An excavator worth €40,000 has been stolen in Kissonerga, Paphos.
According to a police spokesman, on Monday a Paphos resident reported that between 11am on April 27 to 8am on April 28, unidentified perpetrators stole his excavator.
The yellow JCB digger bore registration plates KRX792, and was stolen while parked in a field in Kissonerga village.
Peyia police have collected evidence for further investigation.
ANDREAS Onoufriou continued to elude capture on Monday as a nationwide manhunt for the former convict entered its fifth day.
Onoufriou, 63, has been on the run since last week when a group of 10 officers tried to execute a search warrant for arms at his Limassol home. According to the police, Onoufriou escaped by firing shots in the air with an army-issue G3 assault rifle. Authorities said he was wearing black clothes and a black hood when the incident happened.
In a telephone interview with local daily Politis, published on Saturday, Onoufriou claimed the person who fled his house on Thursday morning was not him but rather a friend of his who had been protecting him after he was tipped off about a plan to assassinate him.
A 39-year-old acquaintance of Onoufriou’s has meanwhile been arrested after police, executing a search warrant for illegal arms, discovered firearms and ammunition in the man’s house. The stash included a shotgun, not registered in the man’s name, as well as 80 unsecured 7.62 mm calibre bullets. Police also found an army-issue G3 rifle.
The man appeared before a judge on Monday, and was remanded in custody for two days.
Meanwhile Onoufriou’s young Vietnamese partner remains in police custody. Authorities have determined that she had been staying on the island without a valid permit.
As the search for Onoufriou continues, police – aided by the counter-terrorism unit – have mounted several operations to locate the former convict’s hideout.
Local media report that over the last few days authorities have received a number of anonymous tips which however led them on a wild goose chase, and there’s speculation that Onoufriou’s coterie of friends may well be behind the calls.
Police have not entirely ruled out the possibility that Onoufriou may have fled to the north.
Back in 1996 Onoufriou was sentenced to 18 years in jail for the attempted murder of a judge in Limassol.
He was released in 2008. In 2012 he was named in a plot to murder then Attorney-general Petros Clerides but the charges were later dropped.
By Dominic Evans
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad declared on Monday he would seek re-election in June, defying calls from his opponents to step aside and allow a political solution to the country’s devastating civil war.
Assad formally submitted his nomination to Syria’s constitutional court to stand in an election which his Western and Arab foes have dismissed as a parody of democracy.
He is the seventh person to put himself forward for Syria’s first multi-candidate presidential vote in decades, but none of his rivals are expected to mount a serious challenge to 44 years of Assad family rule.
The announcement was made in parliament by speaker Mohammad al-Laham, who read out Assad’s submission. “I … Dr Bashar Hafez al Assad … wish to nominate myself for the post of president of the republic, hoping that parliament will endorse it,” it said.
State media said crowds gathered to celebrate the coming election and recent military gains by Assad’s forces who, supported by foreign allies, have turned the tide of a war which 18 months ago challenged his control over Damascus.
“As soon as we heard that the president announced his candidacy we came down to the streets to celebrate because we cannot see any future Syria without his excellency President Bashar al-Assad,” said Khadija Hashma, one of about 100 people demonstrating in the central Damascus district of Mezzeh.
In a statement minutes after his candidacy was announced, Assad appealed for restraint and said any “demonstration of joy” should be responsible, urging people not to fire celebratory shots in the air.
ELECTION “ILLEGITIMATE”
Syria’s opposition leaders in exile, barred from standing by a constitutional clause requiring candidates to have lived in Syria continuously for 10 years, dismissed the vote as a charade.
The constitution also says candidates must have the backing of 35 members of the pro-Assad parliament, effectively ruling out dissenting voices from the campaign.
The National Coalition, Syria’s main opposition umbrella group in exile, said Assad’s determination to win another term in office showed he was not interested in a negotiated settlement to the conflict.
“From the start this regime is illegitimate, and so is this action,” said Hadi al Bahra, a member of the coalition’s political committee. “This has no value, but says that the regime is not serious about a political solution.”
Authorities have not said how they will hold the vote in a country where six million people have been displaced and large swathes of territory remain outside government control.
Another 2.5 million refugees have fled Syria, many smuggling themselves across the frontier to avoidAssad’s security forces. Election commission head Hisham al-Shaar was quoted by Syria’s Al-Watan newspaper on Monday as saying Syrians who had left the country illegally would not be eligible to vote.
More than 150,000 people have been killed in Syria’s conflict, which started when protests against Assad’s rule erupted in March 2011, inspired by other Arab uprisings.
Demonstrations were put down by force and the uprising became an armed insurgency which now pits mainly Sunni Muslim rebels and foreign jihadis against forces loyal to Assad, who is from Syria’s Alawite minority – an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.
The president has been backed by Iran and Russia and his soldiers have been reinforced by Shi’ite fighters from Iraq and Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah, while regional Sunni Muslim powers have backed the rebels.
TURNING POINT?
Assad’s forces have consolidated their grip around Damascus and central Syria, and hold the Alawite heartland provinces on the Mediterranean coast. Rebels control much of the north and east, but have been plagued by infighting.
