By Emma Farge

Health workers in Sierra Leone began combing the streets of the capital Freetown for Ebola patients on Wednesday, moving house-to-house as the government launched a major operation to contain infection in West Africa’s worst-hit country.

President Ernest Bai Koroma said on national television that, as part of “Operation Western Area Surge”, travel between all parts of the country would be restricted and public gatherings would be restrained in the run-up to Christmas.

An encounter in the Devil’s Hole neighbourhood just outside Freetown showed why the programme was vital. Ibrahim Kamara sat in a discarded vehicle tyre, his eyes glassy and his breath coming in gasps, as he tried to answer questions from Ebola surveillance officers.

“Is the body weak?” a surveillance officer shouted. Kamara, 31, nodded despondently while onlookers gathered round.

“Vomiting,” the officer asked. Kamara nodded again.

Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia are at the heart of the world’s worst recorded outbreak of Ebola. Rates of infection are rising fastest in Sierra Leone and the country has more than half of the 18,000 confirmed cases of the virus.

House-to-house searches form one part of the month-long push in and around Freetown by the government, a British task force and international groups that aims to make a breakthrough against the disease within four to six weeks.

Kamara’s wife, Adama, said they had tried to take a taxi to hospital but the driver made them get out when he discovered her husband was ill.

She said a neighbour died on Saturday from Ebola-like symptoms. Ibrahim had been taking anti-malaria medicine but his condition deteriorated, she said, starting to cry.

With the annual malaria season at its height, aid groups have distributed the free treatment in a bid to prevent people with malaria being misdiagnosed with Ebola, which has similar symptoms.

The surveillance officers wrote down the Kamaras’ address and the names of five family members in their household before calling an ambulance. Nearby, a hearse drove by with the slogan ‘dust to dust’ painted on its back window.

Kamara’s diagnosis was unconfirmed, but local chief Alhagi Ibrahim Sesay said Kamara’s arrival in the area could mean Ebola has come to Devil’s Hole, a community with no previous history of the virus.

“Today, on the day the government starts its house-to-house exercise, this man gives a problem in our area. As head man, I don’t want any sick from another community,” he said.

NEW MEASURES

Health officials are alarmed by the widespread transmission in Freetown, which is similar to an earlier spread in the Liberian capital Monrovia now slowly being brought under control.

According to a government plan announced this week, health workers will seek victims and anyone with whom they have had contact, transporting those infected to new British-built treatment centres.

“Given the efforts we have undertaken we would expect to see a significant decrease in cases within several weeks,” Tom Frieden, director of the US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Reuters during a visit to Freetown.

The programme showed some early signs of progress. Russell Macleod, a British military consultant with the surveillance team in the Western command and control centre in Freetown, told Reuters they received a record number of alerts this morning.

By lunchtime, they exceeded Tuesday’s total by 50 percent with 140 alerts generated from an Ebola hotline. In response, the live case management team dispatched teams to 52 suspected cases, he said.

As part of the efforts, Koroma said worshippers on Christmas Day must return home after services and other festivities are banned. New Year’s Eve services must stop by 5 p.m. local time (1700 GMT), while New Year’s Day festivities are prohibited.

“This is the festive season where Sierra Leoneans often celebrate with families in a flamboyant and joyous manner, but all must be reminded that our country is at war with a vicious enemy,” he said in his nationwide address.

The government was also imposing a ban on Sunday trading and the end of Saturday shopping at noon, Koroma said. He spoke one day after opening an Ebola Community Care Centre outside the capital.

By Daniel Trotta and Matt Spetalnick

The United States plans to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba more than 50 years after they were severed, a major policy shift after decades of hostile ties with the communist-ruled island, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday.

Announcing the end of what he called a “rigid” policy of isolation of Cuba that had been ineffective, Obama said the United States planned to move toward normal ties and would open an embassy in Cuba.

The policy shift will mean a relaxation in some aspects of commerce and transportation between the United States and Cuba, but it does not mean an end to the longstanding trade embargo, which needs congressional approval.

And while travel restrictions that currently make it hard for most Americans to visit will be eased, the door will not yet be open for broad US tourism on the Caribbean island.

Obama discussed the changes with Cuban President Raul Castro on Tuesday in a telephone call that lasted nearly an hour. Castro spoke in Cuba as Obama made his announcement on a policy shift made possible by the release of American Alan Gross, 65, who had been imprisoned in Cuba for five years.

Cuba is also releasing an intelligence agent who spied for the United States and was held for nearly 20 years, and the United States in return released three Cuban intelligence agents held in the United States.

Gross’ imprisonment had been a block to any movement by Washington toward improved ties. Obama said Pope Francis had played an active role in pressing for his release.

Cuba and the United States have been ideological foes since soon after the 1959 revolution that brought Raul Castro’s older brother, Fidel Castro, to power.

