By Maria Gregoriou

Those of you who have doodled cartoons, love to read the cartoon strips in newspapers, magazines and online, will be thrilled to know that French cartoonist Plantu will be among us on Friday to give a conference in Nicosia.
And the reason he is scheduled to be here is very topical following the events in Paris this week at the offices of Charlie Hebdo.

The cartoonist, whose real name is Jean Plantureux, specialises in political satire, a type of cartoon featured in many newspapers thoughout the world. France is no exception to this and Plantu’s work has regularly appeared in the French newspaper Le Monde since October, 1972, when his first editorial cartoon featured a scene from the Vietnam war.

Plantu was initially going to study medicine but switched to drawing in 1969 in Brussels. After moving back to Paris he was hired by Le Monde and in 1985 he also began to illustrate the front page daily.

From 1980 to 1986, he also worked with Phosphore magazine and since 1997, he publishes one page in the weekly magazine L’Express. In 1988 he received the Mumm prize for his cartoon Gordji chez le juge.

After his art was featured in the Festival of the Caricature in Ankara, Turkey in 2001, he met the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to discuss an upcoming international conference of new cartoonists in Paris. The Cartooning for Peace Organisation was a result of this meeting, which was founded in 2006 to defend editorial cartoonists’ freedom of expression throughout the world. Cartooning for Peace counts more than 100 editorial cartoonists.

The cartoonist has also exhibited his cartoons, as well as some of his sculptures around the world. Some of his work will also be exhibited at the conference. The talk will be in both English and French.

Meet Plantu
Conference with cartoonist Plantu. January 16, 7.00pm. Journalists’ House, 12 CyBC Avenue, Aglantzia, Nicosia. 7pm. Tel: 22-446090

By Preston Wilder

Hollywood films have no personality. It’s a common complaint – but one that you couldn’t really make of Unbroken. Trouble is, this triumph-of-the-spirit drama has the personality (or at least the public persona) of its director, Angelina Jolie. Ms. Jolie comes across as an emotional, obsessively nurturing person with a passion for helping refugees and adopting poor orphans – and the film is much the same, an emotional, obsessively nurturing drama with a hero who’s a figurative orphan begging to be adopted.

“What a story! Everything but the bloodhounds snapping at her rear end!” quipped that old cynic Thelma Ritter in All About Eve 65 years ago – and the story of Louis Zamperini (rising star Jack O’Connell, who’s recently been terrific in ’71 and Starred Up) is a bit like that. First he was a hoodlum, the despair of his Italian-immigrant parents. Then he became a runner, inspired by his older brother – “If you can take it, you can make it!” was the brother’s inspirational motto – and ran in the 5000m at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Then he became a WW2 airman, flying dozens of missions. Then he got shot down over the Pacific, and spent an incredible 47 days at sea, in a tiny life raft with two other soldiers. Then, for a coup de grace, he was captured by the Japanese and spent two years in a hellish prisoner-of-war camp run by a sadist. Then – just when you thought the story was over – he got transferred to another camp, working on the coal barges, and couldn’t even look forward to the end of the war because the Japs planned to kill all prisoners before surrendering.

This is a true story. We know that because it says so in the opening shot, backed by a heavenly choir. Most films save the heavenly choirs for the uplifting climax – but Unbroken doesn’t bother because it’s all uplifting, with a few surprising hints of religiosity. Louis’ raft-mate Phil (Domhnall Gleeson) is devout, and looks to God to help him through his trials; Louis himself ends up almost literally crucified, forced to hold up a wooden bar that looks like a cross. Mostly, however, the film is about resilience (“The way we beat them is by making it to the end of the war alive”) and the human capacity for suffering stoically. Louis doesn’t do anything clever in the PoW camp; he doesn’t outsmart the Japanese or become a wheeler-dealer, like the prisoners in King Rat or Empire of the Sun. He just takes it on the chin, like those poor orphans who haven’t (yet) found a movie star to pluck them from their misery. If you can take it, you can make it.

Unbroken is like Chariots of Fire meets Life of Pi meets Bridge on the River Kwai – but in fact it most resembles another movie, a comparison that suddenly hit me when young Louis realised he could run really fast whilst fleeing pursuers. This is Forrest Gump revisited, a historical slog with a passive but likeable hero. Like Gump, it’s handsomely made; Jolie has access to the best technicians in Hollywood, especially DP Roger Deakins who crafts some delectable shots (my favourite: prisoners silhouetted against a raging fire). Also like Gump, it’s essentially simplistic and prone to cliché. The sadistic camp commandant, known as ‘The Bird’, gets a ‘We are the same, you and I’ speech, like a Bond villain; he’s also tagged as an abusive parent, hurting Louis’ self-esteem – “You are nothing!” he taunts – another reminder of the nurturing woman behind the camera.

Jolie does good work as a humanitarian and UNICEF Ambassador, so more power to her; as a filmmaker, however, she lacks nuance. Unbroken is watchable enough – the opening sequence, a WW2 bombing mission, is very exciting – but when Louis and Phil are being strafed by a Japanese plane AND their raft is sinking AND there are sharks in the water, one’s compassion starts to shade into uncontrollable giggling. At one point, The Bird forces all the other prisoners to take turns punching Louis in the face as punishment – so they form a line and start punching, then Jolie cuts to a wide-shot at sunset (presumably hours later) and they’re still punching. The effect is cartoonish, whereas if the film had stuck to close-ups and cut quickly (e.g. to Louis’ battered face afterwards) it might’ve been quite powerful.

