CYPRUS MAIL by Cyprus Mail Co Ltd

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Saturday, December 15, 2012

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CYPRUS

SPORT

SHOWBIZ

CY takes out its begging bowl for more cash 7

Corinthians calm before Chelsea storm

Homeland leads favourites in Golden Globes

Tomorrow in

Slaughter at US primary school

Death toll put at FREE with your 27, including the Sunday Mail gunman and 20 People Meeting the world’s children aged 5-10 top Michael Jackson impersonater

Culture

The Welsh Cypriot bringing alternative memories to life

Fashion Designers take Christmas sweaters up a gear

Shopping Paphos crafters give last minute shopping options

Competition Win Shisheido products worth over €250

By Chris Kaufman

HEAVILY armed gunman opened fire on school children and staff at a Connecticut elementary school yesterday, killing 27 people, 20 of whom were children aged between five and ten in the latest in a series of shooting rampages that have tormented the United States this year. The gunman was dead inside Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, state police Lieutenant Paul Vance told a news conference. Among those shot and killed was the gunman’s mother, a teacher at the school, authorities said. Sandy Hook Elementary School teaches children from kindergarten through fourth grade roughly ages 5 to 10. A tearful President Barack Obama expressed “overwhelming grief” for the victims and called on Americans to set aside politics and “take meaningful action” to prevent more tragedies of this kind. “Our hearts are broken today,” Obama said, his voice breaking at times during a nationally televised appearance in the White House briefing room. The suspected shooter, 24, was armed with four weapons and wearing a bullet-proof vest. Witnesses reported hearing dozens of shots with some saying as many as 100 rounds were fired. The rampage is one of the worst mass shootings in US history. Another person was be-

ing held in police custody after he was detained in the woods near the school wearing camouflage pants. “It was horrendous,” said parent Brenda Lebinski, who rushed to the school where her daughter is in the third grade. “Everyone was in hysterics - parents, students. There were kids coming out of the school bloodied. I don’t know if they were shot, but they were bloodied.” Television images showed police and ambulances at the scene, and parents rushing toward the school. Parents were seen reuniting with their children and taking them home. “This is going to be bad,” a state official told Reuters, requesting anonymity because the scope of the tragedy remained uncertain. White House spokesman Jay Carney called the event “tragic” and said it was weighing heavily on Obama. “As a father, incidents like these weigh heavily on him and I think everyone who has children can imagine the enormous suffering that accompanies an event like this.” Lebinski said a mother who was at the school during the shooting told her a “masked man” entered the principal’s office and may have shot the principal. Lebinski, who is friends with the mother who was at the school, said the principal was “severely injured.” Lebinski’s daughter’s teacher “immediately locked the door to the classroom and put all the kids in the corner of the room.” Melissa Murphy, who lives

Shocked young children wait outside the elementary school after the shooting near the school, monitored events on a police scanner. “I kept hearing them call for the mass casualty kit and scream, ‘Send everybody! Send everybody!’” Murphy said. “It doesn’t seem like it can be really happening. I feel like I’m in shock.” A girl interviewed by NBC Connecticut described hearing seven loud “booms” while she was in gym class. Other children began crying and teachers moved the

students to a nearby office, she said. “A police officer came in and told us to run outside and so we did,” the unidentified girl said on camera. The US has experienced a number of mass shootings this year, most recently in Oregon, where a gunman opened fire at a shopping mall on Tuesday, killing two and then himself. The deadliest came in July at a midnight screening of

a Batman ﬁlm in Colorado that killed 12 and wounded 58. The worst US high school shooting happened in 1999 when students, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, went on a rampage at Columbine High School. killing 12 students and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves. In 2007, 32 were killed at Virginia Tech university in the deadliest act of gun violence in US history.

Saturday, December 15, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

Home PICTURE OF THE DAY

Weather Paralimni

Nicosia 16

Troodos

18 18

Larnaca

Paphos

Limassol

TODAY: A mixture of sunshine and cloud. Temperatures will reach 16C inland, 18C along the coasts and 7C over higher ground OUTLOOK: Remaining relatively unsettled with more rain forecast from Monday YESTERDAY:

Max Temp Nicosia 17 Larnaca 19 Limassol 19 Paphos 19 Paralimni 18 Prodromos 10

Min 8 9 9 10 9 2

Humidity 48% 41% 52% 48% 42% 73%

SUNRISE: 06:48am

SUNSET: 4:36pm

Pollution Medium/Low Medium/Low High/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

11 -2 -2 6 20 -1 7 -2 2 8 8

Clear Cloudy Clear Cloudy Cloudy Cloudy Drizzle Drizzle Mist Cear Rain

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

11 4 -11 -8 9 -3 16 2 -4 -8 19 -1

Cloudy Light Rain Cloudy Cloudy Light Rain Mist Cloudy Cloudy Mist Clear Cloudy Cloudy

EXCHANGE

€

1.3156

€

0.8159

For a full list of exchange rates, see page 12

CHEMISTS NICOSIA Th. Nioulikos, 22 Them. Severis Ave. Tel: 22669664, 22661852(H) A. Nicolaou, 12 Ay. Andreou St, Pallouriotissa. Tel. 22430032, 22424078 (H) E. Hadjigeorgiou, 132C Kirinias Ave. Tel: 22338002, 22330761 E. Daskalakis, 24A, Elia Papakyriakou Egkomi, Tel: 22355955, 22357220 G. Konstantinou, Giannitson 8, Tel: 22107447, 22380736 LIMASSOL D. Mavroyiannis, 228 Makarios Ave. Tel: 25361626, 25359224 (H) G. I. Kamenidou, 255E Fr.

Rousvelt Tel: 25715315, 25715716 (H) D. Filippou, 22 Ierou Lochou Kapsalos, Tel: 25335455, 25333867 (H) LARNACA S. Iacovides, 68 Str. Timayia Ave. Tel: 24637499, 24657045 (H) G. Antonis, 14 K. Matsis St. (Atticon Cinema road) Tel: 24626332, 24657313 (H) PAPHOS I. K. Konstantinou, 11 Ellados Ave., Tel. 26100292, 26653401 PARALIMNI E. Michael, 175 Protara Ave, Tel: 23811031, 23824471

Cyprus Mail Established 1945. Number 21,406 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

The Vatican Christmas tree is lit up after a ceremony in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican yesterday

QUICK CROSSWORD 2263 Across

Down

6 Fraternalism (13) 8 Eel-like fish (7) 9 Bike (5) 10 Explosive device (1-4) 12 Spiteful (7) 13 Bricklayer (7) 15 William II (5) 16 Declare not valid (5) 17 Spanish painter (7) 19 Odds on a horse (8-5)

1 Change focus rapidly (4) 2 Winged creature (6) 3 Medical photograph (1-3) 4 Field event (6) 5 Square piece of cloth (8) 6 Utterly unabashed (4,2,5) 7 Medical instrument (11) 11 Eastern (8) 12 Hostilities (3) 14 Add water (6) 15 Cooking instructions (6) 17 Small horse (4) 18 Large boat (4)

For cryptic crossword and answers to the previous quick crossword see page 21

ON THIS DAY DECEMBER 15

WHAT THE MAIL SAID

1961

25 years ago, Thursday December 15, 1987

Former Nazi, Adolf Eichmann, is sentenced to death in Jerusalem, Israel.

Victims of the disease AIDS will double next year to some 300,000 people, the head of the World Health Organisation AIDS Programme, Dr Jonathan Mann, said yesterday. Efforts to ﬁnd a vaccine for the virus which causes AIDS were under way.

1978 President Jimmy Carter states that as of 1 January, 1979, the United States will formally recognise the People’s Republic of China and sever relations with Taiwan.

1993 The British and Irish Prime Ministers John Major and Albert Reynolds sign the historic Joint Declaration for Peace on the steps of Downing Street.

1995 The European Court of Justice issues its landmark “Bosman ruling,” which revolutionises football transfers in Europe, allowing players to move club for free when their contract comes to an end.

2004 The British Home Secretary David Blunkett resigns following allegations that he tried to fast-track a visa application for a nanny (a former lover of his).

35 years ago, Saturday December 15, 1977 The President’s son, Achilleas Spyrou Kyprianou, was still being held hostage by his captors last night, 48 hours after he had been kidnapped by unknown men threatening to kill him if their demands for release of prisoners and a general amnesty were not met. President Spyros Kyprianou continued day-long consultations with the cabinet and the members of the National Council which yesterday were attended by the Greek Ambassador.

45 years ago, Sunday December 15, 1967 Greece’s military backed government was today believed engaged in a serious attempt to induce King Constantine to forsake exile and return to his homeland. Despite a denial by Deputy Prime Minister, Brigadier Stylianos Patakos that the government had taken any initiative, sources said the government of Colonel George Papadopoulos was making every effort to get the monarch to return.

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 15, 2012

Home Damaged lake being restored DAMAGE caused to Oroklini’s wildlife by the flea-market is being restored thanks to the EU funded LIFE project for the conservation of the important wetland, the Game Fund said yesterday. It said the flea-market had been operating within the Special Protection Area (SPA) of Oroklini Lake since 2007 resulting in significant loss of habitat. In that area was the Spurwinged Lapwing, a threatened bird species that breeds only in Cyprus and Greece from the countries of the EU. The flea-market stopped operating and left the site in March 2012 after the case was taken to court by the District Office and due to indirect pressure generated by the LIFE project, the Game Fund said. The restoration works will last for about a month and include the removal of the concrete and premix that was dumped on the site and ploughing of the soil to help the natural vegetation return. The Project Director and Head of Research Unit of the Game and Fauna Service, Nikos Kassinis said: “After the completion of the restoration works we expect that the Spur-winged Lapwing will return to that area to nest as the particular habitat is ideal for this species that nests on bare ground near the water. Besides, the Spur-winged Lapwing is sensitive to human disturbance and now that the flea-market no longer exists there the disturbance has been reduced significantly.”

Owe fines? Prepare to be stopped at airports Authorities scramble to pull in outstanding debts by any means necessary By Peter Stevenson

The Oroklini lake’s eco-system was damaged by presence of a local ﬂea market

Front-row seats to the non-end of the world NEXT Friday, December 21 may be seen by some as the day the world will end, but the unconvinced Fakas Institute in Nicosia is organising an event for those who want a front-row seat for the end, or the non-end. On the night in question – if the world has not already ended earlier in the day – people can visit the institute from 8pm until 10pm to revel in the fact that the doomsayers were proved wrong. There, members of the astronomical community in Cyprus will be able to discuss the end of the world scenarios with the head of the astronomical society of Cyprus, Yiangos Stylianou, MP Andreas Pitsillides and astrophysicists Stelios Tsangarides and Chrysanthos Fakas. Hosting the event will be the astronomical society’s honorary president and

owner of the Fakas Institute, Ioannis Fakas. Entrance will be free and visitors are encouraged to bring their own telescopes to witness any astronomical events that may or may not occur – in this case the feeling is that nothing will occur. “On the night of December 21 you will be able to see the alignment of the earth, sun and centre of the galaxy, and the winter solstice and we will ﬁnally be able to put paid to any hoodoo about the Mayan prophecy that the world will end,” Fakas told the Cyprus Mail yesterday. According to believers, December 21 is the end-date of 5125 year Mayan countdown that began in 3113BC. which will culminate in various astronomical alignments bringing with it the end of the world. This belief has been rejected by scholars and scientists and even the May-

ans themselves who are marking the day with celebrations of a new calendar era as thousands of Americans hide out in specially designed and stocked Apocalypseproof bunkers. “We deﬁnitely won’t be seeing a planetary synod where all the planets will line up,” Fakas said. “The planet Nibiru or a planet X as some dooms-dayers have called it, will not suddenly appear and head towards earth,” he continued. “There are no comets, meteorites or asteroids approaching earth and there has not been an increase in sun spots as some of these ‘so called prophets’ had predicted,” he concluded. The Fakas Institute regularly hosts events of astronomical merit. The Institute can be found at 78 Larnaca Avenue in Pallouriotissa in Nicosia.

PEOPLE who owe money to the government will be forced to pay their fines before leaving Cyprus as police step up their efforts to recoup the €135 million owed to the state in unpaid fines. According to a police spokesman, members of the force will be checking everyone passing through Cyprus’ airports to determine if they have any unpaid fines or if they owe social insurance or income tax. “These measures have been put in place in attempt to gather the €135 million in uncollected fines or social insurance and income tax payments,” member of the police top brass, Demetris Pitsillides told state broadcaster, Radio Trito. “Using computer technology, if someone is identified either from their passport or their ID card to be on the list of people who owe money to the state, an arrangement will be made to pay off the amount owed, either on their return to the island or in instalments,” he added. Speaking at a press conference, chief of police Michalis Papageorgiou said: “People who owe money to the state and are caught will be made to pay the fine, whoever they are.” Police will begin their checks in the coming weeks, once all of the relevant in-

formation has been placed on the police database, initially for a trial period only. The police will also follow the same procedure with people going to police stations for any reason. Their personal information will be checked and if they owe money, they will not be helped until they pay off the money they owe the state. “It is everyone’s responsibility to pay the amount they owe to the government and if they don’t, then we are within our rights to arrest them and that would certainly mean they would not be allowed to travel,” Papageorgiou said. Asked how the police will deal with cases where large amounts are owed and whether an arrangement can be made to pay off the debt in instalments, Papageorgiou answered, “Strictly speaking and according to the letter of the law, if the amount of any fine is large then the only person who has the right to make any concessions is the Attorney-general. Neither the police nor the member of police who is at the airport or at a police station can make any concessions.” “Each case will be dealt with separately and depending on the amount owed and what kind of fine it is, we will act accordingly but we will be reasonable in the way we deal with people,” a member of the police press office said.

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Saturday, December 15, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

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Ministry says 13th salaries must be paid ‘It is a part of the workers’ salary and it’s is illegal not to pay it’ says labour official By Stefanos Evripidou

Chrysostomos examines donated clothing yesterday

(Christos Theodorides)

Archbishop: unions should back off By Stefanos Evripidou ARCHBISHOP CHRYSOSTOMOS II yesterday called on the public to roll up its sleeves and work its way out of the crisis, while warning unions that any strike action now would be “unacceptable”. In a clear broadside at the union movement, Chrysostomos, who runs the Cyprus Church and oversees its sizeable business interests on the island, told unions to “get real” and get working so Cyprus can see better days. “What I want to say, and I don’t care if I’ll be misunderstood, is that it would be unacceptable to have strikes in this country over the issue of wage increases. We have lived through the invasion, and all workers accepted a 50 per cent wage cut,” he said. “We struggled. People will struggle but they won’t go hungry. So I call on unions to get real and not take to the streets seeking increases,” he added. The primate said people needed to understand that everyone will see wage reductions

as the country tries to overcome the difﬁcult times it’s going through which are the fault of all. “It is not only the fault of the government and banks. We have all been wasteful. We are obliged to come together, get working and come out on top, because we can,” he said. Chrysostomos said he was considering instructing the kitchen of the archbishopric to stick to one meal a day instead of two or three to save money. Any surplus could then be given to those who are hungry. “I believe that is how all our people will think. They will economise everywhere and even cut down on food,” he said. The archbishop made the comments at an event in Nicosia where he received clothing and footwear from the entrepreneur Andreas Kaisis to distribute among the needy. He thanked Kaisis for his contribution and assured him that the donations will reach those who really need it. Kaisis said he offered 6,000 items of footwear and 4,000 garments to cover the needs of poor school children.

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THE LABOUR Ministry yesterday issued an announcement, warning employers that failure to pay workers’ 13th salaries was a criminal offence. As the end of the year draws near, many private sector workers who avoided redundancy but saw significant wage cuts are asking whether they will get their 13th salary this year. According to the ministry, in sectors of employment where the 13th salary is usually paid, the law considers the second salary paid every December as part of the worker’s annual salary, making nonpayment a violation of Article 35(I) 2007 of the Wage Protection Law. Apart from the fact workers are afforded civil rights to seek payment of this 13th salary, non-payment is also a criminal offence for which the employer can be prosecuted. A legal amendment passed by parliament on Thursday significantly increases the penalties for such an offence. On conviction, an employer now faces up to six months in jail and/or a €15,000 fine. Under the same amendment, the court is in a position to award the amounts owed to the employee, said the ministry. Speaking to the state broadcaster, head of the Labour Relations Department Andreas Mylonas yesterday clarified that where employers followed the practice of paying a 13th salary, they continued to have an obligation to do so.

“If it is usually paid, the employer cannot suddenly turn around and say, ‘I can’t pay it’. It is a part of the workers’ salary, this is illegal,” he said. PEO union head Pambis Kyritsis said employers had a “legal and moral obligation” to pay the 13th salary as it was part of the workers’ annual salary. “Whatever the difﬁculties, whatever the situation, it is logical that employees’ wages have to be paid,” he said. Regarding situations where businesses are unable to come up with December’s second salary, Kyritsis said there are provisions in the law stipulating how employers can come to some sort of an arrangement with their employees.

COERCION However, he criticised employers who were reportedly coercing workers into signing a paper saying they agree not to take their 13th salary by effectively giving them no choice. “We call on workers not to sign any paper but to go to the unions. There is a labour ministry procedure for workers to secure their rights when an employer operates outside of the law,” he said. The Employers and Industrialists’ Federation (OEV) yesterday released a statement clarifying the circumstances for payment of the 13th salary in the private sector. According to OEV, paying the 13th salary in the private sector is not mandatory by law, but through practice, custom, collective or individual con-

tracts, many employers have agreed with their employees to pay a 13th salary. Where the above commitment is made, employers are obliged to pay the 13th salary before the end of the year, noted OEV. However, due to the dire economic situation of many businesses, many employers have asked and reached agreement with workers’ representatives or with employees directly either not to pay the 13th salary or to pay it gradually next year. These agreements are valid and binding in their content, said the federation. OEV calls on members who have problems paying the 13th salary, on the one hand, to make the necessary arrangements with employees or their representatives so they are not in violation of the law, and on the other, “to tackle the ultimate challenge under the circumstances: safeguarding the viability of businesses and jobs”. OEV deputy head Kostas Christofides yesterday acknowledged that a 13th salary was part of the annual total owed employees. However, he said the federation was aware of businesses that faced “extreme difficulties” meeting their obligations. In such cases where companies are calling on employees to agree to a special arrangement, Christofides said he believed employees were “rational and mature” enough to not demand the 13th salary when their employer has serious problems and the future of the business is at stake.

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CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 15, 2012

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State needs €400mln for December payroll Cash is expected to come from semi-government bodies By Stefanos Evripidou THE GOVERNMENT is walking a fine line between international and domestic lenders, trying to convince both that it pays its debts, in an effort to keep the state afloat until the EU/IMF bailout arrives to quench parched state coffers. The state has to come up with approximately €400m this month to meet its payroll obligations, including public workers’ 13th salaries. It expects most of this sum from profitable semi-government organisations (SGOs) in the form of loans. The Ports Authority has already pledged €38m to the state, with the offer of a further €12m if needed. The Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CyTA) refused the government’s request for a €120m loan from the company’s pension fund. Instead, despite great opposition from the unions, the

Free stuff at unique bazaar By Peter Stevenson Miss Cyprus 2012, Ioanna Yiannakou, during the Evening Gown Competition at the Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas. The 89 contestants will compete for the Diamond Nexus Crown on December 19

Juncker: Cyprus ‘more serious than Greece’ By George Psyllides THE FISCAL situation in Cyprus is “more serious than Greece,” a danger overlooked by markets, Luxembourg Prime Minister and Eurogroup President JeanClaude Juncker said yesterday. “My priority in the shortterm for 2013 is Cyprus,” Juncker, who is set to step down at the end of this year or the beginning of the next, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg. “It’s a problem one shouldn’t underestimate, because it’s more serious than Greece. This isn’t taken into consideration by the ﬁnancial markets or the international press.” Markets had however given the earliest indication Cyprus was poised for a bailout, after the island was virtually locked out of international capital markets in May-June 2011. Then, yields on its benchmark 10 year traded debt – an implied interest rate had the Republic sought international borrowing imminently – exceeded the psychological threshold of 7 per cent. However, yield highs of 15 per cent on 10 year bench-

marks have eased in recent weeks -- yields of around 15 per cent at the end of August have progressively fallen, with a marked fall in implied interest registered from midNovember onwards, when Cyprus announced its preliminary deal with the troika for refinancing. Yesterday, the yield on Cyprus’s 10 year benchmark stood at around 10.85 percent, according to data from ThomsonReuters. Cypriot banks may need about €10 billion in fresh capital while another €6 billion may be needed to refinance state debt and €1.5 billion to cover fiscal deficits. That would bring the total to €17.5 billion, almost the size of Cyprus’s €17.9 billion economy. The country’s general government gross debt will rise to 89.7 per cent of gross domestic product this year, according to the European Commission. That figure does not take into account any aid Cyprus may receive. “Cyprus’ debt is extremely high and the money they need makes up basically 100 per cent of their GDP,” Juncker said in an interview. “It’s a very serious situation.”

ARE YOU looking to get rid of the clutter in your life? Are your draws full of things you no longer need? Or do you just like free things? On Sunday at 10am, next to the Acropole Cinema you can fulfil any of those desires. A free bazaar has been organised by 26-year-old engineer, Cipri Pop, from Romania for anyone looking to get rid of objects they no longer want or those who would like to go through other people’s castoffs. “I’m a big fan of flea markets and one thing I don’t like is that, sometimes I see plenty of over-valued junk and even though its not needed by the seller, he just can’t let go of his things without gaining some value for himself,” said Pop. Asked what he wants from the event, Pop said, “What I want from this event is for people not to trade, but just let go of the things they don’t need and let others discover their values, let others find their use,” he said. Pop does not want to be affiliated to any charities and he definitely doesn’t want people to show up attempting to trade things. “Considering it a charity event will certainly defeat its purpose,” he said. “Some stuff will eventually get to NGO’s and charity associations as someone has volunteered to take part in the event and gather as much as possible,” he said. Similar events take place in Pop’s home nation of Romania. For more information you can visit the facebook event page.

CyTA board has agreed on a €100m three-month loan at an interest rate of 5.5 per cent. Board chairman Stathis Kittis said it would be a lot easier agreeing to the loan if other proﬁtable SGOs like the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) also contributed. Union representatives have voiced concern about putting workers’ pension money acquired over many years at risk. They also question what will happen to the loan’s shortterm repayment if the Eurogroup meeting on January 21 fails to reach a decision on the bailout, or even worse, negotiations with Cyprus collapse completely. Unions representing half of the CyTA staff only decided to call off an indeﬁnite strike on Thursday after the House Finance Committee agreed to discuss the issue this Monday. The EAC has also been asked to chip in with a reported €100m loan to prop up

the flagging state on the same conditions as the CyTA loan. The management committee of the EAC fund yesterday met to discuss the request. They called in Finance Ministry’s permanent secretary Christos Patsalides to the meeting to argue the government’s case. He evidently failed to convince as the committee postponed any decision on the loan request until Monday, preferring instead to wait until after the House Finance Committee’s discussion on the matter, which its members will attend. EAC union EPOPAI yesterday repeated its opposition to the loan. “To save one bank, we’re all being destroyed,” said one union representative. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly has been in Brussels telling his colleagues and EU officials that Cyprus will be able to meet its financing needs until the end of January.

