THE qualifying stage of the 14th annual Beach Volleyball under 21 World Championship (FIBV) got underway in Larnaca on Wednesday.

At 8pm, the town’s mayor Andreas Louroudjiatis launched the championship during the opening ceremony at Evropis Square.

The matches start on Thursday and will continue until Sunday, where the men’s and women’s finals will take place for the crowning of the champions.

There are 224 athletes participating from around the world. Matches will be carried out from 8am until 10pm at the eight courts containing FIBV-approved sand at the Phinikoudes beach.

Cypriot athletes pledged to give their 100 per cent and hope to celebrate victories.

Mayor Louroudjiatis said last month that 280 matches would take place over the five-day period and that the event was expected to attract 2,500 visitors and thousands of spectators.

The organisers said that area hotels were fully booked from visitors who travelled to Cyprus especially for the event.

The championship, which is held in memory of the late President Glafcos Clerides, is co-organised by the Larnaca municipality and the Cyprus Volleyball Federation.

Louroudjiatis hopes that his town, which hosted the Under 19 World Championship in 2012, will become a destination for international sports events.

By Bejay Browne

SHOPKEEPERS that draped black banners across the entrance to Paphos municipal market last week over arguments of discrimination and unpaid electricity and council bills have finally agreed to a solution after lengthy negations.

Paphos councilor Nicos Konnikos undertook three days of talks with shop owners and said that although businesses with the newer contracts pay for their electricity, many with the older contracts do not. These old agreements were drawn up years ago when the market operated as an open air space with communal lighting which served everyone. They didn’t stipulate electricity payment at the time as the market wasn’t yet separated.

Some shopkeepers were up in arms over the recent decision to enforce payment and said it would lead to many families being forced to close down their businesses.

“I visited the market with a member of the electricity authority and found that eight of the 11 shops were suitable for individual electricity supply,” Konikkos said.

He added that the municipality will now pay €10,000 in order to supply more power to the market to enable each shop to install air conditioning and heating facilities. This had been a previous point of contention, with paid-up shopkeepers angry that the market’s power wasn’t enough to support additional electric powered heating or cooling.

“They will be able to spend as much or as little as they want and will be responsible for their own supplies and pay for it,” Konikkos said.

Until this work is completed, he said that Paphos municipality will pay for the electricity. The EAC has said it will take around a month or so for the new meters and supply to be installed.

There are three shops which aren’t suitable for an individual supply, as they are in the middle of the market and are only partitioned with gypsum board. Konnikos said they have agreed to pay a certain amount each, as their meters indicate how much they each spend.

“In addition, people who owe rents have agreed to pay all arrears by the end of the year and, in turn, we won’t charge them interest. They will also be eligible for a 25% discount on rent which will remain in place until the end of 2016, when the next council elections will take place.”

The agreements were passed at a council meeting on Monday evening.

However, there are a couple of shop owners with ongoing court cases, said the councilor, who owe €20,000 to 40,000.

“They will have to find a solution to find this money and obviously they won’t get a discount.”

The market in Ktima — Paphos old town — was previously an open area and with communal lighting which served everyone. Then, about 15 to 20 years ago, many stall holders stopped selling fruit and vegetables and started selling souvenirs and other goods, after which the area was partitioned.

CYPRUS Airways (CY) has signed a strategic agreement with PHI Air Europe, a leading company in the provision of helicopter support to offshore oil and gas exploration operations.

The deal includes use of CY’s engineering and maintenance department, and also contains provisions for expanding cooperation to other areas such as personnel training, provision of continuous airworthiness management, and cargo services.

PHI Air Europe is part of US-based PHI Helicopters Inc, which will base its European HQ in Cyprus.

CY executive director Aaron Karaoghlanian, said the agreement opened a new chapter in the services provided by the company.

PHI project director Mike Foley, said the agreement would strengthen and enhance both the company’s operational capability and presence in Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean in delivering an outstanding service to the oil and gas industry.

