Quantcast
Channel: Cyprus Mail
Viewing all 6907 articles
Browse latest View live

President hopes to exit bailout programme by end of 2015

0
0
President Anastasiades with members of the Greek Cypriot Brotherhood

President of the Republic of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades has expressed hope that Cyprus will be able to exit the bailout programme by the end of 2015.

Speaking at an event hosted in his honour in London by the Greek Cypriot Brotherhood, President Anastasiades also referred to the Cyprus problem, saying that it was necessary to enter a substantive dialogue in order to reach a settlement.

Referring to the economy, the President said that ‘if all goes as planned, I would like to say, without any exaggeration or unfounded optimism, that I hope that before the end of 2015 we will be in a position to exit the memorandum, to stand on our own feet, as long as we understand that the contribution of everyone in these crucial times is valuable’.

President Anastasiades also referred to the recapitalisation of the banks with foreign investments and the positive consecutive assessments by rating agencies.

Regarding the Cyprus issue, President Anastasiades said the Greek Cypriots are the victims of the 1974 Turkish invasion and continuing occupation of Cyprus’ northern part, adding that it was necessary to enter a substantive dialogue to solve the problem.

President Anastasiades also referred to the work of overseas Cypriots and congratulated the Greek Cypriot Brotherhood on the occasion of its 80th anniversary.

He also said he was touched by the Brotherhood`s gesture to proclaim him its patron, and assured that the government would always support the Cypriot community in the UK.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Talks are currently underway under UN auspices between the two sides, with an aim to reunify the country under a federal roof.

Cyprus agreed with its international lenders, collectively known as the Troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, a €10 billion bailout. So far the country has received five tranches amounting to €5.77 billion from the EU and the IMF. The sixth tranche amounts to €436 million (€350 million from the ESM and €86 million from the IMF).

CNA

Send to Kindle

Afghanistan’s presidential rivals sign deal for power-sharing government

0
0
Afghan rival presidential candidates Abdullah Abdullah (L) and Ashraf Ghani exchange signed agreements for the country's unity government in Kabul

By Hamid Shalizi and Jessica Donati

Afghanistan’s rival presidential candidates signed a deal on Sunday to share power after months of turmoil over a disputed election that destabilised the nation at a crucial time as most foreign troops prepare to leave.

Ashraf Ghani, a former finance minister who will be named president under the deal reached on Saturday night, embraced rival Abdullah Abdullah after they signed the agreement in a ceremony broadcast live on television.

The new administration faces huge challenges in fighting an emboldened Taliban-led insurgency and paying its bills amid plummeting tax revenue.

It will also face significant difficulty in improving the lives of ordinary Afghans who face hard times as aid flows fall and as contracts with the NATO-led coalition dry up as most foreign troops leave by the end of the year.

The power-sharing deal was signed even though the final results of a hotly contested June 14 run-off vote have yet to be released. The signing ceremony took place at the presidential palace still occupied by outgoing leader Hamid Karzai.

Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Faizi said Ghani is expected to be sworn in as president within a week. He said one of Ghani’s first acts would be to sign a long-delayed bilateral security agreement with the United States to allow a small force of foreign troops to remain in Afghanistan after 2014.

The deal, brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, was swiftly welcomed by Washington.

“This agreement marks an important opportunity for unity and increased stability in Afghanistan,” said a statement issued by the office of the White House Press Secretary.

“We continue to call on all Afghans – including political, religious, and civil society leaders – to support this agreement and to come together in calling for cooperation and calm.”

It will also come as a relief for Afghans, who have watched the tortuous process play out since they first voted in April.

The drawn-out election was meant to mark the first democratic transfer of power in Afghanistan’s troubled history but the disputes between Ghani and Abdullah, a former foreign minister, ruined hopes for a smooth transition.

Karzai has ruled since soon after the Taliban government was ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.

The uncertainty surrounding the political transition emboldened the Taliban-led insurgency to launch more attacks across Afghanistan, just as the newly trained Afghan security forces prepare to lead the fight against the militants on their own after foreign troops withdraw.

Ghani and Abdullah finally struck a power-sharing deal on Saturday, their aides said. As part of that deal, the winner would become the new president and the runner-up would nominate a chief executive with newly expanded powers.

Teams from the Ghani and Abdullah camps met late into Saturday night to try to finalise the power-sharing deal before the planned release of results of a U.N.-monitored audit of all 8 million ballots cast in the June run-off.

The Independent Election Commission had said it would announce the final results of the recount later on Sunday. However, no announcement had been scheduled by midday (0730 GMT), and commission members could not be reached for comment.

One of the last sticking points in the power-sharing negotiations was how to announce the election results. Abdullah had sought to either not announce the final tally – which he considers irrevocably tainted by fraud despite the U.N. audit – or to adjust the numbers to give him more votes.

Both sides said late on Saturday that the dispute over announcing results had been resolved but it was still unclear exactly what had been agreed upon.

Send to Kindle

Taliban reject Afghan unity government pact as U.S. ‘sham’

0
0
Afghan Presidential candidates Ashraf Ghani (R) talks with outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai as Abdullah Abdullah looks on, during a ceremony to form a unity government in Kabul

By Hamid Shalizi

Afghanistan’s Taliban militants on Monday decried a pact by rival election candidates to form a government of national unity as a “sham” orchestrated by the United States and they vowed to press on with their war.

Former finance minister Ashraf Ghani was named president-elect on Sunday after he signed a deal to share power with his opponent, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, ending months of turmoil that has destabilised the country as most foreign troops prepare to leave.

Ghani’s administration must now not only forge an effective government after so much acrimony, amid doubts about how long the pact will last, but must also deal with an emboldened Taliban insurgency.

