Two Georgian nationals, a 33-year-old man and his sister, 31, were remanded in custody for eight days on Tuesday in connection with a string of burglaries, Limassol police said.

A 30-year-old man, also from Georgia, is being held for the same case. Police said they were seeking three more Georgian nationals – a man 33, and a couple aged 32 and 31.

The siblings were arrested in their flat where police found a large number of gold and jewellery. The suspects could not provide convincing explanation about their provenance, police said.

The 33-year-old was found in possession of a Greek passport, which was counterfeit. The man was staying on the island without a permit.

The two suspects were not cooperating, police said, but based on the valuables found at the flat the authorities said they have solved a number of burglaries.

Electricity company (EAC) unions oppose a decision by the board to charge interest on customers who opted to pay overdue bills in instalments.

A statement from the unions said a public utility organisation like the EAC cannot charge interest and make things harder for consumers who were trying to hang on tooth and nail.

The EAC said last week that it would help people pay through instalments, with an annual interest of 4.5 per cent, in a bid to collect some €60 million in overdue bills.

“The entire union movement is against the authority’s decision and is urging the EAC to think again,” the unions said.

The country is in deep recession and the EAC must continue to show compassion to consumers and come to an arrangement with them without any extra charge.

Main opposition AKEL slammed the EAC’s decision, describing it as wrong and provocative.

“As a public utility, the EAC must take into consideration the problems faced by the country today and show support as it had done in the past,” the party said.

By Justyna Pawlak and Barbara Lewis

The European Union reached agreement on Tuesday on the bloc’s first broad economic sanctions on Russia over its role in Ukraine, diplomats said, marking a new phase in the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.

The measures will shut state-owned Russian banks out of European capital markets and target the defence sector and sensitive technologies, including oil, but exclude the vital gas sector, on which Europe is heavily dependent.

In contrast to the United States, the 28-nation EU, with bigger economic interests at stake, hesitated for months to take decisive action against Moscow.

But the mood changed radically after the downing of a civilian flight in an area of Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists earlier this month, killing all 298 people on board, including 194 Dutch citizens.

Washington believes flight MH17 was shot down in error by the separatists with a missile supplied by Russia. Moscow has denied any involvement and sought to deflect the blame to Kiev.

EU ambassadors clinched their agreement as intense fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine killed dozens of civilians, soldiers and rebels.

It is expected to be finalised on Wednesday and the measures published in the bloc’s Official Journal.

Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans, whose call for justice swayed EU peers last week, said the capital market restrictions “will have a far-reaching and immediate effect”.

The sanctions will initially last a year but will be reviewed after three months on Oct. 31 to determine their effectiveness, diplomats said.

The deal, which does not require endorsement at a special EU summit, followed an agreement to widen sanctions on Moscow between US President Barack Obama and the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy in a telephone conference on Monday.

Previously, Washington and Brussels have imposed sanctions on specific individuals over Moscow’s actions towards Ukraine, but the EU in particular had shied away from measures designed to hurt vital sectors of the Russian economy, not least because of the threat to EU economies.

The EU does more than 10 times as much trade with Russia as the United States does, relying in particular on Russian natural gas to fuel its industry and power its cities.

BALANCE

Some member states are nervous about the risk to their own economies, and EU leaders struggled to strike a balance between inflicting pain on Russia and preventing fragile EU nations from sliding back into recession.

In a letter to EU leaders last week, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said the proposed sanctions package “should have a strong impact on Russia’s economy while keeping a moderate effect on EU economies”.

There was a consensus on only targeting future contracts, he said, which would leave France free to go ahead with the delivery of helicopter carrier warships is it building for Russia.

Another principle was that EU measures targeting energy technology could hit Russia’s oil sector but not its natural gas. Russia is the world’s biggest exporter of gas and second biggest exporter of oil; Europe depends on it far more for gas, which arrives mainly by pipeline and is harder to source from elsewhere than oil that arrives mostly by ship.

Probably the most high-impact measure will ban Europeans from buying new bonds or shares issued by banks owned 50 percent or more by the Russian state, which analysts say will affect their ability to finance the economy.

Apart from agreeing on the economic measures, ambassadors also signed off on a new list of Putin’s associates and companies that will face asset freezes and visa bans under previous measures, the criteria for which were toughened the day before the plane crash.

The list is expected to be made public on Wednesday, adding to the 87 people and 20 organisations already hit with asset freezes for playing a role in threatening Ukraine.

Heavy traffic crashed the Land Registry’s webpage for most of Tuesday as thousands simultaneously clicked on the site seeking tax information on their real estate property.

Access to the website was restored late in the afternoon.

Earlier in the day, Land Registry officer Kyriakos Tsolakis said the department had meantime set up telephone hotlines while the glitch was being repaired.

Though recognising the public’s keenness to find out how much Immovable Property Tax (IPT) they will be paying this year, Tsolakis said there was no reason to rush, as there was still plenty of time left.

Property owners have six months to appeal the government’s evaluation of their real estate and correct any other mistakes made in the process of fixing IPT.

The new property 2013 values have been published on the land registry’s website via a special application, where users input their land plot reference number.

These new values will be used for accessing and paying IPT from 2015. This year IPT will be assessed using the old 1980 valuation.

Owners can file an appeal by paying a fee that depends on the value of their property.
For properties up to €100,000, owners will be charged €37.5, €75 for properties between €100,001 and €500,000, €150 for properties up to one million euros, and €357 for those over a million euros.

Pending the outcome of the appeal, owners may pay the tax on the amount they deem was correct.

Land registry officer Renos Ioannou said notices will be sent out to property owners in August. The notices will include details and an estimate of the IPT tax.

The deadline to pay this year’s IPT is November 30. Taxpayers will get a 15 per cent discount if the IPT is fully paid by October 31. A 10 per cent penalty plus interest and other administrative fees will be charged if IPT is paid after November 30.

THE Nicosia Beer Festival will be open its gates on September 10, mayor Constantinos Yiorkadjis said on Tuesday, adding that the aim was to make it an annual event.

The mayor said the festival was part of the municipality’s effort to enrich its events programme and rejuvenate the centre of the capital.

The festival will run for five days at the Constanza Moat, until September 14, and will be open from 7pm until midnight.

Entrance costs €5.

Police have arrested four men in connection with the theft of cash and valuables worth €800,000 from a house in Nicosia.