By Evie Andreou

CYPRUS is expected to become a transit stop to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, Hermes Airports’ spokesman Adamos Aspris said, due to the escalation of violence in Israel and because international airlines are reluctant or even cancelling flights to the Jewish state.

Aspris said that there are some processes underway so that both airports at Larnaca and Paphos can be the last stop and offload passengers haeded to Israel.

Airlines will fly passengers whose final destination is Israel to Cyprus and they can depart from Cyprus with airlines that are willing to fly on to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion.

“Both airports are ready to respond to increased demands and can become a safe haven in the area,” Aspris said.

On Tuesday night a flight from Brussels which was heading to Tel Aviv, landed at Larnaca airport for lengthy stopover before departing to its final destination.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said it “strongly recommended” that airlines refrain from operating flights to and from Tel Aviv, and would “monitor the situation and advice on any update as the situation develops.”

EASA acted after the US Federal Aviation Administration prohibited US-based airlines from flying to Israel’s biggest airport following a Hamas rocket explosion nearby.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, many airlines announced cancellation of flights to Tel Aviv because of safety concerns.

Among them Air France which suspended flights to Tel Aviv until further notice, Air Berlin and Lufthansa including its subsidiaries Germanwings, Austrian Airlines, Swiss and Brussels Airlines.

Other European airlines including KLM, Alitalia and Scandinavian Airlines also cancelled flights.

Polish airline LOT was expected to suspend its flights to Israel until July 28.

British Airways is the exception since it has not cancelled any flights to Tel Aviv and said it had no immediate plans to do so.

Cyprus Airways cancelled its scheduled flights to Tel Aviv on Wednesday and added that it was cancelling Thursday’s flights as well.

According to Reuters, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the flight cancellations were a “great victory” for the group.

By George Psyllides

GREEK and Turkish Cypriot negotiators on Wednesday tabled their separate proposals on aspects of the Cyprus problem, the government spokesman said, ahead of Thursday’s meeting between the leaders of the two communities.

In their five-hour meeting, Andreas Mavroyiannis and Kudret Ozersay discussed the economy, security and guarantees, Nikos Christodoulides said.
The two also talked about the relation between the federal government and the federal states and the relation between the independent officials and the federal government.
The two sides, he added, submitted documents on aspects of the Cyprus problem that had not been submitted so far.
President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu will meet on Thursday and could announce confidence building measures if they come to an agreement.

They will also visit the anthropological laboratory of the Committee on Missing Persons located in the United Nations Protected Area, near the now defunct Nicosia airport.

Ozersay said he has submitted a document on territorial readjustment without maps and percentages, which will be discussed at the last stage of the negotiations.

He said the Turkish Cypriot side has also tabled its proposal on the economy, which was followed by a discussion between economists from both sides.

Confidence building measures will be on the agenda of Thursday’s meeting between the two leaders and if they agree they will make an announcement upon its conclusion.
Earlier on Wednesday, government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides denied suggestions that the talks had reached a stalemate.

“What we are saying is that there are difficulties and the aim it to tackle these difficulties,” he said.

Christodoulides said the Greek Cypriot side had tabled some 15 confidence building measures and the aim was to have an announcement on Thursday, depending on how the negotiators’ meeting went.

By Evie Andreou

ON THE last day for expressions of interest, Aegean Airlines submitted its intention to bid for the sale of Cyprus Airways (CY) or its assets to new investors.

Aegean announced on Wednesday that depending on the process set by the Cyprus government and after the evaluation of data, it will decide its next steps.

The government had officially put its 94 per cent controlling stake in CY up for sale with advertisements in the local press last week, inviting investors to submit expressions of interest to buy the shares or any of the company’s assets.

The government has set as a term for investors that the company keeps flying from Cyprus.

The sale of the company is deemed necessary to secure its viability, since it has been facing serious financial difficulties and to avoid any further bailout.

CY gradually sold all of its other assets, including three timeslots at London’s Heathrow airport – the first was sold three years ago for €22m, the second in March for €6.3m to Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines and the third only last month to American Airlines for €22.9m – as well as head offices in Nicosia and Athens.

