By Bejay Browne

TWO YEARS ago 52-year-old Maria, who had worked for more than 30 years in the housekeeping departments of a number of Paphos hotels, was let go from her job without warning. She is convinced that she was being penalised for being Cypriot.

“I’m scared to give my full name as I want to work in Paphos again,” she told the Sunday Mail. “I have worked in hotels all my life, this is all I know and I love my job. I am a hard worker, but because I’m Cypriot, I won’t work for €400 or €500 a month like some of the foreign workers.”

For Neofitos Xenofontos, the district secretary of union SEK, Maria’s story is all too familiar.

He said that Paphos hotels were still choosing to employ foreign workers over Cypriots, despite assurances to the contrary made last year.

At present about 60 per cent of those employed in Paphos hotels are non-Cypriot European nationals and only 40 per cent are locals, he said, adding that while the hotels are exploiting the European workers, the local workforce was really suffering due to Paphos’ reliance on the tourism sector which favours cheap foreign labour.

“This is the only industry which is able to help slash local unemployment numbers and something needs to be done urgently,” he said.

“People who live here love the island. Locals offer a better hospitality than many people who come here to work just for a few months. They know nothing about Cyprus or its traditions and they can’t speak Greek. Most don’t care about anything; they are here for a short time and then they leave.”

Xenofontos added that it should be a prerequisite that Greek be spoken by employees in the hotel industry. This would drastically cut the local unemployment rate and also present a better image of what Paphos and Cyprus has to offer, he said.

Eleftherios Georgiades, the general secretary of the hotels unions, said the pay issue is directly linked to the lack of collective agreements. Some hotels prefer to employ people that are ready to work without a collective agreement because they are cheaper. He said this has led to mass unemployment in this sector.

“The collective agreement must be implemented. In 2013 it was renewed with the employees and although they basically lost 15 per cent of their benefits, they accepted it. The hoteliers said they would implement it but they haven’t. They are exploiting people.”

Georgiades said that unions were not against non-Cypriot EU workers, only the way in which some hotels use them to put pressure on current staff working with collective agreements, to fall in line.

“We visited parliament and the minister of labour at the beginning of the year with our demands. These included that workers’ main benefits should be protected. Also that they have the basic benefits – such as two days off a week, provident funds and proper working hours,” he said.

Georgiades said that some hotels were also unfairly firing Cypriots and replacing them with cheaper staff which they aren’t permitting to be ‘unionised’.

A representative of the Hoteliers Association (PASYXE), Evripides Loizides, denied that Cypriots were being discriminated against.

“The number of Cypriots employed in hotels is increasing. Last year in Paphos, there was an increase in the number of locals employed in this sector and it has increased further this year,” he said, adding that in 2013 more than 800 of the island’s total number of 2,300 new employees in this sector were engaged in Paphos hotels.

For Loizides the main issue was not pay or lack of collective agreements but the seasonality of the work, and he urged the authorities to find a way to extend the number of months that hotels operate – from eight to ten – which would present a more attractive package to potential workers.

“Who wants to work in an industry which operates for only six months of the year?” he asked. “Cypriots don’t really want to work in this industry anyway as they prefer government or semi government jobs.”

Loizides questioned why the unions were failing to put pressure on the big hotels to join the collective agreements and added that all employees were free to join a union if they wanted.

“Each hotel works differently, but unions are paying word games instead of facing the real problems, such as seasonality,” he said.

He also pointed to a recent job initiative which he said showed that many of the unemployed in Paphos have no desire to work in the hotel industry.

Around ten days ago, representatives of local hotels attended the labour office looking for staff. The outcome was “really sad” he said.

“Fifty suitable people, both Cypriot and European residents were offered jobs but only a few decided to take up the offer. Either they wanted to continue on benefit from the state or they had no desire to work, I really don’t know.”

But Maria, sacked from her hotel job two years ago, would view it differently, arguing the four to five hundred euros a month offered by hotels is impossible to live on.

“How can my family live off this? It’s disgusting and we are now under so much pressure and strain to survive. The government does nothing to help the people; they only care about the big bosses. I cry every day, worried how I will feed my family. My husband is out of work too. Something must be done and soon.”

Georgiades said he was aware of a number of cases similar to Maria’s which have occurred in Paphos in the last 12 months. He said that if the government fails to react to their demands which were made in February, strike action could be on the cards.

“People can’t be expected to work for a pittance each month,” he said.

By Simon Cambers

For Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki, there is a time for friendship and a time for business, and business does not get much more serious than a grand slam final.

The pair spent some holiday time together in Miami earlier in the summer but on Sunday they will be bidding for US Open glory, with very different motivations.

For world number one Williams, victory would give her an 18th grand slam title, putting her alongside Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova in the all-time list.

Former world number one Wozniacki is hoping to win her first grand slam title and complete an unlikely comeback, having recorded just one quarter-final appearance in her past 11 grand slams.

“I’m just really excited to be in the final,” top seed Williams said, who is chasing her third straight US Open title.
“At the beginning of the week, I definitely wasn’t sure I would make it this long. Definitely wasn’t sure I’d be here. So I’m just elated, to be honest, to have made it this far.”

