Well known television personality psychiatrist Yiangos Mikellides, 68, has been found dead at his home in Pyrga, reports said on Wednesday.

He was found by his partner who notified police at 4am. No more information was immediately available.

Mikellides was suffering from health problems in recent years.

Bank of Cyprus (BoC) announced on Wednesday it has signed an agreement to sell its assets related to Societatea Companiilor Hoteliere Grand (GHES), a company incorporated in Romania and owner of the JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel to Austrias STRABAG SE.

The sale consideration is €95 million, subject to adjustments to be made upon completion of the agreement, expected by the end of September and in any case no later than the end of October 2014.

The sale is subject to the fulfilment of specific conditions stipulated in the agreement.

The assets include a facility agreement between GHES, as borrower, and BoC – Romania Branch, as lender, 1,474,482 shares issued by GHES to an affiliate of the bank representing 35.3 per cent of GHES’ share capital, and a subordinated loan agreement between GHES, as borrower, and an affiliate of the bank, as lender.

The proceeds of the sale will enhance BoC’s liquidity position. The accounting loss from the transaction is around €1.0 million, but there is a positive impact of approximately €7.0 million on the Group’s capital position, after taking into account the reduction in risk weighted assets.

The sale falls under the Group’s strategy of focusing on core businesses and markets and disposing operations that are considered as non-core.

It is also in line with the Group’s decision to gradually reduce its presence in Romania with a view of eventually exiting Romanian market.

The sale achieves an exit from a sizable and specialised asset in the country and at the same time enhances liquidity by €95 million, BoC said.

By Staff Reporter

Possible rejection of the foreclosures bill by the House will lead to dire consequences for state finances but also for the banking sector, President Nicos Anastasiades has warned.

In a letter addressed to the parties on Thursday, urging them to pass the contentious legislation, the President said that its rejection would in fact have the opposite effect of that assumed by the bill’s detractors.

Given the additional safeguards decided recently by the government to protect vulnerable groups and primary residences, voting down the bill would “protect large debtors at the expense of small and medium borrowers and/or depositors,” the President said.

In the letter, the President recapped the extra measures designed to protect homeowners who are delinquent on their loans. They include three bills, two government-funded schemes for additional protection of primary residencies, and the insolvency framework.

The measures include abolition of bank privileges that allowed them to impose unfair terms and changing the interest rate law to scrap the bank’s right to raise rates unilaterally.

They also make it mandatory for banks to inform borrowers and guarantors about any changes to the base rate and generally of any other changes that concerning it and the loan installments.

Anastasiades said these extra measures go a long way toward allaying or even altogether eradicating “warranted” concerns over small borrowers and vulnerable groups.

The President has called for Friday a crucial meeting with party leaders, in a last-ditch bid to soften up their opposition to the foreclosures bill.

Cyprus’ international lenders have made it clear failure to pass the bill this month will result in non-disbursement of the next scheduled bailout tranche.

In his letter, Anastasiades expressed the hope that, during Friday’s meeting with party leaders, “a spirit and desire for responsibility toward the people and the country shall prevail.”

So far all opposition parties have said they are against the foreclosures bill as it stands. But Cyprus’ international lenders, on the other hand, have ruled out any changes to it.

