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September 2, 2012

WIN GREEK LESSONS FOR A YEAR IN PAPHOS INSIDE Cyprus Christofias: we could not have predicted crisis 3

World ‘10,000 are at risk from Yosemite hantavirus’ 10

19

Property What you should be doing in the garden this month 23

Sport 10-man Tottenham held by Norwich 40

LIVING

‘Be honest and get on with it’ What Cyprus can learn from Ireland’s bailout experience where first target was public sector

By Stefanos Evripidou

Lifestyle Michelle and Anna fight it out to be First Lady

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F CYPRUS is going to get out of the current economic crisis then it needs to be honest about the scale of the problem and simply “get on with it”, said Irish minister Lucinda Creighton whose country has received an €85 billion bailout.

The Irish Minister of State for European Affairs was in Cyprus this week to attend the informal ministers meeting on the EU’s long-term budget.

The Sunday Mail caught up with the young, straight-talking and on-the-ball Creighton in between negotiations and lunch to hear her views on how Ireland went from poverty to boom to bust (and bailout), and now slowly back to self-sufficiency.

Asked what caused the crisis in Ireland, she said: “In a nutshell, the property bubble fuelled by an unregulated, irresponsible banking sector.

Obviously government policy contributed to that but the nub of the issue is we had an enormous property crash which brought the whole economy crashing down with it.”

Between 1995 and 2007, Ireland experienced extraordinary economic growth, making the ‘Celtic Tiger’ the poster child of the EU. In the summer of 2008, it officially entered into recession. In 2010, Ireland received €85 billion in the form of a bailout loan from the troika (European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund and European Commission) and through bilateral loans from Britain,

Sweden and Denmark. Two years later, unemployment is near 15 per cent but the economic indicators are starting to look positive. More importantly, Ireland has slowly regained the trust of the world and markets, even raising cash in July by tapping into short-term bond options. The aim is to get out of the bailout mechanism within 2013.

“The economy is basically growing once again. We’ve effectively emerged from recession. The economy grew by over 1.0 per cent last year, so by and large it’s a good news story, though that’s not in any way to take away from the huge sacrifices that the Irish people have had to make,” said Creighton.

The Irish experience has plenty that Cyprus can learn from. Both countries are islands with relatively small populations. Both have a historic enmity towards former colonial master Britain, though the British bailout loan to Ireland and Queen Elizabeth’s firstever visit to the Irish Republic last year did much to bury that hostility.

Both experienced a period of enviable economic growth fuelled mainly by a property bubble followed by recession and soaring unemployment.

Both applied for a bailout when the money dried up after international markets closed the tap on reasonable lending rates.

The similarities end there.

Once coming to terms with the crisis, Ireland took swift and hard measures to beat it, resulting in today’s more

TURN TO PAGE 5

Store owner Rajesh Shah poses in front of his shop in Ahmedabad

(AFP)

Hitler store in India causes outrage A NEW Indian clothing store called Hitler has hurt the feelings of Jews around the world, a senior Israeli diplomat has told the BBC. Israel’s consul-general in Mumbai, Orna Sagiv, said she was “really shocked” by the “insensitive” name. The store opened in the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat 10 days ago.

Its owner says he did not know who Adolf Hitler was and the store is named after a business partner’s grandfather who was called Hitler for being strict.

Sagiv said she would “raise the issue” with the state government next week during a pre-arranged visit to Gujarat, the BBC said.

“I don’t think they have named the store out of malice, I think it’s just ignorance and

insensitivity on their part,” she said. The shop’s owner Rajesh Shah, who sells men’s clothing, said he was surprised he had upset people. “I didn’t know how much the name would disturb people,” he told the AFP news agency. “It was only when the store opened I learnt that Hitler had killed six million people.”

Shah said he would change the store’s name if he was compensated for re-branding costs. He said he had spent 150,000 rupees (about $2,700; £1,700) on the logo, hoarding and business cards.

The store has Hitler written in large letters over the front and a Nazi swastika symbol makes up the dot on the letter “i”.

2 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

Home Weather

Nicosia Troodos

37

28

Paphos

32

34

Larnaca

Limassol

32

TODAY: Hot and sunny. Temperatures will reach 37C inland, 34C in the east, 32C in the south and west and 28C over the mountains.

OUTLOOK: Remaining hot until Wednesday, with a small rise in temperatures due.

Ice cream favourite celebrates 60 years Factory started when ice creams on the island a rarity

By Zoe Christodoulides

YESTERDAY

Nicosia Larnaca Limassol Paphos Paralimni Prodromos

max/min temp 37 - 20 31 - 19 32 - 21 30 - 20 33 - 22 27 - 19

Humidity 18% 56% 52% 62% 37% 31%

SUNRISE: 06.20 am

SUNSET: 19.12 pm

Sunday Mail Established 1945. Number 21,320 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

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WHILE the hot Cyprus summer and the appeal of tucking into a delicious ice cream go hand in hand, it’s hard to imagine a time when such creamy delights were exceptionally hard to come by. As the well-known local brand Regis celebrates its 60th anniversary, the company is proud of its long history as the very first large scale ice cream manufacturer to have established itself on the island.

Originally set up by British businessmen back in 1952, the factory premises in the centre of Nicosia were something new and novel for the times. In 1956, Nicosian George Protopapas stepped into the picture, buying the company and y investing in this relatively ket new sector of the market y with a brand new factory space in Kaimakli.

To this day, the Kaimakli factory forms a hub of activity for Regis, n with added distribution units in the Sopaz area of the capital coupled with a le centre in Limassol. While mthere are 70 staff memng bers busying over varying he aspects of production, the wn Protopapas family still own he a substantial part of the e’s company, with George’s two children actively involved in running it. he “By the 1960s and the icwidespread use of electricnd ity throughout the island, the company was able to distribute to all corners of the country as the brand name became more popular than ever,” recalls director of marketing and sales, Lena Protopapa Pelides.

“Things were really good at that time, but no one was to imagine the wide spread destruction that was to follow soon after.”

With the invasion of 1974,

Above: the Regis factory in the 60s. Below: then and now: a 1962 tub of vanilla ice cream. Regis’ current Ice Dream range

things took a dramatic turn for the worse. Although the factory grounds in Kaimakli escaped the effects of the tragedy, huge losses were still suffered due to the fact that most of the distribution trucks, cabinets and fridges were trapped in the north.

“Back then we had big sales in the tourist hot spots of Kyrenia and Famagusta,” explains Lena. “So you can

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just imagine how much the company struggled after the invasion. It was almost as if we were starting from scratch. It was exceptionally tough, but we made it through.”

Now, still a key player on the market, they have branched out with 25 flavours of ice cream. Adapting to the times has also meant introducing various diet options into the mix.

The most popular sellers however have remained the same since the 1960s as their greatest success lies in their ‘choc ice’ - chocolate covered vanilla bars - as well as their Agryno cones.

But one has to wonder how Regis still holds an appeal in a market saturated by glorified foreign brands. “There’s no doubt that there’s intense competition these days, it’s certainly not how it used to be and it’s not easy,” admits Lena. “But we’ve man-

ag aged to develop a big b brand name on the local market over the years and Cypriot consumers are still opting for ice creams that have r remained favourit ites from years ago.

Th They know us, they tru trust us, and they will co come back for more.”

Re Regis prices have also ret retained a competitive edg edge in comparison to ma many of the foreign impor ports.

Al Always attempting to use pure ingredients, big efforts are placed on pick picking out the cream of the c crop. “We use Madagasc gascan vanilla, pistachios from Sicily, locally grown strawberries and th list li t goes on,” points out the Lena. “We have also made a point of keeping up with modern trends and updating our produce.”

In an attempt to adjust to consumer demands while also staying afloat in a period of ongoing crisis, the company has recently introduced a number of cheaper options particularly geared towards large families.

“We’ve been particularly successful with our multipacks consisting of four ice creams on a stick sold for €1.95,” says Lena.

“We’ve also released a special birthday deal where the customer pays for two Ice Dream packs and gets one free.” And what next for the company now celebrating over half a century of success? “We plan to strengthen the brand name with the addition of novelty ice creams while improving the coverage of the market.

Good customer service is also very important to us.”

3 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 2012

CYPRUS TODAY Burglary in Larnaca JEWELLERY, electronic equipment and other valuables worth €85,000 were stolen from a house rented by a foreign national on holiday in Larnaca, police said yesterday.

Police said the man, who rents a house in the Pyla area, believes the theft took place between 7pm and 9.30pm on Thursday.

It has been determined that the thief or thieves had entered the house through a window, which had been left open, a police spokesman said.

Police appealed to the public to ensure that all doors and windows are locked before leaving their home.

Home

Christofias: we could not have predicted the crisis

By George Psyllides PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias blamed the global economic crisis for the recession the island is in, saying it could not have been predicted.

The administration and ruling AKEL have repeatedly denied that their management of public finances has anything to do with the current sorry state of the economy.

“Of course, we could not predict the economic crisis. We could not. Of course, to some we are responsible for the global economic crisis,” the president said on Friday in Dherynia, during the presentation of a book.

He said the crisis was not without very serious effects in Cyprus, but pledged that education and culture at least would not be hurt.

“Other sectors will be

Airline seeing lower revenue from passengers and cargo

By George Psyllides

LARNACA police yesterday busted an illegal casino, operating on the Dhekelia road.

Twenty-five people – 15 customers and 10 staff – found inside the establishment during the 3am raid were charged and released, police said.

Inside, officers found and seized €5,235 in cash, six blackjack and poker tables, a roulette table and a large number of chips and playing cards.

A Larnaca police spokesman said such operations will continue in a bid to stamp out the phenomenon.

Gambling raid in Paphos

Car theft in Limassol LIMASSOL police were yesterday investigating the theft of a car worth €70,000 from the owner’s home. Police said a neighbour had reported that the car owner’s house had been burgled between Wednesday and Thursday.

Officers found that the key to the car, a BMW 630, had also been stolen.

regulatory capital through private funds. Main opposition DISY has criticised the government almost on a daily basis and yesterday was not any different.

The workers whom the government and AKEL invoke from morning until night, have suffered an unprecedented loss of income and are being tested by an unprecedented unemployment storm, DISY said.

“During the AKEL administration, unemployment

CY posts first-half losses of €32 million

Casino busted in Dhekelia

POLICE arrested 10 people caught gambling in a Paphos betting shop, it was announced yesterday.

Nine of the individuals caught in the Friday evening raid have been charged in writing and released, police said.

The owner of the betting shop will be charged at a later stage.

Officers seized 123 chips and 104 playing cards, the police said.

hurt, but education will not,” the president said.

Christofias has been accused by the opposition of doing virtually nothing to tackle the recession, and anything that has been done is ‘too little too late’, they said.

Cyprus applied to its EU partners for economic assistance in June. The government blames this on the banks’ heavy exposure to Greece and their failure to raise the necessary

New chairman says sacrifices will have to be made by all

TROUBLED national carrier Cyprus Airways (CY) posted a €32.1 million loss in the first half of the year as passenger and cargo revenues dwindled.

The loss in the same period last year was €29.3 million.

CY said the rise is mainly due to revenues from the transport of passengers and cargo felling by 21.2 per cent to €71.4 million.

The airline said passenger numbers dropped by around 75,000.

CY is in the process of drafting a viable restructuring plan in the hope of making the airline attractive to potential investors.

A Canadian conglomerate that expressed interest in the airline is reportedly having second thoughts as experts it hired suggested that CY cannot become competitive.

Parliament recently approved an increase of the airline’s share capital, but not before attaching two conditions for the release of the money.

The first was the replacement of the eight stateappointed members of the board, which has been met.

The new board assumed duties around a week ago.

The other condition is for a viable restructuring plan

to be drawn within three months from the date the new board came in.

“The implementation of the new restructuring plan … the planned increase of the company’s capital base by €45 million and continuation of the efforts to find a strategic investor, are expected to secure the long term survival of the group,” CY said.

In his message to the staff, new chairman Stavros Stavrou asked for hard work, focus and painful efforts.

“Sacrifices by all will also be necessary,” for the airline to overcome its troubles and become competitive, Stavrou said.

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.

exceeded the EU average for the first time in the history of the Republic.”

DISY said Cypriot workers for the first time feel exposed to an economic crisis “that their government is facing with apathy, indecisiveness, dogmatism and demagoguery.”

And instead of assuming their responsibility, they have the cheek to blame others for the state they put Cypriots in, DISY said.

‘Central Bank staff asked to surrender phones and computers’ THE opposition yesterday criticised the Central Bank leadership over claims that it had asked its staff to surrender their personal computers and phones as part of an investigation of the two main banks.

DISY condemned the practice, which it said was reminiscent of totalitarian regimes and urged the Central Bank governor and the government to terminate immediately behaviours that lead the country ‘into other eras and other conditions’.

DIKO echoed DISY, but it also expressed hope that the information was mistaken.

Daily Alithia reported yesterday that Central Bank staff had been asked to be prepared to give up their personal computers, laptops and mobile phones as part of an investigation into why the country’s two largest banks had to seek state support.

A professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal has been hired by the Cemtral Bank to carry out the probe.

A&M will investigate the conditions under which the bonds were acquired, the banks’ expansion abroad and the responsibility of the regulator.

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4 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

Home Scuffles over ‘Romeo and Juliet’ affair SCUFFLES broke out on Friday evening between Kurds and Turkish Cypriots living in Limassol over what appears to have been a relationship between two young people.

The fight ended with two people sustaining minor injuries, and a burnt vehicle.

Reports said it all started when a 16-year-old Turkish Cypriot girl, who is in a relationship with a Kurdish youth (no age given) abandoned her home after a fight with her family.

Members of her family along with other Turkish Cypriots looking for the girl, went to a Kurdish cultural centre where they clashed with the Kurds.

One Kurdish man, and the mother of the 16-year-old sustained light injuries during the melee but the young couple were nowhere to be found, reports said.

It also appears that the burning of a vehicle belonging to the girl’s brother a few hours later was linked to the incident.

Limassol police scrambled to the area to avert further trouble. Police spokesman Andreas Angelides said yesterday there had not been any sign that the trouble would continue. He said the case clearly concerned family and personal differences.

Trail blazer on Lakatamia tip Abandoned, derelict, covered in graffiti and rubbish: the remains of an aviation pioneer

By Nathan Morley

Abandoned: the scene in Lakatamia

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IT WAS once the pride of the airline industry – but now, almost 60 years after making one of the most celebrated flights in history, it’s strippeddown and vandalised body makes for a sorry sight.

Few people, if any, have any idea that the cut up fuselage sitting in the blazing sun on a scrap-heap in Lakatamia is the remains of the first commercial passenger aircraft to fly across the North Pole - an event which looms large in the history of aviation.

The plane’s remarkable history was uncovered by musician Giovanni Galetti after he spotted the aircraft several years ago dumped among used tires and piles of garbage on wasteland near the old Lakatamia airstrip.

Galetti says he had no idea of its significance until he started some detective work trawling through newspaper archives and the internet, when he finally identified the aircraft as being the famed DC-6B SAS Arild Viking.

“I was always wondering why a big plane like that could have been in a place like this. Most people I asked said it was an old army plane, so when I went to the site I could still see a faded registration number under the old paint – from there it was not so difficult to trace the history,” Galetti told the Sunday Mail, “Obviously when I found out this was such a special aircraft, I was excited.”

The Arild Viking was no ordinary aircraft – in 1952 it made headlines in every corner of the world when it completed a pioneering polar flight on a route to Scandinavia by way of the Arctic region, leaving Los Angeles for Copenhagen via Thule air base, in Greenland. The flight, which covered 5,940 miles, took 27 hours and 52 minutes.

Passengers included the Danish and Swedish ambassadors to the USA, military and civilian officials.

Such was the uncertainty that the flight would succeed, arctic survival equipment was

Left to rot: the barely recognisable cabin of the plane also loaded on board, including sleeping bags, skis and snow-shoes, snow shovels and rifles.

The success of the Arild Viking caused an outpouring of national delight in Sweden, Denmark and Norway and opened the way for regular scheduled services between Europe, the USA and Japan via the North Pole and in 1962 SAS airlines was awarded the Christopher Columbus Prize often called the Nobel Prize of communication - in recognition of its pioneering transpolar achievements.

“The Arild Viking flight was a very big achievement for the civilian air industry because no one else had opened regular flights over the polar area,” a spokesman for SAS told the Sunday Mail.

SAS sold the Arild Viking to Icelandic Airways in the early 1960s, from there it moved to Thai Air, then to a cargo company. With few people aware of its former past, the plane is thought to have eventually arrived in Cyprus in 1979, where it was damaged at Larnaca airport and earmarked to be converted into a café or restaurant, but its history since then remains sketchy.

In 1990, it was moved to Lakatamia, where it was broken up and has remained since.

Today, the Arild Viking provides a heartbreaking sight - only the wings and part of

the body are recognisable and vandals have covered the remains in graffiti, broken the windows and carved gaping holes in the fuselage.

A wealth of artifacts are scattered around the remnants, including seatbelts, cockpit dials and engine parts.

According to Galetti, the plane had been in fairly good condition until vandals moved in a few years ago, leaving a trail of destruction by smashing much of the body. The cockpit and tail have now disappeared altogether.

Former pilot and aviation journalist Pete Combs told the Sunday Mail that the DC6B was a remarkable longrange commercial aircraft and the Arild Viking had met a truly undignified end.

“I cover a lot of aviation history and a lot of aviation disasters. This is both. Arild Viking opened an era of overthe-pole aviation that has benefited passengers from the world over. It should be in a museum - not an unrecognisable wreck in a trash pile.

What a tragedy.”

Danish Ambassador to Nicosia Kirsten Geelan described the find as being: “A remarkable story and piece of detective work.”

For many aviation buffs that have tried for years to fill in the blank pages of the Arild Viking’s history, its discovery is a significant, but depressing find.

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5 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 2012

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Public servants’ salaries saw an average cut of 14 per cent while a voluntary redundancy scheme introduced last year has made way for 26,000 job cuts

‘Be honest and get on with it’ (continued from front page) positive outlook. “It took a bit of time for the government to really come to terms with the scale of the crisis,” said Creighton.

“The first budget of 2009 ignored the crisis and ignored the need for fiscal consolidation but as the year progressed it became apparent there was a huge gaping hole in the public finances and so there was an emergency budget later in 2009. So, we’ve had three and a half years now of consolidation,” said the minister, predicting another three years of belt-tightening.

Ireland implemented a whole range of measures to curb the “huge amount of excessive spending in the public sector”. “Our civil service grew at a rate of knots during the Celtic Tiger period. The government kept spending and spending, increasing bureaucracy, increasing quangos (quasi-autonomous nongovernmental organisation).

So, a lot of that was very easy to cut to be honest, because there was a lot of low-hanging fruit, a lot of fat in the system that needed to be trimmed,” she said.

The Irish minister said public sector salaries were a starting point for the fruit-cutters, noting that reductions in spending were implemented right across all public services. “Nothing was excluded really apart perhaps from our social welfare payments which by and large still have been protected.”

Public servants’ salaries saw an average cut of 14 per cent while a voluntary redundancy scheme introduced last year has made way for 26,000 job cuts.

“So far, we’ve had no forced redundancies in the public sector and hopefully that will be maintained,” she said.

The push for major reforms and efficiencies in the public sector (belt-tightening, early retirements, salary cuts) was decided in an agreement between the government and social partners in 2010.

That deal has been honoured in full by the government but will be up for review in 2013, noted Creighton.

“That’s how the measures began really, but as you move from one budget to another the decisions get tougher, as there’s less and less of the easy options in terms of cuts to be made,” she said. According to Creighton, lower and middleincome workers have been hit the hardest by the crisis.

“They’re the people who have really paid the price of the crisis. In the private sector particularly, they lost their jobs. Huge numbers of people lost their main source of income, or if they didn’t lose their jobs, they took significant pay cuts, up to 35-40 per cent in certain sectors.

“Of course that then has a major impact on mortgage repayments. We have a major problem now with mortgage

arrears in Ireland where families just can’t meet their mortgage payments. That’s one of the biggest challenges facing the government.”

Acknowledging that Ireland is still living in very difficult circumstances, Creighton argued that the measures have clearly paid off, providing more rationality to spending while restoring Ireland’s credibility.

“We were living beyond our means. Towards the end of the Celtic Tiger era, one in every four euros received by the exchequer was coming from the property sector so it was a complete fantasy.

When that collapsed, we found that in effect we were spending far more than we could afford. So, we’ve had to cut our cloth, and I think that that has been very effective, and worked very well,” she said, adding that in general the Irish public has supported the government’s measures.

“The other thing is that the measures have very much restored Ireland’s credibility on the international stage. Nobody’s questioning whether Ireland’s going to meet its targets under the troika programme or whether Ireland is

‘The push for major reforms in the public sector was decided between the government and social partners’ a safe place to invest.

“We’ve stabilised our banking sector and economy. We’re not haemorrhaging jobs any longer. Our unemployment rate is still unacceptably high but the attrition rate has really stopped,” she said.

At the same time though, aren’t the future generations laden with an insurmountable public debt?

“Absolutely, the debt levels are unacceptable. It’s very difficult for a country to grow when it’s saddled with debt in excess of 120 per cent of GDP. That’s why we’re negotiating at an EU level to sever the link between sovereign debt and banking debt... That’s our goal. And for Ireland to really rebound, that’s going to be hugely important.”

Creighton’s account of Ireland’s response to the troika’s arrival differs sharply with Cyprus’ own experience of the trio of international money lenders, due back on the island this month for further negotiations. “Initially, when the troika arrived in Ireland

we had been in a very tragic political meltdown for about 18 months. We had a government that had lost all authority, all confidence, and so when the troika arrived in Dublin, it was almost like a sense of relief amongst the public. And people were delighted that someone was coming to try to sort out the mess that we were in,” she said.

“Of course that very quickly turned into resentment and so on. Still in Ireland, by and large, the troika are not popular, but they are not despised.

People understand we need the money and we need the cooperation to get out of the mess we’re in.”

Perhaps music to some ears in Cyprus, the European affairs minister said Ireland found the troika to be “extremely flexible and extremely willing to assist countries”.

She explained of the bailout mechanism: “It’s not a punishment process, it’s trying to make sure that countries like Ireland and Cyprus can grow their economies, be competitive and emerge from recession.”

Creighton pointed to the fact that Ireland successfully defended its position on its low corporate tax rate, insisting it was a fundamental part of Ireland’s investment strategy, industrial policy and export strategy. “And we have been proven right because Ireland has emerged from recession,” she said.

It couldn’t have happened at a better time.

The positive indicators come at a time when the public is starting to get weary of cutbacks and fiscal consolidation.

“Understandably, people want to see light at the end of the tunnel,” said the minister, pointing to Ireland’s recent successful bond options.

“So we are on the path to emerging from our bailout programme, to being able to borrow from the markets again, to fund ourselves and stand on our own two feet in an economic sense. I think that’s very important for the Irish people.”

Asked why Ireland did not see the kind of social unrest witnessed on the streets of Athens, Creighton said there was “real political consensus across the board” for fiscal consolidation.

In terms of the public’s response, she referred to an Irish sense of realism and pragmatism.

“People knew, and we all felt that what was happening in Ireland was not sustainable, that the last few years of the Celtic Tiger was a little bit of a surreal experience. There was a bit of a coming back down to earth.

“So people just said OK, let’s get on with it. Let’s pick ourselves up, let’s move forward.

We’ve been through worse times. Ireland after we gained independence was a destitute, impoverished place, the poor-

Irish Minister of State for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton est country in Europe. We’ve been there before. This is nothing like that. We can just move forward. And we have support from our European institutions, support from our European partners, we just need to get on with it.”

What can Cyprus learn from

Ireland? “To get on with it, to be resolute and to be honest about the scale of the crisis.”

Creighton said Ireland made the mistake of not insisting on full transparency from the banks and learning the full scale of the banking crisis from the start.

Instead of dealing with the problem in the first round, the banks ended up needing a number of bailouts.

“I think that’s a very important lesson: that every other country, Spain, Cyprus, should try to avoid the mistake we made,” she said.

6 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

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New Nicosia mayor Constantinos Yiorkadjis is keen to improve conditions in the old

Putting order in old town

By Stefanos Evripidou ICOSIA MAYOR Constantinos Yiorkadjis has plans to attract and increase business and people to the heart of old Nicosia using shade, aesthetics and uniform rules for commerce in the pedestrianised areas.

Introducing change will take a delicate balancing act, as the merits have to be sold to traditionally conservative shopkeepers in the old town, both old (some more than half a century) and new.

For those who don’t remember, when the decision was taken years back to pedestrianise the streets of Ledra and Onasagorou many shopkeepers were reluctant, fearing it would harm business. For a while it did, until shopkeepers adapted to the changing demands of the time and the pedestrian consumer.

When the Ledra Street checkpoint opened the old town to the north of the capital after decades of separation, many were apprehensive that business would be lost, but it wasn’t.

In fact, the streets are now heaving with strollers, shoppers, teenagers, families, diners and serial ice-cream eaters. There are so many new eateries, that pedestrians have a hard time circumnavigating all the tables and chairs strewn along either side of the historic streets.

Old Nicosia even has its modest share of buskers. The white human statues and solo guitar strummer with his fixed repertoire of Beatles and Cat Stevens may not yet compare with the intricate acts of Covent Garden’s street performers but their presence is a welcome addition.

The new mayor now wants to put some order in the old town, ensuring a more aesthetically pleasing experience for pedestrians and a level-

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Firemen on Ledra Street to see how much space they would need in the event of a fire playing field for business.

When Yiorkadjis took office in January, the long hours and consensus-based decisions were working traits he was used to from his previous job in the private sector.

The obligatory after-hours attendance at social functions and openings were not.

Neither was the slow, bureaucratic process of nurturing a decision from birth to fruition.

“I’ve been working in very high-pressured positions with great responsibilities all my life and the hours are similar, about 10 to 12 hours a day,” said the former marketing manager of CCHBC Cyprus (Lanitis Bros) which has the Coca-Cola bottling franchise in Cyprus.

“What is different is the hours that you need for ‘extra

curriculum’ activities in the afternoon, the launches and openings… the social factor.

This part is extra and it’s a lot. Before, you did whatever you liked (after work), now there are responsibilities on the social scene,” he said.

Speaking to the Sunday Mail from his municipality office, decorated with contemporary Cypriot paintings, the 44-year-old mayor shrugged off the suggestion that working by consensus in the municipal council differed greatly from the private sector world of action-reaction, decision-implementation.

“The private sector, like the large corporation I worked in, is consensus-based. Big multinationals work in groups and with inter-departmental teams so the consensus part was easy. What takes longer

is the various processes, and bureaucracy is indeed more obvious in the public sector,” said Yiorkadjis.

“You have to learn to work with the system and make the system start producing for you,” he added.

The new mayor is dressed casually in a short-sleeved pink shirt with jeans. He offers a piece of kouloumbra (white turnip) - leftover from a breakfast of chopped fresh vegetables - as he turns to lunch, a plate of sliced fresh fruit.

Munching on the crunchy turnip, I notice an empty coffee cup and tin of diet cola on his desk (you can guess the brand), happy to note the mayor’s intake is not all sinfree.

Asked about efforts underway to enhance the old town, Yiorkadjis said the aim was two-fold: to attract new businesses and placate existing ones with new incentives and uniform rules applicable to all; and to lure more pedestrians by making the place comfortable to be in and pleasing to the eye.

“Our effort is to bring in

(Christos Theodorides) new businesses with the decision taken not to require the purchase of parking places for new establishments in the pedestrian area,” he said, referring to the costly obligation to literally “buy” parking from the municipality even if

of clear rules that will aim to aesthetically upgrade the street by asking the various owners to use, not the same, but a certain type of equipment and signage,” said Yiorkadjis.

The hope is that new establishments will have a more homogenous design code, in terms of shapes and colours, to choose from which existing shops will adopt when the time comes to replace their old signs, chairs, tables and umbrellas.

“Another reason to make the rule book is to make the pedestrianised areas attractive to visitors who need the space which will make access and movement easy and effortless.”

As things now stand, there is a rule which states that shopkeepers need to keep five metres of the street in width free from obstacles.

However, certain sections are so narrow, enforcing this rule would exclude some eateries from any outdoor space.

This is where the balancing act between interests and needs comes into play.