However, this is based on two preconditions: first, that domestic investors – mainly the banks – agree to roll over existing maturing debt; and second, the government secures additional financing to cover the deficit created by lower revenue and higher expenditure in November and December. So, if existing investors maintain exposure to Cyprus’ sovereign debt and the government is able to cover its end of year deficit, then Cyprus’ financing needs will be met up until the end of January. In essence, the government’s efforts to secure additional financing rest on convincing the likes of CyTA and EAC to lend it money. As one well-informed source put it: “They should understand that if the government can’t meet its obligations then everyone will be affected.” “It’s not an easy situation but it’s manageable,” he added. (see editorial page 13)

THIS WEEK IN YOUR

SundayMail Living the life of Michael Jackson Meeting the world’s top King of Pop impersonator

Christmas crafts Paphos artists get together to sell their wares in festive runup

Seasonal sweats The outlandish knits from top designers for Christmas

Saturday, December 15, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

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‘Cyprus’ presidency was a huge success’

CYPRUS TODAY Two sides carry out joint fire drill THE FIRE SERVICES of the Cyprus Republic and breakaway regime in the north yesterday held a joint exercise in the area of the UN-controlled Nicosia airport as part of efforts to enhance coordination in fighting fires on the island. The exercise came as a result of a previous decision by the bicommunal technical committee on crisis management to work together to combat fires. Each fire service sent three big fire trucks and a number of logistics jeeps to the old disused airport to examine the level of interoperability between them, checking access and usability of each others’ hose pipes, water tanks and communications systems. In a separate decision taken last September, the environment technical committee embarked upon another confidence-building measure - wildfires. Focusing their efforts on the buffer zone, the committee tasked the Cyprus Technical and Scientific Chamber (ETEK) and the Union of Chambers of Cyprus Turkish Engineers and Architects (KTMMOB) to identify areas for inter-communal cooperation on preventing outbreaks of wildfires in the buffer zone.

EasyJet on Larnaca-Milan route

President Demetris Christoﬁas (R) greets European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso (C) after a joint news conference at the European Union leaders summit in Brussels

Barroso said there had been some real achievements By George Psyllides CYPRUS managed to have a successful EU presidency despite its size and economic problems, President Demetris Christofias said yesterday, following the last European Council under his term. “Cyprus has shown that despite its small geographical size and despite its economic problems it held a quite successful presidency,” Christofias said during a press conference that wrapped up the last European Council of the Cypriot presidency that ends this month. “It was indeed a very difficult task for us, a task however which I think we have carried out with dignity.” Christofias said the European Council meeting was an-

other step towards the completion of the economic and monetary union, adding that there was still a long way to go and the momentum had to be kept up. “The decisions that have been made and the directions that have been given will to a large extent define the course of the European Union in the next years,” he said. “The reform that is taking place with the aim of more effective economic and financial governance also contributes to facing faster the financial crisis that torments the Union.” The president stressed however that approaches must be balanced and targeted to safeguard social cohesion. “The economic and financial policies that is, must be formed in such a way that un-

employment and poverty are substantially addressed and social exclusion is prevented,” he said. “It is imperative that the measures for fiscal consolidation are combined with measures that promote social cohesion and the prosperity of European citizens.” European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said there had been some real achievements in the past six months. “I will not quote all of them, but I think the Single Supervisory Mechanism, Schengen governance, common asylum system are especially important,” Barroso said. Barroso appeared confident that the EU will overcome the difficulties it was currently facing. “I have got many questions about “Do you think the

euro is going to survive, how long is it going to survive, how do you see the dismantling of the euro.” I think that those commentators and those analysts have been shown to be totally wrong. We are tackling the crisis and we have a long term vision for our Union,” the Commission president said. European Council President Herman Van Rompuy praised Cyprus’ contribution in successfully closing the matter of the European Patent after decades. “It is the happy end to a 40 year-long Odyssey. And if you allow me to continue that image: even if we do not know for sure on which Mediterranean island the historic Odysseus lived, for Europe, in the patent case, our beloved “Ithaca” clearly is Cyprus.”

Customs agreement signed with Russia RUSSIA AND Cyprus signed a customs agreement yesterday setting out mechanisms to tackle customs offences in commercial relations between the two countries. Finance Ministry permanent secretary Christos Patsalides signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on

cooperation and mutual assistance in customs matters with Russian Ambassador to Cyprus Vyacheslav Shumskiy yesterday in Nicosia. The aim of the agreement is to promote cooperation between the two countries’ customs authorities, and provide mechanisms to investigate

offences that are in violation of customs laws and regulations. The MOU includes, among other things, provisions relating to the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of customs offences, and the exchange of information to ensure the accurate assessment of customs duties, taxes and other charges dur-

ing the import, export, transit and transhipment of goods. Speaking afterwards, Patsalides said the agreement was a further tool to assist customs authorities in both countries ﬁghting illegalities. It was also further proof to Cyprus’ detractors who have been trying recently to build an image of Cyprus as a centre for money laundering, he said.

EASYJET yesterday announced the launch of a new direct route from Larnaca to Milan Malpensa t in March 2013. The twice-weekly weekly ﬂights to Milan begin on March 27 and will be serviced on Airbus A320 aircrafts every Wednesday and Sunday. The arrival at Larnaca airport, every Wednesday will be at 12.25pm and departure at 3.05pm while respectively every Sunday, arrivals will be serviced at 8.25pm and departure at 9pm. Flights on the new route are already on sale on www.easyjet. com, with prices starting at €41.99 (one way) and €80.48 (two-way) including all taxes. Regional Manager Ground Operations for Greece and Cyprus, Stefanos Vakirtzis said: “We are excited about this new route from Larnaca to Milan, which reﬂects our continuous commitment for expansion of our network to Cyprus, a very important part of our European network. “The new route to and from Milan comes in addition to the already existing six easyJet routes connecting Cyprus with major European cities, such as London Gatwick, London Luton, Manchester, Bristol and Edinburgh,” he added.

Officer injured by teen biker A POLICEMAN was seriously injured after being hit by a speeding motorcycle driven by a 16-year-old on Thursday night in a supermarket parking area close to the Polemidia roundabout in Limassol. At around 8.25pm on Thursday, three policemen drove a patrol car to the area to conduct a check after receiving complaints about young bikers making a commotion. The two teens tried to avoid the checks and flee. One of the officers stepped out of his vehicle and clearly signalled for them to halt but they didn’t, and he was hit. The 16-year-old bike driver, who police said has had previous offences was not wearing a helmet and had no licence plate. He was arrested. The injured officer was taken to Limassol hospital and treated for fractures to his legs. He was later taken to a private clinic for surgery. He is considered to be out of danger but in serious condition.

Cyprus is in Messi’s heart LIONEL Messi’s record equalling 85th goal last Sunday will live long in the heart of Cyprus. The diminutive Argentinean’s goal, that equalled Gerd Muller’s record for the most goals scored in a calendar year went in simultaneously with the advertising boards around the stadium showing the Cyprus Tourist Organisation’s (CTO) campaign slogan, ‘Cyprus in your heart’. Messi scored for Barcelona in the 16th minute of the match between Real Betis and Barcelona at the Benito Villamarin stadium at the same time as the banner that goes around the stadium was advertising Cyprus. CTO’s winter campaign slogan has been visible at different football stadia in Spain and England as well as other events since December. The campaign’s aim is to showcase Cyprus abroad during the winter period and will continue until the end of January.

The Administration of Estates Rules 1955. Application No.: 336/2012 In the District Court of Paphos Probate Jurisdiction

Island moves up in ‘Doing Business’ report

In the matter of DANIEL WILLIAM WALKER, late of United Kingdom and resident of Tala Paphos, deceased.

CYPRUS may claim a respectable rank – 36th out of 185 economies – in the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ report 2013, but in Europe it ranks 16th out of only 27 countries. The island did climb one rank compared to 2012 however. The report was presented during an event at the Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency (CIPA)..

Notice is hereby given that, after the expiration of 14 days, application will be made in the principal probate registry of Paphos for the grant of probate of the will of DANIEL WILLIAM WALKER, late of United Kingdom and resident of Tala Paphos, deceased. M.TIMOTHEOU & CO LLC Lawyers of the Executrix

It assesses regulations affecting domestic ﬁrms in 185 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders. The results are based on a detailed analysis of data and information gathered by way of questionnaires ﬁlled in by representatives of public and pri-

vate sector alike, in all the countries which are included. Interested investors use the report in order to compare and contrast the business environment of different countries. Head of CIPA Christodoulos Agastiniotis expressed the agency’s readiness to help all actors to proceed with reforms which fall within its competence.

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 15, 2012

Home An ‘explosion of love’ as Engomi aids needy ENGOMI Mayor Zacharias Kyriacou yesterday spoke of an ‘explosion of love’ from residents who donated tons of food to help the needy this Christmas. The campaign by the Nicosia suburb began on December 3 in cooperation with the churches of Saint Nicholas in Engomi, All Saints in Makedonitissa, Panayia Makedonitissas and Saint Panteleimonas,

and the school board of Engomi. The campaign ends on Monday. Delivery of the food hampers will take place on December 20 and 21. Kyriacou said the response from residents had been overwhelming and he also thanked Athienitis’ supermarket and their associated companies for their generous contributions

Volunteers take stock of the tons of foodstuffs collected and donated in Engomi

CY returns with its begging bowl Airline wants an additional €73 million By George Psyllides AILING state carriet Cyprus Airways (CY) is asking the state for an additional €73 million as part of a restructuring plan to make the company viable, it emerged yesterday. This would be over and above some €31 million requested earlier this year, with €15 million already granted. “I understand the difﬁcult economic conditions we are going through but this company cannot go forward if new capital is not injected to keep it going until the summer and give the time necessary for its restructuring,” CY chairman Stavros Stavrou told reporters. A viable restructuring plan was a condition set by parliament earlier this year before releasing the second tranche of €31 million requested by the airline. The plan, prepared by Air France-KLM, was presented to the House Finance

Committee yesterday behind closed doors. Stavrou said the aim was to make the company viable and attractive to foreign investors. There is interest from investors, Stavrou said, but they also wanted to see the plan and signs that it was being implemented. The plan calls for cutting personnel by 407 to 623, bringing salaries down to the levels of the competition and introducing working hours to suit the needs of the airline in the current competitive environment. It also proposed outsourcing the airline’s maintenance, a provision opposed by unions and the management. “We believe this is one of the biggest assets the company has at the moment,” Stavrou said. The CY boss said there was a safety element involved and “we do not negotiate on safety matters. That is why our suggestion is for this department to remain under the CY roof.” Committee chairman, DIKO

MP Nicolas Papadopoulos, said it was the view of its members that an effort should be made to rescue the airline. Releasing €105 million would involve the agreement of the European Union, Papadopoulos said. Main opposition DISY said it was ready to support any serious and credible effort but there must be a concrete pledge that the plan must be implemented immediately and without deviation. “The ultimate objective must be the implementation of government decision to privatise the company,” spokesman Haris Georgiades said. “Only then Cyprus Airways’ viability would be deﬁnitively secured.” CY has gone through several overhauls in recent years but has been hobbled by stiff competition from cheaper carriers on its most lucrative routes and rising fuel costs. The state controls around 69 per cent of the airline.

Vacancy The U.S. Embassy in Nicosia has a full-time opening (40 hours a week) for a Warehouse and Property Operations Manager position in the General Services Section. Applicants must have the required work and residency permits to be eligible for consideration. Main responsibility:

Incumbent has the overall responsibility for and supervises the expendable and non-expendable supply operations for the embassy, including the operation of the Embassy Warehouse. He supervises an ILMS and Expendable Supplies Clerk, a Receiving Clerk, a Warehouse Coordinator and a Truck Driver/Warehouseman, as well as summer hires, occasional day laborers and contractors. Works under the supervision of the General Services Officer. Please visit the following website for detailed qualifications for the position and for application procedures: http://cyprus.usembassy.gov/theembassy/employment.html Applicants should send the DS-174 application for employment to: U.S. Embassy, HR Office, Warehouse and Property Operations Manager, P.O. Box 24536, 1385 Nicosia or via E-mail to: VacanciesNicosia@state.gov to arrive no later than 5:00 p.m. December 21, 2012. No telephone calls will be accepted. An Equal Opportunity Employer.

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

Personal Assistant to the High Commissioner Job Description This is a very busy all-rounder job that requires a self-starter PA with good typing, computer, communication and organisational skills, who can multi-task, deliver results and be willing to be flexible with regard to hours worked. Duties include: Manage the High Commissioner’s diary, liaise with government Ministries and other Missions, make appointments, respond to invitations, producing daily and forward programmes; assist with visitors programmes. Type letters, reports and other official correspondence and distribution of same by e-mail, fax etc. Draft routine correspondence for High Commissioner. Provide all round unspecified support to the High Commissioner as required, including occasionally at events outside the High Commission. Act as the High Commissioner’s social secretary: organising lunches, dinners and receptions. Act as a communication link between the High Commissioner and the Mission, especially when he is out of the office. Administer a selection of IT systems (training given), manage the electronic and paper registry, maintain and run duty rostas, collect and distribute mail and documents. Key Competencies required. Delivering results Problem solving Managing Self, Others and Resources Communicating Qualifications, Qualities and skills 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 English (written and spoken) and good telephone manner. Proficient and accurate typing. Numerate and proficient in IT including: Microsoft Word (essential), Excel (essential) and Access Database (desirable). Some proficiency in Greek and/or Turkish would be advantageous. Applications in writing with details of: past experience, qualifications, details of all nationalities held, countries of residence over the past ten years and CV should be sent by email to the following address: jobapplicationsnicosia@fco.gov.uk by Friday 18 January 2013. Applications that do not include the above details will not be considered. The Grade for the PA/Head of Registry position is Locally Employed Grade III. The starting salary will be €1609.00 gross per month on a scale rising to €3080. Twenty days holiday per year rising to twenty five days after three years and thirty days after ten years. Non-contributory medical scheme with access to group rates for dependants. Start date is flexible to suit the successful applicant in the range March to April 2013. A shortlist of applicants will be invited for interview by 31st January 2013. Interviews are likely to be in early to mid February. 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 stringent UK security clearance process.

Saturday, December 15, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

Europe

Pope calls for new econ model, more ethical markets POPE Benedict yesterday called for a new economic model and ethical regulations for markets, saying the global financial crisis was proof capitalism does not protect the weakest members of society. In his message for the Roman Catholic Church’s World Day of Peace, which is marked on January 1, Benedict also warned that a food insecurity was a threat to peace in some parts of the world. He also strongly reaffirmed the Church’s opposition to gay marriage, saying heterosexual marriage had an indispensable role in society. The annual message, which traditionally centres on how to promote peace and how to reduce threats to peace, is sent to heads of state, government and institutions such as the United Nations and nongovernmental organisations. In it the pope said economic models that seek maximum profit and consumption and encourage competition at all costs had failed to look after the basic needs of many and could sow social unrest. “It is alarming to see hotbeds of tension and conflict caused by growing instances of inequality between rich and poor, by the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic mindset which also finds expression in an unregulated financial capitalism,” he said. The pope said people, groups and institutions were needed to foster human creativity, to draw lessons from the crisis and to create a new economic model. The message had echoes of his 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), in which he called for a world political authority to manage the global economy and for

The Pope also reaffirmed opposition to gay marriage more government regulation of national economies. “The creation of ethical structures for currency, financial and commercial markets is also fundamental and indispensable,” the pope said in yesterday’s message. “These must be stabilised and better coordinated and controlled so as not to prove harmful to the very poor.” He said food insecurity was becoming an ever-increasing threat to peace and social stability, calling the food crisis even greater than the financial crisis. Ensuring people have access to sufficient nutrition should be central to the international political agenda because of inter-related crises, sudden shifts in prices of basic foodstuffs, and unethical practices, he said. There had been insufficient control of food security by governments and the international community and he called for more help for poor rural farmers. In a report in October, the United Nations food agencies said one out of every eight people in the world is chronically undernourished.

Man jailed in Politkovskaya case A MOSCOW judge has sentenced a former police officer to 11 years in prison for his part in the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who prosecutors claimed helped to track Politkovskaya’s movements and provided the gunman with a weapon, had struck a plea bargain that qualified him for a reduced sentence in exchange for his co-operation. Politkovskaya’s family opposed the deal, which allowed Pavlyuchenkov to admit his guilt without testifying, on the grounds that it would not help find the masterminds of the killing. The alleged gunman and four other defendants will be tried separately. Politkovskaya, a sharp critic of Kremlin policies in Chechnya, was gunned down in her apartment building on October 7, 2006. Pavlyuchenkov was also fined three million rubles (£60,400).

THIS WEEK IN YOUR

Policemen stand guard outside the Nimes courthouse before the arrival for a hearing of Kamel Bousselat, the presumed abductor of Chloe, a 15-year-old girl who was found alive in Germany after being reported missing for a week, yesterday in Nimes, southern France (AFP)

‘Morally questionable for Monti to run in poll’ By James Mackenzie ITALY’S main centre-left party, leading polls for next year’s election, rebuffed calls for Prime Minister Mario Monti to run for a second term, a move one of the party’s leading ﬁgures said would be “morally questionable”. The Democratic Party (PD) has supported Monti’s technocrat government in parliament. But, while it has pledged to continue his ﬁscal discipline and wants him to stay on in some role after the election, it says he should stay out of the campaign, which polls suggest he would lose anyway. “It would be illogical and, in a certain sense, morally questionable if the professor were to enter the race against the main political force which supported him in his reform efforts,” Massimo D’Alema,

SundayMail

Italy centre-left party rebuffs calls for PM second term bid a former prime minister and an inﬂuential centre-left elder statesman told yesterday’s daily Corriere della Sera. “I have great esteem for him and I hope he doesn’t.” Centre-right candidate Silvio Berlusconi has offered to stand aside to allow a Monti candidacy. European politicians from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to French President Francois Hollande also heaped praise on Monti and, at a meeting of European centre-right parties on Thursday, he was urged by a number of politicians to run in the election. Monti himself avoided commenting on his political future yesterday, telling a news con-

WIN A SHISEIDO SET WORTH €254 ENTER OUR COMPETITION (living page 28)

ference in Brussels it would not be “either possible or appropriate” for him to speak on the matter. Monti’s austerity measures have helped lower borrowing costs since he took over in a financial crisis last year. Italy’s public debt nonetheless rose above €2 trillion for the first time in October, according to the Bank of Italy yesterday. PD party leader Pier Luigi Bersani said on Thursday he would call in Monti to play some kind of role after the election, but has said it would be better for the respected former economics professor to stay out of the campaign. If Monti does run, opinion polls suggest he would be defeated, and PD officials say it

would then be much more difﬁcult for him to be accepted as president to replace head of state Giorgio Napolitano, who must step down by April. “Let’s say that if he runs, it will be more complicated for him to become president of the republic because he would have been a political competitor not 10 years earlier, or something like that, but last week,” Stefano Fassina, the PD’s main spokesman on economic affairs said. Napolitano, who named Monti to replace the discredited Berlusconi a year ago, said last month Monti’s special life-time seat in the Senate would not allow him to make an election bid. Monti would also likely be cautious about any association with scandal-plagued Berlusconi, whose position switches have caused frustration and alarm across Europe and in his own party.

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 15, 2012

Britain

PM rejects Clegg’s re-think of drug laws By Andrew Woodcock and Emma Clark DAVID Cameron yesterday firmly rejected Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s call for a Royal Commission to rethink drug laws and ruled out the decriminalisation of any illegal narcotics. The Liberal Democrat leader dramatically signalled his split with the Prime Minister on the controversial issue by declaring that Britain was losing the war on drugs and a new approach was needed. But Cameron said the coalition Government had already taken necessary action to change drug policy, and there was evidence this was bearing fruit in terms of reduced levels of abuse. He said Clegg was “entirely entitled” to advocate further change, but made clear this was only in the context of the Lib Dem manifesto for the next general election, not the policies of the coalition administration. In an interview with the The Sun yesterday, Clegg said the Prime Minister had missed an opportunity by ruling out a Royal Commission on drugs policy when it was recommended in a report by the influential House of Commons Home Affairs Committee earlier this week. “If you were waging any other war where you have 2,000 fatalities a year, your enemies are making billions in profit, constantly throwing new weapons at you and targeting more young people, you’d have to say you are losing and it’s time to do something different,” said the Lib Dem leader. “I’m anti-drugs - it’s for that reason I’m pro-reform.” Clegg insisted he is not in

Decriminalisation of any illegal narcotics ruled out

Clegg said Britain was losing the war on drugs

favour of full legalisation of drugs, but thinks targeting dealers and trafﬁckers, while decriminalising possession, might be a solution. He told The Sun he will include a “clear commitment” to a Royal Commission on drugs in his party’s 2015 manifesto.

Voicing his regret at Cameron’s response to the Home Affairs Committee report, Clegg said: “I told the Prime Minister that this was a missed opportunity. He knows my views on this. He and I don’t agree on this.” The Lib Dem leader has or-

dered Home Ofﬁce minister Jeremy Browne to compile a report on liberal approaches to drugs across the world which have worked, including in Portugal, Amsterdam, Latin America and several US states. But Cameron told a press conference in Brussels: “Of course the Deputy Prime Minister is entirely entitled to take a view for the next election and beyond for his manifesto, wanting to go further, wanting a Royal Commission. “I personally don’t support a Royal Commission. In my view there’s always a danger, as someone said, that they can take minutes and last for years. “I am very happy to debate and discuss drug policy. I think the coalition Government has taken a series of good steps. I don’t rule out taking more steps, but I don’t personally think a Royal Commission is the answer and I don’t support the decriminalisation of any drugs that are currently illegal.” Cameron stressed the coalition has already taken action to correct failings in the way the drug problem was dealt with in the past. “We needed a much greater emphasis on treatment,” he said. “We needed a much greater emphasis on getting people off drugs and able to lead drug-free lives. We needed a much better emphasis on education ... about the dangers of drug abuse. We need much more action on drugs in prisons and making sure people can get treatment for drugs in prison to continue the programmes they have had out in the community. The Government... has got a good record on these things and there is good evidence drug use and drug abuse is falling.”

Wife of heir to Tetra Pak riches Five members of the same died from abuse of cocaine family guilty in slavery case THE American wife of one of Britain’s richest men, whose body lay rotting at their London home for two months after her death, died from cocaine abuse, a coroner said yesterday. Eva Rausing, whose husband Hans is heir to a fortune from the Swedish packaging firm Tetra Pak, was found in July in an advanced state of decomposition under layers of clothes and bin liners in a fly-infested room on the second floor of their six-storey townhouse in an upmarket area of London. The 48-year-old’s body was only discovered after police officers went to their house after stopping her husband for driving erratically. She was found with a silver foil in her hand which had been rolled up as a pipe, indicating it had been used for smoking cocaine. A postmortem established that she had died more than two months earlier in May. Deputy coroner Shirley Radcliffe ruled that Rausing, who

Cocaine user: Eva Rausing suffered from the heart condition tricuspid valve disease and had had a pacemaker ﬁtted, had died from cocaine intoxication. Hans Rausing, who was given a suspended 10-month jail sentence in August for preventing the “lawful and decent” burial of his wife, said he had not been able to deal with losing her. The couple, who have four children, had a history of problems with drugs. They ﬁrst met at a US rehabilitation centre and gave generously to addiction treatment centres.

FIVE members of the same traveller family were today found guilty of keeping their own private workforce. William Connors, 52, his wife Mary, 48, their sons John, 29, and James, 20, and their son-in-law Miles Connors, 24, were all convicted of conspiracy to require a person to perform forced or compulsory labour between April 2010 and March 2011. A jury at Bristol Crown Court found the Connors family guilty following a threemonth trial. They had also faced a second charge of conspiracy to hold another person in servitude but the trial judge ordered the jury to ﬁnd the defendants not guilty of that offence. The prosecution was brought under Section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 and carries a maximum sentence of 14 years. During the trial, the court heard the Connors would pick up the men - often homeless drifters or addicts to work for them as labourers.

The victims lived in squalid caravans on traveller sites as they moved around the country working on the Connors’ paving and patio businesses. Some were also ordered to perform humiliating tasks, such as emptying buckets used as toilets by their bosses. Their work was monotonous, arduous and unrelenting, and they were controlled by discipline and violence. Some of the men - called “dossers” by the Connors had worked for the family for nearly two decades. Many were beaten, hit with broom handles, belts, a rake and shovel, and punched and kicked by the Connors. On another occasion one worker had a hosepipe shoved down his throat and the men were often made to strip for a “hosing down session” with freezing water. “It caused fear in the men ... if you see one of your colleagues being beaten, you knew what to expect,” said prosecutor Christopher Quinlan QC.

