CYPRUS MAIL

Cyprus Mail www.cyprus-mail.com

Saturday, December 29, 2012

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CYPRUS

SHOWBIZ

TECH

Church and state urge people to be optimistic

Bizarre health crazes of the rich and famous

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China tightens its Internet checks, permits post deletion 13

Tourism recovery on a steady path Revenue and arrivals due to clock increases for 2012, says CTO chief

By Poly Pantelides

M

AINLY due to increased Russian arrivals, revenue from tourism, which has been rising all year, is expected to bring close to €2 billion for 2012, a 10 per cent rise on last year, the Cyprus Tourism Organistion (CTO) said yesterday.

Tourism brought in some €1.7 billion in 2011.

CTO chief Alecos Orountiotis said this year would end with a 3.5 per cent increase in arrivals over last year – around 2.5 million visitors in 2012. In addition, 2011 itself was 10 per cent up on 2010.

Prior to that tourism had been falling steadily and in 2009 had seen a 10 per cent drop over 2008.

Up until November this year, over 470,000 Russian tourists visited the island, far exceeding the CTO’s hopes of attracting some 400,000.

Orountiotis said he expected both arrivals and revenue from Russian tourists to continue rising in 2013.

“We are very happy because we knew it would be a hard year,” Orountiotis said referring to an ongoing debt crisis that has limited arrivals from traditionally strong markets in Germany and the UK. Orountiotis said the

CTO was hoping it could maintain tourism from Germany and Britain at 2012 levels.

However, although the UK market brings in double the number of people compared to Russia, with over 942,000 Britons visiting up until November this year, the British market used to bring in 1.5 million tourists annually only ten years ago.

As the British market continues to decline, statistical services figures show that visits from Russians have continued to grow steadily.

Each month last year there was a year-on-year increase ranging from a 74 per cent hike in April to 5.5 per cent in November, the only month where a percentage increase was not in double figures.

On average, there was a 46.7 per cent increase in visits from the Russian Federation in the year 2011.

During peak season – June, July and August this year some 250,000 Russians spent their holidays on the island.

Spending €94 per head each day in 2011, Russians were the third highest spenders after the Swiss and the Israelis but stayed the longest on the island.

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A man is seen wrapped with pythons, including the Albino Burmese Python, as part of a show celebrating the coming Year of the Snake in the Chinese calendar in Malabon city, north of Manila yesterday (EPA)

Berlusconi divorce will cost him 100,000 euros a day FORMER Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has agreed to pay his estranged wife Veronica Lario 100,000 euros a day as part of a divorce settlement, the daily Corriere della Sera said yesterday.

The newspaper said the 36 millioneuro-a-year settlement, reached after three years of negotiations, was filed with a court in Milan around Christmas.

No comment was immediately available from the court or from lawyers for either Berlusconi or Lario following emailed and telephoned requests for confirmation.

The report comes shortly after Berlusconi’s return to frontline politics to lead the centre-right campaign ahead of an election in February.

Lario, a former actress who was married to Berlusconi for more than 22 years, asked for a divorce from the 76-year-old billionaire in 2009, accusing him of having an affair with a 17-year-old girl.

She had already delivered a public rebuke to her husband over his relations with other women, sending an open letter to the daily La Repubblica in 2007 in which she said he owed her a public apology after injuring her

dignity as a woman.

She sought a divorce two years later, saying she could “no longer stay with a man who frequents minors” after reports emerged that Berlusconi had attended the 18th birthday party of aspiring model Noemi Letizia.

Since then he has been accompanied by repeated allegations of sexual scandal, culminating in accounts last year of “bunga bunga” sex parties in his Milan home and charges of paying for sex with a juvenile prostitute,

TURN TO PAGE 9

Saturday, December 29, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

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Home PICTURE OF THE DAY

Weather Paralimni

Nicosia 1 16

9

Troo Troodos

18 18

Larnaca

18 1

18

Paphos

L Limassol

TODAY: Cloudy with light rain likely over the mountains and the west of the island. Temperatures will reach 16C inland, 18C along the coasts and 9C over higher ground OUTLOOK: Remaining unstable YESTERDAY:

Max Temp Nicosia 19 Larnaca 19 Limassol 20 Paphos 18 Paralimni 19 Prodromos 10

-

Min 9 11 12 12 10 5

Humidity 61% 65% 67% 73% 65% 87%

SUNRISE: 06:54am

SUNSET: 4:43pm

Pollution Low/Low Low/Low Medium/Low Low Low Low

Air quality in Cyprus is assessed with the aid of a network of nine advanced monitoring stations.

Data is recorded hourly.

Information provided by the Air Quality Section of the Department of Labour Inspection (DLI)

Worldwide Athens Budapest Bucharest Brussels Cairo Copenhagen Damascus Dublin Frankfurt Geneva Istanbul London

19 6 6 7 20 1 13 12 8 8 15 12

Cloudy Cloudy Cloudy Light Rain Cloudy Cloudy Cloudy Cloudy Light Rain Rainy Cloudy Light Rain

Madrid Manchester Moscow Oslo Paris Prague Rome Sarajevo Sofia Stockholm Tel Aviv Vienna

8 10 2 -8 9 0 15 1 3 -2 20 5

Clear Cloudy Haze Cloudy Drizzle Cloudy Clear Light snowfall Haze Clear Clear Light Rain

EXCHANGE

€

1.3310

€

0.8257

For a full list of exchange rates, see page 10

Carol singers dressed as the Three Kings, walk through Wuerzburg, Germany during a carol singing project. More than 2000 carol singers took part in the project collecting money for charity programmes that help children in need

QUICK CROSSWORD 2273 Across

Down

5 Team (4) 7 Nobleman (10) 8 Path (8) 10 Male bird (4) 11 Mormon state (4) 13 Rescue rope (8) 15 Carver (8) 16 Drizzle (4) 17 Poisonous tree (4) 18 Deterioration (8) 21 Becoming less (10) 22 Poetic lake (4)

1 Distort (4) 2 Ait (4) 3 Counterpane (8) 4 Jog (4) 5 Fuss-pot (8) 6 Going down (10) 9 Expect (10) 12 Brae (8) 14 Absolved (8) 18 Foot-covering (4) 19 Fashionable (4) 20 Irritable (4)

CHEMISTS NICOSIA D. Evangelou, 34E Metochiou St. Tel: 22774123, 22352123 (H) A. Pontou, 38A Eleftheria St, Anthoupolis. Tel: 22382550, 22384724 (H) H. Christofides, 43A Pericleous St, Strovolos. Tel: 22511351, 22319454 (H) C. Iacovides, 6C Crete St. Tel: 22752877, 22255058 (H) K. Georgiou. Tifa, 100 Kyrenia Ave, Platy. Tel: 22340340, 22514500 (H) LIMASSOL G. Stylianou, 32B 1st April St, Ayia Fyla. Tel: 25386760, 25339436 (H)

St. Houvartas 9 Panayioti Tsangari Germasoyia, Tel: 25879007, 25770489 (H) P. Panagidou, 82A Fragklinou Rousvelt Str. Tel. 25575777, 25561570 (H) LARNACA P. Christoforou, 1 Glastonos St, Tel: 24652702, 24360054 (H) A. D. Koulouma, 16A Larnaca.

Limassol Rd. Tel: 24642333, 24661155 (H) PAPHOS K. G. Filippidou, 93 E. Pallikarides St. Tel: 26949259, 26922670 (H) PARALIMNI G. Kayias, 6A Sotiras St. Tel: 23827020, 23744353 (H)

For cryptic crossword and answers to the previous quick crossword see page 18

ON THIS DAY DECEMBER 29 1940

22 years ago, Saturday December 29, 1990

On the evening of December 29, 1940, London suffers its most devastating air raid when German planes firebomb the city.

Turkish Cypriot tycoon Asil Nadir, charged in Britain with fraud, said in Istanbul yesterday that he was being persecuted because he was not British. Nadir told Gunaydin newspaper, which he owns that monkey tribes always tried to kill interlopers.

1975 Radical new legislation introducing a woman’s right to equal pay and status comes into force in the UK.

1984

Cyprus Mail

Rajiv Gandhi claims a massive victory for his assassinated mother’s Congress Party in the Indian general election.

Established 1945. Number 21,416 NICOSIA 24 Vass. Voulgaroctonou, P.O. Box 21144, 1502 Nicosia Tel: 22-818585, Fax: 22-676385 email: mail@cyprus-mail.com LIMASSOL 5A Nicolaou, Pentadromos Centre, Thessaloniki St, Tel: 25-761117, Fax: 25-761141 email: cyprusmail@cytanet.com.cy LARNACA Tel: 24-652243, Fax: 24-659982 PAPHOS 62 Apostolou Pavlou Avenue, Office 2, 8046 Paphos, Tel: 26 911383 Fax : 26 221049 email: paphos@cyprus-mail.com

WHAT THE MAIL SAID

37 years ago, Monday December 29, 1975 Turkey failed to secure full Soviet backing for its case in Cyprus during the four-day official visit to Ankara of Premier Alexei Kosygin which ended yesterday. A joint communiqué issued after the visit made no mention of the key Turkish demand for a two-state federation in Cyprus and called for a peaceful settlement of the problem.

1986 Lord Stockton, the former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, dies aged 92.

1993 Construction of the Tian Tan Buddha, the world’s tallest outdoor seated bronze Buddha, on Lantau Island in Hong Kong is completed.

47 years ago, Wednesday December 29, 1965 Britain should give further economic aid to Cyprus because of the facilities she continues to enjoy on the island, the Minister of Finance Solomonides said yesterday. The United Kingdom has paid up the entire £12 million grant it undertook to give the Republic in annual installments during the first five years of independence.

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 29, 2012

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Home CYPRUS TODAY Remand for teen burglary gang POLICE arrested three teenagers on Thursday in connection with 22 cases of break-ins and burglaries in Limassol.

According to Limassol CID chief, Yiannis Soteriades, a break-in happened at a kebab restaurant on December 27 at around 4.20am on Kritis Street in Limassol. Following police investigations a witness came forward and fingered a 19-year-old man from Limassol. He was arrested and allegedly confessed to the crimes as well as naming two accomplices, a 15-year-old and 18-year-old who were also arrested.

They were taken to Limassol District Court yesterday and allegedly confessed to another 21 burglaries where they had taken around €3,000 in total. The court ordered a remand for seven days. As well as money, during various burglaries the young men had also stolen bicycles and mopeds according to the police.

Police uncover car theft ring POLICE believe they have uncovered an organised car-theft gang comprised of three foreigners who stole cars in Larnaca, Nicosia and Limassol after the arrest of a 24-year-old Romanian man.

“After being interrogated by members of Larnaca CID, the 24-year-old Romanian confessed to stealing four cars in Larnaca and taking them to the north,” Larnaca Police spokesman, Christos Andreou said. “He also named two men from Syria, a 32-year-old and 37-year-old, who is in custody, as his accomplices. There is a court order for the arrest of the 32year-old in connection with cases of stolen cars,” he added.

According to Andreou, the 32-year-old has been wanted by police for six months in relation to other cases of car thefts in Larnaca. “The bi-communal task-force are examining to what extent there are stolen cars in the occupied north,” he concluded.

Grenade fuses found in man’s car THREE grenade fuse mechanisms were found by police on Thursday after they searched a car being driven by a 37year-old man.

“At around 5.40pm on Thursday, members of Nicosia Traffic Police stopped a car driven by a 37-year-old man. During their search of the car, police found a baseball bat, a set of brass knuckles and three grenade fuse mechanisms,” police spokesman Andreas Angelides said. Angelides explained that the fuses which are of Russian origin, contain explosive materials, which can then be attached to grenades. “Investigations are continuing as to where these fuses came from and how they were in the possession of the 37-year-old,” Angelides added.“This is a very serious case if we take into account the objects which were found, and it will be investigated very seriously,” he concluded.

Man critical after being run over A 22-YEAR-OLD man who was hit by a car late on Thursday night is in critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Nicosia General Hospital after suffering a serious head injury.

The young man was attempting to cross Apostolos Varnavas Road in Limassol on foot when he was struck by a car driven by a 23-year-old, police said. He was taken immediately to Limassol General Hospital where the on-duty doctor confirmed he had suffered cranial damage. Due to the severity of the injury the 22-year-old was then moved to the ICU of Nicosia General Hospital. Police are still investigating the cause of the accident.

Tourism recovery on steady path in 2012 CTO releases list of price comparisons islandwide (continued from front page) Orountiotis said yesterday that 2013 would be another difficult year for the economy, leaving room for little complacency when it comes to the tourism industry, whose contribution to GDP now exceeds ten per cent. Ten years ago that figure was 20 per cent but a combination of factors contributed to tourism’s demise including regional instability, changing tastes and the view that Cyprus was an expensive destination.

The latter has not yet dissipated.

Only yesterday the CTO posted a comparison chart detailing the price of basic drinks across 140 cafes islandwide.

The list, which also names the establishments, includes prices for water, fresh orange juice, coffee, tea and canned soft drinks.

According to the list, prices for fresh orange juice (250ml) in Nicosia range from €3.20 to €5.90; in Limassol they can be anything from €3 to €7; in Larnaca €1.60 to €5.90; Famagusta €1.90 to €5 and in Paphos €2.50 to €5.

Water prices range from

People enjoy what could turn out to be a very costly orange juice depending where they are €0.85 for a 500ml bottle to €3 in Nicosia, €0.70 to €2 in Limassol, €0.80 to €3 in Larnaca and €0.85 to €2 in Paphos, although one establishment there was selling 250ml bottles for a whopping €2.50.

The cheapest frappes can be had in Famagusta, where prices range from €1.50 to €3.50. A frappe in Paphos would cost anything between €2 and €4 and just a smidgen more in Larnaca and Nicosia

where prices lie between €2 and €4.50. Limassol frappe prices range between €2.40 and €5.70.

Limassol and Nicosia coffee shops have the most expensive drinks as a rule.

A cappuccino in Limassol costs anything between €2.40 and €5.50, while a soft drink at a Nicosia coffee shop can cost between €1.70 and €4.70. Coffee shops are obliged by law to display drinks’ prices at a conspicuous location and

break down items’ costs in their bills.

The full price list with the names of the cafes in each area is available at: http://media.visitcyprus. com/media/b2b_gr/News_ Releases/Paratiritirio_timon_astika.pdf or via website www.visitcyprus. biz (Greek only).

Contact the CTO at 22691100 to report anything that may be amiss. (see editorial page 11)

Bungling burglar burns himself stripping live wire A BUNGLING burglar sustained serious burns when he tried to strip copper piping from an 11,000kW cable at an EAC substation in Nicosia on Thursday night.

The EAC was alerted to the burglary yesterday morning when a power outage in Strovolos was being investigated.

They discovered the theft of the copper piping worth €400 from the Prodromos Avenue substation.

During investigations into the theft, police and EAC officials suspected the perpetrator might have burned himself and a call to the Nicosia General Hospital con-

firmed that a man had arrived at first aid on Thursday night with serious burns. Police said the man had told doctors he sustained the burns while trying to change a fuse at home.

Police issued an arrest warrant for the 26-year-old who is said to be in a serious though lucid condition at the hospital’s ICU. A police spokesman said the suspect admitted to being at the substation but denied stealing the copper.

Police are investigating whether he had any accomplices.

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Saturday, December 29, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

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Home The largest insurance payout ever in Cyprus Cheaper THE INSURERS and reinsurers of the Vassilikos power plant yesterday completed payment of the largest insurance payout ever in Cyprus, totalling €132.5m, following the plant’s destruction by the Mari naval base blast in July 2011.

According to an announcement

by Atlantic Insurance, the company paid the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) €102.5m yesterday, adding to the €30m already paid for reconstruction of the damaged power plant.

Atlantic thanked the EAC’s reinsurers for the timely compensation payment which constitutes “the biggest insurance payout ever paid in Cyprus”.

The government has reportedly reached a preliminary agreement with the EAC and its insurers and reinsurers for an out of court settlement regarding the cost of fixing Vassilikos.

The insurers agreed to pay €132.5m in full - the remaining €102.5m given in one lump sum - to the EAC to

cover the cost of fixing the battered plant.

In turn, the government has agreed to pay the insurers €99m in compensation in recognition of its own responsibility for the blast, while at the same time avoiding a costly legal battle with the insurers.

A last-minute government amendment to the 2013 budget - voted through last week - provides for an extra €29m to pay part of the €99m pledged to insurers as compensation.

According to reports, this sum will be paid in two parts in January and July after which €14m will be handed over every January and July until the €99m is paid in full in 2016.

Meanwhile, industry sources told the Cyprus Mail that from the €102.5m delivered to the EAC yesterday, €72.5m will be passed on to the state in the form of a short-term loan to cover its pressing financing needs, in addition to the €100m the government will borrow from the EAC workers’ pension fund.

Back to drawing board for hated new property tax The House plenum is due to discuss an amended bill on January 17, which will remove certain provisions on prices

By Poly Pantelides THE GOVERNMENT has backed down from its intention to update immovable property prices by applying a formula that stakeholders had said would hike up taxes many times over and would drive the economy deeper into recession.

The House plenum is due to discuss an amended bill on January 17 that will remove a provision to update property prices, which was part of the preliminary agreement between Cyprus and its international lenders.

Interior Minister Eleni Mavrou said that the bill would not now update property values using the consumer price index (CPI) over 1980 to 2012.

“We’re going back to the 1980 values,” Mavrou said referring to the way immovable property tax is currently calculated, which is on the property’s value on January 1, 1980.

Lawmakers recently discussed, but postponed

voting on, a previous bill that was going to update the values to 2012. Hotels said that would increase by nine times the amount of tax a hotel would have to pay, and stakeholders and lawmakers asked the government to amend the bill.

“It now seems that the amount that we must aim for is significantly lower than the €180 million we were discussing,” Mavrou said.

She said that the terms of the amended bill are under discussion with Cyprus’ lenders and the finance ministry to clarify how much the government should aim to receive in taxes, though she added the figure might be somewhere over €60 million.

It was not immediately clear if the tax rate for the value bands – also subject to changes under the bills previous guise – was part of discussions.

But Mavrou said that “the average household” would not be impacted as they fall under the tax threshold. The CPI pro-

vision had drawn a large reaction from landowners, property developers and hoteliers who said the changes would drive the economy deeper into recession.

Under the changes as they were tabled for discussion under the bailout agreement, the taxable figure – levied on the total value of all properties in a person’s or company’s name – would be the result of multiplying the 1980 value of the property by about 3.5.

A property worth €170,000 in 1980 values would have risen to €595,000 after multiplying it with the CPI. The chairman of property developers Pantelis Leptos said it was an unfair bill that would act as a deterrent for investment.

The hotels association PASYXE chairman, Haris Loizides, said that the bill as it stood increased the tax a hotel had to pay by nine times, which would have translated to a hotel that paid €27,600 in IPT last year needing to pay €253,380 in 2013.

Interior Minister Eleni Mavrou: back to 1980 values

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bills on storage heaters EAC says THE NEW year will come with cheaper bills for storage heater users with a pricing scheme dropping by an estimated 12 per cent, the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) has said.

The energy regulator has approved the EAC’s request to shave off 2.0 cent per Kwh from the bills of off-peak storage heater users, the authority said yesterday in an announcement.

The off-peak tariff applies to all customers using electricity for the storage of thermal energy during offpeak periods as set by the EAC. To be eligible, people need to have their storage heater connected to a separate off-peak circuit via switchgear that prevents the connection of standard electricity plugs.

The tariff is currently set at 9.47 cents per Kwh per unit for the off-peak period, plus a fixed charge of €3.04 - on the assumption that fuel costs €300 per metric tonne. Shaving off two cents from each Kwh will save customers 12 per cent of current usage cost, the EAC said.

“This reduction contributes to a more cost-efficient heating supply during hard times given the financial crisis and higher electricity bills because of increased oil prices,” the EAC said.

The EAC also expects off-peak energy demand to rise, which will help the system to cope better with uneven pressure on the grid that is pushed more during the day.

Greater night-time demand “will contribute to the system working more smoothly and so being more reliable,” the EAC said.

The new rates apply as of January 1, 2013.

To find out more about the off-peak tariff for storage heaters and supply hours, visit http://www. eac.com.cy/EN/CustomerService/Pages/Tariffsasof112008.aspx

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 29, 2012

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Central Bank on the offensive ‘A small group of people is trying to misinform the public’ statement said

By Stefanos Evripidou THE CENTRAL Bank of Cyprus (CBC) last night launched a scathing attack against the so-called protectors of the “bankers of the past”, accusing its critics of running scared from the expected results of an ongoing probe into the circumstances that led the nation’s two biggest banks to seek state support.

In an announcement issued last night, the CBC said: “In recent days, various coordinated and synchronised reports have seen the light of day about the state of the banking system in Cyprus.”

It continued: “A small group of people is trying to misinform the public, appearing as defenders of the bankers of the past, presenting an unrealistic and misleading picture that the banking system in Cyprus until the end of April 2012 had no problems, that everything was well-planned with the correct ‘actions’ taken at all levels and then suddenly, from the start of May 2012, a conspiratorial plan to smear the banks’ good name began aimed at skilfully ‘inflating’ non-performing loans in the banking sector.”

The reference is a clear dig at former CBC governor Athanasios Orphanides and his supporters who have dished out copious allegations of incompetence against the present government.

In a recent interview with the Sunday Mail, Orphanides suggested President Demetris Christofias torpedoed last-ditch efforts undertaken by his finance minister to avoid a bailout in April and May of 2012.

More recently, critics of the government have also

argued that the incumbent CBC governor Panicos Demetriades failed to negotiate with the troika a gradual recalculation of the banks’ non-performing loans so that the banks’ recapitalisation needs do not rocket overnight.

However, the present CBC leadership pulled no punches in yesterday’s announcement, defending its corner with vigour.

It noted that the real state of the economy has been documented repeatedly by international credit rating agencies and most recently in the provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding with the troika.

“The situation, unfortunately, cannot be dressed up. The banking sector will necessarily be consolidated, restructured and recapitalised in order to regain strength and to once again play its role in economic growth,” said the Central Bank.

LOOKING AHEAD It added that the supervisory authority will play an interventionist role for the benefit of depositors, shareholders, investors and the Cypriot public in general, while consistently putting special emphasis on issues of corporate governance and transparency.

“The CBC looks ahead with optimism for the future, while simultaneously taking care to identify the mistakes of the past so they cannot be repeated,” it said.

Part of this effort to avoid a repeat of past errors is the independent investigation conducted by US-based firm Alvarez & Marsal - hired last August to identify how the island’s largest banks ended up needing billions of euros in

bailout money - and the Independent Committee on the Future of the Banking System.

“It is obvious that those affected have started from now to worry about the results of the above two investigations and it is for this reason that they desperately try to politicise everything, especially during the current election campaign period in an effort to disorientate the public,” said the CBC. In a separate announcement, released a little earlier in the evening, CBC spokeswoman Aliki Stylianou said the supervisory authority had yet to select a consultancy firm to verify a due diligence review of Cypriot banks carried out by investment company Pimco.

Pimco has already released an interim review; its full report is scheduled to be delivered by January 15, six days before the next meeting of euro-area finance ministers. The interim report was submitted to a steering committee comprising potential lenders and Cypriot authorities.

In the meantime the Central Bank, a member of the steering committee, asked that a consultancy firm review and verify the methodology used by Pimco before January 15.

Following a tender selection process, the name of the consultancy was expected to be revealed yesterday.

“As soon as the process is finalised the name of the selected firm will be announced,” said Stylianou.

Meanwhile both online financial news site Stockwatch and state broadcaster CyBC yesterday named BlackRock as the external firm likely to get the contract.

Nurses union gripes over new public service working hours THE NURSES’ union has called on the health ministry and stakeholders to discuss upcoming changes in civil service working hours to see how shift workers can work alongside staff who will be working the new normal government hours, the nurses’ association has said.

“All those who work in this area need to collaborate and discuss changes to see how they can be implemented,” said the chairman of the nurses’ union and deputy secretary of civil servants’ union PASYDY, Giorgos Flourentzos.

Civil servants – with the exception of shift workers – coming in to work on January 2 will be asked to start work between 7.30am and 8.30am and stay until between 3pm or 4pm in the afternoon, depending on what time they come in. As of September 1, employees are due to start work between 8am and 9am and stay until between 3.30pm or 4.30pm under a flexitime arrangement.

Flourentzos said that when the shift system was introduced for nurses in the nineties, they needed to discuss changes across departments and “very many discussions needed to be made” now to find a compromise.

“The way these working hours have been set without any discussion… you must realise that there will be consequences,” Flourentzos said. “The working schedule as it stands can’t work.”

Health minister Androula Agrotou said that department heads, hospital heads and the permanent secretary have already met to discuss this issue and have decided to temporarily implement a 7.30am to 3pm schedule across the board.

But department heads have been asked to come back with suggestions for their departments, so that the health ministry can see how they can implement the flexitime, she said. (see editorial page 11)

The Archbishop with President Demetris Christofias yesterday at the hospital in Nicosia

The Church and state agree that people need to be more optimistic PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias said yesterday he will leave office next March with his head held high, knowing that he tried to create a more just society but was prevented by others and that 90 per cent of the island’s economic problems were “imported”.

