A 17-year-old on Monday pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder in the killing of British Cypriot Michael Antony Louis Mina in Larnaca in November last year.

The trial was adjourned until February 5. He will remain in custody until then.

The 17-year-old is on trial for stabbing Mina, 22, outside the victim’s apartment in the Makenzie area, in the early hours of November 16.

The two had argued over the fact that the teenager had been dating the victim’s ex girlfriend.

The 17-year-old said he had been acting in self defence. He claimed that Mina had arranged a meeting so they could settle their differences.

He alleged that the victim had also pulled a knife on him but it was never found.

Following his admission the defendant led police to the murder weapon, a 12-cm military knife.

Defence lawyer Yiannis Polihronis told reporters that a toxicology test conducted immediately after his client’s arrest, found traces of amphetamine, methamphetamine, cocaine, cannabis, and two powerful sedatives, in his bloodstream.

The case sparked criticism against the state for lacking the proper mechanisms to deal with delinquent teenagers.

The 17-year-old had been implicated in around 60 cases of car theft and had already spent two months in jail.

His family had pleaded with police and the courts to keep him in custody but he was released because of his age.

By Maria Greogiou

If you fancy a bit of a laugh on Thursday, then may we suggest you start your wind-down to the weekend at the Cyprus University, where the Goethe Institut will be organising a screening of the French comedy film Quai d’Orsay (The French Minister).

The 2013 comedy directed by Bertrand Tavernier and starring Thierry Lhermitte, Raphael Personnaz, and Niels Arestrup, was especially screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. Further to that, in January 2014 it received three nominations at the 39th Cesar Awards, with Arestrup winning the award for Best Supporting Actor.

The plot of the film centres on Arthur Vlaminck who has recently joined the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. His role within the ministry is to write the speeches for Alexandre Taillard de Worms, the Foreign Minister.

Taillard is a very busy politician who seems to find the time to look at the text the young Vlaminck has written and changes it as he sees fit, without giving any consideration to the original author.
Realising that the young counselor may need a bit of encouragement, his superior Claude Maupas decides to teach him how to cope with the temperamental minister. After that his career sets off on the fast track.

Quai d’Orsay
Screening of the 2013 French comedy. January 29. Cyprus University, Aglantzia Campus, Anastasios Leventis Building, Amphitheatre B108. 8pm. Free. With English subtitles. Tel: 22-674608

By Alix Norman

While the current generation will go down in history for twerking to raucous pop, and my generation discoed to synth anthems and raved to house, earlier generations were slightly more refined. My parents – if my mother is to be believed – spent a great deal of time twisting to, well, anything really, sometimes there didn’t even have to be music I’m told. But it was my grandparents who really set the dance floor on fire. Because, back then, in the 40s and 50s, the dance was the jive, and the music… well, the music was the powerful, hypnotic boogie woogie.

You’ve all heard of it, and heard it rolling out of a piano – this dominant and expressive style with its infectious, undulating eight-to-the-bar rhythms firmly rooted in the Blues. Having emerged in the southern states of America around the turn of the 20th century, it’s a style that ignores most of the rules of conventional piano playing and yet has been wonderfully influential on all types of music (and even art, Mondrian claiming his paintings were highly influenced by the qualities of boogie woogie), from classical to rock n roll. And while boogie woogie may have sunk – briefly – into near obscurity, it’s back with a vengeance. Due in no small part to the King of Boogie Woogie, the aptly-named Axel Zwingenberger, who will be delighting audiences at the Shoe Factory this coming week.

Born in Hamburg, Germany in 1955, pianist Axel Zwingenberger has been travelling the globe as the ‘ambassador of Boogie Woogie’ since the age of 19, combining the diverse musical styles of his idols – Boogie pioneers Pete Johnson, Meade ‘Lux’ Lewis and Albert Ammons of the 1930s and 1940s – with his own inimitable ideas to create a distinctive, world-renowned style. From the1970s (and the First International Blues and Boogie Woogie Festival of the West German Radio Station in Cologne in 1974, and the annual Stars of Boogie Woogie Festival in Vienna where it all began) his rise has through the musical spheres has been meteoric.

Recording contracts came early to this boogie woogie prodigy, his discography including a staggering 30 albums and innumerable solo recordings, such as Boogie Woogie Breakdown, Power House Boogie, and Boogie Woogie Live. But despite his solo talent, Axel is certainly no stand alone diva: he’s also well known for lending his musical genius to recordings by such artists as Lionel Hampton, Big Joe Turner, Lloyd Glenn, Mama Yancey, Sammy Price, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman and the Mojo Blues Band, among others.

