By Jean Christou

The fire services said on Tuesday that in the past few days they had been called to 20 fires islandwide related to the Easter bonfire craze.

Groups of youths have been setting small fires to keep themselves warm at night as they guard the materials they have gathered for the Easter bonfire or ‘lampratzia’, a tradition during which an effigy of Judas Iscariot is burned on the eve of Easter Sunday.

On top of that, factions of youngsters try to set fire to each other’s lampratzia ahead of Easter in a fierce competition over who will have the biggest bonfire on Holy Saturday.

In recent years this has prompted many to stand guard over their unlit lampratzias for weeks before Easter, creating noise, lighting small fires, and disturbing residents in some areas on a nightly basis.

“In the past few days, there was a spate of fires related to lampratzia,” said the fire service. One of the fires was lit in a Nicosia schoolyard.

“This phenomenon has begun to take on wider dimensions and is becoming more worrying especially as the Easter holidays approach,” the statement added.

The fire services “in an effort to prevent such incidents that endanger the safety the public and their property” called on municipalities and churches to contribute to finding a safe way to allow the Easter tradition to continue while preventing lawbreaking, which includes cutting down trees, stealing wood and furniture and setting other fires – which is illegal – in the run up to Easter.

The services recommend that authorities supply wood for controlled and legal bonfires, which should be located in a suitable place at least 30 metres from any combustible material and away from electricity poles with overhead wires, and to designate a responsible adult to light the bonfire. Also, children should not be allowed to approach the flames, the fire services said.

A meeting has been held between all stakeholders to discuss how to handle this year’s situation, in which the fire services took part along with police, school committees and local authorities, and to figure out how the fires could be limited Holy Saturday.

Larnaca police chief Philippos Vrontis, who was at the meeting, told the Cyprus News Agency the idea was to be more proactive this year and to make sure the fires were limited to their designated spots.

“Lampratzia are banned in all school yards,” he said but conceded that education officials were not optimistic that students would comply with the ban, though there have been awareness talks given at schools on the dangers of lighting fires and on firecrackers, another Easter scourge that last week cost two youths to lose parts of their hands.

Vrontis said there would be increased patrols and police would remove wood and other items from places where it might be dangerous to light a bonfire.

“Police are not aiming to prohibit the custom of lampratzia, the objective of all the relevant bodies is to observe the custom but safely, provided that youngsters will follow our guidelines, primarily for their own safety and the safety of others.”

Parliament will vote on a law on party financing reform before the summer recess, acting chairman of the House watchdog committee Demetris Syllouris said on Tuesday.

The government has prepared a bill amending the current law, and the Auditor-general has made additions to it, which first need to be vetted by the Attorney-general’s office.

At the same time, the parties have drafted a number of legislative proposals of their own.

Syllouris said that MPs would like to compare and contrast the government’s bill with the parties’ items so that a final piece of legislation can emerge.

Political parties have long paid lip service to taking on board the recommendations of GRECO, the Council of Europe anti-Corruption Group.

In the wake of media revelations that Cypriot political parties had received sizeable donations from Focus Maritime Corporation, a company owned by Greek shipowner Michalis Zolotas, politicians had pledged to reform party financing right after the European Parliament elections of 2014.

But the issue has been repeatedly postponed.

Perhaps ironically, one of the legislative proposals on reforming party financing is authored by EDEK MP Fidias Sarikas, who has been implicated in the Paphos Sewerage Board (SAPA) scandal.

Sarikas, whose parliamentary immunity was recently lifted by the Supreme Court, has denied any wrongdoing.

It is alleged that Sarikas, while mayor of Paphos, took kickbacks from a representative of a German company which had won the contract to build a sewerage treatment plant.

The Water Development Department (WDD) is paying €50 million in rent for a building that costs €13.8 million with the land, the House Watchdog Committee heard on Tuesday.

The amount, the total for a 50-year contract valid from 2008 to 2058, was described as scandalous by the committee, the Auditor General Odysseas Michaelides and Agriculture Minister Nicos Kouyialis, according to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA).

“This is a very strong contract and I have my doubts as to how much we can actually break it,” Kouyialis said adding that there seemed to be many people involved in the decision making process.
Results of an investigation were reportedly sent to the Attorney General in the hope that the legal services could shed some light on who was responsible.