Having failed to get beyond the last 16 of the year’s first three grand slam events, Williams exited Wimbledon under a cloud after she retired from the
doubles, looking dazed and disorientated.

After later revealing she had been suffering from a viral illness, Williams rebounded in the North American summer, winning two titles and reached the final in New York without dropping a set.

Missing out on an 18th grand slam title would not go down well, the American admitted, but she is trying not to make it the be-all and end-all.
“It would be hard for me to imagine that I would be happy losing,” she said. “I won’t be.
“But 10 years from now I won’t be sad about it. I have accomplished a lot and I think I should be happy about that, and I am.
“When I look at the big picture like that, that helps me. That’s the part that helps me to be able to relax and not take it so serious.”

In addition to their beach time, Williams and Wozniacki met on the court twice this summer, with the American edging out the Dane in three sets each time.
The 24-year-old Wozniacki leaned on Williams for support after golfer Rory McIlroy broke off their engagement just before the French Open.
But on Sunday, the former world number one will simply be trying to win her first grand slam title, five years after her only other final, when she lost to Belgium’s Kim Clijsters.

“It would mean so much to me,” she said. “I have been close before I would love to win it and have a grand slam under my belt.
“The last two times I played Serena we played two really tough three-set matches. It’s going to be exciting. Either way, it’s been a great tournament for me, and I hope that I can get one more win under my belt.”

By Alan Baldwin

Lewis Hamilton battled back from an agonisingly slow start to win the Italian Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday and slash team mate Nico Rosberg’s Formula One championship lead to 22 points.

Rosberg finished second as dominant Mercedes celebrated their first one-two since Austria in June and seventh in 13 races.

With the sport taking a deep breath as the championship rivals lined up together on the front row, two weeks after they had collided in Belgium, the start provided an immediate sensation.

Hamilton had taken pole position for the first time since May but problems with the car’s start mode left him struggling to get away and fourth into the first corner as Rosberg sped away untroubled.

It was the start of a thrilling chase, with the 2008 world champion fighting back and retaking the lead on the 29th of 53 laps when Rosberg missed the first chicane as he had done earlier in the race.

With the German under pressure and driving straight on, slowing and weaving to get back on track, Hamilton seized the lead in the decisive moment of the afternoon.

The two crossed the finish line 3.1 seconds apart, with Hamilton celebrating his first win since Britain in July. It was his fifth of the season and 28th of his career, taking him ahead of triple champion Jackie Stewart in the all-time lists.

“It was a difficult race,” said Hamilton. “For whatever reason, at the start the button didn’t press which engages the launch sequence.

“For the formation lap it didn’t work and when I got to the grid and put it on again, again it didn’t work. It was very strange. I’ve never really had that happen before.

“I tried to pull away as fast as possible and the RPM was all over the place. Fortunately I managed to not lose too many places.”

Rosberg now has 238 points to Hamilton’s 216, with six races remaining after the end of the European part of the season.

Brazilian Felipe Massa finished third for Williams, his first podium appearance since Spain last year with Ferrari, on Brazilian independence day and after the team had announced he was staying for 2015.

The points, at the fastest track on the calendar, meant Williams leapfrogged Ferrari into third place in the constructors’ standings.

In the absence of their current Ferrari heroes, the passionate home crowd welcomed their ex-driver’s appearance on the podium with cheers as they spilled out in a vast red wave onto the start/finish straight.

Rosberg, blamed by his own team for the second lap Spa collision that led to Hamilton’s retirement from that race, was booed for the second grand prix in a row.

Massa’s Finnish team mate Valtteri Bottas was fourth following another highly impressive day of overtaking after he had dropped from the second row to 10th at the end of the first lap.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso retired from his team’s home race on lap 29 with a failure in the car’s energy recovery system, his first mechanical retirement in 86 races, while Kimi Raikkonen finished ninth.

Until Sunday, Alonso was the only driver to have scored points in every race this season.

Driver and constructor standings after the Formula One Italian Grand Prix at Autodromo di Monza on Sunday
Drivers Points
1. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 238
2. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes 216
3. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Red Bull 166
4. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams 122
5. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari 121
6. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Red Bull 106
7. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 72
8. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India 70
9. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams 55
10. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 41

Constructors Points
1. Mercedes 454
2. RedBull – Renault 272
3. Williams-Mercedes 177
4. Ferrari 162
5. McLaren 110
6. Force India – Mercedes 109
7. Toro Rosso – Renault 19
8. Lotus – Renault 8
9. Marussia – Ferrari 2
10. Sauber – Ferrari 0

By Gabriela Baczynska and Aleksandar Vasovic

A woman died and at least four people were wounded when fighting flared again in eastern Ukraine overnight into Sunday, jeopardising a ceasefire struck less than two days earlier between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists.

The accord, brokered by envoys from Ukraine, the separatist leadership, Russia and Europe’s OSCE security watchdog, is part of a peace plan intended to end a five-month conflict that has killed nearly 3,000 people and caused the sharpest confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

Shelling resumed near the port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov late on Saturday night, just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko had agreed in a phone call that the truce was holding.