Speaking during a visit to the Nicosia General Hospital yesterday, Christofias, accompanied by Archbishop Chrysostomos II, said he does not always share the views of the primate, but that they do agree on one thing, the need for people to be more optimistic.

“We are a proud people with deep roots to this land and we are not about to pack it all in. We will overcome this crisis too. The crisis has external origins. It is clear that 90 per cent of it is imported,” he said. Christofias said the crisis came from the exploitative nature of the

economic system and profiteering.

“We tried to create a more just society but some kept on pressing the breaks,” he said, adding that he will not remain silent but will speak his mind and walk with his head held high.

The church leader also spoke to patients and hospital staff saying: “I’m always optimistic.

We are a wonderful people who know how to live with a lot and be wasteful, but also how to live with little and I’m sure that our people will face this whirlwind with courage and better days will come,” said Chrysostomos.

The primate added that the Church aims to leave no one starving.

“I am optimistic that we will come out on top, and let the Europeans conspire, our people will live on and so will the country,” he said.

Saturday, December 29, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

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Fewer dropping out of school New report says Cyprus has one of lowest percentages of dropouts in entire EU

By Peter Stevenson CYPRUS has one of the lowest percentages, from all 27 European Union countries, when it comes to school dropouts.

The figure was revealed in the latest Key Data on Education report, published by the Eurydice Network and Eurostat which combines statistical data and qualitative information to describe the organisation and functioning of education systems in Europe.

Trends show that students in Cyprus are deciding against dropping out of school.

Islandwide considerable progress was made, with a 90 per cent participation of students, one year after the end of compulsory education.

Cyprus also has one of the highest percentages of young people with tertiary education qualifications compared to other EU countries.

The proportion of 30 to 34-year-olds holding a tertiary degree was well above 45 per cent. This is despite an increasing number of young people completing tertiary education as opposed to fewer older people holding such qualifications.

The report goes on to show that in 2009, graduates from social sciences, law and business represented the largest proportion of graduates in Europe, with over 35 per cent.

In comparison, there were 15.4 per cent of graduates

in health and welfare with 12.8 per cent and 11.6 per cent respectively in engineering and humanities.

In Cyprus, the most popular subjects were law and business with the proportion of graduates from social sciences, law and business reaching over 50 per cent.

Holding higher education qualifications helps people to find employment according to the report.

On average, 86 per cent of tertiary graduates in the EU between 25 and 39years-of-age are working, as opposed to 78 per cent of those with upper secondary qualifications at most, and only 60 per cent of young people with lower level qualifications.

This is even more true for older people (40-64 age group), where tertiary graduates are 37 per cent more likely to be in employment than non-graduates holding qualifications up to lower-secondary level.

Cyprus has one of the lowest variations in the spread of employment rates between holders of tertiary and lower qualifications indicating less inequality between individuals with different levels of education.

Employment rates across the two age groups, irrespective of the education level show that younger people have a slightly higher probability of being employed rather than their elders.

From an economic standpoint, in 2008, the proportion of total public ex-

The cost to the state per secondary school student in 2010 was €9,519 penditure on education was more than 5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in many EU countries. Cyprus had the highest rate at 7 per cent in contrast to Slovakia and Liechtenstein whose public expenditure represented less than 4 per cent of GDP. In the period 2001-2008, the overall proportion of GDP given over to education in the 27 EU countries remained stable at around 5 per cent.

EU reports do however clarify that the biggest portion of spending on educa-

tion goes on staff wages, and previous figures show that Cypriot teachers are among the highest paid in the EU. According to statistical services figures for 2010 released yesterday, the government spent €1.4 billion for all levels on education in 2010.

The report said that the cost per student in public schools by level of education reached €5.565 at preschool and pre-primary level, €6,015 at primary level, €9,519 at secondary and €14,441 at tertiary level.

Specifically for the terti-

DEATH ANNOUNCEMENT It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing away of our beloved wife, mother, sister and grandmother

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QUIZ NIGHT 8.30 pm January 4 2013 At the ESOBGA clubhouse Behind the Junior School, Nicosia 5 euro entry fee per person Teams of up to 6 people Individual players can join under-staffed teams Everyone welcome Bar open, great home-cooked food available Call 99-666011 for details Prizes kindly donated by

La Maison du Vin

MARIE KRIKORIAN Who died peacefully on Thursday December 27/2012 The funeral will be held on Wednesday January 2/2013 at 2 pm at the Armenian church of Sourp Asdvadzadzin Nicosia The bereaved Hmayag Krikorian Loukas – Siran Krikorian Ara – Nora Bastajian Vartouhi – Prapion Keshishian And grandchildren Natalie, Stephanie, Annie Marie Boghos – Hrip Keshishi and family, USA Garabed – Cathy Keshishian and family, UK

In lieu of flowers we kindly request donations to the Bank of Cyprus oncology centre

ary level the report said that the main fields of study were business and administration (12.7 per cent), health (11.8 per cent), engineering and engineering trades (8.8 per cent), social and behavioural sciences (8.6 per cent), architecture and building (7.7 per cent), arts (7.3 per cent), law (7.1 per cent), humanities (7.0 per cent), and teacher training and education science (6.2 per cent).

The number of Cypriot students abroad totalled almost 20,000 of which 140 were in tertiary non-

(Christos Theodorides) university level, 16,575, almost 90 per cent, were in tertiary university undergraduate level, 1,961 were in tertiary postgraduate (Master’s) level and 523 at doctoral (PhD) level.

Of all students and pupils at all levels of education, 69.5 per cent were enrolled in public schools and 30.5 per cent in private schools.

Students enrolled in preschool and pre-primary numbered 25.582, in primary education 54.083, secondary education 63.764, tertiary education 32.118 and special education 306.

Suspects in Napa murder conspiracy plead not guilty THREE men facing charges of conspiracy to murder businessman Phanos Kalopsidiotis entered pleas of not guilty yesterday.

All three will remain in custody until trial, set for March 8, at the Larnaca Assize court.

Doriani Veri, 29 from Albania, and Greek nationals Eleftherios Kartasakis, 44, and 33-year-old Giorgos Demetriou were arrested on September 9, on suspicion of being hired to kill Kalopsidiotis.

Police found the trio - after receiving word of three men acting suspiciously - with two loaded pistols in the car. Ballistic tests later proved that one of the pistols, a Glock, was the weapon used to gun down five men in Ayia Napa on June 23. Four of the dead were bodyguards of Kalopsidiotis.

Demetriou previously said he was on the island on holiday, Kartasakis said he was on the island to “do a job”, but added he had not been given much information.

Veri, who carried fake Greek identification, said that all three of them had come to carry out a big robbery but were contacted by a man in Cyprus telling them they instead would be murdering a local man.

They were led to a car with guns just an hour before police arrested them.

Authorities found genetic material belonging to one of the three men on the murder weapon from the June murders when three Greek Cypriots and two Romanians were shot on a side street in the heart of Ayia Napa’s nightclub scene.

Two Greek nationals are due to stand trial in February in relation to the June murders.

They have pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder charges.

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 29, 2012

7

Britain BRITAIN TODAY Awards for games back-room staff Many of the unknown faces who had a huge public impact on the success of the London 2012 Games were named in the New Year Honours list today.

The woman who was in charge of the Games Maker volunteers and the mastermind who produced the 70-day Olympic and day-long Paralympic torch relays will now get their moment in the spotlight.

Jean Tomlin, who was in charge of the Games Maker programme, gets an OBE. As London 2012’s human resources director in charge of workforce and accreditation, Mrs Tomlin faced the daunting task of mobilising a 200,000-strong workforce for the Games.

This included the 70,000 much-valued Games Maker volunteers who became the smiling face of London 2012.

Alternative to university planned SCHOOL LEAVERS will be encouraged to train for jobs in the top professions through an apprenticeship instead of studying at university, it has emerged.

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock said the typical degree route into the highest positions in insurance, accounting and law was “not for everyone� but that should not block a young person from pursuing their chosen career.

Apprenticeships are already available to the same level as the ďŹ rst year of a degree but training schemes up to the equivalent of a Masters will be recognised from next year, he told The Daily Telegraph.

Hancock said the quality of apprenticeships was improving with manufacturing companies like Rolls-Royce, Marshalls and BAE leading the way. “Now we want to go further, offering apprenticeships instead of university, as a route into the professions including insurance, accounting, and law,� he wrote in an article for the newspaper.

Physicians with criminal records NEARLY 1,000 doctors and surgeons have criminal records including child porn and sexual assault offences, it was reported today.

Some 927 physicians with convictions are practising, the General Medical Council (GMC) revealed in a Freedom of Information response to the Daily Mirror.

The ďŹ gures showed that 25 doctors had convictions for actual bodily harm and three for grievous bodily harm.

Reagan’s plea to Thatcher Papers on Falklands War made public

By Gavin Cordon RONALD Reagan issued a last-ditch appeal to Margaret Thatcher to abandon her campaign to retake the Falklands and to hand over the islands to international peacekeepers, according to ofďŹ cial documents made public yesterday.

Files released by the National Archives at Kew, south-west London, under the 30-year rule show that as British troops closed in on ďŹ nal victory, the US president made a late-night phone call to Thatcher urging her not to completely humiliate the Argentines.

However, his request fell on deaf ears as a deďŹ ant prime minister insisted that she had not sent a British task force across the globe just “to hand over the Queen’s islands to a contact groupâ€?.

Reagan made his call to Thatcher in Downing Street

at 11.30pm London time on May 31, 1982, as British forces were beginning the battle for Port Stanley, the Falklands capital.

The Americans had already proposed sending a joint US-Brazilian peacekeeping mission, and the president suggested that the time had come to show magnanimity. “The best chance for peace was before complete Argentine humiliation,� he told her. “As the UK now had the upper hand militarily, it should strike a deal now.�

Thatcher was having none of it. The United Kingdom, she said, could not contemplate a ceaseďŹ re without Argentinian withdrawal.

According to the ofďŹ cial No 10 note, she told him: “Britain had not lost precious lives in battle and sent an enormous task force to hand over the Queen’s islands to a contact group. “As Britain had had to go into the islands alone, with

no outside help, she could not now let the invader gain from his aggression. The prime minister asked the president to put himself in her position. “She had lost valuable British ships and invaluable British lives. She was sure that the president would act in the same way if Alaska had been similarly threatened.�

As the battle reached its climax she even drafted a telegram to the Argentinian leader General Galtieri - although it was never sent - demanding for a ďŹ nal time that he withdraw his forces. “In a few days the British ag will be ying over Port Stanley. In a few days also your eyes and mine will be reading the casualty lists,â€? she wrote. “On my side, grief will be tempered by the knowledge that these men died for freedom, justice and the rule of law. And on your side? Only you can answer that question.â€?

Margaret Thatcher demanded Argentina’s complete withdrawal from the Falklands for the war to end

Abducted Atiya coming home to her mother A SIX-YEAR-OLD girl is on her way home more than three years after she was abducted by her father and taken to Pakistan, sources said.

Atiya Anjum-Wilkinson vanished in November 2009 after going to stay with her father, Razwan Ali Anjum.

The former insurance salesman said he was taking Atiya to Southport but instead he took her to Lahore, Pakistan, and told Gemma Wilkinson - Atiya’s mother that she was “never going to see Atiya again�.

Anjum is currently serving a prison sentence in the UK for refusing to reveal his daughter’s whereabouts despite a court order.

But sources have now revealed that new information had come to light, that Atiya had been located in Pakistan and that she was due to arrive back in the UK later yesterday.

Just last month Wilkinson, 32, from Ashton-underLyne, Greater Manchester, launched a fresh appeal for information on her daughter’s whereabouts. It is thought Atiya was found after police published a computer-generated image of what Atiya would look like now - a day before her sixth birthday in November.

Anjum was handed a fourth consecutive jail term by a High Court judge in April after he refused to reveal where his daughter was. Justice Moor imposed

Gemma Wilkinson and her daughter Atiya at age three

cytavision

a 12-month prison sentence after he found him in contempt of a High Court order instructing him to disclose Atiya’s whereabouts.

He said Anjum, who is in his late 20s, would not be eligible for release until he had served at least six months. Judges have previously imposed jail terms of two years, 12 months and another 12 months in the hope that Anjum would provide information. They have re-jailed Anjum as each sentence neared its end.

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Saturday, December 29, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

8

World

Stormin’ Norman was an ‘American original’

By David Alexander NORMAN Schwarzkopf Jr, the hardcharging US Army general whose forces smashed the Iraqi army in the 1991 Gulf War, has died at the age of 78, a US official said on Thursday.

Schwarzkopf, a burly Vietnam War veteran known to his troops as Stormin’ Norman, commanded more than 540,000 US troops and 200,000 allied forces in a six-week war that routed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s army from Kuwait in 1991, capping his 34-year military career.

Some experts hailed Schwarzkopf’s plan to trick and outflank Hussein’s forces with a sweeping armoured movement as one of the great accomplishments in military history. The manoeuvre ended the ground war in only 100 hours.

In a statement released by the White House, President Barack Obama called Schwarzkopf “an American original” whose “legacy will endure in a nation that is more secure because of his patriotic serv-

ice.”

Former US President George HW Bush, who built the international coalition against Iraq after the invasion of Kuwait, said he and his wife “mourn the loss of a true American patriot and one of the great military leaders of his generation,” according to a statement released by his spokesman.

Bush has been hospitalised in Houston since late November.

Schwarzkopf was a familiar sight on international television during the war, clad in camouflage fatigues and a cap. He conducted fast-paced briefings and reviewed his troops with a purposeful stride and a physical presence of the sort that clears bar rooms.

Little known before Iraqi forces invaded neighbouring Kuwait, Schwarzkopf made a splash with quotable comments. At one briefing he addressed Saddam’s military reputation.

“As far as Saddam Hussein being a great military strategist,” he said, “he is neither a strategist, nor is he schooled in the operational arts, nor

Norman Schwarzkopf is he a tactician, nor is he a general, nor is he a soldier. Other than that, he’s a great military man, I want you to know that.”

Schwarzkopf returned from the war a hero and there was talk of him running for public office. Instead, he wrote an autobiography - It Doesn’t Take a Hero - and served as a military analyst.

He also acted as a spokesman for the fight against prostate cancer, with which he was diagnosed in 1993.

Schwarzkopf was born in August 22, 1934, in Trenton, New Jersey, the son of Colonel H. Norman Schwarzkopf Sr, the head of the New Jersey State Police. At the time, the older Schwarzkopf was leading the investigation of the kidnapping and murder of aviator Charles Lindbergh’s infant son, one of the most infamous crimes of the 20th century.

The younger Schwarzkopf graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1956. He earned a master’s degree in guidedmissile engineering from the University of Southern California and later taught engineering at West Point.

Schwarzkopf saw combat twice - in Vietnam and Grenada - in a career that included command of units from platoon to theatre size, training as a paratrooper and stints at Army staff colleges.

Schwarzkopf and his wife, Brenda, who he married in 1968, had two daughters and one son.

Syrian opposition rejects Russian invitation to talks Opposition leader demands apology from Russia

WORLD TODAY Dozens killed after boat sinks TWENTY-TWO people died and more than 75 were missing after an overloaded boat sank off the coast of GuineaBissau yesterday, hospital and port officials said.

The narrow wooden boat was ferrying 97 passengers and their luggage to the West African nation’s capital Bissau from the island of Bolama when it began taking on water and sank around 11 am, Bissau Port Director Mario Domingos Gomes said.

Hospital sources said 22 bodies had arrived at the morgue in Bissau. Domingos Gomes said rescuers were searching for survivors from the pirogue, a hand-built vessel most often used for fishing across West Africa.

Tiny Guinea-Bissau is among the world’s least developed nations and has been plagued by political turmoil since independence from Portugal in 1974.

As in much of the region, travel by land and sea is difficult and dangerous due to poor infrastructure and weak regulatory oversight.

Mubarak remains in hospital

By Yara Bayoumy and Peter Graff

Sergei Lavrov

SYRIA’S opposition leader has rejected an invitation from Russia for peace talks, dealing another blow to international hopes that diplomacy can be resurrected to end a 21-month civil war.

Russia, President Bashar al-Assad’s main international protector, said yesterday it had sent an invitation for a visit to Moaz Alkhatib, whose six-week-old National Coalition opposition group has been recognised by most Western and Arab states as the legitimate voice of the Syrian people.

But in an interview on Al Jazeera television, Alkhatib said he had already ruled out such a trip and wanted an apology from Moscow for its support for Assad. “We have clearly said we will not go to Moscow. We could meet in an Arab country if there was a

tailed assessment of the situation inside Syria will prompt reasonable opposition members to seek ways to start a political dialogue,” Lavrov said yesterday.

That was immediately dismissed by the opposition: “The coalition is ready for political talks with anyone ... but it will not negotiate with the Assad regime,” spokesman Walid al-Bunni told Reuters. “Everything can happen after the Assad regime and all its foundations have gone.

After that we can sit down with all Syrians to set out the future.”

Russia says it is behind the efforts of UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, fresh from a fiveday trip to Damascus where he met Assad. Brahimi, due in Moscow for talks today, is touting a months-old peace plan for a transitional government.

A Syrian refugee cries as he takes part in a demonstration against Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, outside the Syrian embassy in Amman yesterday clear agenda,” he said.

“Now we also want an apology from (Russian Foreign Minister Sergei) Lavrov because all this time he said that the people will decide their destiny, without foreign intervention. Russia is intervening and meanwhile all these massacres of the Syrian people have happened, treated as if they were a picnic.

“If we don’t represent the Syrian people, why do they invite us?” Alkhatib said. “And if we do represent the Syrian people why doesn’t Russia respond and issue a clear condemnation of the barbarity of the regime and make a clear call for Assad to step down?

This is the basic condition for any negotiations.”

With the rebels advancing

steadily over the second half of 2012, diplomats have been searching for months for signs that Moscow’s willingness to protect Assad is faltering.

So far Russia has stuck to its position that rebels must negotiate with Assad’s government, which has ruled since his father seized power in a coup 42 years ago.

“I think a realistic and de-

EGYPT’S deposed leader Hosni Mubarak, who is serving a life sentence for his role in killing protesters during a 2011 revolt, will stay in an army hospital for at least two weeks after his health deteriorated, his lawyer said yesterday.

The state of Mubarak’s already fragile health has been the subject of intense speculation in Egypt and he has spent much of the time before and after his trial in various hospitals.

On Thursday evening, the 84-year-old former leader was transferred to an army hospital from his prison clinic after fracturing a rib in a recent fall.

“He will stay in the hospital for about 15 days,” Mohamed Abdel Razek, his lawyer, told Reuters.

“The president’s health is stable, thank God. He underwent X-rays on his body and now he will get proper treatment in the hospital for all his bone problems he has been suffering from.”

Taliban ready to negotiate with Pakistan government

By Saud Mehsud THE HEAD of Pakistan’s Taliban said his militia is willing to negotiate with the government but not disarm, in a message delivered in a video given to Reuters yesterday.

The release of the 40-minute video follows three high-profile Taliban attacks in the northern city of Peshawar this month: an

attack by multiple suicide bombers on the airport, the killing of a senior politician and eight others in a bombing and the kidnap of 22 paramilitary forces on Thursday.

The attacks underline the Taliban’s ability to strike high-profile, well-protected targets even as the amount of territory it controls has shrunk and its leaders are picked off by US drones.

“We believe in dialogue but it should not be frivolous,” Hakimullah Mehsud said. “Ask-

ing us to lay down arms is a joke.”

In the video, Mehsud sits cradling a rifle next to his deputy, Wali ur-Rehman. Military officials say there has been a split between the two men but Mehsud said that was propaganda.

“Wali ur-Rehman is sitting with me here and we will be together until death,” said Mehsud, pointing at his companion.

Pakistani officials did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

The Taliban said in a letter released on Thursday that they wanted Pakistan to rewrite its laws and constitution to conform with Islamic law, break its alliance with the United States and stop interfering in the war in Afghanistan and focus on India instead.

Mehsud referred to the killing of the senior politician in his speech and said the political party, the largely Pashtun Awami National Party, would continue to be a target along with other politicians.

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 29, 2012

9

World

Miners in landmark health damage case

The condition of Indian gang rape victim deteriorates

Disease from inhaling silica dust from gold-bearing rocks

THE CONDITION of an Indian medical student whose gang rape triggered mass protests has deteriorated and there are signs her vital organs have failed, the Singapore hospital treating her said.

The 23-year-old, who was severely beaten, raped and thrown out of a moving bus in New Delhi, was flown to Singapore by the Indian government on Wednesday for specialist treatment.

Most rapes and other sex crimes in India go unreported and offenders are rarely punished, women’s rights activists say. But the brutality of the assault on December 16 triggered public outrage and demands for both better policing and harsher punishment for rapists.

The case has received blanket coverage on cable television news channels. The woman has not been identified but some Indian media have called her “Amanat”, an Urdu word meaning “treasure”.

“As of 9 p.m. Singapore time on December 28, the patient’s condition has taken a turn for the worse. Her vital signs are deteriorating, with signs of severe organ failure,” Mount Elizabeth Hospital Chief Executive Kelvin Loh said in a statement yesterday.

“Her family members have been informed that her condition has deteriorated and they are currently by her side to encourage and comfort her,” he said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government has been battling criticism that it was tone-deaf to the outcry and heavy-handed in its response to the protests in the Indian capital.

Some Indian medical experts questioned the decision to airlift the woman to Singapore, calling it a risky manoeuvre given the seriousness of her injuries. They said she was already receiving the best possible care in India.

A SOUTH African lawyer has moved to file a class action suit against over 30 gold firms on behalf of 17,000 former miners who say they contracted silicosis, a debilitating lung disease, due to negligence in health and safety.

The companies include third-largest global bullion producer AngloGold Ashanti, fourth-largest Gold Fields and Harmony Gold. Also named is Anglo American’s South African unit, which owned gold assets in the past but no longer produces it.

Attorney Richard Spoor said yesterday he had filed last week for class certification for an action for damages in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg.

“We need to ask the court for permission to proceed on a class action basis. We filed the papers last week, and that matter will have to be argued in the court if it’s opposed,” Spoor said.

He expected the matter to be heard in April or May of next year.

The damages sought in what could be Africa’s biggest ever class action suit have not been disclosed but could be huge at a time when South Africa’s mining industry is battling with

soaring power costs and wage costs as well as violent labour militancy.

Spoor has signed up 17,000 plaintiffs so far from South Africa, Botswana and Lesotho, the landlocked kingdom that has provided hundreds of thousands of migrant workers to South Africa’s gold mines over the past century, he said.

Spoor said the number of plaintiffs was growing by around 500 a month.

The planned suit, which has little precedent in South African law, has its roots in a landmark ruling by the Constitutional Court that for the first time allowed lung-diseased miners to sue their employers for damages.

Silicosis is a chronic and progressive disease that cannot be cured. Miners contract it by inhaling silica dust from gold-bearing rocks.

African Rainbow Minerals, one of the companies named, said it was “too soon to discuss the outcome of the matter as none of the merits of the matter has yet been established, let alone tested in court”.

An Anglo American spokesman said, “We are aware of the case, but Anglo American has not yet

Former gold miner Thulani Bitsha, 39, stands in the doorway to his home near Bizana in South Africa been served, so it would not be appropriate to comment any further.”

Officials at AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony and some other companies named in the filing could not be reached for comment.

The companies named in the filing owned or operated 78 different gold mines from 1965 to the present.

Putin goes beyond tit-for-tat by signing US adoption ban

Green light given for private dailies

PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin signed a law yesterday that bans Americans from adopting Russian children and imposes other measures in retaliation for new US legislation meant to punish Russian human rights abusers.

The law, which has ignited outrage among Russian liberals and child rights’ advocates, enters into force on January 1 and is likely to strain US-Russia relations.

As well as banning US adoptions, it will also outlaw some non-governmental organisations that receive US funding and impose a visa ban and asset freeze on Americans accused of violating the rights of Russians abroad.

Pro-Kremlin lawmakers initially drafted the bill to mirror the US Magnitsky Act, which bars entry to Russians accused of involvement in the death in custody of anticorruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and of other alleged rights abuses.

The restrictions on adoptions and non-profit groups were added to the legislation later, going beyond a tit-for-tat move and escalating a dispute with Washington at a time when ties are also strained by issues such as the Syrian crisis.

MYANMAR will allow private daily newspapers from April next year, the government announced yesterday, a big leap forward for a country that had barely any press freedom under its decades of military dictatorship.

Before the military seized power in a 1962 coup, there were more than a dozen local private dailies in multiple languages.

At present, only statecontrolled newspapers, mostly considered dull, propaganda-filled mouthpieces of the government, are allowed to publish on a daily basis.

Berlusconi divorce will cost him ¤100,000 a day (Continued from front page) which he denies.

Lario had originally asked for a monthly alimony of 3.5 million euros, while Berlusconi had responded with an offer of no more than 300,000 euros a month.

The Corriere della Sera said the settlement, which would assign no blame to either party in the divorce, would not give Lario a 78-million-euro villa near Brianza in northern Italy where she raised their three children.

