AYIA NAPA municipality plans to restore the Melissi and Glyko Nero localities to what they were like a hundred years ago by planting oleanders, which is a characteristic plant of the area.

The original oleanders were replaced by a large number of acacias several years ago and the municipality will cooperate with the Forestry Department for the uprooting of the acacias and the re-planting of the more traditional oleanders.

The plantings will cover the two localities, through which the ‘Almyro Nero’ (salt water) river used to run.

By George Psyllides

IN AN outburst during his trial for corruption, former state telecoms company CyTA chairman Stathis Kittis said he was falsely accused in connection with a suspicious land deal and that his dignity and reputation have been harmed.

Kittis and six other defendants are on trial over a suspicious land deal in Dromolaxia, near Larnaca, paid for by the CyTA employees’ pension fund.

The seven defendants face 28 charges relating to the alleged embezzlement of €22.5m to build four office complexes – the ‘Aero Centre’.

Kittis’ outburst came during his cross examination yesterday, when the state prosecutor accused him of accepting kickbacks.

“Enough already. I’ve been hearing about kickbacks and being humiliated for the past year,” he said.

“I’ve lost my dignity,” he added, and accused state prosecutors of orchestrating a case of character assassination against him.

The charges against Kittis stem from the testimony of Nicos Lillis, a businessman and former football club chairman, who put together the whole deal. He is now the state’s star witness.

Kittis faces most of the charges – 19 out of 28 – including having conspired with Lillis to overprice the cost of the Aero Centre.

He is also accused of taking a €300,000 bribe from Lillis in order to consent to the deal.

The former CyTA chairman claimed that Lillis decided to accuse him when he felt that the law had caught up with him.

“Don’t think you will confuse me with the kickback references. I’ve been called a thief for a year now for something I haven’t done,” Kittis said.

Kittis claimed the recorded talks between Lillis and a lawyer proved what he was saying.

“Why are you hiding the tapes? They are in the hands of the attorney-general and my lawyer has asked for them but they won’t give them up,” Kittis claimed.

Transcripts of the recordings emerged in February.

The transcripts, if authentic, revealed the questionable backstage wheeling and dealing that took place with the involvement of state officials and politicians.

According to the transcripts, Lillis asked his lawyer, Giorgos Georgiou, whether he would be “safe” if he gave up Kittis, whom he had allegedly bribed with €300,000 to help push the deal through.

“Let me put it this way, with this procedure your risks will be much less,” Georgiou was reported to have said.

The rest of the defendants are former electricity authority EAC chairman Charalambos Tsouris, who was a member of the CyTA board at the time, opposition AKEL official Venizelos Zanettou, the director of CyTA’s pay-TV arm and SEK trade union rep Orestis Vasilliou, CyTA employee Yiannis Souroullas and his brother Gregoris who worked at the land registry, and businessman Antonis Ioakim, a shareholder in Wadnic, the company involved in the deal.

The offences were committed between 2009 and 2013.

By Angelos Anastasiou

THE Troika’s Cyprus mission drew a line in the sand on Wednesday with regard to the introduction of legislation easing the procedures for property foreclosure, elevating voting the bill into law to a precondition of concluding its fifth progress review of the adjustment programme.

Not passing the bill on repossessions, they say, could jeopardise the release of the next tranche of international aid to the bailed out island.

Speaking after a meeting between the Troika mission and DISY leader Averof Neophytou, DISY spokesman Prodromos Prodromou said that while Cyprus has achieved much, there is still a long way to go.

“During our meeting with the Troika, it became obvious that in order to talk about growth margins, reforms will need to have been completed first,” Prodromou said. “There are reforms that we need to pick up the pace on, like restoring the functioning of the banking system and reforming the entire public sector.”

The repossession bill, along with a second bill governing insolvency, are designed to address the issue of mounting non-performing loans (NPLs) which threatens to incur huge losses to banks and suffocate the banking system. NPLs currently stand at 47 per cent of all outstanding loans, and in its last review the Troika deemed their rising number the “single greatest challenge currently facing the Cyprus economy.”

Speaking after a meeting with the Troika mission earlier in the day, EDEK deputy Nikos Nikolaides said the delegates were clear that they would be unable to conclude the review if the repossession bill was not passed through the House of Representatives this month. The ongoing progress review of Cyprus’ adjustment programme is the Troika’s fifth, and is scheduled to be concluded on July 25.

But Nikolaides said at least one piece of good news had also come out of the meeting.

“We identified the Troika’s willingness to discuss passing the repossession bill while exempting primary residences, which would be left to tackle at a more suitable time – possibly near the end of the year, along with the insolvency bill,” he said.

Voting on the bill would require convening an extraordinary plenary session as the House is in recess due to the summer break.

EDEK leader and House president Yiannakis Omirou said that if the executive were to submit an urgent bill, parliament would examine whether the bill warrants convening a special session.

“If there are urgent bills relating to the country’s economic situation, the House will respond positively,” Omirou said. “However, it will first need to be submitted and presented before us.”

Meanwhile, a team from the Troika’s Cyprus mission met with the management of Cyprus Airways and was briefed on the latest developments relating to the company’s financial state, as well as its prospects of attracting a strategic investor.

The troubled national carrier placed advertisements in yesterday’s newspapers inviting expressions of interest from potential investors by next month, for an initial decision to be taken in Cyprus. The airline plans to sell its 94 per cent stake in the airline and rescue it from collapse.

A meeting followed with Health ministry officials regarding planned actions with regard to the National Health Scheme (NHS). The Council of Ministers yesterday approved the computerisation of systems in all public medical facilities, as well as the roadmap to the implementation of the NHS.

“The roadmap includes roughly 200 actions that are strictly timed that will radically overhaul the health system over the next three years, which will facilitate implementation of the NHS,” Health minister Philippos Patsalis said.

The Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency (CIPA) was next on the Troika’s schedule. In this meeting, CIPA head Christodoulos Angastiniotis laid out prospective investments underway and raised the issue of understaffing at the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).

The economy’s recovery and growth cannot rely solely on foreign investors and part of the bailout money should be used to develop the economy and in particular the private sector, officials from the employers and industrialists federation (OEB) said during their discussions with Troika officials.

In an announcement, the employers’ federation said the two parties discussed the competitiveness of local businesses, for which the biggest concern is the lack of funds.

Another problem raised was the government bureaucracy that businessmen are dealing with when it comes to investments.

“It is unacceptable to need 15 licences and permits to conclude the simplest project,” OEB’s general manager Michalis Pilikos said.

Later in the day, Troika delegates met with the accountants’ association to discuss issues relating to monitoring money laundering, and the day was concluded with meetings with the Cyprus chamber of commerce and CySEC.

By Staff Reporter

ENVIRONMENT Commissioner Ioanna Panayiotou has called on the chairman of the central beaches committee, Angelos Moiseos, to urgently designate dog-friendly beaches before the end of the summer season.
“The beaches must be set promptly because further delay will make no sense due to the end of the summer season,” the commissioner said.

Despite the fact that in 2003 a law was passed mandating that each district should designate a dog-friendly beach, municipalities are protesting and refuse to cooperate.

Panayiotou says that since according to the law only the central beaches committee can define beaches where animals are allowed and since dialogue with the municipalities is failing, the committee should take charge and immediately designate such beaches, at least one in each district, that are accessible and can be used by the public.

The beaches committee designated five areas in 2011 but failed to implement the regulation because of opposition from local authorities.

The only officially designated dog-friendly beach is in Ayia Napa that opened in August 2008 on the municipality’s own initiative. The beach is called Louma and is located opposite the Waterworld water park in Ayia Thekla.

CYPRIOT Anastasia Liopetriti, 21, won the writing competition ‘What does an enlarged EU mean to you?’ organised by the European Commission.

Liopetriti was the winner in the 19 to 25 age category of the competition which marked the tenth anniversary of the EU enlargement when Cyprus and nine other countries joined. Jan Petek from Poland, 15, won in the 15 to 18 age category.

Liopetriti’s and Petek’s compositions were chosen from among 450 entries sent from all 28 EU member states and from seven candidates and potential candidates in southeast Europe.

“The jury decided that this was a well-written piece which captured the EU’s principles and values and was embellished with personal points such as a bus journey. In particular, the jury enjoyed the description of borders, both imaginary and physical, and of the process of breaking them down, and felt that the author illustrated this well,” said the Commission’s announcement.

Participants were young people aged 15 to 25 from across Europe who were asked to submit an article or blog on what today’s European Union can learn from the past to help improve the future, as well as to reflect on what an enlarged EU meant to them.

Liopetriti won a two-day trip to Brussels where she will receive her prize, an e-reader, see the work of the European Commission up close and visit other EU institutions.

A MULTINATIONAL search and rescue (SAR) day-time exercise was conducted yesterday near the coast of Cyprus, with the participation of SAR units and personnel from Cyprus and the U.S., the second this year.

The Defence ministry said that rescue naval units and SAR helicopters took part in the 3-hour exercise under the operational control of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) Larnaca, in close cooperation with the 6th Fleet Command Task Force-65 of the U.S. Navy.

The objective of the exercise, dubbed “CYPUSA – 01/14”, was the planning, preparation and execution of a multinational joint SAR exercise, in order to promote personnel and rescue capabilities and readiness for missions and other humanitarian operations of Cyprus and in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The exercise scenarios included a maritime accident in the open sea, a ‘man overboard’ situation, ‘medevac’ emergency drills, helicopter deck landings on U.S. Navy ships, and other potential crises on board passenger or cargo ships in the region.

THE GENERAL Court of the European Union gave a two-month notice to the Eurogroup of Eurozone finance minister and other European institutions (the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the European Council) to submit their defence in a lawsuit submitted by 51 plaintiffs over losses they suffered when their deposits in Cyprus were seized to recapitalise lenders.

According to a press release issued by K. Chrysostomides & Co law firm, “the EU institutions must now file their defence within two months, unless an extension is granted by the Court.”

The lawsuit was filed in December last year.

The Eurogroup decided in March 2013 to close down Laiki Bank and seize deposits over €100,000 to recapitalise the Bank of Cyprus (BoC).

The lender has used 47.5 per cent of the deposits, which were replaced by new shares.

The claimants want compensation for losses suffered as a result of the Eurogroup decision, as well as depreciation – in both value and number – of their shares.

Depositors whose money was seized received equity in return creating a new group of shareholders and, subsequently, board of directors, while old shareholders saw their stakes diluted to less than one per cent.

Under the terms of the so-called haircut, the nominal value of all ordinary BoC shares was reduced from €1.00 each to ordinary shares of nominal value of €0.01 each.

By Justyna Pawlak and Louis Charbonneau

With talks between world powers and Iran over a broad nuclear accord at an impasse, Western governments are considering offering a significant easing of sanctions early on in the process to try to wring concessions from Tehran, diplomats say.

To be effective, such a plan would have to involve clear guidance to companies made wary by US fines for sanctions-busting, be reversible and not go too far, or sceptical US lawmakers would simply reimpose restrictions.

The OPEC oil producer has seen its economy devastated by years of sanctions imposed over its contested nuclear programme, which Western states say appears to be aimed at producing a nuclear bomb and Tehran says is purely peaceful.

The prospects for an immediate accord scaling back that programme in return for sanctions relief appeared tenuous on Thursday. Diplomats said the six world powers negotiating with Iran – the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany – were working out terms for an extension of talks, beyond their self-imposed July 20 deadline, instead of seeking to close a deal now.