By Dmitry Madorsky
UKRAINIAN border guards began on Thursday to inspect a Russian truck convoy carrying aid earmarked for humanitarian relief in eastern Ukraine that has been stranded at the frontier between the two former Soviet republics for nearly a week.
Kiev believes the convoy of some 260 trucks, carrying water, food and medicines, could prove a Trojan horse for Russia to get weapons to pro-Russian separatists battling Ukrainian forces in the region – a notion that Moscow has dismissed as absurd.
“I can confirm that at 2:15 p.m. (1115 GMT) the Ukrainian side began border-customs formalities relating to the Russian humanitarian cargo,” border guard spokesman Andriy Demchenko told Reuters.
Asked on whose territory the cargo was, he replied: “On the territory of the Russian border point.”
It was not clear when the trucks would finally be authorised to enter Ukrainian territory, which at that border point is under rebel control. The rebels granted Kiev’s border guards permission to access the crossing to check the trucks.
A Reuters witness saw 16 trucks move into territory beyond the Russian checkpoint, later followed by a second mini-convoy of 16 vehicles.
The aid is intended to alleviate a humanitarian crisis in the city of Luhansk, one of two big cities in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking east which is being held by the rebels. The other is Donetsk, the region’s main industrial hub.
The forces of the Western-backed Kiev government have been steadily gaining the upper hand over the separatists but fighting continues to rage in Donetsk, Luhansk and other urban centres across the Russian-speaking region.
Luhansk has been largely cut off by the conflict and is into its 19th day without water and regular supplies of electricity, which have hit mobile and landline phone connections. Only vital foodstuffs are on sale in the few shops remaining open.
Kiev and its Western allies accuse Moscow of supporting and arming the rebels. Moscow denies such allegations but has warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine has insisted that the truck convoy comply with border inspections and other formalities before being allowed to cross into its territory under supervision by the Red Cross, which will be responsible for distributing the aid.
The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has sent 35 staff to help smooth the way for the Russian convoy and intends to accompany the Russian drivers and trucks with its own vehicles.
“We are ready to roll with this convoy, there has been a last-minute delay. We are hopeful that it will be resolved shortly,” ICRC spokesman Ewan Watson told Reuters.
“Last-minute decisions from the Ukrainian side have delayed the process,” he said, declining to elaborate.
The ICRC has begun delivering aid donated by the Ukrainian government to a number of towns ineastern Ukraine, including Starobilsk, Lysychansk and Syevyerodonetsk, with the help of the Ukrainian Red Cross.
“The distribution of goods such as fruit and vegetables has already reached over 20,000 displaced people in shelters and hospitals,” the ICRC said, referring to the aid sent by Kiev.
The United Nations has put the death toll in the conflict at over 2,000, including civilians and combatants. That figure has nearly doubled since late July, when Ukrainian forces stepped up their offensive and the conflict spread to major urban areas.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell
AN ISRAELI air strike killed three senior Hamas commanders in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, a clear sign of its intention to hit the group’s armed leadership days after a ceasefire failed.
Hamas, which dominates Gaza, named the men as Mohammed Abu Shammala, Raed al-Attar and Mohammed Barhoum, the three highest-ranking casualties it has announced since Israel started its offensive six weeks ago.
All three, killed in the bombing of a house in the southern town of Rafah, had led operations against Israel over the past 20 years, the Islamist movement said.
The Israeli military and Shin Bet, the internal security service, confirmed it had targeted two of the men.
Following the collapse on Tuesday of a 10-day ceasefire, the Israeli military appears to have ramped up its efforts to hit the leadership of Hamas’s armed wing.
Late on Tuesday, the Israeli air force bombed a house in northern Gaza, an attempt, Hamas said, to assassinate Mohammed Deif, its top military commander. Deif’s wife, daughter and seven-month-old son were killed but Deif escaped, Hamas said.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to say whether Israel had tried to kill Deif, but said militant leaders were legitimate targets and that “none are immune” from attack.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians marched at the funeral of the three Hamas commanders on Thursday, firing weapons into the air in anger and calling for revenge.
“The assassinations of the three Qassam leaders is a grave crime,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhritold Reuters. “But it will not break our people and Israel will pay the price for it.”
Amos Yadlin, former chief of Israel’s military intelligence and head of Tel Aviv University’s INSS think-tank, said Israel, which was engaged in indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas in Cairo until Tuesday, had now changed its game plan.
“The prime minister has adopted a strategy which says ‘You shoot at us, we’ll hit you seven times harder, you want attrition? We have intelligence and an airforce that will crush you with greater force’,” he told Israel Radio.
However, Israel’s ultimate goal could still be a diplomatic deal to end hostilities, Yadlin said.
“Even the crazy extremists in Hamas understand time is not on their side and this is what we need to do – military activity aimed at an eventual diplomatic outcome,” Yadlin said.
Shin Bet said Abu Shammala was head of Hamas’ southern command and described al-Attar as a brigade commander. It said both had been leading fighting against Israel in the south of Gaza, where some of the most intense combat has occurred.
Netanyahu praised the “outstanding intelligence” and said in a statement the Hamas leaders killed had “planned deadly attacks against Israeli civilians”.
Palestinian health officials said 26 Palestinians, including three children, the Hamas commanders and at least two other militants, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Thursday.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said aircraft bombed more than 30 sites across Gaza and that militants fired more than 45 rockets into Israel. One mortar landed near a kindergarten in an Israeli kibbutz, badly wounding a parent of one of the children, the Israeli ambulance service said.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza on July 8 with the declared aim of curbing Palestinian rocket fire into its territory. Gaza health officials say 2,061 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed.
Israeli attacks have devastated many areas in the densely-populated enclave, home to 1.8 million people, with 425,000 of people displaced, according to the United Nations.
Sixty-four Israeli soldiers have been killed in the conflict, as well as three civilians in Israel.
Egypt has said it will continue contacts with both sides, whose delegates left Cairo after hostilities resumed. Yet there appears to be little chance in the current circumstances of putting an end to fighting or making progress on peace talks.
Netanyahu said fighting could go on for a long while and provisionally approved the call-up of 10,000 army reservists.
The commanders targeted on Thursday were the most senior Hamas men killed since November 2012, when the assassination of military chief Ahmed al-Jaabari triggered an eight-day cross-border war. While Israel says it has killed several hundred Hamas militants in the conflict, they have largely been frontline fighters, not the organisation’s commanders.

By Tim Collings

Mario Balotelli’s rollercoaster career took another twist on Thursday when he said goodbye to his AC Milan team-mates after training before an expected transfer to Liverpool.

In a brief statement on their website (www.acmilan.com), the Italian club said: “Mario Balotelli drove out of Milanello at 1330 after saying goodbye to his team-mates and the club’s press staff.”

Balotelli’s likely move signals a return to the Premier League where he shone, glowered, delighted and dismayed in equal measure during his time with Manchester City from 2011 to 2013.

The 24-year-old Italian is seen as a natural successor to another colourful and controversial player, disgraced Uruguay striker Luis Suarez, who was sold to Barcelona in July for a reported fee of 81 million euros.

Suarez, 27, was the Premier League’s top scorer last season with 31 goals for Liverpool before being expelled from the World Cup finals and suspended after biting Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini.

Balotelli signalled the move when he told reporters that Thursday would be his last day in Italy.

“Today is my last day in Milan and I am going to Liverpool,” Sky Italia reported him as saying. His agent Mino Raiola was reported to be in England to complete a reported 20 million euros deal.

Balotelli joined Manchester City from Inter Milan in August 2010 and, after starring in their 2011 FA Cup final win against Stoke City, played a prominent role in the triumphant Premier League campaign of 2011-12 as they won their first top tier title since 1968.

After a series of disciplinary problems including a training ground altercation with then-manager Roberto Mancini, he signed for AC Milan in January 2013.

Balotelli impressed for Italy at Euro 2012 where he scored twice in their semi-final win against Germany and headed Italy’s winner against England in their group stage meeting at this year’s World Cup.