Fighting also broke out early on Sunday on the northern outskirts of rebel-held Donetsk, the region’s industrial hub. A Reuters reporter saw plumes of black smoke filling the sky near the airport, which has been in the hands of government forces.

“Listen to the sound of the ceasefire,” joked one armed rebel. “There’s a proper battle going on there.”

The two cities turned quiet again on Sunday afternoon.

In a new report on the conflict, Amnesty International accused both the rebels and Ukrainian militia of war crimes and it published satellite images it said showed a build-up of Russian armour and artillery in eastern Ukraine.

“Our evidence shows that Russia is fuelling the conflict, both through direct interference and by supporting the separatists in the east. Russia must stop the steady flow of weapons and other support to an insurgent force heavily implicated in gross human rights violations,” Amnesty’s secretary-general, Salil Shetty, said in a statement.

Moscow denies dispatching forces or arming the rebels despite what NATO says is overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

MUTUAL RECRIMINATIONS

Both the rebels and the Ukrainian military insisted on Sunday they were strictly observing the ceasefire and blamed their opponents for any violations.

“As far as I know, the Ukrainian side is not observing the ceasefire. We have wounded on our side at various points. We are observing the ceasefire,” Vladimir Antyufeyev, deputy premier of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic”, told Reuters.

Earlier, government forces said they had come under artillery fire east of Mariupol, a crucial port for Ukrainian steel exports. In the days before the ceasefire they had been trying to repel a big rebel offensive against the city.

The shelling in Mariupol claimed the first civilian casualty since the ceasefire began. Local officials confirmed the death of a 33-year-old woman early on Sunday and said at least four other people had been wounded.

“They, terrorists, Russians, are trying to scare us. They have no respect for the ceasefire. They are lying all the time. They are people with no honour,” said Slavik, a Ukrainian soldier armed with a machinegun.

“We left this area the day before yesterday. Everyone saw us pulling out tanks in line with the agreement. We only left lightly armed people to man checkpoints and these monsters violated every word of the agreement,” he said.

A Reuters reporter at the scene, a few km (miles) from the centre of the city of 500,000, saw fires raging just before midnight on Saturday as Ukrainian reinforcements raced east towards the demarcation line separating the two sides.

Poroshenko agreed to the ceasefire after Ukraine accused Russia of sending troops and arms onto its territory to bolster the separatists after they suffered heavy losses over the summer to a Ukrainian government offensive.

The peace roadmap agreed on Friday includes an exchange of prisoners of war and the establishment of a humanitarian corridor for refugees and aid. There was no sign of progress on either plan on Sunday.

WESTERN ARMS

Poroshenko spent Thursday and Friday at a NATO summit in Wales at which U.S. President Barack Obama and other leaders urged Putin to pull forces out of Ukraine. NATO also approved wide-ranging plans to boost its defences in eastern Europe in response to the Ukraine crisis.

A senior aide to Poroshenko, Yuri Lytsenko, wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday that Kiev had reached agreement at the summit on receiving weapons and military advisers from five allies – the United States, France, Italy, Poland and Norway.

He gave no further details and no officials from the five states or NATO were immediately available to confirm his statement. NATO officials have said the alliance will not send arms to non-member Ukraine, but they have also said individual allies may do so if they wish.

Russia is fiercely opposed to closer ties between Ukraine and the NATO alliance.

The Ukraine conflict has revived talk of a new Cold War as the West accuses Putin of deliberately destabilising the former Soviet republic of 46 million people. Ukraine’s prime minister accused Putin of striving to re-create the Soviet Union.

Putin says he is defending the interests of ethnic Russians facing discrimination and oppression in Ukraine since protesters toppled Kiev’s pro-Russian president in February.

Putin has seen his popularity in Russia soar since Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which has a Russian majority, in March.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades said on Sunday that he will hold talks with European leaders and officials over the content of legislative documents on foreclosures adopted on Saturday by the majority of the House of Representatives.

He also promised to review the amendments adopted by MPs “very seriously”.

He was replying to questions on the sidelines of the inauguration of a park in Germasogia, at the coastal city of Limassol, in honour of the 13 people who perished as a result of a deadly blast at “Evaggelos Florakis” naval base, near Mari village, on July 11, 2011.

The House of Representatives approved during an extraordinary plenary on Saturday a bill on foreclosures together with a series of other bills, amendments and other legislative proposals tabled by the political parties.

Adoption of the bill constituted a precondition for the disbursement of the next tranche of the island`s €10 billion financial assistance programme. The approval or not of the disbursement of the next tranche of the Cypriot programme, is expected to be decided by a Eurogroup meeting next Friday.

Invited to comment on the fact that parliamentary parties have called on him not to refer any of the adopted documents back to parliament, he said that apart from thanking political parties for their responsible attitude, he wishes to assure that he will “review very seriously the amendments achieved in the separate bills and will fully respect everyone`s wish to protect vulnerable groups”.

At the same time, he announced that he is launching as of Monday “a round of intensive negotiations on a political level, so that before I decide, I will have the reaction or I can take into consideration the risks involved”, adding that through the way they handled things political parties have also tried to avoid such risks.