“They were different times, the state was wealthier, the state could buy, sell, rent and do whatever it wanted. Unfortunately all of these things are revealed today but they are old sins that do not apply to the government in power at the time,” Koyialis said.

The contract stipulates rent for the first five years was €600,000 and would increase by €300,000 for the first five years, then by €600,000 and finally €1.1 million for the last five years.

The Committee also discussed the Cyprus Grain Commission, which according to Koyialis, may be the new Cyprus Airways scandal.

“The state and I need to make decisions as soon as possible because this will be another Cyprus Airways situation, the organisation will run out of liquidity and will not be able to even buy one kilo of corn,” Koyialis said.

He added that the commission needed a restructure as it had 66 staff doing the work four employees in the private sector could be doing but this was not the fault of the staff.

By Nikolaos Prakas

Cyprus will turn off the lights on Saturday at 8.30pm in observation of Earth Hour, a global effort to curb the negative effects of human activity.

An event will be held on Saturday morning at the end of Ledra Street to kick off the countdown to Earth Hour, where many different officials will speak on the subject of climate change.

The speakers will include the heads of the Green Party, the Office of the Environment, the Volunteerism Commission, the Municipality of Nicosia and the Young Greens. The event will symbolically include the “last” snowman of Cyprus and bears that are endangered because of climate change. The NGO Anakyklos will host a session on recycling and teach visitors how to make a snowman out of recycled materials.

On Tuesday the Commissioner for the Environment Ioanna Panayiotou said people should turn off their lights to send the message that the world needs to protect the planet and world leaders should take serious action on this point.

The Federation of Environmental Organisations of Cyprus, which is a group of 20 different environmental groups, reiterated the importance of turning off the lights during Earth Hour, adding that climate change is probably the biggest environmental, economic and societal crisis in history.

The Environment Department director Costas Hatjipanayiotou said gas emissions are the largest contributor to climate change. He added that Cyprus hopes to raise it renewable energy sources to 27 per cent, and that by 2030 the island will have reduced its emissions by 20 to 25 per cent in the trade, agriculture and waste sectors.

Earth Hour was started in Sydney, Australia in 2007 and has since grown to include 162 countries all over the world. People wishing to participate in the events on 28 March can ride the bus in Nicosia for half price (75 cents) in an effort to promote the use of public transport.

By Maria Gregoriou

Spring is here and, even though the weather over the weekend does not really support what we consider spring, all those beautiful pink flowers blooming on almond trees make it clear that Persephone (goddess of fertility – who reigns over the underworld for most of the year and only comes back to earth to allow the ground to be fertile and bring about the harvest) is very much present.

Without Persephone and her ability to allow vegetation to grow, we wouldn’t have the opportunity to view the photography exhibition The International Garden Photographer of the Year, which will be on show as of Friday at 6X6 Centre for Photography in Limassol.

The exhibition, which is the world premier showing, will feature many of the winners and finalists of the 2014 worldwide photography competition and includes breathtaking scenes from all over the world.
The photographs are a celebration of the art of taking photos, while also allowing for the promotion of environmental responsibility and showcasing many images of plants and flowers that are under increasing threat from human activities and a changing environment.

The competition categories on show will be Beautiful Gardens, Wildlife in the Garden, Monochrome, Macro Art, and The Beauty of Plants.
Before the opening of the competition, the founder of the competition for garden, plant and flower photographs, Philip Smith said, “we are delighted to be bringing this wonderful exhibition to Cyprus for the first time. We hope it will inspire all visitors and local photographers to explore the creative possibilities of our green planet.”

As part of the exhibition, the competition’s CEO and British photographer Tyrone McGlinchey will deliver a practical full-day photography workshop entitled Creative Photography in the Garden on Saturday. The workshop will provide a hands-on opportunity on plant photography.

Register at info@cyprus6x6.com or call 25 354810 for more information.

International Garden Photographer of the Year Exhibition
Group photography exhibition. Opens March 27, 7pm until April 21. 6X6 Centre for Photography. 19 Ipeirou Street, Limassol 3040. Monday – Friday: 9am-6pm. Saturday: 10am-1pm. Tel: 25-354810. Email: info@cyprus6x6.com

By Jean-Francois Rosnoblet

An Airbus operated by Lufthansa’s Germanwings budget airline crashed in a remote area of the French Alps on Tuesday, killing all 150 people on board including 16 schoolchildren.

Germanwings confirmed its flight 4U 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf went down with 144 passengers and six crew on board.