Last month, the fire service carried out a drill in the pedestrian area to calculate the minimum space needed to maintain a free safety corridor providing access to emergency vehicles. Whatever the fire service decides that mini-

‘Our goal is to keep business people happy, because if businesses remain alive, the pedestrian areas remain alive. At the same time, we need to reduce some tension that exists now between various establishments due to the absence of very specific rules’ your shop is inaccessible by road.

“And to invite new pedestrians, by trying to extend the time that is comfortable for someone to walk in the pedestrian area,” he added.

One way of doing this will be to create more shade for daytime walkers along Ledra and Onasagarou.

“We also want to issue a set

mum is will become the new enforceable exclusion zone for the sprawling tables.

“Our goal is to keep business people happy, because if businesses remain alive, the pedestrian areas remain alive. At the same time, we need to reduce some tension that exists now between various establishments due to the absence of very specific rules

Busy eateries and coffee shops along the old streets Jostle for table space

7 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 2012

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town for all, ensuring new businesses and established traders have their needs met

to boost business regarding external seating arrangements,” said Yiorkadjis.

He explained: “There are tensions in the sense that it’s not clear where my area ends and where yours starts, so whenever there is such a grey area, there are tensions.”

Another problem that has created tension in the past is the perception of the ‘unjust’ way the municipality treats various types of outlets.

“We realised that people didn’t understand. People came and said, ‘why are you so unfair, not allowing us to have tables outside?’ We explained that this was because they didn’t apply for the necessary permits or meet the minimum requirements as everybody else.”

The mayor was at pains to stress that a lot of this tension boils down to a lack of knowledge of the way the system is set up.

“Lets start by saying that not all outlets are the same.

Based on the definition given by the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) some outlets like snack bars and restaurants are allowed on location dining provided they fulfil the criteria for the minimum area available in square metres, number of toilets (men, women, disabled), storage space etc.

“As you might expect these requirements increase substantially the required investment. These types of outlets are also allowed external seating, contrary to takeaways which are not.”

The reason being securing a take-away licence is much simpler and cheaper since they don’t need as many square metres or toilets and so on.

However, preventing a popular ice-cream or sandwich take-away joint from providing a few chairs outside for passing customers does seem a bit mean-spirited and antibusiness.

This is where Yiorkadjis flags his new ‘cure for old town ills’ rule book again.

The mayor is working with the CTO to adapt the rules so that take-aways will have the right to put eight stools outside their premises, officially turning a grey area into black and white. If the take-aways want more, they’ll have to upgrade their licence with the CTO (municipality).

“I feel tensions will subside if people understand the logic behind the rules and if these rules are clear and fair and people follow them. We are not for or against anyone. We want all businesses to thrive.

For that to happen we need

to be fair,” he said.

And what about the Cypriot tradition of seeking favours from elected and non-elected officials?

“But if something is very clear and out in the open for everyone to see, how can we make an exception since it will be there, obvious to everybody?”

A fair point, but one that rests on the assumption that public outrage (both anticipated and realised) acts as a deterrent to “obvious” violations of the rule book.

ne businessman in the old town, credited with bringing life and locals back to Laiki Yitonia, feels that the municipality’s attitude works against successful businesses.

“This place was a ghost neighbourhood when I came, dirty and full of prostitutes.

Cypriots were scared to even think of coming down here,” said 35-year-old Rami Suleiman.

In the 12 years since he first set up shop in Laiki Yitonia, Suleiman, or ‘Rami’ as he is known by all his customers, has taken over six shops and two storage facilites in the area.

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“When I first opened a cafe and restaurant and invited my Cypriot friends and college lecturers, they all told me: ‘Re you’re crazy to open in Laiki Yitonia, it’s all prostitutes, we cannot bring our families there’. Today I work mainly with families and 95 per cent of my customers are Cypriot,” he said.

However, the popularity of his nargile cafe, restaurant and ice-cream parlour appear to have caught the eye of some green-eyed businesses, he said.

“I never had any problem with the municipality or CTO before, but now they come and book me for putting tables outside the ice-cream shop, or complain about the smoke from the nargile or the noise made by people playing tavli (backgammon).

“I love this area, the old houses, narrow roads. I gave a lot and suffered a lot for Laiki Yitonia,” said Rami, adding that he expects the municipality to support businesses, especially during an economic crisis, not work against them.

The Nicosia mayor refused to comment on specific cases, saying only that the new rule book the municipality is working on will create clarity and a level-playing field for all.

Budding street entertainers add to the draw

8 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

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Lady Luck falls on hard times Lottery sales slump as punters opt to keep whatever cash they have in their pockets

By Natalie Hami WITH THE crisis in full swing and unemployment climbing – it’s currently close to 11 per cent - you might imagine that more people would be trying their luck at the state lottery or flocking to outlets like OPAP. However, it’s quite the contrary with most OPAP owners saying their sales have dropped by almost half. State lottery sales have also been on a downward spiral since 2009. Even the Nicosia Race Club will be allowing punters – come September – to bet on horse races abroad to try and up their sales.

Marios Constantinou, head official at the State Lottery said that now that the country is deep into the recession, and people have lost their jobs most are opting not to buy lottery tickets.

“Sales have actually been down over the last few years with the crisis and with a lot of people preferring to go to betting shops,” said Constantinou. You can’t expect people to go and buy a ticket when they don’t have a job, he added.

According to official figures from the State Lottery, sales have been down since 2009. The total sales brought in – including scratch cards and weekly, Christmas and Easter draws – for 2009 was €63,559,604, by 2010 it had dropped to €54,288,400 and by 2011 to €49,158,709.

He said that sometimes people splash out during Easter and Christmas.

Despite the consistent drop in sales – for scratch cards – Constantinou said the majority of people mainly buy scratch cards as it offers an instant win: “They know straight away whether they’ve won, unlike the weekly draws.”

A variety of amounts can be won on the state lottery – which has been going since soon after the island gained its independence in 1960 – ranging from €500,000 for the Christmas draw, to €200,000 for the Easter draw and €50,000 for the weekly draw. The top prize on scratch cards is €400,000 and this can be won with a €10 ticket. Punters can also win between €20,000 and €200,000 on scratch cards, as well as other smaller amounts.

Speaking to an OPAP gaming shop owner, who preferred to remain anonymous due to the recent spate of attacks on the shops – he said that sales had been down over the last few years since the crisis began to hit the island. However, despite the crisis he has regulars who come and try their luck on particular days each week.

“People that used to spend say €50 now spend half that,” he said. Asked whether he believed business might pick up since the new law banning online gambling was passed recently, he said it was too early to tell.

“We get all sorts here, a lot of foreigners because of the area we’re in, but we have people drop in during the morning on their way to work...at Christmas it’s people who have come down for shopping and drop by,” he said.

He explained that the more consistent clientele were those who play Joker and have their set numbers and amounts.

“They pay €3 or €5 and they have their numbers (that they always play with),” he said.

One such customer is Pambos Loizou, 56, who regularly comes in to play Joker with numbers that he’s always used. “I try not to forget...I usually drop in after work on Thursday and Friday and play the same numbers,” said Loizou, adding that he’s won a few small amounts but always hopes for the big win.

He explained saying ‘there’s no anxiety involved’ alluding to the fact that for him it’s not an addiction.

A few of the other customers there, mainly foreign, seemed to do it as a fun way to spend their afternoon but also as a way to supplement their incomes. “I come most days sometimes with friends,” said 32-year-old Lisa Mabunga, who cleans offices. She mostly plays KINO – an on-screen bingo type game - and Joker, and has even won €500 and €800 up till now.

Another customer, Rideliza Ribamunte, 38 comes to ‘play her luck’ she says with a glint in her eyes. “I’ve been playing for two to three years now and have won up to €1,000 so I come now with the hope of still winning,” she said.

However both the owner and his employee believe that a lot of the hardcore gamblers either make their way to the north to try their luck in the casinos or many of them may prefer gambling on football.

“You have to remember that

Sales have been down by as much as half since 2009 some people prefer football betting or going to the north to gamble,” said his employee, who added though she would much rather spend a couple of euros playing KINO or Joker than going out and getting drunk on whisky.

“Those that come here in the end know that they can rely on the credibility of the OPAP outlets...they know that if they win they’ll get their money,” said the owner. People tell me that they come here to buy hope, he added.

Joker and KINO are the more popular games. Joker is a game of chance whereby you choose numbers from two boxes on the slip. First category winners are those who have predicted five correct num-

bers from the first box and one number – the Joker - from the second box – 5+1. It’s possible to win smaller amounts with 3+1 or 4+1 but these amounts are insignificant.

KINO works by predicting between one to 12 numbers from the 20 that are included in the draw (out of a total of 80 numbers. For both games you can play with as little as €1.

Another OPAP owner, Demetris Lambrianides, also said that sales were down by about half from the beginning of the year.

“It’s been like this from about the beginning of the year... people just spend less money on games now,” said Lambrianides. He also felt that it was too soon to tell whether the

new law banning online gambling had affected them.

Punters have even stopped flocking to the Nicosia Race Club (NRC), with sales down around 40 per cent, according to their marketing head George Hadjiminas.

“When there’s a crisis it affects everything...it’s been like this from the beginning,” said Hadjiminas. He did admit however that because of the new gambling law there has been a small improvement in bets.

Hadjiminas has previously told the Cyprus Mail that due to dwindling sales come September punters will be able to put bets on horse races abroad through agents authorised by the NRC.

9 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 2012

World

Afghan suicide strike kills at least 12

Syrian rebels hit back at Assad forces’ air power

A TWIN suicide bomb attack targeted a NATO base in eastern Afghanistan yesterday, killing eight civilians and four Afghan policemen, local officials said.

A spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said no one from the alliance was killed in the attack, which happened in Wardak province’s Sayed Abad district.

“The truck bomb was huge, killing 12 and wounding 50 more,” said provincial governor spokesman Sahidullah Shahid.

The Taliban, which took responsibility for the early morning attack, said it had dispatched two bombers, one on foot and one in an explosives-laden truck.

The NATO base was targeted last year on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks when a suicide bomber drove into it, killing four civilians and wounding 77 US troops.

Wardak province saw the worst single incident suffered by foreign forces in over 10 years of war when the Taliban shot down a transport helicopter last year, killing 38 troops, 30 of whom were American.

Two US troops were killed yesterday in a separate insurgent attack in eastern Ghazni province, ISAF said in a statement.

Violence is increasing across Afghanistan ahead of the 2014 deadline for NATO to withdraw most of its troops, and fears are mounting that the 350,000-strong NATO-trained Afghan security forces will not be able to tackle insurgents once they leave.

Insurgents attack air defence unit and airport

By Dominic Evans

Free Syrian Army fighters flee fighter jet bombing at El Edaa district in Syria’s northwestern city of Aleppo yesterday Rebels in Deir al-Zor overran an air defence building early yesterday, taking at least 16 captives and seizing an unknown number of antiaircraft rockets, said Rami Abdulrahman of the Britishbased Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Video posted on the Internet by activists showed the officers and soldiers captured by the rebel fighters, and Al Arabiya television broadcast footage of what it said were rockets and ammunition seized in the raid.

Abdulrahman said rebels also attacked the Hamdan military airbase at Albu Kamal, close to Syria’s eastern border with Iraq, but did not succeed

Thalidomide victims reject German creator’s apology A BRITISH charity has rebuffed the first apology for half a century from the German company which invented birth defect pregnancy drug Thalidomide.

The Grunenthal Group on Friday said in a statement it “regrets” the consequences of the drug, which was used to combat morning sickness, but led to the birth of children without limbs during the 1950s and 1960s.

But the apology was rejected as insufficient by the Thalidomide Agency UK, which

represents people who were affected by the drug in Britain.

Freddie Astbury, the charity’s head consultant, said the company needed to “put their money where their mouth is” rather than simply express regret.

Astbury, who was born in Chester in 1959 with no arms and no legs after his mother took the drug, said: “If they are serious about admitting they are at fault and regret what happened they need to start helping those of us who were affected financially.”

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in breaking into it.

The attacks come three days after rebels attacked the Taftanaz air base in Idlib province, where they said several helicopters were damaged. The insurgents also said they have shot down a fighter jet and a helicopter last week.

Assad’s forces have made

numerous air strikes on civilians in rebel-held parts of Syria. Helicopters have strafed towns with heavy machineguns, and jets have unleashed rockets and bombs against opposition strongholds.

Bombardments of northern towns such as Azaz and Anadan, of which Assad lost

control weeks ago, have led to thousands of residents fleeing to safety in Turkey.

Ankara made its call for safe havens inside Syria after the UN refugee agency said the flow of Syrians into Turkey and Jordan - that already host more than 150,000 registered refugees - was rising sharply.

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REBELS seized an air defence facility and attacked a military airport in eastern Syria yesterday, a monitoring group said, hitting back at an air force on which President Bashar al-Assad is increasingly relying to crush his opponents.

The attacks in eastern oilproducing Deir al-Zor province follow rebel strikes against military airports in the Aleppo and Idlib areas, close to the border with Turkey.

Syria’s leader, battling a 17month-old uprising in which 20,000 people have been killed, has lost control of rural areas in northern, eastern and southern regions and has resorted to helicopter gunships and fighter jets to subdue his foes.

The aerial bombardment has driven fresh waves of refugees into neighbouring countries, reviving Turkish calls for “safe zones” to be set up on Syrian territory appeals ignored by a divided UN Security Council and by Western powers reluctant to commit the military forces needed to secure such zones.

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10 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

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Chinese activist to visit Taiwan

WORLD TODAY Battleground states visit U.S. President Barack Obama is embarking on a four-day march through battleground states and the storm-battered Gulf Coast in the lead-up to his party’s convention.

With the Democrat faithful streaming to Charlotte, North Carolina, for next week’s convention, Obama returned to Iowa yesterday.

For his part, Republican candidate Mitt Romney was looking to capitalise on a newly-energised GOP fresh from its convention with a rally in Cincinnati before joining running mate Paul Ryan later in the day in Jacksonville, Florida.

Both campaigns are crisscrossing the country as the campaign enters September, each day adding to the sense of urgency in a presidential contest that has remained tight since Romney sewed up the Republican nomination in April.

Capsize victims AT least 30 people are believed to have died after a boat capsized in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the West African state of Guinea on Friday, the BBC reported yesterday.

There were several survivors, but rescue workers say there is no hope of finding more people alive.

The boat was ferrying people from the capital Conakry to an offshore island. A witness said it had been smashed against some rocks.

Accidents on overcrowded and badly maintained boats are common in Guinea.

Some of the tent-style cabins in Yosemite’s popular Curry Village camping area

‘10,000 at risk from Yosemite hantavirus’

By Dan Whitcomb and Ronnie Cohen SOME 10,000 people who stayed in tent cabins at Yosemite National Park this summer may be at risk for the deadly rodent-borne hantavirus, the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.

The CDC urged lab testing of patients who exhibit symptoms consistent with the lung disease, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, after a stay at the California park between June and August, and recommended doctors notify state health departments when it is found.

Two men have died from hantavirus linked to the Yosemite outbreak and four

US national park’s visitors infected in ‘tent cabin’ stays others were sickened but survived, while the CDC said additional suspected cases were being investigated from “multiple health jurisdictions”.

Most of the victims were believed to have been infected while staying in one of 91 “Signature” tent-style cabins in Yosemite’s popular Curry Village camping area.

“An estimated 10,000 persons stayed in the ‘Signature Tent Cabins’ from June 10 through August 24, 2012,” the CDC said. “People who stayed in the tents between June 10 and August 24 may be at risk

of developing HPS in the next six weeks.”

Yosemite officials earlier this week shut down all 91 of the insulated tent cabins after finding deer mice, which carry the disease and can burrow through holes the size of pencil erasers, nesting between the double walls.

Park authorities said on Friday that they had contacted approximately 3,000 parties of visitors who stayed in the tent cabins since mid-June, advising them to seek immediate medical attention if they have symptoms of hantavirus.

Nearly 4 million people visit Yosemite, one of the nation’s most popular national parks, each year, attracted to its dramatic scenery and hiking trails. Roughly 70 per cent of those visitors congregate in Yosemite Valley, where Curry Village is located.

The virus starts out causing flu-like symptoms, including headache, fever, muscle ache, shortness of breath and cough, and can lead to severe breathing difficulties and death.

The incubation period for the virus is typically two to four weeks after exposure, the CDC said, with a range between a few days and six weeks. Just over a third of cases are fatal.

“Providers are reminded to consider the diagnosis of HPS in all persons presenting with clinically compatible illness and to ask about potential rodent exposure or if they had recently visited Yosemite National Park,” the CDC said.

Although there is no cure for hantavirus, which has never been known to be transmitted between humans, treatment after early detection through blood tests can save lives.

BLIND Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng, whose escape from house arrest sparked a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Washington, accepted an invitation on Friday to visit Taiwan, underscoring his drive to ensure his influence as a human rights campaigner will continue abroad.

Taiwan legislator Lin Chialung from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) visited Chen at New York University, where he is studying law, to invite him to visit Taiwan and to address the island’s parliament.

“He very happily accepted our invitation and said the sooner he can come, the better,” Lin said, speaking after the meeting. Chen declined to speak to media but did not cite a reason.

On Tuesday, Chen said he would “most likely” accept an invitation to visit Taiwan.

“I think I will,” said Chen earlier this week. “Whoever invites me, I will accept.”

Chen would bring his family to Taiwan before next summer to meet human rights workers, lawyers and legislators and possibly speak before Taiwan’s legislative body, Lin said.

After a quiet three-month period, a trip to Taiwan will catapult Chen back into the limelight. Being abroad hasn’t cooled his campaign for human rights in China, analysts say.

“I think... he’s trying to find a way ... to use his prominence currently to make an effective influence in China even when he’s not there,” said Songlian Wang, a researcher for rights group Chinese Human Rights Defenders.

One of China’s most prominent dissidents, Hu Jia, a close friend of Chen’s, told Reuters that Chen has expressed concern on how he can maintain his influence while abroad.

“The point of maintaining his influence is for his future work and not because of his personal fame,” said Hu, who was released from jail last year after serving 3.5 years for “inciting subversion of state power.”

Brazil wants massacre leads BRAZIL said on Friday it is pressing Venezuela to determine whether Brazilian gold miners crossed the border and massacred a village of about 80 indigenous people from a helicopter.

The alleged assault, which a tribal group says could have killed more than 70 people in early July, came to light earlier this week when the group asked Venezuela’s government to investigate. Because of the remoteness of the region and the scattered nature of the native settlements, fellow tribe members were able to alert the government only last Monday.

Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday its embassy in Caracas had asked the Venezuelan government to provide it with any information that could help it determine whether the attack had happened and whether Brazilians had been involved.

Brazil’s National Indian Foundation, a government body that oversees indigenous affairs, said it would seek a joint investigation by officials from both countries at the site.

The border area between the two countries - a long, dense swath of the Amazon rainforest - has increasingly become the site of conflicts between indigenous people, gold miners and others seeking to tap jungle resources.

The tribe allegedly attacked, the Yanomami, says it has given repeated, but unheeded, warnings to Venezuela’s government that the conflicts are intensifying.

11 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 2012

World

‘Galley slave’ Putin savours high life Report paints Russian leader as modern-day Nero

By Steve Gutterman VLADIMIR Putin once compared ruling Russia to being a “galley slave”, but four yachts that come with the job, not to mention palaces, aircraft and a wealth of luxury perks help explain his refusal to quit the presidency, leading critics said this week.

Listing 58 planes and helicopters and 20 homes with opulent fittings worthy of the tsars, a report - “The Life of a Galley Slave” - by opposition leader Boris Nemtsov denounced a “blatant and cynical challenge” to millions of Russians barely managing to survive.

The Kremlin, which has long portrayed the 59-year-old president as a man of simple tastes and a liking for popular sports and active outdoor pastimes, did not immediately comment.

Putin, who declares a personal income barely a quarter of that of his US counterpart, has long denied rumours he has built up a vast personal fortune. The report did not address that, but it illustrated in 32 pages how the former KGB agent has expanded the trappings of the office of president since he rose to power in 2000; it is intended to foster faint stirrings of opposition to his recent

re-election for a further six years.

“One of the most serious reasons prompting V. Putin to hold on to power is the atmosphere of wealth and luxury to which he has become accustomed,” wrote Nemtsov and co-author Leonid Martynyuk. “In a country where more than 20 million people barely make ends meet, the luxurious life of the president is a blatant and cynical challenge to society.

“We absolutely cannot put up with this.”

Among eye-catching details, the authors highlighted a $75,000 toilet on a presidential jet. They also identified from photographs a total of 11 luxury timepieces on the wrist of the head of state and calculate their total value at some $700,000; Putin has declared an annual income of about $115,000.

Tales of extravagance in the leadership, though familiar to Russians throughout their history from tsars to commissars, come as Putin has had to face the biggest protests of his 12-year rule, mostly from middleclass urban liberals.

The text was accompanied by photographs of luxurious homes, jets, helicopters, cars and watches, complete with footnotes citing Russian media as sources for many of the items. Nine new residences had been

added to the list available to the president since Putin first became head of state in 2000, it said.

As well as 15 helicopters, the 43 other aircraft available to Putin include an Airbus, two Dassault Falcon executive jets and an Ilyushin Il-96 airliner that features an $18-million cabin fitted out by jewellers - and that toilet which, the report says, cost close to $75,000.

Meanwhile the Kremlin fleet of luxury yachts may draw more comparison to the lifestyles of Russia’s high-profile business tycoons.

One 53.7-metre yacht with a designer interior, a spa pool, waterfall and wine cellar is relegated to second best.

“The real diamond of the Kremlin flotilla,” the report says, is a fivedecked yacht with a jacuzzi, barbecue, a maple wood colonnade and a huge bathroom faced in marble.

A 930-hectare (2,300-acre) residence on Lake Valdai in northwestern Russia has a cinema, a bowling alley and a “presidential church”, the report said.

It said a little-known three-storey residence near Saratov, on the Volga river southeast of Moscow, has German chandeliers and Italian furniture, and features a billiard room, a winter garden, a pool and sauna.

While not addressing Putin’s per-

Nothing to declare: Russian President Vladimir Putin has long denied rumours that he has built up a vast personal fortune sonal wealth directly, the report squarely challenges the image he offers of himself as a modest servant of the state, painting him as a Nero-like figure, ignoring Russia’s persistent problems.

“Russia is continuing to die out ... the country has lost more than five million people, an African level of corruption has fettered the business activity and daily life of the country, and Russia’s dependence on natural resources has only deepened during the years of Putin’s rule,” the report said.

In a declaration filed this year, the report said, Putin reported an in-

come of 3.6 million roubles ($113,000) and listed three old domestic cars and a trailer hitch handed down by his father as the vehicles he owns.

Nemtsov and Martynyuk suggested money used on the upkeep of the residences and other presidential assets would be better spent for the public good. Putin’s spokesman and other Kremlin officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the report.

Nemtsov, a deputy prime minister in the 1990s, has become one of Putin’s fiercest critics and was among the leaders of a series of protests over the past winter.

12 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

Opinion

Hard to blame Cypriots for avoiding public transport IT’S JUST over two years since the launch of the new public transport system, which has so far failed miserably to achieve its goal of persuading more people to use the buses and leave their cars at home.

Recently a representative from Nicosia buses told this newspaper the system was doomed to fail because of endemic problems that could not be solved.

There are many financial issues dogging the public transport system related to how much the government owes them or doesn’t owe them, which we will not get into here.

What is certain is that no amount of new routes or new buses will ever persuade Cypriots to use the system as it exists today as long as passengers’ needs are not taken into account.

Much has been written about the new buses. They’re too big for the narrow streets etc,

but there is much more to it than that. What some passengers have to endure, particularly noticeable in the summer months, would leave most Cypriots running a mile from public transport, and who could blame them.

Some of the new buses do not have suitable air conditioning, that’s when it’s even working at all. Without this basic facility in a hot climate, some of these new buses are nothing more than metal hotboxes.

Leg room on at least one brand of the new vehicles – they were brought from various manufacturers – is worse than what you would expect on a Ryanair flight, forcing anyone taller than five feet to sit sideways.

But it’s not only about the dismal state of particular buses that make traveling on public transport an issue. The timetable, while it’s just about adequate – every half hour or so – for one-trip journeys, be-

Cyprus Mail

comes a real problem if two or more buses are needed simply to go across town.

Some routes have also been altered to the point where what was once a 10-15 minute trip is now a minimum of 30 minutes even without traffic. There are no proper bus lanes and on top of that, less than half the bus stops are sheltered.

There is also no night service.

On one particular route, the last bus in winter is at 8.15pm, which is suitable for shop workers, was changed to 7.20pm during August. How were the same workers supposed to get home during those weeks?

Some might say it costs only one euro a ticket to travel on the bus so what do you expect?

Yes, the main users of the buses are foreign workers, the elderly, school students and low-

income passengers.

The system may have also seen an upsurge in passengers due to the recession, but clearly this is not enough to sustain it given the financial disputes the bus companies have with the government, and the complaints that they cannot pay the wages of drivers.

And as long as the proper infrastructure remains lacking, the public transport system is destined to remain stuck in a state of apathy or worse.

As the bus company representative told this newspaper: “The point is to get a Cypriot businessman to use a bus rather than his car but unless the infrastructure is in place to make buses easy for people to use you will only get the people who use buses anyway.”

What he means is that no one who has any choice in the matter would use the bus system – in parts of Nicosia at least.

And he is right. Who would actually choose to get off a bus

sweatier and more frustrated than when they got on?

Nicos Nicolaides, the EDEK deputy who was communications minister in 2010 and is perennially optimistic about the public transport system, said recently that despite the ongoing debt crisis and the infrastructure problems the bus network could survive.

He admitted however that ‘the many’ action plans and studies were still in a drawer, and that the problem was implementation. “It’s unthinkable not to have a public transport network,” he said. Not so unthinkable apparently.

Last week the government announced a list of all the existing, and new road projects that would be going ahead - always a great way to encourage more car usage.

If some of those millions had been invested in the public transport system from the start, so many new roads might not be needed.

Letters to the Editor Cyprus has had enough with electricity hikes To the EAC: Can someone there please tell me just how you can justify all these price rises, when all of Cyprus is already struggling to pay their electricity bill?

This is just greed on the part of EAC. Cyprus has had enough, Don’t you understand this?

Do you not see the pain and anguish you are causing to this country and its population? Do you not care?

Do the right thing. Look

again at the ridiculous profits being made by the EAC. Look at the ridiculous illegal practices of shutting supplies without warning. Look at denying electricity to families with children or sick and infirm residents. Look at the damage you are doing to businesses and industry, including your own. Does any of this matter to you?

In Disgust.

Ade Berry, Paralimni

Make the bank CEOs pay I cannot understand why the banks have to pay fines on behalf of the CEO’s and directors who are paid massive salaries and bonuses even when the bank has made losses. Why is it the buck does not stop with them? It is their job to ensure the business is run within the law and if it does not then they - the CEOs and directors - should pay the fines imposed by the regulators emptying their bank accounts and share portfolios. Only then should the bank be charged with making up the difference.

Roy Webster, Oroklini

Why the siesta is not for the young According to a recent article in your newspaper ‘for the younger generation, the siesta is not part of their day or indeed their lives...they’re at the Mall drinking coffee with their friends’. Well, that’s because they’re awake all night clubbing, sleep until noon the next day, and then during siesta they’re at the Mall drinking coffee with their friends, at least during the summer.

Name and address withheld

Postman Patassad Scottish Freemasons Is it just me ...or does President Assad possess more than a passing resemblance to Postman Pat? Unfortunately, I doubt he has the redeeming features of the beloved children’s character.

Perhaps he would do well to look at his doppleganger for some help.

Christine Jolley, Argaka

There are many Freemasons living in Cyprus of Scottish origin, however there is no Scottish lodge. In order to assess what interests there may be in investigating the possibility of establishing a Lodge under the Grand Lodge of Scotland in Cyprus, I would ask any Freemasons interested to contact me on 97 613998.

Alex Strange, Paphos

Baha’is of Cyprus are calling for From the web prayers for persecuted Iranians TCs rally for Nadir Baha’is throughout Cyprus call on everyone to pray for those in Iran suffering from natural and man-made disasters.

The victims of the recent earthquakes around Tabriz were innocent; so are the victims of the persecution of minority religious groups, including their fellow Baha’is in Semnan and many other cities.

Baha’is are asking the government to voice deep concern over the increased persecutions taking place now.