Ghani was scheduled to hold his first news briefing as president-elect later on Monday.

The Taliban have been fighting to oust U.S.-led foreign forces and their spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, rejected the national unity government pact as an unacceptable ploy orchestrated by their enemy.

“Installing Ashraf Ghani and forming a bogus administration will never be acceptable to the Afghans,” Mujahid said in a statement emailed to journalists.

“The Americans must understand that our soil and land belong to us and all decisions and agreements are made by Afghans, not by the U.S. foreign secretary or ambassador,” he said.

“We reject this American process and vow to continue our jihad until we free our nation from occupation and until we pave the way for a pure Islamic government.”

The Taliban ruled Afghanistan with their extreme interpretation of sharia law for five years before being toppled in 2001 with American support over their sheltering of al Qaeda’s leaders after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

Nearly 13 years later, the United States and sharia lawhave separately attempted to start peace talks with the resurgent Taliban, but they have seen little progress.

The United States strongly pushed for the power-sharing deal between Ghani and Abdullah in order to prevent the election dispute from descending into deadlock and even violence between supporters of the candidates, who draw their support from ethnic groups that fought a civil war in the 1990s.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned the rival candidates for weeks to coax them towards compromise and President Barack Obama also made appeals for a unity government deal.

SECURITY PACT

A senior U.S. official said that Ghani and Abdullah, both pro-Western technocrats with similar political platforms, would be able to come together for the sake of the country despite the bitterness of the last two months.

Under the terms of the unity deal, Ghani will share power with a chief executive proposed by Abdullah. The two will share control over who leads key institutions such as the army and other executive decisions.

Ghani is expected to be sworn in as president on Sept. 29, according to a senior official. The new chief executive is expected to be inaugurated at the same time.

One of Ghani’s first acts is likely to be to sign a long-delayed security agreement with the United States. He has previously declared support for the pact to allow a small force of foreign troops to remain in Afghanistan after 2014.

Many people in Kabul fear instability could be exploited by the Taliban, who have made significant gains in the south and east, taking advantage of gaps in U.S. air support this summer fighting season.

A U.S. official in Kabul said the deal to end the election dispute was far from ideal, but preferable to many alternatives that could pose a greater threat to stability.

Some Afghans worry that the competing interests of powers that seek influence in their country – including Iran, Pakistan and India – may play into how the U.S.-brokered deal works out, a complaint often raised by outgoing President Karzai.

“Afghanistan’ enemies and neighbouring countries … are waiting to see if this agreement brings a crisis,” said Kabul member of parliament Qurban Ali Erfani, listing enemies as “the Taliban, some foreigners and our neighbouring countries”.

Send to Kindle

Qatar will not host World Cup – FIFA’s Zwanziger

0
0
FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter expects 2022 World Cup to be in winter

The 2022 World Cup will not be held in Qatar because of the scorching temperatures in the Middle East country, FIFA Executive Committee member Theo Zwanziger said on Monday.

“I personally think that in the end the 2022 World Cup will not take place in Qatar,” the German told Sport Bild on Monday.

“Medics say that they cannot accept responsibility with a World Cup taking place under these conditions,” the former German football (DFB) chief, who is now a member of the world soccer’s governing body FIFA that awarded the tournament to Qatar in 2010.

Although wealthy Qatar has insisted that a summer World Cup is viable thanks to cooling technologies it is developing for stadiums, training areas and fan zones, there is still widespread concern over the health of the players and visiting supporters.

“They may be able to cool the stadiums but a World Cup does not take place only there,” Zwanziger said.

“Fans from around the world will be coming and travelling in this heat and the first life-threatening case will trigger an investigation by a state prosecutor.

“That is not something that FIFA Exco members want to answer for.”

FIFA officials, contacted by Reuters, said Zwanziger was not giving the view of the all powerful Executive Committee.

“He is expressing a personal opinion and he explicitly says so,” FIFA spokewoman Delia Fischer said. “We will not comment on a personal opinion.”

FIFA President Sepp Blatter said in May that awarding the World Cup to Qatar was a ‘mistake’ and the tournament would probably have to be held in the European winter.

“Of course, it was a mistake. You know, one comes across a lot of mistakes in life,” he told Swiss television station RTS in an interview at the time.

“The Qatar technical report indicated clearly that it is too hot in summer, but the executive committee with quite a big majority decided all the same that the tournament would be in Qatar,” he added.

FIFA is now looking to shift the tournament to a European winter date to avoid the scorching summer where temperatures routinely rise over 40 Celsius.

Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa chaired a meeting to discuss the matter earlier this month with the options of January/February 2022 and November/December 2022 offered as alternatives to June/July.

However, talk of a potential change away from the usual dates has resulted in plenty of opposition from domestic leagues around the world, worried the schedule switch would severely disrupt them.

Both FIFA and Qatar World Cup organisers have also been fending off questions of corruption ever since they were awarded the tournament back in 2010, while Qatar has also been criticised for the conditions provided for migrant workers’ in the tiny Gulf state.

Send to Kindle

Love, sex and sausages

0
0
whatson feature

By Alix Norman

If there’s one thing we could all do with more of it’s a good laugh. When times are tough and the future is uncertain nothing is going to make you feel that bit better more than a jolly good giggle, and whether you’re being regaled with anecdotes by a gang of friends, having your fancy tickled by one-liners or even gasping with laughter over the latest YouTube ‘Fail’, laughter really is the best medicine. Which is why we should probably all be getting ourselves down to the western end of the island in the next few weeks because Rubber Ear Productions is coming to Cyprus.

