WITHIN a dramatically changing world we need to be united to ensure our historical continuity, Education Minister Costas Kadis said in a message to teachers and students marking the anniversary of the Greek Independence Day (March 25, 1821).

In his message, Kadis also paid tribute to the late Defence Minister Tasos Mitsopoulos, 48, who died on Saturday after suffering a ruptured cerebral aneurysm.

The anniversary unfortunately coincided with the death of “an important politician for our country”, Kadis said.

“The deceased, who left so early, while he still had plenty to offer his country, was distinguished for his integrity, honesty, modesty, seriousness and efficiency in the performance of his duties from all positions he held,” Kadis said.

The minister described March 25 1821 as one of the most important milestones in Greek history, the day when the Greeks revolted against the Ottomans, which eventually led to independence.

There were difficult moments, disputes, and problems during the struggle, Kadis said, but the love for freedom, the decision for sacrifice, and the spirit of collective responsibility prevailed among the Greeks, and kept them focused on their cause.

“Within a dramatically changing world, we need to be united, to ensure our historical continuity and see our country reunited and free, within the European family to which we belong,” he said.

By Alix Norman

Unless you’ve been to the Louvre, or done the rounds of the London galleries and museums, it’s unlikely you’ve seen a real Monet. Or a painting by Canaletto. Or a genuine El Greco masterpiece. These Masters are the stuff of legend; once seen, never forgotten. And, until now, the opportunities to view even one of these unparalleled works – let alone three in the same place -would have been few and far between. But that’s all about to change. Now, visitors to Nicosia will be able to see not just art by this triumvirate, but a host of priceless works by any number of renowned artists. Because the much-anticipated AG Leventis Gallery is about to open its doors to the public.

The culmination of the vision of Cypriot entrepreneur Anastasios G Leventis (1902-1978), the project fulfils his ambition to establish a public gallery in his homeland to share the extensive private collection built up over a lifetime. Under the auspices of the AG Leventis Foundation – which for 40 years has supported the dissemination of Greek and Cypriot cultural heritage, focusing on education, society and culture – this €20 million project is seen as an important, if not invaluable, addition to the cultural landscape of the island.

Housing over 800 works, the Gallery will play home to what is the largest private collection of European Art on the island, a collection dedicated to showcasing Greek, Cypriot and Western European art.

Some of the works are by artists not previously seen in cyprus

“Our aim is to provide Cyprus with a cultural institution that will promote European art, bringing the public into contact, for the first time, with major works created within the span of four centuries, from the Renaissance to the 20th century,” says Loukia L. Hadjigavriel, Director of the AG Leventis Gallery. Alongside the objective of sharing and promoting the collection, the intent is that the Gallery will also achieve an educational and informative purpose, acting as an important platform for arts education during a period of grave economic difficulty.
“We’ve set up a traditional art gallery in a minimal, contemporary environment that offers the visitor the opportunity of getting to know and appreciate European art from the 17th century onwards,” she adds, noting that the 4,500m² environment-friendly building will play home to a variety of artworks, from paintings and drawings to watercolours and objets d’art.The collation of such vast amounts of priceless art under one roof seems indeed a massive undertaking – a description which, though frequently overused, is in this case extremely apt. “It took seven years – literally – to get this project off the ground,” says Hadjigavriel.

The multi-million euro project has drawn together experts from all walks in life with the sole purpose of creating a cultural institution without compare on the island; an institution of such importance to the city of Nicosia, that even the street on which it stands is to be renamed in its honour. Designed by the British architecture firm Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, the building (which also includes a restaurant and a number of apartments) uses geothermal energy to heat and cool.

With close collaboration between the design team, the architects and the engineers, the project is a triumph of architecture, interior design and modern technologies. “The visitor will be able to use all his five senses, walk around the galleries and get to know styles, period and works of art and artists that will enable him to understand and appreciate European Art,” says Hadjigavriel.“Special importance has been given to the Gallery’s educational role,” she says, expressing the hope that the gallery will encourage viewers of all ages to learn more about the history of art and understand the divides of artistic schools, movements and styles.

With a number of educational programmes currently being put in place, stools and chairs available on request, and disabled access throughout, the family-friendly Gallery experience will be both informative and interactive. “Viewers will be able to walk around the gallery with the assistance of audio, written or digital multimedia guides,” says Hadjigavriel, enumerating some of the innovative strategies which will delight and inform visitors of all ages. “They can stop and enjoy the multimedia games and colouring productions or even use the video touch wall” – a massive touch screen installation showcasing each of the artworks –“at the entrance of the Gallery to get better acquainted with the entire collection.”