In addition to his hectic recording schedule, Zwingenberger continues to tour all over the world, effectively attaching his personal mark to what is nowadays regarded as ‘classical Boogie Woogie’ defining, to a great degree, this particular style. Performing mostly as a piano soloist, he’s known for his enjoyment of playing un-amplified at a big concert grand piano, which enables him to demonstrate his outstanding musical prowess, tantalising audiences with everything from massive ostinato-bass clusters to lyrical pianissimo passages.

And, when he’s not performing, this master of the keys keeps himself busy authoring both books about boogie woogie music and musicians and publications documenting (through photography, story and music) his love of rail. Which may seem a strange departure from an otherwise all-consuming genre, but certainly adds an interesting dimension to his character. In fact, he’s even helped to establish a non-profit foundation within the

German Foundation for the Protection of Historical Monuments, which makes donations to the preservation of monuments on rails, including the world’s fastest operational steam locomotive, the German DR 18 201. Who’d have thought!

But, back to the music, because that’s what Thursday night is all about… It’s not often we get to hear such a dedicated and world-renowned master of such a genre live in Cyprus and, with his distinctive, widely copied style, it looks like the performance will certainly be a night to remember: his explorations and interpretations of authentic boogie woogie and blues piano bringing, no doubt, a delightful breath of musical difference to our capital. And with tickets for the evening priced at a mere €15, there’s no excuse for missing out on a musician whom critics have dubbed The Boogiemeister of the World.

An evening with Axel Zwingenberger
Presented by The Pharos Arts Foundation in collaboration with the Goethe institute. Thursday, January 29, 8.30pm at The Shoe Factory in Nicosia. Tickets: €15 or €10 for concessions and members of the Pharos Arts Foundation. Available from the Box Office on 96 669003 (Monday-Friday 10am – 3pm) and from the Foundation’s website www.pharosartsfoundation.org. For more details, visit the website or call 22 663871

A 43-year-old man shot and injured his ex wife and is threatening to commit suicide, police said on Monday.

The man, who owns a pub in the Dhekelia area, has locked himself in the establishment and is refusing to co-operate with police.

The incident happened at 10am after the ex wife, a Moldavian national, visited the man at his pub to discuss financial matters.

At some point, police said, he shot and injured her in the shoulder with a hunting shotgun.

She reported the incident to police but the man refused to co-operate with officers and is threatening to shoot himself.

Police negotiators were on the way.

A 34-YEAR-OLD man was arrested on Sunday by Paphos police, in connection with the theft of €27,000 worth of bakery equipment committed on January 24.

According to the police report, investigators found the equipment at the suspect’s home. The 37-year-old owner of the bakery identified the equipment as his own.

Police also found three airguns with their serial number scratched off. Police linked one of the airguns to a warehouse burglary committed earlier this month.

According to the report, the suspect admitted to both stealing the bakery equipment and breaking into the warehouse.

By Preston Wilder

It’s a strange quirk of film history that biopics are proliferating just as they’re becoming unnecessary. Three of the eight nominees for the Best Picture Oscar are based on the life of a famous person – there’s The Stephen Hawking Story, The Alan Turing Story (this one) and The Martin Luther King Story – yet we don’t need films to tell these stories anymore; we can go to Wikipedia and read about them in a matter of minutes. You’d think the Golden Age of biopics would’ve been the time when you had to go to a library or lug heavy volumes of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica to find out the details of famous lives – yet in fact, with a few exceptions, Hollywood’s never been as enamoured of true stories as it is now.

Then again, ‘true stories’ should come in quotation marks where a lot of these biopics are concerned – and that’s definitely true of The Imitation Game, with Benedict Cumberbatch in a one-note performance as the British scientist, cryptographer and borderline-autistic maths genius. Most of it is set during WW2 when Turing and a team of enthusiastic amateurs cracked the Nazis’ ‘Enigma’ code, long considered unbreakable – the remainder being set in the early 50s when Turing was arrested and charged with “indecency”, i.e. being homosexual. The film draws a link between wartime secrets and personal secrets, as well as between Turing’s beloved machines (a.k.a. computers) and his own machine-like personality. It’s intriguing, at least in theory; trouble is, I didn’t believe a word of it.