Asked with whom he will be holding the talks, President Anastasiades said that negotiations will take place with various leaders, whether they are called Barroso, Juncker, or Merkel or with any other leaders in order to achieve the approval of provisions which in essence do not alter the philosophy of the bill adopted.

That is to say, he explained, the fact that an anachronistic system which has been in place until today, has now been modernised and that at the same time vulnerable groups of citizens will be protected in view of the crisis and the austere measures adopted by the Troika.

Inaugurating the park the President thanked parties for their “responsible stance” in voting the bill on foreclosures and pledged that the government will do its utmost so that conditions which fully safeguard vulnerable groups of the population will be created.

In these difficult times for our country due to serious economic and political challenges we are faced with, we will have to find, as a people, the important elements uniting us, he pointed out.

“Unity and cooperation should be our beacon forward in order to deal with the diverse difficulties ahead”, President Anastasiades stressed, adding that this was also evident from the decisions parliament took yesterday.

Referring to the tragic blast of July 2011, he said that the “Park of Immortals” will remind everyone including the future generations, not only of the heroic sacrifice of the 13 people who lost their lives that fateful day but also of the accountability and the responsibility the state has vis-à-vis its citizens, for the benefit of who it has a responsibility to ensure conditions of prosperity, security and dignity and of preventing such tragedies from taking place.

CNA

By Steve Keating

World number one Serena Williams swept past good friend Caroline Wozniacki 6-3 6-3 in the U.S. Open final on Sunday to move up in the record books with her 18th grand slam title.

It was the third straight and sixth overall U.S. Open crown for the 32-year-old American, her 18 career slams putting her alongside Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova for fourth place on the all-time list.

Failing to get beyond the last 16 of the year’s first three slams, Williams sailed through the U.S. Open without dropping a set, finishing off Dane Wozniacki in a snappy 75 minutes.

“I have been trying to reach it for so long, since last year,” said Williams, hoisting her first grand slam trophy since lifting the same trophy a year ago. “I didn’t really think I would get there. I just felt so good.

“I definitely did not think I was going to win a slam this year.

“To win the U.S. Open, that was my dream. Every time I win here it’s just a really incredible special moment for me.

“I’m just a simple individual who just wants to win titles and wants to play tennis.

“The reason I play is to sit at the end of the day and hold the trophy or stand and hold the trophy. For me, that’s my joy.”

There was no joy, however, for Wozniacki.

Back in a grand slam final for the first time in five years, it was another frustrating end to a promising fortnight for the 10th seed as she once again left Flushing Meadows empty-handed, a major championship just beyond her grasp.

The title came with a massive pay-day for Williams, who pocketed the $3 million winner’s purse along with a $1 million bonus for winning the U.S. Open Series of hard court tournaments that form the buildup to the year’s last grand slam.

As Williams received her cheques she was joined on court by Navratilova and Evert, who presented her with an 18-carat gold Tiffany bracelet as the newest member of their grand slam club.

Margaret Court tops the list with 24 followed by Steffi Graf (22) and Helen Wills Moody (19).

“I just could never have imagined that I would be mentioned with Chris Evert or with Martina Navratilova, because I was just a kid with a dream and a racquet,” said Williams. “Living in Compton, this never happened before.

“I just never could have imagined that it could have ended — not ended. I’m just beginning.”

The most difficult part of the match for Williams appeared to be beating a player she calls one of her best friends.

Williams and Wozniacki vacationed together this summer and the world number one said she exchanges text messages with the Dane daily.

But once the match began, Williams, who has often had to face off against her sister Venus, again proved there are no friendships on the court as she simply overpowered her 24-year-old opponent, firing 29 winners to just four by the Dane.

“When she’s on her game it’s not fun to play her,” said Wozniacki, whose only other grand slam finals appearance also came at Flushing Meadows in 2009. “She’s so strong. She has a good serve and she puts pressure on you straight away.

“When she needs to she can pull out that big serve. She has the power. She can push us back on the court and take the initiative.

“She definitely has the experience now, as well. I think that makes it even harder, because maybe back in the day she might have made not the right choices.

“Now she knows what she needs to do out there, and it makes it even harder to beat her.”

RUN OF BREAKS

The showdown between the current and former world number ones was hardly a showcase of tennis excellence, particularly in a ragged opening set that featured five consecutive breaks.

Williams, dressed in the same leopard print tennis dress she wore to open the tournament, held her first serve before the two players struggled through the run of breaks with the American taking a 5-2 lead.

Not until the eight game did Wozniacki finally hold serve but by then Williams had begun to settle into the match, clinching the opening set with a blistering backhand winner.

Williams would keep up the pressure with a break to open the second and by the end had an exhausted Wozniacki running from corner-to-corner.

“After not playing the way she wanted in the first three (slams), I think she wanted to prove to herself and even play better in this one,” shrugged Wozniacki. “Unfortunately I was the one on the other side of the net today.

“I would have liked maybe to have more of a chance today, but I didn’t. Hopefully I’ll get another one in Australia.”

A small airplane crashed minutes after take-off in Colombia’s southern jungle on Saturday, killing all 10 people aboard, the country’s civil aviation agency said.

