Cyprus will devote a large part of its foreign policy focus on boosting and enhancing Cypriot-American relations, in all possible fields, President Nicos Anastasiades has said.

Anastasides was speaking late Friday at the annual dinner of the Cyprus Federation of America in New York.  This year`s honoree was the American Jewish Committee, in recognition of its support to Cyprus.
Addressing the event, the president referred to bilateral relations with the US, the Cyprus issue, hydrocarbons, as well as relations with Israel.
In his speech the Anastasiades said 2014 had been a particularly important year for Cypriot-American relations. He specifically referred to the visit to Cyprus in May by US Vice President Joe Biden, whom he met with in New York earlier on Friday.

“The visit of Joe Biden, someone I feel  honoured and privileged to now call a friend, was a milestone in our new, dynamic, and strategic relationship with the US, and proof, that the reorientation of our foreign policy is already bearing fruit. With Joe Biden, we spoke about Cyprus’s strategic realignment with Western institutions and security structures, its role, as the last outpost of the western alliance in an increasing tumultuous and violent Eastern Mediterranean, as well as its potential contribution to the energy security of Europe,” he said.
He said the government would devote a large part of its foreign policy focus in boosting and enhancing ties with Washington. “In that, as always, we count on your cooperation and support, your important contribution, and your network of relationships and alliances both inside the Congress, as well as the Administration, to move this relationship to another level, he told the US diaspora.

Referring to the American Jewish Committee, which was honored during the dinner, Anastasiades said that the AJC had worked tirelessly to advance ties between Cyprus, Israel and the United States, “mutually beneficial to our countries and peoples, and of immense significance in an ever changing Near East”.
The AJC had been pivotal in promoting and contributing to the enhancement of our partnership with Israel on all levels, political, economic, cultural and strategic, he said, adding that with its significant influence in world affairs as well within American politics, the AJC “has consistently and tirelessly supported the full restoration of the human rights and the fundamental freedoms of the people of Cyprus, and the just resolution of the Cyprus problem”.

He also spoke about the enhanced relations between Cyprus and Israel.
“In Cyprus, Israel recognises and can count on a stable and predictable partner, one that will consistently deliver on issues of bilateral concern, but also one that can represent the Israeli viewpoint as well the country’s needs and perspective to the outside world, especially within the EU. Cyprus stands ready and willing to work towards further expanding our relationship to Israel,” Anastasiades said.

Referring to the substantial hydrocarbons deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean and within Cyprus` and Israel`s Exclusive Economic Zones. He said the discovery, could play “a positive role towards peace and stability in our troubled region”, beyond the substantive and promising prospects for bilateral cooperation.
“In the model of the European Coal and Steel Community, our energy perspectives and cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean, can form the catalyst for resolving our long-standing and seemingly intractable problems through a different perspective: that of economic cooperation and interdependence in exploiting and procuring our energy wealth,” he said.
In his earlier meeting with Biden, according to a White House statement, Anastasiades and the US Vice President agreed on the need to further strengthen the strategic partnership between the United States and Cyprus.

It said Biden and Anastasiades discussed the potential contributions Cyprus could towards a settlement of the region`s energy security and agreed that unifying the island as a bizonal, bicommunal federation would be in the best interest of all Cypriots.  (CNA)

By Martyn Herman

Chelsea’s commanding start to the Premier League season continued with a 3-0 victory over Aston Villa on Saturday as their rivals for the title continued to look vulnerable.

Diego Costa scored his eighth league goal of the campaign and Brazilian duo Oscar and Willian were also on target at Stamford Bridge as table-topping Chelsea made it five wins from six.

Champions Manchester City surrendered a two-goal lead at Hull City but earned a 4-2 victory thanks to Edin Dzeko’s double while Manchester United galloped into an early two-goal lead against West Ham United but ended up hanging on for a 2-1 win at Old Trafford having had goalscorer Wayne Rooney sent off.

Phil Jagielka’s stoppage-time thunderbolt earned Everton an unlikely 1-1 draw in the 223rd Merseyside derby at last season’s runners-up Liverpool after Steven Gerrard’s 65th-minute free kick had put the hosts in front.

Surprisingly, Southampton are Chelsea’s closest chasers after a 2-1 home victory against struggling Queens Park Rangers. They are on 13 points with Chelsea on 16.

Fourth-placed Swansea City drew 0-0 at Sunderland and Crystal Palace enjoyed a 2-0 victory over Leicester City.
Arsenal host north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the day’s late kick-off.

By Patroclos

GOVERNOR of the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) Chrystalla Georgahdji revealed her spinelessness on Thursday when she meekly gave in to the pressure from AKEL chief Andros and terminated the services of the PA she had chosen a few weeks earlier to run her office.

It was as if she felt a moral obligation to warn us not to expect very much from her because at heart she is just another weak-willed, self-serving, public sector mediocrity that goes with the flow for the sake of an easy and stress-free life.

She might be an independent state official, accountable to nobody, but as a long-time member of the public parasite class, showing subservience and obedience to our mighty politicians is second nature for her.

Her cowardly backing down over the PA, because she came under some criticism from the commie boss and her publicity-mad successor, acting on instructions from Andros, illustrated how far she was prepared to go to defend the independence of the governor.

CRYSTAL had approached Koulla Savva, who was forced to take early retirement when the commies took control of the CBC, and asked her to return and work as her PA. She had vast experience as she had served as the PA of two former governors and Crystal believed she was the ideal person to organise her office.

The appointment was unanimously approved by the board of the CBC, but when Andros heard about it he reported the decision to the attention-seeking Auditor-General Odysseas Michaelides who wrote to Crystal censuring the decision as a case of favouritism (that is what meritocracy-worshipping Andros had complained about).

Andros said it was unacceptable to hire someone who had taken early retirement from the bank when there were thousands of unemployed people looking for work. Were there many unemployed people with experience of working as a PA of the Central Bank governor, or was Andros suggesting the job should have been given to a jobless builder.

BEFORE he had even received a response from Crystal, the Attention-seeking-General Odysseas leaked his letter to the press as part of his ongoing self-promotion campaign.

In her letter, dated September 15, Crystal explained that the board followed all correct procedures and provisions of the law in appointing Savva, who was chosen because of her long experience working in the Governor’s office. Among other things,her letter said:

“Furthermore, the CBC board, being fully aware of the conditions prevailing in the economy, but without being able to ignore the basic obligation of safeguarding the smooth operation of departments/services of the Central Bank and the office of the Governor and as its actions are on all accounts lawful, it cannot rescind its original decision.”

Ten days later, on September 25, Crystal cracked and rescinded the board’s original decision, showing us all what a resolute character she is.

THE WORST part of this story was the way she treated the hapless Savva. When Crystal decided that she would get rid of her PA, she suggested that Savva told her colleagues she left the post for personal reasons, after the fuss that was created.

Savva would have had a big shock if she read yesterday’s Alithia in which Crystal declared that she had terminated her PA’s employment, after the complaints of AKEL chief and the letters sent by the Auditor-General Publicity.

The crafty Crystal must have thought that as she had had publicly bowed to Andros she might as well take the credit for it, rather than allow Savva to claim she walked. She may have embarrassed herself, but I suspect she took the hit because she had bigger political ambitions than the governorship of the CBC.

It is no secret that Crystal has designs on the presidency and her only chance of realising her ambition is as an independent candidate backed by AKEL. Swallowing her pride and giving in to Andros’ ridiculous demand was a clever way to advance this claim.

She is smart enough to know that Akelites love an independent official (or presidential candidate) who subordinates his or her independence to the demands of the party and when the time comes for the comrades to look for an independent presidential candidate they may go knocking on the governor’s door.