Some will find Unbroken moving, but I didn’t believe a single manipulative moment. ‘True story’ or not, did Louis really turn to Phil when he saw they were being rescued by a Japanese warship – half-dead and delirious, after 45 days at sea – and say: “Phil … I’ve got good news and bad news”? Maybe he did, but it still comes off slick and implausible; this is fairytale stuff, the world according to Hollywood. At least it’s got personality.

DIRECTED BY Angelina Jolie

STARRING Jack O’Connell, Domhnall Gleeson, Miyavi

US 2014                       137 mins

It’s a tumultuous time for the game in Cyprus. THEO PANAYIDES meets the chairman of the island’s most successful club

‘Would you say you have enemies?’ I ask Prodromos Petrides, sitting in his 8th-floor office in central Nicosia. He nods. “As someone who’s in the news, and doesn’t give anyone the right to… yes, I have enemies,” he winds up abruptly, as if unwilling to go into a long explanation.
Is it something he actually experiences?

“I live with it every day. There are many who’d have liked to see Prodromos Petrides down and out. But I’m still standing, much to their disappointment I’m still standing – and I’ll keep on standing, I have no problem.”

The 8th-floor office belongs to Iris Corporate Services, an independent company specialising in offshore clients, working closely with the big accounting firm run by his wife’s family. That’s not all, however.

He also runs a business for the distribution of fresh mushrooms, a sector he’s been closely involved with all his life – running first the family business that belonged to his father, then his own mushroom factory, initially dealing in production as well as distribution till the abolition of EU duties in the mid-00s made it cheaper to import than produce.

That’s not all either, however. Indeed, with all due respect to the mushroom industry, it’s unlikely that Prodromos would be newsworthy if he were just a leading purveyor of edible fungi. His main claim to fame – the reason, so to speak, for this profile – is Apoel Nicosia, the most successful football team in a football-mad country, the team he’s supported all his life and twice led as chairman: once in 2001-06 then again in his current stint, which began about a year ago.

cerlebrting in 2006

It’s hard to understate the depth of passion that football provokes in Cyprus. It’s entirely possible to find a group of men (it’s mostly men) heatedly discussing local football at a cocktail party, then come back half an hour later to find them still discussing it – not to mention what actually happens on the pitch (and in the stands), where passion frequently spills over into unsavoury incidents. He himself always ends up talking about Apoel when he goes out socially, admits Prodromos – but there are also trickier questions about the problems associated with football: hooliganism, financial mismanagement and now, following the recent allegations by referee Marios Panayi, match-fixing.

I ask a few of these questions, looking out at Nicosia from his 8th-floor eyrie, and get firm but rather wishful answers. Prodromos has a touch of the zealous certitude of the recovering alcoholic, someone who’s seen what happens when you make mistakes and is convinced – nay, determined – that they won’t be repeated, so long as he stays on the programme. We’re not just talking abstractly, either: “I suffered,” he insists. “In my previous term as chairman, even beyond the money I put into it, the worst thing was becoming disoriented from my own businesses because of Apoel. I didn’t spend the time I should’ve spent on them, and I suffered serious financial consequences. I won’t say family consequences, thank god my family stood by me – though I could’ve spent more time when my kids were younger [he has a son and daughter, 26 and 24 respectively], which they do complain about sometimes.”

It was never for money, he says earnestly and repeatedly; always for the love of football. “I’ve never been at Apoel for personal gain, and I’m speaking to you honestly and sincerely. It cost me a great deal. I even came close to total financial collapse.”

Because of Apoel?

“Because I spent all my time on Apoel and not on my businesses in 2006-07”. He was actually declared bankrupt at one point, he admits shamefacedly – not directly because of the football club (rather a result of being a personal guarantor for debts racked up by his company), but spending 80 per cent of his time on football can’t have helped the situation. That proportion hasn’t changed in his current term: yes, he confirms, “Apoel – without a salary, without a profit, nothing – takes up 80 per cent of my daily routine. And that’s not all: it’s not just eight hours a day, or 10 hours – it’s 24 hours, seven days a week!”. What’s changed, however, is the organisational structure he’s set up to ensure the mushroom business can run without his full involvement. Once bitten, twice shy.

Something similar is underway at Apoel itself, or at least that’s the hope. Prodromos left the club at a pivotal moment: a change in EU rules meant there was no longer a limit on how many EU players a club could field (previously, the limit was three ‘foreigners’), leading to a kind of mid-00s frenzy in which Cypriot clubs filled their ranks with expensive foreign players, hoping to reap the rewards. Almost all local clubs now haemorrhage money; Apoel is in slightly better shape – but purely because of the windfall supplied by the UEFA Champions League which the club (alone among Cypriot teams) has qualified for three times, in 2009, 2011 and 2014. If they had to rely on domestic income, they’d be in deep trouble – which is why Prodromos is now trying to build a “sound administrative structure” that’d allow them to survive even without the Champions League. There’s now a chartered accountant on the Board, and a marketing guy has been brought in (“We have a very strong product, which we have to take advantage of”). There’s going to be a technical director working as a senior manager, like they have in Europe.