With 800 plus pieces, these modern aids will no doubt prove an invaluable – and entertaining – guide to navigating the three collections into which the artworks have been divided.

The first of these, entitled The Greek Collection, alone comprises over 260 oil paintings, watercolours, drawings and prints by 19th and 20th century Greek artists. Curated by Evita Arapoglou, the collection represents the variety of artistic movements and stylistic approaches in modern Greek painting and includes works by artists such as Pericles Pantazis, Konstantinos Parthenis, Konstantinos Maleas and Spyros Papaloukas as well as pieces by a number of eminent younger artists who have left their mark on 20th-century Greek painting: YannisTsarouchis, Nikos Hatzikyriakos-Ghika and Yannis Moralis, to name a few.

The second collection, The Paris Collection, falls under the auspices of curator Myrto Hatzaki and spans the 17th to the 20th century offering a glimpse of the high points of Western painting. Created by Anastasios G. Leventis in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, this collection reflects the founder’s personal fascination with different artistic schools and styles, from the Old Masters and academic art to Impressionism and the early days of Modernism, amidst period furniture and a wealth of objects from the decorative arts. Including works by artists such as El Greco, Murillo, Fragonard, Gainsborough, Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Pissarro, this grouping also contains what is known as The Paris Room, an artefact which Hadjigavriel admits is a personal favourite. “It’s the petit salon of the Anastasios G. Leventis Paris apartment,” she explains. “We managed to bring the entire room and set it up again in our Gallery. It represents the spirit, the taste of Anastasios Leventis, and always reminds me of him and his vision.”

Curated by Eleni Nikita, The Cyprus Collection is the most recently established of the three artistic groupings. Focusing primarily on the works of the first generation of Cypriot artists, the collection includes representative pieces often of a narrative and figurative character, many of which were inspired by the everyday life of the people, the landscape and the history of Cyprus. Incorporating many iconic pieces, the collection includes The World of Cyprus by Adamantios Diamantis – a painting which completely captures the traditions of the island and its people – as well as an abstract composition by Christoforos Savva, a work that heralds the dawn of a new era in modern Cypriot art.

With a number of temporary exhibitions also planned for the future, the AG Leventis Gallery is set to be a cultural cornerstone of the capital, if not the whole island. “We hope,” concludes Hadjigavriel, “that the visitor will very much enjoy the journey into European Art and to look forward to return and learn and enjoy more our collections or temporary exhibitions.” A hope, one feels, that will absolutely be fulfilled. After all, where else on the island does one have the amazing opportunity to see Canaletto, Hubert Robert, Renoir and Monet, Vryzakis and Rallis, Diamantis and Kanthosall in one space? So if you haven’t already arranged your visit, now is the time to block off a day – or possibly more – to truly appreciate what will no doubt prove to be an absolutely outstanding artistic experience.

The A.G. Leventis Gallery
Housed at 5 Leonidou Street, Nicosia will open its doors to the public on March 25. Opening hours are between 10am and 5pm every day except Tuesday. On Wednesday the Gallery will remain open until 10pm. Cost of entrance is €2. For further information call 22668838 or 22667277, or email info@leventisgallery.org

By Constantinos Psillides

HUNDREDS of people paid their last respects on Monday at the funeral of Defence Minister Tasos Mitsopoulos,  a widely-respected politician, who died on Saturday at the age of 48 after suffering a ruptured aneurysm.

The service was held at the church of Agios Georgios Kontos in Larnaca, Mitsopoulos’  hometown, which was packed with hundreds of people who wanted to pay their last respects to a politician who stood out for his sense of morality and honesty.

President Nicos Anastasiades  delivered a heartfelt eulogy but the farewell from Mitsopoulos’ daughter Hara, summed up what the man was all about.

“Your name is your greatest legacy. Thank you for being who you were. We are so proud that you were our father. I haven’t got much more to say, other than thank you for the memories,” she said.

“Thank you for teaching me dignity and a sense of morality …, thank you for teaching me the huge importance of love. I believe that you had much more to offer to the country but God wanted you by his side. Thank you. We will never forget you.”

Draped in the Cypriot and Greek flags, Mitsopoulos’ casket arrived on a gun carriage followed by his wife Katerina, daughter Hara, and son Aris, flanked by military police officers.

People lined the street outside the church as a military guard presented arms.