“The airplane was found, broken apart and burned, 10 km (6 miles) from populated areas in the municipality of Puerto Santander, Amazonas department,” the agency said in a statement.

The Air Force was carrying out the effort to retrieve the bodies of the eight passengers and two crew members, who were traveling to Florencia, the capital of Caqueta department.

The aviation agency published a photo on Facebook of a column of dark smoke rising over the jungle and said there was little chance of finding survivors.

Archaeologists have unearthed two sculpted female figures, known as Caryatids, as they slowly make their way into an ancient tomb recently discovered in Greece’s northeast, the country’s culture ministry said on Sunday.

They mark a significant new finding in the tomb on the Amphipolis site, about 100 km (65 miles) from Greece’s second-biggest city Thessaloniki, which archaeologists have hailed as a major discovery from the era of Alexander the Great.

The figures made of Greek marble were unearthed on Saturday, the ministry said in a statement.

The Caryatids, with thick curls covering their shoulders, support an inner entrance into the tomb and feature the same sculpting technique used for the heads and wings of two sphinxes found guarding the main entrance of the tomb in August, according to the statement.

“The structure of the second entrance with the Caryatids is an important finding, which supports the view that it is a prominent monument of great importance,” the Culture Ministry said.

The face of one of the Caryatids is missing, while both figures have one hand outstretched in a symbolic move to push away anyone who would try to violate the tomb.

Archaeologists have said that the Amphipolis site appeared to be the largest ancient tomb to have been discovered in Greece.

Excavations, which began in 2012, have not yet determined who was buried in the tomb but culture ministry officials have said that the monument appeared to belong to a prominent Macedonian from the 300-325 B.C. era.

By Simon Cambers

History, redemption and glory will be on the line when Japan’s Kei Nishikori and Croatia’s Marin Cilic battle for the US Open men’s title on Monday night.

It will be the first time since the Australian Open final in 2005 that a men’s grand slam final will not feature at least one of tennis’ top three – Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer.

Tenth seed Nishikori is the first Asian man to reach a grand slam singles final while Cilic is into his first final, less than 12 months after returning from a four-month suspension for what he said was inadvertently taking a banned supplement.

Before this year’s US Open, Nishikori and Cilic boasted just one grand slam semi-final appearance between them, the Croat having made it to the last four at the Australian Open in 2010.

Nishikori leads their head-to-head meetings 5-2, including both their meetings this year, in Brisbane and Barcelona, while they split their two previous US Open clashes.

But having beaten Djokovic and Federer respectively to reach their first grand slam final, they will be desperate to take chances on Monday.

“I hope there will be a lot of people watching in Japan,” said Nishikori, who also beat third seed Stan Wawrinka and fifth seed Milos Raonic.
“I am a little bit surprised to make the final but am very happy to make another (piece) of history, the first time an Asian man is in the final. I hope I can win and make more history.”

Coached by former grand slam champion Michael Chang, Nishikori has added steel and physical strength to a game that always possessed flair but lacked endurance.

“He’s been really helpful,” Nishikori said. “He’s been helping me a lot from the end of last year, especially mentally.
“I feel my tennis is changing to be a little more aggressive and playing with more confidence. He’s tough, but I needed someone to push me.”

Cilic, whose victory over Federer in the semi-finals was described by his coach, Goran Ivanisevic, as “perfection”, is aiming for glory, 11 months after returning from a drugs ban that left him questioning his future.

Originally banned for nine months, Cilic’s suspension was cut to four months on appeal and the 25-year-old always maintained that he had taken the banned substance without knowing, through a tainted supplement.

The road back to the top was hard but with the help of former Wimbledon champion Ivanisevic, he has emerged a more aggressive player, using his serve and groundstrokes to stunning effect.

“For the guys that are top, reaching the final feels normal,” he said. “But for some guys that are making it for the first time it’s the achievement of their career.
“When I’m playing now these bigger matches I feel like if I’m going to play well I have a good chance.
“That’s a different mind-set than I used to have because before I felt that I should try to do more than I’m able to and then your game breaks.”

Cilic said he was looking forward to one more great battle with Nishikori.

“It’s going to be a special day for both of us, an opportunity for both of us to win a grand slam, to be a part of history,” he said.
“There are going to be definitely huge emotions on the court. We have different game styles. I think it’s going to be a good tactical match-up.”

By Evie Andreou

LARNACA is to celebrate European Mobility Week later this month with a triathlon taking place within its urban area, the town’s municipality said.

The triathlon, which will take place on September 21 along Phinikoudes beach front and Piale Pasha Street, includes the three disciplines of swimming (750m), cycling (20km) and running (5km).

The municipality said it is hosting the triathlon within the framework of the mobility week which this year is themed ‘Our streets, our choice’ in cooperation with the Cyprus Triathlon Federation and the Nireus Thriathlon club.

“Triathlon is an important sports event, which is organised in our town and in which more than a hundred athletes are expected to participate, as well as people that would like to experience this sport for the first time,” the announcement said.

There will be seven categories for men and women in the age groups of 14 to 19, 20 to 39 and 40+, as well as a team relay.