Petrides with some of the team’s players

In short, he’s trying to rebuild the club like he rebuilt his own life over the past few years. “I’ve matured too, as a person and a businessman,” he asserts, laying specific emphasis on having gone bankrupt. “It matured me. I saw things very differently. And at that moment, when I was down, I also looked up and saw what was happening around me, and who was around me. These things help you to grow up.”

He used to get angry, for instance. “I had a bad temper. Had. Up until five or six years ago, I had a very bad temper”. One gets the impression of a pushy, combative alpha male, a man with a strong sense of self-worth; when I ask what he regards as his greatest achievement he replies that he’s most proud of having remained independent, “never asking for anyone’s favour”. His eyes are narrow, his face slightly lupine. He’s entrepreneurial, “open to any kind of business”. He co-owned Burger King in Cyprus for a while, then sold it on; his most obvious trait is a kind of restless vigour. “I don’t like to sit around, not even on a Sunday or a Saturday. I like to be in action all the time”. Even his hobbies are active, high-octane: he loves cars, and raced three times in the Cyprus Rally – and of course there’s football, both as player and supporter.

He might’ve made a minor career as a footballer, had he been born 20 years later (he was born in 1962). He played for his village team, Iraklis Gerolakkou, then graduated to Apoel’s reserves as a teenager – but of course there was no money in football at the time, and he wanted to go into business anyway (he doesn’t seem to have studied much, beyond an 18-month training course in Holland). Apoel was always a passion, from when he was a child – and of course, being the person he is, he always wanted to get involved, joining the Board in the early 90s. “I liked being in the place where decisions were made,” he explains. “Because I had my own views and opinions on how Apoel should be run.”

Those views are presumably now being put into effect – but what about all the problems we mentioned earlier? That’s where Prodromos Petrides becomes emollient, conciliatory – and, it must be said, not entirely convincing, though he tries hard to charm. “Yes, we have problems in Cypriot football,” he admits openly. “Unfortunately, if we go back a few years, it used to be quite politicised as well”. Those days, he says, are now behind us – which seems a bit over-optimistic, and will certainly come as news to the many Apoel fans toting Greek flags to matches (to be fair, he’s talking more of party politics, with

Apoel and Omonia being explicitly affiliated with DISY and AKEL respectively). And what about the hooligans? Surely that’s still a problem?

“Of course. And we try, in co-operation with our supporters, to prevent the abuses that we see in the stadium sometimes. It’s not an easy task, because it doesn’t depend only on us”. To a large extent, he points out reasonably, it’s a social problem: if hooligans were banned from football, they’d probably wreak havoc somewhere else. The law needs to be changed, too; Apoel are in favour of the ‘fan card’ mooted by the present government, the objections over data protection raised by other clubs being – he says – politically motivated (so much for football no longer being politicised). Drugs are a problem as well, insofar as hooligans often go to matches stoned out of their minds: “When we approach sometimes, trying to calm down kids who are out of line, you realise that they’re somewhere else. You try to talk to them, and they’re not there. You can’t communicate with that person at that moment”. They’ll even yell abuse at club officials, let alone cops and rival supporters.

How do the hooligans’ excesses make him feel personally?

“I feel insulted, because they’re part of my team. I don’t deny that. But I can’t control them.”

Don’t the clubs know who these people are, though?

He chuckles wryly, as though at an oft-told joke. “You’ll say to me, ‘Is it possible that you don’t know?’ – and I tell you that I don’t know.” Prodromos sits up in his chair for emphasis: “I tell you I don’t know!

The people that I do know, when I ask them who’s behind [the trouble], they never give names.”

Maybe so – though it’s also true that he’d hesitate to say so, if he had specific names. There’s a similar response when we get to the subject of match-fixing, a charge he finds rather dubious (Apoel itself hasn’t been named in any of referee Panayi’s allegations). “It’s never come to my attention,” he shrugs simply. “Even though I hear things too.”

Really? It feels like such rumours have been floating around forever.

“We hear it,” he repeats. “I hear it too, OK. But let them prove it.”

In short, and unsurprisingly, Prodromos Petrides is something of a cheerleader for Cyprus football. The practice of paying foreign players exorbitant wages so local teams can punch above their weight isn’t an expensive form of vanity, he claims, but merely a pan-European trend that has also raised standards among Cypriot players (the counter-argument – that locals now find it hard even to get first-team football – gets short shrift). He believes all our problems can be sorted out, and may even be overstated. Is he suggesting that football tends to be scapegoated, turned into a target for people with a hidden agenda? He nods with his customary vigour: “Exactly. Exactly.”

Like that recovering alcoholic, Prodromos’ eyes are firmly on the prize. 2006 was a bad year, he recalls; he put on a brave face, but inside he was going through “a lot of hurt … 2006 shook me, got me down – but then I started to get back on my feet”. His beloved Apoel has also had its share of ups and downs recently, not least financially: “The difficulties come when you’re successful,” he says with meaning – because that’s when the “intrigues” start, everyone trying to grab a share of the pie. There are things he prefers not to talk about, hints of squabbling and in-fighting; still, he rose above it. “In 2006 I said ‘I’m leaving now, when I’m on top, so I can return whenever I choose’,” he recalls. “And I didn’t leave tarnished or beleaguered – as most chairmen do, unfortunately”. He’s still standing, let’s put it that way.