Dozens of attacks since 2009 against a large number of Semnan’s Baha’is have been carried out by officials, semi-official groups, and plainclothes government agents.

At least 30 Baha’is have been arrested, with several now serving long prison sentences; homes and shops have been targeted by arsonists; and numerous Baha’i-owned businesses have been shut

down by authorities.

Baha’is in the city are also facing ongoing harassment, marked by the close and constant surveillance of state security agencies, hate speech from clerics, abuse directed against Baha’i children, and vandalism of the Baha’i cemetery.

“It seems that in Semnan the Iranian authorities are oppressing the Baha’is with a particular intensity by mobilising and coordinating official and semi-official elements,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations.

Three months ago, Adel Fanaian, relative of a Baha’i family in Cyprus, was sentenced to six years in prison for charges that included “mobilising a group with the intent to disturb national security” and “propaganda against the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

These false charges stem

simply from his efforts to offer moral development classes for children and youth and help young people obtain a college education.

The local Baha’i said that despite the hateful antiBaha’i propaganda disseminated in the city, the majority of Semnan’s citizens reportedly harbour no ill will towards Baha’is, and many seek association with them.

These attacks are often carried out by semi-official elements or agents in plainclothes, reflecting the Iranian government’s attempt to flout international standards of justice without overtly calling attention to itself.

We call upon governments everywhere to condemn Iran’s flagrant violation of human rights – rights that are set out in international covenants to which Iran is a signatory.

Baha’i community, Cyprus

Officials making it up as they go along I am often left gobsmacked by the way Cyprus, as an EU member simply ignores any directives of the European Union.

They are a law to themselves, flouting all regulations and creating their own rules.

Where do you start? Take car importation and registration for personal use.

Why is it so expensive to bring your car over from the UK or any other EU state and register it?

You have already paid the required taxes in the country of purchase; so why are you required to pay again?

It’s simply that the fine imposed by the EU for flouting the regulations is minimal

compared to the income made by the government. Then to top this, why not make money on registration while we as a family bring a personal possession?.

That’s exactly what they do.

A charge for importation, one for documentation, one for other paperwork, stamp payments and a payment based on ridiculous criteria of CC’s, CO2 emissions and the rest.

A car you purchased for €3,000 could end up costing you another €1,800-€2,000 to register and put on the road. Unbelievable.

Giorgos Georgiou, Oroklini

It never fails to amaze me how a ‘crook’ who surrendered to authorities in England and was convicted with a crime can be equated with Greek speaking Cypriots being behind it. Nur and your Turkish speaking politician friends: get a life, and what was it that attracted you to Mr Nadir? Millions...who are you trying to fool?

Dermot Duggan Yes, let’s all join them. A rally for crooks, thieves and embezzlers. Cloud Cuckoo land comes to mind. But then again isn’t that what the illegal regime is built on?

Louis G Koureas After reading this article, it would appear that the propensity to believe in conspiracy theories is as prevalent north of the Green Line as it is to the south of it.

Instead of being called the Island of Love it should be dubbed the Island of Paranoia: it’s certainly earned it.

Gavin Jones Wow. I never thought myself to be the citizen of such a great superpower, one that has the ability to manipulate British justice and alter the outcome of trials in the UK. Nicos Hadjipetrou So we forced our best friends, the British, to sentence Nadir? If we have that kind of influence with them, why don’t we use it to make them do something worthwhile?

Spanner Works

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You can send letters to the Cyprus Mail by email, fax or post. Letters should include a full postal address (an email address is not sufficient), a daytime telephone number and a reference to the relevant article. A name and address 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. Management is under no obligation to inform readers if, when or where their letters will appear.

13 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 2012

Opinion

‘Solar power for every household’... maybe Even if Cyprus’ fairy godmother waves her magic wand to produce these billions, is this idea technically feasible?

T

HIS quotation was the title of a controversial article by Jacqueline Agathocleous in the Cyprus Mail on August 23, based on an announcement from the Energy Regulatory Authority (CERA).

CERA must have its head in the ozone layer if it really believes that “the aim is to install the systems on all Cypriot homes from 2014 onwards.”

The article cites a cost per household for a 3kW system to be €6,000. This figure is remarkably less than the going rate for reasonably efficient photovoltaic (PV) panels (cheap ones are inefficient) plus the inverter, meter and installation.

Even with economy of scale, the minimum to the purchaser would be up-front about €20,000, from which a 40% subsidy and a VAT refund would bring the cost to about €8,600 per householder, if he were lucky enough to be paid the subsidy.

The remaining €11,400 is offered by the taxpayer. Based on 250,000 homes, this would total €2.85bn, at a time when we might find it difficult to rub two euros together, assuming the economists’ predictions of at least eight years to pay off the Russian and troika debts.

If we take the true cost of €20,000 per home for a 3kW system, this has to be amortised over 25 years for the panels and their installation and 10 years for the inverter, the annual cost works out at well over €1,000 plus the interest for the investment, insurance and maintenance costs.

This would translate, for a typical household, at €0.50 €0.55/kWh generated, whether fed into the grid or used domestically. Of course, the home-owner won’t see this cost because he is being paid for the electricity he produces, even though it would be

costing us, all the consumers, the double of what we would be paying per kWh at EAC’s retail price.

Even if Cyprus’ fairy godmother waves her magic wand to produce these billions, is this idea technically feasible? The answer is no, for two reasons, and CERA should have sufficient knowledge to be aware of this. The first is that our grid is not designed for a distributed supply with 250,000 sources of tiny quantities of electricity and it would go bananas as a cloud obscured an area.

It has been designed for just a few large-scale sources and the Transmission System Operator (TSO) would have its time cut out avoiding blackouts, but probably not succeeding.

What does a 3kW PV installation mean? It means that it will generate 3kW when the sun shines directly onto the panels with an intensity of at least 1,000 W/m² and a temperature of the panels of 25°C. Unfortunately, these conditions are rare.

The public notion is that they will generate 3kW from sunrise to sunset. Not so! On a really bright, but cool, sunny day, with well-oriented new panels, you may get 3kW from about 11 am to 1.30 pm. In hot weather, you will get less; when the temperature is 40°C or more, you can bet that the business part of your panels, in their glass-fronted greenhouses, will reach at least 60°C. At this temperature, your 3kW installation won’t give you more than 2kW. I run a weather station, including an instrument for measuring the intensity of sunlight. This is installed 300 m up, in the Troodos foothills, in a rural location and well away from any source of pollution. If there is anywhere in Cyprus that would be ideal for a solar installation, this would be it.

From 1 July of this year to 20 August, we have had exactly seven days when the peak solar radiation has reached 1,000 W/m² or more. The average peak is 932 W/m² and, on one day, it was as low as 846 W/m². I mentioned that our 3 kW installation presupposes 1,000 W/m² and it will generate proportionally less at lower values. Why, here in Cyprus, the island that boasts wallto-wall sunshine, is the solar radiation so low?

I don’t have all the answers but humidity and dust in the upper atmosphere are part of the reason and I do know it was not always like this. As you read this, look out at the sky. Is it really the deep Mediterranean blue that you would expect or a rather insipid, almost milky, blue?

I have some Kodachrome slides I took in the 1950s in various parts of the island and the sky was very much bluer then. Something has changed, probably a mixture of phenomena relating to climate change, ozone depletion and global high-level pollution. What I am saying is that I have a suspicion that, when I took those photos, the radiation may have been close to 1,100 W/m².

Another problem that can affect the efficiency of PV panels installed in urban areas is low-level pollution. One of the photos from nearly 60 years ago was of the Pentadaktylos, taken from one of the Ayia Sofia minarets.

It was so clear that you could almost see the vultures nesting in the crags, if you will allow an exaggeration! Today, that is impossible because of the pollution caused mainly by road vehicles, not just the exhaust smoke or the dust from friction of tyres against tarmac but also the photochemical smog caused by the sun shining on the vapours of volatile chemicals and nitrous oxide invisibly pouring out of

Comment Brian Ellis exhaust pipes, even with catalytic converters.

Going northwards along the A1 motorway on a calm summer’s day, often the first view of Nicosia is a grey pall of this smog and, when you reach the city, your eyes may smart or you may start coughing because of the accompanying ground-level ozone, which frequently exceeds the safety limits. All this can reduce the kilowatts generated by PV panels in or near the cities.

Up to now, one of the main drawbacks to installing PV panels has been the slow bureaucracy of the various authorities, including the payment of subsidies on your up-front investment.

This has been up to five years from the first application for a permit to receiving a cheque (if you receive one at all). I hope that, with this new pilot project, CERA will find ways of reducing the time scale down to less than one year by better co-ordination between the various ministries and the EAC. If the project is successful, let’s hope that the time scale will remain fast for the maximum 40,000–50,000 homes that would be technically feasible for a reliable complement to our electricity sources.

Is there an alternative? Yes, a few concentrated solar thermal power stations could provide reliable 24/7 energy to the grid with a higher efficiency and at a lower cost. They have a drawback of needing land (maybe in the UN buffer zone?).

This article may seem positively negative on first reading. In reality, I welcome the use of more solar generation in Cyprus but I just wish to warn

CERA and potential users not to be too optimistic about the quantity of electricity that a PV installation will produce; it will be less than you think. So, go ahead so long as you realise that a capacity of 3kW does not mean that it will generate that all the time; over a year of daylight hours, you may obtain an average of 0.15–0.4 kW. But, at night, when you switch your energy-saving lights and TV on, you will be paying the EAC through the nose, as per usual.

Before his retirement, Brian Ellis was an environmental engineer/scientist working as a consultant to the Swiss Federal Office of the Environment, the United

Nations Environment Programme and the US Environmental Protection Agency, largely on atmospheric, water and energy projects.

He has chaired high-level technical committees and written one textbook and coauthored several others, as well as lecturing throughout the world. He has received a number of awards for his work, including being one of the three recipients of the prestigious United Nations Environment Programme Innovators Award. Now, he lives peacefully in a beautiful village in the middle of the Nicosia, Larnaca, Limassol triangle, with his wife, Margaret, and dog, Beardie.

They’ll bring more calamity before they’re done Comment Loucas Charalambous PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias and the leadership of ruling AKEL have committed two terrible crimes in managing the state economy.

The first one is that they led the country to bankruptcy in four years and second is their ongoing provocative apathy for the situation they have created.

They resemble the executioner standing on top of the corpse of his victim admiring his achievement.

The official figures published by the finance ministry last week are frightening and they dispel all the myths served to us in recent months in a lu-

dicrous campaign to beautify this horrible reality. According to the data, this year our public deficit will exceed €1.0 billion. We had predicted this last December when (former finance minister) Mr Kikis Kazamias announced that with the measures put in place our deficit in 2012 would be around €250 million.

It already reached €551million in June and it is expected to exceed €1.0 billion by the end of the year. Not too long ago, Mr Christofias boasted that this year’s deficit would be limited to 2.5 per cent.

He even promised to continue the unreasonable policy of allowances in the presence of the finance minister. “They’ll still say well done if its 3.0 per cent instead of 2.5 per cent,” he said, referring to the EU.

Now his ministry is saying that the deficit reached 3.03 per cent in the first half and consequently it will exceed 6.0 per cent by the end of the year.

And the worst thing is that even today, under these dramatic circumstances, Christofias and his associates continue to attack all those who point out that we have already fallen off the cliff, branding them scaremongers.

Meanwhile, the public debt reached €14.5 billion at the end of June. In 2008, when Christofias took over, it was €8.3 billion. Mr Christofias raised it by 75 per cent in four years, saddling the state with new loans and throwing money left and right, pretending to be the defender of the simple folk. Of course, it’s the

simple folk who suffer in the conditions of bankruptcy that he has led the state into. Yet he and his people, even amid these miserable conditions, pretend they do not see the sorry state they put the country in. Asked why they invited the troika if everything was well, they tell us it is because of the banks.

“The troika would not have come to Cyprus if there was no need to recapitalise the banks,” the government spokesman repeated last Wednesday. But the state has not yet given banks a single euro and yet it is bankrupt.

It won’t even have money to pay salaries in October and this has nothing to do with the banks. So why wouldn’t the troika be here? Even without the banks, where would they

find cash to cover the €1.0 billion deficit?

In the meantime the deficit increases by €80 million a month. One would have expected that even now, the president and the leadership of AKEL would do the obvious: put measures in place.

Instead, they carry on playing a macabre political game.

They are waiting for the troika to impose austerity measures after they put up a quixotic battle, supposedly to protect the workers’ ‘conquests’. The world is burning, before us lies chaos, and the only thing on their mind is how to demagogue.

What we said many times in the past is not an exaggeration: these people are dangerous and will bring more calamity before they go.

14 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

Opinion

Banks are not like other firms The question becomes: When should banking institutions be rescued?

S

OME time ago, a book I read stated that the very nature of capitalism was to allow firms to die without any consequences to the system. The author wondered why the same thing isn’t possible with banking institutions. That author was Nassim Nicolas Taleb and the book was titled Black Swan. (However, I wouldn’t really recommend the book) Although at first I thought the author was right, after considering it I realised that the banks are not at all like any other firm.

If tomorrow Google were to file for bankruptcy, the consequences would be a lack of a good search engine and thousands of Google employees left without a job (and you wouldn’t be reading this!). Otherwise, no harm would be done to the ordinary person.

Now imagine what would happen if one of the major banks were to collapse: millions of people would suddenly be worried of being left with little or no money (although a country guarantees approximately 100,000 euros of deposits by each person in each bank). In the end, people would get their savings back (except the persons which had amassed millions who will only get 100,000), however, the whole procedure would be traumatic to the ones who were unlucky enough to get caught in it. Nevertheless, such a procedure is preferred to the cost of

pumping a bank with new money every now and then just to sustain it.

Thus, the question becomes: When should banking institutions be rescued?

The answer is simple, although it may be tricky to define at times: When they are solvent, largely problem-free and have faced trouble only as a result of an unpredictable event to which they bore minimal or no responsibility. This, for example, would be the case with most EU banks which suffered great losses from the Greek haircut (although there were other banks which had overextended credit over the years).

If a banking institution is thought to be worthy of rescue then the course of action should be by directly providing liquidity to them.

This would mean that governments, Central Banks or (preferably) an institution like the ESM, should provide liquidity to the banks; with the latter issuing new shares with voting rights, committing to repurchase them at an amount obtained after accounting for a fixed interest rate, and agreeing that the institution’s participation in the bank’s equity capital would be reduced each year, thus making sure that the stream of payments from the bank to the state would be continuous.

Even if government (or Central Bank) intervention in banking institu-

Analysis The Euronomist tions is not considered a good thing, it is much better than merely purchasing preferred shares, as the very recent Barclay’s example indicates.

By agreeing to pay interest on the amount given to them and repurchasing those shares at fixed intervals, it is assured that the taxpayers’ money is not just thrown down a bottomless pit, making the banks more careful in their future investments and gradually reducing government intervention within them.

Following this, the distressed bank should implement some austerity measures, either by cutting down salaries or other benefits or, better, by reducing its activities both at domestic as well as at an international level.

Needless to say, the bank’s heads at the time of government intervention should be replaced. The bank could spin-off some of its operations if they are profitable, however, this should be done in a way that the new company is an independent one and not with the bank still controlling a substantial interest in it. Likewise, the spin-off should not be sold to another bank as this would increase the other bank’s risk of becoming too-big-to-fail.

In the case of the bank becoming insolvent, prob-

Banks and bailouts. The Cyprus Popular Bank needs 1.8 billion euros lem-ridden with issues which are not due to unexpected events (e.g. management issues, poor lending decisions, etc) then it should be let to collapse just like any other ordinary firm. If the bank has some operations which are profitable and well-functioning, then these should be spun-off, or sold to another company, even though selling them to another bank should be avoided for reasons of the other bank becoming extremely large.

What the reader may inquire is what if the second bank is already too big?

What difference would it make if the profitable operation is sold to them?

First of all, a new spin-off will require more employ-

ees (think of new management, trainees, secretaries, even cleaners) than if it is sold to another company where existing economies of scale would take over. This would have a positive effect on unemployment especially since other bank’s employees are expected to be laid off as a result of the collapse.

Then, even the acquiring bank is already too big, in what scenario would the government (or another institution) be spending less for stabilisation: saving a 100 billion bank or a 105 billion bank? And remember that’s billion...

Under the current scheme, most banks are either classified as too big to fail or too little to have any

exposure. Take the UK for example where only five independent large banks exist, with the government having interest in two of them.

What should have been done was to reduce the level of activities of the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group to levels where such intervention would be easier in the future, also allowing the creation of more banking institutions, which would promote a competitive environment instead of an oligopolistic one.

The Euronomist is a Cypriot blogger who writes extensively on the financial crisis at: http://euronomist. blogspot.com/

Giving our competitors another stick to beat us with WE CAN only welcome the recently-introduced tax exemptions and incentives for investment in intellectual property, commonly known as an “IP Box”.

The incentives offered by Cyprus are by far the most attractive in Europe, offering an effective tax rate of two per cent or less on income from intellectual property rights, less than half the rate offered by the next best jurisdiction.

The IP Box, when coupled with Cyprus’s other attractions - its business-friendly environment, highly qualified people and stable environment) gives us the opportunity to become a regional research and development centre to rival Silicon Valley and the like in fields such as nanotechnology, where we already have considerable expertise.

With proper promotion by the relevant authorities and the professional services sector this could be a major source of income and employment oppor-

Comment Andreas Neocleous tunities. However, as I have said in the past, we will get nowhere unless we actively welcome overseas investors, making it easy for them to do business here, and literally speaking their language.

Another area in which we have untapped potential is the trusts sector. The reforms of the Cyprus International Trusts Law which took effect earlier this year have restored Cyprus to the ‘Premier League’ of trust jurisdictions in terms of attractiveness.

They now need to be backed up by proper regulation of service providers. A draft law on the regulation of fiduciary and corporate service providers has been under consideration for more than five years.

Its progress into law has been obstructed by a number of entrenched interests, and while

this has been going on many unscrupulous operations have set up shop in Cyprus, seeing it as a fertile field in which to establish a trust business.

Do we have to suffer another disaster like the collapse of the stock market before the necessary regulation is put in place?

The importance of reputation and sound regulation has again been highlighted by the recent very public debate in the press regarding bank confidentiality. While confidentiality is important in financial relations it should never be absolute.

It should never be a shelter behind which criminals can hide their ill-gotten gains and carry out their activities.

Cyprus has effective laws which protect the right to privacy, but allow that privacy to be breached in the event of legitimate suspicion of wrongdoing.

Under the Assessment and Collection of Taxes Law information may be disclosed to an overseas authority only if a series of strict

requirements are met. Similarly, Cyprus’s anti-money laundering legislation, which is in line with international standards, rigorously defines the terms on which information may be provided to anti-money laundering authorities overseas.

If the government or individuals within it have disclosed information illegally the law provides a means of redress through the courts.

In my opinion the current laws strike the correct balance between the individual’s right to privacy and the authorities’ needs to combat crime. I should not want Cyprus to become a haven for dirty money and criminal activity.

Leaving aside the moral issues, this would be bad for business. A common feature of the most successful international financial centres worldwide is an impeccable reputation.

Singapore is a classic example of this. The investors we should be focusing on will be attracted

by a well-regulated and transparent environment, which gives them security and the reassurance that there is a level playing field.

I am afraid that by raising the issue so publicly and airing our dirty linen in public the authors of the complaint may have unwittingly done the same sort of harm to Cyprus’ reputation as they accuse the government of doing.

The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioner STEP, the worldwide body for professionals in the trusts industry, has now publicised the issue in its newsletter, which risks bringing it to the attention of all its members and damaging their confidence in Cyprus.

We should deal with these matters among ourselves rather than giving our competitors another stick to beat us with.

Andreas Neocleous is a Limassol-based advocate and chairman of the board at his law firm

15 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 2012

Opinion

Get off yer ‘bicicletas’ then get on a plane José reckoned that yer’ average Frog lives and works exclusively for the state, no matter how hard he or she works.

And all Frogs die poor!

W

HICH late middle aged married couple could take four months off work and cycle from the renowned red brick cathedral town of Albi, south west France (birthplace of whorehouse artist, Toulouse Lautrec) to Jerusalem, reluctantly deviating to Cyprus from their originally planned route when the Kurds intensified their struggle for recognition in parts of south eastern Turkey and civil war broke out across Syria?

Well, courageous and determined José (as tall as was his namesake on his knees in the 1950’s Hollywood movie, ‘Moulin Rouge’) and his equally brave and ‘arrondi’ petite femme, Solange did, departing Albi on May 18 to arrive in Jerusalem on August 24.

Riding their brand new ‘E-spanish gran turismo bicicletas’ fitted with GPS, radios and smart phones, and 30 kilos of luggage each in saddle bags (parcel posting 20 kilos back home when the weather became reliably warmer on the Croatian Riviera) they averaged between 70 and 140kms a day (hilly or flat terrain), making many several day sightseeing stopovers en route.

I bumped into José et Solange at the Kalymnos Camping Site (near Limassol) on my ambulatory return from an evening swim.

They were setting up camp for the night and about to boil ‘les pâtes á la Tour de France’ when Solange smiled and said, ‘Allo, allo!’ to which I replied suavely leaning on ‘ma cane’ in dripping shorts, Crocs and dappled wet T shirt, ‘Monsieur Dame, bonsoir!’

‘Vous êtes français?’ asked Solange, and it went from there.

It took this adventurous couple three years to plan the 5000kms trip from Albi via the French Riviera, Po Valley, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece to the Bosphorus and Istanbul, then across central Turkey to Mersin, boarding what José called ‘a stinking tub’ for a 13 hour ‘full house’ seasick voyage to Famagusta, only to be seriously reprimanded at the Limassol ‘Syndicat d’Initiative’ for having entered the Republic illegally.

‘You will not be permit-

“Mitt Romney has faced in all four directions on almost every major issue and behaved like a consultant whose answer to everything is to deluge the public with platitudes and decide later” Lord Black, former proprietor of The Daily Telegraph who served prison sentences in the US for fraud, is no fan of the Republican contender for the White House

Comment

“I’ve always been a bit po-faced about the idea that all you need to do to be put in the hallowed halls of method acting with Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro is put on loads of weight. Come on!... The effort involved deserves some credit, but it doesn’t make a performance” Actor Benedict Cumberbatch (below)

Hermes Solomon ted passage on any ship out of Limassol for Haifa or Piraeus,’ screamed the super patriot tourist information clerk, albeit that all passenger ferry services to/ from the Republic ceased in 2003 - Mme Erato-Kozakou Marcoullis (then Ministress of Communications) having promised their return in 2010, and we’re still waiting!

‘But we must get to Jerusalem,’ implored Solange.

‘Then you must fly from Larnaca to Tel Aviv,’ said the clerk. ‘There is no alternative!’

‘But what about our ‘bicicletas?’ asked Solange ‘You must dismantle them, pack the bits in bin bags and stow the bags in the plane’s hold at an extra cost of 35 euros each,’ said the clerk.

Attempting to repair mildly disrupted Franco/Cypriot entente cordiale, I invited ‘les braves’ that evening to partake of ‘digestifs’ at my ‘summer residence’, where I enquired as to whether they knew on entering Cyprus that it was a divided island?

Yes, but they thought the north was under the Republic’s jurisdiction.

But surely the authorities at port of disembarkation, Famagusta, told them that it wasn’t?

By then it was too late they said. And when they discovered that there was no ferry service from Famagusta to Haifa, they crossed over the Green Line near Dhekelia hoping for best.

Had they encountered similar disillusionment elsewhere I asked?

‘Au contraire,’ said José.

In fact, they’d been treated with exceptional kindness and interest throughout, especially in northern Greece and Turkey, where lorries overtook giving their ‘bicicletas’ wide berths, although several Greek buses did so somewhat disconcertingly fast and razor thin.

How about thievery?

Apart from an unpleasant experience near Cannes, where their tent was slashed

uotes of the week

that France’s 65 nuclear power stations, with an average ‘safe’ operational life of only half a century, produced the cheapest electricity in Europe, but ‘God in Jerusalem’ only knows where their ‘Cinquième République’ would find the money to replace them.

During their eight days here, he’d been dumbstruck by the pro rata outrageous number of luxury motors, concrete palaces and seemingly easy going lifestyles of the locals.

Had José been 30 years younger and spoken Greek or English, he’d quit France forthwith in favour of ‘paradisiacal’ Cyprus.

He did not say, as a pair of scantily dressed beauties sauntered by, whether he’d bring la petite et brave Solange along with him.

Evidently, ‘les braves’ had assumed that all republics offer the same freedom of movement and charge citizens similar extortionate rates of tax as ‘la Cinquième République’. But we, in the only true and first Republic of Cyprus know that although our freedom of movement can at times be restricted, taxes are, until the troika takes control of our economy, virtually nonexistent!

See their Internet Blog: albi jerusalem a vélo, where José et Solange hope to banter with Israelis and Palestinians, the former undoubtedly explaining to them the true meaning of crippling taxation and the latter that of seriously restricted movement.

“I would love to have more kids. I would like a big, dysfunctional basketball-team-ful of them” Pop singer Pink (above) “The Prime Minister must ask himself whether he is man or mouse” Senior Tory and exminister Tim Yeo on the issue of a third runway for Heathrow Airport “I think we were lovers in another life possibly.

That’s a joke but all kinds of humour are real” Hollywood star Shirley MacLaine on Dame Maggie Smith whom she is joining in the cast of Downton Abbey

José et Solange resting their ‘bicicletas’ in Cannes during the night and ether sprayed into their faces in a failed attempt to rob them of everything they possessed, their expedition had been blessed, that is, until sailing from Mersin!

José runs ‘une petite société’ fitting and servicing air con units at Midi Pyrenees regional telephone exchanges. Solange takes care of the paperwork - ridiculous reams of the stuff she says ever since Brussels took over running the French economy.

Disenchanted by ‘la crise mondiale’, they decided to leave their 30-year-old son in charge of ‘les mauvaises affaires’ and make this last ditch pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the hope God would hear their plea to reform what they regard as the highest taxed nation in Europe; what with crippling income tax, surtax, Inheritance Tax, ‘taxes sur les fortunes’, high social charges and TVA, José reckoned that yer’ average Frog lives and works exclusively for the state, no matter how hard he/she works.

And all Frogs die poor!

Pointing at the criminally destroyed Vassilikos power station (clearly visible from the campsite) I explained that our ‘first republic’ was still far from becoming truly European. I extolled spotless, chateaux filled, supremely cultured France as being blessed with a wonderful climate, health service, education system, great pensions, generous social services and old age care facilities.

In response, José claimed

slaps someone, and finally I have had enough” Cheryl Cole on “inaccuracies” written about her

“There are many terrible things about being famous and many wonderful things, too. In the end the good things are better than the bad, so if you have the chance, it’s better to be famous” Film-maker Woody Allen “These Olympics are delivering both an alarm call and a clarion call and the sound of unity, tolerance, humour and determination. It has found its voice for our present day.

It has been ignored for too long” Arts buff Lord (Melvyn) Bragg “The amount I have had to read and endure and cry about and deal with has become very frustrating. I was always happy to keep my mouth shut, but it is like when a bully

“My secret is attitude. I have discovered that you can have a robust lovefilled sexy life at any age” Actress Jane Fonda, 74 (below)

“People think ‘Oh, she’s doing it because she’s nuts’. That’s not the reason. I do it because it is good for me” Veteran actress Sarah Miles, who drinks her own refrigerated urine “You are no longer seen as a bit of a rogue. You become a dirty old man” Singer-songwriter Ralph McTell on growing old

16 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 2012

Opinion

Sweden’s other rape suspects When I tried the rape-crisis hotline at the governmentrun Crisis Centre for Women in Stockholm, there was no answer... and no machine

I

T IS difficult for me, as an advocate against rape and other forms of violence against women, to fathom the laziness and willful ignorance that characterize so much of the media coverage of the sexual-assault allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

To report that we are simply witnessing Swedish justice at work, one must be committed to doing no research – not even the bare minimum of picking up a phone. In fact, we are witnessing a bizarre aberration in the context of Sweden’s treatment of sex crime – a case that exposes the grim reality of indifference, or worse, that victims there and elsewhere face.

If I were raped in Uppsala, where Assange is alleged to have committed his crime, I could not expect top prosecutors to lobby governments to arrest my assailant. On the contrary, “ordinary” Swedish rapists and abusers of women should assume that the police might not respond when called. When I tried the rapecrisis hotline at the government-run Crisis Center for Women in Stockholm, no one even picked up – and there was no answering machine.