THE DIRECTORS of the Bank of Cyprus were not happy bunnies when they received the letter from Crystal on Monday, telling them that they would all have to surrender their seats on the board so that the next AGM, set for late November, could elect a new board.

Many of the directors were devastated as they hoped they would have stayed on even after the AGM; regulations stipulate that 30 per cent of the serving directors have to step down every year, not all of them.

It has been said that the new main shareholder of the BoC, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross wants a smaller board. The board now has the maximum number of members permitted by law – 14 – because the government wanted as many seats as possible to distribute among the political parties. But now that the state does not control the bank it cannot justify a cumbersome 14-member board.

Crystal’s letter enraged the leaders of DISY and DIKO who publicly slammed the governor’s decision as both would lose their influence in the board when their agents were removed. It also looked bad that they did not have the muscle to offer protection to their placemen.

However, Crystal, as part of her spineless policy to keep the politicians happy, met the DISY chief later in the week to appease him.

THE ROW was moved to the front page of Phil, which carried the front page headline ‘Looking for the €800 million’ on Friday. In its report the paper said that €800 million of the €1 billion new capital raised by the BoC had gone towards paying off part of the ELA debt, without the board being informed.

This was some directors’ way of getting their own back on Crystal and the bank’s CEO John Hourican for supposedly having sanctioned the payment without authorisation from the board. Crystal had said the payment had been made on a Wednesday night TV show.

The paper reported that directors were incensed. An internal investigation had been ordered to establish why and how the money was transferred and the board also wrote to Hourican demanding an explanation from him, but had yet to receive a reply.

Being political placemen, the Cypriot directors tried to score some cheap points against Crystal and Hourican by resorting to traditional patriotic populism – they were supposedly furious because the money should have been put into the economy to kick-start the recovery. If it were up to them this is what would have happened, but they were never informed.

THE REALITY is that they did know the 800 million would have gone towards the ELA debt. In its presentations to investors abroad, to raise capital, the BoC representatives made a point of informing their audience that most of the money raised would be used to repay ELA.

Were the directors not aware of this, or did they think they would take the capital and channel it into the economy instead, because this is what their party masters wanted?

Apparently, the problem now is not that the banks have no money to lend, but that demand for bank loans is almost non-existent. So even if the socially sensitive board members of the BoC had their way it would not have made the slightest difference to the economy.

Leaking stories to the press is not the smartest way to hold on to their seats. If I were a director, I would go to Andros and ask him to publicly criticise Crystal’s decision to ask for the resignation of all the directors.

AS FOR the idea that they would make Hourican look bad, by debiting him with the transfer of the money, it is plainly stupid. Hourican has spent most of the last week with Wilbur, who arrived in Cyprus on his private jet for a brief visit. The two visited prez Nik and Archbishop Chrys. They then flew together to London, presumably for bank business. It is highly unlikely that the billionaire Yank will side with the party placemen, who know next to nothing about banking, against Hourican.

PREZ NIK was in euphoric mood last week in the Big Apple where he was entertained by the big boys of US politics – Kerry and Biden – met the UN Secretary-General and president of Egypt and, together with Mrs Nik, was photographed with the Obamas.

The mega smiles, on his and Andri’s faces in the photo with the Obamas, were of the type you wear when you are collecting the cheque for 10 million bucks you have won on the lottery.

Of course, there was a reason the Secretary of State and Vice President made time for the prez of a midget country. The Yanks want a settlement of the Cyprob so that Kyproulla can be used for the strategic plans of the US in the Middle East.

But the Yanks are making one big mistake. By having their top dogs lavishing attention on Nik and treating him like the leader of an important country, he would have no incentive to work for a settlement because it would end his presidency and the joy of meeting the world’s most powerful people.

THE FORMER minister and CBC governor Ttooulis Ttoouli finally appeared in court on Friday and pleaded guilty to six charges of tax offences in connection with the payment of €1 million by a Greek ship-owner to a company owned by his daughter.

Leaving the court, Ttooulis said the following: “I am at ease with my conscience because, as always, as in my private and public life, in the current case I performed my duty towards my country as an honourable citizen with integrity. For 18 months now a lot of dirty mud has been thrown at me, without this sparking the sensitivity and intervention of the Attorney-General…..”

Only Ttooulis could claim that a tax cheat is an “honourable citizen” that not declaring income of a million euro to the authorities was proof that he performed his “duty towards his country.” Even if we accept that he is an honourable tax cheat, the claim of his integrity is a bit more difficult to swallow. This is the guy who as governor of the CBC, had set up a banking school to which the banks he was supervising would pay to send their employees for training.

THE NEW Auditor-General needs to rein in his uncontrollable desire for publicity because he is fast becoming a big joke. In the last week he leaked to the media a report of alleged irregularities at the CTO, before he had even received a response from the organisation.

As part of his self-promotion as the great crusader against corruption, the brave Odysseas declares people guilty in the media, before even hearing their version of events. He did the same thing to Crystal with regard to the hiring of the PA – he released his letter of censure with waiting to hear Crystal’s explanation.

And when he runs out of important issues to expose he is happy to deal with trivialities. On Thursday Politis reported that Odysseas had asked for a re-examination of accusations against a teacher who was employed at the Music School without having a degree recognised by the state. I will not bore you with the details of the case, but I mentioned it because it shows no suspected irregularity is trivial enough for Odysseas not to use it to get his name in the papers.

LAST Sunday our establishment reported that Professor Panicos’ PA Eleni Markadji had received €20,000 in overtime pay and that her claim had been signed by the professor on his last day as governor. This was not entirely correct and we would like to apologise to Mrs Markadji for giving the wrong impression about the overtime pay she received. It was in fact not 20,000 but 19,300 euro.

IF THERE was one conclusion to be drawn from President Anastasiades’ visit to New York for the UN General Assembly meeting, it was that he would soon be called to make very difficult decisions. The type of decisions that no Cypriot politician has dared to make in the past, because these require going against the tide, battling long-held political beliefs and prejudices and taking on powerful interest groups. All opt for the least painful option of avoiding making a choice at all costs.

But this will not be an option in the coming months. The government will be forced to decide whether to accept the US invitation for Cyprus to become the superpower’s strategic partner and, more importantly, whether to agree to the peace deal that would allow this to happen. As we have written in the past, the US sees the island as an integral part of its strategic planning for the region but wants the Cyprus problem settled before it pursues its other plans.

Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides, who was also in New York and met State Department officials, was very clear about Washington’s intentions. “For the United States, the settlement of the Cyprus problem constitutes an issue of priority, in combination with all other developments in our region, in which Cyprus has proved it can be an island of stability that they (US) need geo-strategically to bring peace to the wider region,” he said.

An indication of how much of a priority a settlement was for the US was that Secretary of State John Kerry made time to meet Anastasiades, on his arrival to New York last Sunday, to discuss the peace talks which are set to resume next month. Kerry, according to a State Department official, told Anastasiades that he intended “to become personally involved in the procedure and help as much as he could for progress to be achieved.” He was even prepared to visit the island if this would be considered helpful.

On Friday Anastasiades also met Vice President Joe Biden, who underlined the importance the US administration attached to Cyprus by visiting the island earlier in the year. Never before has such an interest been shown in Cyprus at the highest level of the US administration, which has also been in consultation with Ankara. The Cyprus government spokesman said, after the Biden-Anastasiades meeting, the Americans recognised that actions were needed to change the intransigent Turkish stance, even though the US ambassador in Nicosia said earlier in the week that a solution was down to the two sides.