Computer hacker McKinnon to face no further action COMPUTER hacker Gary McKinnon, whose extradition to the U.S. was blocked, will not face charges in the UK, bringing to an end a 10year legal battle, the BBC reported yesterday. Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer QC said the chances of a successful conviction were “not high”. Janis Sharp, McKinnon’s mother, said the news was “amazing” and she was grateful the case was “all over now”. McKinnon, 46, admits accessing US government computers but says he was looking for evidence of UFOs. The US Department of Justice said it would continue to collaborate with the UK government on a “wide range of shared concerns”. Starmer announced the decision not to prosecute some three months after Home Secretary Theresa May stopped McKinnon’s extradition. The US authorities tried to extradite McKinnon to face

charges of causing $800,000 (£487,000) worth of damage to military computer systems and he would have faced up to 60 years in prison if convicted. McKinnon, who had been ﬁghting extradition since 2002, suffers from Asperger’s syndrome. In October, the Briton was permitted to stay in the UK on human rights grounds after medical reports showed he was very likely to try to kill himself if extradited. McKinnon’s lawyer Karen Todner said: “I am pleased he is not going to be prosecuted because I wouldn’t want to think he would ever spend any time in prison given his mental situation. “But I am disappointed because the extradition warrant is still outstanding because he can’t travel anywhere outside of the UK and will have this hanging over him until it’s resolved. “We have discussed approaching president Obama and asking for a pardon.”

Saturday, December 15, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

World

US’ Rice withdraws as State Secretary candidate

WORLD TODAY Captors free minister’s mum KIDNAPPERS freed the 82-year-old mother of Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala yesterday, five days after she was taken from her home in southeastern Nigeria, a senior security official said. “She has been released now by her captors and she is at home,” said the source, who had confirmed Kamene Okonjo’s kidnapping on Sunday in Delta state. He gave no further details. It was not clear if the abduction of Okonjo was political or for financial gain. Her daughter has served twice as finance minister and was also a director at the World Bank. Nigeria’s army said on Thursday that soldiers had arrested 63 people in raids conducted during the search for Okonjo. Kidnapping is rife in Africa’s top oil producer, making millions of dollars a year for the criminal gangs who engage in it.

Ailing Chavez ‘improving’ VENEZUELA’S Hugo Chavez suffered unexpected bleeding caused by a six-hour cancer operation in Cuba, the government said, although the ailing president’s condition began to improve on Thursday. The 58-year-old’s health has deteriorated dramatically since he won re-election two months ago, casting doubt on the future of his “21st century socialism” project, which won him huge support among the poor but infuriated adversaries who denounce him as a ﬂedgling dictator. Ofﬁcials said Chavez’s medical team in Havana had to use “corrective measures” to stop the bleeding which resulted from Tuesday’s surgery, his fourth cancer operation in 18 months. But they said his condition had improved since then.

Rift over treaty ENVOYS from nearly 90 nations have signed the ﬁrst new UN telecommunications treaty since the internet age, but the US and other Western states refused to join after claiming it endorses greater government control over cyberspace. The negotiations essentially pitted the West’s desire to preserve the unregulated nature of the net against developing countries yearning for better web access and strong-arm states such as Iran and China that closely ﬁlter cyberspace.

North Korea’s ofﬁcial Korean Central News Agency shows army soldiers yesterday celebrating the successful launch of the Unha-3 rocket, carrying the satellite Kwangmyongsong-3, at Kim Il-Sung Square in Pyongyang (AFP)

Rocket launch success cements Kim’s regime Thousands celebrate Wednesday’s launch in mass parade By Jack Kim WHEN North Korea’s Kim Jong-un commemorates a year of his rule next week, he will be able to declare he has fulﬁlled the country’s longheld dream of becoming a “space powerhouse”. In a mass parade in Pyongyang yesterday, tens of thousands of soldiers dressed in olive green and standing in serried ranks, as well as bareheaded civilians, celebrated this week’s successful rocket launch, hailing Kim’s “victory”. “Under the great leadership of Kim Jong-un, we are carrying out a sacred task towards our last victory so as to build strong and prosperous nation,” Kim Ki-nam, a politburo member from the Workers Party of Korea, told

the applauding and cheering crowds that turned out in freezing temperatures.

SHARED KUDOS Sharing the kudos with the 29-year old leader will be three civilians who have grown stronger in the past year and have helped Kim exert control over the country’s powerful military, which may edge the country closer to an attempt to reopen dialogue with the United States. Wednesday’s launch, in which North Korea put a satellite in space for the ﬁrst time, may have helped cement the position of Kim’s uncle Jang Song-thaek and Choe Ryong-hae, the military’s top political strategist, as well as Ju Kyu-chang, the 84-year-old head of the country’s missile and nuclear programme.

While Washington has condemned the rocket launch and called for tougher sanctions on North Korea, it was, as recently as February, willing to offer food aid to Pyongyang. At that time it was just over a year since the North shelled a South Korean island, killing civilians, and sank a South Korean warship.

‘FAKE’ MILITARY MEN The rise of Jang and Chae especially, once ridiculed as “fake” military men by army veterans, together with the country’s aging chief missile bureaucrat, could also mean the renegade state will try its hand at using what is now stronger leverage in negotiations to extract aid and concessions. Jang is the brother-in-law of Kim Jong-il and was the

chief promoter of his son Kim Jong-un when the elder Kim died on December 17 last year. Jang has further increased his prominence in recent weeks with high-level public appearances, at times in unprecedented proximity to the leader of a country where appearance and formality are rigidly controlled. Jang is ofﬁcially a vice chairman of the ruling National Defence Commission and an army general in name only, but is widely believed to be the North’s second-in-command in reality. Jang is considered a pragmatist who is willing to engage both allies and enemies abroad, but also one who understands the challenge of cementing the position of the young and relatively untested grandson of the state’s founder.

SUSAN Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a close confidante of President Barack Obama, has withdrawm her name from consideration as secretary of state in the face of what promised to be a contentious Senate confirmation battle. Rice has drawn heavy fire from Republicans for remarks she made in the aftermath of a September 11 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans were killed, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. “I am highly honoured to be considered by you for appointment as secretary of state,” Rice said in a letter to Obama on Thursday. “I am fully confident that I could serve our country ably and effectively in that role. However, if nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly.” Her decision increases the odds Obama will turn to Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she steps down early next year. Rice’s surprise withdrawal spares Obama a potentially bruising nomination fight in the Senate, even as he grapples with congressional Republicans over tax, debt and spending policy to avoid the “fiscal cliff.” An announcement of Obama’s national security team could come as early as next week. Officials say Obama is giving serious consideration to nominating former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as his defence secretary to replace the departing Leon Panetta. Obama had harboured hopes of picking Rice, 48, as the nation’s chief diplomat. She was an early foreign policy adviser to him when he ran for president in 2008 and became the first black woman to serve as US ambassador to the United Nations. She was widely seen as a natural replacement for Clinton. But Rice has faced relentless criticism from Republicans about comments she made days after the attack in Libya.

China intellectuals urge transparency on wealth ABOUT 65 Chinese academics, lawyers and human rights activists have signed an open letter demanding that top members of the ruling Communist Party reveal their ﬁnancial assets, saying it is the most fundamental way to solve corruption. The letter will be presented to parliament when it meets for its annual session in March, according to the Communist Party-run Global Times newspaper. Petitions to China’s parliament are usually ignored. But the public denunciation of corruption underscores the top challenge facing new party chief Xi Jinping,

who has himself warned that if corruption were allowed to run wild, the party risked major unrest and the collapse of its rule. The letter calls on the 205 newly-named members of the party’s Central Committee to divulge their personal wealth. The call follows a stream of scandals involving party members. “This is the first step in fighting corruption”, Hu Jia, a prominent rights activist who signed the letter, told Reuters by telephone. “These 205 are the highest-level officials in China,” said Hu, whose movements are

restricted because of his rights activities and who was being confronted aggressively by police as he spoke to Reuters after venturing out of his home. “They are the ones with the greatest risk of being involved in corruption. So we are calling on them to take the lead,” Hu said. A new Central Committee was named at the party’s once-a-decade leadership handover last month. Xi took over as party chief and will become president at the National People’s Congress, or parliament, in March.

Rice had come under ﬁre

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 15, 2012

World

Russia denies Syria’s Assad losing control Foreign Ministry says Russia’s policy on Syria unchanged

Bogdanov’s statement was certain to be seen as a betrayal by embattled Syria president Assad (above)

RUSSIA’S Foreign Ministry has denied that a top diplomat said Syrian president Bashar Assad is losing control of his country. It said in a statement yesterday that deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov “has not made any statements or special interviews recently” on Syria but was simply citing the stance of the Syrian opposition while giving a speech yesterday. Russian state-owned news agencies had quoted Bogdanov as saying that rebels might win the civil war, a comment that appeared to dramatically shift Russia’s stance on Syria. The US later commended Russia for “waking up to the reality” by acknowledging the regime’s impending fall. Analysts viewed the diplomat’s statement as Russia’s attempt to begin positioning itself for Assad’s eventual defeat. The foreign ministry insisted in a statement that Bogdanov was referring only to the claims of the “Syrian opposition and its foreign

Clashes before Egypt plebiscite STONE-throwing supporters and opponents of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi clashed in the Egyptian city of Alexandria yesterday ahead of a referendum on a new constitution that has divided the Arab world’s most populous nation. Dozens of activists fought with clubs and swords, witnesses said, and a number of cars were set alight on the streets of Egypt’s second biggest city on the eve of a vote that Mursi hopes will bring an end to the country’s worsening political crisis. Scuffles started near a mosque in Alexandria when opposition members handing out flyers clashed with Mursi supporters. In Cairo, flag-waving proMursi Islamists staged a final rally yesterday before the referendum, but the gathering outside one of the capital’s main mosques was peaceful. Cairo and other cities have seen often violent demonstrations over the past three weeks since Mursi assumed sweeping new powers to push through the constitution, which he sees as a vital

An Egyptian in Cairo puts up a registered voters’ list ahead of the referendum element of Egypt’s transition to democracy after the overthrow of autocratic predecessor Hosni Mubarak last year. At least eight people have died and hundreds have been injured, and a leading opposition ﬁgure warned of more blood on the streets during the voting this Saturday and next on a draft the opposition says is too heavily inﬂuenced by Islamists. The referendum, held on

two days because there aren’t enough judges willing to monitor all polling stations, asks Egyptians to accept or reject a basic law that must be in place before national elections can be held early next year - an event many hope can steer the country towards stability. The government said today would be a holiday to enable people to vote. To bolster support for the constitution, Islamists who propelled Mursi to power in June’s presidential election assembled at a mosque near the president’s palace in Cairo. “Islam, Islam,” they chanted. “We’ve come here to say ‘yes’ to the constitution.” The majority of protesters were men with beards, and some had brought their children and veiled wives with them. Mohamed ElBaradei, an opposition leader and Nobel prize winner, issued a statement urging Mursi to cancel the referendum “before it is too late”. Amr Moussa, a former head of the Arab League also prominent in the opposition, called on Egyptians to vote “no”.

Israeli foreign minister Lieberman quits after indictment ISRAELI Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman resigned yesterday after being charged with fraud and breach of trust, in a move that could have repercussions on next month’s election. “I have decided to resign my post as foreign minister and deputy prime minister and ... also to remove my (parliamentary) immunity forthwith so I can end this matter quickly, without delay and clear my name absolutely,” Lieberman said in a statement. Israel’s Justice Ministry said on Thursday it would charge Lieberman over alleged irregularities tied to the promotion of an Israeli diplomat who had leaked him privileged information about a police probe into his activities.

More serious allegations, including moneylaundering and bribery, were dropped, but even the lesser charges cast a cloud over his political future and within 24 hours of receiving the ministry report, he decided to stand down. It was unclear if he would still stand in the January 22 general election, although Israeli newspapers suggested he might be forced to the sidelines as the judicial case moved ahead. Lieberman’s right-wing party Yisrael Beiteinu (Our Home is Israel) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud group have formed an electoral pact ahead of the ballot and opinion polls had predicted they would win.

sponsors forecasting their quick victory over the regime in Damascus”. “In that context, Bogdanov again conﬁrmed Russia’s principled stance that a political settlement in Syria has no alternative,” the ministry’s spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich, said in the statement. Bogdanov was speaking before the Public Chamber, a Kremlin advisory body. His statement quoted by

Russian news agencies appeared to mark the ﬁrst ofﬁcial acknowledgment from Moscow that Assad’s regime may fall. It was certain to be seen as a betrayal by the Syrian ruler, further eroding his grip on power amid opposition successes on the ground and recognition of the Syrian opposition by the United States and other leading world powers. Later, European Union

TURKEY GETS US MISSILES THE Pentagon has said it will send Patriot air defence missiles and 400 troops to Turkey as part of a NATO force meant to protect Turkish territory from potential Syrian missile attack. Pentagon press secretary George Little said defence secretary Leon Panetta signed a deployment order yesterday while en route to Turkey from Afghanistan. The order calls for 400 US soldiers to operate two batteries of Patriots at undisclosed locations in Turkey, Little told reporters. Turkey is a founding member of NATO and requested that the alliance provide Patriots. They will be sent by NATO members Germany and the Netherlands as well as the US for an undetermined period.

leaders plan to express strong support for a recently formed coalition of opposition groups, but stop short of calling on member states to offer diplomatic recognition. While Bogdanov’s statement seemed to signal an attempt to begin positioning itself for Assad’s eventual defeat, the foreign ministry’s backtracking on that clearly indicated Russia has no intention yet to end backing for its ally. Bogdanov’s comments were quoted verbatim by state-owned Russian news agencies RIA Novosti and ITAR-Tass, and also by Interfax. Facing questions about Bogdanov’s statement during a brieﬁng, Lukashevich insisted that there has been no shift in the Russian position on Syria. He said Moscow is continuing to call for a political dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition on the basis of the agreement reached at an international conference in Geneva in June.

Saturday, December 15, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

Business Shares slip on fiscal cliff impasse

Germany rebuffs EU call for further risk-sharing

GLOBAL shares edged lower yesterday as investors fretted about a lack of progress in Washington to resolve the U.S. fiscal crisis and signs of deepening recession in the eurozone. The dollar fell against the euro and yen after US data pointed to muted inflation pressures, boosting expectations the Federal Reserve will stay on its ultra-easy monetary policy path. President Barack Obama and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner held a “frank” meeting Thursday to try to break an impasse in negotiations over the “fiscal cliff” -- tax hikes and spending cuts set to kick in early in 2013 that could tip the economy back into recession. While a deal is expected to be reached eventually, a drawn-out debate can erode confidence. Frustration has mounted over the lack of progress, reflected in a 0.6 percent drop in the S&P 500 on Thursday. “The uncertainty that (the fiscal talks) is creating is basically holding the markets hostage in the short term,” said Andres Garcia-Amaya, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds, in New York. Global stocks fell 0.1 per cent to 336.55 points. European shares shed 0.2 per cent to 1133.08 points. “The bad news is, in large part, we’ve seen the market ignore relatively good news in the economic data stream as we focus on the fiscal cliff,” said Art Hogan, managing director of Lazard Capital Markets in New York. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 8.44 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 13,162.28. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 3.90 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 1,415.55. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 15.14 points, or 0.51 per cent, to 2,977.02.

Merkel also resists push for looser EU budget rules

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. Buying Selling Pound St

0.8159 0.8077

US Dollar

1.3156 1.3026

Australian $

1.2570 1.2260

Canadian Dol.

1.3040 1.2718

Swiss Fr

1.2161 1.2015

Denmark Kr

7.5541 7.3675 110.4890 109.1710

Norwegian Kr

7.4508 7.2668

Polish Zloty

4.1507

4.0483

Romanian Leu 4.5696 4.3904 Russian Ruble 40.7055 39.7005 Swedish Kr

GERMANY rebuffed calls for more financial risk-sharing in the eurozone yesterday, rejecting a proposal for a fund to help debt-laden countries cope with economic shocks and leaving open who would pay to wind down stricken banks. With an eye on a general election next year, Chancellor Angela Merkel made EU officials drop any mention of a shock-absorber fund, backed by France and southern European states, from the conclusions of a two-day European Union summit. She also resisted efforts by French President Francois Hollande and Italy to loosen EU budget discipline rules by exempting public investment when calculating national deficits. The European Central Bank also rejected any let-out clauses from fiscal consolidation. “Differentiating between good and bad deficits makes no sense,” ECB executive board member Joerg Asmussen said. “Each deficit has to be refinanced on the capital markets. One should not touch the rules of the (EU) Stability Pact.” Amid optimism from many leaders that the eurozone has turned the corner by agreeing on a single banking supervisor and fresh support for Greece, Merkel warned that the bloc faced a long, hard slog to

German Chancellor Angela Merkel made EU officials drop any mention of a shock-absorber fund clean up public finances and revive growth. “One reason I am careful with my forecasts is the adjustment process, the changes that we are going through are very difficult and painful,” she said. European Council President Herman Van Rompuy told a news conference that the issue of how to finance a Single Resolution Mechanism for banks until levies on financial institutions provided sufficient money would have be decided later. However, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the bloc’s ESM rescue

fund would be able to inject capital directly into troubled banks in countries under an assistance programme, without it weighing on national debt, from mid-2013. Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said direct ESM recapitalisation for Greek banks could reduce Greek debt by 50 billion euros, but Germany and its north European allies have so far rejected any assumption of so-called “legacy assets”. After more than eight hours of late-night talks, leaders promised to push ahead with setting up a mechanism to resolve problem banks and

launched talks on how to make countries stick to economic targets with the help of a small common fund. Merkel made clear she had agreed only to a carrot-andstick “solidarity fund” to reward states that carry out major economic reforms. “We are talking about support linked to improvements in competitiveness.” she said. “We are talking about a very limited budget. Not three digit billions, rather 10 or 15 or 20 billion euros.” Hollande played down the setback to his hopes for a more ambitious fund, saying: “Frankly, if we manage to pull

together 10, 15, 20 billion euros quickly for the solidarity mechanism, I will take them ... and we’ll see what happens afterwards.” With ofﬁcials concerned about complacency creeping into decision-making now that ﬁnancial markets have calmed and the crisis seems less acute, leaders appeared intent on showing that they are not relaxing. But the German election next September and French reluctance to consider EU treaty changes before European Parliament elections in 2014 mean bolder steps in integration have been deferred until much later.

Fitch sticks by France triple-A rating UBS facing huge Libor fine

Rates

Japan Yen

By Noah Barkin and Paul Taylor

8.8319 8.6139

FITCH Ratings stuck by its triple-A rating on France in a much-awaited review yesterday, but predicted a peak in debt in 2014 at a level that it said was the maximum for a country with a top-notch credit grade. Fitch is the only agency to retain an AAA rating on the eurozone’s second-largest economy. It kept to its negative outlook, saying that indicated a slightly greater than 50 per cent chance of a downgrade in future. The ratings agency forecast growth of only 0.3 per cent in 2013, well below the 0.8 per cent the 2013 budget is built on, and believes the government will not be able to narrow the public deficit as by much as it hopes. Fitch managing director David Riley told Reuters the deficit was likely to come in at 3.6 per cent of national output, more than the 3 per cent targeted by President Francois Hollande’s government. “The combination of weaker growth and slightly larger deficits compared to the government forecasts mean that we expect government debt to peak at 94 per cent (of GDP) in 2014 and gradually decline thereafter,” Riley said. The French government forecasts debt peaking in 2013 at 91.3 per cent of GDP and dipping in 2014 to 90.5 per cent. “The key fiscal trigger for a rating action is not the precise ‘point’ forecast but rather confidence that government debt to GDP ratio will indeed be on a firm downward

path from 2014,” he added. Many economists expect growth to be far weaker than the government says and that it will be necessary to cut spending further or raise more tax income to meet deficit targets. Hollande hit back at a news conference after an EU summit in Brussels, saying he saw an economic recovery emerging in 2013. “France does not determine its economic policy according to credit ratings agencies, it does it according to what is right for France,” Hollande said. He noted that the interest rates investors demand to hold French debt, a gauge of market confidence, were near historic lows in recent months. Fitch raised its forecast for the country’s debt in 2014 to 94 per cent of GDP from an earlier 92 per cent - higher than any other top-rated sovereign except the United States and Britain. “This is at the limit of the level of indebtedness consistent with France retaining its ‘AAA’ status assuming the government debt is firmly placed on a sustainable downward path from 2014,” Fitch said in a statement. Last month, Moody’s cut France by one notch from AAA to Aa1 - causing only muted investor reaction - following a similar downgrade by Standard & Poor’s in January. Despite those cuts, Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said that ratings agencies ultimately had faith in France.

SWISS bank UBS is poised to be hit with a $1-billion (£620 million) fine to settle allegations it rigged Libor, as early as Monday. The Zurich-based bank, which has around 6,500 staff in London, is in last-minute negotiations with authorities around the world, the Financial Times said. A $1-billion fine would more than double the $450 million (£290 million) paid by Barclays for its Libor settlement over the summer. The fine would cap a turbulent year for UBS, which saw rogue trader Kweku Adoboli jailed and it suffer a £233-million loss on the botched Facebook stock market flotation. The circumstances led to the bank’s decision to shrink its investment banking arm, which will include the loss of 10,000 roles worldwide. The bank plans to reduce its headcount from 64,000 to 54,000 by 2015, with some 75 per cent of the losses made outside Switzerland. The Financial Services Authority (FSA), US Department of Justice, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Finma, UBS’ main Swiss supervisor, are understood to be the authorities drawing up the settlement with the bank. Libor is the umbrella term for benchmark rates that underpin the terms of $500 trillion of contracts from mortgages to the cost of corporate lending. The probe, which has embroiled about 20 financial institutions, has accelerated with the first arrests by the Serious Fraud Office taking place this week in the UK. Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland has previously said it hopes to settle any claims over Libor manipulation soon and warned that potential penalties could be significant.

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 15, 2012

Opinion

State playing a risky game with the savings of employees THE GOVERNMENT is now suffering the consequences of the inexcusable stalling tactics it had employed with regard to the bailout. It allowed August and September to pass without engaging in any meaningful exchange with the troika, in October it put together incomplete counter-proposals and it spent most of November negotiating with the troika over the final package, which President Christofias only agreed to when the danger of a banking collapse was on the cards. The soonest the memorandum of understanding can be approved by the Euro Group is towards the end of January and it will then have to go through national parliaments. This means that the earliest the government would receive the loan is February which poses a serious problem – where will it find the money to pay public sector salaries in December, which includes the 13th, and January? As it cannot borrow money from anywhere it has decided to force semi-governmental organisations to lend it funds from their employees’ pension funds, but this does not look like it will be a straightforward affair. Fifty per cent of CyTA employees called a strike in protest against the board’s decision to give the government a three-month, €100 million loan from the staff’s pension fund. The Ports Authority will give €38 million with a view to adding another €12 million. The EAC unions were due to discuss the government request for €100 million from the staff pension fund yesterday, but put off the decision until after Monday’s House Finance committee meeting. We do not know what position the political parties will take on Monday, but one thing is clear – the government is playing a very risky game, taking the savings of employees. What will happen if the memorandum is not approved by March, when the government is supposed to return the funds? Worse still, what if the Euro Group decided a 30 per cent haircut on the Cyprus government debt to make it viable? There are too many dangers involved for the unions to be happy with this arrangement. The government has only one option. It should postpone paying the 13th salaries of public sector employees until March or April, when, hopefully, it will have received the bailout loan. We are sure public employees would agree to this arrangement, rather than put at risk the savings of their colleagues at semi-governmental organisations. And they have a duty to help out the government, which had done all it could in negotiations with the troika to save the 13th salaries. In retrospect the government would have been better off if it had agreed to the troika’s proposal for suspension of payment of the 13th salaries in 2012, especially as it knew it had no money.