Two weeks ago Assad said the Syrian conflict had reached a turning point and the deputy leader of Hezbollah said it was time Assad’s Western foes accepted he was there to stay, adding that Assadwould win re-election decisively.
Peace talks in Geneva brokered by international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who is widely expected to announce his resignation soon, broke down in February.
Brahimi has warned that holding the presidential election on June 3 would present an even greater challenge to reviving negotiations which were supposed to include discussion of a transitional governing body in Syria including both opposition and government representatives.
Bahra said Assad’s campaign for a third term in office contravened an accord, known as Geneva 1, agreed by international powers in Switzerland two years ago which was supposed to form the basis for the peace talks.
“He is in defiance of all UN Security Council resolutions and outside the Geneva 1 process,” Bahra said.
By Alexia Evripidou
A FOOTBALLER who saved the life of a player from an opposing team during a match, declared on Monday he did not want to be seen as a hero.
During the Anorthosis versus AEL game on Saturday, Anorthosis’ Valentinos Sielis saved the life of AEL’S striker Andrija Kaluđerović, after he collapsed to the floor hitting his head and swallowing his tongue. The fall happened after Kaluđerović and Anorthosis player Paulo Jorge collided whilst going for the oncoming football.
“I do not want people to see me and call me a hero because I saved the life of a fellow man,” Sielis, a Cypriot born defender, told the Cyprus News Agency. “I did what I did and I want to believe that every man in my position would do the same, especially in such cases where every second is precious and critical.”
The 48th minute of the game saw the two men collide as they both went to head the ball, leading to Serbian Kaluđerović cracking his head on the ground and starting to choke on his tongue.
Quick-acting Sielis was the first to realise that his fellow football player was in danger and swiftly put his fingers in Kaluđerović’s mouth to move his tongue and unblock the constricted air passage.
Talking to CNA, Sielis spoke of how it was Kaluđerović’s posture on the floor which made him realise the severity of the trauma.
“I do not really know how I found the courage and approached Kaluđerović to help,” he said, adding that it was only after the medical staff of both teams had finished that he “realised what had really happened and how serious the injury was”.
Insisting that his reactions were instinctive and not heroic, Sielis spoke of the bites he had received as a result of attempting to keep Kaluđerović mouth open to prevent him from swallowing his tongue again.
He said he didn’t know first aid, but added that all players should take some first aid courses before the start of the season.
“It is very important that a player who is near the site of injury is able to rush immediately and help his teammate,” he said.
In recognition of Sielis’ action, the Cyprus Sports Organisation issued a congratulatory statement on Monday, in which it praised the footballer’s selfless reaction and said it would seek “ways to honour him in a special ceremony”.
The statement added that Sielis had already done his fair share of good works by donating bone marrow.
“Fair play is the sacred premise of sport, which Valentinos Sielis has upheld unwaveringly, both by saving his fellow footballer and by helping another fellow human being by donating bone marrow,” the statement said.
By George Psyllides
NO OFFICIAL information will be given concerning payments made by a company, Focus, to political parties before an ongoing investigation has been completed, Attorney-general Costas Clerides said on Monday.
“The authorities’ investigation has not gone beyond a certain point, which makes any information regarding the money trails … incomplete and potentially ineffective,” Clerides said in a written statement.
Disclosure or publication of the information currently held by the authorities could be damaging and misleading, he added.
“Instructions have been given to the investigating authorities to continue and extend the probe, both in Cyprus and Greece, in a bid to secure further evidence,” the attorney-general said.
He was referring to Focus Maritime Corporation, which reportedly paid €500,000 directly to DISY in ten instalments of €50,000 each in January and February of 2008, and almost €1.5 million to AKEL – of which €1 million was paid through offshore Abendale Management Corporation in two equal instalments in September 2007, and €450,000 in June 2008 through the audit firm of Kyprianides, Nicolaou & Partners.
Politis newspaper said the transfers were made around the time of Cyprus’ 2008 presidential elections.
Both parties denied any wrongdoing although DISY later admitted to receiving €50,000 from Focus.
Focus is owned by Greek shipowner Michalis Zolotas who is in turn linked to Greek businessman Andreas Vgenopoulos, whom many here blame for the collapse of Laiki Bank.
Focus allegedly received large loans – some without adequate security – from Laiki during the time Vgenopoulos was at the helm of the bank.
AKEL said the announcement refuted the argument on which Politis had based its story: that there was evidence proving that the party had received money from Focus.
Party leader Andros Kyprianou suggested that it was part of a campaign to discredit AKEL, especially in light of next month’s European parliament elections.
“This is the aim, in my view. This is what some people are attempting when it has been proven that DISY took money, they do not talk about DISY and they refer to AKEL when there was absolutely no clue it was linked to this case,” he said.
He did not rule out the party taking legal measures against those who try to defame AKEL.
DISY on the other hand said it continued to expect a full briefing from the legal service and remained at the disposal of the attorney-general.
“Based on the contents of the announcement, we have no other option but to wait for the completion of the investigation,” DISY said.
To socialists EDEK the announcement was proof enough that there was an issue.
Deputy chairman Marinos Sizopoulos called on the two parties to end their delaying tactics, the misinformation, and above all, the “unsuccessful diversions” and work together honestly to resolve the matter.