JOB VACANCY The British High Commission Nicosia is seeking to recruit a

Pensions Scheme Administrator Job Description This is a part-time position that requires a self-starter with good numeracy, computer, communication and organisational skills, who can deliver time sensitive results on a monthly basis and is able to work initially up to five days a month. Duties include: x Calculating and paying pensions on a monthly basis. x Corresponding with relevant Local Authorities. x Providing support to Pensioners covered by the scheme. x Administer a dedicated IT system (training given) and pension records.

Key Competencies required.

Delivering results Problem solving Managing Self, Others and Resources Communicating Qualifications, Qualities and skills x x x x x x

Excellent inter-personal and office organisational skills. Able to work with a diverse range of cultures and people of differing views and opinions.

Ability to work under pressure, unsupervised and as part of a team.

Capacity to deal patiently and effectively in a wide range of situations, including dealing with the public.

Fluent Greek and English (written and spoken) and good telephone manner.

Proficient and accurate typing.

Numerate and proficient in IT including: Microsoft Word (essential) and Excel (essential).

Applications in writing with details of: past experience, qualifications and CV should be sent by email to the following address: jobapplicationsnicosia@fco.gov.uk by Friday 25 January 2013.

The Grade for the Pensions Scheme Administrator is Locally Employed Grade III. Salary will be on a per diem basis negotiable.

A shortlist of applicants will be invited for interview by 1st February 2013 with interviews being conducted the following week. The successful candidate will have a six month probational period.

The British High Commission is an equal opportunities employer with family friendly policies. We welcome applications from suitably qualified individuals, regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability or age. All applications are treated on merit. Applications are encouraged both from those who may be looking for long term employment and from those who may be seeking employment for a fixed period of time.

The successful candidate will need to undergo a security clearance process.

Silvio Berlusconi with former wife Veronica Lario

Saturday, December 29, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

10

Business Foreign capital flows into Spain for second month

By Clare Kane FOREIGN investors put more money into Spain in October than they took out, marking the second month running the country has benefited from an influx of capital.

Spain registered capital inflow of 12.1 billion euros ($16 billion) in October, the Bank of Spain said yesterday. The figure, which excludes central bank operations, was lower than the 31 billion euros of inflow in September.

The figures are more evidence of the success of European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s bond-buying plan for struggling eurozone governments, announced in September, in alleviating investor concerns about Spain.

“It’s a bit premature to cheer. This confirms that ever since Draghi said he would do whatever it takes to save the euro, the capital flight has stopped and partially reversed,” said Martin van Vliet, senior economist at ING. “It’s a positive development...but Spain is not out of the woods yet and the situation can change overnight.”

Before September’s inflows, Spain had registered 14 consecutive months of outflows.

The Bank of Spain also said the country’s current account registered a surplus of 0.9 billion euros in October, compared to a deficit of 0.3 billion euros in September.

The Bank partly attributed the surplus to the reduction of Spain’s trade deficit. The deficit stood at 955 million euros in October, compared to 3 billion euros a year earlier as exports have increased and imports fallen in an economic crisis.

Spain is currently suffering

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Abe under pressure to achieve quick results

By Tetsushi Kajimoto and Kaori Kaneko POOR Japanese manufacturing data yesterday gave new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe more ammunition to push for big spending and easy money to salvage the world’s third-largest economy from decades of deflation and its fourth recession since 2000.

Japanese voters and the financial markets have welcomed the Abe government’s aggressive stance on pumping cash into the economy, pushing the benchmark Nikkei share average yesterday to its highest level since the March 2011 tsunami, despite the worse-thanexpected drop in factory output.

Opinion polls published by major newspapers yesterday showed half to two-thirds of the public supported Abe’s conservative government, with the stagnant economy the top priority.

Top officials of the new government, sworn in just two days ago after a landslide election victory, say Abe’s administration is under pressure to achieve quick results. “(Public support) will drop if speculation mounts that we are unable to deliver,” Akira Amari, the minister in

charge of reviving the economy, told a news conference after a Friday morning cabinet meeting.

But many economists warn that Abe’s emphasis on stimulus, rather than structural reforms to boost competitiveness, may have only short-term effects and could worsen Japan’s bloated public debt, the worst among the industrial nations.

The government is keeping up pressure on the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to step up its monetary stimulus, even after it loosened policy in December for the third time in four months.

Abe has threatened to change the law which guarantees the central bank’s independence if it does not pursue more aggressive easing and has called for a doubling of its inflation target to 2 per cent.

Finance Minister Taro Aso said he was paid a courtesy visit by BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa yesterday in which the two agreed to hold talks on issues including coordinating policy.

Aso later told reporters the government wanted to firm up by next month, before the central bank’s next policy meeting, its position on a joint policy accord it aims to forge with the BOJ on how they will tackle Japan’s entrenched deflation.

Finance Minister Taro Aso aims to tackle deflation The government has not yet tipped its hand on what specifics might be in the accord but the BOJ has already signalled it may set a higher inflation target at its January 21-22 meeting, even while market participants express doubt that it has the means to achieve it.

Aso also warned that the government stood ready to intervene in the currency markets against sharp spec-

8.7174 8.5022

ulator-driven moves that would hurt the economy, although Abe’s monetary easing campaign has in recent weeks eased some of the persistent yen strength that has battered Japan’s exporters.

“If excessive rises or falls in the yen due to speculation cause trouble for a lot of people, intervention would be a powerful tool, so there’s no reason why we would not use it,” Aso said.

Little progress expected on search for fiscal cliff deal

By Fred Barbash

These Bank of Cyprus rates for telegraphic transfer transactions (spot deals) apply to yesterday, but provide a good guide to today’s value against the euro.

Japan Yen

Economic data backs Japanese PM’s plans

PRESIDENT Barack Obama and congressional leaders were meeting yesterday for the first time since November with no sign of progress in resolving their differences over the federal budget and low expectations for a “fiscal cliff” deal before January 1.

Instead, members of Congress are increasingly looking at the period immediately after the December 31 deadline to come up with a retroactive fix to avoid the steep tax hikes and sharp spending cuts that economists have said could plunge the country into another recession.

With taxes on all Americans set to rise when the low tax rates established by President George W Bush expire on December 31, lawmakers would be able to come back in January and take a more politically palatable vote on cutting some of the tax rates.

Pessimism on the deadline being met was shared by many market analysts.

Noting that the US House of Representatives wasn’t even convening until Sunday, Daiwa Securities economist Emily Nicols said “markets still expect a deal even if it does go into January.”

The new factor in the mix was involvement by Republican Senate Minority

Obama will offer no new deal according to White House staff Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who said on Thursday he had held conversations with Obama and expected a new proposal from the president that he would consider.

The White House spent much of Thursday stifling expectations for any new offer from Obama, beyond the limited fallback

plan he outlined in vague terms on December 21, which would protect what he described as “middle class Americans” from the tax hikes, extend unemployment insurance and lay the “groundwork for further work” on deficit reduction and tax reform.

The major sticking point is Republican opposition to tax hikes on anyone, particularly in the absence of heavy cuts in spending for so-called entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, the government-run health programs for senior citizens and the poor.

Democrats in Congress want to keep lower tax rates for most Americans but raise them on those earning above $250,000 a year.

“The wealthy have got to kick in,” said Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan on Friday morning on CNN. “The tough part is in the House, where they have taken this very extreme position” of “protecting the wealthy at all costs.”

“It’s feeling very much to me like an optical meeting than a substantive meeting,” said Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, noting that it was not a sign of urgency to set a meeting for mid-afternoon with a deadline just days away.

“Any time you announce a meeting publicly in Washington, it’s usually for political theatre purposes,” South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said.

Signs of solid response from Italy’s investors ITALY’S debt costs rose only slightly at its last auction of long-term debt in 2012, drawing a solid response from investors yet to be unnerved by the risks surrounding February elections and the exit of its trusted technocrat government.

The treasury sold 3 billion euros of its 10-year bond paying a yield of 4.48 per cent, up from 4.45 per cent at a similar sale one month ago.

It also placed 2.87 billion euros of five-year bonds paying 3.26 per cent, up from 3.23 per cent at an end-November sale.

In very thin market conditions Rome was able to find decent demand for its bonds among investors searching for high returns, reflecting the easing of at least some concerns in the eurozone’s debt crisis since August.

“It seems that the result was better than expected, with the yield on the 10-year lower than in the secondary market,” said Emile Cardon, market economist at Rabobank in Utrecht.

Markets are starting to focus on an uncertain Italian election campaign as the country approaches elections scheduled on 24-25 February.

Investors, however, seem to be willing to buy Italian debt while waiting for more clarity on domestic politics.

“The biggest fear for the market is that political turmoil in Italy will return.

But this outcome shows (investors) still have confidence that Italy will do the right thing and I think this has something to do with the comeback of (outgoing Prime Minister Mario) Monti.”

Search for new CEO launched at mining giant SOUTH African miner Lonmin opened the search for a new chief executive to revive its fortunes after a torrid 2012 as Ian Farmer, who is being treated for a serious illness, officially stepped aside yesterday.

The absence of a permanent CEO has been a major concern cited by investors seeking a clear strategy from the company after months of financial pressure, weak platinum prices and a wave of deadly strikes at South African mines.

Chief Financial Officer Simon Scott had ruled himself out of the job on a permanent basis, Lonmin said, but he would continue to fill the role until a replacement was found.

Farmer was admitted to hospital in August, coinciding with a wave of unrest at the group’s Marikana mine that left 46 people dead and paralysed operations.

The strikes increased pressure on a company that was already being squeezed by high costs.

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 29, 2012

11

Opinion

Tourism doing well but prices still exorbitant IN AN era of doom and gloom it is good news to hear that tourism at least is doing well after a decade in decline. It will also be happy tidings for hoteliers to hear that the Immovable Property Tax, which would have damaged the industry is to be reviewed. They were among the most vociferous opponents of the new calculation of the annual tax, saying in some cases it would cost hundreds of thousands to pay, which would have doomed the industry, which was just starting out on the road to recovery.

The question now is to figure out how to keep up the momentum because the sudden boom is entirely down to the increase from the Russian market. Without those half a million Russians, last year’s and this year’s arrival figures would not look so shiny. Arrivals would be a mere two million, which is still down on the 2.1 million we saw in 1991 – a record year for tourism at the time. Cyprus has lost over half a million British visitors over the last ten years for various reasons, one of which is no doubt the view that the island is expensive vis-a-vis the pound sterling.

The issue has been brought up many times in the past and came to the fore again yesterday when the Cyprus Tourism Organisation released a price list, which includes 140 cafes and other establishments islandwide, and what they charge for basics such as water, juice, coffee and soft drinks.

In brief, a tourist can end up paying as much as €7 for a juice, €3 for a bottle of water, €5.70 for an ice coffee and €5.50 for a cappuccino. It’s no wonder we’ve lost a huge chunk of the British market.

While other countries facing austerity have seen prices drop all round, establishments in Cyprus seem to think it’s business as usual and that tourists are just a ‘passing trade’ and an easy target. If the lessons of the past had been learned and the industry had tried harder to hold on to the British market, then combined with the Russians, we could have been looking at arrivals close to three million by now, which would have created more jobs and pumped more money into the economy. Let’s hope the Russians continue to be willing to pay these exorbitant prices because once a tourist has had enough, he or she will not return.

It’s time public servants joined the working world THE NURSES union yesterday joined in the griping and complaining about the new working hours in the public sector that were agreed under the bailout terms.

Deputy secretary of civil servants’ union PASYDY, Giorgos Flourentzos warned there would be consequences from the change in trying to reconcile the new hours with the shift work but he offered no logical explanation as to why it would be a problem. Surely those on shift work would just come in an hour later to relieve those clocking off at their new time.

It’s about time public servants joined the rest of the working population, or perhaps many are worried the new schedule will interfere with their second jobs.

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To change the world, believe it’s possible I

F WE were hoping for peace in our time, 2012 did not deliver it. Conflict grew ever bloodier in Syria, continued to grind on in Afghanistan, and flared up periodically in West, Central, and East Africa. There were multiple episodes of ethnic, sectarian, and politically motivated violence in Myanmar (Burma), South Asia, and around the Middle East. Tensions between China and its neighbours have escalated in the South China Sea, and between China and Japan in the East China Sea. Concerns about North Korea’s and Iran’s nuclear programmes remain unresolved.

And yet, many feared eruptions within and between states did not occur. Strong international pressure helped to contain the Second Gaza War quickly. A long-sought peace agreement was secured for the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Major strides were taken toward sustainable peace and reconciliation in Myanmar. There was no major new genocidal catastrophe. And, despite the United Nations Security Council’s paralysis over Syria, UN General Assembly member states made clear their continuing overwhelming acceptance of the responsibility to protect those at risk of mass-atrocity crimes.

The bigger story has been concealed, as ever, by the media’s daily preoccupation with current bloodshed: Over the last two decades, major wars and episodes of mass violence worldwide have become much less frequent and deadly. After a high point in the late 1980’s and very early 1990’s, there has been a decline of well over 50% in the number of major conflicts both between and within states; in the number of genocidal and other mass atrocities; and in the number of people killed as a result of them.

This “New Peace” phenomenon was first publicized by

Comment Gareth Evans Andrew Mack’s Human Security Report Project, supported by the superb database of the Uppsala Conflict Data Program. Harvard’s Steven Pinker, in his seminal book The Better Angels of our Nature, put it in a larger historical context – not just the “Long Peace” between the major powers since 1945, but, more important, a centuries-old pattern of steady decline in the human appetite for violence.

The many efforts that have been made to debunk this analysis (for example, by John Arquilla in Foreign Policy recently) have not been persuasive. True, there has been a resurgence since 2004 of what statisticians (if not humanists) would call “minor armed conflicts.” But, in the case of “high-intensity” conflicts or wars (defined as entailing 1,000 or more battle deaths in a year), the trend-line has been sloping unequivocally downward. And that goes for war-related civilian deaths as well.

Explanations of this phenomenon vary. In the case of the post-Cold War New Peace, the best is simply the huge upsurge in conflict prevention, conflict management, negotiated peacemaking, and postconflict peace-building activity that has occurred over the last decade and a half – most of it spearheaded by the muchmaligned UN. For the Long Peace, the most intriguing explanation – and, I think, the most persuasive, though many may disagree – is that since the end of World War II, a fundamental normative shift has occurred among the major powers’ policymakers.

Having witnessed the ravages of the last century, they simply no longer see any virtue, nobility, or utility in waging

war, and certainly not aggressive nuclear war. That doesn’t mean that we cannot stumble into a war – or a nuclear exchange – through accident, miscalculation, system error, or sabotage; but, it hugely reduces the risk.

The greatest test for this thesis in the years ahead will be how China and the United States react to the dramatic shift now occurring in their relative economic, and eventually military, power. President Barack Obama’s re-election offers reasonable hope that the US will give some strategic space to China through a policy of mutually accommodating cooperation, rather

‘There are strong historical grounds for believing that waging aggressive war has simply run its course as an instrument of state policy’ than insisting on dominance or primacy. But how will China behave under its new leadership?

In a deeply thoughtful recent speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, Kevin Rudd, Australia’s Mandarin-speaking former prime minister, described possible external scenarios for China

over the next decade. They ranged from actively pursuing zero-sum power politics aimed at dominating the hemisphere and beyond, to engaging strategically with the US and other partners in Asia to sustain and enhance the existing rules-based international order. While suggesting that it would be prudent for countries to hedge against the worstcase scenario, Rudd made clear that he is an optimist: provided the rest of the world maintains a policy of cooperative engagement with China, incoming President Xi Jinping and his team will choose a non-confrontational path.

Optimism is a good call in this context, and also more generally.

There are strong historical grounds for believing that waging aggressive war has simply run its course as an instrument of state policy. Having exhausted most of the alternatives over the years, national leaders have begun to internalise the virtues of cooperation.

Moreover, in foreign policy, as in life itself, outlooks can be self-reinforcing, and selffulfilling. Pessimists see conflict of one kind or another as more or less inevitable, and adopt a highly wary and competitive approach to the conduct of international relations.

For optimists, what matters is believing in and nurturing the instinct of cooperation in the hope, and expectation, that decent human values will ultimately prevail. If we want to change the world for the better, we must start by believing that it is possible.

Gareth Evans, Australia’s foreign minister from 1988 to 1996 and President of the International Crisis Group from 2000 to 2009, is Chancellor of the Australian National University © Project Syndicate 2012

What goes up must come down, and vice versa

BY THE time you read this it’s likely that 2012 will have been declared the UK’s wettest year on record with 1 in 6 homes in the UK liable to flooding, according to the Environment Agency.

The country is sodden, rivers swollen, Cornish villages’ steep streets have become waterfalls, football pitches in the Midlands lakes and damp is seeping through floors as water tables rise and more rain is predicted.

Is it climate change? It’s hard to know, it’s not long ago the UK was in its mini Ice Age, so maybe milder winters mean we are beginning to witness the shift from snow to endless showers. But we’ve always had extreme weather.

Remember back to the 1680s when the Thames froze to a depth of 11 inches for two months, resulting in the first raucous revelries of the Frost Fair. That Frost Fair

IDLE IDL LE CCHATTER HATT Lauren O’Hara beeplauren@yahoo.ie

continued until 1814, when at Black Friars Bridge an elephant was walked across the frozen water.

That was all changed by demolition of the old London Bridge, which acted as a dam to slow the water long enough for it to freeze and the narrowing of the Thames by an erected embankment to make the water move more quickly. New commercial requirements and a sewage system relied on a fast flowing river: but the fair was missed.

John Evelyn, a 17th century writer, described it as a “car-

nival on water with bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet play... tippling and other lewd places, so that it seemed to be a bacchanalian triumph.” In those days bad weather brought ribaldry, work was put on hold, the lowlife that lived along the Thames were able to sup ales, gamble, brawl and frolic at the numerous whore houses that lined the banks.

The nobility, curious at the spectacle would arrive on brightly coloured sleighs, and buy the glass and silk trinkets imported from the East.

Of course, there were down sides. The parks were denuded of animals for the ad hoc winter bbqs, trees felled for the fires and with no run off for sewage, pop-up pubs appeared with names like ‘The Flying Piss Pot’.

Pictures on the screens this Christmas of firemen wad-

ing through water to rescue stranded motorists, of landlords at waterside pubs faced with financial ruin, of communities forced to abandon their homes have soured jokes about arks and trench foot.

But as Frost Fairs proved we will always have to adapt to changing climate.

We have known for a long time that climate warming would cause droughts in one place and increased rain in another. We’ve known for a long time that leaves block drains, that building on flood plains alters water courses; that ancient Mill houses had basements for a reason.

And we’ve known, as my grandfather would mutter, that what goes up must come down, and what comes down must go up.

Time to learn how to live with water and rename a pub The Floating Piss Pot...

Saturday, December 29, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

12

Showbiz Swift trespasser won’t be charged A MAN arrested for trespassing at Taylor Swift’s home has had his charges dropped.

Jacob Kulke was caught on the grounds of the ‘Red’ hitmaker’s property in Nashville, Tennessee on December 14, but his attorney Sean McKinney says prosecutors decided against pursuing the case because it would be a waste of taxpayers’ money and the singer’s representatives “did not see him as a threat”.

He told E! News: “He is delighted. He wanted to prove that he didn’t trespass and he is thrilled.”

Sean explained a number of factors contributed to the charges being dropped, such

as Taylor not possessing any “No Trespassing” signs, and because the 24-year-old fan thought he was allowed to enter the property after he was allegedly given permission by the guards.

However, prosecutors do still have a full year to decide whether or not to re-open the case if new evidence or information comes to light.

Taylor - who is currently dating One Direction singer Harry Styles - is not thought to have been at home at the time of the incident.

Meanwhile, Kulke is due to appear in court on January 29 to fight extradition back to Colorado, where he faces probation violations including a burglary charge.

Spears in paternity hoax scare AN IMPERSONATOR pretending to be her ex-brotherin-law Christopher Federline claimed he fathered her eldest son Sean Preston, seven, while seeking a restraining order against the 31-yearold singer, who is currently engaged to Jason Trawick.

Hoaxer Jonathan Lee Riches filed a phony lawsuit pretending to be her exhusband Kevin Federline’s younger brother Christopher.

According to gossip website RadarOnline.com, he filed court documents last week against The X Factor USA judge - who divorced former back-up dancer Kevin in 2006 after three years of marriage with whom she shares sons Sean Preston and Jayden James, six, - calling her “out of control and a maniac” and claiming she belittled his manhood and threatened to go public with the fact he is Sean Preston’s real biological father.

He also accused the ‘Toxic’ singer of recently stealing his Capital One credit card while picking up her sons from Kevin’s house after he left it on the table and using it to buy $4,569.02 worth of Archie

and Betty Boop comics, and back issues of Mad Magazine for her sons.

According to the documents, he wrote: “I called the owner of Comic Conquerors, Charles Nunez who told me that Britney Spears is a longtime customer ... and Nunex told me he will not give me a refund.”

He then claims he confronted Britney about using his card, and said she “laughed at me and told me my brother Kevin ruined her life,” “told me I have a small penis, she also blackmailed me and told me if I tell the police that she stole my credit card that she will tell the world I’m the true father of Sean Preston, not Kevin.”

He then insists that he slept with Britney and is Sean Preston’s “true father” but said he was seeking a restraining order because “the public does not need to know.”

A judge dismissed the case just two days after the papers were filed after discovering the real Christopher had nothing to do with the case and it was merely a hoax.

Bizarre health crazes of the rich & famous Celebrity bad science revealed in scientific survey, from dried placenta pills to inhalable oxygen shots POP guru Simon Cowell carries pocket-sized inhalable oxygen shots, America’s Mad Men actress January Jones favours dried placenta pills, and British soap star Patsy Palmer rubs coffee granules into her skin.

Celebrities rarely shy away from public peddling of dubious ideas about health and science, and 2012 was no exception.

In its annual list of the year’s worst abuses against science, the Sense About Science (SAS) campaign also named former US presidential candidate Mitt Romney formation for spreading misinformation about windows on planes, immer and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps for false eeing justifications for peeing in the pool. cord To help set the record rity straight, SAS, a charity ping dedicated to helping se people make sense of science and evi-dence, invited quali-o fied scientists to respond to some off the wilder pseudo-scientific claims putt h about by the rich and famous.

It suggested Romney, who wondered aloud in September why aircraft crews don’t just open the windows when there’s a fire on board, should listen to aeronautib cal engineer Jakob Whitfield: itt, “Unfortunately, Mitt, opening a window at height wouldn’t do enmuch good,” the scientist said. “In fact, if you ow could open a window whilst in flight, the air bewould rush out...beom cause air moves from abthe high pressure cabesin to the lower presbly sure outside, probably ury causing further injury and damage.” ried January Jones’ dried hich placenta pills, which d in the actress admitted med March she consumed n no after giving birth, win

Left Simon Cowell’s claim that oxygen shots help him feel younger has Left: mad made a list of the most misleading scientific statements along with US pre presidential candidate Mitt Romney and January Jones (inset) favour with Catherine p Collins, princidietic pal dietician at St George’s HosLon pital in London.

“Nutritionally, “Nutritio there’s nothg ing to be gained e from eating pla your placenta co - raw, cooked, or dried,” Collins said. ““Apart from iron, which can be easily found in other ch dietary choices supplem or supplements, pla your placenta provid toxwill provide ins and other unsavoury substances it had successfully prevented from reaching your ut baby in utero.”

Gary Mo Moss, a

pharmaceutical scientist, patiently points out to Palmer that while caffeine may have an effect on cellulite, rubbing coffee granules into the skin is unlikely to work, since the caffeine can’t escape the granules to penetrate the skin.

Phelps’ claim that it’s fine to pee in the pool because “chlorine kills it” is put straight by biochemist Stuart Jones, who reminds him that “urine is essentially sterile so there isn’t actually anything to kill in the first place”.

And for Cowell, Kay Mitchell a scientist at the Centre for Altitude Space and Extreme Environment Medicine warns that very high levels of oxygen can in fact be toxic - particularly in the lungs, where oxygen levels are highest.

“Celebrity comments travel far and fast, so it’s important that they talk sense,” said

Sense About Science’s managing director Tracey Brown.

“The implausible and frankly dangerous claims about how to avoid cancer, improve skin or lose weight are becoming ever more ridiculous. And unfortunately they have a much higher profile than the research and evidence.”

To encourage more vigilance among celebrity pseudo-scientists in the future, SAS provided a checklist of “misleading science claims” it suggests should be avoided: * “Immune boosting” - you can’t and you don’t need to * “Detox” - your liver does this * “Superfood” - there is no such thing, just foods that are high in some nutrients * “Oxygenating” your lungs do this * “Cleansing” - you shouldn’t be trying to cleanse anything other than your skin or hair.

Stallone did not copy screenplay for The Expendables Ozzy Osbourne set to have airport named after him A FEDERAL judge has reaffirmed his decision to dismiss a lawsuit accusing actor Sylvester Stallone of copying someone else’s screenplay to make his popular 2010 movie The Expendables.

US District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan on Thursday rejected claims of copyright infringement damages by Marcus Webb, who contended that the movie’s screenplay contained 20 “striking similarities” to his own The Cordoba Caper.

Webb claimed that both works had similar plots, and involved hired mercenaries in a Latin American country that was home to a villain dictator named General Garza.

