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Overnight fatality in Nicosia

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A 26-year-old man from Nicosia died in a traffic accident early on Saturday in Nicosia.

According to a police report, the accident took place around 3:30 am, when Georgios Elia, 26, lost control of his motorcycle while riding from the K-Cineplex traffic lights to the roundabout near DIAS, under unknown circumstances.
The accident caused Elia to be catapulted onto the road.
An ambulance rushed him to Nicosia General, where the on-call doctor pronounced him dead on arrival.
Police urge anyone with any information on the accident to contact Nicosia Traffic police or any police station, or call the Citizen’s Hotline on 1460.

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Youth focus of police campaigns

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A police campaign against youngsters committing offences resulted in 28 people caught for traffic violations and one ticket for driving under the influence of alcohol.
According to a police report, the operation focused on combating juvenile delinquency, traffic offences and preventing burglaries and thefts, and was conducted in collaboration with crime prevention squad members and Limassol traffic police.
During the campaign, 28 vehicles were checked and various traffic offences identified, and 19 alcohol-level tests recording one offence.
Meanwhile, Famagusta police members, in collaboration with members of riot squad MMAD, conducted a targeted operation on Friday night in Ayios Georgios square in Paralimni.
The operation also focused on combating youth delinquency and traffic offences.
According to the police report, the campaign produced the identification of various traffic offences.

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Scotland can expect one heckuva hangover after vote

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Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond

By Bill Coles

Scotland will soon be suffering from a monumental hangover. There will be a lot of hurt heads, a lot of tears and, without a doubt, an immense amount of anger that will last who knows how long – weeks, months, maybe even years – if Alex Salmond’s dream of independence comes true.

The Sept. 18 referendum on independence is quite unlike any other United Kingdom election I have witnessed. It is much more visceral, with so many complicated currents swirling beneath one simple question: Is Scotland in Britain or out of it? There are a lot of people going with their gut instinct, and you sense that if the outcome goes against them, the simmering rage will finally bubble over.

Rioting in the streets? Perhaps.

The problem for the Unionists is that nothing they can say will ever match that magic potion being served up by the Scottish Nationalists – that beautiful policy that can be summed up in one sweet word: “change.”

If you’re not happy with things at the moment – with the UK’s current Conservative government; with the state of the National Health Service; with the perceived snootiness of the English – then simply vote for change.

It’s a message that has been promised by Tony Blair, by Barack Obama and by almost every Western leader for more than a century.

And sometimes they deliver – and oftentimes they don’t. But the promise of change is a powerful message for which there no equivalent counterpunch.

The Unionists are led by Labour politican Alistair Darling, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer. He’s steady, gray, rather unexciting – the epitome of a dour Scottish banker.

Up against him is the most charismatic man that Scottish politics has produced in a long time. Salmond is forceful and mouthy; he could argue the hind legs off a donkey. You wouldn’t mind having a drink with him.

It’s not really that the Unionists have been caught napping. It’s that all they can ever promise is more of the same-old, same-old – with a bit of Scottish devolution thrown in.

Until recently, this message was fine. For the past year, the bookies and the pundits all predicted a win for the Unionists.

And then it all changed. It was partly due to a storming performance by Salmond in a second TV debate with Darling. Maybe his message about London’s Tory bogeymen had begun to hit home.

But a strange little rumor began circulating, a rumor that just a year ago would have seemed utterly fanciful: Salmond might sneak by with a win.

An opinion poll last week put the Scottish Nationalists just three points behind. A weekend poll put them ahead. Scottish-based shares are looking shaky; the British pound is down. The Scottish Nationalists have now got their tails up, and the Unionists have no idea on earth how to stem their momentum. They are engulfed in what seems like nothing less than a fight for their very survival.

Everywhere you go in Scotland, the referendum is the only subject on anyone’s lips. I have never seen people so politically engaged. Salmond predicts voter turnout will be a colossal 80 percent – though I think that’s going to be on the low side.

There are a lot of hotheads out there, too. In their second TV debate, Salmond and Darling hollered over each other. That is how it is across Scotland. Put up a “No” poster in front of your home and it will probably be defaced; write some pro-Unionist remark on the Internet and it will immediately be Tasered by the Cybernats, online supporters of independence. The Scottish Nationalists have always seemed to be much more willing to sock it to the opposition. But is their opposition a great silent majority waiting for the day of the referendum when they will finally stick two fingers up to Salmond – or is it in fact a rump, a silent minority?

After most elections, the losers go off to lick their wounds, and then a little while later they come back to fight another day.

Not this time, though. This time it’s for keeps – with either the independence question kicked out of bounds for at least a generation or Scotland going it alone. The referendum has been thrilling and yet utterly divisive. Whatever the result, the wounds are going to be deep, and they will take a long, long time to heal.

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Gearing up for sausage making

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By Nan Mackenzie

BEFORE Daniel Day Lewis started filming The Last of the Mohicans he spent six months in the wild teaching himself to build a canoe and trap and skin animals.

Michelle Williams when cast as Marilyn Monroe in the movie My Week with Marilyn tied a belt around her knees for a month to get the famous Monroe strut just right.

Robert De Niro got a taxi licence for his role in Taxi Driver and when on break while filming the actor drove around New York City in a cab.

No measures quite as extreme as these will be necessary when Kathleen Ruddy goes into rehearsals for her new play Spare Ribs. The main skill she has to acquire is the art of sausage making as her character runs a butcher shop and is renowned for her prize winning sausages.

So what better place to learn than at the Kolios butcher shop in Paphos? Here Ruddy not only entertained shoppers and staff, but after much hilarity produced a reasonable facsimile of a sausage.

Spare Ribs premiers in Paphos on Wednesday October 1 at Crown Resorts Coral Bay and runs there until Friday October 3. On Saturday October 4 the venue will be the Pissouri Amphitheatre, with the final performance on October 5 at the Paphos Ancient Odeon. Tickets: 99 908434, 99 069074

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Scotland’s dangerous romance

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A man wears 'No Thanks' badges during campaigning  to keep Scotland part of the United Kingdom

By John Lloyd

Readers of a romantic bent, perhaps Scots or descendants of Scots, may think that it would be cool for Scotland to vote for independence from the United Kingdom next Thursday.

If so, here are 10 reasons why they’re wrong.

1. It would mean nationalism  – the call to old loyalties deeper than any civic and cross-national identities – would win. The Scots nationalists are nothing like the proto-fascist groups at large in Europe: indeed, their party is social democratic, liberal in social policy. But the demons unleashed will be stronger than their politics.

2. The countries of Europe have many secessionist movements. Spain has two, in Catalonia and in the Basque country. Belgium is divided between the French Walloons and the Dutch-speaking Flemish. Italy has an old secessionist movement in German-speaking Alto Adige and a new one in the north, claiming a territory called Padania. France has an occasionally violent movement in the island of Corsica. Others will come along. All would be hugely encouraged by Scots independence. It would consume Europe for decades.

3. The UK has been, in the past century, an imperial power, claiming ownership of large parts of the globe, fighting and imprisoning those who sought liberation in Africa, India and elsewhere. US President Barack Obama’s grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, was imprisoned and tortured by the British in Kenya because he was suspected, it seems wrongly, of being a member of a militant pro-independence group, the Mau Mau. But in the latter part of the 20th century and in the 21st, Britain ceased to be part of the problem and strove to become part of the solution. The ‘solution’ is to find a way to manage the world out of confrontation and division into a common effort to attack its real problems – ecological damage, poverty, drought, Islamist and other terrorism. The loss of Scotland would diminish it, weaken its presence internationally, weaken what it does and can do for global governance.

4. The UK is a major and founding member of NATO: it’s a nuclear power. Yet all of its submarine-based nuclear armament is based in Scotland, at a base near Glasgow. Moving it – as an independent, anti-nuclear Scottish government would demand – would take years and many billions of pounds to execute. And this at a time when NATO is seeking more commitment, more defence spending from its members to counter the growing threat from Russia.

5. The United States, presently blamed by critics inside and out for being weak in the face of global challenges – from Islamist terror, from Russia, from China – has under Obama’s presidency sought to convince the Europeans that they must take greater responsibility. Scots independence would be an example of a people taking less: it would present the malign example of a region, by claiming independent status, ducking out of taking the hard choices in the world – while seeking protection from those still constrained to make them.

6. The UK has been a large part of ‘the West’ – that group of nations, which include ‘Easterners’ like Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand and others – that privilege democracy, a strong civil society and rule of law. For the UK to lose Scotland would point up to a failure of democracy, at a time when the growth of China and the challenge of Russia is putting it’s primacy in doubt.