One of the plane’s black box recorders has been found and will be examined immediately, France’s interior minister said. In Washington, the White House said the crash did not appear to have been caused by a terrorist attack.

The airline believed there were 67 Germans on the flight. Spain’s deputy prime minister said 45 passengers had Spanish names. One Belgian was aboard.

Also among the victims were 16 children and two teachers from the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium high school in the town of Haltern am See in northwest Germany, a spokeswoman said.

Investigators described a scene of devastation where the airliner crashed. Aerial photographs showed smouldering wreckage and a piece of the fuselage with six windows.

“We saw an aircraft that had literally been ripped apart, the bodies are in a state of destruction, there is not one intact piece of wing or fuselage,” Bruce Robin, prosecutor for the city of Marseille, told Reuters in Seyne-les-Alpes after flying over the crash zone in a helicopter.

French police at the crash site said no one survived and it would take days to recover the bodies due to difficult terrain, snow and incoming storms.

Police said search teams would stay overnight at altitude.

“We are still searching. It’s unlikely any bodies will be airlifted until Wednesday,” regional police chief David Galtier told Reuters.

In Paris, Prime Minister Manuel Valls told parliament: “A helicopter managed to land (by the crash site) and has confirmed that unfortunately there were no survivors.”

It was the first crash of a large passenger jet on French soil since the Concorde disaster just outside Paris nearly 15 years ago. The A320 is a workhorse of worldwide aviation fleets. They are the world’s most used passenger jets and have a good though not unblemished safety record.

Germanwings said the plane started descending one minute after reaching its cruising height and continued losing altitude for eight minutes.

“The aircraft’s contact with French radar, French air traffic controllers, ended at 10.53am at an altitude of about 6,000 feet. The plane then crashed,” Germanwings’ Managing Director Thomas Winkelmann told a news conference.

Winkelmann also said that routine maintenance of the aircraft was performed by Lufthansa on Monday.
Experts said that while the Airbus had descended rapidly, its rate of descent did not suggest it had simply fallen out of the sky.

France’s DGAC aviation authority said air traffic controllers initiated distress procedures after they lost contact with the Airbus, which did not issue a distress call.

“The aircraft did not itself make a distress call but it was the combination of the loss of radio contact and the aircraft’s descent which led the controller to implement the distress phase,” a DGAC spokesman said.

The aircraft came down in an alpine region known for skiing, hiking and rafting, but which is hard for rescue services to reach.

The search and recovery effort based itself in a gymnasium in the village of Seyne-les-Alpes, which has a small private aerodrome nearby.

Transport Minister Alain Vidalies told local media: “This is a zone covered in snow, inaccessible to vehicles but which helicopters will be able to fly over.”

But as helicopters and emergency vehicles assembled, the weather was reported to be closing in.

“There will be a lot of cloud cover this afternoon, with local storms, snow above 1,800 metres and relatively low clouds. That will not help the helicopters in their work,” an official from the local weather centre told Reuters.

Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr, who planned to go to the crash site, spoke of a “dark day for Lufthansa”.

“My deepest sympathy goes to the families and friends of our passengers and crew,” Lufthansa said on Twitter, citing Spohr.

The airliner crashed about 100km north of the French Riviera city of Nice. French and German accident investigators were heading for the crash site in Meolans-Revel, a remote and sparsely inhabited commune, not far from the Italian border.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would travel there on Wednesday. Germanwings and the Catalan regional government were preparing to take Spanish relatives to the site.

Family members arrived at Barcelona’s El Prat airport, many crying and with arms around each others’ shoulders, accompanied by police and airport staff.

In Llinars del Valles, the Spanish village that hosted the German schoolchildren, Mayor Marti Pujol said the whole village was distraught.

“The families knew each other,” he told Reuters. “The parents had been to see them off at 6 this morning.”

King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain called off their state visit to France in a sign of mourning for the victims. They had arrived in Paris minutes after the crash happened.

Airbus confirmed that the plane was 24 years old, having first been delivered to Germanwings parent Lufthansa in 1991. It was powered by engines made by CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and France’s Safran.

By Constantinos Psillides

The ministry of Communications and Works has suspended the toll free number 1415, where people could call and identify vehicles that posed a possible safety threat, after it was repeatedly misused, according to minister Marios Demetriades.