Even if you’re not familiar with their work, the name Rubber Ear is suggestive in itself; you’d certainly be right in thinking that this isn’t an outfit that makes its living from Shakespearian tragedies. Set up by actress and writer Kathleen Ruddy in 1995 as a vehicle for really good comedy, Rubber Ear has produced some of the most memorable plays to grace the boards both in Cyprus and abroad. Cast your mind back to 2003 and you may recall the sell-out hit Sex, Chips and Ouzo – one of Kathleen’s first forays into the Cyprus market – which delighted audiences to such an extent that succeeding years saw another two highly successful island tours, followed by an award-winning run at the Edinburgh Fringe and a full-length feature currently in the pipeline.

Then there’s The Devil Wears Primark, a fantastically witty take on the Cypriot mother-in-law, which toured island-wide in 2012. And Check Your Coupon, described by The Glasgow Herald as “a pure belter of a comedy”, and Glasgow Hard Tickets, which the Mail on Sunday defined as “hard-boiled wit, fun and well-directed by the author”. There’s a pattern developing here, as you can see: Rubber Ear is a byword for the finest in laugh-till-you-cry, tell-all-your-friends theatre.Which is why we’re giving you fair warning of their upcoming production, Spare Ribs.

Though there’s over ten days till opening night, you’re definitely going to want to book your tickets now. Yes, NOW; if previous productions are anything to go by this is going to be sold out in the blink of an eye. A rip-roaring play by all accounts, Spare Ribs is the tale of pensionier Rita O’Hagan, who’s “full of mince, loaded with alcohol and past her sell-by date”. The storyline sees our protagonist co-opt best friend Nancy and pregnant teenager Maggie into her various schemes. Not only does she want revenge on her estranged husband Frank (who’s run off with both the bacon slicer and her award-winning sausage recipe), but she’s also struggling to survive the horsemeat crisis… all while attempting to put the only female-run Irish Butcher back on the map and win the coveted ‘Best National Sausage’ trophy.

The challenges may seem insurmountable, but the trio of wily women are thrown a lifeline when a misprint in the local paper changes their fortunes. And soon, they’re using their feminine guile to lure in a different kind of customer”. Intriguing to say the least, especially in that the tagline for the play proposes ‘there’s nothing like your first cut’. And thus, the scene is set for three ‘spare ribs’ as they embark on their feel-good, comedic journey of love, sex and sausage.

There’s little doubt Spare Ribs is going to be another massive hit with island audiences. Joining Kathleen on stage will be award-winning star of stage and screen Mark McDonnell, John Ritchie (returning to the island for a second time after his skilful portrayal of a corrupt politician with a penchant for baby food in Death Of A Playboy) and Anne Doyle (holder of a first-class honours degree in acting from Kingston University, and much-lauded star of innumerable theatrical works).

So, what are you waiting for? We could all do with an evening of riotous enjoyment during these troubled times, and there truly is nothing like a great laugh for making us see things in a better light. If you’ve been to a Rubber Ear production before, you know just what a great night out this is going to be. And if you haven’t, you’re in for a real treat. Put your worries aside, and pick up the phone. Because those tickets are going to disappear faster than hot cakes. Or spare ribs.

Spare Ribs
A comedy by Kathleen Ruddy. Performances on October 1, October 2 and October 3 at Horizon Crown Resorts Hotel, Coral Bay, Peyia; October 4 at Pissouri Amphitheatre, Pissouri Village; October 5 at Paphos Ancient Odeon, Kato Paphos. All performances begin at 8pm. Tickets available from Horizon Crown Resorts Hotel (26 813800), Cartridge World Paphos and Limassol (77777785), Pissouri Bay Divers, Pissouri Bay (96 530761, 99 030341), The Wardrobe, Episkopi Village, Limassol (99 582302) and from Episkopi and Akrotiri HIVES. For further information call Rubber Ear Productions on 99069074 / 99908434 or email rubber.ear@live.com. Updates on the Spare Ribs Cyprus tour can be found on the company blog: rubberear.wordpress.com and on their Facebook page: facebook.com/groups/SpareRibsCyprus

Send to Kindle

Film review: Boyhood ****

0
0
06

By Preston Wilder

Everyone needs to see Boyhood. Any review must begin by acknowledging the once-in-a-lifetime nature of this totally unique movie. Seeing a person grow up on screen isn’t entirely unprecedented; it happens with all long-running TV shows and, for instance, if you binge-watched one episode from each of the 11 seasons of Married With Children you’d see Bud and Kelly grow up in a similar way to Mason (Ellar Coltrane) in Boyhood. What’s new, however, is a film where growing up is the whole point, and ‘plot’ consists of the many small incidents and occasional milestones on a boy’s journey to manhood.

This is one of the greatest film ideas ever conceived (it was shot over a period of 12 years, with cast and crew reuniting for a couple of weeks each year). The passage of time always gets me in movies – I recall sitting stone-faced and impatient through the recent True Grit remake, then totally losing it when grown-up Mattie showed up in the epilogue – so a film where the passage of time is the actual subject seemed a surefire emotional sledgehammer. In the event, Boyhood left me surprisingly unmoved – yet it’s stuck in my mind in the days since, if only by virtue of uniqueness. Like I say, everyone should see this movie.

Mason starts off small, flaxen-haired and a little dreamy; the dreaminess remains even later, as he turns into a tall, gawky teenager, though its focus changes. As a child, he worries about elves and magic. “Dad, there’s no, like, real magic in the world, right?” he asks solemnly. “Like, elves and stuff? People just made that up, right?”. Dad (Ethan Hawke) sees the opportunity for a teachable moment, and points out that natural wonders – a whale, say – are just as magical in their own way, but Mason won’t be dissuaded: “Yeah but, right this second, there’s no elves in the world – right?”. Years later, the boy (now almost a man) is still worrying about the lack of magic in the world – all those people turning into robots, glued to screens, stuck “in an in-between state, not really experiencing anything”.

