OUTGOING UN Special Envoy Alexander Downer is due on the island today to say his farewells after stepping down from his post last month.

Downer was in New York between March 19 and 20 for his farewell visit to UN headquarters. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked Downer to submit a report in April with his recommendations on the peace talks, including whether he feels it would be useful to appoint someone to replace him or whether his duties can be fully undertaken by UN Special Representative in Cyprus Lisa Buttenheim.

Downer is expected to fully step down by mid-April, after announcing his resignation on February 11, the day the talks began.

On Wednesday, Downer will meet separately with President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu and hold a news conference on Thursday.

Meanwhile the chief negotiators for the two sides, Andreas Mavroyiannis and Kudret Ozersay met yesterday to continue their negotiations on substantive issues.

Anastasiades and Eroglu will hold their second meeting as part of the talks on March 31.

OVER 30 per cent of workers at the finance ministry were off sick for at least one day last year, official data showed.

According to the data, 30.14 per cent, or 737 of the 2,445 civil servants working at the finance ministry, had taken between one and six sick days last year.

About the same, 31.94 per cent, or 781 workers, had not taken any days off sick, the data, which was posted on the ministry’s website, showed.

The next highest percentage was people taking between seven and 13 days off, which reached 17.9 per cent, or 439.

It is followed by those on sick leave between 14 and 20 days – 8.30 per cent or 203.

Ninety-seven employees were absent between 21 and 27 days, and 66 between 28 and 34.

Forty-three were sick for 35 to 41 days, seven, for 42 days, and 28 for 43 days to two months.

Forty-four people, or 1.80 per cent, had taken between two and six months off sick, the data showed.

By Bejay Browne

THE ELEVENTH annual flower festival featuring thousands of blooms will take place at a historic church in Paphos in April.

Organised by the Paphos flower club, the Anglican Church and the Latin Parish, this year’s theme is the Book of Psalms. More than 20 floral displays, each depicting a psalm or a quotation will decorate Ayia Kyriaki Chrysopolitissa, also known as Saint Paul’s pillar church in Kato Paphos.

Margaret Keeble, of the Paphos flower club, has been involved with the festival since its inception.

“The displays will includes thousands of different blooms and many different flowers and we are expecting around one thousand visitors a day to attend,” she said.

The flower festival will take place over a three day period – from April 30 until May 2. The Church will be open each day from 10 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. and in the evenings from there will be an hour of music.

The Paphos Voices will sing on the first evening; there will be an organ recital on the second evening, and the three day event will concluded with a ‘songs of praise’- where members of both churches will be invited to choose their favourite hymns, for an hour of uplifting singing.

All of the profits from the three day festival will be donated to local charities; Archangel Michael Hospice, the Paphos Heart Association and the Paphos Kidney Association.

“Obviously, as the festival takes place in a church there isn’t an entrance fee, but we do have programmes on sale for a small fee which explain each flower display and what it depicts,” Keeble said.

In addition, collection tins will be in place in the church and a retiring collection will take place each evening.

“This is a lovely old church which provides a wonderful setting for the flower festival, which has grown from strength to strength and now attracts visitors from all over the world,” the flower lover said.

“Many holiday makers make a point of being in Paphos at the time of the festival. “

Keeble was among a group of four friends from the Anglican and Latin churches interested in floral art who in 2003 got together in an attempt to bring a flavour of an ‘English style’ church flower festival to Cyprus.

The first festival took place in April 2004, with the theme ‘for all the Saints’. Since then, a wide variety of subjects have been depicted, including biblical quotations, favourite hymns and the life of Moses.

Since the first event, interest amongst the ladies of both churches grew, resulting in the formation of the Paphos Flower Club, which aims to teach and promote the art of flower arranging.

“The club is open to everyone, whether connected to a church or not. We are still going strong and are looking for new members. We now even have male participants,” Keeble said:

Refreshments will be available during the three day festival and include beverages, light lunches and afternoon teas. There will also be stalls selling flowers, flower arrangements and floral accessories, as well as a raffle.

For further information:-Margaret Keeble 99533704 or email keeble@cytanet.com.cy

LAST WEEK we read about the arrest of a man in connection with the alleged murder of his estranged wife, two years ago. At the time, the state pathologist had examined the bedroom in which the 30-year-old mother of three was found, and ruled out foul play. She also carried out a post mortem and concluded that the woman had died of smoke inhalation; there had been a fire on her bed which police reported had been started by a cigarette.

The woman’s family in Greece expressed doubts about the official cause of death after seeing visible marks of violence on her face. It subsequently had her remains exhumed for a fresh post mortem, seeking the help of UK-based experts. The experts concluded that the cause of death was strangulation and not inhalation of smoke as the state pathologist in Cyprus had concluded.

Requesting the remand order against the husband last week, the investigating police officer told the court that it appeared the suspect had hit the woman, strangled her and then set fire to her bed. This was a shocking admission of incompetence by investigators, in particular the state pathologist. How did neither the police nor the pathologist notice the marks of violence on the victim’s face that were spotted by her family, and how in the wake of the new findings were no eyebrows raised as to how the state pathologist could have got it so wrong.