One thing is clear. Anastasiades will be under tremendous pressure in the coming few months to take the big steps demanded by our strategic partner, while facing strong opposition on the home front. The tough choices will not be confined to the Cyprus problem. At some point he will also have to choose between the forging of strategic partnership with the US or maintaining the strong ties Cyprus has traditionally enjoyed with Russia, because it will be a case of one or the other. The world is splitting into two spheres of influence again and we doubt Cyprus will have option of having a foot in each one. This is a big dilemma, given the economy’s dependence on Russia but a choice will have to be made.

The government’s unprecedented step of consenting to the use of Akrotiri air-base as a launching pad for British air strikes against Islamic State positions is an indication that it is gradually aligning the island with the West. But this is just a step and many more will need to follow that will inevitably alienate Moscow, if it is too realise its declared objective of joining NATO.

Anastasiades will also have to persuade a stridently anti-West, anti-settlement political establishment – not to mention a financial sector dependent on Russian business – that the long term benefits of a strategic partnership with the US would far outweigh the short term problems that would inevitably be created.  We are already seeing some of the benefits – the ENI-KOGAS drillship arrived at Block 9 and begun operations last week without any interference from Turkish ships.

This is the bigger picture that our conservative politicians and other opinion formers obstinately refuse to see, as they feel safe focusing exclusively on their small, inward-looking, never-changing world. It is up to Anastasiades to help us all see the bigger picture and move the country westward, but first he has to find the courage, which he has not displayed much in his presidency, to take these tough and difficult decisions himself.

TWO British fighter jets flew their first mission over Iraq yesterday, ready to hit Islamic State targets when they left Akrotiri RAF base around 10.30am local time.

The two Tornados, which had been accompanied by a Voyager refueling aircraft, returned to Cyprus just over seven hours later

“Although on this occasion no targets were identified as requiring immediate air attack by our aircraft, the intelligence gathered by the Tornados’ highly sophisticated surveillance equipment will be invaluable to the Iraqi authorities and their coalition partners in developing the best possible understanding of ISIL’s disposition and help acquire potential targets for future operations, either by aircraft or Iraqi ground forces,” a British ministry of defence spokesman said.

Ministers had cautioned not to expect a campaign of “shock and awe” and that after weeks of US air strikes in the area it could take time to identify new targets.

“We know that the very presence of coalition air power over Iraq has a significant impact on ISIL’s efforts to attack the Iraqi people,” the MoD spokesman said.

“With no effective defence against air strikes, and knowing the precision with which coalition aircraft can hit them, the terrorists are forced to be much more cautious, keeping their forces dispersed and movement inhibited.

“They also know that should they concentrate to deliver an attack against Iraqi or Kurdish troops, aircraft are likely to arrive overhead very soon afterwards.”

The mission was the first since the British parliament authorised strikes against Islamic State militants there, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said earlier yesterday.

The two Tornado jets left the British Royal Air Force’s Akrotiri base at 10.25am local time, followed minutes later by a Voyager refuelling aircraft, a Reuters witness said.

“We can confirm that … Royal Air Force Tornados continue to fly over Iraq and are now ready to be used in an attack role as and when appropriate targets are identified,” said an MoD spokesman.

“For operational security reasons we will not be providing a running commentary on movements; we will provide an update on activity when it is appropriate to do so,” he said.

Yesterday’s sortie was the first time British aircraft have flown over Iraq in an armed role since Islamic State militants swept across large areas of the north of the country in June and declared a caliphate including land already seized in neighbouring Syria.

The British aircraft joined a US-led military coalition supported by some Gulf and European nations against the militant group.

Six Tornado jets, normally based at RAF Marham in England, have been based at Akrotiri since August. They have been engaged in intelligence-gathering and reconnaissance over Iraq for the past six weeks.

The Times reported that as a cluster of journalists and TV cameras watched from a distance,  and rain spattered the tarmac, the two-person aircrews – a pilot and a weapons systems operator – strode confidently across the tarmac to their two Tornado jets.

The flight to Iraq was due to take two hours to cover the 600-mile journey from Cyprus.

According to the Times, the Tornado, with cruise speed just under the speed of sound, carries up to five Paveway smart bombs or two Stormshadow cruise missiles. It can also carry Brimstone missiles, which have the ability to hit moving targets such as enemy fighters in cars or on motorbikes.

It said the six Tornado jets at Akrotiri were regarded as sufficient for the operation at this stage, despite being just a fraction of the 16 Tornado aircraft and 10 Typhoon jets that were committed to the Libya air campaign in 2011.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday that British aircraft were there to “play our part” in the international coalition being amassed against IS – also referred to as Isis or Isil (Islamic State in Iraq and Levant).

“We are one part of a large international coalition,” the Prime Minister said during a visit to Didcot, Oxfordshire, ahead of the Conservative Party conference.

“But the crucial part of that coalition is that it is led by the Iraqi government, the legitimate government of Iraq, and its security forces. We are there to play our part and help deal with this appalling terrorist organisation.”

Times correspondent Michael Theodoulou said for other British forces and their families at RAF Akrotiri and Britain’s other sovereign military base at Dhekelia it was a day like any other yesterday. “Akrotiri has been humming with increased aerial activity for weeks. But all are keenly aware that the Tornado pilots are involved in a perilous mission,” he wrote. He said that along with regular news and sports updates, the two British Forces radio stations informed listeners of fun family activities on the bases, such as a rugby match and a clay pigeon shooting event.

Another eyewitness told the Sunday Mail that tourists on a beach around 1.5km away from Akrotiri were oblivious to the fact that bomb-laden aircraft were taking off there. “It was business as usual,” she said.

By Elaine Lies

Thirty-one people were presumed dead on Sunday near the peak of a Japanese volcano that erupted unexpectedly a day earlier while it was packed with hikers out to admire autumn foliage, sending a huge cloud of ash and rock tumbling down its slopes.

Police said the 31 people were found in “cardiopulmonary” arrest but declined to confirm their deaths pending a formal examination, as per Japanese custom. An official in the area said rescue efforts had been called off due to rising levels of toxic gas near the peak, as well as approaching nightfall.

Hundreds of people, including children, were stranded on the mountain, a popular hiking site, after it erupted without warning on Saturday, sending ash pouring down the slope for more than 3 km (2 miles.)

Most made their way down later on Saturday but about 40 spent the night near the 3,067 metre (10,062 feet) peak. Some wrapped themselves in blankets and huddled in the basement of buildings.

“The roof on the mountain lodge was destroyed by falling rock, so we had to take refuge below the building,” one told NHK national television. “That’s how bad it was.”

More than 40 people were injured, several with broken bones.

Earlier, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency had said authorities were trying to confirm the whereabouts of 45 people.

It was not clear whether those 45 included the 31 people found in cardiopulmonary arrest.

The volcano was still erupting on Sunday, pouring smoke and ash hundreds of metres into the sky. Ash was found on cars as far as 80 km (50 miles) away.

Volcanoes erupt periodically in Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active nations, but there have been no fatalities since 1991, when 43 people died in a pyroclastic flow, a superheated current of gas and rock, at Mount Unzen in southwestern Japan.

Ontake, Japan’s second-highest volcano 200 km (125 miles) west of Tokyo, last erupted seven years ago. Its last major eruption was in 1979.

Satoshi Saito, a 52-year-old hiker who climbed Ontake on Saturday and descended less than an hour before the eruption, said the weather was good and the mountain, known for its fall foliage, was crowded with people carrying cameras.

“There were no earthquakes or strange smells on the mountain when I was there,” Saito, who usually climbs Ontake several times a year, told Reuters. He also said there were no warnings of possible eruptions posted on the trail.

“But a man who runs a hotel near the mountain told me that the number of small earthquakes had risen these past two months, and everyone thought it was weird,” Saito said.