TURKISH president-elect Tayyip Erdogan named Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as his future prime minister on Thursday and vowed a power struggle against a US-based cleric he accuses of plotting against him would continue.
Erdogan said Davutoglu’s determination to battle the “parallel state”, a term he uses for cleric Fethullah Gulen’s influential network of followers, had been a key factor in his nomination as the next AK Partyleader and prime minister.
“We will be continuing this struggle together. Being president will not hinder my struggle with the parallel structure,” Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara.
Erdogan, who will be sworn in as president next Thursday, said he would also support Davutoglu in advancing a peace process with Turkey’s Kurdish minority and that forging a new constitution would be a priority for the next government.
Erdogan announced Davutoglu’s nomination after a meeting of the AK Party’s executive board in Ankara. The decision must now be endorsed in a vote at an AK Party congress next Wednesday, but he is unlikely to be opposed.
Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade as prime minister, won Turkey’s first national presidential election on Aug. 10 with 52 percent. Previous presidents were elected by parliament.
Erdogan will step down as leader of the AK when he is inaugurated next week, as required by the constitution, but has made clear that he wants the party he co-founded more than 10 years ago to remain loyal and unified.

By Constantinos Psillides

CANNABIS oil is not a licensed medical treatment and using it constitutes a felony, the Health ministry said on Thursday, following an announcement by hemp farmers calling it “a gift from God.”

“Any medical treatment should be followed after examination and in accordance with a licensed physician. We encourage everyone to report anyone who tries to sell them an unlicensed medical product or if they are contacted for treatment by an unlicensed physician,” the ministry said.

Despite a number of reports suggesting that cannabis oil has beneficial effects – mainly due to its analgesic nature which reportedly alleviates side-effects of chemotherapy while also relieving pain in cases of chronic illnesses – the Health ministry has no plans to allow the use of medical marijuana.

Solon Gregoriou, one of the hemp farmers in question, had sought a permit to plant marijuana alongside hemp plants, but was denied by authorities.

Addressing the bureaucratic mix-up that resulted in hemp cultivation being stuck in legal limbo, the ministry had clarified that for hemp cultivation to be made legal the Health minister has to propose a bill to the Cabinet, along with a decree removing hemp from the controlled substances group.

“Subsequently, hemp will be added as a cultivation plant in the Agriculture ministry registry,” read the statement.

The hemp farmers are trying to raise awareness to the whole issue by inviting the public to join them in their celebratory harvest on Sunday. They did not say where the harvest would take place, but that free bus transport would be provided at 7am from the Makarios Stadium in Nicosia.

The invitation sent out by hemp farmers stressed that no politician is allowed to take part at the event “because no politician deserves this honour.”

Hemp, a harmless variety of the cannabis plant that is used mostly in the manufacture of textiles and clothing, has always been classified as illegal in Cyprus, due to the fact that the plant is indistinguishable from marijuana.

Hemp has extremely low levels of the chemical tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the mind-altering chemical in marijuana.

Hemp cultivation is not only legal in the EU, but farmers also receive subsidies. Cyprus is being forced to amend its legislation, since farmers have already planted hemp and have applied for subsidies.

By Elias Hazou

A 22-year-old man, suspected of attempting to murder an 18-year-old earlier this week in Limassol, appeared in court on Thursday and was remanded in custody for seven days.

Andreas Paschalides, wanted by police, had been apprehended late on Wednesday. He allegedly fired the shot that seriously injured the 18-year-old during an argument at the former’s home in Limassol a day earlier.

Police have also charged another man, Petros Patzioas, with being an accessory after the fact. Patzioas, also present at the incident, was picked up by police at the same location as Paschalides. Patzioas has since been released and is to later appear in court to answer the charges.

Paschalides has reportedly denied any involvement or knowledge of the incident. Police believe he has hidden the firearm used in the crime.

His 23-year-old brother had on Wednesday been remanded in custody for eight days, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a felony. The siblings’ mother, 45, was also remanded in custody for two days on suspicion of providing false information to the police and for being an accessory after the fact.

Police believe the mother helped her 22-year-old son make his getaway. On being questioned, she also claimed that Andreas had not been present at the incident.

The 18-year-old victim from Limassol is convalescing in hospital, his condition serious but not life-threatening.

The incident reportedly occurred when the 18-year-old along with other persons, followed by his father, went to the Paschalides home to ask why they had beaten up his father earlier on Tuesday evening outside his house. He had reportedly grabbed their younger brother by the neck earlier in the day.

The 55-year-old claimed that he had merely pinched the boy on the cheek while asking him how he was.

After a heated discussion, Andreas Paschalides reportedly attacked the older man with a crowbar and then went inside the house and came out with the rifle threatening to shoot unless everybody left.

Under circumstances investigated by the police, he allegedly then fired the gun, injuring the 18-year-old.

By Kate Holton and Raheem Salman
A BRITISH Muslim leader called on Thursday for action to tackle a jihadi sub-culture after an Islamic State video showed a suspected Briton beheading US journalist James Foley held hostage in Syria.
In Washington, Attorney General Eric Holder said the US Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation into the death of Foley on the video, which featured a masked man speaking English with a British accent.
As Western officials tried to identify the man, the Muslim Council of Britain denounced Foley’s “abhorrent murder” and one of its advisers urged anyone who knows who the killer is to contact the police.
Horror at the video spanned from the West to Baghdad, where Iraqis asked why the United States and its allies had not cracked down on Islamic State fighters long before they captured large areas of Syria andIraq.
Foley, 40, was beheaded by an Islamic State militant in the video that surfaced on the Internet on Tuesday.
The video caused particular shock in Britain, which is home to about 2.7 million Muslims, although the hundreds of British men fighting with the militants in Iraq and Syria have created concern for some time.
Iqbal Sacranie, an adviser to the Muslim Council of Britain, said Britons from across the country’s communities had to stop young men being seduced by radical ideologies.
“This sub culture of this ‘jihadi-cool’ – as they call it in the media – within the margins of society …, that is the real challenge,” he told BBC Radio. “This is a problem that affects all of us and it will only be dealt with more effectively if all of us are working together on this.”
Sacranie said the Muslim community was pushing the message that “this is totally alien to Islam” and families were reporting to the authorities when they discovered their sons had headed to the Middle East to fight. He also told London’s Evening Standard newspaper that anyone who recognised the man in the video had a duty to contact police.
The Guardian newspaper said a former hostage had identified the masked man as the leader of three Britons who guarded foreign hostages in the city of Raqqa – Islamic State’s stronghold in eastern Syria.
The BBC also reported that hostages had given their three captors nicknames after members of the Beatles pop group – John, Paul and Ringo.
Ghaffar Hussain, managing director of the counter-extremism Quilliam Foundation, said it was almost inevitable that men who had fought in Syria would return to plan attacks in Europe.
“It is disturbing that people born and raised in Britain and who have gone to the same schools as us could have been essentially indoctrinated to the extent where they can justify raping women and chopping heads off,” he said.
Until recently, Islamic State concentrated on establishing its self-proclaimed caliphate in areas of Syria and Iraq it has seized rather than on attacking the West like al Qaeda – the group from which it split.
But US President Barack Obama‘s decision to order air strikes on its fighters in Iraq appears to have changed this. The video also showed images of another US journalist, Steven Sotloff, whose fate the group said depends on how the United States acts in Iraq. “The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision,” the masked man says.
In Baghdad, Iraqis expressed their horror at the video but questioned Western strategy on Islamic State, which advanced out of Syria in June to capture several major Iraqi cities including Mosul before the United States intervened militarily.
“The killing is the crime of all crimes, whoever the victim is,” said Kareem Jamal, 55, an Arabic language teacher at a secondary school.
“I wish the world superpowers had fought these criminal groups in their incubators. The US should have hit Islamic State when they first appeared in Syria. Why didn’t they hit them when they first entered Mosul and other cities?”
British Prime Minister David Cameron has ruled out sending troops to step up Britain’s military involvement in Iraq, which has so far been focused on delivering supplies to Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State and using jets to conduct surveillance.

By Warren Strobel and John Irish
AFTER MONTHS of silence from the captors of American journalist James Foley, on the night of Aug. 13, his family received a chilling message: Foley would be executed in retaliation for U.S. air strikes on the militant group Islamic State.
The family passed the message on to the U.S. government. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which handles cases involving kidnapped American citizens, helped craft a response, pleading for mercy, said Phil Balboni, chief executive of GlobalPost, the Boston-based online news publication that employed Foley.
“It was an appeal for mercy. It was a statement that Jim was an innocent journalist” who respected the people of Syria, where he was held, Balboni said in a telephone interview.
Foley’s family and friends hoped the militants were bluffing and wanted a ransom, he said.
Six days later, on Tuesday, Islamic State militants stunned America with a gruesome video posted on YouTube showing the beheading of Foley, 40, by a masked, black-clad man who also threatened to kill a second American journalist, Steven Sotloff.
Foley’s death, highlighting how Syria has become perhaps the most dangerous country on earth for journalists, followed intense efforts by GlobalPost and others to identify his captors, and despite brief e-mail exchanges between the militants and his family in late 2013 about a possible ransom.
The captors demanded a ransom of 100 million euros, or about $135 million, for his release, according to a GlobalPost spokesman.
The White House declined to comment on the warning about Foley but it said special operations troops were sent to Syria earlier this summer on a secret mission to rescue American hostages, including Foley, but did not find them.
“Since his capture, we have been using every tool at our disposal to try to bring him home to his family and to gather any and all information we could get about his whereabouts, his condition and the threats he faced,” White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.
Obama vowed on Wednesday the United States would keep supporting Iraqis in the fight against Islamic State.
Foley, who had previously been detained in Libya, was abducted on November 22, 2012 — on the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday — near the city of Binnish in Syria’s Idlib province, as he and his colleagues made their way toward the Turkish border.
Who initially seized Foley has been a subject of dispute. Some signs pointed to the Shabiha, militias loyal to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Balboni said there had been strong indications that Foley had been transferred to the Syrian capital Damascus. That information later proved incorrect.
The first solid information about Foley’s condition, he said, came nearly a year after his abduction, from a returning European jihadist, or Islamic fighter, who had been with the American journalist in the city of Aleppo. This person provided confirmation that Foley was alive, as well as first-hand details of his captivity and his captors.
Foley was moved a number of times, and passed through the hands of various captors, Balboni said.
Didier Francois, a veteran French war correspondent who was held with Foley and released with three other French hostages in April, said he had little doubt Foley was under the control of Islamic State or its affiliates the entire time.
“The guy who killed him is the guy who took him from the start,” Francois told Reuters.
Francois said he had been held with Foley from last August until April and that he was also held almost nine months with Sotloff.
“He was an extraordinary person with a strong character. He was a pleasant companion in detention because he was solid and collective. He never gave in to the pressure and violence of the kidnappers,” Francois said of Foley.
Francois, who said he shared a cell with Foley beginning in October, said he had not spoken about Sotloff or Foley until now because the kidnappers had threatened to kill the remaining hostages if they did.
Another released Frenchmen, Nicolas Henin, told France’s Express magazine that Foley had been treated worse than the other captives, after militants searched his computer and discovered his brother was in the U.S. Air Force.
“Because of that and as he was American he got extra bad treatment. He became the whipping boy of the jailers, but he remained implacable,” Henin told the magazine.
In November 2013, Foley’s family received its first e-mail message from the journalist’s captors, demanding a ransom and offering proof he was alive, Balboni said.
That exchange did not last long. “Very few” messages were passed, he said. “They were not loquacious,” Balboni said of the captors. “They made their demands.”
The communications channel soon went silent, and until last Wednesday, there were no further messages to the family.
The U.S. government says it has a firm policy of not paying ransom in kidnapping cases, or encouraging third parties to do so, a policy that differs from many European governments. The British government has a similar approach to that of the United States.
At the time, Islamic State was “busy, busy releasing and ransoming other hostages,” Balboni said. “We believed that the American and British captives were always going to be held for last.”
Foley was one of dozens of journalists abducted in Syria during its three-and-a-half-year civil war.
Not all of their names have been made public at the request of their families or news organizations that employ them. They include Sotloff and Austin Tice, who disappeared near Damascus in August 2012. Nothing has been heard of Tice since a brief video uploaded to the Internet in September 2012.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said it has documented 80 journalists who have been abducted in Syria since 2011, including 65 in the last year alone. Many of them are native Syrians, said CPJ’s deputy director Robert Mahoney.
“We have never documented so many kidnappings in a single conflict as we have in Syria,” Mahoney said.
About two dozen journalists are still believed held captive in Syria, with several others missing.
Until Foley’s murder, militants had kept most foreign hostages alive in hopes of securing a ransom or political gain, Mahoney said.

By Andreas Vou

AEL held a shock lead over Tottenham Hotspur for exactly an hour on Thursday night before two goals in just seven minutes crushed their Europa League hopes as they lost 1-2 in Larnaca. Meanwhile, Omonia earned a more than impressive 2-2 draw away to Dynamo Moscow, while Apollon drew 1-1 against Lokomotiv in Nicosia.

Few gave AEL any hope going into their match against Spurs but Ivaylo Petev’s men were the ones who took the lead over the Premier League side. Spanish striker Adrian Sardinero scored his first goal since joining the club, running beyond the Spurs defence before slotting the ball past Hugo Lloris.

Despite being heavy favourites, Spurs were far from their best and failed to create any significant chances. AEL more than held their own against Mauricio Pochettino’s side and deserved their goal advantage.

The turning came on 71 minutes as Erik Lamela replaced half-Cypriot Andros Townsend. Within just seven minutes of entering the field, the Argentine made assists for Roberto Soldado and Harry Kane to turn the game on its head and end AEL’s realistic hopes of progression to the group stages.

Omonia, who started their European campaign from the second qualifying round, have looked impressive in their previous four matches, and Costas Kaiafas’ team started the play-off in ideal fashion. It took less than two minutes for the Nicosia side to make the breakthrough and earn a crucial away goal through summer recruit Ucha Lobjanidze.

Former Queens Park Rangers defender Christopher Samba was a constant goal threat in the Premier League and the 1.93m centre-back proved why with a header to equalise on 33 minutes. Samba’s goal was the first that Omonia had conceded in Europe this season.

Another new recruit, Gaossou Fofana, shocked the home crowd once again as he put Omonia 1-2 up on the hour-mark with an unstoppable left-footed shot after capitalising on a mistake from William Vainqueur.

Just three minutes after Dynamo’s Alexander Kokorin was shown a second yellow card for diving,  Alexander Buttner, signed from Manchester United this summer, levelled the tie after an excellent run and a powerful shot into the right-hand corner of the net from which Jose Moreira could hardly do anything about.

A draw and two away goals puts Omonia in an excellent position to progress to the group stages of the European competition for the first time in the club’s history.

In Nicosia, Apollon also took on a side from the Russian capital – the Limassol club failed to get going and it was Lokomotiv who went ahead six minutes before the break through Alan Kasaev.

Apollon levelled the game on 79 minutes with an excellently taken finish from Abraham Guie Gneki who dinked the ball over the oncoming goalkeeper.

Lokomotiv had players sent off either side of the equalising goal, but the 1-1 scoreline remained, leaving Apollon with a tough task to reverse proceedings next week in Moscow.

By Martyn Herman

The League Managers Association (LMA) has apologised for the wording of a statement issued in response to discriminatory text messages sent by former Cardiff City boss Malky Mackay.

But the Welsh club are not satisfied and have called for the resignation of the LMA’s chief executive Richard Bevan, accusing the organisation of attempting to conceal the messages.

The Scot was ruled out of the running for the vacant Crystal Palace manager’s job on Thursday after the Daily Mail published details of texts he sent while in charge at the Welsh club.

While Mackay, who left Cardiff under a cloud last year following a falling out with owner Vincent Tan, apologised via the LMA for the messages he called “disrespectful of other cultures”, the LMA said they were “friendly banter”.

However, after widespread criticism of its reaction, the LMA issued a new statement on Friday.

“The LMA apologises for some of its wording, in its release yesterday, which was inappropriate and has been perceived to trivialise matters of a racist, sexist or homophobic nature. That was certainly not our intention,” it said.

“It is beyond argument that any comments that are discriminatory, even used in private, are totally unacceptable. The LMA remains absolutely aware of our responsibility to the game and to promote and uphold the highest standards of behaviour.

“The LMA will not be commenting further on the allegations relating to Malky Mackay while the FA conducts its investigation, other than to repeat that both the LMA and Malky will be cooperating fully.

“We will continue to work with all of the game’s stakeholders to address the important issues of respect and discriminatory behaviour in all its forms.”

ENTIRELY REPREHENSIBLE

But Cardiff responded with a statement saying: “We find it entirely reprehensible that the LMA should itself put out a statement which seeks to dismiss deeply offensive racist comments as ‘friendly banter’.

“If that is the view held by the LMA, as appears from its statement, we consider that Richard Bevan’s position is untenable and we call for his resignation.”

Cardiff’s statement claimed that the LMA knew about the messages through their lawyers more than three months ago, adding: “The LMA were therefore complicit in the attempt to conceal these messages.

“The LMA is the representative voice of managers, and whilst we understand it seeks to act in the best interests of its members, one of its major aims is to “encourage honourable practice, conduct and courtesy in all professional activity.

“Regrettably, we feel that the LMA has done no such thing in its representation of Mr Mackay and Mr Moody.”

The incident involving Mackay and former Cardiff sporting director Iain Moody, who resigned from a similar role at Crystal Palace on Thursday, has stirred up another storm over discrimination in British football.

High-profile cases of racist language involving the likes of Chelsea skipper John Terry and former Liverpool striker Luis Suarez have blighted the game and the Mackay incident prompted leading anti-discriminatory organisation Kick It Out to say the game was “tainted” by racism and homophobia.

“These revelations are further confirmation of how football is tainted with racism, sexism, homophobia and antisemitism, and the culture which continues to exist throughout the game and in wider society as a whole,” a statement said.

“The reality is that these views are most dangerously held by those people in positions of power, and the football establishment knows and condones it.

“The governing bodies and the clubs must denounce such attitudes prevalent in the game, and take the appropriate action. If these types of exchanges made privately make it into the public eye, the individuals concerned must accept the full consequences of their actions.

“Kick It Out now awaits the outcome of The Football Association’s investigation.”

A report in Friday’s Guardian newspaper said reported incidents of alleged racism, sexism, antisemitism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination had trebled last season with 284 incidents reported from all levels of the game.

By Alan Baldwin

Lewis Hamilton lapped six tenths of a second faster than Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg in a twice halted Belgian Grand Prix practice session on Friday.

After championship leader Rosberg had set the pace in the morning with a lap just 0.097 seconds faster than the Briton’s best, Hamilton turned the tables after lunch with a substantially quicker effort.

The time of one minute 49.189 was 0.604 better than Rosberg’s on a cloudy but bright day at the longest track on the calendar, where the weather can combine the seasons in the space of an afternoon.

Rosberg had topped the first session timesheets in 1:51.577 as the two title rivals – separated by just 11 points after 11 of 19 races – renewed their duel after the August break with their domination intact.

The afternoon running was interrupted when Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado crashed his Lotus into the barriers on the way to Pouhon.

There was a further stoppage in the first half hour when Mexican Esteban Gutierrez’s Sauber spun and was stranded on the track at Blanchimont.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was third fastest in both sessions with McLaren’s Jenson Button fourth in the morning and fifth in the afternoon.

The Mercedes-powered teams were predicted to dominate and had seven cars in the top 10 in the opening session.

But Ferrari’s showing, with four times Spa winner Kimi Raikkonen fifth fastest in the morning despite a spin at La Source, indicated they would not have it all their own way.

Williams had a low-key start, with Finland’s Valtteri Bottas 10th on the timesheets and Brazilian Felipe Massa 15th, but picked up with Massa fourth in the afternoon.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, winner of the previous race in Hungary, was ninth and eighth in the two sessions while his quadruple world champion team mate Sebastian Vettel sat out the second session due to an electrical problem that forced an engine change.

At the bottom end of the field, Germany’s Andre Lotterer limbered up for his F1 debut with Caterham as a replacement for Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi by lapping faster than Swedish rookie team mate Marcus Ericsson in the morning.

American Alexander Rossi replaced Max Chilton for the session at Marussia but his hopes of completing the weekend and racing for the first time evaporated when the Briton was reinstated following contractual wrangles.

By Steve Tongue

Liverpool’s regrets about missing out on a first English league title for 24 years last season will be stronger than ever on Monday when they visit champions Manchester City, who pipped them by two points.

The meeting of last term’s top two is the highlight of the weekend Premier League programme, in which Arsenal and Manchester United face tricky away games while Chelsea will expect to record a second straight win over a promoted side.

Liverpool will make the short motorway trip east to Manchester knowing they should be arriving as title holders.

With three matches to play last season, Brendan Rodgers’ side were nine points clear of City, who had two games in hand but had just lost 3-2 at Anfield.

Liverpool then lost at home to Chelsea, and then frittered away a three-goal lead at Crystal Palace, allowing City to finish top by winning their four remaining games.

The Manchester side were the more impressive of the two on the opening weekend of the new campaign, easing to a 2-0 win at Newcastle United with goals by David Silva and Sergio Aguero.

Liverpool, now without last season’s leading scorer Luis Suarez, were below their best at home to Southampton and needed a late goal from Daniel Sturridge to win 2-1.

City’s neighbours Manchester United visit Sunderland on Sunday hoping to shrug off last weekend’s surprise 2-1 home defeat by Swansea City in their first league match under new manager Louis van Gaal.

The experienced Dutchman will have spent the week trying to restore his players’ confidence, which he was said was “smashed” by the Swansea result.

“We make steps and you have to learn from your steps,” he told the club’s in-house television station MUTV.

LONG TRIP

The late kickoff (1630 GMT) on Saturday sees Arsenal travel to Everton, needing to recover physically from a long trip to Istanbul in the Champions League playoff round on Tuesday, when they were somewhat fortunate to draw 0-0 with Besiktas.

Last April. Arsene Wenger’s team lost 3-0 at Everton, one of several emphatic away defeats which they need to improve on this season.

Chelsea, comfortable 3-1 winners at Burnley on Monday, when Spain’s Diego Costa scored on his competitive debut, play last season’s Championship winners Leicester City, who were impressive in holding Everton 2-2 in their first Premier League match for 10 years.

The other two matches in London are both derbies with special managerial interest.

Harry Redknapp, sacked by Tottenham Hotspur two years ago despite leading them to fourth place, returns to White Hart Lane in charge of Queens Park Rangers, with former Spurs midfield hero and manager Glenn Hoddle now in his coaching team.

Crystal Palace and West Ham United, both beaten by London rivals on the opening day, meet at Selhurst Park with the home club looking for a new boss.

Last season Palace won both meetings on their way to finishing unexpectedly high in 11th place, having been widely tipped for relegation.

But they have to regroup quickly after Tony Pulis, the architect of that achievement, left two days before the start of the new season, reportedly following a dispute about new transfer targets.

By Alexander McCowan

When the Australian national rugby team drew with the New Zealand world champions at home in the Four Nations Tournament last Saturday they prevented them from challenging the mighty Cypriot Moufflons for their world record of 23 consecutive winning games.

There was much speculation in the Antipodean sporting press whether New Zealand on 17 would cream the southern competition, held between Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and automatically garner the world record with a possible 25 consecutive international wins. However, thanks to the Aussies, Cyprus will start their new season in European Division 2B safe in the knowledge that the All Blacks have to start all over again while the Moufflons will kick off with a home game against Andorra in November.

Securing their record wasn’t the only reason for celebration last week. The Cyprus Rugby Federation announced the appointment of their new national coach to replace Paul Shanks who is standing down from coaching the national team and undertaking the role of Director of Rugby. Shanks, a former hooker, and British Army coach, took over when the national team barely had enough money to provide the team with a spare set of kit.

Financially, little has changed, but on the field of play the name of Cyprus has echoed around the rugby world. The Australian, New Zealand and South African press have all speculated on the development of rugby in such a small country and the disappointment that arose from the failure of the International Rugby Board to honour their promise to let Cyprus participate in the play-offs for the World Cup. However, while this would have crowned coach Shanks career, it was not to be, but he can retire knowing that his protégées have triumphed through five years campaigning in Europe, been promoted through three consecutive divisions, obtained a world record and secured the respect of all they have encountered. Bravo Paul Shanks.

The new coach, Phil Llewellyn, was chosen after an exhausting selection process and will arrive in time to take over his duties for the Andorran game. He will have familiarized himself with the substantial and growing group of overseas Cypriot players that now clamour to wear the national colours. Llewellyn comes to Cyprus with an impressive coaching pedigree. Based in Somerset, a hotbed of English rugby, he has coaching experience that spans English Colleges, clubs, academies, schools. A level 3 coach he has tutored male and female sides – current under 19’s England women’s coach – worked with Wasps and London Irish, both Premier Division sides and is currently Director of Rugby with Nuneaton R.F,C. Much of his time has centered around Bristol Academy of Sport and Gloucester and Bristol Universities.

Llewellyn’s playing career took off at the age of seven in the West Country witnessing him rise to captain his town side at 14-18 level and then take off to further his rugby experience in New Zealand playing for University of Waikato for a year. On returning he settled into the Clifton R.F.C. setup in Bristol but playing days came to an abrupt halt when he tore a spinal disc. Since then he has dedicated himself to becoming the best coach possible: his qualifications are prodigious. He brings a new level of coaching and management to the island side at a time when the Moufflons are entering unknown territory. The new division comprises Baltic and Balkan countries as well as Iberian that will surely test the mettle of the Moufflons and their new coach.

Phil Llewellyn has not visited the country before and states: “I am really looking forward to visiting Cyprus which I am told is very friendly, full of charming people, wonderful weather, and good food.”
He went on “Taking over from such an experienced and successful coach as Paul Shanks I know there is much to prove. While I am younger than most national trainers I think there can be some advantages in this. It is my intention to take Cyprus, who after all are a very young team, as far as they can go, and then a bit farther”

Laurence Vasilliades, president of the Cyprus Rugby Federation, stated “The decision by Paul to retire was a blow but it seems we have struck lucky with Philip, who comes fresh and full of new ideas just when we are moving up in Europe. Paul did a marvelous job for us and we will never forget him. It is brilliant that he has found time to stay on as Director of Rugby and will be able to mentor the new coach on the rock strewn fields of European rugby.”

By Natalia Zinets and Dmitry Madorsky

THE United States on Friday demanded Russia withdraw its equipment and personnel  from Ukraine after Moscow sent in a convoy of trucks on Friday in what Kiev called a “direct invasion”.

NATO said Russian troops had been firing artillery across the border and within Ukraine in a major escalation of military support for pro-Moscow rebels since mid-August, a defacto charge that Russia was waging war on its former Soviet neighbour.

Moscow, which has thousands of troops close to the Russian side of the border, warned against any attempt to “disrupt” what it said was a purely humanitarian operation; it did not say what action it might take if the Ukrainian military intervened.

The US Pentagon press secretary accused Russia of violating Ukraine’s sovereignty. “Russia must remove its vehicles and its personnel from the territory of Ukraine immediately. Failure to do so will result in additional costs and isolation,” Rear Admiral John Kirby said in Washington.

The United States and European Union have already imposed economic sanctions on Moscow and the Kremlin has retaliated; NATO has deployed extra troops in member states bordering Russia, including the Baltic states and Poland.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described the entry of the trucks without Kiev’s permission as a “flagrant violation of international law.” But a senior security chief said Ukrainian forces would let them pass to avoid “provocations”.

Kiev called on international allies to unite in “a decisive condemnation of illegal and aggressive actions” by Russia.

Rasmussen also said Russia risked further international isolation, although Europe has been reluctant to step up sanctions due to trade ties and its use of Russian gas.

Russia denied breaching international law and the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin had told German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a telephone call Moscow could no longer wait for Kiev’s green light to help people in distress.

Poroshenko said more than 100 trucks had crossed the border, of which only some had been checked earlier by Ukrainian officials inside Russian territory. Other Ukrainian officials said only 34 or 35 of them had been properly checked.

Repeating earlier suspicions by Kiev that the aid cargo could be somehow used to support the separatists, the foreign ministry said: “Neither the Ukrainian side nor the International Committee of the Red Cross knows the content of the trucks. This arouses special concern.”

The fact that Russian vehicles had crossed into Ukraine without permission “testifies to the deliberate and aggressive character of actions by the Russian side”, the ministry said.

A Reuters witness said the white-painted trucks had crossed onto Ukrainian soil and headed towards the rebel stronghold of Luhansk escorted by a small number of separatist fighters.