Responding to a question posed by the Greens MP Yiorgos Perdikis, Demetriades said the ministry was forced to shut the service down after people anonymously made accusations that proved to be false.
“People who just wanted to get back at others called the line and made false accusations, just to make them go through the trouble of having their car checked,” the minister said, adding that the ministry is currently considering bringing the line back but with a few modifications.

The 24-hour line was set up in April 2008 with the goal of allowing people to anonymously alert authorities on vehicles that posed a safety hazard.

By Maria Gregoriou

This week offers some great fun and entertainment value for the whole family. But that is not the most important factor about the two events we are about to suggest, they are both for a good cause.

So let’s start with the musical event set for tomorrow in Nicosia, under the name Unite for Children’s Rights.

This is a special music festival in which the choirs, orchestras and bands from the American International School Cyprus, Junior and Senior schools join together alongside professional musicians to form a united orchestra and choir.

This year’s concert will be the seventh of its kind and it aims to not only entertain but to also raise awareness about child abuse and bullying.
Proceeds from the event will help the charity organisation Hope for Children obtain the additional resources necessary to reach and assist as many children as possible.

The second charity event will be held on Sunday at the Rivergate Bookshop café in Latsia, Nicosia.

The event will feature egg racing and other traditional games, and arts and crafts to do with the Easter celebrations.

Children will be able to paint their own eggs, listen to some storytelling, get their face painted, take a ride with some Micro Scooters, enjoy a traditional puppet show, listen to music, and watch some dancing and lots more.

The proceeds will go towards the enforcement of the Municipal Markets of Latsia and Aglantzia that provide food to many families in need.

Unite for Children’s Rights
A concert for choir and orchestra. March 26. Strovolos Municipal Theatre, Nicosia. 7.30pm. €8. Tel: 22-103234

Charity Event
A day out for the family with egg racing, arts and crafts, face painting and lots more. March 29. Rivergate Bookshop Café, Latsia, Nicosia. 10.30am-6pm. Tel: 99-621820

The German government has no reason to suspect foul play in the crash of a Germanwings airliner in France on Tuesday that killed all 150 passengers and crew, Germany’s interior minister said.

By Jean-Francois Rosnoblet

French investigators on Wednesday searched for the reason why a German Airbus ploughed into an Alpine mountainside, killing all 150 on board including 16 teenagers returning from a school trip to Spain.

Helicopters flew over the site where the A320 operated by Lufthansa’s Germanwings budget airline disintegrated after it went down in a remote area of ravines en route to Duesseldorf from Barcelona. Police investigators made their way across the mountains on foot.

No distress call was received before the plane crashed on Tuesday, but French authorities said one of the two “black box” flight recorders, the cockpit voice recorder, has been recovered from the site 2,000 metres (6,000 feet) above sea level.

“The black box has been damaged. We will have to put it back together in the next few hours to be able to get to the bottom of this tragedy,” French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told RTL radio, adding the box was still viable.

Cazeneuve said the fact debris was scattered over a small area of about one and a half hectares showed the plane likely did not explode in the air, meaning a terrorist attack was not the most likely scenario.

French Civil aviation investigators are expected to hold a news conference on Wednesday afternoon.

In Washington, the White House said the crash did not appear to have been caused by a terrorist attack. Lufthansa said it was working on the assumption that the tragedy had been an accident, and any other theory would be speculation.

FLIGHTS CANCELLED

Germanwings was cancelling some flights on Wednesday as some crew members had refused to fly. “There are crew members who do not want to fly in the current situation, which we understand,” a spokeswoman for Germanwings said.

“Seeing the site of the accident was harrowing,” Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr said on Twitter. “We will enable the relatives to grieve on site as soon as possible.”

French President Francois Hollande will visit the area, about 100 km (65 miles) north of Nice, on Wednesday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

Germanwings believed 67 Germans were on the flight and Spain said 45 passengers had Spanish names. One Belgian was aboard, Australia said two of it nationals had died and Britain said it was likely some Britons were on the plane.

Also among the victims were 16 teenagers and two teachers from the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium high school in the town of Haltern am See in northwest Germany. They were on their way home after a week-long Spanish exchange programme near Barcelona.

The school held a day of mourning on Wednesday. Students arrived by bicycle and on foot like any normal day, but stopped by candles and flowers placed outside the school, where a hand-painted sign said: “Yesterday we were many, today we are alone.”

