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Thursday, July 5, 2012
CYPRUS
SPORT
REPORTAGE
Troika: tightrope
Murray marches into semis after wearing down Ferrer
France and Algeria inching closer 50 years on
back
centre
between austerity and reform
4
Christofias slams EU fiscal policies First address as EU Council President given to MEPs rips into ‘failed model’ By Jacqueline Agathocleous
P
RESIDENT Demetris Christofias gave a rousing speech about ‘market lawlessness’ and a ‘fairer society’ to the European Parliament yesterday, marred only by an attack from a British MEP who slammed Cyprus over crooked lawyers and property developers. Before the incident, during his address in which he outlined the Cyprus presidency’s priorities, Christofias expressed his dissatisfaction at the EU’s policies in dealing with the financial crisis. “We should have the strength to self-criticise, on a national but also a European level, for the possible political inaction or the weaknesses of the policies that were implemented in Europe over the past two decades,” said Christofias. He said the EU’s model of absolute freedom of the market, without state supervision or safety clauses, had failed – a comment that was met with applause from MEPs. “It is one thing to talk about free market and another about market lawlessness,” he said. “I am against the latter and I want to state that intervention is required from govern-
ments that are elected by the people to govern and not to be governed by markets”. The President went on to blast the “strict austerity policies” that were implemented by the EU to deal with the crisis, saying they not only proved incapable of solving the problems, but made them worse. “We can’t, with our policies, offload the bulk of the crisis onto the shoulders of those who barely make a living,” said Christofias. He called for fairer distribution of produced income. “We will attempt to bring together fiscal discipline with development and social cohesion. This is something which, I would like to believe, is new. Let’s try it. What we have tried all these years has not yielded results,” Christofias said. His address was followed by MEPs’ statements, which were generally positive with no criticism relating to the fact that Cyprus took over the EU presidency only days after seeking a bailout for itself. There were several references to the fact that Christofias was a ‘communist President’ “I won’t create a revolution, don’t worry,” he told MEPs. There were also several comments on the Cyprus problem
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SPECTACULAR SPOTLIGHT ON THE SHARD
Scientists unveil ‘God particle’ milestone By Chris Wickham and Rosalba O’Brien
LONDON was lit up as never before with a spectacular laser show to mark the completion of the Shard. Coloured beams from 12 lasers and 30 powerful searchlights shot across the night sky to illuminate the landmark in an hourlong display. But the daz-
zling performance was just a dress rehearsal for the real thing, which will take place at 10pm BST tonight to herald the end of external work to the £450 million, 1,020ft tall tower at London Bridge. Prince Andrew will be among the first people to step into the 72nd floor, 360
degree viewing gallery along with the prime minister of Qatar, whose country has financed the building. The £50 million price of one of the Shard’s apartments will be beyond most people’s means but the laser show is free. It will be streamed live at the-shard.com
SCIENTISTS at the CERN research centre have found a new subatomic particle that could be the Higgs boson, the basic building block of the universe. Joe Incandela, spokesman for one of the two teams hunting for the Higgs particle told an audience at CERN near Geneva: “This is a preliminary result, but we think it’s very strong and very solid.” “I can confirm that a particle has been discovered that is consistent with the Higgs boson theory,” said John Womersley, chief executive of Britain’s Science & Technology Facilities Council, at an event in London. The Higgs particle, although crucial for understanding how the universe was formed, remains theoretical. It explains how particles clumped together to form stars, planets and even life. Without the Higgs particle, the particles that make up the universe would have remained like a soup, the theory goes. It is the last undiscovered piece of the Standard Model that describes the fundamental make-up of the universe.
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