ENVELOPING BLACKNESS

Video footage on the internet showed huge grey clouds boiling towards climbers at the peak and people scrambling to descend as blackness enveloped them.

NHK footage showed windows in a mountain lodge darkening and people screaming as heavy objects pelted the roof.

“All of a sudden ash piled up so quickly that we couldn’t even open the door,” Shuichi Mukai, who worked in a mountain lodge just below the peak, told Reuters. The building quickly filled with hikers taking refuge.

“We were really packed in, maybe 150 people. There were some children crying, but most people were calm. We waited there in hard hats until they told us it was safe to come down.”

Flights at Tokyo’s Haneda airport suffered delays on Saturday as planes changed routes to avoid the volcano, which straddles Nagano and Gifu prefectures, but were mostly back to normal by Sunday, an airport spokeswoman said.

Japan lies on the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped band of fault lines and volcanoes circling the edges of the Pacific Ocean, and is home to 110 active volcanoes.

One of these, Sakurajima at the southern end of the western island of Kyushu, is 50 km (31 miles) from Kyushu Electric Power’s Sendai nuclear plant, which was approved to restart by Japan’s nuclear regulator earlier in September.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority has said the chance of volcanic activity during the Sendai plant’s lifespan was negligible even though five giant calderas, crater-like depressions formed by past eruptions, are also nearby.

Kyushu Electric has said it would install new monitoring equipment around nearby calderas and develop plans to remove highly radioactive fuel to a safer site if the threat of an eruption is detected.

There are no nuclear plants near Ontake.

An official at the volcano division of the Japan Meteorological Agency said that, while there had been a rising number of small earthquakes detected at Ontake since Sept. 10, the eruption could not have been predicted easily.

“There were no other signs of an imminent eruption, such as earth movements or changes on the mountain’s surface,” the official told Reuters. “With only the earthquakes, we couldn’t really say this would lead to an eruption.”

By Alastair Macdonald

The next 10 days could make or break a plan to reshape the European Union under new management in an attempt to revive the economy and regain trust among its half-billion people.

From Monday, members of a European Parliament elected on a wave of anti-Brussels protest will subject nominees for posts on executive European Commission to hearings that could wreck the line-up and a complex new structure proposed by its incoming president, Jean-Claude Juncker.

The former Luxembourg prime minister has presented his team as “political, not technocratic”, featuring several former premiers and fewer career bureaucrats.

But lawmakers are uneasy about several of his appointments and the nominees from Britain, France, Spain and Hungary face a torrid interrogation.

In making controversial choices for key roles, Juncker hopes to overcome member states’ resistance to EU policies by handing their nominees power in areas where their government is at odds with Brussels.

By giving Britain’s Jonathan Hill control of banking and Frenchman Pierre Moscovici charge of budget discipline, he aims to turn poachers into gamekeepers, winning London over to common EU financial rules and Paris to reforming state spending. Hill’s hearing is on Wednesday and Moscovici’s on Thursday.

His proposals have support from national leaders, including centre-right ally German Chancellor Angela Merkel. One senior envoy in Brussels called Hill’s nomination a “masterstroke”.

But many in parliament have yet to be convinced, either by the nominees or by a new, two-tier hierarchy in the Commission.

The structure is meant to filter and restrain the flood of EU laws that angers many voters and focus on a few priorities, notably reviving an economy blighted by unemployment and responding to growing support for anti-EU nationalists by delivering popular, visible results. Critics say it could lead to turf wars and blur Commissioners’ responsibilities.

Lawmakers eager to exercise one of their key powers over an executive made up of a nominee from each of the 28 member states have forced changes before. Five years ago, they prevented the current team led by Jose Manuel Barroso from taking office until he dropped three members and moved a fourth to a different post.

“BIG GAMBLE”
With the wisdom of decades of Brussels deal making, Juncker hopes parliament’s support for his own appointment in a new process on which the main left and right parties collaborated can help spare his line-up the mauling given to Barroso.

Officials speak of a “non-aggression pact” with the centre-left. But even those close to him call it “a big gamble”.

Gianni Pittella, leader of the centre-left group which came second in May’s election to Juncker’s centre-right bloc, said on Friday after a series of meetings with the incoming president: “We will make sure all the commissioners face a very demanding level of scrutiny … The battle is far from over.”

The whole Commission stands or falls together, in a vote scheduled in parliament for Oct. 22. So if committees withhold confirmation for any nominee, the process by which Juncker is due to replace Barroso on Nov. 1 could be held up.

Party discipline is weak in the EU parliament, where a complex matrix of national loyalties, rivalries among various EU institutions and other factors make voting hard to predict.

Technically, the outgoing Commission would go on working. But delay could weaken the EU as it grapples with Russia over Ukraine and deals with stabilising euro zone finances, negotiating on Iran’s nuclear activity and exploring a transatlantic free trade pact with the United States.

Moscovici and Hill are sure of a grilling: German members do not trust a Socialist former French finance minister to penalise his own country for breaching euro zone deficit limits; the left doubts Conservative lobbyist Hill will curb excess in the City of London even though his portfolio will not regulate bankers’ bonuses. One legislator called him a “fox in the henhouse”.

Several other picks could trip Juncker up. Environmentalists are furious at the choice of Spain’s Miguel Arias Canete for a newly combined energy and climate change portfolio, despite family interests in oil. His hearing is on Wednesday.

Tibor Navracsics from Hungary, whose brief covers education, culture and citizenship, faces a rough time convincing lawmakers concerned about his party’s record on democracy. Ireland’s Phil Hogan is embroiled in a political row at home. Alenka Bratusek lacks support from the Slovenian government, since she nominated herself while caretaker prime minister after losing an election.

STRUCTURE CONCERNS
Aside from personalities, the structure by which Juncker wants to introduce a layer of vice-presidents to coordinate overlapping clusters of commissioners troubles many lawmakers.

“It’s a very strange organisation,” said French centrist Jean Arthuis, chairman of the budget committee.

While creating “clusters” of departments to set priorities was worthwhile, he said, the fact that vice-presidents would have minimal staff of their own was a concern.

Pittella of the centre-left group said: “Negotiations are still ongoing on the new institutional structure Juncker has proposed and the role of vice-presidents.”

His group opposes allowing the vice-presidents to block commissioners’ proposing action by the Commission.

Juncker sees the structure as streamlining the organisation, promoting collective action and preventing a proliferation of laws as commissioners, whose number has soared as the EU took in new members, seek to justify their existence.

Many lawmakers say they are puzzled about how decisions will be taken in a system where Moscovici, for example, runs economic policy but must report, for different parts of his portfolio, to two vice-presidents – from Finland and Latvia, both hawkish allies of Germany in the euro zone.

Juncker’s decision to give Hill the financial regulation beat, including plans to develop an EU banking union of which Britain wants no part, was a conciliatory gesture to Prime Minister David Cameron, who had fought his appointment.

But it could backfire if lawmakers reject Hill, sparking another crisis with London ahead of a renegotiation of Britain’s membership before an in/out referendum that Cameron has promised to hold in 2017 if he is re-elected next year.

If nominees are rejected, Juncker can reshuffle them into a different post or ask their government to nominate someone else.

The first to face their three hours of committee questions will be Malta’s Karmenu Vella, charged with environment and fisheries, and Swedish trade commissioner nominee Cecilia Malmstrom. Their hearings begin at 2:30 p.m. (1230 GMT).

Sessions continue through the week, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Most committees aim to make their decisions the same day.

