By Jean Christou

ADRESSING non-performing loans, changing the business model, the need for transparency, and the removal of the remaining capital controls were the main challenges facing the sector, according to senior bankers at the 2nd Cyprus Banking Forum in Nicosia on Thursday.

“Stop demonising the system,” urged Eurobank Cyprus CEO Michalis Louis. Foreign investors and depositors, he said, had gradually begun to return. “Cypriots too must trust and support our banking system again,” he added.

Marios Clerides, Director General of the Cooperative Central Bank, outlined what the banking system looked like leading  up to the March 13 crisis and immediately afterwards. He warned against a future bubble and against “building castles in the sand”.

Banks, he added, “should be boring”. They should work in a solid, stable, reliable and secure manner. They should ensure the loans they grant are used for the purpose they are given, and that the banks will get their money back.

“Banks in Cyprus have lost the trust of their clients and need to recover it,” he said.

The huge issue of NPLs was one of the main points made by the CEO of Piraeus Bank Cyprus, Giorgos Appios, who spoke about the priorities and action plan for the next two years that banks should follow on the road to recovery.

NPLs were the number one priority for all Cypriot banks, he said, as well as redesigning and re-evaluating their business model. “Something must change,” he added.

The Managing Director of Alpha Bank Cyprus Giorgos Georgiou said consumers needed to accept that they have to pay for services previously provided free of charge.  He also said that banks must make a major investment in IT.

Bert Pijls, recently appointed CEO of Hellenic Bank Group, said banks needed to simplify their procedures and act transparently with the customer “at the heart of their decision-making”.

He said the successful stress test results further boosted efforts for the Cypriot banking system to regain depositors’ and investors’ confidence.

“The adverse economic and banking conditions present an opportunity to correct the structural distortions that brought Cyprus to this point and will lead to the establishment of a tighter regulatory framework to base the restoration of confidence and trust of the Cypriot society and foreign investors in the Cypriot economy and its banking system,” he said.

Transparency, he added, was extremely important and he referred to NPLs as the “big elephant in the room”, something that should be dealt with decisively. He also said that the deliberate practice of some borrowers not to pay their loans was “socially unacceptable”.

By Ed Cropley and Cris Chinaka

Ninety-year-old Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe purged the deputy seen just months ago as his most likely successor, denouncing her before party loyalists as leader of a “treacherous cabal” bent on removing him from power.

In a thunderous speech to 12,000 cadres of his ZANU-PF party, Mugabe threatened to turn the law on Vice President Joice Mujuru, whose status as presumed successor for Africa’s oldest head of state has evaporated in the past three months since she became the target of attacks in state media.

“As we thought we were working together, they were doing their own thing, a cabal parallel to the party, planning their own future, planning how to change the leadership, planning about kicking the president out of power,” Mugabe said.

His comments appear to end the future in the ruling party of Mujuru, seen by some in the Zimbabwean business community as a common-sense leader who could have helped restore relations with the West that fell apart during the latter half of Mugabe’s 34 years in power.

Every time he mentioned 59-year-old’s name, the crowd crammed into a cavernous tent in a dusty field near Harare’s central business district erupted into jeers and cackles.

“Those who are or were involved in corrupt activities, you are going to be prosecuted wherever we have enough evidence,” he continued in the Shona language, accusing Mujuru of “gross corruption” in several gold and diamond mining deals.

He provided no evidence.

Mujuru, a former guerrilla with the nom de guerre “Spill Blood”, was not present at the meeting, a ruling party congress that is meant to anoint its leadership for the next five years.

A source close to Mujuru said she was watching the speech on television at her Harare home and would not be commenting.

Her only response during the three-month campaign against her by state media and Mugabe’s 49-year-old wife, Grace, has been a short written statement in which she has denied allegations of corruption and plotting an assassination attempt.

CROCODILE LIES IN WAIT

Despite his advanced years and rumours of cancer, Mugabe is running unchallenged as ZANU-PF leader. After his speech, Mugabe stood on the podium decked out in a bright yellow jacket and baseball cap, swaying gently from side-to-side and clapping to the rhythm of a deafening jazz band.

Assuming he is still fit and able, he will be ZANU-PF’s leader when the next elections come round in 2018.

With Mujuru gone, the succession race is more open.

Despite her political inexperience, Grace Mugabe is being elevated to the head of the powerful ZANU-PF Women’s League, giving her a seat on the party’s Politburo, its top decision-making body.

However, the one-time government typist faces an uphill struggle if she aims to succeed her husband, having played no part in the armed struggle in the 1970s against white rule in the former Rhodesia that is seen as confering legitimacy on senior ruling party figures.

Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, a 64-year-old career Mugabe loyalist nicknamed “The Crocodile” is seen as a likely candidate to assume the mantle of future successor.

By Phil Stewart and Steve Holland

The United States on Thursday for the first time publicly disclosed a failed attempt last month to rescue a US citizen held hostage by al Qaeda’s Yemen branch, and the group threatened to kill him in a new video posted on the Internet.

US officials said President Barack Obama last month authorised a secret raid to rescue Luke Somers, a 33-year-old journalist who was kidnapped in Yemen’s capital Sanaa in September 2013. Somers was not at the targeted location, although other hostages were freed, the officials said.

“As soon as the US government had reliable intelligence and an operational plan, the president authorized the Department of Defense to conduct an operation to recover Mr. Somers,” said Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council. “Regrettably, Luke was not present.”

Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said the rescue operation was carried out in partnership with Yemen’s military and involved air and ground components.

“Details about the mission remain classified,” Kirby said.

In the assault on a cave in remote Hajr as-Say’ar district in the eastern province of Hadramout, US and Yemeni security forces rescued six Yemenis, a Saudi and an Ethiopian, and killed seven al Qaeda kidnappers, Yemeni officials said previously.

The Yemeni defense ministry’s 26sept.net website later quoted a soldier who had participated in the rescue as saying an American, a Briton and a South African held there had been moved elsewhere two days earlier.

The US disclosure came after the appearance of a new video by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the militant network’s Yemen arm, purporting to show Somers and threatening to kill him if unspecified demands were not met.

The man identifying himself as Somers said he was looking for “any help that can get me out of this situation.”

Reuters was unable to confirm the authenticity of the video, posted on YouTube and social media late on Wednesday and carried by SITE, an organisation that monitors militant statements.

The man in the video says he was born in the United Kingdom and holds American citizenship.

“We give the American government a timeframe of three days from the issuance of this statement to meet our demands about which they are aware; otherwise, the American hostage held by us will meet his inevitable fate,” an AQAP official identified as Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi said in the video.

By Barbara Goldberg, Sebastien Malo and Laila Kearney

A police union official on Thursday defended a white officer’s role in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man in New York even as protesters planned a new round of demonstrations a day after a grand jury voted not to bring charges.

New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch told reporters on Thursday that Officer Daniel Pantaleo had acted properly in restraining Eric Garner during an arrest attempt in the borough of Staten Island in July.

“He’s a model of what we want a police officer to be,” Lynch said.

Meanwhile, the Rev. Al Sharpton and other civil rights leaders called for the appointment of a special federal prosecutor to investigate suspected cases of police abuse, including the shooting death in August of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri.

“We want the justice department to address the fact that the system is broken when you are dealing with the police and people of color,” Sharpton told reporters at a news conference.

The grand jury cleared Pantaleo on Wednesday, setting off protests in New York and in other major cities. The decision was announced just over a week after a Missouri grand jury declined to charge a white policeman who killed Brown in Ferguson, touching off rioting, looting and burning.

Hundreds of protesters swarmed the streets in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday night, many chanting “I can’t breathe,” the same phrase Garner repeatedly gasped in a video of the incident on a Staten Island sidewalk before his death. Police reported 83 arrests by Thursday morning.

People demonstrated in other cities, including Oakland, Washington, D.C., and Denver.

Separately on Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the Justice Department had found the Cleveland Police Department systematically engages in excessive use of force against civilians.

The investigation, which began in March 2013, gained added prominence after a Cleveland police officer last month shot dead a 12-year-old boy who was carrying what turned out to be a toy gun on a playground.

The findings will prompt federally mandated reforms but carry no criminal charges.

The police union’s Lynch criticized New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, saying he failed to support police after the decision in his initial remarks on Wednesday.

“Unequivocally, police officers feel like they have been thrown under the bus,” Lynch said.

De Blasio, who took office in January promising to repair relations between minority New Yorkers and the police department, was also expected to address the media Thursday.

Pantaleo said in a statement: “It is never my intention to harm anyone and I feel very bad about the death of Mr. Garner.”

But earlier on Thursday, Garner’s wife, Esaw Garner, rejected the condolences offered by Pantaleo.

“The time to apologize or have any remorse … would have been when my husband was screaming he couldn’t breathe,” Esaw Garner told NBC’s “Today” show.

When the grand jury’s decision was revealed, Garner’s wife told the “Today” show: “I started crying because it’s not fair. It’s not fair. What could they not see? How could they possibly not indict?”

The officer’s lawyer, Stuart London, told Reuters on Thursday Pantaleo was trying to bring Garner to the ground using a move he learned in training to protect the two of them from crashing through a storefront glass window in the struggle. Lynch also said Pantaleo had properly applied an approved takedown technique.

The city’s medical examiner said police officers had killed the 43-year-old Garner by compressing his neck and chest and ruled the death a homicide, adding that Garner’s asthma and obesity had contributed to his death.

Although chokeholds are technically banned by New York City police regulations, the 2,000-page patrol guide is vague about whether such use of force can be allowed in certain circumstances, said Maria Haberfeld, who heads John Jay College’s Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration.

That grey area, she said, may have influenced the grand jury and could play a role in determining whether Pantaleo faces departmental discipline.

Holder said on Wednesday the Justice Department, which is already probing the circumstances of the Missouri shooting, would also examine the Garner case, as well as the local inquiry into it.

Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, whom President Barack Obama has nominated to succeed Holder and whose office will help lead the investigation, said in a statement on Wednesday the probe would be “fair and thorough.”

Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan, whose office oversaw the local investigation, said on Wednesday he had asked a judge to authorize the release of evidence that was presented to the grand jury, which like all grand juries operated in secret. A decision has not been announced.

By Vladimir Soldatkin and Alexei Anishchuk

Gunmen attacked a police post and stormed a building on Thursday in Grozny, capital of Russia’s southern province of Chechnya, killing 10 policemen in clashes in which 10 of the attackers were also killed.

The bloodiest fighting in Chechnya for months erupted a few hours before President Vladimir Putin said in a speech in Moscow he would defend Russia against what he called attempts to dismember it.