The municipality said that it wants to offer a different morning to citizens and visitors and to highlight the sport.

Larnaca municipality is also taking part in the Mobility Week Award challenge together with 2,000 European towns and cities and has won second place in 2011, as well as a place in the top-ten in 2012 and 2013.

For information visit the Facebook page Larnaka – European Mobility Week, or call 99 044246. For entries, call 99 444447.

A 13-year-old boy who died suddenly early on Sunday morning had a rupture of a blood vessel in the chest, an autopsy showed on Sunday afternoon.
The autopsy on Demetris Christofi from Aglandjia, Nicosia was carried out by medical examiners Nicolas Charalambous and Sofoklis Sofokleous at Larnaca general.
The boy had been visiting his grandparents in Mazotos village for the weekend, and felt unwell shortly after midnight on Saturday while at the village park with some friends.
He then rode his motorcycle to his grandparents’ house nearby, but fell unconscious shortly thereafter.
An ambulance took the unconscious boy to the emergency room of Larnaca general, where doctors failed to resuscitate him.
Medical examiners identified the boy’s cause of death as being due to a “thoracic aortic aneurysm.”

The Electricity Authority of Cyprus on Monday warned customers that it does not maintain a Facebook account and that any such account in the name of the EAC is not theirs.

The EAC said it had found it necessary to clarify, after a Facebook account with the authority’s logo surfaced, publishing an announcement that bore no resemblance to reality and has no relation to the EAC.

Customers who wish to be informed of EAC notices or activities should visit only  www.eac.com.cy.

The disbursement of the next tranche of troika aid for Cyprus is not on the Eurogroup agenda for Friday, Finance Minister Harris Georgiades told CyBC radio on Tuesday morning.

A Eurogroup session on Friday was scheduled to decide on the release of a €350 million tranche of financial aid from the EU, while the International Monetary Fund’s contribution – a further €86 million – is to be decided on September 26.

Late on Monday a European Commission spokesperson, told the Cyprus Mail that the commission would only be able to make an assessment of the legislation adopted concerning foreclosures once [it has] received all the final legal texts from the Cyprus government, which it had not.

Saturday’s House plenary session voted the controversial foreclosures bill into law after dithering for weeks – but along with several complementary bills watering down its effectiveness, Monday saw the government scrambling to study the bills and deciding to refer the contentious ones to the attorney general.

Georgiades said on Tuesday there was now not enough time to for the Eurogroup to assess the issue before its Friday meeting, which meant it could not be squeezed on to the agenda.

“I had warned the political forces that there would be disruption of the economic programme of Cyprus and I have not changed my assessment,” Georgiades said.  He described the issue as “very serious” but for now it would not affect the public and there was no need to panic, he said.

By Bejay Browne

SEVEN NEW flights a week operated by airline Germania will connect Paphos with five German airports from next year.

The Paphos regional board of tourism confirmed that the flights would commence in March 2015.

A spokesman noted that the development was an important move for Paphos and had come about through the cooperation and efforts of the tourism board, the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO), airport operator Hermes, and airline Germania.

He added that the airline currently has a fleet of 23 aircraft and flies to 150 destinations. The new flight schedule which will connect Paphos International airport with Germany is expected to begin in March 2015 and includes seven flights a week from five airports, Dusseldorf, Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen and Erfurt.

He said: “We welcome this development which is very important and very promising since it greatly enhances the accessibility of Cyprus and Germany. It also contributes to the efforts to extend the tourist season, penetrates into a key market and aids the development of special interest tourism.”

The spokesman noted that relevant promotions, public relations initiatives, advertising and other campaigns in Cyprus and abroad, are a coordinated effort with the airline to ensure success of the venture and possible expansion in the future.

A 47-year-old man from Bulgaria has been arrested after police officers found a number of mobile phones in his possession for which he could not account, police said.

According to the police report, the man was stopped by Ayia Napa police officers at around 4.50 pm on Monday. After searching his car, officers found five mobile phones and a charger.

When asked about the phones, the man didn’t provide a convincing explanation, said the report. Upon hearing that he was to be arrested, the man screamed abuse at the officers, police said.

He is to appear before court on Tuesday.

By Tom Miles

Atmospheric volumes of greenhouse hit a record in 2013 as carbon dioxide concentrations grew at the fastest rate since reliable global records began, the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday.

“We know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather is becoming more extreme due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud in a statement accompanying the WMO’s annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.

“Past, present and future CO2 emissions will have a cumulative impact on both global warming and ocean acidification. The laws of physics are non-negotiable,” Jarraud said. “We are running out of time.”

The volume of carbon dioxide, or CO2, the primary greenhouse gas emitted by human activities, was 396.0 parts per million (ppm) in 2013, 2.9 ppm higher than in 2012, the largest year-to-year increase since 1984, when reliable global records began.

The second most important greenhouse gas, methane, continued to grow at a similar rate to the last five years, reaching a global average of 1824 parts per billion (ppb). The other main contributor, nitrous oxide, reached 325.9 ppb, growing at a rate comparable to the average over the past decade.

The world has the knowledge and tools to keep global warming within 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), a UN goal set in 2010, Jarraud said, which would “give our planet a chance and… our children and grandchildren a future”.