The break-in took place between July 19 and 21, police said. One man, 22, was picked up for questioning and was eventually linked to the case.

The suspect then named another man, 23, who allegedly helped him break in the house in Aglandjia and steal the valuables, which included watches, jewellery, and electronics. They also removed a safe.

Authorities managed to recover €250,000 worth of stolen property while the two suspects named two others, aged 29 and 30, as their associates.

Police arrested the pair and brought them before court on Tuesday. Following the arrests, police recovered an additional €150,000

Nicosia CID deputy chief Andreas Lambrianou said the first suspect had broken into the home first on Saturday, July 19 while the owners were away. Reports said the house had an alarm but it was off.

The suspect then let the others know and they returned together the next day and emptied the residence of every valuable, including the heavy safe.

FBME card services assured their clients that it was taking all necessary steps to minimise the effects after the Central Bank put FBME Bank under administration over money laundering allegations.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, FBME Card Services said it was a separate Cypriot company operating under the rules and regulations of the Central Bank of Cyprus and the rules and regulations of the international organizations of Visa and MasterCard from which it was licensed to process transactions with the use of their branded cards.

The company said it was not under the administrator’s scope but some difficulties have arisen, which affect the smooth and prompt processing of the financial and contractual obligations of the company to its merchants.

“FBME Card Services Ltd is in constant communication with the Central Bank of Cyprus and the local banks, in order to ensure that all the outstanding amounts will be duly credited in the accounts of its merchants and that its systems will return to full operation.”

However, because of the problems created by the Central Bank’s action, and in a bid to preserve the best interests of its clients until the resolution of the pending matters related to the completion of the transactions, FBME Card Services has temporarily suspended the processing capability of Visa and MasterCard from the IMSP POS terminals.

“We remain focused on the need for conserving the competition environment in the area of processing transactions with the use of cards, which was established with the launch of our company. From our side, we are undertaking all the necessary initiatives in order to resume operations normally the soonest possible.”

The Central Bank took control of FBME’s operations in Cyprus, following a report from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the US Treasury describing the bank as a “primary money laundering concern.”

THE CABINET yesterday adjusted the visual acuity criterion for acceptance into the special forces in a bid to fill 15 positions left vacant at commando units.

The problem arose after military authorities decided to actually test new recruits instead of taking their word for it, as was the practice so far.

Recruits who want to join the underwater demolition teams and commando units must have perfect eyesight.

Eighty conscripts failed the test, leaving 15 positions vacant and prompting the defence ministry to lower the standard – from 10 out of 10 to 8 out of 10, one degree of myopia.

Defence Minister Christophoros Fokaides said all conscripts who meet the new criteria and wish to join the special forces can contest the positions.

However, the army was censured by MPs however for carrying out the physical ability tests before the eyesight test and not vice versa.

The House Defence Committee heard that the recruitment went smoothly, reaching 97.2 per cent.

Committee chairman Giorgos Varnava said temporary exemptions were around the same as last year but the picture would become clearer after the final figures were submitted.

Based on preliminary data, Fokaides said the number of conscripts applying for exemption citing psychological problems rose to 168 this year compared with 117 in the summer of 2013.

By Evie Andreou

AFTER years of waiting, local authorities say they finally have enough money to clean debris out of the Saittas dam but won’t be able to start until October, Trimiklini’s community leader Andreas Orfanos said yesterday.

Some residents had expressed concern that the dam’s debris and damaged valves, causing large volumes of water to leak,  was destroying the natural habitat and making fire-fighting efforts more difficult.

“The problems began in 2007 after the great fire at the Saittas forest,” the resident said.  The June 29, 2007 blaze in the Pelendri-Kato Amiandos-Saittas region was one of the biggest fires the island had suffered in decades. It burned a total 1,182 hectares of forestry land, while causing damage to homes, buildings and farmland.

The debris from the fire damaged the dam’s valves which control water flow resulting in large volumes of water leaking from the reservoir.

According to Orfanos, the amount of debris takes up half of the reservoir’s capacity.

“The dam has a capacity of 350,000 cubic metres and the debris takes over 170,000 to 180,000 cubic metres; that’s more than half of the dam, thus reducing the dam’s capacity by half,” Orfanos said.

The dam, which was constructed in the 1950’s and become operable in 1958, is used for irrigation purposes by the Trimiklini community’s inhabitants.

“Even though seven years have passed [since the fire], the dam has yet to be cleared, and the valves have not been repaired, causing horrendous consequences to the area’s eco-system,” the resident added. He argued that in the event of another fire in the Troodos forest, the insufficient volume of water in the reservoir would reduce the operational capabilities of firefighting helicopters.

The resident said Orfanos has been reassuring them every year that the work would be done but so far it hasn’t.

The Trimiklini community’s water department is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the Saittas dam. Orfanos, who is also a member of the department, agreed that the debris and the damaged valves needed to be fixed. “The money for the dam’s cleaning and upkeep, must be approved by the district office and since there was an internal investigation going on, they waited until it was over for the funds to be approved,” Orfanos said.

The investigation was related to his own election, with some community council members claiming a lack of transparency with regards to the poll. He said every time the interior ministry ruled there had been no foul play, the council continued submitting allegations.

“Now that the case is over, we are being given the funds to proceed with the necessary works at the dam,” Orfanos said.

The reason they have to wait until October is to prevent further water losses during the summer period. Orfanos said if the valves were opened to clean out the debris, more water would be lost.

“We cannot do these works in the summer, we need the water, and we cannot empty the dam,” Orfanos said.  This year’s low rainfall, combined with the amount of space taken up by the debris itself, meant levels had dropped significantly, and they needed all they had, he said.

By Angelos Anasatasiou

The bondholders’ association has adopted a strategy of seeking an out-of-court settlement, its chairman Fivos Mavrovouniotis said yesterday.

At a news conference, the association’s head described bondholders’ suffering as “dramatic” as the very survival of some has come in question.

“We receive tens, maybe hundreds, of phone calls from bondholders daily, and they are literally perishing,” he said. “I can assure you, they call us in the middle of the night, I have personally taken phone calls at three in the morning, because some people are so frustrated that they can’t afford to live decently, or put a roof over their heads, or buy their medicine – some even pull their kids out of their studies. The authorities can’t sit back and watch people perish. Such indifference is criminal.”

Mavrovouniotis warned that while the association has afforded some time to the all involved, drastic measures will ensue if bondholders’ issues are not addressed.