Want to send a letter? Send letters to the Cyprus Mail by email, fax or post. They should include a full postal address (email address is not sufﬁcient), daytime phone number and reference to any relevant article. Names and addresses may be withheld from publication if circumstances warrant. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Correspondence will be published at the discretion of the editor.

Falling birth rate is not such a bad thing M

ANY YEARS ago, when I was young and handsome, a friend inveigled me into taking a small role in a film he was making – a proper film, with a real budget and a commercial release, though mercifully it never got much attention. It was a Cold War spoof called “The Last Straw” in which the Soviets were plotting to bring the West to its knees by causing the sperm count in Western males to collapse, and I got the Dr Strangelove role. This friend – let’s call him Giles Walker, because that was his name – picked me for the role because at the time I was known for making weighty prognostications on the strategic balance and matters pertaining thereto. (You have to make a living.) So I played myself, briefing the leaders of the Free World on the appalling strategic consequences if the Soviet plot succeeded. You cannot even find this film on YouTube now, I’m pleased to report. However, it did give me a head-start in considering the appalling consequences of a drastic fall in the sperm count of Western men. This comes in handy at the moment, since that is now actually happening. In the fifteen years between 1989 and 2005, according to a study just published in the journal Human Reproduction, the sperm count of French men fell by one third. More than 26,000 men were tested in the study, and the number of millions of spermatozoa per millilitre of their semen was falling by almost 2 percent a year. If that rate of decline has been maintained since the study ended, the count will be down another 13 percent by now. Now, admittedly, counting sperm is tricky. You can fit a hundred million of the little buggers into a teaspoon, they all look alike, and they keep wriggling around. But these results being taken very seriously because they don’t have the usual defects of this sort of study. Most studies on sperm counts

Comment Gwynne Dyer use data from men who donate sperm for artiﬁcial insemination centres (who are chosen for their high fertility), and/or from couples who are having trouble conceiving (which may be due to an abnormally low sperm count in the male partner). In neither case is it a genuinely representative sample. The virtue of the French study is that the country has the Fivnat database, a record of some 440,000 cases of infertility problems at 126 government-funded “assisted fertilisation centres” from the 1980s onwards. The researchers chose only the 26,200 cases where the problem had proved to be complete sterility in the female partner – which presumably meant that their male partners were a random sample of the population. Treatment for infertility is free in France, so there should be no income bias in the data either. For those reasons it is probably the most reliable survey of changing sperm counts over time that has ever been done – and it documents a steep fall in a relatively short time. The numbers are quite impressive: from 73.6 million sperm per millilitre in 1989 to only 49.9 million per millilitre in 2005. If the rate of decline has stayed the same since 2005, the number now would be around 43 million. Doctors generally regard 15 million as the number below which there will be serious problems with fertility, so there’s another 40 years or so before the problem gets really serious. But still... There are really three questions here. One, is the same thing happening elsewhere? Two, what’s causing it? And three, how much does it matter? Most other scientiﬁc studies in developed countries in the past

Immortalised in Woody Allen’s ‘Everything you always wanted to know about sex...’ but not entirely a laughing matter, sperm counts are on the decline according to a new study twenty years have also found falling sperm counts, though none of them matched the French one in scale and precision. There is no comparable research on the trend in developing countries, but it is at least plausible that this may be a global phenomenon. That mostly depends, of course, on what’s causing it. If it’s environmental factors, are they the same in rich countries and poor ones? A common theory lays the blame on chemicals in the environment like Bisphenol A, found in some plastics, that disrupt endocrine function and change hormonal balances. Another theory blames smoking, drinking alcohol, and high-fat diets. These factors vary from one country to another, and more research is clearly needed. But let us suppose that the trend is continuing, and that sperm counts are also declining in developing countries. Should you lie awake at night worrying that this is a threat to human

survival? Deﬁnitely not. If you’re really worried about keeping human numbers up, then you should be doing something quite different at night. And afterwards, you might lull yourself to sleep pondering whether it would really be such a bad thing if the birth rate dropped for a while. If this decline in sperm counts is caused by environmental factors, then it can almost certainly be reversed eventually by doing enough research and then eliminating those factors. In the meantime, however, we are passing through the astounding total of seven billion humans beings, on our way to nine or ten billion. That’s far too many for this ﬁnite planet, and a rapid decline in the birth rate, even to below replacement level, would be a Good Thing. Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries

Why charities need to watch their methods... I’M ADDRESSING an envelope to President Assad: a photo of a Christmas Robin inside. It’s the annual Amnesty International lunch: as always it is making me feel better to be doing something rather nothing. There’s conversation around the table about the ethics of whether we should be including the Pussy Riot punk girl band, not because they are not in need of Amnesty’s help, but because their protest in a church was insensitive to the feelings of others. Nothing is ever simple. Christmas is the time for giving, yet charities are facing a crisis. UK statistics note a roughly 20 per cent fall in donations. Is it austerity or something else? We’ve cancelled two of our direct debits in the last month, although we still support the aims of our charities, we’re fed up with their cold calling for more

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

money and passing our info to third parties. Apart from being pounced on by people with clipboards, one particularly nasty wheeze is having plastic bags for old clothes pushed through the letter box to be ﬁlled and collected later. According to charitybags. org the businesses operating these bags might make a donation to reputable charities of around 50 Euros a tonne, but most sell on the remainder of the clothes, at proﬁt, to Eastern European coun-

tries for up to 1000 Euros. One man’s charity another’s proﬁt, far better to recycle unwanted clothes directly to a charity shop you trust. Or maybe, as I am doing this year, sell on Ebay and make a donation. For fundraising has become a big, and not always ethical, business. At our local museum, I pick up a pack of expensive Charity Christmas cards, blue tits in the snow, in aid of The Wildlife Trusts. In small letters on the plastic packing it states that only a paltry ten per cent of the cost is donated to the charity. This is the lowest base amount advised by the Charities Advisory Trust: I can’t help but feel it doesn’t seem in the spirit of the Santa. I’d always assumed that most of the money spent on charity cards went to the charity. Not so. Growing cynicism towards

the charity sector is sad, but inevitable, if charities continue to adopt aggressive sales techniques to raise funds. It’s why CARE International’s initiative ‘Lendforcare’: part of the growing wave of microﬁnance schemes is good. Power in the giver’s hands: buy a voucher and choose a venture idea from someone in poverty to invest in. They are able to use the money to build a small business, support themselves and their family and they pay you back. Apart from the adage it is better to give someone the dignity to help themselves, rather than just a handout, I like the transparency that every single penny goes to the recipient of the loan and is repaid to be reinvested again to help someone else. In tough times, charities need to care about their givers too...

Saturday, December 15, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

Showbiz

Homeland leads favourites in Golden Globes TV race

Lincoln leads movie nominations By Jill Serjeant

Snubs include Mad Men, Game of Thrones By Piya Sinha-Roy CABLE shows got more Golden Globe nominations for television than traditional network programs on Thursday as HBO’s political movie Game Change and Showtime’s psychological thriller series Homeland, - one of last year’s big winners - led the race. Homeland led the TV drama category with four nominations including best drama, best actor for Damian Lewis and best actress for Claire Danes in her role as a bi-polar CIA agent tracking down a home-grown Muslim extremist. The show faces stiff competition from British aristocratic drama Downton Abbey, which also won an acting nod for Michelle Dockery, along with Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, and newcomer The Newsroom. “Homeland fans seemed to be a little more split on whether creatively the second season was as successful as the ﬁrst season so it’ll be curious if that ends up impacting the show’s chances in terms of taking home the awards,” James Hibberd, senior staff writer at Entertainment Weekly, told Reuters. Downtown Abbey creator Julian Fellowes told Reuters: “We’re up against the big boys now, but the whole thing is very ﬂattering and exciting.” He added: “The themes of the show are pretty inter-

Claire Danes plays a bi-polar CIA agent tracking down a home-grown Muslim extremist in US President Barack Obama’s favourite television show national, they’re about adjusting to change and being caught out by what life does to you...all of that is common to every country.” HBO movie Game Change, about the surprise selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential campaign, landed ﬁve nods in the miniseries/movie category, including for actors Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson. “Game Change is pure awards bait. It’s a welldone, smart political drama based on a book, with a certain amount of left-wing political slant and it’s very much the type of movie you’d expect awards voters to like,” Hibberd said. New HBO drama The Newsroom bumped long-time awards favorite Mad Men from the best drama category, surprising many who believed the stylish advertising series was a shoo-in. “The Globes tend to like

Game Change got ﬁve nods in the mini-series category the glamorous and sophisticated dramas with big city settings and they tend to shy away from gritty, rural Americana dramas...about sweaty guys with guns instead of charming men in suits, like The Newsroom and Boardwalk Empire,” Hibberd said. He noted that the only ex-

ception was Breaking Bad, which ﬁnally made the best drama category this year after four seasons on air. Other notable snubs included HBO’s epic fantasy drama Game of Thrones, which failed to pick up any nominations, and Ryan Murphy’s miniseries American Horror Story: Asylum which landed one best actress nod for Jessica Lange, who took home the award for 2012. While last year’s Golden Globes picked newcomers over staple awards favorites for leading nominees, this year’s comedy categories saw the return of many old faces, including Modern Family, which led the comedy race with three nods. Comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who will be hosting the awards ceremony on January 13, each landed a best comedy actress nod in the television race for their long-popular NBC comedies - Fey for 30

Rock and Poehler for Parks and Recreation. “You can be sure that the hosts are going to have fun with this during the telecast, they’re going to ﬁnd ways to play off this during their presentation,” Hibberd said. Fey and Poehler will replace Ricky Gervais at the awards gala dinner, after the British comedian helmed the Globes with his risqué dry humour for three years. HBO’s raunchy new comedy Girls earned two key nominations in the best TV comedy category and best comedy actress for Lena Dunham, while Showtime’s new satire House of Lies landed the show’s lead Don Cheadle a best actor nod. With the exception of NBC’s musical comedy Smash in the best comedy series category, no new network comedies managed to break into key races, which Hibberd attributed to a “disappointing” fall season.

Adele’s ‘21’ is top-selling US iTunes album of 2012 By Piya Sinha-Roy

21, released in February 2011, has performed strongly following the singer’s Grammy-sweeping win in six categories in February 2012

SINGER Adele notched another accolade yesterday as iTunes announced that her Grammy-winning album 21 was the top-selling record of 2012 in its US store, extending the disc’s successful run almost two years after it was released. Adele, 24, who last year became the first artist to secure three iTunes milestones with top-selling album, single and artist of the year, came in ahead of country-pop star Taylor Swift’s Red and British folk band Mumford & Sons’ Babel. ITunes did not reveal its sales or download figures. British boy band One Direction’s debut album Up All Night and current Grammy nominees fun.’s debut Some Nights rounded out the five top-selling albums on iTunes in the United States. 21, released in February 2011, has performed strongly in the US music charts this year following the singer’s Grammy-sweeping win in six categories in February 2012. Adele also landed Screen Actors Guild and

Golden Globe nominations for her sultry James Bond theme song ‘Skyfall’ this week, becoming a strong contender in the best song category for Hollywood’s awards season. “Thank you so much for the honour of being included in something as brilliant as the Golden Globes! Never in a million years did I ever think I’d come close to such a thing! Truly wonderful ... thank you to the Bond family for giving me the opportunity,” the singer said in a statement on Thursday. ITunes U.S. compiled their Best of 2012 list by looking at the most downloaded items from the Apple iTunes store. Canadian pop star Carly Rae Jepsen had the top-selling track for her infectious breakthrough summer single ‘Call Me Maybe.’ Post-apocalyptic action ﬁlm The Hunger Games was the best-selling movie while the second season of British aristocratic period drama Downton Abbey, another Hollywood awards favourite, was iTunes’ top-selling television series. The iTunes Best of 2012 lists can be seen at www.itunes.com/AppStoreBestof2012

LINCOLN, the tale of US President Abraham Lincoln’s battle to end slavery, ruled at the Golden Globe nominations, while a very different movie take on slavery - Django Unchained - got a big boost in Hollywood’s crowded awards season. Steven Spielberg’s portrayal of one of America’s most revered presidents won a leading seven nominations, including best drama, best director, best screenplay and best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role. But Lincoln faces stiff competition at the Golden Globes from Ben Afﬂeck’s Iran hostage drama Argo and Quentin Tarantino’s dark and quirky slavery-era Western, Django Unchained. The best drama nominees were rounded out by thriller Zero Dark Thirty about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, with four mentions, and the shipwreck tale, Life of Pi, with three. The Golden Globe Awards, which will be given out by about 80 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) on January 13, are among the most widely watched honours programmes leading up to the Oscars in February, although their ultimate choices for best movie rarely coincide.

OSCAR FRONTRUNNER Lincoln is already regarded as an Oscar frontrunner after picking up multiple accolades from US critics’ groups and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). Producer Kathleen Kennedy said the film’s portrayal of Lincoln’s battles in Congress to get slavery abolished had struck a chord with Americans at a time of political gridlock in Washington. Tarantino’s violent and sometimes comic Django Unchained, starring Jamie Foxx, has fared less well until now. “This was a huge boost. Django Unchained was very much SAG snubbed. But now they are really back in the game,” Thelma Adams, contributing editor at Yahoo! Movies, told Reuters. Unlike the Academy Awards, the HFPA has separate categories for film dramas and comedies. Les Miserables, the movie version of the worldwide hit stage musical, earned four Golden Globe nominations in the comedy/musical category, as did Silver Linings Playbook, about an unlikely romance between a man suffering from bipolar disorder and a young widow. The stars of both films Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway for Les Miserables, and Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper for Silver Linings Playbook, - will be among those competing for acting awards.

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 15, 2012

Tech

Google rescues iPhone users with new Maps app launch Amazon charged $9.99 per book when it launched its Kindle e-reader

Amazon wins fight of e-book pricing EUROPEAN Union regulators ended an antitrust probe into e-book prices on Thursday, accepting an offer by Apple and four publishers to ease pricing restrictions on Amazon and other retailers. The decision hands online retailer Amazon a victory in its attempt to sell e-books cheaper than rivals in a fastgrowing market publishers hope will boost revenue and customer numbers. Reuters first reported in November that the Commission was accepting the settlement offer. The European Commission said on Thursday the concessions from Apple and the publishers soothed concerns that their pricing deals curbed competition. “The commitments proposed by Apple and the four publishers will restore normal competitive conditions in this new and fast-moving market, to the benefit of the buyers and readers of e-books,” EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said. Apple and the publishers offered to let retailers set prices or discounts for a period of two years, and also to suspend “most-favoured nation” contracts for five years. Such clauses bar publishers Simon & Schuster, News Corp. unit HarperCollins, Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Livre and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, the owner of German company Macmillan, from making deals with rival retailers to sell e-books more cheaply than Apple. The agreements, which critics say prevent Amazon and other retailers from undercutting Apple’s charges, led to the EU antitrust investigation in December last year. UBS analysts estimate ebooks account for about 30 per cent of the US book market and 20 per cent of sales in Britain but are minuscule elsewhere. Amazon charged $9.99 per book when it launched its Kindle e-reader. Apple’s agency model let publishers set prices in return for a 30 percent cut to the maker of iPhone and iPad.

2.5 months of confusion for iPhone users come to an end By Oscar Williams-Grut IPHONE users can at last find their way after Google Wednesday night launched its Maps app for the Apple phone. The launch of the downloadable app comes after two-and-a-half months of confusion for iPhone users who have had to make do with Apple’s inferior and often plain wrong mapping service. Computing giant Apple replaced Google as the default navigation system for its smartphone in September when it launched its new iOS 6 operating system. But users soon spotted serious errors with the app. In London alone it located Paddington station two miles to the east, airbrushed Queen Park Rangers’ Loftus Road football ground out of existence, buried south London suburb Crofton Park in the middle of nearby Brockley Cemetry and misspelt Shepherds Bush as Shepards Bush among other mistakes. More generally, while Apple Maps offered soaring ‘flyover’ views of major cities, it had no public transit directions, limited traffic information and obvious mistakes such as putting one city in

Many of the better features included in Apple Maps, such as turn-by-turn navigation, are now available in Google Maps the middle of the ocean. This week Australian authorities also warned that Apple Maps could even be life-threatening after a man looking for the town of Mildura was wrongly directed into the outback and stranded for 24 hours in temperatures of up to 46C. Apple’s misstep forced CEO Tim Cook to issue a rare and humiliating public apology, recommending iPhone owners use rival mapping services from competitors Micro-

soft, Google or Nokia. Soon afterwards Cook ﬁred iOS 6 software chief Scott Forstall and has reportedly ﬁred Richard Williamson, the man in charge of Apple Maps. Despite Apple users’ annoyance with the wayward app, the debacle has a silver lining for iPhone users. Many of the better features included in Apple Maps, such as turn-by-turn navigation and three dimensional views, are now available in

An app to beat the holiday rush CROWDED airports and delayed flights are unavoidable hallmarks of holiday travel, but a new app aims to make the experience more navigable. TravelNerd is designed to alleviate the stumbling blocks that can arise during air travel, such as finding amenities, or figuring out the most costeffective form of transportation to and from the airport. “We try to encompass the entire airport experience,” said Alice Jao, vice president of travel media for San-Francisco-based company NerdWallet, which developed the app. During the holiday rush, transportation to and from the airport and finding parking can be a hassle and expensive. “You can spend a fair amount of money unconsciously paying for parking or transportation when you’re not aware of what other lower cost options you might have,” Jao explained. To help consumers find the

The app eases the stumbling blocks of travelling most suitable option, the app provides a run-down of ground transportation options available, including shuttles, taxis and public transit, along with their estimated cost and travel time to destination points within a city. “If you’re not in a rush and you’re going for a vacation you might just want the cheapest option,” Jao added.

The app also allows users to book shuttles and taxis online where possible. For drivers, there is a detailed list of parking venues nearby along with price, contact information and other details such as whether the lot is open 24-hours and has valet service. “There are lots of parking lots available, especially ones away from the airport that are a lot cheaper and just a mile or two from the airport,” Jao said. During the holiday season it is important to be well-prepared when traveling with children. The app can help families ﬁnd nurseries, childfriendly restaurants and kidplay areas. And for users looking for a last-minute gift there is a list of shops at the terminal. More than 50 major airports around the globe are included in the app, which is available worldwide in English for iPhone and iPad. The company also plans to release an Android app.

Google Maps. Google had included these services on its own Android phones and its reluctance to feature them on the iPhone is thought to be one of the reasons for Apple’s original decision to ditch the search giant. The new Google app, which is a complete redesign of the service, also features integration with users Google+ accounts, trafﬁc news, public transport information, street view, business information and maps history.

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

The Chernobyl disaster took place in April of 1986

Chernobyl’s final shut down On December 15, 2000, the Chernobyl nuclear plant was ceremoniously permanently shut down in Ukraine - over 14 years after one of its reactors exploded in the world’s worst civil nuclear catastrophe on April 26, 1986. The last working reactor, Number Three, had in fact been shut down the previous week because of technical problems. It was restarted, though not attached to the national grid and at minimum power output, so the world would see it symbolically switched off.

CYPRUS MAIL Saturd

Lifestyle TECH.I.AM He’s back on The Voice and his single reached Number 1 in the UK but his heart is in hardware and he’s teaching kids about tech. Will.i.am tells Jasmine Gardner why he’s become a Black Eyed geek

Role reversal: Jasmine Gardner ﬁnds herself in front of Will Tech leader Will.i.Am

OMETHING about this interview is back to front. In a role reversal, I have found myself in the spotlight, while Will.i.am, the Black Eyed Peas frontman and The Voice judge, takes a photo of me. Will’s idea is for the photographer to get a picture of the back of his head as he takes the shot. “This picture is going to go around the world,” says the LA-born hip hop artist positioning himself in the dining room doorway of a suite at the Metropolitan hotel on Park Lane. “People will know it’s me from the shape of my hair,” he says. Suddenly I’m wondering whether I am about to get a big celebrity endorsement. Just one week before the 37year-old, (born William James Adams) begins ﬁlming the second series of The Voice in Manchester, he is in London. Will is launching his awkwardly named i.am+™foto.sosho™ in Selfridges. It’s a case for your iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S (the iPhone5 version is out next year) that turns your phone into a stylish and better quality camera. It has taken Will a while to warm up and focus. “I was sick last night and jetlagged, which was a bad combination,” he explains. One of his assistants has admitted he has a hangover and Will has to duck out to the bathroom mid interview because he’s not feeling well. Now, however, he is excited playing with his new

toy and showing his little boy smile, which regrettably tends to get switched off when it’s him in front of the camera. It was an impromptu photoop not unlike this one that ﬁrst inspired Will to embark on his latest project - the camera he has pointed at me. “Adriana Lima [the Brazilian model] had a photo that went all over

This may sound like an odd decision for a musician but Will’s focus at the moment is on technology Instagram,” Will explains. He had been at the photoshoot, but instead of the professional photos it was Lima’s own picture that everyone saw. So, thought Will: “Let’s do cameras.” This may sound like an odd decision for a musician but Will’s focus at the moment is on technology. Not only is he addicted to Twitter (as well as immediately Tweeting from our photoshoot he was criti-

urcised for Tweeting on air durrying The Voice and while carryhe ing the Olympic torch in the summer), but he has a role as va“director of creative innovation” at Intel, had one of his songs broadcast from Mars by ver Nasa’s Curiosity space rover e’s and is an investor in Dr Dre’s es. Beats Audio headphones. g “Meeting Shawn Fanning [co-founder of Napster] in 2000 really changed my whole perspective on technology and that’s what got me here,” explains Will. “From then I’ve been fascinated by these young folk who create disruptive plat-forms by saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if...’” ras Will is starting with cameras mbecause, “I’m in front of camont eras more than I am in front sic of my computer making music tuand there is a better opportung nity to disrupt by rethinking cameras,” he says. And altly though he is vague on exactly rowhat product he plans to pronts duce next, it’s clear he wants nes to invest in tablets, phones ng and dominate video and song making equipment - ﬁrst by ips “using Apple devices as chips onfor our products”. He is so conﬁdent that he is investing his s. I own money in his projects. discover this is a habit for Will when he later admits that for nd his current single, Scream and Shout, with Britney Spears, “I paid for the video myself”. ant “The UK was like, ‘We want something now, hurry up it’s ca, hot. It used to be America,

but right now the UK leads the world... The American [re [record] company was hesitan because This is Love tant [h last single] didn’t really [his w work in America.” “I don’t do OPM,” he says, m meaning other people’s m money. “It takes too long. T These ideas that I’ve had, iif I’m thinking them then somebody else is about to do it. Right now you have got to go fast on things.” So he’s building hardware. “I don’t want to write songs for other people’s hardware any more. I’m going to develop my own hardware and then write songs fo for my hardware.” It It’s to Napster that he attrib tributes this way of thinking. “Up until [Napster] we thou thought we were selling music. We were never selling music. We w were selling CD players, we wer were selling microphones...” he goe goes on with a long list of hardwar ware, right back to pianos. “Gr “Greed of selling CDs kept the mus music industry from being new bec because [Napster] disrupted the way they sold music.” Indee deed, Napster’s inﬂuence and the prevalence of ﬁle-sharing upe upended the music industry, whe where 13 years later music sale sales are still in decline. “It was the music industry’s fault for not evolving. Napster was the zeitgeist letting you know wha what time it was.” In 2000 Will bumped into

ay, December 15, 2012

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Crossword CLUBHOUSE

Sport

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Will i.am will be back for a second series of popular UK TV show The Voice

a bright child he managed to get into a science programme that allowed him to go to a better school out of town. “I wanted to be a scientist in elementary school because that’s what I enjoyed in school,” but in the end, he says: “Music was magnetic. You can’t fight attraction.” Share air with Will.i.am and you notice this as his eyes dart in the direction of any stray noises while you talk to him. “I hear walking and stepping as songs.” He sings the note of a chair being dragged along the floor and starts up a beat to demonstrate. “It’s kind of irritating for people who are trying to have conversations with you and you’re going, ‘Wow, that would be a frigging good song dude.’” Yet now Will’s technology projects are taking, “Hopefully 100 per cent of my time,” he says, which I immediately assume will be a blow for fans of his music. “I wish I could take you downstairs to see my hard drive so you can see how many songs I just have sitting there.” And if he does run out, “You can make a song in two minutes.” I can’t help but notice that his tech talk revolves heavily around Apple products, with his first product - the camera – relying completely on owning an iPhone. “Apple is for musicians. In the music land, that little chart thing they’ve got [the up there iTunes

Shawn Fanning in Hollywood. “At the time everybody was against him, so I thought, ‘I’m going to be his friend.’ That was the dopest decision in my whole frigging life - befriending the person who created the revolution.” The pair have remained in touch and when Fanning and his Napster cofounder Sean Parker launched their video chat service, Airtime, earlier this year, Will’s name was on the list of investors. Yet it’s not just the tech veterans in whom Will invests. This year he donated £500,000 to the UK’s Prince’s Trust to go towards teaching technology skills to disadvantaged children in London. “East London reminded me of East Los Angeles. There’s athletics [from the Olympics] but there’s no tech, so I’m going to take my money from The Voice and try to build tech centres to take these kids up to speed.” He has a foundation which invests in similar programmes in the US. “When you think of science, a kid doesn’t know a company that is connected with science. That’s the reason they don’t want to do it. Google and Facebook and Twitter aren’t synonymous with science or math in school. That’s why I’m so passionate about tech and philanthropy around schools.” But why London? “I came to London, did The

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Festive Events

Chart topper Will

Voice and the country really gave me a nice welcome. They didn’t have to do that,” he explains. “I became a popular little character.” As a result, he signed up for a second series. Although the rumours of him ever doing UK X Factor with Cheryl Cole he says are untrue. “That’s like saying I’m playing for Manchester United and Chelsea. I’m passing to myself... What I like about The Voice is I take pride sitting there doing that. I could be doing something for money somewhere and you know on BBC it isn’t about the money. The fact we’re there doing it is not because we’re getting rich. Really, we had so much fun.” Pickings weren’t always so rich for Will. He grew up with his mum, three blood related siblings and four adopted siblings in the “projects” in LA. As

chart] I don’t hink you understand what it’s done psychologically to our community,” he explains. “That now is the race. Imagine we are Usain Bolt and that track that we race on is called iTunes. The place where you are [in the chart] resembles how you are tracked. People buy your track, which represents your attraction,” he says lyrically. Then, as if he willed it to happen, mid-photoshoot his assistant announces that Scream and Shout, his collaboration with Britney for which he had to front up his own cash, has hit Number 1 in the US iTunes chart. He brims with childish excitement. “Holding this product [the camera] and seeing that success [of the song] it’s like, ‘See I told you’,” he says. “Sometimes you have just got to invest in yourself.”