“Pleading ignorance can no longer be an excuse for not acting.”

By Isabel Coles

A small group of people pick through putrefying human remains laid out on plastic sheets by the side of a road in northern Iraq, searching for any trace of missing friends and relatives.

Some had brought spades to help dig up the mass grave near Suleiman Beg after the town was retaken from Sunni Islamic State militants who held the area until last week.

“They (Islamic State) slaughtered him simply because he was Shi’ite,” said Jomaa Jabratollah, hauling the remnants of his friend, a truck driver, into a coffin, having identified him from the lighter in his breast pocket. “We must take revenge”.

Helped by the United States and Iran, Kurdish forces and Shi’ite militia are finally beating back Islamic State militants who overran most Sunni Arab areas in northern and central Iraq nearly three months ago.

But the aftermath illustrates the unintended consequences of the US air campaign against Islamic State.

Kurdish and Shi’ite fighters have regained ground, but Sunni Muslims who fled the violence are being prevented from returning home and some have had their houses pillaged and torched.

Rather than help keep the nation together, the air strikes risk being used by different factions for their own advantage in Iraq’s sectarian and ethnic conflicts.

The fallout also risks worsening grievances that helped Islamic State find support amongst Iraq’s Sunnis, and allows the militant group to portray the US strikes as targeting their minority sect. That may make it more difficult to bring Sunnis on side and convince them to fight the militants.

“NO WAY BACK”

The unlikely coalition of Kurdish peshmerga fighters, Shi’ite militias and the US air force won a major victory when it broke a siege of the Shi’ite Turkman town of Amerli last week and drove Islamic State from 25 nearby Sunni towns and villages.

But the aftermath is far from what the Americans envisioned. Smoke now rises from those Sunni villages, where some houses have been torched by Shi’ite militia. Others are abandoned, the walls daubed with sectarian slogans.

“There is no way back for them: we will raze their homes to the ground,” said Abu Abdullah, a commander of the Shi’ite Kataib Hizbollah militia in Amerli.

The area is now held by Kurdish peshmerga and Shi’ite militia, who have become the most powerful forces on the ground, rather than the Iraqi army, whose northern divisions collapsed this summer when Islamic State attacked.

By the time IS was expelled from around Amerli, many Sunni civilians had fled, fearing for their lives. They have few places to go and are too frightened to return.

“If a regular army were holding the area we could return, but as long as the militias are there we cannot,” said a 30-year-old displaced Sunni resident of one village near Amerli, who asked to remain unnamed. “They would slaughter us on the spot.”

He admitted some villagers had supported IS, but said it was only one or two for every 70 to 80 households, and that the rest were innocent civilians who were too scared to stand against the militants or had nowhere else to go.

Sunni Turkman al-Muradli and his family left Suleiman Beg the day after it fell to Islamic State in June and moved to a Kurdish-controlled town nearby. A month later, their 21-year-old son was abducted.

The next time they saw him was in a video on the internet captioned “arrest of an Islamic State member”, which appears to show their son being beheaded by Shi’ite militia fighters.

His weeping mother insisted he was an innocent student and said her son’s killers had phoned her demanding $2,000 to return the corpse without a head, which the caller claimed to have taken to Baghdad as a trophy.

“We cannot return. Even if the Shi’ite army and militia withdraw, Islamic State will come back and the same will happen all over again,” said the mother.

The mayor of Tuz Khurmato confirmed the account and said at least four other Sunnis had been abducted in the area in recent weeks, presumably by Shi’ite militia. At least one other video has circulated online of Shi’ite militiamen brandishing the heads of alleged Islamic State fighters.

Pictures online, also allegedly from Amerli, show two militia fighters posing with a pair of charred corpses.

A 42-year-old Shi’ite volunteer said it would eventually be safe for Sunnis to return and that no more than ten houses of known Islamic State members had been deliberately destroyed.

“The Sunnis will come back to their villages but not now: after a few months,” he said.

“Since there is no confidence between Sunni and Shi’ite any more, they need guarantees from a third party, maybe the Kurds, then we can live peacefully together again, as we were.”

ETHNIC TENSIONS

Sunni Arabs are also feeling a backlash in villages where they used to live alongside Kurds, who accuse them of collaborating with Islamic State.

Kurds, who are also mostly Sunni but identify first and foremost with their ethnicity, have taken back at least 127 villages since the start of the US air campaign, some of which were home to Arabs too.

In one such village, returning Kurds have sprayed over the word “apostate” on the walls of houses and written “Kurdish home” instead. Arab households remain empty.

Kurds in the Makhmour area, from which IS was pushed out in August, say they no longer trust Arabs enough to live with them.

“All my neighbours were Arabs. Now most of them are with Islamic State,” said Abdul Rahman Ahmed Abdullah, a member of the Kurdish security services from the village of Baqirta, south of Arbil. “We cannot be mixed together. The only solution is for them to leave.”

SOLIDARITY SHORT-LIVED

During the operation to reach Amerli, Kurds gave passage to Shi’ite militia through territory they control and allowed them to use their bases, where they fired artillery at IS positions side by side in an unusual show of solidarity.