If there is an agreement in the coming weeks or months, Western diplomats have told Reuters, Iran might still have to wait years, or as long as two decades, to see the complex web of sanctions permanently removed.

Instead, they said, Western states may opt for a patchwork of steps suspending sanctions in various industries that can be easily reinstated if Tehran reneges on its nuclear commitments. The extent of these steps would match Iranian concessions.

“When Iran does something, then we can respond with sanctions relief,” one said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The whole process will take years.”

The timing of any easing of oil sanctions – closely watched by the markets – which now prohibit U.S. and European importers from buying Iranian crude and impose severe restrictions on third country purchases, will depend on what Iran offers to do from its side and when.

But some diplomats said restrictions on banking with Iran might have to be eased in step with other industries, such as shipping for example, to make sure companies can finance any newly re-established trade.

“We can be flexible,” a senior western diplomat said.

Without access to finance, relief might not materialise, raising questions about the world powers’ credibility and endangering the implementation of the accord, they said.

Western companies are eager to enter Iran, a market of nearly 80 million people and vast oil reserves.

But banks have been reluctant to process cash when it became admissible to a certain extent under an interim accord struck between Iran and the world powers last November, which provided modest sanctions relief for some nuclear concessions.

Some experts have said overcoming this reluctance may mean, for example, that the West would have to name several banks that would process transactions allowed under newly allowed relief.

“Overcoming the reticence of international banks to do business with Iran will require the (six powers) to issue clear regulatory guidance about which multilateral sanctions are lifted,” said Elizabeth Rosenberg from the Center for a New American Security in a research note.

French bank BNP Paribas agreed earlier this month to pay $9 billion for contravening US sanctions, also against Iran, in a move likely to increase western banks’ reluctance to open up for business with Tehran.

THE RIGHT TIMING

How sanctions relief for Iran is introduced might be a crucial factor in ensuring the integrity of any deal, which will likely be implemented over many years.

The West wants Iran to scale back its atom work so much that it would take it a long time, maybe years, to assemble materials for a bomb. To achieve that it wants Iran to limit its capacity to enrich uranium to bomb-grade and subject any remaining work to strict United Nations oversight.

For now, diplomats said, the sides have struggled to match Iranian and western concessions sufficiently to craft a deal, despite holding six rounds of talks since the start of this year coordinated by the EU’s top diplomat Catherine Ashton.

Some diplomats have said that as a goodwill gesture towards Iran, the West would be willing to “front-load” some sanctions relief, in return for quick stepping back from atom work.

“It’s all meant to be reciprocal,” one diplomat from the six powers said.

But experts warn that Congress, where Republicans and some Democrats have called for talks to be abandoned and a return to tough sanctions to deter Tehran from building an atom bomb, may move ahead with new sanctions if they view a deal as too lax.

“If they try to front-load relief too significantly or lift key elements (of the western sanctions architecture) too precipitously, they will inspire a congressional backlash,” said Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a US think-tank which advocates tougher sanctions.

POLITICAL COMPLICATIONS

Any sanctions relief would have to be closely coordinated between the United States and Europe, some diplomats also said, to ensure Washington’s power to punish third countries for contravening its restrictions does not complicate implementation.

It would be difficult, for example, for the Belgium-based SWIFT, which provides banks with a system for moving funds around the world to unblock Iranian banks from using its network to transfer money without some easing of US restrictions.

The Belgian company cut off Iranian banks in 2012 as part of a wider international push to ratchet up sanctions that also included a European Union embargo on purchases of Iranian oil.

The once unthinkable move – considering the extent of dependence of some European countries on Iranian crude – pulled between 450,000 and 600,000 barrels per day off world markets and made it very difficult for global buyers of Iranian crude to insure shipments.

One western diplomat said Iran’s immediate goal was to roll back sanctions to what they were prior to EU moves in 2012.

If that happens, EU rules would only allow for the oil embargo to be initially suspended before permanent removal.

A suspension could be easily reversed, while to reimpose such a ban, which took months of painstaking negotiations in 2011 to agree, might be impossible again because it would require a unanimous decision by all 28 EU governments.

In Washington, Obama can theoretically use waivers to allow for some previously sanctioned trade. But a permanent removal of sanctions in many industries would require congressional support, which might be impossible to secure before Iran has completed its side of the deal.

Several diplomats said much of the extensive western sanctions architecture could remain in place even after an accord is concluded.

Many US measures pre-date the nuclear conflict and are related to tensions between Washington and Tehran over a hostage crisis following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The domestic US oil embargo would be one example, even if Washington gradually removes pressure on third states not to buy Iranian oil.

By Jeffrey Heller

First they removed the baby seat to make room in the car, and then three Israelis searched for an Arab to kidnap and kill to avenge the deaths of three Jewish teenagers, according to a murder indictment released on Thursday.

Mohammed Abu Khudair’s death stoked Palestinian street protests in Jerusalem and in Israeli Arab villages, and served as a trigger for warfare between Israel and rocket-firing militants in the Gaza Strip now in its 10th day.

Two weeks after Mohammed, 16, was dragged screaming into a Honda vehicle outside his East Jerusalem home, his final minutes were described in graphic detail in a 10-page charge sheet issued by Israel’s Justice Ministry.

The slightly built high school student fought his abductors in the back seat of the car until one pressed his elbow against the youth’s throat. A second assailant helped push the arm deeper, choking Mohammed into silence.

“Finish him off,” the car’s driver urged the two, according to the indictment.

The teen was still alive, but unconscious, it said, when he was doused with fuel in a Jerusalem forest and set alight. His charred body was found hours later, the victim of what the charge sheet termed “an act of vengeance”.

Before striking the match, the driver – the owner of an eyeglass store in Jerusalem who prosecutors said has a history of psychiatric problems – kicked Mohammed three times, according to the indictment.

