CYPRUS Airways pilots union PASYPI held a news conference on Wednesday to complain that ministers and the airline’s board did not take the necessary steps needed for the company to become viable and thus meet the five requirements set by the European Commission.

They did not explain what these steps should have been, but the pilots have not exactly helped the drive for viability by suing the company on the grounds that the cuts it imposed on their salaries were illegal. The company had cut all staff’s wages in 2005, but whereas the rest of the unions representing the airline’s workers accepted these, PASYPI never agreed to them. The labour court ruled this week that the cuts in pay and benefits of the pilots had been implemented without the consent of the members of PASYPI and were therefore illegal.

Now the company will be obliged to pay the total amounts cut from every pilot’s salary since 2005 plus interest. Presumably, burdening the company with additional costs is the pilots’ contribution to the effort to make the airline viable. It is astonishing that the pilots, by far the best rewarded employees of the airline and among the highest paid in the industry, were not willing to give up a small part of their fat salaries to help their company survive, but have the nerve to accuse the board and the government for not taking the necessary steps for viability.

The PASYPI president Petros Souppouris claimed that €100 million injected by the state had been lost, the implication being the amount had not been used for the company’s needs. He blamed the senior management team for big blunders and demanded the investigation into the goings-on at the company be made public. As if to underline the pilots’ naive thinking, Souppouris claimed that his union was in favour of privatisation and the arrival of a strategic investor who would help develop the airline, which was unable to deal with the competition in the last 10 years.

It did not cross Souppouris’ or his colleagues’ minds that one of the main reasons CY was uncompetitive were the unjustifiably high salaries it was paying its pilots and other staff. Nor does it occur to them that a strategic investor would not keep paying them the princely salaries they secured when all the unions were plundering the airline with the help of the politicians and their appointees on the board.

Bad management, political meddling, greedy unions and self-serving directors all contributed to the bankrupting of the airline and the pilots have a nerve to criticise management when they were not even willing to give up a small fraction of their fat salaries to help the company.

By Stefanos Evripidou

RUSSIA’s decision to hold navy exercises in waters east of the island on Monday, the same day Turkey intends to send its seismic research vessel into Cypriot offshore blocks, is no coincidence, government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said yesterday.

Speaking to the public broadcaster from Milan, Christodoulides said: “Nothing is by chance in politics.”

He made the comments after President Nicos Anastasiades met Russian President Vladimir Putin late on Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Milan.

The two leaders sat next to each other for two hours during an official dinner for visiting heads of state and government, hosted by the Italian President, current rotating head of the EU Presidency.

According to Christodoulides, the two men had an extensive discussion on EU-Russia relations, bilateral relations and the Cyprus problem, with emphasis on Turkey’s decision to issue a NAVTEX reserving large swathes of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for seismic studies, resulting in Anastasiades suspending peace talks.

“President Putin reaffirmed the Russian position of principle with regard to both the solution of the Cyprus problem and the inalienable right of the Republic of Cyprus to exploit its natural resources within its EEZ, and characterised any violation of the sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus as unacceptable,” said the spokesman in a written statement.

Speaking later to CyBC, the spokesman said the two leaders had a “very good discussion”. Putin was well aware of what was going on in Cyprus’ EEZ regarding Turkey’s unprecedented decision to announce seismic research and possible drilling south of Cyprus, in blocks already licenced to Italian-Korean consortium ENI-KOGAS.

“He knew about the positions of Nicosia within the EU regarding discussions on sanctions against Russia,” said Christodoulides, in reference to Cyprus’ efforts to dampen enthusiasm for wide-reaching sanctions against Moscow within the European Council over its activities in eastern Ukraine.

The two leaders agreed to stay in contact, said the spokesman, adding that a lot of discussion was had at a European level with Russia on relations between the two sides.

“Moscow recognises the constructive and balanced role played by Cyprus. So, we will see the developments within that framework, and then depending, proceed with an exchange of visits,” between Anastasiades and Putin, said Christodoulides.

The four-day Russian navy drills will be taking place inside the Nicosia Flight Information Region (FIR) in a reserved area stretching from off Cape Apostolos Andreas in the occupied northeastern tip to the coast of Syria.

“We were informed from the first moment by the Russian side. We’re talking about the Nicosia FIR, so the Cyprus Republic had to be informed.”

A joint Cyprus-Israel search and rescue exercise in Cyprus’ FIR is also scheduled for next Tuesday.

The seating arrangements at the Milan dinner will likely become the subject of much discussion back home, as the president’s relations with Moscow have recently come under heavy fire from opposition parties.

According to reports, the government actively sought a meeting with Putin at the summit.

Anastasiades came under a barrage of criticism last week for his Westpolitik – realignment of foreign policy to sit unreservedly in the ranks of the west, particularly under the leadership of the United States. Opposition parties argued this came at the expense of traditional relations with Moscow, which has always been willing to help Cyprus change the odd word or sentence in a UN Security Council Resolution, or even use its veto.

Condemnation from the opposition heightened after the US issued a lukewarm response to Turkey’s stated intention to search and drill for gas south of the island, off the Limassol coastline.

The government may have pointed to diplomatic activity taking place behind the scenes, but the presidential palace’s disappointment was palpable at the lack of firm vocal support from the US.

It’s likely that the ongoing siege by Islamic State forces against Syrian Kurds in Kobani, and Ankara’s calculated game of brinkmanship regarding possible intervention, depending on the establishment of a safety zone and no-fly zone in north Syria, has been the US State Department’s main priority at present.

The announcement of the Russian naval exercise would have given the Cypriot government something tangible to present to the public, however, since beyond its bark, Nicosia has little to bite with.

It remains to be seen whether dinner with Putin marks a return to the island’s traditional Ostpolitik or whether Anastasiades will ride the storm and continue investing in a future under the umbrella of western influence.

ON THE sidelines of the ASEM Summit, Anastasiades also held separate meetings yesterday with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

Discussion focused on Turkey’s intention to violate Cyprus’ sovereign rights at a time when ENI-KOGAS is in the process of drilling in its offshore block 9 concession.

During the meetings, Cyprus’ sovereign rights were reaffirmed, as was the need for uninterrupted drilling within its EEZ.

The spokesman said all the president’s interlocutors responded very positively. “Nobody can justify Turkey’s intentions. More so for those states that have particularly sensitivities in the eastern Mediterranean. They are more concerned than Scandinavian countries, you can understand why, because there is more concern in our region regarding Turkey’s intentions.”

By Hermes Solomon

OIL, GAS and gold prices have tumbled on commodity markets as economies fall into yet another recession due, we are told, to persistent Middle East and Ukraine unrest combined with declining Asian and emerging market growth, which is predicted to worsen as the sick men of Europe fail to stem growing pessimism among their industrialists.

But governments have yet to blame the potential threat of a worldwide Ebola epidemic, which could well see the quarantining of countries – the closing down of  airlines, shipping, cross border roads and railways. This worst Ebola spread scenario would lead to a worldwide 24/7 travel ban and hometown curfews on all continents.

On the other hand, UN special envoy on Ebola, David Nabarro, says he ‘hopes’ that this outbreak can be brought under control within three months. “But the number of new cases (in West Africa) is quite frightening, as the spread of the disease is currently accelerating.”

Meanwhile airports have begun screening passengers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in a ‘soft approach’ attempt to stem the outbreak – not regarded by world health specialists as particularly effective.

This, the worst single Ebola outbreak in history, has now killed more than all the others combined. Healthcare workers in West Africa are visibly struggling and many are dying; the response to the outbreak has been damned as “lethally inadequate” and the situation is showing signs of getting considerably worse.

The outbreak has been running all year, but the latest in a stream of worrying statistics shows that 40 per cent of all deaths and infections occurred in the past month. And even more worrying is the contamination of nurses in the so called sophisticated healthcare services of both Spain and the US.

Previous outbreaks have been rapidly contained, affecting just dozens of people; this one has already infected more than 8,500 and if not brought under control could infect up to 1.4 million by next January.

Why has Ebola grown to epidemic proportions this time – greater ease of population mobility perhaps?

Dr Christopher Dye of the World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that the outbreak was raging in Liberia, while the two other countries primarily hit by the outbreak, Sierra Leone and Guinea had been relatively stable. “Numbers of new cases were not falling, but they were not soaring either. That is no longer true, with a surge in cases in all three countries apart from in some parts of rural Sierra Leone.”

Médecins Sans Frontières has an isolation facility in Monrovia with 160 beds, but it says queues are growing and they need another 800 beds to deal with the number of people who are already sick. This is not a scenario for containing an epidemic, but fuelling one.

Dr Dye’s tentative forecasts are grim: “At the moment we’re seeing about 500 new cases each week. Those numbers appear to be increasing. If current trends persist we would be seeing not hundreds per week, but thousands. ”

The World Health Organisation is using an educated guess of 20,000 cases before ‘the end’ in order to plan the scale of the response. But the true potential of the outbreak is unknown and the WHO figure has been described as ‘optimistic’ to say the least.

Prof Simon Hay of Oxford University warns that as the total number of cases increases, so does the risk of international spread. He fears that more and more individual cases will seed into new areas, increasing the risk that one or more of these cases could arrive in Europe or North America.

However, richer countries ‘believe’ they have the facilities to prevent an isolated case becoming an uncontrolled outbreak. But no country is prepared for an epidemic.

Officially the WHO claims the outbreak can be contained in six to nine months. But that is based on getting the resources to tackle the outbreak, which are currently stretched too thinly to contain Ebola as it stands.

There is a potentially vulnerable population in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea in excess of 20 million and Ebola deaths in Africa up to mid-October stand at over 4500.

Prof Neil Ferguson, director of the UK Medical Research Council’s centre for outbreak analysis said, “Unless there is a ramp-up of the response on the ground, we’ll have flare-ups of cases for several months and possibly years.”

Prof Jonathan Ball, a virologist at Nottingham University, describes the situation as ‘desperate’. His concern is that the virus is being given its first major opportunity to adapt to thrive in people due to the large number of human-to-human transmissions during this outbreak of unprecedented scale – the virus has a high rate of mutation and with mutation comes the possibility of adapting.

“It is increasing exponentially and the fatality rate seems to be decreasing, but why? Is it better medical care, earlier intervention or is the virus adapting to humans and becoming less pathogenic?”