7. With the discovery of major oil reserves off Scotland in the early 1970s, most of the UK’s oil has come from the fields off the Scots shore. There are still large reserves – how large, is still being proven. Scotland would demand total control of these reserves – they would be mainly within its territorial waters. It’s another malign example of a region rich in mineral reserves severing links with the larger state of which it was part in order to enjoy the easy income. It’s what the Oxford economist Paul Collier called, in a recent talk, ‘a dirty little resource grab’ – one sure to be copied elsewhere.

8. Scotland has a large financial sector, even after the near-collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland, still one of the world’s banking giants. The turbulence and uncertainty which independence would cause would prompt several big banks and financial institutions to relocate to England: and foreign-owned businesses would also take precautionary measures. It wouldn’t be disaster: but it would mean that the UK, presently growing more strongly than any other European state but still recovering from recession, would be badly knocked back.

9. Modern terrorism has targeted the UK: it’s seen by radical Islam as both a threat to their plans to create a fundamentalist Caliphate and to make of the Muslim populations round the world – there are nearly three million Muslims in the UK – adherents to their cause. As UK security chiefs have warned, an independent Scotland with new and small security services would be hobbled in efforts to combat extremism – and would be seen as a pressure point.

10. Finally, there’s the more indefinable damage: to civility and to common culture. The nationalist campaign has raised tempers on both sides of the divide – within Scotland itself, and between Scotland and the rest of the UK, especially England. Nationalists like to see England as still an imperial hangover, un-modernised, run by ‘posh’ Conservatives for whom most Scots didn’t vote. Independence would make this still worse: many English say they want Scotland to go, because they’re tired of their complaints. It would be a long time before that died down: and something precious, a recognition of difference within unity, would have been lost.
This much is at stake. The world will not benefit, now or in the future, from an independent Scotland. But there’s nothing it can do about it, but wait to see what choice that nation makes.

John Lloyd co-founded the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, where he is Director of Journalism. Lloyd has written several books, including What the Media Are Doing to Our Politics (2004). He is also a contributing editor at FT and the founder of FT Magazine.

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NPL objection and the art of deception

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The Chinese one of the very few overseas buyers last year

By Hermes Solomon

TEN thousand homes are under threat of repossession, affecting between fifty and eighty thousand citizens – a loose government estimate of affected citizens with its leeway of thirty thousand.

Is bankrupt developer stock included in those ten thousand homes? And if it is, why haven’t we been told so? You get the impression that only first residence non-performing loans (NPLs) are numbered – not vacant and up for sale property, nor that of ‘the island’s crooks’.

If provisos introduced by opposition parties into the troika foreclosures bill are refuted, AKEL and DIKO will take the fight to the country – what an apathetic lot they are – and lose.

We already know the outcome of further negotiations; non, non et non, fourteen times from the troika. Homes will fall under the hammer – one by one – surreptitiously.

And when they do, the economy will momentarily skim upon the water like a flat stone thrown then sink to the bottom, where it will remain until ‘better times’. And ‘better times’ are many years off.

You bargain hunters will have to wait. There will be no bonanza. Repossessed properties will go en bloc to unnamed purchasers. You will not even be invited to auctions, which will be held à huis clos (behind closed doors).

Consider the chart and compare it to when annual property overseas sales stood in their thousands not hundreds. And let’s be honest, sales in 2013/14 were conducted at prices well below pre-crash values – apart, that is, for several Chinese purchasers, who were conned pricewise for the sake of ‘worthless’ long term residents’ permits.

If you’re really looking for a bargain, go inspect For Sale properties and make stupid offers to vendors before the banks step in. Those steeped in debt will probably bite your hand off.

Bombast, pompous blathering, ranting and pretentious noises emanating from union leaders and political parties objecting to the troika foreclosures bill on the grounds that it will be disastrous for the economy, serve no purpose other than to confirm that objectors, and their families, have themselves taken out loans well beyond their means.

Objections at this far gone stage in the game are worth trois fois rien (nothing). The dire NPL issue, known to us as far back as 2008, should have been tackled then, not now. Today the outcome is de facto – rather like the partition of the island; leaving NPLs and the Cyprob unresolved in the hope that they would self-resolve was naïve to the extreme.

But it wasn’t our fault I hear you say. It was the fault of German and French banks, which suddenly and unexpectedly withdrew 50 of their 60 billion euro term deposits held at our banks.

Then what about those hundreds of uncollateralised property developer loans issued by complicit bankers, and banks outside the Eurozone exploiting our high rates of interest, and Russian ‘mobster’ and Brit depositors?

But, in the main, only German and French banks avoided the hair cut. The rest, including ordinary Cypriot savers and SMEs, all got whacked big time, or if you prefer, robbed.

Eurozone banks were geniuses. They were the only participants to seriously reduce their holdings prior to the default. It makes you wonder if they weren’t in cahoots with the European Central Bank (ECB), which loaned Laiki billions in Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) to keep Cyprus banking afloat until those geniuses had got their billions out.

And to top that, the troika (an ECB body-check) have the cheek to return to Cyprus, destroy the economy and insist on repossessions across the board.

Who set up ‘the sting’ in the first place if it wasn’t German and French banks ‘unsupervised’ by the ECB? Premeditated first degree deception if you ask me. Had ELA not supported an already bankrupt Laiki, matters would have come to a head much sooner with far less collateral damage…

Like aggrieved bondholders, the Central Bank of Cyprus should be suing the ECB for foul play by Eurozone banks in cahoots with the ECB.

Of course, our banks were greedy – thinking they could lend any amount at high interest to pay off depositor interest. And that error of judgement, when Libor rates were on the floor with the recession biting holes into our economy, helped cause the country’s downfall. But that error wasn’t the main cause of the downfall.

Perhaps AKEL and DIKO should instead be baying for ECB, and not DISY, blood!

Hilary Mantel wrote in her 2012 Man Booker Prize winning novel, Bring up the Bodies based on Henry VIII courtly intrigue, “They tell us that the rules of power and the rules of war are the same, the art is to deceive; and you will deceive and be deceived in your turn, whether you are an ambassador or a suitor. Now, if a man’s subject is deception, you are deceived if you think you grasp his meaning. You close your hand as it flies away. A statute is written to entrap meaning, a poem to escape it.”

Ironic that the attorney general should only now be accusing opposition parties of unconstitutionality, when our lawyer politicians have the reputation of being the world’s worst deceivers, only to be out-deceived by the ECB.

The troika now writes the statutes, not the attorney-general, AKEL, DIKO or even DISY, which is something opposition parties and the unions have yet to grasp.

No amount of purple prose by politicians will escape the meaning now clearly defined in troika statutes. But only you and I know that!

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Save our Seashores

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By Maria Hadjimichael

Seashores are one of the clearest manifestations of what is generally considered to constitute “the commons” – a place where access is free and the gratification of being there is the same for all, irrespective of the size of their pay cheque.

Unfortunately, in real life this is not always the case. A seashore undisturbed by humans represents for many (even unknowingly) a utopian vision of what society can be in that grey area which is neither private nor state-owned.

However, actions such as those by Greek Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras and our own Minister for the Interior Socrates Hasikos, who have proposed bills threatening people’s right of free access to Greece’s and Cyprus’ beaches and the sea, are a burning reminder that the seashore is no longer a common space. Rather, it is a space that the government donates to the people by concession, until the opportunity arises to enclose and subsequently monetise what was formerly common property. In Cyprus, the specific bill soon to be presented to parliament aims to convert the sea, the coastline and the beaches into “real estate”, through “development orders”, without “planning applications” and with “ministerial decisions”.The bill also touches upon the issue of democracy, as it has been ‘sold’ to us until now. On the one hand, the bill repeals the public’s right to direct consultation. On the other, with the granting and the institutionalisation of superpowers to a minister and circumventing the role of the parliament as the representatives of society, it is indirectly legalising acts of corruption, which are already so widespread in Cypriot society.

In order to understand the ideological importance of these bills, it is important that we understand the importance of common goods as leftovers of a time when local communities were in charge of the management of their space and resources, disconnected from today’s dominant ideology about the importance of private property. ‘Common goods’ are those goods which have been inherited from the previous generations, which were created collectively or which are part of our natural heritage.

When Garrett Hardin used the term the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ in his article in the scientific magazine Science in 1968, the term became a landmark in the history of the management of common goods. Since then, the supporters of neoliberalism have used both the term and Hardin’s theory to justify their attempts to privatise and commodify goods which have been for years under the control of local communities. An example of this is the appropriation of water by big multinationals like Coca Cola from communities in India, Guatemala and Colombia.

What Hardin was trying to do in his article, was to illustrate the problem of individualised behaviour against commons goods. He argued that when some goods do not belong to specific persons, but to everyone, their exploitation brings individualised gains and collective loses, resulting in their exploitation by isolated individuals. When in 2009, the political scientist Elinor Ostrom was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for her theory on the management of common pool resources, alternative theories based on both successful and unsuccessful models of self-managed local communities arose, disarming dominant political and economic models, such as Hardin’s tragedy of the commons. At the same time, David Harvey in his 2012 book, Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution, argues that the problem in Hardin’s discourse is not the commons per se, but the failure of individualised private property rights to fulfill common interests. Harvey therefore frames the problem in a context where the problem is actually private property itself, and consequently the attempts to maximise individual gains.

Nevertheless, during times where the dominant ideologies are based on a capitalist model, with a class and patriarchal backdrop, and in which governments prioritise economic growth over the socio-ecological balance, those with access to the ‘commons’ (commoners) become trapped in the ‘treadmill of production’ having to choose between work and the protection of the environment.

Cyprus, having gone through a long period of uncontrollable coastal development, without evaluation and planning, needs to protect its few remaining socio-ecological spheres now more than ever. People living in Cyprus need to start believing in the power of solidarity and oppose the continuous attempts to appropriate  our commons in the name of exiting ‘a crisis’, by demanding the protection of our social and environmental rights.

The privatisation of public wealth has become a priority for many governments in their attempts to appropriate citizens’ rights, not solely of nature, but also other vital rights, such as water. Greece has become an example for what we will experience in Cyprus, from the foreclosures bill to the privatisation of our common resources. The difference in Greece is the public reaction, which is massive. It is time for us to wake up as well. What we are witnessing is an attempt to appropriate one of our last remaining “commons” through different levels of control: the state, sometimes involving local authorities, and private capital itself. It might be unknowingly that they, the servants of capital, are trying to dispossess us of our last utopias and fill them with concrete. But these utopias are what constitute life for people, just like the air they breathe and the water they drink.

As Eduardo Galleano taught us, and as we will need to remember while we keep fighting for the right to the seashore, the purpose of Utopia “es para caminar” – to keep walking. The battle of the commoners for the seashore will continue and they will look down with pity at the servants of capital who, in their battle to promote their neoliberal dogma, have managed to commodify even their own utopias

Maria Hadjimichael has a PhD in Marine and Fisheries Governance

More information available at http://reclaimthesea.org/hands-off-our-beaches-cyprus and  http://www.waronwant.org/news/campaigns-news/15153-coca-cola-drinking-the-world-dry/. See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-pgHlB8QdQ

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‘Two-state’ Erdogan supported Annan plan

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New Turkish President Erdogan visits Cyprus

By Loucas Charalambous

WHAT HAD Turkey’s new president Tayyip Erdogan said during his recent visit to the north to spark a storm of angry protests by our political establishment?

He said that Turkey would never accept a solution to the Cyprus problem “if this is not based on two constituent states with political equality”. Political equality, he added was “a necessity”.

In short, he said what Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot leadership have been repeating for the last 40 years and is also included in UN resolutions. Nothing more. So why was there such a hysterical reaction by our politicians and journalists? What was it that riled them, especially this time?

Nicolas Papadopoulos said: “Erdogan once again proves wrong all those that deluded themselves about his true intentions.” Giorgos Perdikis was blunter. “The myth about the ‘good’ Erdogan that was cultivated by various circles in Cyprus has completely collapsed,” he concluded.

“The hope that the US would put pressure on Turkey has proved dangerously simplistic,” declared Giorgos Lillikas who called on President Anastasiades to “leave aside his self-delusions”. Statements by AKEL and EDEK were along the same lines, as were the comments by the well-known super-patriots of Phileleftheros and Simerini. Even Greece’s prime minister contributed some words of dejection.

They all think that by labelling Erdogan’s comments ‘provocative’ and ‘arrogant’ and by citing these as supposed proof of the notorious ‘Turkish intransigence’ which they have been using for 50 years to cover up their own political crimes, they are absolving themselves of any responsibility for the situation. But they are making one mistake.

The ‘arrogant’ Erdogan, who was supposedly speaking about two states for the first time on his visit, is the same person who accepted the settlement proposed by the UN in 2004 which was not a settlement based on two independent states.

It was a settlement based on the continuation of the existing state with a federal structure, a settlement that ensured the withdrawal of Turkish occupation troops, gave us back Morphou and Famagusta, more than 40 villages and the entire buffer zone. This was what the arrogant Erdogan was willing to give us, but our political clowns rejected the settlement, surrendering everything to Turkey and allowing the Turkish army to remain here.

Why? Then, as now, they did not want a settlement because they did not want to lose their privileges and positions. Tassos Papadopoulos did not want to give up his presidency, ministers wanted to keep their ministries, deputies their seats and state officials their well-paid posts.

But let us look at this from another angle. Let us assume that their position is correct and Erdogan now wants the establishment of two independent states. What would this mean? This accentuates their blame and guilt. They killed off the opportunity when we had a settlement in our grasp and now they are claiming the obstacle is Erdogan.

What did they tell us at the time? Hold on, in a week we will be a full member of the EU and we would be able to secure a wonderful ‘European’ solution. Ten years later, where are we at?

Apart from losing Famagusta, Morphou and the other territory, apart from the fact the Turkish army is still here and apart from the fact the number of settlers has multiplied in the meantime, these apprentice political wizards have also led our economy to bankruptcy. Instead of accepting the responsibility for these political crimes, they are now claiming that they had been vindicated because of what Erdogan had said.

And instead of keeping quiet, they have the audacity to accuse us of being self-deluded and naive. Who? The political pygmies who had promised us a ‘European solution’ and ended up cementing partition.

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Tales from the Coffeeshop: Step forward the new presidential scapegoat

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Cypriot Finance Minister Harris Georgiades speaks to Reuters in an interview in Nicosia

By Patroclos

THE COFFEESHOP, as its regular customers know, had given its full backing to the presidential candidacy of Nik, naively believing that he would provide the strong and decisive leadership the country was crying out for after five years of an incompetent commie administration run by a village idiot.

It now finds itself in the embarrassing position of having to confess that it had been completely wrong in claiming Nik would be a strong and fearless leader prepared to clash with the unions, parties and other interest groups in order to move the country forward, maybe even help it mature.

Nik has turned out to be a marginal improvement on his inept predecessor, but in the end our establishment must be blamed for having such unjustified high hopes and expectations of him. He is after all a product of the Kyproulla political system that churns out petty-minded populists by the dozen.

At least there were mitigating circumstances for backing him – the alternative candidates were the AKEL puppet Malas and the Olympic demagogue Lillikas. Of the three, Nik was undoubtedly the least dangerous, but that is all our establishment can say in it defence.

THERE is a very good reason why all our presidents are such disappointments. As soon as they are elected they start work on securing a second term, pandering to interest groups, telling people what they want to hear, putting off difficult decisions and wasting the taxpayer’s money on crude vote-buying scams.

Tof bankrupted the state doing all this and Nik would have been no different if the comrade had left some money in the kitty. But Nik still found funds to give permanent jobs to 500 contract teachers that state schools did not need and hire a couple of hundred officers for the National Guard.

Should we mention how he has been buttering up public parasites, extolling their ‘sacrifices’ and assuring they would not be asked to make any more sacrifices. Only a president working on his re-election feels obliged to keep the blood-suckers of the public sector sweet, three months into his term.

But the best illustration of their craving for a second term is the way they handle the Cyprob. Before being elected they claim they would work relentlessly for a solution, but as soon as they sit their bum on the presidential chair their sense of urgency automatically disappears. A solution is a threat to their presidency and therefore has to be avoided at all costs.

The Ethnarch fought against it while Tof resorted to delaying tactics; Nik is following the comrade’s tactics.
If Kyproulla is ever to have a president that puts the interest of the country above his re-election, the constitution must be amended to allow only one presidential term per person.

AT THE start of the week it was reported that the government was considering taxing the retirement bonus all public parasites receive. There was disquiet among the leech population and it turned into fury when finance minister Haris Georgiades admitted that the government was considering such a possibility.

Self-pitying union bosses took turns to appear on the morning radio shows to cry about the latest injustice against their long-suffering members who were once again being asked to make sacrifices.

By Friday a united front of all parasites – teachers, army officers, cops, school inspectors, nurses, municipal employees and uncivil servants – was formed under Glafcos Hadjiklamouris and a one-day strike was called for the following Friday.

The poor overworked parasites needed a long weekend, especially the teachers whose two-month holiday had only ended a few days ago. The National Guard secured an assurance from the Turkish occupation troops that there would be no military hostilities on Friday so its members could also enjoy the long weekend.

HADJIKLAMOURIS, who had been keeping a low profile of late, was back at his best, accusing Haris of “provocatively targeting” the poor parasites and giving lessons in law.

“The state cannot deceive its citizens and when it offers something it cannot revoke its offer at a later date, if this has formed a key part of the person’s decision to work in the public sector,” he pontificated. And I foolishly thought that people decide to work in the public sector in order to serve the public.

A teaching union boss repeated the old tune about the need for the government to clamp down on the tax cheats instead of trying to raise money from the poor parasites. This was a bit unfortunate as he was defending his members’ privilege not to pay tax on pay-offs of 200 or 300 grand.

There is justification for not paying tax on the retirement bonus as it is revenue from legalised theft of the state. The parasites contribute nothing from their big salaries towards this bonus which is given to them because the thieving unions demanded it many years ago and the politicians approved it because this allowed them to collect a retirement bonus as well.

AS SOON as the unions started moaning and threatening strikes the government went on the defensive. Gormless government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides – on instructions from Nik the strong leader – started back-pedalling, claiming there was no such decision and that the matter would be discussed at a meeting of the finance minister and union bosses this week.

It was very revealing that the union bosses did not attack Prez Nik about the proposal, all directing their fire at the hapless Haris. Nik was happy to hang Haris out dry rather than take the flak. On Friday Nik was on the phone to union bosses telling them not to worry and assuring them that the bonus would not be taxed, because he is already thinking about a second term and he could not alienate powerful unions.

What he did not tell them was that he had personally agreed with the Troika to tax the retirement bonus of the parasites as an alternative to the Troikans’ suggestion for an additional €100 million cut in state spending. The state budget for 2015 is currently being prepared and the provision for the taxation must be included.

Of course the provision would have been slipped in sneakily by the horrible Haris without our parasite-loving prez knowing anything about it.

THIS behaviour highlights the similarities of Nik and Tof, who also liked to pull the carpet from under his finance minister’s feet. We still remember when Vassos Shiarly was to meet the unions to discuss changes to CoLA and the comrade ordered his spokesman to announce that the meeting would not be taking place because there was no such issue for the government.

And now there is no issue of taxing the bonus for the government, only for the finance minister. Haris was also left out on a limb by his boss when the discussions about the foreclosures bill were taking place at the presidential palace with the party leaders. Haris would mention that the Troika would not approve of the party leaders’ proposals but Nik would ignore him and side with the populists.

Nobody knows how much longer Haris will last in his post, but he has become everyone’s favourite target, including DISY’s. And his boss is using him as the official government scapegoat.

NIK’S thespian qualities were displayed last Sunday when he announced that he would seek contacts at high EU level to ask for a show of understanding for domestic sensitivities. He was referring to the laws passed by the parties the previous day, rendering the foreclosures law they had also approved a dead letter.

He knew there was no chance anyone would show understanding, but he decided to continue the theatre, leaving the thankless task of speaking honestly and antagonising the parties in the process, to the hated Haris, who made it clear there was no way the Eurogroup would release the sixth tranche of financial assistance. And he was proved right.

Sorry that we could not keep this a foreclosures-free zone for a second week running.

THE EUPHORIA of the parties over their genius move to approve laws that would prevent the implementation of the foreclosures bill did not last long. It was punctured by the Troikans 48 hours later. Prez Nik’s high-level EU contacts obviously did not have the desired result.

Ethnarch Junior, as leader of the courageous party resistance to the Troika, attacked the government after it became obvious that Nik would send four of the parties’ laws to the Supreme Court. But the Strakka prince reserved most of his venom for Haris, disparaging him for being ‘alarmist’ in talking about the consequences of not receiving the next tranche of assistance from the Troika.

This is the same Junior who has been engaging in full-on alarmism for the last month, claiming that the foreclosures bill would result in thousands being kicked out of their houses, small businesses losing their premises and citizens living on the streets.

SPEAKING of alarmism, Yiorkos Lillikas also showed he was as good as Junior at it. He warned that “the issue of the NPL would lead to a plundering of the properties of citizens, possibly worse than that of the Turkish invasion (sic).”

He also blamed Haris for being ‘aligned with the Troika’ instead of defending the interests of Kyproulla, as defined by Lillikas and Junior, at the Eurogroup.

THE OTHER brave resistance fighter, House president and EDEK chief Yiannakis Omirou arrived at the presidential palace on Tuesday evening demanding to see Nik.

He was shaken and not his usual confident self. He had heard the news that the parties’ laws were unacceptable to the Troika and was in a panic wanting to know what the government’s plans were. After seeing Nik, who stupidly calmed him down, telling him that the Eurogroup would give us the chance to put things right, Omirou regained his swagger.

An hour after he left the palace, EDEK issued a defiant statement declaring that it would never give in to the diktats of the Troika neo-colonialists and keep defending the interests of the Cypriot people.

WEEKLY paper Kathimerini made a big song and dance out of its discovery that the daughter of Central Bank Governor Chrystalla Georghadji was employed at a law office that had as its client the notorious banker Andreas Vgenopoulos, who faced a criminal investigation for his role in the collapse of Laiki Bank.

This was a glaring conflict of interest banged on the paper, as sensitive information at the Central Bank could be passed on to the law office representing Vgenopoulos. The law office belongs to the former husband of the Governor – they have been separated for 10 years – and the daughter started to work there before Crytsal’s appointment as governor.

The paper’s editor-in-chief Andreas Paraschos initiated a zealous campaign against Crystal demanding an explanation from the Attorney-General and receiving one. There is another conflict of interest that the paper, despite its sensitivity to such issues, appears to have ignored. The big shot Limassol lawyer Andreas Neocleous, who has been representing Laiki since its resolution, has sued Laiki because of a dispute over his personal deposits at the bank. He is using another law firm to sue the bank that he represents. Kathimerini showed no interest in this conflict of interest because Neocleous is a big backer of the paper.

THE MAIN story on the CyBC radio news yesterday morning was the following: “Despite the upgrading of the solution of the Cyprus problem to a ‘strategic priority for the UN and the international community’, the UN General-Secretary Ban Ki-moon, in his annual report to the UN General Assembly, avoided making any mention to the effort he is making on the matter.”

Riveting news. We were also told that the 80-page report apart from dealing with Syria, Gaza and the Ukraine devoted much space to “objectives of the millennium and to climate change.” Surely climate change is not as important as the strategic priority of the UN.

There can be only person to blame for this downgrading of the Cyprob’s importance – Haris.

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Our View: Can parties tell what will happen without next tranche?

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President of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem arrives at Friday's meeting

THE LAST time the opposition parties forged a resistance front to protect the interests of the Cypriot people from the neo-liberal proposals of the Eurogroup it resulted in the closing down of the second largest bank and the bail-in of shareholders, bondholders and depositors of the biggest bank. It also pushed the economy deeper into recession, the effects of which will be felt for a long time to come.

At the time – March 2013 – to justify their mindlessly irresponsible decision of rejecting the one-off levy on bank deposits, deputies claimed that we would find funding for our bankrupt state and collapsing banks from alternative sources. Moscow would bail us out, it was claimed while others argued that the money could be raised from selling plots of our Exclusive Economic Zone; AKEL’s deputies had supported the idea of leaving the Eurozone and bringing back the Cyprus pound. None of their promises materialised and a much worse bailout regime was imposed on us.

We have been witnessing a similar scenario in the last few weeks, with the opposition parties forging a resistance front against the foreclosures law, the implementation of which is a condition for the release of the next tranche of financial assistance from our lenders. The contentious bill was finally approved eight days ago, but the parties also approved a host of other bills that would supposedly provide a ‘safety net’ for ‘vulnerable groups’.

In effect, four of the supplementary bills, which were referred to the Supreme Court by the president for a ruling on their constitutionality, would prevent the foreclosures law being implemented. One allows borrowers with non-performing loans of up to €350,000 to apply for court-ordered protection while another gives the right to a borrower not to repay the part of the loan not covered by the sale of collateral. And in case there were any doubts that the parties were taking the lenders for a ride, another law passed last weekend would prevent foreclosures until the insolvency legislation was ready at the end of the year.

All these supposed ‘safety net’ measures were passed despite the lenders having made it clear they would not accept them. After their approval last weekend, deputies from all parties were rejoicing that they had scored a big triumph, waxing lyrical about what could be achieved through political unity. The Troika brought everyone back to earth on Monday evening signalling its disapproval of the laws that would make the foreclosures law a dead letter.

The Eurogroup would not discuss the release of the money at its meeting that was scheduled for last Friday. Friday’s meeting kept the door open, the president of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem saying that “once the troika institutions confirm required prior action has been successfully completed we can proceed with the disbursement of the next tranche.” This would require the Supreme Court to have ruled the four laws of the parties, which the lenders disapprove of, unconstitutional and the parties acting responsibly.

Unfortunately the opposition parties have given no indication that they would put aside the cheap and mindless populism they have been engaging in for the last month. On the contrary, AKEL in retaliation to the referral of the laws to the Supreme Court had threatened to pass an act of parliament suspending the foreclosure law. The other parties are also digging in their heels, accusing the president of obediently serving the Troika instead of the interests of the Cypriot people.

None of them however, has informed the public how they would deal with the crisis that would be created if the tranche of €500 million was not released. DIKO chief Nicholas Papadopoulos, who heads the resistance campaign, declared that the consequences of having a foreclosures law without safety measures would be much worse than the consequences of not receiving the money. We would rather believe Professor Christoforos Pissarides, a Nobel prize winner for economics, who warned there could be another haircut of deposits if there was no foreclosures law in place. He is a renowned economist and has no personal agenda that he places above the interests of the country as Papadopoulos, a lawyer, has done.

The poor judgment and populist negativity of the parties caused the country much bigger harm than was necessary in March last year. They must not be allowed to do the same now because the consequences would be even more catastrophic. President Anastasiades’ repeated attempts to bring them on side failed because they were seen as a sign of weakness. Now, he must stand up to the parties, by appealing directly to the people and spelling out the devastation that would be caused if the parties do not back down.

The parties might think twice if they are made to take the responsibility for the national catastrophe their foolish actions would trigger.

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On tenterhooks ahead of vote

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John McDonald, a proud Scot, but he would vote No

By Bejay Browne

SCOTS IN Cyprus are bracing for an emotional roller-coaster on Thursday evening as their folk back home decide whether Scotland will become an independent state.

Excitement is mixed with frustration: like all other far-flung Scots around the world those here will have no say in this nail-baiting vote.

You have to be a resident of Scotland to cast a ballot for what could be an historic turning point for both Scotland and the United Kingdom.

So, whether they are in Paphos or Paralimni, Larnaca or Limassol, Scots in Cyprus will be glued to their TV sets as the results come in, most nursing large whiskies – whether to calm the nerves, commiserate or celebrate.

Their community is as divided and opinionated on the big question of independence as their friends and relatives some 2,000 miles away in the north of the United Kingdom; a kingdom that could be significantly truncated by the end of the week.

For the time being at least, it is impossible to say how many Scots are living in Cyprus. Until Thursday they are simply numbered among the nearly 27,000 British residents on the island. A Yes vote would change that.

“We may become illegal immigrants in Cyprus overnight and need visas,”
jokes John McDonald, 42, a former soldier. It is a rare moment of levity. For, like all other Scots the Sunday
Mail spoke to, whether or not Scotland should go it alone after more than 300 years is understandably a very serious subject.

He wants his homeland to remain in the Union. “I think a Yes vote is a mistake and not the way forward for Scotland or Britain,” says McDonald, originally from Edinburgh. He moved to Cyprus a year ago with wife, Deborah, and four-year-old daughter, Maisie. He was in the British army for 25 years, serving in the Gulf war, Iraq, Bosnia, and Kosovo.

“And my Dad was in the Black Watch. I’m a patriotic Scotsman, but I’m leaning towards an outcome of a No vote – it’s better the devil you know.”

 Lorraine Thomson and Vivien Nicol

Lorraine Thomson and Vivien Nicol

McDonald is concerned that a Yes vote will possibly have a negative effect on the armed forces, the police, banks, currency and EU membership. “It seems like an awful lot of hard work for no great benefit and the outcome is too unpredictable.”

A Yes vote, he fears, could usher in years of financial hardship for a Scotland that he’s unsure will be able to flourish as independent state.

“Before you know it taxes will be up and more than England, it’s really a case of who’s telling the most lies, I don’t trust politicians but they’re a necessity and we need a democracy.”

He believes the Yes camp has been boosted by the Scottish government’s decision to reduce the voting age for the referendum from 18 to 16.

The vote of a 16 or 17-year-old, he argues, will be emotionally driven, with less thought given to the political or economic ramifications of the referendum.

“It’s all, ‘Are you Scottish?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Are you proud to be Scottish?’
‘Yes.’ Then vote ‘Yes.’”

McDonald continues: “I can understand why a lot of people in Scotland want a Yes vote. Scotland was hammered in the 1980s and it’s still raw for many. The fallout from Thatcher was felt from the north of England up. I think the results are too close to call. The 18-year-olds and older will vote No but the 16 and 17 year olds will mostly vote Yes.”

He says that even if a No vote prevails this time the Yes campaigners will keep going until they get independence.

His mother, Margaret McDonald, 62, a housekeeper in a residential home in Scotland will be voting No when she returns home from her holiday in Cyprus. She told the Sunday Mail that she has have lived in Scotland all of her life and is keen on politics. Along with many other members of her family, she once worked for the Labour Party.

“I strongly believe in ‘Better Together’ and believe that Scottish party leaders backing a No Vote have set out a timetable for more power for Scotland if we stay in the UK. Scots now have certainty that there will be more powers over tax and welfare after a No vote.”

She adds: “Change is coming to Scotland within the UK, so staying together will be beneficial to Scotland. All the SNP (Scottish National Party) is offering is risk and unanswered questions.”

Lorraine Thomson, who worked in financial services and recruitment in Glasgow until she moved to Cyprus two

Margaret McDonald

Margaret McDonald


years ago, says Scottish people are by nature very patriotic and proud. They may find the idea of being independent appealing – but many are fearful of what that might entail.

Certainly, she says, the business community is well aware of the complexities of the situation.

“Some senior businesses have said if there is a Yes, they would move down south as they are fearful of the long term sustainability if Scotland becomes financially independent.”

Her sister, Vivien Nicol, a care assistant in Ayrshire, is in Cyprus on holiday but will be back home to vote No on Thursday.

“Too much is unknown, and so many promises are being made but no indication of where the finances will come from,” she says. “It’s better being united and there aren’t enough benefits to warrant change. There has to be some way of paying for this and income tax will probably increase.”

For George Swanson, who retired to Paphos two years ago, the need for independence has passed.
“Thirty years or so ago when we discovered oil and could stand on our own two feet, it was a different story. It’s now a nationalist appeal as opposed to economics,” he says.

“The collapse of two of the main banks in Scotland was bad news for us and undermined Scotland’s image of canniness. I’m unsure if Scotland could sustain itself and I believe we should stay in the union and would vote No.”

Meanwhile, Alexander Anderson, a retired school teacher from Inverness living in Limassol, is in favour of an independent Scotland in theory – but says the practicalities make it a tricky option fraught with danger.

Scotland, he believes, is intrinsically linked with England and Great Britain, and that the way forward is for it to gain more powers rather than independence.

“The voting system is unfair as Scots living outside the country don’t have a right to vote in the future of our country. I know a number of youngsters back in Scotland who say they will be voting Yes but I don’t believe they really understand the knock-on effect this will have in all areas of Scottish life,” he says. “It will create a divided Scottish society.”

He thinks the Yes vote will be victorious, an outcome he fears would seriously set back the Scottish economy. And the border between England and Scotland would “become a real entity”, a prospect that saddens him deeply.

Given what the immensely high stakes and deep uncertainties, he is avidly following every twist and turn of the two year-old referendum campaign that climaxes on Thursday.

“Although I’m living here, I’m a Scotsman and always will be.”

Alex Campbell, a retired banker in Limassol, is an adamant Yes voter and partially blames the initial dismissive English attitude towards the referendum for the strength of his feeling.

“Those who say Scotland can’t stand on its own two feet are ignoring our past, our history. We’re energetic and entrepreneurial and have proved it time and time again,” he says. “I was always going to vote Yes but became even more determined after hearing so many of my English friends telling me over a pint they were bored silly by the referendum debate. It’s only now that independence is a real possibility that they’re taking the whole thing seriously. And that’s because it could hit their pocket.”

He says he finds such attitudes insulting.

“Just like it was insulting that Cameron and company didn’t show up in Scotland until they thought they could lose it. You can bet Cameron won’t bother showing up there again if it’s a No vote.”

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Islamic State video purports to show beheading of UK hostage David Haines

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A still image taken from a purported Islamic State video released September 13, 2014 of British captive David Haines before he is beheaded

By Oliver Holmes and Ned Parker

Islamic State militants fighting in Iraq and Syria released a video on Saturday that purported to show the beheading of British aid worker David Haines.

Reuters could not immediately verify the footage. But the images were consistent with that of the filmed executions of two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, in the past month.

Haines, a 44-year-old father of two from Perth, Scotland, was kidnapped last year while working for the French agency ACTED.

The video entitled, “A Message to the Allies of America,” opened with UK Prime Minister David Cameron talking about working with the Iraqi government and allied Kurdish Peshmerga forces to defeat Islamic State.

“This British man has to pay the price for your promise, Cameron, to arm the Peshmerga against the Islamic State,” said a masked man dressed in black with a British accent, standing over Haines, who was shown kneeling and wearing an orange jumpsuit.

The video then showed the beheading of the kneeling man.

At the end of the video, another hostage, identified as Alan Henning, was shown and the masked man said he would be killed if Cameron continued to support the fight against Islamic State.

Cameron condemned the killing and said he would bring the killers to justice.

“This is a despicable and appalling murder of an innocent aid worker. It is an act of pure evil. My heart goes out to the family of David Haines who have shown extraordinary courage and fortitude throughout this ordeal,” he said in a statement released by Downing Street.

“We will do everything in our power to hunt down these murderers and ensure they face justice, however long it takes.”

U.S. President Barack Obama strongly condemned “the barbaric murder” of Haines and vowed to work with other countries to “destroy this threat to the people of our countries, the region and the world.”

“The United States stands shoulder to shoulder tonight with our close friend and ally in grief and resolve,” Obama said in a statement. “We will work with the United Kingdom and a broad coalition of nations from the region and around the world to bring the perpetrators of this outrageous act to justice.”

In the video, Haines also spoke, saying Cameron was responsible for his execution. “You entered voluntarily into a coalition with the United States against the Islamic State, just as your predecessor, Tony Blair, did,” he said.

“Following a trend amongst our British prime ministers who can’t find the courage to say no to the Americans. Unfortunately, it is we, the British public, that will in the end pay the price for our Parliament’s selfish decisions.”

Foley and Sotloff made similar speeches to Obama, which have been dismissed as scripted by Islamic State and delivered under duress.

The purported executioner appeared to be the same man who appeared in videos with Foley and Sotloff, and it showed a similar desert setting. In both videos, the captives wore orange jumpsuits.

HELPING VICTIMS

The United States resumed air strikes in Iraq in August for the first time since the withdrawal of the final U.S. troops from the country in 2011.

The raids followed major gains by Islamic State, which has declared an Islamic caliphate in areas it controls in Syria and Iraq.

Obama is calling for a coalition of Western and Middle Eastern countries to fight Islamic State and has said the United States intends to bomb Islamic State positions in Syria.

Britain has delivered humanitarian aid, carried out surveillance, given weapons to Kurds and promised training in Iraq. On military action, Britain supports U.S. air strikes and Cameron has said repeatedly that Britain itself has ruled nothing out except combat troops on the ground.

Haines’ family appealed earlier on Saturday to his captors to respond to their messages.

“We are the family of David Haines,” relatives said in a statement released by Britain’s Foreign Office.

“We have sent messages to you to which we have not received a reply. We are asking those holding David to make contact with us.”

Paris-based ACTED previously said Haines had been engaged in humanitarian work since 1999, helping victims of conflicts in the Balkans, Africa and the Middle East and that he was taken hostage in March 2013 in Syria.

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Best three weeks come at perfect time for Horschel

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Horschel3

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

Billy Horschel felt “surreal” after producing the best three weeks of his golfing career just when he need to, capping an astonishing playoff run with a three-shot victory at the Tour Championship on Sunday.

With his PGA Tour season hanging in the balance after a missed cut at last month’s Barclays tournament, he gave himself a timely wake-up call and proceeded to finish second, first and first to secure FedExCup honours and the $10 million jackpot.

Horschel’s performance in the season-ending event at East Lake Golf Club was hugely impressive as he extended his run of scores in the sixties to 12, the longest on Tour, and outshot world number one Rory McIlroy in the final round to triumph.

“It’s surreal, it really is,” a beaming Horschel told reporters after closing with a two-under-par 68 in damp, overcast conditions to finish three ahead of fellow American Jim Furyk and McIlroy. “I’m on cloud nine, it’s unbelievable.”

“I warmed up pretty well and got off to a pretty solid start, had some good looks on the first three holes, and just kept playing solid. Maybe the back nine could have been a little bit cleaner, but it was good enough to get the job done.

“I’m thrilled to be the FedExCup champion and the Tour Championship champion, especially with the year I’ve had.”

Horschel was ranked 69th entering the four-event playoffs and dropped to 82nd after missing the Barclays cut, knowing he had to stay in the top 70 at the following week’s Deutsche Bank Championship to advance to the BMW Championship.

All this after he had recorded just two top-10s and seven missed cuts in 24 starts on the 2013-14 PGA Tour.

“I remember flying home and I talked to my wife, and she’s like, ‘you’ll probably just wait until the season is over, start a new season.’ I was sort of was,” said Horschel who, at 27, became the youngest FedExCup champion.

“But at the same time I knew my game was in the right shape, and I just needed to get out of my own way, needed to allow my golf game to show, and did it show the last three weeks.”

INVIGORATED MAN

Horschel was an invigorated man over those next three weeks, putting superbly as he rose to second in the FedExCup points list after finishing runner-up at the Deutsche Bank Championship and then winning last week’s BMW Championship outside Denver.

At East Lake this week, he held at least a share of the lead after every round and said he felt relaxed for most of Sunday as he kept his closest challengers at bay over the final holes.

The most pivotal moment came when Horschel was just one stroke ahead of Furyk and somehow sank a par-saving putt from 30 feet at the par-four 16th, where his tee shot had sailed right into trees.

“The putt was huge on 16,” said Horschel, whose wife, Brittany, is scheduled to give birth to their first child in two weeks.

“I put the best stroke on it I could and got up to the top of that ridge, and I’m like, ‘man, this looks like it’s going into the hole.’ Had a little bit of steam to it and it went in there dead center. That was just a great feeling.

“I knew where Jim stood. I knew where everyone else stood and I didn’t want to give a shot back coming in.”

Horschel, who earns a combined $11.44 million for his week as the Tour Championship purse amounts to $1.44 million, will be a notable absentee from the Ryder Cup.

Despite being the hottest player in the game, Horschel produced his brilliant form a little too late to qualify automatically for Tom Watson’s United States team or to become one of three wildcard picks.

“Even with this extra win, I still don’t feel like I deserve to be on the team,” said Horschel.

“I haven’t played good enough this year. I haven’t played good enough over a two-year period to be on the team, and I understand that.

“I’m not upset with that. I’m over it. I’ve been over it since the picks were made at Deutsche Bank, and I’m fully supportive of the US team and everyone else.”

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Real out to break holders’ jinx in 60th European Cup

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Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid

By Ian Chadband

It was Alex Ferguson who once noted famously that watching the World Cup was as excruciating as visiting the dentist while offering the counterpoint that the Champions League was much more fun, quite the best competition in football.

To be fair, the old Manchester United manager did make this observation long before the exhilarating 2014 edition of the World Cup restored most football folk’s faith in the sport’s premier event.

So now it is time for UEFA’s ever more unstoppable juggernaut of an event to re-establish its bragging rights as the 60th edition of the European Cup competition – and the 23rd in its Champions League guise – kicks off this week with its first set of group matches on the long road to a climax at Berlin’s Olympiastadion next June.

The Champions League’s paymasters can ask again who cares about the World Cup when hundreds of millions are able to see Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and company strut the dandiest stages of European club football week in, week out over the next 10 months?

The competition, which was worth 57.4 million euros in prize money to last season’s champions, has mushroomed into an unrecognisable phenomenon and veritable cash cow from the inaugural 29-game, 16-team tournament of 1955-1956 which made an intriguing bow with no television or sponsorship nor, indeed, sniffy Englishmen.

Some things never change, though.

Just as the Cup’s first edition in 1956 was won by Real Madrid, so the Spanish aristocrats begin tournament number 60 as holders and warm favourites, even after their underwhelming start to the La Liga campaign.

Even without AC Milan and Manchester United, 10-times winners between them, in this year’s draw, there is predictability to what will eventuate.

It is no coincidence that the four favourites this season – Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Chelsea – are also the last four heavyweight winners of the trophy.

The last genuine surprise winners? Jose Mourinho’s Porto in 2004, 18 of the last 19 winners having come from one of the continent’s big four leagues – La Liga, Bundesliga, Premier League and Serie A. The Champions League is not big on fairytales.

Here is another predictable prediction. Carlo Ancelotti can claim that his Real Madrid squad “is stronger than it was last year” – a highly debatable assertion without Xabi Alonso and Angel di Maria offering their excellent balance – but they will not defend their title.

Why? Modern Champions League lore dictates that the winner never repeats, that the pressure is too much. You have to go back to Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan in 1990, three years before the inaugural Champions League final, to find the last back-to back European champions.

More than that, no champions since then have ever been succeeded by a club from their own country.

So Barcelona, with their own set of striking Galacticos – Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez – and last year’s beaten finalists Atletico Madrid, still hewn from Diego Simeone’s inspirational one-for-all image, have their work cut out.

Yet for Real, surely the pressure of finally landing the fabled 10th crown – La Decima – last season ought to make the idea of winning the not-so-exacting ‘Undecima’ seem a mere trifle?

If it happens, Ancelotti would be the first coach ever to win ‘the Cup with the big ears’ four times. Added to his two titles as a player with Milan, it would cement this quiet achiever’s standing as equalling Real Madrid’s Francisco Gento as the most decorated figure in European Cup annals.

Gento played in all six of Real Madrid’s European Cup triumphs between 1956 and 1966.

MAJOR CASUALTY

Surely, as Real prepare to start their defence at the Bernabeu against Basel on Tuesday, President Florentino Perez must believe they can break the Champions League holders’ jinx, especially if Cristiano Ronaldo can maintain his supersonic form of last term, with his record 17 goals in a campaign.

Ronaldo himself predicts he is not finished yet, stating: “In terms of individual achievements I’m going to try to break my own records. I know it’s tough, but I’m going to try.”

Indeed, it seems a decent bet that this season, both Ronaldo and Messi will shoot past the all-time tournament record of 71, held by Real’s former immaculate marksman, Raul.

Traditionalists may pine for the days before the occasionally less than gripping group stages when a big fish could be netted early in a straight knockout competition.

Yet there is always room for a major casualty to go tumbling before the end of the year.

Bayern Munich and Manchester City, the champions of Germany and England respectively, meet on Wednesday for the third tournament out of four and have to repel both Serie A runners-up AS Roma and Russian champions CSKA Moscow in a highly competitive Group E.

A couple of other Anglo-German clashes – Arsenal renewing familiar rivalry at Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea hosting Schalke 04 – may be the pick of the other opening round games.

For a bit of romance, though, look no further than Anfield where the returning five-times champions Liverpool will play host to the unsung Bulgarian side Ludogorets and their amazed new celebrity, Cosmin Moti.

Defender Moti was the unlikely hero who, pressed into emergency action as substitute goalkeeper in Ludogorets’ qualifying playoff against Steaua Bucharest, scored one and saved two in his side’s victorious shootout.

“Everything in football is possible,” said the man who had laughed that Steaua’s penalty takers could not possibly know what he was going to do because he did not know himself.

With Ludogorets’ first-choice keeper Vladislav Stoyanov suspended, their coach Georgi Dermendzhiev suggested, perhaps only half in jest, that Moti might end up in goal at Anfield.

It would not be just Liverpool’s Kop, who have long believed in Champions League fairytales, but the entire tournament which would adore that.

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Depth and unselfish nature carry Team USA

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Basketball World Cup 2014

By Larry Fine

A spate of late withdrawals, a serious injury to Paul George and several marquee names missing appeared to put Team USA under a cloud for the 2014 Basketball World Cup and for future international competition.

Instead, a group of sharp-shooting NBA regulars were unbeaten in Spain and produced a 129-92 victory over Serbia in the final to underline the depth the US have at their disposal.

Stalwarts LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul were missing from the initial training camp, with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love and Blake Griffin bowing out late in the process before Indiana forward George broke his leg in training and could now miss the NBA season.

Instead, James Harden, Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson and Kenneth Faried, who along with dynamic guards Steph Curry and Kyrie Irving, were blended into a band of brothers by coach Mike Krzyzewski and his staff.

Krzyzewski, however, did not see it as an onerous task to customise and then build a team for the competition.

“There’s always a different team,” he said of USA Basketball’s strategic plan to pick from an enlarged roster for international competitions.

“We had a different team in Beijing. We had 12 different players in Istanbul, we had five guys from the Olympics and five from the world championships in London.

“Here we have four guys who have been at least on one of the teams and the rest are new. That’s just what’s going to happen in our program.”

UNSELFISH NATURE

Bereft of iconic scorers, the team had to share the ball with Harden, the top U.S. scorer with an average of 14.2 points, the 18th best in the competition.

Thompson averaged 12.7, Faried 12.4 and Davis 12.3, while the backcourt of Irving and Curry contributed 12.1 and 10.7, respectively, for a well balanced, unselfish team that also shared minutes to stay fresh and aggressive.

The U.S. still averaged more than 104 points in an unbeaten 9-0 run to gold, topping the team scoring by more than 21 points per game.

Krzyzewski said they needed to be team focused given how competitive their opposition was – pointing to Olympic silver medallists Spain, who boasted NBA players Pau and Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka and Ricky Rubio yet did not make the semi-finals – to illustrate the point.

“We know how good everyone is,” he said after the final.

“I don’t think any gap has been widened. I don’t think there’s a gap.

“Spain is a magnificent team and it just takes one bad day, so what we’re trying to do is make sure we don’t have bad days.”

TUMULTUOUS RUN-UP

The team could have experienced bad days given their tumultuous run-up to the tournament, which had observers questioning the commitment of U.S. players to the World Cup, while even NBA Commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged that to Americans, the Olympics were far more important.

“There’s no question that the Olympics has been historically a bigger event,” Silver told reporters before an exhibition game at Madison Square Garden before they left for Spain.

After the sickening injury to George, which led to Durant dropping out, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban railed about risks taken by NBA teams in supplying players for events where the proceeds are pocketed by international organizations.

Silver acknowledged the debate would be renewed at the next NBA owners’ meetings.

“I do anticipate that it’ll be a hot topic at the competition meeting and at the Board of Governors meeting, just because it always has been,” said Silver.

Silver said that while stakes were high for the league, so were the benefits to players and to growing the game globally.

Silver stressed it was a personal decision for players, who under the current agreement can choose to play so long as there is not an injury concern by his NBA team.

“They come out better young men as a result of having participated in these events,” asserted Silver.

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Hourican believes Cyprus bail-in was an injustice

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Bank of Cyprus Chief Executive John Hourican

By Jean Christou

The recent injection of €1 billion into the Bank of Cyprus (BoC) has taken  discussion about the bank away from whether the bank will survive to  ‘how valuable is this bank? , CEO John Hourican has said.

In an interview with the Sunday Times in Dublin, Hourican recounted the partly-stormy shareholders meeting in August where he had to make an impassioned plea that it was not about foreigners coming to loot the banks, but a vote of confidence from some of the most sophisticated investors in the world. It was something to “celebrate, not denigrate”, he told the Times.

The recapitalisation of what the newspaper described as “Europe’s most knackered bank” was a considerable notch in Hourican’s belt, less than a year after he took up the job. Hourcian had previously been head of investment banking at RBS where he became “a politically trussed up and highly paid sacrifical lamb in the Libor rigging scandal in which he played no part”.

Six months later he found himself in Cyprus at the helm of BoC and has no regrets, saying the job appeals to the “contrarian” in him.

He said his decision was partly driven by the injustice of the bail-in.

“I think the bail-in of depositors was a very aggressive act towards a small nation that had sat within the protection of a larger federation,” he says. “I felt the country had been poorly treated.”

Hourcian told the Times he had set “an ambitious target of declaring war on all fronts”, cutting jobs, selling loans and radically altering the culture of the bank including setting up a restructuring and recovery unit.

He said a bank in Ukraine has been sold, loan books in Britain, Serbia and Romanis were also on the block.  BoC’s Russian bank is not up for sale, but Hourican said BoC was not a natural owner.

He said he has cut 1,000 staff there but Russia and the CIS were still important to Cyprus, which he said had earned “an unwarranted reputation”, particularly from sections of the German media.

Anti-money-laundering protocols were “of the highest international
standards” at the bank, he said.

Hourcian, 44, is paid €800,000 a year, and no bonuses or share options.
“I wanted it that way,” he said. He was also full of praise for the government, the president, the minister of finance and central bankers.

“They are “very principled, very patriotic and very straightforward,” he said.

Hourcian said BoC was only now starting to address its non-performing loans. “There was a certain absence of moral hazard,” he said, adding that the new laws should reduce foreclosures to two years.

When Hourcian took up the BoC challenge, he said it looked like a three to five-year job but with the early share capital rise, the timetable had changed but there was still work to be done, he said.

“I will probably know [when to go] when I know,” he said.

 

 

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A conversation between friends

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By Alix Norman

Chamber music was once famously described by the late great author Catherine Drinker Bowen as “a conversation between friends”. With its smaller groupings – both in terms of performers and audience members – and oft informal staging (‘chamber’ refers to the size of the room in which the music would originally have been played) this is a genre which allows for an intimacy one doesn’t experience with larger orchestras and massive concert halls. There’s something exquisitely cosy and inviting about a small group of musicians working in perfect harmony, and perhaps it’s this that makes the genre so popular on our island: we’re naturally attuned – pardon the pun – to a smaller society and amiable gatherings of friends. From the musical stylings of the Brentano Quartet to the world famous Pharos Chamber Music Festival, Cyprus is truly embracing chamber music in all its glory. Which is why this week’s recitals are sure to be a hit.

With two appearances over the coming week, Raskin and Fleischmann are one of chamber music’s rising violinist/ pianist duos, frequently playing venues in all four corners of the world. Last month saw the talented pair jet from Oaxaca in Mexico to Los Angeles, before returning to Europe to perform at the Brahms Museum in Austria, and their punishing schedule includes appearances in the coming months as far afield as Tokyo and Nairobi. In great demand, these two have made a real name for themselves, collecting accolades and prizes wherever they go. All the more surprising when one discovers they’ve been playing together for less than four years.

Having met in August 2009 during the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades, Johannes Fleischmann (violin) and Philippe Raskin (piano) are both young virtuosos when it comes to their chosen genre. Both in their early thirties, these handsome young chaps are already taking the world of chamber music by storm, a testament perhaps to their extreme talent and utter dedication to their craft.

Born in Brussels in 1982, Raskin obtained his first degree with the highest honours from the Royal Conservatorium of Brussels, studying under Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden before joining the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and then receiving his Masters degree from the Brussels Conservatorium. Having worked with some of the most notable musical names of our time, this talented pianist has won several national and international competitions, among them the JS Bach Competition in Brussels, the International Piano Competition in Paris, and the International Andre Dumortier Competition, as well as being a prizewinner at the Lyon International Piano Competition and First Prize-winner at the ‘Spanish Composers’ International Piano Competition in Madrid. Having played in many of the best known concert halls around the world (including the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Concertgebouw in Bruges, and the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid) Raskin also regularly performs solo recitals, both in his homeland of Belgium and abroad, and has made a name for himself with several world premieres from contemporary composers.

Violinist Fleischmann, meanwhile, is no less accomplished: as the son of well-known singing teacher Margit Klaushofer, his musical path to greatness seemed almost predestined. At a young age, he entered the Wiener Universität für Musik (working with Klaus Maetzi and Christian Altenburger amongst others) and has since been a regular participant in many of the greatest international music festivals, as well as gracing such venues as the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Barbican Hall in London, and Milan’s La Scala with his brilliant talents.

And yet, despite their illustrious individual careers, it’s ultimately their paring as Raskin and Fleischmann that has given the duo the recognition they truly deserve. With their debut album (featuring works by Beethoven, Brahms and Franck) released in November 2011 to great acclaim, the two have been described in the press as a ‘magnificent duo’, frequently in demand for their ‘perfect intonation and bright sonorities’. All the more fortunate for us, then, that they’ve included little chamber music-loving Cyprus in their jet-setting schedule.

Brought to our shores by the Austrian Embassy Nicosia in collaboration with the Municipalities of Limassol and Paphos and Pafos 2017, the renowned duo will be performing twice this week, in a programme that includes works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Christoph Ehrenfellner and Richard Strauss. So why not pop along to what promise to be stellar performances from this most talented of pairings, and experience a sparkling evening of chamber music at its best: a ‘conversation between friends’…

Raskin and Fleischmann
Monday, September 15 at the Rialto Theatre in Limassol and on Wednesday, September 17 at the Makideio Theatre in Paphos. Both recitals start at 8.30pm. Tickets cost €10 / €15 and may be purchased from each specific venue by calling 77777745 (Rialto Theatre Limassol) or 26932571 (Markideio Theatre Paphos). All proceeds will be donated to the Municipal Social Markets of Limassol and Paphos

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Film review: Into The Storm ***

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By Preston Wilder

What a difference 18 years makes. Back in 1996, Twister featured people so insane that they actually chose to get close, dangerously close, to tornadoes – but at least those people were scientists, risking life and limb for our collective betterment. The heroes of Into the Storm, on the other hand, are filmmakers, tornado hunters like the ones on Discovery Channel, going in close for our collective entertainment. And it’s not just the pros, either. We open on a quartet of dumb high-school kids, caught in the path of an approaching tornado. One of the kids has a camera, and films the devastation as the twister blows out street lamps, one by one, coming towards them like a slavering monster – but he can’t stop filming as the tornado gets closer … and closer … and then it’s too late.

Everyone’s making movies in Into the Storm. Moody teen Donnie and his brother Trey are filming the high-school graduation and making a “time capsule montage” to be viewed in 25 years, asking everyone to send a message to their future self. Donnie’s crush Kaitlyn is working on a video project about the old paper mill on the outskirts of town. A couple of local rednecks are shooting Jackass-type vids – “Amateur Daredevil, 302 YouTube hits” reads the introductory caption – then bedeck their truck with “Twista Hunterz” and set out to go viral. And of course we have the actual twister-hunters, led by hard-headed Pete who’s obsessed with capturing the eye of the cyclone, “a sight nobody but God has witnessed”.

All this is important, or at least deliberate. Any film that begins with the line “You’d better not be filming us” has an obvious subject, viz. the modern mania for recording everything. Don’t get me wrong: Into the Storm is pure pulp, a chance to see little-known actors battle special effects, but it’s nice to know that it’s trying to say something. There’s a mordant comedy at work when Donnie and Kaitlyn are trapped under the rubble at the hurricane-flattened mill, on their way to a watery grave as their shelter slowly gets flooded – and take the opportunity to shoot a little farewell video, saying goodbye to Mum and Dad as the water rises up to their chin. “Live every day as if it were your last,” Donnie advises his video audience with a straight face. “Because one day it will be.”

The tornadoes are a kind of wake-up call, making everyone focus on living through the experience instead of recording it (and focus on the here-and-now instead of thinking about 25 years later). The tornadoes are also magnificent, whip-like white funnels with a brown sludgy maelstrom – the swirling remnants of trees and houses – at their base. They travel in packs (“Two … three … four … shit, they’re everywhere!”), super-tornadoes caused by climate change, homicidal freaks like the mutant sharks in Deep Blue Sea. One of them slurps a pool of spilled petrol that’s been set alight, going up in a column of fire. They snatch jumbo jets off a runway, floating them surreally through the air.

‘So the special effects are good then?’ shrugs the jaded audience – and yes, I realise this is all expensive fakery done on corporate computers; no actual tornadoes were harmed in the making of this picture. Still, Into the Storm is refreshingly simple, a fun slab of hokum clocking in just shy of 90 minutes – and, with so many cases when simple things are done badly in Hollywood, it seems only right to give credit when simple things are done well, or at least effectively. It’s a bored viewer indeed who won’t feel anything when Gary (the boys’ dad) tries to keep his grip on a car door while also grabbing hold of Amanda (the storm chasers’ token female), both of them lifted clear off the ground and barely able to hang on as 200-mile winds stretch them tight as a clothes-line.

I haven’t named any of the actors, because I didn’t recognise any of them. Most are apparently TV faces (though Richard Armitage, who plays Gary, is also in The Hobbit) – and you may want to deduct a star from that rating if you’ve been tornado’d out by TV shows, though I doubt the likes of Stormchasers have the slight ambivalence you’ll find in Into the Storm. This is a film where the grandeur of Nature is in inverse proportion to the foolishness of humans, blind to danger whether it comes from tornadoes or global warming. The two rednecks put it best, the indestructible spirit of human idiocy, blithely getting themselves in the twister’s path or just hanging out to gawp at the action: “Grab a brew! It’s like a zombie apocalypse out there!”. Ten thousand YouTube hits, easy.

 

DIRECTED BY Steven Quale

STARRING Richard Armitage, Sarah Wayne Callies, Matt Walsh

US 2014                    89 mins

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Green light for civil service strike

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PASIDY's Glafcos Hadjipetrou

By Constantinos Psillides

PUBLIC sector union PASYDY ratified on Monday the decision to stage a day strike on Friday, following an extraordinary meeting of the union’s executive committee, with union boss

Glafcos Hadjipetrou stressing that he will not negotiate with the government under any circumstances.

PASYDY is protesting the government’s plan to tax public servants’ retirement bonuses.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades has also talked of turning the recent salary cuts imposed on government employees into permanent reductions.

Other unions are also expected to ratify the decision for a one day strike, with teachers’ union OELMEK and POED are expected to follow suit.

SEK, whose members are mostly semi-governmental employees-  decided instead to go for a 3 hour strike on Friday, from 7.30am to 10.30am. SEK boss Andreas Ilia told the press that his union instead opted for a 3 hour warning strike so as not to cause any troubles for the public.

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Cypriot tennis player wins U18 Canadian World Ranking Event

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Cypriot tennis player Petros Chrysochos has won the Under 18 Canadian World Ranking Event, in Montreal.
He beat South Korean Yunseong Chung 5-7, 6-0, 7-5 sets, a Cyprus Tennis Federation press release says. The young Cypriot completes his effort for the under 18s having managed to secure a spot close to the top 20 in world rankings.

In the coming months Chrysochos will be taking part in Challenger tournaments to start gaining points in the men’s category.

He won his first professional ATP futures tournament in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt without dropping a set which saw him debuting at 860 in the world on the professional ATP world rankings.

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