Barcelona’s Liceu opera house said two singers, Kazakhstan-born Oleg Bryjak and German Maria Radner, had died while returning to Duesseldorf after performing in Wagner’s Siegfried at the theatre.

SMOULDERING WRECKAGE

Aerial photographs showed smouldering wreckage and a piece of the fuselage with six windows strewn across the mountainside.

“We saw an aircraft that had literally been ripped apart, the bodies are in a state of destruction, there is not one intact piece of wing or fuselage,” Brice Robin, prosecutor for the city of Marseille, told Reuters after flying over the site.

Germanwings said on Tuesday the plane started descending one minute after reaching cruising height and continued losing altitude for eight minutes.

Experts said that while the Airbus had descended rapidly, it did not seem to have simply fallen out of the sky.

A Lufthansa flight from Bilbao to Munich on Nov. 5 lost altitude after sensors iced over and the onboard computer, fearing the plane was about to stall, put the nose down. As a result, the European Aviation Safety Agency ordered a change in procedure for all A320 jets.

Asked whether something similar could have occurred on Tuesday, Germanwings Managing Director Thomas Winkelmann said, “At this time this evening, we are ruling out a possible cause in this area.”

The aircraft came down in a region known for skiing, hiking and rafting, but which is difficult for rescue services to reach. The base of operations for the recovery effort was set up in a gymnasium in the village of Seyne-les-Alpes.

It was the first disaster involving a large passenger jet in France since a Concorde crashed outside Paris nearly 15 years ago.

The A320 is one of the world’s most used passenger jets and has a good safety record. According to data from the Aviation Safety Network, Tuesday’s crash was the third most deadly involving the model. In 2007 a TAM Linhas Aereas A320 went off a runway in Brazil, killing 187 people, and 162 people died when an Indonesia AirAsia jet went down in the Java Sea in December.

The Germanwings plane was 24 years old, with engines made by CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and France’s Safran.

A Boeing 737 plane carrying 78 passengers plus crew landed safely at the main airport in Russia’s second city of St. Petersburg on Wednesday after one of its engines failed.

“The plane made a safe landing … no passengers were injured,” Russian airline UTair, which operated the flight, said in a statement.

UTair is Russia’s third-largest airline by passenger numbers and is more than 60 percent owned by a pension fund of oil company Surgutneftegaz. It carried 11.2 million passengers in 2014, up 7 percent on 2013.

The economic crisis has hit the company hard – it is being sued by a number of creditors over unpaid debts and defaulted on seven bond issues worth a combined 10 billion roubles late last year.

It has asked for state guarantees to help restructure its debt which stands at around 168 billion roubles ($2.95 billion), including 85.2 billion in leasing liabilities.

The reasons for which the Greek Cypriot side has suspended its participation in the Cyprus talks have not ceased to exist, President of the Republic of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades said on Wednesday, adding that the resumption of the talks for a Cyprus settlement depends on the stance of the other side.

Speaking after a religious service, in Nicosia, to commemorate the Greek Independence Day, the President said moreover that the Day`s message is one of “unity and struggle”.

Asked about a possible announcement by the UN for the resumption of the settlement talks in Cyprus, the President said that the reasons for which the Greek Cypriot side has suspended its participation in the negotiating table have not ceased to exist, since the Turkish NAVTEX is still in force, and the Turkish research vessel “Barbaros” is still in the territorial waters of the Republic of Cyprus.

Therefore, he went on to say, any announcement for resuming the dialogue will depend on the willingness of the other side to restore the status quo ante, prior to violating the international law and the sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus in its Exclusive Economic Zone.

Speaking on today`s commemoration of the start of the Greek independence struggle, in 1821, President Anastasiades noted that the celebrations that take place in Cyprus today prove that the links between mainland Greece and Cypriot Hellenism are inseparable.

President Anastasiades has suspended his participation in the talks, following a Navigational Telex or NAVTEX, issued by Turkey in October last year, as Turkish the seismic research vessel “Barbaros” violated the Republic’s exclusive economic zone, conducting seismic exploration activities for hydrocarbons, in areas licensed to international companies by the Republic of Cyprus.

Repeated calls for the withdrawal of “Barbaros” went unheeded by Ankara, which announced in January the NAVTEX`s extension until April 6, 2015.

By Rujun Shen and Aradhana Aravindan

Thousands of Singaporeans queued on Wednesday to pay their last respects to former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, who lay in state at Parliament House, waiting for up to eight hours in stifling tropical heat to view his body.