They have not had diplomatic relations since 1961 and the United States has maintained a trade embargo on the island, 140 km south of Florida, for more than 50 years. Obama said he would ask Congress to lift the embargo.

Flashpoints in their hostilities included the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Washington’s policy has survived the demise of Soviet communism and the end of the Cold War as the United States pushes for democratic reform in Cuba.

In his remarks, Obama said Cuba still needed to make changes. He said Havana needed to make economic reforms and improve human rights.

Cuban American senators were quick to criticize the moves.

Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida where a large part of the country’s Cuban American population lives, said, “The president’s decision to reward the Castro regime and begin the path toward the normalization of relations with Cuba is inexplicable.”

Rubio added in a statement he would use his role as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Western Hemisphere subcommittee in the new Congress to try to block the plan.

Cuba arrested Gross on Dec. 3, 2009, and sentenced him to 15 years in prison for importing banned technology and trying to establish clandestine Internet service for Cuban Jews. Gross had been working as a subcontractor for the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras secured the support of 160 lawmakers in the first round of a presidential vote on Wednesday, leaving him well short of the supermajority needed to win the final round later this month.

Samaras’s nominee Stavros Dimas required 200 votes in this round to be elected president, but the threshold will drop to 180 in the final round on Dec. 29.

There were 135 votes against Dimas and five absences at Wednesday’s vote, which was watched as an indicator of whether the momentum is swinging for or against the government. The result was at the lower end of estimates on the number of votes Samaras would secure in the first round.

Parliament must be dissolved and early elections called if it fails to elect a new president.

By Brian Homewood

FIFA ethics investigator Michael Garcia resigned on Wednesday in protest at the way his report into the 2018/2022 World Cup bidding process was handled by Hans-Joachim Eckert, the ethics judge of football’s governing body.

Garcia said he had lost confidence in the independence of the ethics committee’s adjudicatory chamber following a 42-page statement issued by Eckert, based on Garcia’s still-secret report, in November.

In comments which are likely to deal another blow to the credibility of FIFA’s ability to police itself, Garcia also said that sport’s world authority lacked leadership.

UEFA president Michel Platini, a member of FIFA’s executive committee, said Garcia’s resignation was a step backwards.
“FIFA’s ethics committee was created to increase the transparency of the organisation, that’s what we wanted, but in the end it has just caused more confusion for FIFA,” the Frenchman said in a statement.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter added: “I am surprised by Mr Garcia’s decision. The work of the Ethics Committee will nonetheless continue and will be a central part of the discussions at the ExCo meeting in the next two days.”

Former US prosecutor Garcia’s report examined allegations of corruption in the awards of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments to Russia and Qatar respectively.

Garcia, who formerly served as chief federal prosecutor in Manhattan, had appealed against Eckert’s statement, saying it contained misrepresentations, but that appeal was ruled inadmissible by FIFA on Tuesday.

“It now appears that, at least for the foreseeable future, the Eckert Decision will stand as the final word on the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup bidding process,” Garcia said in a statement, adding that a further appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport would be impractical.
“No independent governance committee, investigator, or arbitration panel can change the culture of an organisation.
“And while the November 13, 2014, Eckert Decision made me lose confidence in the independence of the Adjudicatory Chamber, it is the lack of leadership on these issues within FIFA that leads me to conclude that my role in this process is at an end.”

German judge Eckert’s statement recommended that there was not enough evidence to justify reopening the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments.
“The issues raised by Mr. Eckert’s selection and omission of material from the Report, and his additional comments, went far beyond the initial transparency concerns,” added Garcia.
“As my public statement at the time explained, the Eckert Decision contained “numerous materially incomplete and erroneous representations of facts and conclusions”.”

Garcia said in Wednesday’s statement that his report “identified serious and wide-ranging issues with the bidding and selection process.”

Garcia also revealed that FIFA’s executive committee reported him for publicly asking them to authorise publication of his report.
“The Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee, Claudio Sulser, ultimately rejected the Executive Committee’s referral,” he said.
Garcia, who was appointed in 2012 and spent 18 months probing the 2018/2022 bidding process, said he felt that initially the ethics committee was making progress.
“For the first two years after my July 2012 appointment as independent Chairman of the FIFA Ethics Committee’s Investigatory Chamber, I felt that the Ethics Committee was making real progress in advancing ethics enforcement at FIFA,” he said. “In recent months, that changed.”

FIFA’s Executive Committee is meeting in Marrakech, which is hosting the Club World Club, this week.

The Exco is due to debate a proposal from Germany’s Theo Zwanziger to allow the publication of Garcia’s report in full.
FIFA and Qatar World Cup organisers have been fending off allegations of corruption ever since the Gulf state was awarded the 2022 tournament.
Qatar, which has repeatedly denied the allegations, has also been criticised over its treatment of migrant workers in the construction industry.

By Larry Fine

Manny Pacquiao took up Floyd Mayweather Jr’s shout-out that the boxers finally book a long-awaited clash on May 2, the Filipino insisting money was no object and that they owed it to the sport to fight each other.

Mayweather, in remarks to Showtime TV last Friday, said Pacquiao was not worthy of a 50-50 split in his proposed showdown, which would likely become the highest grossing pay-per-view bout in history if the match were made.

Eight-division world champion Pacquiao appeared ready to accommodate the undefeated American.
“Mayweather can get the amount he wants. As early as January this year, I challenged him to a charity fight. Until now, he has not agreed to it. So, money is not the issue in our fight,” Pacquiao said on his official website.

“This fight is about legacy, this is about making the fans happy and, above all, this is for the good of boxing.”
The two champions, boxing’s top drawing cards, have danced around a possible clash for roughly five years, with disputes over purses and drug-testing preventing a match being made.

“We are ready. Let’s make it happen. May 2. Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao. Let’s do it,” the 37-year-old American, who fights at welterweight and light-middleweight, said.

As befits their familiar verbal sparring, Pacquiao promised he would deliver an exciting fight despite the supreme defensive skills so often displayed by Mayweather (47-0).

“He has reached a dead end. He has nowhere to run but to fight me,” Pacquiao (57-5-2) said. “I will try my best to make this a thrilling and entertaining fight.
“But I doubt if he’s gonna engage me in a slugfest. You all know his fighting style. Most of his previous fights, if not all, induced us to sleep.”

The 35-year-old Pacquiao dominated Chris Algieri in November to retain his WBO welterweight title in his last bout, while Mayweather won a unanimous decision over Marcos Maidana to retain his twin WBC titles in September.

By Toby Davis

Tottenham Hotspur strolled into the English League Cup semi-finals with a 4-0 rout of Premier League rivals Newcastle United on Wednesday and Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling netted a sharply-taken double in a 3-1 win over Bournemouth.

Nabil Bentaleb, Nacer Chadli, Harry Kane and Roberto Soldado were on target for Spurs against Newcastle who conceded four times for the second match in succession after they were beaten 4-1 by Arsenal in north London on Saturday.

Sterling, who wasted chances as Liverpool slumped to defeat against Manchester United on Sunday, looked a sharp-eyed goal-getter as he produced a clinical display that will lift the pressure on his manager Brendan Rodgers.

Tottenham had lost their last two home clashes with Newcastle, but the threat of a third was eased when a blunder from visiting keeper Jak Alnwick, who made a complete mess of corner, presented Bentaleb with the chance to hook home from four metres.

Chadli doubled the lead with a measured effort from 25 metres, Kane netted with a slightly scuffed finish and Soldado added his name to the scoresheet when he pounced on a loose ball with 20 minutes to play.

At Bournemouth, the hosts’ hopes of an upset were scuppered by their own profligacy against eight-times winners Liverpool, who were far more clinical.
A glaring early miss from the hosts’ Callum Wilson was punished on 20 minutes when Sterling headed the visitors ahead from close range.

Liverpool, who had won only two of 10 matches since they last played in the League Cup and spurned six good chances against United on Sunday, seemed to have rediscovered their scoring touch when Lazar Markovic doubled the lead seven minutes later.

The Serbian wide player, who has been labelled one of Rodgers’ transfer mistakes after failing to break into the side following a 20 million-pound move from

Benfica in the close season, walloped home a rebound from the edge of the area.
Sterling finished precisely when through on goal six minutes after the break, before Dan Gosling grabbed a consolation when his shot beat keeper Brad Jones, who should have done better.

Chelsea and Sheffield United had booked spots in the semi-finals after winning their last-eight ties on Tuesday.

THE nursing associations have threatened to go on strike, but a final decision depends on the outcome of discussions with the mixed staff committee on the national health scheme (NHS) scheduled for Thursday.

The associations said in an announcement that the introduction of the multi-insurance system could endanger the feasibility of the health system by further financially burdening the Cypriots.

The announcement also said that the anticipated autonomy of state hospitals is troubling since it threatens the organisations’ financial viability and competitiveness.

They also want that the education and training of nurses, midwives and students remains under the Education section of the Nursing Services Directorate.

“The same employment status must be secured for all hirings that will take place after the NHS is implemented,” the announcement said.

The associations also want the current nursing staff to be upgraded to the Α8, A10 and A11 payment levels, just as the rest of the civil servants with university degrees.

Last month, the nurses’ union PASYNO marched from Parliament to the Health ministry asking that their jobs and their terms of employment be secured under the NHS.

By George Psyllides

NOTHING new came out of a meeting on Wednesday between UN special envoy Espen Barth Eide and Greek Cypriot negotiator Andreas Mavroyiannis, reports said.

The Cyprus News Agency (CNA) said that Barth Eide “had nothing new” to propose during the one-hour meeting, beyond the need to continue efforts to overcome the crisis that interrupted reunifications talks.

President Nicos Anastasiades pulled out of the talks after Turkey deployed a research vessel within the Cyprus exclusive economic zone to carry out seismic exploration.

Turkish Cypriot negotiator Ergun Olgun told the UN envoy, according to reports, that his side was prepared to continue talks without any preconditions.

He was quoted as saying that he told Barth Eide the Greek Cypriot side must terminate its unilateral activities concerning natural gas.

On Tuesday, Barth Eide said he saw enormous opportunities in 2015, as he highlighted the benefits of reunification.

Addressing a reception at the Ledra Palace hotel, in the UN-controlled buffer zone, Eide said, “we are looking forward to a very important 2015, bordering on the decisive year, because we are seeing there are enormous opportunities.”

“If we are able to overcome the long standing difficulties in the Cyprus problem, we will be able to reap the benefits, social, economic, political moving towards a unified solution, he added.“There is quite a challenge in 2015.”

“My job is to help you move ahead, to help you find your solution”, he said, adding that “despite the divisions in Cyprus, there is still a strong international commitment to support the two communities move ahead”.

He said that “this is a time of opportunity but if we do not use the opportunity right, it may be a time of serious challenge, and that would not be good news.”.

“I hope you will have a moment of reflection for you all, engage in issues you are working with people from all sides,” he said.

THE possibility that two suspects linked to a financial scandal at the Cyprus University of Technology (TEPAK) will not appear in court for trial are distant, the Limassol district court ruled on Wednesday, rejecting a police demand for renewal of their remands until the trial on January 30.

The two suspects, Zenon Achillides, 44, head of TEPAK’s property management service, and 51-year-old contractor Giorgos Hadjigeorgiou, face a total of 22 charges for seven offences and were released on bail with the condition to appear at their local police station four times a week.

Police tried to justify the remand renewal by arguing that according to the testimonies collected so far, the suspects posed a flight risk and that their conviction and presence in court must be secured until they stand trial.

The two face charges of conspiracy to commit felony, forgery, circulation of counterfeit documents and extortion under false pretences, while Achillides faces additional charges of bribery and abuse of power.

Achillides, who was suspended from his post, had been in custody since December 6 and Hadjigeorgiou who was abroad, was arrested two days later for unauthorised payments, double charges and other offences in connection with four TEPAK buildings, Symeon, Kalypso, Dorothea and Hani.

A 27-year old Bulgarian man died in a car accident on Wednesday after his car crashed on the outer wall of a house on Eleonos street in Strovolos.

According to a police report, the man appears to have been speeding. Fire service officers, who had rushed to the scene, needed an hour to free the driver’s body from the wreckage.

Strovolos municipality had been warned in the past about the street in question. News portal Sigmalive posted a letter written by local resident in September last year, pleading with the municipality to introduce speed bumps along the road to tackle speedsters.

The woman complained that her street, Perdios street, was used by motorists as a shortcut to Eleonos and that people were often speeding, endangering the residents.

“We don’t allow our children to cross the street. An adult is always with them. Please, respond to my suggestion before somebody dies,” the woman had written in her letter to the municipality.

Strovolos municipality responded in October 2013, saying that her request “was reviewed by the Construction and Renovation department of the municipality.”

By Syed Raza Hassan

A Pakistani court granted bail on Thursday to a man accused of masterminding a deadly 2008 rampage through the Indian city of Mumbai, lawyers said.

The decision to grant bail to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi drew quick condemnation from India and is likely to hinder attempts to patch up relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

The court ruling came as Pakistan was struggling to come to terms its biggest ever militant attack, the killing on Tuesday of 132 school children and nine members of staff in Peshawar city. The Pakistani Taliban said it was revenge for a military offensive against them.

India condemned the attack.

Lakhvi was arrested in Pakistan in 2009 in connection with the attack on Mumbai by Pakistani militants in which 166 people were killed. The sole surviving gunman had identified him as the mastermind.

Since then, he has been held in jail in the city of Rawalpindi.

“Yes, the court has issued Lakhvi’s bail orders today, against a surety amount of one million rupees ($10,000),” defence lawyer Rizwan Abbasi told Reuters.

“Hopefully, he will be out on Monday or Tuesday.”

Prosecutors could challenge the ruling, one said.

“After reading through the detailed order, we will be in a position to decide if we are going to challenge the court’s decision,” said prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar.

India blamed Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the Mumbai attack. Ten gunmen spent three days spraying bullets and throwing grenades around city landmarks.

Indian investigators said Lakhvi was Lashkar-e-Taiba military chief.

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh said his bail was deeply unfortunate. He said Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had vowed to crush all militants after this week’s school attack.

“I hope the Pakistan government will appeal to the upper court so that Lakhvi’s bail is cancelled,” he said.

Relations between India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars since independence in 1947, nosedived after the Mumbai attack and have not fully recovered. A dispute over the Kashmir region periodically flares into violence.

Sharif says reconciliation with India is a priority but this year, India elected Narendra Modi, a hawkish nationalist whose party is often accused of favouring India’s majority Hindus at the expense of religious minorities.

Sharif vowed this week there would no longer be any distinction between “good” and “bad” Taliban, an attempt to draw a line under years of Pakistani support for militants it saw as useful in opposing India.

Pakistan insists the policy is over but many militant groups banned by the government still operate under new names.

By George Psyllides

FINANCE Minister Harris Georgiades sharply criticised opposition parties on Thursday for suspending the law on foreclosures describing it as an unnecessary decision, which critically undermined the country’s credibility.

Earlier, opposition parties ignored warnings once again, and voted to suspend enforcement of the law on foreclosures until the end of January.

“Today’s decision by parliament critically undermines our country’s credibility,” Georgiades said in a statement. “Suspending enforcement of legislation, which is not enforced anyway, is an unnecessary and unjustified act. It simply sends the message that we have not, unfortunately, rid ourselves of the mentality and behaviour that cost us so dearly.”

The proposal, submitted by EDEK, passed by majority vote – 34 to 19. Ruling DISY voted against the bill warning that it jeopardised the island’s bailout programme and dealt a blow to Cyprus’ credibility.

Opposition parties claim that the suspension was necessary to give time to the insolvency framework to be prepared so that it provides a safety net to vulnerable groups.

Before the law enters into force, it has to carry the president’s signature or the acting president in his absence.

President Nicos Anastasiades who is recovering from a heart operation he underwent in New York on December 3, is expected to return to Cyprus on Sunday. At present, parliament speaker and socialist EDEK chairman Yiannakis Omirou is holding all his powers.

“We will see on Monday whether the president will assume his duties,” government spokesman Nikos Christodoulides said. “On Monday we shall know”.

Suspension of the law came a couple of days after Cyprus received €350 million as part of its €10 million bailout.

The cash should have been disbursed in September but it was withheld by the European Union after opposition parties passed legislation limiting the scope of the foreclosures law.

The funds were released after the opposition bills were thrown out by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.

The International Monetary Fund was expected to release an additional €86 million.

Before voting on EDEK’s proposal, parties rejected a bill tabled by main opposition AKEL to suspend the law until the end of June.

Thursday’s vote was preceded by an intense debate with DISY MPs warning of the consequences of suspending an inactive law that was part of the terms of the island’s bailout agreement.

Primary homes are protected until January and in any case for the law to become active it would take the approval of regulations, which the government said would go through parliament.

Opposition parties sought to justify their action by blaming the government for delays in tabling the insolvency framework.

DISY leader Averof Neophytou said in essence the only thing achieved by the opposition was to send lenders the message that parliament waited for the tranche to be released before suspending the law.

Neophytou said parties had to choose between their credibility among their voting clientele and Cyprus’ credibility.

Considering international developments like the situation in Russia, and the instability in Greece, it would not be prudent to add to the problems, Neophytou said.

AKEL leader Andros Kyprianou said the foreclosures law was active and the regulations still pending only concerned auctions.

He claimed that banks were preparing to go ahead on January 1 and argued that the vote to suspend had been delayed because they wanted to give time to the government to prepare the insolvency framework.

DIKO chairman Nicolas Papadopoulos said parliament was called on to legislate not by choice but by necessity.

He went on to accuse the government of delaying in bringing the insolvency framework to parliament so that it came to force at the same time with foreclosures at the start of next year.

EDEK MP Nicos Nicolaides suggested that parliament was sending out the message that it wanted the foreclosures law to go ahead “but through procedures that secure the people at risk of losing their home and small business because the dire economic situation.”

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S office will be filing the charges against five former Bank of Cyprus (BoC) officials before the year is out, reports said on Thursday.

According to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), the AG would be filing the charge sheet to Nicosia district court in the coming days, after which instructions would be issued to take the case to trial before a criminal court.

Those to be indicted are former CEO Andreas Eliades, his successor Yiannis Kypri, former board chairman Theodoros Aristodemou, former vice chairman Andreas Artemi, and former first deputy CEO Yiannis Pehlivanidis, in charge of the bank’s Greek operations.

The bank as a legal entity is also part of the indictment.

Although the charges have yet to be revealed, citing its sources CNA said these would relate to market manipulation, false and misleading information relating to the bank’s capital adequacy, as well as conspiracy to mislead the public.

The crimes in question are punishable by imprisonment or a fine, or both.

It’s understood the charges draw on earlier findings by the Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). In June this year, CySEC slapped administrative fines on 12 former BoC officials for misleading investors through public statements.

The stock market watchdog fined Eliades, Kypri and Aristodemou €530,000 each. Among other allegations, Kypri reportedly announced on December 10, 2009, that the bank had evaluated Greek bonds as “risky” and intended to divest its holdings.

However, without informing investors, the bank subsequently purchased a large package of Greek bonds. The bonds crashed and burned in 2011 when European Union leaders agreed on a Greek debt write-down. Cypriot lenders lost an estimated €4.5bn as a result.

The charges against the five ex-BoC officials are expected to be the first batch of prosecutions resulting from a broad ongoing criminal inquiry into last year’s financial meltdown, which most notably led to the seizure of deposits in order to raise capital for two Cypriot lenders, BoC and Laiki.

Parliament passed into law on Thursday a government bill freezing new hires in the broader public sector in 2015.

The measure extends by one year the hiring freeze in the central government and semi-governmental organisations. A similar prohibition had been in effect in 2013 and 2014.

It is intended to keep at bay the state payroll due to the ongoing slump. The government is essentially bankrupt, and has to rely on regular bailout tranches from international lenders. Around a quarter of the 2015 state budget was funded by these foreign cash injections.

Under the terms of the bailout agreement, the government must gradually reduce the number of public-sector employees by some 4,500 in the period 2012 to 2016.

By Stelios Orphanides

By Constantinos Psillides

HAVING SPENT almost five hours on Thursday speaking to police officers, international referee Marios Panayi will on Friday trek back to police headquarters in Nicosia as it seems he has lots more to reveal about corruption in football.

Coming out of the police HQ late in the afternoon, Panayi told reporters he would be resuming his statement to investigators on Friday, adding that even a second session might not be enough.

“There was not enough time today to present all the evidence at my disposal,” he said.

Asked whether he was having second thoughts about his move, Panayi curtly replied “No.”

According to state broadcaster CyBC, among other information he gave police, Panayi named sports officials and politicians.

Police have been given the green light to launch an investigation regarding accusations made by the young referee on match fixing in the island’s top league.

According to a statement issued by the police press and information office, Legal Services officials agreed that Panayi’s allegations are grounds for an official investigation and ordered police to ask Panayi to give a statement.

Panayi headed for police headquarters to make his statement at midday, telling reporters camped outside that he would see the case through to the end.

On Wednesday Panayi gave a press conference claiming that he had recordings, documents and other evidence proving that members of the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) were fixing matches, in particular those deciding which team would be relegated to the second division.

Panayi identified CFA deputy head Giorgos Koumas as the man behind the curtain, stressing that if he was not removed from the picture, then professional football in Cyprus was a lost cause.

Koumas has not officially responded to Panayi’s allegations.

In a somewhat belated response, the Cyprus Sports Organisation on Thursday issued a written statement noting its policy of “zero tolerance” toward corruption and urging all competent bodies in to carry out a thorough investigation in order that “due responsibility is apportioned wherever the law may have been broken.”

Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou also commented on the case, pledging that the referee’s allegations would be “exhaustively investigated.”

“From the moment we have a statement then you can rest assured that a proper investigation will be carried out. Our goal is to put an end to everything that hurts professional football,” said Nicolaou.

Nicolaou added that he would push for legislation providing more effective oversight over football matches.

The justice minister pointed out that there are “legislation gaps” stopping police from effectively tackling accusations on match fixing.

“In Cyprus we lack the option of phone tapping when it comes to these cases, the way Italy and Greece, two countries that have prosecuted people for match fixing,” he said.

Nicolaou was referring to a 2006 Italian football fixing scandal called “Calciopoli” that was exposed when telephone tapping showed a network of relations between team managers and referee organisations. Greece is also now looking into a similarly shocking case, even involving the head of a top league club.

Before heading for the police headquarters, Panayi was a guest on the CyBC morning news show First Briefing. Asked whether he was willing to go through with the case, Panayi replied that he was determined to do so.

“I will hand over to investigators everything I have. Dates, names, facts, the works. Everything was set up to serve the interests of those pulling the strings, but I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything more. I will tell what I know to the police,” said the ref.

CFA chairman Kostakis Koutsokoumnis – whom Panayi described as a “straw-man” – issued a statement on Wednesday promising that he would order a probe into Panayi’s allegations, stressing that the case would be thoroughly investigated.

Panayi described Koutsokoumnis’ statement as “laughable”.

“Reports on fixed matches are swept under the rug. For more information you can talk to Stavros Stavrou, a former police officer and referee who is employed by UEFA to deal with fixed matches,” said Panayi.

Panayi’s accusations though appear to have rattled CFA, causing officials to now keep quiet. When the Cyprus Mail contacted Stavrou, he was reluctant to speak.

“The only one speaking for CFA at this moment is chairman Kostakis Koutsokoumnis. I’m afraid I can’t help you with anything,” said Stavrou.

Panayi was also asked why he was only speaking up now – the international referee has not been appointed to a match since September – to which he replied that only now did he feel “confident enough”.

“You are right. I was a bit late. But I didn’t know last year what I know now. I learned more and now I’m more confident to speak up,” he said.

The international ref said that he has already received death threats on his mobile phone, as a result of his press conference on Wednesday.

Panayi said that he would go through with the case, even if his evidence didn’t hold up in court. “I have a plan B. Don’t worry. I can’t say more now,” he said.

According to a police statement, Legal Services are currently looking into 16 cases related to match fixing. The cases are in connection to the red and yellow dossier cases flagged by UEFA. Yellow and red dossiers relate to matches UEFA has flagged as exhibiting “unusual betting patterns” a strong indicator that match fixing was involved. Cyprus has thus far received 31 such flagged cases but not one has ever made it to court.

According to DISY MP Andreas Michaelides – a former football coach – 15 of those dossiers were declared as “impossible to investigate” while the rest ended up before Legal Services. The DISY MP pointed out that FIFA had flagged around 300 matches globally by 2014.

Michaelides was talking to the press following a meeting of the House legal affairs committee in June. The committee met to come up with ways to tackle match fixing but they came up with nothing. The MPs had agreed then that match fixing was unacceptable and pledged to come up with ways to provide CFA with the right legal tools to deal with match fixing.

No further meetings on the subject were held since then.

UEFA is not the only foreign football body that talks of match fixing on the island. Belgian-based match fixing watchdog Federbet, in its annual report on match fixing in Europe issued last June, puts Cyprus and Bulgaria at the top of the suspected match fixing list when it came to the top league. Cyprus had seven games flagged, based on irregular betting patterns.

The games Federbet flagged were: the Anorthosi-Doxa game on September 29, 2013 (Doxa won 1-2), Ermis Aradippou-Kouklia FC on September 30, 2013 (Ermis won 5-2), Doxa-Kouklia FC on November 2, 2013 (Doxa won 3-1), the Ethnikos-Doxa game on November 9, 2013 (Doxa won 0-3), Doxa-AEL on December 12, 2013 (Doxa lost 0-1), Alki – AEK Larnaca on January 4, 2014 (AEK won 1-2) and the Nea Salamis-Aris game on April 23 (Aris won 3-4).

It should be noted that CFA didn’t even bother responding to the Federbet report, while chairman Kostakis Koutsokoumnis could not be found to comment.

Panayi’s accusation also have the political parties in turmoil, after the ref called out the leaders of the three major parties DISY, AKEL and DIKO to publicly declare whether they or their representatives had secret meetings with CFA members. All parties have rejected the accusations, asking for the case to be thoroughly investigated.

EDEK spokesman Efstathios Efstathiou told reporters on Thursday that Panayi “should be congratulated for stepping forward and shining a light on the status quo of Cyprus professional football”.

By Louis Charbonneau

Member countries of the United Nations on Thursday urged the Security Council to consider referring North Korea to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity as alleged in a UN inquiry report released earlier this year.

There were 116 votes in favor of the resolution, with 20 against and 53 abstentions. The resolution, which was drafted by the European Union and Japan, was approved last month by the 193-member assembly’s Third Committee, which deals with human rights.

The vote followed a UN Commission of Inquiry report published in February detailing wide-ranging abuses in North Korea, including prison camps, systematic torture, starvation and killings comparable to Nazi-era atrocities.

The resolution linked the alleged abuses to policies of North Korea’s leadership and urged the Security Council to consider sanctions against those responsible.

The vote increases political pressure on North Korea, but it is largely symbolic and non-binding.

“My delegation totally rejects the resolution,” North Korean delegate An Myong Hun told the assembly. “It is a product of a political plot and confrontation.”

He added that Pyongyang was ready for “dialogue and cooperation in the field of human rights,” but rejected the use of the issue as an instrument for regime change.

It is unlikely to lead to action in the International Criminal Court at The Hague, which looks at serious abuses like genocide and other crimes against humanity, because China would likely use its veto power to block it.

China is North Korea’s principal ally and protector on the 15-nation UN Security Council and has Russia’s support, diplomats say.

General Assembly resolutions condemning human rights abuses in Iran, North Korea, Myanmar and Syria have become an annual occurrence, but this was the first time a North Korea resolution included a recommendation for an ICC referral.

The assembly also passed resolutions condemning rights abuses in Iran and Syria.

The North Korea resolution pointed the finger squarely at Pyongyang’s top leadership by acknowledging the commission’s finding that there were “reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed … pursuant to policies established at the highest level of the State for decades.”

Western Security Council members plan to move quickly to formally put North Korea on the council’s agenda. They expect to discuss the UN inquiry report on Monday despite objections from China, which says the council is not the proper forum for discussions on human rights.

By Evie Andreou

THE Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) made a plea on Thursday for information concerning the whereabouts of the remains of the missing persons from Assia and assured relatives that they were doing their best to find the remains of their loved ones.

Assia has around 84 people listed as missing between the ages of 11 and 84 years, with over 50 of them believed to have died in a mass execution along with Cypriots from other areas in August 1974. Their bodies were thrown into two wells.
The bodies were later removed by the Turkish army which handed over only part of the remains to the CMP which is tasked with identifying them.

A relative of an Assia missing person showed the committee a photo copy with just bone fractures of a few centimetres which had been given to families. The relative said that the CMP needed to show more respect to the relatives.

“We understand you and we respect you. It is the duty of the CMP when we identify even a bone fragment to inform the family; if we don’t it might be years before we find something else,” said CMP member Gulden Plumer Kucuk.

CMP member Paul-Henri Arni said that the removal of the remains was the second crime committed.

“The first crime is when they were executed, shot in the back,” Arni said.

He added that similar practices had taken place elsewhere.

“In the case of Assia 70 people were found in two wells, nine full skeletons, 61 were connected to deliberate removal. So, yes, the CMP delivers small bones,” said Nestoras Nestoros, another CMP member.
Nestoros said apart from Assia, there are 50 other cases of Greek Cypriots and 15 cases of Turkish Cypriots where small bones have been identified.

He said that families had already had funerals of their loved ones with what little remains they were given because it is unknown when the rest of the remains would be found.

“We even plan on digging up streets next year,” Nestoros said.

The CMP members stressed the importance of acquiring new knowledge on burial sites before it is too late since many people with information are of advanced age.

Arni said that over the last eight years 564 people have been identified including 93 that were not in the official missing persons list.

By Daniel Wallis

An American man has been arrested in Uganda and accused by US prosecutors of counterfeiting more than $2 million in fake dollars, some of which were to be mailed to the United States hidden in charity pamphlets, court papers showed.

Ryan Andrew Gustafson, 27, is charged with conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, according to a criminal complaint filed on Wednesday in US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

The US Secret Service, whose agents investigate financial crime worldwide, said on Thursday it supported an operation by Ugandan police who arrested Gustafson earlier this week at his home in a suburb of the capital Kampala.

“The Secret Service will continue to dismantle criminal networks that seek to victimize American and international citizens or denigrate our national currency, regardless of geographic distance or border,” Paul Morrissey, its assistant director of investigations, said in a statement.

Gustafson is also charged in Uganda with possession and dealing in counterfeit currency, as well as unlawful possession of ammunition. His local lawyer, named by media there as Isaac Walukagga, could not immediately be reached for comment.

According to the US criminal complaint, detectives recovered computers, printers, paper and ink from the home, as well as tens of thousands of dollars in fake currencies, blank credit cards, and two Taser guns.

Some of the counterfeit bills were glued between pages of pamphlets entitled Give a Child Hope Today, it said.

Prosecutors say Gustafson, also known as Jack Farrel and Willy Clock, offered the notes for sale via an online forum he ran called Community-X, and that he wore rubber gloves while preparing the packages so as not to leave fingerprints.

It was not immediately clear where in the United States Gustafson comes from. The criminal complaint said a Texas identification card and a Colorado driver’s license in his name were found during Monday’s raid.

The US Secret Service said the investigation began in December last year over counterfeit dollars found in Pittsburgh. It said about $1.8 million in fake notes have been seized and passed in Uganda and neighboring countries to date. A further $270,000 was seized or passed in the United States.

“The early infiltration and disruption of Gustafson’s US trafficking network limited the total amount of counterfeit funds passed within the United States,” the Secret Service said.

It said the case continues pending further investigation and judicial action.

By Tom Hayward

Controversial Liverpool forward Mario Balotelli was suspended for one match by the FA on Thursday and fined 25,000 pounds after posting an offensive message on social media.

Earlier this month, the Italian showed a picture on his Instagram account containing racist and anti-Semitic connotations.

“Mario Balotelli has been fined 25,000 pounds, suspended for one match with immediate effect, subject to appeal, and warned as to his future conduct after he admitted breaching FA rules in relation to social media,” the FA said in a statement.

“The charge was that an image the Liverpool player posted on social media was abusive and/or insulting and/or improper.
“The posting was considered to be an ‘aggravated breach’ as defined in FA Rule E3 (2) in that it included a reference to ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race and/or nationality and/or religion or belief.”

Balotelli, who quickly removed the picture and later apologised, has also been ordered to attend an educational programme.
“Following the recent events related to my ‘Super Mario’ post, the FA decision has made it clear that it was wrong,” he said on his Twitter account on Thursday.
“I am sorry my team mates and supporters of Liverpool FC have to be penalised for something I did and now come to regret. It is my intention to comply with the decision of the FA and make sure it never happens again.”

The 24-year-old Balotelli, who has a history of on and off-the-field misdemeanours, joined Liverpool from AC Milan in August but has managed just two goals in 15 games for the Premier League club.