Mason is sensitive; he, like the film, is alive to the larger forces in the world as day follows day in our humdrum human lives (the very first shot has him looking up at the sky). Unsurprisingly, he grows up to be an artist (a photographer) – though in fact he’s not quite formed as we leave him two-and-a-half hours later, at 18, newly arrived in college and sitting on a rock with a girl he’s just met, talking about Life in general. We’re always told to seize the moment, she points out, but it’s like the moment seizes us. Yeah, he agrees: “It’s like it’s always right now, y’know?”.

That’s the theme, that’s the film’s whole message: Life is a collection of moments, and we live in the present without grasping the bigger picture as we get older, then old, then vanish. The same thing applies when it comes to finding one’s identity (as Mason must do, like all children): people keep telling our hero to be this or that – more decisive, more responsible, less gloomy – but in fact he can only be himself. We see him changing, but he doesn’t see it. Lack of self-awareness is a fact of life, and a constant undertow in Boyhood. Divorced, insecure Mum (Patricia Arquette) keeps making the same mistakes, dating drunken bullies. Dad is passive-aggressive, using his time with the kids to seduce them with lullabies (“Your mother’s got a new husband now / He seems all right…”).

Boyhood, too, seems only half-aware of how conceited Hawke’s character is (though it does show him letting his son down occasionally); indeed, all these characters seemed a bit annoying, their mannerisms and locutions vaguely grating to this non-American. The little kids are cute, doing cute things like watching their folks through toy binoculars. The teenagers are languid to the point of self-parody. And the whole film seems so nice, a veritable epic of niceness! There are hard times, to be sure – most obviously a stepdad who goes from petty fault-finder to abusive alcoholic – but the rhythm is soothing and lulling, almost everyone is patient and soft-spoken, everything enfolded in the film’s stoic objectivity. Kids grow up. Time passes. Bush turns to Obama, Harry Potter gives way to Kurt Vonnegut.

Maybe Boyhood isn’t such a great film idea, after all. Maybe the passage of time is only devastating when it blindsides you, like it does in the epilogue of True Grit. Watching a boy grow up merely illustrates how ordinary the process is – but maybe that’s the idea, breaking through the mystery to convey something profound about Life’s true texture, its deceptively even flow. “I just thought there would be more,” says Mason towards the end – and so did I, but presumably that’s my problem. Everyone needs to see this movie.

 

DIRECTED BY Richard Linklater

STARRING Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke

US 2014                                   165 mins

Send to Kindle

S.Africa says death toll in Nigerian building collapse rises to 115

0
0
Photo archive: Lagos

The death toll from the collapse of a church guesthouse in Lagos has risen to 115, South African minister Jeff Radebe said on Monday, urging the heavily-criticised Nigerian government to investigate the “tragedy”.

Minister in the Presidency Radebe said 84 South Africans who were part of visiting church groups had died in the Sept. 12 incident. He was speaking at an air force base north of Johannesburg where 25 South Africans who were injured returned for treatment.

Nigerian emergency services said the total death toll was 86.

Send to Kindle

New €10 note comes into circulation

0
0
new10eurore_HR

A new €10 note will go into circulation on Tuesday, the Central Bank (CBC) said, which is more resistant to counterfeiting and easy to check.

The €10 banknote of the Europa series will enter into circulation on September 23 2014.

“It’s essential that everyone who uses euro banknotes can continue to do so with complete confidence. That’s why we’re introducing the Europa series,” said Yves Mersch, the European Central Bank’s Executive Board member responsible for banknotes.

Like the new €5, the new €10 has several enhanced security features as well as a fresh look.

Its hologram and watermark include a portrait of Europa, a figure from Greek mythology.

It also has an “emerald number”. When tilted, the shiny number displays an effect of the light that moves up and down, and also changes colour from emerald green to deep blue.

With these features and others, the new €10 is very easy to check using the “feel, look and tilt” method.

The €10 banknotes of the first series will continue to be issued in order to use up stocks.

They will circulate alongside the Europa series €10 before being phased out later on and eventually ceasing to be legal tender.

This change in their status will be announced well in advance.
A video entitled “Discover the new €10 banknote”, available at www.new-euro-banknotes.eu in 23 European Union languages, provides further information on the new note and how to check it.

It is one of several cash-related videos on the website, which also offers other ways of learning about the banknotes, such as the “Euro Cash Academy”.

Send to Kindle

Concert for animal shelters

0
0
ANIMAL PARTY

A concert to help animal shelters with the participation of 40 artists is being organised by the Animal Party of Cyprus on September 28 in Limassol.

“Proceedings will be used for the stray, abused, abandoned, voiceless,” the party said.

The concert is free of charge but donations such as pet food will be welcomed. There will also be coupons of €5 and €10 that people can buy to help raise funds.

The concert will take place at the Enaerios parking lot at 6pm.

For more information: 99146852, 99649339 and www.animalpartycyprus.org

 

Send to Kindle

New tax tsar appointed

0
0
TAX

The House Finance Committee on Monday approved the appointment of the tax tsar and his deputy.

Yiannakis Lazarou, a state attorney, was appointed to head the new department, a merger between inland revenue and VAT departments.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said it would take a couple of years for full operational integration.

The minister said a management unit for large taxpayers would be up and running by the end of the year.

The single tax authority will comprise a tax commissioner and deputy commissioners, to be hired on five-year contracts with an option for a five-year renewal.

Integration of the two departments was a condition set by Cyprus’ international lenders as part of structural changes aimed at streamlining public administration.