Lee’s coffin was taken by gun carriage to Parliament House on Wednesday morning. Lee, modern Singapore’s founding father, died on Monday, aged 91.

His casket, wrapped in the Singaporean flag, was brought from the Istana palace, where the Singapore prime minister’s office is located and the Lee family held a private wake for the last two days. A bagpiper played “Auld Lang Syne” as the procession set off.

Chants of “Lee Kuan Yew” rang out among the crowd as the carriage entered the colonnaded Parliament House in the heart of the city-state’s business district. The funeral is on Sunday.

In a sight rarely seen in Singapore – where public gatherings are tightly controlled – thousands of people stood in lines stretching over a few kilometres from Parliament House, over the river, across the financial district, into Chinatown.

Due to the overwhelming response by mourners, the government extended viewings to around the clock on Saturday evening. The city’s subway system will operate 24 hours.

Lee, Singapore’s first prime minister, is credited with transforming the city-state from a British colonial outpost into one of the world’s wealthiest nations on a per capita basis with a strong, pervasive role for the state and little patience for dissent.

“Many people found he was a bit stern. But in order to lead, you have to be a little stern,” said Mariam Mohammed, 52, who was queued outside Parliament House with her family.

“This is the last opportunity,” she said. “I would love to have met him in person to thank him personally. But I hope he knows we are grateful for what he has done.”

PM GREETS MOURNERS

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Lee Kuan Yew’s eldest son, was shown on television chatting with people in the queue. Some came prepared with umbrellas, paper fans and folding chairs.

A florist at the closest subway stop offered free flowers to people on their way to the viewing and a luxury hotel distributed iced water to mourners.

Coaches ferried students and their teachers to Parliament House, and many employers, including multinational companies, allowed staff to take time off to pay their respects.

Earlier on Monday, a square in the central business district came to a standstill when hundreds of people came out of their offices to watch live television coverage of the procession on a giant screen, which normally blasts loud commercials.

“Without LKY, we wouldn’t be here,” said Darius Ang, 29, a finance professional. “We vented our unhappiness in the last elections but with his death, people have started to realise and understand his contribution.

“Actually, he wouldn’t even want us to be here watching this during office hours.”

Singapore, renowned for its efficiency, has designated 18 sites around the tiny island where people can come together to remember Lee Kuan Yew.

Speakers’ Corner in the centre of the city, the only place in Singapore where one can hold a protest without obtaining a permit from the government, has been closed to such activities as it sits in a park that has been assigned as one of the places where people can pay tribute to the former leader.

President of the Republic Nicos Anastasiades has expressed his deep condolences to the families and the governments of the victims of yesterday’s plane tragedy in France.

In a written statement, the President says that “it is with great sorrow that I was informed about the tragic news of the plane crash in the French Alps which resulted in the death of 150 people, among them many children”.

“On behalf of the people of Cyprus, the Government and myself, I express deep condolences to the families of the victims and to the governments of the countries from which the victims of this tragedy come from”, he concludes.

CNA

Cyprus celebrated on Wednesday the Greek National Day, with religious services and pupils` parades in all major cities throughout the free areas of the Republic of Cyprus.

Celebrations in the capital, Nicosia, centered around the Panayia Phaneromeni Church, in the old part of the town, where a commemoration service was attended in the morning by the President of the Republic, Nicos Anastasiades, the President of the House Yiannakis Omirou and representatives of political parties, of the military leadership and of the Greek Embassy.

The service to commemorate the begin of the Greek independence struggle, in 1821, was officiated by Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cyprus, while MEP Costas Mavrides has addressed the panegyric of the Day.

Later on, President Anastasiades attended the pupils` parade, in front of the Embassy of Greece, in Nicosia, and afterwards he addressed a reception, hosted by the Greek Embassy to honor the Day.

Similar celebrations were also held in Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos and other smaller towns.

CNA

The process of designating halloumi cheese as a Cypriot traditional product is at an advanced level, Minister of Agriculture Nicos Kouyialis has stated on Wednesday.

The Cypriot government has filed an application to the EU for designating halloumi as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and according to the Minister, the relevant file is now at the stage of translation, after it has passed all checks by the competent European Commission Directorate General.