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Saturday, December 15, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

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 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 1) at 7 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.30pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 1) at 7 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 11.30am and 3.30pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Seven Psychopaths (18) K-Cineplex (Screen 4) at 5.35, 7.50 and 10.20pm, weekends also at 3.25pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 4) at 5.35, 7.50 and 10.20pm, weekends also at 11.15am, 1.20pm and 3.25pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Shadow Dancer (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 6) at 5.35 and 7.50pm, weekends also at 3.30pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Hotel Transylvania (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) (in Greek, in 3D) at 5.35pm, weekends also at 3.30pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 3) (in Greek, in 3D) at 5.35pm, weekends also at 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3.30pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Lawless (15) K-Cineplex (Screen 6) at 10.20pm. Tel: 7777-8383

weekends also at 3.25pm; K-Cineplex (Screen 5) (in English, in 2D) at 5.30, 7.50 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.25pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 2) (in Greek, in 3D) at 5.30pm, weekends also at 11.20am, 1.20pm and 3.25pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 5) (in English, in 2D) at 5.30, 7.50 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 11.20am, 1.20pm and 3.25pm. Tel: 77778383 Killing Them Softly (18) K-Cineplex (Screen 2) at 10.15pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 2) at 10.15pm. Tel: 7777-8383 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) at 7.45 and 10.15pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 3) at 7.45 and 10.15pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Skyfall (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 2) at 7.40pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 2) at 7.40pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Return of Sergeant Lapins (in Latvian, call for details of subtitles) Eirini Hall (Peace Room), Monday at 7.30pm. Tel: 99-434923

Rise of the Guardians ((K) K-Cineplex (Screen 2) (in 5.30p Greek, in 3D) at 5.30pm,

The Rape of Aphrodite (in Greek) Eirini Hall (Peace Room), Monday at 9pm. Tel: 99-434923

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

LIMASSOL The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (12) Rio 2 at 7.45pm, weekends also at 4.30pm; Rio 3 at 10.20pm. Tel: 25-871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 1) at 7 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.30pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Seven Psychopaths (18) Rio 1 at 7.45 and 10pm, weekends also at 3 and 5.15pm. Tel: 25-871410 Shadow Dancer (12) Rio 6 at 7.45pm, weekends also at 5.30pm. Tel: 25-871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 5) at 5.35 and 7.50pm, weekends also at 3.30pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Hotel Transylvania (K) Rio 3 (in Greek, in 3D), weekdays at 5.50pm, weekends at 3.30 and 5.30pm. Tel: 25-871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 3) (in Greek, in 3D) at 5.35pm, weekends also at 3.30pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Lawless (15) Rio 4, weekdays at 10pm, weekends at 10.10pm. Tel: 25871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 5) at 10.20pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Rise of the Guardians (K) Rio 4 (in English, in 2D), weekdays at 7.45pm, weekends at 3, 4.50, 6.35 and 8.20pm; Rio 2 (in Greek, in 3D), weekdays at 5.50pm, weekends at 2.50pm

only. Tel: 25-871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 2) (in Greek, in 3D) at 5.30pm, weekends also at 3.25pm; K-Cineplex (Screen 4) (in English, in 2D) at 5.30, 7.50 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.25pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Killing Them Softly (18) Rio 2 at 10.45pm. Tel: 25871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 2) at 10.15pm. Tel: 7777-8383 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 (12) Rio 5 at 7.45 and 10.05pm, weekends also at 5.30pm. Tel: 25-871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 3) at 7.45 and 10.15pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Taken 2 (12) Rio 6 at 10.10pm. Tel: 25-871410

Exhibition The Beauty of Life A charity art exhibition by Alvard Karapetian. Opens December 15, 7pm until December 17. Hilton Hotel Cyprus

Music Smooth and Swinging Christmas Party Christmas carvery, after dinner live entertainment including Christmas favourites by Andrea Morrelli and Karen Kendall. December 15. Paliomonastiro Taverna, Peyia. 7pm. €25 per person includes four course meal. Tel: 96-818066

Once upon… a Christmas A Christmas themed exhibition that journeys into the past, with narration of traditional Cypriot Christmas fairy tales along with etchings by the artist Hambis. Opens December 15, 11am until January 27. Pandrora’s Box, Leventis Museum of Nicosia, 15-17 Hippocratous St, Laiki Gitonia, Old Nicosia. Tuesday- Sunday: 10am4.30pm. Tel: 22-661475. www. leventismuseum.org.cy

Dance

Nicosia my City - A European City Exhibition by drawings and crafts by children aged 3-6 years old. Opens December 15, 11am until January 27. House of Educational Programmes, Leventis Museum of Nicosia, 15-17 Hippocratous St, Laiki Gitonia, Old Nicosia. Tuesday- Sunday: 10am-4.30pm. Tel: 22-661475. www.leventismuseum.org.cy

Other Events

White Christmas Group exhibition. Opens December 15, 11am until 19 January 2013. Argo Gallery, 64E D. Akrita Avenue, Nicosia. Monday-Friday: 10am-1pm and 5pm-8pm. Saturday: 10am-1pm. Tel: 22-754009. www.argogallery.org

Thirty Eight Thousand Dragons Chorotheatro Omada Pente presents its 23rd production, a co-production with the Theatre Development Company of Limassol (ETHAL), choreographed by Chloe Melidou. December 15. Technohoros ETHAL, 76 Franklin, Roosevelt Avenue, Limassol. 8.30pm. €8/5. Tel: 99-349265

Aida - The Met: Live in HD A screening of a live, New York Metropolitan Opera performance transmitted in high-definition video via satellite. December 15. Rialto Theatre, Limassol. 7.55pm. €20/15. Tel: 77-777745. Online ticket: www.rialto.com.cy Creative Writing Workshop Nese Yasin, poet, writer and journalist, discusses her internationally acclaimed work in relation to the theme of ‘the Other’ in literature and engages the audience in creative writing activities. December 15. Home for Cooperation, Opposite

Ledra Palace, Buffer Zone, Nicosia. 11am-1pm. Free. Tel: 99-314539/ 22-445740 Party in the Parking Live music, items for sale for the home, charismas ornaments, used books, lomo cameras, jams, creative workshop for children and musicians. Also local charity Vagonis Agapis will be collecting donated foodstuffs and supplies to help families in need. December 15. Komninos Street, behind Politis newspaper, old Nicosia. 3pm-9pm WhereHaus 612 Christmas Bazaar The bazaar will include handmade jewellery and handcraft, food, drinks and entertainment. Interactive fairy tale reading, theatre games for children, face painting, music and a theatre performance by Point To theatre workshops. December 15-16. WhereHaus 612, 5 Michael Kousoulide, Pallouriotissa Industrial Area, Nicosia. 2-10pm. Tel: 70-000612 Christmas Art Event A small show, offering drinks and snacks and selling small and large paintings, postcards, hand painted glasses etc. December 15. Centre of Cultural Heritage, 10 Alexander the Great Street, old Nicosia. 9am-2pm. Tel: 96-578996 Faneromeni 2-Day Xmas Fest Christmas time with DJ’s and wine, carols, treats & games to play and more. December 15. Faneromeni Square, old Nicosia. 9pm. December 15. 11am-6pm

at 9.30pm. Tel: 26-207000

Lawless (15) K-Cineplex (Screen 6) at 10.20pm. Tel: 7777-8383

Seven Psychopaths (18) Rio 5 at 5.30, 7.45 and 10pm. Tel: 26-207000

Shadow Dancer (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 6) at 5.35 and 7.50pm, weekends also at 3.30pm. Tel: 7777-8383

Hotel Transylvania (K) Rio 1 (in Greek, in 3D), weekdays only at 5.30pm; Rio 3 (in Greek, in 2D), weekends only at 4 and 5.45pm; Rio 6 (in Greek, in 3D), weekdays at 8.30 and 10.15pm, weekends at 11am, 2.40, 4.30, 6.20, 8.10 and 10pm. Tel: 26-207000

Hotel Transylvania (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) (in Greek, in 3D) at 5.35pm, weekends also at 3.30pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Rise of the Guardians (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 2) (in Greek, in 3D) at 5.30pm, weekends also at 3.25pm; K-Cineplex (Screen 5) (in English, in 2D) at 5.30, 7.50 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.25pm. Tel: 7777-8383

Skyfall (12) Rio 3 at 7.35pm. Tel: 25871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 2) at 7.40pm. Tel: 7777-8383

Killing Them Softly (18) K-Cineplex (Screen 2) at 10.15pm. Tel: 7777-8383

The Raven Rio 5, Monday at 8.30pm, presented by the Limassol Cine Club. www.cinelesxi.org

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) at 7.45 and 10.15pm. Tel: 7777-8383

LARNACA

Skyfall (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 2) at 7.40pm. Tel: 7777-8383

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 1) at 7 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.30pm. Tel: 7777-8383 Seven Psychopaths (18) K-Cineplex (Screen 4) at 5.35, 7.50 and 10.20pm, weekends

PAPHOS The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (12) Rio 1 at 7.30pm, weekends also at 11am and 4pm; Rio 6, weekdays only at 5.30pm; Rio 7

Lawless (15) Rio 2 at 9.45pm. 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 7 (in Greek, in 3D), weekdays at 5.50 and 7.40pm, weekends at 11am, 3.30, 5.30 and 7.30pm. Tel: 26-207000 Killing Them Softly (18) Rio 1 at 10.30pm. Tel: 26-207000 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 (12) Rio 3, weekdays at 7.30 and 9.45pm, weekends at 7.45 and 10pm. Tel: 26-207000 Taken 2 (12) Rio 2 at 7.30pm, weekends also at 5pm. Tel: 26-207000 Skyfall (12) Rio 4 at 7.30 and 10pm. Tel: 26-207000

listings

Rise of the Guardians

Today

also at 3.25pm. Tel: 7777-8383

Moving Silence Two-day event on contemporary silent moving image and experimental sound within the framework of the Fourth X-Dream Festival. December 15. ARTos Cultural and Research Foundation, 64 Ayion Omoloyiton Avenue, Nicosia. 8.30pm. €5. Tel: 22-445455. info@artosfoundation. org. www.artosfoundation.org Winter Day Basketball Tournament Bi-communal youth sports initiative with 3-on-3 street basketball mixed teams. December 15. Poliproponitirio Basketball Courts behind Makario Stadium, Nicosia. 9.30am-1.30pm. Tel: 96-403773/05428581307. e-mail: asouflias@peaceplayersintl. org, omevlit@yahoo.com.

Tomorrow Music Igudesman & Joo: A Little Nightmare Music Violinist Aleksey Igudesman and pianist Hyung-Ki Joo present a unique and hilarious theatrical show, which combine comedy with classical music and popular culture. December 16. Rialto Theatre, Limassol. 8.30pm. €20/15. Tel: 77-777745

Theatre All I Want For Christmas..... A play staged by Antidote Theatre, written and performed by Catherine

Beger. December 16. Larnaca Youth Foundation, near Ayios Lazaros Church. 5pm. In English. €7/5. Tel: 96-216435

Other Events Sixth Stasikratous Street Party Annual Christmas Bazaar includes live music, Christmas carols, a parade by the Limassol cheerleaders, photographs alongside Santa Claus for the children, gifts, snacks and a lot more. December 16. Stasikratous Street, Nicosia. 11am-8pm. Net proceeds will be used to buy and provide necessities to families in need in Cyprus through The Pan Cyprian Volunteerism Coordinative Council: http://www.volunteerism-cc. org.cy. Tel: 99-669039 Exhibition of Vintage Clothes An exhibition with the aim of promoting the reuse of used clothes within the framework of textile recycling and to support the work of Anakyklos Perivallontiki. December 16. The traditional tavern of Yiannis & Elena (Famagusta), Saripolou Square, Limassol (south of Pantopoleio). 4pm-9pm. Tel: 99-722121 Thirty Eight Thousand Dragons Chorotheatro Omada Pente presents its 23rd production, a co-production with the Theatre Development Company of Limassol (ETHAL), choreographed by Chloe Melidou. December 16 & 17. ARTos Cultural and Research Foundation, 64 Ayion Omoloyiton Avenue, Nicosia. 8.30pm. €8/5. Tel: 99-349265/22-445455

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

Monday Exhibition Group Exhibition Fine art exhibition by four graduates of the Applied Arts School of Fine Arts of the University of Thessaloniki. Opens December 17, 7.30pm until January 19. Opus 39 Gallery, 21 Kimonos Street, Nicosia. Monday: 5pm-8pm. Tuesday-Friday: 10.30am-12.30pm and 5pm-8pm. Tel: 22-424983 Angel of Christmas Solo painting exhibition by Andreas Karayian. Opens December 17, until December 22. Apocalypse Gallery, 30 Chytron Street, Nicosia. Monday- Friday: 10.30am-1pm and 5pm-8pm. Saturday: 10.30am-1pm. Tel: 22-766655

Music Al Di Meola & Gonzalo Rubalcaba Two undisputed heroes of jazz unite in an unforgettable concert. December 17. Rialto Theatre, Limassol. 8.30pm. €25/20. Tel: 77-777745

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 15, 2012

19 To have your event included for FREE in our listings, send details to: Arts Editor, Cyprus Mail, PO Box 21144, Nicosia. Fax: 22-676385. Email: whatson@cyprus-mail.com Please send your information as early as possible. Include full details, a contact number and good quality photos

Getting into the Christmas spirit

From left: vegan delicacies from Homemade Goodness, hand-woven creations produced on a traditional loom and (inset) vinyls to be found at WhereHaus 612. Second ast year s Stasikratous Street Party. Fa from right: Limassol cheerleaders at last year’s Far right: Bomba Design will be at Party in the Parking

It’s 10 days ‘till Christmas… not that you need reminding, but if you haven’t got any presents yet, then you need to get your thinking caps on or risk disappointing friends and family. Swap the department stores for the Christmas markets, among a raft of events you’ll find foodie gifts, handcrafted pressies and usually a bit of mulled wine to help you get into that t merry spirit. So for all those last-minute slackers who have yet to purchase their gifts, take a look over the list of events taking place this weekend in the capital and see if it can help ease your burden. Following up from last night’s open air DJs & Wine street party at Faneromeni Square, in old Nicosia, the 2-Day Xmas Fest continues today with a Christmas bazaar featuring traditional artisans creating on the spot, contemporary creations. Artists will be presenting their seasonal inspired work, Christmas ornaments and gift ideas, gingerbread cookies decoration, delicious bites and sweets, choirs, DJs and much much more. Also in old Nicosia, located on Komninos Street, behind Politis newspaper you’ll find a Party in the Parking. There you will find items for the home, Christmas ornaments, jams, second hand books, Christmas cakes, lomo cameras, 2013 calendars, mulled wine, tea, Cypriot sausage, soups and creative workshop for children and musicians, while DJs get you into the festive spirit. This little fair will also have a humanitarian appeal. Local charity Vagonis Agapis will be collecting donated foodstuffs and supplies to help families in need. The charity, whose name translates as Love Wagon in Greek, provides help to poor families in need of food or other essentials in the Nicosia area. In these difficult times that have affected all aspects of society, by remembering and helping others we are letting the Christmas spirit of love and gratitude live on. So, if you have any flour, sugar, baby food

Tomorrow Other Events Recycled fashion Step out tomorrow for a leisurely stroll around Limassol and the some good old-fashioned fun. Anakyklos Perivallontiki is organising a vintage clothing exhibition at the traditional tavern Yiannis & Elena (Famagusta), in Saripolou Square, south of Pantopolion, this weekend. For

an other non-perishable foods, or and w washing powder, razors, towels, soap, etc please bring them along. WhereHaus 612 is also putting together a Christmas Bazaar today and tomorrow. The two-day of f festive-focused activities includes storytelling, theatre games for children, face painting, as well as a music and theatre performance by Po To theatre workshops. Alongside Point th entertainment, t the the bazaar will include rare vinyls and hand-woven creations produced on the traditional Cypriot loom. Homemade Goodness will also be there, so you can stock up on vegan delicacies - anything from Vegan Energy Bars, to vegan peanut butter cookies and almond butter will be served at their stand. Be sure to get there early to sample the freshly baked whole-wheat bread. For the sixth consecutive year the shopkeepers’ association of Stasikratous Street, together with partner and sponsor the Nicosia Municipality, is organising the Madame Figaro Stasikratous Street Party. This year the party will take place on Sunday and promises to keep you happy, entertained and full of yuletide cheer. The programme includes live music, Christmas carols, a parade by the Limassol cheerleaders, gifts, snacks and more. The Rotaract Club Nicosia Aspelia will be hosting their annual Christmas Bazaar at the Street Party. This year their aim is to raise money in order to send baskets with goods to Cypriot families in need. Come down for some mulled wine, nibble on some delicious home-baked sweets and pastries, and homemade sundried tomatoes. There will also be handmade Christmas decorations for sale, face-painting for the little ones and the chance to take photographs alongside Santa Claus in his beautiful antique car. Net proceeds will be used to buy and provide necessities to families in need in Cyprus through The Pancyprian Volunteerism Coorg y dinative Council: http://www.volunteerism-cc.org.cy

those fashion ﬁends out there, this is your chance to explore the abundance of treasures from Anakyklos’ vintage collection and snap up a bargain. If you end up purchasing any wares, not only will you look fashionably dressed, but you’ll also walk away feeling great, knowing that you are supporting the activities of Anakyklos, which include: covering the cost of the textile recycling project; providing free clothes to families in need; offering ﬁnancial contributions to charities; supporting projects for the protection of the environment.

sation, aims The green organisation, bute towards to actively contribute a clean, healthy and sustaint: by presentable environment: ith a practical ing consumers with and eco-friendly option to rid cess cloththemselves of excess ed clothing. Your unwanted ing can be put to good ble use, saving valuable resources, beneﬁting the world, while supporting e. a charitable cause. ing Textile and clothing e old recycling can give d other th ttexclothes, linens, and tiles a second life. This not only

Faneromeni 2-Day Xmas Fest Christmas time with DJs and wine, carols, treats & games to play and more. December 15. Faneromeni Square, old Nicosia. 11am6pm Party in the Parking le for the home, charismas ornaLive music, items for sale ments, used books, lomoo cameras, jams, creative workshop ns. Also local charity Vagonis Agapis for children and musicians. will be collecting donatedd foodstuffs and supplies to help ber 15. Komninos Street, behind families in need. December cosia. 3pm-9pm Politis newspaper, old Nicosia. mas Bazaar WhereHaus 612 Christmas The bazaar will include handmade jewellery and handcraft, food, drinks and entertainment. Interaceatre games for children, tive fairy tale reading, theatre face painting, music andd a theatre performance shops. December by Point To theatre workshops. 15-16. WhereHaus 612,, 5 Michael Kousoulide, Pallouriotissa Industrial Area, Nicosia. 2-10pm. Tel: 70-000612 et Party Sixth Stasikratous Street ar Includes live Annual Christmas Bazaar s, a parade by music, Christmas carols, rs, photothe Limassol cheerleaders, graphs alongside Santa Claus for the nd more. children, gifts, snacks and ous Street, December 16. Stasikratous Nicosia. 11am-8pm. Nett proceeds will be used to buy and provide necessities to families inn need in Cyprus through The Pan Cyprian Volunteerism Coordinative Council: http://www. volunteerism-cc.org.cy. Tel: 99-669039 By Ledha Socratous

reduces the am amount of waste going in into landfills, it also reduces the need for new resources a and makes savings on ener energy. The organisati organisation is a nonprofit compa company, so there’s no profit to be made from thi this exhibition or fro from any other a activity by Anakyklos. T The popular si singer Kristia Mak Makridou will keep vi visitors comith h pany with her beautiful voice and guitar.

Keep in mind though, while most of the clothes are contemporary and passed on to people in need, sold in Anakyklos shop in Old Nicosia or recycled, a few turn out to be vintage gems. Most of them are used and therefore unique. Nonetheless, there are a lot which have never been worn. Exhibition of Vintage Clothes An exhibition with the aim of promoting the reuse of used clothes within the framework of textile recycling and to support the work of Anakyklos Perivallontiki. December 16. The traditional tavern of Yiannis & Elena (Famagusta), Saripolou Square, Limassol (south of Pantopoleio). 4pm-9pm. Tel: 99-722121

For a full listing of the day’s events, see facing page

Saturday, December 15, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

Television CYBC 1 07.15

Oikogeneia Solomou (rpt) Local series with events unfolding in a Cypriot village before and after the Turkish invasion of 1974.

08.00

CYBC 2 07.00 08.00

17.00

Moiraia Fengaria (rpt)

13.00 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

18.40 18.50 19.00 21.00

Vimmata Stin Ammo (rpt)

News Patates Antinahtes Popular local satirical show.

18.45 19.30 20.00 21.30

Ego Ki Esi Local Sketch News Savvato Ki Apovrado Variety show, with wellknown guests pretending to have a good time for the beneﬁt of You At Home.