“If we see that this indifference or mockery continues we will have to revolt, and our revolt will be unprecedented in Cypriot annals,” he said. “We expect a meeting to be convened at the Presidential Palace.”

“We expect action, we have heard enough words,” he added.

He pointed out that there was now a window of opportunity to settle this matter out of court as they have been informed that the Bank of Cyprus is keen on such resolution by chairman Christis Hassapis, while Central Bank governor Chrystalla Georghadji told them recently that she planned to submit a proposal to this effect.

“In our recent meeting with Mr Hassapis and [CEO] Mr Hourican they told us something they had never said before – that they are interested in an out-of-court settlement,” Mavrovouniotis said.

The association’s vice-chairman Stavros Yiallourides said that bondholders were unable to cope with the cost of a protracted legal battle that, since they were initially assured that it would last one year but have now been told it might take up to ten years.

“In a semi-occupied country, mockery has become a national sport,” he said.

But although the BoC, according to Mavrovouniotis, may be willing to negotiate an out-of-court settlement, it accepts no responsibility for ex-Laiki bank’s bonds which remain with legacy Laiki, unlike the failed lender’s bond-collateralised loans that were carried over to BoC.

Still, association representative, Leontios Hadjivasilis, said the group is willing to discuss a private arrangement that would settle the matter over time.

According to the association, total bonds held added up to a total of €1.1 billion, of which €522 million were BoC bonds and €626 million Laiki bonds.

Of these, bonds bought by private concerns – as opposed to institutional investors – were €753 million. Excluding bond-connected loans amounting to €200 million, the value of total bonds for which compensation may be required is reduced to €553 million.

By Angelos Anastasiou

APPLICATIONS for the government’s Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) welfare scheme are being received at a rate of 1,000 per day, but many cannot be processed as they are incomplete or missing documents, the labour ministry said yesterday.

Despite the Labour ministry’s declarations that post office employees had been sufficiently trained – subsequently confirmed by a sample of post office clerks questioned by the Cyprus Mail – and the hiring of 50 term contractors from the government’s unemployment lists to serve GMI clerical functions at post offices, it appears that applications are still received and forwarded for processing while incomplete or missing documents.

Speaking on state radio, labour ministry official Maria Pieridou said that post offices are receiving applications at a rate of 1,000 daily, which are then dispatched to central processing.

“There are minor issues which we are trying to address,” she said. “Application processing has already started, and initial indications show that several applications are submitted with incomplete information – we have even received applications where the applicant failed to write his or her name.”

Pieridou said that this would greatly encumber their workload as in these cases the labour ministry will need to track down such applicants in order to ask them to submit the missing information.

“We will start calling applicants to let them know what their applications are missing, and they can send any documents to us by fax,” she said. “As of today, some applicants will start receiving phone calls.”

In light of the difficulties faced by applicants, various groups have mobilised to help address the issue.

On Tuesday, the Cyprus Association of Social Workers announced it would hold various training sessions for citizens free of charge.

The association’s members are available to arrange one-on-one sessions with applicants who are facing difficulty filling out their application at phone number 96237717.

Areas in Cyprus are covered on a priority basis, according to Labour ministry instructions, the association said.

Meanwhile, socialist party EDEK announced a similar initiative on Wednesday.

“On a daily basis, we receive questions from interested citizens who express their concern in relation to the way the scheme is being implemented,” EDEK said in a statement. “Many citizens are having a hard time, or are unable, to complete the GMI application.”

In collaboration with the labour ministry, the party has undertaken to organise events to educate citizens and identify their concerns.

“An initial educational seminar has already been held in Limassol, with sweeping success,” the party said. “On Thursday, another such seminar will be held at 7:30 pm at the ‘Pavlos Liasides’ cultural centre in Tsiakillero, Larnaca, for residents of Larnaca and Famagusta. On Friday, a similar event will be held at the Capital Coast hotel in Paphos, at 7:00 pm.”

At the same time, the party’s Female Socialist Movement has also joined the effort to educate the public.

The movement has set up a ‘Women’s Education Hotline’ on phone number 70000717, offering citizens assistance and clarification on GMI issues.

By Elias Hazou

NON-performing loans (NPLs) on owner-occupied housing account for less than 15 per cent of all NPLs, according to latest data from the Central Bank.

While not insignificant, the proportion of delinquent loans for primary residences pales in comparison to the overall NPL figures.

At the end of May/beginning of June, total NPLs for commercial banks and cooperatives amounted to €28.38bn, of which just €4bn (or 14 per cent) were tied to owner-occupied housing loans.

The Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) defines as “owner-occupied” as primary residences – the subject of heated political debate.

Where borrowers are concerned, they can have only one owner-occupied primary residence, a CBC spokesperson said.

The data is available on the CBC website here: http://www.centralbank.gov.cy/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=13029&lang=en

The data shows that developers and contractors are far more delinquent compared to private individuals. For example, with commercial banks, the ratios of NPLs in the construction sector and in real estate activities sector (both classed as legal entities) were 69.5 per cent and 49.95 per cent, respectively. In absolute numbers, the total NPLs for these two classes amounted to €12.44bn.

By contrast, in loans to private individuals for owner-occupied housing, 35.98 per cent were tagged non-performing.

As far as the cooperatives go, the construction sector fared the worst, with 76.8 per cent (€380m) of these loans classed as NPLs. Likewise, the ‘real estate activities’ sector exhibited total credits of €306m, of which €68.8 per cent were classed as non-performing.

Where private individuals were concerned, there were a total of €4.56bn in loans for owner-occupied housing, of which 44 per cent were non-performing.

Figures were not available on the number of primary residences with bad loans. According to anecdotal evidence cited by MPs back in February, there were 6,000 pending foreclosure requisitions filed by banks with the land registry up until then.

However shortly after, officials from the lands and surveys department were unable to confirm that number, nor could they say how many of these requisitions related to primary residences, as the criteria of what constitutes a primary residence were unclear.

A controversial foreclosures bill was approved yesterday by the Cabinet, the outcome of drawn-out negotiations between the government and international lenders. The legislation will allow lenders to liquidate properties used as collateral on defaulting mortgages in private auctions, following all attempts to salvage the delinquent loan through restructuring.
Primary residences have been excluded from the bill’s scope, a temporary arrangement until the end of the year, when the government is scheduled to have drafted and passed insolvency legislation, but has pledged to include a ‘safety net’ to offer alternatives to at-risk homeowners.