Under the terms of the bailout, Cyprus must “reform the revenue administration with the objective to reinforce the efficiency and effectiveness of revenue collection capacity and the fight against tax fraud and evasion, with a view to increasing fiscal revenue.”

The reforms include a programme of short-term measures to enhance compliance, efficiency and effectiveness as well as a comprehensive long-term reform covering risk management and the establishment of a new integrated function-based tax administration structure.

 

Send to Kindle

APOEL continue winning start to the season

0
0
apoelriise

By Iacovos Constantinou

Joan Tomas’s first half strike was enough to give AEK Larnaca all three points against Omonia while APOEL continued their winning start with a comfortable 3-1 against Ayia Napa.

In front of just 3.500 fans Omonia produced their worst display of the season and were inflicted with their first (home) defeat.

The goal came in AEK’s first attacking foray just before the half hour mark. Tomas received the ball on the edge of the box and unleashed an unstoppable shot past Moreira, the Omonia keeper.
Omonia tried to up the tempo in the second half and missed a couple of chances through Pote and Grigalashvili.

However it is worth noting that Omonia had just five attempts on goal and none were on target. Their coach Kaiafas admitted that his team’s performance was woeful but said that with two games coming up in quick succession they will have to put this game behind them.

Ermis Aradippou produced an excellent performance and deservedly defeated Anorthosis in Larnaca.
It was new coach Pavasilliou’s first win and the only complaint he may have was that his team converted just one of at least seven scoring opportunities.

The goal that decided the game came in the 21st minute when Man of the Match Ibraimi beat his marker and crossed for De Azevedo to tap in from close range.

Title favourites APOEL continued their winning start to the season claiming their third straight win as they defeated Ayia Napa by 3-1.

APOEL’s coach rested seven of his outfield players that started the Barcelona game, but such is the Nicosia’s team squad depth that the contest was over by the break. John Arne Riise marked his debut with two assists for Soteriou and Manduca with Charalambides opening the score in the tenth minute.
Othellos Athienou, newcomers to the first division, scored their first ever win in the top flight when they beat Doxa Katokopias by 2-0.

Tiago and Panayiotou gave the home team a comfortable first half lead which they managed to hang onto with relative ease in the second half.

Nea Salamina recorded their first win when they beat early season table toppers Ethnikos Achnas. Goals from Enrique and Pedrito gave the Famagusta team a 2-0 lead before Stoller grabbed a late consolation goal for Ethnikos.

Send to Kindle

BoC concedes lending procedures need to be improved

0
0
CYPRUS-EU-EUROZONE-FINANCE-BANK

Bank of Cyprus (BoC) said on Monday that lending procedures concerning European funds had to be improved but there was no question of money being withheld.

The issue came up on Friday during the signing of a loan deal with the European Investment Bank (EIB) worth €85 million to the two banks, BoC and Hellenic, earmarked for business investments.

EIB president Werner Hoyer had also received complaints about banks making it overly difficult for them to borrow.

But Harris Pouagare, head of BoC’s retail banking and SME department, sought to clarify that Hoyer was probably referring to the procedures.

“We are trying to solve this problem,” he told state radio.

He said the bank had already granted €24 million to 318 companies as part of Jeremie one and two, which are now closed.

Jeremie three is still running, he said, with €4.0 million granted to 55 companies. The scheme is worth €16 million and provides for loans up to €100,000.

Same went for an older scheme, 2010, involving €80 million.

The new scheme targets larger, mainly new, investments worth between €1.5 million and €12.5 million.

 

 

 

Send to Kindle

Sir Stelios offers free sandwiches daily in Nicosia during October

0
0
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

To help socially vulnerable groups and people in need, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou,  founder of the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation  has launched a Nicosia charity programme ‘Food from the heart’.

For the month of October, each beneficiary will be offered two sandwiches and a Kit Kat daily.

The free lunch – no criteria specified – will be offered from Monday to Friday between the hours of 11 am and 12 noon at the building of the Stelios Foundation Philanthropic Foundation, in the heart of old Nicosia, on the Corner of the old Powerhouse at Eptanisou 57.

To participate those who wish to partake of the free sandwiches should complete an application form with their name, date of birth and phone number after which they will receive a card to present when availing of the offer.

The project was run in Limassol in May this year, and previously it was run in Athens.  Since the programme’s inception in Cyprus and Greece, the foundation has distributed more than 300,000 snacks.

For more information on the website Stelios Philanthropic Foundation: www. stelios. COM or Tel: 99139040.

 

Send to Kindle

White tiger kills schoolboy in New Delhi zoo

0
0
White tiger kills man at Delhi zoo

By Rupam Jain Nair

A white tiger mauled to death a school student in a New Delhi zoo on Tuesday, an official and a witness said.

Television channels broadcast closed-circuit footage of the frightened boy inside the tiger’s enclosure in the zoo that houses six white tigers, along with lions and panthers.

“We are all in a complete state of shock,” said Amitabh Agnihotri, the director of the National Zoological Park in the Indian capital, adding that the body was being sent for a post-mortem examination.

“The tiger grabbed the youth and killed him. I am not clear whether the youth jumped into the cage or he slipped accidentally.”

Authorities have yet to ascertain whether the student was alone or accompanied by friends.

“The barricade was too low and it seems the tiger grabbed the youth into his cage and firmly latched on to the youth’s neck,” an eyewitness who alerted the police told an Indian news channel.

“We tried to throw sticks and stones at the tiger but we could not save the youth,” he said, adding that the tiger killed him in less than 10 minutes.

In 2000 a tiger mauled a man in a zoo in the eastern state of West Bengal.

In 2011, India had 1,706 tigers, or more than half the world’s population of the endangered species.