Sizopoulos said AKEL and DISY must also explain why they had strongly opposed approval of legislation that would ban anonymous contributions and introduce financial transparency.
By George Psyllides
A fugitive former convict opened fire at police officers while holding his five-year-old son in his arms before he surrendered, officers said on Tuesday, as a five-day manhunt came to an end in a Larnaca village.
Andreas Onoufriou, 63, was arrested at around 11am by members of the counter-terrorism unit at a hideaway in Lagia, which belonged to a friend of his who was also detained.
Police said Onoufriou was spotted outside with his son close by.
“The members of the counter-terrorism squad asked him repeatedly to surrender but instead, the 63-year-old fired against the officers while he was holding his underage son in his arms,” police spokesman Andreas Angelides said.
He was using a G3 assault rifle like the ones used by the National Guard.
The head of the police unit fired warning shots in the air after which Onoufriou left the child on the ground and tried to escape.
He was chased by the officers and finally arrested in a nearby ravine, police said.
A quick search of the house found a pistol, a hunting shotgun, an airgun, and other items.
“Police also arrested the owner of the house in Lagia, aged, 63, from Limassol,” Angelides said. “The child was transferred to Larnaca and put under the care of the welfare office.”
However, police have not yet provided a satisfactory explanation on how Onoufriou managed to get hold of his son.
The fugitive had managed to get his son from his mother’s home in Limassol on Monday night.
A police source said the child was picked up by a close associate of the fugitive but could not say why there was no guard posted at the Mesa Yitonia home.
Onoufriou was on the run since last Thursday, when police officers tried to search his residence on suspicion that he was stashing weapons.
According to police, Onoufriou, armed with an assault rifle, fired shots in the air and fled.
Back in 1996 Onoufriou was sentenced to 18 years in jail for the attempted murder of a judge in Limassol.
In 2012 he was named in a plot to murder then Attorney-general Petros Clerides but the charges were later dropped.
The deadline for the manual submission of tax returns to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) is Wednesday, April 30, while online submissions through the TAXISnet system may be carried out until July 31.
Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency, IRD senior officer Liana Charalambous said that all IRD clerks had been instructed by the head of the department to serve the public, who may call the department with questions on how to fill out their tax return.
“At the same time, taxpayers are encouraged to submit their return electronically, via the TAXISnet system,” she said.
Charalambous explained that registering with the TAXISnet service no longer requires the submission of a copy of applicants’ ID cards to the IRD, as long as the applicant has a tax file.
With regard to the new section added to the tax return, in which taxpayers are asked to calculate their tax dues, Charalambous said it was introduced “at the request of taxpayers” since many did not know whether they needed to pay tax, were entitled to returns of tax or allowed deductions.
Arsonists torched a luxury car in Larnaca early on Tuesday, causing more than €20,000 in damage.
Witnesses saw two men fleeing the scene on a motorcycle, police said.
The car was parked in a field opposite the 37-year-old owner’s house in Livadhia.
Police said they received a call 20 minutes after midnight.
Despite fire fighters’ efforts, the car was destroyed.
According to the police report, the car was being used exclusively by the owner’s 41-year-old husband.
By Constantinos Psillides
Cypriots use their credit cards less frequently but when they do use it, spend larger sums, according to a report by the European Central Bank (ECB) that studied credit card patterns throughout the EU and the eurozone for 2012.
According to the report, during 2012, Cypriots used their credit cards for 48 payments per person on average. The EU average is 79 while the eurozone average is 70.8.
Sweden takes the top spot on credit card usage with 230 transactions on average per year per person, followed by Denmark with 224 and Finland with 213. Bulgaria takes the last spot with four credit card transactions on average per person, barely topped by Greece and Romania whose citizens used their credit cards seven times on average in 2012.
While Cyprus is far from the EU and eurozone average in credit card transactions, Cypriots are above the average when it comes to the total sum of the transaction.
According to the ECB report, the average credit card spend per year in Cyprus was €4,055, which was also the EU average while the eurozone average came to €3,613.
Luxembourg topped the credit card transaction sum list with €12,000 spent on average per year, while Greece, Romania and Bulgaria again were last, registering total spend per person per year n average of below €500.
The ECB remarks in its report that credit card usage continues to increase in all EU countries.
The report also said that southern European countries showed considerably low credit card usage, compared with people from northern European countries.
LEADER of the Sufi Naqsibendi –Haqqani Order Turkish Cypriot Shaykh Nazim al Qubrusi, aged 92, has been in hospital being treated for respiratory and heart conditions for the past 12 days. Doctors say his condition is serious.
The revered mystic was transferred from his Lefka seat to the Near East University Hospital in the north of Nicosia, when he felt discomfort on April 17. His followers have since been crowding to the hospital, reciting prayers and paying their respects.
The Larnaca born Sufi Shaykh, popularly known as Sheikh Nazim, is claimed to be a descendant of the 13th century mystic Jalal al Din Rumi, and has a great deal of influence within Islam and ranks 42nd in the list of the world’s most influential Muslims.
By Vasily Fedosenko
Hundreds of pro-Russian separatists stormed government buildings across one of Ukraine’s provincial capitals on Tuesday and opened fire on police holed up in a regional headquarters, a major escalation of the rebellion in defiance of new Western sanctions.
Meanwhile Russian share prices rose in relief at the mildness of the newly announced US and European sanctions over Moscow’s involvement in the crisis, which amounted mainly to adding a small number of names to existing blacklists while putting off threats to take more serious measures.
Demonstrators smashed their way into the provincial government headquarters in Luhansk, Ukraine’s easternmost province, which abuts the Russian border, and raised separatist flags over the building, while police did nothing to interfere.
As night fell, about 20 rebel gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons and threw stun grenades at the headquarters of the region’s police, trying to force those inside to surrender their weapons, a Reuters photographer at the scene said.
“The regional leadership does not control its police force,” said Stanislav Rechynsky, an aide to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, referring to events in Luhansk. “The local police did nothing.”
The rebels also seized the prosecutor’s office and the television centre.
The separatist operation in Luhansk appears to give the pro-Moscow rebels control of a second provincial capital. They already control much of neighbouring Donetsk province, where they have proclaimed an independent “People’s Republic of Donetsk” and declared a referendum on secession for May 11.
The rebels include local youths armed with clubs and chains, as well as “green men” – heavily armed masked men in military uniforms without insignia.
Adding control of Luhansk would give them sway over the entire Donbass coalfield – an unbroken swathe of territory adjacent to Russia - where giant steel smelters and heavy plants produce around a third of Ukraine’s industrial output.
It is the heart of an area that Russian President Vladimir Putin described earlier this month as “New Russia”, reviving a term from when the tsars conquered it in the 18th and 19th centuries. Most people who live in the area now identify themselves as Ukrainians but speak Russian as a first language.
MOSCOW ACCUSED
Ukraine, a country of 45 million people the size of France, has a thousand-year history as a state but has spent much of the last few centuries under the shadow of its larger neighbour. It emerged as a modern independent nation after the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, with borders drawn up by Bolshevik commissars from territory previously ruled by Russia, Poland and Austria.
Its present crisis erupted after a pro-Russian president was toppled in February in a popular uprising. Within days, Putin had declared the right to use military force and had dispatched his undercover troops to seize Crimea.
The United States and European Union accuse Moscow of directing the uprising with the intent of dismembering Ukraine, but have made clear they will not take military action.
The US embassy in Kiev described the behaviour of pro-Russian activists, who also violently attacked a rally of Kiev supporters on Monday with clubs and iron bars, and are holding dozens of hostages including seven unarmed European military monitors, as “terrorism, pure and simple”.
US President Barack Obama, announcing new sanctions on Monday, said the measures were intended to change Putin’s “calculus”.
But so far they have shown no sign of restraining the Kremlin leader, who overturned decades of post-Cold War diplomacy last month to seize and annex Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and has since massed tens of thousands of troops on the frontier. Russia has openly threatened to invade to protect Russian speakers, though it denies that it plans to do so.
Russia’s RTS stock index rose 1.23 percent on Tuesday in relief that the latest EU and U.S. sanctions were so modest.
BLACKLISTS
After Russia seized Crimea in March, Washington and Brussels each drew up sanctions blacklists that ban travel by and freeze the assets of individuals and firms deemed to have played a role in threatening Ukraine. The EU added 15 Russians and pro-Russian Ukrainians to its blacklist on Tuesday, a day after Washington added seven individuals and 17 firms to its own list.
But none of the lists includes any of Russia’s major firms.
The latest U.S. list names Igor Sechin, a long-time Putin ally who now heads Russia’s biggest oil company, Rosneft , but the firm said the blacklisting of its boss would not affect its operations, including plans to buy the oil trading arm of Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley.
Sechin’s name was conspicuously left off the EU list. European countries do more than 10 times as much trade with Russia as the United States, buying a quarter of their natural gas from Moscow. They have been slower than Washington to embrace sanctions that might jeopardise trade.
Moscow has shrugged off the blacklists as pointless, though Washington and Brussels say they have had an indirect economic impact by scaring investors into withdrawing capital.
“You have to look over the period of time Russia went into Crimea; since we’ve imposed sanctions, there has been a quite substantial deterioration in Russia’s already weak economy,” US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told congressional hearings.
“We see it in their stock exchange, we see it in their exchange rate, we see it in a number of important economic indicators.”
Lew said Washington could also still impose wider “sectoral” sanctions on Russian industry. Obama said on Monday that Western countries were keeping that option “in reserve” in case the situation escalated further.
On Friday, the rebels captured eight unarmed European military monitors. A Swede was freed three days later, but four Germans, a Dane, a Czech and a Pole are still being held in Slaviansk, a town in Donetsk province that rebels have turned into a heavily fortified de facto capital.
The self-declared “people’s mayor” of the town, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, said on Tuesday he would discuss their release only if the EU dropped sanctions against rebel leaders.
“If they fail to remove the sanctions, then we will block access for EU representatives, and they won’t be able to get to us. I will remind my guests from the OSCE about this,” he said, referring to the European hostages.
Ukraine’s authorities are struggling to find a way to evict the separatists, who also took a small town hall in Pervomaisk in the Luhansk region on Tuesday and a number of buildings in another city on Monday. Kiev launched an “anti-terrorist” operation in early April, but so far it yielded few results.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the EU sanctions would not ease tensions in Ukraine.
“Instead of forcing the Kiev clique to sit at the table with southeastern Ukraine to negotiate the future structure of the country, our partners are doing Washington’s bidding with new unfriendly gestures aimed at Russia,” the ministry said.
Gennady Kernes, the mayor of eastern Ukraine’s biggest city, Kharkiv, was in a stable condition on Tuesday in a hospital in Israel, where he was flown after an assassination attempt.
Kernes, one of Ukraine’s most prominent Jewish politicians, was shot in the back on Monday in Kharkiv, and underwent surgery in Ukraine on Monday. Officials had said his injuries were life-threatening.
Kharkiv has also seen pro-Russian agitation, but not on the same scale as Donetsk and Luhansk.
By Angelos Anastasiou
CYPRUS, along with Serbia, Italy, Hungary and Belgium, were the countries found to present the highest concentration of inmates in their prisons, a European Council report said on Tuesday
According to the report’s findings, European prisons generally show inmate overconcentration and governments are urged to adopt more alternative forms of imprisonment.
The report on the state of European prisons underscored government inaction in addressing inmate overcrowding.
Based on the most recent available data, between 2011 and 2012 the number of inmates per 100 available spots was reduced from 99.5 to 98 across Europe on average.
But despite the roughly 90,000 reduction of inmate population – a 5 per cent drop from 2011 to 2012 – overcrowding remains a serious problem in 21 prisons across Europe, with Serbia, Italy, Cyprus, Hungary and Belgium leading the way in terms of numbers.
Cyprus tallied an average of 140.1 inmates per 100 places, behind only Serbia with 159.3 and Italy, with 145.4. On the other hand, Cyprus fared much better in terms of average prisoners relative to its population, where it scored 107.9 inmates per 100.000 population, outranking 34 other countries – out of 51 looked at.
The report concluded that courts often dish out imprisonment sentences for lesser offences, resulting in an average of 20 per cent of convicts who serve less than a year in prison.
Based on 2012 data, the report found that out of the total number of inmates held in European prisons 20 per cent were convicted of larceny, 17 per cent for peddling drugs and 13 per cent for homicide.
Meanwhile, 2010 data revealed that the daily average cost of an inmate in Europe in 2010 was €93, while in 2011 this rose to €103.
To address the issue of prison overcrowding, the justice ministry recently undertook an overhaul of the penal system, introducing measures that would see foreign convicts transferred back to their home countries to serve their time, and those jailed for misdemeanours deported instead.
Further, inmates at the Nicosia Central prisons were to be reallocated depending on the length of sentence and level of risk, with those imprisoned for financial debt moved to the safer open prison.
Announcing the reforms early in April, Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou said the new strategy was a response to the spate of suicides and attempted suicides at the prison between last August and January this year, which prompted calls for changes at the overcrowded facility.
“Overcrowding, violence, lack of activities, exile from family and social networks, and unacceptable living conditions can and do affect the mentality and psychology of prisoners,” said Nicolaou. “Prison should not be a mechanism to take revenge on offenders but a way to help them to social reintegration.”
By Gulsen Solaker
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he would ask the United States to extradite an Islamic cleric he accuses of plotting to topple him and undermine Turkey with concocted graft accusations and secret wire taps.
Such a move against Fethullah Gulen, whose followers say they number in the millions, would be possible only if Turkey first issued an arrest warrant and produced evidence of a crime, according to one legal expert.
But it would be arguably Erdogan’s most decisive move yet in a power struggle that has posed one of the biggest challenges of his 11-year rule.
Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, when secularist authorities raised accusations of Islamist activity. Since then he has moved from being a close ally of Erdogan to his most powerful political enemy.
Asked by a reporter at parliament if a process would begin for Gulen’s extradition, Erdogan said: “Yes, it will begin.”
In an interview with PBS talk show host Charlie Rose broadcast late on Monday, Erdogan said Gulen may also pose a threat to US security by his activities.
“These elements which threaten the national security of Turkey cannot be allowed to exist in other countries because what they do to us here, they might do against their host,” Erdogan told Rose in the interview, according to a transcript.
Erdogan, whose ruling AK Party traces its roots to political Islam, accuses him of building a “parallel state” of followers in institutions such as the police and judiciary and using them in an attempt to seize the levers of state power.
Gulen denies engineering a police graft investigation which has seen three cabinet ministers quit, but has denounced Erdogan over moves to shut down the inquiry by purging police and judiciary of his followers.
Erdogan has drawn accusations of increasing authoritarianism with his response to the graft investigation, which has included removing thousands of police officers and hundreds of judges and prosecutors, as well as imposing a two-week ban on Twitter and broadening the powers of the state intelligence service.
Human Rights Watch on Monday criticised a new law giving the national intelligence agency (MIT) more scope for eavesdropping, greater immunity from prosecution for top agents and jail terms for leaks of sensitive information, saying it gave the agency “carte blanche” and was open to abuse.
The government has said the law replaces outdated legislation and brings Turkey in line with international norms.
