By Mirwais Harooni

Hundreds of people have been killed and more than 2,000 are missing after a landslide smashed into a village in a mountainous area of north Afghanistan on Friday, and rescue teams were struggling to reach the remote area.

Villagers dug with their bare hands to try to find survivors under the mountain of mud, but officials said there was little hope of finding anyone alive given the scale of the disaster.

Triggered by heavy rain, the side of a mountain collapsed into the village in Argo district at around 11 am (0630 GMT) as people were trying to recover their belongings and livestock after a smaller landslip hit their homes a few hours earlier.

“There were more than 1,000 families living in that village. A total of 2,100 people – men, women and children – are trapped,” Naweed Forotan, a spokesman for the Badakhshan provincial governor, told Reuters.

“As the part of the mountain which collapsed is so big, we don’t believe anyone would survive. The government and locals from surrounding villagers are helping with the rescue, and so far they have recovered more then a hundred bodies.”

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) put the number of fatalities at 350.

At least 100 people were being treated for injuries, according to Colonel Abdul Qadeer Sayad, a deputy police chief of Badakhshan, which borders Tajikistan. Hundreds of mudbrick homes were crushed and hundreds more damaged, he said.

DIFFICULT CONDITIONS

Rescue efforts have been hampered by difficult conditions due to a week of heavy rain. Seasonal rains and spring snow melt have caused heavy destruction across large swathes of northern Afghanistan, killing more than 100 people.

President Hamid Karzai ordered Afghan officials to start emergency relief efforts immediately to reach the poor village.

A UN representative in Kabul said roads to the village were open but passage was not suitable for heavy machinery.

“Due to the size of the landslide, it is impossible to search for bodies without advanced machinery,” Col. Sayad said, “We hope to get some machinery and aid soon tomorrow.”

A UN representative in Kabul said roads to the village were open but passage was not suitable for heavy machinery.

Mark Bowden, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Afghanistan, said it may be some time yet until a clear picture of the full extent of the damage is known.

NATO-led coalition troops in the region were discussing search and rescue contributions with Afghan forces, the United Nations said.

US President Barack Obama, in remarks before a news conference at the White House with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, expressed his condolences.

“Just as the United States has stood with the people of Afghanistan through a difficult decade, we stand ready to help our Afghan partners as they respond to this disaster, for even as our war there comes to an end this year, our commitment to Afghanistan and its people will endure,” he said.

About 30,000 US soldiers remain in Afghanistan, although that number is falling as Washington prepares to withdraw by the end of this year all combat troops who battled Taliban insurgents.

By Biswajyoti Das

Suspected tribal rebels have shot dead 22 Muslims in attacks in India’s northeasterly tea-growing state of Assam, where tension has run high during a drawn-out national election, officials said on Friday.

A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed on Friday and soldiers deployed in the affected parts of Assam, a remote state with a history of ethnic violence and armed groups, some fighting for greater autonomy and others for secession from India.

Police said they suspected militants from the Bodo tribe were behind the latest attacks late on Thursday into Friday in a region where tension between ethnic Bodo people and Muslim settlers spilled over two years ago into clashes in which dozens were killed and 400,000 fled their homes.

Bodo representatives argue that many of the Muslims are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh encroaching on their ancestral lands, and election candidates including front-runner Narendra Modi have called for tighter migration controls.

In one of the incidents, eight people were killed by a group of suspected Bodo guerrillas, said officials.

In another, three members of one family including two women were shot dead, and a baby was wounded, said a senior police officer in the state’s main city, Guwahati.

Later on Friday, a group of militants carrying AK-47 assault rifles attacked an isolated village in the state’s Baksa district and open fired, killing 11 people, most of them women and children, said police.

They burnt their huts made of bamboo and straw and threw the bodies in the fire, officers added.

Voting was held over several days in Assam to help security forces handle violence from any of the separatist or tribal militant groups active in the state.

Polling in the Bodo region ended on April 24, in what residents say was a tight race between a Bodo and a non-tribal candidate, although results from the five-week national election are not due for another two weeks.

“It seems the Bodos wanted to the teach the Muslims a lesson for supporting an outsider,” said a state intelligence officer. He said half-burnt bodies with bullet wounds had been recovered from the village in Baksa district.

Modi, the prime-ministerial candidate of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said last week that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in the nearby state of West Bengal should have their “bags packed” in case he came to power, accusing the state government of being too soft.

“STOPPING INFILTRATION”

Arun Jaitley, the BJP’s leader in the upper house of parliament in New Delhi and a strong contender for finance minister should the party come to power, denied that Modi’s comments risked stirring communal tensions in the northeast.

“It just shows a determination that we want to stop infiltration. Any government should try to stop that,” Jaitley told reporters in the capital on Friday.

In Assam, the BJP condemned the attacks and accused the state government, led by India’s ruling Congress party, of not protecting its citizens.

“I call upon all parties not to communalise the issue, but to work for restoration of peace immediately,” said Sarbananda Sonowal, leader of the BJP in Assam.

Police reinforcements were sent to the two districts where the attacks took place, and could be seen in television footage patrolling with automatic rifles.

“The authorities will take firm action against those involved in this crime,” said state government spokesman Nilamoni Sen Deka.

Two years ago, Assam’s state government was criticised for not acting quickly enough to stop inter-communal clashes, which triggered sometimes violent protests by Muslims in cities across India.

About 30,000 migrants from the northeast temporarily returned home after threats of reprisals by Muslims circulated by text message.

By Phil Stewart

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has agreed to fly to Ethiopia for talks and to consider forming a transitional government to try and end four months of fighting in the world’s newest nation, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday.

Kerry, who met the president in South Sudan’s capital Juba, said he hoped Kiir would be able to hold a face-to-face meeting with rebel leader Riek Machar as early as next week to settle a conflict which has already killed thousands.

The top US diplomat did not spell out what form a transitional government might take, or go into any details of what it might mean for Kiir’s continued leadership of the oil-producing country.

Kerry’s meeting came a day after he warned that the increasingly ethnic violence could descend into genocide and said he expected the rapid deployment of more peacekeepers.

On Friday, he said Kiir had committed in their meeting to “to take forceful steps in order to begin to move to end the violence and implement the cessation of hostilities agreement and to begin to engage on a discussion with respect to a transition government.”

Delegations from both sides have been meeting in neighbour Ethiopia but their discussions have failed to advance since the Jan. 23 signing of a ceasefire that never took hold.

“I just spoke a couple of minutes ago to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia to convey to him President’s Kiir’s willingness to (travel to) Addis Ababa, sometime early next week, hopefully in order to engage in a discussion … with Machar,” Kerry told reporters.

“CRITICAL” MEETING

Kerry said that meeting, which would be Kiir and Machar’s first face-to-face encounter since the start of the conflict, would be “critical” and he hoped to speak to Machar later on Friday to persuade him to take part.