The foreclosures bill is set to be put to plenary vote, but all parties – grandstanding or not – have come out against it, with some politicians warning that thousands of people will become homeless if it is passed.

IF THE House does not pass the foreclosures bill the Troika’s fifth and latest review will not be considered concluded and they will come back to the island to re-discuss the issue,  IMF Mission Chief Delia Velculescu said yesterday.

During a conference call following the issuing of the IMF’s report on the latest troika visit, Velculescu said: “Putting in place the necessary debt restructuring legal framework, and this includes foreclosure and insolvency legislation, is urgently needed to set incentives for borrowers and lenders to negotiate in good faith solutions to re-establish loan repayment, in line with the borrowers capacity to do so. Ultimately the responsibility lies with both banks and the borrowers to agree on sustainable solutions for the benefit of all.”

She made it clear that approval of the legislation was a precondition for the conclusion of the 5th review.

“If the law is not passed, the review will not be concluded and we may need to come back to Cyprus and re-discuss the situation,” said Velculescu.

According to the IMF report, Cyprus is likely to return to growth next year but it cautioned the outlook was tempered by tensions over Ukraine and banks’ rising bad loans.

The IMF said it expected Cyprus would require additional fiscal effort to achieve a sustainable primary surplus target of 4.0 per cent by 2018.

It said a ‘growth friendly consolidation’ should focus on fully unwinding spending increases introduced before Cyprus plunged into crisis in 2013, while protecting capital expenditures. It also said there was further scope to cut the public payroll. Pay in the public sector has already been scaled back under the bailout agreement, and a freeze on pay rises is in place until 2016.

“There is scope to further reduce the public sector wage bill, complemented by reforming the pay structure to better link pay with performance and eliminate automatic increments before the wage freeze expires in 2016. Further savings could be achieved by reforming the education sector and pensions,” said the IMF report. Responding later, President Nicos Anastasiades dismissed the notion, saying that as long as Cyprus meets its commitments.

The IMF said that while significant progress has been achieved, overcoming the legacy of the crisis will be challenging.

“Risks remain significant, related to the uncertainty about the magnitude and pace of private sector deleveraging and the ability of banks to address NPLs (non-performing loans), as well as to geopolitical tensions of Ukraine-Russia,” it said.

Cyprus has close business links with both countries, particularly Russia, and was known within the European Union to be reluctant to adopt stringent sanctions on the country because of the impact it could have on its still-fragile economy.

The island has already garnered positive assessments from its lenders in a fifth post-bailout review concluded on July 25, but lenders are demanding that Cyprus approve an improved framework on foreclosures to assist banks in paying down non-performing loans. A rising hole in balance sheets is constraining banks’ ability to provide credit, in turn stymieing growth.

Parliamentary approval of a new repossessions framework is considered a ‘prior action’ before any new disbursement of aid is offered to Cyprus this September.

The IMF said the Central Bank of Cyprus developed an arrears-management framework to guide loan restructuring negotiations, and banks had put in place structures and policies to implement it.

“Still, progress has been slow, due to weak incentives for both lenders and borrowers to come to mutually-agreeable solutions,” it said.

“A streamlined foreclosure framework is urgently needed to promote payment discipline, where capacity exists, and facilitate restructuring, where ability to pay is constrained by the downturn. This will need to be complemented by a reform of the insolvency framework, to guide the restructuring process for viable borrowers and provide solutions to address the debt of non-viable ones.”

The recent announcement by Bank of Cyprus regarding its successful raising of €1 billion in capital in the private markets was welcome, the IMF said.

“At the same time, banks and the co-op sector need to continue their restructuring efforts by further reducing operational costs, strengthening capacity and processes, and improving governance,” it added.

International lenders expect the Cypriot economy will contract by about 4.2 per cent this year, register a modest recovery in 2015, and see a gradual increase in growth of close to 2.0 per cent over the medium term.

“Cyprus has come a long way in addressing the crisis. The financial sector has been stabilised, substantial fiscal consolidation has been implemented, and sweeping structural reforms are underway,” the report said.

“The cost of the crisis has been large, and painful but necessary measures have imposed an unavoidable cost on the population. Looking forward, significant challenges remain, and they will not be resolved overnight. The authorities will need to stay focused on and committed to adopting the necessary policies to advance their adjustment programme in order to pave the way for sustainable growth.”

By Gwynne Dyer

YOU can see why Hamas doesn’t want a cease-fire in Gaza yet. It is continuing the fight in the hope that international outrage at the huge loss of people being killed by Israel’s massive firepower will somehow, eventually, force Israel to give it what it wants.

Hamas would be quite willing to give up firing its pathetic rockets – which have so far killed a grand total of three civilians in Israel – if Israel ends its seven-year blockade of the Gaza Strip. Dream on.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s goal is harder to define. Domestic political pressure to “do something” about those pesky rockets pushed him into this war, but now he must produce some kind of success in order to justify all those deaths: around 1,150 Palestinians and more than fifty Israelis already.

But what kind of success could it be? He cannot destroy all the rockets – Hamas shows no sign of running out of them – and even if he could Hamas would just manufacture more of them later unless he physically re-occupied the whole Gaza Strip. In recent days, therefore, Netanyahu has redefined the objective as destroying all the “terror tunnels” that Hamas has dug to infiltrate its fighters into nearby areas of Israel.

This makes no sense at all. In order to protect the lives of a few hypothetical Israeli soldiers who might be killed in the future by Hamas fighters using the tunnels, over forty real Israeli soldiers have already died. Besides, Israel can’t stop Hamas from digging more tunnels after the shooting stops unless it can find a way to ban picks and shovels in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu needs a victory of some sort before he accepts a cease-fire, but he cannot even define what it would be. So, as he said on Monday, “We should prepare ourselves for an extended campaign.” Meanwhile, the slaughter of Palestinians continues, and sympathy for Israel shrivels even in the United States.

It’s not that the Israeli army particularly wants to kill civilians (although it is sometimes very sloppy), but it does prefer to fight a stand-off war with artillery and missiles in order to spare the lives of its own soldiers. In the crowded Gaza Strip, that inevitably means killing lots of civilians.

The 1.8 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are living at the same population density as the residents of London or Tokyo: about 5,000 people per square kilometre. You cannot use high explosives in this environment without killing a great many innocent civilians, and Netanyahu knew that from the start, because this is Israel’s third war in Gaza in six years.