“This is for Eyal, this is for Gilad, this is for Naftali,” it quoted him as saying as his foot struck, using the first names of the three Jewish seminary students whose bodies were found in the Israeli-occupied West Bank two days earlier.

Israel says Eyal Yifrach, 19, and Gilad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel, both 16, were abducted and killed by Islamist Hamas militants while hitchhiking in the territory. The Islamist group has neither confirmed or denied involvement.

The defendants in Mohammed’s killing – an adult and two minors – were not named publicly in the charge sheet, which said a court order against their identification was in effect. If convicted on murder and kidnapping charges, the adult could face life imprisonment and the minors a shorter sentence.

They appeared in a Jerusalem court to hear the indictment read but a spokesman for a legal aid society representing them said pleas would be entered only at a later stage. Police, who used security camera footage to trace the car, said the three had confessed and re-enacted the killing for investigators.

PSYCHIATRIC PROBLEMS

“Defendant number 1″, the store owner, has been taking medication for mental illness for years and suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, the charge sheet said. The website of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, says OCD symptoms include an inability to control unwanted thoughts and behaviour.

“Defendant 2″ is described as a Jewish seminary student. The third accused had pursued religious studies but later worked in a toy shop. He, too, the charge sheet said, takes psychiatric drugs and has OCD.

It was the shop-owner who suggested to one of the accused minors, on the day after the Israeli youths were found dead, that they take revenge on an Arab, the prosecution said.

Then the pair hit the road in the middle of the night, some 24 hours before they grabbed Mohammed, and searched for a victim in Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem.

Near a mosque, they spotted a Palestinian mother pushing a baby stroller as two of her small sons walked behind. Jumping out of the car, “Defendant number 2″ tried to pull one of the children in, according to the indictment.

The mother cried out and threw herself at the Israeli who, the indictment said, had changed from traditional Orthodox garb to clothes he hoped would disguise his Jewish identity. He punched the woman in the face and she fell to the ground.

But one of her sons had run off and alerted passersby, who drew nearer. The assailants fled.

They set off again the next night, this time with “Defendant number 3″ in the Honda, according to the indictment.

After stopping around 2 a.m. for energy drinks, it said, the three spotted Mohammed, but initially passed him by, deciding that a nearby Arab hitchhiker would be easier prey. By the time they circled around, both were gone.

At 3:45 a.m., they again came upon Mohammed, who his family said was waiting to go to morning prayers with friends. Thirty minutes later, he was dead, struck twice in the head with a metal bar and then burned.

After the indictment was read in Jerusalem District Court, Israel announced it was assigning a special status to the slain teenager enabling his family to receive government benefits.

It designated the Palestinian youth a “victim of terrorism”.

By Anton Zverev

A Malaysian airliner was brought down over eastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing all 295 people aboard and sharply raising the stakes in a conflict between Kiev and pro-Moscow rebels in which Russia and the West back opposing sides.

Ukraine accused “terrorists” – militants fighting to unite eastern Ukraine with Russia – of shooting down the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with a heavy, Soviet-era SA-11 ground-to-air missile as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

Leaders of the rebel Donetsk People’s Republic denied any involvement, although around the same time their military commander said his forces had downed a much smaller Ukrainian transport plane. It would be their third such kill this week.

The scale of the disaster affecting scores of foreigners could prove a turning point for international pressure to resolve a crisis that has claimed hundreds of lives in Ukraine since pro-Western protests toppled the Moscow-backed president in Kiev in February and Russia annexed Crimea a month later.

Reuters journalists saw burning and charred wreckage bearing the red and blue Malaysia insignia and dozens of bodies strewn in fields near the village of Hrabove, 40 km from the Russian border near the rebel-held regional capital of Donetsk.

Despite the shooting down of several Ukrainian military aircraft in the area in recent months, including two this week, and renewed accusations from Kiev that Russian forces were taking a direct part, international air lanes had remained open.

US President Barack Obama said he was trying to establish whether Americans were aboard. A Ukrainian official said there were 23. France said at least four of its citizens were aboard.

As word came in of what Ukraine’s Western-backed president called a “terrorist attack”, Obama was on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, discussing a new round of economic sanctions that Washington and its EU partners imposed on Moscow on Wednesday to try to force Putin to do more to curb the revolt against the Western-backed government in Kiev.

They noted the early reports during their telephone call, the White House said, adding that Obama warned of further sanctions if Moscow did not change course in Ukraine.

WRECKAGE, BODIES

Malaysia Airlines said air traffic controllers lost contact with flight MH-17 at 1415 GMT as it flew over eastern Ukraine towards the Russian border, bound for Asia with 280 passengers and 15 crew aboard. Flight tracking data indicated it was at its cruising altitude of 33,000 feet when it disappeared.

That would be beyond the range of smaller rockets used by the rebels to bring down helicopters and other low-flying Ukrainian military aircraft – but not of the SA-11 system which a Ukrainian official accused Russia of supplying to the rebels.

“I was working in the field on my tractor when I heard the sound of a plane and then a bang,” one local man at told Reuters at Hrabove, known in Russian as Grabovo. “Then I saw the plane hit the ground and break in two. There was thick black smoke.”

An emergency worker said at least 100 bodies had been found so far and that debris was spread over 15 km. People were scouring the area for the black box flight recorders and separatists were later quoted as saying they had found one.

“MH-17 is not an incident or catastrophe, it is a terrorist attack,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko tweeted. He has stepped up his military campaign against the rebels since a ceasefire late last month failed to produce any negotiations.

Russia, which Western powers accuse of trying to destabilise Ukraine to maintain influence over its old Soviet empire, has accused Kiev’s leaders of mounting a fascist coup. It says it is holding troops in readiness to protect Russian-speakers in the east – the same rationale it used for taking over Crimea.