Next week sees vice-presidents quizzed, including foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini of Italy. Last, on Oct. 7, will be Frans Timmermans, the former Dutch foreign minister who is Juncker’s proposed right-hand man, overseeing the team.

A police officer from the strife-hit Missouri city of Ferguson was shot on Saturday night and authorities are still searching for the shooter, law enforcement officials said.

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar told reporters the shooting did not seem connected to peaceful protests occurring elsewhere in Ferguson.

“I wouldn’t have any reason to believe right now that it was linked in any way, shape, manner or form with the protests,” he said.

The officer was chasing the suspect outside the Ferguson Community Center on Saturday night when the person turned and shot him in the arm, St. Louis County Police Sergeant Brian Schellman said.

The officer, who was treated at a local hospital, returned fire but apparently did not hit the suspect, Schellman said. The shooter disappeared into a nearby wooded area, eluding arrest.

Police said earlier that there were two suspects, but detectives later determined there was only one, Schellman said.

Several hours later, an off-duty St. Louis City police officer was shot at and suffered a minor arm injury from broken glass while driving on a nearby freeway in a personal car, police said.

It was not immediately clear if the two shootings were related.

The St. Louis suburb of Ferguson has seen weeks of sometimes violent demonstrations following the death of black teenager Michael Brown, who was shot by white police officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9.

A crowd of about 100 people gathered near the scene of the night’s first shooting, with a group breaking off to protest at Ferguson police headquarters, according to Kareem Jackson, 27, a musician who goes by the stage name Tef Poe and is a member of the activist group HandsUp United.

“People are peaceful as a duck, just literally standing on the side of the street watching,” he said in a phone interview from the site where protesters had gathered.

On Thursday, Ferguson police chief Tom Jackson issued a video apology to Brown’s parents following weeks of heavy criticism and calls for his ouster.

The apology was not well-received among some and led to reported protests hours after it was issued.

Many in Ferguson, a mostly black community of 21,000, have called for Jackson to be fired for what they saw as a heavy-handed response in the aftermath of the killing.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has urged the two leaders in Cyprus to work without delay to bridge the remaining differences between their positions, building on the principles outlined in the Joint Declaration of February 11, 2014. At the same time, his Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide announced Saturday that he will be coming to Cyprus with “some bridging proposals”.

The UNSG on Saturday met with Turkish Cypriot leader Derviş Eroğlu. A written statement issued at the UN, following the meeting, says that the Secretary-General and Mr. Eroğlu discussed the status of the negotiations aimed at achieving a comprehensive settlement in Cyprus.

“The Secretary-General welcomed the recent agreement between the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot leaders to move forward in the negotiations, on the basis of the Joint Declaration which they endorsed on 11 February 2014. He urged them to work without delay to bridge the remaining differences between their positions, building on the principles outlined in the Joint Declaration”, the statement concludes.

Speaking through his translator, Dervis Eroglu repeated his views on a “give-take” procedure, arguing that the Greek Cypriot side “must make proposals that take into account the positions of both sides”.

CNA

UNSG Special Adviser Epsen Barth Eide met on Saturday with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and in statements following the meeting pointed out that when he returns to Cyprus, he will come with “some bridging proposals”.

Eide recalled that the UNSG said this is the time to move ahead, adding that “Mr Eroglu and Mr Anastiades agreed that we are now going into a new phase of genuine negotiations”.

“We`ll start doing that week after next. When I am back to Cyprus, I`ll come with some bridging proposals. We`ll go chapter after chapter and go into negotiations that already need to happen. I`ve been meeting with sides to talk about details of how we do that. But I am now quite optimistic that we are now moving into something different from what we have seen”, he underlined.

He went on to say that Famagusta is not the main issue of the negotiations he is chairing, adding that he is now more focused “on the solving the main core problem and to reunify the island through a negotiated settlement”.

“That will be my personal priority. And that`s also the Secretary General`s clear view. I want to go into the essence of the disagreements and I want to go into that fast and I`ll now focus on that”, Eide said in his statement.

CNA

Two children were killed and at least 15 injured on Sunday when a giant pick-up truck span out of control and drove into the audience while attempting to perform a stunt demonstration in the eastern Dutch town of Haaksbergen, local media reported.

A video published on Facebook showed the so-called monster truck riding over a row of parked vehicles as part of the demonstration, before losing control and ploughing over the barriers behind which the spectators were standing.

Hans Gerritsen, the town’s mayor, was reported by Dutch public television as saying two children had been killed and at least 15 were injured, five of them seriously.

Helicopter ambulances were dispatched to the scene of the accident from across the entire region, including from neighbouring Germany, local media reported.

By Tony Jimenez

Rory McIlroy showed precisely why he is the world’s number one golfer, producing a dazzling performance in the final-day singles to spearhead Europe’s victory push in the 40th Ryder Cup on Sunday.

Playing in the third match of the day, the 25-year-old Northern Irishman showed the full range of his dynamic shot-making skills as he powered to an emphatic 5 & 4 win over close friend Rickie Fowler.

Europe, who now lead 11-6 and need three more points to retain the trophy they won in the ‘Miracle at Medinah’ two years ago, were up in four matches and down in four of the remaining 11 matches out on the course.

McIlroy wielded a red-hot putter on a sunny day at Gleneagles, notching four birdies and an eagle in the first six holes to leave his American opponent reeling.

There was no stopping the British Open and U.S. PGA champion as he claimed three more birdies before closing out the American on the 14th green.

“I knew I needed to get off to a fast start and I knew what was expected of me as one of the leaders of the team,” McIlroy told Sky Sports television.

“I was really up for it today, more than in the final rounds of the majors I won earlier this year.

“It was very satisfying. I knew Paul wanted to play me up the order and I knew what was expected,” he said of Captain McGinley.

“There was no option but to win. I was six-under through six and that built a comfortable lead. This week has been an amazing experience and now I am going to cheer on the rest of the boys.”

‘FLASH MOBS’, anti stress seminars for government employees and a Guinness world record attempt mark this year’s Move Week in Cyprus which is taking part in a European wide annual push to increase the number of sporty Europeans to 100 million by 2020.

Activities to mark Move Week – called Find your Move – were officially inaugurated in Cyprus by Education Minister Costas Kadis, who hosted students at the ministry and took part in exercises.

Around the island, high school students and teachers participated in flash mobs – assembling unexpectedly and suddenly to perform exercise routines – on Monday as part of Move Week. Another flash mob is to take place in schools again on Friday.

On Friday two brothers from Limassol, Demos and Renos will try to break the Guinness World record for consecutive football headers at the AEL basketball court. Their unofficial record is 1925 headers, while the world record is 330.

“The education ministry is participating actively in achieving the goals of the campaign,” said the ministry’s announcement.

To help government employees fight stress the ministry has arranged physical education teachers to visit ministries, the parliament and the presidential palace throughout the week to offer civil servants advice and show them exercises that help keep stress at bay.

More than a hundred activities are expected to take place to celebrate Move Week. Nicosia and Larnaca municipalities have also announced activities for residents.

A schedule of all the activities can be found on the website of the Cyprus Sports Organisation (KOA) which is the official coordinator of the activities at www.cyprussports.org

By Scott Saunders

Saturday’s Premier League action provided us with a host of stunning goals, dramatic incident and local derby rivalries, with all of England’s biggest clubs in action on the same day for one very rare occasion.
Here are five things we can take from Saturday’s action:

5. Two new strikers are proving themselves
Two goals of the very highest order came within a couple of minutes of each other at St. Mary’s, where Southampton and QPR clashed.
With the Saints ahead, Charlie Austin showed us he can do the business in the Premier League after an unbelievable turn and volley to level the match.
But Graziano Pelle’s incredible overhead kick won the match for the home side. He’s got four league goals already, and he looks an inspired purchase from Dutch coach Ronald Koeman.

