SUNDAY MAIL

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SLIDING HOMES

HISTORY ALIVE INSIDE

Owners of Armou’s collapsing houses fear onset of winter

A novel programme gives visitors a true taste of the past

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Pages 4-5

www.cyprus-mail.com

October 21, 2012

TV and lifestyle supplements to see you through the coming week

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COFFEESHOP: WHY ARE THE EVIL TROIKANS AFTER OUR CARING CO-OPS? Page 17 INSIDE Cyprus Weddings boost Peyia coffers 7

World Obama diagnoses a new condition: Romnesia 8

Feature The man who took 31 years to escape Scientology 10

Lifestyle The Google concept: inside new offices in London centre

Sport Mata double ruins AVB’s day as Blues win thriller 40

Bank wrote off huge AKEL debt Bank of Cyprus has written off total of ¤9.5m in debts owed by AKEL companies By a Staff Reporter

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DEBT of €6.5m owed by the AKEL-controlled Delta Trading company was written off by the Bank of Cyprus in 2006, bringing to €9.5 million the total loans the party controlled firms have not had to repay the bank. The latest revelation follows an earlier one in August when Politis newspaper revealed that the Bank of Cyprus had written off a debt of nearly €3m owed by another AKELcontrolled company, Tamasos Enterprises Ltd. Delta Trading company was set up in 1965 and was part of a network of AKEL-controlled companies that had business dealings with the former Soviet Union, which offered the party much needed financial assistance. Following the fall of the regimes in the Eastern Bloc, Delta, as well as most of the ‘party’ companies began to accumulate big debts. Furthermore, they were owed some US$7m by the former Soviet Union from the export

of products of which $5.2m were assigned to the government and the rest were receivables for the Bank of Cyprus. Delta found itself on the brink of bankruptcy. On September 6, 2006, an agreement was made between then Bank of Cyprus manager (now finance minister) Vassos Shiarly, on behalf of the bank and Antonis Papanicolaou, director of Delta Trading Ltd, and AKEL secretariat member in charge of economic affairs, Venizelos Zanettou, whereby the assets of Delta Trading Ltd were transferred to Delta (Distributors) Ltd. It also provided for the forced sale of a plot of land (owned by Delta Trading) in Limassol, the writing off of €6.5m owed to the bank and the subsequent removal of all personal guarantors from the loan agreement. More specifically, it was agreed that Delta Trading Ltd had reserves of CYP£90,000 and around £60,000 receivables. The bank and Delta appointed the director of Delta Trading as the liquidator with

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Demonstrators hold placards during a protest march in central London yesterday. Thousands of anti-austerity protesters marched to protest against public spending cuts enacted by a government fighting off accusations that it is run by an upper-class elite that ignores the plight of recession-hit voters STORY PAGE 8

LA police explore Manson Family role in a dozen cold cases By Mary Slosson DETECTIVES are looking at the possible role of the Manson Family in a dozen unsolved killings from four decades ago, and believe old audio tapes from a bankruptcy case hold a key to the cold cases, a police official said.

The so-called Manson Family cult, a collection of runaways and outcasts known for their high-profile spree of at least nine killings in 1969, was brought together by a charismatic ex-convict, Charles Manson. The 12 unsolved killings police are looking into had “similar circumstances, the same time period” as those committed by Manson’s followers, Los Angeles police spokes-

man Commander Andrew Smith said. “We think there’s a chance that they may be related to the Manson Family,” he added. In 1969, Manson became one of the 20th century’s most infamous US criminals when he incited his mostly young, female followers to murder in what prosecutors said was part of a twisted plan to incite

a race war between whites and blacks. Among the victims was actress Sharon Tate, the pregnant wife of filmmaker Roman Polanski, who was stabbed 16 times by members of the cult in the early morning hours of August 9, 1969. Manson, now 77, is serving a life sentence.

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