Did a public-school headmaster in 1928 really inform a boy of his best friend’s death, then add that the friend had been sick but “he had a stiff upper lip about it. Good lad!”. Did Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley) answer Turing’s call for crossword-puzzle buffs in 1941 only to be patronised by Ministry officials – “Did you really solve this puzzle yourself?” – and told to report to the secretarial pool, just because she was a woman? I wasn’t there, but I doubt it. Headmasters had experience in breaking bad news to sensitive boys, and millions of women were taking part in the war effort, not just as secretaries. This kind of detail is symptomatic of a script that simplifies the past, the better to pump up the present.

That’s why Turing’s such a great subject for a mainstream biopic, because he makes a modern audience feel good about itself. People in the 40s and 50s didn’t understand computers, but we know them intimately. People in the 40s and 50s discriminated against gays and women, but we’re more tolerant. Fair enough, of course – and fair enough that the film celebrates Difference as a kind of handmaiden to Genius; but did it have to be so crass about it? “They beat you up because you’re different,” a schoolboy crush informs bullied young Alan. “You like strawberries. I hate ice-skating,” muses our hero later, pushing home the point – though admittedly making another point too, that machine intelligence is just another form of ‘difference’. Will we ever reach a point where machines (robots, for instance) start demanding rights and complaining of discrimination, like any other minority? That’s a film I’d pay to see.

Meanwhile, there’s this film – bland, Oscar-friendly and rife with small annoyances. Keira Knightley, oozing Girl Power, doesn’t convince for a moment as a nerdy misfit dominated by strict parents (why does she keep being cast in period dramas?). The ironies, e.g. that socially awkward Turing is an expert at codes but doesn’t know the ‘codes’ between people, are stated with sledgehammer subtlety. Our hero winning over his colleagues but also learning the Importance of Teamwork veers into cliché. And of course, given the general phoniness, one hesitates to believe the important stuff, e.g. that breaking ‘Enigma’ won a war that might’ve been lost. Stalingrad, D-Day, the Ardennes – none would’ve been possible without our intelligence, claims our hero in voice-over (sounding a tad insulting to the soldiers who actually fought the war); yet the final caption admits that the work of Turing and Co. may have shortened the war by a couple of years, not won it outright.

Quibbling? Probably – but The Imitation Game is so full of hot air, one longs to puncture it somehow. And of course it blatantly milks the gay angle, making Turing a martyr to the cause (another of the many final captions mentions the thousands of homosexuals prosecuted in the UK till 1967), when in fact his sexuality is never more than a discreet sub-plot in the film itself. He’s still a martyr, though – above all to Science, our new 21^st-century religion. “You will never understand the importance of what I’m creating here!” rants Turing to an unsympathetic army officer, but we understand all too well. We still have “Turing machines”, notes yet another final caption: only we call them computers. Yes, and you can use them to research Alan Turing – more accurately, and perhaps more enjoyably – in a fraction of the time it takes to watch this biopic.

DIRECTED BY Morten Tyldum

STARRING Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode

UK/US 2014         114 mins

The government is hopeful that oil major Total will maintain its presence in Cyprus, President Nicos Anastasiades said on Monday.

Asked whether the government is optimistic on the chances of the multinational continuing its operations, Anastasiades said: “Yes, we are optimistic.”

Anastasiades was speaking to reporters following a meeting with party leaders at the presidential palace, where energy – and particularly the government’s intentions towards the French oil giant – was discussed.

Government spokesman said later that the dialogue with Total is ongoing, and that both the government and the company had the “will” to maintain their collaboration.

Attorney-general Costas Clerides, who also took part in the meeting, told the media that it was legally possible to amend Total’s contract in such a way as to induce the company not to terminate their operations here.

“There are legal ways [to do this], it is now a political decision,” he said.

Last week the government revealed that Total had found no potential drilling targets in their offshore concessions and that they were therefore considering pulling out.

It’s understood that under Total’s agreement with the government, the company must drill at least two exploratory wells or else pay a penalty.

By Stelios Orphanides

Seven Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in intensified clashes with pro-Russian rebels in the eastern conflict zone in the past 24 hours, the Kiev military said on Monday, reporting fierce fighting at the strategic small town of Debaltseve.

Violence in eastern Ukraine is at its worst level since a ceasefire was agreed last September and casualties have mounted, including in the port city of Mariupol where Kiev says 30 civilians were killed in rebel shelling on Saturday.

After months of skirmishes on the frontline, rebels say they were left with no choice but to launch an advance to push back government forces and prevent them from shelling cities under rebel control.

The Kiev government sees the rebel advance as a repudiation of the five-month-old ceasefire, restarting an all-out war in which 5,000 people have been killed. NATO says the advance is being carried out with the assistance of Russian troops on the ground, which Moscow denies.