According to rape-crisis advocates in Sweden, one-third of Swedish women have been sexually assaulted by the time they leave their teens. Indeed, according to a study published in 2003, and other later studies through 2009, Sweden has the highest sexual-assault rate in

Comment Naomi Wolf Europe, and among the lowest conviction rates. When I reached the Stockholm branch of Terrafem, a support organization for rape survivors, a volunteer told me that in her many years of experience, Sweden’s police, prosecutors, and magistrates had never mobilized in pursuit of any alleged perpetrator in ways remotely similar to their pursuit of Assange.

The far more common scenario – in fact, the only reliable scenario – was that even cases accompanied by a significant amount of evidence were seldom prosecuted.

This, she explained, was because most rapes in Uppsala, Stockholm, and other cities occur when young women meet young men online and go to an apartment, where, as in the allegations in the Assange case, what began as consensual sex turns nonconsensual.

But she said that this is exactly the scenario that Swedish police typically refuse to prosecute. Just as everywhere else, Sweden’s maledominated police, she explained, do not tend to see these victims as

In the Assange case, the Swedish police supported the accusers in legally unprecedented ways “innocent,” and thus do not bother building a case for arrest. She is right: According to a report by Amnesty International, as of 2008, the number of reported rapes in Sweden had quadrupled in 20 years, but only 20% of cases were ever prosecuted.

And, while the prosecution rate constituted a minimal improvement on previous years, when less than 15% of cases ended up in court, the conviction rate for reported rapes “is markedly lower today than it was in 1965.” As a result, “in practice, many perpetrators enjoy impunity.”

Until 2006, women in Uppsala faced a remarkable hurdle in seeking justice: the city’s chief of police, Göran Lindberg, was himself a serial rapist, convicted in July 2010 of more than a dozen charges, including “serious sexual offenses.”

One victim testified that she was told her rapist was the police chief, and that she would be framed if she told anyone about his assaults. Lindberg also served as the Police Academy’s spokesman against sexual violence. The Uppsala police force that is now investigating Assange either failed to or refused to investigate effectively the sadistic rapist with whom they worked every day.

In other words, the purported magical Swedish kingdom of female sexual equality, empowerment, and robust institutional support for rape victims – a land, conjured by Swedish prosecutors, that holds much of the global media in thrall – simply

does not exist. In the Assange case, the Swedish police supported the accusers in legally unprecedented ways – for example, by allowing them to tell their stories together and by allowing testimony from a boyfriend.

But other alleged victims of genderbased abuse, sometimes in lifethreatening circumstances, typically receive very different treatment.

In particular, according to WAVE, a pan-European consortium of service providers for rape and sexual-abuse survivors, when migrants, who comprise 13.8% of Sweden’s population, report rape and abuse, they face high systemic hurdles in even telling their stories to police – including longstanding linguistic barriers in communicating with them at all.

Likewise, Swedish intake centers for victims of male violence are woefully underfunded – like all support services for rape and abuse victims across Europe and North America – leaving many women who face threats to their safety and that of their children waiting for unavailable places in shelters. When I emailed the Rape Crisis support institute in Uppsala, listed by the global rape-crisis organization RAINN, I received an automatic reply saying that the facility was temporarily closed.

So, for most raped Swedish women, the shelters are full, the hotlines inactive, and the police selectively look the other way – that is, unless they are busy chasing down a glo-

bally famous suspect.

We have been here before. Last year, when my left-wing colleagues were virtually unanimous in believing the New York Police Department’s narrative of a certain victim and a guilty-before-due-process rapist, I made the same call – to the local rape-crisis center. There, Harriet Lesser, who works every day with victims whose alleged attacker is not the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, confirmed that the official support shown for the victim – in advance of any investigation – was indeed unprecedented.

Let me be clear: I am not saying that Assange, much less Dominique Strauss-Kahn, committed no crime against women. Rather, Assange’s case, as was true with Strauss-Kahn’s, is being handled so differently from how the authorities handle all other rape cases that a corrupted standard of justice clearly is being applied. These aberrations add insult to the injury of women, undefended and without justice, who have been raped in the “normal” course of events – by violent nobodies.

Naomi Wolf is a political activist and social critic whose most recent book is Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries.

Project Syndicate, 2012. www.project-syndicate.org

The inverted hypocrisy of Republicans and Democrats AS THE US presidential campaign finally takes off with the party conventions, there seems to be only one point Republicans and Democrats agree on. This election will be about job creation and the role of government. But having defined this battlefield so clearly, neither side seems to have any credible ideas for dealing either of these supposedly decisive issues.

Let’s start with government. The Republicans claim to want smaller and less intrusive government. Yet they vehemently demand tighter government controls over abortion, immigration, marital arrangements and sexual behaviour. On other politically less salient issues such as drugs, prison reform, alcohol use by young adults and doctor-patient privacy, Republicans consistently support government intervention, sometimes to a bizarre degree.

For example, a law signed in 2011

Comment Anatole Kaletsky

by Florida’s Republican governor (though struck down promptly by federal courts) made it a crime for pediatricians to tell parents that they could endanger their children by keeping a loaded gun in their home.

The Democrats’ vision of government is equally paradoxical, but in the opposite direction. The Democrats, like left-wing parties in Europe, laud the economic role of government, and especially its importance in supporting public goods and regulating business abuses. But they deny the right of government to regulate, or even try to influence, private behaviour,

even when it impinges on community life in such areas, for example, as marriage, child-rearing or trade union activity, especially in the public sector.

In short, the left’s faith in government suddenly evaporates when it comes to social and lifestyle issues, while the conservative passion for smaller and less intrusive government only applies when money and economics are at stake.

This raises the second, even more important, electoral issue -- jobs.

Mitt Romney has promised “a singular focus on job creation” and has accused Barack Obama of wasting his presidency on healthcare instead of creating jobs. The paradox is that when they are not attacking Obama for failing to create employment, conservative politicians insist that government has no positive role whatsoever in creating jobs -- whether by hiring public-sector

workers, supporting failing banks or auto businesses, or expanding fiscal and monetary policies.

The only job-creating role that conservatives now regard as legitimate for government is reducing business regulations and taxes.

But given that the deepest and longest recession in post-war history followed decades of radical deregulation, it is hard to see the logic whereby further deregulation would, on its own, restore the jobs that were lost in 2008-09.

But if conservative political positions on employment are riddled with contradictions, the same is true on the other side. If anything, the Democrats have been even less successful in arguing their economic case for active government or pinning the blame for the recession on the laissez-faire economic policies of the Bush decade. President Obama, for all his eloquence, has

never presented a coherent narrative of what went wrong in 2008 or how his policies could put it right.

He has not tried to explain the Keynesian argument that depression becomes inevitable if households, businesses and government all try to reduce their debt at the same time. And he has never even mentioned the role of monetary policy in easing the long-term burden of government borrowing.

Because President Obama has failed to justify or even explain his economic policies, while the Republicans have no coherent alternative, it seems unlikely that either side will have anything interesting to say in the US election about the supposedly defining issues of government and jobs. This is a shame, because a genuine debate about the new relationship of governments and markets was desperately needed after the 2008 crisis.

17 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

News Review

Economy barbs and farmers EAC hike ELECTRICITY prices are likely to spike as of January 2013 due to a readjustment of the power utility’s fuel cost formula to cover the purchase of carbon credits for greenhouse gas emissions. The Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) said on Monday the latest increase would be nowhere near those quoted in the media of 4.74 per cent in 2013, totalling 8.4 per cent by 2020.

Mari trial ALL SIX defendants in the Mari trial knew of the danger posed by the 98 containers of confiscated weapons stored the Evangelos Florakis naval base yet at failed to take adequate measures, Attorney-general Petros Clerides told the Laranca Assizes in his opening statement at the trial on Monday. He was speaking of the alleged failure to act by two former government ministers, and four other army and fire officials on trial in relation to the deaths of 13 sailors and firefighters on July 11, 2011 when the containers exploded.

Brutal attack A MAN convicted of beating his sister to death with a laptop is in isolation at the Central Prison, after reportedly attacking his cellmate with a big wooden ashtray and throwing mouthwash in his face. Evripides Savva, 25, was sentenced to 12 years in prison last May. His family at the time was under the care of mental and social welfare services.

Central Prison acting governor George Tryfonides played down the affair, saying the attack was not as brutal as made out

by Politis newspaper.

Under review A POLITICAL decision from 1964 to provide free electricity to Turkish Cypriots in the mixed village of Pyla representing close to €1 million a year in lost revenue for the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) is currently under review because of possible “system distortions,” state and EAC authorities said. Some Turkish Cypriots collectively get electricity, which last year cost the EAC €1.2 million, acting spokesman Tassos Gregoriou said.

Football crazy: APOEL fans wait for the start of the UEFA Europa League second leg play-off football match between APOEL and Neftci PFK on Tuesday night. APOEL lost the tie 4-2 on aggregate

their future together. In a lengthy statement, the 30-year-old suspect painted the picture of a very loving couple that may have had rows at times, but which never turned violent. He said he had adored murder victim, Julia Oborok, 24, as well as her three-year-old daughter Victoria.

Nautilus leaves FAMED oceanographer and underwater archaeologist Robert Ballard said on Monday he was keen on returning to the Eratosthenes Seamount after a two-week mission that made some sensational discoveries. Having completed its mission off Cyprus, Ballard’s vessel the Nautilus headed out to the southeast Aegean Sea near Bodrum in Turkey. The expedition has centred on the unique geological features of the Eratosthenes Seamount, which is one of the largest features on the Eastern Mediterranean seafloor.

Govt inaction

Murder denial THE PAPHOS hairdresser on trial for the December murder of his pregnant girlfriend and her toddler on Monday denied the charges against him, telling the Paphos court that he had made plans for

THE government’s reluctance to take measures has led the economy to its tragic state, main opposition leader Nicos Anastasiades said on Tuesday as he reiterated his proposal for collective management of the difficulties expect-

QUOTES OF THE WEEK “There are many prisoners, they come into conflict with each other and we can’t avoid it. It isn’t a church here” Acting prison governor George Tryfonides “Christofias’ secret hope is to avoid putting his signature on the memorandum drafted by the troika” EVROKO party spokesman Michalis Georgallas

“The government’s position is very clear: we need to show in a variety of ways both abroad, especially the EU, and to the Turkish Cypriots priots that the Cyprus Republic takess care of everyone and has a place for or everyone” Government spokesman Stetefanos Stefanou after the state ate hired a Turkish Cypriot with a ‘pseudo degree’

“Today a woman dares to report her husband but the opposite too, a man (dares) report his wife” Justice Minister Loucas Louca speaking of domestic violence complaints

“The unfair commercial practices and policies of the supermarkets, using meat ass a way to draw people in by selling ling it at below cost prices, have caused aused irreversible damage…”

Head of the Cyprus Butchers’ ers’ Association, Costas Livadiotis otis

“I do not know if I am leaving with a heavy heart or whether a great weight will be lifted from me, considering there is no mutual understanding in this place” President Demetris Christofias to overseas Cypriots on his reasons for stepping down

“They didn’t think for a moment ent of themselves. They only thought ought about saving the lives of two people” Police spokesman Andreas s Angelides on four officers who rescued a drowning couple e

ed in the next few months. Cyprus has asked its EU partners and the International Monetary Fund – the troika – for financial assistance that is expected to be accompanied with painful austerity measures.

Cheesy defence CHEESE makers on Tuesday jumped to sheep and goat farmers’ defence, calling on the government to offer them the necessary funding so as not to lead the entire dairy industry into demise.

The Dairy Products Manufacturers Association’s announcement signalled the start of a chain reaction of dire effects on Cyprus’ dairy industry, following farmers’ recent desperate protests against a cabinet decision to halve funding from the state.

Potato row POTATO growers on Tuesday called on the Foreign Minister to impose stricter regulations on products arriving from the occupied areas, including a suggestion for labels stating exactly where they have come from. A delegation of farmers met minister Erato Kozakou Marcoullis to discuss the Green Line regulation, which allows the trade of products from the north.

CY mum “The prosecution will present its case fairly, with independence, objectivity and full respect for the principles of fair trial, with the expectation that it will prove successful” Attorney-general Petros Clerides on the Mari trial

CYPRUS Airways (CY) remained tightlipped on Tuesday over reports that experts had presented a potential investor with negative n assessments on the airline. Reports R said that two firms – one Britis British, one French - hired by Canadian conglo conglomerate Triple Five suggested the airline could not become competitive under current conditions. The company did no not issue an official response, reportedl edly because talks were ongoing.

Pity party P “This is a watershed moment for the negotiations” Deputy minister for EU affairs Andreas Mavroyiannis after a key meeting of ministers in Nicosia

P PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias o Wednesday lamented the sorry on s state of the domestic political front a and what he called the “lack of und derstanding” in the country, saying it was one of the reasons he had d decided not to run for president a again.

The president said cooperat tion with overseas Cypriots was e excellent and wished that the same s spirit was shown on the domestic fr front.

Nothing illegal POLICE only video-record trouble that may take place during gatherings, the chief of police said on Wednesday as he defended the force against criticism that it was keeping tabs on people. The force has come under fire after it was reported that they had been filming a farmers’ protest, which turned violent, outside the presidential palace last week.

The personal data commissioner said filming or taking photographs in anticipation of trouble was not legally allowed.

No default CYPRUS will not default on its debts, the government said on Wednesday amid a raging war of words with the opposition. “We will not default on our payments; I am stating it again so that we don’t start the same discussion,” government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou told reporters.

He had been asked if the country would receive the monetary assistance it had asked for by November to avoid a default. Cyprus applied for assistance from its EU partners and the International Monetary Fund – the troika – in June.

Couple saved A GROUP of police officers from the drugs squad YKAN risked their lives in the dangerous waters off the Tombs of the Kings Road in Paphos in the early hours of Thursday to rescue a young couple who had gotten into trouble during a midnight swim. Three of the four officers ended up in hospital after the dramatic rescue when they found themselves in danger of drowning in the notorious currents in that area. The couple were also treated and released later that day.

BoC in red BANK of Cyprus on Thursday posted a first-half net loss of €134 million on increased provisions for non-performing loans, as it increased its requirements for state assistance by €230 million. “Taking into account the deterioration of its loan portfolio, the Group significantly increased the provisions for loan impairment to €568 million for the first half of 2012, raising the accumulated provisions on June 30, 2012 to €2.0 billion and the coverage ratio of non-performing loans to 50 per cent from 46 per cent,” BoC said.

18 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

World in pictures

An anti-Republican protester wears a Guy Fawkes mask, symbol of the occupy movement, during a protest in Tampa (AFP)

Performers pose with a policeman during the Notting Hill Carnival in London, Europe’s biggest street festival

(AFP)

A performer walks past a row of toilets at the Notting Hill Carnival in London

(AFP)

A woman watches waves brought on by Typhoon Bolaven in Qingdao, northeast China (AFP)

Brazil’s Ricardo Dos Santos competes during the Billabong Pro Tahiti (AFP)

Britain’s Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, watch the cycling action at the Velodrome on the opening day of the London 2012 Paralympic Games (AFP)

Some 641 Thai masseurs and masseuses perform massages as they establish a new Guinness World Record in Bangkok

An Afghan boy waits for the 7th Afghanistan Juggling Championships to begin in Kabul (AFP)

An employee poses next to a 1966 Routemaster doubledecker bus outside Christies auction house in London, which will be auctioned tomorrow and is expected to fetch between £20,000 and £30,000 (AFP)

19 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 2012

Lifestyle

White House wives In the blue corner ‘Angry’ Ann Romney, in the red corner ‘Mean’ Michelle Obama: Nick Curtis reports

O

NE IS a product of wealth who became a stay-at-home mum and then a nationally renowned dressage rider. The other is a successful lawyer descended from slaves and the first cousin once removed of the gloriously named Capers C Funnye Jr, one of America’s leading black rabbis. But right now, Ann Lois Romney and Michelle LaVaughn Obama have the same job: to play the little woman and make their husbands look not just good, but electable, to the American people.

The current First Lady of the United States and the woman who would be FLOTUS do share some things in common. Ann Romney suffers from multiple sclerosis, the disease which blighted the life of Michelle Obama’s father. Both women admitted to misgivings over their husbands’ plans for high office but have been tireless in supporting their campaigns.

And since Ann Romney wowed the Republicans convention this week the battle is on. Here, we see how the White House wives, aspirant and incumbent, match up.

ANN ROMNEY Age: 63 Appearance: former Utah Barbie, now a hypergroomed blonde blend of Desperate Housewife and Golden Girl.

Background: the privately educated daughter of a wealthy, Welsh-American Michigan businessman without religious convictions, Ann converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, under the guidance of Mitt Romney’s father George, in her last year at high school.

The meet cute: met Mitt at elementary school and became informally engaged to him, aged 16, after his senior prom in 1965. Married (after a brief apparent wobble when she dated someone else) in 1969 while both studying at Mormon stronghold Brigham Young University.

Stepford factor: at the height of the feminist movement, dedicated herself to raising five boys - the handily monosyllabic Tagg, Matt, Josh, Ben and Craig. When Mitt ran for the Senate in 1994 she claimed that they had never had an argument in 25 years of marriage.

Feistiness factor: said that criticism of her husband during the 2008 presidential campaign made her “want to come out of my seat and clock somebody”.

Charidees: various faithbased, children’s and multiple sclerosis organisations.

Campaign nickname: “The Mittigator”, for her ability to make her husband seem human rather than a corporate/religious android programmed to sack people

Let battle commence: Ann Romney (left) and Michelle Obama are in a race of their own for the White House and restrict women’s reproductive rights. Her tearful account of him helping her over her diagnosis with MS hugely boosted his image and she stole the show at the Republican convention.

Skeleton in the attic: informed an interviewer last month that she and Mitt had told “all you people need to know” about the family finances. Ownership of dressage horses, including Olympic competitor Rafalca, worth $250,000, not exactly indicative of woman-of-the-people status. Ability to speak fluent French anathema to hardcore Republicans.

As FLOTUS, most likely to: build a stable block in the White House.

MICHELLE OBAMA Age: 48 Appearance: brainiac glamazon superwoman in a sleeveless dress.

Background: Chicago-born daughter of a water board employee with multiple sclerosis and a stay-athome mother, both Methodist churchgoers and both descended from slaves in the pre-Civil War South.

Allowed to watch one hour of TV a day, and allegedly

Wedding days: Michelle and Barack Obama, 1992, and Ann and Mitt Romney, 1969 committed each episode of the Brady Bunch to memory. Had a three-hour round trip commute to high school and (like her brother) skipped second grade.

Attended Princeton (where she insisted the teaching of French should be “more conversational”) and then Harvard Law School.

The meet cute: was asked, while working at the law firm Sidley Austin, to mentor a young “summer associate” called Barack Obama. Their first date was to see Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.

Stepford factor: describes her main job as being “mum-in-chief” to daughters Malia and Sasha.

Arranged her husband’s senatorial schedule and 2008 presidential campaign so that she was never away from the girls for too long.

Planted organic vegetable garden at the White House.

Snogged husband on “kiss cam” at a basketball game, etc.

Feistiness factor: in 2006 her husband’s senatorial salary was two thirds of hers from the University of Chicago Hospitals. Made

him promise to give up smoking if she supported his presidential bid. Moved her mother into the White House to help with childcare.

Charidees: various charities for underprivileged children, focusing on exercise, healthy eating and combating obesity. Also organisations supporting military families.

Campaign nickname: “The Closer” for her ability to sway undecided voters to her husband’s side. He calls her “My Rock”. Her family call her “Meeshe”.

Skeleton in the attic: faces persistent claims that she favours style over substance and identifies herself too strenuously as a mother. A new book, The Amateur, has claimed that she is “unusually jealous” and pressurises Barack, feeding into the “angry black woman” portrayal of Obama’s early campaign days. Fox News insists she could be lip-read mouthing the words “all this just for a flag” at a 9/11 memorial service.

As returning FLOTUS, most likely to: start preparing for her own presidential bid after her husband finishes his second term in 2016.

Ditch the baggy suit, fashion experts advise Ryan

By Andy Sullivan

No lessons learnt: even for his Republican Party Congress speech Ryan wore an ill fitting suit

REPUBLICAN vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan’s budget-cutting plan has made him one of the most polarising figures in US politics, but many of those who know fashion agree on one thing: The man needs serious help with his wardrobe.

When Mitt Romney added Ryan to the Republican ticket this month, fashion experts panned the 42-yearold Wisconsin congressman’s duckbilled loafers, floppy shirt collars and baggy suits.

GQ, the men’s magazine, called Ryan’s boxy black suit a “suburban dad special,” while Esquire compared it to a trash bag. Women’s Wear Daily called his choice of square-toed shoes “one of the most grievous mistakes a man can make.”

Ryan looks “like a boy wearing his father’s suit,” said Jesse Thorn, editor of menswear blog Put This On.

Some clothing experts wonder whether voters might conclude that a man who wears suits that seem to be a couple of sizes too large isn’t ready to be one heartbeat away from the Oval Office.

“If the suit’s too big for him, it seems like the job is too big for him,” said Laurie Graham, a Los Angeles image consultant who works with business clients.

Ryan also gets low marks for wearing his suit without a tie, an increasingly popular look among political candidates striving for the approachable look.

“To me it looks like they had to run out of the house because it was on fire,” said David Hodgkins, owner of David Wood Clothiers in Portland, Maine. “It’s incomplete, it’s like a shoe without shoelaces.”

Ryan’s appearance could be a reflection of his monk-like focus on fiscal policy. A wonk’s wonk, Ryan is known for sleeping in his Capitol

Hill office and staying up late studying budget tables, rather than hitting Washington’s party scene.

“I wonder if there was some point in his life when he was 15 or 20 pounds heavier, and went into a Men’s Wearhouse, had himself measured and wrote it down for posterity,” Thorn said.

Ryan’s poorly fitting suits threaten to obscure looks that routinely are described as boyishly handsome and a body that has been toned by the vigorous P90X fitness regimen.

TMZ, a gossip website, wrote that Ryan might be “the hottest vice presidential candidate ever.” The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress, named him one of the 50 most attractive people in politics in 2008.

“Forget the budget: Paul Ryan is hot!” wrote Politico, another publication for Washington insiders.

Unlike female politicians whose clothing and hairstyle choices are dissected endlessly, male politi-

cians typically enjoy less scrutiny and face fewer fashion risks.

For decades, the choice of lawmakers and officials has been a dark suit with a white shirt and red or blue solid tie to convey an aura of power and authority. President Ronald Reagan’s brown suits were a rare exception, but they helped to bolster his image as a western outsider with few ties to Washington.

Clothing, however, occasionally can trip up male politicians.

Vice President Al Gore was mocked during the 2000 presidential campaign for heeding the advice of a consultant who told him to wear earth tones. And President Barack Obama drew snickers when he was photographed in high-waisted “dad jeans” a few years ago.

For Ryan, it won’t be too difficult to up his sartorial game. “It’s his job to look responsible,” Thorn said.

“His priority should be to look like he has his act together.”

20

SUNDAY MAIL •

Reportage

BANKER, BROKER, TRA

Barclays was at the centre of the Libor scandal in the City

Secretaries spying on the side, sandwich delivery boys who aren’t what they seem… big businesses are employing ever sneakier methods to catch out rogue traders and misbehaving managers. ANDY JONES meets the private investigators who have the City of London under surveillance Operators in the City of London have used ever increasingly clever ways to expose cheats

he ‘sandwich delivery man’: a mobile lifeline providing brunch for a busy morning in the City. Grab a bite, eat at your desk, barely break your stride. It’s what any number of hard-pushed, deadlinefocused bankers and traders rely on to get through the day. Only, never before has their bagel been followed by a P45 and a court date.

With costs needing to be cut - the number of available banking and insurance jobs declined for the eighteenth month in a row last week City of London employers are increasingly using creative means to ditch underperforming, crooked or unwanted staff. They are now turning to private investigators, in all sorts of disguises, to dig up dirt to ensure they can axe staff cleanly and without it reaching court.

These City sleuths are already undercover, catching employees misbehaving. Last year, a City recruitment manager on a six-figure salary quietly set up on his own, illicitly downloading his employer’s private database to give his new business a leg-up. While his company suspected the breach of contract, it wasn’t until they hired investigator Andrew Cross of Answers Investigation - dressed as a sandwich vendor, complete with hairnet and catering van - that the net finally closed.

He reveals: “We needed to gain access legally to this independent office he’d set up. So we created an entirely fictitious sandwich delivery company - flyers, menus, a price list and free samples

T

- in order to be invited in.

Once inside, we made out like we were actually a struggling, novice business and, as he was such a success, casually sought his advice.

Without much prompting, he leaned back in his chair and began to preach his business sermon, eventually bragging about his ‘good old company database’. With that on tape, he was finished.” The recruitment manager was fined, banned from his line of work for a year and lost his leaving settlement.

City private investigators can work from glossy home bureaux or stark portable buildings on East London industrial estates. But primarily they work on their feet, taking on the guise most likely to ensnare a victim - barman, cleaner, an ordinary City suit - even decking out in full-on Lycra to kayak alongside one businessman’s personal yacht.

Private investigators need

no qualifications or licence; many fall in from military or police backgrounds. The more successful crews work in teams that blend all skill sets: surveillance, IT knowl-

They are now tu investigators, disguises, to dig they can axe staff c it reachi edge, intelligence gathering.

The only rules they need to abide by are the laws of the land - trespass, data protection and criminal law - and their own moral code.

They can get paid from as little as a few hundred pounds for a “quick kill” to hundreds

21

• September 2, 2012

ADER, SPY Facebook is being used to keep tabs on staff

of thousands of pounds for a year-long sting. Private investigation in the City is its own cottage enterprise; this year’s Libor scandal really gathered pace once emails

urning to private in all sorts of up dirt to ensure cleanly and without ng court sent between Bollinger-swilling traders were uncovered.

As far back as 2006, HewlettPackard in the US had to explain why it had hired investigators to obtain personal phone records of non-executive board directors while searching for a mole.

Cross reveals that this sort of subterfuge is increasingly common. He regularly sweeps offices for bugs placed by staff seeking to gain lucrative information, though much of his job is to find ordinary employees in breach of contracts. In fact, almost anything held within a contract can be investigated, even personal relationships.

“Some staff in privileged positions will have clauses in their contracts to prevent them from having relationships with fellow staff because it can have a detrimental effect on the company. We uncovered two women who worked in financial security having a relationship. One kept arriving at work from the other’s house - within a short time, we had surveillance and expenses to demonstrate where they’d been.

They were then sacked.”

Not that investigators always need to use clever means to catch people out;

other threats lurk closer to home. “Facebook is the new window employers use to spy on staff, even if they never access it on a work computer,” says Cross. “You can still have added a mole to your inner circle. Suppose there is a reasonably nice secretary who everyone gets on with in the office. She could be asked to befriend everyone in the workplace on Facebook and report back any bad behaviour for rewards. Also, with the job market so stagnant, don’t underestimate a colleague selling you out - most people know they can only move up if someone else gets out of the way first. Plenty of cases are cracked because someone turned in a mate.”

Other investigations are of an even more illicit nature.

One smartly dressed investigator, who wishes to keep his identity secret, tells of tracking a trader suspected of wildly fiddling his expenses to fund gambling and drink-

ing habits. There was little evidence that his mammoth binges hadn’t actually been spent entertaining multiple clients, as he suggested, and so an investigator was brought in. “Remarkably,” says our anonymous gumshoe, “while his work output had dipped because of these binges, it wasn’t enough to give him the boot. Having tracked him for a while, we discovered he liked the company of a nightclub hostess in a private members’ club.

Once we had that information, we simply paid her to detail exactly who he was really entertaining - ie, himself and his bosses put the whole lot to him. He confessed it all and left, sans payout.”

In the City’s years of excess, such behaviour might have been tolerated. Payouts are crippling the big banks RBS will pay out an estimated £1 billion in redundancy costs to staff this year. Now, in such straitened times, big banks and financial institutions are seeking to dispose of staff without providing a cushy payout. Fraser Younson, partner and head of the employment team at City law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, says City firms now have to pull up the drawbridge when it comes to payouts.

“Pre-2008, employers were more willing to make a quick severance payment to get rid of the issue. Things have now changed significantly, employers are becoming far more robust when dealing with irregularities by their employees and noticeably tougher on making ex-gratia severance payments to buy off claims.”