A 49-year-old man has been remanded by the Nicosia District Court for three days in connection with alleged possession of child pornography, police said.

According to the police report, the man ran a Facebook profile that hosted a number of children’s pictures. Following a series of complaints, police launched an investigation and arrested the 49-year-old.

By Giselda Vagnoni and Khalid Abdel Aziz

A Sudanese woman who was sentenced to death for converting from Islam to Christianity, then detained after her conviction was quashed, flew into Rome on an Italian government plane on Thursday and hours later met the Pope.

Mariam Yahya Ibrahim, whose sentence and detention triggered international outrage, walked off the aircraft cradling her baby and was greeted by Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi.

Soon afterwards, Ibrahim, her husband and two children had a private meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican. “The Pope thanked her for her witness to faith,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.

The meeting, which lasted around half an hour, was intended as a “sign of closeness and solidarity for all those who suffer for their faith,” he added.

There were no details on what led up to the 27-year-old’s departure after a month in limbo in Khartoum, but a senior Sudanese official said it had been cleared by the government.

“The authorities did not prevent her departure that was known and approved in advance,” the senior official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Ibrahim was accompanied on the plane by Italy’s vice minister for foreign affairs, Lapo Pistelli. He told journalists at Ciampino airport that Italy had been in “constant dialogue” with Sudan but did not give any more details on Rome’s role in securing her exit.

He published a photograph on his Facebook page of himself with Ibrahim and her two children on the plane with the caption: “A couple of minutes away from Rome. Mission accomplished.”

Ibrahim was sentenced to death in May on charges of converting from Islam to Christianity and marrying a Christian South Sudanese-American.

IN GOOD HEALTH

Her conviction was quashed last month, but Sudan’s government accused her of trying to leave the country with falsified papers, preventing her departure for the United States with her husband and two children.

She was initially detained, then released and moved into the U.S. embassy in Khartoum.

Pistelli told reporters at the airport that the family was in good health and would stay in Italy for a few days before leaving for the United States.

The minister, who carried one of Ibrahim’s young children off the plane, said he expected her to have “some important meetings” during her time in Italy.

Ibrahim says she was born and raised as a Christian by an Ethiopian family in Sudan and later abducted by a Sudanese Muslim family.

The Muslim family denies that and filed a lawsuit to have her marriage annulled last week in a new attempt to stop her leaving the country. That case was later dropped.

Prime Minister Renzi mentioned Ibrahim’s case in his speech to inaugurate Italy’s six-month European Union presidency earlier this month.

“If there is no European reaction we cannot feel worthy to call ourselves ‘Europe’,” Renzi said.

Apostasy is punishable by death in many countries’ interpretation of Islamic law.

By Hamid Ould Ahmed

An Air Algerie flight with 110 passengers onboard, nearly half of them French citizens, crashed on Thursday after the jet disappeared over northern Mali en route from Burkina Faso to Algiers, an Algerian official said.

There were few clear indications of what might have happened to flight AH5017, or whether there were casualties, but Burkina Faso’s transport minister said the crew asked to adjust their route at 0138 GMT because of a storm in the area.

“I can confirm that it has crashed,” the Algerian official told Reuters, declining to be identified or give any details about what had happened to the aircraft on its way north.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the Air Algerie flight was still missing, but had probably crashed.

“Despite intensive search efforts no trace of the aircraft has yet been found,” Fabius told journalists in Paris. “The plane probably crashed.”

French President Francois Hollande cancelled a planned visit to overseas territories and said all military means on the ground would be used to locate the aircraft.

Two French Mirage warplanes have been scouring the vast desert area around the northern Malian city of Gao for the aircraft, which had 51 French nationals on board.

“The search will take as long as needed,” Hollande told reporters. “Everything must be done to find this plane. We cannot identify the causes of what happened,” he said.

Niger security sources said planes were flying over the border region with Mali to search for the flight.

Two Mali-based diplomats said in addition to the area around Gao, where the plane is believed to have last been in contact with authorities, searcher were also scouring the rugged region around Aguelhoc towards the Algerian borders.