“Rebels are constantly attacking Ukrainian government positions across the conflict zone with artillery, mortars, grenade launchers, tanks,” spokesman Volodymyr Polyovy said at a televised briefing.

A further 24 soldiers were wounded in the past day, he said.

The pro-Russian rebels have vowed to encircle Debaltseve, a town with a population of around 26,000 that straddles the main road and train line between the two principle rebel strongholds, Donetsk and Luhansk.

Government troops are holding their positions in the town in the face of intensified attack, Polyovy said.

The military has reported civilian casualties at Debaltseve without giving any figures. Shelling has cut off the town’s electricity and gas supplies and knocked out phone lines.

Polyovy also said Russia, which Ukraine and the West accuse of supporting the separatists, was beefing up its air force in Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Moscow from Kiev last March.

“Russia is increasing the fighting capacity of its air force on the territory of occupied Crimea,” he said.

By Stelios Orphanides

The economy is projected to have shrank 2.2 per cent in 2014 and shrink a further 0.4 per cent this year while downside risks may further delay economic recovery, the University of Cyprus said.

The finance ministry forecast a 0.4 per cent growth for 2015 in October while two months later, the Central Bank of Cyprus said the economy will expand this year twice as fast.

Cyprus Airways’ creditors will convene a general assembly meeting on Friday in order to approve an extraordinary resolution of voluntary liquidation.
The President of SYNYKA SEK Trade Union Vangelis Mappourides told CNA that Cyprus Airways staff would attend the meeting but they were not planning to protest.

“We will assess the situation today and tomorrow and we will see how to proceed,” he said, adding that they were expecting a response from the government as regards their future.

The state-owned airline entered voluntary liquidation on January 9, after the EU Commission ruled that it should return €103 million in state aid it had received since 2012, breaching EU rules.

A press release issued from the airline on Tuesday said the meeting would consider an extraordinary resolution for the voluntary winding up of the company which may be passed by the shareholders, the nomination of a liquidator for the purpose of the winding up of the affairs and the distribution of the assets of the company. (CNA)

The department of labour inspection on Tuesday issued a warning over high levels of dust in the atmosphere.

At 10am on Tuesday the average dust level rate was between 94 and 213 microgrammes per cubic metre, which means that the daily rate will exceed the average rate of 50mg/cu.m.

The department urged vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly and ill people to avoid going outside until the phenomenon dissipates. It also advises people working in the open air to take the necessary precautions.

Meanwhile, rain is expected in the coming days but not on the scale of last month’s downpours, which caused serious flooding. Temperatures will be on normal levels.

The rain is expected to fall mainly along the coast on Wednesday and Thursday.
On Friday and early Saturday isolated rains and storms are expected.

Temperatures are to fall by two degrees Celsius on Wednesday and will remain the same throughout the week.
Temperatures will be around 15 to 16 degrees Celsius in Nicosia, 17 to 18 in the coastal areas and around to 6 in mountain areas.

By Ulf Laessing

Gunmen attacked a hotel in Tripoli on Tuesday where government representatives and foreign delegations often stay, killing three security guards and probably taking hostages, officials said.

The gunmen first detonated a car bomb outside the Corinthia Hotel, killing the three guards. At least three of the attackers then stormed the luxury hotel, fighting with security forces who tried to evacuate guests.

“The security forces are evacuating the guests floor by floor. There was shooting between the gunmen and the security forces,” Essam Naas, a spokesman for Tripoli security forces, told Reuters.

“It is more than likely that there are hostages held by the gunmen on the 23rd floor.”

One gunman has been arrested, Naas said, adding that security forces were surrounding the seaside hotel. Two Filipino women were wounded by smashed window glass.

Tripoli-based al-Nabaa television channel said “senior officials” were inside the hotel but no further details were immediately available.

Libya is caught up in a conflict involving two rival governments – an internationally recognised one based in eastern Libya and a rival administration set up in Tripoli after an armed faction called Libya Dawn took over the capital.

Most foreign governments closed their embassies and pulled their staff out of Tripoli after fighting between the rival factions erupted last summer.

It was not immediately clear who carried out Tuesday’s attack, but the SITE monitoring service said a militant group claiming affiliation with Islamic State had claimed responsibility.

Citing social media, SITE said the group claimed the attack was revenge for the death of Abu Anas al-Liby, the suspected al Qaeda figure alleged to have helped plan the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. He died in hospital this month in New York ahead of his scheduled trial.

By Tetsushi Kajimoto

Japan has vowed to work with Jordan to secure the release of a Japanese journalist held by Islamic State militants after the killing last week of another Japanese captive, but it reiterated that it would not give in to terrorism.

The hostage crisis has become a test for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who took power in 2012 pledging to bolster Japan’s global security role.

Abe on Sunday condemned the killing of Japanese citizen Haruna Yukawa as “outrageous” and called for the release of veteran correspondent Kenji Goto, captured by Islamic State militants in Syria.

“We would like to work together with the Jordanian government to secure the release of Goto,” Yasuhide Nakayama, state minister for foreign affairs, told reporters in Jordan late on Monday.

Nakayama was sent to Jordan last week to deal with the crisis.

The militants have dropped a ransom demand. They now say they will free Goto in exchange for the release of Sajida al-Rishawi, a convicted Iraqi suicide-bomber, from prison in Jordan.

The militants captured a Jordanian pilot after his plane crashed during US-led coalition bombing in eastern Syria in December and Nakayama said he hoped Japan and Jordan could work together for his release too.

“The release of this pilot as soon a possible is also an issue for us Japanese,” Nakayama said.

“Both our nations have to work together to ensure that both the pilot and the Japanese hostage return to their respective homes with smiles on their faces.”

Media has reported that the militants were demanding the release of another death-row convict, raising speculation about multiple swaps involving Goto and the Jordanian pilot.

Jordan’s King Abdullah was quoted as telling a Jordanian newspaper that the case of the pilot, First Lieutenant Muath al Kasaesbeh, “tops the country’s priority”.

Abe told parliament Japan would do its utmost to save Goto.

“The horrible act of terrorism by ISIL is outrageous and we resolutely condemn it,” Abe said, referring to the militants.

“The situation is extremely severe but we’ll do the utmost to have Kenji Goto released as soon as possible … We won’t give in to terrorism.”

Two members of Jordan’s parliament told Kyodo news agency on Monday that Jordan may be willing to release al-Rishawi in exchange for Goto and Kasaesbeh.

A group of Arab ambassadors in Tokyo, including envoys from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria condemned Yukawa’s murder and demanded Goto’s release saying Japan had stood on “countless occasions beside Islamic and Arab countries”.

By Constantinos Psillides

Police are close to resolving the stand-off at a pub in Oroklini, Larnaca, a police source told the Cyprus Mail on Tuesday afternoon.

According to the source, the 43-year-old who locked himself in his pub and threatened to kill himself on Monday would soon surrender himself to authorities.

The 43-year-old appears to have been convinced by his lawyer.

The man has been threatening to take his life after his ex-wife filed a complaint with local police that he had shot her.

Police negotiators stayed outside the pub all night to convince the man to come out but without success.

The 43-year-old spent most of the night inebriated.

Around 10 am on Monday a 41-year-old Moldovan woman and some friends visited the 43-year-old at his pub in the Dhekelia-Oroklini road, in order to discuss child support.

But at some point her former husband lost his temper and fired his shotgun twice in the air. Two pellets hit her shoulder and one hit her abdomen.

The injured woman went to the Oroklini police station to report the incident, while the 43-year-old locked himself in the pub.

When Larnaca police arrived at the scene, the man refused to cooperate and threatened to take his own life.

Police cordoned off the scene to protect restaurants near the pub, and ordered the evacuation of some nearby buildings.

The labour inspection department on Tuesday warned the public of the dangers of spray products used during carnival.

It said products marked ‘inflammable’ should not be put on sale and the public should not buy them if they come across them. Such items include spray foams, flakes, cobwebs and glitter that carry the word ‘inflammable’ or depict a flame symbol on the label.

“These products should be available only to professional users and their packaging must be marked visibly, legibly and indelibly ‘FOR PROFESSIONAL USE ONLY’,” the department said.

Consumers are urged to study the packaging on all such products and if they have any doubts about safety should contact the department at Tel: 22405637, 22405611 and 22405609.

A column, believed to be part of a pre-Christian church, built in the area where the church of Ayia Thekla stands in Sotira village, in the Famagusta district, was brought to light by a bulldozer digging a ditch during restoration work at the church.

Father Georgios Ioannou said that as soon as the column was uncovered, the officer responsible for the excavations at the Antiquities Department was notified.
He said the Antiquities Department assured them it would begin excavations around the church.(CNA)

By Stelios Orphanides

Total fuel sales fell 3.8 per cent in 2014 to 1.3 million tonnes compared to 2013 mainly on a slump in the diesel sales, the statistical service said.