But while the City is having to cut costs, many employees are still keen to lead the high life. Dishonest actions by staff, to gain benefit by theft or deception, rose by 41 per cent in the past year, according to data released by CIFAS (the UK’s fraud prevention service). And fraud - eg, recording fictitious revenues or fiddling expenses - committed by company managers was the fastest-growing area last year, up 30 per cent against 2010, according to KPMG’s 2011 Fraud Barometer report. It’s no wonder the big banks are turning to private investigators when it comes to catching everything from wholesale fraud to casual time-wasting.

To pull the trigger on cheating staff, big financial institutions must get their hands

on hard facts first; HR departments will keep every phone call and email for five years on outsourced computer databases, knowing every web impression on a staff machine, right down to the number of key strokes a member of staff makes in a day. Sometimes, though, even this isn’t access enough,

‘Also, with the job market so stagnant, don’t underestimate a colleague selling you out - most people know they can only move up if someone else gets out of the way first’ says our unnamed investigator. “Some of these companies expect us to poke a lens through a window or kick down doors, but we don’t do that, for our own good as well as the company’s. Privacy laws mean you couldn’t, for instance, peer over a fence to catch someone sunbathing who claims to be on their sick bed. However, once they set foot outside the front door, we can happily follow someone all day for weeks. I track people to the gym, to visit a mistress… I’ve even sat incognito at the back of a church wedding as part of the surveillance in one corporate case.”

Now human resources departments, in good times charged with keeping bloated numbers happy, are expected to find more ways to ditch unwanted staff cheaply, says City commentator David Buik. “Nobody would admit to it but most big banks will get rid of at least five per cent of staff at the end of each year. This is easy to do legitimately but you always need a reason and that’s where HR comes in.

They used to be a tiny cog in a large machine; these days HR departments have their own floor, the head of which will be one of the best-paid people in the company. Their job is now to get overall staff numbers down and if they have a reason to fire someone, they’ll do it.”

City high-flyers even talk about what’s called an ‘unlucky list’: people who get sacked in early December so that the banks won’t have to pay them a bonus. This is common practice, reveals former analyst Geraint Anderson, author of the financial novel Payback Time.

“Banks know that if you get fired for ‘gross misconduct’, you forfeit all your deferred bonuses. I have seen colleagues kicked out in December for minor expenses fiddling, front-running - when you tell clients about a research note before it’s been published - and other such small infringements.”

Very often, though, while HR may have suspicions of worker foul play and can exhaustively track someone’s movements online and inside the building, they need some extra help outside of it. As employee contracts become even more watertight in favour of employers, screening and background checks by outside agencies are occasionally carried out with the employee’s own permission, years after they were actually hired. Rupert Emson, CEO of Vero Screening, explains: “A company could roll out random sample screening of their entire staff. Employers will occasionally be made aware of “hearsay” information relating to an employee, which they ask us to verify via media and internet searches.”

The screenings can yield all sorts of information, says Emson. “One candidate had falsified their work experience to such an extent that they had set up a fake company, including a website, so that it was themself who was approached to provide a reference. Another international candidate was offered a position as a senior lawyer at a City law firm but checks revealed they were not even qualified and had presented forged certificates.

Evidently no previous UK employers had ever checked.”

Life in the City has always been dog eat dog; now it’s more important than ever to watch your back. And your sandwiches.

22 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 2012

Property

Are expected troika measures a positive?

LEGAL ISSUES WITH GEORGE COUCOUNIS

Compensation for selling property in public auction THE sale of a mortgaged immovable property following an order of the Court for the payment of a mortgage debt is a serious procedure, which must be followed only when it is reasonably necessary to achieve the intended purpose. The mortgage creditor can choose to follow the procedure provided in the law without previously registering the judgment as a memo on the property of the judgment debtor, thus there will be no need to verify the judgment debt through an affidavit. However, when there is more than one mortgaged property, the procedure of selling more than one property should not be adopted when the judgment debt can be satisfied through the sale of one or less properties. A bona fide purchaser who buys an immovable property in a public auction is not affected since the sale will be completed and the remedy of setting aside the sale is not available.

Moreover, liability cannot be attributed to the Director of the Land Registry because he has no authority to cancel the registration of a property in the name of a bona fide purchaser. The judgment and the order for the sale of the mortgaged property are issued by the Court and not by the Director.

The provisions of the law were examined recently by the Supreme Court, which held the relevant article comes into operation when an order is issued by the court in a civil action for the sale of a mortgaged immovable property.

The case was about an order issued in a civil action instituted by a bank for the sale of a mortgaged property in a public auction and correctly the provisions of article 42 were not applied, the reason being that the judgment was not registered as a memo, i.e. as an encumbrance over the immovable property of the judgment debtor to guarantee the payment of the judgment debt. The procedure

Will regulation of the island’s finances mean that a rebound in the property market is set to follow?

followed by the Land Registry was the one provided in article 44, which does not require verification of the judgment debt through an affidavit or otherwise. Consequently, it was held that the bank and its officers were negligent when they declared to the Land Registry that the debt was higher and three days after the auction had taken place, they notified the Land Registry that the debt was lower. This caused the unnecessary sale of the second land at a lower price than its market value and the judgment debtor suffered equal to the difference in the price between the market value of the property and the price sold. The bank could have been fully satisfied with the sale of one of the properties.

Therefore, the bank was held liable in negligence to the owner, a fact which justified the award of compensation to the owner for the damage he suffered.

The court held the owner did not lose his rights having not filed an appeal against the decision of the Director for the sale of the mortgaged property, since the judgment and the order for the sale of the mortgaged land were of the court and not of the Director. It is abundantly clear that if the judgment of the court was registered as a memo, the procedure to be followed would have been the one of article 42 of the law which requires the verification of the judgment debt and thus the mistake would have been avoided. The court concluded that a purchaser of an immovable property in a public auction is a bona fide purchaser and therefore, the court is not justified to exercise its powers and cancel the sale.

George Coucounis is a lawyer specialising in the Immovable Property Law, based in Larnaca, Tel: 24 818288, coucounis.law@cytanet.com. cy, www.coucounislaw.com

WHAT YOU GET FOR

By Antonis Loizou FRICS DURING the good times no one really bothers about the wrongdoings of the various governments that have governed Cyprus. The inequalities of private/public sector salaries, the public sector’s jobs for life and the sickening policy of the various political parties placing their members in important posts regardless of knowledge or capability have ended up with Cyprus in the tragic situation that it is today.

The present government has been unlucky enough to experience the economic downturn, which is the result of many years’ wrongdoings by other previous governments as well.

So, we are amazed by governmental officials, unions and others who announce they “will not accept this and that”. In many respects and above local small politics we need an independent and experienced third party to tell us how things are and what to do about it.

So for many of us and as a matter of principle, we welcome an outsider telling us of our failings and more importantly not only object but say thank you should we want the loan. Our president is placing the (unknown) Russian loan to be, against the expected troika loan, which creates shivers in the EU, especially when our president declares that he is proud of being a communist (nothing wrong with his ideology but you just don’t say certain things at the wrong time and to the wrong people).

So, what would we like to hear from the troika?

Civil servants should get a salary on a par with the private sector. In the UK every four years there is a comparative table between the two sectors and the civil service has salary increases or decreases accordingly.

How more reasonable can one be?

Can we hang on until 2014-16?

Civil servants should not have a job for life, but three year renewable contracts based on performance. Similarly semi government bodies, municipalities and banks to have salary structures related to performance etc.

Social services/subsidies to be on a need to have basis. At this point of time all retirees, wealthy or not, are offered free medical care including medicines. Similarly families with many children, who get hand outs etc etc to be based on the same basis.

Provided the banks are assisted with their capitalisation, to have a priority to help out home purchaser (local and foreign) at reasonable lending rates and charges. A

€300,000

How much: €298,900 What you get: This three-bedroom, three-bathroom detached property in Lakatamia, Nicosia includes 137m² of covered space and 34m² of veranda space.

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similar system existed after the 1974 invasion, with the creation of the Special Fund which used part of the banks’ Central Bank deposits exclusively for home purchase and at attractive rates.

Administrative decisions, provided all documents are there, to be given within a certain period of time including court cases. Delays on this to have penalties against the government/defaulting parties and to have a possible personal responsibility on the officer in charge.

The above and other measures would not only produce a greater efficiency, saving of costs, but more importantly would introduce a new way of approaching public finances.

We hope the troika’s stick, over our head will put some sense in us to work towards a better future.

The encouragement of property development which is expected to come about as a result of the expected measures, is not to be evident in the market however earlier than the year 2014. By that time, we hope the gas situation will be made clear and business will emerge on this count.

We have already, as an office, had a number of enquiries from international oil suppliers companies investigating the possibility of having a base here to service the East Med gas field. If we are to add on top of this the Triple 5 investments to have an operation time within the year 2014/2015, it seems that this year will be a turning point for the Cyprus economy and the commencement of the real estate market’s recovery.

This is of course a speculative estimation, since much of it will depend on European conditions as well as other international events. It is most reasonable to expect however, that 2014 will see the rising sun of hope and for all of us who are in financial distress this is the time we need to wait. The problem is that property prices, even if we experience some sort of initial real estate recovery (2014) will not be apparent to us all in the market immediately, but after one to two years, causing the recovery to be evident in 2016. First the oversupply must be absorbed, the banks’ recovery to happen and then demand will be free to equate supply. In a country that has not experienced a downturn in its real estate since 1974, the above is difficult to be understood, neither do we have the data of past experience to base a more firm view.

Antonis Loizou & Associates Ltd – Real Estate Valuers & Estate Agents, www. aloizou.com.cy, ala-HQ@ aloizou.com.cy

Compiled by Natalie Hami

How much: €299,000 What you get: This two-bedroom, one-bathroom home in Pyrgos, Limassol boasts a pool along with air conditioning and a fire place.

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How much: €300,000 What you get: This three-bedroom, one-bathroom villa in Kissonerga, Paphos comes with a private pool and an open plan kitchen.

From: www.kaimarconsulting.com, Tel: 25 318712

23 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

Property INTHEGARDENTHISMONTH

The joys of a British summer: pretty back gardens and street decoration

WHEN we are thrown into summer after a long, cold and wet winter as suddenly as we were this year, then plants are bound to be confused. It left me dazed, wondering where spring had got to! Lots of the spring jobs were left undone as we battled away at unseasonably hot weather earlier on and a month after opening my garden in April most of it was burned by the relentless sun. Along with very high temperatures, we have had lots of high humidity too causing endless problems such as scale insects and mealy bugs. More and more reports are coming from around the island of infestation of scale insects on hibiscus which they really like. We have had more than usual this year but keeping a keen watch and spraying keeps the damage to a minimum. There are many remedies but this is what we do: mix 60cc of Citrole with 10cc of Pyrinex in five litres of water and spray the entire bush. It is important to get the insecticide to stick onto the leaves and the Citrole helps to do this. You could use washing up liquid just as easily. Cut off the badly infested stems and branches and dispose of them. Spray under the affected bush as well, lest the beasts over-winter there and if the shrubs are growing in pots, then scrub the pots as well as cleaning up the stones or tiles underneath them.

If you do not deal with these insects then they will spread to other plants and in particular osteospermums and pelargoniums. The latter can also be affected by botrytis, which is a fungal infection looking like grey fluff and is usually found among the stems and leaves in the centre of the plant. The remedy for this is to keep that area open and free of dying leaves. Above all be vigilant.

Tomatoes, too, have been suffering from what is known as ‘blossom end rot’, caused mainly by irregular watering. A dose of Epsom Salts should keep any further damage to a minimum.

If you returned from holiday and found your ivy leaved pelargoniums were looking tired it may be because the growth has died back along the stems and is only apparent on the stem ends. Cut them back nearer to the base area and feed and water them well. At this time of year even though you may have added some slow release fertiliser to your compost earlier, the goodness in the soil will be used up, so a soluble feed should perk up the plants and they will no longer have to strive to feed that green growth at the end of the long stems.

Refresh planters with bright and cheerful potted annuals like petunias. They don’t last the summer as their roots are so near to the surface that they get burned and die.

Later in the month the first Coptic winds will be coming through the island which may just bring us a shower of rain as well so a walk around the garden midmonth checking stakes and trellises is a good idea. However, there will not be enough to thoroughly wet the ground so don’t think about planting any winter veggies yet.

Plants or bulbs planted in dry ground will not make roots. Now is the time to prepare the soil by adding in any compost from your bins or heaps. You might even be able to get some potted chicken pellets or bagged horse manure which will all help the growth later on.

Enjoying the green, green grass of home A trip back to the UK reminds what fantastic gardens there are around I TOOK a couple of weeks off during July to visit the UK and while Cyprus was baking in temperatures of 44-46C (depending on who you spoke to) I was ‘enjoying’ a range of temperatures from 15 to 27C. Yes - the temperatures actually reached 27C the day before I left to come back to an almost burned-out Cyprus, where temperatures were still in the high 30s!

There is nothing quite like an ‘English’ garden and I include Scottish ones in that too, having gardened there for over 20 years. The softness of the green grass after all the summer rains there had been was very soothing and calming after the daily fight with the irrigation system here and the struggle to keep plants going during this very hot season. Parks and gardens were planted up in patriotic colours and hanging baskets adorned the lamp posts as everyone was still caught up in Jubilee fever and the spirit of the Olympics. In Beverley East Yorkshire the 1st Battalion the Yorkshire Regi-

ment, having had to declare themselves bone fide to the Town Cryer at the firmly shut town gates, were let through and marched through cheering and applauding crowds in the flower and flag be-decked streets on their return from Afghanistan. I love these old traditions and having had dinner at a tiny village pub in a nearby village where there were roses round every door, Union flags fluttering in the breeze and ducks and swans swimming lazily on the village pond, it was so utterly British! My son lives in another village nearby and we were able to have afternoon tea in real bone china cups at a fund raiser in the village church, ducking through the Lych gate on our way in.

He bought a fairly modern house with a small garden a few years ago. Having been the original show house of the development, the grounds were planted up with a very wide range of shrubs and small trees that have matured and blended in well with the surroundings. Unfortunately the

previous owners weren’t keen gardeners and things had become rather wild. After most of the indoor jobs had been completed to the family’s satisfaction, attention was given to the garden to get it back into shape. I happened to be staying in March last year when the garden restoration began and worked hard at pruning and cutting back shrubs and weeding and planting out the borders along with him.

I took a risk and replanted three Japanese acers, which are very expensive plants to buy, because they were in the way of a small wooden chalet that my son wanted to erect.

Luckily the leaves hadn’t started to break out and so with careful digging and having the new holes already dug, watered and some bone meal inserted, they were moved to their new locations. I was so relieved they survived and I saw them in full leaf this year but had the drought restrictions still been in force, as they were earlier in the year, I am doubtful that they would

PLANTOFTHEMONTH Senna didymobotrya Also known as Cassia didymobotrya, this stunning shrub in the Caesalpiniaceae family blooms twice a year and its racemes of amazing bright yellow flowers, with their black bracts catch the eye of passersby.

Although it was introduced to the rest of the world from Africa, it lives comfortably in many tropical regions as well as dry desert areas. It has several common names: African Senna, Candelabra Tree, Popcorn Senna and Peanut Butter Cassia, the last two derived from the scent of the plant which is said to resemble peanut butter or burnt popcorn. Others describe it as being more like wet dog or mice!

Originally introduced as a green manure crop, its value as a decorative garden shrub was soon realised and it has become very popular. The shrub

can reach a maximum of between two to four metres so not too big as to dwarf a domestic garden. It is particularly easy to grow from the 16 or so bean-like seeds that it produces in long pods, which should be allowed to dry out on the tree. The seeds remain viable for several years.

The arching branches of this tree contain large, evergreen leaves made up of pairs of oval leaflets. It prefers to grow in full sun and requires watering until it has settled in. Feeding it with a balanced fertiliser each spring will help to produce the stunning flowering spikes. These flowers are particularly sought after by bees, butterflies and even some birds. Propagation is by woody stem cuttings or by seeds which should be started off on a piece of damp kitchen roll.

GARDENING with

Patricia Jordan have done as well.

This was all brought back to mind as I drove up our valley road in the last days of July, when I saw three quite large olive trees being planted in a front garden in Psevdas. True the irrigation pipes had been laid first but the olive trees, hacked into something that looked as if they had been uprooted from a Somme Battlefield, were planted in a space of perhaps 10 metres! I know olive trees have amazing stamina, so I will watch over them for the next year or two and may even be pleasantly surprised when or if they survive, but this is not the ideal time to be planting trees in the garden here. Better wait until late October or even November.

24 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

Business & Jobs

New Congolese airlines brave riskiest skies

An abandoned aircraft stands at Kinshasa’s Ndjili International Airport

Fatalities high amid infrastructural lack

By Jonny Hogg ITS tarmac littered with dozens of dilapidated planes, the airport in Congo’s capital Kinshasa makes clear the dire state of aviation even by Africa’s generally low standards.

The planes have been abandoned either as mechanical failures or by companies that went bust in a sector where a lack of proper infrastructure means pilots sometimes navigate with the help of Google Maps and sat-nav devices like those found in cars.

“Crazy things happen here.

We have to stop those crazy things happening,” says Frenchman Jean-Marc Pajot, who with his new FlyCongo airline is setting out to prove there is a market for those determined to make it work.

On the face of things, it looks like a good business.

An airline can charge $700 for a seat on the 1,600km

flight from Kinshasa to Congo’s copper mining centre of Lubumbashi.

With economic growth forecasts of around 7 per cent until 2015 thanks to its mines, Democratic Republic of Congo’s business propsects look healthy alongside regional peers. But as in much of Africa, a spurt in growth after decades of decline has not translated into an improvement in infrastructure for airlines or anyone else.

A lack of equipment that would be standard elsewhere, haphazard safety measures and challenging weather conditions make Congo one of the world’s riskiest places to fly.

Last year Congo was behind only Russia with 111 flying fatalities according to the Aviation Safety Network, but Russia had some 30 times more passenger journeys.

Pajot’s FlyCongo took over the assets of Hewa Bora, Congo’s largest airline until it lost

its licence last year when one of its planes crashed in a thunderstorm, killing 70 people.

Pajot has already broken up six planes for scrap to streamline the company and as a gesture of its commitment to safety. He has five planes left.

Another new airline, Korongo, in which Lufthansa subsidiary SN Brussels is a partner, has put some $3 million of its $12 million investment into infrastructure - going as far as to pay for airport firefighters.

The need for a functioning aviation network is clear in Africa’s second largest country. It has hardly any roads.

Pilot Hugues Gendre recalls taking one priest to his parish deep in the equatorial forest in little over an hour, a journey which previously took 10 days and 10 nights of non-stop travel by canoe.

But Gendre, who flies aid workers around, is sceptical a safe and viable airline can run in Congo.

“Firstly there’s a lack of competence, then there’s also the phenomenon of generalised corruption, and there’s no strong central government,” said Gendre, president of Aviation Without Borders, a non governmental organisation.

President Joseph Kabila lost his closest adviser in February when the plane carrying him overshot a runway.

To support peacekeepers in a country the size of Western Europe, the United Nations operates its own air service.

Many diplomats are barred by their embassies from using Congolese airlines.

Longer term, Congolese airlines seek their removal from US and European safety blacklists so they can fly the foreign routes that mining companies use to bring in staff and equipment.

But there is no sign of that happening soon.

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Only applicants with valid work permits need apply.

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25 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 2012

Business & Jobs Tax treaties have a direct impact on you as a UK expatriate MANY people have heard of double tax treaties, and some may know that the UK has an extremely sophisticated and large network of double tax treaties. But how much do you really know about what a double tax treaty is there for?

And do you understand how they affect you as a British expatriate?

One myth is that you can use any relevant treaty to choose where to pay tax. This is not correct, as tax treaties are designed to decide where taxes on different income, gains and inheritances are taxable, when assets are located in one country and the individual is resident in another country. They generally also contain “tie-breakerâ€? clauses where an individual satisďŹ es domestic resident laws of both countries.

Tax treaties are very detailed, and all of them are different, so to make sure you apply them correctly to your situation you should seek professional advice. Blevins Franks study all the ďŹ ne print and are experienced at guiding expatriates through the

detail and effective tax planning.

Another myth is that income taxable in one country cannot be taxable in the other. This is incorrect and, in many cases, income remains taxable in the source country but can also be taxed in the country in which the individual is resident. To avoid double taxation, i.e. being taxed in both countries, tax paid in the source country is offset against the liability in the country of residence.

If the tax paid in the source country exceeds the tax payable in the country of residence, no further tax will be due in the country of residence. If the tax payable in the country of residence is higher than that payable in the source country, you pay tax in the source country and then pay the difference between the two amounts in your country of residence.

You always end up paying the higher of the two amounts.

The trick here, of course, is to seek advice to minimise the tax in both countries legally so that the minimum

amount of tax is paid.

Generally, certain types of income and gains are only taxable in the country of residence and others are taxable in both countries. For example, capital gains on real estate, dividends and bank interest are often taxable in both the country where the income arises and the country of residence (although not always). However state, occupational and private pensions and annuities are usually only taxable in the country of residence. Government service pensions are usually taxable only in the source country (but again, not always).

Where there is no double tax treaty governing where income is taxed and how relief is given in the case of double taxation, the UK will give “unilateral relief� where another country charges tax on assets that are also taxable in the UK. Unilateral relief is also given where both the UK and another country tax income or assets in a third country.

Double tax treaties supersede national law and therefore take precedence over ei-

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Investment Bill Blevins Bill Blevins is Financial Correspondent at Blevins Franks International. ther country’s domestic rules.

If you have assets outside the UK, or if you are moving or have moved abroad and retain UK assets, it is essential to have an adviser who understands how any relevant double tax treaty will apply to you, and how this works in relation to the domestic laws.

To keep in touch with the latest developments in the offshore world, check out www.blevinsfranks.com

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Job Opportunity A high ranking official of an overseas organization in Nicosia seeks to hire a Cook for full-time employment. Duties include procuring food and drinks whenever necessary, proposing varied menus, and preparing high-quality food for various events and parties, as well as family meals.

Candidates must be graduates of a recognized culinary school, and have a minimum of 5 years experience as a cook in continental (French, Italian, American, etc.) cuisine. They must (1) be fluent in English, have excellent interpersonal skills, and be willing to work a flexible schedule including late evenings and weekends; (2) be able to prove authorization to work in the Republic of Cyprus; (3) possess a local valid driverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s license.

As part of the selection process, candidates will be asked to prepare a sample meal.

The Application package must include the following: â&#x20AC;˘ A current resume and recent letters of reference from previous employers; â&#x20AC;˘ Sample menus for the following: A working breakfast for 4 persons, a lunch for 2-3 persons, a sit down dinner for 12 persons, and a buffet dinner for 25 persons.

Applications should be mailed to: Vacancy for Cook, P.O. Box 24536, 1385 Nicosia, or e-mailed

to vacanciesnicosia@state.gov to arrive no later than September 21, 2012.

Gnora, a dynamic communications and publishing company, is looking to recruit an English Editor for its Communications department.

Applicants must be fluent in English and Greek (both writing and speaking) and be able to provide proof of their abilities. They must also have an excellent understanding of the Cypriot political, socio-economic and media environment while a strong financial background as well as any additional languages will be considered an asset.

The successful candidate will be responsible for research, drafting and editing reports, provide brief news updates, and other relevant tasks.

Send a brief introductory note in English accompanied by a detailed CV to info@gnora.com by 14 September, 2012.

26 September 2 , 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

Business & Jobs

Big cuts still loom on UK road to tame deficit

By David Milliken TWO years into an unpopular austerity programme, recession and bleak public borrowing figures have heaped pressure on Britain’s government to change course.

The cuts have been so painful that nearly half of voters believe Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne should be removed from his post. But if he stays and sticks to his plan to eliminate most of the deficit by 2017, much worse is to come.

He has made less of a dent in the deficit than hoped, and three quarters of the pain still lies ahead with widespread cuts to spending and benefits likely to have a bigger impact on voters’ wal-

90% of cuts to government expenditure are yet to come lets than the tax rises and reduced investment to date.

A return to strong growth might make cuts easier, but economists do not forecast this for at least a couple of years.

“Reforms of welfare have only just started,” said the chief UK economist at Barclays. “It is inevitably the case that the first things you do are the easiest, and things get tougher as you go on.”

Progress on cutting Britain’s budget deficit has been slower than planned since the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties formed a coalition in May 2010 with the

chief aim of getting Britain out of the deepest fiscal hole of any major economy.

Osborne’s original goal of eliminating most of the deficit before the 2015 election has already slipped to 2017, and two ratings agencies have put Britain’s prized triple-A debt rating on a negative outlook.

Lower than expected growth over the past two years is the main reason for the budget shortfall, and the opposition Labour Party has stepped up calls for the government to slow spending cuts.

But Britain’s finance ministry strongly resists any deviation from Osborne’s goal of

Actionglobal

ACTION GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS IS LOOKING FOR AN EXPERIENCED PUBLIC RELATIONS CONSULTANT Action Global Communications is an independent, full service, public relations consultancy network with offices in more than 40 markets in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia, the CIS countries, Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean.

eliminating Britain’s structural current budget deficit over the next five years.

“The coalition inherited ... a huge fiscal challenge, and we have always been clear that dealing with that was going to be a slow and difficult process,” junior finance minister Chloe Smith has said, after data showed public borrowing from April to July was 11.6 billion pounds higher than a year before.

Britain’s budget deficit in the 2011/12 fiscal year was down to 8.2 per cent of GDP from its peak of 11.2 per cent just before the Conservativeled coalition came to power.

More significant is the cyclically-adjusted current budget, the part of the deficit which will not evaporate when the economy starts growing again at its long-run average, and which strips out longterm investment projects.

This is what Osborne wants to bring into surplus by 2017.

In 2009/10, it amounted to 5.5 per cent of GDP, and two years later it has only fallen to 4.6 per cent.

To close this deficit, the Treasury estimates 155 billion pounds of permanent savings need to be found, of which 41 billion pounds were achieved over the past two years.

Part of the savings - around 17 billion pounds - come from

Consultant – Project Coordinator – Future Together Potamia Project - (UNDP-ACT-IC-2012-19) The Project Coordinator will cooperate with the rest of the Future Together Project team to coordinate all aspects of the participatory development demonstration project in the village of Potamia.

For a detailed description of the Terms of Reference and education requirements of the above consultancies, please visit our opportunities at our website: www.undp-act.org.

Applications with an up-to-date curriculum vitae must be sent through our website announcement. .

Only candidates short listed for interview will be contacted.

For interested candidates, please send your resume to Kathy Christodoulou at kathy.c@actionprgroup.com

1,2474 0,7898 1,1961 97,73 1,2029 1,2287 8,2685

1,2549 0,7945 1,2057 98,51 1,2270 1,2533 8,4339

24-Aug-2012

1,2519 0,7894 1,1962 98,23 1,1913 1,2350 8,2061

1,2594 0,7941 1,2058 99,02 1,2151 1,2597 8,3702

Closing date: Wednesday, 12th September 2012

17-Aug-2012

1,2311 0,7840 1,1963 97,53 1,1674 1,2066 8,1956

capital spending have been achieved, around 90 per cent of cuts to ongoing central government spending and benefits are yet to take place.

Around one third of cuts to ‘non-interest annually-managed expenditure’ - mostly benefits - are due to come in the next fiscal year, but how cuts to other areas of spending will be made is less clear.

Ultimately, a return to economic growth will be key to sweetening the bitter pill of austerity as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats seek re-election in 2015.

UNDP’s initiative Action for Co-operation and Trust invites applications for the following position:

• EXPERIENCE IN MANAGING COMMUNICATIONS CAMPAIGNS CYPRUS AND INTERNATIONALLY • EXCELLENT SPOKEN AND WRITTEN ENGLISH COMMUNICATION SKILLS • BE CREATIVE AND BE KNOWLEDGEABLE OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION TRENDS

31-Aug-2012

lower debt interest costs, but the rest will be a very different type of austerity to what has come before, with much more emphasis on saving money spent on existing government programmes and benefits.

So far, most fiscal consolidation has come through tax hikes - notably a rise in sales tax to 20 per cent - cuts to central government capital spending, and lower grants to local authorities for services ranging from libraries to social care.