More than 1 million people have fled their homes since fighting erupted in December between troops backing Kiir and soldiers loyal to Machar, his sacked deputy.

The violence quickly spread to areas including the oil-producing north, often along ethnic lines between Kiir’s Dinka people and Machar’s Nuer.

Oil output, the nation’s economic lifeline, has been cut by a third to about 160,000 barrels per day since fighting began.

International fears of a descent into genocide grew after the United Nations said rebels massacred hundreds of civilians in the northern oil town of Bentiu last month.

Days later, residents of Bor, a predominantly Dinka town, attacked a UN base where Nuer were sheltering.

Kerry said he hoped an initial deployment of about 2,500 UN-mandated troops could be deployed within the next few weeks, to bolster some 7,000 UN peacekeepers already there.

“We need to secure an additional United Nations’ Security Council mandate. I believe that can be done quickly,” he said on his first visit to South Sudan as Secretary of State.

Western diplomats have said UN forces need a tougher mandate than the one under which the existing UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) operates so they can act more assertively to halt violence and protect civilians.

South Sudan won its independence from Sudan in 2011 under a peace deal to end decades of conflict. Washington and South Sudan’s neighbours played a central role in that process and have been scrambling to stem the latest violence.

Concerns about continued violence, rampant corruption, failure to build political institutions have eroded much of the political goodwill in Washington towards the new country’s leadership.

By Jörn Poltz

German prosecutors cast doubt on assertions by Bernie Ecclestone that he had been the victim of extortion when the Formula One boss returned to court on Friday in a bribery trial where he faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

The 83-year-old Briton is accused of bribing now-jailed banker Gerhard Gribkowsky by channelling $44 million to him in return for smoothing the sale of a stake in Formula One to the private equity firm CVC eight years ago.

They say that Ecclestone favoured CVC as the new owner because it was committed to keeping him on as chief executive of a business he had built into a global money spinner over the previous three decades.

Ecclestone admits making multi-million dollar payments to Gribkowsky but says this was to silence the German who he said was threatening to make false claims about his tax status that could have jeopardised his fortune.

“It was never really clear what form this threat could have taken,” said Martin Bauer, a public prosecutor who took evidence from Ecclestone after the arrest of Gribkowsky in 2011.

Bauer said Ecclestone had spoken merely of Gribkowsky being able to make things uncomfortable for him without specifying how. Ecclestone, who denied wrongdoing when he went on trial last week, followed Friday’s proceedings through an interpreter.

NEW DEFENCE TACTICS

Gribkowsky was the former chief risk officer at state-owned BayernLB which owned a 47 percent stake in Formula One before the sale to CVC in 2006.

Ecclestone’s legal team argued on Friday that the Briton should not have been accused of bribing a public official – a specific crime that carries a heavy penalty under German law.

“When you are standing by the side of a racetrack in Shanghai, you are not working as a civil servant any more,” said lawyer Sven Thomas, referring to the way Gribkowsky had become involved in the running of Formula One.

Bribery as part of a business transaction has a narrower definition under German law, something that could increase the chances of an acquittal.

The former used-car salesman, who is fighting to save his job and reputation, is required to attend every session in a case that will be heard once or twice a week to fit around his Formula One commitments and is set to run until mid-September.

CVC, the largest shareholder in Formula One, has said it will dismiss Ecclestone if he is found guilty.

Despite his age, Ecclestone attends almost every grand prix race and remains central to the sport’s commercial success. He has always dismissed talk of retirement, and there is no obvious replacement when he does finally quit or is forced out.

Gribkowsky was jailed for 8-1/2 years in 2012 for tax evasion and corruption in relation to payments fromEcclestone. The German is expected to give evidence when the court sits next Friday.

By Maurice Neill and Padraic Halpin

Northern Ireland police are planning to extend the detention of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams for questioning about a 1972 murder beyond the initial two days, his party said on Friday, raising the stakes in a case that has rocked the British province.

Adams’ arrest over the killing of Jean McConville was among the most significant in Northern Ireland since a 1998 peace deal ended decades of tit-for-tat killings between Irish Catholic nationalists and mostly Protestant pro-British loyalists.

Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, a Sinn Fein member and close Adams ally, said he had been informed that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) would seek an extension to Adams’ initial 48-hour detention.

“There is a cabal in the PSNI that have an agenda, a negative and destructive agenda to both the peace process and to Sinn Fein,” McGuinness told a news conference in Belfast. Northern Ireland’s justice minister denied the accusation.

“I believe Gerry Adams will be totally and absolutely exonerated and I believe that Gerry Adams will continue to lead this party,” said McGuinness, a former Irish Republican Army (IRA) commander who only last month met Queen Elizabeth at a Windsor Castle in a sign of normalisation since the peace pact.

The PSNI had until 1900 GMT on Friday to charge Adams, who led the IRA’s political wing in the 1980s and 1990s, free him or secure permission of a judge to extend his detention.

Reviled by many in Britain as the face of militant Irish nationalism during the IRA guerrilla campaign against British rule of Northern Ireland, Adams, 65, reinvented himself as a Northern Ireland peacemaker and then a leading opposition parliamentarian in the Irish Republic.

But he has been dogged throughout his career by accusations from former IRA fighters that he was involved in its campaign of killings, a charge he has repeatedly denied.

He offered to speak to police about McConville’s killing in late March after tapes that apparently accuse him of participation were released by researchers in the United States.

Adams has always denied membership of the IRA and said on Wednesday, when he was arrested, that he was “innocent of any part” in the killing, which he said was “wrong and a grievous injustice to her and her family”.

NATIONALIST ANGER

McGuinness said that it might be difficult to contain anger among Irish nationalists about Adams’ detention.

“We believe that the anger and resentment out there among the community is something we as Irish republicans have to manage. We are trying to handle this situation in a very calm way,” he said.

McGuinness described the PSNI as carrying out “political policing” and accused them of failing to investigate crimes perpetrated by the British Army during the conflict.

Some motorists passing the police station where Adams was being held sounded their horns and shouted “Free Gerry!” A mural was being painted on the mainly Catholic Falls Road with a picture of Adams over the words “Peacemaker, Leader, Visionary”.

The investigation of former militants on both sides of the conflict have stirred protests in the province in recent years.

Northern Ireland Justice Minister David Ford, who is also the leader of the non-sectarian Alliance Party, rejected McGuinness’ accusation of bias.

“In the four years I’ve been minister for justice I’ve seen no evidence of the police playing politics but I’ve certainly seen much evidence from many politicians seeking to interfere in the policing, prosecution and judicial process,” Ford told journalists outside the police station where Adams was being held, around 25 km northwest of Belfast.

UNMARKED GRAVE

McConville, who was dragged away screaming from some of her 10 children, was one of 15 people living in strongly Republican, Catholic areas who were spirited away by the IRA and dumped in unmarked graves.

Her remains were found only in 2003 by a man walking on a beach over the border in County Louth, a jurisdiction Adams now represents in Ireland’s parliament. The IRA accused McConville – a Protestant married to a Catholic – of being an informer for the British, an allegation her family has always denied.

The investigation into her killing was revived by the release of a series of taped interviews given by former guerrillas from the Northern Ireland conflict for a research project at Boston College in the United States.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said during a visit to South Sudan on Friday that he was unfamiliar with details of the Adams case but that the legal process in Northern Ireland needed to be allowed to “work its way”.

The United States brokered the 1998 Northern Ireland peace accord and has a large number of citizens of Irish heritage.

By Miran Jelenek and Maria Tsvetkova

At least 42 people were killed in street battles between supporters and opponents of Russia in southern Ukraine that ended with dozens of pro-Russian protesters incinerated in a burning building, bringing the country closer to war.

Pro-Russian rebels in the east freed seven European military observers on Saturday after holding them hostage for eight days, while Kiev pressed on with its biggest military operation so far to reclaim rebel-held territory in the area.

The riot in the Black Sea port of Odessa, ending in a deadly blaze in a besieged trade union building, was by far the worst incident in Ukraine since a February uprising that ended with a pro-Russian president fleeing the country.

It also spread the violence from the eastern separatist heartland to an area far from the Russian frontier, raising the prospect of unrest sweeping more broadly across a country of around 45 million people the size of France.

The Kremlin, which has massed tens of thousands of soldiers on the Ukraine’s eastern border and proclaims the right to invade to protect Russian speakers, said the government in Kiev and its Western backers were responsible for the deaths.

Kiev said the violence was provoked by foreign demonstrators sent in from Transdniestria, a nearby breakaway pro-Russian region of Moldova where Moscow has a military garrison. It said most of the dead who had been identified so far were from there.

On Saturday morning, people placed flowers near the burnt-out doors of the trade union building, lighting candles and putting up the yellow, white and red flag of the city. The burnt remains of a tented camp of pro-Russian demonstrators nearby had been swept away. People spoke of their horror at what happened.

About 2,000 pro-Russian protesters gathered outside the burnt-out building, chanting: “Odessa is a Russian city”.

At the nearby hospital, residents queued up to offer blood and others tried to find out what medicine was needed so they could go out to buy it.

Oleg Konstantinov, a journalist covering the events for a local Internet site, said bullets had flown in the melee before the blaze: “I was hit in the arm, then I started crawling, and then got hit in the back and leg.”

The Odessa bloodshed came on the same day that Kiev launched its biggest push yet to reassert its control over separatist areas in the east, hundreds of kilometres away, where armed pro-Russian rebels have proclaimed a “People’s Republic of Donetsk”.

The rebels there aim to hold a referendum on May 11 on secession from Ukraine, similar to one staged in March in Ukraine’s Crimea region, which was seized and annexed by Russia in a move that overturned the post-Cold War diplomatic order.

“NOT STOPPING”

On Saturday the government said it was pressing on with the offensive in the area for a second day, and had recaptured a television tower and a security services building from rebels in Kramatorsk, a town near the rebel stronghold of Slaviansk.

“We are not stopping,” Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a post on Facebook. “The active phase of the operation continued at dawn.”

Rebels in Slaviansk, their most heavily fortified redoubt, shot down two Ukrainian helicopters on Friday, killing two crew, and stalled an advance by Ukrainian troops in armoured vehicles. Separatists said three fighters and two civilians were killed in Friday’s Ukrainian advance on the town.

Vasyl Krutov, head of a government “anti-terrorist centre” behind the operation in the east, told a news conference there was gunfire and fighting around Kramatorsk: “What we are facing in the Donetsk region and in the eastern regions is not just some kind of short-lived uprising, it is in fact a war.”

The military operation in the east was overshadowed by the unprecedented violence in Odessa, a vibrant multi-ethnic port city that has seen some support for separatists but nothing like the riots that erupted on Friday.

Police said four people were killed, at least three shot dead, and dozens wounded in running battles between people backing Kiev and pro-Russian activists.

The clashes ended with separatists holed up in the large Soviet-era granite-walled trade union building. Video footage showed petrol bombs exploding against its walls.

At least 37 people died in the blaze. On Saturday, police raised the overall death toll in the city to 42. It was easily the biggest death toll since about 100 people were killed in Kiev protests that toppled pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich in February.

“Kiev and its Western sponsors are practically provoking the bloodshed and bear direct responsibility for it,” RIA Novosti quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as telling reporters.

Peskov also said Friday’s violence made the idea of holding presidential elections in Ukraine on May 25 “absurd”.

Kiev’s Interior Ministry blamed the pro-Russian protesters, saying they had attacked the pro-Ukrainians before retreating to the trade union headquarters, from where they opened fire on the crowd and threw out the petrol bombs that caused the blaze.

Odessa is located in the southwest of Ukraine, far from the eastern areas held by the rebels and far from the Russian frontier where Moscow has amassed troops. But it is close to Moldova’s Transdniestria region, where Russia also has troops.

The spread of violence to Odessa expands the zone of unrest across the breadth of southern and eastern Ukraine.

“Today we Ukrainians are constantly being pushed into confrontation, into civil conflict, toward the destruction of our country to its heart. We cannot allow this to happen and we must be united in the fight against a foreign enemy,” said acting President Oleksander Turchinov.

Regional police chief Petro Lutsiuk said on Saturday more than 130 people had been detained and could face charges ranging from participating in riots to premeditated murder.

BIRTHDAY GUESTS

The release of the military monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe resolves a major diplomatic issue for the West. The separatists had captured the team on April 25 and described them as prisoners of war.

One Swede was freed earlier on health grounds while four Germans, a Czech, a Dane and a Pole were still being held until Saturday. A Russian envoy helped negotiate their release.

The separatist leader in Slaviansk, self-proclaimed “people’s mayor” Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, said they were freed along with five Ukrainian captives, with no conditions.

“As I promised them, we celebrated my birthday yesterday and they left. As I said, they were my guests.”

The OSCE team’s leader, German Colonel Axel Schneider, speaking on the road out of Slaviansk after being freed said: “You can imagine, it’s a big relief. The situation was really tough. The last two nights when you see what was going on, every minute gets longer.”

He praised his captor Ponomaryov as “a man who’s word counts a lot. He’s a man who listens”.

Western countries blame Russia for stoking the separatism and fear Moscow could be planning to repeat its annexation of Crimea in other parts of Ukraine.

Russia denies it has such plans, while saying it could intervene if necessary to protect Russian speakers, a new doctrine unveiled by President Vladimir Putin in March that overturned decades of post-Soviet diplomacy.