But Rakoff said no reasonable juror could find that the works were so similar as to eliminate the possibility that Stallone crafted

his screenplay on his own.

Not even the general’s name was an automatic red flag, Rakoff said, writing that “Garza” was the 34th most common Hispanic nickname in the United States.

“The court has carefully examined the entire litany of plaintiff’s proffered ‘striking similarities’ and finds none of them remotely striking or legally sufficient,” Rakoff wrote.

“These are two very different screenplays built on a familiar theme: mercenaries taking on a Latin American dictator.”

Other defendants in the case included Nu Image Films, which produced the movie, and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, which distributed the movie in the United States.

Lawyers for Webb did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

THE heavy metal legend’s moniker has been put forward to be the new title of Birmingham International Airport after council bosses decided to name it after a local hero.

Record company boss Jim Simpson - who discovered Ozzy and his first band Black Sabbath - believes it would be a fitting tribute to the singer, who was born in Aston in the English city, and is backing the idea wholeheartedly.

Jim said: “I believe it would be a master stroke that would instantly confound the cynics.

“How does The Ozzy Osbourne International Airport resonate? The message says, ‘Hey world, we are proud of our own.’ Ozzy might not always have been a paragon of virtue, but he is a genuine, flesh and blood

Brummie.”

Councillor Philip Parkin has confirmed talks had taken place to change the name of the terminals and that a tribute to Ozzy or Black Sabbath has been considered.

When asked whether he’d be prepared to change the title of the airport, he replied: “It’s an interesting idea and I’ve got an open mind. I would be interested to know what people thought about it.”

Several airports in cities throughout the world have been named after famous people who were born there.

Liverpool’s Speke Airport was renamed John Lennon Airport to honour the late Beatles star, while Burbank-GlendalePasadena Airport in California was renamed the Bob Hope Airport in 2003.

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 29, 2012

13

Tech

China tightens its Internet checks, allows post deletion Nearly one-quarter of American bibliophiles are now consuming content in the form of electronic books

Readers of e-books are on the rise in US THE popularity of electronic books is increasing in the United States, with nearly one-quarter of American bibliophiles reading e-books, according to a survey released this week.

The number of e-readers aged 16 years and older jumped from 16 per cent in 2011 to 23 per cent this year, while print readers fell from 72 to 67 per cent in 2012, in a survey conducted by the Pew Research Centre.

“The move toward e-book reading coincides with an increase in ownership of electronic book reading devices,” the organisation said. Its report analysed reading trends among the 75 per cent of Americans who read at least one book in the last year.

“In all, the number of owners of either a tablet computer or e-book reading device ... grew from 18 per cent in late 2011 to 33 per cent in 2012.”

E-book owners increased from 4 per cent in May 2010 to 19 per cent in November 2012, while people with tablets jumped from 3 per cent to 25 per cent during the same period, according to the report.

People most likely to read e-books are well-educated, 30- to 49-year-olds who live in households earning $75,000 or more.

More women, 81 per cent, read books, compared to 70 per cent of men, and the number of readers declines as people age. The trend toward e-books impacted libraries, which stocked and loaned more e-books.

“The share of recent library users who have borrowed an e-book from a library has increased from 3 per cent last year to 5 per cent this year,” according to Pew. Even awareness that libraries stock e-books has grown, from 24 per cent late last year to 31 per cent now.

The findings were based on a telephone survey of 2,252 people, aged 16 years and older, across the United States and a similar poll the year before. It had a 2.7 per cent margin of error.

Move signals new regime to go on muzzling online banter

By Ben Blanchard and Sally Huang CHINA unveiled tighter Internet controls yesterday, legalising the deletion of posts or pages which are deemed to contain “illegal” information and requiring service providers to hand over such information to the authorities for punishment.

The rules signal that the new leadership headed by Communist Party chief Xi Jinping will continue muzzling the often scathing, raucous online chatter in a country where the Internet offers a rare opportunity for debate.

The new regulations, announced by the official Xinhua news agency, also require Internet users to register with their real names when signing up with network providers, though, in reality, this already happens.

Chinese authorities and Internet companies such as Sina Corp have long since closely monitored and censored what people say online, but the government has now put measures such as deleting posts into law.

“Service providers are required to instantly stop the transmission of illegal information once it is spotted and take relevant meas-

Chinese Internet users already cope with extensive censorship measures, especially over politically sensitive topics like human rights, and popular foreign sites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are blocked ures, including removing the information and saving records, before reporting to supervisory authorities,” the rules state.

The restrictions follow a series of corruption scandals amongst lower-level officials exposed by Internet users, something the government has said it is trying to encourage.

Li Fei, deputy head of parliament’s legislative affairs committee, said the new rules did not mean people needed to worry about being unable to report corruption

online. But he added a warning as well.

“When people exercise their rights, including the right to use the Internet, they must do so in accordance with the law and constitution, and not harm the legal rights of the state, society ... or other citizens,” he told a news conference.

Chinese Internet users already cope with extensive censorship measures, especially over politically sensitive topics like human rights and elite politics, and popular foreign sites Facebook,

Apps to meet New Year resolutions WHETHER it is improving health or managing finances better, about 87 per cent of Americans will make resolutions for 2013 and there are plenty of apps to help them achieve their goals.

Nearly half of New Year’s resolutions are about setting health-related goals, which is the most popular category, according to a recent survey by online broker TD Ameritrade.

Rather than jumping into a rigorous fitness routine, a new app called 5K Runner suggests it might be better to ease into things slowly and focus on building sustainable habits. The iPhone app helps couch potatoes ramp up their running distance to 5 km over the course of eight weeks.

“You’re slowly building this routine into your daily life with a lot of success and after eight weeks you’re literally running 5K, which is pretty big if (initially) you’re not running at all,” said David-Michel Davies, the executive director of The Webby Awards, an annual ceremony honouring Internet companies.

DietBet is an app for those with a competitive streak The app guides runners through each run, alternating periods of running and walking for 35 minutes.

Davies also recommends Nike+ Running and RunKeeper, which use GPS to track distance traveled, speed and calories burned.

Both apps are available for iOS and Android devices.

Diet is another component of good health and a focus of

many apps. Fooducate is an iPhone and Android app that helps shoppers make healthier purchases at the supermarket by allowing them to scan the barcodes of products and get insight into how healthy the product is.

Their database, which contains over 200,000 products, displays a grade for the product and information on its contents. It can show whether there are hidden additives or the probability of containing genetically modified ingredients.

DietBet is an app for people with a competitive streak.

Available for iPhone and on the Web, it allows its users to join in a four-week weight loss challenge to lose 4 per cent of weight. Everyone bets money, which goes into a fund, and submits proof of weight lost.

People who meet the challenge split the money.

To stay on top of finances, Davies recommends Mint, which provides a visual view of all financial accounts and is available for iOS, Android and on the Web.

Twitter and Google-owned YouTube are blocked.

Earlier this year, the government began forcing users of Sina’s wildly successful Weibo microblogging platform to register their real names.

The new rules were quickly condemned by some Weibo users.

“So now they are getting Weibo to help in keeping records and reporting it to authorities. Is this the freedom of expression we are promised in the constitution?” complained one user.

“We should resolutely op-

pose such a covert means to interfere with Internet freedom,” wrote another.

The government says tighter monitoring of the Internet is needed to prevent people making malicious and anonymous accusations online, disseminating pornography and spreading panic with unfounded rumors, pointing out that many other countries already have such rules.

Despite periodic calls for political reform, the party has shown no sign of loosening its grip on power and brooks no dissent to its authority.

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

Romanenko (left) spent 326 days orbiting Earth

Record stay in space In 1987, cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko ended his record 326day space flight orbiting Earth in the Mir space station, landing in a Soyuz spacecraft at a snow-covered site in Kazakhstan. His stay in space broke the previous Soviet record of 237 days. Romanenko had rocketed into orbit on February 6, 1987 with flight engineer Alexander Laveikin who suffered heart problems five months later and was replaced with Alexander Alexandrov. They conducted 1,000 experiments in biology, medicine, materials processing and geology.

CYPRUS MAIL Saturd

14

Special Report Cosy with big business Britain’s tax authority has gone from being fearsome to being really rather nice

Britain’s then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown delivers his speech to delegates at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton in September 2000

By Tom Bergin

I

N THE 1990s, when accountant Ian Barlow was head of UK taxation for KPMG, he argued Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) was creating an “increasingly fierce environment” for corporations. But last month, Barlow, 61, said senior American business executives found the UK taxman’s approach “refreshing.”

“It is a tax authority that is much easier to deal with than their own tax authority, and I think that’s no bad thing,” he said over a banquet of salmon mousse and rib of beef at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Since July, Barlow has been head of the board that develops the UK tax authority’s strategy. But his change of view reflects more than just his new job. It’s a sign of a huge shift in the UK tax authority’s approach to tax collection over the past decade.

In 2001, Labour finance minister Gordon Brown directed the tax collector to take a new approach which would come to be known in the financial world as an “enhanced relationship.” The aim was to lighten the regulatory burden on business. The authority now says it aims to work closely with big businesses in an atmosphere of “mutual trust.”

The government has found the approach to be “the most cost-effective way to increase revenue flows,” an HMRC spokesman said in an email.

However, a Reuters analysis found that large corporations in the UK now pay less corporate income tax than a decade ago even though profits have risen sharply. According to one measure compiled by the Office for National Statistics, overall annual corporate profit has risen 65 per cent since 2000, to 329 billion pounds ($532 billion) last year. In the same span, the amount of corporation tax paid by large companies fell, to 21 billion pounds, down 21 per cent or 5 billion

pounds since 2000/01.

Barlow declined to comment, but the tax authority attributed the fall partly to declining revenues from the finance industry, as well as lower official rates of tax. The UK’s official corporation tax rate was steady at 30 per cent between 2000 and 2007 but has been gradually cut, and in the last tax year was 26 per cent.

Tax campaigners argue the discrepancy shows big business and Britain’s tax inspectors have grown too close, and that tax avoidance is on the rise.

‘A Reuters analysis found that large corporations in the UK now pay less corporate income tax than a decade ago even though profits have risen sharply’ Swollen deficits and cuts in government spending make tactics like those used by multinationals such as Google, Amazon and Starbucks increasingly sensitive.

“What we’re seeing is a scaling up overall, over the last 10 years, of tax avoidance,” said John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network, which campaigns on tax issues. “It has become a much bigger issue. Successive (UK)

governments have been sending out strong signals that they were going to be fairly lenient in their attitude towards this.”

Internal HMRC staff guidelines shown to Reuters, as well as interviews with more than 12 current and former tax officials, suggest HMRC puts more emphasis on keeping big companies satisfied than on raising revenues.

“The remit now is to make the taxpayer happy,” says one current HMRC official. “If you go into HMRC to collect tax, you won’t get very far.”

The tax authority and the finance ministry said there is no reason to believe the revenue drop is due to tax avoidance by large corporations.

“We have been very successful in reducing tax avoidance by large businesses in recent years,” an HMRC spokesman said by email. “We relentlessly challenge those that persist in avoiding tax and have recovered 29 billion pounds additional revenues from large businesses in the last six years.” This is not the first time Britain has worried about how much tax big firms are paying.

In the recession of the early 1990s, former tax collectors said, UK officials were slow to understand how multinationals could shift income out of the UK into low-tax jurisdictions. Andrew McKenna, a former tax inspector who is now partner at accounting firm Smith & Williamson, said that until about 1994 the relationship between the tax authority and big businesses was “a gentleman’s club. Then it toughened up from then on.”

In 1994, the Conservative government set up an office to target big firms and boosted its funding and powers. Labour’s Brown, who was in opposition, was also critical of big business’ use of tax loopholes. When he took over as finance minister in 1997, he gave the tax authority even more powers of investigation and said he would introduce a General Anti Avoidance Rule (GAAR) - a broad set of principles aimed at blocking avoid-

ance. Brown appointed Chris Wales, a long-time Labour Party member and a former partner at accountants Arthur Andersen, as his policy adviser on taxation. “There was clearly a sense that the Inland Revenue were quite tough people to deal with,” said Wales.

That attitude began to turn in 1999, when Brown abandoned his planned GAAR. The following year, the tax authority brought tax officials and representatives of big business together in a new consultative body which aimed to provide “a direct channel between some of the UK’s key taxpayers and the office.”

Brown declined to comment. He has argued that the correct approach to regulation, including taxes, is based on trust, and “no inspection without justification, no form filling without justification, and no information requirements without justification.”

In 2001, he ordered the tax authority, then known as the Inland Revenue, to conduct a review of its links with business. This recommended “bringing business and the Revenue closer together.” The shift was agreed by a broad group, Wales said.

At the time, more and more global enterprises were reorganising their businesses to base different activities in places which taxed them least.

This fuelled competition between countries after investment.

In the UK, firms began demanding a more understanding hearing from the tax collector, which led to the creation of “customer relationship managers” to be a single point of contact on all tax matters. HMRC’s website says the model is based on “mutual trust, transparency and resolving issues in real time.” The customer relationship manager deals with the company, and tax inspectors work behind them.

A 2007 HMRC review of links with business recommended an even closer working relationship and in 2010, a new Conservative-led government also backed the co-operative model.

Since then, the authority has come

under increasing pressure for doing “sweetheart” deals with multinationals. Mobile phone operator Vodafone and investment bank Goldman Sachs cut deals on disputed tax bills which parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said in December 2011 showed the tax authority was “too cosy” with big companies.

The National Audit Office, which scrutinises public spending for parliament, ruled in June that the deals had been reasonable. But it criticised the tax authority for not always involving its own lawyers when it agreed to settle them. The parliamentary committee said in a report this month that the tax authority was “way too lenient” with big multinational businesses operating in the UK. David Gauke, the minister responsible for taxation, continues to champion the “enhanced relationship” approach. He has created more bodies through which businesses help guide government tax policy, including one named the “Business Forum on Tax and Competitiveness.” In September, he addressed a Washington event for business leaders titled “UK tax reform: A road map for the U.S.?” at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think-tank.

“This strategy has been very successful, producing positive feedback from business, while also helping HMRC to maximize revenues by recovering the right amount of tax,” he told them.

Gauke declined to be interviewed.

HMRC data shows that in the 2011/12 tax year, big companies which the UK tax authority defines as those with annual profits of 1.5 million pounds or more - paid five billion pounds less corporation tax than they did in 2000/01.

In that period the economy grew by 55 per cent and overall corporate profitability rose by 65 per cent. Tax revenue from other sources was up: receipts of both personal income tax and small companies’ income tax rose, according to HMRC data.

So what explains the lower tax take

day December 29, 2012

15 Television

17

Crossword

18

Sport

A masked demonstrator leaves a Starbucks coffee shop in central London in this December 8, 2012 file photo. Big companies in Britain now pay less tax than they did 12 years ago despite a big jump in profitability. Tax campaigners say the trend is the clearest signal yet that tax avoidance has blossomed under a more business-friendly strategy at the UK tax authority, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs from big companies? Prem Sikka, Professor of Accounting at Essex University, has written extensively about corporate tax avoidance and said it was hard to see how profitability and tax could diverge so sharply.

“How are they managing to reconcile higher profits with lower taxes?” he said. “It can’t be done ... unless (firms) are booking these profits somewhere else.”

Asked to explain the fall in tax revenues from big companies, HMRC

payments from banks in 2011/12 were just 1.9 billion pounds lower than 11 years earlier, according to HMRC data. That means that the lower tax rate and fall in revenue from financial companies account for around 2.8 million pounds of the 5 billion pounds drop in the big business tax take.

Sikka, the tax expert, agreed Reuters’ calculations were appropriate.

“HMRC’s answers may explain part of the drop but there’s still a big gap,” he said.

right tax liability.” Neither is there an agreed measure to compare the performance of national tax collectors.

The UK tax authority’s preferred measure of its performance is the ‘tax gap’ - the difference between the amount it collects and what it says should have been paid. It says the gap for large businesses has fallen sharply in the past decade and, though still significant, now accounts for 2.6 billion pounds in total for large businesses. It also says its tax gap is smaller

Pedestrians walk past the HM Revenue & Customs building in Whitehall, central London

pointed to a drop in the corporate tax rate and lower tax revenues from financial institutions following the financial crisis. But that only explains some of the change.

The government did lower the corporation tax rate, but this was offset by reining in other tax breaks. In all, the lower tax rate cost the government around 930 million pounds, according to Reuters calculations using data provided by the Office for Budget responsibility, the UK’s independent budget watchdog.

And while the banking sector was hit hard by the financial crisis, tax

“They also don’t account for the fact ... corporate profits have risen, so you would have expected corporation tax payments to rise.” When shown the calculations, an HMRC spokesman said the 2000/01 figures may have been artificially boosted by “elements of double counting” due to a change in the way taxes were paid, but declined to quantify the impact of this. The finance ministry declined to comment on the calculations. It’s not easy to decide exactly how much tax should be collected. As the National Audit Office said in June, there is “no clear answer as to what represents the

than others’, including the IRS. But since experts say different methods are used to measure them, such comparisons are difficult to make.

A widely cited 2008 report by the association of UK trades unions looked at Britain’s 700-800 biggest companies and put Britain’s tax gap for them at a much higher 12 billion pounds.

The difference is partly explained by the fact HMRC’s figures ignore vast amounts of profit shifting through places like Switzerland and Bermuda. That kind of arrangement has allowed Google, for example, to pay income taxes of just over three per cent

on $7.6 billion of overseas earnings in 2011. Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt has defended the practice, saying “it’s called capitalism.” Managers at the UK tax authority say international agreements around transfer pricing the internal charges that multinationals make for goods and services - can make it difficult to push back against the use of these charges to shift profits to low-tax countries.

Yet other countries’ tax authorities have done just that. In the past months, French tax inspectors have launched raids on the offices of Google and eBay, the Germans have raided Deutsche Bank and Unicredit’s German unit HVB, and the Italians have swooped on Facebook. Google, Facebook and eBay said they comply with tax laws in every country where they operate. Deutsche and HVB said they were cooperating with the authorities.

HMRC declined to say when it last raided a big company as part of an inquiry into corporation tax - UK tax advisers said they could not remember it happening. In recent months France asked Google for 1.7 billion euros in back tax, a source close to the company said. In October Amazon, which channels its European profits into an untaxed Luxembourg vehicle, said the French tax authority had sent it a bill for $252 million.

The IRS in 2006 achieved a record transfer pricing settlement of $3.4 billion from GlaxoSmithKline. It had challenged how much profit had been assigned to the company’s U.S. marketing operation while its drug patents resided outside the United States.

HMRC has taken three transferpricing cases to court, according to law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse.

Asked to give evidence of its success in tackling abuses, HMRC said its inquiries into transfer pricing had yielded 4.1 billion pounds over the last four years.

“There was a theory that if you treated larger companies better, that they would respond in kind and therefore the Revenue’s job would be easier,” said Ray McCann, a former HMRC inspector of large businesses.

“Many have disagreed.” Some current HMRC staff say the UK authority simply underestimates how important it

25-28

‘Swollen deficits and cuts in government spending make tactics like those used by multinationals such as Google, Amazon and Starbucks increasingly sensitive’ is for big business to try to minimise the taxes it pays. A current 6-page internal staff guide on taxing large corporations seen by Reuters states that large companies are unlikely to conceal earnings to evade taxes.

“It is not in their interests to suppress profits because of the impact on share price,” says the note.

Kimberly Clausing, Professor of Economics and an expert on corporate tax avoidance, dismisses this. “There are huge incentives to suppress the income reported for tax purposes in all the higher tax countries and to have it reported instead in places with lower or no tax,” she said.

Starbucks showed big losses in the UK for years while telling investors its UK unit was “profitable,” as reported by Reuters in October. It managed that in part because the UK unit made payments to a Dutch one for which the company had secured a very low tax rate.

After its low tax payments were exposed, the company promised to pay extra tax of 10 million pounds a year for two years - more than needed by law. HMRC declined to comment.

Starbucks said it had always complied with UK tax law and the decision was part of “a process of enhancing trust with customers.”

The HMRC guidance says tax avoidance by large companies is responsible for the tax gap, but notes this is usually due to “disputes over how the law applies to specific and complex transactions.”

The main trade union representing HMRC inspectors has defended its members against charges they lack the qualifications to take on companies’ well-paid tax advisers, so tackle easy targets such as small businesses and individuals instead. It highlights a lack of resources: HMRC’s workforce has been cut to 67,000 from 99,000 in 2005.

HMRC staff are among the best paid civil servants in Britain, yet staff surveys show they are the least engaged with their work of any in British public service. This year’s survey showed only one in five staff at the tax authority felt their employer motivated them to achieve their objectives, and just a quarter felt positive about the leadership.

Saturday, December 29, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

16

CINEMA WEBSITES: K-Cineplex: http://kcineplex.com, Friends of the Cinema Society: http://www.ofk.org.cy

What’s on

films

(K) All Audiences (12/15/18) No admittance to Under-12s/ 15s/ 18s (N/A) Not Available

Times are subject to change, so check first with cinemas before you head out

NICOSIA Cloud Atlas (N/A) K-Cineplex (Screen 4) at 7 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.30pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 4) at 7 and 10.15pm. Tel: 7777-8383 An… (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 2) (in Greek) at 5.35, 7.55 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.25pm; KCineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 2) (in Greek) at 5.35, 7.55 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 11am, 1.10pm and 3.25pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Wreck-It Ralph (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) (in Greek) at 5.35pm, weekends also at 3.25pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 3) (in Greek) at 5.35pm, weekends also at 11am, 1.10pm and 3.25pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Life of Pi (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 5) at 5.30, 7.50 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.05pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 5) at 5.30, 7.50 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 11.30am and 3.05pm.

Tel: 7777-8383

Arbitrage (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) at 7.50 and 10.20pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 3) at 7.50 and 10.20pm. Tel: 7777-8383 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 1) at 7 and 10.15pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 1) at 7 and 10.15pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Hotel Transylvania (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 1) (in Greek, in 3D), weekends only at 3.15pm; KCineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 1) (in Greek, in 3D), weekends only at 11.20am, 1.20pm and 3.15pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Rise of the Guardians (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 1) (in Greek, in 2D) at 5.05pm; K-Cineplex (Screen 5) (in English, in 2D) at 5.05pm, weekends also at 3.10pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 1) (in Greek, in 2D) at 5.05pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 4) (in English, in 2D) at 5.05pm, weekends also at 11.15am, 1.15pm and 3.10pm. Tel: 7777-8383

Telephone no:

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 (12) K-Cineplex (Sc (Screen 6) at 7.50 and 10.15pm. Tel: 7777-8383

K-Cineplex: 7777-8383

LIMASSOL LIMASSO Cloud Atlas (N/A) Rio 1 at 4.30, 7.35 and 10.30pm. Tel: 258714 871410; K-Cineplex (Scr (Screen 4) at 7 and

Rio Limassol: 25871410 Rio Paphos: 26-2070000

10.15pm. Tel: 7777-8383 An… (12) Rio 2 (in Greek), weekdays at 8 and 10pm, weekends at 8.10 and 10.10pm. Tel: 25-871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 2) (in Greek) at 5.35, 7.55 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.25pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Wreck-It Ralph (K) Rio 2 (in Greek), weekdays at 6pm, weekends at 4.30 and 6.20pm. Tel: 25-871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 3) (in Greek) at 5.35pm, weekends also at 3.25pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Life of Pi (K) Rio 4 at 5.30, 8 and 10.15pm.

Tel: 25-871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 5) at 5.30, 7.50 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.05pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Arbitrage (12) Rio 3 at 10.30pm. Tel: 25871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 3) at 7.50 and 10.20pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Zarafa (K) Rio 2 (in Greek). weekdays at 4.30pm, weekends at 3pm. Tel: 25-871410 Seven Psychopaths (18) Rio 5 at 10.05pm. Tel: 25-871410 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (12) Rio 3 at 4.30 and 7.35pm. Tel: 25871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 1) at 7 and 10.15pm. Tel: 7777-8383

Shadow Dancer (12) Rio 6 at 5.30 and 7.45pm. Tel: 25-871410 Hotel Transylvania (K) Rio 3 (in Greek, in 3D), weekends only at 2.50pm. Tel: 25871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 1) (in Greek, in 3D), weekends only at 3.15pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Lawless (15) Rio 6 at 10.05pm. Tel: 25-871410 Rise of the Guardians (K) Rio 5 (in English, in 2D) at 3.30pm (weekends only) and 5.30pm. Tel: 25-871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 1) (in Greek, in 2D) at 5.30pm; K-Cineplex (Screen 4) (in English, in 2D) at 5.05pm, weekends also at 3.10pm. Tel: 7777-8383 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 (12) Rio 5 at 7.45pm. Tel: 25-871410

LARNACA Cloud Atlas (N/A) K-Cineplex (Screen 4) at 7 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.30pm. Tel: 7777-8383 An… (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 2) (in Greek) at 5.35, 7.55 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.25pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Wreck-It Ralph (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) (in Greek) at 5.35pm, weekends also at 3.25pm. Tel: 7777-8383

Exhibition Women Solo sculpture exhibition by Dinos Michaelides. Opens December 29, 7.30pm until January 15. Gallery Gloria, 3 Zinonos Sozou Street, Nicosia. Monday-Friday: 10.30pm12.45pm and 5pm-8pm. Saturday: 10.30pm-12.45pm. Tel: 22-760286

Music Thanos Mikroutsikos – Rita Antonopoulou Famous Greek composer Thanos Mikroutsikos meets Rita Antonopoulou and present a piano-voice programme with surprises. December 29. ShowRoom Café, 21 Makariou Avenue, Larnaca. 10pm. €20. Tel: 24-102762

Theatre

11am and 4pm. €10. In Greek. Tel: 97-876760

cosia, 21 Spyrou Kyprianou Avenue, Nicosia. 9pm. Free. Tel: 22-364999

A Play about... Trash The theatre group Point To, in collaboration with Scarabeo Lounge Bar, presents the comedy directed

by Evagelia Onoufriou. December 29 and 5, 12, 19, 26 January 2013.