But while 60 per cent of planned tax rises and cuts to

CONSULTANCY VACANCIES

Action is currently seeking an experienced Public Relations specialist (over 3 years) to join our global client services team and manage international clients from our management hub in Nicosia, Cyprus. This exciting and challenging role will require a candidate that has experience in strategic communications consultancy and MUST have the following:

Currencies USD GBP CHF JPY AUD CAD SEK

Cuts in Britain have already been so painful nearly half of voters want Osborne (above) removed as Chancellor

1,2385 0,7887 1,2059 98,31 1,1907 1,2307 8,3595

1wk 1mth 2mth 3mth 6mth 1yr

USD 0,18 0,23 0,33 0,42 0,71 1,03

EUR 0,04 0,08 0,12 0,17 0,45 0,76

GBP 0,52 0,53 0,57 0,68 0,93 1,41

CHF 0,00 0,01 0,03 0,05 0,16 0,36

JPY 0,11 0,14 0,16 0,19 0,33 0,55

CAD 1,02 1,09 1,18 1,29 1,56 2,04

LIBOR RATES (London Interbank Borrowing Rates) AS AT 03/09/2012

AUD 3,60 3,75 3,87 3,98 4,17 4,49

27 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 2012

ADVERTISER helps you find what you’re looking for

Advertiser 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

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES INDIA lady is looking for a job.

Call 96356895.

TONI & GUY are looking for apprentices for their Nicosia salons. Full training will be given to the right candidate.

Self employed Beautician required. To apply, please call 22672515 or email hr@toniandguy.com.cy RETIRED DISABLED ENGLISH GENTLEMAN REQUIRES a helper/carer to visit uk on short trips with him (Paphos area). Telephone: mobile 99894139 landline 26621343.

SECRETARY WANTED full/ part time job. Language: English Russian Greek preferable Expert in Microsoft Office & computers. Hard working responsible, long term. Email your CV with personal photo & contact www. citycellwifi.com info@citycellhotspot.com *****************************

MISCELLANEOUS *****************************

SINGING FOR FUN. All kinds of music in harmony Small Nicosia group Tuesdays 5.30 to 7.00 All welcome Call Olivia 99497318 *****************************

CASTLE AUCTIONS – Specialist Antique Sale on 15th SEPT @ 5pm. Auction includes: Jewellery, collectables, art, arms & militaria, grandfather & long case clocks, vintage watches, icons, specialist toys & models, gramophones, porcelain, metamorphic chairs and much more. Tel: 7000 78 89, find us on Facebook or www. castle-auctions.com *****************************

CLAIRVOYANT / MEDIUM, readings, emotional and spiritual healing, classes and short courses. Accurate, honest and confidential service by an experienced English spiritualist medium, based in the Paphos area but willing to travel islandwide Tel: 97801472 / www.yvebrooks. org *****************************

TO ALL OF YOU WHO ARE GREEK ORTHODOX: The European Union Parliament is pressuring the Turkish Government to restore Saint Sophia Cathedral from a mu-

seum into a Greek Orthodox Church. However the Parliament has set a requirement of 1,000,000 signatures on a petition before it makes this conversation a prerequisite for Turkey’s admission into the European Union. You are requested to cast your vote by logging on to a link at www.hagiasophiablog. com. This is an opportunity for each of you to have an impact on world events. Get as many Greek Orthodox, other Orthodox and Christian friends of yours to sign the petition and make history. *****************************

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

DOES SOMEONE ELSE’S DRINKING CAUSE YOU A PROBLEM? Al - Anon is for family and friends of those with a drinking problem. Call Nicosia 99 877205 for more information and details of meetings. *****************************

HEALTH & FITNESS

Nicosia - tel: 22 818583 fax: 22 676385 SUP (STAND UP PADDLE) LESSONS, RENTALS & SALES. A great way to release tension and stress at the same time exercise your body, made for all ages and genders. Find out more information on www.sup. com.cy facebook: Eightsmileys Kitesurfsup or call on 99355191 *****************************

CLINICAL PILATES. Personalised Clinical Pilates by Physiotherapists in Nicosia.

Individual assessment and supervision of exercises.

“Clinical pilates” is a modified form of therapeutic exercise used by physiotherapists to assist in the rehabilitation and prevention of musculoskeletal injury especially lower back pain, sacro-iliac pain and neck pain. More info on 22446988.

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FULL BODY MASSAGE + relaxing massage for men and women in classy surroundings in Kato Paphos – privacy & discretion. We offer you professional mausseurs, appointments necessary 1 Hour for 35 euro, call 96637039 honest people *****************************

EIGHTSMILEYS

OFFERS

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CUTE FEMALE, gold colour, 1 year old mix Terrier is looking for a forever home! He is very friendly and adorable! Will be a medium sized dog. 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 99520C511 Mon-Fri 10-2pm *****************************

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

A

MEDIUM SIZED MALE POODLE CROSS, brown white colour, 3 months old is looking for a forever home!

He is very loving and friendly! 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-Fri 10-2pm.

CUTE FEMALE DOG CALLED MAYA, BROWN COLOUR, 3 years old pinscher is looking for a forever home! Sweet natured and polite! Will be a small sized dog. 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. *****************************

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PROFESSIONAL AROMATHERAPY & fully body relaxing massage, at your home or hotel for men & women – Paphos area Call Ulrica on tel : 96853681 to book an appointment

Limassol - tel: 25 761117 fax: 25 761141

CUTE MALE DOG CALLED MAX, brown white colour, 2 years old Cocker Spaniel is looking for a forever home!

Sweet natured and polite!

Will be a medium sized dog.

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-Fri 10-2pm.

CUTE MALE PUPPY, GOLD COLOUR, 5 months old Pekingese cross is looking for a forever home! He is very friendly and adorable! Will be a small sized dog. 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.

Paphos - tel: 26 911383 fax: 26221049

TION & DESIGN. Drawing& Painting, beginners & improvers. (BTEC Visual Recording portfolio) Thursday 17.00–19.00 Art Architecture History; Time Line Journal Tuesday 17.00–19.00 IDC@ Herodotous Institute, 7Afroditis, 4620, Episkopi, Limassol 99409829 www.idclimassol. org info@idclimassol.org PRIVATE GREEK LANGUAGE LESSONS are available from an experienced native Greek Language Teacher. Price: 15 euros per hour. Special Price for groups Call 99547152 ENGLISH TEACHER from UK, with university teaching degree, offers private lessons.

Dedicated, supportive tutor, established 17 years. I inspire pupils to achieve their best to excel in exams. All levels, including Cambridge FCE, Advanced, Proficiency and IGCSE. Telephone 99945724 / 26220753 – Paphos Area PRIVATE RUSSIAN LESSONS – Paphos area, Greek or English speakers, from beginning to advanced any level, call: 99007970 - Nicky PRIVATE ENGLISH TUITION – UK university graduate (post-graduate 1975), native English speaker, Limassolbased, offers part-time tuition at all secondary school levels, up to and including IGCSE/Olevels. For further details phone 99312567 ART DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION. September - Limassol.

Intensive course Drawing and Painting Tuesday nights. Art &Architecture History Thursday nights. All levels. Portfolio development. UCAS application support. AutoCAD courses. BTEC Level 3 Construction Diploma courses.

Registering now! 99409829 info@idclimassol.org DO YOU WANT TO LEARN CHINESE? Experienced private teacher available for Chinese lessons in Cyprus. €30 per lesson. Call for more details. 96864438 PRIVATE TUITION - Experienced, UK-qualified teacher and tutor offers full / part time private home tuition in Maths, English, Science, Geography, History, Business Studies and Economics, from KS3 to iGCSE, AS and A2 levels. Telephone 26642781 or 99318796.

SERVICES *****************************

FOUNDATION IN ART ARCHITECTURE CONSTRUC-

classified contents Employment Opportunities pg 27 Employment Miscellaneous 27 Pets 27 Lessons 27 Health & Fitness 27 Personal 27 Services 27 For Sale Miscellaneous 28 For Sale Land/ Property Business 28 For Sale Motor vehicles -Wanted 28 To Let Nicosia 28 To Let Limassol 31 To Let Larnaca 31 To Let Paphos 31 To Let Protaras, Ayia Napa, Paralimni -To Let Athens -Land For Sale Bulgaria -For Sale Nicosia 32 For Sale Limassol 32 For Sale Larnaca 32 For Sale Paphos 32 For Sale Ayia Napa 32 For Sale Famagusta Protaras 32 For Sale Athens -Property& Home Services display ads 33

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:

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

LESSONS

Larnaca - tel: 24 652243 fax: 24 659982

KEEP YOUR HOME COOLER THIS SUMMER by having

22 = Nicosia 23 = Paralimni/Protaras 24 = Larnaca 25 = Limassol 26 = Paphos

28 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

Advertiser SERVICES Windowfilm professionally fitted. Stops up to 86% of heat from entering your home!

Windowfilm increases privacy, blocks harmful uv-rays which cause fading, reduces glare and saves energy costs on air-con. Also keeps your home warmer in winter. Call Ian on 99979671 *****************************

HOME/ OFFICE professional security systems at affordable prices catered for your needs, call now on 99841265 to arrange a free quotation in the Paphos area *****************************

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

SWIFT SERVICE AND REPAIRS air-cons, commercial and domestic fridges and freezers, ice machines, cool rooms, supply and fit air-cons VRV S. Call Nik on 99579602 Limassol.

FOR SALE MISCELLANEOUS pole, Rycote Softie, Manfrotto tripod legs, Lastolite reflector and Portabrace back pack.

Sold as package. €2500 or highest bidder. For more information contact Mark on 99661851 *****************************

FURNITURE HOUSEHOLD ITEMS: Childs cot / mattress €50 play table and stools €50 Bunk Bed set with ladder/ mattress €100 child’s bike €40 Child’s easy chairs €30 Easel €20 gas BBQ 80 vacuum cleaner Miele €80 Abstract canvasses from €10 ENGOMI 22355790 *****************************

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: 99-168943

FOR SALE BUSINESS/ PROPERTY/LAND

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

JURIDICAL SERVICES Contracts, sales agreements, conveyancing, wills, administration of estates, general litigation, power of attorney, land registry matters, companies, translations, immigration etc... And all legal matters.

Call: Natalia Michealidou – jurist, Paphos Tel: 26 933159 – 99523231 (office hours) *****************************

FOR SALE MISCELLANEOUS *****************************

PROFESSIONAL VIDEO KIT: Panasonic HMC150 video camera, 2 Sennheiser microphones, cables, RØDE boom

ONE ACRE (3 donums) land for sale Arakapas area Limassol district, with title deeds. Sloping ground with stream and 8 foot waterfall at lower boundary. Naturally growing trees. €40.000 sandymathie@hotmail.com or 99416918 *****************************

TIMI, plots, a few selected available, sea view, near the 2 golf courses, Venus rock and airport. 60% Building eu 115,000. Half registration fees till the 2.6.12. 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 125,000. Half registration fees till the 2.6.12.

Tel. 99 621914

CHILDCARE From a Cypriot - with 20 years experience in a kindergarten - looking after infants and children at her house in Nicosia

For information call 99781943

FOR SALE B.P./LAND

TO LET NICOSIA

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FOR SALE OR RENT - Kato Paphos – full moon bar, fully furnished and equipped, large flat screen TV’s + projector, fits 120 people comfortably, incredible opportunity for ready business! Please call: 99493579

3-4 BEDROOM ground floor garden apartment. 800 euro pm. Good area with good neighbours. All amenities close by. Large dining room and separate living room.

Well kept front and back garden. References required.

Available from September.

For more information, please call 99409028 or email m_sotri@yahoo.com

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FOR SALE factory with showroom, 1050m2, in private land, in Kokkinotrimithia industrial zone. Tel. 99849195. *****************************

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.

PROPERTY TO LET NICOSIA *****************************

VILLA LATSIA 900 sq.m. build in 6 donum inside pool lrg garden, Strovolos villa pool 330 sq.m. underfloor heating patio €2500 Latsia 5 bedr. pool f/f €2500, Acropolis modern flat 180 sq.m. €1100, 3 bedr., Mak/ssa modern flat wooden floors €1200 Upper house Archangelos f/f modern €1000 Costas Markides 22- 378898 / 99 464764, Reg. No. 487, E16

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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.

ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT, in small quiet building, new, very spacious, fully furnished and air conditioned.

Very good location between Strovolos and Engomi, close to The European University (Cyprus College) and all amenities. Covered parking. Rent €495/m. Please call 99695382 TO LET 3 bdrm flat Kaimakli area near Frederic. Tel. 99606665.

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FLATS/HOUSES RENT studio Strovolos 280, Ag. Andreas 295, 1 bdrm Ag. Andreas 450, Makarios Av. 490, Ag. Antonios 380 2 bdrm Lykavito furnished 600 Acropolis new 650, Ag. Omologites 500, Engomi near universities 540 Strovolos furnished 650 3 bdrm central 700, Kennedy 650, US Embassy independent house gardens 850. POSPORIDES ESTATES REG. 338 99474839 99646822 *****************************

FOR RENT 3-bedroom luxury apartment over 200 sq.m.

Very spacious living area extending to a large veranda overlooking the green of the river area. Bathrooms all marble (one en-suite), modern kitchen. Fully air-conditioned, with underfloor heating, garage for 2 cars and large store. Situated in the exclusive gated development of J&P Glastonos, one of the oldest classy residential areas of Nicosia. Call 99630320 *****************************

English-Painter & Decorator

FOR SALE

Fully Qualified 30 years’ Experience

Office furniture and equipment.

Excellent quality, new condition. Modern Hi-Tech design. Including 2 work stations, conference room, Manager Desk, cupboards, Switchboard and more..

Must See!!!

Tel: 25817684

Tel. Tony on 99176557

room detached house, french ambassador and American heart institute area, easy access to city centre, schools, hospitals, all amenities and motorway, in quiet cul-de-sac, on high ground with views of Nicosia and Pentadaktylos. 3 Baths, garage for 2 cars with automatic doors, bbq, fireplace, oil central heating, airconditioning, fully furnished. €2000 Pm, tel 99 621914

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HOUSE FOR RENT: 5 bed-

SUMMER OFFER 30% OFF ALL AREAS • External & Internal painting • Damp Damage Repairs • Spritze Repairs • Free Estimates + very clean work • All areas. All types of woodwork stained and preserved • All work guaranteed

TO LET NICOSIA

SELEC Fencing & Decking Specialist For all your Garden and Security Fencing ♦ Quality approved workmanship ♦ 15 years experience + guaranteed work ♦ English workers ♦ also garden gates ♦ sheds ♦ chain link fencing ♦ free estimates ♦ all types of fencing & decking

Tel. SELEC fencing 99176557

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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

TO LET NICOSIA (H5ST10001-R), (photos in the website).

2. 3 bedrs luxury ground floor renovated semi detached house,210sq.m, with central heating, air conditions, solid parquet floor, fire place, big kitchen with all the electric appliances, 2 wc curtains, big veranda, big patio on the back with bbq area, 2 covered parkings in a quiet neighbourhood close to the Embassies –Engomi €900 (H3ENG0002-R), (photos in the website) 3. 4 bedr + separate office space + maid’s room luxury detached house, split level, big open space sitting areas,400sq.m,a/c for hot and cold in all the rooms, NICELY MODERN FURNISHED, swimming pool, big verandas, 2 covered parking, in a very quiet area near Lidl – Latsia €2500 (H4LAT0008-R), (photos in the website).

4. 3 bedr luxry detached house with 1 bedr flat in the basement, floor heating with gas a/c units, big kitchen with electrical appliances, 4 wc, 3 bathrooms, big garden with small pebbles, 2 covered parking, in a quiet area in a dead end. Can be rented furnished or not. AVAILABLE in August – Makedonitissa €1700 (H4MAK0027-R), (photos in the website).

5. 4 bedr+ attic room with shower and wc luxury detached house with separate maid’s room, central heating, a/c, separate office room, sitting and dining areas, big kitchen with dining room and big family room opening to

WIN A TRIP FOR 2 TO SOUTH AFRICA IN AID OF PAPHOS HOSPICE Organised by SACY NEWS The SACY NEWS was launched early 2012, and has within a short period, become a popular and well-liked publication among the South African community, and other expatriates living on the island of Cyprus. With the support of the South African Consulate, the SACY NEWS has become a prime media source for all South African Cypriots living in Cyprus.

“We wanted to create a ‘voice’ for all South Africans in Cyprus. The South African community has increased in number, and it was only a matter of time before we had our own community paper,” says Paul Charalambous, editor of the SACY NEWS. The high-quality publication is produced on a bi-monthly basis and is distributed all over the island, free of charge.

The SACY NEWS’ presence as a media sponsor for almost all South African events has spread extensively throughout the island. In recognition of the strong and supportive South African community, the SACY NEWS will be organising the South African New Year’s Eve Ball at the ‘Fifth Floor Restaurant’ in Paphos. This event will become an annual affair on the SACY NEWS calendar. “Everyone is welcome,” says Paul. “We want to revive the traditional South African Greek events we were accustomed to in South Africa.”

The SACY NEWS will be organising competitions on a regular basis to support the many charities on the island. After months of planning, and the support from many sponsors in Cyprus and South Africa, the SACY NEWS recently launched the ‘Win a trip for 2 to South Africa Competition’ in aid of the Paphos Hospice.

This unique prize package, which includes two return tickets to Johannesburg with Etihad Airways and Century Travel, will be complimented by seven nights at the 5-Star Peermont D’oreale Grande at Emperors Palace Hotel, Casino and Convention Resort. The prize includes an additional two nights at Sandton’s premier Michelangelo Hotel, and a further two nights at the Thabana Safari Lodge for an exceptional full board safari experience.

SAFARIS 4 U – A leading group tour operator based in Johannesburg, will provide unique tours to top attractions in Johannesburg, during the course of your stay.

Tickets are on sale from all Paphos Hospice Charity Shops, participating outlets (island wide) and private individuals for the price of € 3 per ticket. The winner will be announced at the South African New Year’s Eve Ball on the 31st December 2012.

For more information on this unique eleven nights prize package to South Africa, contact the SACY NEWS on 96 343 687. You can also visit their page on Facebook.

THE DEVONSHIRE RESTAURANT IN PAPHOS WILL RE-OPEN ON THE 1ST OF SEPTEMBER, WILL RESUME IT’S REGULAR MENU, OPEN FOR SUNDAY ROAST LUNCH AND DINNER, FOR BOOKINGS CALL 96870774

29 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 2012

Advertiser

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

the big garden with grass and bbq area, 2 covered parking, behind General flooring shop – Makedonitissa €3000 (H4MAK0025-R), (Photos on the website).

6. 3 bedr + big attic room which can be used as a bedroom/office, detached house, central heating, full a/c,3wc, 2 bathrooms, big sitting and dining room, separate kitchen with all the electrical appliances, small garden and patio with bbq area, covered parking, near Apollonion hospital. – Makedonitissa €1200 (H4MAK0016-R), (photos in the website) 7. 4 bedrs new luxury detached house, 330sq.m, central heating, full ac, 2 covered parking’s, big kitchen with sitting room and all expensive electrical appliances, blinds on the windows, lighting fixtures, 2 bedrs with en suite shower and wc, main bathroom with jacuzzi,3rd bedroom with only shower ,swimming pool with wooden deck around, covered patio with nice covered bbq area, opposite a green area in a very quiet area – Strovolos €2600 (H4ST10040-R), (photos in the website).

8. 4 bedr luxury detached house, 350sq.m, central heating, full a/c, office space, separate maid’s room, big storage room, solid parquet floor in the bedrooms, 2 covered parking, swimming pool, garden with trees, veranda with bbq area, big kitchen with all the electrical appliances,

big sitting and dining areas, very near to English School, off Athalassas Avenue €2000 (H4ST10036-R), (photos on the website).

9. 3 bedr ground floor semi detached house in very good condition with storage heaters, 5a/c,2wc, big kitchen with cooker and oven, big sitting and dining room, big front veranda, 2 covered parking in a very quiet neighbourhood close to Alpha Mega - Parissinos €550 (H3PA2001-R), (photos in the website).

10. 4 bedr new luxury finished top quality detached house, 290sq.m, central heating, full a/c, master bedroom with ensuite shower/jacuzzi, guest bedroom with shower, main bathroom with jacuzzi, 4wc, fully expensive furnished with 3 LCD televisions, kitchen with very expensive electrical appliances and family room, garden with grass, big covered patio with bbq area,2 covered parking’s, alarm system, pressure system, - Strovolos €3000 (H4STI0039-R), (Photos on the website).

11. 4 bedr luxury detached house built in 3 plots of land.

Separate maid’s room outside the house, big basement with playroom, office and guest room with separate entrance.

The house has big sitting and dining room, separate family room, separate kitchen, big bedrooms, internal elevator, central heating, full a/c, big yard with tiles, covered kiosk and trees, 2 covered parking,

in a quiet area in a dead end opposite Cineplex – Strovolos €3000 (H4STI0042-R), (photos in the website).

12. 5 bedr new luxury finished detached house with separate maid’s room, one of the bedrooms with shower and wc and can be used as guest room,4 wc, solid parquet floor all the house, separate family room with fire place, big sitting room, separate dining room, big kitchen with breakfast area, big outside patio with tiles and bbq area,2 covered parking, electrical appliances in the kitchen, in a very quiet neighbourhood close to CYBC station.

Can be rented furnished or not. – Platy Aglantzias €3000 (H5PAG0001-R), (Photos on the website).

13. 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,1 shower,2wc, 2 covered parking, big verandas surrounded by trees and bushes off 28th October street - Makedonitissa €1300 (H4STI0043-R), (photos in the website).

14. 3 bedr luxury house, nicely modern furnished with big sitting and dining areas with bar, central heating, full a/c, big fitted kitchen with TV room, office space, patio area with bbq, covered parking, 3wc, solid parquet floor in bed-

rooms and granite in the sitting areas, near the MEGA TV station – Archangelos €1300 (H3AR0002-R), (photos in the website).

15. 3 bedr luxury semi detached house with central heating independent, a/c, 3wc, parquet floor, fire place, electrical appliances in the kitchen, curtains, in a very quiet neighbourhood in the area near Falcon school – Strovolos €1500 (H3STI012-R), (photos in the website).

16. 3 bedr luxry detached house with 1 bedr flat in the basement, floor heating with gass, a/c units, big kitchen with electrical appliances, 4wc, 3 bathrooms, big garden with small pebbles, 2 covered parking, in a quiet area in a dead end. Can be rented furnished or not – Makedonitissa €1700 (H4MAK0027-R), (photos in the website).

17. 4 bedrs new luxury detached house, all the bedrooms very big and all with big bathroom/ shower, sitting room upstairs, attic room with shower and wc, office space/maid’ s room with shower and wc, central heating, full AC,450sq.m, big sitting and dining areas, big kitchen with sitting area and fitted cooker and oven,6 wc, 2 covered parking’s, big yard with tiles and garden with grass, bbq area in a very quiet neighbourhood near the CYBC ( RIK) station and near a neighbourhood park – Aglantzia €2000(H4AGZ0005-R), (photos in the website).

18. 4 bedr semi detached house with central heating, 4 a/c, 3 wc, 2 bathrooms, 180sq.m, small yard, bbq area, FULLY FURNISHED, off Costantinoupoleos street near French Ambassador residence – Strovolos €900 (H4STI0043-R), (photos in the website).

19. 4 bedr + 2 separate rooms with showers and wc (120sq.m) detached house with big sitting and dining areas, big kitchen with dining area and family room with fire place, very big swimming pool with bbq area, covered patio, garden with grass, central heating in 4 zones, full a/c, 6wc, 5 covered parking’s, pressure system, opposite Apoel training field.

Can be rented furnished or not. AVAILABLE END OF AUGUST – Archangellos €4000

(H4AR0007-R), (photos in the website).

20. 4 bedrs luxury detached villa built in 5 plots of land, 600sq., central Heating, full a/c, very big garden with grass, big swimming pool 5 x 13, bar with bbq area, office space, TV room with fire place, marble floor, all the bedrooms en suite shower/bathroom, separate self contained apartment for the maid, 2 covered parking in a nice area with easy access to the Limassol road. Can be rented also partially furnished – Latsia €5000(H4LAT0007-R), (photos in the website).

21. 4 bedr luxury detached house, separate maid’s room, 600 sq.m, central heating, full a/c, 6 wc, 4 bathrooms, big sitting and dining areas opening on to the garden, big kitchen with electrical appliances, built in 2 big plots of land with huge garden with grass, swimming pool, 2 covered parking, in a quiet neighbourhood close to Alpha Mega supermarket Engomi - €3700 (H4PA20005-R), (photos on the website).

22. 4 bedr luxury detached house with expensive finishes, office space, separate maid’s room, 3 of the bedrooms with en suite shower/ bathroom, floor heating, full air condition, white marble floor all the house, fire place, lighting fixtures, big kitchen with all the electrical appliances, swimming pool with bbq area, small garden,2 covered parking’s in a nice neighbourhood with expensive houses near KEMA building – Platy Aglantzias €3500 (H4PAG0004-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 22-422225/96422225/96422226, www.landtouristestates. com

(A3ACS0040-R), (photos in the website).

2. 2 bedr luxury apartment, 3 a/c for hot and cold, covered veranda, NICELY FURNISHED, covered parking in a small building 200 METRES from Akropolis Park. Price includes common expenses – Dasoupolis €650 (A2DAS0027-R), (photos in the website).

3. 1 bedr luxury spacious apartment with big sitting room, separate kitchen with electrical appliances, central heating independent with diesel,2 a/c, aluminum shutters in the bedrooms, covered veranda, covered parking, storage room, on a small quiet building in a quiet neighbourhood – Agios Dometios €450 (A1ADO0004-R), (photos in the website).

4. 3 bedr luxury PENTHOUSE apartment with storage heaters, full a/c, office space, very big veranda 100sq.m with nice view and bbq area with bar, NICELY MODERN FURNISHED, 2 bathrooms, 2 storage rooms, covered parking, in a small building near Hilton park and Ippokration hospital – Engomi €1000 (A3ENG0023-R), (photos in the website).

6. 2 bedr Brand new luxury finished apartment in a small modern building with storage heaters, full Daikin air conditions, electrical appliances in the kitchen, top quality double glazed windows with electrical shutters, 1 showers, 1 bathroom, 2 wc, big sitting and dining room, Very big covered veranda, pressure system, covered parking, big storage room, near Acropolis park – Dasoupolis €670 (A2DAS0028-R), (photos in the website).

7. 2 bedr brand new luxury finished apartment on a small modern design building with 2 bathrooms, a/c for hot and cold (Mitsubishi), storage heaters can be installed if needed, electrical shutters in the bedrooms, pressure system, water serculation system, solar, electrical appliances in the kitchen, blinds, covered veranda, 2 COVERED PARKING, storage room, near the centre and near traffic lights of Honda showroom. – Agioi Omologites €700 (A2AOM0007-R) 8. 1 bedr, fully furnished and

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

LUXURY FLATS: 1. 3 bedr furnished apartment, 140sq.m, near Cyprus Hilton, kitchen, bathroom and extra guests toilet, large sitting room, opposite a small park, recently renovated independent oil central heating, air conditions, solar heater, covered parking – Acropolis €630

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 NOTICE OF DISSOLUTION On May 21st, 2012 in accordance with Section 14.81.1 C of the Liberian Business Corporation ActDogonLtd (“Company”) with registration number C-37274 doing business at 9 Marikas Kotopouli Street, 3030 Limassol the shareholders have agreed to dissolve the Company.

1. All claims against the assets of the Company must be made in writing and include the claim amount, basis and origination date.

2. The deadline for submitting claims is 23rd November 2012 3. Any claims that are not received by the company prior to the date set forth above will not be recognized.

5. All claims and payments must be sent to P. O Box 53766, 3317 Limassol, Cyprus Dated: March 22nd, 2012.

Camilla Strømstad Liquidation board

30 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

Advertiser TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

equipped apartment, 50sq.m, 2 a/c for hot and cold, covered verandah, covered parking, ice view off Makarios Avenue between Hilton and DEBENHAMS shop – Nicosia Centre €460 (A1NIC0006-R), (photos in the website).

9. 3 bedr new luxury penthouse apartment on the last floor of a 3 storey building, CH ind, full a/c, pressure system, cooker and oven in the kitchen, blinds in the living room, 2 bathrooms, 130sq.m, big veranda with view, covered parking, 200m opposite Akropolis park. Acropolis €850(A3ACS0039-R), (photos on the website).