23.30 23.45

News Repeats

News In English New In Turkish World Swimming Championships Lost

21.45

23.55

07.50 08.20 09.10 10.20 11.10 12.00 12.45

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 Kymata (rpt) Ta Koritsia Tou Baba (rpt) Galileo (rpt) Yia Tin Agapi Sou (rpt) Ekeino Tin Agapi Sou (rpt) Niose Me (rpt)

MEGA 07.40 09.40 10.30 11.20 12.10 13.10 14.00 15.00 18.00 18.20 20.20 21.20 23.10

With News at 18.00.

FILM: The Cat’s Meow Story of the ﬁnal days of Twenties ﬁlm producer Thomas Ince, who died at a party on a media mogul’s yacht. Fact-based drama, starring Kirsten Dunst and Eddie Izzard. 2001.

23.40

06.20 06.50 07.20

14.20

Sixth season. ‘The End’. The drama following the survivors of a plane crash draws to its conclusion with the castaways determined to learn the truth about their lives and the circumstances that brought them to the remote island in the south Paciﬁc on Oceanic Flight 815. Final ever episode.

Two episodes of local period drama, based on true events.

18.00 18.15

FILM: Man Of The House A youngster tries to make life hell for his potential stepfather, but a series of dramas brings the pair closer together. Comedy, starring Chevy Chase and Jonathan Taylor Thomas. 1995.

Paizoume Kypriaka New season of local game show, asking questions having to do with Cypriot dialect.

NRG Zone Kids’ TV Shown till 12.30, then repeated till midafternoon.

Local drama series inspired by Maro Kranidioti’s book.

10.30

ANTENNA

News In English & News In Turkish Repeats

18.30 20.20 21.30 22.20

00.15 00.20 00.30 01.40

News Sports News Vradi Me Ton Petro Kostopoulo Blackout Greek game show.

02.40 03.50 04.40

A deputy sheriff investigates an attempted suicide at a girls’ school, but discovers there is more to the case than meets the eye. Thriller, starring Dominique Swain. With News at 00.00.

Vals Me 12 Theous (rpt) News Me To Dexi (rpt) FILM: Goal! A Mexican’s dream of being a professional footballer comes true when a talent scout offers him the chance to play for Newcastle United. Drama, starring Kuno Becker and Anna Friel. 2005.

Yia Sena (rpt) Kids’ TV Mia Stigmi Dio Zoes Boukia Kai Syhorio (rpt) Kelmmena Oneira (rpt) Chuck Mousiko Kouti (rpt) Dansing For You (rpt) News Epta Thanasimes Petheres (rpt) News Anonymous FILM: New Best Friend

01.00 01.40

06.30 07.30 08.30 10.00 14.00 14.50

Repeats

PLUS TV

Oi Takkoi (rpt) Zoi Podilato (rpt) Kids’ TV Mes Stin Kala Hara Oikogeneiakes Istories (rpt) Aspra Balonia (rpt)

06.50 07.50 12.05 13.00 13.40

16.40

7 Ouranoi kai Synnefa Alites (rpt) Local drama series. With News at 18.00.

18.05

The Cooking Factory New cookery show.

19.00

Pame Paketo (rpt)

14.25

News FILM: Three Wise Women A doctor is visited at Christmas by her guardian angel, who has been sent to stop her from marrying the wrong man. Fantasy, starring Amy Huberman and Fionnula Flanagan. 2010.

23.10 23.50 23.55 00.40 04.00

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (rpt) News The 4400 (rpt) Mes Stin Kali Hara (rpt) Magazino (rpt)

15.15 16.30 17.30 19.00

23.15

Doureios Ippos News Real Housewives Of Athens (rpt)

Fotis - Maria Live Best Of Mesimeriani Meleti Best Of Mila (rpt) FILM: What A Girl Wants An American teenager learns that her father is a wealthy British politician running for ofﬁce. Teenage comedy, starring Colin Firth. 2003.

21.00 22.30

Ta Touvla Exelixeis Stin Showbiz Kostakis Ki Yioi Local comedy series.

23.45 00.40

CAPITAL 07.00 10.55 11.30 15.15 15.30 16.00 16.05

LTV Sports News Repeats

Kids’ TV Kouzina Me Apopsi Telemarketing Mila Mou Prasina Kouzina Me Apopsi (rpt) News FILM: Baby Snatcher A woman tries to keep her ailing marriage alive by passing off a kidnapped child as her own. Factbased thriller, starring Veronica Hamel. 1992. With News 17.30.

One Tree Hill (rpt) Second season. ‘What Could Have Been’. Nathan is released from hospital, only to discover his troubles are just beginning as he returns home to ﬁnd a stack of unpaid bills and an eviction notice waiting for him.

Popular talk-show that deals with human interest stories such as reuniting people, fulﬁlling dreams.

20.15 21.20

Star News (rpt) Kids’ TV LTV Sports News (rpt) Star News Gossip Girl (rpt) Second season. ‘Seder Anything’. Serena comes back from Spain, unaware that Blair and Chuck are working together to dig up any secrets in her new boyfriend Gabriel’s past.

Local drama series.

Mila Mou Vromika (rpt) FILM: Vacancy 2 Three friends check into the Meadow View Motel, unaware the owners plan to murder them on camera and sell the subsequent footage. Horror, starring Agnes Bruckner. 2009.

03.20

SIGMA

18.00 18.55 19.05 19.55 20.05 21.00

Remington Steele News Acapulcu HEAT News Rubi FILM: The Game Of Their Lives Story of a largely amateur US soccer team’s unprecedented victory over Britain in the 1950 World Cup. Fact-based drama, starring Gerard Butler. 2005.

22.55

FILM: Shadow Of Fear Lies and deceit entangle members of a secret society who have criminal pasts. Thriller, starring Matthew Davis. 2004.

00.40

FILM: The Watchtower A ruthless killer who adopts the identity of his unfortunate victims moves to a new town. Thriller, starring Tom Berenger. 2001.

Super 8 (Novacinema3, 19.00)

01:10 The Weakest Link 01:55 Lead Balloon 02:25 Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps 02:55 Doctors 03:25 Tribal Wives 04:25 ‘Allo ‘Allo! 05:00 Lead Balloon 05:30 Alan Carr: Chatty Man 06:15 The Weakest Link 07:00 Tellytales 07:10 Nina and the Neurons 07:25 Show Me Show Me 07:50 Balamory 08:10 Tellytales 08:20 Nina and the Neurons 08:35 Show Me Show Me 09:00 Balamory 09:20 Charlie And Lola 09:30 Buzz & Tell 09:35 Robin Hood 10:20 Strictly Come Dancing 11:20 Last Of The Summer Wine 11:50 New Tricks 12:40 The Diamond Queen 13:30 As Time Goes By 14:00 Big Top 14:30 2 Point 4 Children 15:00 Casualty 15:50 EastEnders 17:45 New Tricks 18:35 The Diamond Queen 19:25 The Weakest Link: All Singing All Dancing Special 20:15 Doctor Who 21:00 Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow 21:45 Live At The Apollo 22:30 Alan Carr: Chatty Man 23:15 The Impressions Show With Culshaw & Stephenson 23:45 Little Britain 24:15 Tribal Wives

07:00 How It’s Made ; 07:25 Rides 08:15 Fifth Gear 09:10

Mega Builders 10:05 Mighty Ships 10:55 World’s Top 5 14:30 Extreme Engineering 15:25 Man Made Marvels Asia 16:20 Mega Builders 17:15 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 Dealers 00:00 Dynamo: Magician Impossible 01:00 Could You Survive? 01:55 Auction Kings 02:50 Dealers 03:50 Dynamo: Magician Impossible 04:50 How It’s Made ; 05:15 Auction Hunters 06:05 Mega Builders

09:30 Swimming: World Short Course Championships Turkey 11:30 Alpine Skiing: World Cup France 13:15 Luge: World Cup Latvia 13:45 Biathlon: World Cup Slovenia 14:30 Ski Jumping: World Cup Switzerland 16:30 Nordic Combined Skiing: World Cup Austria 17:15 Biathlon: World Cup Slovenia 18:00 Curling: European Championship Sweden 19:30 Snooker: European Tour Scotland 21:30 Cross Country Skiing: World Cup Canada 23:00 Snooker: European Tour Scotland 00:00 Curling: European Championship Sweden 01:30 Biathlon: World Cup Slovenia 02:15 Ski Jumping: World Cup Switzerland

05:40 Work Of Art: The Next Great Artist 06:30 Off The Map 10:20 Modern Family 11:10 Happy Endings 12:25 Don’t Trust The B...In Apartment 12:50 Masterchef 14:30 The Gates 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 Happy Endings

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 20:30 Cajun Pawn Stars 21:00 American Pickers 22:00 Storage Wars 23:00 Pawn Stars 23:30 Cajun Pawn Stars 00:00 American Pickers 01:00 Storage Wars 02:00 Pawn Stars 02:30 Cajun Pawn Stars 03:00 American Pickers 04:00 Ancient Aliens 05:00 UFO Hunters

07:30 Hollywood Buzz 08:00 Poseidon 09:40 School For Scoundrels 11:30 Chain Reac-

07:00 Dennis The Menace 08:45 Everybody Wants To Be Italian 11:00 Amelia 13:00 Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed 14:45 Rain People, The 16:45 Adventures In Babysitting 18:30 Finn On The Fly 20:15 Crackie 22:00 Country Strong 00:05 Daring! Tv 03:50 Invisible Sign, An 05:30 Hot Coffee

tion 13:05 Lottery Ticket 14:45 Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows 17:00 Pre-Game 18:00 A’ Division Cyprus Soccer Championship 2012-13 20:00 LTV Sports News 21:00 Men In Black (1997) 23:00 Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel 00:30 Hustler TV 02:15 All The King’s Men 04:30 Wrestling Ernest Hemingway 06:30 LTV Sports News

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 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 Liga Bbva 2012-13 23:00 Barclays Premier League 2012-13 01:00 Liga Bbva 2012-13 03:00 Barclays Premier League 2012-13

06:10 Sacriﬁce 07:50 I Am Legend 09:30 Cine News 10:05 Hemingway & Gellhorn 12:40 Cine News 13:10 Soul Surfer 15:00 Ncis 15:55 Source Code 17:35 Cake Eaters 22:10 Chalet Girl 00:00 Tower Heist 01:45 Cine News 02q15 Scorpion King 3: Battle For Redemption 04:00 Hara Kiri: Death Of A Samurai

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 Supernatural 11:30 The Mentalist 12:30 Pan Am 13:15 The Closer 14:15 Ncis: Los Angeles 15:00 Supernatural 16:00 Aliens N America 20:00 Mildred Pierce 23:35 Jonah Hex 01:00 Bringing Out The Dead 03:00 Strike Back

06:30 Cine News 07:10 The Help 12:05 Penelope 13:55 The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader 15:50 Sweet Home Alabama 17:40 Mad On Novacinema 18:20 Kate And Leopold 20:20 Nicostratos: Le Pelican 23:50 London Boulevard 01:40 Margin Call 03:30 Cine News 04:30 Loufa Kai Parallagi: Sirines Sti Steria

06:05 Phone Booth 07:30 Affair In Trinidad 09:10 True Grit -2010 11:00 Cine News 11:45 Analyze This 13:35 Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides 15:55 The Hit List 17:30 Gulliver’s Travels 19:00 Super 8 21:00 Sea Of Love 23:00 Trafﬁc 01:30 Adult Zone 03:30 Outrage

06:05 La Chance De Ma Vie 09:45 Patch Adams 11:40 Revans 13:25 Good Will Hunting 15:35 Something Borrowed 17:30 The Conquest 19:25 Duplex 21:00 Little Fockers 22:45 The Grace Card 00:30 Zorba The Greek 02:50 Blue Valentine 04:45 One True Thing

07:00 To Have And Have Not 08:40 Till The Clouds Roll By 10:50 Edge of the City 12:15 Meet Me In Las Vegas 14:05 Gun Glory 15:35 Yearling, The 17:45 Humoresque 19:50 Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm, The 22:00 Wild Rovers 00:10 Fame 02:20 That Midnight Kiss 03:55 King Solomon’s Mines 05:35 Day They Robbed The Bank Of England, The

By Preston Wilder

Men in Black (LTV, 21.00) Did you see Men in Black 3 back in May? Did you follow all that Time-travel malarkey? More importantly, did you notice how incredibly old Tommy Lee Jones looks? No surprise, perhaps, given that TLJ was cast as a miserable old git in the first MiB - and that was 15 years ago! He’s Agent ‘K’, part of a government agency whose job is to monitor (and cover up all evidence of) extraterrestrial life on Earth - and his deadpan expression doesn’t really soften when he gets a new partner (Will Smith as Agent ‘J’), then again there’s an intergalactic terrorist to be stopped and besides Tommy Lee knows a sad truth about humankind: “People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals”. People loved this

film in huge numbers - and they were right because it’s great fun, with icky FX beasties and a theme song cannibalising an 80s hit (Patrice Rushen’s ‘Forget Me Nots’, if you must know) but also solid plotting and a certain low-key charm. Even Tommy Lee Jones is charming, in his misanthropic way. Made in 1997.

Chalet Girl (Novacinema1, 22.10) Get it? ‘Chalet girl’ instead of Valley girl? Yes - but Valley girls are a synonym for bimbos whereas Kim (Felicity Jones) is smart and resourceful, it’s just that she needs to find work to support her dad. Opportunity knocks with a catering job in the Alps, working at a luxury chalet for rich people - and the posh crowd are

Chalet Girl

amused that Kim can’t even ski, but in fact she used to be a champion skater and soon discovers the joys of snowboarding, entering a local tournament to provide a crowd-pleasing climax to this fluffy British comedy. Ed Westwick is the hunky rich boy offering a bit of après-ski (“No sleeping with the clients,” warns another chalet girl. “Unless they’re fit”), Brooke Shields and Bill Nighy turn up as his parents - and the whole thing is ridiculously sweet and predictable (down to our tomboyish heroine’s inevitable ‘makeover’), but at least it doesn’t take itself too seriously. “A hilarious new comedy!” raves the trailer - but we instantly cut to Kim’s slobbish dad, looking unimpressed as he reads his paper: “Eh, they always say that”. Made in 2011.

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 15, 2012

CRYPTIC CROSSWORD 2263 1

PREVIOUS DAY’S SOLUTIONS

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.

MEDIUM

EASY

MEDIUM

HARD

1 Jack, with a sound of snoring, produces some music! (4) 2 Symbol of one’s standing? (6) 3 About four, I in France, dance (4) 4 Frolicsome captain, Penny points out (6) 5 Cannot do anything without a servant! (8) 6 Illegally taking along the way (11) 7 Broad valley with river in Glasgow area (11) 11 Give a false account of girl going over the gallery (8) 12 Will this l ady fix the prices? (3) 14 Serial rewritten for a foreign country (6) 15 Money offered as an inducement for nut boy was chewing! (6) 17 Little woman elected to become a member (4) 18 No-one from France came up, not being upper-class (3-1)

Rating EASY

6 Might a cardiograph reveal despondency? (5-8) 8 Look fixedly at abstainer with oriental newspaper (7) 9 Plumber wearing a kilt? (5) 10 Man sticks note inside (5) 12 An empty sort of settlement (7) 13 Throwing dice as a way of choosing actors (7) 15 Fundamental for graduates to be in charge (5) 16 Some of the main terms provide cover (5) 17 Travel for one day in France with French marshal (7) 19 Last to the end of a boxing-match, or a race? (2,3,8)

Rating HARD

Down

Rating HARD

Across

Rating MEDIUM

Answers to crossword 2262

HOROSCOPE

CRYPTIC: Across – 5 Flat; 7 Hysterical; 8 Sliced; 10 Tumble; 11 Obey; 12 Retrench; 14 Diagonal; 16 Pail; 17 Gannet; 19 Talent; 21 Lacklustre; 22 Edge. Down – 1 This; 2 Sticky; 3 Gridiron; 4 Scot; 5 Flambé; 6 Afﬂiction; 9 Lubricated; 13 Telltale; 15 Gentle; 16 Polish; 18 Tack; 20 Tree.

QUICK: Across – 5 Iowa; 7 Victorious; 8 Stupor; 10 Potash; 11 Aria; 12 Gigantic; 14 Mutineer; 16 Dope; 17 Chop up; 19 Tabard; 21 Supporting; 22 Etch. Down – 1 Ives; 2 Utopia; 3 Prorogue; 4 Hoop; 5 Isatin; 6 Worshipper; 9 Throughout; 13 Gyration; 15 Impish; 16 Debate; 18 Pipe; 20 Doge.

ARIES March 21 - April 20

LEO July 23 - August 22

SAGITTARIUS November 23 - December 21

Career matters are in focus. You may be busier than ever with projects and plans, driven by a need to realise your many ambitions. Try not to get too impatient, as you may spoil something that’s been simmering nicely. Go with this. Later, you may be in demand socially. A very pleasant aspect reveals that romance is also a possibility if you are interested.

There could be some exciting and unexpected moments early on. You can enjoy being surprised. Travel may have romantic overtones, especially if you venture somewhere new on a whim. You also have a chance of greater closeness with someone. It might be a good time for a family outing. Current inﬂuences suggest it may prove memorable.

If overdue bills demand your attention, psychologically it may be better to tackle these rather than delaying. Doing so could take a weight off your mind at this busy time. Try to present a positive image, as others may be noticing you and paying attention to your ideas. Fun is also in the air, and you can plan recreation time later with friends.

TAURUS April 21 - May 21

VIRGO August 23 - September 23

CAPRICORN December 22 - January 20

Your intuitive timing can be excellent. You’ll seem to know immediately when to go ahead with a plan or idea, and when to hold back. Your antennae seem to be picking up signals that translate as good fortune, especially if you move out of your comfort zone. Thankfully, your energy seems fairly good. If you’re going gift shopping, take a break at some point.

Today, and in the weeks ahead, you may be purchasing some reading material for your home library. You may be keen to research options, especially for new business ideas and projects. Creative ideas may be encouraging you to become an entrepreneur in the making. Don’t deny your ambitions. Yet, if festive fun grabs your attention, give yourself time to enjoy it.

The focus seems to be on promoting your skills and telling the world about all you are capable of. The Moon, in your sign for most of the day, places the emphasis on getting your message across. You may be busy planning a schedule, or designing a strategy to enable you to fulﬁl your latest goal. Yet it is going to be important not to scatter your energies.

GEMINI May 22 - June 21

LIBRA September 24 - October 23

AQUARIUS January 21 - February 19

You can enjoy steady progress in whatever you put your mind to. You may even accomplish more than you planned. Business affairs also look hopeful. You may decide to invest in a worthwhile scheme or even a piece of artwork as a way to make your money work harder for you. Your jovial mood may be contributing to your ongoing popularity.

Your actions seem to be inspired and intuitive. If you want answers to a creative issue, think out of the box. The focus is once again on home and family matters. You seem to be in organising mode, drawing up lists and getting ahead with festive preparations. If one family member is unhelpful, try to smile rather than show your frustrations.

Tread softly where business interests are concerned. It’s best to be tactful and diplomatic in your dealings if you can. This is a good time for romance that may be linked with a journey. If you are spontaneous, you can ﬁnd yourself in the right place at the right time to enjoy a chat that makes you feel pleasantly alive. Don’t let such a fab chance slip past.

CANCER June 22 - July 22

SCORPIO October 24 - November 22

PISCES February 20 - March 20

Work may be fun and thoroughly engrossing. You may be enjoying new challenges and great camaraderie with colleagues. Allow dreams and intuitive hunches to guide you to bigger and better things. Stamina wise, you seem to have plenty of energy to expend, and may be in the mood for a good workout. Romance bliss is possible later.

Gambling and taking risks with money may not be wise. Try not to spend more than you have, as you may get into trouble further down the line. Checking your local paper for interesting items and vacancies may highlight some exciting possibilities. It’s also possible that the unexpected can alter your routine - yet this could be a welcome distraction.

You may need to exercise tact in your dealings with authority ﬁgures. It’s not a good time to push your interests ahead of others or to make unreasonable demands. Good advice may come from someone who seems to have your best interests at heart. Despite this, you can hear about an unexpected moneymaking opportunity that may be worth exploring.

Saturday, December 15, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

Advertiser

ADVERTISER helps you find what you’re looking for

Only

€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

JOB WANTED ***************************** LADY LOOKING FOR PART TIME JOB, cleaning, elderly people, children, ironing, cleaning ofﬁces. Speaks good English and Greek, has own transport. Limassol area. Tel 96451034 *****************************

alised 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. *****************************

PERSONAL

MISCELLANEOUS ***************************** MRS LENA ASSAF from Lebanon has reported her Lebanon passport was stolen, passport no RL 0059332. Anybody who ﬁnds it can please inform your nearest police station or call her on 99220625 or e-mail her on lenaassafk@gmail.com ***************************** 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

***************************** AUSTRIAN INGENEUR, 50 years, searching for a nice women. Mobile: 004917365562 or 00491726293462 *****************************

Nicosia - tel: 22 818583 fax: 22 676385 *****************************

TAG 43, male, probably a Braque-Dachshund mix, with a beautiful Labrador like face! Excellent temperament, very loving and well behaved. He will make an amazing companion. Worth Meeting! He is small sized and only around 1,5 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 Elena on 99520511 mon-frid 10-2pm. *****************************

PETS ***************************** A BEAUTIFUL BLACK COCKER GIRL will be available for sale at the beggining of the new year, with an excellent pedigree, vaccinated, microchipped, lovely natured, free from eye cataract, kidney failure and hips dysplasia. Living with a family with kids, other dogs and a cat (450 euros). Also an adult black cocker male, very handsome, fully vaccinated is given for free to the right home. For information and photos look at www. costopa.net or call 99884578 Anna ( Nicosia)

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

MIKA is a beautiful and sweet female puppy, around four months, is looking for a loving home. She is very lovable and she will deﬁnitely be your best friend. 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 Elena on 99520511 mon-frid 10-2pm. *****************************

HEALTH & FITNESS

LESSONS

***************************** HARMONY AND BALANCE! Anti cellulite treatment, reﬂexology, aromatherapy, massage-against stress, back pains, headache. Nicosia for appointment call on 97696795. ***************************** 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. Person-

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

RAMONA is a female Labrador mix, around 4 years old looking for a loving family. She is looking for a forever home! 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 Elena on 99520511 mon-frid 10-2pm.

***************************** TIME FOR A CAREER CHANGE? Learn how to teach English! The London Teacher Training College is offering TEFL Certiﬁcate courses in Cyprus. For more information call now on 99839307. *****************************

SERVICES PROFESSIONAL UPHOLSTERY CLEANING, also car-

Limassol - tel: 25 761117 fax: 25 761141

pets, 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? 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 *****************************

FOR SALE MISCELLANEOUS ***************************** L-SHAPE SOFA, long 5 seats. Light beige colour, BO Concept design, €350 buyer to collect. Limassol area. Tel 99201904 ***************************** CLOTHES STOCKS AND SHOP FITTINGS FOR SALE. Excellent women’s brands for sale including Italian, Spanish and French clothes and shoes. Also women’s dummies and modern wall ﬁttings (clothes rails.) Selling at very low prices for clearance. Tel:

Paphos - tel: 26 911383 fax: 26221049

99-168943 *****************************

FOR SALE BUSINESS/ PROPERTY/LAND ***************************** FOR SALE LAND in Strovolos between Leoforos Iosif X” Iosif & Leoforos Stavrou area. 721 sqm. Call 99321785 22421785 ***************************** 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 ***************************** LAND FOR SALE Prodromos resort. Can be perfect for building hotel, hotel apartments, restaurant, shops or ofﬁces. On main road, water/ electricity and telephone supplied. Building factor 60%. Also, stone house 120sqm. More info 99214165 ***************************** 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 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. *****************************

WANTED TO RENT ***************************** FLAT OR HOUSE TO RENT, 2-3 bedrooms, veranda/terrace or garden, prefer furnished, SW of Nicosia (in approx area Lakadamia to Kapedes and Kalo Chorio) alan.tye@birdlifecyprus.org.cy, 22455072, 99089083. *****************************

Larnaca - tel: 24 652243 fax: 24 659982

classified contents Employment Opportunities pg -Employment Miscellaneous 22 Pets 22 Lessons 22 Health & Fitness 22 Personal 22 Services 22 For Sale Miscellaneous 22 For Sale Land/ Property Business 22 For Sale Motor vehicles 23 Wanted -To Let Nicosia 23 To Let Limassol 24 To Let Larnaca 24 To Let Paphos 25 To Let Protaras, Ayia Napa, Paralimni -For Sale Nicosia 26 For Sale Limassol -For Sale Larnaca -For Sale Paphos 26 For Sale Ayia Napa -For Sale Famagusta Protaras 26 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

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 15, 2012

Advertiser FOR SALE MOTOR VECHICLES

TO LET NICOSIA

FOR SALE MOTOR VEHICLES

sia. Fully furnished including 2 double beds, ﬁtted wardrobes, TV, fridge, oven, dining table & chairs. Recently refurbished with new kitchen. Private landlord. €550 pcm. ***************************** 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

***************************** RED BMW MINI 1 2005 1600cc full factory specs 22500 miles New tyres full service history 2 year MOT Drivers & Maint manual 6500euros Pafos 99096902. ***************************** 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. €7500 ono. Contact: 99022779 - Nicosia *****************************

PROPERTY TO LET NICOSIA ***************************** 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 ***************************** FOR RENT spacious modern 5 Bedr house, next to Metro Supermarket, Strovolos, Nicosia. Furnished, 3 Restrooms, air-conditioning throughout, 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.