German President Joachim Gauck criticised Erdogan’s leadership style during a trip to Turkey on Monday and warned against curbing freedom of expression.
“Presumably he still thinks he is a clergyman,” Erdogan said of the former Lutheran pastor, adding his remarks showed a lack of statesmanship and that he was “saddened” by his attitude.
“Houses belonging to Turks are burnt down with racist motivation (in Germany), then they come here to give us advice. Keep your advice to yourself,” he said.
LONG PROCESS
Erdogan said Turkey had complied with more than 10 extradition requests from the United States and now expected the same response from its NATO ally.
But Turkish authorities would first need to issue an arrest warrant for Gulen and produce evidence he has committed a crime, according to a 1979 treaty signed between the two countries.
“If he was tried in Turkey and had been convicted, then you can send that court ruling. You can request extradition for the implementation (of that sentence),” said former European Court of Human Rights judge Riza Turmen, a deputy from the main opposition Republican People’s Party.
“But none of these are currently the case,” he told Reuters.
The 1979 treaty also exempts all crimes of a “political character” unless they can be shown to have targeted either the head of state or head of government, or their families.
Erdogan said Turkey had cancelled Gulen’s passport and that he was in the United States as a legal resident on a green card.
“As a matter of longstanding policy, the Department of State does not comment on pending extradition requests or confirm or deny that an extradition request has been made,” a US embassy official said.
US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone told the Hurriyet daily this month that Turkish officials in Ankara had mooted Gulen’s forcible return but there had been no formal request.
Gulen runs a network of businesses and schools, well-funded and secular in nature, across the world. The schools are a major source of influence and funding and have become the target of government efforts to shut them down.
“Since there is no current case against (Gulen), extraditing him would not comply with international legal principles. The comments about extradition appear to (be) for domestic politics,” said Tercan Ali Basturk, secretary general of the Journalists and Writers Foundation, a Gulen-affiliated group in Istanbul.
Erdogan accuses Gulen of contriving criminal allegations that his son and the children of three ministers were involved in a corruption scandal and took billions of dollars of bribes. He also accuses Gulen’s movement of bugging thousands of phones and leaking audio recordings, which the cleric has denied.
Turkish officials have said an investigation is underway.
“If there is due process, we have nothing to fear because we haven’t done anything constituting a crime,” Basturk said.
“If there is no due process, everyone should be afraid as it means anyone who doesn’t think like Erdogan is at risk.”
By Ahmed Elumami
Gunmen stormed Libya’s parliament on Tuesday and opened fire, forcing lawmakers to abandon a vote on the next prime minister, witnesses said.
Parliament spokesman Omar Hmeidan said several people were wounded in the shooting by the gunmen, who were linked to one of the defeated candidates for prime minister. He gave no name.
Lawmakers fled from the building, witnesses said. The incident ended quickly but the vote was postponed until next week.
The government has been unable to control armed groups and Islamists who helped oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but refuse to disarm and have carved out regional fiefdoms. Militias have repeatedly attacked the interim General National Congress (GNC) to make political or financial demands.
Hmeidan said deputies had started the final vote on a replacement for Premier Abdullah al-Thinni, who resigned two weeks ago saying that gunmen had attacked his family.
In the first ballot, businessman Ahmed Maiteeq came out on top among seven candidates. A second round between Maiteeq and the runner-up Omar al-Hasi had been meant to take place when the gunmen burst into the assembly.
Thinni had resigned just one month after his election, replacing Ali Zeidan, who was fired by deputies over attempts by rebels in the volatile east to sell oil independently.
DEADLOCK
The assembly is deadlocked between Islamists, tribes and nationalists, compounding a sense of chaos as Libya’s fledgling army tries to assert itself against unruly ex-rebels, tribal groups and Islamist militants.
In February, it agreed to hold early elections in an effort to assuage Libyans frustrated at political chaos nearly three years after the fall of Gaddafi.
Deputies initially agreed to extend their term after their mandate ran out on Feb. 7 to allow a special committee time to draft a new constitution. But that move provoked protests from Libyans angry at the slow pace of political change.
Many people in the OPEC nation blame congress infighting for a lack of progress in the transition to democracy.
In another sign of trouble, the attorney general asked to lift the immunity of assembly president Nouri Abu Sahmain to investigate a leaked video showing him being questioned over a late-night visit by two women to his house, Benghazi MP Ahmed Langhi told Reuters.
The case has the potential to damage Abu Sahmain, who is the army commander and has quasi-presidential powers. He has disappeared from public view since the attorney general launched his investigation in March.
At the time of the incident in January, rumours surfaced that he had been briefly detained by a militia to question him about the women. He denied then he had been kidnapped.
By George Psyllides
FUGITIVE former convict Andreas Onoufriou was locked away in a Larnaca jail cell on Tuesday night pending his court appearance on Wednesday morning after he fired shots at police, tried to run but was finally captured, six days after he went on the run
Onoufriou, 63, opened fire at police officers outside his hideaway in Lagia village in rural Larnaca while holding his five-year-old son with one hand and a G3 assault rifle in the other before he made a run for it but was captured minutes later, police said.
He was finally arrested at around 11am by members of the counter-terrorism unit close to the cottage, which belonged to a friend of his who was also detained. Police said Onoufriou was spotted outside with his son close by.
“The members of the counter-terrorism squad asked him repeatedly to surrender but instead, the 63-year-old fired against the officers while he was holding his underage son in his arms,” police spokesman Andreas Angelides said.
He was using a G3 assault rifle like the ones used by the National Guard.
The head of the police unit fired warning shots in the air after which Onoufriou left the child on the ground and tried to escape.
He was chased by the officers and finally arrested in a nearby ravine, police said. Reports said his first words to the police officers to apprehended him were: “Okay, okay”. He then reportedly asked if his son was all right.
The child was transferred to Larnaca and put under the care of the welfare office.
However, police have not yet provided a satisfactory explanation on how Onoufriou managed to get hold of his son. The fugitive had managed to get his son from his mother’s home in Limassol on Monday night.
A police source said the child was picked up by a close associate of Onoufriou but could not say why there was no guard posted at the Mesa Yitonia home.
Subsequently a quick search of the house found a pistol, a hunting shotgun, an airgun, and other items.
“Police also arrested the owner of the house in Lagia, aged, 63, from Limassol,” Angelides said.
Later in the day police placed under arrest a third person, a 57-year-old man from Xylotymbou village, suspected of aiding and abetting Onoufriou. Police said the man is the owner of the hunting shotgun recovered in the house.
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Following his arrest, a handcuffed Onoufriou was on Tuesday night driven to Larnaca general hospital for a check-up after he reportedly complained of feeling ill. The former convict was then taken to a detention cell in Larnaca. He will be appearing before a judge for his remand hearing Wednesday morning.
Thick foliage and trees fronted the country house in which Onoufriou had taken to hiding. Speaking to camera crews that descended on Lagia, elderly residents of the sleepy village spoke of how they were rattled by the morning gunfire. None of those interviewed had any inkling the ex convict was hiding in their village, they said.
Authorities had received several tips as to the fugitive’s whereabouts during the five days he was on the lam. Angelides said the genuine information leading to Onoufriou’s discovery was received early on Tuesday.
State broadcaster CyBC reported that police were able to locate the former convict after he placed a call from Lagia on his mobile phone, which police were tracking. This was combined with information provided by acquaintances of Onoufriou’s who reportedly suggested Lagia village as a possible hideout.
Onoufriou was on the run since last Thursday, when police officers tried to search his residence on suspicion that he was stashing weapons.
That day, according to police, Onoufriou, armed with an assault rifle, fired shots in the air and fled.
Back in 1996 Onoufriou was sentenced to 18 years in jail for the attempted murder of a judge in Limassol.
In 2012 he was named in a plot to murder then Attorney-general Petros Clerides but the charges were later dropped.
By Angelos Anastasiou
Former Education Minister Kyriakos Kenevezos has been appointed ambassador to Greece, effective July 1 until the end of the administration’s term, the government announced on Wednesday
The move has been rumoured since Kenevezos, along with the rest of DIKO’s four ministers were forced to resign their ministerial posts in February following a decision by their party to exit the government coalition. In disagreement with the party’s call, the four distanced themselves from the party.
But despite subsequent indications that President Nicos Anastasiades might re-appoint them to his cabinet, he kept only Energy Minister Lakkotrypis. Speculation was then rife that two of the remaining three – Kenevezos and former Defence Minister Fotis Fotiou – would not be left hanging. Though the government never confirmed or denied the rumours, Kenevezos was supposedly slated for ambassador to Greece and Fotiou to an aide post at the Presidential Palace.
The former education minister’s appointment was ratified on Wednesday by the Council of Ministers, while Fotiou’s nomination for the post of national security advisor remains unconfirmed.
The Council of Ministers also ratified the transfer of Tasos Tzionis to ambassador in Rome, Nearchos Palas to the embassy in Bratislava, Stavros Loizides to the embassy in Brazilia, Stavros Avgoustides to the embassy in Sofia, Evangelos Savva to the embassy in Helsinki, and Maria Papakyriakou to the embassy in Copenhagen.
The above appointments are subject to accreditation by each host country.
The cabinet decided on Wednesday to deposit part of the state’s available liquid funds to three Cypriot banks: the Bank of Cyprus, the Hellenic Bank and the Cooperative Bank with an unspecified interest rate.
Speaking after the meeting Deputy Government Spokesman, Victoras Papadopoulos, said the liquid fundsof the state were, until now, deposited at the Central Bank with zero interest rate.
“It is an act of tangible support for the banks and a manifestation of the confidence of the Cyprus Government in them,” he said.
By Michele Kambas
Cyprus raised 100 million euros in a six-year bond via a private placement with an overseas investor on Wednesday, the finance ministry said, in the island’s first international debt issue since a bailout rescued it from bankruptcy a year ago.
The finance ministry said the bond carried a coupon of 6.50 per cent and was launched under Cyprus’ borrowing facility with its creditors known as the European Medium Term Note (EMTN) programme.
The bonds will be listed on the London Stock Exchange and settled via Euroclear, the settlement system for securities transactions, the ministry said.
Proceeds from the transaction will be used for public debt management, including government financing, it added. Access to the eurobond market was taking place via its updated EMTN programme.