10. 2 bedr new luxury finished apartment with a/c for hot and cold, NICELY MODERN FURNISHED, big covered veranda,2 bathrooms,2wc,covered parking, storage room, secured entrance building in a very quiet neighbourhood – Aglantzia €650 (A2AGZ0022-R), (photos in the website) 11. 1 bedr luxury spacious apartment with big sitting and dining room, storage heaters, 2 a/c, cooker, oven, dishwasher, washing machine/dryer, refrigerator in the kitchen,2 wc, 1 bathroom, blinds, big covered veranda, storage room, parking, big common SWIMMING pool. Price includes common expenses – Latsia €500 (A1LAT0004-R), (photos in the website).

12. 2 bedrs big luxury flat, 110sq.m+big covered veranda, CH ind, 3 a/c, cooker, oven

in the kitchen, roller blinds, 2 bathrooms, 2 wc, parquet and granite floor, big bedrooms, big sitting and dining room, covered parking, intercom, on a small building with 6 flats only near Coca Cola factory 2 km from McDonalds in Egomi – Agios Dometios €550 (A2ADO0013-R), (photos in the website).

13. New luxury 2 bedr apartment with nice view, 100sq.m, big sitting & dining area, big separate kitchen with cooker and oven, big covered verandah, 2 wc, storage heaters, 2 a/c, electric shutters in the bedrooms, covered parking and storage room on the 11th floor of a small building with 6 flats only 200 meters for Akropolis park and opposite a small neighbourhood park – Dasoupolis €550 (A2DAS0001-R), (photos in the website).

14. New 2 bedr luxury apartment, 90sq.m, storage heaters, 3 a/c, cooker and oven, covered veranda, 2 wc, NICELY FURNISHED, covered parking and storage room of Kyriakou Matsi street near the centre – Agioi Omologites €720 (A2AOM0008-R), (photos in the website).

15. 3 bedr +separate maid”s room (with shower and wc) & luxury apartment with central heating independent, full a/c, 3wc, 2 bathrooms, big separate kitchen with breakfast area and electrical appliances, big sitting and dining area with solid parquet floor, big covered veranda, blinds,

alarm system, 2 parking, in a quiet area off Makarios Avenue near Hilton – Nicosia Centre €1100 (A3NIC0023-R), (photos in the website).

16. 2 bedr luxury modern penthouse apartment 125sq.m +40sq.m veranda with very nice view and bbq area, solid parquet floor all the flat, fully modern furnished and equipped central heating independent, full a/c, 2 bathrooms, big sitting and dining areas, covered parking in a very quiet neighbourhood in a dead end, off Athalassa Avenue near English School behind Stephanis Electronics – Strovolos €770 (A2ST10010-R), (photos in the website).

17. 3 bedr Brand new luxury finished apartment on a small modern building with storage heaters, full Daikin air conditions, electrical appliances in the kitchen, top quality double glazed windows with electrical shutters, 2 showers, 1 bathroom, 2 wc, big covered veranda, pressure system, covered parking, big storage room in a quiet neighbourhood near Acropolis park – Dasoupolis €800 (A2DAS0018-R), (photos in the website).

18. 4 bedr luxury floor apartment,250sq.m, office, maid’s room, central heating ind, full a/c,2 showers, 1 bathroom, 3wc, parquet floor, big kitchen with cooker and oven, big sitting area, roller blinds on all the windows, big veranda on a small building off Athalasas Avenue near

Alpha Mega supermarket and Areteion hospital – Dasoupolis €1100 (A4DAS002-R), (photos on the website) 19. 3 bedr luxury spacious floor apartment on the 4th floor of award winning building,200sq.m+big covered veranda, central heating independent, full built in air conditions, lighting fixtures, curtains and blinds on all windows, big spacious living room with fire place, big kitchen with double cooker, oven and microwave and breakfast area, double glazed windows, all the bedrooms with en suite shower/bath, big satellite dish with sky decoder,2 covered parking and storage room, close to American embassy and other amenities – Engomi €1600 (A3ENG0025-R), (photos in the website).

20. 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 €800 (A3ST10030-R), (photos in the website).

21. 2 bedr new luxury apartment with central heating independent, full a/c, 2wc, big sitting and dining room,

separate kitchen with cooker and oven, blinds on all windows, covered veranda, solar heater, pressure system, covered parking, storage room, on a small building in a quiet neighbourhood next to a playground, near Central offices of Cyta and Laiki Head quarters – Dasoupolis €600 (A2DAS0018-R), (photos in the website).

22. 4 bedr new luxury finished apartment, 160sq.m+35sq.m covered veranda, big sitting and dining room, NICELY MODERN FURNISHED, Daikin air-conditions for hot and cold in all the rooms, 2 bedrs with en suite shower/ wc, 4wc, 2 covered parking, in a small modern building off Makarios Avenue in a quiet neighbourhood – Nicosia Centre €1400 (A4NIC0001-R), (photos in the website).

23. New luxury spacious 3 bedr quality apartment, 165sq. m+ big covered verandah, separate floor heating, full a/c, 3 wc, 2 bathrooms (one en suite), solid parquet floor all the flat, big sitting and dining area (can fit 2 sitting rooms and dining table), electrical appliances in the kitchen which has a breakfast area,2 covered parking, storage room in a very quiet green neighbourhood near the centre and Ag. Andreas Nicosia Centre €1450 (A3NIC0004-R), (photos in the website).

24. New luxury 2 bedr apartment, open plan kitchen, 3 a/c for hot and cold, blinds

on all the windows, nicely expensive full furnished with real leather sofas, double bed, big dining table, LCD 32”, satellite dish with receiver, internet, very big bedrooms with big and many wardrobes, covered parking and storage room, in a quiet area near BMH – Aglantzia €620 (A2AGZ0001-R), (photos in the website).

25. 2 bedr new luxury finished and FURNISHED ground floor apartment, 80sq.m +120sq.m veranda and garden, separate floor heating, full a/c, 2wc, aluminum shutters outside the windows, pressure system, fully expensively fitted with electrical appliances in the kitchen, big covered parking and big storage room, off Athallassa Avenue near English School in a small modern building – Strovolos €800 (A2ST10023-R), (photos in the website).

26. 3 bedr luxury spacious fully renovated apartment with separate central heating, full a/c, 2 bathrooms, 3 wc, parquet floor all the flat, big sitting and dining areas with fire place, big covered veranda, covered parking, blinds, cooker and oven in the kitchen, covered parking, on a small 2 storey building, walking distance to the centre – Lykavitos €1000 (A3LYK0009-R), (photos in the website).

27. 3 big bedrs +office space luxury penthouse floor apartment, renovated, central heating independent, full

31 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 2012

TO LET NICOSIA a/c, 230sq.m, double glazed windows,3wc, 2 bathrooms (one en suite), solar heater, pressure system, SKY satellite dish, big sitting and dining areas, solid parquet floor all the flat, big kitchen with cooker and oven and breakfast area, very nice view of the old city,40sq.m private roof garden area ,covered parking on a small building in the centre of Nicosia near the Museum and the old Hospital. Available middle 15th of SEPTEMBER –Nicosia Centre €1200 (A4NIC0005-R), (photos in the website) 28. 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 neighbourhood near CYTA, Laiki + Hellenik bank headquarters and French school.

CAN BE RENTED ALSO expensive furnished for higher rent – Dasoupolis €1200 (A3DAS0019-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.

FOR SALE Semi-detached house in Archangelos area split level Nn 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

Advertiser

TO LET LIMASSOL LIMASSOL TO LET one bedroom furnished flat in Katraki building, 100 metres from the sea and Debenhams Olympia. Price €430 (included common expenses). Tel: 99406415 Andreas.

HOUSE in Mesa Geitonia for rent. 1st floor, 2 bedroom, full A/C, semi furnished, 4 years old. Balcony. For more info call 99375101.

STUDIO FOR RENT 100 metres from the sea, available immediately. furnished, parking available. Rental €325 monthly including levies. 99867267 OFFICE FOR RENT opposite sea with amazing sea views.

120sqm, 2 bathrooms, kitchen.

Security system, cabling and server room ready. Price € 1400/ month negotiable tel. 99 330 908 www.cyprusre.com/listingLIM-0103

LARNACA LARNACA FLATS TO LET Fully furnished, spacious 2 bedrooms in central Larnaca.

Near Saint Lazaros Church, 4 minutes walk to Phinicoudes sea front. Small block 2 years old (6 apts) From €400 - to €500. Tel. 99388901 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 PROTEA APTS LARNACA Residential and holiday apts for rent monthly or weekly Larnaca – Dhekelia road, close to Golden Bay Hotel 1 & 2 bedroom apts, furnished and with low rent with swimming pool, 2 minutes walking distance from the beach, with a new pedestrian crossing in front of the building. Contact us on 99672466, 99404522, and 99078590 LARNACA FLAT FOR RENT: Fully-furnished spacious 2-bedroom first floor flat in central location near Metro

U SEFUL PHONE NUMBERS POLICE DIVISION HQ

HOSPITALS ........ 1400

Nicosia ........................22 802 020 Limassol ......................25 805 050 Larnaca .......................24 804 040 Paphos ........................26 806 060 Famagusta ..................23 803 030

Nicosia General .............22-801400 Nicosia Makarios ...........22-405000 Limassol Old ................25-305333 Limassol New ................25-801100 Larnaca Old...................24-630312 Larnaca New .................24-630300 Paphos ..........................26-821800 Famagusta ....................23-821211

Drug Law Enforcement Unit ......................................... 1498 (Confidential Information) Rescue Co-ordination Centre ............................. 1441 (Immediate Response Service for Aeronautical or Maritime Accident & Incidents) Game Fund Service: (Wildlife and hunting) Central offices (Nicosia): 22867786, 22-867897 Nicosia: 22-664606, 99-445697 Limassol: 25-343800, 99-445728, Larnaca/Famagusta: 24-805128, 99-634325 Paphos: 26-306211, 99-445679 Forest Fires ..................... 1407

Narcotics Helpline ......... 1410 (Outside hours.............. 22-304160) AIDS Advisory Bureau ................................ 22-302826

TO LET LARNACA

TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

supermarket, A/C, private parking, intercom system, ensuite bathroom, small block.

Phone: 99354789 FULLY FURNISHED one bedroom flat near Larco hotel Larnaca. Price €370. Tel: 99202543

PROPERTY RENTALS From 250 Euros per month. Villas and apartments available.

Also wanted for waiting clients. www.johnalice-properties.com johnalicecy@gmail. com Tel: 00357 99984681 2 BEDROOM APARTMENT in the heart of Kato Paphos, the property is situated in a quiet, private complex, next to archeological site overlooking the light house, very reasonable rent, tel : 99411933 6 BEDROOM, luxury detached villa in Chlorakas, for rent.

Breathtaking, unobscured sea and mountain views.

Close to all amenities, located in a cul de sac in Melanos area with a private road. 6 bed, 2 bathrooms (+2en suite), utility room, outdoor storage, Jacuzzi, private pool, fully A/C, fitted kitchen, large verandas and landscaped gardens. Long term let or sale by owner, call 99414920 UNIVERSAL AREA, 1 bedroom, furnished apartment, off street parking, quiet area, euro 250 per month, plus electricity, no other charges.

Tel : 96523557 FOR RENT A selection of 1 to 5 bedroom houses & apartments F/F & U/F Universal, Peyia, Tomb of the Kings, Tsada, Timi & Kato Paphos Landlord & Owners please call 99329357 Or please view at are website www. cyprussands.com Fully Registered Company in Cyprus

PHOS 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. Geroskipou €350 modern ground floor 2 bedroom apartment. Situated in a quiet complex with lovely communal pool. Enclosed pretty patio area & underground parking. Fully furnished with modern furniture, including leather sofa’s and plasma tv.

Would suit mature couple.

Pets allowed.

2. Chloraka €425 modern 3 bedroom townhouse, master with ensuite. Ground floor guest wc. Fully furnished with modern furniture. Enclosed garden with decking offering sea views. Undercover parking. Pets allowed. Complex with large communal pool & playground.

3. Tomb of the kings €450 modern 2 bedroom apartment on first floor with lift.

Modern ensuite shower room & family bathroom. Fully furnished with modern furniture.

Balcony with sea views. Situated on a good complex with lovely communal pool. Close to bus routes and shops.

4. Tala €650 modern 3 bedroom detached villa with garage. Situated in a small quiet cul de sac. Includes underfloor heating plus real fire.

Master with ensuite. Separate utility room. Shutters & flyscreens. Covered veranda, garden with mature plants & private pool offering stunning sea views. Available unfurnished.

5. Peyia €750 price includes pool cleaning. If you are looking for a villa with breathtaking views & privacy than this property is for you. This modern detached 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom villa is furnished with modern furniture, including satellite tv. One bedroom & bathroom on ground floor.

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

6. Mesogi €800 fantastic modern 4 bedroom 3 bathroom detached villa. One bedroom & bathroom on ground floor.

Storage room. Beautifully finished to a high standard.

Quality modern kitchen with granite worktops & modern bathrooms. Gas central heating & real fireplace. Beautiful landscaped garden with private pool. Undercover parking on drive. Available unfurnished. Wonderful property.

7. Peyia €850 spacious detached 4 bedroom luxury villa, offering stunning sea views.

Private pool, enclosed garden, garage, basement for storage & separate utility room. Modern fitted kitchen with miele kitchen appliances & granite work tops. Private drive. Available unfurnished or part furnished. Fantastic property!

8. Mesogi €1250 stunning detached 4 bedroom 5 bathroom villa. One bedroom & ensuite on ground floor. Spacious kitchen with separate utility room. Available unfurnished though includes gas central heating plus real fireplace in living area. Enclosed garden & private pool. Gated entrance with undercover parking. Situated on a private road.

TEL: 97790883 OFFICE: 26271858 VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR MANY MORE PROPERTIES www.mrrentpaphos.net Email: info@ mrrent-paphos.net

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1. K.S.L LETTINGS – APARTMENT FOR RENT Fully Furnished ground floor 2 bedroom apartment, overlooking pool. Beautifully furnished throughout. 350 Euros per calendar month. Larnaca District. Quote TLL884. Tel. (00357) 24815104 2. K.S.L LETTINGS – Properties Required for waiting Long Term Tenants. We desperately require 2/3 & 4 bedroom villa’s with private swimming pools for waiting tenants in the Larnaca District. Please call us for a free valuation. Tel. (00357) 24815104 3. K.S.L LETTINGS – largest range of properties. Over 200 rental properties in the Larnaca district at the most competitive rates! Flexible contracts available. Tel. (00357) 24815104 4. www.KSLlettings.com – Villa For Rent Fully furnished 3 bedroom Villa with a good-sized rear garden & Communal pool, located in the village of Oroklini. Call for further information quoting Ref. TLL1189.

Tel. (00357) 24815104 CALL 24 815 104 TO ENQUIRE OR ARRANGE A VIEWING – NO OBLIGATION OR FEES. View our full range of over 200 properties by visiting www.KSLlettings.com updated daily. LANDLORDS ADVERTISE YOUR PROPERTY FOR FREE AND GET WORLD WIDE ADVERTISING – NO TENANT NO FEE ! *****************************

PAPHOS GEROSKIPOU beautiful: brand new: unfurnished: 2 bedroom apartment €330 pm; 3 bedroom apartment €390 pm; fully a/c vertical blinds, cooker fan extractor, situated in quiet area, very modern, near Kato Paphos Near Neapolis Univercity, close to supermarkets. Call 99370845 *****************************

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ONE BEDROOM fully furnished apartment for rent in Kissonerga. Near Cynthiana Beach hotel and close proximity to Coral Bay. Overlooking the sea and 100 metres from beach. AC in bedroom.

Tel: 99-492521/ 99- 673276 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 *****************************

MR RENT PAPHOS, THE LEADING PROPERTY RENTAL AGENCY IN PA-

TO LET ON THE BEACH STUDIO FLAT WITH SUPERB SEA VIEW Newly renovated, fully air-conditioned one bedroom flat, comprising open-plan living room, fully equipped kitchen, bathroom and veranda with direct sea view on the beach next to the Larnaca fishing harbour. Covered parking in gated garage. Long-term rental, furnished €650 or unfurnished €575/month.

Call 99441499, 99431873

Domestic Violence Centre .......................................... 1440 (Emergency Centre for Victims)

Friends for Life Limassol Hospice Care Appeal requires new Friends and Volunteers to help operate their Charity Shops in both Limassol and Larnaca.

Drug Info & Poison Control ............... 1401

This is to help our large volunteer group to expand in the near future.

Cyprus Samaritans ... 77777267

Our aim is to open a Third Shop in the Limassol area due to popular demand.

Police Duty Officer ......... 1499 (Confidential Information)

Please do not forget when clearing your wardrobes and cupboards to remember us.

Airports Larnaca ..........................77778833 Paphos ...........................77778833

Shop hours Mon-Sat. 9.30 -12.30 Contact Anne 25632446 99269016

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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 on this prestigious development. Open plan living area. Good sized kitchen.

2 double , bedrooms, master with en-suite shower room. Family bathroom. Large patio areas with enclosed gardens and lovely sea views. Covered parking and security gates.. Comm swimming pool, and landscaped gardens. €475.00 a month 2. GEROSKIPOU 2 bed 1.5 bath furnished duplex apartment in quiet location with outstanding sea views. Open plan living area and dining area.. Fully fitted kitchen with appliances . Guest WC. 2 double bedrooms. Family bathroom. Balcony & covered parking. Comm pool. Rent includes free internet. €430.00 a month.

3. SEA CAVES – 5/6 bed fully furnished luxury villa with no immediate neighbours.. Open plan formal living area with dining area for 12. Separate family room. Outstanding fitted kitchen with breakfast area.

Separate utility /2nd kitchen.

OFFICE/WAREHOUSE FOR RENT 735m² of office space and 1200m² warehousing available for long term rent on Yianni Kranidioti Avenue very close to Carlsberg Brewery.

Easy access to Nicosia-Limassol highway (only 200 metres).

Loading bays for warehouses and parking space for more than 40 cars. Hidden fuel tank plus car mechanics station.

For more information please call 99218866

32 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

Advertiser TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

Ground floor office/bedroom Shower-room with sauna. 4 double bedrooms, master with en-suite and large dressing room with safes.. Family bathroom. Garage, parking & gardens. Separate 1 bed suite plus maids quarters. Swimming pool with massive outside BBQ/kitchen. A/C, C/H and fireplace in family room.

An outstanding luxury home with many internal features.

Very quiet area. €4000.00 a month 4. MESA CHORIO – 2 Bed, 2. bath fully furnished apartment in good location close to ISOP. Open plan living area with dining space. Fitted kitchen, 2 double bedrooms, master with en-suite. Family bathroom. Off street parking & comm. Pool. Minutes into Paphos. €425. Or close offers 5. GOUDI (near Polis) Outstanding 3 bed, 3.5 bath unfurnished villa. Set in a rural setting the property enjoys privacy with no immediate neighbours. Open plan living area, spacious fitted kitchen.

Guest WC. Ground floor bedroom with en-suite. Stairs to 2 further double bedroom with en-suite. Breakfast area with hob & fridge and seating space. Doors out to large covered verandah with panoramic

views. Full A/C, C/H, garage, over-flow tiled pool, SKY dish.

Villa has substantial insulation to walls and floors. Large gardens. €750.00 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. TALA - 5 bed, 3.5 bath large fully furnished villa. Very large property with open plan living area. Fitted kitchen, storage cupboard, guest WC. 2 bedrooms, bathroom on this level with small seating area.

Ideal for dual living. Stairs up to 3 double bedroom, en-suite & family bathroom.

Heated swimming pool, A/C, C/H. Electric gates and garden areas. Parking for several cars.€1500.00 per month or offers.

8. POLEMI – 4 bed 2.5 bath massive unfurnished apartment with own entrance in large landscaped gardens.

Spacious open plan living area with feature fireplace and dining space Huge fitted kitchen and breakfast area.

Guest WC with storage area.4

double bedrooms. Master with en-suite bathroom. Family bathroom. Pretty landscaped gardens, shared pool and off street parking. Quiet rural property.. €550.00 per month.

OVNO FOR FULL LISTINGS OF A PA R T M E N T S / T O W N HOUSES AND VILLAS PLEASE CALL FOR DETAILS. ALL TYPES OF PROPERTY URGENTLY REQUIRED FOR LONG TERM RENTAL LANDLORDS/OWNERS 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.

PROPERTY FOR SALE NICOSIA FLAT FOR SALE: 2 BEDROOM FLAT with title deeds, 110 sqm, fully renovated, best

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

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ARADIPPOU, Larnaca Magnificient Villa fully furnished reduced by thousands to €280,000. 3 - 4 bedrooms, lounge (marble floors), dining/sitting, utility, kitchen, ensuite, bathroom. Many extras. Walk in condition e-mail: weetotie@cytanet.com.cy or phone 97851329 *****************************

PERVOLIA 4 Bed house for sale with Full Title Deeds. 160m covered on a 285m plot. Private swimming pool, aircon, flyscreens, carport. Built 2007, 5 min walk to Pervolia square, 3 min drive to Faros beach. €220,000, 99051706 *****************************

JUST ON SEA luxurious two story villa, four en-suite bedrooms, steam baths, roof garden, for sale, at Pervolia beach, 8 kilometres from Larnaca. Asking price €1,499,000.

Call 00357 97790619.

SALE LIMASSOL 2 bed flat on beach road; light, airy with balcony. New flooring, a/c units, lift 2nd floor, windows 3 sides, own car space. TITLE DEEDS. €115,000. Tel 99178141 www. homesinternational.info (Les Bois)

2 PROPERTIES BETWEEN POLIS AND LATSI. 2 bed townhouse, village centre €69,000 and quiet 3/4 bed house overlooking bay. 2 bath, c.h. wood burner, a.c. bedrooms, salt water 9x6 pool set in approx 2.500 sq.mts. €444,000 Tel: 99995531

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

AMMOCHOSTOS

PAPHOS

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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 UNIVERSAL AREA, 1 bedroom apartment with title deeds, c/p, communal pool in small complex of 8, under cover parking, roof terrace, store room and large balcony overlooking the pool, the sale

AYIA NAPA, rare opportunity, with title deeds, 4 bedroom house, renovated, swimming pool, 300m from best beach, 650 sqm plot. Eu 440,000. Tel 99 621914 *****************************

AYIA NAPA, studio for sale, 38 sqm, furnished and fully renovated, with title deed, in licenced complex, 500m from Nissi beach, €52,000, tel. 99 621914 *****************************

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33 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 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

ALL SAINTS GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH (ENGLISH) Sunday Divine Liturgy 8-10am. Followed by Fellowship hour (coffee) Services are now being held at the underground Chapel of All Saints of Cyprus at St. Panteleimonos Church Makedonitissa Archangelos (Engomi) For more info please contact Fr. Joseph Coleman Tel. 99938924

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.

PAPHIAKOS & C.C.P. ANIMAL WELFARE URGENTLY NEEDS PASTA TO HELP FEED THE DOGS AND SOFT FOOD FOR ALL THE CATS. DONATIONS CAN BE MADE AT THE CLINIC. PLEASE SPONSOR AN ANIMAL OR BECOME A MEMBER TO ENSURE PAPHIAKOS CAN CONTINUE WITH THEIR NECESSARY WORK. Telephone Jan 26946461 ex 114 or 97614008 THE DONKEYS AT PAPHIAKOS WOULD BE DELIGHTED TO HELP YOU GET RID OF YOUR UNWANTED CAROBS. PLEASE DELIVER TO THE CLINIC AND GIVE THE DONKEYS A SPECIAL TREAT! FORTHCOMING EVENTS FOR PAPHIAKOS CHARITY NO. 1529 September 15th Paphiakos Stall at Episkopi Fete.

September 15th Sights & Sounds of the 60s & 70s Live Music & Dancing Trimithousa Community Hall at 8pm €5 tickets from Ollies Bar Trimithousa Pre Show Suppers at Ollies ring 96354182 September 27th Legends of Rock Pissouri Ampitheatre €10 tickets from Pissouri Pools, Markos Internet Café & all Paphiakos Charity Shops Tel 99905624/99955431 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

CHEMISTS NICOSIA SUNDAY 02/09/2012 A. Stavrou, 76 D. Akritas St. Tel: 22751679, 22333220 (H) P. Aresti, 206 Strovolos Ave, Strovolos. Tel: 22420058, 22491533 (H) E. Christou, 13A Kantaras Ave, Pallouriotissa. Tel: 22435250, 22730120 (H) Y. N. Gobrial, 28B C October 28 St, Makedonitissa. Tel: 22590447, 22819910 (H) Ch. Savva, 146A Athalassa Ave, Strovolos. Tel: 22514131, 22354627 (H) LIMASSOL N. Kriticos 107 Pan. Evaggelistrias K. Polemithia Tel: 25397704, 25386455 (H) O. Drousiotis, Glastonos 131B Tel. 25379777, 25581928 L. Constantinou, 23 Georgiou Neofytou, Tel: 25585859, 99895992 LARNACA G. Antonis, 14 K. Matsis St. (Atticon Cinema road) Tel: 24626332, 24657313 (H) M. Economidou, 15 Raphael Santi, Tel: 24102524, 22511250 PAPHOS L. Tselepou, 91 E. Venizelou St. Tel: 26954594, 26949276 (H) PARALIMNI A. Kamilaris, 52 Korai, Tel: 23744160, 23743418

NICOSIA MONDAY 03/09/2012 I. Kitiris, 63 Metochiou St. Tel: 22774950, 22774368 (H) N. Nouris, 33 A. B D. Akritas Ave. Tel: 22751801, 22374323 (H) M. Charalambous, 48A Armenia Ave, Acropolis. Tel: 22426655, 22492968 (H) O. Solomou, corner Strovolos & Pythonos St, Strovolos. Tel: 22313123, 22375724 (H) Ch. Kari, 50 Andrea Avraamide, Tel: 22771999, 22351072 LIMASSOL K. Michaelidou, 1E Ay. Zonis St., Tel: 25363546, 25722589 (H) P. Ioannou, 8, Dodekanisou Tel. 25364188, 25332618 (H) Sp. Zinoviou 4 Evgeniou Voulgareos K. Polemithia Tel: 25715555, 25382058 or 25320324(H) LARNACA L. Vernis, 29 S. Timayia Ave. Tel: 24638470, 24533055(H) Despo Theodosis, Lordou Vyronos & Gladstonos 1, Tel. 24622522, 24720083 PAPHOS G. Ioannou, Tombs of the Kings Rd, Kato Paphos, Tel: 26818397, PARALIMNI G. Kayias, 6A Sotiras St. Tel: 23827020, 23744353 (H)

CHURCHES

DOCTORS ON DUTY NICOSIA Pathologist: Costas Schizas, Tel: 22311077, 99606611 Urologist: Achilleas Corellis, Tel: 70007773, 99562642 Gynaecologist: Marios Eleftheriou, Tel: 22469000, 99433384 Paediatric Surgeon: Panicos Theodorou, Tel: 22469000, 99612311 LIMASSOL Pathologist: Marios Simeonides, Tel.: 25581212, 99687510 Surgeon: Yiangos Papadopoulos, Tel.: 25383443, 99620502 Neuro-Surgeon Michalakis Spirou, Tel: 99624939 Paediatric: Niki ChampizRotsa, Tel.: 25561890, 25564051, 99420630 Paediatric Surgeon: Koualis Yiannakis, Tel.: 25731673, 25732256 Doctor: Michalakis Charalambous, Tel: 99616436

THE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF AGIOS ARSENIOS, LIMASSOL (near Tsirion Stadium) The Orthodox Liturgy in English Saturday, 4 February at 8:30 am For information please contact: Father M. Spanou at 99 – 401365 (msspanou@googlemail.com)

THE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF ST ANDREW AND ST JOHN THE BAPTIST MESA GEITONIA, LIMASSOL The Orthodox Liturgy in English served fortnightly on Saturdays at 9.00 am. We also hold a Discussion Group every Thursday evening at 7.30 pm For information please call Fr. Christopher Klitou Mobile: 99957144 Fax: 25710318 You can email us at: klitoux@logos.cy.net or visit our website: www.christopherklitou.com

Family oriented evangelical church Contemporary Christian Worship Sunday 10am (Holy Communion - 1st Sunday of the month) Sunday School (Juniors and Teens) Outreach and Evangelism Bible Studies

Tel. 99 293489, 99 279960 Email: immanuel.church.nicosia@gmail.com Website: www.immanuelchurchnicosia.org

DEUTSCHE GOTTESDIENSTE IN ZYPERN

LARNAKA COMMUNITY CHURCH APHRODITE STREET, LARNAKA 10.00 AM MORNING SERVICE and SUNDAY SCHOOL For more details ring Fred 24365152

Nikosia: Am 1. und 3. Samstag im Monat in der St. Paul’s Cathedral um 18 Uhr Limassol: Am 2. Sonntag im Monat im Gemeindehaus in Germasogeia um 11 Uhr Am 4. Sonntag im Monat in der St. Barnabaskirche um 18 Uhr Paphos: Am 2. Samstag in der Kirche an der Paulussaeule um 16 Uhr Agia Napa: Am 4. Sonntag im Monat im Hof des Klosters um 9.30 Uhr

Open Door Baptist Church

Näheres Informationen durch Pfarrer Dr. Herold, Tel 25-317092 oder im Internet www.ev-kirche-zypern.de

9 Larnakos Street Katholiki Area Limassol Sundays: 9:45, 11:00 AM, 1:30 PM Wednesdays: 7:30 PM 25 751193 or 99 758729 www.cbm-odbc.org

GRACE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH Invites you to COME AND EXPERIEBNCE THE LOVE OF GOD WITH US Int. Christian Business Fellowship Meeting Centre Sundays: 10.00am Sunday School 11.00 am Main Service (Dine with us centre services) Wednesdays: Prayer meeting 6pm Address: To Arsinois Str., 1010 Nicosia (Next to Western Union Office to KISA) Contact: 99988900 or 97667932.