An Ebola vaccine, which began safety testing last week, is being used on the front line. If the early trials are successful then healthcare workers could be vaccinated in November this year.

There is a fear being raised by some that Ebola may never be contained; no matter where you look there is not much cause for optimism.

There has been widespread under-reporting of actual Ebola cases; people have been turned away from overflowing hospitals and many others are hiding in their homes, afraid that they will never see their families again and will be ostracised by their neighbours.

Globally important news stories in Ukraine and the Middle East should by now have been overshadowed by what we see unfolding in West Africa – a catastrophe to the population, killing thousands in the region and causing a breakdown of an already fragile healthcare system.

This is an impossibly huge epidemic, which has been allowed to reach a point where it has become the biggest infectious disease imaginable. Will richer nations only respond effectively after infections have spread uncontrolled into their own back yards?

By John V Whitbeck

ON OCTOBER 12, at a donors’ conference in Cairo, participants pledged US$5.4 billion toward the reconstruction of Gaza. However, numerous participants noted that repeatedly paying to reconstruct what had been destroyed – and was likely to be destroyed again – was an insufficient response and that the core problem must be addressed. However, no original ideas for addressing it were offered.

The core problem is the occupation, now in its 48th year. It was addressed the following night when the British House of Commons voted overwhelmingly (274-12) in favour of the United Kingdom’s extending diplomatic recognition to the State of Palestine “as a contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution”, implicitly while its entire territory remains under belligerent occupation and without Israel’s prior permission. On October 3, the new Swedish prime minister had announced his government’s intention to recognise the State of Palestine, thereby joining the 134 other UN member states, encompassing the vast majority of mankind, which have already done so.

Europe should not stop there. Eight European Union states, including Cyprus, have already recognised the State of Palestine. Imagine that all of the 20 EU states which have not yet done so were to do so and that the EU were then to announce that, if Israel did not comply with international law and relevant UN resolutions by withdrawing fully from the occupied State of Palestine by a specified date, it would impose economic sanctions on Israel and intensify them until Israel did so.

Europe is not simply Israel’s principal trading partner. It is the Israelis’ cultural homeland, with many Israelis viewing their country as a “European villa in the jungle”. It is even Israelis’ sports homeland, with Israeli teams competing in European football and basketball competitions. If Europe were to adopt and pursue a firm and unified position of constructive disapproval along these lines, the writing would be indelibly on the wall, and the end of the occupation and the transformation of the current two-state legality under international law into a decent two-state reality on the ground would become unavoidable, a mere question of when rather than of whether.

Then, and only then, meaningful Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on the practical modalities of ending the occupation and structuring future peaceful and cooperative coexistence could begin.

One may well respond that, of course, Europeans would never dream of taking such an initiative. It is true that Europe has traditionally preferred smooth and non-contentious relations with the United States and Israel, even when such subservience runs counter to its proclaimed values and interests and further fuels the multi-decade war of civilisations between the Muslim world and the West now taking shape, to applying non-violent pressure consistent with international law to achieve peace with some measure of justice in Israel and Palestine.

However, this does not mean that Europe is incapable of breaking free from the American imposed orthodoxy that a Palestinian state can and should never exist, even on a purely legal level, without Israel’s prior consent or incapable of acting wisely and in accordance with European values and interests.

Oddly, since Israel has never defined its own borders, an act which would necessarily place limits on them, a principal argument of the Israeli government and its supporters against diplomatic recognitions of the State of Palestine is that Palestine does not have defined borders. In fact, Palestine does have clearly defined borders, and they were confirmed in the overwhelming (138-9) November 29, 2012 UN General Assembly vote confirming Palestine’s “state status” as “the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967”.

Both Israel and Palestine now have “internationally recognised borders”. For Israel, they encompass all of Mandate Palestine conquered prior to 1967 – nothing more and nothing less. For Palestine, they encompass all of the remaining part of Mandate Palestine, conquered in 1967 – nothing more and nothing less. No country, not even the United States, recognises any other borders for either state.

Of course, states are always free to redraw their borders with other states by mutual agreements feely entered into, and, if Israel is ever to agree to end its occupation, some land swaps or, in the case of Jerusalem or emotionally charged parts thereof, some sharing of undivided sovereignty over territory are likely to be agreed to.

Most of those who proclaim themselves “pro-Israel” or who genuinely care about the welfare of Israelis and non-Israeli Jews (not necessarily the same people) profess to support a “two-state solution” and realise that the perpetuation of the current one-state reality would nullify the Zionist project if transformed into a fully democratic state and make Israel a despised pariah state if perpetuated as today’s effective apartheid state.

Such people should ask and answer a simple but essential question: “Is the Israeli government more likely to negotiate seriously with a genuine desire and intention to reach a definitive peace agreement ending the occupation if most Israelis feel that such an agreement would best serve their interests and enhance the quality of life for them and their children or if most Israelis feel (as has been the case for at least 20 years) that maintaining the status quo of occupation and continuing settlement expansion is preferable to any realistically realisable agreement?”

There being only one coherent answer to this question, “friends of Israel”, whether opportunistic or genuine, should shout that answer out to all who would accuse them of being insufficiently “pro-Israel”.

One and only one road to peace with some measure of justice in Israel and Palestine exists. It is open. It remains to be seen whether European leaders have the political will, wisdom and courage to start down that road.

John V Whitbeck is an international lawyer who has advised the Palestinian negotiating team in negotiations with Israel

By Dr Andrestinos Papadopoulos

The statements by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexey Meshkov and the ministry’s spokesman Alexander Lukashevich concerning Turkey’s intention to carry out seismic studies in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) have been the subject of different interpretations.

Some were negative, viewing for instance Russia’s allusion to “unilateral actions” as referring to the Republic of Cyprus and the non-recognition of the Cyprus’ right to exploit the natural resources of its EEZ. The lack of a mention of Turkey by name was also highlighted.

However, if we look at the texts through legal and diplomatic lenses and not those of political or party expediencies, we can understand their real meaning. In the first place, the “unilateral actions and show of force” actually refer to Turkey.

We easily reach this conclusion from the reference in Lukashevich’s statement to “the situation around the EEZ of the Republic of Cyprus”.

The Republic’s EEZ is recognised by the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which provides that a coastal state has sovereign rights in its EEZ to explore, develop and preserve the natural resources, whether living or non-living, of the waters superjacent to the seabed and of the seabed and its subsoil (Article 65, subparagraph 1a). Cyprus’ right, therefore, to exploit its natural resources in its EEZ is not questioned by the Russian statements. Finally, not mentioning Turkey by name is part of diplomatic practice, according to which you do not put somebody in the corner if you want to influence him.

So much for the statements. Russia then took a tougher step by making a demarche to the foreign ministry in Ankara. A demarche is stronger than a statement, since in diplomatic practice it is considered as an upgraded action.

At the Turkish foreign ministry, the Russian ambassador repeated the known position of Russia, as stated in August 2011 by the same Alexander Lukashevich. Replying to a question concerning Turkey challenging the Republic’s right to exploit the natural resources of its EEZ, Lukashevich then stressed that “such activities are consistent with international law and the scope of sovereign rights available to the Republic of Cyprus in accordance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.”

In view of the above, who can deny that Russia stood by our side?

It augers well that President Anastasiades has expressed his satisfaction with Russia’s reaction. In an interview published in the newspaper, Simerini, on October 12 he stressed that “the option of closer relations with the United States is not taken at the expense of our traditional and friendly relations with Russia. On the contrary, and at the European Council … we try to warn realistically about the problems and the consequences which will affect not only Russia.”

Even in the present climate of sanctions, Russia has proved to be a real friend.

Dr Andrestinos Papadopoulos is a former ambassador of Cyprus

By Constantinos Psillides

THE FACT that Cyprus is lagging in areas where other EU countries are advancing rapidly is hardly newsworthy. So it comes as absolutely nobody’s surprise that Cypriots pay too much on their internet connection, at the same time putting up with slower speeds than their EU counterparts.

According to data from the EU Digital Agenda Scoreboard, Cypriots pay an average of €91 for fast and ultra-fast internet connections (this applies to speeds of 30Mbps to 100Mbps) and an average of €60 for lower speeds.

This is the second highest in the EU, with Malta claiming the first place when it comes to over 30Mbps (€102) and Hungary (€72) for internet speed lower than 30Mbps.

An industry insider, who wishes to remain anonymous, explained to the Sunday Mail why this was the case. “Operational costs for providers is the number one reason for high prices. First of all, Cyprus is a limited market. There are roughly 210,000-220,000 subscriptions on the island at present. This does not allow for a large market or competition. Thus, providers have to cover their operational costs by charging their very limited client pool more. They have to purchase the same equipment large EU providers do, in order to be operational,” he said.

In comparison, Germany has about 28 million subscriptions while the UK has approximately 22 million.

The insider went on to say that besides the limited market, being in the farthest reaches of the EU was also an issue. “Providers need access to central hubs to provide their clients with internet access, hubs which are located mainly in Germany, the UK and France. Service providers operating in these countries don’t have to pay much for access, unlike us or Malta.”

A third contributing factor, according to the insider, is electricity charges. “These systems need power to run. Electricity charges in Cyprus are almost double what the rest of the EU is paying, so that’s also added to the operational cost and passed along to the consumer.”

Cyprus is also lagging behind in speed provided. In Croatia, Cyprus, Greece and Italy, fast broadband is still rare, representing less than 5 per cent of all subscriptions. When it comes to Cyprus, up until six months ago the 100Mbps penetration was close to zero.

The insider explained that low speeds could be mainly attributed to low market demand. “At the moment, the vast majority of households would be perfectly satisfied with a 10Mbps-12Mpbs connection. Most people believe that this sufficient for their needs and don’t go over that, considering the market prices,” he said, adding that providers in Cyprus include access to digital TV in their bundles, which is not always the case in the EU. “Allowing for digital TV takes some off a chunk of the allowed speed. Providers in the EU separate the TV package so their subscribers have to pay more to either stream programmes online or get access to digital TV.”

A reason for settling with comparatively low internet speeds is that streaming media presence on the island is almost non-existent. Companies like Netflix, Hulu or HBO GO are not available in Cyprus, streaming from which would require a high-speed connection.