A number of Greek dignitaries also attended the funeral service, as Mitsopoulos was very active in Greek politics. Present were the Greek armed forces commander Michal Kostarakos and Greece Defence minister Dimitris Avraamopoulos, another long time collaborator of Mitsopoulos who served as the director of his office from 1993 to 1995. Cyprus party leaders were also present, as well as House president Yiannakis Omirou.

In his eulogy for his long-time associate and friend, President Nicos Anastasiades recounted Mitsopooulos’ achievements in his short political career, referring to him as son.

“I regarded you like one of my own and for you I was a second father, like you used to say. In 20 years there was no shadow cast over our collaboration,” Anastasiades said. “We wept together for the loss of your mother; we celebrated your marriage and the birth of your children. Together we celebrated my election to the office of president, for which your help was invaluable. For that I thank you”.

Anastasiades apologised for not appointing him minister of defence sooner, a post he said Mitsopoulos was eager to take, as his father had served as an officer of the Greek Navy.

“Circumstances didn’t allow it; you didn’t have enough time to see your vision through, my dear Tasos. You depart this world with the honour you deserve, leaving us with the legacy of the exemplary politician – a model of integrity, a model father, a loving husband and a virtuous Christian. Farewell my dear Tasos. Go in peace, knowing that you did your duties to the country, to your hometown, to your loving family, that is now our loving family, to the fullest. Farewell my son.”

Upon placing a wreath, Archbishop Chrysostomos said that the Holy Synod prays that “the Lord of life and death places you where the just forever lie in peace”.

Following the service, the casket was taken for burial at the church’s cemetery, while the army band played the funeral march. At the family’s request, broadcasters didn’t cover the burial service.

According to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), during the time of the burial the crowded shouted “Athanatos” (Immortal) and “farewell Tasos”. A military honour guard fired a 21 gun salute, as mourners applauded and sang the national anthem.

The former defence minister was found unconscious in his office on Friday morning. He was rushed to the Nicosia GeneralHospital where he was diagnosed with a ruptured aneurysm. He underwent surgery but it was already too late. The doctors at the NGH asked for the advice of neurosurgeons from Israel and Greece but there was nothing that could be done. President Anastasiades, who was in Brussels for an EU meeting, cut his visit short and returned to be informed in person on Mitsopoulos health. On Friday night, while exiting the hospital, Anastasiades made a short statement to the press but was emotionally distraught.

Mitsopoulos died on Saturday, at around 1:30 p.m., shortly after the doctors announced that his condition was irreversible.

The online book of condolences available for the public was swarmed with messages.

“You were an honourable politician, the kind Cyprus needed to change. Farewell,” said one message, while another read “may you have a safe journey to the angels. I wish we had more politicians like you. Your dignity and morality were attributes seldom found in people. May you rest in peace.”

On April 5, the people of Afghanistan will go to the polls to select a new president. If this transition of power from President Hamid Karzai to his successor goes forward uneventfully, it will represent the first democratic transition of power in the country’s history. As Afghans prepare themselves for new leadership, the United States would be wise to reflect on how it can use this transition to reset its relationship with Kabul to ensure America can achieve its own policy objectives.

The Obama administration has overseen several political and diplomatic blunders that have hurt its credibility not only with Karzai, but also with the people of Afghanistan. Scholars of democracy and good governance note that stable states are born out of stable institutions and not personalities. The United States has an opportunity to turn around its personality-driven relations with Afghanistan in order to increase its leverage in Kabul.

First, the United States should ratchet down the rhetoric regarding the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) and, by doing so, depersonalize politics with Kabul. President Karzai is a lame duck. If all goes as planned, he will be out of power in the weeks after April 5. Instead of recognizing the transition of power that is about to take place, the Obama administration appears to be on autopilot, continuing to empower President Karzai by placing the fate of U.S. foreign policy in his hands. By drawing red lines that it has been unwilling to observe, the United States has not only emboldened Karzai, but has also discredited itself in the eyes of many Afghans.

While the logic behind pressuring Karzai is to give the military time to figure out its plans, it makes more strategic sense for the United States to negotiate the BSA with Karzai’s successor. The agreement will have more legitimacy in the eyes of the Afghan public if it is negotiated with the new government. All major candidates have said they support the agreement.

The United States can also set things straight with the new Afghan administration by staying out of the upcoming election process. The gulf of mistrust between Karzai and the Obama administration stems from the Obama administration’s efforts to bolster Karzai’s rivals in the 2009 presidential elections. This is not paranoia on the part of Karzai, but instead an assertion verified by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

The outcome of the upcoming election is uncertain, but we do know that it will be marred by poor security, resulting in low voter turnout. The Taliban have threatened those who participate. If previous elections are a guide, there will also be widespread corruption on all sides and Afghans’ ability to participate and monitor these elections will be limited.