The attack underlined the fragile security situation in Chechnya more than a decade after Putin sent troops to quell an Islamist separatist uprising there.

Ten policemen and 10 suspected militants were killed, Russia’s National Anti-terrorism Committee (NAK) said, adding that another 28 law enforcement personnel had been wounded.

However, Putin praised the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, for carrying out a “professional” security operation.

He said earlier on Thursday during his annual state of the nation speech at the Kremlin that Russia was surrounded by enemies who sought to dismember it and to destroy its economy, adding: “We did not allow it.”

NAK said “terrorists” attacked a police post in Grozny around 1:00 a.m. (2200 GMT) and then stormed offices housing local media and a school.

Footage obtained by Reuters showed clashes at night and in the morning that included persistent small arms fighting and what looked like a shoulder-fired missile striking the media building.

The building’s workers said one civilian had suffocated to death as fire engulfed the building, though authorities did not confirm the report.

A video posted on YouTube suggested the attackers had entered Grozny in an act of “retaliation” for what it called the oppression of Muslim women.

NAK said on Thursday evening its “anti-terrorist” operation was over and all suspected militants killed.

A Reuters witness in Grozny said security forces had deployed military vehicles in the streets, set up multiple check points in the city and closed off the affected area.

“We didn’t expect this to happen, the devils showed their last strength,” Chechen leader Kadyrov told reporters in Moscow after attending Putin’s speech.

Kadyrov keeps a firm grip on Chechnya after separatist wars there in 1994-96 and 1999-2000, but an Islamist insurgency has spread across the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region.

In October, five policemen were killed and 12 were injured in Grozny in a suicide bombing attack.

By Angelos Anastasiou

EFFORTS by political parties to converge in support of a single candidate in January’s Paphos mayoral by-election appeared to falter on Thursday, as opposition party spokesmen abandoned conciliatory wording and spoke of the possibility of each supporting their own candidate.

In a news conference, DISY leader Averof Neophytou called on authorities to pursue the investigation of all cases of corruption and mismanagement.

“We also feel that Paphos needs tranquillity and that citizens, proper management and purging the municipality of corruption should come before partisan interests, which is why we call on all sides to keep their party swords in their party sheaths,” said Neophytou.

He added that his party will decline to participate in behind-the-scenes negotiations to agree on a candidate, but called for a “public discussion about respected, honest and able individuals who might be willing to serve for an interim two-year period in the interest of achieving the national goal of ‘Paphos 2017’ European cultural capital.”

AKEL MP Andreas Fakontis said his party does not view cooperation with other parties as an end in itself.

“Our top priority is Paphos, which is why we will seek a candidacy that combines integrity and the ability to lead the municipality away from corruption, as well as its efforts relating to the 2017 cultural capital,” he said. “We will have some meetings with political parties, but cooperation is not an end in itself. If cooperation is not possible, AKEL retains the option of supporting its own candidate.”

DIKO’s Christos Patsalides, chairman of the ‘Paphos 2017’ committee and perceived by many as the most appropriate candidate for the widest possible cooperation across party lines, has said he would only be interested if that were, in fact, the case.

“I would not be interested in the mayoral race if that meant maintaining the confrontational atmosphere that can only hurt our efforts for Paphos to move forward,” he said. “In such a case, I would rather stay away.”

EDEK, whose municipal councilman and acting mayor Makis Rousis was one of the first to express an interest in running, said the municipality is “badly hurt, and now is not the time for personal ambition or party politics.”

According to its leader Yiannakis Omirou, in order for the municipality’s credibility to be restored, “wide cooperation and crossing party lines” are necessary.

“What the Paphos municipality and its citizens need right now is a conciliatory solution, and as EDEK we will make every effort to achieve it,” he said.

The Greens were most critical of suggestions of partisan deliberations to agree on a common candidate.

Spokeswoman Eleni Chrysostomou said the party is “strongly opposed” to behind-the-scenes agreements by parties.

“Parties have a responsibility for what has happened at the Paphos municipality,” she said.

The party repeated its call for the resignation of the entire municipal council, arguing it had been complacent to the scandals.

“A cancerous situation cannot be allowed to go on,” the Greens said.

Following the resignation of Savvas Vergas earlier this week, candidacies for the January 11 mayoral by-election must be submitted by December 30.

The first official candidacy was announced on Wednesday by Yioula Papaeti-Koutsoftidi, the former wife of EDEK deputy – and himself a former Paphos mayor – Fidias Sarikas.

“I was born and raised, and I fought and worked, in my city, and for my city,” she said in a statement. “My love, but more than that, my conscience, do not allow me to stand by during Paphos’ difficult time.”

“So, I announce my independent candidacy for Paphos mayor. My aim and goal is to restore appeal, dignity and prosperity to Cyprus’ erstwhile capital city.”

By Mark Hosenball

North Korea is a principal suspect in the cyber attack on Sony Pictures, a US national security source told Reuters on Thursday, while a North Korean diplomat denied Pyongyang was behind the crippling hack.

The US government’s investigation into the Nov. 24 attack is being led by the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office and the Hollywood studio is cooperating, a law enforcement source said.

The national security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said North Korea is not the only suspect and it was too soon to definitively know who is behind the attack that exposed a trove of internal data and shut down the computer systems at the entertainment arm of Sony Corp.

North Korea had vehemently denounced the Sony film The Interview, a comedy movie about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, scheduled for release on Dec. 25.