An aid worker in Mali who asked not to be named said his organisation had received several calls from residents based in the villages of Tessalit and Tinzawaten in the northeastern region of Kidal after hearing a loud explosion.

It was not immediately clear if this was linked to the crash.

But searching in northern Mali will be complex task.

The area where the flight is suspected to have crashed is a vast, sparsely inhabited region of scrubland and desert dunes stretching to the foothills of the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains.

It is a stronghold of Tuareg separatist rebels, who rose up against the government in early 2012, triggering an Islamist revolt that briefly seized control of northern Mali.

Security sources said the French military was leading the search in the difficult terrain. The Malian government, which is holding talks with the separatists in neighbouring Algeria, has only a weak presence in the region and relies on French and U.N. peacekeepers for aircraft and logistical support.

Whatever the cause, another plane crash is likely to add to nerves over flying after a Malaysia Airlines plane was downed over Ukraine last week, a TransAsia Airways crashed off Taiwan during a thunderstorm on Wednesday and airlines temporarily cancelled flights into Tel Aviv due to the conflict in Gaza.

FRENCH PASSENGERS

Algeria’s state news agency APS said authorities lost contact with flight an hour after it took off from Burkina Faso, but other officials gave differing accounts of the times of contact, adding to confusion about the plane’s fate.

Swiftair, the private Spanish company that owns the plane, confirmed it had lost contact with the MD-83 operated by Air Algerie, which it said was carrying 110 passengers and six crew.

It said it took off from Burkina Faso at 0117 GMT and was due to land at 0510 GMT but never reached its destination.

An Algerian aviation official said the last contact Algerian authorities had with the missing Air Algerie aircraft was at 0155 GMT when it was flying over Gao, Mali.

Burkina Faso officials said the flight asked the control centre in Niamey, Niger, to change route at 0138 GMT because of a storm in the Sahara.

An Air Algerie representative in Burkina Faso, Kara Terki, told a news conference that all the passengers on the plane were in transit, either for Europe, the Middle East or Canada.

Burkina Faso authorities said the passenger list comprised 27 Burkinabe, 51 French, eight Lebanese, six Algerians, two from Luxembourg, five Canadians, four Germans, one Cameroonian, one Belgian, one Egyptian, one Ukranian, one Swiss, one Nigerian and one Malian.

The Lebanese Foreign Ministry said its embassy in Abidjan estimated the number of Lebanese citizens on the flight was at least 20. Some of these may have dual nationality.

A spokeswoman for SEPLA, Spain’s pilots union, said the six crew were from Spain. She could not give any further details.

The MD-83 is part of the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 family of twin-engined jets that entered service in 1980. A total of 265 of the MD-83 model were delivered before McDonnell Douglas, by then part of Boeing, halted production in 1999.

“Boeing is aware of the report. We are awaiting additional information,” a spokesman for the US planemaker said.

According to the Ascend Fleets database held by British-based Flightglobal, there are 187 MD-83s still in operation, of which 80 percent are being flown in the United States.

The aircraft’s two engines are made by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies.

Swiftair has a relatively clean safety record, with five accidents since 1977, two of which caused a total of eight deaths, according to the Washington-based Flight Safety Foundation.

Air Algerie’s last major accident was in 2003 when one of its planes crashed shortly after take-off from the southern city of Tamanrasset, killing 102 people. In February this year, 77 people died when an Algerian military transport plane crashed into a mountain in eastern Algeria.

By Stephanie Nebehay

Militant group Islamic State has ordered all girls and women in and around Iraq’s northern city of Mosul to undergo female genital mutilation, the United Nations said on Thursday.

The “fatwa” issued by the Sunni Muslim fighters would potentially affect 4 million women and girls, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Iraq Jacqueline Badcock told reporters in Geneva by videolink from Arbil.

“This is something very new for Iraq, particularly in this area, and is of grave concern and does need to be addressed,” she said.

“This is not the will of Iraqi people, or the women of Iraq in these vulnerable areas covered by the terrorists,” she added.

No one was immediately available for comment from Islamic State which has led an offensive through northern and western Iraq.