Some pundits have already argued that if Zalmai Rassoul emerges as the leading Pashtun candidate over Washington-favorite Ashraf Ghani, it will be the result of vote rigging. The fact of the matter is that we have no idea if there is a front-runner in these elections. Existing polls appear deeply flawed. For example, Tolo TV, a Western-oriented media outlet in Kabul, has supported polls that rely on cellphone sampling in a country that is overwhelmingly rural with limited access to cellphones. Without reflection, the media began using these polls to crown candidates as “front-runners.”

The United States should prepare itself for a flawed outcome. If it wishes to use its influence in Afghanistan, it should be planning for how it might support political mechanisms to bring candidates together should the outcome be widely contested. The outcome will lose its legitimacy if the United States is seen to be the kingmaker.

Afghans have a lot to be proud of in terms of the election campaign. Fearing ethnic regional strife, all candidates have tickets that incorporate the diversity of the population. Rhetoric focuses on national unity.

This past weekend, there was a huge rally for Zalmai Rassoul in the Pashtun heartland of Kandahar featuring his running mate, vice-presidential candidate Habiba Sarabi. Sarabi, former governor of Bamian Province, could soon become the first woman to serve as vice-president in Afghanistan. Ten years ago, this would have been unthinkable.

The campaign has also featured sophisticated debates on domestic and foreign policy issues. Afghan voters have real alternatives to the status quo.

Finally, the United States can reset its relationship with Afghanistan by quashing once and for all its efforts to negotiate with the Taliban without the full participation of the Afghan government. The Obama administration’s efforts to work on such a controversial policy issue so openly without the participation or blessing of the Afghan government have further damaged relations with Karzai. They have also undermined U.S. credibility in Afghanistan, as they have attracted quick media attention but produced no results – except further souring of relations.

The April 5 elections in Afghanistan will not be a new beginning, but they do provide hope that the blood and treasure sacrificed on all sides will not have been in vain.

Jennifer Murtazashvili is a former consultant on Afghanistan with the United Nations and the US Agency for International Development. She is currently a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. 

This article first appeared in www.themarknews.com

By Stuart Grudgings and Siva Govindasamy

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared over two weeks ago en route to Beijing, crashed thousands of miles away in the southern Indian Ocean, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Monday, citing new satellite data.

All 239 people on board were presumed dead, airline officials said.

Analysis of satellite information from British company Inmarsat had shown that the Boeing 777′s last position was in the Indian Ocean west of Perth, Australia, Najib said in a statement.

“This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites,” he said. “It is therefore, with deep sadness and regret, that I must inform you that, according to this new data, Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”

He added that the families of the passengers and crew had been informed.

“For them, the past few weeks have been heart-breaking; I know this news must be harder still,” he said.

After the announcement, there were hysterical scenes at the Beijing hotel where many of the relatives of those on board are staying. More than 150 of the passengers were Chinese.

People wailed, cried and dropped to the floor. One woman shouted out: “It’s not possible, it’s not possible.”

A Reuters reporter on the scene saw at least four people being carried away on stretchers.

Najib’s comments came as an Australian navy ship was close to finding possible debris from the jetliner after a mounting number of sightings of floating objects that are believed to parts of the plane. The search site is about 2,500 km (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth, in icy sub-Arctic seas that are in one of the most remote parts of the globe.

The objects, described as a “grey or green circular object” and an “orange rectangular object”, were spotted on Monday afternoon, said Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, adding that three planes were also en route to the area.

Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing on March 8. No confirmed sighting of the plane has been made since and there is no clue what went wrong.

Attention and resources in the search for the plane had shifted from an initial focus north of the Equator to an increasingly narrowed stretch of rough sea in the southern Indian Ocean, thousands of miles from the original flight path.

Earlier on Monday, Xinhua news agency said a Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft spotted two “relatively big” floating objects and several smaller white ones dispersed over several kilometres.

In a further sign the search was bearing fruit, the U.S. Navy was flying in its high-tech black box detector to the area.

The so-called black boxes – the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder – record what happens on board planes in flight. At crash sites, finding the black boxes soon is crucial because the locator beacons they carry fade out after 30 days.

Investigators believe someone on the flight shut off the plane’s communications systems. Partial military radar tracking showed it turning west and re-crossing the Malay Peninsula, apparently under the control of a skilled pilot.