Sales of low sulphur diesel fell 3.8 per cent last year to 249,801 tonnes compared to the year before, while respective sales of gasoil fell 9.9 per cent to 77,308 tonnes, Cystat said in a statement on its website today. Sales of unleaded petrol 95 RON and 98 RON fell 2.1 per cent and 7.7 per cent to 322,709 tonnes and 18,057 tonnes respectively.

By Fatos Bytyci

Riot police and protesters fought running battles in the Kosovo capital Pristina on Tuesday as anti-government protests erupted into the worst unrest since the former Serbian province seceded in 2008.

A Reuters reporter saw masked police officers firing tear gas and water cannon, trying to disperse about 2,000 protesters who had taken to the streets in rallies organised by opposition political parties.

Ambulances attended to dozens of injured people as police pursued protesters into side streets around central Pristina.

It was the second bout of unrest since Saturday, set off by popular anger over a government climbdown over the fate of a huge mining complex claimed by Serbia.

The protesters are also clamouring for the dismissal of an ethnic Serb minister in the mainly Kosovo Albanian government after he branded as “savages” a group of Albanians who lost relatives in Kosovo’s 1998-99 war and had protested against ethnic Serb pilgrims marking Orthodox Christmas in January.

Kosovo broke away from Serbia in 1999 with the help of NATO air strikes to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians by Serbian forces waging a counter-insurgency war.

The territory of 1.8 million people, 90 per cent of them ethnic Albanians, declared independence in 2008 and has been recognised by more than 100 countries.

By Maria Gregoriou

We might be in the twenty-first century but the tales of princesses and princes on white horses (referring to the movie Cinderella set to grace our movie screens in March of this year), of wicked witches and wolves (does the recently released block-buster Into the Woods ring a bell?) are still very much what we place our fantasy worlds around.

Apart from Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood, there is Sleeping Beauty and this fairytale is the one we will set our sights on.

The story will be brought to life on screen by the professional dancers at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The famous ballet by Russian composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, has been abridged for children.

So get ready to enter the world of fairytale and visit the world of wonder and magic made famous by the Brothers Grimm.

Witness the scene at the palace during the christening of the princess, a child the king and queen have wanted for so long. Seven fairies have been invited to share in the celebrations and golden boxes containing jeweled utensils are placed before them. While they are all seated, an eighth fairy (or the wicked witch Carabosse in the ballet) shows up but has no golden box because she was in a tower for many years, a detail that the king and queen did not know, and so they presumed she was dead.

When the other fairies give the princess gifts of beauty, wit, grace, dance, song and music, the eighth fairy gives the young infant a very different kind of gift. Because she has been overlooked, she is very angry, and decides to get her revenge by casting a spell on the princess, saying that the princess will prick her finger on a spindle and die.

One fairy has a gift left to give, and tries to attempt to reverse the spell, but the curse is so evil that she can only alter it. Instead of pricking her finger and dying, the princess will sleep for 100 years and only be awakened by a kiss from a prince.

You see where this is going. The king forbids any sort of spinning throughout the kingdom, the princess grows-up and one day she wanders through the palace rooms and comes across an old woman spinning her spindle. As the princess has never seen such a thing before, she is curious to try it and, yes, she pricks her finger and falls into a deep sleep.

Now after the curse is over, and the princess awakens she will find herself all alone (100 years is a long time for anyone to survive) and be very distressed. To prevent this from happening a fairy goes to extreme measures and puts the whole kingdom to sleep. Skip forward 100 years, a prince just happens along, sees the princess, falls in love with her beauty, kisses her and breaks the spell.

The ballet can be watched by children over five-years-old and anyone who enjoys a good story, in Paphos on Friday, in Nicosia on Saturday morning and in Larnaca on Saturday afternoon and lastly on Sunday morning and afternoon in Limassol.

The Sleeping Beauty
Screening of an abridged children’s version of the ballet performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. January 30. Markideo Theatre, Paphos. 6pm. €12. Tel: 96-302770

January 31. Satiriko Theatre, Vladimiros Kafkarides Cultural Centre, 11-15 Vladimiros Kafkarides Street, Aglantzia, Nicosia. 11am.

January 31. Skala Theatre, 15 Kyriakou Matsi Street, Larnaca. 5pm.

February 1. Cultural Events Hall Pano Polemidia, Pano Polemidia, Limassol. 11am and 5pm.