By Michael Hann

Olympic and world long distance champion Mo Farah withdrew from England’s Commonwealth Games team on Thursday, saying he was not fully fit following a recent illness.

The 31-year-old Farah, who won the 5,000 and 10,000 metres titles at the London Olympics and the world championships in Moscow last year, was preparing to run both distances in Glasgow.
But he said he had decided to remain at his training camp in Font Romeu in Switzerland to concentrate on being fit for next month’s European Championships in Zurich.

“I have taken the tough decision to withdraw from the Commonwealth Games,” Farah said in an England team statement.
“The sickness I had two weeks ago was a big setback for me.
“Training is getting better but I need another few weeks to get back to the level I was at in 2012 and 2013.
“I really wanted to add the Commonwealth titles to my Olympic and World Championships, but the event is coming a few weeks too soon for me as my body is telling me it’s not ready to race yet.”

England’s Chef de Mission Jan Paterson added: “It is a real blow for any athlete to miss out on a major championships through injury, but to have fought so hard to regain full fitness and to have to take such a difficult decision at this stage is particularly hard.
“We wish Mo all the very best and hope to see him back to his peak very soon.”

By Evie Andreou

The sister and husband of a 78-year-old woman found dead in her yard in Kritou Terra on Wednesday night were on Thursday remanded for eight days.

The husband, 83, of Aliki Christophorou was admitted to hospital on Wednesday with wounds on his face. His remand hearing took place at the Paphos Hospital and he will be guarded there until he is well enough to be transferred to prison, police said.

Arrest warrants were issued for the two on Wednesday night with police saying they were investigating a case of possible murder. They are facing charges of premeditated murder and committing a felony.

Police spokesman Andreas Angelides, said that Christophorou’s husband and sister were arrested because during questioning their statements were contradictive.

According to reports, at the court hearing her sister, Georgia Christophorou, 77, who appeared without a lawyer seemed disoriented and she kept asking where she was and where her sister was.

She was surprised when she was told that her sister was dead and she was in court.

Christophorou reportedly gave contradictive answers when asked about the wounds on her face and when she had seen her sister. She also did not respond to questions and refused to cooperate with the police.

An autopsy showed the victim had died from injuries to the head from a heavy object and state coroner Sofoklis Sophocleous did not rule out the possibility of foul play.

Her body, with wounds on the forehead, was found on Wednesday at 10.30am tucked under a blanket near a tree by members of the Paphos CID.

Her husband, who appeared at Polis Chrysochous hospital also with wounds on his face, claimed that he and his wife and sister-in-law were attacked by thieves the previous night, but he had not reported the incident to the police.

The dead woman’s sister who lives in the US but had been staying in Cyprus for a year also had wounds on her face but claims she got them after a fall.

Angelides said police were still looking for the murder weapon and that they were planning on taking 46 statements that might help shed light on the case.

Both the husband and sister’s wounds were examined by a state coroner.

Residents of the village had reported to police that they had heard arguments and women’s screams coming from the house the previous night. The two sisters reportedly had disputes over property and the couple often argued about the same matter.

“We are examining the motive of the murder, indeed some information has been evaluated  and we have a report saying that the previous night the suspect (husband) was heard shouting, there was an argument, it is something we will investigate through statements; what happened and what the motive is,” Angelides said.

By George Psyllides

Buena Vista Hospitality Group said on Thursday it was interested in refurbishing Nicosia’s Ledra Palace hotel but not turning it into a casino.

The company, which is planning a massive health resort in Kalavasos, said its preliminary proposals concern a joint venture with the Church, the majority shareholder, for the refurbishment of the hotel and operating it under Buena Vista’s management.

An important condition was cooperation from the authorities in upgrading the area and promoting significant architectural and historic elements.

Responding to media reports, BVHG said none of the hundreds of projects funded by the company include the operation of a casino.

In its first meeting with Archbishop Chrysostomos, BVHG showed interest in acquiring a large estate near the Kermia hotel in Ayia Napa.