The facility has not been used since before Cyprus was effectively shut out of international financing markets in May 2011 because of a spike in yields on its benchmark bonds. Yields have since fallen to about 5 per cent from more than 14 per cent.
“The Ministry of Finance will continue assessing market conditions and options as part of the broader strategy aiming towards the full restoration of market access,” it said.
Cyprus was bailed out with 10 billion euros in aid from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in March 2013, crumbling under the pressure from market exclusion and a banking system heavily exposed to Greece.
Last week, credit ratings agency Standard and Poor’s raised its long-term rating on Cyprus to B from B-, after the euro zone member state gained plaudits from lenders for sticking to a painful adjustment programme and amid a receding threat of the island not being able to meet loan repayments.
The EMTN programme has a 9 billion euro ceiling. Debt worth about 2.5 billion has been launched under the programme to date, a finance ministry official said. (Reuters)
British actor Bob Hoskins, whose roles ranged from London gangsters to FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover and who starred opposite a cast of cartoon characters in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, has died after a bout of pneumonia, his publicist said on Wednesday.
He was 71.
A statement issued on behalf of his wife Linda and his children said: “We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Bob. Bob died peacefully at hospital last night surrounded by family, following a bout of pneumonia.”
Hoskins announced his retirement from acting in 2012, saying at the time that he was suffering from Parkinson’s disease, an incurable muscular disorder.
Hoskins started his career in the 1970s on British television shows such as “Thick as Thieves” and “Rock Follies of ’77″. Moving into big film roles, his turn as a mobster in 1980s “The Long Good Friday” shot him to stardom and defined his tough guy persona.
He was nominated for a best actor Oscar in 1987 for “Mona Lisa”, in which he starred opposite Sir Michael Caine and Robbie Coltrane, and won a Golden Globe award.
The Suffolk-born actor became a staple face in the British film industry, often playing Cockney-speaking characters in both comedy and drama genres with his trademark gravelly voice.
His big Hollywood break came in 1988 when he played Eddie Valiant in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” a role for which he received a Golden Globe nomination. He then went on to play roles in 1990′s “Mermaids” and 1991′s “Hook.” He portrayed Hoover in the 1995 movie “Nixon”.
In his later years he took on parts in smaller films, including a role in “Made in Dagenham” about women seeking equal pay with male workers at a car plant near London.
He also played the voice of the character Winston in the 2006 film “Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties”.
By Brian Homewood
Juventus and Benfica are both in defiant mood ahead of Thursday’s Europa League clash where a single goal for the Serie A side would take them to their first European final for 11 years.
Juventus coach Antonio Conte took another swipe at his critics after a 3-1 win at Sassuolo on Monday left his side needing one victory in three games to clinch a third successive Serie A title.
Benfica, who have wrapped up the Portuguese league and are on course for a domestic treble after two backs-to-the-wall cup semi-final wins over Porto, are also in feisty mood having bouncing back from last season’s disappointment when they finished runners-up in three competitions.
Benfica, sunk by a last-gasp Chelsea goal in last season’s final and beaten semi-finalists in 2010-11, take a 2-1 lead to Turin for the semi-final second leg.
Juventus will play the final at their own stadium if they qualify and Conte has taken exception to suggestions that the Europa League is a mere consolation after they were knocked out of the Champions League at the group stage.
“Anything Juventus do becomes almost expected,” he told reporters.
“If we win the Europa League, it will be considered a worthless trophy. If we lose, then people will say that Juventus aren’t ready for Europe.”
Conte, fiercely competitive, has rebuilt Juventus into the dominant force in Italian football in his three years as coach, collecting plenty of rivalries on the way.
In the last few weeks, he has become involved in angry exchanges with Russia coach Fabio Capello, Italy coach Cesare Prandelli, Napoli’s Rafael Benitez and AS Roma boss Rudi Garcia who suggested on Monday that Conte was “nervous.”
“What excites me is these three years in charge of Juventus. This has been a truly incredible journey,” said Conte, dismissing Garcia’s comment.
Benfica have shown great resilience this season, reaching both the Portuguese Cup and Portuguese League Cup finals with dramatic semi-final wins over rivals Porto after playing for an hour with 10 men in both games.
“It’s been a very gratifying season, we are in both finals in Portugal and still in the fight for the Europa League,” said temperamental Benfica coach Jorge Jesus, who clung on to his job after last season’s disappointments.
Juventus are unbeaten at home in Europe this season, but have kept only one clean sheet in those games, while Benfica have won their last four away fixtures in European competition.
It is only the third time the two sides have met in Europe with one win for Benfica in the European Cup semi-finals in 1968 and one for Juventus in the UEFA Cup quarter-finals in 1993.
Conte said he believed that Juve’s fans could be decisive as they attempt to reach their first European final since theChampions League in 2003.
“I reiterate that I want the supporters to create a fiery cauldron in the stadium on Thursday, just as Benfica’s fans did in Lisbon,” he said.
“We want to play with 12 men.”
In the other semi-final, Valencia will take inspiration from their comeback win over Basel in the last round as they bid to reach the final by overhauling a 2-0 first-leg loss to Sevilla.