2-BEDROOM FLAT with balcony in leafy side-street, Ayioi Omoloyites, near Hilton, walking distance to central Nico-

***************************** 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 ***************************** FLATS / HOUSES FOR RENT: studio Aglantzia €350, 1bdrm Ag. Andreas furnished €425, Hilton €400, Strovolos €350, Acropolis €380, Kennedy furnished €400, 2bdrm Ag. Dometios €400, Lykavitos €550, Kennedy €400, Acropolis rear house €300, 3bdrm m/ssa with garden €500, Str/ los €400, Acropolis €550, 4 bdrm new house Dasoupolis €1,200, Acropolis g/f €800. 21 PROPERTY FINDER A.M. 627 A.A.108 / E 99474839, 99646822 ***************************** 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 Nicosia. Large front veranda, all

TO LET NICOSIA 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 bedroom 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

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TO LET NICOSIA

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 €650 (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 new luxury detached house, separate maid’s room, central heating, full Ac, 260sq.m, big kitchen with all the electrical appliances, blinds on all the windows, 4wc, 2 showers, 1 bathroom, 2 covered parking, big garden with grass in a quiet neighbourhood in a dead end near French Ambassador house - Strovolos €1400 (H4ST10045-R), (photos in the 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, cov-

ered parking near Alpha Mega supermarket - STROVOLOS €1200 (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 €1200 - 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. H4AGZ0010-R, 3 bedr RENOVATED GROUND FLOOR HOUSE with big separate 1 bedroom flat with multi room, big sitting and dining room , separate tv room, big kitchen with family room and fitted cooker and oven, 3wc, 2 bathrooms, very big 5 X 6 bedrooms with solid parquet floor, central heating with petrol independent, a/c units, double glazed windows with shutters, big verandas around the house, in a very quiet neighbourhood 200metres from FRENCH school and near

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Saturday, December 15, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

Advertiser TO LET NICOSIA Athalassas park - Aglantzia €1300 (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 + 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 - €1200 – H4ST10007-R (photos in website). 15. 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 ES-

TO LET NICOSIA TATES LTD 22-422225/96422225/96422226, www.landtouristestates.com ***************************** LUXURY FLATS:

1. 3 bedr luxury finished spacious floor apartment with very big sitting and dining 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- € 700 – A3ENG0026-R (photos in website).

TO LET NICOSIA

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. A2AOM0009-R 2 bedr luxury finished apartment in a small building with 4 flats only, central heating with petrol independent, full a/c, 2 bedrooms with en-suite bathroom/shower, separate guest wc, NICE MODERN EXPENSIVE FURNITURE, big covered veranda, covered parking, storage room, in a very quiet neighbourhood very close to Junior school and the park - Agioi Omologites - € 800 (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 €700 (A3ST10030-R), (photos in the website). 12. A2LYK0006-R, 2 bedr penthouse apartment with big veranda 60sq.m, storage heat-

ers, full a/c, 2 bathrooms (one en suite), big sitting room, big separate kitchen with cooker and oven, blinds, covered parking near Agios Antonios market CLOSE TO THE UNIVERSITY. Lykavitos €510 (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 neighborhood 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 €550 (A2DAS0006-R), (photos in the 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.

TO LET NICOSIA LIMASSOL 4

BEDROOM HOUSE IN EPISKOPI Split level 4-yearold house detached with central heating, a/c all over the house, lounge dinning room, separate kitchen, utility room, en-suite master bedroom, parking, three wcs. Price 800 euros (negotiable) 25337400 3 BEDROOM HOUSE IN YPSONAS 3-year-old two storey detached house situated in a private area of Ypsonas with separate kitchen, lounge dinning room, garden, parking en-suite master bedroom a/c all over house. 25 337400 Price 700 euros 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 1 BEDROOM two-storey maisonette for rent 200m from the sea on Larnaca-Dhekelia Road. No communal expenses fully furnished, heating and a/c, 1 bathroom - 270 euro a month . Call 99449556 FOR RENT spacious 3 bedroom apartment with balcony situated in centre of town, semi furnished. Please call 99311152 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

PAPHOS € 290 /mnth Acropolis Heights (a), Chlorakas (b) € 380 / mnth Universal area and Both are 2-bed houses, beautiful locations, in Cul-de-sacs, 10 years old, 90 sq. mts, Furnished, Open-Plan Lounge/ Kitchen, Front Car-port, Garden, (a) is Ground ﬂoor, 1 W.C/ bath. (b) is 2-Floors, 2 W.CS/ Bath and part air-conditioned. Call 99-632388.’ ***************************** 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. TSADA €380 charming 2 bedroom 2 bathroom bungalow with gas central heating throughout, log burner in living area and real ﬁreplace in bedroom, perfect for those winter months. A fully enclosed pretty courtyard offers stunning views. Available furnished. Pets allowed at owners discretion. Website refer-

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 15, 2012

Advertiser TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

ence number: RTL_644 2. UNIVERSAL AREA €450 luxury modern 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment. Available fully furnished with modern furniture including plasma tv & satellite, fully equipped modern kitchen with top brand appliances. Situated on top floor with lift. Complex with communal pools & indoor gym. Great central location walking distance to bus routes & shops. Website reference number: RTL_395 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. CHLORAKA €750 modern detached 4 bedroom 3 bathroom villa with ground floor 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 5. PEYIA €850 luxury spacious 3 bedroom 3 bathroom villa with automated garage, situated in a private residential area offering breathtaking sea views. This desirable villa offers cen-

tral heating & real fireplace for those winter months. Manicured garden & private pool. Hot tub & bbq area. Modern fitted kitchen, separate utility room & games room. Website reference number: RTL_ 270 6. SECRET VALLEY €850 modern 3 bedroom bungalow, master with ensuite. Spacious modern kitchen, fully furnished with modern furniture. Landscaped garden with private pool offering stunning views. Situated in a quiet residential area. Website reference number: RTL_651 7. ANAVARGOS €895 we are delighted to offer this unique 5 bedroom 3 bathroom rustic country home offering spacious living accomodation 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 residental 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 WEB-

SITE FOR MANY MORE PROPERTIES www.mrrentpaphos.net Email: info@ mrrent-paphos.net ***************************** Long Term Rentals 1. Chlorakas 1 bed ground ﬂoor furnished apartment with central heating, communal pool and parking, sky TV. €335 pcm including all bills 2. Tala 2 bed quality furnished apartment. Stunning sea views, large balcony, well kept gardens, communal pool, quiet area. €375 pcm 3. Chlorakas Large 4 bed detached villa, secluded position, large private pool, a/c, and parking. Unfurnished. Very nice well worth seeing. €800 pcm reduced 4. Peyia Unfurnished 2 bed 2 bathroom house, a/c, ceiling fans, ﬂy screens, storage, satellite TV, private parking, swimming pool, From €350 pcm REDUCED THIS IS JUST A SMALL SELCTION OF PROPERTIES THAT ARE AVAILABLE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THESE AND MANY MORE PLEASE CALL EITHER 96 545 174 OR E-MAIL ON info@unique-consultancy. eu LANDLORDS; WE NEED YOUR PROPERTIES NOW. PLEASE CONTACT US IMMEDIATELY IF YOU HAVE A PROPERTY FOR RENT.

try phone system & storage room. €350 per month. 2. UNIVERSAL – one bed furnished apartment on 2nd ﬂoor, small quiet well maintained complex with sea views. €300 per month. 3. UNIVERSAL – 2 two bed, 2 bath apartments on superb quiet complex, with 3 pools, gym, sauna, jaccuzi & bowling green. 1 apt furnished, 1 unfurnished from €400 per month.

4. TALA – 2 two bed, 2 bath villa style apts on stunning quiet complex with 4 pools, with off road and underground parking. 1 apt furnished 1 U/F from €360 per month. PLEASE CALL 96203009

***************************** 1. UNIVERSAL – superb 2 bed furnished apartment for rent. Lovely quiet complex with pool, private parking, en-

***************************** FOR RENT A selection of 1 to 5 bedroom houses & apartments F/F & U/F Universal, Peyia, Tomb of the Kings, Tsada, Timi, Chlorakas & Kato Paphos Landlord & Owners please call 99329357

TO LET PAPHOS Or please view at are website www.cyprussands.com Fully Registered Company in Cyprus ***************************** 1. MANDRIA, 2 bedroom apartment, fully furnished with modern furniture, separate kitchen, communal swimming pool, air conditioning throught, 2 balconies euro 375 p/m o.N.O

2. SEA CAVES, 3 bedroom bungalow, specially ﬁtted for people with disabilities , stunning sea views, free wi-ﬁ, fully fur-

Saturday, December 15, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

Advertiser TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

nished with modern furniture, swimming pool, all bedrooms with en-sute, utility room, air conditioning throughout, shutters, very green and secluded area euro 1100 p/m o.N.O 3. EMBA, 2 bedroom apartment, 2 bathroom, modern furnished, air conditioned throughout, communal swimming pool, covered parking, close to all amenities, euro 330 p/m 4. CHLORAKA, 3 bedroom furnished villa with pool, amazing views, master en-suite, in culde-sac, fully airconditioned with ﬁreplace, euro 700 p/m PLEASE CALL : 99 387842

Must be seen, 300 Euros WANTED - 2 bedroom furnished properties MORE PROPERTIES AVAILABLE FOR INFORMATION PLEASE CALL 99862922

Apartment is furnished, with bathroom, modern kitchen and blinds + AC Ref: 1164 price €350 ARMOU A 3 bedroom fully furnished bungalow with private pool. Nice clean modern property with log burner, 3 good size bedrooms, master en suite, large family bathroom, garage, fantastic views of the sea. Ref 854 Price €750 MANDRIA Modern 2 bedroom apartment, offered furnished. Property is modern and has a large outside veranda, great views, large communal pool. Not far from all local amenities. Ref: 882 Price €400 Please call for a free viewing on Ofﬁce 26600450 Mobile: 97614070 many more properties on our website at www.ﬂowron.com - www.paphospropertycyprus.com LANDLORDS IF YOU HAVE A PROPERTY FOR RENT, PLEASE CALL US!!!!!! Your Vision is our Mission

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 shopping 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 nondrivers! 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 ensuite, 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 bedroom 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 APARTMENTS/TOWNHOUSES 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 ***************************** 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.

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.

***************************** CHLORAKAS, 2 bedroom apartment, fully furnished, large veranda, very quiet location, communal pool, Euro 280 – o.n.o Please call: 99699019 /26910140

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 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 ***************************** PAPHOS RENTALS SECTION

TREMITHOUSA - Very sought after location, Modern 2 Bedroom, F/F, Town House, Lovely Communal Pool, Sea views, Early viewing highly recommended, 400 Euros PAPHOS - Very large 3 Bedroom Apt , Fully Furnished to a very high standard ,Would suit 3 Professionals sharing, Within close proximity to Hospital and Court, Central Heating, 2 Bathrooms, Laundry, 350 Euros. TALA - Luxurious 4 Bedroom, F/F to a very high standard, 2 bathrooms, 2 en-suite, Swimming Pool, Landscaped Garden and Spectacular Views, 700 Euros. EMPA - Immaculate, Spacious 2 Bedroom, U/F, House, Large kitchen, Patio, Quiet location,

***************************** FLOWRON PROPERTY RENTALS, YOUR NUMBER ONE CHOICE FOR RENTAL PROPERTIES. LOOKING FOR A RELIABLE AND EFFICIENT PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COMPANY, CALL THE EXPERTS TODAY!!

TIMI 3 bed modern villa with wood burner, Ac, offered fully furnished. Spacious living areas with 2 sitting areas, big kitchen,3 upstairs bedrooms, master on suite shower, family bathroom, Small private pool, off street parking. Quite location not far from the village amenities. Paphos Town. Ref: 722 price €600 KISSONERGRA A bed luxury villa on its own private grounds, with fantastic views of the sea, private pool, Modem Furnishings, quality appliances, downstairs bedroom, large kitchen, upstairs bedroom with en suite, family bathroom. Ref 0000 Price €950 ANARITA A 3 bed villa offered furnished , with private pool, in nice quiet cul-de-sac, off street parking, AC. quality kitchen, 3 bedrooms upstairs. Ref 855 price €600 PEGEIA A superb character 4 bedroom villa, with beams, ﬁre place, central heating. Italian kitchen, sitting and dining areas, 3 good size bedroom, with downstairs bedroom with en suite. Outside mature gardens, private pool, fantastic views, peaceful location. Ref: 765 Price €900 Mandria A modern unfurnished 4 bed Villa with private pool. Downstairs bedroom with shower, sitting room with log burner, 3 bedrooms upstairs, master bed with en suite shower room. Property has private fence and pets are welcome. Ref 1174 price €700 YEROSKIPOU 2 bed furnished apartment with communal pool, gym, under cover parking on modern new complex

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

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

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 HOUSE FOR QUICK SALE on whole plot in Makedonitissa Tymvos area. 4 bedrooms 340m2, quality construction 1999 built, near schools. In need of minor modernization. Space for pool. Private sale €595,000, no agents. 99582335

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. UNIVERSAL AREA, 3 bedroom detached villa, covered area 122 sqm, master bedroom en-suite, air conditioned throughout, all white goods, solar panels, garden irrigation, plot size 273 sqm, communal pool, euro 165.000 o.v.n.o. – title deeds available Call : 99682644- no agents 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.

PAPHOS

FAMAGUSTA

PAPHOS, FLATS FOR SALE OR RENT: kissonerga, 3 bEdroom ﬂat with title deeds, in a block of 4 ﬂats only, fully renovated, 2 baths, 146 sqm

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

PROPERTY FOR SALE NICOSIA

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

THE DEVONSHIRE RESTAURANT

Drug Law Enforcement Unit ......................................... 1498 (Confidential Information)

GOOD HOME COOKING- RUN BY FAMILY-ESTABLISHED 1988

Rescue Co-ordination Centre ............................. 1441 (Immediate Response Service for Aeronautical or Maritime Accident & Incidents)

• BE ASTOUNDED BY OUR LOW WINTER PRICES ! • OPEN ALL WINTER 7 DAYS A WEEK ! • SUNDAY ROAST LUNCH & DINNER FOR ONLY EURO 6.95 !!! • BOOKINGS FOR PRIVATE PARTIES AVAILABLE AT VERY LOW PRICES ! • OPEN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY LUNCH & NEW YEAR’S EVE CALL PETER NOW FOR ANY ENQUIRIES: 96870774 – PAPHOS

***************************** 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.

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

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 15, 2012

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.

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

Saturday, December 15, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

Sport F1 team chiefs vote for Alonso over Vettel By Alan Bladwin FORMULA One team principals have voted Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso their driver of the year, despite Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel becoming the sport’s youngest triple world champion at 25. A poll of all the team heads carried out by Britain’s Autosport magazine, with each asked to list

their top 10 and award points according to grand prix scoring, placed Alonso first with 269 and Vettel second on 198. Alonso lost out to Vettel by three points on the track after the season’s finale in Brazil last month. The team principals’ scores were kept secret but the magazine said eight of the 12 chose Alonso, who had the biggest winning margin in the five years

since the top 10 was started, as the best driver. The Spaniard, who won his two titles with Renault in 2005 and 2006, was also voted best driver in 2010 when Vettel took his first championship. Lewis Hamilton, who is moving to Mercedes from McLaren, finished third in the poll (177 points) with Kimi Raikkonen fourth for Lotus (176) and McLaren’s Jenson Button fifth (104).

“I was pleased to be chosen by the team principals as the best driver of 2012,” Alonso told the Ferrari website (www.ferrari. com). “I think it will be very difﬁcult to repeat what was almost a perfect season this year, but we will try...Of course, next year I would prefer to win the title, happy to leave this prestigious yet idealistic award to one of my peers.”

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso worked miracles with a slower car

Next year will be the best of my life, says confident Baghdatis Cypriot hasn’t given up on winning a Grand Slam By Nemanja Bjedov

IN BRIEF

MARCOS Baghdatis is optimistic ahead of the upcoming season saying that 2013 could be the best year of his career at an ofﬁcial press conference held at the National Tennis Centre in Nicosia. Based on his performances towards the end of the 2012 season when he started improving, Baghdatis, currently ranked 36 in the world, was asked if he wished that last season’s end did not come so soon for him. “No, I never thought about that because immediately after the US Open I started working on my ﬁtness in order to be well prepared for next season. I work very hard on a daily basis and I believe that the coming year will be the best of my life,” he said. “I am ready both mentally and physically and hope to avoid injuries. I am more mature now as well,” the 27-year-old Limassol native

Optimistic: the 27-year-old, currently ranked 36 in the world, says he can make it into the Top 20 at least next year replied. “I have always wanted to win a Grand Slam, but to do this I need to be more consistent. Together with my coach Yiannos Hadjigeorgiou we have set our goals for 2013 and that is to reach the Top 20, but if I do well it is possible to end up in the Top 10,” Baghdatis added.

“I spent five weeks in Croatia working on my fitness and I already feel a big difference in my physical conditioning. Now I wake up early in the morning, work on my fitness and then play tennis for one to two hours, while in the afternoons I run at the Lanition beach in Limassol,” the Cypriot

number one added. Baghdatis is still unsure if he will play for Cyprus in the first round of the Davis Cup in Lithuania at the beginning of February. He is expected to stay in Cyprus until the end of the following week when he will fly out to Australia where he will take part in the first

tournament of the new season at the Brisbane International. “I am going to Brisbane ﬁrst and then to Melbourne. I will not play in Sydney this time because the facilities at the Australian Open have been changed and I want to be there early to adapt,” he concluded.

Failure to agree reform of European club rugby THE latest attempt to reform the structure of European club rugby ended in stalemate this week, with the various stakeholders unable to agree on a new format for the Heineken Cup. Four meetings have now been held since English and French clubs gave notice in June that they would not sign up to compete after 2014 unless changes were made. The English and French clubs favour trimming the Heineken Cup, the continent’s leading club competition, to 20 teams from 24. They also want to limit the number of qualifiers from the RaboDirect Pro12 competition, a league which features teams from Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Italy. Jean-Pierre Lux, chairman of tournament organiser European Rugby Cup (ERC), indicated a growing sense of frustration after talks involving representatives from leagues and national rugby federations. “After four meetings, it is extremely disappointing for all involved that we have not yet made sufficient progress towards a new Accord,” said Lux in a statement. “Everyone around the table remains committed to making European club rugby stronger and we are confident a solution will be found,” he added.

Wimbledon achieves record profits for LTA

Tour de France to start in Yorkshire in 2014

Bengals maul Eagles to stay in NFL playoff hunt

PROFITS from this year’s Wimbledon championships increased by seven percent to record levels, Britain’s Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) said this week. The LTA, which organises the two-week grand slam, published its annual report and ﬁnancial review which showed proﬁts at the grasscourt tournament rose to 37.8 million pounds, up from 35.2 million pounds the previous year. The surplus is invested back into British tennis. The LTA also said it spent 12.3 million pounds on player development with 17.4 million pounds going on encouraging people to take up the sport.

THE 2014 Tour de France will start from Yorkshire, England, race organisers said yesterday. The city of Leeds will host the ‘Grand Depart’ on July 5, 2014 and there will also be a stage in London, organisers said in a statement. The detailed stages will be announced next month. “Following an exceptional 2012 for British cycling, marked by Bradley Wiggins’s historical victory on the Tour deFrance, the United Kingdom will take centre stage again in 2014,” the organisers said in a statement. This year, Team Sky rider Wiggins became the ﬁrst Briton to win the Tour.

THE Cincinnati Bengals overcame a lacklustre spell in the middle of the game to keep their playoff hopes alive with a 34-13 road win over the slumping Philadelphia Eagles. With the victory, the Bengals improved to 8-6 on the season to climb up to second place in the AFC North and, more importantly, into the second wildcard position. With games against division rivals Pittsburgh and Baltimore to come, Cincinnati remain in control of their own destiny as they ﬁght to reach the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the ﬁrst time since 1981.

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 15, 2012

Sport Root and Anderson put India on the back foot

PGA hopes Watson brings a winning edge to Cup quest

By David Clough

‘We’re tired of losing,’ says new US captain By Larry Fine TOM Watson won seven major golf championships in Scotland during his illustrious playing career and the PGA of America hopes that translates into a US Ryder Cup victory. Watson will not be wielding a club when the US face Europe in 2014 at Gleneagles in Scotland, but the newlyminted, Ryder Cup captain aims to inspire and impart confidence to counter a Europe team that has won seven of the last nine events. “We’re tired of losing. I always said that early in my career, I learned to win by hating to lose,” Watson, 63, said about a U.S. team that should have earned an advanced degree in winning by now after Europe’s stretch of success. “It’s about time to start winning again for our team.” Watson is a master at crossing the Atlantic to fill his trophy case, with five British Open titles, four of them taken on Scottish courses, and three Senior Opens won in Scotland. Beating Europe’s best on their home soil is a tall order, but Watson said at a news conference on the 80th floor of the Empire State Build-

ing, that his track record brings credibility. “It brings to the table maybe a little bit more of a calm to the team members that I’ve done well over there, that I understand how the game is played on links golf and they can come to me maybe with questions about the golf course,” he said. “It may give them a sense, this guy has been there before and he’s been successful before and we’re going to be a success because he’s there leading us on, or setting the table.” Watson was also the last U.S. captain to win a Ryder Cup match away from home, leading the 1993 team to victory. PGA president Ted Bishop said he believed Watson was the best man to try and stop the slide. “We certainly hope that trend can change. We feel he’s certainly the perfect person to do this, based on his playing record in Scotland,” said Bishop. “We also know about the unique weather challenges that Scotland will probably present and I think we will agree that he is recognized as one of the top players under challenging conditions.” Watson said the captain’s job was to help out the play-

ers and that perhaps his practical background could be beneﬁcial. “First of all, simple mundane things, (like) the time change,” noted Watson, who said he resisted any notions of tinkering with his swing until he had allowed several days to pass for his body to adjust. Watson said he always made a point of going overseas early before an Open championship to adapt to the change and would encourage his players to do the same. He also said the European side had done a masterful job in recent years of gaining an edge through their choice of venues. “They play at golf courses where they play a yearly tournament on the European Tour. “That gives them an advantage. “They set the pins there and they set the green speeds there,” said Watson. “The green speeds may be a little slower. Our players overseas have had a hard time getting the ball to the hole.” All that said, there was no secret formula on how to overtake Europe other than to just play better. “The Europeans have outplayed us,” Watson said was the simple answer to the U.S. Ryder Cup woes.