A former top US government expert on North Korea said that circumstantial evidence suggesting its involvement in the Sony attack included the fact that the North Koreans had been “very vocal about their unhappiness” about the film.

A New York-based North Korean diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Voice of America broadcast network on Wednesday that linking North Korea to the hacking of Sony Pictures’ computers was “another fabrication targeting the country.

“My country publicly declared that it would follow international norms banning hacking and piracy,” the diplomat said.

The denial from North Korea regarding the Sony hacking came despite sources telling Reuters that cyber investigators had found connections to North Korea in the form of hacking tools similar to those used by that country in previous attacks on South Korea.

INTERNAL DATA LEAKED

Despite the swirling controversy, Sony said the film’s release remains on schedule, although on Thursday it cancelled a Los Angeles press day for next week citing “some scheduling conflicts.” A press day in New York is still possible.

The Interview stars James Franco and Seth Rogen as American journalists who are recruited by the CIA to kill Kim after the authoritarian leader grants them an interview.

In June, the Pyongyang government denounced the film as “undisguised sponsoring of terrorism, as well as an act of war” in a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Rogen, who co-wrote and co-directed the film, told Rolling Stone magazine in an interview conducted in June that they did get called in for a meeting with Sony’s North American CEO.

“Any time a movie causes a country to threaten nuclear retaliation, the higher-ups wanna get in a room with you,” Rogen said in the interview published in this week’s Rolling Stone.

Sony has struggled to get all of its systems back up since its network was breached. Studio executives told staff in a memo on Tuesday that they still did not know the “full scope of information that the hackers might have or release.”

The hackers, who have identified themselves as GOP or Guardians of Peace, leaked more Sony data on Wednesday that included personal log-ins and credentials, the website CSO Online reported.

“In short, the IT data leaked is everything needed to manage the day-to-day operations at Sony,” CSO said.

But the studio did manage to make one of its biggest announcements of the year in England on Thursday – the new Bond movie, “SPECTRE,” starring Daniel Craig as 007 once again.

It was a reminder of Sony’s might in the movie world. The Bond franchise had its most lucrative film in the series to date with Skyfall, which brought in $1.1 billion worldwide.

By Angelos Anastasiou

POLICE investigation into misleading or false public statements regarding Bank of Cyprus’ capital adequacy by former officials has been concluded and the findings will be evaluated by the Legal Services before deciding on prosecutions, Attorney General Costas Clerides said on Thursday.

Clerides convened a meeting with lead investigators looking into Cyprus’ economic meltdown in order to discuss the Bank of Cyprus case, as well as difficulties holding back progress with regard to investigations into former Laiki Bank officials.

“On completion of the investigations, the police will prepare a report including its suggestions,” Clerides told reporters after the meeting. “But they are merely suggestions – the final say on whether cases can be filed, and if so, against whom, rests solely with Legal Services.”

Clerides and his deputy, Rikkos Erotokritou, asked for an update from police investigators on the progress of various cases, one of which is nearing completion and will be delivered to Legal Services for further action.

According to Clerides, the cases relate to “some offences already penalised by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, for which it has imposed fines.”

Last June, financial watchdog CySEC broke precedent when it imposed a total €8m in fines to former officials of the two banks in connection with these cases.

The fines were issued against 12 former BoC officials, including former CEO Andreas Eliades, his successor Yiannis Kypri and former board chairman Theodoros Aristodemou, each fined €530,000, and 11 Laiki officials, including former strongman Andreas Vgenopoulos and his right-hand man at the bank Efthymios Bouloutas, each fined €705,000.

CySEC head Demetra Kalogirou recently said the Commission has yet to collect on the fines.

A similar case against now-defunct Laiki Bank officials is being built by the authorities, but practical issues appear to be holding back investigations. However, Clerides appeared confident that the Laiki case will also be concluded soon.

“The claim I heard recently – that no investigations are being carried out with regard to Laiki Bank – is baseless,” he said. “On the contrary, investigations regarding Laiki are ongoing. Specifically, it spans the period from 2005-2006, when the lender’s shares were taken over, until its collapse in 2013.”

“This prosecution is just the beginning, not the end,” Clerides said of the Bank of Cyprus officials’ indictment.

Meanwhile, according to daily Phileleftheros, two British experts commissioned to assist police with the investigations started work on Wednesday, with two more scheduled to start on Monday.

However, the paper said, the purchase of a €600,000 computer server that was green-lit by the Finance ministry last May to help with cross-referencing the names of those involved in various cases, has yet to materialise.

By Staff Reporter

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin on Thursday referenced the bail-in of depositors in Cyprus last year as one reason why Russian capital should be repatriated.

In a 70-minute state of the nation address to the Russian parliament, Putin proposed full tax and legal amnesty for capital to return to Russia, in a bid to kick-start the economy.

Repatriating capital to Russia legally would mean “there will be no questions from the tax and law enforcement bodies,” Putin promised.

“Everybody who wants to should have the right to come back to Russia. We have to turn this offshore page of our economy. I believe that after the Cyprus events our business will understand that its interests abroad are not valued and the best guarantee for them is national jurisdiction.”

Cyprus became a major offshore centre for Russian businesses in the 1990s, but the emergency bailout of Cypriot banks in 2013 meant big losses for some of them.

In Nicosia, Finance minister Harris Georgiades skirted a question when asked to comment on Putin’s remarks.