Send to Kindle

US, backed by Arabs, launches first strikes on fighters in Syria

0
0
islamic-state-executes-tribe.si

By Phil Stewart and Tom Perry

The United States and Arab allies bombed Syria for the first time on Tuesday, killing dozens of Islamic State fighters and members of a separate al Qaeda-linked group, pursuing a campaign against militants into a war at the heart of the Middle East.

“I can confirm that US military and partner nation forces are undertaking military action against (Islamic State) terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles,” Rear Admiral John Kirby, Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement.

US Central Command said Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates participated in or supported the strikes against Islamic State targets around the eastern cities of Raqqa, Deir al-Zor, Hasakah and Albu Kamal.

Targets included “fighters, training compounds, headquarters and command and control facilities, storage facilities, a finance centre, supply trucks and armed vehicles,” it said.

Separately, U.S. forces acting alone launched strikes in another area of Syria against an al Qaeda-linked group, the Nusra Front, to “disrupt imminent attack” against U.S. and Western interests by “seasoned al Qaeda veterans”, CentCom said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war in Syria, said at least 20 Islamic State fighters were killed in strikes that hit at least 50 targets in Raqqa and Deir al-Zor provinces in Syria’s east.

It said strikes targeting the Nusra Front in the northern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib had killed at least 50 fighters and eight civilians. The Nusra Front is al Qaeda’s official Syrian wing and Islamic State’s rival. The Observatory said most of the fighters killed there were not Syrians.

The air attacks fulfil President Barack Obama’s pledge to strike in Syria against Islamic State, a Sunni Muslim group that has seized swathes of Syria and Iraq, imposing a mediaeval interpretation of Islam, slaughtering prisoners and ordering Shi’ites and non-Muslims to convert or die.

Islamic State vowed revenge.

“These attacks will be answered,” an Islamic State fighter told Reuters by Skype from Syria, blaming the “sons of Saloul” – a derogatory term for Saudi Arabia’s ruling family – for allowing the strikes to take place.

The Sunni fighters, who have proclaimed a caliphate ruling over all Muslims, shook the Middle East by sweeping through northern Iraq in June. They then alarmed the West in recent weeks by beheading two US journalists and a British aid worker, raising fears that they could attack Western countries.

The strikes took place hours before Obama goes to the U.N. General Assembly in New York where he will try to rally more nations behind his drive to destroy Islamic State.

The action pitches Washington for the first time into the three-year-old Syrian civil war, which has killed 200,000 people and displaced millions.

US forces have previously hit Islamic State targets in Iraq, where Washington supports the government, but had held back from a military engagement in Syria, where the United States opposes President Bashar al-Assad.

SYRIAN GOVERNMENT INFORMED

The Syrian government said Washington had informed it hours before the strikes. Secretary of State John Kerry had sent a letter to Damascus through his Iraqi counterpart, it said.

A ministry statement read on state television said Syria would continue to attack Islamic State. It was ready to cooperate with any international effort to fight terrorism and was coordinating with the government of Iraq.

The United States has previously said it would not coordinate with Assad’s government. Washington says Assad must leave power, particularly after he was accused of using chemical weapons against his own people last year.

Islamic State’s Sunni fighters, now equipped with U.S. weapons seized during their advance in Iraq, are among the most powerful opponents of Assad, a member of a Shi’ite-derived sect. They are also battling against rival Sunni groups in Syria, against the Shi’ite-led government of Iraq and against Kurdish forces on both sides of the border.

In recent days they have captured villages from Kurds near Syria’s Turkish border, sending nearly 140,000 refugees across the frontier since last week. The United Nations said it was bracing for up to 400,000 people to flee.

Washington is determined to defeat the fighters without helping Assad, a policy that requires deft diplomacy in a war in which nearly all the region’s countries have a stake.

The Western-backed Syrian opposition, which is fighting against both Assad and Islamic State, welcomed the air strikes which it said would help defeat Assad.

The targets included Raqqa city, the main headquarters in Syria of Islamic State fighters who have proclaimed a caliphate stretching from Syria’s Aleppo province through the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys to the outskirts of Baghdad.

Photographs taken in Raqqa showed wreckage of what the Islamic State fighter said was a drone that had been shot down. Pieces of the wreckage, including what appeared to be part of a propellor, were shown loaded into the back of a van.

A video posted online, filmed through night-vision apparatus, showed lights from jets flying overhead firing a stream of projectiles at the ground. It was not clear where or when the video was filmed.

Jordan, confirming its participation, said its air force had bombed “a number of targets that belong to some terrorist groups that sought to commit terrorist acts inside Jordan,” although it did not specify any location.

Israel shot down a Syrian aircraft over air space it controls in the Golan Heights but there was no indication the incident, confirmed by Syria, was linked to the US action.

WEAPONS SUPPLIES, CHECKPOINTS HIT

US officials and the Syrian Observatory said buildings used by the militants, their weapons supplies and checkpoints were targeted in the attacks on Raqqa. Areas along the Iraq-Syria border were also hit.

Residents in Raqqa had said last week that Islamic State was moving underground after Obama signalled on Sept. 11 that air attacks on its forces could be expanded from Iraq to Syria.

The group had evacuated buildings it was using as offices, redeployed its heavy weaponry, and moved fighters’ families out of the city, the residents said.

“They are trying to keep on the move,” said one Raqqa resident, communicating via the Internet and speaking on condition of anonymity because of safety fears. “They only meet in very limited gatherings.”

The addition of Arab allies in the attacks was crucial for the credibility of the American-led campaign. Some U.S. allies in the Middle East are sceptical of how far Washington will commit to a complex conflict set against the backdrop of Islam’s 1,300-year-old rift between Sunnis and Shi’ites.

With the backing of Jordan and the Gulf states, Washington has gained the support of Sunni states that are hostile to Assad. It has not, however, won the open support of Assad himself or his main regional ally, Shi’ite Iran.

Some traditional Western allies, including Britain which went to war alongside the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, have so far stayed out of the campaign.

France has struck Islamic State in Iraq but not in Syria. A Muslim militant group which kidnapped a French national in Algeria on Sunday has threatened in a video to kill him unless Paris halted intervention in Iraq.

NATO ally Turkey, which is alarmed by Islamic State but also worried about Kurdish fighters and opposed to any action that might help Assad, has refused a military role in the coalition.

Assad’s ally Russia, whose ties with Washington are at their lowest since the end of the Cold War, said any strikes in Syria are illegal without Assad’s permission or a U.N. Security Council resolution, which Moscow would have the right to veto.

Obama backed away from getting involved in Syria’s civil war a year ago after threatening air strikes against Assad’s government over the use of chemical weapons. The rise of Islamic State prompted him to change course and take action against Assad’s most powerful opponents.

Washington says it hopes to strengthen a moderate Syrian opposition to fill the vacuum so that it can degrade Islamic State without helping Assad. But so far, the opposition groups recognised as legitimate by the United States and its allies have been a comparatively weak force on the battlefield.

Send to Kindle

UN puts spotlight on climate change

0
0
Activists hold signs as they march down 6th Avenue while taking part in the People's Climate March through Midtown, New York

By Valerie Volcovici

With crises from Islamic State to Ebola competing for attention, the United Nations on Tuesday will zero in on climate change, giving leaders from 125 countries a platform to explain how they plan to address the issue.

A huge march to call for international action on climate change, which brought as many as 400,000 people to the streets of New York on Sunday, set the tone for the summit spearheaded by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The private sector also helped create a buzz around the summit, with corporate chief executives like Apple’s Tim Cook and Ikea’s Peter Agnefjäll declaring a variety of voluntary measures to reduce their carbon emissions.

Among the most highly anticipated speakers on Tuesday will be US President Barack Obama, whose administration has sought to make US leadership on climate change a legacy goal.

The White House announced on Tuesday that Obama would issue an executive order to require federal agencies to ensure their international development programs and investments are designed to help communities adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Secretary of State John Kerry hinted on Monday at what else Obama is expected to highlight when he takes the podium.

“Over the past five years, the United States has actually done more to reduce the threat of climate change domestically and with the help of our international partners than in all of the 20 years before that,” he said.

He added the United States was on track to meet its international pledge to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 because of Obama’s climate policies.

Leaders who will be absent from Tuesday’s gathering include Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who represent the first and fourth biggest greenhouse gas polluters.

SEEKING POLITICAL MOMENTUM

The summit is meant to add political momentum to a UN process to negotiate a climate-change agreement in Paris by 2015.

By holding the high-level gathering almost 16 months before the Paris deadline, Ban has ensured that climate change will be at the forefront of every leader’s agenda, EU climate change commissioner Connie Hedegaard told Reuters in an interview.

“With all the outreach we need to do in this area, it is crucial that all the foreign ministries are taking this up,” she said.

She said the fact that foreign ministers, including Kerry and France’s Laurent Fabius, discussed climate deal negotiations on Sunday in a meeting of the world’s 17 biggest emitting countries was a sign that the issue had become a policy priority.

But Hedegaard and Fabius highlighted what could be a roadblock to a Paris pact – agreement on the legal basis of the final deal.

US negotiators have acknowledged that a deeply polarized Congress is unlikely to ratify a legally binding UN treaty.

“We have to have a legal agreement, otherwise it will be just words,” Fabius said on Monday.

Ban said there was a greater sense of “anxiety” around the issue than at previous gatherings in New York in 2007 and Copenhagen in 2009.

On Monday, he summed up the risk of countries failing to cement a climate deal.

“If we cannot all swim together, we will sink,” he said.

Send to Kindle

Parliament accepts one referral, rejects second

0
0
unnamed (49)

The House on Tuesday agreed to kill one of the foreclosures-related bills which the President had refused to sign off on, but re-passed a second contentious bill with amendments during a heated exchange.

The two items concern the right of borrowers to report a bank to the Central Bank governor if they think the lender violates the code on loan restructuring, and the Central Bank’s authority to step in and stop mass foreclosures.

By a majority, the House plenary voted to accept the President’s rejection of the first bill. On the second bill – allowing the Central Bank to control the pace of foreclosures by commercial lenders – parliament unanimously voted down the President’s rejection, and in a subsequent vote pushed through an amended version.

One of the legal arguments raised by President Nicos Anastasiades when sending the bills back to parliament was that both issues were covered in other laws.

Four other bills were deemed unconstitutional and were referred to the Supreme Court for its ruling. The decision is expected in October. Approval of the legislation prompted international lenders to withhold the next tranche of financial aid since the bills limited the scope of the main foreclosures legislation.

All six were passed by opposition parties despite warnings they were incompatible and would prompt international lenders to withhold the next tranche of assistance.

Earlier on Tuesday, the session was interrupted when the debate became heated and voices were raised between DISY leader Averof Neophytou and AKEL chief Andros Kyprianou.

Neophytou suggested the legislation be sent to the European Central Bank for its opinion but Kyprianou disagreed.

Failing to agree on the way forward and with tensions high and voices raised, Neophytou walked away, according to an eyewitness at parliament, “agreeing to disagree” and to take a short break.

 

Send to Kindle

Dangerous super glues on the market

0
0
glue

The department of labour inspection on Tuesday issued a warning to the public about certain brands of super glue on the market that were a hazard to consumers.

Both brands contained more than the acceptable limits of chloroform, an announcement said.