Was this an example of the slapdash and lazy way in which the authorities perform their duties and responsibilities? A verdict of accidental death was the easiest option as there would be no need for a time-consuming investigation. The victim’s immediate family was in Greece and the assumption that they were unlikely to put any pressure on the authorities could easily have been made.

Ultimately, the responsibility for this mess-up belongs to the state pathologist whose findings were completely wrong. The police could not have helped by indicating there was no foul play but it does not absolve the state pathologist of responsibility.

And this raises serious questions about the reliability of other post mortems conducted by this same state pathologist.

Perhaps there is a reasonable explanation for getting this specific case wrong, but we will not know unless there is a full investigation of the matter. It is an imperative for the authorities to establish the reasons for the unreliable post-mortem.

If it is found that this was a human error and there were mitigating circumstances we would be reassured that this was a one-off. But if the investigation finds the error was the result of sloppy work or incompetence, we have a big problem. But regardless of what it would find, the investigation is a must.

FOREIGN INVESTORS will reportedly be returning to the island this week to further discuss plans for a multi-billion leisure project in Yeroskipou, Paphos.

Politis writes that a meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday at the ministry of the interior. The gathering – which it’s understood will be informal – will be presided over by the Town Planning Department.

The proposed venture includes a marina for 500 boats, an art academy, an aquarium, three large hotels, apartment complexes and other buildings. The real estate earmarked covers approximately one square kilometre, the majority of which is uncultivated government land and a small percentage belonging to the Church of Cyprus and private landowners.

Politis also identified the Hungarian national who has been described as the brains behind the scheme. He is Sandor Kenyeres, a billionaire property developer and currently a resident of Cyprus. Kenyeres is the owner of the Antara Spa resort that opened just outside Polis Chrysochous last October.

An associate of Kenyeres told the paper that the Hungarian would be using his contacts to try and raise capital for the project.

But he stressed also that, for the time being, the undertaking is a project on paper only. No money has been raised to date, the source said, adding that the project would most likely be executed in stages, and the entire development might be completed in ten years’ time.

Politis estimated that, even if the project does get off the ground, it would take about two years of red tape for all the permits to go through. That’s because several studies will be required by authorities, including a generic environmental impact assessment (EIA), but also a specialised EIA due to the fact that part of the proposed project borders Moulia, near the coast, which is designated as a protected area.

The venture is being talked up by the Archbishop and by Yeroskipou Mayor Michael Pavlides, who previously told the Mail that the construction phase would generate up to 6,000 jobs, and on completion the project would employ close to 10,000.

The Archbishop meanwhile went so far as to claim that the investment, should it materialise, would be enough to lead Cyprus out of the economic crisis.

But skeptics are taking the promises with a heavy grain of salt. Sources at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry told Politis that the project was “too big to be true”, while others warned of excessive town planning and building relaxations bordering on the scandalous. It’s understood that the government land will be leased for a period of 99 years.

By Hamid Shalizi and Samar Zaak

Suicide bombers attacked a building next to the house of Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani and engaged in a gun battle with security guards protecting his home, officials said.

More than an hour after the initial explosions, gunfire could still be heard in the area, which had been cordoned off by police, a Reuters cameraman at the scene said.

Ghani, a former World Bank official, was not at home at the time of the attack.

The Afghan capital is on high alert ahead of an April 5 presidential election which Taliban insurgents have threatened to derail through a campaign of bombings and assassinations.

The election is designed to mark the country’s first democratic transfer of power. President Hamid Karzai is barred from running for another term after 12 years in power but is widely expected to retain his influence after the vote.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Initially police said militants had attacked Ghani’s house itself but later Ghani’s campaign aide said the assault started from an adjacent building housing a provincial election office.

“The attack was on an election office next to Dr Ashraf Ghani’s house. His house was also hit by the attackers. He is not at home but his family is there,” said the aide.

The interior ministry said there were two explosions followed by gunfire. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Ghani, in Twitter post sent after the attack, said: “Just arrived at Gardez rally, a huge crowd of tens of thousands.” Gardez is in a volatile area south of Kabul.

The Taliban said in a statement their suicide bombers had entered the adjacent building and blew themselves up.

“A number of suicide bombers attacked an important election centre at the heart of Kabul,” the statement said.

“The attack started with a very heavy explosion and then a number of people entered with heavy and light weapons.”

Separately on Tuesday, three suicide bombers entered a branch of Kabulbank, one of Afghanistan’s biggest banks, in eastern Kunar province killing at least three security guards and wounding two bank workers, police said.

By Neil Maidment

Just five months after its privatisation, Britain’s Royal Mail postal service has announced plans to cut a net 1,300 jobs to reduce costs, prompting a threat of industrial action from a trade union.

Royal Mail, sold off last October in Britain’s biggest privatisation for decades, has shed 50,000 jobs in 11 years as it tries to adapt to the rise of electronic mail and a shift from traditional letters to more parcel deliveries.