So the Israelis are being brutal and stupid, and the Hamas leaders are being brutal and cynical. (Hamas doesn’t really use civilians as “human shields”, as Israeli claims, but its leaders know that Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli fire provide them with a kind of political capital.) But this is not to say that the two sides are equally to blame for the killing. There is a broader context.

Before 1948, only about 60,000 people lived on the land now known as the Gaza Strip. The vast majority of those who live there now are Arab refugees, or the children, grand-children and great-grandchildren of Arab refugees, who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war. They are not there by choice.

Israel has traditionally insisted that the refugees freely chose to flee, although revisionist Israeli historians have debunked that story pretty thoroughly. But which story you believe doesn’t really matter. Fleeing your home in time of war does not deprive you of the right to go home when the fighting ends. Yet the Palestinians have not been allowed to go home, and Israel is adamant that they never will be.

The argument of 1948 still applies: for Israel to remain a state with a large Jewish majority, the Palestinian refugees and their descendants must remain outside it. So most of them are jammed into this narrow strip of territory on the Mediterranean coast – and latterly they have even grown poorer (unemployment is now 40 percent) because they now live under a permanent Israeli blockade.

Israel imposed the blockade after they voted for Hamas, a radical Islamist party that refuses to recognise the legitimacy of Israel, in the 2006 election. Yes, they are more radical than the Palestinians of the West Bank, most of whom are not refugees. But there is no going back, and even in the Gaza Strip most Palestinians know it.

The ancestral lands of the Palestinians in what is now Israel are lost as permanently as those of the American Indians. The “peace” everybody talks about is really just about giving them security of tenure and real self-government in the one-fifth of former Palestine that they still occupy. Unfortunately, that is not even visible on the horizon.

When Netanyahu is addressing American audiences, he gives lip-service to a “two-state solution” that includes an independent, demilitarised Palestinian mini-state, but everybody in Israel knows that he is really determined to avoid it. Israel is therefore effectively committed to penning in and controlling the Palestinians forever.

When their objections to this situation get too violent, they have to be disciplined. That is what is happening now. Just like 2009 and 2012.

Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries

EVERY few months, the issue of the policemen guarding the top politicians hits the news. The latest round of stories was sparked by a story published a week ago, reporting that the leader of the Alliance of Citizens Giorgos Lillikas was to have two policemen offering him round the clock protection and presumably performing chauffeur duties.

This story went unnoticed, until Monday when another press report claimed that Lillikas was unhappy with just two officers and asked for another two, insisting that one of them was a sergeant. He denied these claims, saying that he had no guards – nor had he asked for more – and the idea for providing him with two policemen belonged to the president. The paper, however, stuck to its story, the main difference hinging on the detail that Lillikas’ two policemen would have started their new duties today.

What was more interesting was the Alliance leader’s attempt to deflect attention away from his person, by arguing that the number of officers had to be based on certain security criteria. If two policemen were enough for the minister of defence why were they not enough for party leaders some of whom had six, while others two? A logical question which, however, avoids the real issue – why should party leader or former president of the House have police guards round the clock, when they are not at risk?

Why do Andros Kyprianou, Averof Neophytou and Nicholas Papadopoulos have detail of sic policemen each? Why does Marios Garoyian, a former house president but now a Diko backbencher, have four and why does Alliance deputy Nicos Koutsou have two? Interestingly, from yesterday Demetris Christofias had his detail reduced from 12 to eight, the police security committee having presumably decided that he was less at risk now.

The reality is that none of our party leaders, or the former presidents of the republic and of the House, is at risk. Cyprus has been a peaceful and stable country in which violence or physical threats against politicians have been unheard of in the last 40 years if we exclude the odd staged kidnapping. In these conditions there is no justification wasting police resources guarding politicians, active and retired, from non-existent threats.

If party leaders believe that for prestige they need to have a chauffeur and co-driver, because it is beneath their dignity to drive their own car, then their party could pay for them and not the taxpayer. This waste of police resources must stop, even though we doubt party leaders would ever agree giving up their errand boys posing as a security detail.

By George Psyllides

THE rights of vulnerable groups were fully secured by a bill on foreclosures approved by the cabinet, President Nicos Anastasiades said yesterday, and he announced additional measures to protect primary residences.

“Because we fully understand the concerns among vulnerable groups and entrepreneurs who cannot meet their obligations due to the crisis, I want to make it clear that along with the banks’ capability (to recover its loan) the rights of borrowers in the above categories are also fully secured,” Anastasiades said in a live television address.

The government bill seeks to put an end to lengthy procedures of foreclosing mortgaged properties, which could reach 20 years under the current system.

People fear that the bill will open the way for mass foreclosures mainly targeting ordinary people who are the hardest hit by the downturn, and is being opposed by the political parties, which is likely to delay proceedings at parliament before it can be entered into law.

“I would like to believe that in the coming days, we will be able to have a calm and sensible dialogue, that these provisions will be understood and that through our decisions, collectively, we shall ensure that the effort to finally exit this difficult situation will continue,” Anastasiades said.

Anastasiades outlined the safeguards included in the legislation, as well as other measures that have been put in place.

The main change is the introduction of private auctions, instead of them being carried out by the land registry, which would save considerable time.

There will be two evaluations – one by the borrower and one by the lender. If they disagree, there will be a third independent final evaluation.

The reserve price will be set at least 80 per cent of the evaluation and will remain so for three months.

If the property remains unsold, the reserve price will drop to at least 50 per cent of the valuation and will stay there for nine months. Failure to sell means a new valuation and a repeat of the procedure.

The foreclosures bill affords borrowers the right to seek legal recourse at every step of the procedure.

The government also announced additional schemes to protect primary residences, which have been spared until January 1, 2015.

Anastasiades said the cabinet approved two schemes, which constitute a final safety net for vulnerable groups of the population.

The schemes will also kick in at the beginning of 2015, depending on the needs.

They basically allow eligible individuals to apply for inclusion in the plans offered by the Land Development Organisation (KOAG)

Under the first scheme, KOAG will purchase the home and lease it to the former owner who retains the right to buy it back within a set timeframe.

The second scheme provides that KOAG will pay or subsidise part of the loan’s interest rate to eliminate the danger of foreclosure.