“I do not wish to comment on the decisions of foreign governments,” he told reporters.

“We are confident that Cyprus was, and continues to be, an excellent centre for financial services, and we are focusing on boosting that comparative advantage,” he added.

Putin recently approved a bill to ‘deoffshorise’ businesses. The new law is slated to enter into force on January 1, 2015.

In 2014, Cyprus was among the ‘big three’ offshore destinations for Russians, with $2.9bn (€2.3bn) in foreign investment, followed by Luxembourg ($1.9bn) and the British Virgin Islands ($1.05bn).

PRESIDENT Nicos Anastasiades has been removed from respiratory support following his heart operation on Tuesday and was now aware of his environment, Government Spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said on Thursday.

“The condition of the health of the President is progressing in a completely normal manner,” the spokesman said in a written statement.

“Today, the respiratory support was removed and the condition of the health of the President, who is fully aware of his environment, is very stable.”

Christodoulides said the attending physicians had expressed their full satisfaction with the progress observed in the president’s post-operative condition.

Anastasiades underwent a mitral valve repair procedure at New York’s Mount Sinai clinic on Tuesday. During the surgery, performed by Dr David Adams and his team, the president’s triglochin valves wre  also repaired, as was an issue he had with occasional heart arrhythmias.

He will remain in the ICU unit for another two days and will then spend another four or five days at the hospital before being transferred to his hotel to recuperate prior to his journey home before Christmas.

By Marie Kambas

Cypriots spent 179,6 million euros for purchases in Cyprus in November, 4 percent more compared to the respective month a year before, JCC Payment Systems said.

By Angelos Anastasou
The economy probe by the state legal services will continue despite the challenges, and will expand into the roles played by former central bank governors and officials, Attorney-general Costas Clerides said on Friday.
Speaking on state radio, Clerides confirmed the first of what he expects will be a series of prosecutions will be initiated on Friday against Bank of Cyprus former officials in connection with the dissemination of misleading or false information to the public with regard to the lender’s capital adequacy.
“It is expected that, as we have been promised, the first cases will be delivered to us on Friday, at which point the evaluation stage will begin,” said Clerides.
“They relate to the Bank of Cyprus – some alleged offences identified and fined by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, which may also constitute criminal offences.”
He was referring to last June’s announcement by the CySEC of administrative fines totalling €8 million imposed on 23 former officials of Bank of Cyprus – 12 – and now-defunct Laiki Bank – 11 – for misleading investors through public statements.
Former BoC CEO Andreas Eliades, his successor Yiannis Kypri and former board chairman Theodoros Aristodemou were fined €530,000 each, and Laiki’s Andreas Vgenopoulos and Efthimios Bouloutas €705,000 each.
But while the BoC’s top brass is slated for prosecution, the picture on Laiki’s ex-top managers remains rather murky.
Asked to explain why the indictment of former Laiki officials is being delayed, Clerides said going after the big fish requires gathering all available information.
“These individuals [Vgenopoulos and Bouloutas] appear to be key to the investigation,” he said.
“You understand that they will be among the last to be questioned so that all the required material has been gathered, in order for all the necessary questions to be asked.”
But the issue of Laiki Bank, the AG added, is not merely being looked at in isolation.
“We don’t constrain ourselves to Laiki as a banking institution and its officials,” he said.
“We expand the investigation into matters of oversight, especially by the Central Bank and its officials – some of which are still at the CBC. This investigation could go as high up as former governors, and certainly officials at a lower tier.”
Despite meeting President Nicos Anastasiades’ pledge in September that prosecutions would start before year’s end, Clerides faces criticism for his service’s perceived slow pace in concluding investigations.
“Things have always moved forward – it’s just that some would not like to admit this fact, or couldn’t accept it, or were justifiably anxious,” he said. “The fact is that they have been moving forward, in an organised and concerted effort.”
“But while I accept this ‘justifiable anxiety from the public, I cannot accept it from politicians,” he charged. “Because they are fully aware of the procedures that need to be followed, and I have repeatedly explained the challenges we face.”
As if to illustrate his point, on Friday Acting President and EDEK leader Yiannakis Omirou expressed his satisfaction over the prosecutions but publicly demanded that the legal services include Laiki Bank in its investigation.
“We call on legal services to not confine the scope of investigations and prosecutions to the Bank of Cyprus,” he said. “Investigations and prosecutions must also include Laiki Bank, especially during the Vgenopoulos-Bouloutas period, the issue of emergency liquidity assistance, and the sale of Cypriot banks’ Greek branches.”
“Impunity will not be tolerated,” Omirou added.
Omirou was referring to an issue Clerides had addressed in public comments the previous day, when he referred specifically to the investigation into Laiki’s collapse.
“Investigations regarding Laiki are ongoing and span the period from 2005-6, when the lender’s shares were taken over, until its collapse in 2013,” Clerides had said on Thursday.

By Michael Kugelman

This week, an ailing Pakistani preacher has travelled to the United States for medical treatment. The visit has generated few headlines – he is not a well-known global figure.

However, in Pakistan, in Canada (where he is now based), and within some Muslim communities elsewhere around the world, people know all about Tahir-ul Qadri.

They know not just about his frail health, but also about the network of religious institutions that he runs across Pakistan, his work as an Islamic scholar, and the street protests he has recently staged in major Pakistani cities as the leader of the Pakistan Awami Tehrik (P.A.T.) party.

Yet, even many of those familiar with him would admit that he is a mystery.

He is, above all, a man of immense contradictions. He has issued fatwas against suicide bombings and casts himself as a voice of peace, yet he also delivers fiery speeches calling for revolution. He casts himself as a man of the people by calling for the elimination of corruption and energy shortages in Pakistan (and by expressing his preference for Tim Hortons coffee in Canada), but he has also spoken to the shivering masses from the comfort of a heated container. And he flies first class.

In recent years, Qadri, who is not a top politician, has developed close links to Pakistan’s top politicians. First came his friendship with the family of Nawaz Sharif, the country’s current prime minister. For years, Qadri led Friday prayers at the family’s mosque in Lahore. Then came a partnership with Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s former military leader, and in recent months, Qadri has teamed up with Imran Khan – the former cricket hero reinvented as a populist (and deeply polarizing) politician – to lead an anti-government movement.

Additionally, Qadri – who likes to keep a low profile in Canada – is frequently associated with big-ticket happenings. The sit-in that his young and fervent supporters staged with Khan’s supporters in Islamabad this past summer represented a major threat to Sharif’s rule, and brought Pakistan perilously close to a takeover by the military, which has ruled the country for nearly half its existence.

In Pakistan, whenever someone enjoys relationships with high-profile people, is associated with seminal political events, and boasts the ability to mobilize scores of people on the streets – all while being based abroad – there is a tendency to suspect some level of support, if not sponsorship, from Pakistan’s über-powerful security establishment.

However, the idea of the Pakistani military latching onto the frail preacher seems a bit far-fetched, not to mention infeasible. After all, it’s hard to stage-manage the moves of someone living thousands of miles away.

What’s more likely is that Pakistan’s security establishment views Qadri (who often praises the military in his speeches) as a useful if indirect proxy who can pressure and weaken a Pakistani government that the military cannot stand. Sharif is no friend of the Pakistani army – his interest in reconciling with archenemy India and his decision to charge Musharraf with treason have not gone down well at military headquarters.

By mobilizing young people on the streets (some of whom, according to one media report, are paid by P.A.T. leaders to stay on the streets), and by delivering anti-government diatribes, Qadri in effect helps cut the government down to size, and consequently strengthens the hand of the Pakistani military.

To be sure, this is what Khan does as well, and he enjoys a larger following and bigger name than Qadri does. Ultimately, however, the military may find Qadri more useful and consider him more pliable and disciplined than Khan, who some observers see as a grandstander who often goes off script.

Herein, then, lies the significance of the mysterious Tahir-ul Qadri: Whether inadvertently or not, he helps facilitate the Pakistani military’s iron grip on politics. He helps the armed forces maintain this tight grip without needing to hold power directly – something they likely have little interest in, given Pakistan’s many unprecedented and seemingly intractable challenges.

All this said, Qadri remains a wild card. Consider that his past relationships with both Sharif and Musharraf eventually soured. And several weeks ago, he attacked Khan in a speech and claimed that the P.A.T.’s “alliance” with Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party was no more.

Qadri doesn’t seem terribly invested in deep and long-term political relationships. Given the volatile vagaries of Pakistani politics, one can’t dismiss the possibility that for the Pakistani military, a proxy today could become a pariah tomorrow.

Michael Kugelman is the senior associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Views expressed are his own.

This article first appeared in www.themarknews.com

Representatives on both sides said on Friday that the ongoing restoration of mosques and churches on across the divide was sending a message of understanding and tolerance.
They were speaking at the inauguration of the Deneia mosque as part of the work of the b-communal Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage. The mosque has just been restored and was open for prayer yesterday.
Deneia had a total of 128 Turkish Cypriots and 170 Greek Cypriots prior to the intercommunal troubles.
Now there are 520 Greek Cypriots and only one Turkish Cypriot family living in the village, which is located outside of Nicosia.
Villagers and Turkish Cypriots who lived in Deneia before the troubles were present at the ceremony.
In his address, Greek Cypriot co-chairman of the Technical Committee Takis Hadjidemetriou said: “A new message emerges from the churches and the mosques that we restore, a message of understanding and tolerance, a message for the Cyprus of tomorrow, in which priests and imams along with common people, Greek and Turkish Cypriots alike, will walk along the pathway of peace”.
He said the mosque was in ruins when the engineers and contractor commenced restoration work and halfway, “the forces of hatred and intolerance reminded us of their presence”. In January 2013, as conservation work was underway, vandals demolished two walls.
Turkish Cypriot co-chairman of the Technical Committee, Ali Tuncay said this was the first time in almost 50 years that the mosque was open and he was happy to see it reach this stage. The symbolism of this project is very important, he said. “When we work and cooperate, we produce results. And by producing results we come together and heal the mistakes of the past”.
Community leader Christos Panagiotou said it was a great day for Deneia. “We believe that peoples and communities should build bridges because only through peace we can survive,” he said.
Tiziana Zennaro, Programme Manager of the United Nations Development Programme, said in the beginning, the works carried out were of an emergency nature but as they continued and with the collapse of the walls, the whole structure was strengthened.
The project showed how cultural cooperation can be the cornerstone for a better future, she added.
Alessandra Viezzer, head of Programme Team at the EU Programme Support Office EUPSO said that the mosque in Deneia is another example of successful partnership.
She said now the focus should shift and become more ambitious. Viezzer also said that she was convinced there is light at the end of the tunnel in Cyprus and announced that apart from the €5.3 million allocated for the Technical Committee from the EU for the period 2012-2014, a further €1.4 million would be approved by the end of this year.
“Life together is not only possible but must be achieved,” she said
Imam Mustafa Samile told the Cyprus News Agency: “We are all brothers and this is part of our brotherhood”. He said he was very happy to be at the mosque. “It is the best feeling to be here and pray after 50 years”.
Speaking on behalf of the Morphou Bishopric, Father Kyriakos said he was very moved by the restoration of the mosque. “More things, good things will come,” he said and cited the church service at Ayios Nicolaos at Sirianohori on Sunday. The church was also recently restored as part of the Technical Committe`s projects.
Work at the mosque began in 2012. It was the first site from a list of 40 selected by the Technical Committee to benefit from emergency measures.
The project was implemented by the United Nations Development Programme Partnership for the Future (UNDP-PFF) and cost approximately €123,667, including works, design, supervision and additional works to the roof, and was fully funded by the EU. (CNA)

Cyprus has fallen behind in public transport and the communications ministry’s strategic goals include improving it with a view to increasing its usage to the benefit of society at large, Communications Minister Marios Demetriades said on Friday.
Speaking after meeting with representatives of the bus companies, during which he presented them with the new public transport scheme, Demetriades said that the aim of the session was to inform the bus companies of the upcoming changes to the bus management system.
“We have presented them with both the immediate changes we want to implement, as well as the long-term ones,” he said. “As a ministry, our goal is to improve the current system’s efficiency, and it is certainly in everyone’s best interest to move forward together, so that we can offer the public the best possible services.”
The Communications minister said that the first step is the creation of a ministry-level steering committee that will undertake to resolve the long-standing problems that have accumulated since the early days of the bus system’s operation.
“The second thing we need to do is create a Transportation Authority board, that will initially be non-executive,” he added. “However, we are ready to incorporate its transformation into an executive board as part of the ministry’s reorganisation study, so that it is empowered with decision-making authority on matters relating to public transportation.”
Demetriades argued that the new structure will allow for greater flexibility and speedier decision-making, which, given the bus companies’ cooperation will improve the sector of public transportation.

By Maria Gregoriou

This year marks 25 years since the Berlin Wall fell. While Berlin had its celebratory activities to mark the epic event last month, the German Schools: Partners Cyprus (PASCH) for the Future will be marking the event on Tuesday with a student specific performance entitled Chronicles of a Division.

The site specific performance, which will be held at the museum of the Pancyprian Gynasium, resulted from a series of theatre workshops aimed at raising young people’s interest in the German language and to raise awareness about modern day Germany and its history, customs and culture.

Fifteen students participated in the workshops held at the museum, where an authentic result could be created. These five Sunday workshops were led by director Achim Wieland, who conducts a number of workshops throughout the year and also gives lectures at national and international institutions and award winning actor Marios Ioannou. The pair’s aim was to form an interesting experience for the students firstly and then share this experience with the audience.

PASCH explains what we are to expect on stage and in doing so, compares the borders on both sides of the wall with the separating lines on our island, by stating “It is a journey into time and space regarding the wall and the forceful separation of human beings, a phenomenon continuing to exist worldwide, last, but not least in Cyprus.”

The performance is the outcome of the PASCH’s initiative, in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Cyprus and the Ministry of Education.

Chronicles of a Division
Performance to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. December 9. The Museum of the Pancyprian Gynasium, Agiou-Ioannou and Thiseos Street, Nicosia. 7.30pm. Free. In different languages. Tel: 22-466014

By Evie Andreou
Professional secrecy is no excuse for not reporting signs of child abuse, a circular sent to teachers by the education ministry to teachers has warned.
The circular, accompanied by a copy of the law on prevention and fight against child sexual abuse and exploitation based on the newly-ratified Lanzarote convention aims to inform teachers on the law’s provisions and of their obligations.
The text said that within the new legislative framework all offences of sexual nature against children are punishable with heavy prison sentences, especially when it concerns children under the age of 13, where it provides for life imprisonment.
“In these are included offences that concern the abuse of special relationship or vulnerable relationship and relationship of trust,” the circular said.
It also said that in the event teachers suspect sexual abuse or exploitation of a student, according to the law a written report must be sent to the nearest police station and the welfare services notified.
“It is considered important for all educators to keep in mind that anyone that omits to report any case which may come to their knowledge, where a child is involved… commits an offence,” the circular said.
School units were also urged to make sure that all students are informed about the existing help lines where they can report sexual abuse.
The ministry however, failed to implement a legal obligation under which all bus drivers that transfer students are required to present to the ministry a clean criminal record. The issue was recently discussed at the House.
“We can never be too careful when it comes to children,” AKEL MP Irene Charalambidou told the Cyprus Mail.
Charalambidou also said that already one convicted sex offender was given a court order to appear before the monitoring authority upon his release.
The monitoring committee was formed in June as part of the legislation on the prevention and fight against child sexual abuse and is tasked with monitoring convicted paedophiles. “A second person will be served with a court order soon” she said.
The Lanzarote Convention on the protection of children against sexual exploitation and abuse was unanimously ratified by the plenum in November and a month-long public awareness campaign was launched instigated by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
Within this framework, the University of Cyprus’ Psychology Department is to present next Wednesday the first complete research study on child sexual abuse in Cyprus.

The health ministry on Friday called for medical volunteers to assist at a British-run clinic in Sierra Leone dealing with Ebola.
It said there was a shortage of medical equipment, personal protective equipment, ambulances, medical supplies and manpower.
“As part of this assistance to the countries of West Africa, the United Kingdom has developed hospitals of 700 beds in Sierra Leone and in cooperation with the Government of Sierra Leone has appealed to the international community for help to deal with the Ebola virus in the country,” the ministry said.
In line with this appeal, Cyprus was asking that healthcare professionals – doctors, nurses, pharmacists and lab technicians to submit expressions of interest. Training will be provided by UK professionals.
For information, contact Dr Elizabeth Constantinou at 22 605601 or coordinator for the virus Ebola Dr Charalambos Harilaou at 22 605610, 99607561, email pcharilaou@mphs.moh.gov.cy or igregoriou@moh.gov.cy.

Attorney-general Costas Clerides decided that no one would face charges in the case of the trans-activist photo exhibition, and had ordered police to return all photos held as evidence.
Two weeks ago police tore down a photo exhibition by activist artist Paola Reventioti – titled “Corrections”- and confiscated a number of photos picturing naked men. Police were acting on a complaint lodged by two citizens who had accidently seen the photos at the municipal market though they were supposed to be covered during the day. The complained they found the photos offensive.
Acting on an outdated law of 1963 – that prohibits public exhibition of lewd content- the police brought the head of Accept-LGBT Cyprus Costas Gavrielides to be questioned in the case, as the exhibition was organised by the NGO.
After examining the case, Clerides ruled that there was no case to be made against Gavrielides or the NGO.
Gavrielides told the Cyprus Mail that he had written to the AG and asked for all charges against him to be dropped, and demanding a public apology from the police.
Police spokesman Andreas Angelides told the Cyprus Mail that the photographs would be returned to their owner on officially receiving the AG’s recommendation.
The police were also slammed earlier this week by ombudsperson Eliza Savvidou, who called the law on lewd content “archaic” and an “assault on artistic expression.”

By Angelos Anastasiou
Police on Friday arrested Savvas Vergas’ wife Sofia Apostolidou, following testimony from a fourth implicated individual linking her to the sewage board scandal while Paphos court heard that the former mayor had approximately €6 million in his bank account.
Following his wife’s arrest, it was widely reported late on Friday that the former mayor gave a lengthy statement to investigators in which he allegedly admitted guilt on all charges and went as far as to name two MPs, and one current and two former councillors who allegedly also received kickbacks from contractors on the sewage project. At a press conference three weeks ago Vergas had promised to talk, “when the time is right.”
He is facing charges of conspiracy to commit a felony, conspiracy to defraud, fraud, bribing a state official, abusing authority, money laundering, acquiring assets through unlawful practices, interfering with a criminal investigation, theft and corruption.
Earlier on Friday Vergas was re-remanded for eight days, along with Sewage Board Manager Eftihios Malekkides and former DISY councillor Giorgos Michaelides.
Greek businessman Christos Drakopoulos, director of construction company Envitec which won one of the PSB’s contracts and claims to have been extorted by the three under remand, arrived in Cyprus on Thursday night and was questioned overnight.
According to state radio, his testimony embroiled Vergas’s wife in the PSB case, after he claimed Vergas pressured him into donating CYP50,000 to the Paphos municipality, which he was asked to deposit into Apostolidou’s bank account.
This was right after Envitec secured a PSB contract and received the first payment instalment of CYP920,000, Drakopoulos claimed.
“I was forced to dole out the money when Vergas implied that, had I not, the contract I signed with the municipality would be discontinued,” Drakopoulos testified.
He added that he tried to negotiate a smaller amount but Vergas insisted on CYP50,000, and Drakopoulos relented.
“The mayor told me that the donation would go to the Paphos municipality and gave me the name of Sofia Apostolidou, who he claimed was his associate.”
But when the case found its way to the courts, Drakopoulos added, he found out from press reports that Apostolidou was not Vergas’ associate but his wife.
He also claimed that he repeatedly asked Vergas for a receipt for the donation, to no avail.
Drakopoulos furnished police investigators with a copy of the donation’s deposit slip at a Greek bank.
After her arrest, Apostolidou was transferred to the Paphos police station for questioning, and is expected to be brought before court for remand on Saturday.
Meanwhile, during the remand-renewal hearing for Vergas, Malekkides and Michaelides, the lead investigator said that a probe into the bank records of Vergas and Malekkides revealed deposits of approximately €6 million in the former mayor’s account and €1.9 million in the PSB director’s account.
The lead investigator also said that in recent years Malekkides appears to have made several transactions of large amounts, such as the construction of a house appraised at €0.5 million, and the purchase of land worth approximately €400,000, while his salary, deposited into his account on a monthly basis, remained untouched.
Michaelides was found in possession of a winning lottery ticket, investigators said, prompting suspicion that it was bought to justify illegal proceeds, as this is a common method employed in money laundering.
Investigations into the two suspects’ bank accounts continue overseas in collaboration with financial crime police branch MOKAS.
The court ordered the renewal of the trio’s remand for a further eight days.
Once the ruling was heard, Michaelides claimed he felt ill and asked to be transferred to the Paphos General hospital.