During that meeting, Chrysostomos also proposed cooperation in other projects, including the Ledra Palace.

BVHG inspected the area and collected information, which will be examined.

The Ledra Palace was, up until 1974, one of the largest and most glamorous hotels of the capital.

Following the Turkish invasion, it fell within the boundaries of the UN Buffer Zone and now serves as the headquarters for Sector 2 United Nations Roulement Regiment (URR) part of UNFICYP.

The hotel has played host to many high-level meetings between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders, as well as hundreds of structured conflict resolution workshops between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot peace builders.

By George Psyllides

Russian minority shareholders in the Bank of Cyprus are unhappy with the terms of a €1.0 billion capital increase, suggesting that their rights have been violated and charging that the board was exclusively serving the interests of western investors.

They have set up a group for the protection of their rights, which will provide all necessary assistance to both Russian and Ukrainian shareholders of the bank in obtaining information about the capital increase, as well as in developing a common stance before the upcoming general meeting where the capital increase is to be approved.

The shareholders, who were given shares after their deposits were seized to recapitalise the lender, say their rights have been infringed by being prevented from taking part in the process.

The shareholders believe that the management’s actions are aimed at forcing the Russian minority shareholders out of the bank’s shareholding structure by diluting their stake and giving priority purchase rights not to them – “the depositors affected by the subprime lending policy of this Cypriot organisation – but qualified investors.”

The first phase of the process involves a private placement to “certain institutional investors in the European Union who are “qualified investors” and similarly qualified institutional investors in other jurisdictions.”

Therefore, Russian minority shareholders will not be allowed to take part in the first phase, and will only be allowed to take part in the second phase and will be entitled to “to purchase up to 20 per cent in aggregate of the total number of shares offered to qualified investors in the first phase and at the same price as in phase one.”

Shares in the clawback “will be allocated among participating shareholders pro rata based on their shareholdings at the time of allocation, excluding any shares acquired in phase one.”

“The deliberate restriction of the rights of shareholders to participate in the Bank of Cyprus capital increase seems to be especially cynical in the light of attempts to legitimize it by introducing the ‘for qualified investors only’ requirements,” said head of the group Yevgeniy Kogan.

“Unfortunately, the Board of Directors of the Bank seems to have forgotten that the minority shareholders of Bank of Cyprus, for the most part, are not professional investors and have received their shares as a result of the forced expropriation of their investments in 2013.”

Cyprus was forced to shut down one bank and seize deposits in BoC as part of the terms of a €10 billion bailout.

The Natural Gas Public Company (DEFA) announced on Thursday it had invited a number of bidders for negotiations for the supply of natural gas.

It followed the evaluation of the commercial and financial parts of the proposals, submitted in response to its January 25 invitation.

“The evaluation has been carried out with support from DEFA’s advisors and included the opening of the financial proposals for the gas supply period of seven years with the option for extension of up to 10 years,” the company said in a statement.

DEFA said negotiations will be carried out based on a timetable that will be agreed with the parties.

DEFA is bound by confidentiality agreements and no more information will be released, the company said.

There was a rise in air traffic at Larnaca airport on Thursday because of the fighting in the Gaza Strip, as Cyprus seems to be acting as transit point for passengers.

Overnight, two flights to Tel Aviv from Switzerland and Germany were diverted to Larnaca where they stayed for a while before resuming their journey to their destination.

And three empty planes were dispatched to Larnaca from the neighbouring country to pick up passengers and carry them to Israel.

Ten flights to and from Israel were scheduled on Thursday – five arrivals and five departures.

Two, scheduled by Cyprus Airways – arrival and departure – were cancelled while the other eight were being carried out as scheduled by 9pm.

International lenders concluded a fifth review of Cyprus’s economy on Friday, saying the island was making “relatively good progress” after a bailout last year but that key challenges lay ahead.

Representatives of the lenders, comprising the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, said the island’s fiscal performance was on track and that the banking sector had started to stabilise.

But it said non-performing loans exceeding 50 per cent of banks’ domestic bank loan books needed to be addressed.