Ukrainian Interior Ministry official Anton Gerashchenko said on Facebook: “Just now, over Torez, terrorists using a Buk anti-aircraft system kindly given to them by Putin have shot down a civilian airliner flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.”

The Buk – which means beech tree in Russia – is a 1970s vintage, truck-mounted, radar-guided missile system, codenamed SA-11 Gadfly by Cold War NATO adversaries. It fires a 5.7-metre, 55-kg missile for up to 28 km.

“There is no limit to the cynicism of Putin and his terrorists!” Gerashchenko wrote on the social media site. “Europe, USA, Canada, the civilised world, open your eyes! Help us in any way you can! This is a war of good against evil!”

He also published a photograph he said showed a Buk launcher in the centre of the town of Torez on Thursday. It was not possible to verify the image.

REBEL ACCUSATION

A rebel leader said Ukrainian forces shot the airliner down and that rebel forces did not have weaponry capable of hitting a plane flying 10 km up. Ukrainian officials said their military was not involved in the incident.

The military commander of the rebels, a Russian named Igor Strelkov, had written on his social media page at 1337 GMT, half an hour before the last reported contact with MH-17, that his forces had brought down an Antonov An-26 in the same area. It is a turboprop transport plane of a type used by Ukraine’s forces.

There was no comment on that from the Ukrainian military.

Several Ukrainian planes and helicopters have been shot down in four months of fighting in the area. Ukraine had said an An-26 was shot down on Monday and one of its Sukhoi Su-25 fighters was downed on Wednesday by an air-to-air missile – Kiev’s strongest accusation yet of direct Russian involvement, since the rebels do not appear to have access to aircraft.

Moscow has denied its forces are involved in any way.

The loss of MH-17 is the second disaster for Malaysia Airlines this year, following the mysterious loss of flight MH-370. It disappeared in March with 239 passengers and crew on board on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

In 2001, Ukraine admitted its military was probably responsible for shooting down a Russian airliner that crashed into the Black Sea, killing all 78 people on board. A senior Ukrainian official said it had most likely been downed by an accidental hit from an S-200 rocket fired during exercises.

In 1983, a Soviet jet fighter shot down a South Korean airliner after it veered off course into Russian air space and failed to respond to attempts to make contact. All 269 passengers and crew were killed.

In 1988, the US warship Vincennes shot down an Iranian airliner over the Gulf, killing all 290 passengers and crew, in what the United States said was an accident after crew mistook the plane for a fighter. Tehran called it a deliberate attack.

By Elias Hazou

STATHIS Kittis, former chairman of state telecoms company CyTA, on Thursday again denied taking kickbacks in a multi-million land deal financed through the telco employees’ pension fund, telling the court that what he was offered was a Manchester United T-shirt.

During the second day of his cross-examination in court, the prosecution put it to Kittis that he accepted a €100,000 bribe for greasing the deal.

The state prosecutor said Kittis was handed the cash by Nicos Lillis, a businessman and former football club chairman, who put together the whole deal. Lillis is now the state’s star witness.

During a meeting at a café, Lillis allegedly handed Kittis an envelope containing €100,000.

Kittis rejected the imputation, saying the envelope in question did not contain cash, but rather a replica shirt of Manchester United FC. He claimed that Lillis – who at the time was negotiating with MUFC a deal whereby its junior teams would use the sports facilities of Alki football club for training – gave him the shirt as a gift.

The state prosecutor challenged the plausibility of Kittis’ explanation, noting that shirts are typically wrapped in nylon bags not envelopes.

Kittis also acknowledged receiving €100,000 from Lillis in an arrangement between the two concerning another property deal that ultimately never materialised.

Under that arrangement, which Kittis said was above board, he was to receive €100,000 from Lillis, but was to return €90,000 in the event the deal did not happen.

Kittis rejected imputations by the prosecution that, during his time at CyTA, he drew up bogus deals as a cover to ‘launder’ backhanders.

The former CyTA boss countered that Lillis has been feeding prosecutors with false information.

“These are lies from Lillis, extracted at the behest of police investigators, so as to concoct a case, given that Lillis is a collaborator with authorities, as has appeared from the phone calls,” he said in court.

He was referring to leaked recordings of a conversation between Lillis and a lawyer. Transcripts of the recordings emerged in February.

The transcripts, if authentic, revealed the questionable backstage wheeling and dealing that took place with the involvement of state officials and politicians.

According to the transcripts, Lillis asked his lawyer, Giorgos Georgiou, whether he would be “safe” if he gave up Kittis, whom he had allegedly bribed with €300,000 to help push the deal through.

Kittis and six other defendants are on trial over a suspicious land deal in Dromolaxia, near Larnaca, paid for by the CyTA employees’ pension fund.

The seven defendants face 28 charges relating to the alleged embezzlement of €22.5m to build four office complexes – the ‘Aero Centre’.

The trial continues.

By Angelos Anastasiou

ROAD Transport department acting head Yiannis Nikolaides has advised the police chief that the Nicosia bus company OSEL has been withholding its revenues in order to increase the state subsidy it is entitled to.

In a letter dated July 8 to police chief Zacharias Chrysostomou, in which he attached payment receipts in corroboration of his claims, Nikolaides called for a police investigation to establish whether any offences against the state have been committed.

The district bus companies are entitled to an annual government subsidy, the level of which is established after all revenues have been declared to the Road Transport Department.

“A possible breach of contract is being investigated against OSEL for withholding revenues from services rendered, which were not declared to the Road Transport Department,” Nikolaides wrote. “Sufficient evidence has been established for withholding revenues from the delivery of mail and other goods in villages in the Nicosia district, and the use of OSEL facilities, fleet and personnel in conducting such business.”