In the next few days, the application file will be published in the Official Journal of the EU, Kouyialis went on to say. He added that this signifies that the EU is convinced that halloumi is a Cypriot traditional product, opening thus the way for assigning it PDO status.

Asked to comment on Turkey`s involvement in the case, the Minister said that Ankara tried to politicize a purely technical issue, noting however that Cyprus has worked hard and will be able to overcome all obstacles.

The designation of halloumi will open new horizons, benefiting the wider economy, Kouyialis concluded.

CNA

Greece failed in a bid on Wednesday to secure a quick cash payment from the euro zone rescue fund to help stave off potential bankruptcy next month, raising pressure on Athens to deliver a convincing reform programme within days.

Athens had appealed for the European Financial Stability Facility to return 1.2 billion euros ($1.32 billion) it said it had overpaid when it transferred bonds intended for bank recapitalisation back to the Luxembourg-based fund this month.

But senior Euro zone officials agreed in a telephone conference on Wednesday that Greece was not legally entitled to the money, although they said they would consider how to deal with the issue in the future.

The decision by the Eurogroup Working Group was a setback for leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who is struggling to secure fresh funds to keep his government afloat while he presents a comprehensive reform plan and argues for debt relief.

A source familiar with Greece’s financial position told Reuters on Tuesday Athens would run out of money on April 20 without new cash.

EU paymaster Germany, to which Tsipras made a fence-mending visit this week after weeks of acrimony between Athens and Berlin, was among the countries that opposed handing back the 1.2 billion euros.

“We see no reason to release it,” German Finance Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger told a routine news conference, adding that EFSF funding was made available to Greece last year as a safeguard during bank stress tests but had not been needed.

Jaeger said euro zone finance ministers decided last month, when they extended Greece’s bailout agreement, to transfer that money back to the EFSF in Luxembourg where it would be available for bank recapitalisation should Greece need it in future.

The German stance made clear that despite the improved atmosphere in relations between Tsipras and Chancellor Angela Merkel, Berlin has not softened its position in substance.

“WE LOVE GREECE”
Tsipras has promised to deliver a full list of planned reforms by next Monday, but it is not clear whether it will include measures agreed by the previous conservative-led government such as privatisations and pension reform.

Euro zone officials have said it will be hard for Athens to make the budget numbers add up without a forecast 4 billion euros due from the sale of state assets this year and savings through later retirement and a merging of pension funds.

However, both reforms are bitterly opposed by Tsipras’ leftist Syriza party, and ministers have already halted several planned privatisations.

Greece is also hoping to secure another 1.9 billion euros in profits made by the European Central Bank on past purchases of Greek government bonds, but the euro zone has tied that to approval of its reforms by the institutions representing its main creditors – the International Monetary Fund, the ECB and the European Commission.

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told the European Parliament he had been “very pessimistic” about Greece in recent weeks but now believed its bailout process was back on track.

“I have to recognise that I was very pessimistic during the last weeks because there was no progress whatsoever,” Juncker told the European Parliament.

“But now we are back in a normal process and I do think that we can come to a conclusion that will be both in favour of Greece – we love Greece – and the European Union,” he said.

The ECB slightly loosened its leash on Greek banks on Wednesday, increasing the amount of emergency cash they can borrow from the Greek central bank to above 71 billion euros, from 69.8 billion previously, a banking source said.

However, wearing its other hat as the euro zone’s banking supervisor, the ECB ordered Greek banks in a letter not to increase their holdings of short-term government debt.

ECB chief economist Peter Praet called on policymakers to exercise more “verbal discipline” on Greece to avoid stoking already high political and market tensions.

By Maria Gregoriou

Music lovers who have been waiting for the second album by Nicosia-based trio Monsieur Doumani need wait no longer: the follow up to 2013’s Grippy Grappa is now available in stores and the band will be touring the island to present it.

It has quite a reputation to build on as the band’s first album received a lot of positive reviews from international media. The album was named Top of the World album in the British magazine Songlines, a magazine that specialises in and celebrates world music. Grippy Grappa also got the band a nomination for Best Newcomer in the Songlines Music Awards 2014, and a chance to participate at WOMAD, Charlton Park, 2014.

The band, formed in 2011, is made-up of Antonis Antoniou on the tzoura, Angelos Ionas on the guitar and Demetris Yiasemides, who plays wind instruments. The new album, like its predecessor, was influenced by Cypriot folklore and refers to the island’s musical tradition.