The first product, named RAPIDE, comes in a blue tube with a red cap. The second VitaFix Super Glue, comes in an orange tube with a yellow cap

“Chloroform is classified as toxic and if inhaled, swallowed or someone has prolonged exposure to it, there is a risk of serious damage to health,” the labour inspection department said.

The public is advised that if they come across either of the two products to notify the department on Tel: 22405637, 22405611 or 22405609.

Send to Kindle

Developer slapped by consumer protection body over unfair contract

0
0
Alpha Panareti Owners Group members outside an overseas property exhibition in London

By Angelos Anastasiou

The commerce ministry’s consumer protection service has deemed the terms of a contract signed between land developers Alpha Panareti Public Ltd and a Scottish individual over the sale of a one-bedroom flat abusive, following complaints filed by the buyer.

The contract, signed in September 2009, stipulated that the Scottish woman agreed to buy the flat at a price of €215,577, payable in four instalments, but included clauses that were ruled unjustly favourable to the sellers.

In a May 2011 letter to the ministry’s consumer protection service, the plaintiff first raised her claim of having been misled into accepting the terms of the contract and asked that it be nullified.

Following initial investigations, in November 2011 the service denied her request, claiming it could not conclusively establish Alpha Panareti’s responsibility for the buyer being misled.

Also, the service said, it emerged from its investigation that the transaction fell outside its remit as the buyer had bought the flat not for her own use – in which case she would be classed as a consumer – but as an investment vehicle.

Subsequent back-and-forth between the buyer and the service, which included the intervention of the European Commission in June 2013, prompted the service to re-examine the case in light of relevant European regulations, forcing the re-evaluation of the plaintiff’s claims.

The final decision, issued on September 10, 2014, vindicated the buyer’s arguments as it found the contract to contain terms that were abusive and unjustly favourable to the seller.

Specifically, one clause stipulated that the buyer was responsible for full payment in instalments, the last of which payable “on possession of the property by the purchaser,” expected to be effected in September 2011.

Another allowed the seller a six-month “grace period” – or extension – for completion, as well as listing a host of uncontrollables as possible reasons for delay in completing construction, such as acts of God and local authority requirements, which would not burden the seller with any penalty.

The terms of the contract also allowed the seller a five per cent “variance” between the precise area and size of the property delivered compared to the architectural plans, with no provision for price adjustment.

Further imbalances allowed the seller the right to cancel the contract and retain any monies paid, while restricting the buyer’s right to cancellation and refund requests.

Another distortion identified by the service was the omission of a hard date relating to the seller’s obligation to furnish the buyer with title deeds, thus allowing the seller to indefinitely restrict the buyer’s right to ownership.

Finally, the Service found that a clause in the contract failed to offer “clear and detailed” explanation of the buyer’s rights, with a vague reference to the “provisions of the Sale of Land Law.”

Send to Kindle

Beware glint in Watson’s eye, McGinley warns Europe

0
0

By Tony Jimenez

Paul McGinley rates his Ryder Cup team as one of the strongest assembled by Europe but he will be mindful this week of the special influence rival captain Tom Watson can exert on his United States side.

Holders Europe are considered the favourites to win the 40th edition of the biennial team event especially as they boast four of the top six players in the world rankings and have won seven of the last nine Ryder Cups.

McGinley, however, sounded a cautionary note to his 12 players.
“We are confident. We have assembled a great team, arguably the strongest European team ever, but there is a word of warning as well,” the Irishman said.

“If you know Tom Watson, that glint never leaves his eye, he’s a real competitive guy. This is a strong American team and it’s not to be underestimated how strong they’re going to be and we’ve got a real challenge ahead of us.

“If you take their average world-ranking position, theirs is 16 and ours is 18 so this is not a weak American team,” McGinley told a joint news conference as the countdown began to the matches that start with Friday morning’s four fourball encounters.
“As strong as we are they’re very strong as well and that’s what makes the Ryder Cup so great and unique.”

For his part, Watson said the trip to the ‘Home of Golf’ represented an opportunity for the Americans to banish the memory of their capitulation two years ago.

Europe trailed 10-6 going into the final-day singles but staged a remarkable fightback to win by 14-1/2 points to 13-1/2 in a match now known as the ‘Miracle in Medinah’.

“I have made it very clear to them that this is a redemption trip,” said Watson. “Those players that played on that team…it’s time to make amends and try to redeem yourselves for what happened in 2012.
“I think it’s a motivation rather than a negative. I know our team is totally committed to bringing the cup back and I’m going to do everything in my power to help them do that.”

Watson said any fourballs, foursomes or singles victory over world number one Rory McIlroy would give his team’s confidence a lift and that his players were also looking to minimise Europe talisman Ian Poulter’s impact on the matches.

“Whenever you beat the stud on the opposing team it gives your team a boost, no question,” the US skipper said of McIlroy.
“I think with Ian, he is an 80 per cent victor over the series of matches he’s played in. We’d like to reduce that.”

Poulter and American left-hander Bubba Watson both played through a wall of noise on the first tee at Medinah, prompting criticism from some establishment figures who felt it was out of place in a game where decorum and respect are key components.
McGinley and Watson agreed that instances like that were okay as long as they were kept to a minimum.

“We are great traditionalists Tom and myself,” said McGinley, “and certainly we’ll be leading our teams with a great understanding and reverence towards the rules and traditions.

“What Bubba did spontaneously on the first tee at Medinah as a one-off was, I thought, fantastic. I wouldn’t want it every round but at that moment I thought it was great.

“Having said that, just like crowd behaviour, there is a line and we all want to stay on the right side of that line.”

Watson said: “I concur with what Paul said exactly. There is a moment for certain things to happen but there is a line that you shouldn’t cross.”

Send to Kindle
Viewing all 6907 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images