The West has made clear it will not use military force to protect Ukraine but will rely on economic sanctions against Moscow to, in the words of US President Barack Obama, change Putin’s “calculus”.

So far Moscow has shrugged off sanctions, which so far have included measures only against individuals and small companies.

Obama and Merkel said on Friday they would seek tougher measures, including hitting whole sectors of the Russian economy, if Moscow interferes with Ukraine’s May 25 vote.

By Biswajyoti Das

Security forces in northeast India found the bodies of nine Muslims on Saturday, raising the death toll to 31 in a spate of attacks by suspected tribal militants as a weeks-long general election re-opens ethnic divisions.

The election has rekindled the question of religious animosity across India with the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) looking set to win, but the violence in the tea-growing state of Assam stems from friction over migration.

Police said six of the nine Muslims found shot dead were women and children. Security forces rescued three children found nearby hiding in forests close to the border with Bhutan.

“Shoot-on-sight orders are issued to troops deployed in troubled areas,” L. R. Bishnoi, inspector general of Assam’s police, told Reuters.

Assam has a history of sectarian violence and armed groups fighting for greater autonomy or secession from India.

Police suspect militants from the Bodo tribe were behind the latest attacks in a region where tension between ethnic Bodo people and Muslim settlers has simmered for years.

In 2012, clashes erupted in which dozens of people were killed and 400,000 fled their homes.

Bodo representatives say many of the Muslims in Assam are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh who encroach on ancestral Bodo lands.

Soldiers in convoys of trucks mounted with rifles were patrolling on Saturday in Baksa district where some of the attacks took place.

The five-week general election, has exacerbated friction over migration in Assam.

Candidates including prime-ministerial front-runner Narendra Modi of the BJP have called for tighter controls.

Polling in the Bodo region ended on April 24. Residents say it is a tight race between a Bodo and a non-tribal candidate. A policeman was killed on polling day.

“There’s heightened tension because of the election,” said Ajai Sahni, the executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, although he said it was too early to be certain about exactly what provoked the attacks.

“BAGS PACKED”

Modi said last week that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in the nearby state of West Bengal should have their “bags packed” in case he came to power, accusing the state government of being too soft.

Arun Jaitley, the BJP’s leader in the upper house of parliament and a strong contender for finance minister should the party come to power, denied that Modi’s comments risked stirring communal tension.

“It just shows a determination that we want to stop infiltration. Any government should try to stop that,” Jaitley said.

The communal clashes in Assam two years ago triggered violent protests by Muslims in cities elsewhere in India.

About 30,000 migrants from the northeast temporarily returned home after threats of reprisals by Muslims circulated by text message.

Modi himself is tainted by accusations that he turned a blind eye to, or even encouraged, Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002 in Gujarat, the state he has governed for 13 years. More than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed.

He has always denied the accusations and a Supreme Court inquiry did not find evidence to prosecute him.

Modi has sought to calm fears about the future of religious minorities under his rule, saying his government would represent all Indians whether they voted for him or not.

LANGUAGE Transfer is launching the Cyprus project with the first of a series of free Greek and Turkish workshops. The first free Greek workshop (Introduction to Greek) will be held at the Cyprus Community Media Centre – CCMC on Saturday, May 10.

The project will offer free workshops and downloadable audio courses in Greek, Turkish and the Cypriot dialects, as well as facilitating language exchange activities on the island.

“In order to bring Cypriots together to practice their languages,” it said in an announcement, adding that Language Transfer has been using what it calls the ‘Thinking Method’ since 2011.

“The Thinking Method completely challenges our relationship with learning and information and needs to be experienced to be believed,” said Katherine Kotsireas, a volunteer at the project.

The method teaches conversational ability in a new language in record time – in a matter of hours, she said.

“The Cyprus project is just launching and needs to grow from here, more volunteers are still needed to be trained in the methodology to give free Greek and Turkish workshops and to participate in language exchange facilitation,” she added.

“It also needs volunteers for creative dissemination to help the project reach across the island.”

To participate in the Cyprus Project or donate to help cover the costs of workshops, visit www.languagetransfer.org

THE government has submitted the road map for the implementation of the national health scheme to the island’s international lenders, the health minister has said.

Philippos Patsalis said the ministry outlined to Cyprus’ lenders the roadmap, which includes all steps to be done so the NHS will be partially implemented by mid 2015 and to be fully in place by mid 2016.

The implementation of the NHS is included in the terms of the island’s €10bn bailout.

Patsalis said the plan included all steps needed for the implementation of the NHS, as well as the reform in the public hospitals and of the Ministry of Health.

“Next week will be very important because we will have our lenders in Cyprus, expecting to see the progress we made for the implementation of the NHS and the reforms, but unfortunately we are behind schedule,” he said.

Patsalis said the ministry will not request an extension.

By Constantinos Psillides

JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER, the EPP candidate for the next European Commission president, has commended efforts by the Cyprus government to lead the country out of the crisis “slowly but steadily”.

President Nicos Anastasiades, welcoming Juncker to Nicosia, said the former prime minister of Luxembourg and ex-Eurogroup president maintains a principled stance vis-a-vis the Cyprus problem, regarding it as a European problem.

Speaking before a working lunch at the presidential palace, Anastasiades welcomed Juncker’s support for the ongoing Cyprus talks and confidence building measures.

Juncker is a well respected European personality, a good personal friend and a friend of Cyprus, said Anastasiades.

He added that one of his attributes was that Juncker served as prime minister of a small European country, and was thus aware of the problems similar countries faced – that they do not depend on industry, as much as tourism and services.

Juncker said he was happy to be back in Cyprus, adding that he always took a deep interest in everything concerning the country, when he was chairing the Eurogroup.

“I wanted to check here in Nicosia how much progress has been made” the EPP candidate said and commended the government for the way it is leading the country out of the crisis.

He added that the economy has proven to be resilient.

The adjustment programme was working, he said, adding that the government is doing everything in its capacity.

By Constantinos Psillides

POLITICAL parties on Saturday demanded the punishment of those to blame for the collapse of the banking sector, following the release of the report by the House ethics committee on the reasons for the financial meltdown.

The report, released on Friday afternoon, concluded that the management and officials of the now defunct Laiki bank acted in a methodical, systematic and criminal manner that led the lender, and, at the same time, the Cypriot economy to collapse.

This in the view of the committee, in combination with the loss of deposits, was the main reason for the continuous increase of emergency liquidity assistance that brought about the dramatic collapse of the banking sector in Cyprus, the report said.

Committee chairman, EVROKO MP Demetris Syllouris told CyBC radio on Saturday that it was now up to the justice system to act before the evidence disappeared.

“Some bankers should have already been arrested, interrogated and made to answer for their actions,” said the EVROKO MP.

“It is the people’s demand that the scandal is thoroughly investigated and that those found guilty suffer the consequences of their actions.”

Main opposition party AKEL said that an objective reading of the report led to the conclusion that a small number of bankers from both banks were to blame for the financial crisis, through their actions and deliberate oversights. AKEL also blamed former Central Bank governor Athanasios Orphanides, who ran the bank at the time the actions examined by the ethics committee report took place. AKEL also laid blame on the current administration, accusing President Nicos Anastasiades of accepting the deposit hair cut and the selling-off of Cypriot banks in Greece

Nicholas Papadopoulos, leader of DIKO, also asked the legal services to utilise the report, “so as those who are responsible for the meltdown answer before a court”. Papadopoulos added that the report clearly indicated that the banks followed “criminal practices over the last years”, while he also blamed the previous CBC governor, Panicos Demetriades, for not dealing with the troika of lenders effectively.

EDEK MP Feidias Sarikas said that his party was not satisfied by the report, explaining that although it shed light on what happened it did not include a clear conclusion of who was to blame or a list of politically exposed people who moved their money prior to the deposit haircut.

The report, spanning some 440 pages, 1200 with the annexes, covers an 18-month investigation carried out by the committee into the collapse of the economy.

AN 18-YEAR-OLD boy died in car accident in Nicosia on Saturday afternoon and his two passengers were seriously injured and rushed to the Nicosia General Hospital, police said.

Police said the 18-year old was driving his car near the Makedonitissa military cemetery in Nicosia when he lost control of the vehicle and ended up in a ditch.

Police declined to reveal any more details until next of kin had been informed.

By Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar

At least six people were killed in Mogadishu on Saturday, including a senior city council official, when a remotely controlled bomb planted by al Shabaab insurgents exploded on a busy street in the Somali capital, police said.

Somalia’s fragile government is struggling to impose any sense of order more than two decades after the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre tipped the country into chaos.

The city has been hit by a series of suicide bomb attacks in the past few months, claimed by al Qaeda-linked militants al Shabaab, who have waged a sustained guerrilla campaign even after they were pushed out of the city in mid-2011.

Police said the bomb that killed the city official was hidden in a pile of rubbish placed along the road. They said the other people killed were thought to be his guards.

At least 25 people were wounded, medical officials said.

“The secretary general of the Banadir (Mogadishu) region, Abdikafi Hilowle, was targeted and he died,” Major Abdikadir Mohamed, a police officer told Reuters.

“A remotely controlled bomb hidden in paper bags of rubbish destroyed his car.”

The incident happened as the car passed through the ‘Kilometer 4′ junction. The Kilometer 4 neighbourhood is Mogadishu’s commercial and administrative centre.

Gunfire from police also rung out through the district, as police fired in the air.

A Reuters witness saw the wrecked government car and five wounded people lying on the street.

Al Shabaab militants – who want to impose a strict version of the sharia law in Somalia - have also claimed responsibility for similar attacks in the past.

The group claimed eight people were killed in the attack.

“We have killed a senior city official called Abdikafi Hilowle and 7 of his bodyguards. We killed him to liberate the Somalis,” sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, the spokesman for al Shabaab’s military operation told Reuters.

Western nations involved in Somalia worry it could sink back into chaos and provide a launch pad for Islamist militancy.

PRESIDENT Nicos Anastasiades leaves on Monday for Germany on a four-day official visit, during which he will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The president will be accompanied by the minister of finance, Harris Georgiades, the minister of communications and works, Marios Demetriades, and the government spokesman, Nicos Christodoulides.

By Martyn Herman

The trap door closed on Cardiff City and Fulham as crushing away defeats condemned both to relegation from the Premier League on Saturday with Sunderland moving to the brink of survival.

Sunderland’s surprise 1-0 win at Manchester United meant that Cardiff’s 3-0 loss at Newcastle United ensured a return to the Championship for the Welsh club a year after returning to the top flight for the first time since 1962.

Fulham, members of the Premier League since 2001, were thumped 4-1 at Stoke City.

Sebastian Larsson’s 30th minute winner for Sunderland at Old Trafford, where Ryan Giggs was in charge of United for the second time, meant Sunderland moved to 35 points, five more than Cardiff and four ahead of Fulham who both have one game left.

Peter Odemwingie, Marko Arnautovic, Oussama Assaidi and Jonathan Walters scored for Stoke while Shola Ameobi, Loic Remy and Steven Taylor were on target for Newcastle who snapped a bad run of form that prompted a fans’ protest against manager Alan Pardew and owner Mike Ashley during the game.

Defeat for Norwich City (32) at Chelsea on Sunday would essentially relegate them too.

In an early kickoff West Ham United guaranteed their safety, reaching 40 points with a 2-0 win over 10-man Tottenham Hotspur - their third victory over their London rivals this season.

An own goal by Spurs striker Harry Kane and Stewart Downing’s free kick put West Ham in control before halftime after Tottenham defender Younes Kaboul was red-carded for bundling over Downing who was racing towards goal.

Southampton won 1-0 at Swansea City with Rickie Lambert’s stoppage time winner while Aston Villa, who began the day not mathematically safe, beat FA Cup finalists Hull City 3-1.

Later on Saturday attention turns to the title race when Manchester City take on fifth-placed Everton knowing a victory would put them top of the table, ahead of Liverpool, who play Crystal Palace on Monday, on goal difference.

Gardening with Patricia Jordan

MAY is such a lovely month in the garden. Everything is bright and fresh still and heady perfume is everywhere. Plants are climbing up trellises and supports, showering us with petals from roses and sweet peas and of course the Chelsea Flower Show is held this month in London, showcasing all that is new and wonderful in the early British summer garden. Some years ago now I went on a day trip from here to Chelsea. It was all very tiring, but I enjoyed meeting up with lots of the exhibitors that I had known when I used to show the special plants I grew in my garden in Scotland.

If you are a celebrity it may well be that you have a plant named after you. This year Celebrity Gardener and novelist Alan Titchmarch, who now has a range of seeds bearing his name, is going to design a garden there to mark Britain in Bloom’s 50th Anniversary. Many villages, towns and cities take part in ‘Britain in Bloom’, when hanging baskets of flowers cascade from walls and lamp standards, and parks and villages adopt planting themes which reflect their origins. Volunteers from all the communities involved take part and the results are judged by eminent professional gardeners, with handsome prizes awarded to the best in the various categories. Wouldn’t it be good to do something like that here?

This year is also the 100th Anniversary of the start of World War 1 and many exhibits will reflect that theme. The poppy, Papaver rhoeas, synonymous with ‘Remembrance’, will feature greatly in the exhibits. Many poppies grow in our countryside in the early spring and what a delight they are, contrasting so well with the many early yellow colours of oxalis, crown marguerites and acacias. We could have our own Cyprus in Bloom here! Alas the Horticultural Show, which used to be held every other year as part of the Agricultural Fair at the State Fairgrounds, is no more. I suppose that while we are going through this austerity period this will not be resurrected, but it could be something to look forward to in the future.

WHAT TO DO IN THE GARDEN THIS MONTH

Although most of the big jobs have been completed, May is the last time to feed any fruit and nut trees that you may grow, until the winter. At this time of year as the new leaf growth comes in, it’s important to give the trees a nitrogen feed. This is the first number on the fertiliser bag or packet. I used to recommend 20.0.0, but nowadays that is no longer available, so it may well have to be 19.0.0 or even 21.0.0. Mature trees need a dose of 900g and smaller trees 300g. You may have to water the fertiliser in this month unless we have some real rain. Remember when feeding that the fibrous roots are not near the trunk, so make sure that you spread it out a little further.

Also watch out for any other mineral shortages which manifest themselves in the colour of citrus leaves. If they are short of iron they will be a very light green colour, sometimes even yellow, with the veins showing up very clearly. Two dessertspoons of iron chelate mixed in ten litres of water should be applied to the watering area around the base, to sort out this problem. An old Cypriot remedy is to put some iron nails in the soil around the base of the tree, if you want give that a try.

Zinc shortage is another problem which occurs in citrus trees and you will see this in a mottling on the leaves. For this problem you will get better results by spraying the leaves with a mixture of a level dessertspoon of zinc chelate in five litres of water, which the tree can absorb more easily. Spray it onto the leaves until the mixture runs off. Then check all the fresh new leaves for signs of greenfly and black fly, for when they hatch and start to feed, they will spoil the leaves for the whole season. Use a soapy water spray for them or rub them off with a gloved hand.

Other trees which suffer from shortage of zinc are pecans and at the beginning of the year it is advisable to water 2 dessertspoons of zinc chelate mixed in 10 litres of water into the ground around the tree. Even so later in the year the leaves may have dark blotches on them, so spray them this time with a level dessertspoon of zinc chelate in five litres of water until the solution runs off.

After the wonderful early flower show that wisteria puts on, the new leaves and tendrils start to appear in earnest and will need some help to wind themselves around trellises or supports. Care should be taken whilst performing this job as the stems are very brittle and can break easily if mishandled. Bougainvillea is also pushing out new growths which may need tying in or helping over supports.

At ground level, osteospermums need regular deadheading. These are really good plants and cover a lot of ground, making large cushions everywhere. Some varieties want to grow upward and tend to sprawl about. Discourage them by nipping off the long shoots to form low growing plants instead. Ranunculus will have finished flowering by now. I bought some bright yellow cheery ones earlier and put the pots into a planter. Now I am going to plant them in a shady spot and hope that they will give me lots of colour next year.

Some plants have disappointed me this spring. My mature groups of chasmanthe (wrongly known in Cyprus as monbretia) threw up lots of leaves but not one flower stem and I am thinking that they are either too crowded or I fed them too much nitrogen after they had flowered last year. It could be of course the lack of rain in the winter as some Narcissus ‘Cheerfulness’ did not send up any flower stems either and my Calla Lilies have been a great disappointment. With the lack of rain to help swell the bulbs underground, it is not surprising that this has happened. However neighbouring gardens have had their callas in bloom for several weeks, while mine look decidedly poor.

One of my favourite annuals is Cerinthe major ‘Purpurescens’. I brought the seeds when I came to live here 14 years ago and they still delight me every year. I no longer collect the seeds but let the plants grow where the seeds drop each year. They start to appear again in the late autumn and some survive the winter, while others wait to germinate in the early spring. They hail from this end of the Mediterranean so do well. I just love the glaucous leaves and the tiny mauvey-blue flowers.

I have decided not to grow salads and summer veggies like sweetcorn this year because of the likely shortage of water. They are wonderful to eat straight from the garden, but they do need a lot of water for the cobs to swell and taste so sweet.
Plant of the month: Sweet Peas

Sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) are among the most favourite garden plants grown, certainly in the UK. They are very popular here too, although they bloom much earlier as our winters are much milder and temperatures warm up faster. In Cyprus you are more likely to find the old-fashioned varieties of ‘Cupani’, sometimes confused with more modern ‘Matucana’, which have dark mauve and pink flowers, and ‘Painted Lady’, bred from a plant originally from Sicily and dating from 1737. This sweet pea has pink and cream flowers. Both have intense perfumes, much more than present day varieties. Modern breeding had given us many different varieties suitable for cutting and showing, which have more flowers on the longer stems and much bigger flowers. However the perfume tends to be lighter.
Sweet peas are annual plants, meaning that they grow from seed to making seed in one season. If conditions are not too cold and wet, it is possible to sow seeds in the autumn for earlier and sturdier plants. It is helpful to soak the seeds before sowing. Plant them in small pots or modules in a sheltered spot. Once they have two sets of leaves, pinch out the growing point. This will ensure more than just one stem grows on, giving a bushier plant. As climbers, they will need a frame or canes for the tendrils to cling to and may need to be tied in. They prefer a rich soil and feeding with a tomato fertiliser will help them greatly. Like many other climbers, they prefer their roots in the shade with their flowers in the sun. In hot climates they will need constant watering.
Aphids can be a problem and sometimes the plants can be affected by mildew, which can slow down growth. The seeds are toxic if ingested.

By Bejay Browne

DESPITE AN ORDER banning them from their home which has been condemned as unsafe, a defiant Paphos family of four is still living at a stricken development in Armou. They say they have no alternative and are looking to the state for compensation.

The plight of Simon Phillips and his family and other buyers was first highlighted in the Sunday Mail almost two and a half years ago. The luxury development built in 2004 is slipping down the hillside, having been constructed on land locals had long warned was unsafe.

The Phillips’ family are now the only permanent inhabitants and continue to defy an order banning them from their home, saying they have no alternative but to stay put.
“This is our home and it is bought and paid for. I have been told that I don’t qualify for state aid and even with reduced rents, we wouldn’t be able to afford to live anywhere else,” Phillips said:
“After all, we have a four bedroom house which was supposed to be a home for my family. All of our money has gone into this house.”

Four of the homeowners at the development are British and have described how their dreams of owning a home in Cyprus turned sour more than two years ago. A spate of bad weather on top of a persistent water leak caused substantial earth movement which badly damaged the houses in the development. Many houses looked as if they had been hit by an earthquake.

Phillips and his family are now the only permanent residents and say daily life is a massive strain, especially for the children.
“My 14-year-old daughter is afraid to be on her own in the house and the situation is obviously affecting her badly. We can’t have friends over – neither our kids’ friends nor ours – as it’s not safe and it’s embarrassing the way we have been forced to live.”

Built by JNM developers a decade ago, all of the houses have serious structural problems, from slanting floors, to the partial collapse of stairs, walls, swimming pools and patio areas. Huge gaping holes surround Phillip’s house and outside drains are exposed in one garden and retaining walls have split.

JNM has never responded to any requests for a comment on the Armou homes, despite repeated telephone calls and emails since the Mail first reported on the case two and a half years ago.

Phillips bought his house in June 2008. Just four years later, his garden, pool area and exterior retaining walls were covered by gaping holes and wide cracks.

A report by the chairman of Paphos’ Architects and Civil Engineers Association, Chrysostomos Italos was completed in June 2012. Italos places the blame firmly on the developer.

A number of the homeowners, including Phillips, have issued court proceedings against the developer.

By a staff reporter

A BRITISH PENSIONER exposed to industrial quantities of deadly asbestos dust decades ago has been awarded more than £100,000 (121,825 euros) in damages after contracting terminal cancer.
Expat Norman Turner – who now lives in Paphos, from where he launched legal action – endured “filthy, disgusting” conditions during more than three years working as a training officer in a chemicals factory in Liverpool, between 1966 and 1969.

The 67-year-old recalled how a “fog” of toxic dust hung in the atmosphere while he worked and piles of dangerous material collected on surfaces around the site.
“I took the job because I wanted to better myself. I thought it would be a good place to work because it was a big employer. But the conditions were terrible,” said Turner, speaking at the conclusion of his civil case against his former employers Courtaulds, now known as Akzo Nobel.
“The asbestos dust was thick like a fog. I mainly worked in the nylon section and it was everywhere. Most evenings when I got home from the factory I would have to rinse out my nostrils.
“I knew the conditions were bad for us, they were totally filthy and disgusting. But I had no idea just how dangerous it was. I can remember complaining to the bosses that we need better ventilation to clear out the dust because it was hard to breath.”

Turner, originally from Bootle, was employed as a training officer ensuring staff knew how to operate the large industrial machinery in the factory and how to escape in the event of a fire.
But little did he know that he was surrounded by a greater danger. The building’s pipe work was lagged with asbestos which showered down when maintenance work was carried out. The poisonous dust was left to gather on the floor for at least a day before being cleaned up, Turner claimed.
“The pipe work was covered in asbestos and was old and crumbly. I also remembered the pipes being repaired and workmen cutting the lagging off. It showered dust down. Chunks of the lagging would also fall off from time to time. The dust was everywhere but there was no warning about the dangers.”

Turner, who did not want to be photographed, left Courtaulds to join the army. After serving in the forces, Turner set up his home in Leeds where he worked as a porter in St James Hospital until retiring to Cyprus seven years ago.
It was not until April last year that the fit and active pensioner realised his heath was rapidly deteriorating.
He found himself breathless just taking his regular stroll along the Paphos coast. Doctors immediately recognised the signs of asbestos related mesothelioma.

X-Ray’s revealed a dark shadow down one side of the lung and a pale shadow over half of the other.
Doctors drained four litres of fluid from his lungs. The widower, who lost his wife Margaret to cancer in 1986, has now undergone seven rounds of debilitating chemotherapy which has helped shrink the size of the cancerous growths.
But he said remaining as active as possible and positive was helping him to stave off the crippling onset of the deadly disease.
“When the doctor told me I had mesothelioma I knew it was serious. I know it was bad news. The medical treatment has been good here in Cyprus but everything costs,” he said. “This payment was crucial just to keep my head above water.”

He said he was determined to remain positive.

“If I had one piece of advice for anyone undergoing chemotherapy it would be to get up and walk. Do anything active, do whatever you can. It left me feeling lethargic but I do as much as I can. The doctors told me that it would be hard but if I could stay active it really helps the treatment work.”
“Although Norman’s amazing positivity is helping him cope with his condition, he is now living with the consequences of being exposed to asbestos all those years ago. Asbestos related cases are a ticking timebomb,” said Turner’s lawyer, Louise Larkin, of London-based, Slater & Gordon.
“Norman’s life will be cut short and he faces significant medical bills in Cyprus because of the conditions his former employer subjected him to.”

Larkin explained that Turner’s case also demonstrated that despite having been exposed to asbestos decades earlier, victims could still get justice – even if they live in another country thousands of miles away.
“Living abroad should not be considered a barrier if there is past exposure to asbestos in the UK. There may be other expats who do not realise that they can claim in the UK.”

By Alexia Evripidou

AN ENGLISH CYPRIOT woman, desperate for news about her missing brother, made a public appeal this week for any information regarding his disappearance from the Finikoudes coastal strip in Larnaca nearly 12 years ago.

July 7, 2002 was the final day that 26-year-old Vasos Constantinou, who had moved to Larnaca from the UK a few years previously, was seen by anyone.

“I firmly believe that somebody somewhere knows exactly what happened to him. I want people to pity us, to help us. People don’t forget; they choose to forget,” Vasos’ older sister Despina Constantinou told the Sunday Mail from the UK this week. “Anything, no matter how big or small the information is, will be helpful for us, we just want to know what happened to him.”

Harris Hadjiyiasemi, who is now head of Kiti police station, was the police officer who carried out the investigation at the time of Vasos’ disappearance. He told the Mail that on July 7, 2002, Vasos had met an unknown man in what was then The Globe pub off the Finikoudes promenade. Vasos walked out the pub with this man and was never seen again.

Vasos and his father, Stelios Constantinou, had moved to Larnaca from northwest England in the late 1990s to start a new life following the premature death of Vasos’ English mother, who passed away two weeks after her 49th birthday.

“Her death affected the whole family greatly, with Vasos taking the news especially hard,” said Despina. Vasos was the youngest of four children and was very close to his mother, she said.

“The main reason for my father and brother going to Cyprus at that time, was to help my brother in his recovery from the death of our mother, they wanted a change of scenery,” said Despina, adding that both men kept busy with work, seeing family and “generally trying to move on”.

After a couple of years of living in Cyprus, Stelios, now nearly 70 and in frail health, moved back to the UK, leaving Vasos to run a small cafe in Larnaca. Vasos went on to have a very brief and childless marriage, which ended in divorce.

“Vasos was friendly, popular, sociable and independent,” said Despina. ”He was a normal young man with fire in his belly who was struggling to come to terms with the untimely loss of his mum.”

Stelios received the shocking call from Cyprus a few days after July 7, 2002 informing him that his son had not been seen for a couple of days. He flew immediately to Larnaca in an attempt to discover what had happened to his son.

“The police were informed, appeals went out, the local radio station was approached, and I put my brother’s details on the internet. We then put our faith in the police and waited for any confirmation of his whereabouts,” said Despina.

Hadjiyiasemi explained that “an investigation was carried out after his disappearance. We searched his flat thoroughly and did not find anything that was deemed a threat”.

“A missing person’s file is never closed, so if there is new information, we have to start the investigation again,” he said.

Dealing with the prospect that after 12 years with not even a whisper from anyone on her brother’s whereabouts, Despina has had face the possibility that Vasos is no longer alive.