Tom Watson holds a crystal replica of the Empire State Building after the 2014 US Ryder Cup captain’s news conference held at the iconic New York skyscraper

Anthony inspires surging Knicks to big win over Lakers By Larry Fine

Carmelo Anthony (right) scored 30 points in just 23 minutes, before being sidelined with a left ankle sprain

ADDING more hope to their dream of a long-awaited return to the NBA winner’s circle, the New York Knicks enjoyed a role reversal night against the once-mighty Los Angeles Lakers at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. Raining down threepointers and playing tight defence in sticking to their new formula for success, Carmelo Anthony and his team-mates beat the struggling Lakers 116-107, easing to victory after building a 26-point lead in the second quarter. Anthony scored 30 points in just 23 minutes, sinking 3-of-4 from beyond the arc before being sidelined with a left ankle sprain after crashing to the ﬂoor on a drive to the basket. Despite cooling off in the second half, New York shot 12-of-25 from long-range and 53.2 percent overall with Raymond Felton scoring 19 points and Tyson Chandler chiming in with 18 as the Knicks improved to

9-0 at home. Revelling in their best start to a season in more than 15 years, the Garden crowd serenaded Anthony with chants of “MVP, MVP” and fans could not be blamed for thinking this season could bring the Knicks their ﬁrst NBA crown in 40 years. They also mocked a Lakers franchise, winners of 16 NBA titles, including ﬁve since the 1999-2000 season, that look lost under new coach Mike D’Antoni, who left the Knicks job towards the end of last season. “We were clicking on all cylinders,” said Knicks coach Mike Woodson, who categorised Anthony’s injury as a slight sprain. “I tip my hat to our guys because our key guy goes out and other guys came in and stepped up and played.” New York improved their Eastern Conference-best record to 17-5 against Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard and the hapless Lakers, losers of four in a row and mired in 12th place in the West at 9-14. Bryant paced the Lakers with 31 points, shooting just

10-of-24 from the field. D’Antoni said the Lakers still had a lot to work on, with new players mixed into the lineup and injuries to key players including Steve Nash and Pau Gasol. “Carmelo was unbelievable in the first quarter. He did an unbelievable job,” D’Antoni said of Anthony, who missed only one of nine shots in the first 12 minutes. “We just have a lot of things to keep working on.” The Knicks have undergone a transformation, not unlike the recent remodelling of the venerable Garden. They returned only six players from their postseason roster of a year ago, and two of them - Amar’e Stoudemire and Iman Shumpert - have yet to suit up this season due to injury. A crew of well-seasoned old timers including Jason Kidd (39), Rasheed Wallace (38), Kurt Thomas (40) and NBA rookie Pablo Prigioni of Argentina (35) have blended in and tightened up New York’s approach to the game.

JOE Root proved many sound judges right yesterday, and became the new pride of Sheffield too, with a composed half-century on his Test debut for England. The 21-year-old, who grew up watching Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan playing in the same Sheffield Collegiate club side as his own dad, conquered the inevitable nerves in Nagpur and appeared in control throughout his innings of 73. Root needed to dig in, on a conspicuously low and slow pitch, to joint top-score alongside Kevin Pietersen in England’s 330 all out as they seek to close out a famous series victory. After James Anderson then took three for 24 as India stumbled to 87 for four by stumps on day two of this final Test, Root has obvious prospects of starting his international career at the very top as part of the first England team to win a series here since long before he was born. England’s new number six began his maiden innings on Thursday, but continued past his first 50 yesterday morning as he and Matt Prior (57) took their stand into three figures. There were no friends and family in attendance, but many made it clear with Twitter messages and photos posted from his youngest years as an early England hopeful - that they were willing Root on throughout. He has long been the subject of rave reviews from Performance Programme coach and former England batsman Graham Thorpe too, but once here only he could justify the hype. “It would be wrong to say there’s no nerves when you’re waiting to bat in Test cricket for the first time,” said Root. “But I’ve got a great team around me, who are very encouraging and very helpful. “Then once I got in the middle, I was quite relaxed. “I’m obviously delighted to get the opportunity, and then to score a few runs is a really good feeling.” He had no doubts at any point that much of South Yorkshire, including his nearest and dearest, were batting every ball with him via television coverage. “They’re not out here; they’re sat at home watching,” he said. “It just shows that I’ve been dreaming about this opportunity for a very long time, and I’m very proud I’ve finally got it.” Vaughan, it seems, has sensibly allowed Root to find his own way but is still available if required. “He’s given me a bit of advice over the years, but in recent times he’s just let me get on with it.”

Saturday, December 15, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

Sport

The flea and the tiger face off Messi and Falcao to take centre stage in showdown

By Gregory Blachier

By Iain Rogers TWO of the most prolific forwards in world football, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Atletico Madrid’s Radamel Falcao, will come face to face when unbeaten leaders Barca host second-placed Atletico in La Liga on Sunday night. World Player of the Year Messi, nicknamed ‘the flea’, extended his record goals haul for 2012 to 88 with a double in the King’s Cup on Wednesday and the Argentine tops the La Liga scoring chart on 23 from 15 matches. Falcao, known as ‘the tiger’ and coveted by several of Europe’s richest clubs, became the first player in more than ten years to score five in a 6-0 La Liga thrashing of Deportivo La Coruna last weekend, taking his tally for the season to 16. The pair have very different playing styles, with the 25year-old Messi often finding the net after weaving runs from outside the penalty area that leave opposition defenders floundering. Colombian Falcao, 26, is more of a traditional striker who operates inside the box to devastating effect. A 15th win in 16 matches for Barca at the Nou Camp would stretch their lead over

PSG ready to make their mark, says Menez

Goal machines: Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Colombia’s Radamel Falcao are both in scintillating form

Atletico to nine points. Defeat for Atletico would put third-placed champions Real Madrid within two points of their city rivals if they beat struggling Espanyol at the Bernabeu two hours earlier. Real forward Cristiano Ronaldo, the world’s most expensive player, has been left in the shade by Messi and Falcao in recent weeks and has 13 goals in third spot on the scoring chart. Spain coach Vicente del Bosque said the presence of the goal-hungry trio in La Liga was “great news” for Spanish football and fans in the Iberian nation were for-

tunate to be able to enjoy them in the ﬂesh. “The three are different, the only thing they have in common is goals,” Del Bosque was quoted as saying in daily newspaper El Pais this week. “The three start from different positions,” added the former Real coach. “Falcao is the goal scorer inside the box par excellence. Cristiano is more a player who operates down the wing in search of goals and Messi just goes wherever he wants. “They are the undisputed reference points for their teams.” Messi has stolen most of

the recent headlines after he broke Gerd Mueller’s 40year-old record for the most goals scored in a calendar year of 85. He has Saturday’s home game against Atletico and the match at Real Valladolid to add to his tally and is hot favourite to secure an unprecedented fourth straight World Player award when the winner is announced next month. “Messi is unique because he is already the best player in the history of this sport,” his Barca and Argentina team mate Javier Mascherano said after Wednesday’s 2-0 Cup victory at second-

division Cordoba. “We are talking about 88 goals as if it were something normal but what he has done is incredible,” he added. “This is a lad who has been touched by a magic wand.” Malaga will look to cement their hold on fourth and a Champions League qualiﬁcation berth when they play erratic Sevilla in Saturday night’s Andalusia derby. Ernesto Valverde has won his opening two games since taking over from the sacked Mauricio Pellegrino at Valenciaand will seek to make it three out of three when his side host Rayo Vallecano on Sunday afternoon.

Inter brush off Sneijder furore By Brian Homewood

Inter Milan’s Dutch playmaker Wesley Sneijder is currently involved in a contract dispute with the Italian giants

INTER Milan will not allow uncertainty over the future of Dutch playmaker Wesley Sneijder to distract them from their challenge for the Serie A title. Lying only four points behind leaders and champions Juventus, Inter visit Lazio at the weekend with the Sneijder row bubbling uncomfortably close to the surface and the media rife with speculation about a move in January. Sneijder was left out of the squad for last week’s match at home to Napoli, where a 2-1 win lifted Inter into second place. Inter said he was injured but the Dutchman’s wife Yolanthe Cabau angered the club by using Twitter to claim that her husband was “just ﬁne.” On Wednesday, Inter president Massimo Moratti brushed aside suggestions that the Sneijder situation could affect the team and their strategy during the

January transfer window. “The transfer market does not depend on Sneijder. Nothing depends on him,” Moratti told reporters at an event organised by tyre manufacturers Pirelli. “I think more than anything else what the market depends on will be the economy of the club, so we will evaluate that ﬁrst.” The row began when Inter asked Sneijder to extend his contract from 2015 to 2016 for the same overall payment, a move criticised by the world players’ union FIFPro. “In other words, to work a year longer without receiving any salary for it. Sneijder refused and since then, coach Andrea Stramaccioni has kept the playmaker outside the match squad,” FIFPro said in a statement. FIFPro secretary-general Theo van Seggelen added: “Clubs say that players must respect contracts, but why should that not apply in reverse? “It is not as if Sneijder has taken a gun to the head of the board of Inter to force

them to submit that contract. The club offered it to him with their full understanding.” Moratti preferred to lavish praise on forward Antonio Cassano, signed from archrivals AC Milan during the close season. “He’s an artist, and when there’s an artist at work anything is possible,” said Moratti. He added that the team had so far surpassed expectations. “We began in a situation in which everything was new, from the players to the coach,” he said. “Given the high percentage of new elements, we’ve done better than I thought we would. I’d say we’re doing what is within our possibilities. We’ll have to see at the end whether they are superior to those of the other teams.” Inter have 34 points from 16 games, four more than fourth-placed Lazio, ahead of a weekend which is likely to prove a stern test of their credentials.

RESURGENT Paris St Germain have the top of the table in their sights and forward Jeremy Menez believes that if they get there, the club will be very hard to topple. After slipping down to fourth following a poor run, PSG have won their last two Ligue 1 games 4-0 and will go top if they win their home clash with leaders Olympique Lyon on Sunday night. “Reaching the winter break in first place will play on everyone’s mind,” Menez told a news conference. “It will be our chance to prove we are back on top. We know that if we all make the efforts needed, there will not be any problem. “We are not invincible, you must not exaggerate. But the truth is that we will be very hard to beat if we keep on putting all our forces together. And we know we can do even better that we have done,” added the former Roma player. The Qatar-backed side had been expected to dominate the league after spending over 100 million euros on transfers during the close season. Instead, they found themselves under fire for a lack of consistency. But they have displayed impressive collective strength in recent games after coach Carlo Ancelotti switched from a 4-3-3 formation to a 4-4-2 with two players on the wing. “I said before the season started that we would be our main enemy,” said Menez. “We have realised that it is not enough to just put 11 players on the pitch, even ones with great records, to win matches. Everybody moved on and it has paid off.” Lyon could only draw 1-1 against strugglers Nancy in midweek and the trip to Paris will be all the more challenging for a side decimated by injury. Full back Anthony Reveillere and forward Alexandre Lacazette were both replaced after picking injuries in the first half and are doubtful for Sunday’s clash. Lyon will be without midfielders Clement Grenier and Yoann Gourcuff, who were ruled out until January with thigh problems. Third-placed Olympique Marseille, tied on 32 points with PSG, could also catch Lyon if they win at mid-table Toulouse this afternoon. The Southerners, who have alternated wins and losses in their last six games, hope they will find consistency at last. “We always react. We are crushed at home then we take points away. But we can’t continue with this roller-coaster series...”, coach Elie Baup told the club website (www.om.net).

CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, December 15, 2012

Sport APOEL confident of title challenge

Vidic return a big boost for leaky leaders United

By Nemanja Bjedov

Fergie: It’s a big, big win to have him back By Josh Reich and Simon Stone MANCHESTER United captain Nemanja Vidic has been included in the squad for today’s Premier League match against Sunderland at Old Trafford, manager Alex Ferguson said. The Serbian international has played only ﬁve matches this season and had knee surgery in September. The United defence has been unconvincing in Vidic’s absence, conceding 23 goals in 16 Premier League matches, and Ferguson told a news conference yesterday that his return was a huge boost. “It’s a big, big win to have him back in the squad - his ability to head the ball, his captaincy. We hope we’ve given him the proper rehab,” Ferguson said. “We’ll give him a chance and we hope he sails through it. I don’t know whether he will start - he’s only played about 10 games in the last 12 months, which is not like Nemanja.” Vidic’s return is all the more important because Jonny Evans is unavailable with a hamstring injury he suffered in last weekend’s Manchester derby win. Ferguson said Nani was still unavailable and Shinji Kagawa was back in training. Sunday’s last gasp 3-2

win over Manchesters City handed United a six-point lead at the top of the table, and Ferguson said that took some pressure off his side. “I’m happy with six points. It’s City’s challenge to try and catch,” he said. Today’s opponents last met on the final day of last season at the Stadium of Light, where United thought they had won the Premier League title with their 1-0 victory, until news filtered through of Manchester City’s remarkable last-gasp winner. City’s win prompted celebrations from the Sunderland fans, which upset many United players. “Their fans’ reaction on the last day was disappointing,” Ferguson said. “When you think about the players we’ve given them over the years, including Evans and (Danny) Simpson, who helped them win promotion. I don’t think it was malicious from their fans, just foolishness, they were just enjoying the moment. “Winning the game is more important for us given what we achieved last week. “Now we really need to kick on and make sure we retain our lead at the top of the league.” Wayne Rooney said in his autobiography that Sunderland was a fixture he would be looking out for more

keenly than usual this term. Sunderland face the daunting trip to Old Trafford missing up to five frontline players, with Adam Johnson, Danny Rose and Phil Bardsley all facing late fitness tests. Captain Lee Cattermole and former United man Wes Brown are not expected to return to action until next year. Sunderland were boosted by their 3-0 win over Reading on Tuesday but remain perilously close to the relegation zone with 16 points from as many matches. The hosts will be strongly fancied to beat a Black Cats outfit who have struggled so badly this term. Only a home win over Reading on Tuesday allowed Sunderland to scramble out of the bottom three. However, Ferguson does not believe manager Martin O’Neill deserves the stick he has been getting. “There was a question asked of Martin last week about whether he still had self-belief that was absolutely ridiculous,” said Ferguson. “This is a guy who won three times in Scotland, reached the UEFA Cup final and League Cup final with Leicester. “It was an insult to ask him a question like that because he is an outstanding manager.”

Injury hell: Man United captain Nemanja Vidic hasn’t played since turning out against Galatasaray in September

Ban thugs for life, says Allardyce By Mark Bryans

Disgraceful: Rio Ferdinand (right) was hit in the eye by a coin before being confronted by an angry Man City fan

WEST Ham manager Sam Allardyce believes modern technology and lifetime bans are the answer to stopping fan unrest at Barclays Premier League matches. There have been calls this week for the introduction of netting in front of certain areas of grounds to prevent incidents such as Rio Ferdinand being cut above the eye by a coin thrown from an opposing fan in last Sunday’s Manchester derby. But Allardyce reckons using video footage and issuing lengthy bans will act as a deterrent, whereas installing netting could have the opposite effect. “Its not for me,” Allardyce said when asked if he thought netting would be a good idea. “I think the more we use CCTV to weed out these individuals and ban them for life the less chance we have got of this kind of thing happen-

ing again. “We don’t want to start caging people in again, I know it is only netting but it is more like they are trying to cage people in and I don’t think that works, I think that creates a more volatile situation in the fanbase area. “I think that, when it happens, we have got the technology today to weed them out and ban them for life.” CCTV footage was used last week during Swansea’s match at home to Norwich when Canaries’ defender Sebastien Bassong reported a racist incident to match referee Howard Webb as his teammates celebrated a goal. A supporter was arrested in connection with the incident after the club studied CCTV footage. “That (lifetime bans) would send shivers across our country,” said Allardyce. “Fans are so passionate and want to watch football and if they aren’t allowed to do what they want to do forever then I think it is going to cut

it out.” Allardyce conﬁrmed fullback George McCartney suffered a knee injury in training this week and the 31-year-old is now a major doubt for Sunday’s match at West Brom. West Ham travel to the Hawthorns to face a West Brom side who are in the midst of a minor slump following their fantastic start to the season under Steve Clarke. Three league defeats in a row has blemished the run but the Baggies still sit sixth in the table and Allardyce knows they are a dangerous threat. He said: “I think they are still playing well and competing very well. I saw how unfortunate they were to lose at Arsenal last week. “Only two very poor refereeing decisions cost them the game so they may well have got something against Arsenal. At this moment in time, they are still playing very well but results have not matched the performances they have given.”

LEAGUE leaders Anorthosis visit AEP Paphos this afternoon at 6pm, while at the same time secondplaced APOEL host Enosis Neon Paralimni at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia, as the second half of the national football championship gets underway this weekend. “I cannot be unhappy with the way we played throughout the first part of the season although losing eight points at home does leave a bitter taste,” said APOEL coach Ivan Jovanovic. “Overall we did well, but losing to both AEK and Anorthosis made things look much worse than they actually are. We are currently four points behind Anorthosis but we have plenty of time to turn things around and win the championship,” added Jovanovic whose side have collected 31 points from 13 matches so far. APOEL thrashed Enosis Neon Paralimni 5-0 on the opening day of the season, but Jovanovic believes that this time, his side will face a trickier task: “We expect a very difficult match against Paralimni as the game comes after a painful defeat to Anorthosis in the last round. Not only because we lost at home, but because it was a match that could prove to be crucial in the final standings. “Paralimni showed that they are a serious team throughout the first half of the season and what will be important for us is to win this match. We have got ourselves in the position we are in at the moment and it is up to to us to get out of it.” Elsewhere this afternoon in the Round 14 opener at 5pm, Nea Salamina host Olympiakos Nicosia, while an hour later Toni Savevski’s Omonia visit Ayia Napa. “We take on a side who defend much better than the teams we have played against recently, so it will be a difficult match. What we need to do is be patient and try to score as early as possible in order to get the three points,” Savevski said. “We are creating many goal-scoring opportunities in every match, but our efficiency is not the greatest. Obviously the players feel the pressure of the situation we are in, both on and off the pitch, but the fact that we are creating chances is very important and I am confident that the goals will start flowing,” he added. Tomorrow afternoon at 5pm Ethnikos Achnas face Apollon Limassol at the Dasaki Stadium in Achna, while AEK take on Alki in a minor Larnaca derby. and defending champions AEL host Doxa Katokopia at the Tsirion Stadium in Limassol, both scheduled for 6pm.

Saturday, December 15, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

32 Next year will be the best of my life, says confident Baghdatis 28

Sport

The flea and the tiger face off in La Liga showdown 30

Corinthians calm before Chelsea storm By Stuart McDill CORINTHIANS sharp-shooter Paolo Guerrero has predicted the Brazilian side will lift the Club World Cup if they play their own style of football against Chelsea in tomorrow’s final. The Peruvian, who headed the winner in an unconvincing 1-0 victory over Egypt’s Al-Ahly in their semi-final in Japan, said European champions Chelsea were vulnerable. “Everyone knows Chelsea is one of the world’s great teams,” Guerrero told reporters in Yokohama yesterday. “It is a final everyone in Brazil, every Corinthians fan is waiting for. “We know it will be very difficult because they have different training, a different game,” added the former Hamburg

forward. “Corinthians have a lot of quality too and we have to play our own game.” Corinthians won the first edition of the FIFA tournament in 2000 but Chelsea, who comfortably beat Mexico’s Monterrey 3-1 on Thursday, will start as favourites. They also became the South American Libertadores Cup’s first unbeaten winners since 1978 this year, so will be no pushovers for Chelsea. “We know it will be a tough game,” said Guerrero. “But we know that playing our type of game will get us the world title. “We have a lot of ways of changing tactics so it will be difficult for Chelsea too.” A clash of styles should make for a more absorbing encounter than in recent years, European sides having rolled to victory in the last five finals.

“To win the way we won was very important,” said Spanish playmaker Juan Mata, who scored Chelsea’s opening goal against Monterrey. “We came here to win the trophy and become the world champions. We have been focused on scoring more goals and this has given us real confidence for the final.” The Corinthians players, expected to be cheered on by at least 15,000 fans who made the trip from Brazil, looked relaxed at training yesterday despite the pressure on them. “This is a very important moment for my career to win a world title,” said Guerrero. “Every player dreams of a final like this against a great European team like Chelsea. “That’s why I have absolute concentration now and I’m calm about Sunday.”

European champions Chelsea will start as favourites against the Copa Libertadores holders from Brazil

Pressure builds on Pardew as Newcastle entertain City Champions desperate to bounce back from derby defeat By Toby Davis

LAN Pardew was hailed last season as a steady hand on the Newcastle United tiller but ﬁnds himself contemplating an impending relegation battle ahead of a clash with wounded champions Manchester City in today’s early kick off (2.45pm). With the season nearing the halfway mark, Pardew is among a handful of coaches including City’s Roberto Mancini and Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger who are already feeling the heat. ewarded with Pardew was rewarded an eight-year contract ason in an earlier in the season tability to effort to bring stability ed to the a club more used em of the spinning mayhem rry-gomanagerial merry-goround. The deal was in of recognition he the fact that the m former West Ham ad United boss had rth steered the north t east club to ﬁfth rere place in the Preast s mier League last mak kterm while making the most of a sfer limited transfer

Both sides will be hoping for the three points for different reasons. Man City don’t want to fall even further behind leaders Man United, while Newcastle are looking to climb away from the drop zone budget. The cl close-season optimism that he could p propel his charges to the promised land of the Champions L League has evapo evaporated as this s season has progr progressed and after one league win in seven ma matches, they ﬁnd them-

selves 14th and two points above the drop zone. A haul of 17 points from 16 league games is evidence that the magic touch wielded by the plain-speaking coach has been absent in his side’s early season skirmishes while Monday’s 2-1 defeat at Fulham set alarm bells ringing. “I’m worried in so much as we are not picking up enough points, that is pretty evident,” Pardew said.

Alan Pardew guided Newcastle to an impressive ﬁfth place last season but has seen his side struggle to reproduce the same form

“We just didn’t defend well if I’m honest, we are going to have to be better - we can’t concede soft goals at this level.” The timing of City’s visit is not ideal for Newcastle as the Premier League champions are themselves desperate to return to winning ways having fallen behind local rivals United in the title race after an injury-time derby defeat. For City manager Mancini, last weekend’s reverse prompted a burst of bravado with the Italian stating his side are superior to

United and will have won the double come the end of the season. It also led to reports of dressing-room discontent at the Etihad Stadium. The derby was their ﬁrst league defeat of the season and a second slip up in a week would leave a serious dent in Mancini’s plans as well as questions about his future in the job. The six-point gap between the top two means the pressure is off league leaders Manchester United, who will feel conﬁdent of continuing their good form at home to

Sunderland today (5pm) having won their last four league games. They come up against an opposing manager in Martin O’Neill who, in his heyday, was touted as a future replacement for Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford but whose stock has slipped so signiﬁcantly recently that Tuesday’s 3-0 win over Reading was labelled make-or-break for the coach. Wenger, previously untouchable in his 16 years at Arsenal, is another who is under serious pressure. After being humiliated by fourth tier Bradford City in the League Cup on Tuesday, the Frenchman’s reputation could ill-afford another debacle at second-bottom Reading on Monday. Just two weeks ago, Wenger refused to rule out a late push for the title but the North London club are wallowing 15 points off the top and showing only glimpses of their eye-catching best. Liverpool will hope to register their third straight Premier League win when they host Aston Villa today (5pm) while fourth-placed Everton travel to Stoke City (5pm), who are unbeaten at home in the league since February. Tottenham Hotspur were dealt a cruel blow at Everton last weekend, conceding twice in injury time to lose 2-1, but will be looking to make it four league wins out of ﬁve at home to Swansea City tomorrow (3.30pm).