Another factor, according to the insider is an effect called “bottlenecking” that mostly plagues DSL connections. “CyTA sets up a central point for servicing a number of subscribers in various points around the island, called DSLAMS. During peak hours servicing time climbs significantly higher due traffic. Additionally, the further you are from the DSLAM the more your speed is affected.”

It should be noted that according to the data provided by Digital Agenda Scoreboard, DSL connections in the EU deliver –on average- only 64 per cent of the advertised speed. Poland providers are the most “honest” ones since they deliver up to 90 per cent of what their ads promise.

DSL technology, according to the Scoreboard, is the one preferred by incumbent providers in the EU while new entrants gravitate towards cable.

Currently, Cablenet is the only company that provides customers with a 100Mbps connection. Cablenet is one of four providers operating on the island now, along with MTN, Primetel and the semi-state CyTA.

CyTA, boasting a 68 per cent market share, is the island’s largest provider. It currently offers internet speeds up to 32Mbps.

What sets Cablenet apart is that the company doesn’t use CyTA’s network to operate. Cablenet utilises cable technology, which allows for much faster internet speeds. CyTA –along with Primetel and MTN that operate off CyTA’s already established network- utilises digital subscriber line (DSL) technology. Establishing a cable network though has its drawbacks, since Cablenet coverage is mainly limited to urban areas whereas CyTA covers the whole island.

According to the Digital Agenda statistics, Cyprus is one of the only four countries in the EU that has complete coverage.

CyTA is at the moment migrating from an asymmetric subscriber line (ADSL) to a very-high-bit-rate subscriber line (VDSL) which allows for ultra-fast internet, up to a possible of 100Mbps.

The insider told the Sunday Mail that while CyTA was not considering cable technology, they were planning to jump to optical fibre. “Fiber to the home/building will be the next step for CyTA but it’s going to be an extremely hard one. First of all, CyTA will have to change their whole network while at the same time maintaining their service. It’s a daunting task and one that could very much cost CyTA over €100 million.”

By Stefanos Evripidou

CHINA is a big country with a lot of people. Apologies for stating the obvious, but I don’t think people get just how big it is, and how many people there really are. It covers an area of 9.6 million km² and is home to around 1.35 billion people, give or take the population of Poland. To bring it home, China’s second largest city, Beijing, has a population of around 21 million people in an area less than twice the size of Cyprus. As a Chinese friend put it: “People don’t understand why China is what it is. Try putting 10 million people in Cyprus and see what happens.”

Another thing that’s less obvious to the uninitiated is the impact a once reclusive China now has on the world economy, and how this influence is only going to get stronger and deeper, expanding into all areas of global affairs, including the environment and international relations.

The country is run under one-party rule; the Communist Party of China (CPC), which is no longer communist but like our home-grown talent AKEL, wants to ditch the concept but keep the label.

After Mao Zedong’s failed Cultural Revolution, involving the purge of perceived enemies and capitalist elements, the country’s influential leader Deng Xiaoping brought about a watershed moment in 1978, the “reform and opening up” of China to the globalised economy, ushering in a new era of “socialism with Chinese characteristics”.

Deng took gradual steps to move from a centrally planned economy to a market-based one, guided by the proverb: “Crossing the river by feeling the stones.” The message of the first stone was clear, “Feed and clothe me”, written by the hundreds of millions of Chinese living in poverty.

The CPC promoted a bottom-up approach, where local authorities and entrepreneurs, could experiment with the fusion of dense state regulatory control and a gradually liberated market.

Some provinces and districts took the provision of cheap land, labour and credit and ran with it, becoming pioneers attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) and dominating the export market with cheap products.

The party secretary (effectively the top dog in local government) of one such district, Shunde, said local people operate on the motto “Do more, say less.”

The proof is in the pudding. With a population of 2.5 million people in an area less than a tenth the size of Cyprus, Shunde achieved a GDP of just under €33 billion last year.

The next stone in the river marked the development of commercial and state-owned enterprises, after which came the inevitable urban economic development, as farmers had to give up the land they’d toiled over to become workers in a new industrialised economy.

China’s urban population is now something like 54 per cent and according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is expected to hit 60 per cent by 2018.

As one senior Beijing official put it: “China is going through the largest scale of urbanisation in human history.”

In the more wealthy districts straddling the Pearl River Delta in South China, clusters of skyscrapers are wrapped by a protective green curtain while under construction. They will house the cities’ future residents.

According to the World Bank, since initiating reforms over three decades ago, China has achieved rapid economic and social development, with GDP growth averaging around 10 per cent a year, lifting over 500 million people out of poverty. It still has the second largest number of poor in the world after India.

China’s system of internal migration, which has fuelled the manufacturing miracle, leaves a lot of the ‘floating population’, known as ‘migrant workers’, without similar access to housing, education or health as local, registered residents have.

Green netting shrouds the skyscrapers to house future residents

Rapid economic growth has also caused great income disparity – only recently in decline – while the constant smog over Beijing’s skies is emblematic of the environmental impact caused by development.

China’s leaders remain focused on food and clothing, but in reality, have long been preparing for the next stage, taking China out of the ‘middle income trap’ to unleash the world’s biggest domestic consumer market.

Huang Yiping, an economist at Peking University and top adviser to the government, notes that China saw a massive rise in GDP per capita to US$7,000 but getting out of the middle income trap and hitting $12,000 is the tough part. As low-cost resources like capital, land and labour rise in price, the country loses competitiveness, needing advanced technology to reach the next level.

Local companies are no longer fixated on luring FDI and finding foreign markets for export, but are instead eager to attract collaboration with developed countries, to use their know-how in management and adopt their advanced technologies to produce high value products, with a somewhat improved carbon footprint.

Rising wages and improving living standards are forcing Chinese industries to slowly abandon low-end product manufacturing to countries like Vietnam and Ethiopia.

Huang argues that another challenge is institutional reform and the transition from a central to a market economy. Unlike the “shock therapy” of the post-Soviet Union space, China’s leaders took a gradual, dual track approach to reform.

If the rebalance is done right, domestic consumption will rise to such a degree that the most populated country in the world will suffer a labour shortage, prompted by its one-child policy.

“When 1.4 billion people’s income rises, this will be good for the world,” and especially the luxury goods market, said Huang.

The economist noted that Chinese tourists are quite capable of staying in a 3-star hotel, eating instant noodles and spending $10,000 in a gift shop.

At the same time, the authorities (read the CPC from grassroots to top level) are keen to nurture and inspire home talent through education and training to mirror the innovation that has seen neighbours Japan and South Korea bring prosperity to their people.

As the Vice Governor of China’s largest province, Guangdong, with a population of 106 million, put it, Apple makes a huge profit from the sale of its iPhones made in China but only a fraction of that stays in the locality of production.

Investing in research and development will transform China from a “sweat economy to a smart economy”, said Xu Shaohua.

Though it remains to be seen whether the one-party system which encourages hard work and stable, orderly living can also act as an incubator for creative expression and groundbreaking indigenous innovation.

The driving force behind these efforts is the new reform process, documented in a series of CPC guidelines on over 300 reforms, ranging from the most sensitive – land – to the most basic – primary school teachers should give less homework.

The CPC has abandoned the bottom-up approach and instead is going for a meticulously prepared top-down reform agenda. In Chinese proverb speak, “there are no more stones to be touched” and China will have to learn to swim, said Huang.

He argued that the US and EU models of free market with minimal intervention no longer seem attractive, perhaps due to the massive income disparity witnessed in the US or the EU’s eternal stagnation. If the government acts wisely, it can play a positive role in economic development, he said.

China expert with 35 years experience as an EU technocrat Pierre Defraigne argues that the CPC is using capitalism to modernise China but questions whether the Asian giant can provide social justice and ecological protection in addition to the CPC leadership taking on its global responsibilities.

“In a decade, China will likely be the number one economy in the world. Any decision taken in Beijing will affect every household in the world. It will have an impact upon trade, finance, environment, taxation etc. Wealth and power brings responsibility… Whether it likes it or not, China is a global player.”

Workers in a medical factory, the domestic economy is increasingly important

Right now, China’s core interest remains its modernisation drive, forcing other global issues like climate change, the shifting power centres in the international system, and even global economic governance to the side.

A retired senior Chinese diplomat acknowledged that, unlike before, China can have a real impact on world affairs. But first it needs to improve its knowledge of the world, understand the complex nature of problems, and then establish a model on how to deal with neighbours and others.

China’s leaders are quick to point out that its particular history, people, and journey dictate that the Chinese miracle model is not for export. At the same time, some argue that western democracies and the IMF’s structural adjustment programmes failed to come up with good models for developing countries.

They point to the need for strong leadership in a market economy, to understand the concrete conditions of the country, the needs of development and to mobilise the people in the right direction.

A fair number of students in Hong Kong currently disagree with that view. For most Chinese though, as long as the economic locomotive is still bringing growth, jobs, stability and higher living standards, democratic rights like freedom of expression and universal suffrage appear to take a back seat.

And the CPC is well aware of that. “We know which direction we’re going in, we’re building on reforms of the last 30 years,” said one Beijing official.

Today’s reforms throw a much wider net though, covering the economy, politics, culture, society, the environment, but also, the Party.

“Studying the CPC is key to opening the gates of China. Studying the reforms is key to looking at the future of the CPC,” he added.

Convent’s challenges never cease

By Alexia Evripidou

THIS month marks 170 years since four French nuns set foot in Larnaca to offer their young lives serving the sick and poor in October 1844.

By the time the island’s first hospital, plus a school and the convent of St Joseph de l’Apparition were completed two years later, the four nuns were dead. They had fallen victim to the typhus, cholera and dysentery outbreaks they had come to a desperately poor Cyprus to try and alleviate.

In the past 170 years, St Joseph’s has successfully survived Ottoman rule, the British Empire and Cypriot independence. Yet whilst the convent looks as stoic and strong as in its heyday, its numbers and its finances have received a series of body blows over the years. The 1974 invasion dealt one. Last year’s destruction of Laiki Bank and the haircut on bank deposits dealt another.

The convent is lovingly maintained by a sisterhood which now numbers just three nuns and their superior for the past 13 years, Sister Thomas.