The boys plan to take Paphos by storm on Saturday, give Limassol something to sing about on Sunday, and Nicosia something to move to on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The album is entitled Sikoses and the band has said that despite the success of their first album, they have chosen not to play it safe, but to challenge themselves even further.

Ethnomusicologist Nicoletta Demetriou said “the title of the album is revealing: in the Greek Cypriot tradition Sikoses (a Cypriot term) mark the last day of feasting and meat consumption before the period of Lent begins. Significantly, Sikoses also mark the period of carnival, when people are allowed – even encouraged – to put masks on. The allegory chosen by Monsieur Doumani – the passage from the excesses of the previous period to sobriety and contemplation, and from disguising to revealing one’s true face – is telling”.

With Sikoses, Monsieur Doumani has experimented with electronic sounds while also introducing elements from diverse musical styles. Apart from staying true to Cypriot folk music, the band has also tuned into folk law from Italy, Norway and the Balkans to come up with these new unique songs.

The lyrics to the ten original tracks on the album (there are 13 tracks in all, but three songs are re-workings of traditional Cypriot pieces) reflect the current state of affairs in Cyprus. But that is not to say it is all doom and gloom – pretty much like our economy – the band members have managed to keep their humour and satirical vibe very much alive and kicking.

Catch the boys and be one of the first to hear these new songs (and receive a free copy of the CD) before they are played in the UK during a tour the lads have planned for May until June.

Monsieur Doumani

The band give a live performance to celebrate their new album. March 28. Technopolis 20, 18 Nikolaou Nikolaidi Avenue, Paphos. 8.30pm. €10 with a free CD. Tel: 70-002420
March 29. B Municipal Market (Theatro Ena), Limassol. Tel: 96-458399
March 31 until April1.Exandas Music Stage, 11 Themistokli Petridi Street, Nicosia. Tel: 97-770787

By Stelios Orphanides

Lending in Cyprus’s banking system fell in February by €106m compared to the month before and 1.2 per cent compared to a year ago to €64.6bn as deposits fell slightly, the Central Bank of Cyprus said.

By Jean Christou

The National Health Scheme (NHS) will not be implemented this year and in the best case scenario, it will be September 2016 until it is ready, Health Minister Philippos Patsalos told the Cyprus News Agency in an interview published on Thursday.

In June 2014, the minister had informed parliament’s health committee that the first phase of the NHS would be implemented by July 2015, the second in January 2016 and the third in July 2016.

Patsalis told CAN the ministry now had no clear indication when the NHS could be implemented until the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) announces a date for when its software system would be up and running.

“This is one of the key pieces for the proper functioning of the NHS, and it not yet ready,” Patsalis said.

Scenarios that have recently come to the table during discussions on the issue indicate at best the system would be ready by September 2016, and in the worst case scenario, the first quarter of 2017.

“So unfortunately there are issues which puts the ministry into a position where it cannot implement the NHS in 2015,” the minister added.

“It was pretty much expected, as it was known that the schedules were tight and the troika knew that.” Implementation of the NHS is part of the memorandum agreed with international lenders for the island’s €10bn bailout.

Patsalis said the HIO has not even completed dialogue on the software system and was not even close to issuing tender invitations though the ministry has allocated €10.5m to the organisation for the software.

“It is the responsibility of the Health Insurance Agency. We put a lot of pressure on the agency to give us a date for when the software would be ready, they informed us verbally at the end of 2014 that the software would not be ready and that they are still discussing among themselves after which they will give us an exact date,” the minister said.

Following a meeting with the HIO last week, Patsalis said they were given the best case scenario date of September 2016 and the worst-case scenario of mid 2017.

“But even in best-case scenarios, delays are always expected,” he added.

“The NHS is a huge and complex undertaking and a lot needs to be done and the most crucial part of that is the software and right now there is no software.”

He did concede that there were other potential delays relating to health services personnel. Various staff unions within the sector have been pursuing their own demands within a new NHS, many of which are still outstanding or have not even started yet.

“So without saying that the delay is the sole responsibility of the HIO, it does  however have a huge share of responsibility,” he added.

Also he said discussions with the troika had not been completed on the issue. He said troika or ‘the institutions’ as it is now called, would be here next month.

By Stelios Orphanides

The energy minister said that Italian and South Korean consortium ENI-KoGas will re-evaluate geological model after it failed to find exploitable hydrocarbons in Block 9 of Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone.