By Nick Mulvenney

There’s been no place like home for Australia and New Zealand on their respective paths to the Cricket World Cup final but just one of the co-hosts will enjoy that particular advantage when they meet in Sunday’s title decider (6.30am).

After 48 one-day internationals played out over six weeks between teams from five continents, the 11th version of cricket’s showpiece tournament comes down to a trans-Tasman tussle at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Australia, playing in their seventh final, have all the cricketing pedigree and their four previous titles make them by far the most successful nation in World Cup history.

New Zealand have indisputably been the form team of the tournament, their eight-match unbeaten romp to their first World Cup final including a victory over the Australians in Auckland.

Now, though, they have left New Zealand for the first time in the tournament to play their first one-dayer at the MCG in six years in front of a hostile crowd of up to 100,000.

In their last 12 one-dayers at the MCG going back five years, Australia have won all but two and they are unbeaten at the ground in their last six encounters.
Crucial to New Zealand’s chances of lifting a first World Cup is, perhaps, how their potent new ball attack of Trent Boult and Tim Southee handle the change of conditions on the drop-in wicket.

Consensus has it they will get less of the swing they have used to such devastating effect back home and will have to adjust the length of their deliveries.
Australia expect that to play to their advantage the same way New Zealand benefited in the one-wicket victory at Eden Park – the only defeat for Michael Clarke’s side.

“I think the fact that the conditions are different will certainly help us, and we’ve played a fair bit of cricket throughout the summer at the MCG as well,” Clarke said after the semi-final win at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday.
“Conditions are a lot different to what New Zealand have been playing in in New Zealand. But in saying that, I think we’re going to have to play our best cricket, there’s no doubt about it.”

Southee, though, thinks New Zealand’s bowlers have shown they can prosper even when they do not get much movement.
“It hasn’t swung for us in every game but we’ve found ways to take wickets so I think that’s the beauty of our attack,” he told reporters in Melbourne on Friday.
“I think we’ve got variety to it and if it does swing, obviously we do become a bit more dangerous. But we have found ways to take wickets when it’s not swinging.”

Australia have a potent bowling attack of their own in the rampant Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson, with the older Johnson looking close to his best with two key Indian wickets in the semi-final.

It has largely been a World Cup more notable for batting, though, and both sides have quality all their way through their line-ups.
The fearless aggression shown by New Zealand openers Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill has been a sight to behold for cricket lovers everywhere.

And if there was any doubt about New Zealand’s ability to deal with pressure, they can point to two tight victories won with sixes – first Kane Williamson against Australia and then Grant Elliott in the semi-final against South Africa.

For Australia, Steve Smith has been calmly racking up runs all season and in the likes of David Warner and Glenn Maxwell they also have the power hitters to inflate a batting total in a few short overs.

By Angelos Anastasiou

DESPITE the political hysteria caused by reports that British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond planned to meet Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu on April 1 – the 60^th anniversary of the armed struggle against British colonial rule – it looks likely he will not even be in Cyprus on that date, if at all.

If Hammond does come to Cyprus – and that has not even been confirmed yet – it will most likely be on Tuesday, March 31 and he will depart the same day,  a source at the British High Commission told the Cyprus Mail on Saturday.

Earlier this week, daily Phileleftheros reported that Hammond was scheduled to visit Cyprus on March 31 and meet with President Nicos Anastasiades and the Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides before visiting Eroglu, a day later.

But the symbolism of the date the British diplomat would ostensibly be visiting the occupied areas and meeting with the Turkish Cypriot leader, as well as the precedent set by former President Tassos Papadopoulos in 2006, when he refused to see then British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw because Straw insisted on also meeting  then Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat at his office in the north, sparked political uproar in Cyprus.

Most political parties have been issuing statements all week lambasting Hammond’s reported intent of not just meeting Eroglu in the north, but of doing so on April 1.

“It is an unacceptably provocative action that must be prevented by any means possible,” charged junior government-coalition partners EVROKO, while former coalition partners DIKO warned that the visit would simply “reaffirm Britain’s unacceptable traditional role in downgrading the Republic of Cyprus and upgrading the pseudo-state”, urging Anastasiades to follow Papadopoulos’ example from 2006.

Hammond has been touring Europe to promote Prime Minister David Cameron’s “vision for the EU”, and is in Lausanne, Switzerland,  this weekend for the Iran nuclear talks. The summit is scheduled to last until Tuesday – the day he is supposed to arrive in Cyprus – but on Friday Hammond left open the possibility of extending the talks, saying that “negotiators might need more time”.

“There is no confirmation of the visit yet,” the source from the High Commission told the Sunday  Mail. “The Foreign Secretary is currently on a series of visits in the region and hopes to visit Cyprus soon but nothing has been confirmed at this time.”

A subsequent story run by Phileleftheros, which first stirred up the issue, cited sources claiming that Hammond’s schedule has been amended to include all the planned meetings on Tuesday, March 31, and the same-day departure, suggesting the diplomat was forced to backpedal due to the negative media attention the visit had garnered.

“I’ve seen a lot of press coverage regarding the visit and the schedule, but [the Cyprus Mail] were the only ones to actually call and ask about it,” the source from the High Commission said.

Meanwhile, although the government has refrained from commenting on the issue thus far, a similar issue arose during US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Cyprus last May, when he met with Anastasiades before meeting with Eroglu. At the time, Biden had made a point of holding the Eroglu meeting at the Turkish Cypriot leader’s home, adjacent to the so-called Presidential palace in occupied Nicosia, with no insignia of the breakaway regime visible anywhere onsite.

By Michael Nienaber

The co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing an airliner, killing 150 people, had told his girlfriend he was planning a spectacular gesture so “everyone will know my name”, a German daily said on Saturday.

The Bild newspaper published an interview with a woman who said she had had a relationship in 2014 with Andreas Lubitz, the man French prosecutors believe locked himself alone in the cockpit of the Germanwings Airbus on Tuesday and steered it into the French Alps, killing all on board.

“When I heard about the crash, I remembered a sentence… he said: ‘One day I’ll do something that will change the system, and then everyone will know my name and remember it’,” said the woman, a flight attendant the paper gave the pseudonym of Maria W.

“I didn’t know what he meant by that at the time, but now it’s obvious,” she said. “He did it because he realised that, due to his health problems, his big dream of working at Lufthansa, of a having job as a pilot, and as a pilot on long-distance flights, was nearly impossible.”

“He never talked much about his illness, only that he was in psychiatric treatment,” she told the paper, adding they finally broke up because she was afraid of him.

“He would suddenly freak out in conversations and yell at me,” she recalled. “At night he would wake up screaming ‘we are crashing’ because he had nightmares. He could be good at hiding what was really going on inside him.”

The woman also told Bild: “We always talked a lot about work and then he became a different person. He became upset about the conditions we worked under: too little money, fear of losing the contract, too much pressure.”

A Lufthansa spokesman declined to comment. The company and its low-cost subsidiary Germanwings took out full-page advertisements in major German and French newspapers on Saturday, expressing “deepest mourning”.

Lufthansa and Germanwings offered condolences to the friends and families of the passengers and crew and thanked the thousands of people in France, Spain and Germany it said had helped since the crash.

German officials said there would be a ceremony on April 17 in Cologne Cathedral attended by German ChancellorAngela Merkel and senior officials from other countries including France and Spain.

German authorities said on Friday they had found torn-up sick notes showing the co-pilot had been suffering from an illness that should have grounded him on the day of the tragedy. Germanwings, the budget airline of the flag carrier Lufthansa, has said he did not submit a sick note at the time.

German newspaper Welt am Sonntag quoted a senior investigator as saying the 27-year-old “was treated by several neurologists and psychiatrists”, adding that a number of medications had been found in his Duesseldorf apartment.

Police also discovered personal notes that showed Lubitz suffered from “severe subjective overstress symptoms”, he added.

The New York Times on Saturday quoted officials as saying Lubitz had also sought treatment for vision problems that may have jeopardized his ability to work as a pilot.

German state prosecutors and police spokesmen declined to comment on the media reports, adding there would be no official statements on the case before Monday.

Investigators have retrieved cockpit voice recordings from one of the plane’s “black boxes”, which they say show that Lubitz locked himself alone in the cockpit, as his fellow pilot desperately tried to break in, and caused the airliner to crash.

A chief French investigator said on Saturday it was too early to rule out other explanations for the crash.

“There is obviously a scenario that is well known to the media and which we are focusing on,” French investigator General Jean-Pierre Michel told French media.

“But we have no right today to rule out other hypotheses, including the mechanical hypotheses, as long as we haven’t proved that the plane had no (mechanical) problem,” he added, pointing out that a second black box containing flight data had not been found yet.

By Sami Aboudi and Mohammed Mukhashaf

Saudi Arabia’s navy evacuated dozens of diplomats from Yemen and the United Nations pulled out international staff on Saturday after a third night of Saudi-led air strikes trying to stem advances by Iranian-allied Houthi fighters.

Residents reported heavy clashes between the Houthis and mainly Sunni tribal fighters in the south of the country, while the Saudi-led air campaign sought to stall a fresh offensive by the Shi’ite Muslim group on Aden from the east.

Riyadh’s intervention, a surprise move from a conservative monarchy better known for flexing its muscle in oil markets than through military might, is planned to last a month but could extend for five or six, a Gulf diplomatic source said.

He said satellite imagery had shown that the Houthis had repositioned long-range Scud missiles in the north, close to the Saudi border and aimed at Saudi territory. A Yemeni official said Iran was providing parts for the missiles.

Dozens of diplomats were shipped out of Aden to the Red Sea port of Jeddah, Saudi television said, escaping the city where President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi had taken refuge until Thursday, when he left for Egypt to shore up Arab support for his crumbling authority.

The director general of Yemen’s Health Ministry, al-Khadher Laswar, said more than 62 people had been killed and 452 wounded in the city since Wednesday. Explosions at Aden’s largest ammunition depot on Saturday wounded nine people, he said.

In the capital Sanaa, which has been under Houthi control since September, more than 100 U.N. staff were evacuated, a United Nations source said. Airport staff said dozens of other foreigners working for international oil companies and NGOs also flew out to Ethiopia and Djibouti.

Houthi fighters seeking to overthrow the Western- and Saudi-backed Hadi have continued to make gains since the Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against them on Thursday.

On Friday, the Houthis and allied army units gained their first foothold on Yemen’s Arabian Sea coast by seizing Shaqra, 100 km (60 miles) east of Aden, allowing them to open a new front to march on the south’s main city.

“IRAN’S PUPPET”

Residents said a Houthi convoy of armoured vehicles, tanks and military trucks heading along the coastal road to Aden from Shaqra was attacked by warplanes before dawn on Saturday, and a number of vehicles were hit.

Local residents said the convoy had been stopped, but the Houthis were sending reinforcements to Shaqra and the advance along the main al-Mukalla-Aden road was expected to resume.

At an Arab summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Hadi urged Yemen’s army to protect state institutions and obey the orders of Yemen’s “legitimate leadership”.

He also underlined the regional dimensions of the conflict, calling the Houthis “Iran’s puppet”.

Saudi Arabia’s intervention is the latest front in its widening contest with Iran for power in the region. Their proxy struggle is also playing out in Syria, where Tehran backs Bashar al-Assad’s government against mainly Sunni rebels, and Iraq, where Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias are playing a major role.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman told the summit the operation would continue until Yemen achieved peace and security, while Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, said the Houthi advances “pose a threat to our security”.

After the summit, Hadi flew with King Salman to Riyadh, rather than trying to return to Aden.

Iran has denied giving the Houthis military support, but Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, added to the sense of confrontation, saying: “Saudi Arabia is too small to be able to threaten Iran.”

“We utterly condemn Saudi Arabia’s attack on Yemen and it will end in failure,” he was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

A Gulf diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Arab alliance initially planned a month-long campaign, but it could last up to six months.

He said Iran was likely to retaliate indirectly, by encouraging pro-Iranian Shi’ite activists to carry out armed attacks in Bahrain, Lebanon and eastern Saudi Arabia.

SCUD MISSILES

The source said Yemen’s military had about 300 Scuds, the bulk of them believed to be in the hands of the Houthis and allied military units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and that the campaign so far had destroyed 21 of them.

A Yemeni official in Sharm el-Sheikh said Yemeni authorities had received information that Iranian experts had brought in parts for long-range missiles held at a base south of Sanaa. He said the air strikes had targeted these missiles, some of which had been pointing towards Aden or neighbouring countries.

Yemen, by far the poorest country on the Arabian peninsula, has struggled to regain stability since mass protests in 2011 that eventually unseated Saleh after 33 years in power.

Hadi led a U.N.- and Gulf-backed national dialogue that was discussing a new constitution when the Houthis took the capital and pushed him aside. The Gulf official said the aim of the Saudi-led intervention was to restore that process, and that the Houthis could have a role in it.

Saudi-led forces launched the air strikes on Thursday as Houthi forces appeared poised to take Aden. The strikes bolstered local militias defending the city but have not blunted the offensive completely.

In a week of intense fighting, the Houthis have taken the Red Sea port of al-Mukha to Aden’s northwest, and the city’s northern outskirts.

Their entry into Shaqra means they control most land routes to Aden and can block tribal fighters trying to come in to reinforce Hadi’s troops.

The medical relief organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres said doctors at its hospital in Aden, who had received at least 250 wounded people in the last week, were struggling to cope.

“On Thursday alone, we received 87 injured. It was tragic,” said Hani Isleem, a manager at the hospital. “We were working in difficult conditions and all the time ducking our heads so that we were not hit by the shooting we were constantly hearing outside.”

Clocks go forward one hour in the early hours of Sunday – or Saturday night before bedtime – as countries switch to daylight saving, or summer time. In Cyprus the official time to change over is 3am, pushing the clock hands forward to 4am… for those still awake at that time.

By Alexander McCowan

FOLLOWING a match littered with penalties reflecting indiscipline on both sides, the Moufflons emerged triumphant on Saturday in the dying seconds of the European Nations Cup game in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd of Magyars.

The ever-reliable Matt King crossed in the corner for the only try of the game which went unconverted and saw the Cyprus side coming out on top with a hard fought 15-17 win.

Away wins in Division2B are very hard to come by but this puts Cyprus in a very challenging position before their home game against Lithuania the division leaders in May at home.

With their world record streak of 24 wins ended by Latvia in Riga in November, the Moufflons are building for the future.

The Cyprus side currently lies behind Latvia and leaders Lithuania and the Baltic states have decades of experience in pre-Soviet leagues.

By Maria Gregoriou

On Friday The Pharos Arts Foundation and the Embassy of Spain will present a piano recital by Pablo Galdo at the Shoe Factory in Nicosia.

Galdo, considered one of the most renowned Spanish pianists and one of the most outstanding performers of his generation, will perform Suite Espanola by Issac Albeniz.

The eight pieces to be performed on Friday are very different from Albeniz’s other pieces as they were composed early on in his career. The entire suite often imitates guitar figurations rather than pianistic ones. Each piece represents a specific region of Spain and is cast as a dance, song or musical form characteristic of that place (Granada, Catalonia, Seville, Cadiz, Aragon, Castille and Cuba).

The Spanish pianist studied with Nicasio Gradaille at the Vigo Superior Conservatoire in Galicia, from where he graduated with a special distinction. He also received master-classes by such renowned musicians as Alicia de Larrocha, Zoltán Kocsis, Tamás Vasáry, Dimitri Bashkirov, Várjon Dénes and Heinz Kämmerling among others. He was also selected to participate in young performers concert cycles and festivals such as Jeneusses Musicales, the Teresa Berganza Association, the Young talents of Budapest in the Buda Castle, the Pedro Barrié de la Maza Foundation and the Juan March Foundation.

Galdo has performed all over the world – in most European countries and the US, in South America, the Middle East and Asia, in venues such as the Carnegie Hall in New York, National Auditorium in Zagreb, the Hong Kong Arts Center, Frederick Chopin Academy, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the Mirabell Palace in Salzburg, the Danube Palace and the F Liszt Academy in Budapest. He has shared the stage with renowned musicians, including Zoltán Kocsis, Lilya Zilberstein, Imre Rohmann, Asier Polo and András Kemenes. Friday will be the first time that he will give a performance in Cyprus.

Recently the pianist recorded a DVD, produced by IRIS, of works by Albéniz, Liszt and Rachmaninoff, a CD, produced by MANS, with works by Bach, Chopin and Liszt, as well as second, all-Albéniz CD. He has also recorded for Spanish Television, Galician Television and Hungarian Radio. The composer Saúl Chapela has dedicated to him his piano work 22 Variations on Two Cells.

He has also given master-classes at the Frederick Chopin Academy in Warsaw, the Academy of Arts in Iceland, the Istanbul State Conservatory, the Academy of Music and Theater of Vilnius, the National Music Academy of Estonia, the National University of Kazakhstan, the Superior School of Music of Neuquén in Argentina, the Kuwait School of Music, as well as in numerous music institutions all over Spain. He is also the Founder and Director of the annual International Piano Master-Classes of the Mercantile Circle in Vigo, which has hosted some of the greatest pianists in the world.

Galdo currently combines his concert activity with his position as piano professor at the Vigo Superior Conservatory of Music (Galicia, Spain) and at the Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio in Madrid.

Piano Recital by Pablo Galdo
The Pharos Arts Foundation presents a piano recital by the Spanish pianist. April 3. The Shoe Factory, Nicosia. 8.30pm. €15/10. Tel: 22-663871

WHENEVER workers’ rights are perceived to be violated or there is an attempt to address labour market distortions caused by unions, all the great and the good of our political system take public stands posing as the protectors of the workers and pontificating about the need to respect collective agreements and the industrial relations code.

When the Papdopoulos government ordered police to clamp down on state school teachers that were violating the terms of their employment contract by giving afternoon, private lessons, it was accused by parties and unions of persecuting teachers. Under this pressure the clampdown was abandoned and the teachers were left to continue their illicit activities. A few years earlier, the Clerides government drafted a bill that aimed to regulate strikes at essential services and there was a universal outcry, because the right to strike was ‘sacred’ and could not be touched; the bill was never passed.

Thanks to the safeguarding of this ‘sacred’ right, we now live under the threat of random, daily power cuts because the unions of the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) decided this would be a good way to prevent privatisation. Predictably, none of the parties or politicians dared to take even the mildest stand against this appalling abuse of power that violates the industrial relations code and would penalise households and businesses. On the contrary, the entire political system was united in pandering to the bullying unions, happily giving in to their despicable blackmail.

EAC unions decided that starting from last Friday, workers would have staged a daily, three-hour work stoppage (from 7am to 10am) which would have caused random power cuts because the power output would not have satisfied demand – output would be 450Mw while average demand in the mornings is 500Mw. By threatening inconveniencing the public on a daily basis the unions hoped to prevent the submission of tenders for the study of the EAC privatisation framework (final day was March 31), requested by the Commissioner for privatisations – and it worked.

On Thursday the political parties urged unions to call off their action until Tuesday when the House commerce committee would discuss the issue of tenders. The government used the legislature’s ‘mediation’ as an excuse for a full retreat. Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis announced on Friday morning that the deadline of the submission of the tenders had been put back by two weeks, to give the commerce committee the chance to mediate. In another attempt to appease the unions he said that EAC’s privatisation was not a certainty and there would be additional discussions with the troika, the implication being that the government’s delaying tactics were successful.

Such a show of cowardice, at the first sign of union muscle-flexing, was disgraceful, and a clear message to unions that a little blackmail would always ensure the retreat of weak politicians. It also sent a message to international lenders that it is not just the unions and opposition parties that would fight the privatisation of SGOs, but also the government as far as it could.

Not surprisingly, the unions of the Cyprus Ports Authority, which is also destined for privatisation, decided on Friday they would follow the example of their EAC comrades and stage a daily, one-hour work stoppage in an attempt to block the government’s plans. This will not inconvenience the public, but union leaders have been authorised by members to step up the measures in coming weeks – three-hour stoppages are entirely possible as these would boost overtime pay- if the mild blackmail does not yield the desired results.

Instead of sucking up to the unions of the SGOs, the government should have been drafting legislation that would ban strikes at essential services, like the one prepared by the Christofias government and approved by the parties for airports and air traffic controllers. Is power production a less essential service than the airports? The appeasement pursued by the government is a show of weakness that union bosses will exploit to the full.

Apart from legislation, the government should also be publicly challenging the legitimacy of the proposed work stoppages and the broader issues at stake. For instance, do the unions legally own the EAC and the Ports Authority to have the right dictate their future ownership status? Is it within the law for a group of workers to cut the electricity supply of households and businesses in order to impose their wishes on the authorities?

What type of democracy is it that allows self-interested groups to block and overrule the decisions of the country’s elected government and prevent it from honouring agreements it has signed? This is no democracy it is a tyranny of the unions that has been going on for decades because our politicians are too cowardly to fight against it.

By Andria Kades

RESIDENTS in a Limassol area are threatening to step up protests if CyTA does not remove an antenna they installed seven years ago.

Located in Zakaki, the mobile phone antenna has caused severe headaches, weakness and dizziness, say residents who live nearby. They have also raised fears that the antenna could be linked to cancer.

“I’ve lived here for about 30 years. This honestly started since they installed that thing opposite my children’s bedroom,” Marina Saidam said.

The law stipulates that an antenna must be placed on the tallest building in an area. However those living next door argue that a building at the same height as their two-storey house cannot be described as ‘tall’ and are troubled by the fact that their bedrooms, particularly Saidam’s 13 and 16-year-old sons, directly face the device.

The antenna taken from Saidam family bedroom directly opposite

CyTA has defended itself saying that it has a licence for the antenna granted by the mayor and permission from the building owner. “We have followed every guideline and every legislation in place,” company spokesman Lefteris Christou told the Sunday Mail.

The last three years have seen an intense fight by the residents who have amassed a rather strong support group including the Green party, all demanding CyTA remove the antenna. According to Effie Georgiadou, a teacher at a Zakaki primary school, the group hired an independent scientist to take readings in the area who found them dangerous, but he was discredited by authorities as he was apparently not registered.

AKEL MP Costas Costa, also from the area, got involved in the efforts last May.

Earlier this week a meeting to discuss the residents’ fears was attended by a CyTA official, a health ministry official, a communications ministry representative, the general secretary of the Green’s Party and around 30 residents from the area.

“We have agreed to give CyTA a one month deadline to conduct investigations and readings which will be submitted to the mayor and we will take it from there,” Costa said.

People living in Zakaki however are adamant: “all we say is hands off our health. We will not sacrifice ourselves and the health of our children for the profits of a company,” Saidam’s mother Eleni Iosif said.

To matters more complicated, the owner of the two storey building where CyTA placed the mobile antenna currently lives in the UK and therefore has nothing to worry about.

“We were abroad when they installed it. If we were here there’s no way we would have let them put it on,” Iosif said.

“The owner doesn’t have to worry about getting ill. He’s abroad, renting the flat and getting a nice sum of money from CyTA.”

The ministry of health has rejected the residents’ health scare claims, saying that there is currently no proof that antennas can cause cancer.

“So far, and after examining thousands of research projects and measurements, it seems that there is absolutely no evidence based on epidemiological studies that radio frequency fields cause an increase of any type of cancer,” the ministry said in a statement.

Residents insist they have splitting headaches and constantly take painkillers ‘as if they’re sweets’ which they say are bound to have effects elsewhere.

At the root of their fears is that antennas emit non ionising radiation. But, according to University of Cyprus physics professor Panos Razis, so too do TVs and even hair dryers.

“The difference between the antenna and these home appliances is that you can switch these off. But the antenna is on all the time. The back of a TV however, especially the older models, are far more detrimental to someone’s health than a mobile antenna,” he said.

According to studies conducted nationwide by the university and independent companies, there is no area in Cyprus that has shown measurements for exposure to electromagnetic fields to be above the safety levels imposed by EU regulations, Razis added.

“It is very difficult to prove that antennas might be causing cancer, not just in Cyprus but in the whole world. A database will not show you if the patients had a diet high in saturated fats or if other people in the family had cancer – data is inconclusive.”

In order to maintain a safety net, physicists remain conservative because while there is no proof to show a correlation between antennas and cancer, there is also no way to prove that they have no links.

He stressed however that children are indeed at a higher risk because their systems are much weaker – with about two or three times higher chance of them getting cancer than any adult.

This is of course where the sticky part for CyTA comes along as the antenna is indeed directly opposite young people’s bedroom.

“They shouldn’t have got a licence,” Razis specified for this particular case.

This is not the first time CyTA has come under fire for the same issue – in late 2013, residents from Emba, Paphos protested after the state telecoms providers was granted permission by the town planning department to install a mobile antenna on the roof of a building.

If the Zakaki case goes to court then CyTA will have to prove that there was no other building where they could place the antenna and that their service would have been affected without it.

Neighbours nevertheless are not satisfied with any compromise and are not convinced that it does not cause any ailments. Plants, known to absorb positive ions (which are harmful) have never survived more than two months on their balconies several of the residents claimed. Yet again, it is hard to prove if this due to the presence of ions or simply improper treatment.

“We will not leave it like this. If they don’t get rid of it we will stand outside CyTA, protest and prevent any customers from going in. Hands off our health,” Eleni said.

By Andreas Vou

Cyprus were dealt a 5-0 thrashing by group favourites Belgium on Saturday night which sees the Red Devils leapfrog Pambos Christodoulou’s men into third place in Group B.

Well aware of the abundant attacking quality of their Belgian counterparts, Cyprus’ objective from the offset was clear as they defended in numbers awaiting an inevitable offensive onslaught.

Despite coping bravely for the opening 20 minutes, the deadlock was eventually broken by Manchester United’s Marouane Fellaini with a low left-footed striker after the Cypriots failed to clear the ball following a game of head tennis in the penalty area.

Eden Hazard has been in scintillating form for Chelsea this season and tormented the Cypriot defence throughout the night. His cross on 35 minutes found Christian Benteke unmarked and the Aston Villa striker headed the ball beyond Tassos Kissas who was stepping in for the injured Antonis Georgallides.

Facing a top opponent like Belgium away from home was always going to be a huge challenge for Cyprus but combined with a number of injuries to key players the task was made even tougher.

As well as Georgallides out injured, Giorgos Efrem, Demetris Christofi, Stathis Aloneftis, Dossa Junior, Jason Demetriou and Nektarios Alexandrou were all unavailable and the lack of character and maturity was evident.

The margin going into the break could have been wider had it not been for a string of excellent saves from Kissas, none better than the one on the stroke of half-time from a point-blank Axel Witsel header.

Like in the first-half, Cyprus did well to keep Belgium at bay for the early stages but the third goal of the night opened the floodgates. Fellaini, who has been in top form at club level this season, struck a beautiful curling effort from the edge of the box which arrowed perfectly into the top corner of the net on 66 minutes.

Within a blink of an eye, it was 4-0. Hazard got his reward for a spectacular performance with a goal of his own a minute later. After a mazy run followed by a one-two with Witsel, the 24-year-old curled the ball into the far corner via the post.

Even as the pace of the game dropped dramatically in the final 15 minutes, there was still time for more. Just minutes after coming on for his senior debut, 21-year-old Michy Batshuayi broke clear of the Cypriot defence and rolled the ball calmly into the far corner to seal a comprehensive win for Belgium.

Perhaps the only positive for Cyprus on the night was the introduction of Grigoris Kastanos on 84 minutes. The 17-year-old Juventus starlet came on to make his international debut and is regarded as a huge prospect for the future.

The result pushes Cyprus down to fourth place, two points behind Belgium in third and five points behind group leaders Wales. Cyprus’ next competitive international fixture sees them visit Andorra on 12 June.

Group B matches
Saturday, March 28
Andorra 0 Bosnia 3
Belgium 5 Cyprus 0
Israel 0 Wales 3
Standings P W D L F A Pts
1 Wales 5 3 2 0 7 2 11
2 Israel 4 3 0 1 9 5 9
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3 Belgium 4 2 2 0 12 1 8
4 Cyprus 5 2 0 3 9 10 6
5 Bosnia 5 1 2 2 5 6 5
6 Andorra 5 0 0 5 2 20 0

Group A
Saturday, March 28
Czech Republic 1 Latvia 1
Kazakhstan 0 Iceland 3
Netherlands 1 Turkey 1
Standings P W D L F A Pts
1 Czech Republic 5 4 1 0 11 6 13
2 Iceland 5 4 0 1 12 2 12
————————-
3 Netherlands 5 2 1 2 11 6 7
4 Turkey 5 1 2 2 6 8 5
5 Latvia 5 0 3 2 2 11 3
6 Kazakhstan 5 0 1 4 4 13 1

Group H
Saturday, March 28
Azerbaijan 2 Malta 0
Bulgaria 2 Italy 2
Croatia 5 Norway 1
Standings P W D L F A Pts
1 Croatia 5 4 1 0 15 2 13
2 Italy 5 3 2 0 8 4 11
————————-
3 Norway 5 3 0 2 7 8 9
4 Bulgaria 5 1 2 2 6 7 5
5 Azerbaijan 5 1 0 4 4 11 3
6 Malta 5 0 1 4 1 9 1

Group G matches on Friday
Friday, March 27
Liechtenstein 0 Austria 5
Moldova 0 Sweden 2
Montenegro 0 Russia 0 aband.66 due to crowd trouble
Standings P W D L F A Pts
1 Austria 5 4 1 0 10 2 13
2 Sweden 5 2 3 0 7 3 9
————————-
3 Russia 4 1 2 1 6 3 5
4 Montenegro 4 1 2 1 3 2 5
5 Liechtenstein 5 1 1 3 1 11 4
6 Moldova 5 0 1 4 2 8 1

The following games will be played today Sunday, March 29th:
Georgia v Germany (1900)
Scotland v Gibraltar (1900)
Ireland v Poland (2145)
Northern Ireland v Finland (1900)
Romania v Faroe Islands (1900)
Hungary v Greece (2145)
Albania v Armenia (1900)
Portugal v Serbia (2145)

Sebastian Vettel drove a flawless tactical race to claim his maiden victory for Ferrari at the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday, registering the first Formula One win for the Italian team since 2013.

World champion Lewis Hamilton finished second, 8.5 seconds adrift, with his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg crossing the line in third place.

Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen finished in seventh place and at 17-years-old became the youngest points scorer in Formula One.

Result from the Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang International Circuit
1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Ferrari 1:41:05.793
2. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes +00:08.569
3. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 00:12.310
4. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 00:53.822
5. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams-Mercedes 01:10.409
6. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams-Mercedes 01:13.586
7. Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Toro Rosso – Renault 01:39.085
8. Carlos Sainz Jr (Spain) Toro Rosso – Renault 1 lap
9. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) RedBull – Renault 1 lap
10. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) RedBull – Renault 1 lap
11. Romain Grosjean (France) Lotus – Mercedes 1 lap
12. Felipe Nasr (Brazil) Sauber – Ferrari 1 lap
13. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India – Mercedes 1 lap
14. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India – Mercedes 1 lap
15. Roberto Merhi (Spain) Marussia – Ferrari 3 laps
r. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Lotus – Mercedes 9 laps
r. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 15 laps
r. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren 35 laps
r. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) Sauber – Ferrari 53 laps

Driver and constructor standings after the Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang International Circuit on Sunday
Drivers Points
1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes 43
2. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Ferrari 40
3. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 33
4. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams 20
5. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 12
6. Felipe Nasr (Brazil) Sauber 10
7. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams 10
8. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Red Bull 9
9. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India 6
10. Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Toro Rosso 6
11. Carlos Sainz Jr (Spain) Toro Rosso 6
12. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) Sauber 4
13. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) Red Bull 2
14. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India 1
15. Romain Grosjean (France) Lotus 0
15. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 0
17. Roberto Merhi (Spain) Marussia 0

Constructors Points
1. Mercedes 76
2. Ferrari 52
3. Williams-Mercedes 30
4. Sauber – Ferrari 14
5. Toro Rosso – Renault 12
6. RedBull – Renault 11
7. Force India – Mercedes 7
8. McLaren 0
9. Lotus – Mercedes 0
10. Marussia – Ferrari 0

By Ingrid Melander

France’s far-right National Front is expected to strengthen its hold on grassroots politics in a second round of local elections on Sunday that ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservatives are forecast to win.

Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigrant, anti-euro FN party aims to build a base of locally elected officials to become more mainstream and thus better placed to contest national ballots.

In a setback to its claims to have become France’s leading party, the FN placed second last week in the first round of the local elections, but it did win one in four votes and is all but certain to see a big jump from its current two councillors.

“The FN has now put down roots nationwide, it has reached a level that is high, too high,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, a Socialist, told Le Journal du Dimanche weekly.

Valls, whose deeply unpopular government is trying to play up modest signs of recovery in the euro zone’s second largest economy, has stressed his “fear” of the FN’s rise in an attempt to mobilise left-wing voters.

The second round is also a key test for Sarkozy, who has put a shaky political comeback back on track by steering his conservative UMP party and its allies to an unexpected victory in the first round but still faces resistance within his party.

Opinion polls see the UMP and its allies winning the local elections with nearly twice as many seats as President Francois Hollande’s Socialists and their allies.

The polls see the Socialists losing 20 to 40 of the 61 “departments” they now hold, but Valls said his government would press on with reforms to tackle France’s economic stagnation, adding that a cabinet reshuffle was not on the cards for now.

The FN, which topped last year’s European Parliament elections in France, had eight of its candidates elected in the first round of the local polls and could see as many as 220 more elected on Sunday, an Ifop poll showed. That would be far fewer than the mainstream parties but a big jump from all past elections in the “departements” councils.

The far-right party is hoping to win one or two departements at most due to unfavourable electoral arithmetic but it is eyeing a bigger win in regional polls later this year. Surveys also show that Le Pen is likely to make it to the second round of France’s presidential election in 2017, but not winning.

The complex election system, in which a duo of councillors is elected per constituency who then elect the presidents of 98 “departements'” councils, means it may take time to form a clear picture of how many councils each party has won.

In total, 4,108 councillors with limited powers over roads, schools and social services will be elected. At 1700 (1500 GMT), voter turnout stood at 41.94 percent, nearly six points higher than in the previous local elections in 2011.

By Nick Mulvenney

Australia’s players said they had saved their best performance until the end of the tournament after beating New Zealand by seven wickets with more than 16 overs to spare in the World Cup final on Sunday.

After their pace attack ripped through the vaunted New Zealand batting to dismiss the co-hosts for 183, skipper Michael Clarke (74) and Steve Smith (56 not out) hit half-centuries to drive Australia to their target and a fifth world title.

“Unbelievable feeling, we said we wanted to play our best game towards the end of the tournament and to win this final three down, I thought the boys were outstanding tonight,” said Smith.
“The bowlers really set it up for us. They’ve done it all tournament.”

Coach Darren Lehmann, who won two World Cups as a player, paid tribute to the hard work his players had put in over the tournament.
“They just keep coming up and fronting up day in, day out. They’ve been fantastic over the six weeks,” he said before his players emptied a tub of energy drink over his head, adding: “That’s why I love them.”

Australia were set on their way to victory when Player of the Tournament Mitchell Starc bowled New Zealand’s captain Brendon McCullum for a three-ball duck in the first over of the day.

The left-arm quick revealed it was a planned move hatched between him and the team’s bowling coach.
“There were plenty of nerves but it was a little plan Craig McDermott and I have been working on for a couple of days,” he said.
“It was just nice to see it come off, and to happen in front of a packed MCG was amazing.”

Like Lehmann, experienced wicketkeeper Brad Haddin was in the mood for celebration with the record 93,013 crowd.
“We delivered on the biggest stage,” he said. “It’s a great feeling at the moment, so I’m going to try and have a beer with every Australian in the stadium, it’s going to be a fun night.”

The President of the Hellenic Republic Mr Prokopis Pavlopoulos will pay an official visit to Cyprus on 30-31 March.

President Pavlopoulos, who arrives in Cyprus on the morning of March 30th, will be officially welcomed by the President of the Republic Mr Nicos Anastasiades, at the Presidential Palace.

The two Presidents will hold a private meeting which will be followed by expanded talks between the delegations of the two countries.

During his stay in Cyprus, President Pavlopoulos will address a special plenary session of the House of Representatives, and will hold meetings with the Archbishop of Cyprus and the President of the House of Representatives, among other dignitaries.

In the evening of 30 March, President Anastasiades will host an official dinner in honor of President Pavloploulos, at the Presidential Palace.

The President of the Greece will depart from Cyprus on 31 March.

CNA

By Mohammed Mukhashaf and Sami Aboudi

Yemeni fighters loyal to the Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi clashed with Iranian-allied Houthi fighters on Sunday in downtown Aden, the absent leader’s last major foothold in the country.

Hadi loyalists in the southern port city reported a gun battle in the central Crater district in which three people were killed, and said they recaptured the airport, which has changed hands several times in the last five days of fighting.

The Health Ministry, loyal to the Houthi fighters who control the capital, said Saudi-led air strikes had killed 35 people and wounded 88 overnight. The figures could not be independently confirmed.

The Houthi fighters, representing a Shi’ite minority that makes up around a third of Yemen’s population, emerged as the most powerful force in the Arab world’s poorest country last year when they captured the capital Sanaa.

Saudi Arabia has rallied Sunni Muslim Arab countries in an air campaign to support Hadi, who relocated to Aden in February and is now in Riyadh after leaving Yemen in the past week. The fighting has brought civil war to a country that was already sliding into chaos and which had been a battlefield for the secret U.S. drone war against al Qaeda.

In the eastern province of Shabwa, tribal sources said armed tribesmen were fighting a major battle with the Houthis and their army allies at a military base, killing around 30 Houthis. This also could not be independently confirmed.

Saudi-led coalition warplanes struck military targets at airports in the capital Sanaa and in Hodeida, the main Red Sea port.

In the northern city of Saada, a Houthi stronghold near the Saudi border, strikes hit Houthi military bases belonging to the militia and their ally, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh who still controls most army units.

Saleh stood down after a 2011 uprising but still wields wide influence in Yemen. He appealed on Saturday to Arab leaders meeting in Egypt to halt their four-day offensive and resume talks on political transition in Yemen, promising that neither he nor his relatives would seek the presidency.

In an apparent rebuttal, a Yemeni official said Hadi had sacked Saleh’s son as ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi Arabia’s military intervention, is the latest front in its widening contest with Iran for power in the region, a proxy struggle also playing out in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

Iran denies accusations from Sunni Gulf rulers that it has armed the Houthis, who follow the Zaidi branch of Shi’ite Islam.

Zaidi Shi’ites led a thousand-year kingdom in Yemen until 1962. Former leader Saleh himself is a member of the sect, although he sought to crush the Houthis while in office, only allying himself with them after his downfall.

FIGHTING IN ADEN CENTRE

Across the country, there were heavy clashes in seven southern and eastern provinces between the Houthis and pro-Saleh army units on the one hand, against Sunni tribesmen, pro-Hadi loyalists and armed southern separatists on the other.

Fighters loyal to Hadi said on Sunday they recaptured Aden airport after fighting which lasted all night. Heavy fighting in the area during the last week meant that foreign diplomats had to be evacuated from the city by boat, ferried by Saudi naval vessels to the Red Sea port of Jeddah on Saturday.

Witnesses in Aden’s northern Dar Saad district reported seeing two tanks destroyed by Hadi loyalists battling army units who are fighting alongside the Houthis. Five members of the Shi’ite militia were killed in the suburbs, loyalists said.

In comments addressed to Arab heads of state meeting in Egypt, Saleh appealed to the Saudi-led coalition on Saturday to stop “the aggression and return to the negotiations table”, saying Hadi had failed to run the country.

“Let’s go to dialogue and elections, and I promise you that neither I nor any of my relatives will run for the presidency.”

But in public at least, Saudi Arabia and Yemeni officials loyal to Hadi appeared to give Saleh short shrift.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman told the summit that military operations would continue until their objectives were achieved.

Hadi’s Foreign Minister Riyadh Yaseen said: “We are not thinking about dialogue in the present time until the conditions are arranged on the ground.”

In a rare move, Saudi-owned television channel Al-Arabiya broadcast a detailed account of what it said was a proposal last week to the Saudi leadership by Saleh’s son Ahmed to head off military intervention by breaking with the Houthis.

It said two days before the Saudi-led campaign began, Ahmed Saleh offered in a meeting with Saudi Defence Minister Prince Mohammad bin Salman to organise a coup against the Houthis.

In return, the channel said, Saleh requested U.N. sanctions on his father be lifted, immunity be granted to him and his father, and media campaigns against his father be halted.

Al-Arabiya said Prince Mohammad rejected the proposal. “There must be a return to legitimacy in the form of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to lead Yemen from the capital Sanaa,” it quoted him as saying.

The 9th International Limassol Marathon, the biggest sporting event of the year in Cyprus, started on Sunday morning, in the presence of President Nicos Anastasiades, Limassol Mayor Andreas Christou, other officials and spectators.

The Marathon attracted more than 10,000 participants, of whom about 1,500 runners came from abroad. The oldest runner is Cypriot Andreas Pampakas, aged 78. Children as young as 5 years old also participated.

Addressing the event, President Anastasiades said that the Marathon is one of the biggest events for the country which began nine years ago with the participation of only seventy runners. Today, he added, the participants are more than ten thousand.

The President praised the cooperation between local authorities, tourist organizations, athletic institutions and others, which led to such a successful sporting event.

He welcomed particularly the 1,500 athletes who came from abroad for the Marathon. Runners from most of the European countries, Japan, US, Brazil, Australia, China and Turkey participated in the Marathon, the President said.

Addressing these athletes, the President welcomed them and wished them a happy stay on the island.

He also praised the participation of 1,500 students/children at the event, pointing out that what is more important is the participation, physical activity, sportsmanship and solidarity.

In his speech, the President expressed gratitude towards the 500 volunteers who are working today for the success and the safety of the event.

The Marathon, which is accredited by IAAF and AIMS, is organized by Limassol Municipality, the Chamber of Commerce of Limassol, GSO and the Limassol Tourist Development Company.

CNA

According to CNA sources, and even though the final program of his meetings has not been confirmed yet because Hammond is participating in talks on Iran`s nuclear program in Switzerland, the British Foreign Secretary is expected to meet on Tuesday at noon with Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides and later on in the afternoon he will be received by the President of the Republic Nicos Anastasiades.

The visit is part of a tour British officials are making in EU member countries in an effort to promote the vision of British Prime Minister, David Cameron, on EU reforms.

According to diplomatic sources, the presence of Philip Hammond in Cyprus is an opportunity to discuss the developments in the Cyprus problem and the way that the Greek Cypriot side understands the next steps. Bilateral relations, developments in the Eastern Mediterranean region and the fight against terrorism will also be on the agenda of talks Hammond will have in Nicosia, they added.

On a meeting the Foreign Secretary is expected to have with the Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu, in Cyprus` northern Turkish occupied areas, reliable sources have told CNA that the government has conveyed its concerns regarding this meeting, pointing out the need to respect and take into consideration the sensitive aspects of the Cyprus problem.

A diplomatic source has told CNA that it would be “laughable and non sensical” to suggest that there is any connection to a possible Hammond – Eroglu meeting with the pre-election campaign in Britain or April`s polling in the occupied areas of Cyprus.

The same source has said that while the Bristish FS is in Cyprus, he is expected to meet with the leaders of the two communities and discuss with them developments in Cyprus problem, without implying any initiative or any other action. However, it was noted that nothing has been confirmed yet.

The British Foreign Secretary will arrive at Larnaka international airport on Tuesday and leave from Larnaka the same day.

CNA

By Stelios Orphanides

Cyprus’s business community is upset over the pending introduction of a punitive tax in Greece on imports from other countries including Cyprus which aims at combating fictitious transactions, a business group official said.

By George Psyllides
THE LABOUR ministry plans to submit a bill amending the law on guaranteed minimum income (GMI) to allow the minister to handle cases where people may face serious problems but do not meet all the eligibility criteria, lawmakers heard on Monday.
Labour Minister Zeta Emilianidou said changes made by parliament to the original legislation, which allowed the minister to issue decrees whenever necessary, have created problems.
Removing the provision took away the minister’s power to help a unemployed mother of five because she owns immovable property worth over €100,000, Emiliandou told the House labour committee.
There are hundred of special cases, which cannot be dealt with because the minister or the cabinet do not have the right to issue decrees, she added.
To be eligible for GMI people must not have over €5,000 in the bank or own property worth more than €100,000 – excluding primary residences.
Emilianidou said she will soon submit legislation that will grant that power to the cabinet or a committee or other institution to grant GMI to ineligible applicants in need.
To date, 17,519 people who were not eligible for a state allowance before have applied for GMI, the minister said. The ministry has approved 5,620 while 6,392 were rejected either because of their bank deposits, the value of their immovable property, or their income exceeded the limit set by the law.
The ministry has asked 310 applicants to explain why assets or immovable property belonging to them had been transferred in the past 12 months. Information is also expected from 3,252 applicants.
Applications from other EU nationals reached 3,705, the committee heard, and they have been asked to prove they lived on the island continuously for five years.
The ministry has received a total of 71,538 applications, including 918 from third country nationals.
GMI was introduced last year, to replace the previous system of state allowance, which was easy to abuse.
Among the 21,195 applications submitted by state aid recipients, 1,221 cases were found to have bank deposits that exceeded the criteria set by the law.
Three cases had over €500,000, 29 had between €200,000 and €500,000, 94 had between €50,000 and €100,000, 170 between €25,000 and €50,000, 200 between €15,000 and €24,000, and 678 between €5,000 and €15,000.
However, the new system has been criticised as being overly complicated, causing the delays in processing applications.
The minister rejected charges from committee chairman, AKEL MP Andreas Fakontis that the GMI scheme had been a failure.
“It is not a delay but proper checking,” she said, adding that this administration had introduced a reform of the system.

By John Deutch,

Public opinion in the United States is divided about the performance of the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) and the National Security Agency (N.S.A.) during the Bush and Obama presidencies.

The revelation of intelligence “failures” such as lack of warning of the 9/11 attacks, the incorrect assessment of Iraqi nuclear weapons activity prior to the 2003 invasion, and leaks to the media about operations against Iran contribute to a negative judgment.

The December 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee majority report that fiercely attacked the planning and execution of the C.I.A.’s enhanced interrogation and detention program following 9/11 suggests to the public that the C.I.A. is a rogue agency that misleads the White House and Congress, and covers up its misconduct.

The C.I.A.’s unmanned aerial vehicle strikes against suspected terrorists in Southwest Asia and the Middle East during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations – as reported by the press – which many might consider a legitimate use of military force, are viewed as immoral and illegal when carried out by an intelligence service. If these reports are true, the Pentagon is more appropriate and capable to carry out such continuing operations.

On the positive side, the absence of successful major terrorist attacks against the United States and its allies since 9/11 suggests that something is going right. The hallmark of an intelligence service is silence – successes are not known, but everyone sees the failures.

Americans recognize that they are vulnerable to physical and cyber terrorist attacks, and they expect – indeed, demand – that the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies intensify efforts to warn and defend against, and disrupt such attacks. The recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Denmark will certainly encourage similar sentiments in Europe.

The new security reality blurs traditional distinctions between foreign and domestic threats, national security and law enforcement, and foreign and U.S entities. It is difficult to locate the origin of a cyberattack, or to know whether it was launched by a criminal organization or a hostile state. This implies a difficult balance between intelligence collection, law enforcement, and respect for the rights of U.S. citizens.

But it is not only the United States that questions the competence and performance of its intelligence service. France is in turmoil after the Islamic terrorist attack that took 17 lives in Paris in January. Although less visible, there are likely concerns about the performance and behavior of security services in Russia and China as well.

Concerns about past performance mask a deeper uncertainty about what methods of intelligence are effective and justifiable at a time of changed security concerns due to terrorism.

Under both the Bush and Obama administrations, the C.I.A. has spent more effort and dollars carrying out interdiction operations than on its core mission of collecting and analyzing information in order to better advise the president and the nation’s foreign policy leadership. This needs to be reversed. National leaders everywhere need to have the best information available when they make decisions that involve the safety and security of their citizens.

Intelligence information is not obtained only by clandestine collection. The exploitation of the massive explosion of open “big data” sources provides important insights as well. Both the Bush and Obama administrations have improved technical collection by satellites, for example, which is an important and unique U.S. capability.

The most important change under the Bush and Obama presidencies is the creation, in 2004, of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (D.N.I.), which has jurisdiction over the C.I.A. Previously, the director of central intelligence both coordinated foreign intelligence activities for the president and served as the director of the C.I.A.

Since 2004, the D.N.I. has served as principal adviser to the president and the National Security and Homeland Security Councils, and has overseen the National Intelligence Programs.

This change was a response to shortcomings identified by the 9/11 Commission about the lack of coordination and cooperation between the C.I.A., the N.S.A., and domestic security agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, immigration, customs, and border patrol.

At the time, I testified to the 9/11 Commission in support of this change. But I have a different view today.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has added a vast bureaucratic layer, which by all accounts has increased administrative expense with little noticeable improvement in interagency cooperation. Certainly, this new structure makes it more difficult for the C.I.A. to do its job with foreign partners.

Unlike the United States, many countries maintain a foreign intelligence service under the supervision of the ministry of foreign affairs, a domestic security service under the interior ministry, and a judicial system that is not part of the security apparatus, but is responsible for seeing that the nation’s laws are obeyed. There is much to admire about this arrangement.

John Deutch was director of central intelligence and deputy secretary of defense in the first Clinton administration. He is an institute professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

John Deutch was director of central intelligence and deputy secretary of defense in the first Clinton administration. He is currently an institute professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This article first appeared in TheMarkNews