She is herself celebrating an impressive anniversary. Originally from Malta, Sister Thomas was transferred to St Joseph’s as a young nun, 50 years ago.

On her arrival, there were 12 nuns. She is the longest serving sister and beams with pride as she relates the history and achievements of this convent she’s called home since 1964.

Her faith and desire to help the needy have been especially necessary in the last year. The increased demand for assistance was paralleled by the loss the sisters sustained after Laiki Bank folded last year.

“We had our money with Laiki Bank and it was taken from us,” says an emotional Sister Thomas, as she explains how they now depend on the rent received from the school located in the convent complex.

The original St Joseph’s school, which was opened in 1845 by the first four sisters, functioned as a girls’ school. It blossomed into a bustling boarding school housing 110 girls from around the world. But after a slump in students resulting from the 1974 invasion, it closed in 1990. For the following five years, the sisters used their vocational skills as maths and English teachers to continue offering private and free lessons. The premises, situated right next to the convent, were then rented out to a private school MedHigh in 1995. The rent from this successful school has this helped the nuns make ends meet and fulfill their mission, especially over the last 18 months.

“Sometimes we receive donations or food to help the poor, not for us, but to try to continue helping the poor as we used to,” Sister Thomas explained. “We as nuns, don’t spend a lot of money. I have been wearing the same habit for 30 years!”

As challenging as the recent decades have been, Sister Thomas takes strength and pride in the knowledge that the convent’s present hurdles pale into insignificance when compared to those who came before her.

Sister Thomas has been at St Joseph’s for 50 years

The mid-19th century saw Cyprus ravaged by the typhoid epidemic, cholera and dysentery. Shocked by what he had seen, the French ambassador Monsignor Brunoni, met Emilé de Vialar, the founder of the mission St Joseph de l’Apparition in Lyon, France and enlisted her help.

Coming from nobility, Emile – who went on to be canonised – had defied her father, taken her inheritance from her wealthy grandfather and opened up convents around the world to help the poor and sick. She opened convents in Cyprus, Palestine, Malta, Israel, Italy and France.

Following talks with the Ottoman government and the French ambassador in 1844, Emilé sent the first four sisters over to Larnaca. On arrival, the young women immediately administered to sick patients regardless of their religious views or nationality. Unfortunately, the diseases did not distinguish between the patients and those sent to help them and the lives of the nurses were consumed by fever in 1846. Many other lives were lost.

Arguably, Emilé’s memory today plays second fiddle to one of her own nuns, the so called ‘Florence Nightingale’ of Cyprus, Sophie Gambon.

Medically trained Sophie was sent to Cyprus in 1871 by Emilé, following the death of the French resident Doctor Foplant. Foplant had served Cypriot patients for 25 years from 1839 until 1864. In 1845-1864, the French nuns even offered free medical examinations and medicines from Doctor Foplant, an invaluable commodity and service for the time.

However, it was Sophie who made the greatest impact on the lives of thousands, helping to beat the insidious diseases that claimed so many lives. Sophie, who was later canonised, worked long hours every day, seven days a week, seeing up to 30 patients a day and is credited with saving thousands of lives.

Original medicine cabinet used by Sophie Gambon

“Saint Sophie worked tirelessly for 23 years and died from exhaustion in 1894,” explained Sister Thomas.

Sophie’s contribution and phenomenal patient survival success rate was revered by the people of Larnaca. As a sign of respect a statue was erected in the convent’s grounds in 1895, a year after her death. It is a statue of a pelican and is a moving symbol of her selflessness, as when pelicans have no food to feed their young, they risk their own lives by feeding their offspring with their own blood.

“Like the pelican, Sophie Gambon was amazingly generous and wholehearted on a daily basis. She was loved and highly respected equally by both the orthodox and Muslim people of the island, though she was a catholic nun herself,” said Alexis Michaelides, then deputy Mayor of Larnaca in 2007 at an event to commemorate her.

Today, one can still see exactly where the sick and dying patients would have streamed in to receive the care they desperately needed. Some of the convent’s furniture has not been changed in 170 years. The entrance used by the thousands of sick people is still intact, as is the main table, the doors, the medicine cabinets etc. These particular diseases may have moved on, but time has in many ways stood still here.

The convent now functions as a place of worship for the sisters and once a week for the Maronite congregation. The sisters continue helping the poor as best as they can. Although the money is now tight, they organise a Food Bank every second Sunday at the Terra Santa Church nearby. Here the poor can collect free food and drinks. They’ve also opened up a charity shop on the convent’s premises and continue offering free maths and English lessons to the needy.

The sisters do not intend for the convent’s impressive 170th anniversary to go unnoticed and are hosting a grand dinner/buffet which is open to all, at the Lordos Hotel, Larnaca on December 5. Not surprisingly, all money raised will go to those in need via the registered charity the sisters set up, ‘St. Joseph Protector of the Needy’.

For more information contact: 99481989

By Evie Andreou

REMEMBERING the dead to mend relations among the living is the novel idea of two young men who were among the recipients of the Stelios Award for Business Co-operation this week.

Greek Cypriot Constantinos Constantinou and Turkish Cypriot Hakki Emir were one of ten enterprises to receive €10,000 from businessman Sir Stelios Hadji-Ioannou in his annual bi-communal business award scheme for their project to clean up cemeteries and restore gravestones on both sides of the divide.

Desolate, weed-choked Turkish Cypriot cemeteries in the south and Greek Cypriot cemeteries in the north are one of the most poignant symbols of Cyprus’ divide. All too often the headstones have fallen over or the graves have collapsed. In some villages the neglect has been so complete, it is almost impossible to work out where the cemeteries are.

With the help of the original villagers, Constantinou and Emir hope to change all that. The two business partners manufacture and restore grave stones and want to use money received from the award to fund an initial project that will bring them more business, but also bring the two communities closer.

The aim is that Emir will restore the Greek Cypriot gravestones in the north while Constantinou will do the same for the Turkish Cypriot gravestones in the south.

“We are both in this field. My family, my grandfather and uncles are in this business and Hakki had set up the same business by himself in the north and due to this common interest, we met through a common friend,” Constantinou said.

Constantinos
Constantinou

He explained how cooperation is necessary as transferring large objects such as marble headstones is not possible.
“For example, if a Turkish Cypriot wants to restore a gravestone in the Limassol Turkish Cypriot graveyard, it will be easier for me to go do the job instead of Hakki, and the same applies if a Greek Cypriot wants to have a relative’s grave fixed in the north; Hakki will do the job on my behalf,” Constantinou said.

“There won’t be a transfer of goods through the green line, each will do their job but for the other’s customers.”
But beyond the practicalities, there is also the need for real bi-communal co-operation as local communities will have to be involved.

“You can’t just go there, do a job without talking to anyone. If the local community is charged with the task of cleaning the cemetery, or if a local person is hired to clean the cemetery before any work is done there, or if someone is hired to look after the graves, relations change that way,” Constantinou said.

Both aged 32, Constantinou is also a supply teacher while Emir studied aquaculture but started his own grave stone business five years ago, because he couldn’t find employment.

“It was either this or work for the government, and I didn’t want to do that,” said Emir.

Visiting cemeteries is a shared interest.

“When we go on a trip to a village, we also visit the cemeteries to see their condition,” Constantinou said.
He said that the cemeteries of each community on both sides are often in very bad condition. Most require rigorous cleaning as they are full of weeds, bushes and broken tombstones. Some have got that way through simple neglect, others through deliberate vandalism.

The neglect of Turkish Cypriot cemeteries in the south is particularly marked in those villages abandoned after the intercommunal troubles of 1963-64, a full ten years before the Greek Cypriots were forced to flee their villages in the north.

The project, however, will work as a rapprochement tool for the two communities.
“Some Greek Cypriots are hesitant when it comes to visiting the north, except for religious reasons when their reservations are somewhat curbed,” Constantinou said.

The two men want to give an extra motive for Cypriots to visit their ancestral homes and meet the people that live there now, to interact and change their way of thought.

Hakki Emir

As a first step, the two business partners want to use money they have received from the award to fund the clean up of the Greek Cypriot cemetery in Agridaki (Alemdar), a village near Kyrenia and make a road leading to it, because the old road is now barely a path.

“We have both visited the place, we have friends from there and there are people interested in fixing up the graves of their ancestors buried in the village’s cemetery and even contribute to cleaning up the place,” Constantinou said.

He said graves are broken and no longer visible and are covered with wild plants and bushes.
“We have already contacted the Greek Cypriot community that lived there before the war, and they agreed to participate. There is also interest on behalf of the Turkish Cypriot community,” Constantinou said.

He added that they have as an example Kontea village, where the original Greek Cypriot inhabitants have co-operated with the present Turkish Cypriot inhabitants to restore a large number of the village impressive historical buildings, including the church.

“If you go to the village you will also see that the village’s Greek Cypriot cemetery has also been cleaned by the local community there and some work has already been done in it,” Constantinou said.

“We want to spread this throughout the island; we want to get the local authorities from the two sides to cooperate on an unofficial level. Graveyards can help bring back people to their villages, actually spending more time there by caring for the graves of their ancestors and then taking a stroll in the village,” he said.
Constantinou conceded that their proposals have met with scepticism from some people who have reservations about spending money on fixing up gravestones which they fear they will just be destroyed again.

He also accepted that when people visit their villages and see churches, mosques and graveyards derelict and destroyed, they instantly have negative feelings, believing there is no respect toward each other’s sacred places.

“Each village is different; we have to assess each case differently. The people of Agridaki agree on this project, but there are other communities that are very hesitant,” said Constantinou.

Yet he and Emir are convinced by the project’s ability to change opinions.
“If people experience efforts and initiatives to work together to rebuild or renovate these places, then dynamics change and friendships are developed through cooperation. We want to help forge these friendships,” Constantinou said.

Time is of the essence in the two men’s project. Constantinou believes that they are already late, because buried in the cemeteries are the grandparents or even great grandparents of the new generation which makes the likelihood of a descendent wanting to restore a gravestone more distant.

“There are people whose parents are buried in these cemeteries but the majority is grandparents. And if we add ten more years for Turkish Cypriots, then the relationships are even more distant,” he said.

“The stones will tie together the bonds of people; we have already seen that happening in the past, Kontea for example. They built their relations with the restoration of their church.”

http://www.konteaheritage.com/

By Patroclos

THE BIG news from Milan that everyone in Kyproulla was anxiously waiting for was announced on Friday morning by government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides – Prez Nik finally had his eagerly-sought meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

For a whole week, Nicosia had been begging the Russian government for Putin to grant Nik an audience on the sidelines of the Asian Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Milan, which both would be attending, but without any success. The initial request for a proper meeting was turned down so we kept lowering our meeting requirements, but even our final offer of a one-minute encounter and handshake in a corridor was not granted.

It would have been a bit embarrassing if Nik had not managed to meet the great friend of Kyproulla in our hour of need. The National Council had decided on October 6 that the prez should arrange a meeting with Putin within the week as part of the action plan devised to deal with Turkey’s plans to carry out explorations in our EEZ.

How could our politicians and newspapers sustain the myth about Mother Russia being our traditional friend and dependable ally when Putin could not spare five minutes from his busy schedule for a handshake and photograph with Nik that would show his genuine feelings of warmth and friendship for Kyproulla?

To make the potential for embarrassment even bigger, the spokesman announcing earlier in the week, without receiving confirmation from Moscow, that Nik would be meeting Putin in Milan. He was obviously acting on instructions from his boss, who calculated that even if he was not granted an audience he would be able to corner Putin in a corridor, shake hands and report he had a long and productive discussion with him.

THINGS were not looking good on Thursday night even though a little earlier Nik and his entourage had a meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, presumably to decide what our government would tell journalists was discussed at the Vlad-Nik meeting which had not been arranged.

Talking from Milan on the CyBC evening television news, spokesman Christodoulides, who is as big a sucker for publicity as Odysseas, still could not say when the eagerly awaited meeting would be held. “Has the meeting with Mr Putin been arranged,” he was asked by Emilia and responded: “Mr Putin arrives in Milan in about an hour. We are in contact with his associates here and it is expected that the meeting would be arranged for later this evening or tomorrow.” It was 8.15pm and Putin’s associates had still not agreed to a meeting, turning the matter into what newspaper headline-writers would have imaginatively described as a ‘thriller’, if it were not the leader of our beloved Mother Russia that was giving us the run-around.

This is not meant as criticism of Mr P who had much more important issues to deal with while in Milan than to waste his precious time participating in an idiotic PR exercise designed exclusively for domestic consumption in Kyproulla.

THE THRILLER had a satisfactory ending. Apparently the Vlad-Nik meeting took place during the dinner for the heads of state attending ASEM on Thursday evening.

During the two-hour dinner, Nik and Vlad were reportedly sat next to each other (there was a picture of the two of them together to prove it) and had the opportunity to discuss a range of issues relating to Kyproulla, said the government spokesman.

Comfortingly, Putin, told Nik everything that the Cypriot politicians and journalists wanted to hear, indicating that he was very much in tune with our thinking. Christodoulides issued an announcement on Friday morning to inform us that the meeting was held during dinner and that the prez “had the opportunity, in a very friendly and cordial atmosphere, to talk extensively to the president of the Russian Federation.”

The discussion covered “the whole range of bilateral relations as well as the current phase of the Cyprus problem, with a focus on the latest developments, shaped by Turkey’s NAVTEX, relating to the exclusive economic zone of the Cyprus Republic,” said Christodoulides.

And then he repeated the familiar script. “Mr Putin re-affirmed the Russia position of principle as regards the settlement of the Cyprus problem as well as regards the inalienable right of the Cyprus Republic to exploit the natural resources within its EEZ, describing any violation of the sovereign rights of the Cyprus Republic as unacceptable.”

The love-in did not end there. The two leaders also agreed “to be in continuous discussions, depending on developments” and visits would be arranged.

This is what the prez told Christodoulides to say was discussed as the spokesman was not at the two-hour dinner. There is always the possibility that Putin said none of this during the dinner but that Lavrov agreed, at the earlier meeting, that these comments could be attributed to Putin, who is very unlikely to have spent the two-hour dinner talking extensively about the Cyprob and re-affirming his country’s position of principle.”

THE GOVERNMENT was so keen to show Vlad and Nik together that it sent an amateur quality picture of the two standing next to each other and shaking hands. If I did not see Nik’s left arm by his side I would have thought it was a selfie, taken on his mobile, to show the folks back home.

It was a picture taken by a phone, but we do not know who the photographer was (perhaps Mrs Merkel who was also at the dinner?). It was sent to the media by Christodoulides Friday morning so it could go with his announcement.

A much better picture was filed later on with the two men sitting at the table Vlad staring menacingly at the camera and looking neither cordial nor warm. Nik in contrast had the grin of self-satisfaction, pleased that he had pulled off a publicity stunt that would silence his biggest detractors back home.

MEANWHILE, Christodoulides was so pleased with what had been achieved he said that the meeting was held at the request of the Russian side.

Had he forgotten all the requests the government had made for the meeting, or did he think a white lie would not hurt anyone – the Russians were not going to issue a denial about such a triviality after playing such a big part in Nik’s publicity stunt.

A question that nobody asked was whether it was correct behaviour for the prez to publicly announce what he had been talking about with Putin during the dinner. It just does not seem right that a private dinner conversation could be relayed publicly, unless of course it was the Russians who asked Christodoulides to make it public.

MASS euphoria hit Cyprus when it was announced on Thursday that there would be a Russian navy exercise in waters east of the island starting tomorrow, everyone quick to link this with Turkey’s NAVTEX which starts on the same day.

Mother Russia had sent its navy to frighten off the Turks was the prevailing view. “Orgasm (sic) of exercises around Cyprus,” read Phil’s lyrical headline adding rather misleadingly that Russian exercises would be taking place “next to Barbaros”, the Turkish seismic vessel that would carry out surveys in the Cyprus EEZ hundreds of kilometre away.

Phil was also referring to a joint Cyprus-Israel search and rescue exercise that will take place on Tuesday; without this exercise it would not have been an orgasm.

Pro-government Alithia went beyond the orgasm, trumpeting, “Russia and Israel by the side of Cyprus” on its front page. These exercises were not “just a rebuke of the Turkish provocations in the EEZ, but a clear covering of our sovereign rights by Russia and Israel,” the paper said.

I hope our prez did not forget to thank Putin, during the dinner, for sending the Russian navy protect our sovereign rights.

ALL THIS nonsense could have been avoided had the government not tried, so crudely to link the Russian exercise to Turkey’s NAVTEX.

Emilia got the ball rolling on Thursday night when she asked Christodoulides whether “we should consider the Russian exercises as an answer by Moscow to a possible heightening of the Turkish provocations on Monday, in support Nicosia.”

The spokesman cleverly said “we should take into account the timing of the exercise” and when Emilia countered, “so it cannot be a coincidence,” he declared: “Certainly, nothing is a coincidence and the developments and there has been a reaction to Turkey’s violations….”

He repeated his ‘not a coincidence’ line the following day as well, informing us that “nothing is by chance in politics”, which made you wonder on what Christodoulides had based this astute observation. Not on Kyproulla, where everything is by chance in politics?

IT SEEMS only the Russian navy could save the Paphos mayor Savvas Vergas from the hole he has dug himself in with regard to the threatening text messages sent to witnesses in the Aristo case.

The mayor, a bash-patriotic DIKO stalwart, was remanded in custody for four days while the court allowed the police full access to his bank and land registry records. Meanwhile Paphos councillors have also been putting the boot in, claiming there were dodgy dealings surrounding a pop concert held last summer by the municipality and organised by his dishy assistant Maria Solomonidou with help from her husband’s company.

What was interesting was how the politicians take the moral high ground, when the suspect is not from their party. An AKEL deputy demanded a full investigation into the goings-on in Paphos and expressed the hope that the full force of the law would come down on the culprits. Had it been an Akelite that was the suspect, the commies would have been claiming that he was innocent and the charges were a fabrication.

DIKO, on the other hand, which made a big fuss about the Dromolaxia case, which AKEL insisted was a fabrication, has said nothing publicly about Vergas, who is a loyal supporter of Junior. It restricted itself to kicking him of the party’s central committee. At least it did not claim the case was a fabrication.

YOU HAD to laugh on hearing tax cheat, Ttooulis Ttoouli’s lawyer’s arguments seeking the court’s clemency when it sentenced his client for tax evasion. He urged the judge to take into account Tttooulis’ services to his country as well as the fact that he had participated in the EOKA struggle as a teenager.

There is nothing more infuriating than hearing all these state officials advertising their services to the country, as if they were offering these free of charge. The truth is that they were richly rewarded for these services, becoming rich men in the process. A mediocrity like Tttooulis enjoyed very high career earnings only because he was working for the state, while on his retirement he was being paid three pensions.

Hopefully the judge will not be swayed by this disingenuous argument, because the reality is that Ttooulis was grossly overpaid for the services he offered the country. Someone who made so much money out of the state, over his lifetime, should have had the decency to pay something back in the form of taxes.

BACK in 1964, Phil reported that “results of the commerce minister A. Araouzos’ visit to Moscow were positive, if the statement by the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who said that “we will help Cyprus with all our soul,” is anything to go by. This is irrelevant but in the same issue of the paper Spyros Kyprianou, our foreign minister at the time, “in statement expressed the bitterness of Cyprus for the stance of the US.”

Nothing changes it seems. Meanwhile in September 1974, Phil carried the following report: “The Soviet under-secretary of foreign affairs, Ilichov is paying a visit to Cyprus, a fact that has boosted the hopes of the Cypriot people of being rid of the occupation. The Soviet official was welcomed by enthusiastic mass gatherings.”

“One of the most popular political slogans of the time”, the paper said, “was ‘Makarios to Moscow’ so that a more active involvement and support by the Soviet Union could be secured.” Russia, then as now, always came to our rescue but never rescued us.

CYPRUS’ politicians have never showed the slightest inclination for long-term planning and strategic thinking. They are much happier improvising policy and taking spur of the moment decisions if and when the need arises, avoiding thinking anything through or properly studying the consequences of their decisions. Most of the country’s woes are a direct result of this slapdash approach which never looks more than a few days, or perhaps a week, ahead and is motivated by shameless populism.

The Christofias government bankrupted the state because of this approach, the president refusing to take any measures – despite continual warnings from home and abroad – that could have led to a less harsh memorandum, if one was needed at all. Nothing illustrated this short- term thinking better than Demetris Christofias’ boasts in December 2012 – with the state technically bankrupt, a systemic bank insolvent and a deposits haircut on the cards – that he had ensured public employees would be paid a 13^th salary.

His successor does not seem very different, also subscribing to the misguided notion of taking each day as it comes and not worrying about the longer term. In fact, he has repeatedly undermined the finance minister’s attempts to forge a long term action plan for the unsustainable, public sector wage bill, giving assurances to public employees that they would not need to make any more ‘sacrifices’ (as if they had made any).

He made this pledge when addressing a general meeting of the public employees’ union because on that day he wanted to pander to this group. The need to reduce the pay-roll over the next year or two was of no concern. The government decision, agreed with the troika, to tax the public employees’ retirement bonus in order to raise an additional €100 million, was abandoned by the president just after a brief meeting with PASYDY which strongly objected to it. The money would have to be raised from somewhere else as part of the ongoing improvisation of economic policy.

The above goes some way in explaining the presidential aversion to anything resembling a policy plan and long-term thinking. Commitment to a long term plan would severely restrict a president’s ability pander to public opinion and to dispense favours to interest groups, be they unions, big business or village communities demanding the building of a road. The dispensing of favours and responding to public demands seems the only way of practising politics for a Cypriot president.

The decision to ‘suspend’ his participation in the peace talks was another example of President Anastasiades’ impulsive decision-making. He had not considered the consequences of this decision nor had he given any thought to what he wanted to achieve. It just seemed the right thing to do because the media and the political parties were calling for strong a reaction, which in the Cyprus problem narrative is an end in itself. Anastasiades likes to pay lip service to the need for a settlement, but he obviously has no strategic plan for achieving it, otherwise he would not have quit the talks, setting conditions for his return that are unlikely to be satisfied.

But this unpredictable behaviour is fast becoming the president’s trademark. At the beginning of his presidency he made it clear that aligning Cyprus with the West would be a foreign policy priority, with NATO membership the ultimate objective. It appeared the government was steadily moving in this direction, the US government announcing a ‘strategic alliance’ with Cyprus, while Vice President Joe Biden visited the island to underline the importance the Americans attached to this alliance.

This strengthening of relations with the US did not go down well with the anti-West political establishment which kept warning that the government’s foreign policy shift as well as its support of EU sanctions had allegedly caused a strain in relations with Russia, our ‘traditional ally’. The government went out of its way the explain that it would do nothing to jeopardise the island’s alliance with Russia and tried to downplay the ‘strategic alliance’ with the US arguing that it was restricted to co-operation in combating terrorism.

Once Turkey issued the NAVTEX violating the Cyprus EEZ, the government immediately gave in to the public calls of the parties and the media to seek Russia’s help because the US was deemed an unreliable ally. It was another spur of the moment decision, of no practical benefit to the country and exclusively aimed at satisfying public opinion. Anastasiades abandoned his pro-West orientation rather than come under a little criticism.

Government by public demand may have destroyed the country but, depressingly, our presidents are incapable of running the country in a more rational way.

By Bejay Browne

A DREAM holiday in Paphos turned into a nightmare for a British man and his wheelchair-bound, disabled girlfriend after access issues left her vowing never to return.

Ill equipped public transport, uneven pavements, a lack of dropped kerbs and vehicles parked on pavements were just a few of the problems the couple encountered.

John Hughes, 29, spent eight years living in Paphos before moving back to the UK in October last year. He started a relationship with Zoe Bannister, 29, a friend from his schooldays and the pair planned a trip to Paphos where Hughes’ parents still live.

“It’s been a nightmare here. My girlfriend arrived on October 1 for a two week holiday and massive problems with access and simply trying to get her around have left us both distraught and upset,” said Hughes.

Hughes’ girlfriend was run over by a car when she was nine years old; the accident left her disabled and reliant on a wheelchair to get around.

She currently lives in Bolton in the UK with a carer, although two care givers accompanied her on her trip to Cyprus.

Hughes said that his girlfriend has previously visited a number of holiday spots in Europe, including Benidorm and has always had a good experience. However, this wasn’t the case in Cyprus.

“It was important to me that we all had a good time, and I especially wanted Zoe to have a great experience and enjoy the culture but that just wasn’t possible.”

Bannister and her carers stayed at the Avanti holiday village in Kato Paphos in a ground floor apartment.

Hughes, who stayed with his parents, said this part of the holiday was fine but the rest of her trip was awful, he said.

The catalogue of disasters included a frustrating and upsetting experience with Paphos’ public and private transport system. Hughes was unable to hire a car as he suffers from Hydrocephalus or water on the brain and has a cerebral shunt fitted to help drain any excess fluid. The condition affects his motor skills and he is unable to drive.

On one of her first days in Paphos, Bannister and her carers decided to catch a bus to meet up with Hughes at Coral Bay, the busy tourist spot outside Paphos.

It took four buses before the three could get on a bus equipped for wheelchair users. The first two buses had no ramps while the ramp on third bus was broken. The fourth bus had a working ramp and they were finally able to start their journey.

They then missed the stop on the main strip and were dropped off further along the road. The group had to make their way back to the tourist strip – about 2km uphill. Broken and uneven pavements, pot holes and very few slopes on and off the kerbs to push a wheelchair meant they had no choice but to push Bannister along the busy road.

“The access is terrible, you can get on some of the pavements but there is no access to get off. The trees are in the middle of the pavement so you can’t push a wheelchair around them. Zoe was in the road, it was very dangerous,” said Hughes.

Even the trip back to the hotel was a disaster.

“Buses will only allow for one child’s pushchair or a wheelchair. We tried to get on a bus but it had a child in a pushchair. He was old enough to sit on his mother’s knee and fold the pushchair up so that Zoe would be allowed on. But the woman refused, we all asked her, even the driver. It was terrible. We had to get off and the bus left without us.”

At this point Hughes said his girlfriend felt guilty and upset, blaming herself for the numerous disasters.

Operations manager Andreas Rodosthenous for bus operator OSYPA said all new city busses have ramps fitted and promised the company would investigate the incident.

Hughes said that a day trip to Latsi with his girlfriend, her care givers and his parents didn’t fare much better. “The access to the shops at Latsi harbour consisted of ramps up to one level and then steps up to the next. It makes no sense.”

Numerous vehicles which were parked across the pavements meant that the group had to cut their trip short.

“One man had parked his 4×4 across the pavement and refused to move when we asked him. He just shrugged his shoulders and turned away, it was very upsetting.”

Rodosthenous said that OSYPA is experiencing huge problems with vehicles illegally parking, especially at bus stops. This is preventing the busses from pulling up to the pavement, which they need to do in order to use the ramp.

“We report these parked cars to the police but they don’t do much. If they issued fines as they are supposed to do, it would act as a deterrent for people to keep doing it.”

But it wasn’t just public transport and selfish car owners that made Bannister’s trip so stressful. She had access difficulties in all areas of Cyprus she visited, including Limassol and other day trips.

Hughes said he was even unable to take his girlfriend to a traditional taverna in the old town as it is accessed only by steps.

Even places where ramps have been fitted aren’t necessarily wheelchair friendly, Hughes says. A visit to an exhibition at En Plo on the harbour was impossible, even though there is a ramp at the entrance. It’s highly polished and at an angle so steep, that it’s impossible for an electric wheelchair to go up it. “It was so disappointing,“ he said.

Hughes said that as Zoe had been put off public transport, the next time she wanted to visit Paphos harbour, she decided to take a taxi. She was charged 20 euros to travel the short distance – about a five minute drive – between the Avanti hotel village to the harbour. The usual price is around seven euros.

“Something has to be done to improve access and attitudes towards wheelchair users in Cyprus,” said Hughes. “It’s a member of the EU and should follow all of the laws and directives. She won’t be coming back.”

Nasos Hadjigeorgiou, head of the Paphos regional board of tourism admitted that there is big room for improvement, but said that town planning should ensure that the region is as wheel chair friendly as possible.

“Hotels have tried to improve facilities in the last few years and these are positive steps forward; there have also some adjustments to pavements but there is vast room for improvement,” he conceded.

Hadjigeorgiou said that there is a need for a campaign to educate the public and professionals about many connected concerns, such as illegally using allocated disabled spaces.

“There are also issues with accessing places of interest, archaeological sites and beaches.”

Hughes said that spending time with his girlfriend in Cyprus has made him aware of how difficult it is for those in wheelchairs to get around the island, especially compared with the UK, which he said is “pretty sorted”.

“Zoe left feeling very upset and as if she was letting everyone down and holding us back.”

By James Pomfret and Elzio Barreto

Violent clashes erupted in Hong Kong early on Sunday for a second night, deepening a sense of impasse between a government with limited options and a pro-democracy movement increasingly willing to confront police.

The worst political crisis in Hong Kong since Britain handed the free-wheeling capitalist city back to China in 1997 entered its fourth week with no sign of a resolution despite talks scheduled for two hours on Tuesday between the government and student protest leaders.

Beijing has signalled through Hong Kong’s leaders that it is not willing to reverse a decision in August that effectively denies the financial hub the full democracy the protesters are demanding.

“Unless there is some kind of breakthrough in two hours of talks on Tuesday, I’m worried we will see the standoff worsen and getting violent,” Sonny Lo, a professor at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, told Reuters.

“We could be entering a new and much more problematic stage. I hope the government has worked out some compromises, because things could get very difficult now.”

Hong Kong’s 28,000 strong police have been struggling to contain a youth-led movement that has shown little sign of waning after three weeks of standoffs.

Demonstrators in the Mong Kok district launched a fresh assault early on Sunday, putting on helmets and goggles before surging forward to grab a line of metal barricades hemming them into a section of road.

Hundreds of police officers hit out at a wall of umbrellas that protesters raised to fend off police pepper spray. Protesters screamed and hurled insults and violent scuffles erupted before police surged forward with riot shields, forcing the protesters back.

“Black Police! Black Police!” protesters shouted.

One activist in a white T-shirt and goggles was hit with a flurry of baton blows, leaving him bleeding from a gash in the head. Several protesters were taken away. Fire trucks with water cannons were stationed along the street but were not used.

Senior policeman at the scene Paul Renouf said 400 to 500 officers were deployed to force the crowds about 20 metres back from their original position near an intersection.

The clashes came hours after Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing leader Leung Chun-ying called for the talks on Tuesday. They will be broadcast live.

RESTIVE GENERATION

The protesters, led by a restive generation of students, have been demanding China’s Communist Party rulers live up to constitutional promises to grant full democracy to the former British trading outpost.

Hong Kong is ruled under a “one country, two systems” formula that allows it wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms and specifies universal suffrage for Hong Kong as an eventual goal.

But Beijing is wary about copycat demands for reform on the mainland and it ruled on Aug. 31 it would screen candidates who want to run for the city’s chief executive in 2017. Democracy activists said that rendered the universal suffrage concept meaningless. They are demanding free elections.

Leung appears hamstrung, unable to compromise because of the message that would send to people on the mainland while more force looks likely to only galvanize the young protesters.

Hong Kong’s Security Chief Lai Tung-kwok said some of the clashes in recent days had been initiated by activists affiliated to “radical organisations which have been active in conspiring, planning and charging violent acts”.

The city’s embattled police chief, Andy Tsang, also expressed his frustration when he broke three weeks of silence on Saturday to say “extremely tolerant” policing had not stopped protests becoming more “radical or violent”.

Senior police officials and their unions are warning that front-line officers are facing immense stress.

The demonstrations pose one of the biggest challenges for China since the crushing of a pro-democracy movement in Beijing in 1989.

Protesters resting during the day on Sunday were defiant and also angry that the city government was portraying their campaign as increasingly radicalised and violent.

Lap Cheung, 40, said he quit his IT job in the United States to return to Hong Kong to join the protests when he heard a student leader had been arrested three weeks ago.

“I will continue to stay here until CY (Leung) resigns,” he said, adding that he had no hope for Tuesday’s talks.

Student Igloo Novas said Hong Kong leaders must tell Beijing the “truth”, that the majority of Hong Kong people wanted to freely choose candidates in elections.

“This is one compromise I can accept from the government,” she said.

Besides Mong Kok, about 1,000 protesters remained camped out on Hong Kong Island in a sea of tents on an eight-lane highway beneath skyscrapers close to government headquarters.

By Niklas Pollard

Sweden beefed up its military presence in the Stockholm archipelago on Saturday to scour its waters for “foreign underwater activity”, a mobilisation of Swedish ships, troops and helicopters unseen since the Cold War.

The search in the Baltic Sea less than 30 miles (50 km) from Stockholm began on Friday and reawakened memories of the final years of the Cold War when Sweden repeatedly hunted suspected Soviet submarines along its coast with depth charges.

There is now increasing tension with Russia among the Nordic and Baltic states – most of them European Union members – over Moscow’s involvement in the Ukraine crisis. Finland last week accused the Russian navy of interfering with a Finnish environmental research vessel in international waters.

The Swedish military has said information about suspicious activity came from a trustworthy source, without providing details, and that more than 200 military personnel were involved in the search.

The Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet, citing unidentified sources with knowledge of the hunt, said it began after a radio transmission in Russian on an emergency frequency.

Further encrypted radio traffic from a point in the archipelago and the enclave of Kaliningrad, home to the Russian Baltic fleet’s headquarters, was intercepted on Friday evening after the Swedish search started, the newspaper said.

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday that there were no emergency situations in the Baltic involving its vessels.

“Russian Navy ships and submarines are fulfilling their duties in the world ocean waters in accordance with the plan,” Interfax news agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying. “There has been and there are no extraordinary, let alone emergency, situations involving Russian warships.”

Countries in the Baltic Sea region have become increasingly wary of Russia’s military ambitions since Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in March following the overthrow of Kiev’s pro-Moscow president by protesters.

Last month, Sweden said two Russian warplanes entered its air space, calling the intrusion a “serious violation” and sending a protest to Moscow’s ambassador in the Nordic country.

Ships, helicopters and troops from an amphibious unit as well as the home guard combed the search area in Stockholm’s archipelago. The forces include HMS Visby, a corvette that has stealth technology and equipment for anti-submarine warfare.

The Swedish military said on Friday there had been no armed intervention and declined to comment on who might be responsible for the suspicious activity, or whether the report had been about a submarine.

“We still consider the information we received as very trustworthy,” Captain Jonas Wikstrom, head of operations for the search, told reporters. “I, as head of operations, have therefore decided to increased the number of units in the area.”

Should the search find proof of foreign military activity in Swedish coastal waters it will represent the first real test of Prime Minister Stefan Lofven’s centre-left minority government only weeks after coming to office.

In 1981, a Soviet submarine known under its Swedish designation U137 was stranded deep inside Swedish waters not far from a major naval base in the neutral country, sparking intense suspicion about the scale and motives of such incursions.

By Humeyra Pamuk

The fiercest fighting in days shook the Syrian border town of Kobani overnight, sources inside the town and a monitoring group said on Sunday, as Islamic State attacked Kurdish militants with mortars and car bombs.

Islamic State, which controls much of Syria and Iraq, fired 44 mortars at Kurdish parts of the town on Saturday, some of which fell inside Turkey, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said four more were fired on Sunday.

The month-long battle for Kobani has ebbed and flowed. A week ago, Kurds warned the town would fall imminently and the U.S.-led coalition stepped up air strikes on Islamic State, which wants to take Kobani to consolidate its position in northern Syria.

The coalition has been bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq since August and extended the campaign to Syria in September after Islamic State, a group that espouses a rigid interpretation of Islam and initially focused on fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, made huge territorial gains.

Raids on Islamic State around Kobani have been stepped up, with the fate of the town seen as an important test for U.S. President Barack Obama’s campaign against the Islamists.

NATO member Turkey, whose forces are ranged along the border overlooking Kobani, is a reluctant member of the coalition, insisting the allies should also confront Assad to end a civil war that has killed close to 200,000 people since March 2011.

“We had the most intense clashes of days, perhaps a week last night. (Islamic State) attacked from three different sides including the municipality building side and the market place,” said Abdulrahman Gok, a journalist in Kobani.

“Clashes did not stop until the morning. We have had an early morning walk inside the city and have seen lots of damaged cars on the streets and unexploded mortar shells,” he said.

CAR BOMBS

The Observatory reported two Islamic State car bombs hit Kurdish positions on Saturday evening leading to casualties. A cloud of black smoke towered over Kobani on Sunday.

A fighter from the female units of the main Syrian Kurdish militia in Kobani, YPG, said Kurdish fighters were able to detonate the car bombs before they reached their targets.

“Last night there were clashes all across Kobani … this morning the clashes are still ongoing,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Observatory said 70 Islamic State fighters had been killed in the past two days, according to sources at the hospital in the nearby town of Tel Abyab, where Islamic State bodies are taken. Reuters cannot independently confirm the reports due to security restrictions.

The Observatory said some Syrian Arab fighters from the Revolutionaries of Raqqa Brigade, which are fighting alongside Kurdish fighters, had executed two Islamic State captives.

“One was a child of around 15 years old. They shot them in the head,” he said.

Islamic State have also used executions throughout their campaigns in Syria and Iraq, killing hundreds of their enemies and civilians who are opposed to their cause, according to Islamic State videos and statements.

Hundreds of thousands have fled their advance. Turkey hosts about 1.5 million Syrian refugees, including almost 200,000 Syrian Kurds from Kobani.

Ankara has refused to rearm beleaguered Kurdish fighters, who complain they are at huge disadvantage in the face of Islamic State’s weaponry, many of it seized from the Iraqi military when it took the city of Mosul in June.

Turkey views the YPG with suspicion for its long-standing links with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a 30-year armed campaign for self-rule in Turkey.

President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted in the Turkish media on Sunday as saying Ankara will never arm the YPG through its political wing, the PYD.

“There has been talk of arming the PYD to establish a front here against the Islamic State. For us, the PYD is the same as the PKK, it’s a terrorist organisation. It would be very, very wrong to expect us to openly say ‘yes’ to our NATO ally America giving this kind of support. To expect something like this from us is impossible,” he was quoted as saying.

This stance has sparked outrage among Turkey’s own Kurds, who make up about 20 percent of the population. Riots in several cities earlier this month killed more than 35 people.

Liverpool scored a stunning 3-2 win over Queens Park Rangers with four of the five goals coming in the last seven minutes of their Premier League match at Loftus Road on Sunday.

Liverpool needed the help of two own goals for the win that lifted them to fifth in the table and left QPR bottom after a mesmerising finale with Liverpool’s winning goal coming in the fifth minute of added time after Steven Caulker scored an own goal with virtually the last kick of the game.

Richard Dunne scored the first own goal to put Liverpool 1-0 ahead in the 67th minute before Eduardo Vargas equalised for QPR after 87 minutes.

Liverpool went 2-1 ahead with 15 seconds of normal time remaining when Philippe Coutino scored with a curling shot that took a deflection before Vargas headed Rangers level at 2-2 in the second minute of stoppage time.

One final Liverpool counter-attack in the 95th minute ended with Caulker putting through his own goal to give Liverpool all three points.

By Laura Noonan

When Europe announced its latest health check of top banks early last year it promised a “comprehensive assessment” of how well prepared they were to withstand another financial crisis.

In practice, a spirit of comprehensive compromise has been just as important.

A series of Reuters interviews with officials, bankers and others involved in the European Central Bank’s financial inspection of the euro zone’s biggest banks shows that in the seven months since it began, the ECB has had to shoot down countless pleas from banks and national supervisors for special treatment.

At the same time, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, supervisors have revised the way they value assets and banks have failed to provide all the data demanded – multiple compromises that could cumulatively threaten the tests’ reputation as tough and consistent.

The ECB, which takes over as supervisor for the region’s top banks on Nov. 4, declined to comment in detail on the issues raised but insisted the exercise was robust and thorough.

It will announce on Oct. 26 which of Europe’s 130 biggest banks have valued their assets properly and which have not, as well as whether banks need more capital to withstand another economic crash. Anticipation of the results is already affecting bank shares, with Italy’s Monte dei Paschi falling to an all time low last week amid fears it would be forced to raise more cash.

“This health check…is unprecedented in terms of scale, rigour, severity and transparency,” a spokeswoman said.

“It provides in-depth information on the condition of the largest banks in 19 countries and aims to strengthen banks’ balance sheets by identifying problems, build confidence and enhance investors’ trust.”

That said, one of the first compromises of the process came just two months into it, when the ECB privately acknowledged, according to sources with knowledge of the discussions, that there were “real dangers” of negative consequences if the banks were kept in the dark about how they were faring right up until the results were announced.

The auditors were then allowed, for the first time, to begin sharing information with the banks they were reviewing.

“We would take a file with the largest (loan loss) provision movement (and)… told them why we were uncomfortable with provisioning that area,” said one source familiar with the meetings.

The banks could then work out the maximum adjustment to provisions they were likely to face, the source said – a key clue to the ECB’s final assessment of whether they would have to raise more capital or rein in dividends.

“You knew what the major drivers were,” confirmed one senior banker who attended meetings for his company. “I don’t expect any surprises.”

Around the same time, Daniele Nouy, the head of the ECB’s supervisory arm which is leading the exercise, spoke publicly of the importance of banks being given a ‘right of reply’ to the ECB’s findings.

The original process started with just ten ECB employees. More staff and consultants joined the team – which later moved to Frankfurt’s only earthquake-proof building – to spend hundreds of hours crunching the numbers.

A project manager was hired in September 2013 in the form of Oliver Wyman, a management consultancy headquartered in the United States.

A month later, when ECB president Mario Draghi met the chief executives of the banks that would be tested to try to convince them of the exercise’s worth, information was still sparse.

A draft methodology was finally circulated in January 2014 between some national regulators and auditors, as well as ECB officials and the Oliver Wyman team. Details of what was christened the Asset Quality Review (AQR) were kept secret by personal non-disclosure agreements which included a fine of 100,000 euros for any breach.

On February 17, the ECB held its first meeting with the experts who would participate in the AQR. Executives from Oliver Wyman faced a crowd composed of national regulators and consultants in the same room in which the ECB gives its monthly press conference on interest rates.

One attendee described the meeting as “antagonistic”, with delegates struggling to follow the logic of parts of the approach outlined in a 300-page draft manual.

At a second meeting, a few weeks later, patience was in even shorter supply: Two sources present said an Oliver Wyman representative responded to one question with the words: “It is not beyond the wit of man to follow the manual.”

For the institutions about to be reviewed, it appeared very much to be “the Oliver Wyman show”, said one banker who was a central figure in his bank’s engagements with the ECB. “The ECB was relying far too much on its consultant,” the banker said.

Oliver Wyman declined to comment on any aspect of this article, citing client confidentiality.

There were not many more meetings before the test manual was published in mid-March.

“The time pressures the ECB was forced to operate under meant there was not really a lot of scope or time for consultation with banks,” said Robert Priester, deputy chief executive of the European Banking Federation.

While banks were getting to grips with the level of scrutiny to which they would have to submit, the manual also showed investors why this round of bank tests would be more transparent than previous ones in 2009, 2010 and 2011, sources said.

Work got underway. National supervisors settled into their new roles as buffers between their banks and the ECB. The ECB battled for consistency. National authorities pushed for concessions. But the latter had limited power.

“The whole process was very prescriptive… (What the national supervisors did) was common sense decision making,” one national supervisory source said.

Patriotism sometimes intruded.

“That is obvious, that you try to protect your own banks,” a second national supervisor said. “You would not like to see banks in your country fail.”

April and May saw the granting of a major concession, three sources said. Working out the value of banks’ collateral, auditors were initially only allowed to consider developments up to December 2013. This was moved to the end of March 2014 for some countries, including Portugal and Belgium – allowing banks to incorporate more recent values of their assets as those values started to rise.

“It was a pragmatic view, it was quite difficult to argue with the logic of taking the old value,” one source said.

Another concession related to shipping loans. In working out their value the ECB originally wanted to discount cash flow models that based a ship’s value at how much income it would generate for its owner in the future, and instead value ships based on how much they would sell for. Eventually it agreed to accept the discounted cash flow models so long as the final valuation was reduced by about 10 percent, sources said, below what the bank initially recorded.

Almost every bank failed to follow at least part of the methodology the ECB wanted them to use to simulate how they would perform in a crisis, said one source familiar with the exercise. They are hopeful that the ECB will allow them a little wriggle-room, said one banking regulation expert familiar with the process, having seen it become more adaptable as the process went on.

“The ECB backed down to some extent. You could also say they became more realistic, because they realized (the) huge resistance among banks,” the expert said.

With so much riding on the stress tests, political interest was inevitable.

Officials were limited in what they could tell politicians about how the test results were shaping up, so briefings focused on the amount of capital banks had already raised, a sum that totalled 100 billion euros between mid 2013 and September 2014 according to the ECB’s estimates

The actual scenarios – theoretical economic shocks that banks had to prove they could weather – were not publicly disclosed until April.

The detail of the scenarios was devised by the European Systemic Risk Board, a group chaired by ECB president Mario Draghi that was set up to improve financial supervision, in consultation with officials from national euro zone regulators and the EU’s banking regulator the European Banking Authority. Those details were hard fought, sources say – in particular the size of the fall in economic growth, property prices and employment that banks should have to prove they could withstand in different countries.

Many thought the ECB’s final deadline would have to move, given the almost weekly demand for more data.

But it kept the banks in line with a daily traffic lights system showing which banks had fallen behind – a mechanism some bankers told Reuters looked like a kindergarten exercise.

But, said one source familiar with the design: “It worked.”

After a quiet August, the ECB began discussions at the end of September to forewarn banks of major issues that had appeared in the test results – without giving them so much information they would be forced to immediately disclose it to investors.

As the exercise draws to a close, most believe that this time around, the results will deliver a convincing verdict on the health of Europe’s banks.

“This is the fourth exercise and – I hope – the last,” said one official.

By Arshad Mohammed

The U.S. military said it had air-dropped arms to Syrian rebels fighting Islamic State militants near Kobani on Sunday in what appeared to be the Pentagon’s first public acknowledgment it has delivered lethal aid to the rebels.

The U.S. Central Command said it had delivered weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to the Syrian rebels who for weeks have sought to stave off an onslaught by Islamic State fighters that have overrun swathes of Syria and Iraq this year.

The “resupply” of rebel fighters is the latest escalation in the U.S. effort to help local forces beat back the radical Sunni militant group in Syria after years of trying to avoid getting dragged into the more than three-year Syrian civil war.

The United States began carrying out air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq in August and about a month later started bombing the militant group in neighboring Syria, in part to prevent it from enjoying safe haven on Syrian territory.

In a brief statement, the U.S. Central Command said U.S. Air Force C-130 aircraft “delivered weapons, ammunition and medical supplies that were provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq and intended to enable continued resistance against ISIL’s attempts to overtake Kobani,” using an acronym to refer to Islamic State.

The Central Command said 135 U.S. air strikes near Kobani in recent days, combined with continued resistance against Islamic State on the ground, had slowed the group’s advances into the town and killed hundreds of its fighters.

“However, the security situation in Kobani remains fragile as ISIL continues to threaten the city and Kurdish forces continue to resist,” the statement said.

The Central Command mentioned no new air strikes around Kobani, whose strategic location has blocked the radical Sunni Muslim militants from consolidating their gains across northern Syria.

A spokesman for Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State militants in Kobani later confirmed on his Twitter feed that a “large quantity of ammunition and weapons” had reached the town.

U.S. officials, speaking in a conference call, described the weapons delivered as “small arms” but gave no details.

The United States gave Turkey advance notice of its plans to deliver arms to the Syrian Kurds, a group Turkey views with deep distrust because of its links to Turkish Kurds who have fought a decades-long insurgency in which 40,000 people were killed.

“President Obama spoke to Erdogan yesterday and was able to notify him of our intent to do this and the importance that we put on it,” one senior U.S. official told reporters.

“We understand the longstanding Turkish concern with the range of groups, including Kurdish groups, that they have been engaged in conflict with,” he added. “However, our very strong belief is that both the United States and Turkey face a common enemy in ISIL and that we need to act on an urgent basis.”

Three U.S. C-130 transport aircraft dropped 27 bundles of weapons and medical supplies to the Syrian Kurds, said a second U.S. official, adding the planes left Syrian air space unharmed and that the majority of the bundles had reached their targets.

The Turkish research vessel Barbaros was on Monday morning said to be off the coast of Cape Greco as Ankara appeared to make good on its threat to carry out surveys in the area of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone.

The Barbaros is reportedly accompanied by supporting vessels M / V Bravo and M / V Deep Supporter, and a Turkish navy vessel close to blocks 2 and 3 in the island’s EEZ.

Turkey has reserved in its NAVTEX (Navigational Telex), for the commencement of seismic surveys from October 20 to December 30.

ENI-KOGAS is operating its drill ship Sapiem 10000 within offshore Block 9. The Barbaros is some 17 hours away from the drillship, according to marinetraffic.com.

Defence Minister Christoforos Fokaides told CyBC the movements of the Turkish ships, “which he called provocative and illegal” were being closely monitored.

The National Council was also due to meet on Monday in an all-day session to discuss Cyprus’ response.

Also on Monday, Russia’s Black Sea fleet began exercises north east of the island, which are due to end on Thursday.

President Nicos Anastasiades said on Sunday the Turkish proved wrong all those who believed in Turkey’s assurances about a substantial contribution to the solution of the Cyprus problem.

A 30-year-old police officer was due in court on Monday on suspicion of possessing child pornography.

The officer, a member of the rapid response unit MMAD, was arrested in Nicosia on Sunday.

He was arrested after a complaint was made to police by a 17-year-old girl who had encountered him on a social networking site. Posing as a female, the suspect had allegedly asked her to send nude photos of herself, which she had done. When the fake persona asked for more photos, the girl refused, and the suspect then posted the previous photos he had of her on the internet.

Police established the account was fake and investigations led them to the 30-year-old.

On Sunday, they said they seized his computer, tablet, and external hard drive and four USBs from the suspect’s home.

The Anti Cyber ​​Crime Office is investigating the case.