Another backstop is the solvency framework, which gives incentives to borrowers and lenders to reach a viable solution that will be of mutual benefit, Anastasiades said.

Anastasiades warned however that the special treatment afforded to people who objectively face temporary difficulties to fully respond to reasonable obligations they have assumed.

“They do not concern, I want to be clear on this, non-cooperative debtors who think they can exploit the savings of other fellow citizens or those who are consistent or even future borrowers who also want to be able to have access to funding,” Anastasiades said.

The solvency framework also provides incentives for rescuing and restoring companies through debt restructuring in a bid to give the chance to viable entities to maintain jobs and maximise their value to benefit creditors.

The president stressed that the bill was mandated by the terms of the island’s bailout. Its approval by parliament by September 1 was also necessary before international lenders disbursed the next tranche of assistance.

The bill, he said, corrected distortions which have been in place for decades, but also fully secured the borrowers’ best interests.

“The right to legal recourse is fully secured, as is access to mediation and restructuring. A fair and reliable way to set the value is also ensured and a reserve price is maintained indefinitely,” Anastasiades said.

Most importantly, he added, the bill secured the full exemption of primary residences until the solvency framework was completed and enacted.

“In combination with the other schemes, they fully secure the primary residence of vulnerable groups.”

By Patrick Markey

Clashes with artillery and rockets spread on Thursday into two Tripoli districts, where rival militia brigades were battling over the airport in Libya’s worst fighting since the 2011 revolt that ousted Muammar Gaddafi.

Nearly 200 people have been killed since the violence erupted two weeks ago in Tripoli and also in the eastern city of Benghazi, where a coalition of Islamist militants and former rebels has overrun a major army base in the city.

Three years after the fall of Gaddafi, Libya’s fragile government and nascent army have failed to impose authority on heavily armed brigades of former rebels who have become the North African country’s powerbrokers.

Fighting over two weeks has driven most Western diplomats out of the Libyan capital, increasing international worries that the OPEC oil producer is sliding toward becoming a failed state just across the Mediterranean from mainland Europe.

Thuds of artillery, rockets and anti-aircraft cannons echoed across Tripoli from early Thursday morning, a day after a temporary ceasefire agreed by factions to allow firefighters to put out a huge blaze at a fuel depot hit by a rocket.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the new exchanges. But the health ministry said on Thursday hospitals had reported 179 people killed and more than 700 wounded in fighting in the two cities since the start of violence.

Most of the fighting had been restricted to southern Tripoli where warring factions have exchanged barrages between the airport controlled by Zintan brigade fighters and enclaves allied to their Misrata brigade rivals.

Clashes with Grad rockets also broke out in the district of Seraj, Janzour, 17 km west of the capital, a Reuters reporter said. Local Janzour brigades have usually been aligned against Zintan in the past standoffs.

Firefighters were still working on Thursday on dousing a massive fire ignited at the fuel depot near Tripoli airport three days ago, the state-run National Oil Corporation said, without giving details of how well the blaze was under control.

Western governments hope the warring factions can reach some political agreement within the newly elected parliament that is due to hold its first session on Saturday in Tobruk, two parliamentary sources said.

BENGHAZI BATTLES

Once allies in the NATO-backed war against Gaddafi, the Misrata and Zintan brigades have feuded in the past over control of parts of Tripoli since the fall of the capital. But the recent fighting is the worst in three years.

Zintanis, from the western town of Zintan, have controlled the international airport since Tripoli fell. Fighting has damaged the terminal and a control centre and has burned commercial jets parked on the tarmac.

Clashes have also complicated the situation in Benghazi, after an alliance of Islamist militants and former rebels overran a special forces base in the city, forcing the army into a retreat, local residents and army officials said.

Residents said there was little sign of army or police presence on the ground in Benghazi on Thursday, two days after Islamist fighters from Ansar al-Sharia and the coalition of former rebels, Benghazi Shura Council, overtook the base.

The militant victory was an advance for Ansar al Sharia, classified as a terrorist organisation by Washington. Ansar has been blamed by authorities for an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in 2012 in which the US ambassador was killed.

Special forces have now joined up with air force units to back renegade former army General Khalifa Haftar, a former Gaddafi ally who once lived in exile in the United States and returned to fight with the rebels in the 2011 uprising.

Haftar launched a self-declared campaign against Islamist militants in Benghazi, but in recent weeks appeared to struggle to make gains, residents said. A twin suicide bombing last week showed how militants were intensifying their response.

Haftar gained support initially from many residents tired of violence and assassinations, but others rejected him as an old Gaddafi ally keen on enhancing his own power.

On Thursday, a city police station and the military base were taken by militants, and they were also holding western entrances to Benghazi, residents and local officials said.

Hundreds of families have fled their homes after a week of clashes involving warplanes and helicopter gunships.

Streets were almost empty and there was the smell of burning tires after demonstrations against militia violence. But most of Benghazi was calm.

On Wednesday night, dozens of Benghazi protesters demonstrated in several districts rejecting Ansar al-Sharia. One armed group clashed with militants, and Ansar al-Sharia briefly left one of the local hospitals under its control.

“Benghazi will not fall into the hands of these people,” said Ali Salem, 27, a local resident. “Even if the army did not succeed, then we will fight them.”

EU EVACUATIONS

The European Union said on Thursday it had evacuated international staff from Tripoli because of the fighting.

“Following the deterioration of the security situation in Tripoli, the EU has decided to temporarily relocate its international staff in Tripoli to Tunisia,” Michael Mann, spokesman for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said in an e-mailed statement.

“Our colleagues have crossed the border with Tunisia this morning,” he added. He did not say how many staff were involved.

Thursday’s decision by the EU follows similar steps by a majority of EU member states, the United Nations mission and others with a diplomatic presence in Tripoli, such as the United States and Turkey.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing international alarm over a rising civilian death toll in Gaza, said on Thursday he would not accept any ceasefire that stopped Israel completing the destruction of militants’ infiltration tunnels.

The Israeli military estimated on Wednesday that accomplishing that task, already into its fourth week, would take several more days.

“We are determined to complete this mission, with or without a ceasefire,” Netanyahu said in public remarks at a meeting of his full cabinet in Tel Aviv.

“I wont agree to any proposal that will not enable the Israeli military to finish this important task, for the sake of Israel’s security.”

Leaving open the option of widening a ground campaign in the Hamas Islamist-dominated Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said it had called up an additional 16,000 reservists. A military source said they would relieve a similar number of reserve soldiers being stood down.