EDEK chairman Yiannakis Omirou resigned on Tuesday, saying he had been undermined from inside the party.

Omirou said he refused to fuel what he observed in recent months in the form of whispers, personal strategies, and undermining.

Nor did he want to contribute to their continuation, he said in a letter to the party brass.

“In no way would I want my presence at the leadership of EDEK either to facilitate or perpetuate such a bad climate.”

Omirou said his decision was final.

“I am sorry to note that those who instigated this pitiful blackmail would have easily determined, through a cursory study of my history, that I can neither be blackmailed, nor do I compromise with humiliation for the sake of maintaining or securing positions or offices.”

His resignation followed a letter from the party’s organisational secretary, Yiannos Efstathiou in October, which described the situation in the party as problematic and suggested that Omirou was responsible.

As a way of tackling the problem, Efstathiou asked Omirou not to run as an MP for Nicosia in 2016, and not to contest the leadership of the party in the next congress.

Efstathiou asked for his proposals to be discussed by the party brass and threatened to resign if they were not, something he did on January 5.

Omirou said he had told Efstathiou that announcing his intention not to run for the party leadership would be damaging for EDEK as it would have a chairman with an expiry date.

Not running in Nicosia would also hurt the party as its chairman would appear to be confined.

Omirou said it would have been more honest for Efstathiou to ask for the chairman’s resignation directly.

“Unfortunately, the aim and the associated risks are obvious. (It is) the creation of a climate of introversion, at a critical period for Cyprus no less, which needs a strong and united EDEK with clear and common political language,” Omirou said.

The 63-year-old politician has been at the helm of EDEK since 2001. His resignation follows a crushing defeat at the Paphos mayoral by-election on Sunday where his party aligned with AKEL and DIKO.

There are also allegations implicating EDEK officials in a major corruption scandal.

The party also had internal problems during the 2013 presidential elections and the European Parliament elections last year.

EDEK holds five of the 56 seats in parliament where Omirou is president.

His resignation came as a surprise, at least for some.

Deputy chairman Marinos Sizopoulos said he found out of the resignation from the media.

“This is an additional difficulty for EDEK,” he said.

According to its charter, the party must hold elections to replace Omirou within 40 days.

The parliamentary group urge Omirou to withdraw his resignation and lead the party to an election congress.

Flanked by colleagues Roulla Mavronikola and Nicos Nicolaides, MP Giorgos Varnava told the media in parliament that the outgoing chairman’s announcement highlighted the many problems that plagued the party in recent times.

Varnava said the group understood how the chairman felt but at this critical juncture for EDEK, Omirou had a decisive role in the effort to reform the movement.

Due to frost and snowfall in the Troodos area, the Karvounas-Troodos, Prodromos-Troodos and Platres-Troodos roads are open only to vehicles with snow chains or four-wheel drive, police announced.
In Paphos visibility is restricted in the areas of Panayia and Statos villages due to dense fog.
The weather is expected to take a turn for the worse from Tuesday night throughout Wednesday especially in the west the met service said, with local rains and storms.
Temperatures until Thursday are expected to be around 12 to 13 degrees Celsius in the mainland and 14 degrees Celsius in coastal areas.
Snow or hail is expected to fall on Tuesday and Wednesday in the mountain areas where the temperature is expected to be around 3 degrees Celsius.
The weather is expected to improve from Thursday, the met service said, with temperatures rising gradually, while on Friday and Saturday rain will fall mainly in the mountain areas.

By Claire Milhench

Brent and U.S. WTI crude oil prices fell to their lowest levels in almost six years on Tuesday as a big OPEC producer stood by the group’s decision not to cut output to tackle a glut in the market.

Oil prices have fallen 60 percent from their June 2014 peaks, driven down by rising production, particularly U.S. shale oil, and weaker-than-expected demand in Europe and Asia.

A three-storey house in Limassol owned by a 39-year-old man was completely destroyed by fire early Tuesday. Police believe it was arson.
According to police reports, three fire trucks went to the scene to put out the blaze, which broke out around midnight.
The homeowner and his family are currently abroad.
Limassol CID is investigating the case.

Thirteen operators have expressed interest in Cyprus’ casino project, expected to cost some €500 million, MPs heard on Tuesday.

The government plans were presented to the House Finance and Commerce Committees who were told that a project of such a scale would need to attract an additional half to one million tourists a year.

Undersecretary to the president Constantinos Petrides emphasized the need for the government bill to remain relatively unchanged.

Petrides warned that certain provisions, “painstakingly and expertly” drafted, should not be altered substantially as this could put the whole project at risk.

“Our objective is not to legalise gambling; our objective is to change our tourist product significantly,” Petrides told MPs.

Energy, Trade, and Tourism Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis said the government was already engaged in talks with interested parties and approval of the bill by parliament would raise interest considerably since a legal basis would be put in place.

The government hopes to have the bill approved by the end of the month. A competition to find an investor should be announced three weeks later. The procedure is expected to last eight weeks.

The bill provides for a casino of international standards, and a hotel or hotels of international standards exceeding the requirements for a five-star establishment under existing laws with at least 500 luxury rooms, at least 100 gaming tables and at least 1,000 gaming machines.

The operator gets to choose which district the resort will be located in, an avoidance tactic by the government, which has been under pressure from all districts to award them the licence.

Deepak Kapur

A decade ago, few public health experts would have predicted that India would now be free of poliomyelitis, the crippling viral disease that has disabled millions and even killed many of our children over the years.

In March of this year, India – along with the rest of the World Health Organization’s (W.H.O.) South-East Asia Region – was declared polio-free, an incredible milestone for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. India, which had not recorded a new case of polio since January 2011, was the final piece of the puzzle to fall into place, leading to the certification of the entire region.

Once considered the country facing the most serious challenges to the eradication effort, India is justifiably proud of its accomplishment. Among the hurdles it faced were poverty, illiteracy, water pollution, poor sanitation, and a culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse population of more than 1.2 billion people, spread over 1.2 million square miles, from remote rural villages to teeming urban slums.

Eradicating polio in India required years of perseverance and commitment and sustained collaboration among a wide spectrum of stakeholders. Government leadership at every level received unwavering support from international agencies, such as W.H.O. and Unicef; non-governmental organizations and philanthropists, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; businesses and corporations; physicians and nurses; and millions of dedicated health workers and volunteers.

Rotary, an international humanitarian service organization that led the launch of the global polio campaign in 1988, has more than 130,000 members in India. It helps promote and carry out the massive National Immunization Days that continue to reach 172 million children at a time with the oral polio vaccine.

The Rotary Muslim Ulema Committee proved instrumental in convincing Muslim leaders of the benefits of vaccination, greatly reducing resistance among India’s Muslim population, which had been a large obstacle to the eradication of the disease.

But while we have beaten polio in India for now, we cannot become complacent, because a polio-free India is not a polio-free world. As Ebola has recently reminded us, infectious diseases in today’s shrinking and ever more mobile world are only a flight – or a bus ride – away from anywhere else. We must continue to immunize our children and maintain strong monitoring and surveillance efforts for signs of the polio virus.

We must also assign priority to other diseases that threaten our children. India is a leading producer and exporter of vaccines, yet it is home to one-third of the world’s unimmunized children. There are 27 million babies born in India each year – more than in any other country.

The polio eradication partners are now using their infrastructure, manpower, resources, and knowledge to support the Indian government’s Universal Immunization Programme (U.I.P.), which vaccinates for seven diseases, including tuberculosis, diphtheria, and Hepatitis B.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government announced that the injectable polio vaccine, as well as vaccines against rotavirus, rubella, and Japanese encephalitis, will soon be added to the U.I.P.

Thanks to the lessons learned and best practices developed during the polio campaign, we are well prepared and equipped to deliver these new life-saving vaccines to the children and adults most at risk.

Once polio is gone for good, we can shift the full weight of the polio campaign’s vigor and experience to address these other serious health threats. We will never run out of challenges, but our victory over polio in India teaches us that with sufficient planning, commitment, and resources, nothing is impossible.

Deepak Kapur chairs Rotary International’s National PolioPlus Committee for India. He was recently recognized as one of the Leading Global Thinkers of 2014 by Foreign Policy magazine.

This article first appeared in TheMarkNews

A 33-year old delivery driver suffered serious head injuries on Tuesday and was in critical condition, after his motorcycle collided with a car driven by a 32-year old, police said.

The 33-year old was driving along the Agias Filaxeos street in Limassol and was hit when the car entered from the Spiridonas Trikoupi street.

The delivery driver, who was not wearing a helmet, was rushed to the Limassol General Hospital, but due to the severity of his injuries was transferred to the Nicosia General Hospital at around 10.00pm.

Doctors said the man had suffered a subdural hematoma and his condition was described as “extremely critical.”

The car driver was tested for alcohol but the test was negative.

By Ingrid Melander

A French comedian was detained for questioning on Wednesday for writing on his Facebook account he felt “Charlie Coulibaly,” a word play combining the widespread “I am Charlie” vigil slogan and the name of one of the three gunmen.

More than 3.7 million people marched through the streets of France on Sunday, many of them holding “I am Charlie” signs to honour the memory of the Charlie Hebdo journalists, policemen and kosher shop clients killed by Islamist gunmen last week.

Prosecutors launched Monday an inquiry on potential charges of glorifying terrorism against Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, who has already faced accusations of anti-Semitism and has mocked the killing of US reporter James Foley by Islamic State militants.

Dieudonne won international attention last year after former France striker Nicolas Anelka celebrated an English Premier League goal with a salute popularised by him and which critics say has an anti-Semitic connotation.

Amedy Coulibaly, whose name inspired the joke, killed a policewoman and four clients of a kosher shop last week in Paris, two days after two gunmen shot 12 people at and near the offices of Charlie Hebdo.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said this week European officials should work more closely with Internet companies to eliminate hate speech and content glorifying terrorism.

Dieudonne, Paris-born son of a Cameroonian father and French mother, says he is not anti-Semitic. He has been repeatedly fined for hate speech in France where local authorities in several towns have banned his shows as a threat to public order.

His lawyer Jacques Verdier told BFM-TV that arresting him for the “Charlie Coulibaly” comment was “completely out of proportion.” If condemned for glorifying terrorism, Dieudonne could face up to seven years in jail and 5,000 euro ($5,868) in fine.

By Maria Gregoriou

January has certainly entered our lives with a heart-felt gust of wind and a sky filled with rain clouds, so it is the perfect time to see a play, and there are many to choose from.

As of today Déjà vu, based on the play Wit by American playwright and Pulitzer Prize winner Margaret Edson, will be staged. It is set around Zoe, a university professor of English who is dying of ovarian cancer.

Over the course of the play Zoe reflects on her life and her condition through the details of the English language, especially the use of wit in the metaphysical poetry of John Donne, and continuously recites Donne’s Holy Sonnet X, Death Be Not Proud.

Although Zoe has lived a love affair with language, she has lived her life alone, she is unmarried and has no children, her parents are deceased, and so she has no emergency contact.

In the end, when her life is hanging in the ballance, will she reach for another breath or give up?

Déjà vu
Performance of the play based on the theatrical play Wit by Margaret Edson. January 14-27. B Municipal Market (Theatro Ena) Limassol. 8.30pm. In Greek. Tel: 96-458399

By Mike Collett

In one of the most memorable moments in an absorbing match, West Ham United goalkeeper Adrian dramatically ripped off his gloves before scoring West Ham United’s winning penalty in their FA Cup tie against Everton.

The Spanish keeper had the fate of the third round replay in his hands before scoring against compatriot Joel Robles to give West Ham a 9-8 penalty shootout victory after a superb end-to-end thriller ended 2-2 after extra time late on Tuesday night.

Robles had failed to beat Adrian when he struck the bar with the preceding penalty, leaving the scores level at 8-8 before the West Ham keeper slotted home the 20th penalty of the night.

The Spaniard was so confident he was going to score, he took his gloves off as he prepared for his kick.

“I didn’t have any nerves,” he told reporters. “I thought ‘I’ll take off my gloves, this game is over’ and I struck the ball.
“It was an unbelievable game and I feel really happy. Joel made some unbelievable saves for Everton but we played well and deserved it in the end.
“I took my gloves off so quickly as I worried that the referee might blow his whistle and book me for time-wasting.
“I have celebrated my saves before, but never scoring a goal. It was my first goal in my career and it’s an amazing day.”

West Ham next play at League One (third tier) Bristol City in the fourth round after coming through what could be one of the last FA Cup matches played at the Boleyn Ground ahead of their move to the Olympic Stadium at the end of next season.

In an exhilarating match worthy of any swan song, West Ham went ahead when Enner Valencia beat Robles with an angled shot after 51 minutes.
Everton then had Aiden McGeady sent off for a second yellow card four minutes later but the 10 men equalised when Kevin Mirallas struck with a stunning free-kick after 82 minutes.

Romelu Lukaku put Everton 2-1 ahead in the seventh minute of extra time, before substitute Carlton Cole equalised with his first touch in the 113th minute.
The momentum then swung in West Ham’s favour in the shootout when Steven Naismith missed Everton’s second penalty but with the scores at 4-4, Robles saved
Stewart Downing’s potential match-winning spot kick.

The next four penalties were converted before Robles cracked his effort against the bar, allowing Adrian to throw down his gauntlets and win it for West Ham.

By Stelios Orphanides

Cypriot banks tightened their standards for company, housing and consumer loans in the July to September of 2014 and were expected to keep them unchanged in the fourth quarter, the Central Bank said.

In the euro area in general, banks relaxed their standards in the third quarter and were expected to further do so in the fourth quarter for the above categories of loans, the central bank said in a statement on its website today.

By Ingrid Melander and Emmanuel Jarry

The first edition of Charlie Hebdo published after last week’s deadly attack by Islamist gunmen sold out within minutes at newspaper kiosks around France on Wednesday, with readers queuing up for copies to support the satirical weekly.

It came as Al Qaeda in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it ordered the killings because it deemed the weekly had insulted the Prophet Mohammad. A total five million copies of so-called “the survivors’ edition” are to be printed, dwarfing the normal 60,000 print run.

“I’ve never bought it before, it’s not quite my political stripes, but it’s important for me to buy it today and support freedom of expression,” said David Sullo, standing at the end of a queue of two dozen people at a kiosk in central Paris.

“It’s important for me to buy it and show solidarity by doing so, and not only by marching,” said 42-year old Laurent in the same queue, adding he had no guarantee he would get a copy because he had not reserved one the day before.

A few streets away, by Jules Joffrin metro station in northern Paris, one newspaper seller said people were already waiting outside her shop when she opened at 6:00 am (0500 GMT). “I had 10 copies – they were sold immediately,” she said.

Two Islamist gunmen killed 12 people in an attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo on Jan. 7. A third gunman later killed a policewoman and seized a kosher supermarket, killing four civilians. All three attackers were killed in police raids.

In a video posted on YouTube, Al Qaeda in Yemen said its leadership had ordered last Wednesday’s attack.

“As for the blessed Battle of Paris, we, the Organisation of al Qaeda al Jihad in the Arabian Peninsula, claim responsibility for this operation as vengeance for the Messenger of God,” said Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, a leader of the Yemeni branch of al Qaeda (AQAP) in the recording.

Ansi, the main ideologue for AQAP, said without elaborating that the strike was carried out in “implementation” of the order of overall al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, who has called for strikes by Muslims in the West using any means they can find.

It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the recording, which carried the logo of the al Qaeda’s media group al-Malahem.

The front page of Charlie Hebdo’s Jan. 14 edition shows a cartoon of a tearful Mohammad with a sign reading “Je suis Charlie” (I am Charlie) below the headline: “Tout est pardonné” (All is forgiven).

“I wrote ‘all is forgiven’ and I cried,” Renald “Luz” Luzier, who created the image, told a news conference on Tuesday at the weekly’s temporary office at left-wing daily Liberation.

“This is our front page … it’s not the one the terrorists wanted us to draw,” he said. “I’m not worried at all … I trust people’s intelligence, the intelligence of humour.”

At least 3.7 million people marched through France on Sunday to honour the memory of the victims.

MARTYRS

Inside the edition, the weekly’s usual irreverent humour was on display. One cartoon shows jihadists saying: “We shouldn’t touch Charlie people … otherwise they will look like martyrs and, once in heaven, these bastards will steal our virgins.”

“What makes us laugh most is that the bells of Notre-Dame rang in our honour,” the newspaper, which emerged from the 1968 counter-culture movement and has long mocked all religions and pillars of the establishment, wrote in an editorial.

All proceeds from the sale of this week’s edition will go directly to Charlie Hebdo, in a windfall for a publication that had been struggling financially, after distributors decided to waive their cut. The cover price was three euros ($4). A call for donations has also been aired on national media.

In Charenton on the eastern edge of Paris, queues formed in the early morning darkness at the normally quiet newspaper stand near the metro, until people got closer to a notice by the door saying “Charlie Hebdo: none left”.

Digital versions will be posted in English, Spanish and Arabic, with print editions in Italian and Turkish.

While many French people enthusiastically supported the weekly’s decision to put another cartoon of Mohammad on its first cover after the attacks, there were some who objected or expressed concern that it would provoke more tension.

Dieudonne M’bala M’bala – a French comedian who has been convicted in the past for anti-Semitic comments – was detained for questioning on Wednesday for writing on his Facebook account “Je suis Charlie Coulibaly”, adding the surname of one of the gunmen to the ubiquitous “I am Charlie” vigil slogan.

Bordeaux mosque rector Tareq Oubrou urged French Muslims not to overreact.

“I don’t think the prophet of Islam needs stupid or excited reactions,” he told BFM-TV. “Freedom has its down sides and we must live with them.”

Egypt’s Grand Mufti on Tuesday warned the newspaper against publishing a new Mohammad caricature, saying it was a racist act that would incite hatred and upset Muslims around the world.

By Elias Hazou

Nicosia said on Wednesday it expects the UN Secretary General’s Special Adviser to give the UN Security Council an “objective” account as to why the Cyprus peace talks remain deadlocked.

“We are not asking the United Nations to present a picture in our favour,” government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said.

“We are asking for the facts to be presented as is: an objective briefing on what took place and why it has not been possible for the dialogue to resume,” he added.

Christodoulides was speaking to reporters shortly after a meeting between President Anastasiades and UN Secretary General Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide.

He was referring to Eide’s upcoming briefing to the Security Council, scheduled for January 26, in view of the renewal of UNFICYP’s mandate.

The Norwegian diplomat is here in an improbable bid to get stalled talks back on track.

The ball is now in the court of the Turkish side if negotiations are to resume, the spokesman said.

He said that Eide acknowledged President Anastasiades’ positive move in trying to get peace talks going.

It’s understood he was referring to last week’s overture by Anastasiades to the Turkish Cypriots, when the President stated the island’s hydrocarbons resources – the cause of the current impasse – could be discussed at the tail end of the talks process.

Previously Nicosia had ruled out discussing hydrocarbons prior to a comprehensive settlement.

During his meeting with the President, the UN official also reiterated Cyprus’ inalienable right to exploit its natural resources, the spokesman said.

For his part, Eide said Anastasiades had made a positive contribution, which however did not succeed in breaking the stalemate.

“This is something we can build on,” he noted, adding that the step should be recognised by the Turkish Cypriot side.

The UN official expressed concern that the talks process is stalled.

Eide, who was due to depart Cyprus later in the day, will be back on the island before his briefing to the Security Council.

A day earlier, the diplomat warned that the deadlock has started damaging the peace process.

Meanwhile Turkey’s foreign minister Melvut Cavusoglu on Wednesday accused Nicosia of deliberately excluding Turkish Cypriots from sharing in the island’s wealth.

In comments to Turkey’s Anadolu news agency, Cavusoglu proposed setting up an escrow account holding the share of natural gas revenues allotted to the Turkish Cypriots.

The account could be held in trust by either the UN or the World Bank, the chief Turkish diplomat said.

Once this was done, he added, negotiations in Cyprus could resume.

Greek Cypriots have “failed the sincerity test,” Cavusoglu noted, claiming that Nicosia is coming up with all sorts of excuses to avoid sharing the island’s natural resources.

