Cyprus Mail www.cyprus-mail.com
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
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CYPRUS
WORLD
SPORT
James Watson opens School of Molecular Medicine
Karadzic says should be awarded for peace efforts 8
Felipe Massa signs new deal with Ferrari 32
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State’s vehicles seized in Paphos Bailiffs move in to take seven vehicles which could end up being auctioned By George Psyllides
P
APHIANS were left gobsmacked yesterday by the sight of court bailiffs seizing seven vehicles belonging to the government at the behest of people owed money by the state for land appropriations it has yet to pay. The application for the writs was filed by owners of land earmarked for the construction of the Paphos to Polis highway that has been put on hold by the cashstrapped state. Bailiffs yesterday morning seized three vehicles belonging to the district’s public works department, one each from the forestry department and the land registry and two belonging to the electromechanical services. Public works department engineer Antigoni Tyllirou said they had not been informed officially about the seizure nor the case it concerned. Bailiffs went to the public works offices and after delivering the writs they loaded the vehicles on a large platform, she said. The vehicles have been transferred to a fenced area at the Paphos district court and are set to be auctioned off if no other arrangement is made. Polis Chrysochous Mayor Angelos Odysseos also said he had not been officially informed about the development. The mayor said he has asked for meetings with the president, the communications minister and parties whom he will ask for support and their pledge that
the project will be done. Last month, the government decided to revoke land expropriations for public projects deemed superfluous and worth a total of €160m. The state owes some €570m to owners of land expropriated for the purposes of implementing public projects, including the Paphos-Polis highway and the Pentakomo Technological Park. Given the abysmal state of public finances, the government was forced to reevaluate the feasibility of implementing many of these projects. The aim is to cancel or downsize non-pressing projects, giving the state the opportunity to return expropriated land no longer deemed necessary, provided it has not already paid for the land. Although the re-jigging also affects the Paphos-Polis highway, Communications and Works Minister Efthymios Flourentzos said the project had not been cancelled, merely pushed back. A ministerial committee will be appointed soon to guide efforts to redesign the project at a cost that is more realistic and implementable. A decision has been taken to revoke land expropriations for the project totalling some €65m, a significant part of which - €23.5m - accounts for interest owed on the state’s debts. Expropriations were made in 2006 for the proposed highway when the project was nowhere near ready for implementation, burdening the state budget without any immediate results.
New York’s Upper East Side now priciest US address
Firemen in protective clothes walk over the grounds of Kraft Foods in Bad Fallingbostel, northern Germany after a chemical accident yesterday. Around 1,400 people were evacuated from their homes after the accident caused a cloud of poisonous gas (AFP)
AN EXCLUSIVE area of New York’s Upper East Side, where the median price for a home is $6.5 million and the most expensive will reach $40 million, has become the priciest address code in the United States, according to Forbes. The tree-lined streets that border Central Park and the East River and run from E. 61st to E. 69th streets, home to media mogul Rupert Murdock and cosmetic tycoon Ronald Perelman, bumped Alpine, New Jersey from its perch on the annual list. “This is the first time that a Big Apple neighbourhood has topped our list,” Forbes said of the New York area with the ZIP code 10065. “The main factor driving listing prices in America’s most expensive ZIP codes this year is lack of inventory.” Alpine, the affluent New Jersey neighbourhood where the median house price is $5.75 million and its ZIP code is 07620, dropped to the No. 2 spot, followed by Atherton, in California’s Silicon Valley with a 94027 postal code. Sagaponack (11962), the Southampton village on Long Island in New York where singer Billy Joel and Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein enjoy the summer sun, came in fourth for the second year. Hillsborough (94010), just south of San Francisco California, rounded out the top five. Forbes added that wealthy foreign buyers have helped push up prices as they look at cities like New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and Washington DC for a place to park their money.