4. Eliaquim Mangala not as solid as we thought?
He looked like the man to partner Vincent Kompany for years to come as he had a storming debut against Chelsea last week, but Eliaquim Mangala didn’t have the best of days at Hull on Saturday.
The Frenchman’s positioning was off for the header he fired into his own goal for 2-1, while he was also penalised for a wild high boot in the box to allow Hull to level the match up.
Mangala looked okay apart from those incidents, but they could have been pivotal. There’s mistakes in him.

3. Leicester’s attack humbled
It’s a big old difference to last weekend for Leicester, who drew a blank against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. They fell to two goals in four minutes from Fraizer Campbell and Mile Jedinak.
There was to be no comeback for the ages from two down as they did to Manchester United, but that’s the magic of the Premier League. It is so unpredictable.

2. Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t shy away from ballsy decisions
He had other options, but Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino took a gamble on young Ryan Mason in midfield on Saturday – giving him his full league debut in a North London derby.
Mason did very well too, and didn’t look out of place. He did well enough to justify his selection by the Argentinian coach ahead of the benched Nabil Bentaleb. He helped Spurs to a 1-1 draw.

1. Arsenal an exciting english core, and a strong bench
Arsene Wenger’s latest Arsenal team is growing and maturing, but it’s refreshing to see that this team built for the future is made up of English (and Welsh if you count Aaron Ramsey) talent.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored Arsenal’s equaliser on the day against Spurs, and teamed up well with fellow young gun Calum Chambers down the right flank. Jack Wilshere has been doing well, and Danny Welbeck is leading the line.
And when you can bring Alexis Sanchez off the bench, it sure does help.

For more articles and the latest soccer news, check out FTBpro.com

By Thomas Escritt

War crimes prosecutors concluding their case against former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic on Monday said he had been a “driving force” who was firmly in charge of a genocidal campaign to rid Bosnia of its non-Serbian population.

Prosecutors are seeking the maximum penalty of life imprisonment against Karadzic, a leading political figure during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia that left 100,000 dead.

Concluding four years of court hearings, prosecutor Alan Tieger told judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia that Karadzic had boasted at the time of his intentions to wipe out the non-Serb population.

“After hundreds of witnesses, 80,000 pages of transcripts, and 10,000 exhibits, the policy of ethnic cleansing is finally exposed. And Karadzic was its driving force,” Tieger said.

Karadzic faces charges of genocide for the killing of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys from Srebrenica, Europe’s worst massacre since World War Two, when ethnic Serb forces gunned down prisoners after trucking them to killing sites.

He is also held responsible for the 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, in which more than 5,000 civilians died.

“(There were) thousands killed, hundreds of towns destroyed, masses forceably displaced,” Tieger told the courtroom.

He said Karadzic, now 69, had used violence and terror to carve an ethnic Serb breakaway state out of multi-ethnic Bosnia, starting just days before the country declared its independence from Yugoslavia.

Tieger gave examples of three people for whose deaths Karadzic bore responsibility — a father killed in the Srebrenica massacre, a mother killed in the shelling of a Sarajevo marketplace as she went to fetch milk, and a doctor shot in the notorious Omarska prison camp.

“Despite the knowledge of their death awaiting, many of the men were so thirsty that they were screaming ‘give us water and then kill us’, they were ordered off the trucks five at the time, ordered to lie down and then shot,” Tieger said, describing one massacre.

Karadzic, wearing a crumpled grey suit, watched intently from the opposite side of the courtroom as prosecutors presented their closing arguments.

Relatives of the war’s victims gathered in the courtroom’s public gallery said these crimes were the tip of the iceberg.

“The prosecutor said many good things, but I think that even worse things happened than what the prosecutor told the court,” said Munira Subasic, president of the Mothers of Srebrenica victims group.

The Yugoslav tribunal is winding down after prosecuting 112 suspects since being established by the U.N. Security Council in 1993 to punish those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

FIRMLY IN CHARGE

Karadzic is one of four suspects, including Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, still in the dock. Just seven suspects have been sentenced to life.

Late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic also stood trial at the court, but he died in 2006 before his trial could be concluded.

Karadzic, who has presented his own defence, rejects the court, arguing that it is a tool of the NATO military alliance, whose air strikes brought the war to an end. He says he was not in charge of the people who carried out massacres.

But Tieger said this was not the case.

“There was a chain of command from the municipality presidents to Karadzic,” Tieger said.

“When people on the ground in the municipalities disobeyed orders from (Bosnian Serb capital) Pale, some were removed from their posts or subjected to a disciplinary procedure known as ‘ironing’.”

Karadzic will present his own closing arguments on Wednesday.

Charges were brought against him in 1995, shortly before the war’s end. He was finally arrested in 2008 after years on the run in the Serbian capital Belgrade, where he had been living in disguise and working as a new-age healer.

The Bosnian war was part of a larger conflagration in which an estimated 140,000 people died as multi-ethnic Yugoslavia broke up during the 1990s into six successor states. Kosovo, formerly a Serbian province, also later declared independence.

By Elias Hazou

THE STATE stands to lose some €100m in tax revenue a year from a pending revision to VAT laws, Greens MP George Perdikis said on Monday.

The House finance committee was discussing a bill on taxation of services, which Cyprus needs to enact to comply with the EU’s VAT Directive.

Cyprus currently has the second lowest VAT in the EU. The standard rate is 19 per cent. Malta has the lowest standard rate, at 18 per cent.

The concern, according to Perdikis, relates to that part of the EU directive which stipulates that the taxation of services will better accrue to the country of consumption.

“This presents a daunting dilemma for the political leadership if, under the current economic hardship, Cyprus is forced to give €100m away to the VAT funds of other European countries and out of the coffers of our treasury,” he said.

Under the EU directive, the place of taxation is determined bywhere the services are supplied. This depends not only on thenature of the servicesupplied but also on thestatus of the customerreceiving the service.

The supply of servicesbetween businessesisin principletaxed at thecustomer’s place of establishment, while services supplied toprivate individualsare taxed at thesupplier’s place of establishment.

Earlier this summer, lawmakers were told that as of December 31, 2013 the VAT service was owed €421m.

During discussion at the House on Monday, MPs heard of a ‘scam’ whereby Cypriot companies, instead of charging for their services in Cyprus, charge them to tax havens where EU laws do not apply.

“Once again it has been confirmed that there are shysters who try to cheat the state,” Perdikis said.

“In Cyprus, having a good lawyer and a smart accountant means you can dodge all laws,” he added.

The finance committee also discussed proposed VAT regulations, by which the scope of the legislation will be expanded to incorporate the island’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

As set out in the explanatory note accompanying the tabled regulations, since the EEZ falls within the sovereign territory of the Republic, the provision of goods and services within the EEZ must be considered as taking place within the sovereign territory.

The amendments are designed to target the provision of goods and services in the context of prospecting and exploitation of natural resources operations within the EEZ.

Any facilities and constructions that are installed or used for prospecting and/or exploitation in the EEZ are moreover designated as falling within the territory of the Republic and thus subject to applicable VAT laws.

The amendment comes just as a new round of gas prospecting is underway by an Italian-Korean consortium in Block 9 of the EEZ, and more prospecting is expected next year in other offshore concessions.

By Stelios Orphanides

BANK OF Cyprus chief executive officer John Hourican has said that more regulatory and legislative changes are needed for the lender to overcome its biggest challenge which is to achieve a turnaround with its non-performing loan ratio of just under 50 per cent.

“We need changes in regulation, changes in legislation and continued aggression around managing that portfolio of assets,” Hourican said in an interview to the Financial Times on Monday. “That is the biggest challenge we got. That will allow us to fund the bank and create confidence. That’s why we raised much higher capital to be able to support that confidence rebuild.”

Hourican added that the capital increase by 1 billion euros carried out by the bank a month ago and ahead of the European Central Banks asset quality review set for late October, “creates future” as it is the largest ever direct foreign investment in Cyprus. “[It] is a vote of confidence not just in the bank but in the economy itself because they are so intrinsically interlinked,” he said.

“Cyprus is a small open economy so it is capable of turning very quickly,” Hourican said and added that it beginning to stabilise even as it contracts “at a much slower rate than was originally envisaged. So I am optimistic and positive on Cyprus”.

The new investors, which include US investor Wilbur Ross, who has a record in buying stakes in loss making companies and selling them after turning them profitable, and the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, believed that the bank could become “capable of serving an economy, in an oligopolistic position”, Hourican said.

While his job has not been “a walk in the park”, Hourican – who took up his position last year – added that he is pleased that the lender, which had to turn a large portion of its deposits into equity under the terms of Cyprus’ bailout agreed with international creditors last year, is “ahead of the plans we set ourselves”.

The Bank of Cyprus CEO said that while he does not rule out that some of Europe lenders may fail the ECB’s stress test next month they may help build confidence in Europe’s banking system “provided it is properly portrayed and properly explained. It should allow people to think that the banking sector as strong and fixed or at least on its way to being fixed”.

Hourican said that the euro area’s fragile economy may need more than what the ECB has done in an attempt to strengthen its recovery process. While the ECB “is doing what it can” governments should prepare more daring fiscal stimulus programmes. “We need horizonal tax breaks, we need stimulus for capital injection, we need employment stimulus,” he said.

On September 4, the ECB slashed its refinancing operations rate and deposit facility rate to 0.05 per cent and -0.2 per cent respectively, the lowest ever since the introduction of the euro.

By Kay Johnson

Afghanistan inaugurated its first new president in a decade on Monday, swearing in technocrat Ashraf Ghani to head a power-sharing government just as the withdrawal of most foreign troops presents a crucial test.

The first democratic handover of power in Afghan history has been far from smooth: the deal for a unity government was cobbled together after months of deadlock over a vote in which both Ghani and opponent Abdullah Abdullah claimed victory.

Illustrating the problems facing the new president, a suicide bomber killed seven people at a security checkpoint near Kabul airport just before Ghani was sworn in, a government official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

Later, ending months of uncertainty over the future US role in Afghanistan, the US embassy announced Ghani would on Tuesday send a representative to sign a security agreement with the United States allowing a small continent of troops to remain.

In his inaugural speech, Ghani appealed to the Taliban and other militants to join peace talks and put an end to more than a decade of violence. Thousands of Afghans are killed each year in the insurgency.

“Security is a main demand of our people, and we are tired of this war,” Ghani said. “I am calling on the Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami to prepare for political negotiations.”

Hezb-i-Islami is an Islamist faction loosely allied with the Taliban.

Ghani also vowed to crack down on rampant corruption and called for cooperation within the coalition government.

“A national unity government is not about sharing power, but about working together,” Ghani said in his speech that lasted for nearly an hour.

But signs of tension are already appearing in the fragile coalition. A dispute over office space and whether Abdullah would speak at the inauguration led to threats his camp would boycott Monday’s ceremony, an Abdullah aide said, adding it was resolved after late-night meetings with the US ambassador.

The inauguration marks the end of an era with the departure of President Hamid Karzai, the only leader Afghans have known since a US-led invasion in 2001 overthrew the Islamist Taliban who had given sanctuary to al Qaeda.

Ghani’s first act after being sworn in was to sign a decree creating the post of chief executive. Abdullah was sworn in to that job moments later, and he made a speech before Ghani – a departure from the original programme. The specially created post carries powers similar to those of a prime minister.

Both foreign backers and Afghans hope that Ghani and Abdullah can put aside their acrimonious election rivalry and work to improve life in a country that has suffered war and poverty for decades.

Even if its top figures can work together, the government inherits massive problems, including fighting an emboldened Taliban who in recent months has been launching ever-more aggressive attacks as foreign troops draw down.

GOVERNMENT BROKE

Monday’s suicide bombing in Kabul killed four members of the security forces and three civilian passers-by, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujadid said the bomber was targeting Afghan and foreign forces.

Also on Monday, four suicide attackers killed eight people near a government office in the eastern province of Paktia, said police official Azimullah, who uses just one name.

Ghani must also reset relations with the United States, which have soured in recent years under Karzai.

One of the new government’s first acts will be signing the bilateral agreement to allow some US forces to remain in the country to train and help the Afghan army and police, and for the United States to keep some military bases. About 10,000 US troops are expected to stay on.

US Ambassador James Cunningham said a representative of Ghani would sign the deal early on Tuesday at the presidential palace in Kabul. Karzai had refused to sign the agreement, but both Ghani and Abdullah have said they are in favour of endorsing it promptly.

The inauguration ceremony was held at the vast presidential palace compound in central Kabul. Foreign dignitaries including Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain and senior White House adviser John Podesta were due to attend.

The new government will immediately face a fiscal crisis. Already heavily dependent on foreign aid, Kabul has asked the United States and other donors for $537 million to pay its bills until the end of the year.

A Finance Ministry official acknowledged over the weekend that the government was so broke it had been forced to delay paying civil servants’ salaries for October because the treasury did not have the $116 million needed.

Some hope that Ghani, a longtime World Bank official and former finance minister, will put his knowledge of international institutions and development to work in combating Afghanistan’s tradition of corrupt and inefficient government.

A US-trained anthropologist from Afghanistan’s Pashtun ethnic group, Ghani spent almost a quarter of a century outside Afghanistan during its tumultuous decades of 1980s Soviet occupation, followed by civil war and Taliban rule.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, he returned to become a senior adviser to Karzai.

Abdullah stayed in Afghanistan during the years of war as a close confidant to the anti-Soviet and later anti-Taliban fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud, an ethnic Tajik commander who was assassinated in 2001. Abdullah later served as foreign minister.

If he and Ghani can work together well, they could help bridge longstanding ethnic and political divides, although sceptics fear the coalition will inevitably be caught up in power struggles and rivalries between entrenched interests.

White House counselor John Podesta, who represented President Barack Obama at the inauguration, acknowledged the challenges facing the new government but said Ghani and Abdullah they are “both strong, committed leaders” who he believed would put their country before personal ambition.

“We’re optimistic that this not only can work, but will work,” Podesta told reporters on Monday in Kabul.

By Farah Master and Clare Baldwin

Hong Kong democracy protesters defied volleys of tear gas and police baton charges to stand firm in the centre of the global financial hub on Monday, one of the biggest political challenges for China since the Tiananmen Square crackdown 25 years ago.

The Communist government in Beijing made clear it would not tolerate dissent, and warned against any foreign interference as thousands of protesters massed for a fourth night in the free-wheeling, capitalist city of more than 7 million people.

“Hong Kong is China’s Hong Kong,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying defiantly told a news briefing in Beijing.

The unrest, the worst in Hong Kong since China resumed its rule over the former British colony in 1997, sent white clouds of gas wafting among some of the world’s most valuable office towers and shopping malls before riot police suddenly withdrew around lunchtime on Monday.

Tens of thousands of mostly student protesters are demanding full democracy and have called on the city’s leader Leung Chun-ying to step down.

China rules Hong Kong under a “one country, two systems” formula that accords the territory only a degree of democracy.

As riot police withdrew on Monday, weary protesters slept beside roads or sheltered from the sun beneath umbrellas, which have become a symbol of what some are calling the “Umbrella Revolution”. In addition to protection from the elements, umbrellas have been used as flimsy shields against pepper spray.

Nicola Cheung, an 18-year-old student from Baptist University, said the protesters in central Admiralty district were assessing the situation and planning what to do next.

“Yes, it’s going to get violent again because the Hong Kong government isn’t going to stand for us occupying this area,” she said. “We are fighting for our core values of democracy and freedom, and that is not something violence can scare us away from.”

Organisers have said that as many as 80,000 people have thronged the streets after the protests flared on Friday night. No independent estimate of numbers was available.

The protests, with no single identifiable leader, bring together a mass movement of mostly tech-savvy students who have grown up with freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China. The movement represents one of the biggest threats for Beijing’s Communist Party leadership since its bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy student protests in and around Tiananmen Square.

Cracking down too hard could shake confidence in market-driven Hong Kong, while not reacting firmly enough could embolden dissidents on the mainland.

The protests are expected to escalate on Oct. 1, China’s National Day holiday, with residents of the nearby former Portuguese enclave of Macau planning a rally. Pro-democracy supporters from other countries are also expected to protest, causing Beijing further embarrassment.

Such dissent would never be tolerated on the mainland, where the phrase “Occupy Central” was blocked on Sunday on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. The protests have received little coverage on the mainland, save for government condemnation.

Protesters say there should be open nominations for candidates for Hong Kong’s 2017 leadership election. China’s rubber-stamp parliament endorsed a framework on Aug. 31 that ensured only pro-Beijing candidates.

INTERNATIONAL CONCERN

Televised scenes of the chaos in Hong Kong over the weekend have already made a deep impression on many viewers outside Hong Kong. That was especially the case in Taiwan, which has full democracy but is considered by China as a renegade province that must one day be reunited with the Communist-run mainland.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou said Beijing needed “to listen carefully to the demands of the Hong Kong people”.

Taiwan understood and supported the Hong Kong people’s demand for universal suffrage, he said in a statement, adding: “We do not wish to see any conflicts.”

Britain said it was concerned about the situation in Hong Kong and called for the right of protest to be protected.

The U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong issued a statement calling for all sides to “refrain from actions that would further escalate tensions”.

China’s Hua said Beijing noted statements expressed by countries such as the United States. “We hope that the relevant country will be cautious on this issue and not send the wrong signal,” she said.

“We are resolutely opposed to any foreign country using any method to interfere in China’s internal affairs. We are also resolutely opposed to any country, attempting in any way to support such illegal activities like ‘Occupy Central’.”

“We are fully confident in the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong, because I believe this is in keeping with the interests of all the people in China, the region and the world,” she said.

In 1989, Beijing’s Tiananmen crackdown sent shockwaves through Hong Kong as people saw how far China’s rulers would go to keep their grip on power.

SOME BANKS PULL DOWN SHUTTERS

Banks in Hong Kong, including HSBC, Citigroup , Bank of China, Standard Chartered and DBS, shut some branches and advised staff to work from home or go to secondary branches.

Markets more or less took the weekend’s unrest in their stride, proof yet again of the pre-eminent place trade has always taken in Hong Kong. Hong Kong shares ended down 1.9 percent.

The protests have spooked tourists, with arrivals from China down sharply ahead of this week’s National Day holidays. Hong Kong on Monday cancelled the city’s fireworks display over the harbour, meant to mark the holiday. The United States, Australia and Singapore issued travel alerts.

Some protesters erected barricades to block security forces early on Monday, although a relative calm descended after dawn. By mid-afternoon, hundreds of protesters were seen streaming again into downtown areas of Hong Kong island. A bus draped with a banner reading “Democracy” was parked across a main road.

People placed discarded umbrellas over students sleeping in the sun, while others distributed water and masks to guard against tear gas and pepper spray.

Hours earlier, police had baton-charged a crowd blocking a road into the main government district in defiance of official warnings that the demonstrations were illegal.

Several scuffles broke out between police in helmets, gas masks and riot gear, and demonstrators.

“If today I don’t stand up, I will hate myself in future,” said taxi driver Edward Yeung, 55, as he swore at police. “Even if I get a criminal record it will be a glorious one.”

Across Hong Kong’s famed Victoria Harbour, smaller numbers of protesters, including some secondary school students, also gathered in the Mong Kok district of Kowloon.

About 200 workers at Swire Beverage, a unit of Hong Kong conglomerate Swire Pacific and a major bottler for the Coca-Cola Company, went on strike in support of the protesters, a union representative said. They also demanded the city’s leader step down.

The “one country, two systems” formula guarantees Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China, with universal suffrage set as an eventual goal.

However, Beijing last month rejected demands for people to freely choose the city’s next leader, prompting threats from activists to shut down the Central business district.

China wants to limit 2017 elections to a handful of candidates loyal to Beijing. Communist Party leaders worry that calls for democracy could spread to the mainland.

By Natalia Zinets

Seven Ukrainian soldiers were killed when separatist shelling hit their armoured vehicle near Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine, a military spokesman said on Monday, putting a fragile ceasefire under further strain.

It was the largest loss of life among Ukrainian soldiers in a single incident since the ceasefire came into force on Sept. 5 and cast a shadow over President Petro Poroshenko’s upbeat assertion last week that the worst of the war against the separatists was over.

Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said tank fire from the separatists struck a large armoured carrier on Sunday night during rebel attempts to storm Donetsk international airport, which is held by government forces.

The rebels hold key points inside the city itself, an industrial hub with a pre-war population of about one million.

“During the evening attack, the Ukrainian armoured transporter, with its crew and a paratroop unit, took a direct hit from a tank,” Lysenko told journalists.

“Intensive fighting broke out. Our paratroopers sustained losses,” Lysenko said, separately telling Reuters that seven soldiers had been killed. He said nine Ukrainian soldiers in all had been killed in the past 24 hours and 27 injured.

Under pressure from Western governments, Poroshenko called the ceasefire after his troops suffered big battlefield losses against the separatists in August which Kiev ascribed to the direct intervention of Russian forces.

Moscow, which opposes the pro-Western course pursued by the former Soviet republic, denies its troops have played any direct part in the conflict or armed the separatists despite what Kiev and Western governments say is incontrovertible proof.

SEEKING CALM

Poroshenko last week lauded the fact that military clashes had diminished and that military casualties had dwindled to zero, showing his peace plan was working.

“I do not have any doubt that the main, the most dangerous, part of the war is already in the past,” he told reporters.

Poroshenko is seeking to calm the waters in the run-up to a parliamentary election on Oct. 26 from which he wants a mandate from pro-Western forces to press ahead with his plan to end the conflict and pursue reforms designed to make the country fit to join the European mainstream.

He will certainly want the ceasefire to be still holding at election time and a relatively calm atmosphere for people to cast their votes.

A United Nations human rights official said on September 23 that more than 3,500 people had been killed in the conflict, including 298 people who died when a Malaysian passenger plane flying over Donetsk region was brought down in July.

Lysenko accused the separatists and Russian mercenaries of keeping up their attacks. “Despite the ceasefire … the terrorists and Russian mercenaries are continuing to fire on the positions of the ‘anti-terrorist’ forces,” he said.

Government forces had destroyed the tank which had shelled the Ukrainian armoured vehicle, Lysenko said.

He expressed confidence that Ukrainian forces would hold onto the airport, part of which was modernised to host the European football finals two years ago and which has huge strategic value since it can take big military transporters.

“Donetsk airport was and will be under the control of the Ukrainian military,” he said.