Fighting, however, appeared less ferocious than on previous days this week – more than 100 were killed on Wednesday alone.

Gaza health officials said 19 Palestinians were killed in Israeli assaults on Thursday, which included an air strike on a van in the heart of Gaza City, which killed two people.

The Israeli military said more than 60 rockets were fired from the Palestinian enclave, some deep into Israel. One person was moderately wounded by a Gaza projectile that struck in the southern town of Kiryat Gat.

Hamas said it fired one rocket at Tel Aviv, which the military said was intercepted.

Netanyahu’s security cabinet on Wednesday approved continuing operations launched on July 8 in response to a surge of cross-border rocket attacks. Israel also sent a delegation to Egypt, which has been trying, with US blessing, to broker a ceasefire.

Washington has also allowed Israel to tap a local US arms stockpile in the past few weeks to replenish its grenades and mortar rounds, a US defence official said on Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who failed in a visit to the region last week to secure a ceasefire, voiced support for Israel’s operations against the tunnels.

“No country can sit there and live with tunnels being dug under its border, out of which jump people who are carrying handcuffs and tranquilizer drugs in order to kidnap their citizens and hold them for ransom,” Kerry said in an interview broadcast on Thursday by India’s NDTV.

Gaza officials say at least 1,410 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in the battered territory and nearly 7,000 wounded. Fifty-six Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza clashes and more than 400 wounded. Three civilians have been killed by Palestinian shelling in Israel.

The Pentagon called on Israel on Thursday to do more to protect civilian life during its military operations in Gaza.

“The civilian casualties in Gaza have been too high. And it’s become clear that the Israelis need to do more to live up to their very high standards – their very high and very public standards – for protecting civilian life,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said at a news briefing.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned on Wednesday the deaths of at least 15 Palestinians among thousands sheltering at a U.N.-run school. The United Nations said its initial assessment was that Israeli artillery shells hit the facility.

The United Nations’ senior human rights official, Navi Pillay, said on Thursday that Israel has attacked homes, schools, hospitals, and UN premises in apparent violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Pillay said Israel’s actions seemed to be in “deliberate defiance of obligations that international law imposes”.

Israel said its forces were attacked by guerrillas near the school in northern Jabalya and had fired back. In another incident on Wednesday, 17 people were killed in nearby Shejaia by what Palestinian officials said was Israeli shelling of a produce market. Seven more died of their wounds on Thursday.

The Israeli military said it was investigating.

“Such a massacre requires an earthquake-like response,” said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, whose group has kept up dozens of daily rocket launches deep into Israel. The Israelis have kept casualties from the salvoes low, using the Iron Dome air defence system to intercept them and air-raid sirens to send people to shelters.

In the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, Israeli tank shells landed near another UN-run school and at least 30 people sheltering inside were wounded by shrapnel and shattered glass, witnesses and hospital officials said.

Rolling Israeli ground assaults on residential areas, preceded by mass warnings to evacuate, have displaced more than 200,000 of Gaza’s 1.8 million Palestinians. The tiny territory’s infrastructure is in ruins, with power and water outages.

Israel says it is trying to avoid civilian casualties and blames these on Hamas and other Palestinian factions dug in for urban combat.

Both sides have voiced openness to a truce, but their terms diverge dramatically. Israel wants Gaza stripped of infiltration tunnels and rocket stocks. Hamas rules that out, and seeks an end to a crippling Gaza blockade enforced by Israel and Egypt, which view the Palestinian Islamists as a security threat.

Major General Sami Turgeman, chief of Israeli forces in Gaza, said on Wednesday they were “but a few days away from destroying all the attack tunnels”. The army said 32 of the secret passages had been found so far and half of them blown up.

Diplomacy to end the Gaza conflict is further complicated by the fact Israel and the United States shun Hamas as a terrorist group, while the go-betweens – Egypt, Qatar and Turkey – disagree on Gaza policy.

Israel in early 2009 ended a three-week Gaza war with a unilateral truce with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other smaller militant factions following suit.

TUNNEL HUNT

In the absence of a deal, Israel has ordered its ground forces to focus on locating and destroying a warren of tunnels through which Hamas has menaced its southern towns and army bases.

“Progress has been satisfactory, and we are completing our treatment of the terror tunnels,” Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Thursday. “During the fighting, soldiers are finding new tunnel shafts, and they are also being neutralised.”

Three Israeli soldiers were killed on Wednesday by a booby trap detonated as they uncovered a tunnel shaft, the army said. Military losses are more than five times those from the last Gaza ground war, in 2008-2009, but Israeli opinion polls show strong public support for fighting on until Hamas is quelled.

Netanyahu faces intense pressure from abroad to stand his forces down. The United States and the U.N. Security Council have urged an immediate, unconditional ceasefire by both sides in Gaza to allow in humanitarian relief and for further talks on a more durable cessation of hostilities.

On Wednesday, the White House voiced worry at the deaths in Jabalya and other UN-run shelters shelled during the clashes.

“We are extremely concerned that thousands of internally displaced Palestinians who have been called on by the Israeli military to evacuate their homes are not safe in U.N.-designated shelters in Gaza,” said National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan.

“We also condemn those responsible for hiding weapons in United Nations facilities in Gaza,” she said, referring to three cases in which the UNRWA aid agency reported rockets found at its schools.

Israel briefly observed a July 15 ceasefire proposed by Egypt, but Hamas continued attacks, saying its conditions had been ignored. Egyptian officials say they put together a revised truce plan this week that had been provisionally accepted by Israel, though Hamas was still undecided.

By Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets

Ukraine’s parliament rejected Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk’s resignation on Thursday and finally passed legislation he said was needed to finance an army offensive against a separatist rebellion in the east and avert a national default on its debts.

The assembly’s about-turn on laws it refused to back a week earlier offers relief to Kiev’s Western backers, who had feared Ukraine was sliding deeper into political chaos and might renege on an international bailout as it heads into an election period.

“There are two pieces of news today. The first is that Argentina has defaulted, and the second is that Ukraine has not defaulted and never will,” Yatseniuk told the chamber, making clear he would stay in office.

The political battle has been taking place against the backdrop of a military campaign to win back parts of the Donbass region, which borders Russia, from the pro-Moscow rebels.

Having recaptured the rebel stronghold of Slaviansk in early July, government forces are now moving on the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, with the latter now all but encircled and electricity and food supplies cut off.