Communications minister Marios Demetriades declined to comment on the issue, suggesting that investigations should not be made public until concluded.

“The Communications and Works ministry is working very hard to make sure that government spending is heavily scrutinised,” he said, adding that he was unable to offer more information on this investigation, other than that control was very tight.

OSEL’s personnel manager Tasos Michaelides denied any wrongdoing on the company’s part.

“The letter to the police appears to be true,” he said. “What is not true is that OSEL has withheld revenues.”

Michaelides also claimed that it would make little sense for OSEL to try and scam the government out of €12,000 or €15,000, when it runs an annual budget close to €25m, and blamed a rival bus company for making false accusations.

“This matter relates to revenues from the delivery of packages, parcels and envelopes undertaken by [bus company] ‘PEAL O Klarios.’ In addition to using its own facilities, Klarios has also been using some of OSEL’s. In this case, OSEL charges Klarios for the use of its facilities, and these revenues will be submitted to the Road Transport Department. There is no withholding of revenues – that would have been the case if OSEL had submitted its financials and omitted the money received from Klarios.”

“The Communications minister was very wise to avoid taking a stand on this non-issue,” Michaelides said.

A 21-year-old man is in critical condition after he fell off his motorcycle early on Thursday in Kiti and hit his head on the ground.

According to police reports, the man, who is on life support in the intensive care unit at the Nicosia General hospital, lost control of his motorcycle and fell.

He was initially transferred to the Larnaca General hospital but due to his critical condition was taken to Nicosia, where he underwent surgery.

By Stefanos Evripidou

PRESIDENT Nicos Anastasiades said on Thursday that he was “totally satisfied” with the understanding shown by new European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Parliament (EP) President Martin Schulz on the need for the EU to play a significant role in the peace talks.

Anastasiades met with Juncker for an hour in Brussels, discussing EU matters and the Cyprus problem.

The Cypriot president said he briefed the new Commission President extensively on the peace talks.

Juncker showed understanding on the issues, especially the one “we are interested in most, the EU’s involvement in the ongoing dialogue to ensure that the solution meets the acquis communautaire, protects human rights, and respects the values and principles ​​of the EU,” Anastasiades said.
He also briefed the re-elected EP president Martin Schulz on the difficulties in the talks and the need for EU involvement to safeguard the rights and obligations bestowed to EU member states and expected of them.  “I am totally satisfied with the meetings and the understanding we found. We will be in constant contact to see how we can creatively use the EU in the efforts to find a solution to the Cyprus problem,” he said.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Anastasiades, Schulz the two enjoyed a convergence of views on the next steps. He added that the EU needs a constructive relationship with Turkey not only regarding Cyprus, but on other international issues. Schulz called on Turkey to stay on its European course.

By Elias Hazou

THOUSANDS of calls flooded the Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) hotline on Thursday, the first day the government began accepting applications for welfare package.

By midday, the 22460460 hotline was already swamped, and most calls thereafter were met with the following voice message: “We are sorry. The network is busy at this time. Please try calling later.”

The call centre will be operating daily except Sundays, from 7.30am to 7.30pm, offering general information on GMI eligibility and provisions.

Trouble contacting an operator prompted the labour and social insurance ministry to release an announcement, urging people to call in the afternoons to avoid peak phone traffic in the morning hours.

GMI application forms are available at 54 post offices across the island, whereas aid recipients may obtain the forms from their local Social Welfare Services office, and must submit their application by August 11.

Recipients of low pensions must submit their application by September 8, and all other applications may be submitted at local post offices or posted to 46, Themistoclis Dervis Ave., Medcon Tower, 1066 Nicosia.

Applications are available in various colours to facilitate more effective processing: blue for Cypriot nationals, green for other EU citizens, orange for third-country (non-EU) nationals, pink for welfare recipients, and grey for low-pension recipients.

The applications are also available online, on the websites of the labour and social insurance ministry (www.mlsi.gov.cy) and the postal services (www.cypruspost.gov.cy)

The labour ministry expects a flurry of applications that could approach 100,000. To help with timely processing, the ministry has announced it will be hiring 50 people from the pool of registered unemployed with at least a high-school leaving diploma.

GMI is a government effort to overhaul social welfare by bundling all welfare benefits into a single scheme, with the simultaneous creation of a universal welfare recipient registry to help weed out duplications and abuses of the system.

Using indicative figures including the average cost of rent in Cyprus, cost of living and entertainment and others, the government has arrived at a base figure of €480, with several items added depending on family, employment and income status.

Already late in implementing due to parliamentary squabbling, the first GMI for this year is expected to be distributed in September.

By Angelos Anastasiou

THE Council of Ministers on Wednesday approved the universal digitisation of public healthcare services and a roadmap for the implementation of the National Health Scheme (NHS), prompting calls of sidelining the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO), an independent body mandated with implementing and administering the scheme.

Speaking after the cabinet meeting, Health minister Philippos Patsalis said that these decisions marked the introduction of the NHS and kicked off the full reorganisation of the healthcare system.

He explained that the move to digitisation – or ‘electronic health’ – relates to introducing computerised systems in all public healthcare facilities, through which all medical services will be administered.

“Electronic medical files, electronic prescribing, electronic test imaging like MRI scans, clinical exams” are but a few of the areas to be impacted, according to the Health minister.

A pilot version of the programme had been implemented at the Nicosia and Famagusta general hospitals, producing “great efficiency and serious cost savings,” Patsalis said.

The decision calls for the outsourcing of electronic systems in all public healthcare facilities.

The cabinet decision noted that the current system costs the Health ministry an annual €1.6m, with an added cost of €230,000 relating to the current bureaucracy at the Pharmaceutical Services department.

The proposed digitisation will merge the cost of all public healthcare facilities to a single figure. The current healthcare system at all public facilities is expected to cost an average €6m, while the planned computerised system is budgeted at €3.6m a year.

The second decision kicks off implementation of the NHS and restructuring the entire health system – including the HIO and the Health ministry.

“This includes the roadmap to implementing the NHS, and the 200 or so actions within the next three years that are time-specific, which will overhaul the health system radically and through which the NHS will be implemented,” Patsalis said.

It also includes the creation of a core implementation and reform team within the Health ministry, as well as a wider implementation and reform team from other government services.

“These were Troika requirements and are the first deliverables with regard to NHS implementation,” Patsalis said.

The offhand remark on reorganising the HIO, along with the ministry’s apparent takeover of NHS implementation, has led to speculation that the organisation is being sidelined and its role demoted.

Opposition party AKEL, which has long accused the government of attempting to introduce private insurance companies into the closed, single-insurer NHS, jumped at the opportunity to attack the government.

“We have repeatedly warned that the government is planning to sell-off healthcare to a handful of private interests,” it said in a statement. “Toward this aim, it plans to unilaterally and arbitrarily isolate and remove the HIO from the design and implementation of the NHS.”

“The DISY government is once again attempting, at the expense of the public and citizens, to promote a few powerful private interests hiding behind insurance companies,” it charged.

NURSES are calling Health minister Philippos Patsalis to engage in a dialogue with them and have threatened with strike action if their demands are not met.

The Pancyprian Nurses union (PASYNO) expressed their discontent on Wednesday on the fact that the minister did not respond to the matter of the unfreezing of 161 posts and 28 in psychiatric nursing.

“The candidates for these positions have passed the relevant exams since 2011 and they already work as temporary staff or on indefinite contracts and the unfreezing of these posts does not affect the state payroll and budget,” an announcement said.

The nurses’ announcement added that had no response from the minister as opposed to other groups of health professionals (doctors) with whom the minister came in personal contact.

PASYNO said that this degrades the union and that they cannot understand the selective confrontation at the ministry which results in an uneven approach of a sector with thousands employees who offer their services tirelessly and responsibly.

“In the unfortunate case that we are not heard, and the dialogue in which we want the minister to find solutions is not promptly channelled, we do not rule out the possibility of taking drastic measures,” the announcement said.

By Angelos Anastasiou

THE House Finance committee yesterday approved the unfreezing of 785 promotions in the public sector.

Following a committee session that was addressed by Finance Minister Harris Georgiades, who argued the measure’s merits, chairman and DIKO leader Nikolas Papadopoulos said that the government’s request had been approved.

“After the clarifications made by the Finance minister, we have concluded that in this case the preferred decision would be to approve these promotions,” he said.

But Papadopoulos clarified that DIKO’s legislative proposal to unfreeze all promotions in the public sector remained on the table, adding that after some legal issues have been studied it “might return to the agenda in September.”

Papadopoulos confirmed that following the committee’s decision, promotions may commence today, if required.

AKEL deputy Yiannos Lamaris said that his party concurred that 785 out of 5,000 frozen promotions should be released, and criticised the government’s original decision to freeze all promotions in the government and broader public sector.

“We today agreed to the unfreezing of these promotions, while at the same time keeping the proposal to unfreeze all positions, which we have submitted with DIKO,” he said.

Lamaris explained that the government’s initial decision to issue a blanket freeze on all promotions is “proven wrong by the current discussions on which to unfreeze, when to unfreeze them, whether there will be additional costs incurred, and what that cost will be.”

“It is imperative that we unfreeze some promotions so that departments lacking managers, directors and headmasters can operate properly, which is why we will return in September with a proposal that would remove responsibility from the House, to neutralise suspicion on which promotions are unfrozen and which are not,” he said.

By Angelos Anastasiou

THE Cyprus bondholders’ association came away from a meeting with Central Bank (CBC) governor Chrystalla Georghadji empty-handed yesterday, but warned that if their demand for a hearing with President Anastasiades is not granted they will be forced to take “unprecedented measures.”

Speaking after the meeting, association head Fivos Mavrovouniotis spoke of a great contradiction on the CBC’s part, as after issuing a report concluding that bondholders had been duped by commercial banks, it then issued a decree that left bonds with legacy Laiki after the bank was wound down.

Mavrovouniotis explained that the law allows the Resolution Authority – the CBC – to transfer the bonds to the Bank of Cyprus (BoC), which Georghadji claimed would be extremely difficult. He added that the BoC chairman had expressed some interest in settling the bonds issue out of court, but in order to do so they must be transferred from legacy Laiki to the BoC.

“They came and took our money, used it to recapitalise the bank so the country could survive, and financially executed thousands of people,” Mavrovouniotis said, adding that “now they are refusing to rectify their mistake by harmonising the law with the decree.”

The association’s leader said that following this development he contacted the Presidential Palace himself and asked that Anastasiades call a meeting with Georghadji, the BoC chairman, the head of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission and the Finance minister.

“In this meeting everyone will present their arguments in a concerted effort to share the burden. We are not asking for our money immediately – we are asking for our money over 7 or 8 years,” he said. “If this is not done, I am sorry to say we will commence an unyielding struggle, unprecedented in Cyprus.”

The association’s vice-president Stavros Yiallourides said that bondholders were in a very difficult spot, because even if they went to court and won the case the entity that is meant to reimburse them will be non-existent.

“They are playing legal games with us, forcing us into never-ending legal fights to secure a favourable decision against Laiki, a Laiki that no longer exists,” he said. “So where are we getting reimbursed from?”

Yiallourides said it is immoral to be forced into a legal battle without knowing where they might be reimbursed.

Asked what they got out of yesterday’s meeting, Yiallourides said they received promises for something better.

“Time passes and people can’t afford any more delays,” he said.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller

Israel intensified its land offensive in Gaza with artillery, tanks and gunboats on Friday and warned it could “significantly widen” an operation Palestinian officials said was killing ever greater numbers of civilians.