“Amerli united Iraqis,” said Taleb Jaafar Mohammed, a Shi’ite Turkman teacher, holding a pistol in one hand and a string of prayer beads in the other.

But even during the operation, there were cracks in the coalition: Shi’ite militia and Kurdish forces fought under their own banners and the least visible flag was that of Iraq.

Now that the common enemy has been pushed back, the alliance is unravelling. Kataib Hizbollah, which controls access to Amerli, is denying Kurds entry to the town and one peshmerga commander described the militia as the “Shi’ite IS”.

The tensions reflect a struggle for territory which the Shi’ite-led government in Baghdad claims, but the Kurds want as part of their autonomous region in the north of the country.

“This land is ours: they are an occupying force,” said Sirwan, a Kurdish fighter, when asked about the Shi’ite militia presence. “There will be bigger problems than Islamic State in this area.”

Cash, jewellery and electronics worth €26,000 have been reported stolen from two houses in Paphos.

A handbag with jewellery and diamonds worth €20,000 was reported stolen from the bedroom of a 49-year-old woman from Georgia, while she was asleep.

The woman told police that at 2.30am she woke up and saw a shadow leaving her bedroom and later she realised that her bag was missing.

Police reports say that perpetrator entered the house, which is in Kato Paphos, from the living room, through a closed but unlocked window.

From another house break-in, in Peyia, cash, electronics, jewellery, watches and other objects worth around €6,200 were reported stolen.

The owner of the house, a woman from England, said she was absent from the house between 9.40pm and 11.45pm.

Peyia police said that perpetrators entered the house from an open door in the dining room.

Two men, aged 35 and 36 were attacked and stabbed several times after parking their car outside a Nicosia cafe on Monday afternoon.

Police received a call from the Nicosia general hospital, which reported the stabbings. The two victims told officers they had parked outside the cafe around 4pm and exited their car when another pulled up and hit the back of their vehicle injuring the 36-year-old on the ankle.

The two men from the second car then got out and one of them produced a pocket knife. The 36-year-old was stabbed twice. He had a 1.5cm-deep wound to the chest and another on his brow.  The 35-year-old had three deep wounds to the thigh, and a fractured right ankle.

The attackers were described as being in their thirties. One was said to be well-built around 1.8 metres tall with short black hair and a beard. The second attacker was of a smaller build with chestnut hair and was around 1.60m in height, police said.

Nicosia police is investigating the attack.

By Jean Christou

Nicosia municipality has announced an open call for proposals for the allocation of vacant shops and the organisation of events on Makarios Avenue from November 15 to January 15 as part of this year’s Pop-up Festival.

The event, aimed at bringing life back to the almost-deserted  shopping street, is being organised in collaboration with the Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, in association with the Pierides Foundation [NiMAC].

The major objective of the festival is to gather the most innovative, inventive and creative talents in the field of entrepreneurship, entertainment and culture.

Organisers aim at the revitalisation and revival of Makarios Avenue by boosting entrepreneurship, either through commercial activity or through innovation, and the emergence of new talents through creation, it said.

The festival will be accompanied by a range of parallel activities – educational, cultural and recreational – focusing on the active participation of the public.

Proposals should focus on innovation, commerce, art – exhibitions, theatre, music dance -  and education – workshops, courses, lectures

Venues for the Pop-up Festival 2014 will be the vacant shops and other premises on Makarios Avenue, as well as other parts of the city, where individual events will take place.

The festival will be open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 1.30pm and 3.30pm to 8pm.

Opening hours are not binding for those shops and venues wishing to hold scheduled events beyond the hours listed above.

The cost of renting a shop will be €150 per month, for holding an event (not applicable to shops): €50 and for non-profit activities and events, it will be free.  The municipality will pay electricity and water for the duration for all categories.

For non-profit pop-ups it will also cover part of the funds required for setting up the store and for its interior design, which will not exceed 50 per cent of the total budget. The maximum subsidy amount will not exceed €500.

The municipality will also cover part of the funds required for the implementation of the activities during the festival, which will not exceed 50 per cent of the total budget. The maximum subsidy amount will not exceed €500.

During the final phase of the selection, a detailed statement of expenses will have to be submitted for both categories.

The deadline for submission of proposals is Wednesday September 24 at 3pm.

You can submit your proposal electronically by sending it to info@nimac.org.cy (it should not exceed 7MB) or deliver it personally to municipality offices located on the corner of Tempon and Pentadaktylos Streets in the Old Town, Monday to Friday 8:30-3pm.

For further information and clarification or questions, call 22 797400, 8.30am-3pm.

The selection of the proposals will be made on the basis of innovation, originality, quality and on whether the proposal is feasible and practicable.

The final number of the applicants selected will depend both on the final number of available shops and the available budget.

Selection will take place in two phases: pre-selection and final selection. Applicants for short-listed proposals will be invited for an interview for further discussion and analysis of their proposal, if necessary.

The municipality and the Municipal Arts Centre are not obliged to justify to any applicant whichever decision they make regarding his/her participation in the festival, they said.

The selection committee consists of Nicosia Mayor ConstantinosYiorkadjis, among others.