The group said on Tuesday it planned to cut 1,600 managerial and head office jobs, offset by the creation of around 300 new or enhanced positions, in order to save an eventual 50 million pounds ($82.5 million) a year.

The Unite trade union, which represents the majority of those staff to be affected, called the cuts ruthless and said industrial action was an option.

“Unite is demanding a commitment to no compulsory redundancies on fair terms and an effective method for redeployment within the restructured organisation. If Royal Mail refuse we will have no alternative than to consider a ballot for industrial action,” its Royal Mail officer Brian Scott said.

Royal Mail, which employs about 150,000 staff, only narrowly avoided strike action from frontline postal workers at Christmas after agreeing a new deal on pay and terms.

The company, which said the latest cuts would not affect postmen or women, has rarely been out of the headlines since the government sold off part of its stake.

With its shares surging almost 80 percent above the offer price, opposition lawmakers accused the government of selling the stake off too cheaply and short-changing taxpayers.

The job cuts won the backing of some investors.

RESTRUCTURING COSTS

“We see this as just another phase in their cost-cutting to evolve the business,” Chris Murphy, UK equity income fund manager at Aviva Investors, a top 20 shareholder in Royal Mail, told Reuters. “We still think it’s a well run company with strong management and we have faith in what they’re doing.”

Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Robin Byde also welcomed the cuts as a necessary step in a restructuring that had further to run, although he was wary of potential industrial action.

“The net job cuts proposed are slightly higher than we had forecast,” he said.

“We think that there is risk of industrial action.”

At 1015 GMT, Royal Mail shares were down 1.4 percent at 576.18 pence, the biggest fall in the benchmark FTSE 100 stock index, although they are still around 75 percent higher than their government sell-off price of 330 pence.

Asked about the reassurances sought by Unite, Royal Mail said it had a track record of achieving change through natural turnover, redeployment and voluntary redundancy where possible.

The group said the job cuts would deliver around 25 million of cost savings in 2014-15 and would help it to respond to increasing competition and higher pension charges.

The plan will result in a one-off cost of 100 million pounds, taking the total costs of its transformation plans to 230 million pounds for 2013-14, 70 million pounds more than Royal Mail had previously expected.

However, the group said this would have no impact on its investment programme.

Royal Mail, which will announce full-year results on May 22, said underlying trends were broadly in line with those seen in the first half, when rising parcel revenue and cost cuts helped it to almost double operating profit after transformation costs to 283 million pounds.

By Sylvia Westall and Amena Bakr

Arab leaders struggling with an array of foreign policy disputes opened an annual summit on Tuesday to try to forge a common stand on regional crises such as Syria’s war, and on what many of them see as the menace of Iranian-U.S. rapprochement.

The gathering in Kuwait follows an unprecedented row among members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) alliance of Gulf Arab states over Qatari support for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, and a verbal spat between Iraq and Saudi Arabia over violence in Iraq’s Anbar province.

The annual meeting of the 22-member League of Arab States is expected to agree on more humanitarian action in response to Syria’s war, which has entered its fourth year and put a severe strain on neighbouring countries hosting refugees.

However the row among Gulf Arab states is unlikely to take centrestage at Tuesday’s gathering.

Gulf states tend to keep their disagreements private, making a decision by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain earlier this month to recall their ambassadors from Qatar especially sensitive.

Kuwait, which kept its ambassador in Doha, has offered to mediate in the dispute and is anxious to see the summit take place without further divisions.

Shortly before the summit opened Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, smiling broadly, stood between Saudi Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, holding hands with them in an apparent attempt to convey a mood of reconciliation.

“WOUND IS DEEP”

But a Kuwaiti official said the dispute between Qatar and its neighbours was not expected to be on the summit’s agenda.

Asked whether the issue would be raised at the meeting, Khaled al Jarallah, Kuwaiti undersecretary for foreign affairs, told reporters: “Gulf reconciliation, and Gulf issues are something for inside the Gulf house.”

On Monday Lebanon’s foreign minister called on Arab states to support the Lebanese army to counter fallout from Syria’s civil war, which he said threatened to tear the country apart.

The meeting will also discuss other regional challenges such as Iran, which has improved long-frosty ties with Western powers since the election of President Hassan Rouhani.

Arab summits have long been dominated by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a topic on which most Arab states share a common view. The “Arab Spring” uprisings that began in 2011 have polarised the region, however.

Syria’s war has stirred tensions between Sunni Muslims, notably in the Gulf, and Shi’ites in Iraq, Lebanon and Iran, whose faith is related to that of Assad’s Alawite minority.

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby has said the summit could be affected by “differences” and that there was an urgent need to clear the atmosphere.

Egypt’s foreign minister Nabil Fahmy said reconciliation would prove difficult at the summit.

“I don’t expect we will leave from the Kuwait summit with all parties convinced that all things are resolved,” he told reporters in Kuwait on Sunday. “The wound is deep.”

Syrian opposition leaders have been lobbying the Arab League to give them Syria’s seat on the pan-Arab body, and to push Arab states to approve the delivery of military hardware to them to boost their fight against Assad.

Syria’s seat will remain vacant at the summit but the head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, Ahmed al-Jarba, is due to deliver a speech.

Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations peace mediator for Syria, said on Monday it was unlikely that talks in Switzerland between the Syrian government and opposition would resume soon.

Syria’s Arab allies, including Iraq, Algeria and Lebanon, oppose support for the rebels. They point out that Islamists, including groups linked to al Qaeda, are the strongest force in the armed opposition.

The European Central Bank could buy loans and other assets from banks to lift the euro zone economy, Germany’s Bundesbank has said, marking a radical softening of its stance on the contested policy.

The Bundesbank represents the euro zone’s biggest economy, Germany, and its president’s words carry weight in the debate over what the ECB should do as its traditional stimulus methods, such as lowering the cost of borrowing, run out of steam.

Jens Weidmann, who is a member of the European Central Bank Governing Council, called in an interview with MNI published on Tuesday for a debate about the effectiveness of other policy tools as the scope of further interest rates cuts was limited.

“The unconventional measures under consideration are largely uncharted territory. This means that we need a discussion about their effectiveness and also about their costs and side-effects,” Weidmann said in the interview, conducted on Friday.

“This does not mean that a QE programme is generally out of the question,” Weidmann said. “But we have to ensure that the prohibition of monetary financing is respected.”

Quantitative easing (QE) is when a central bank buys loans or other assets from banks and would represent a radical departure for the ECB, which has so far, not least under pressure from Germany, refused to make such a move.

Weidmann had been one of the chief opponents of such a move and his change of tack signals a possible future shift in the ECB’s stance, just at the time that the U.S. Federal Reserve is paring back its own programme of asset buying.

The ECB has kept interest rates at a record low of 0.25 percent since November and said it would keep rates at this level or lower well into the recovery and even if inflation begins to pick up to absorb a large degree of unused capacity.

The central bank has started to pay closer attention to the euro exchange rate and its impact on the outlook for inflation and Weidmann said a negative deposit rate could be a way to address the impact from a strengthening currency.

“If you wanted to counter the consequences of a strong appreciation of the euro for the inflation outlook, negative rates would, however, appear to be a more appropriate measure than others,” Weidmann said. “But we are talking about hypothetical scenarios here and not about imminent decisions.”

Weidmann was referring to a negative deposit rate, which would mean that banks would have to pay to park their funds at the ECB overnight. The impact such a step would have to improve bank lending to companies and households was “debatable”.

Iceland grew a little richer on Tuesday, at least in cyberspace, with the launch of a virtual currency its pseudonymous founder hopes will circumvent the island’s capital controls and eventually replace the crown.

To warning noises from the country’s authorities and shrugged shoulders elsewhere, Baldur Friggjar Odinsson said the Auroracoin aimed to free Icelanders from their “financial prison.”

Since its financial system collapsed and controls were imposed in 2008, Iceland has been debating whether to adopt the euro or the Canadian dollar or go it alone with the crown, which lost more than 50 percent of its value during the crash.

By 1346 GMT, hours after its launch, Auroracoin’s website showed around 127,650 of the coins had been claimed out of 10.5 million to be distributed electronically over a whole year.

Two virtual exchange websites, Crypto-Currency Market Capitalizations and BitInfoCharts, valued one Auroracoin at $11.41 and $10.46, respectively, on Tuesday afternoon – but how and where its holders might spend the new currency was unclear.

Odinsson – who declined to give his real name and said he derived his pseudonym from Norse mythology – said he hoped Auroracoins could mimic the success of Bitcoins, the most widely-used crypto currency.

“The people are being held in a financial prison. Auroracoin is an effort to break down the walls of this prison,” he wrote in an email to Reuters.

RISKY BUSINESS

Iceland’s parliament has expressed concern about the virtual currency and the central bank said it could be extremely risky.

“Recent experience shows that the value of virtual currency in terms of recognised currencies can fluctuate widely,” the central bank said in a statement earlier this month.

Ordinary Icelanders reacted with suspicion.

“I have no interest or intention of using this currency. I don’t like the crown either as it is very weak, but it is at least more secure than these Auroracoins,” Reykjavik teacher Hulda Gudmundsdottir said.

Crypto currencies like Auroracoin and its better-known forebear Bitcoin are handed out in strictly controlled amounts, giving them a value that can be traded.

Supporters argue they aren’t subject to the whims of central banks or governments, but their value also depends on whether they can be spent – something as yet unclear in Iceland.

Lars Christensen, emerging market economist at Danske Bank, said unless the law changed and allowed Icelanders to pay, for example, taxes in Auroracoins, the new currency would be unlikely to flourish.

But he said that given Icelanders’ lack of support for the crown and the failure of monetary policy to provide economic stability, adopting an alternative was not unthinkable.

“If you wanted to find somewhere where the conditions are in place, where the public is ready to accept an alternative to their own currency, Iceland is the place,” he said.

The island’s banks expanded overseas and built up assets 10 times the size of the economy before going bust in the global credit crunch late in 2008, saddling the country with huge debts.