“We proposed establishing a [joint hydrocarbons] commission, they [Greek Cypriots] said no, because that would amount to recognition [of the breakaway regime]. Then we proposed setting up a private company, again they rejected this. Then what else can be done?”

Turkey is not opposed to hydrocarbons prospecting in the eastern Mediterranean, provided that this was not unilateral, Cavusoglu added.

Cavusoglu was due in the north for talks with the Turkish Cypriot leadership later on Wednesday.

Anastasiades pulled out of peace talks in October, after Turkey issued a NAVTEX, or marine advisory. Turkey then began offshore seismic surveys within Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone – illegally according to Nicosia – by despatching the vessel Barbaros.

The advisory expired on December 30 and was not renewed by Turkey. On January 5 Anastasiades stated he would not resume talks unless Ankara guaranteed it would cease explorations in the EEZ.

The following day Turkey issued a new NAVTEX. Although the Barbaros remains in Cypriot waters, it has since not conducted any new surveys.

Turkey does not recogise the Republic nor its jurisdiction over the EEZ, and accuses Nicosia of “unilateral” hydrocarbons prospecting, leaving out the Turkish Cypriot community.

Chances for a resumption of talks anytime soon appear slim, as the Turkish NAVTEX runs until April and in the same month the breakaway regime will be holding ‘presidential elections.’

Communications and Works Minister Marios Demetriades departed today Wednesday for Ireland on an official visit.

The Minister will also visit London for meetings with executives of shipping companies.

According to an official press release, during his visit to Ireland Demetriades will meet with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Paschal Donohoe to discuss issues of mutual interest.

He will also visit the port of Dublin, where he will be briefed on the business model adopted by the port`s authorities. He will have a meeting with the Executive Manager of Aer Rianta International.

The Minister will return to Cyprus on January 18.

CNA

The European Central Bank and the Single Supervisory Mechanism have approved the appointment of Bert Pijls as the Chief Executive Officer of Hellenic Bank.

Pijls, who was appointed by Hellenic Bank’s Board of Directors for the CEO`s position on 7th November 2014, has been granted the supervisory authorities’ approval and as of today he officially assumes his duties. He is the first bank Chief Executive Officer to receive such verification and approval of the newly established SSM.

A Dutch national, Pijls has over 20 years banking experience at positions in the financial services sector of Citigroup and American Express in England, USA, Germany, the Czech Republic and Belgium.

He has served as Managing Director at Citigroup EMEA in London, deputising to the CEO with responsibility for re-engineering operations to improve expense-to-revenue ratios. Earlier roles at Citigroup include CEO at Egg and Managing Director of Consumer Banking in the UK, as well as Country Manager for Consumer and SME Banking in the Czech Republic.

He holds a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration from Nijenrode University, the Netherlands, and a Master’s in International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird), Phoenix, Arizona.

CNA

President Nicos Anastasiades on Wednesday denounced the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, and said Cypriot authorities were on alert and ready to avert any potential similar act on the island.
He was speaking to reporters after signing a book of condolences in memory of the victims of the murderous attack at the headquarters of the ‘Charlie Hebdo’ satirical magazine.
Asked to comment on media reports that intelligence agencies in certain European countries expect more terror attacks, Anastasiades said he has been briefed by authorities here that they are taking all steps to avert such an event.
The President declined to comment on remarks by the commander of the Cyprus Intelligence Service, who described the north’s breakaway regime as a “gateway” for jihadists travelling to Europe or headed to Iraq and Syria.
Anastasiades said he hoped the global reaction to the terrorist attacks in Paris would force extremists to think twice before engaging in any such further acts.
Signing the condolences book opened at the residence of the French Ambassador in Nicosia, Anastasiades wrote:
“The government of the Republic of Cyprus condemns in the strongest possible way the heinous and barbarous attacks in Paris which resulted in the death of 17 people.
“The global community, shocked by this atrocity, shall not allow the extremists to question our democratic values and curb free speech. On behalf of the people of Cyprus, I wish to express our sincere condolences, convey our support to the families of the victims, and to assure the French government and its people of our sincere solidarity.”

Companies from countries such as Russia, Luxembourg and Greece are showing increased interest in Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS), the head of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) Demetra Kalogirou said.

Kalogerou told the Cyprus News Agency that 14 companies have applied for an AIF licence, five of which have been approved.

UCITS seek private investors and collectively invest in transferable securities and / or in other liquid financial instruments and alternative investment funds (AIF), which make alternative investments including on real estate, ships and metals.

European legislation provides that such entities can manage funds of over €100 million, Kalogirou said.

These companies aim to manage AIFs which have already been, or will be established in other European countries or Cyprus, she added.

Kalogerou said in certain cases their purpose is to invest capital in sectors of the Cypriot economy, such as shipping but also in private companies operating on the island, which have good growth prospects.

CySEC has also received 12 applications for the establishment of private investment plans (ICIS).

Kalogerou said foreign interest in investing capital in sectors of the Cypriot economy has been rising.

Referring to a UCITS management company GMM which has already been licensed, she said that it has already issued three mutual funds, of which two are single schemes and one is an umbrella scheme with 14 sub-funds of various types. (CNA)