The presence of the Russian trucks could force Ukrainian troops encircling Luhansk to rein in their offensive against the rebels there, because if they hit one of the Russian vehicles, that could give Moscow justification for a full-scale invasion.

Any lull in fighting that resulted would give a badly-needed respite to the rebels in Luhansk, who have been facing defeat, and allow them to regroup.

The news that the convoy had finally crossed into Ukraine dominated Russian TV news channels and was certain to have further boosted Putin’s standing at home.

But it equally cast a shadow over a meeting next Tuesday with Poroshenko and the European Union in the Belarussian capital of Minsk which has held out prospects of a breakthrough to end the confrontation.

Mikhail Denikin, chairman of the village council in Izvaryne, on the Ukrainian side of the border, stood by the road waving a large Russian flag as the trucks drove past.

“Big thanks to Russia. Our brothers did not forget us. We are brothers. That is the most important thing. We are Slavs, we are together,” Denikin told Reuters Television.

A traffic police officer on the Russian side of the border, who had been escorting the aid convoy within Russian territory, said the entire convoy of about 260 trucks had passed into Ukraine. He said it was possible they would cross back into Russia on Friday evening after delivering their cargo.

“We consider this a direct invasion by Russia of Ukraine,” Ukrainian state security chief Valentyn Nalivaychenko said in a statement to journalists.

Asked whether Ukraine would use air strikes against the convoy, Nalivaychenko said: “Against them, no.”

But Ukrainian authorities said the convoy would pass through an area where the rebels were firing so its security could not be guaranteed. Interfax news agency said later that the first trucks had reached rebel-held Luhansk.

The largely Russian-speaking Donetsk and Luhansk regions both declared independence after a plebiscite deemed illegal by Kiev. The regions have seen intense fighting in recent weeks as rebels have been driven back into pockets.

Moscow, which denies accusations it has given military support to the rebellion, had earlier expressed impatience with delays with the convoy which left Moscow region around Aug. 13.

“We warn against any attempts to disrupt this purely humanitarian mission,” the Russian foreign ministry said. “Responsibility for any possible consequences of provocations … will lie, completely and entirely, with those who are prepared to further sacrifice human lives for the sake of their ambitions and geo-political ploys.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which both Moscow and Kiev had agreed should supervise the convoy, said it was not escorting it “due to the volatile security situation”.

The entry of the trucks ran counter to the arrangement agreed with the ICRC and was a clear violation of the border, Sebastien Brabant, spokesman for the European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said.

Rasmussen went a step further. “These developments are even more worrying as they coincide with a major escalation in Russian military involvement in eastern Ukraine since mid-August, including the use of Russian forces,” he said.

Kiev has been using troops, artillery and air power in an attempt to quell a separatist rebellion that broke out soon after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in March, after protesters toppled Kiev’s pro-Russian president.

The last few weeks has seen a string of rebel defeats in a conflict that has killed over 2,000 people.

A Reuters cameraman said it had been possible to see inside some of the vehicles on Friday. The cargoes visible consisted of cardboard boxes with tinned food, pallets of bottled water, generators and other supplies.

Poroshenko said on Thursday he would call on Putin to rein in pro-Russian separatists when the two men meet next week and told the Kremlin chief he had “a strong country, a strong army”.

The Ukrainian and Russian presidential chiefs of staff spoke by telephone on Friday and agreed on the need for the swift completion of the aid delivery operation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. It was not clear whether the conversation took place before the trucks crossed the border.

Merkel is scheduled to visit Kiev on Saturday to show her support for Poroshenko – but diplomats say she is also bearing a message that he should consider calling a ceasefire so as not to incur a backlash from Putin.

In Donetsk, pro-Russia separatist Denis Pushilin, guarded by men who identified themselves as Chechens, handed out aid -sugar, tea, canned beef and rice – and envelopes of money to three families in a state building in the city centre. The aid, collected in Russia by Russian citizens, was not connected to the aid crossing the border on Friday, Pushilin said.

“Hopefully soon we’ll be able to start handing out aid to hundreds if not thousands of more families in need.”

Rebels brought two destroyed Ukrainian armoured personnel carriers to Donetsk’s central Lenin Square to display on Sunday, when rebels plan on parading prisoners of war through the streets of the city as a counterpoint to festivities planned in Kiev as part of Ukraine’s Independence Day.

After four months of fighting in the industrial, Russian-speaking east of Ukraine, the area faces a humanitarian crisis, lacking supplies of food, medicine and clean water.

TWO men, aged 52 and 35, were arrested on Thursday by the Larnaca Drug Squad after a raid at the first man’s home yielded a cannabis plant and a gram of dry cannabis, police said.

According to a police report, Drug Squad officers searched the man’s home finding a potted cannabis plant 55cm in height and a gram of dry cannabis that had been stashed away. Following the 52-year old man’s arrest, a warrant was also issued for the second who is believed to be involved in the case.

Four apartments in the Piale Pashia street in Larnaca were broken into on Thursday, police said.

According to a police report, the burglars removed the front door lock of the building to gain access to the apartments, all on the same floor. While it is not yet clear what the burglars took, police said that a number of jewellery was stolen from one of the apartments.

The owners of the apartments were away and police are trying to contact them to determine what was stolen.

Larnaca police initially received a report on Thursday saying that one of the apartments was broken into. Upon arriving at the scene, officers noticed that other apartments on the same floor also had their front door locks removed.

TWO Bulgarian women, aged 38 and 25, were remanded by Larnaca District Court for four days in relation to a string of purse thefts in Larnaca.

According to a police report, the two women prowled stores in Larnaca and grabbed the purses left unattended by female customers. A woman contacted Larnaca police on Thursday to report that her purse was stolen and that the theft was recorded by the store’s CCTV cameras. Police officers reviewed the footage and tracked down the two women at a seaside restaurant in the Finikoudes area where they were both promptly arrested.