About 12.4 million bitcoins, worth $6.2 billion at recent prices, have been minted since they began circulating in 2009, according to Blockchain.info.

But the currency has taken a knock from the recent failure of Mt. Gox, a Tokyo-based exchange that filed for bankruptcy after losing an estimated $650 million worth, bringing the currency under a new level of scrutiny by regulators.

By Philip Pullella

The Vatican removed a German bishop on Wednesday because he spent 31 million euros of Church funds on an extravagant residence when Pope Francis was preaching austerity.

It said the atmosphere in the diocese of Limburg had become such that Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst could no longer carry out a “fruitful exercise” of his ministry there.

Tebartz-van Elst, dubbed the “bishop of bling”, had been ordered to stay out of his diocese temporarily last October while a local Church investigation and audit into cost over-runs was made. He offered his resignation at the time.

A statement said the Vatican department that oversees bishops had now accepted his resignation after studying the results of the investigation. The German Church was expected to release details of the investigation on Wednesday.

“The Holy Father asks the faithful of the diocese of Limburg to accept the decisions of the Holy See with docility and to commit themselves to rediscovering an atmosphere of charity and reconciliation,” the Vatican statement said.

Another prelate, Monsignor Manfred Grothe, has been appointed to run the diocese as an administrator on the Vatican’s behalf for the time being and a position will be found for Tebartz-van Elst in due course, the Vatican said.

The Limburg affair has been an embarrassment for the Vatican as Pope Francis has been urging Church officials around the world to live simpler lives and to get closer to the poor.

Francis has several times told bishops not to live like princes. He has renounced the spacious papal apartments in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace for much more modest quarters in a Church guest house.

IRRITATION

Last year, Francis showed his irritation over the affair by keeping the bishop waiting for eight days in Rome before receiving him in the Vatican.

Lay Catholic groups welcomed the move, calling it a chance for a new start in the diocese.

“It is very important for the Church in all of Germany to draw the necessary conclusions … this applies especially to transparency in Church finances,” said Alois Glueck, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics, the main lay association in Germany.

“Today’s decision must be a signal for the whole Church, and not just in Germany,” said the reform-minded lay group We Are Church.”

Tebartz-van Elst has apologised for any “carelessness or misjudgement on my part”, but he denies any wrongdoing.

German media, citing official documents, said the residence had been fitted with a free-standing bath that cost 15,000 euros, a conference table that cost 25,000 euros and a private chapel for 2.9 million euros.

The affair has also deeply embarrassed a German Catholic Church that had been enjoying an upswing in popularity because of Francis’s wide personal appeal and after years of criticism for covering up sexual abuse cases among the clergy.

Tebartz-van Elst, 54, is still 21 years away from official retirement age in the Church. He will retain the title and rank of bishop but the Vatican will probably want to put him in a low-profile job somewhere.

The scandal has put pressure on German bishops for more financial transparency, forcing them to scrap centuries of secrecy over reporting the value of their private endowments.

Germany’s church tax, collected from worshippers by the state and handed over to the churches, raised 5.2 billion euros for the Catholics and 4.6 billion euros for Protestants in 2012.

By Staff Reporter

Wizz Air, the largest low-cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe on Wednesday announced a new route from Vilnius, Lithuania, to Larnaca from June.

The new service will be operated on one of the airline’s new Airbus A320 aircraft from June 22 and will be a direct connection from Lithuania to Cyprus.

The flights will be operated on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Seats on the new route are already on sale from €40 one-way including taxes, non-optional charges and one small cabin bag, and can be booked on wizzair.com.

Wizz Air’s Daniel de Carvalho said: “Wizz Air’s commitment to Lithuania is today once again underlined by a new and much awaited summer sun route to Cyprus. Larnaca is now accessible on our low fares from Vilnius and we hope that this route will be just as popular as the other 16 in the Lithuanian network. We hope that Vilnius will benefit from the inflow of tourists from Cyprus which could stimulate job creation in tourism and hospitality sectors. On the other hand we are also confident that Lithuanian consumers will appreciate visiting the beautiful seaside resorts of Larnaca all year round and that it becomes popular to book long weekends in this friendly and warm destination. Tickets are already on sale starting from LTL 139 on wizzair.com.”

Nicosia municipality said on Wednesday it had created 200 new parking slots around the periphery of the city centre in a joint move with property owners.

The extra parking can be found on Simonidou, on the corner of Alasias and Zenon Sozou, on Agapinor, Pente Pingadion, Charalambous Mouskos and Markos Drakos.

Parking in these areas will be provided for 12 hours at a cost of €2, the municipality said.

As of next Monday for residents and workers within municipal boundaries, parking charges will be levied at 2009 levels despite the increase in VAT from 15 per cent to 19 per cent.

Parking meters will be free on Saturdays from noon until Mondays at 7am and every evening after 7pm.

Free parking for vehicles bearing disabled stickers and press stickers will continue, as will free parking for residents with hybrid or electric vehicles.

Also on Monday next, the new upgrades to the D’Avila, Tripoli and Ledra municipal parking areas will come into effect, including the new security measures.

Electronic gates and CCTV and 24-hour security are the main features of the changes.

Contracts to begin construction work on restoring the Apostolos Andreas monastery in the north will be signed soon, MPs heard on Wednesday.

Bids submitted for the project are currently being assessed, Chairwoman of the House Refugees Committee Skevi Koukouma said.

She said the Bishop of Karpasia Christoforos had informed the committee they would soon be signed.

“We express our satisfaction with the work being done and we hope that restoration work will begin the soonest,” she said.

The Greek Orthodox monastery, on the eastern tip of the Karpas peninsula, is in urgent need of repair. Past efforts to agree on restoration by all interested parties had failed. (CNA)

By Joseph Ax

Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, was found guilty of terrorism-related charges on Wednesday following a three-week trial that offered an unusually intimate portrait of al Qaeda’s former leader in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Abu Ghaith, 48, a Kuwait-born teacher, faces life in prison after a federal court jury in New York convicted him of conspiring to kill Americans, conspiring to provide material support for terrorists, and providing such support.

Jurors took just over one day to reach a verdict.

Prosecutors had accused Abu Ghaith, one of the highest-profile bin Laden advisers to face trial in a US civilian court since 2001, of acting as an al Qaeda mouthpiece, using videotapes of his inflammatory rhetoric to recruit new fighters.

They also said Abu Ghaith knew in advance of an attempt to detonate a shoe bomb aboard an airplane by Briton Richard Reid in December 2001, citing in part an October 2001 video in which he warned Americans that the “storm of airplanes will not stop.”

Lawyers for Abu Ghaith said the prosecution was based on “ugly words and bad associations,” rather than actual evidence that the defendant knew of or joined plots against Americans.

In a surprising move, Abu Ghaith took the witness stand in his own defense, denying he helped plot al Qaeda attacks and claiming he never became a formal member of the group.

Abu Ghaith also described meeting with bin Laden in Afghanistan hours after the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people and destroyed the World Trade Center, only a few blocks from the courthouse where the trial took place.

“We are the ones who did this,” bin Laden told Abu Ghaith, who had learned of the attacks via news reports, according to the defendant’s testimony.

Bin Laden, a founder of al Qaeda, was killed by US forces in May 2011 at this hideout in Pakistan.

As in several other terrorism trials held in US civilian courts, the jury remained anonymous.

By Patrick Johnston
Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel and American swimming sensation Missy Franklin were named Laureus Sportsman and Woman of the Year on Wednesday in a ceremony filled with tributes to those affected by the missing Malaysian Airlines plane.

Nearly all of the seven winners at the lavish awards ceremony in Kuala Lumpur remarked on flight MH370, which went missing 18 days ago with 239 passengers and crew on board

after leaving Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing.

Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak opened the ceremony, after a moment’s silence, and talked about the strength his nation could take from the achievements of the nominees. Satellite images have shown possible debris of the missing plane in the southern Indian Ocean, miles off course.

“Sport reflects what is happening in the world,” Razak told the audience. “But for millions of people sport is also an escape, from hardship, from poverty, from conflict. In the hardest times we look for heroic feats to inspire us. ForMalaysia this is one such time.
“At this difficult moment we draw strength from individual stories of perseverance, of generosity, and endurance. The nominees here tonight display those values.”

Malaysia had stepped in to host the ceremony – which featured a performance from Grammy-winning singer and actor Jamie Foxx and was hosted by British actor Benedict Cumberbatch – after Rio de Janeiro was dropped amid local reports that the Brazilian state government owed Laureus money.

Franklin, 18, collected the first award of the night in recognition of her stunning efforts in the pool in 2013 as she became the first woman to win six golds at a single world championships in Barcelona in August.

The four-time Olympic champion gushed at her surprise in winning the award, presented by compatriot and swimming great Mark Spitz, ahead of five others including American tennis player Serena Williams and Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

Vettel enjoyed similar dominance of his sport by winning 13 of 19 Formula One races, including the last nine, in 2013 as he took a fourth consecutive world championship and constructors’ title for Red Bull.

The German, in Kuala Lumpur ahead of Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix, beat athletes Usain Bolt and Mo Farah, Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, American basketball player LeBron James and tennis player Rafa Nadal to the prize.

“It’s a big honour. It’s one of the most special trophies I have received,” Vettel said after being selected by the Laureus Academy, featuring 46 sporting greats including former world champion Emerson Fittipaldi, who handed him the award.

Spaniard Nadal completed a hat-trick of Laureus awards after he took the Comeback of the Year prize after bouncing back from a seven-month absence to win the 2013 French and U.S. Opens as well as five ATP Masters titles.

“How tough the year before with my injury? I never thought I would have the chance to come back as I did so for that reason this Laureus means more,” he said in a recorded message.

Bayern Munich were named World Team of The Year after the German side completed a treble by winning the Bundesliga, Champions League and German Cup, while MotoGP champion Marc Marquez took the Breakthrough of the Year prize after taking the title in his rookie season.

Marie Bochet, the French paralympic skier, was named sportsperson of the year with a disability, with Jamie Bestwick named World Action Sportsperson of the Year.

Around 100 members of far right party ELAM disrupted an event on the Cyprus problem in Limassol, attended by former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.

Reports said the thugs, who shouted slogans and held Greek flags, appeared outside the Panos Solomonides municipal cultural centre just before the event was scheduled to start at 7pm.

They managed to enter the lobby and hurled a flare inside the hall, the reports said.

A Turkish Cypriot journalist who tried to take photos was slightly injured, the Cyprus News Agency said.

The group was pushed back by police and the event went ahead as scheduled.

Reports said police arrested three people.

An ELAM spokesman said it was a protest against the presence of Talat.

US Ambassador to Cyprus John Koenig was also present at the event, organised by the technical university, TEPAK, Europe Direct, the EU representation, and Limassol citizens initiative for reunification.

In messages from his personal Twitter account, Koenig said afterwards: “Real story happened inside the hall. Cypriots talking about the future. Extremists couldn’t block dialogue.”

Talat was the main speaker at the event whose subject was the prospects of solving the Cyprus problem and reunification.

The government condemned the atatck in the “strongest way.”

Government spokesman Christos Stylianides said President Nicos Anastasiades was being kept informed at the presidential palace and was determined not to allow such people to create trouble for the Republic.

“We will not allow similar incidents, that bring shame upon us all, to happen again,” he told state broadcaster CyBC. “No one will terrorise democracy and the expression of views.”

Anstasiades will also ask for explanation from those responsible on why the incident had not been prevented.

Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou said he had not been informed by the police leadership about the event or the measures they were planning to take.

He said he found out about the incident from a member of the public and accused the chief of police of keeping him in the dark.

“It is not the first but the umpteenth time the police leadership, especially the chief, did not inform me either about event or incidents,”

Nicolaou said in a statement. “In fact, oftentimes I am informed about many events afterwards, something which is unacceptable.”

He added that he has asked for a full investigation into the incident.

By Jeff Mason and Lidia Kelly

The United States and the European Union agreed on Wednesday to work together to prepare possible tougher economic sanctions in response to Russia’s behaviour in Ukraine, including on the energy sector, and to make Europe less dependent on Russian gas.

US President Barack Obama said after a summit with top EU officials that Russian President Vladimir Putin had miscalculated if he thought he could divide the West or count on its indifference over his annexation of Crimea.

Leaders of the Group of Seven major industrial powers decided this week to hold off on sanctions targeting  Moscow’s economy unless Putin took further action to destabilise Ukraine or other former Soviet republics.

“If Russia continues on its current course, however, the isolation will deepen, sanctions will increase and there will be more consequences for the Russian economy,” Obama told a joint news conference with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

In the keynote address of his European trip, Obama later told an audience of 2,000 young people that the West would prevail if it remained united, not by military action but by the power of its values to attract ordinary Ukrainians.

Russia would not be “dislodged from Crimea or deterred from further escalation by military force. But with time, so long as we remain united, the Russian people will recognise that they cannot achieve security, prosperity, and the status they seek through brute force,” he said.

In the speech in a Brussels concert hall, which resembled a point-by-point rebuttal of Putin’s March 18 Kremlin speech announcing the annexation of Crimea, Obama voiced respect for a strong Russia but said “that does not mean that Russia can run roughshod over its neighbours”.

He also said NATO would step up its presence in new east European member states bordering on Russia and Ukraine to provide reassurance that the alliance’s mutual defence guarantee would protect them.

Russian forces in Crimea captured the last Ukrainian navy ship after firing warning shots and stun grenades, completing Moscow’s takeover of military installations in the Black Sea peninsula. Kiev has ordered its forces to withdraw.

Western concern has focused on Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s eastern border amid Kremlin allegations of attacks on Russian speakers in that industrial region of the country.

But Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said it seemed likely that the firm Western response so far would stop Russia undertaking what he called “other acts of aggression and interference on the territory of Ukraine”.

The new Ukrainian authorities announced a radical 50 per cent increase in the price of domestic gas from May 1, meeting an unpopular condition for International Monetary Fund aid which Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovich had refused before he was ousted last month.

The IMF is expected to announce a bailout package for Ukraine of about $15 billion as early as Thursday, the Financial Times said.

Kiev is seeking IMF assistance to help stabilise its shattered economy. Russia has said it will increase the price it charges Ukraine for gas from April.

DEVELOP YOUR OWN

In response to EU pleas to expand US gas exports to Europe to reduce reliance on Russian supplies, Obama said a new transatlantic trade deal under negotiation would make it easier to licence such sales.

However, he said Europe should also look to develop its own energy resources – a veiled reference to environmental resistance to shale gas extraction and nuclear power – and not just count on America.

Russia provides around one third of the EU’s oil and gas and some 40 percent of the gas is exported through Ukraine.

“You cannot just rely on other people’s energy, even if it has some costs, some downside,” the EU ambassador to Washington quoted Obama as telling his EU hosts over a working lunch.

The World Bank warned that the economic impact of annexing Crimea from Ukraine could drive Russia into a sharp recession this year even if the West stops short of trade sanctions.

A World Bank report on the Russian economy, compiled before the most recent evidence of the scale of capital flight, made clear Moscow was already set to pay a significant price in lost growth due to the most serious East-West confrontation since the end of the Cold War.

Gross domestic product could contract by as much as 1.8 percent in 2014 if the crisis persists, it said. That high-risk forecast assumes that the international community would still refrain from tradesanctions.

Under a low-risk scenario, assuming only a short-lived impact from the crisis, GDP could grow by 1.1 per cent, just half the bank’s 2.2-percent growth forecast published in December.

RUSSIAN STOCKS REBOUND

Russia is refusing to recognise the Kiev government chosen by parliament after the overthrow of Yanukovich on Feb. 22 following months of street protests against his refusal to sign a pact on closer ties with the EU.

So far, the United States and the EU have imposed personal sanctions against Russian and Crimean officials involved in the seizure of the peninsula and Washington has slapped visa bans and asset freezes on senior business figures close to Putin.

Russian markets and the rouble have been shaken, resulting in massive capital outflows, now estimated by the Economy Ministry at up to $70 billion in the first quarter alone compared with $63 billion in the whole of last year.

However, Russian stocks clawed back more ground on Wednesday and the rouble strengthened as a relief rally continued due to signs of an easing of tensions over Crimea. Russian assets have rallied as investors calculate that the annexation will not trigger more serious Western sanctions.

By Lesley Wroughton

US Secretary of State John Kerry broke from a visit to Italy on Wednesday to try to salvage Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, even as Arab leaders declared they would never meet Israel’s core demand to be recognised as a Jewish state.

Kerry flew to Jordan to ask Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to commit to extending the negotiations, just days before Israel is supposed to release a final group of Palestinian prisoners as a confidence-building gesture.

Before it releases the prisoners, Israel wants to be assured Abbas won’t abandon the US-brokered talks, which resumed last July after a three-year break. Having initially set next month as the target date for a peace accord, Kerry is now trying to get the sides to a agree a framework for further negotiations.

Israel’s Army Radio said Washington had offered to free Jonathan Pollard, a US Navy analyst jailed for spying for Israel in the 1980s, if Israel went ahead with the prisoner release – keeping Abbas on the diplomatic track.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki denied the report, saying: “There are currently no plans to release Jonathan Pollard.”

Kerry began his visit to Amman by meeting Jordan’s King Abdullah, another Israeli-Palestinian mediator.Kerry also spoke by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the three-hour flight from Rome, US officials said; the two were due to speak against after Kerry dined with Abbas.

Psaki said Kerry wanted to “narrow the gaps between the parties.”

ISRAELI ARABS ON PRISONER ROSTER

The Palestinian Prisoners Club, the main group looking after the welfare of Palestinians jailed by Israel, said there were 30 prisoners due to be freed by Israel on March 29. They include 14 Arab citizens of Israel.

US officials have long cautioned that the release of the last batch of prisoners will be difficult and have been given no assurance by Israel that it will go ahead.

Further complicating Kerry’s 11th-hour diplomatic push was a statement on Wednesday by Arab leaders that they will never recognise Israel as a Jewish state.

The statement at the end of a two-day Arab League summit in Kuwait also denounced the continued building of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, on territory where Palestinians seek statehood.

“We hold Israel entirely responsible for the lack of progress in the peace process and continuing tension in the Middle East,” the statement said. “We express our absolute and decisive rejection to recognising Israel as a Jewish state.”

Israel says Palestinian refusal to recognise it as a Jewish state is the main stumbling block in the peace talks.

Abbas’ refusal “to discuss mutual recognition between two nation state stands in stark contrast with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s willingness to recognise a Palestinian state and his agreement that all of the core issues can be raised in the talks,” a senior Israeli official told Reuters.

US President Barack Obama has repeatedly declared his vision of peace: a Jewish state of Israel and a state of Palestine living side by side in peace in security. He recently called on Abbas to take risks for peace with Israel.

Abbas has argued that the Palestinians already acknowledged Israel’s right to exist in 1993. Palestinians fear recognising Israel as a Jewish state would prejudge the demand of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war of its founding to return. Israel has ruled out any such influx, saying the refugees should resettle in a future Palestinian state.

Superb strikes from Steven Gerrard and Daniel Sturridge fanned the flames of belief around Anfield as Liverpool beat Sunderland 2-1 on Wednesday to stay in the hunt for a first league title in 24 years.

A seventh successive Premier League victory was secured despite a nervy finish, moving the Merseyside club back ahead of Manchester City and a point behind leaders Chelsea with both their main title rivals still to visit Anfield.

After struggling to get into their stride against a stubborn Sunderland rearguard, a powerful Gerrard free kick and a curled effort from Sturridge handed Liverpool a two-goal advantage before Ki sung-Yueng pulled one back 14 minutes from time.

Defeat left struggling Sunderland three points adrift of safety in 18th place in the relegation battle as West Ham United moved further clear of danger with a 2-1 home win over 10-man Hull City.