Palestinian health officials said 35 Palestinians, including a baby, four children and a 70-year-old woman, had been killed since Israel sent ground forces on Thursday into the densely-populated enclave of 1.8 million Palestinians.

The Israeli military said it killed 17 Palestinian gunmen while another 13 surrendered and were taken for questioning after the infantry and tank assault began in the Islamist Hamas-dominated territory.

One Israeli soldier was killed and several others were wounded in the Gaza Strip operations, in which some 150 targets, including 21 concealed rocket launchers and four tunnels, have been attacked, according to the military.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, underscoring the U.S. support for Israel to defend itself but raising concerns about consequences of wider conflict.

The Israeli land advance followed 10 days of barrages against Gaza from air and sea, hundreds of rockets fired by Hamas into Israel and failed attempts by Egypt, a broker of ceasefires in previous Israeli-Palestinian flare-ups, to secure a truce.

A French diplomatic source said that France had asked the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, which has close links with Hamas, to use its influence with the group to reach a ceasefire.

Gaza residents said Israeli forces has moved several hundreds metres (yards) into the north of the enclave and their deployment in the south of the territory was slightly deeper.

Rocket salvoes, many of them intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile shield system, continued on Friday against southern Israel and the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, police said, causing no casualties.

“We chose to start this operation after we exhausted other options and reached the conclusion that without it we could pay a much higher price,” Netanyahu told reporters before a special cabinet session at Tel Aviv military headquarters. “The main goal is to restore quiet.

“My instructions…to the Israeli army, with the approval of the security cabinet, is to prepare for the possibility of a widening, a significant widening of the ground operation.”

He did not say what form a broadened offensive might take. Israel says its forces have focused so far on seeking out tunnels Palestinian militants might use for cross-border raids and moving weaponry.

One such infiltration was narrowly thwarted on Thursday, with the army saying it had repelled 13 Hamas gunmen after they emerged from a tunnel close to an Israeli farming community.

To back up regular forces, Israel said it was calling up 18,000 military reservists, adding to 30,000 already mobilised.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri responded with defiance to the Israeli escalation: “Netanyahu is killing our children and will pay the price. The ground invasion doesn’t frighten us and the occupation army will sink in Gaza’s mud.”

Hamas wants Israel and Egypt, whose military-backed government is at odds with the Palestinian Islamists, to lift border restrictions that have deepened Gaza’s economic hardship and unemployment.

SMOKESCREENS, REFUGEES

In all, 268 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the fighting began on July 8, and it has also destroyed hundreds of homes, Gaza officials said.

There have been two Israeli fatalities – the soldier and a civilian, who was killed by a rocket. More than 100 rocket bursts a day at southern Israel and the heartland Tel Aviv area have sent hundreds of thousands dashing for shelters.

Hamas said its men were hitting Israeli tanks with mortar rounds and setting off bombs against troops crossing the sandy frontier under smokescreens.

“It was a loud night. The armed men clashed with the tanks that advanced from northern side of the town for about 300 meters,” said Amer Yamen, 37, a resident of Beit Hanoun near the barbed-wire border with Israel.

Dozens of Palestinian families, forewarned by evacuation notices Israel had disseminated with leaflet drops and automated phone messages, fled toward the interior, leaving empty streets.

In the southern Gaza town of Rafah, near the Egyptian border, Israeli tanks rolled into its abandoned airport and fired smokescreen shells, witnesses said.

An Israeli tank shell hit the upper floor of a hospital in Beit Hanoun, at the north end of Gaza, but no one was hurt, medical officials said. Hamas said its fighters had repelled Israeli forces in the town, wounding seven soldiers.

Though they are die-hard enemies, Israel says it does not intend to topple Hamas, the dominant Islamist force in Gaza.

The current warfare has been the worst between Israel and Palestinians in two years. The Vatican said Pope Francis telephoned Israeli President Shimon Peres and West Bank-based Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday to express his “very grave concerns” over the conflict.

“A small group of fanatics are the cause of suffering in Gaza. Israel is doing everything to lower the flames and minimise civilian casualties,” Peres replied, according to statement from the president’s office.

Abbas, who held a prayer for peace with Peres at the Vatican last month, told the pontiff he was “exerting all required effort, together with Egypt and all other parties to halt the bloodshed and relieve people’s suffering”, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Obama said he reaffirmed to Netanyahu strong U.S. support for its ally Israel but that he “also made clear the United States … and our allies are deeply concerned about the risks of further escalation and the loss of more innocent life.

“We are hopeful that Israel will continue to approach this process in a way that minimizes civilian casualties,” Obama told reporters at the White House.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, speaking after the announcement of the ground assault, implored Israel to do more to stop Palestinian civilian deaths.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, voicing support for Israel, said there was a “new quality” to weapons used by Hamas against it, an apparent reference to longer-range rockets.

“Both sides must accept painful compromises but we stand by the side of Israel when it comes to self-defence,” she said at a news conference in Berlin.

Hostilities were stoked by the killing of three Israeli teens in the occupied West Bank last month and the death on July 2 of a Palestinian youth in a suspected revenge murder.

Israel briefly held fire on Tuesday after Egypt, which also borders Gaza, announced a truce plan. But Hamas and other militants balked, saying their conditions had been ignored, including an end to the Israeli and Egyptian blockades.

Hamas leaders have talked up their “tunnel campaign” against Israel. One publicity video showed Palestinian fighters hauling rockets through a narrow passage to load onto a launcher that appears buried in an orchard. It is then fired remotely after its mechanised cover slides open.

Israel last mounted a large-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip during a three-week war in late 2008 and early 2009 that claimed 1,400 Palestinian and 13 Israeli lives.