Lenders and representatives of the Cyprus government agreed on key provisions of a more effective foreclosures law to replace the time-consuming current process, under which it could take a bank up to 20 years to reclaim what it has lent.

“The key challenge is getting a handle on the non-performing loan issue,” a senior EU Commission source said.

“Right now, NPLs are exceeding 50 per cent of domestic banking loan books. It’s crystal clear this is an issue which needs to be addressed.”

The law will require ratification by parliament and will exclude primary residences from foreclosure until a new and more effective insolvency law takes effect from January 1.

Commission officials said that was a “prior action”, which means it must be approved by parliament before new aid is disbursed.

Cyprus and Switzerland signed an avoidance of double taxation agreement and relevant protocol on Friday.

The agreement will contribute to further developing trade and financial relations between the two countries as well as with other countries, a Finance Ministry press release said.
The ministry said maintaining, updating and signing new double taxation treaties was part of the drive to enhance and attract foreign investments, as well as promote Cyprus as an international business hub.
The agreement is based on the OECD Model Convention for the Avoidance of Double Taxation on Income and Capital.
There are currently over 50 double taxation treaties in force in Cyprus.

By Stefanos Evripidou

THE QUALITY and speed of justice are hugely important factors in the smooth functioning of the country, while acute delays in administering justice could jeopardise the entire system, said members of the Supreme Court on Friday.

The comments were made during a swearing-in ceremony of the new President and new member of the Supreme Court at the Presidential Palace.

With the retirement of DemetrisHadjijambis, President Nicos Anastasiades appointed Myronas Nicolatos to replace him as Supreme Court President and Tefkros Economou as a new member of the country’s highest court.

Speaking at the ceremony, Anastasiades said the government was continuing reforms to ensure justice was served quicker and more effectively.
He referred to the establishment of an administrative court to help expedite cases and relieve the Supreme Court of its huge workload, expressing hope the relevant bill pending before parliament will be adopted without further delay.

Anastasiades noted that tenders have already been invited to implement the Justice Ministry’s ‘e-justice’ proposal, a “truly innovative reform which will help tackle bureaucracy and release human resources to be used elsewhere”.

Despite the freeze on recruitment in the public sector, the government has approved a number of positions for judges and support staff, said the president, adding: “Justice cannot wait.”

In response, the new Supreme Court President vowed to do the utmost to improve and speed up the justice system.

The quality and speed of justice are “factors of huge importance for the smooth functioning of the rule of law, democracy and the national economy”, said Nicolatos.

“These factors depend on the quality of judges, their number, the staffing of courts, the modernisation of judicial procedure, and the provisions afforded judges to carry out their work,” he added.

Nicolatos warned Anastasiades that he will not hesitate to contact the head of the state, the executive and legislature to provide all that is necessary to the judiciary for the smooth and effective execution of its duties, which is “the proper and expeditious administration of justice for all according to the law”.

The new judicial chief said his actions will be guided by the rule of law and the principle that everyone is equal before the law.

The only way the judiciary can do its job is to maintain its high level of independence, particularly today when the country faces severe economic problems, which in turn create serious constitutional and legal problems, he said.

New Supreme Court member, Judge Tefkros Economou, spoke of the “need to address the delays, which particularly in civil jurisdictions, have become a very acute problem and jeopardise the entire justice system”.

Reforms are needed first of all, “to change our widespread and beloved mentalit yof procrastination”, said Economou, adding: “In these difficult times, the principle of legality takes on particular importance, standing in direct opposition to populism.”

The Palestinian Embassy in Nicosia on Friday appealed for donations to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.

According to the announcement, bank accounts have been opened to collect money to provide medical care, food, shelter, fuel and electricity.
The Gaza Appeal international bank accounts were opened at the Bank of Palestine, Ramallah Branch 2215199.
International donations can be made in the following accounts:
Dollar Account: PS29PALS045822151990013001000;
Euro Account: PS34PALS045822151990333001000;
Shekel Account: PS14PALS045822151990993001000;
Jordanian Dinar: PS94PALS045822151990293001000.