Scarabeo Bar, 4 Nikokreontos Street, Nicosia. 9.30pm. €10. In Greek. Tel: 99-935777/99-740773

New Years Eve Party Abba Dabba Do plus stand up comic and DJ Lukas. December 31. Pentaras Hall, Coral Bay Road, Paphos.

7.30pm. €30 including international buffet. Reservations essential - Tel: 99-832538. Tickets must be purchased in advance at Pentaras or by phone

Just Broken Up Act Theatre presents play by Vassilis Myrianthopoulos & Vangelis Hatzinikolaou. Cyprus Dialect Adaptation

by Christiana Artemiou. December 29 & January 5-6. Latsia Municipal Theatre, 57 Yiannos Kranidiotis Avenue, Nicosia. 8.30pm and 6pm on Sundays. €20. Tel: 77-777181

New Year Party at JJ’s New Year’s Eve party with Groovejet.

December 31. JJ’s Bar (above Sophie’s Restaurant), Peyia Village.

7.30pm. Food and unlimited local drinks included in the €30 ticket price. Tickets available from JJ’s.

Tel: 96-636646

Monday Other Events

All I Want For Christmas.....

A play staged by Antidote Theatre, written and performed by Catherine Beger.

December 29. Larnaca Youth Foundation, near Ayios Lazaros Church. 5pm.

In English. €7/5. Tel: 96-216435

Open Call for Motion Work: Second International Motion Festival A call to artists to submit their works for the March 2013 IMF. Deadline for submission: December 31. For more information visit the festival’s webpage at: http://www.motionfestivalcyprus.com

Gourouniasmata Silver Spotlight presents the new musical for children by Katerina Christofidou and Aigli Spyridaki.

December 29-30. Melina Merkouri Hall, Famagusta Gate, old Nicosia.

New Year’s Eve – Party Like A Rock Star Party with well-known DJ’s such as DJ Chris Angelo on the decks.

December 31. Hard Rock Cafe Ni-

Eat Drink and be Merry New Year’s Eve carvery with the finest international buffet (4 courses), after dinner countdown show and New Year’s Disco till late. December 31. Paliomonastiro Peyia.7pm. €30 per person. Tel: 96-818066

Ongoing Other Events First International Christmas Fair Includes a wide range of events and concerts for families and children.

December 14-Janaury 1. Christmas Fair, Sea Road, Between McDonalds and Pascucci Café, Yermasoyia. All day event. Tel: 97-745594

Arbitrage (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) at 7.50 and 10.20pm. Tel: 7777-8383 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 1) at 7 and 10.15pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Hotel Transylvania (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 1) (in Greek, in 3D), weekends only at 3.15pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Rise of the Guardians (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 1) (in Greek, in 2D) at 5.05pm; K-Cineplex (Screen 5) (in English, in 2D) at 5.05pm, weekends also at 3.10pm. Tel: 7777-8383 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 6) at 7.50 and 10.15pm. Tel: 7777-8383

PAPHOS Cloud Atlas (N/A) Rio 5 at 7 and 10pm. Tel: 26207000 An… (12) Rio 6 (in Greek), weekdays at 8.30 and 10.30pm, weekends at 5.30, 7.30 and 9.30pm. Tel: 26-207000 Wreck-It Ralph (K) Rio 7 (in Greek), weekdays at 5.30pm, weekends at 11am,

3.30pm and 5.20pm. Tel: 26207000 Life of Pi (K) Rio 3 at 3pm (weekends only) and 5.30pm; Rio 7 at 7.30pm; Rio 1 at 10.30pm. Tel: 26-207000 Arbitrage (12) Rio 4 at 7.30 and 9.45pm. Tel: 26-207000 Zarafa (K) Rio 5 (in Greek), weekdays at 5pm, weekends at 11am, 3.30pm and 5.30pm. Tel: 26207000 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (12) Rio 6, weekdays only at 5.30pm; Rio 1 at 7.30pm; Rio 7 at 9.45pm. Tel: 26-207000 Seven Psychopaths (18) Rio 3 at 10pm. Tel: 26-207000 Hotel Transylvania (K) Rio 1 (in Greek, in 3D), weekdays only at 5.30pm; Rio 6 (in Greek, in 3D), weekends only at 11am and 3.30pm. Tel: 26-207000 Shadow Dancer Rio 2 at 5pm (weekends only) and 7.30pm. Tel: 26-207000 Rise of the Guardians (K) Rio 4 (in English, in 2D) at 5.30pm, weekends also at 11am and 3.30pm; Rio 1 (in Greek, in 3D), weekends only at 11am, 3.30 and 5.30pm. Tel: 26-207000

listings

Wreck-It Ralph

Today

Life of Pi (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 5) at 5.30, 7.50 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.05pm. Tel: 7777-8383

7 films: Harun Farocki A selection of screenings by legendary German filmmaker, critic and teacher followed by discussion and talk with the artist. Within the framework of the opening ceremony of a new contemporary art centre. Until February 15. Point Centre for Contemporary Art Megaron Hadjisavva, 2 Evagorou Street, Nicosia. Every Wednesday through Sunday from 11am-5pm. Tel: 22-662053. info@ pointcentreforcontemporaryart.com Bidoun Library A mobile library consisting of books, magazines and other printed matter about the Middle East. Until February 15. Point Centre for Contemporary Art Megaron Hadjisavva, 2 Evagorou Street, Nicosia. Tel: 22-662053. info@pointcentreforcontemporaryart.com

Theatre 65 Minutes A performance by the Theatro Dentro within the framework of the 4th X-Dream Festival. Until December 30 and January 3-5. ARTos Cultural and Research Foundation, 64 Ayion Omoloyiton Avenue, Nicosia. 9pm.

In Greek. Tel: 99-384606 Spring Awakening THOC presents work by Frank Wedekind, directed by Dimitris Lignadis. Until January 26. THOC New Theatre Building, 9 Gregori Afxentiou, Nicosia. Every Wednesday through Sunday at 8.30pm. In Greek. Tel: 77-772717/22-864300

The Elephant Man Theatro Ena presents a play by Bernard Pomerance, translated and directed by Andreas Christodoulides.

Until January 27. Theatro Ena, 4 Athinas Avenue, Nicosia. Every Friday through Sunday at 8.30pm. In Greek. €15/12. Tel: 22-348203 Social Security THOC presents a play by Andrew Bergman. Until January 27. THOC New Theatre Building, 9 Gregori Afxentiou, Nicosia. Friday through Sunday. Friday & Sunday at 8.30pm, Saturday at 6pm and 8.30pm. Tel: 77-772717/22-864300 The Magic Flute The Children’s Stage of Satiriko Theatre presents play adapted and directed by Thanasis Theologis. Until January 27. Vladimiros Kafkarides Cultural Centre, 11-15 Vladimiros Kafkarides Street, Aglantzia. Every Sunday at 10.30am. €10. In Greek.

Tel: 22-312940/22-421609 Shakespeare in an Hour Pirasmos Productions presents a theatrical comedy directed by popular Cypriot actor and director Loris Loizides. Until January 27.

Pantheon Art Cinema, 29 Diagorou Street. Thursday through Sunday at 8.30pm. In Greek. Tel: 70-001910 Noah’s Family A theatrical play for children written

by Xenia Kalogeropoulou and Thomas Moschopoulos. Until February 3. THOC New Theatre Building, 9 Gregori Afxentiou. Every Sunday at

For a full guide to the week’s events and regular meetings, make sure you get a copy of the Sunday Mail

10.30am. In Greek. Tel: 22-864300

Exhibition The Art of Xmas Fair Fun and amazing art at very attractive prices. Until December 29.

Thiseas Art Gallery, 9 Thiseos Street, Limassol. Tel: 99-674243 Terra Mediterranea – In Crisis Group contemporary art exhibition curated by Yiannis Toumazis scrutinising the current turbulence experienced globally, from both a political and a poetic stance. Until December 30. Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre 19, Palaias Ilektrikis, Nicosia.

Tuesday-Saturday: 10am-3pm and 5pm-11pm. Sunday: 10am-4pm.

Tel: 22-797400. info@nimac.org.cy. www.nimac.org.cy The project includes a second contemporary art exhibition curated by Re Aphrodite team. Until December 30. Ethological Museum – The House of Hagjigeorgakis Kornesios, 20, Patriarxou Grigoriou, Nicosia. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 8.30am-3.30pm.

Wednesday: 8.30am-5pm. Saturday: 9.30am-3.30pm. Tel: 22-305316 Beyond Dress Code An extensive and comprehensive documentation of traditional Greek dress. Until December 31. Marfin Laiki Bank Cultural Centre, Byron Avenue Museum, 32 Byron Avenue, Nicosia. Monday-Friday: 10am-1pm & 4pm-8pm. Saturday: 10am-2pm.

Tel: 22-718605

17

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 29, 2012

Television CYBC 1 08.00

FILM: The Bells Of St. Mary’s A priest and a nun who rarely see eye to eye, learn to work together to rescue a struggling inner-city school.

Musical drama, starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. 1945.

10.00

Paizoume Kypriaka (rpt)

CYBC 2 07.00 08.00

14.00 14.30

Edoxe Ti Vouli Kai To Dimo News Me Kali Parea Vivian Kanari hosts new show featuring a mix of news, information and live music.

16.30

Vimmata Stin Ammo (rpt) Two episodes of local period drama, based on true events.

18.00 18.15 18.45

News Taxidevontas Me To Trito (rpt) Ego Ki Esi

17.00

18.30 18.50 19.00 19.10 21.00

22.45

01.15

00.15 02.10

07.50 08.20 09.10 10.20 11.10 12.00 12.45 14.20 16.00

Proini Enimerosi Tango Yia Treis (rpt) Cheek To Cheek (rpt) Oi Men kai Oi Den (rpt) Vodka Portokali (rpt) Deixe Mou To Filo Sou (rpt) 40 Kimata (rpt) Ta Koritsia Tou Baba (rpt) Galileo (rpt) Yia Tin Agapi Sou (rpt) 20 Chronia Foivos (rpt) FILM: 10 Things I Hate About You A teenager is prevented from dating until her man-hating sister gets a boyfriend - but a quirky loner might be just the man for the job. Comedy, with Heath Ledger. 1999.

17.50

Niose Me (rpt) With News at 18.00.

FILM: Here Come The Girls Ageing chorus boy Bob Hope is overjoyed at being promoted to leading man, unaware he’s being used as bait to catch a crazed murderer. Period musical comedy, with Rosemary Clooney.

1953.

00.00

06.20 06.50 07.20

News In English New In Turkish NRG Zone Weekend FILM: The School Of Rock Comedy, starring Jack Black and Joan Cusack. 2003. See Pick Of The Day.

Local Sketch News Savvato Ki Apovrado

News Tete A Tete (rpt) Edoxe Ti Vouli Kai To Dimo (rpt) More Repeats

Candid Camera Unsuspecting people react to bizarre events.

Variety show, with wellknown guests pretending to have a good time for the benefit of You At Home.

23.30 23.45 00.15

FILM: One Magic Christmas A mother who has lost her enthusiasm for the festive season receives a visit from an angel intent on cheering her up. Drama, starring Mary Steenburgen.

1985.

Local comedy series.

19.30 20.00 21.15

NRG Zone Kids’ TV Fireman Sam, The Legend of Frosty the Showman, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, etc. Shown till 12.30, then repeated till mid-afternoon.

Local game show, asking questions having to do with Cypriot dialect.

13.00

ANTENNA

News In English & News In Turkish Me Kali Parea (rpt) Euronews

19.30 20.20 21.30 22.20

Vals Me 12 Theous News Me To Dexi (rpt) FILM: Whiteout US Marshals must investigate an Antarctic murder before the harsh winter sets in.

Action-thriller, starring Kate Beckinsale. 2009.

00.15 00.20 00.30 01.40 02.40

MEGA 06.00 07.40 09.40 10.30 11.20 12.10 13.10

I Dipsa Yia Sena (rpt) Kid’s TV Mia Stigmi Dio Zoes Boukia Kai Syhorio (rpt) Klemmena Oneira (rpt) Chuck A computer geek finds himself in charge of the government’s most sensitive data.

14.00 15.50 17.00 18.00 18.20 20.15 21.20 22.20 00.00 00.20 01.00 01.40

Mousiko Kouti Live (rpt) Anonymous (rpt) Master Chef (rpt) News Epta Thanasimes Petheres (rpt) News Anonymous FILM: TBA News Kleise Ta Matia (rpt) Mila Mou Vromika (rpt) FILM: Anaconda: Trail Of Blood A genetically created Anaconda, cut in half, regenerates itself into two aggressive giant snakes, due to the Blood Orchid. Horror sequel, starring Crystal Allen. 2009.

02.20

Repeats

SIGMA 06.30 07.30 10.00 14.00 15.40

Zoi Podilato (rpt) Kids’ TV Mes Stin Kali Hara Aspra Balonia (rpt) 7 Ouranoi kai Synnefa Alites (rpt)

17.10 18.00 18.10

Mr Bean News The Cooking Factory

PLUS TV 07.50 12.05 13.00 13.40

Second season. ‘The Goodbye Gossip Girl’.

The blogger decides to liven things up at the Constance Billard and St. Jude’s graduation by sending out a damaging e-mail in the middle of the ceremony. Last in series.

With News at 18.00.

Greek cookery show.

19.00

Pame Paketo (rpt) Popular talk-show that deals with human interest stories.

20.15 21.20

23.10 23.50 23.55

14.25

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (rpt) News The 4400 (rpt)

15.15 16.30 17.30 19.00

00.40 04.00

Mes Stin Kali Hara (rpt) Magazino (rpt) 21.00 22.30

News Sports News Vradi Me Ton Petro Kotsopoulo Blackout Repeats

Fotis - Maria Live Best Of Mesimeriani Meleti Best Of Mila (rpt) FILM: Hairspray Pleasantly plump teenager Tracy Turnblad teaches 1962 Baltimore a thing or two about integration after landing a spot on a local TV dance show. Musical remake, starring Nikki Blonsky.

2007.

FBI agents investigate the sudden reappearance of 4,400 people who mysteriously vanished 50 years ago.

23.15 23.45 00.40

07.00 11.30 13.45 15.25 15.40 16.10 16.15

O Ippotis Lakouvas Exelixeis Stin Showbiz Kostakis Ki Yioi LTV Sports News Repeats

Kids’ TV Telemarketing Greek FILM: Agapisa Enan Aliti Mila Mou Prasina Kouzina Me Apopsi (rpt) News FILM: The Hottie & The Nottie A man tracks down his childhood sweetheart, only to find she has sworn to remain single until her unattractive best friend has found love. Comedy, starring Paris Hilton. 2008. With News at 17.30.

One Tree Hill (rpt) Second season. ‘The Leavers’ Dance’.

Lucas finally gets the evidence he has been searching for.

A journalist arrives to talk to Peyton, who is having problems with a webcam voyeur. Last in series.

News FILM: The Christmas Shoes A little boy determined to do whatever he can to care for his dying mother inspires an amazing transformation in the life of a coldhearted lawyer. Festive family drama, starring Rob Lowe. 2002.

Kids’ TV LTV Sports News (rpt) Star News Gossip Girl (rpt)

CAPITAL

18.00 18.55 19.05 19.55 20.05 21.00

Remington Steele News Acapulco HEAT News Rubi FILM: The Santa Trap A youngster is horrified by her family’s move to the desert, believing it will ruin Christmas - but her scheme to put things right only causes more chaos. Family comedy, starring Shelley Long.

2002.

22.55

FILM: Broken Arrow A pilot holds the US government to ransom by stealing a nuclear warhead and threatens to detonate it. Action thriller, starring John Travolta. 1996.

00.45

FILM: In Hell Action adventure, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. 2003.

Real Steel (Novacinema4, 21.00)

01:25 The Weakest Link 02:10 Comedy Countdown - 8 02:40 Comedy Countdown - 7 03:10 Doctors 03:35 Money 04:30 The Royle Family: Joe’s Crackers 05:30 Alan Carr: Chatty Man 06:15 The Weakest Link 07:00 Charlie And Lola 07:10 Nina and the Neurons 07:25 Teletubbies 07:50 Balamory 08:10 Buzz & Tell 08:15 Charlie And Lola 08:25 Nina and the Neurons 08:40 Teletubbies 09:05 Balamory 09:25 Buzz & Tell 09:30 Charlie And Lola 09:40 Comedy Countdown - 7 10:10 Comedy Countdown - 8 10:40 Casualty 11:30 EastEnders 13:30 The Diamond Queen 14:20 As Time Goes By 14:50 Swingin’ Christmas 16:20 The Nativity 18:15 The Diamond Queen 19:05 The Weakest Link: Puppet Special 20:05 Doctor Who 21:00 Comedy Countdown - 6 21:30 Comedy Countdown - 5 22:00 Little Britain Christmas Special 2006 22:30 Alan Carr: Chatty Man 23:20 Gavin & Stacey: Christmas Special 2008 24:20 Lee Evans: Big Live at the O2

07:00 How It’s Made ; 07:25 Rides 08:15 Ultimate Survival 10:55 River Monsters 14:30 Extreme Engineering 15:25 Man Made Marvels Asia 16:20 Mega Builders 17:15

How It’s Made ; 17:45 How It’s Made ; 18:10 James May’s Man Lab 19:05 Mythbusters 20:00 How It’s Made ; 21:00 Auction Hunters 22:00 Auction Kings 23:00 Mud Lovin’ Rednecks 00:00 Michael Jackson And The Doctor 01:00 Wikileaks - Wikileaks 01:55 Auction Kings 02:50 Mud Lovin’ Rednecks 03:50 Michael Jackson And The Doctor 04:50 How It’s Made ; 05:15 Auction Hunters 06:05 Mega Builders

09:30 Alpine Skiing: World Cup Austria 10:00 Ski Jumping: World Cup Russia 10:30 Ski Jumping: World Cup Switzerland 12:15 Alpine Skiing: World Cup Austria 12:45 Alpine Skiing: World Cup Italy 14:00 Cross Country Skiing: World Cup Tour De Ski Germany 14:30 Ski Jumping: World Cup Switzerland 15:30 Cross Country Skiing: World Cup Tour De Ski Germany 16:00 Alpine Skiing: World Cup Austria 17:00 Ski Jumping: World Cup Four Hills Tournament Germany 18:00 Cross Country Skiing: World Cup Tour De Ski Germany 18:30 Winter Sports: Ski Pass 18:45 Alpine Skiing: World Cup Austria 19:45 Biathlon 21:00 Ski Jumping: World Cup Four Hills Tournament Germany 22:00 Fight Sport: Total Ko 02:00 Ski Jump-

ing: World Cup Four Hills Tournament Germany

05:40 Work Of Art: The Next Great Artist 06:30 Desperate Housewives 10:20 Modern Family 11:10 New Girl 12:00 Happy Endings 12:25 Don’t Trust The B...In Apartment 12:50 Jamie’s Best Ever Christmas 14:30 Body Of Proof 18:30 Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations 20:10 Jamie’s Best Ever Christmas 21:00 Jane By Design 21:50 Revenge 22:40 Raising Hope 23:05 Melissa & Joey 23:30 Glee 00:20 Castle 04:25 Modern Family

07:00 Ancient Aliens 10:00 UFO Hunters 12:00 Ancient Aliens 15:00 UFO Hunters 17:00 Ancient Aliens 19:00 Storage Wars 20:00 Pawn Stars 21:00 American Pickers 22:00 Storage Wars 23:00 Pawn Stars 00:00 American Pickers 01:00 Storage Wars 02:00 Pawn Stars 03:00 American Pickers 04:00 Ancient Aliens 05:00 UFO Hunters

07:30 Private Benjamin 09:30 Skellig 11:20 Hollywood Buzz 12:00

Special Relationship 14:00 Kisses 15:30 Red (2010) 17:30 Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 20:00 LTV Sports News 21:00 My Best Friend’s Wedding 23:00 Too Big To Fail 00:40 Hustler TV 02:30 Sunset Limited 04:15 Love In The Time Of Cholera 06:30 LTV Sports News

12:00 Hey Arnold! 12:30 Icarly 13:30 Max Adventures 14:05 Barclays Premier League Preview 14:45 Barclays Premier League 2012-13 19:00 NBA 2012-13 21:00 Barclays Premier League 2012-13 01:00 Planet Speed 01:30 ESPN Films 03:00 Barclays Premier League 2012-13

07:00 The Looney Tunes Show 07:25 Loonatics Unleashed 07:50 Wonder Pets 08:20 Dora The Explorer 08:50 Ni Hao, Kai-Lan 09:20 Spongebob Squarepants 09:45 Tak & The Power Of Juju 10:10 Fanboy & Chum Chum 10:35 The X’s 11:00 The Mighty B! 11:30 My Life As A Teenage Robot

07:15 Gossip Girl 08:00 Entourage 08:35 The Big Bang Theory 09:00 According To Jim 09:55 Two And A Half Men 10:45 Bones 11:30 The Mentalist 12:25 Necessary Roughness 13:30 The Closer 14:15 Ncis: Los Angeles 15:00 Friends 01:00 Last Of Sheila, The 03:00 Underbelly

08:20 Risky Business 10:00 You’re A Big Boy Now 11:45 Twilight Saga: New Moon 14:00 Step Up 3 15:50 Ocean’s Eleven (1960) 18:00 Hotel For Dogs 20:00 Akeelah And The Bee 22:00 Life As We Know It 00:05 Daring!

Tv 03:50 Somewhere 05:40 Change Of Plans

07:25 Inspector Gadget 08:50 Cine News 09:20 True Grit 1969 11:30 Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes 13:20 Gran Torino 15:20 Phone Booth 16:45 A Perfect World 19:10 Analyze This 21:00 The Company Men 23:00 The Pelican Brief 01:30 Adult Zone 03:20 The Resident

05:15 Take Me Home Tonight 06:55 Le Divorce 10:35 Cine News 13:10 Abduction 15:00 Ncis X 16:40 Cine News 17:05 Last Night 18:45 Men Of Honor 22:00 Alvin And The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked 23:40 The Three Musketeers 01:30 Cine News 02:00 Sniper Reloaded 03:30 The Mechanic

06:20 Another Earth 07:55 Cine News 08:25 From Prada To Nada 10:15 Treasure Buddies 11:55 Who Is Clark Rockefeller? 15:40 Made In Dagenham 19:15 Don Juan De Marco 21:00 Real Steel 23:15 Sleepless In Seattle 01:10 Rumor Has It... 02:50 Love And Other Drugs 04:45 9 To 5

08:30 Cine News 09:15 Ap’ Ta Kokala Vgalmena 10:45 Home Alone 12:30 Cine News 13:30 Shall We Dance? 15:20 Mad On Novacinema 18:00 The Lincoln Lawyer 20:05 Gattaca 22:00 Alfie 23:55 Cold Mountain 02:35 The Haunting 04:25 Fierce Creatures 05:10 Cine News 05:40 Page Eight

07:00 Blackboard Jungle 08:40 Home From The Hill 11:05 Viva Las Vegas 12:30 Boys’ Night Out 14:20 Skyjacked 16:00 Meet Me In St: Louis 17:50 Show Boat 19:35 Ice Station Zebra 22:00 Sunshine Boys, The 23:50 Fame 02:00 Fixer, The 04:10 Pick A Star 05:25 Night at the Opera, A

By Preston Wilder

Don Juan DeMarco (Novacinema4, 19.15) “If you can’t get laid after watching this movie, you just can’t get laid!” famously proclaimed the host of an American TV show - which is crude, but true: Johnny Depp’s elegant softness and purring Lothario accent are well-nigh irresistible (this was before he became Capt. Jack Sparrow), guaranteed to put any self-respecting female viewer in a dreamy receptive mood.

Depp is a young man who claims to be Don Juan, the world’s greatest lover; Marlon Brando is a psychiatrist who has 10 days to decide if the kid should be committed. Brando knows the young man is insane (he has to be), yet he’s so ... convincing, and the effect he

has on those around him, including Brando himself, is so invigorating. Faye Dunaway is Marlon’s wife, pleasantly surprised by his sudden randiness - and the film is slight but it oozes charm, not to mention Bryan Adams on the soundtrack. I said not to mention Bryan Adams on the soundtrack! Made in 1994.

The School of Rock (CyBC2, 21.00) Bryan Adams? Don’t make me laugh. The wimpy crooner doesn’t even feature on the rock’n roll family tree drawn by Jack Black in this joyous comedy - and he’s drawing it to educate a class of prepubescents at a very exclusive prep school where he’s somehow wangled a job as a substitute teacher. Jack is a loser

The School of Rock

and wannabe rock star - but he loves rock music, and decides to turn the classically-minded kids (who don’t know Tom Waits from Tom Jones) into a contest-winning rock band. The message may be dubious (“No more reading. Time for rock!”) but this is a film to get the whole world playing air-guitar - a feelgood comedy with a glorious generosity of spirit and no real villains, even Joan Cusack allowed her dignity as the uptight headmistress. Above all there’s Mr. Black, whose exuberant immaturity (“Sell my guitars? I’m an artist!

Would you tell Picasso to sell his guitars?”) has never been funnier; he’s not quite an ‘inspirational teacher’, more like a ramshackle creature whose only aim is to have fun. Just like rock’n roll, really. Made in 2003.

Saturday, December 29, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

18

CRYPTIC CROSSWORD 2273 1

2

3

4

PREVIOUS DAY’S SOLUTIONS

5

6

7

8

11

9

10

12

13

HOW TO PLAY: Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1-9. There’s no maths involved, you solve the puzzle with reasoning and logic.

With the ‘X’ sudoku, the shaded X must also contain the numbers 1-9.

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

EASY

EASY

MEDIUM

HARD

21

1 The pretence, it’s no end of a disgrace (4) 2 Opening into the road itself (4) 3 Stand face to face with many on 19 down (8) 4 One in small party rejected security (4) 5 In this capacity, one will suggest what work should be done (8) 6 Ganger nips out for a biscuit (10) 9 Getting home immediately yet by a roundabout way (10) 12 Medicinal powder a GI means to mix (8) 14 Tossing out of Worthing (8) 18 The prescribed amount (4) 19 Seafront concert (4) 20 Point to the right (4)

Rating EASY

5 One left Georgia some seaweed (4) 7 Way to applaud at close quarters (4-2-4) 8 Merry film Ruth produced (8) 10 Gloomy dean committed some infringements (4) 11 Cheese made round (4) 13 Motor away from the centre line of a vessel (8) 15 More cheerful when there is less cloud about (8) 16 Pull one across the Atlantic (4) 17 Bill has explosive pain (4) 18 It carries rainwater or soft feathers and a musical instrument (8) 21 Details of the election results (3,3,4) 22 Tommy rather fond of taking this girl in? (4)

Rating HARD

Down

Rating MEDIUM

Across

Rating MEDIUM

22

Answers to crossword 2272

HOROSCOPE

CRYPTIC: Across – 1 Acne; 8 & 9 Canterbury bell; 10 Eventide; 12 Stack; 13 And; 16 Truism; 17 Rancid; 18 Pry; 21 Dregs; 22 Antimony; 24 Eton; 25 & 26 Before one’s time. Down – 2 Chesterton; 3 Eclectic; 4 Steven; 5 Bring; 6 Fuji; 7 Dyne; 11 Dining-room; 13 Amp; 14 Dry; 15 Angriest; 19 Ransom; 20 Smart; 22 Abb ; 23 Tuft.QUICK:

Across – 1 News; 8 Conquering 9 Parr; 10 Parlance; 12 Stump; 13 All; 16 Ocular; 17 Adrift; 18 Key; 21 Short; 22 Ayrshire; 24 Vent; 25 Dismissive; 26 Seed. Down – 2 Elasticity 3 Scramble; 4 Squall; 5 Jelly; 6 Sign; 7 Ague; 11 Conference; 13 Ark; 14 Lay; 15 Archives; 19 Egress; 20 Chain; 22 Aide; 23 Risk.

ARIES March 21 - April 20

LEO July 23 - August 22

SAGITTARIUS November 23 - December 21

The desire side of your nature may be activated. You know what you want career wise and you aim to get it. But try not to be too aggressive or opinionated today. A tendency to be pushy or critical isn’t going to help. A gathering at home with your partner or friends brings a special touch to the day. Yet do give yourself a good chance to unwind!

You may decide to put your energy into practical goals such as work, career advancement or a better health plan.

Dating and fun times may take your attention away from the pressures of work, and the need to make decisions.

To achieve romantic and creative goals, you may need to put a bit of effort in, but it may be worth it if you can stir yourself.

Communications may be fast and furious, with plenty of messages and phone calls sharing wishes of goodwill and other delightful snippets winging back and fore. Overall, you seem to be in a good mood with a desire to make others happy. Be careful with financial matters today. A situation may be about to be revealed which needs urgent attention.

TAURUS April 21 - May 21

VIRGO August 23 - September 23

CAPRICORN December 22 - January 20

You may encounter an inspired, inventive and talkative colleague who could influence your next steps. They may have an idea to share with you that you may feel very enthusiastic about. Your money situation is still very positive.

This may be a good time to take advantage of the end of year sales - particularly bargains on gadgets or games.

Serious matters may come to your attention. There may be conflict between your head and your heart, which could lead to feelings of frustration - especially if the situation before you is not as easily resolved as you would like.

Mars encourages you to get into the habit of daily exercise for extra energy, wellbeing and an overall positive glow.

This may be a day to play it safe and do things by the book. Short cuts may not be worth the effort, especially when it comes to home, or financial matters. Someone may try to intrude on your feelings. If you need time to be alone after all the socialising you’ve done, go for it as you’ll feel much better. A day at the spa may work wonders!

GEMINI May 22 - June 21

LIBRA September 24 - October 23

AQUARIUS January 21 - February 19

A positive and upbeat friend may have something to share with you. It’s possible that a conversation could lead to a financially viable project emerging between you. If you’re in the right place at the right time, you may attract both love and money. Although work is going well, it can help to have a series of goals to help spur you on to greater things.

The social tempo is likely to still be lively. The promise of fun times over these last few days of the year is looking good. You may have a lot to share, gossip to catch up on, messages to relate and feelings to make known. Your thoughtfulness may be deeply appreciated by friends and family alike. Be smart about your finances though, not rash.

Think twice or maybe even three times before making decisions, especially if money is at risk. Also watch that you don’t accidentally let slip vital personal information. It may be easy to overcomplicate matters or get in over your head trying to solve a dilemma. Try to keep things simple and most of all, steer clear of get rich quick schemes.

CANCER June 22 - July 22

SCORPIO October 24 - November 22

PISCES February 20 - March 20

Someone may have kind words or a positive message to lift your spirits. Make a plan to entertain at home, as it might help you feel upbeat and positive despite any other issues. You may get together with other family and friends, as it’s an ideal time to reminisce. In fact, the Moon in your sign suggests it could be time for a reunion.

If you emphasise the human touch, you may well reap rewards. Try not to be too stand-offish with colleagues or co-workers, for whatever reason. Someone at the top may be generous towards you, especially as they may be impressed by your dedication and perseverance. Later, a whiff of controversy may stir things up however.

Your social life could get exciting, possibly due to a meeting with someone at work. Contacts made now have lots of potential and could prove very supportive in the future.

However, frustrations could be in the picture too. You and another may not see eye to eye. Someone may have to compromise. Maybe you should make the first move!

19

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 29, 2012

ADVERTISER

Advertiser Only

helps you find what you’re looking for

€14 (plus VAT)

a week for classifieds (up to 40 words)

Send your classified by fax or email and pay by credit card, cheque or cash. It couldn’t be simpler!

Nicosia - email: classified@cyprus-mail.com Limassol - email: limassol@cyprus-mail.com Paphos - email: paphos@cyprus-mail.com

MISCELLANEOUS ***************************** ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS CYPRUS

Is drink costing you more than just money? AA could be the answer.

Meeting at the following locations/days. Call to speak to an AA member.

Ayia Napa Monday 97798043 Larnaca Tuesday (Polish spk) 96616589 Thursday 24645523 / 99259264 Limassol Tuesday / Wednesday / Friday / Saturday 25368265 / 99559322 Nicosia Wednesday/Sunday 99013596 Paphos Tuesday / Thursday / Saturday 99916331 / 99399240 Details of meetings are available on www.aa-europe. net *****************************

HEALTH & FITNESS ACUPUNCTURE, cupping, skin honing, massage. For the alleviation of aches, pains, stress and rehabilitation from illness or injury. Qualified Chinese practitioner. Pafos [Konia] 9922 1851.CLINICAL PILATES. Personalised Clinical Pilates by Physiotherapists in Nicosia. Individual assessment and supervision of exercises. “Clinical pilates” is a modified form of therapeutic exercise used by physiotherapists to assist in the rehabilitation and prevention of musculoskeletal injury especially lower back pain, sacro-iliac pain and neck pain. More info on 22446988.

English! The London Teacher Training College is offering TEFL Certificate courses in Cyprus. For more information call now on 99839307. *****************************

PETS *****************************

TAG 87, a very handsome young male wirehaired pointer cross around 1,5 years old. Friendly, attentive and athletic. At the Nicosia Dog Shelter, many more dogs and puppies like this one are looking for forever homes! To provide a temporary foster home or to adopt contact on 99520511 monfrid 10-2pm. *****************************

*****************************

PERSONAL ***************************** GERMAN BUSINESSMAN 50 years, searching for a nice woman. Mobile: 00491736590562 *****************************

LESSONS ***************************** TIME FOR A CAREER CHANGE? Learn how to teach

Nicosia - tel: 22 818583 fax: 22 676385

LOUISE, she is around 1 year old Segugio Italiano cross and she is not suitable for hunting. She will make a perfect pet as she loves cuddles, hugs and kisses. Very playful gentle girl, friendly with other dogs and loves kids! At the Nicosia Dog Shelter, many more dogs and puppies like this one are looking for forever homes! To provide a temporary foster home or to adopt contact on 99520511 mon-frid 10-2pm. *****************************

OZZY is an adorable male which came into the shelter almost a year ago! The person who found him wanted to help increase his re-homing chances so he sponsored his neutering...! But Ozzy has since been sitting in the shelter wishing for a new family...!

But he has a great character and is only around 2 years old! At the Nicosia Dog Shelter, many more dogs and puppies like this one are looking for forever homes! To provide a temporary foster home or to adopt contact on 99520511 mon-frid 10-2pm. *****************************

SERVICES ***************************** BDL SHIPPING Worldwide animal transportation, Home removals including small loads Vehicle import & export, General collection and delivery (including IKEA), Rubbish removal plus general transportation & shipment. Competitive rates. Phone: 99239311 Web: www.bdlcyprus.com ***************************** PROFESSIONAL UPHOLSTERY CLEANING, also carpets, rugs and mattresses.

Special offers now available.

For a quote call Rickys Cleaning Services on 99131044 (all areas) rickyscleaningservices@gmail.com ***************************** DO YOU NEED A WEB-SITE BUT ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE COST? Web design & hosting at exceptionally low prices, experienced designer & programmer , your dream web-site is only a phone call away. Don’t delay!!! Call Andros for a free quote or consultation on 99335078, info@akalou.com, - islandwide ***************************** CHIMNEY SWEEP, when did you last have your chimney swept or log burner cleaned?

Limassol - tel: 25 761117 fax: 25 761141

Paphos - tel: 26 911383 fax: 26221049

Build-up of soot can cause respiratory problems and fires. All areas, call Dave, a professional sweep, now on 99819137. Also available for weddings. www.paphosluckychimneysweep.com ***************************** DO YOU WANT A SHINY LOOKING FLOOR? Full repair & restoration of chipped, scratched, dull and stained, Marble, Terrazzo, Stone & Ceramic tiled floors and surfaces.

Professional cleaning, repair & sealing of internal/external ceramic tiles & grout lines. For a free professional consultation & demonstration contact Mark at Premier on 70006766 or 96333961 All areas ***************************** K.D.FLYSCREENS LTD We manufacture top quality sliding screens, opening doors and roller systems. We also do repairs. For a FREE QUOTE please contact Phone: 99119582 Website: www.kdflyscreens.com ***************************** WE UNDERTAKE REFURBISHING of houses or holiday homes, construction of pergolas, undertaking of plumbing, house painting, garden work.

For information call JIMMYS: 96587137, MELIS: 96547879 *****************************

Hospital with direct access to Limassol – Paphos Highway.

Water supply, electricity and telephones are readily available. Suitable for immediate development. Ideal for various health facilities and resorts, holiday centres, commercial and shopping centres, entertainment enterprises etc.

Information: Tel. 22 674338, 99621554 ***************************** FOR SALE LAND in Anthoupoli (half plot) 288 sq.metres. for information 99621554. *****************************

FOR SALE MISCELLANEOUS

NICOSIA

***************************** FAR INFRARED SAUNAROOM I sell my Sauna room for €1200. Imported new but not used. Costed €1800. Call 99 643397 *****************************

FOR SALE BUSINESS/ PROPERTY/LAND ***************************** TIMI, PLOTS, a few selected available, seaview, near the 2 golf courses, Venus rock and airport. 60% Building factor, eu 99,000. Half registration fees till the 31.12.12. Tel. 99 621914 ***************************** LARNACA, Alethriko, plots for sale, 525 sqm, 90% building factor, near highway Limassol-Larnaca, 5 min from airport, quiet residential area, eu 109,000. Half registration fees till the 31.12.12. Tel. 99 621914 ***************************** PRIME LAND IS AVAILABLE FOR LONG LEASE IN LIMASSOL. 40, 000 sq.m., zoning Ka7 (80% -45% - 3 stories). Regular amphitheatrical shape overlooking Ladies Mile. Close to New Limassol

FOR SALE MOTOR VEHICLES ***************************** FORD FOCUS GHIA (2006) diesel, 1600cc, 98000km, blue, automatic - tiptronic. dual zone climate control, power steering, electric windows, 6 airbags, central locking, cruise control, computer board, alloy wheels, and many extras. €6900 ono. Contact: 99022779 - Nicosia *****************************

PROPERTY TO LET

***************************** BEAUTIFUL listed house for rent in the village of Agrokipia, 2 bedroom, large living room with fireplace, large garden.

Rent €550 per month negotiable. For info please call 99358863, 97643896. ***************************** HOUSE FOR RENT, at Deftera, 12 minutes from Nicosia, 6 years-old, excellent condition, 3 bdrm, 3 w/c, fully a/c, kitchen with electrical appliances, store-room, satellite disk, 80sq.mtr garden with lawn.

Please call 99573688. ***************************** FLATS TO LET - Nicosia: A wide selection of furnished & unfurnished in all areas of Nicosia. NIKARIA ESTATE LTD Theo Loizides 22761616 / 99660050 nikaria@cablenet. com.cy ***************************** 2 BDRM flat (almost new, 4 years old) at Lycavitos with good area near University of Cyprus with fully equipment kitchen, a/c in all rooms. For info call 96530532. ***************************** FOR RENT spacious modern 5 Bedr house, next to Metro Supermarket, Strovolos, Nicosia. Furnished, 3 Restrooms, air-conditioning throughout,

Larnaca - tel: 24 652243 fax: 24 659982

classified contents Employment Opportunities pg -Employment Miscellaneous 19 Pets 19 Lessons 19 Health & Fitness 19 Personal 19 Services 19 For Sale Miscellaneous 19 For Sale Land/ Property Business 19 For Sale Motor vehicles 19 Wanted -To Let Nicosia 19 To Let Limassol 21 To Let Larnaca 21 To Let Paphos 21 To Let Protaras, Ayia Napa, Paralimni -For Sale Nicosia 23 For Sale Limassol -For Sale Larnaca -For Sale Paphos 23 For Sale Ayia Napa -For Sale Famagusta Protaras 23 For Sale Athens -Property& Home Services display ads --

abbreviations bdrm c/h a/c s/pool f/f apt pm pw sw nw st rd p/s c/l swb r/cass e/w

bedroom central heating air conditioning swimming pool fully furnished apartment per month per week south west north west street road power steering central locking short wheel base radio cassette electric windows

Please note tel nos. that begin with: 22 = Nicosia 23 = Paralimni/Protaras 24 = Larnaca 25 = Limassol 26 = Paphos

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Saturday, December 29, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

Advertiser TO LET NICOSIA central heating, extra office room, amble storage spaces, covered garage, verandas with pergola, garden, barbecue area, quiet street in a qul de sac. Call 99606856. ***************************** TO LET 3 bedroom house situated on a dead end street next to a small quiet park near Falcon School. Has an En-suite master room, large study room, central heating, a/c and fire place in the living room. For enquiries tel 99660758 ***************************** LUXURIOUS APARTMENT FOR RENT A luxurious one floor apartment situated in central Nicosia in an area of exceptional Beauty at 3 Museum Street, is available to let. It has been recently renovated and consists of four bedrooms, two bathrooms, big dining and sitting rooms, kitchen and a huge veranda. Approximate covered area 250 sqm. Monthly rent €1400.00 o.n.o. Tel: 99622370. www.parcon.com. cy ***************************** MODERN 2 BDRM, first floor flat in attractive building in Anthoupolis, very quiet area between the Grammar School and the European University, also very convenient for Pascal and Highgate Schools and the University of Nico-

TO LET NICOSIA sia. Large front veranda, all appliances, modern fittings, light and bright. Furnished or unfurnished €550p.m. Call 99900177. ***************************** 2 ROOMS €125 each, near McDonald’s Engomi only Philippine girls. Call 99663927. ***************************** FOR RENT 3 B/R apartment fully furnished close to Central Bank. 3 W.C., fully airconditioned extra storeroom, owned covered parking. Excellent condition. Information: Tel. 99621554 ***************************** 3 BEDROOMS flat on second floor in a block of six flats, in a nice position at Strovolos area, fully a/c, c/h, covered parking place for one car, recently painted. Rent €650pm. (furnished if required). Tel: 97773358. ***************************** LUXURY HOUSES:

1. 5 bedrs detached house, 550sq.m, built in 2 big plots of land, big garden with grass, big swimming pool with extra fence for children and big covered patio with bbq area, big reception areas with marble floor, fire place and bar, big kitchen with all electrical appliances and sitting room with fire place, maid’s room, floor heating, full a/c, blinds on the windows, master bed-

HORSES FOR FREE Thoroughbred horses for riding not older than 10 years old in excellent physical condition will give for free in good hands.

For more information please call 99986921

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

room with en suite bathroom and shower, big bathroom for the other 3 bedrooms and extra shower in the 5th bedroom - Strovolos €2500 (H5ST10001-R), (photos in the website).

2. H3AR0004-R, 3 bedr luxury detached house with central heating, full a/c, 3wc, 2 bathrooms, parquet floor throughout the house, big sitting and dining area, big kitchen with family room opening onto the swimming pool which has big covered area with wooden deck, bbq area, covered parking, in a very quiet area behind Apoel football training ground - Archagelos - €1700 (photos in website).

3. 2 bedr fully renovated semi detached house 120 sq. m, a/c for hot and cold, small yard, FULLY FURNSIHED or not, double glazed windows with aluminum shutters, in a quiet area off Nikis behind Burger King - ACROPOLIS €600 (H2ACS0001-R), (photos in the website).

4. 3 bedr luxury semi-detached house with character, 200sq.m, central heating, full ac, sitting and dining room with fire place, big kitchen with cooker and oven, dishwasher and refrigerator, nice mature garden with flowers, trees and small garden with grass, covered parking, 3wc, 2 bathrooms in a quiet neighborhood. Available middle of January. Agios Andreas €1200 - H3AAD0001-R (photos in website).

5. 4 BEDR spacious luxury detached house with central heating, full a/c, 3wc, big sitting and dining area, big separate kitchen with electrical appliances and family room, big bedrooms, blinds, bbq area, garden, 2 parking(one covered), in a very quiet area near Apoel training field – ARCHANGELOS - €1200 – H4AR0016-R (photos in

website).

6. 3 bedr+big attic room with shower and wc luxury new house, 210sq.m, central heating, full a/c, 4wc, blinds on all windows, cooker and oven in the kitchen, small garden, covered parking near Alpha Mega supermarket - STROVOLOS €1100 (H4ST10007-R), (photos in the website).

7. 3 bedr detached ground floor house with separate maid’s room, with very big garden with grass(200sq.m) and covered patio with bbq and bar, central heating, full a/c, 180sq.m, FULLY FURNISHED or NOT, 2 covered parking, storage room, in a very quiet neighborhood opposite Acropolis park - Acropolis - €1000 - H3ACS0004-R (photos in website).

8. H4LAK0002-R, 3 bedr + office space luxury detached house, built on a big plot, 350sq. m, big swimming pool with cover, garden with grass, big sitting and dining room, separate family room, central heating, a/c, curtains on all the windows, cooker, dishwasher and dryer, parquet floor throughout the house,3wc, 2 bathrooms, 2 covered parking in a quiet area on the borders of Strovolos with Lakatamia Lakatamia- €1600 (photos in website).

9. 3 bedr upstairs and 2 separate bedroom in the basement luxury detached house(all the bedrooms with en suite bathrooms/shower), also separate kitchen and sitting room in

the basement which has also separate entrance from the house, central heating, full a/c, solid parquet floor all the house, big sitting and dining room with fire place, big fully equipped kitchen with breakfast area and family room, big overfloor, swimming pool with covered patio area with fully equipped bar(bbq, fridge, freezer, cooker), mature garden around the house, 2 parking places, alarm system near the Cyprus Conference Centre- PLATY AGLANTZIAS €3500 (H5PAG0002-R), (photos in the website).

10. 4 bedr semi detached house with central heating, 4 a/c, 3 wc, 2 bathrooms, 180sq.m, electrical appliances, small yard, bbq area, off Kostantinoupoleos street near French ambassador residence.- STROVOLOS €700 (H4ST10043-R), (photos in the website).

11. 4 bedr luxury semi detached house with good size garden with grass, big covered patio with bbq area, central heating, a/c units, 3wc, 2 bathrooms, 2 covered parking, FULLY FURNISHED AND EQUIPPED, in a quiet area in a dead end close to all amenities and schools. - ANTHOUPOLIS €1300 (H4ANT0002-R), (photos in the website).

12. 4 bedr luxury detached house, 350sq.m,central heating, full ac, big garden with fruit trees, grass and swimming pool 6 X 12,2 covered parking, electrical appliances in the kitchen, 4 years old

in a very quiet area 25 min from the centre – DEYTERA €2000 – H4DEF0001-R (photos in website).

13. 3 bedr ground floor house with big separate 80sq,m room with shower and wc for multi use, central heating independent, full a/c, 2wc, 2 shower,1 bathroom, fully furnished, small garden, bbq area, parking, on a small building in a very quiet area near Agios Vasilios church. Strovolos - €900 - H4ST10028-R (photos in website).

14. 3 bedr detached house with extra room for office, 250sq.m, central heating independent, 4a/c, big renovated kitchen with cooker and oven, big sitting and dining room with parquet floor and fire place, 1bathroom, 2 shower, 3wc, 2 covered parking, double glazed windows and shutters in bedrooms, big verandas surrounded by trees and bushes off 28th October street in the central part of Makedonitissa - Makedonitissa - €1100 – H3MAK0004-R (photos in website).

For many more properties with photos visit our website at www.landtouristestates.com which is updated daily. LANDTOURIST ESTATES LTD 22-422225/96422225/96422226, www.landtouristestates. com

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Tel. SELEC fencing 99176557

ALL AREAS • External & Internal painting • Damp Damage Repairs • Spritze Repairs • Free Estimates + very clean work • All areas. All types of woodwork stained and preserved • All work guaranteed

Tel. Tony on 99176557

***************************** LUXURY FLATS:

1. 3 bedr luxury finished spacious floor apartment with very big sitting and dining

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Offering readers great value Motor insurance in Cyprus

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CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 29, 2012

Advertiser TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

areas with family room with fire place, solid parquet floor all throught, central heating independent, full a/c, all the bedrooms with en suite shower/bathroom, 4wc, big kitchen with all the electrical appliances, blinds on all windows, big covered veranda, covered parking, big storage room, on a small 3 storey building in a quiet neighborhood – Agios Andreas- € 1300 – A3AAD0005-R (photos in website).

2. AINIC0006- R, 1 bedr., fully furnished and equipped apartment, 50sq.m, 2AC for hot and cold, covered verandah, covered parking, nice view, off Makarios avenue between Hilton and DEBENHAMS shop. Nicosia centre, € 450 (photos in website).

3. 3 bedr new luxury big apartment 150sq.m+big 25sq.m veranda with very nice view, big sitting and dining areas, big separate kitchen with all the electrical appliances, big bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, storage heaters, full a/c,

shutters and blinds on the windows, covered parking in a quiet neighborhood off Prodromou close Ministry od Defence – Engomi- €600 – A3ENG0026-R (photos in website).

4. A1DAS0010-R, 1 bedr luxury spacious apartment with big sitting and dining room, big bathroom, big bedroom with shutters, covered veranda, storage heaters, 2a/c, cooker and oven in the kitchen, covered parking in a quiet area in a small modern building near Acropolis Park. Dasoupolis €400 (photos in website).

5. 2 bedr new luxury modern furnished apartment , central heating ind, 2 a/c, big covered veranda and covered parking in a quiet area behind the Municipal building – Agios Dometios - € 660 - A2ADO0004-R (photos in website).

6. 2 bedr luxury spacious apartment on a small modern building with central heating independent(with petrol), full a/c, solid parquet floor, big

bedrooms, big sitting room with open plan kitchen, big covered veranda, FULLY MODERN FURNISHED, covered parking off Makarios avenue in a quiet area near the centre – Nicosia Centre- € 800 – A2NIC0030-R (photos in website).

7. 4 bedr luxury floor apartment,250sq.m, office, maid’s room, central heating ind, full hidden wall unit a/c,2 showers, 1 bathroom, 3wc, parquet floor, big kitchen with cooker and oven, bbq on the veranda in the kitchen, big sitting area, roller blinds on all the windows, alarm system, big veranda on a small building off Athalasas avenue near Alpha Mega supermarket and Areteion hospital – Dasoupolis - € 1100 - A4DAS0002-R (photos in website).

8. A1ACS0007- R, 1 bedr luxury spacious apartment with 2 a/c for hot and cold, electrical appliances in the kitchen, big bedroom, covered veranda, blinds, covered parking, in a quiet area near Acropolis park. NICELY FURNISHED. Acropolis €450 (photos in website).

9. 3 bedr new luxury finished PENTHOUSE apartment 150sq.m internal areas+120sq. verandas, solid parquet floor all the flat, big bedrooms, big sitting and dining room, big semi separate kitchen with electrical appliances, home cine ma with big screen, LCD tv, covered parking in a quiet neighborhood near CYTA, Laiki + Hellenic bank headquarters and French

school. CAN BE RENTED ALSO expensive MODERN furnished – Dasoupolis - € 1200 - A3DAS0019-R (photos in website).

10. 2 bedr luxury apartment with 3 a/c for hot and cold, big covered veranda, covered parking and storage room, NICELY FURNISHED, near Acropoli park behind Tseriotis showroom – ACROPOLIS €450 – A2ACS0033-R (photos in website).

11. 3 bedr luxury spacious ground floor apartment with separate entrance, big verandas and garden, big sitting and dining room, central heating independent, full a/c, 2wc, very big master bedroom, electrical appliances in the kitchen, aluminum shutters on windows, parquet laminate floor all the flat, covered parking, storage room, in a very quiet neighbourhood in a dead end street, off Athalasas Avenue behind Stephanis near English School €650 (A3ST10030-R), (photos in the website).

12. 2 bedr luxury apartment with central heating independent, full a/c, electrical appliances in the kitchen, blinds, big covered veranda,

in a small 2 storey building in a quiet area behind Tymvos – MAKEDONITISSA - € 500 – A2MAK0008-R (photos in website).

13. 3 bedr luxury apartment with central heating independent, full a/c, 2 bathrooms, parquet floor, big sitting and dining area, big covered veranda, covered parking, storage room, blinds, shutters in the bedrooms, big kitchen with all expensive electrical appliances, off Makarios avenue near the centre – Nicosia Centre- € 800 – A3NIC0025-R (photos in website).

14. 4 bedr new spacious luxury finished floor apartment with floor heating independent, full a/c, 3wc, electrical appliances in the kitchen, blinds on all windows, very big 50sq.m covered veranda, fire place, covered parking and big overfloor heated covered swimming pool on the ground floor, on a small 3 storey building in a quiet neighbourhood near a playground and near Ippokration private hospital Engomi - €2000 A4ENG0003-R (photos in website).

15. 2 bedrs new luxury apartment, sitting room open plan

with kitchen which includes cooker, oven, refrigerator and washing machine, 2 wc, central heating, full AC, blinds on the windows, very big covered verandas, covered parking and storage room in a dead end off Athalassas avenue near Laiki popular bank and Hellenic bank headquarters. - DASOUPOLI €500 (A2DAS0006-R), (photos in the website).

16. 2 bedr luxury apartment with a/c for hot and cold, NICELY MODERN FURNISHED, covered parking, off Stavrou Avenue behind Coffee Beanery.

PRICE INCLUDES COMMON EXPENSES – STROVOLOS € 550 – A2ST10051-R (photos in website).

For many more properties with photos visit our website at www.landtouristestates. com which is updated daily. LANDTOURIST ESTATES LTD 22-422225 / 96-422225 / 96422226 www.landtouristestates. com ***************************** 2 BDRM flat in the centre of Nicosia. Rent €450. For information call 99453663, 99663927. *****************************

LIMASSOL ***************************** GROUND FLOOR HOUSE, furnished renovated this year.

Laminated parke floor, and big wardrobes in the 3 bedrooms.

Rent €590.00 Tel 99497576 99886775 *****************************

LARNACA ***************************** 2 BEDROOM NICOLADES SEA VIEW CITY BLOCK, a/c’s in all rooms, private parking, sea view, walking distance to everything, can be used for office or residential. €750, minimum 12 months contract. 99320077 Larnaca ***************************** FOR RENT 2 bed, 2 bath, new built apartment, in a quiet scenic location In Alethriko, Larnaca 5 min. to Larnaka, 5 min. to the beach Fully furnished, A/C, communal pool, under covered parking, Long term rent, €350.00 per month For more info pls call 99639378 ***************************** FULLY FURNISHED one bedroom flat near Larco hotel Larnaca. Price €370. Tel: 99202543 ***************************** Card designed by Martin Sebok, Year 3 (Age 7)

PAPHOS

THE MANAGEMENT, STAFF & PUPILS OF THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF PAPHOS WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Let us welcome the New Year with health, hope & love.

This year, instead of sending Christmas cards, the school has made a donation of 950 to the children’s ward of the General Hospital.

***************************** PAPHOS / PEYIA VILLA, villa for rent in Peyia, 4 bedroom, 4 bathrooms, large sitting-dining area, fully airconditioned and heated, unfurnished, panoramic views, large parking, low rent contact: 99490953, 26815534 ***************************** 3 BDRM VILLA with pool for rent furnished or unfurnished, garden, garage (covered) near Tsada golf course, Tel: 99603330. *****************************

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Saturday, December 29, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

Advertiser TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

bedroom & bathroom. Beautifully furnished with good quality modern furniture includes sky satellite, fly screens & feature fireplace with modern gas fire. Private pool offering views of the sea. Off street parking.

Situated within walking distance of bus routes & shops.

Website reference number: RTL_611 6. KATO PAPHOS €800 large 4 bedroom detached villa situated in the sought after residential area of Limnaria. Walking distance to the beach and the many amenities of Kato Paphos. Spacious living accommodation offering an enclosed garden with c/pool. Fully furnished with modern furniture & solar panels. Website reference number: RTL_442 7. ANAVARGOS €895 we are delighted to offer this unique 5 bedroom 3 bathroom rustic country home offering spacious living accommodation with large gardens, private pool & stone built bbq & entertainment area. Fully furnished with log burner for those winter months. A real character home worth viewing. Pets allowed. Website reference number: RTL_635 offers considered.

8. TALA €900 a charming detached 4 bedroom villa with character, situated on a corner plot in a quiet residential area with breathtaking sea views. Spacious living rooms with central heating & real fireplace. Separate kitchen & dining room. Good sized garden offering private pool and

stone built barbeque area.

Undercover parking. Available fully furnished. Website reference number: RTL_638 TEL: 97790883 OFFICE: 26271858 VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR MANY MORE PROPERTIES www.mrrentpaphos.net Email: info@ mrrent-paphos.net

APHRODITE HILLS - Villa share at this amazing resort? Now available for discerning people, luxury double rooms, each with own en suite and heating unit and plus of large lounge/dining/ kitchen area, external patios, gardens and swimming pool.

Fully furnished and equipped €800pm plus share of running expenses, min period 6 months or yearly contract renewal. To enquire (or view from January 2013) ring 99178141. A chance not to be missed! ***************************** MR RENT PAPHOS, THE LEADING PROPERTY RENTAL AGENCY IN PAPHOS OFFICE: 26271858 (00357) IF YOU HAVE A PROPERTY TO RENT WE ARE THE RENTAL AGENCY TO CONTACT OFFERING FULL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT & RENT COLLECTION SERVICE 1. UNIVERSAL AREA €450 spacious 3 bedroom first floor apartment, master with ensuite. Situated on small complex with no pool. Fully furnished with modern furniture, fully equipped kitchen with dishwasher. Balcony leads to a large private roof terrace with shaded barbeque area

offering views of the sea, storage & sunbathing deck.

2. SEA CAVES €500 we are delighted to offer this detached 2 bedroom villa situated on a corner plot in a quiet residential area offering sea views.

Gated drive for off street parking. Fully enclosed good sized low maintenance garden with private pool offering privacy and shaded areas. Available unfurnished or part furnished.

Pets allowed at owners discretion. Website reference number: RTL_482 3. KISSONERGA €550 modern detached 3 bedroom villa situated in a quiet residential area.

Master bedroom with ensuite, separate kitchen, downstairs guest wc. Enclosed garden offering private pool & off street parking. Available unfurnished though can include kitchen appliances. Pets allowed at owners discretion. Website reference number: RTL_501 4. PEYIA €700 price includes pool cleaning. If you are looking for a villa with breathtaking views & privacy than this property is for you. This modern detached 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom villa is furnished with modern furniture, including satellite TV. One bedroom & bathroom on ground floor.

A spacious enclosed garden with private pool offering stunning views. Off street parking.

Website reference number: RTL_401 5. CHLORAKA €750 modern detached 4 bedroom 3 bathroom villa with ground floor

***************************** FOR RENT A selection of 1 to 5 bedroom houses & apartments F/F & U/F Uni-

TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

versal, Peyia, Tomb of the Kings, Tsada, Timi, Chlorakas & Kato Paphos Landlord & Owners please call 99329357 Or please view at are website www.cyprussands.com Fully Registered Company in Cyprus

apt. Within walking distance to amenities, part of a beautiful building with swimming pool, list and other amenities. Only €250p/m Other apts also available near Carrefour in the Centre of Paphos. Call 99403261, 26934650

***************************** A DELIGHTFUL AND SPACIOUS 1 bedroom apartment, F/F, top floor, new, located at a peaceful location just 500 from St. George hotel in Chloraka. A+ quality

***************************** FLOWRON PROPERTY SERVICES LTD: PROVIDING AN EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE FOR TENANTS AND LANDLORDS: PROPERTIES AVAILABLE FOR

23

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 29, 2012

Advertiser TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

RENT LONG TERM RENTAL, PROPERTIES WANTED: FULL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT WITH KEY HOLDING AND RENT COLLECTIONS OFFERED ANAVARGOS: 1 to 3 Bedroom apartments available near to the general hospital, furnished or unfurnished. All properties, have white goods and are modern. The building has a lift and off street parking. Prices from 300-400 Euros per month. Ref 7777 Price 300-400 ANARITA: 3 bed nicely furnished villa in the centre of Anarita village with private pool, off street parking. Property has a modern kitchen with granite work tops, sitting and dining area, guest wc.

Upstairs 3 bedrooms Master with en suite shower, separate family bathroom. Outside shaded pergolas. Ref 855 Price 600 SECRET VALLEY: 3 bed villa fully furnished 3 bedroom villa with private pool. Nice furniture, master bedroom with on suite shower, family bathroom, 2 bedrooms with twin beds. Dining area, kitchen, guest WC, off street parking, private pool. Modern Villa.

Ref: 1035 Price 700 SERCRET VALLEY: 4 bed beautiful furnished bungalow to the highest of standards, with large bedrooms - en

suites, Modern large kitchen fully equipped, sitting and dining area with fire place.

Outside heated pool, off street parking, landscaped gardens and great views. Ref: 1151 Price 1800 TIMI: 3 bed nicely furnished villa with large sitting and dining areas, fire place, full AC. Upstairs large family bathroom, 3 bedrooms, master bedroom having en suite shower and walk in wardrobes. Off street parking, private pool Ref: 722 Price: 600 PEGEIA: 4 bed villa with stunning situated in a lovely quiet location in Pegeia offered unfurnished. The property has 2 down stairs bedrooms, a large sitting room with fire place, central heating, kitchen with Stylish design, dining area.

Upstairs 2 bedrooms, large outside veranda. Outside stunning views Private pool.

Ref: 765 Price: 900 MESGOI: large unfurnished villa situated in a residential area. Property is very modern with fire place, downstairs bedroom with en suite, kitchen and separate utility room, 3 additional bedroom upstairs with master en suite, family bathroom. Outside private pool, fully fenced and private, nice views, pets welcome, suit family with children going to local international school.

Ref: 783 Price: 750

TALA: A family home offered part furnished in a quiet residential area, property has off street parking, private pool, central heating and AC, modern kitchen, sitting/dining area, guest wc, upstairs 3 bedrooms with master en suite, family bathroom, sea views. Ref: 988 Price: 750 OFFICE: 120 MAKARIOS AVENUE, PAPHOS. OFFICE: 26600450 MOBILE: 97614070 many properties available on WEB: www. flowron.com Email info@ flowron.com

ping areas. Large open plan living area and dining area..

Fully fitted dining/kitchen with appliances . Guest WC. Utilty room. 3 double bedrooms one with en-suite. Family bathroom. Balcony & and parking. €500.00 a month.

Suit non-drivers!

3. TOMB OF THE KINGS – 3 bed fully furnished apartment in established block. Own entrance via stairway. Open plan living area. Dining kitchen. 3 bedrooms and family bathroom. A/C, sat TV. Internet available. Large balcony area.

Parking. €350.00 per month 4. TALA - 3 bed 3 bath quality furnished villa. Set in enclosed gardens the villa consists of open plan living area with dining space. Fully fitted kitchen with all appliances, door to rear garden. Storage room. Ground floor bedroom with adjacent shower. Stairs to two double bedrooms both en-suite, one with Jacuzzi tub.

Small seating area with adjacent balcony. Pool and off street parking. Landscaped gardens €750.00 per month or close offers only 5. SEA CAVES – 2 bed, 2 bath fully furnished large townhouse set in quiet location.

Open plan living area. Fully fitted kitchen. 2 double bedrooms and family bathroom.

Garden area and parking.

Realistically priced. Suit retired people or those wanting a quiet area. €400.00 per month 6. UNIVERSAL AREA. 2 bed fully furnished apartment. Living area, fitted kitchen. 2 double bedrooms and family bathroom. A/C, Enclosed garden area. Comm pool and parking. Euros 375.00 a month or offers. 1 & 2 bed apartments available on Universal starting at €250 per month.

7. LOWER PEYIA - 3 bed, 2.5 bath part furnished villa situated in quiet cul du sac. Open plan living and dining area with doors out to pool and garden. Very large breakfast fitted kitchen. Doors out to garden and pool. Separate guest WC. Stairs to 3 double bedrooms. Master bed-

room very large with en-suite shower. Family bathroom. Private pool, gardens, shutters. €550.00 per month or close offers only.

8. STROUMBI– 3 bed 2.5 bath large unfurnished villa in quiet village area. Spacious open plan living area with feature fireplace and dining space Good sized fitted kitchen and breakfast area. Guest WC with storage area.3 double bedrooms. Master with en-suite bathroom. Family bathroom.

Enclosed gardens, pool and off street parking. Realistically priced €550.00 per month.

OVNO FOR FULL LISTINGS OF A PA R T M E N T S / T O W N HOUSES AND VILLA PLEASE CALL FOR DETAILS. ALL TYPES OF PROPERTY URGENTLY REQUIRED FOR LONG TERM RENTAL LANDLORDS/ OWNERS PLEASE CALL. PLEASE CALL 97648440 or email:inforentals@aol. com

FOR SALE Semi-detached house in Archangelos area split level on a hill, no houses in front, 3 big bedrooms, 2 big bathrooms and TV room big lounge & dining area, fireplace, fitted kitchen, 40 sq.m. store room, C/H, A/C, solar.

For information call: 99496541

***************************** PEYIA – 3 bedroom villa with modern quality furniture and finishes. Central heating, sky, alarm, infinity pool and stunnning sea and mountain views €700 per month, call: 99389426 ***************************** BRAND NEW APT, opposite Poseidonio Gym, near Carrefour, F/F, a/c, great quality, 1 bdrm, from €340p.m.Tel 99403261 ***************************** RENTAL POINT - PAPHOS PROPERTIES AVAILABLE TO RENT IN THE PAPHOS DISTRICT. JUST A SMALL SAMPLE OF AVAILABLE PROPERTIES. ALL TYPES OF PROPERTY URGENTLY REQUIRED FOR LONG TERM RENTAL. CALL 97648440 FOR MORE INFORMATION. LANDLORDS CALL IF YOU HAVE A PROPERTY FOR RENT.!!!

1. MESA CHORIO – 2 bed 2 bath fully furnished ground floor apartment set on an elevated position in this prestigious development. Open plan living area. Good sized kitchen. 2 double, bedrooms, master with en-suite shower room. Family bathroom. Large patio areas with enclosed gardens and lovely sea views.

Covered parking and security gates.. Comm swimming pool and landscaped gardens. €425.00 a month. 2 bed apartment same complex €400.00 a month.

2 MESOGI 3 bed 3 bath furnished apartment in handy location close to the shop-

***************************** REFURBISHED stone-built village house located in Kili Paphos. Consists of 3 large rooms 1 small. Traditional wood burnt fireplace, fully tiled secluded yard and garage. Tel: 99210610. *****************************

PROPERTY FOR SALE NICOSIA ***************************** NICOSIA, FLAT FOR SALE: 2 bedroom flat with title deeds, 110 sqm, fully renovated, best central area, 800m from the european university,excellent view, eu 99,000. Tel 99 621914

FOR SALE PAPHOS room flat with title deeds, in a block of 4 flats only, fully renovated, 2 baths, 146 sqm closed area, ch, ac, covered parking, excellent view of sea and mountains, half registration fees till 31.12.12.Reduced to eu 135,000,or rent eu 450 pm. Tel 99 621914 ***************************** KATO PAPHOS UNIVERSAL, large 2 bedroom apartment, ground floor, 1 bathroom, kitchen, large veranda, private parking, A/C, satellite TV. Near bus route, shops, banks, quiet apartment. Full furniture.

Communal pool. 92 sq.m covered area. Full TITLE DEEDS. REDUCED €92,000 ***************************** PAPHOS 1 bedroom apartment, fantastic central location, lounge/kitchen, bathroom, veranda, covered parking, communal pool, Furnished. Near all amenities. TITLE DEEDS NOW REDUCED €45,000. ***************************** 1 BEDROOM APARTMENT, TOMBS OF KINGS AREA, close to the sea, large private roof terrace with electric and water, covered parking, veranda, furnished, swimming pool. Full TITLE DEEDS, was €95,000 reduced to €65,000. ***************************** Chlorakas, 2 bedroom townhouse. Exceptional sea views.

New kitchen, bedrooms and bathroom. Private parking, On mains sewage system. Communal pool. A/C, quality fixtures. Fully furnished. Security barrier. FULL TITLE DEEDS Now €92,000 Call 99716390. ***************************** FOR SALE special offer, €79, 000 first floor apartment in Protaras, fully furnished with 2 bedrooms and a swimming pool. Walking distance to the beach of Ayia Triada and all amenities. Tel: 97 608941. *****************************

*****************************

FAMAGUSTA

PAPHOS

***************************** AYIA NAPA, studio for sale, 38 sqm, furnished and fully renovated, with title deed, in licensed complex, 500m from nissi beach, eu 49,000, tel. 99 621914

***************************** PAPHOS, FLATS FOR SALE OR RENT: kissonerga, 3 bed-

U SEFUL PHONE NUMBERS POLICE DIVISION HQ

HOSPITALS ........ 1400

Nicosia ........................22 802 020 Limassol ......................25 805 050 Larnaca .......................24 804 040 Paphos ........................26 806 060 Famagusta ..................23 803 030

Nicosia General .............22-801400 Nicosia Makarios ...........22-405000 Limassol Old ................25-305333 Limassol New ................25-801100 Larnaca Old...................24-630312 Larnaca New .................24-630300 Paphos ..........................26-821800 Famagusta ....................23-821211

Drug Law Enforcement Unit ......................................... 1498 (Confidential Information) Rescue Co-ordination Centre ............................. 1441 (Immediate Response Service for Aeronautical or Maritime Accident & Incidents) Game Fund Service: (Wildlife and hunting) Central offices (Nicosia): 22867786, 22-867897 Nicosia: 22-664606, 99-445697 Limassol: 25-343800, 99-445728, Larnaca/Famagusta: 24-805128, 99-634325 Paphos: 26-306211, 99-445679

Narcotics Helpline ......... 1410 (Outside hours.............. 22304160) AIDS Advisory Bureau ................................ 22-302826 Domestic Violence Centre .......................................... 1440 (Emergency Centre for Victims) Drug Info & Poison Control ............... 1401 Cyprus Samaritans ... 77777267 Police Duty Officer ......... 1499 (Confidential Information)

Forest Fires ..................... 1407 Airports Larnaca ..........................77778833 Paphos ...........................77778833

24

Saturday, December 29, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

Advertiser FOR PAPHIAKOS ANIMAL WELFARE SOS HELPLINE, 24 HOUR MEDICAL EMERGENCY SERVICE - CALL 99655581 CONTACT DETAILS FOR PAPHIAKOS. Paphiakos & C.C.P. Animal Welfare Education/Information Centre, No. 12 Dedalos Building, 8049 Kato Paphos PO Box 61272 8132 Kato Paphos Web. www.cyprusanimalwelfare.com www.facebook/paphiakos Email info@cyprusanimalwelfare.com Larnaca Emergency Service - The contact point for animal emergencies in Larnaca is Maria at the Paphiakos Animal Welfare Charity Shop, telephone 24623494 or 99325897 STOP, SHOP AND GIVE TO THE ANIMALS! ALL DONATIONS ARE WELCOME AT OUR CHARITY SHOPS! PAPHIAKOS & C.C.P. ANIMAL WELFARE Registered Charity No 1529 Contact our shops and we can take your clutter The Charity Shops are located at: Shop No.1 Agapinoros Street, Kato Paphos Tel 26910325 Shop No.2 Ap Pavlou Avenue, Kato Paphos Tel 26942894 Shop No.3 Gr. Afxentiou Avensia Court 3 Larnaca 24623494 Shop No.4 9 Ayiou Ioanni Street 3061 Limassol 25561695 Peyia Information Centre & Shop & T Rooms 26622828 Polis Information Centre & Shop & T Rooms 99223572 Book Exchange Shop Trimithousa 99771763 Our shops are always happy to receive your unwanted goods!

NOW YOU CAN HELP BY COLLECTING YOUR ALUMINIUM CANS AND HANDING THEM IN AT ANY PAPHIAKOS CHARITY SHOP OR THE CLINIC. SAVE AN ANIMAL AND SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT!!

PAPHIAKOS CAR BOOT SALE EVERY SATURDAY at the Ambassador Restaurant and outside in the grounds at Paphiakos. Free parking. Sellers from 7am, buyers from 8am. For information & bookings please call MIKE on 96702600.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS FOR PAPHIAKOS CHARITY NO. 1529 WORLD ANIMAL DAY. On Thursday October 4th Paphiakos will be micro chipping pets for only €20 including all the paperwork. For further information telephone 26953496.

To celebrate World Animal Day on Thursday October 4th Paphiakos will be offering free spaying/neutering for all feral and unwanted animals as they do throughout the year. Contact 26953496 for further details.

PAPHIAKOS SHELTER OPEN DAY The Open Day will be held on Sunday October 7th between 10am and 3pm. It will be a Family Fun Day out with a lot of different activities. There is car parking, toilets and refreshments on site so enjoy and join in the celebration of animals and what they bring to our lives. Entrance is €2 CHARITY HAIR CUT. On Thursday 4th October 09.30-17.30 without an appointment Andri at Atlantic Bay Hotel (2nd Floor) will be charging €5 for a haircut with all proceeds going to Paphiakos. Telephone Suzanne on 99151996 or Andri on 99604783.

PAPHIAKOS CHRISTMAS BAZAAR. Saturday November 24th 9am – 3pm at the Crazy Spoon Restaurant. For further details contact 99151996. Stalls, Santa’s Grotto, Donkey Rides, Pirate Pat and many more.

SATURDAY SERVICES NICOSIA St Paul’s Church Hall, Byron Ave LIMASSOL ‘Meeting Point’, 193A Christodoulou H’pavlou, opp Molos Park on beach rd BIBLE STUDY FOR ADULTS & CHILDREN 10.00 am Nicosia • 10.30 am Limassol FAMILY WORSHIP SERVICE 11.30 am Nicosia • 11.45 am Limassol Pastor: Branislav Mirilov 96702349 Info: Nsia 96207014 • Lsol 99322614 www.adventist.org | www.hopetv.org

AYIA NAPA and DHERYNIA (Anglican Church in S.E Cyprus) Sunday Worship 9.30am Morning Prayer every Sunday morning at St Constantinos & Eleni Chapel, Dherynia (near Hospital in Dherynia) 11am at Scandinavian Church, off Nissi Avenue (opp Tassia Maris Hotel), Ayia Napa nd 6pm at St Constantinos & Eleni (2 week) Chaplain : Revd Simon Holloway M.A. Tel: 97 839349 www.angsecyp.org Visitors especially welcome

25

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 29, 2012

Sport Djokovic makes impressive return WORLD number one Novak Djokovic made an impressive return to action by brushing David Ferrer aside 6-0 6-3 to reach today’s World Tennis Championship final in Abu Dhabi.

The Serbian made his first appearance on court since winning the ATP World Tour Finals in November and needed little over an hour to dismiss world number five Ferrer, who was completely outclassed.

Ferrer was at sixes and sevens to deal with Djokovic’s trademark range of returns and powerful aces in a devastating first set, but gradually improved to break his opponent in the ninth game, forcing a more competitive finale.

The exhibition tournament at the Abu Dhabi International Tennis Complex, where Djokovic triumphed last year, was the ideal way for the Serbian to warm up for the upcoming defence of his Australian Open title.

Djokovic quickly took advantage of his rival’s clutch of uncharacteristic errors to find himself 5-0 up within 20 minutes.

Ferrer, though, discovered some of the dynamism to race up to 40-0 in the final game.

The advantage exchanged hands three times, but then Djokovic’s opponent lost concentration, powering a forehand return well beyond the baseline.

Ferrer held out for deuce on the Serbian’s serve when play resumed, but Djokovic powered through, only for the Spaniard to tighten up his strokes and hold his serve for the first time.

Ferrer soon broke to love but his opponent survived an intense 10th game to break back.

The Serbian held comfortably before forcing the score to 5-2, despite Ferrer’s renewed determination to force a third set.

The world number five delayed the inevitable with a comfortable hold, but Djokovic served out the match to book his spot in the final.

IN BRIEF Durant spurs Thunder comeback

Ruthless success: Australia now hope to seal a 3-0 series whitewash when the final Test starts in Sydney next Thursday

Clarke wants to build big on Australia win AUSTRALIA captain Michael Clarke wants his side to use their crushing second Test victory over Sri Lanka as a platform for a 2013 calendar which includes tours to India and England.

Australia earned an unassailable 2-0 lead in the threematch series after thrashing Sri Lanka by an innings and 201 inside three days at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Trailing by 304 runs after the first innings, Sri Lanka were skittled for just 103 in their second knock, albeit with Prasanna Jayawardene (broken thumb) and Chanaka Welegedara (hamstring) both unable to bat due to injury.

They also saw star batsman Kumar Sangakkara retire hurt with a hand injury when he was on 27 on what was a miserable day for the tourists.

Things could hardly have

Sri Lankans fall in crushing second Test defeat to hosts gone better for Australia, though, and captain Clarke is hoping to see his side use this match as a base for future performances.

“This is our standard now, we’ve got to continue to get better from here,” he told reporters. “I think we need to be realistic as well. It’s about consistency.

“It’s nice we’ve done it in the first two Tests against Sri Lanka and it’s great we’ve won the series, but we have a lot of work to do as a team.”

Australia will aim to seal a 3-0 series whitewash when the final Test starts in Sydney next Thursday, after which

they face Sri Lanka in five one-day internationals and two Twenty20s.

Clarke’s men will then tour India in a four-Test series during February and March before the Ashes start in England in July.

Clarke praised his side’s ruthlessness, which he confessed went missing in the recent 1-0 series loss to South Africa.

“I was really impressed with the way we kept Sri Lanka out of the match throughout the whole Test. That’s something we will need to make a habit of going forward with some very important series

coming up against firstly India and then the Ashes in England,” he said.

“I don’t think you develop (ruthlessness) overnight, I think like I say we’ve learnt from what happened against South Africa.

“Our aim is to repeat our effort here in Sydney and win the series 3-0.”

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka have been left with plenty of problems to contend with - including the reported loss of star batsman Sangakkara for the remainder of the tour.

The reigning ICC Test player of the year was struck on his left index finger from a delivery from paceman Mitchell Johnson and, after immediately leaving the field with excessive swelling to his hand, was taken to hospital for scans which revealed a compound fracture.

Wild Oats XI win sixth Sydney-Hobart in record time RACE favourites Wild Oats XI clinched their sixth Sydney to Hobart yacht race yesterday, beating their own race record.

The Mark Richards-skippered super-maxi yacht, which had been pushed along for much of Thursday by strong northerly winds, crossed the finish line in Tasmania at 0723 (2023 GMT).

Their official time was one day, 18 hours, 23 minutes and 12 seconds.

Wild Oats set the previous record of one day, 18 hours, 40 minutes and 10 seconds in 2005 when they not only took line honours for the 628-nautical

mile blue water classic, but also won the overall handicap title as well.

“It was a really tough, testing race for the team and the crew and the gear handling,” Richards told reporters at Constitution Dock after his team had initially thought they would miss the race record.

“It was a very, very tricky night last night and we got here and after last year’s defeat the boys were on a real mission this year to redeem ourselves.”

Last year’s winners Ragamuffin Loyal - who pipped Wild Oats to the line by less than three minutes in

2011 - were about 50 nautical miles from the finish in second place when Richards and his crew crossed the line.

The Syd Fischer-owned Ragamuffin were mired in light winds and just after 0930 (2230 GMT) still had about 35 nautical miles to go to reach the finish.

However, they will face a race jury later to determine whether they will be penalised for jumping the gun in Sydney on Wednesday.

Super-maxi Lahana were in third place, about 50 nautical miles behind Ragamuffin.

Record breakers: Wild Oats

KEVIN Durant scored 40 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder returned to winning ways in the NBA on Thursday, recording a 111-105 overtime victory against the Dallas Mavericks.

Trailing 89-79 in the final minutes of regulation time at Chesapeake Energy Arena, Durant hauled Oklahoma back into the game before Russell Westbrook added eight of his 16 points in overtime to seal an 11th straight home win.

Serge Ibaka also had 19 points and Kevin Martin 18 for the Thunder, with Darren Collison’s seasonhigh 32 points not enough to prevent the Mavericks slumping to a fourth consecutive defeat.

The win briefly put Oklahoma top of the Western Conference, before the Los Angeles Clippers regained first place with a 106-77 rout of the Boston Celtics at Staples Centre.

Bairstow out of one-dayers JONNY Bairstow will miss England’s one-day tour of India next month due to a family illness.

The wicketkeeper-batsman left India before the final Twenty20 fixture before Christmas for the same reason, and his compassionate leave has now been extended to cover the fivematch series in January.

Bairstow, 23, has been replaced in the squad by fellow Yorkshireman Joe Root.

The news continues a disappointing winter for Bairstow, who made nine in his only Test innings against India, was left out of the first Twenty20 match and then flew back to England to be with his family.

Home victory for Fenninger ANNA Fenninger made the most of home advantage to win her second World Cup giant slalom after dominating both runs in Semmering yesterday.

The 23-year-Austrian, who won her maiden World Cup race in Lienz exactly a year ago, clocked a combined time of two minutes 13.09 seconds.

The super-combined world champion beat World Cup leader Tina Maze by 1.10 seconds; France’s Tessa Worely was third, a further 0.08 of a second adrift.

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Saturday, December 29, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

Sport Beckham in no rush to decide on his future DAVID Beckham is weighing up “a number of serious proposals” from clubs across the world, but will not be rushed into a decision on his future.

The 37-year-old is taking his time to make a final decision on what is set to be the last move of his career, having been linked with clubs in England, France, China and Australia.

A spokesman for Beckham said: “There are a number of serious proposals on the table from a host of clubs across the world.

“David is in no hurry to make a decision, the key is making the right one as he has always done successfully in his career.

“It’s early days in the process.

“David is enjoying spending quality time with his family over the holidays,” the spokesman added.

The former England captain ended his five-year stint with Los Angeles Galaxy on December 1 after winning a second MLS Cup. Beckham, formerly with Manchester United and Real Madrid, has been strongly linked with a move to Monaco in the French second division.

They are coached by former Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri, who has previously stated his interest in bringing Beckham to the club, and backed by wealthy Russian owner Dimitri Rybolovlev.

It is understood reports in France that Beckham has priced himself out of a move to Monaco are premature.

Monaco are one point behind Ligue 2 leaders Nantes at the halfway point of the season.

Albiol hoping Ronaldo will stay on at Bernabeu ‘We want Cristiano as long as possible’

The future of Cristiano Ronaldo (L) with Real Madrid has been under the spotlight since he admitted earlier this season he was ‘sad’ for professional reasons

REAL Madrid defender Raul Albiol is hoping speculation linking Cristiano Ronaldo with a move away from the Bernabeu proves unfounded, describing his team-mate as the best player on the planet.

Ronaldo’s future with Madrid has been under the spotlight since the Portugal international admitted earlier this season he was “sad” for professional reasons while Spanish newspaper AS on Thursday claimed the £80million man would not be signing a new contract with the Spanish giants. His current deal runs out in 2015.

That has led to suggestions Madrid could be forced to cash in on their star forward to avoid losing him on the cheap, and former club Manchester United and big-spending French side Paris St Germain have been touted as possible destinations for the 27-year-old.

Albiol is keeping his fingers crossed that does not happen though, telling report-

Albiol also wants to move on from the furore over dropped Real number one Casillas (above) ers: “I don’t know if he’s going to renew his contract or not. But Cristiano Ronaldo is the best in the world and we want him by our side as long as possible.”

Albiol also wants to move on from the controversy caused by Madrid coach Jose Mourinho’s decision to

drop long-serving number one and club captain Iker Casillas.

Mourinho surprisingly opted to start with back-up goalkeeper Antonio Adan in place of Casillas for Madrid’s final match of 2012 against Malaga last weekend, but Albiol believes the furore caused by that decision has been blown out of proportion.

“After 10 years as a starter, the day that Casillas was a substitute surprised everybody. But I think the controversy was too much.

Even Iker said that.

“We must forget these things that happen outside the club and do our best to win things in 2013. Mourinho took the decision and that’s that.

“We will continue training to be at our best level. We must be united. We all want the best for Real Madrid.”

Madrid’s 3-2 defeat to Malaga left the reigning champions 16 points behind Primera Division leaders Barcelona.

Qualified endorsement for Laudrup SWANSEA manager Michael Laudrup, long viewed as the natural successor to Morten Olsen as Denmark coach, received a qualified endorsement from the Danish Football Association (DBU) this week.

“Michael’s success at Swansea does not undermine his chances of being the Danish national coach,” Jim Stjerne Hansen, general secretary of the Danish Football Association (DBU), told the local news agency Ritzau.

But Hansen then pointed out that it was still too early to pass judgment on Laudrup’s tenure at Swansea, who are ninth in the Premier League at the midway point of the season.

“Michael has gone from being a big success in Swansea, to a doubtful success, to a big success again. Things move so fast in this business, it’s not possible to see half a year into the future,” he said.

With both men on contracts that are due to expire in 2014, speculation has been rife in the Danish media that Laudrup would take over from the long-serving Olsen.

Widely acknowledged as Denmark’s greatest player of all time, Laudrup’s name is high up on the list of those that could succeed arguably the country’s greatest coach.

Hansen said last year that he had approached him about succeeding Olsen, but then extended Olsen’s contract after the Danes qualified for Euro 2012.

Should he be appointed as Olsen’s successor when his current contract runs out, Laudrup

would be taking over from the man who gave him his first opportunity in management.

Olsen appointed Laudrup as his assistant in the Danish setup in 2000 and they took Denmark to the knockout stages of the 2002 World Cup before Laudrup left to take over as manager of Copenhagen club Brondby.

And though his glittering career as a player saw him represent the likes of Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid, Laudrup’s managerial achievements have been a lot more modest.

Successful stints at Brondby and Spanish La Liga side Getafe were followed by a short sojourn at Spartak Moscow and an unhappy stay at cash-strapped Mallorca in Spain.

But Laudrup got his managerial career back on track when he joined Swansea as a replacement for Brendan Rogers in June 2012.

Swansea were expected to struggle to survive in the Premier League but they have now amassed 25 points under Laudrup and are sitting comfortably in ninth place.

They are one place ahead of Liverpool on goal difference, with ex-Swansea boss Rogers struggling to make his mark at his new club in a marked contrast to Laudrup’s success at Swansea.

Throughout his management career Laudrup - who famously missed Denmark’s Euro 92 triumph after falling out with coach Richard Moller Nielsen - has remained committed to Olsen’s style of free-flowing, attacking football.

Widely acknowledged as Denmark’s greatest player of all time, Laudrup has had a more modest managerial career

Germany international Holtby says he will leave Schalke at the end of the season Beckham has been linked with a move to Monaco in the French second division

GERMANY international Lewis Holtby has announced he will leave Schalke at the end of the season when his contract expires.

The 22-year-old, who will be available on a free transfer in the summer, joined the Royal Blues from

Alemannia Aachen in 2009 and has established himself as one of the best young midfielders in Germany.

News of his impending departure is a huge blow for Schalke who had been hoping he would join Holland striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar in sign-

ing a new deal.

Board member Horst Heldt said: “We had hoped that Lewis saw his future at Schalke beyond the end of the season.

“But, like Klaas Jan, he has made a personal decision that we respect.

“We are sure he will give everything between now and the end of the season.”

Holtby’s father is English and he has inevitably been linked with a host of clubs in the Barclays Premier League, including Arsenal and Liverpool.

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 29, 2012

27

Sport

Gunners boss is not looking to sign Ba

Newcastle’s Ba (left) seemed an ideal fit to fill the void left

by Arsenal’s much-missed former star Van Persie

ARSENE Wenger yesterday ruled out a move for Newcastle striker Demba Ba, but appeared to back-track on claims he would not re-sign Thierry Henry for a third time.

Alan Pardew’s admission he would let Ba leave Newcastle if he did not remove the £7.5million release clause in his contract sparked rumours Arsenal would make a bid for the striker.

Wenger has struggled to fill the void left

by Robin van Persie, and with 11 goals so far this season Ba would seem an ideal fit, but the Frenchman denied he was interested in signing the 27-year-old.

“I like Demba Ba, yes,” the Arsenal manager said ahead of his team’s match against Newcastle today.

“I don’t think (this) is the right place to speak about that, because he plays against us tomorrow.

“I wouldn’t like to put Newcastle or us or him in an uncomfortable position. If you ask me, ‘Do we sign Demba Ba?’ I say no.”

With Gervinho absent for the African Nations Cup next month, Wenger will be short of a forward, and Henry would be a possible short-term replacement.

Earlier this week the Gunners boss played down reports linking him with a

second loan move for Arsenal’s record goalscorer during the Major League Soccer off-season.

But Wenger yesterday denied he had shut the door completely on a temporary move for the 35-year-old, who scored twice in seven games during a loan spell at the Emirates Stadium last term.

“I’ve not lost interest in him,” said Wenger, who has allowed Henry to train with Arsenal for the last month.

“I’ve not completely (ruled it out). But I haven’t spoken about it with him at all.

He’s still coming today to practice with us. We are very close (personally), but at the moment I think he has had a second spell at the club that was very successful. You have to be cautious that it’s not one time too many.”

Rather than concentrate on signing new strikers, Wenger’s top priority remains keeping one of his current crop Theo Walcott - at Arsenal.

Walcott turned down a new contract last summer and will be free to leave the Emirates at the end of the season should he not extend his deal.

Wenger has played the England international in his preferred striker position for the last two games, perhaps in a bid to help persuade him to stay, and the

Gunners boss remains hopeful he will not lose the player in the summer.

“Yes (talks are ongoing) and yes (I remain optimistic he will sign),” Wenger said.

Wenger faced calls for his resignation when his team were knocked out of the Capital One Cup by Bradford two weeks ago, but he has steadied the ship since by beating Reading and Wigan.

The fact remains that the Gunners have under-performed this season, however. Despite the acquisition of the classy Santi Cazorla, and the return of Jack Wilshere, Arsenal are some 16 points behind leaders Manchester United at the halfway point of the season.

Wenger acknowledged his team have not been up to scratch and has promised an improvement for the remainder of the season.

“We will (do better in the second half of the season),” Wenger said.

“We are behind our schedule and we have to make up the points we miss at the moment.

“We rebuilt the team at the start of the season. Overall what is important for us is to improve the quality of our displays and focus just on that. Points will come.”

Fergie takes swipe at Pardew and his ‘wee club’ Newcastle Red Devils boss: Pardew the worst at abusing refs

Ferguson (R) has been the centre of attention since his march on to the Old Trafford pitch on Boxing Day to condemn referee Dean for awarding Newcastle’s second goal in United’s 4-3 win

By Simon Stone SIR Alex Ferguson has launched an astonishing tirade at “wee club” Newcastle and their manager Alan Pardew, who he has accused of being “the worst” at haranguing referees.

The Manchester United boss has also accused Pardew of “forgetting the help” he offered him at difficult stages of his managerial career.

Ferguson has been the centre of attention since his march on to the Old Trafford pitch on Boxing Day to condemn referee Mike Dean for awarding Newcastle’s controversial second goal in United’s 4-3 win.

Dean confirmed on Thursday he would not be reporting Ferguson, even though the Red Devils chief confronted not only the referee, but also the fourth official and assistant referee over their view of Jonny Evans’ own goal.

This has led to further allegations that Ferguson benefits from favourable treatment from the Football Association, even though it is only two seasons ago he was forced to serve a fivematch touchline ban following criticism of Martin Atkinson at Chelsea.

Ferguson insists he did nothing wrong, and defended his conduct, admitting he was “an emotional guy”.

However, he is clearly furious with Pardew, who on Thursday claimed Dean might have handled the situation in a different way and that Ferguson was lucky not to get sent off.

“Alan Pardew has come out and criticised me,” said Ferguson.

“Alan Pardew is the worst

at haranguing referees. His whole staff, every game.

“He was at it the whole game on Wednesday. He shoves the referee and makes a joke of it and has the cheek to criticise me. It is unbelievable.

“He forgets the help I gave him.

“The press have had a field

day out of it. They have addressed every possible avenue. The only one they have left out is Barack Obama. He is too busy.

“That is unfortunate. I carry that because I am the manager of the most famous club in the world. I am not like Newcastle, a wee club in

the north east.”

The bitter pay-off line is sure to infuriate Newcastle, while Pardew will doubtless take issue with Ferguson’s assessment of the situation.

The “shove” incident Ferguson mentioned refers to Pardew being given a twomatch touchline ban and fined £20,000 after accepting an FA charge of improper conduct for pushing an assistant referee earlier this season.

He was sent off during the 2-1 win over Tottenham on August 18 at St James’ Park when he pushed Peter Kirkup after claiming the ball had gone out of play during a Spurs attack.

There was little sympathy for Ferguson either from old adversary Arsene Wenger, who was once sent to the stands at Old Trafford for complaining about the treatment his team were receiving.

“Should you behave like that? No,” said the Arsenal boss.

“I did not always behave like I should and you can call that a bad example.

“The message it sends out when you look at the pictures is not to behave like that.

“Sometimes we go overboard on the touchline.

When we do that, we have to be punished, it’s as simple as that. “(If) it is me or Ferguson or anybody else in the world, the rules are the rules, not one rule for one person and others for another.”

Frustrat from those who feel Ferguson has got off lightly has only been increased by confirmation the FA has written to both Harry Redknapp and Roberto Mancini over their post-match comments on Wednesday.

Yet Ferguson is adamant he did nothing wrong.

“It has been overplayed,” he said.

Villas-Boas demands Spurs keep momentum ANDRE Villas-Boas has called on Tottenham to open up a gap on their rivals so they do not slip away and miss out on Champions League football again.

Tottenham travel to Sunderland today looking to cement their place in the top four after an inconsistent first half of the season under their Portuguese manager.

Despite being fourth in the table, Spurs have failed to show the consistency they exhibited last season. The Londoners have squandered nine points by conceding late goals and their season has been characterised by often nervy and unconvincing home displays.

Wary that just five points separate Tottenham from eighth-place Stoke, VillasBoas knows his team must go on a winning run to separate themselves from the likes of Everton, Arsenal and West Brom, who lurk just below them.

Although Chelsea’s victory in Munich proved to be the final nail in Tottenham’s Champions League dream, they could have secured qualification much earlier had they not fallen away in the second half of last season under Harry Redknapp, and Villas-Boas does not want a repeat this time around.

“At the moment everyone is packed together, which is very dangerous,” the Tottenham manager said.

“What we want to do is have a stronger second half to the season than last year.

“We have to continue our progress to hopefully open a gap between us and the rest of the teams that sit near the top.”

Saturday, December 29, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

28 Djokovic makes impressive return 25

Sport

Fergie takes a swipe at Pardew and his ‘wee club’ 27

Rafa Nadal will miss 2013 Australian Open WORLD number four Rafael Nadal has pulled out of the Australian Open due to a stomach virus.

The Spaniard has not played since suffering his shock second-round exit at Wimbledon to unheralded Czech Lukas Rosol due to a knee injury.

He had been due to return at this week’s exhibition event in Abu Dhabi but the virus forced him to withdraw.

And he has now decided to extend that absence to include the season’s opening grand slam event in Melbourne.

Former world number one Nadal, a winner of 11 grand slam titles, including one Down Under in 2009, told the Australian Open’s official website: “I am sorry and very sad to announce that I will not play in the Australian Open.

“My knee is coming along okay, but a stomach virus has left me unable to get ready in time to tackle the rigours of a grand slam.

“Because of the virus, I have been unable to get any match practice and simply would not be doing myself or my friends in Australia justice if I went down there so unprepared.

“You need your body to be at its best for the Australian Open.

“It was a difficult decision and I am extremely disappointed to be missing such a great event.

“I love coming to Melbourne and playing on Rod Laver Arena before the Australian crowds. It brings out the best in me.

“It hurts to have to wait another 12 months before I get another chance.

In the meantime, the focus is now on desperately trying to get back on the tour.”

OPTIMISTIC Nadal has now targeted the Abierto Mexicano Telcel event in Acapulco which starts on February 25 for his comeback, although he remains optimistic of returning before that.

He added on Facebook: “As my team and doctors say, the safest thing to do is to do things well and this virus has delayed my plans of playing these weeks.

“I will have to wait until the Acapulco tournament to compete again although I could consider to play before at any other ATP event.”

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said: “It is completely understandable and we really feel

disappointed for him.

“But without any match practice and without sufficient lead up time on the practice court, it makes it virtually impossible for him to get his body ready.

“We just hope he gets better quickly and we see him back on the tour as soon as possible.

“Tennis fans across the world have been missing him.

“Our Australian Open staff will very much miss him and his team as he is not only a great player, but also a great guy with good people around him.

“We wish Rafa all the best. I am confident we will see him back on the tour soon and back in Australia for 2014, no doubt as one of the contenders for the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup.” Prior to the virus, Nadal had spoken of how he was intending to use the first few weeks of his comeback simply as a means of regaining full fitness.

However, his absence, while a blow to tournament organisers and his fans, will be a boost to the other members of the big four - Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray.

Nadal had been due to return at this week’s exhibition event in Abu Dhabi, but the virus forced him to withdraw

‘Fired up United must press on’ Hernandez cautions his side against complacency

By Tom Pilcher

M

anchester United’s knack of scoring late goals has already been showcased this week with a thrilling Boxing Day victory over Newcastle, and matchwinner Javier Hernandez has warned there will be no let-up in their quest to regain the Premier League title.

United came from behind three times before the Mexican struck in the last minute to secure a 4-3 Old Trafford victory, moving Alex Ferguson’s side seven points clear of rivals Manchester City who lost at Sunderland.

Manager Alex Ferguson labelled it a “championship winning performance” at the midway point of the season, but Hernandez has cautioned against complacency.

United led City by five points with four matches remaining last season, but were pipped to the title by Roberto Mancini’s side on a thrilling final day.

“It’s a great position but we’re not going to think we have already done the job,” Hernandez told the club’s website (www.manutd.com).

Above: Javier Hernandez (left) has warned there would be no let-up in the Red Devils’ quest to regain the Premier League title. Inset: the efforts of interim Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez seem to be paying off with the Blues having hit form “This gap is going to give us a lot of confidence, but we want to just try to do the same in every game: win and get three points.”

United host high-flying West Bromwich Albion at Old Trafford today (1500 GMT), but will be without key striker Wayne Rooney who has been ruled out of action for two or three

weeks with a knee injury.

City travel to Norwich City (1500 GMT) looking to get back on track, following a 1-0 defeat at Sunderland.

“We need to change something in our team because we can’t continue like this - we score too few goals,” said Mancini, who remains unfazed about the gap

with neighbours United.

“Seven, six or four points, it doesn’t matter, the season is long.

“United concede a lot of goals, but they score a lot so they have a chance, but we can recover points.”

Goalkeeper Joe Hart has also said City had the firepower required to make up the deficit.

“We’ve had leads, United have had the lead - it’s toing and fro-ing at the moment,” Hart told the football club’s website (www. mcfc.co.uk).

“We’re a team of winners, it’s hard and it hurts but we’ve got to move on. It is hard to lead and it is hard to chase too.

“We’ve clawed points back before, we proved it at the end of last year - we’ve just got to believe.”

Lurking behind City are European champions Chelsea, who have a game in hand and play away at in-form Everton tomorrow (1330).

Chelsea have hit form under interim manager Rafael Benitez after following up their 8-0 demolition of Aston Villa by winning 1-0 at Norwich on Wednesday.

Tottenham Hotspur could move three points ahead of Everton and West Brom in the race for fourth when they travel to Sunderland today (1245).

Arsenal, currently seventh but also with a game in hand after their Boxing Day fixture against West Ham United was postponed on December 19, take on Newcastle later today (1730).

Bottom club Queens Park Rangers host Liverpool tomorrow (1600), while Reading, also on 10 points but with a superior goal difference, welcome West Ham today (1500).