That has led them to focus on hijacking or sabotage, but investigators have not ruled out technical problems. Faint electronic “pings” also detected by Inmarsat suggested it flew for another six hours or so, but the initial analysis could do no better than place its final signal on one of two vast arcs, the north and south corridors.

Najib said Inmarsat had been performing further calculations on the data.

“Using a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort, they have been able to shed more light on MH370′s flight path,” he said.

“Based on their new analysis, Inmarsat and the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch have concluded that MH370 flew along the southern corridor, and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth.”

Asked how Inmarsat experts had made the breakthrough, Chris McLaughlin, senior vice president for external affairs, said: “They tested (the earlier findings) against a number of known flights of other aircraft and came to the conclusion that only the southern route was possible.”

The new method “gives the approximate direction of travel, plus or minus about 100 miles, to a track line,” he told Britain’s Sky News.

“Unfortunately this is a 1990s satellite over the Indian Ocean that is not GPS-equipped. All we believe we can do is to say that we believe it is in this general location, but we cannot give you the final few feet and inches where it landed. It’s not that sort of system.”

CYPRIOTS COULD do a lot more to stay in shape, but in this regard they fare no worse than most of their European counterparts, a poll has shown.

The latest Eurobarometer survey on sport and physical activity has revealed high levels of inactivity in the EU, where 59 per cent of European Union citizens never or seldom exercise or play sport, while 41 per cent do so at least once a week.

In Cyprus, 64 per cent of respondents said they seldom or never exercise or play sport. Just 11 per cent exercise regularly, and 25 per cent with some regularity. A gender breakdown showed women to be the worst offenders, with 72 per cent exercising very little to not at all, compared to 57 per cent for men.

The survey was carried out for the European Commission by the TNS Opinion & Social network in the 28 Member States between November 23 and December 2, 2013. Nearly 28,000 respondents from different social and population groups took part in the poll. In Cyprus, 500 face-to-face interviews were carried out.

The research also found that 52 per cent of Cypriots seldom or never engage in other physical activity, such as cycling from one place to another, dancing, or gardening.

About a third who do work out do so in a park or outdoors, while 36 per cent exercise at home. And 84 per cent of respondents here said they were not a member of any sports club or health and fitness centre, compared to 74 per cent in the EU-28.

Northern Europe was found to be more physically active than the South and East. 70 per cent of respondents in Sweden said they exercise or play sport at least once a week, just ahead of Denmark (68 per cent) and Finland (66 per cent), followed by the Netherlands (58 per cent) and Luxembourg (54 per cent). At the other end of the scale, 78 per cent never do so in Bulgaria, followed by Malta (75 per cent), Portugal (64 per cent), Romania (60 per cent) and Italy (60 per cent).

Commenting on the findings, Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner responsible for sport, said:

“The results of the Eurobarometer confirm the need for measures to encourage more people to make sport and physical activity a part of their daily lives. This is crucial, not only in terms of an individual’s health, wellbeing and integration, but also because of the significant economic costs resulting from physical inactivity.”

Vassiliou said the Commission would be implementing the recently adopted Council Recommendation on health-enhancing physical activity and move ahead with plans for a European Week of Sport.

The survey shows that EU-wide local authorities in particular could do more to encourage citizens to be physically active. While 74 per cent of respondents believe that local sport clubs and other providers provide sufficient opportunities for this, 39 per cent think their local authorities are not doing enough.

By Constantinos Psillides

DEEP PURPLE, the legendary English rock band, are slated to appear live in the north as part of the 25th anniversary of the CyprusNear EastUniversity, according to a representative of the university executive board.

In a press conference held today, the university representative said that the band will be performing on May 24, at the Near East park in Nicosia. The concert has also been listed on the band’s official website with a link to buy tickets.

According to the Cyprus News Agency, a reporter from the daily Kibris Postasi asked whether the Cyprus government had tried to prevent the concert from taking place. A representative of the university responded that in a period when negotiations on the Cyprus problem are ongoing a rock concert should unite people.

“This is not a political event. Music is an international language and shouldn’t be perceived as a threat by anyone,” he said.

“This concert should be considered as a confidence building measure and a gesture of good will, that shows that we can come together in the international spirit of music,” he added.

Organisers also said that they will be arranging for chartered flights for people who want to attend the concert.

According to the organisers, the event will cost €970,000.

Concerts by major international stars in the north have caused controversies in the past. In July 2010, pop star Jennifer Lopez had to cancel an appearance at a luxury hotel in the north, following a political backlash.