Both sides stopped shooting long enough for an initial group of international experts, after several days of trying, to reach the site where a Malaysian airliner came down in rebel-held territory in the east on July 17, killing 298 people on board.

The experts hope a larger team of investigators will also soon have access to the site to recover the remains of the last missing victims and look for evidence showing what brought the plane down.

“It’s been almost a week since we have been on the site and we haven’t noticed many changes. Experts said they have detected human remains on the site,” said Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for an observer team from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which escorted the experts.

The group also said fighting around the crash site started again immediately after they left.

Western leaders accuse the rebels of shooting down the Malaysian plane and have imposed sanctions on Russia, which they accuse of arming the separatists, a charge Moscow denies.

There is scant hope of a quick end to the crisis, during which Moscow has annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine, but envoys from Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE met in the Belarussian capital, Minsk.

Kiev said the sides had agreed to keep open the route to the crash site that was used on Thursday, despite fighting in the vicinity.

“CONSOLIDATION, NOT CONFRONTATION”

Thursday’s vote in parliament was an important sign of political unity from Kiev, which is struggling to deal with an economic crisis as well as the war against the Moscow-backed rebels in the east.

In sharp contrast to a stormy parliamentary session last week at which Yatseniuk bellowed at legislators and accused them of betraying Ukraine by blocking reforms, deputies stood and applauded him after backing the amendments.

President Petro Poroshenko said the new votes in parliament would help Kiev in its fight against separatists.

“We need consolidation, not confrontation,” Poroshenko said. “We have to be united against external aggression.”

Parliament’s support was needed to amend the 2014 budget to take account of falling revenue and release an additional 9.1 billion hryvnia ($758 million) to finance the military.

The government also wanted parliament to back legislation allowing consortiums with European or US companies to operate the ageing gas distribution system.

Yatseniuk had said the government would have defaulted on debt payments and missed out on the release of further funds under a $17-billion International Monetary Fund bailout if it had failed to pass the legislation.

“The laws the government is insisting on are unpopular and difficult, but very necessary,” Poroshenko said, adding that they would “enable the economy, the state as a whole, to function”.

Laws passed on Thursday also introduce an additional 1.5-percent personal income tax until the end of the year to cover the military. Taxes were raised on tobacco and the mining, oil and gas sectors. Nearly 2 billion hryvnias were earmarked for rebuilding of infrastructure damaged by fighting in the east.

The exit of two parties from the ruling coalition last week amounted to the start of a campaign for seats in a legislature still packed with former allies of pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovich, who was ousted by street protests in February.

Western governments have come to regard Yatseniuk as a key interlocutor in the worst standoff between Russia and the West since the Cold War ended. His departure would have been seen as leaving a vacuum at the heart of decision making.

The United States and European Union imposed sanctions on Moscow this week that were far tougher than earlier measures. Russia has been hitting back.

It announced a ban on fruit and vegetable imports from Poland on Wednesday and a day later placed an embargo on Ukrainian fruit juice. Greek fruit and US poultry could follow, Russian media said.

By Umaru Fofana

Sierra Leone has declared a state of emergency and called in troops to quarantine Ebola victims, joining neighbouring Liberia in imposing controls as the death toll from the outbreak of the virus hit 729 in West Africa.

The World Health Organisation said it would launch a $100 million response plan on Friday during a meeting with the affected nations in Guinea. It was in urgent talks with donors and international agencies to send more medical staff and resources to the region, it said.

The WHO reported 57 new deaths in the four days to July 27 in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

“The scale of the Ebola outbreak, and the persistent threat it poses, requires WHO and Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to take the response to a new level, and this will require increased resources,” WHO Director General Margaret Chan said.

Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Korom announced a series of emergency measures, to intially last 60 to 90 days, in a speech on Wednesday night.

“Sierra Leone is in a great fight. Failure is not an option,” he said.

Security forces will enforce a quarantine on all centres of the disease and help health officers and aid workers to work unhindered, following attacks on health workers by local people.

The moves followed steps by Liberia which included the closure of all schools and a possible quarantine of affected communities.

The outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever, for which there is no known cure, began in the forests of eastern Guinea in February, but Sierra Leone now has the highest number of cases.

Koroma said he would discuss ways to combat the epidemic with the leaders of Liberia and Guinea at Friday’s meeting.

The jump in the number of cases and death toll has raised international concern and place poor health facilities in the region under strain.

The United States was providing material and technical support to Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the senior U.S. diplomat for Africa, Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.

African officials will discuss further assistance at a meeting in Washington next week, she said.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday issued a travel advisory against non-essential travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in an effort to curb the spread of the ebola outbreak.

CDC Director Thomas Frieden said the agency will send an additional 50 health experts to help efforts to control it.

Authorities in Nigeria, which recorded its first Ebola case last week when a US citizen died after arriving on a flight from Liberia, said all passengers travelling from areas at risk would be temperature-screened for the virus.

But international airlines association IATA said the WHO was not recommending any travel restrictions or border closures due to the outbreak, and there would be a low risk to other passengers if an Ebola patient flew..

NEW AIRPORT CONTROLS

The disease kills up to 90 per cent of those infected, though the fatality rate in the current epidemic is running at around 60 per cent. In the final stages, its symptoms include external bleeding, internal bleeding, vomiting and diarrhoea – at which point the virus becomes highly contagious.

Sierra Leone said passengers arriving and departing Lungi International Airport would be subject to new measures, including body temperature scans.

Two regional airlines, Nigeria’s Arik and Asky, cancelled all flights to Freetown and Monrovia after a US citizen, Patrick Sawyer, died in Lagos last week after arriving on an Asky flight from Liberia.

The WHO said authorities in Nigeria had identified 59 people in the airport and hospital who had come into contact with Sawyer, whose flight also stopped in Ghana and Togo.

Nigeria’s Civil Aviation Authority suspended Asky for bringing Ebola to Lagos, a city of 21 million people.

Health officials are scrambling to avoid an Ebola outbreak in Lagos, the continent’s biggest metropolis, but say there are so far no signs of further cases.

Ghana is introducing body temperature screening of all travellers from West African countries at Accra airport and other entry points. Authorities there are monitoring 11 passengers who disembarked from Sawyer’s flight.

The US Peace Corps said it was withdrawing 340 volunteers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea after two of them came in contact with a person who later died of the virus.