“Surely my brother deserves to be found and buried, so we as a family can say goodbye to him properly,” she said.
Vasos Constantinou, who would now be 38 years old now, was 5ft 10inches, had black hair, dark brown eyes and weighed 180lbs. He had a picture type tattoo on both forearms and “Silvana” tattooed on his right calf, with a scar through his right eyebrow.

“You carry on but life is not the same, there is no closure. Your mind goes through everything, creating all sorts of possible scenarios that may have happened and why. What he may have been involved with, if he had got mixed up with the wrong crowd,” Despina explained. “Dealing with our brother’s disappearance has been horrific. The shock, the disbelief and the grief, it’s the not knowing. You just hope that some day you will find out what happened to him.”

She said she had got in touch with the Sunday Mail in the hope of reaching out to somebody and help jog people’s memories.

“Not a day goes by without thinking of him, if he is lying dead somewhere, we need to know.”

Any information regarding Vasos’ whereabouts can be given to the police by calling 24804040 or 24804067

By Evie Andreou

Followers from around the world have gathered at the hospital in northern Nicosia which is treating a revered and influential Turkish Cypriot Sufi leader who has inspired millions with his spiritual teachings and messages of peace and humility.

In hospital since April 17, 92-year-old Shaykh Nazim is in the intensive care unit of the Near East University Hospital. Admitted for heart and respiratory problems as well as kidney and liver conditions combined with old age, the Shaykh’s condition is serious.

Since his admission, the Shaykh’s followers and the leaders of his order from around the world have been visiting the hospital to be close to him and pay their respects. The hospital on its website’s home page has even created a special section with get-well messages for the man who followers call Mawlana Shaykh. Mawlana is a title showing respect and “denotes the Lordship and the Sovereignty of Allah”.

On his website saltanat.org, Shaykh Nazim’s oldest son and successor, Shaykh Mehmed, is urging followers to pray for his father’s recovery. His second son, Shaykh Bahauddin, says that followers with compatible blood types are providing blood for transfusions.
“My father is strong, he is a fighter. He is responding to medication. The doctors are careful in their announcements but they are optimistic he will recover,” he said.
“But at the end of the day we are believers. If it is time for my father to move on to the after world, we will not fight it.”

Mehmed, the grandson of Shaykh Nazim with the shaykh’s son and successor Shaykh Mehmed Nazim

The Larnaca born shaykh is the leader of the Sufi Naqsibandi-Haqqani Order – Sufism is a mystical branch of Islam – and is believed to be a descendant of the 13th century mystic Djalal al Din Rumi. He is considered to be the fortieth sheikh in the “golden chain” of the Naqshbandiya, which leads back to the Prophet Mohammed and he has great influence within the Islamic world, ranking 42nd in the list of the world’s most influential Muslims. Among his followers are members of royal families and statesmen.

He resides with his followers in his dergah (religious commune) in Lefka in a number of restored Ottoman-era houses. The shaykh has two sons and two daughters.

When I made my way to the Near East Hospital this week, I was struck by the gentle reverence in which this elderly man is held. Followers flock to the hospital daily to receive updates and just be close to their religious leader.
Ahmet, a Turkish Cypriot from Limassol and now living in Kyrenia, described the shaykh as a simple, intuitive and spiritual man. He described how his link with Sufism came when he was in his 20s. He was in his home in the middle of the night when a strong smell of roses filled the air and tears started rolling down his cheeks. He got up, drove to Lefka where the shaykh was standing outside the door waiting for him.
“The shaykh knows what is happening everywhere. He knows what is happening in the next room, he is even aware of the tiniest ant outside in the garden,” said Ahmet.

I was invited into the hospital’s cafeteria to have breakfast with family members and followers. One of the shaykh’s daughters in law, Sultan Aliye hanim, was giving instructions about the serving of food. I asked if I could take a picture of the breakfast area.
“You may,” she said, “but don’t photograph us (the women)”. There were two long tables, one for women, one for men, laid with breakfast food and beverages. The family arranges breakfast and dinner in the hospital’s cafeteria every day for the shaykh’s visitors.
I left the cafeteria to go chat to the men I spotted standing at the hospital’s entrance. One of them was the shaykh’s grandson, Mehmed, aged 27. He said he was living with his grandfather in Lefka in order to learn from him and assist him in his life mission.
“We teach love, that all people unite under God/Allah,” he said. “My grandfather is against violence and extremism.”

The shaykh’s oldest son and successor, Shaykh Mehmed Nazim, joined us. In his presence everyone else stood back in a show of respect to the man who is at present the leader of the order’s dergahs in Istanbul.
“My father is the guide that helps us acquire knowledge of both worlds. The spiritual one and this one,” said Shaykh Mehmed in his calm, low voice.

Present in the company were also shaykhs of the order’s dergahs in Algeria, Kenya and England.
With dergahs throughout the world, an obvious question is to ask how many followers does Shaykh Nazim have?
“Numbers are not important,” the religious leader’s second son, Shaykh Bahaddin, told me later when I visited his office in northern Nicosia. “I think it’s wrong to think in such a way. It is not a competition. Love is important, not numbers.”

He gave me a photo of his father, a book he wrote himself called Cafe Talks and a CD with spiritual melodies, where he chants and sings prayers dressed up with jazzy music.
“I am active in the business sector, mainly trade and the last ten years I have been the chairman of a private bank, and I am also a part-time shaykh,” he said, smiling.
“It is our duty to carry the spiritual inheritance of our father, to manage it and keep it running,” he said.
He described his father as a “world-man” who has the ability to bring people together. “He shows us the way to love our creator and helps us develop spiritual power in order to be able to continue our daily lives,” he said.

Despite his father’s influence in the Muslim world, his son said he follows no government, no ruling and no money power.
“He is a humble ordinary human and yet people are drawn to him because he shows the way to love our creator, he provides us with spiritual support.”

In terms of a solution to the Cyprus problem, Shaykh Bahaddin said his father had always supported peace.
“He never liked the division. The island belongs to Cypriots my father says. He says that we Cypriots are the same, same genes, habits, food, we shouldn’t be divided,” said Shaykh Bahaddin.
“And he never bought any Greek Cypriot land, never!”
The shaykh’s original house in Larnaca still exists and before the invasion Shaykh Mehmed attended elementary school in Episkopi.
I left Shaykh Bahaddin’s office and walked back to the Ledra St checkpoint, my mind full of the faces, words and images I had seen.

A voice behind me brought me back to reality.

“Efendim! Efendiiim!”
I turned around to see a Turkish Cypriot policeman walking toward me with a worried look in his face.

“Efendim, check-out,” he said pointing to the passport control cubicle. I realised I had walked straight passed it. I had got so caught up in the idealism of the spiritual world I forgot the mundane practicalities of this one.