VISITORS ESPECIALLY WELCOME!!!

THE REFORMED CHURCH OF LIMASSOL Clear exposition of the Bible in the presence of God, and relevant to our lives.

Our Sunday services start at 10:30 am sharp, and the Wednesday Bible discussion at 7 pm.

International Evangelical Church (Reformed) is located at 352 St. Andrew’s Street. 1½ blocks from Starbucks / Fat Boy, and 1 block from the Municipal Gardens, Zoo. For further information call Steve at 99384742, or email: iee.limassol@gmail.com All are welcome!

NICOSIA CHRISTIAN CENTRE 10 PINDOU STR, ENGOMI, NICOSIA, TEL. 22464375 SERVICES: SUNDAY 10AM, WEDNESDAY 8PM St Barnabas’ Anglican Church 153 Leontiou A Street Limassol www.stbarnabas-cyprus.com Telephone: 25362713 - All welcome HOLY CROSS CATHOLIC CHURCH, PAPHOS GATE, NICOSIA Sunday Masses: Saturdays 6.30 pm, Sundays 8.00am, 9.30am & 6.30pm Weekday Masses: 6.30 pm Monday to Friday Tel: 22662132 Email: holcross@logos.cy.net

GRACE CHURCH, LARNACA 8 Ayiou Neofytou St Sundays 10 a.m.

Also Midweek Meetings Details: Colin 24530700

The Anglican Church of Paphos Ayia Kyriaki (St. Paul by the Pillar) Sunday 8.15am Holy Eucharist 6.00pm Sung Eucharist 4th Sunday 6.00pm Choral Evensong Wednesday 9.00am Holy Eucharist rd 3 Wednesday (BCP) St. Stephen’s, Tala 1st & 3rd Sunday 11.00 am Holy Eucharist 2nd & 4th Sunday 11.00am Morning Worship St. Luke’s, Prodromi 1st & 5th Sunday 9.30am Morning Worship 2nd , 3rd & 4th Sunday 9.30am Holy Eucharist 1st & 3rd Wednesday 9.30am Holy Eucharist 1st Sunday 6.00 p.m. Peace & Wholeness with Holy Eucharist 4th Sunday every quarter 9.30 am Holy Eucharist from BPC Church Office: 26-953044 Fax: 26-952486 Email: anglicancofp@cytanet.com.cy for directions to each church

St Helena’s Anglican Church, Larnaca St Helena’s Court, Grigoris Afx Sunday Service: Holy Communion 9.30 am ALL WELCOME Tel:24651327 office@sainthelenas.com

International EVANGELICAL CHURCH (Reformed) Limassol 352 St. Andrew’s Street (1½ blocks from Starbucks/Fat Boy) Sunday worship 10:30am Wednesday Bible Discussion 7pm For info: 99384742 ALL ARE WELCOME

34 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

Motoring Compiled by Rosie Ogden ‘CHASSIS DELIVERS INCREASED TRACTION, ROAD-HOLDING AND DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE IN ALL WEATHER’

The new all-wheel drive 911 is available in four versions: the 911 Carrera 4 and 911 Carrera 4S, and as a Coupé and Cabriolet

All-wheel drive Porsche 911 THE new Porsche 911 Carrera 4 and 4S models will boast the latest version of the active all-wheel drive Porsche Traction Management (PTM) system.

While retaining the traditional rear-wheel drive emphasis of the 911, Porsche says the all-wheel drive chassis of the Carrera 4 and 4S “delivers increased traction, road-holding and dynamic performance over a wide variety of road surfaces and in all weather conditions”.

Both the 911 Carrera 4 and 4S have wider rear wheel arches compared to the two-wheel drive 911 Carrera

models, and house rear tyres that are ten millimetres wider. The signature red light band that connects the two tail-lights has also taken on a new form.

The new all-wheel drive 911 is available in four versions; the 911 Carrera 4 and 911 Carrera 4S, and as a Coupé and Cabriolet. Each model is identical to the rear-wheel drive versions in terms of body design, suspension, engine choices and gearbox options; the only exceptions are modifications related to the all-wheel drive.

The aluminium-steel composite body helps deliver a

weight saving of up to 65kg over the previous model so, despite the higher level of performance, the new Carrera 4 models offer up to 16 per cent lower fuel consumption.

All models have a sevenspeed manual gearbox as standard, and the sevenspeed Doppelkupplung (PDK) twin-clutch automatic transmission is available as an option. The 911 Carrera 4 features a rear-mounted 3.4-litre flat-six engine developing 350 hp, and can sprint from 0-62mph in just 4.5 seconds (Cabriolet 4.7 sec) and reach a top speed of up

to 177 mph (Cabriolet 175 mph), depending on specification. Fuel consumption with PDK is 32.8 mpg (203 g/ km CO2) for the Coupé and 32.5 mpg (205 g/km CO2) for the Cabriolet.

The 911 Carrera 4S is powered by a 3.8-litre flat-six engine that produces 400 hp (294 kW) and delivers acceleration from 0-62mph in 4.1 seconds (Cabriolet 4.3 seconds) and a top speed of 186 mph (Cabriolet 184 mph). Fuel consumption with PDK is 31.0mpg (215 g/ km CO2) for the Coupé and 30.7 mpg (217 g/km CO2) for the Cabriolet.

In the 911 Carrera 4 and 4S, a new menu in the instrument cluster informs the driver how the PTM all-wheel drive is currently distributing engine torque between the front and rear axles.

Porsche is also introducing the option of Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) - which controls distance to traffic ahead and vehicle speed - across the 911 model range. When ordered with PDK, the ACC system adds the safety function Porsche Active Safe (PAS), which can help prevent front-end collisions.

Standard equipment on all models includes full leather interior, 4.6-inch colour touch-screen Porsche Communication Management with satellite navigation, automatic climate control, Bi-Xenon headlights, a universal audio interface offering MP3 connectivity and a three year warranty.

The new all-wheel drive Carrera will make its first public appearance at the 2012 Paris International Motor Show later this month and right hand drive variants should be in showrooms by the end of the year.

Pedal to the metal at Goodwood Revival Groundbreaking British sports car THIS year’s Goodwood Revival (14-16 September) will feature the youngest grid ever assembled at the West Sussex venue.

The inaugural Settrington Cup will feature a full field of 30 Austin J40 pedal cars competing in a two-part race on Saturday and Sunday, with the result declared on aggregate timing, and the prizes being presented by Sir Stirling Moss.

The organisers say they expect one of the most closelycontested races of the Revival weekend!

With an average age of eight years old, the competitors will pedal a short circuit of about 220 yards around the main Goodwood grid/pit lane (that’s about a tenth of the overall Goodwood circuit), with a Le Mans-style running start, and a chicane on the start/finish straight. Each competitor will wear period overalls and a 1950s-style crash helmet.

is confirmed for Salon Privé 2012

Competitors will have an average age of eight When not racing, the J40s will be parked in their own dedicated half-scale period wooden paddock shelters.

The Austin J40 is something of a British motoring institution. The pedal car was built at the Austin Junior Car Factory in Bargoed, South Wales.

This dedicated factory began Austin pedal car production

in 1949, with the plant funded by the British Government.

It was run on a not-for-profit basis, purely for the employment of disabled coal miners, with 250 men assembling both the J40 pedal car, plus the racy Pathfinder, loosely based around a single-seater competition Austin Seven.

Production ended in 1971.

ICONIC British sports car maker, Trident, will display its all-new Iceni Grand Tourer at Salon Privé 2012, which will be held at West London’s Syon Park from the 5th to 7th September.

Described as “beautiful, innovative and unique”, the Iceni’s outstanding performance and vital statistics are thanks to Trident’s patented Torque Multiplication technology. With a top speed of nearly 200mph and a 0-60mph sprint in just 3.7 seconds, the Iceni is built to order in Norfolk and priced from £75,000.

A mid-front mounted 6.6litre turbo-diesel is used to capitalise on the Torque Multiplication technology, capable of running on mineral diesel, bio diesel, palm oil and linseed oil, it delivers 430bhp and a staggering 950lbs ft of torque at

Pass the palm oil! Sleek looks, awesome torque - and you don’t need to use petrol! under 3250rpm. An option to upgrade to 660bhp is also available, delivering a whopping 1050lbs ft of torque.

At a constant 70mph, the specially tuned engine runs at just 980rpm and will keep going for over 2000 miles on one full tank of

diesel.

Trident Sports Cars managing director, Phillip Bevan, says: “We are very pleased to be at Salon Privé which this year is a great celebration of all things British and home-grown talent - something we feel very strongly about at Trident.”

35 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 2012

Sport Ancient Muay Thai gains new life as fitness regime

Chinese athletes rake in gains from London

Native boxing seen as both artistic discipline and crafty sport

CHINA’S Olympic gold medallists have been rewarded with lavish gifts by the state, including cash bonuses and luxury sea-front apartments, local media reported yesterday.

Real estate companies in particular have been lining up to sponsor athletes by furnishing them with new housing after their success at last month’s London Games.

Chinese swimmers Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen both received apartments worth 3 million yuan ($472,600) from a company in their hometown of Hangzhou, according to the China Daily.

Hangzhou also plans to build statues for the swimmers to honour their efforts at the Olympics.

Double gold medallist Sun, who broke the men’s 1,500 metres world record, was named “Zhejiang Model Worker” and given 2.6 million yuan, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

Ye, who also won two gold medals in London, received the same title as well as 1.8 million yuan.

Table tennis player Zhang Jike, from the coastal city Qingdao, Shandong province, was presented with a 120-square-metre apartment with a sea view.

Li Xuerui, who won the women’s badminton gold in London, will move out of the small house she shared with her parents and into a 100-square-metre flat in Chongqing.

Estate agents hope to sell property to prospective buyers by enticing them to become ‘the neighbour of Olympic champions’ in their adverts.

China won 38 golds, 27 silvers and 23 bronzes at the London Olympic Games to finish second behind the US in the medals table.

Hurdler Liu Xiang triggered the wave of athlete-chasing agencies after winning the 110 metres hurdles at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

His income from sponsorship in 2005 was reported to be more than 460 million yuan.

The athletes have also been royally paid for their achievements in bringing Olympic glory to China at the London Games.

During a visit to Hong Kong and Macao last week, Olympic champions also pocketed HK$25.2 million ($3.25 million) from Hong Kong entrepreneurs.

They also bagged another HK$10.2 million from the government of the Macao Special Administrative Region.

China began rewarding Olympic athletes in 1984 when the country participated for the first time after regaining its seat on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1979.

By Amy Sawitta Lefevre ONCE the province of men in dark, smoky stadiums and shadowed by an image of violence, Thailand’s ancient martial art of Muay Thai is being reborn - as a fitness regime.

Known as the country’s national sport and said to be 2,000 years old, Muay Thai has seen a surge in popularity over the last five or so years, with gyms promptly taking advantage with state-of-the-art facilities mushrooming in Bangkok’s most prestigious neighbourhoods.

“Many Thais thought it was a violent sport so they were hesitant to send their kids to our school, but that’s all changed thanks to international interest in the sport,” said Phoemsakul Kesbumrung, general manager of Bangkok’s Muay Thai Institute, which is dedicated to preserving the sport.

He should know. His school has grown from a handful of students in 1995 to 450 full-time students at present, with more signing up each year, and he has had to increase classes from 3 times-a-day, 6 daysa-week to 4 times-a-day, 7 days-a-week.

“Muay Thai isn’t just about strength and lifting weights, it’s also about training the mind to concentrate,” he said.

‘Muay Thai’ simply means ‘Thai boxing.’ It is also known as ‘The Art of Eight Limbs’ as hands, arms, elbows and knees are used extensively in this ancient sport that also mixes religious beliefs with traditional cultural practices.

Considered as much an artistic discipline as a sport, it includes a ceremony known as ‘Wai Kru’ in which students pay respect to their teachers in a ritual that is considered an essential part of many ancient Thai disciplines including boxing, dance, Thai massage and astrology.

Foreign interest grew in the wake of films such as Tony Jaa’s Ong Bak martial arts series, drawing a number of people to Thai-

Surge in popularity: a teenage girl warms up at the Muay Thai Institute in Bangkok, while an instructor shows some steps to children during training (below)

‘Many Thais thought it was a violent sport so they were hesitant to send their kids to our school, but that’s all changed thanks to international interest’ land to pursue the sport.

Local celebrity endorsements and a string of home-grown boxing idols including two-time World MAX champion, Buaka Banchamek, a lightweight boxing champion, also helped boost interest. And Thai women and children are now taking up a sport previously dominated by men.

Children in particular are sent to both get fit and keep in touch with Thai tradition. One of Phoemsakul’s students joined when less than 3-years-old and is still training.

Women hope to stay in shape and get rid of stress.

At The Siam hotel, an ur-

ban retreat in an Art DecoThai fusion design from architect Bill Bensley, General Manager Jason Friedman says that most guests who choose the hotel’s one day and multi-day Muay Thai packages are female guests looking to firm up and blow off some steam in a unique way.

UNIQUE LESSON After a leisurely breakfast by the Chao Phraya river, guests are offered a unique Thai boxing lesson at the hotel’s customised indoor ring followed by a pampering spa session to ease tired muscles at the hotel’s opulent Opium Spa.

“We wanted the gym to be a core experience of the hotel and because of the rise in popularity of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), more people are hearing the words Muay Thai” said Friedman.

Phoemsakul, at the Muay Thai Institute, has a steady stream of Muay Thai success stories to share - including one about an American expatriate living in Thailand who took up Muay Thai to lose weight after childbirth and ended up shedding 74 kilos (163 pounds) over two years.

“From barely being able to run around the boxing ring, she was able to run 15 kilometers every day without

getting tired,” he said.

On a recent weekend, Natchanok Yochana was busy warming up for a Sunday evening women-only fight, watched over by her proud father, Nung Yochana, who said she used to sneak off to learn Muay Thai until he enrolled her at the school.

“I like the traditions behind Muay Thai...and of course, I like to fight,” said the lean 15-year-old, who practices twice a day and dreams big about her sport, smiling through her sweat.

“I’d like to go to the Olympics and represent my country. That would be the highest honour in my life,” she said.

36 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

Sport Gold, world record for GB’s Fachie and Storey

BALTIMORE closed within two games of New York at the top of the American League East with victory over the Yankees on Friday night.

Orioles’ rookie pitcher Miguel Gonzalez struck out a career-high nine batters over seven shutout innings and Mark Reynolds hit two home runs in the 6-1 success.

That took the Orioles two games behind the Yankees, the closest they have been since a one-game deficit on June 22.

Less than a month later the Yankees were 10 games in front, but the Orioles have been closing the gap ever since with 18 wins in their last 25 games.

The Tampa Bay Rays are two and a half games further behind after losing 2-1 to the Toronto Blue Jays.

In the AL Central, the Detroit Tigers also pulled within two games of leaders Chicago, beating the White Sox 7-4.

The Texas Rangers remain in command of the AL West after beating the Cleveland Indians 5-3.

In the NL East, the Washington Nationals thrashed the St Louis Cardinals 10-0 to extend their lead over the Atlanta Braves to six and a half games.

The Braves went down 8-5 to the Philadelphia Phillies, for whom Erik Kratz homered in the ninth inning and John Mayberry hit a three-run shot in the 10th to secure the win.

At the top of the NL Central, the Cincinnati Reds recorded a 9-3 success over the rock bottom Houston Astros, Pittsburgh remain half a game behind St Louis in the NL wild-card race after losing 9-3 to the Milwaukee Brewers, while the San Diego Padres beat the Colorado Rockies 5-4.

In the NL West, the San Francisco Giants went down 6-4 to the Chicago Cubs but remain four games clear of the LA Dodgers, who lost 4-3 to the Arizona Diamondbacks after 11 innings.

Elsewhere, the Oakland Athletics thrashed the Boston Red Sox 20-2, the LA Angels beat the Seattle Mariners 9-1, the New York Mets beat the Miami Marlins 3-0, while the game between the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals was postponed due to rain.

NEIL Fachie and Barney Storey won Great Britain’s third gold medal of the Paralympic Games track cycling programme with a scintillating display in the tandem one-kilometre timetrial at the London 2012 velodrome - but there was mechanical heartache for Anthony Kappes and Craig MacLean.

Fachie, who is partially sighted and competed in athletics in Beijing in 2008, and pilot Storey clocked a world record of one minute 01.351 seconds.

Kappes, who won the event in partnership with Storey in 2008, and MacLean suffered two mishaps and were denied a third opportunity to start by race officials.

The duo, world champions in February, had been scheduled to start last, but two chain failures saw their competition come to an end.

Spain’s Jose Enrique Porto and Jose Antonio Villanueva took silver in 1:02.707, with Ireland’s Jason Brown and Damien Shaw ninth in Fachie paid tribute to the support of the crowd as he and Storey closed in on their record-breaking time.

“The atmosphere was electric,” he said. “The crowd pushed us round that final bend.

“I just can’t believe it. To be here winning the gold medal is a dream come true.”

Storey echoed Fachie’s appreciation of the home backing.

He said: “The crowd were great on that last lap. I thought I was dying at that point and it (the crowd noise) was a big push behind me so that was great.”

IN BRIEF

Baltimore closing in on leaders Yankees

England’s Eoin Morgan (R) survives an attempted run out during the third ODI against South Africa on Friday

Cook delighted with England performance

By Rory Dollard ENGLAND captain Alastair Cook was delighted to see his side learn from their mistakes as they squared the NatWest Series with a comfortable four-wicket victory over South Africa Friday night.

The tourists have had it all their own way since arriving in England, claiming the Test series and the world number one ranking with a 2-0 success.

An 80-run win in the second one-day international at the Ageas Bowl then put them in front in the 50-over format, but England finally registered a first win of the tour at Surrey’s Kia Oval, taking back the number-one ODI ranking in the process.

Eoin Morgan (73) and Jonathan Trott (71) did the bulk of the scoring to overhaul a below-par effort of 211 all out by the Proteas, leaving Cook

‘We bowled better, batted better and fielded better’ pleased with what he saw.

“We bowled better, we batted better and we fielded better,” Cook said. “It’s encouraging when we can right our wrongs.

“I thought the character we showed after a heavy defeat last time out was fantastic.

We talked about certain areas and we’ve improved on those areas in this game.

“It’s just really nice to win.

It’s been a tough summer against South Africa and to finally win means a lot to the guys.”

The win provided the final flourish in a week that Cook is not likely to forget in a hurry.

The 27-year-old, who has been in charge of the ODI

side for a year, found out on Tuesday night he would be replacing the retiring Andrew Strauss as Test captain and was presented to the media barely 12 hours later.

There are a number of issues he must address in that role before the tour of India in November, not least the continuing conundrum that is Kevin Pietersen, but for now his focus remains on the next two matches of the current series.

Asked if he felt any different since his elevation to the top job, Cook said: “Not really. It’s quite nice, in a way, that I’ve been captain of the one-day side for a while. What’s gone on in the last three or four days hasn’t really changed it

at all. All that work (on the Test side) will happen after the one-day games are finished.”

Cook’s opposite number, AB de Villiers, was disappointed by his side’s performance.

Victory would have made losing the five-game series impossible and De Villiers felt they had every chance after batting first in helpful conditions.

“We didn’t play good cricket at all,” he said. “We won the toss, which I thought was important, and we had good conditions to bat under but most of our experienced got in and didn’t make it count.

“Those kind of things cost you the game. We just didn’t play well with bat in hand and unfortunately we didn’t get that extra 30-40 runs.

“From the word go we didn’t make it count with the bat and we lost momentum early in the game.”

R-L: Fachie and Storey

All Black Williams says he Redskins’ Jackson suspended Lock-out looms as NHL, is ready to rumble in Japan indefinitely for drug abuse players’ union talks halt BOXING All Black Sonny Bill Williams promised yesterday he would put in the hard yards to repay his megabucks transfer to Japan’s Panasonic Wild Knights.

The 27-year-centre, who is also New Zealand’s reigning heavyweight boxing champion, will earn around $1.2m for his 12 weeks in Japan.

And Williams is itching to make his debut after accepting the lucrative Panasonic contract to leave the All Blacks and Waikato Chiefs.

“It was a great deal and something I couldn’t turn down,” he said a week after helping New Zealand thrash Australia 22-0 to retain the Bledisloe Cup.

WASHINGTON Redskins safety Tanard Jackson has been suspended indefinitely without pay for violating the National Football League’s substance abuse policy, the league said on Friday.

Jackson’s suspension, his third, begins immediately and he will not be eligible for reinstatement until August 31, 2013, a league spokesman said.

The former Tampa Bay Buccaneer was suspended four games in the 2009 season and played in only two games in 2010 before being banned for the remainder of the season.

He had 32 tackles and two interceptions in 10 games with Tampa Bay last season.

Labour talks between the National Hockey League (NHL) and union representing its players broke off on Friday with both sides at odds on the core economic issues, raising the possibility of a lock-out in two weeks.

With the NHL having already said it is prepared to lock out players if a new deal is not reached by the time the current one expires on September 15, the league could be headed toward its first work stoppage since a lockout wiped out the 2004-05 season.

“What I thought was starting as a promising week ... ends in disappointment,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters on Friday.

37 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 2012

Sport Robson: I was due some big victories

Roddick knocks out teen Tomic to progress Sets up third-round meeting with Fognini

By Eleanor Crooks ANDY Roddick left his farewell to tennis for another night as he dismantled Australian teenager Bernard Tomic to reach the third round of the US Open.

Roddick announced on his 30th birthday on Thursday that this tournament would be his last and took a couple of deep breaths as he stepped out onto Arthur Ashe Stadium for what could have been his last match.

The clash had the look of the one between Kim Clijsters and Laura Robson on Wednesday that sent the Belgian into retirement earlier than would have been expected against one of the game’s rising stars.

But Roddick was on top form in a record 27th night match on Flushing Meadows’ giant main stage, while Tomic most definitely was not and the 2003 champion ran out an extremely comfortable 6-3 6-4 6-0 winner.

Roddick admitted he had been emotional before the match saying: “I’ve been trying to be good all day but I had a rough patch about 15 minutes before when I walked by a TV when it was showing one of those slowmotion montages.

“There wasn’t any volume but I assume it was set to an 80s ballad. That got me a little bit. I wanted to come out and be aggressive and that worked.”

TEEN’S NERVES Tomic, the only teenager in the world’s top 100, looked nervous at the start and an immediate break of serve was enough for Roddick to take the first set.

The American was serving very well and coming to the net often and his pressure paid off in the ninth game of the second set with another break, while Tomic never got a look in on Roddick’s serve.

The 19-year-old reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon last year as a qualifier but his progress has

stalled this season and he has won only four of his last 13 matches.

The third set was horribly one-sided as Roddick won at a canter to set up a thirdround meeting with Italy’s Fabio Fognini today.

He added: “I know Fabio, we’re very friendly, he’s a nice guy. I’ll look forward to it and I’m going to try to stick around a little longer.”

So poor was Tomic’s performance in the final set that John McEnroe, commenting for ESPN, accused him of not trying.

“I think he’s probably right,” Tomic said. “I couldn’t get the racquet on the ball.

“Andy was playing really good at the net, coming into the net.

“Every time I wanted to pass him he ended up hitting a half-volley winner or a volley winner.

“He was on top of me the whole match. I can’t complain.

“The whole match was his way from start to finish pretty much.”

Roddick was on top form in a record 27th night match on Flushing Meadow’s giant main stage, and ran out an extremely comfortable 6-3 6-4 6-0 winner over Tomic

Baghdatis exits US Open Azarenka records easy triumph over Zheng

By Nemanja Bjedov

By Eleanor Crooks

MARCOS Baghdatis lost in four sets to the 14-seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-4, 3-6, 6-0, 7-6(5) in the second round of the US Open at Flushing Meadows in New York on Friday night.

After surrendering the first set by one break of serve Baghdatis was quick to hit back as he took an early 3-1 lead in the second set before leveling the match. But the Ukrainian was soon back on top with an emphatic 6-0 win in the third.

In an up-and-down fourth, the World No. 39 Cypriot missed the opportunity to serve out the set twice before it went to a tie-break. Dolgopolov then earned three mini-breaks to seal the victory at 7-5 in two hours and 30 minutes.

WORLD number one Victoria Azarenka laid down a marker with a 6-0 6-1 trouncing of Zheng Jie to reach the fourth round of the US Open.

There have been plenty of one-sided matches involving the top seeds this week, but this was different because Zheng is ranked 28th in the world and a tough competitor.

Azarenka began the year with a 26-match winning streak, which included her first grand slam title at the Australian Open, and looked back to that form here.

The Belarusian raced through the first set in only 25 minutes for the loss of just seven points, and it was not until the

The Cypriot lost in four sets to Dolgopolov

Azarenka credited New York fans for her performance

fourth game of the second set that Zheng got on the board.

The crowd gave the Chinese player a huge cheer but that was to be the only consolation for Zheng, who lasted only 59 minutes in total.

Azarenka, who next plays Georgia’s Anna Tatishvili, was playing her first nightsession match and credited the New York fans for her sparkling performance.

She said: “I think you guys inspired me to play my best tennis.

“It’s an incredible atmosphere and energy.

“I always wanted to play here, I’ve watched on TV but it felt really different,” she added, before not being able to hold back a final exulation: “It was amazing.”

Parade of former US Open champions record victories to advance on Friday A PARADE of former champions advanced at the year’s final grand slam on Friday, with Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin Del Potro and Lleyton Hewitt reaching the US Open’s third round, and Samantha Stosur

and Maria Sharapova, securing a fourth-round berth.

Defending titlists Djokovic blitzed Brazilian Rogerio Dutra Silva 6-2 6-1 6-2 in Arthur Ashe Stadium, while Stosur cruised by American Varvara

Lepchenko 7-6 6-2 on the same court.

Djokovic dropped just two games in his opening-round win over Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi and Silva managed only three more as the second-seeded Serb was in a different class. Stosur

was broken in the opening game of her match, with the gruelling first set lasting 59 minutes. But the Australian secured the tiebreaker 7-5 and blew through the second set over a frustrated Lepchenko in 29 minutes.

LAURA Robson feels she has earned her grand slam breakthrough after pulling off the result of the day for the second consecutive round at the US Open.

The 18-year-old made it back-to-back wins over former grand slam champions yesterday when she added Li Na’s scalp to that of Kim Clijsters with another stunning performance.

It made Robson the first British woman to reach the fourth round of a grand slam since Sam Smith at Wimbledon in 1998 and the first at the US Open since Jo Durie 21 years ago.

Li has been one of the form players of the north American summer, but was outplayed by the world number 89, who powered to a 6-4 6-7 (5/7) 6-2 victory.

Robson has come close to big wins before, particularly in two meetings with Maria Sharapova, one at Wimbledon last year and the other at the Olympics a month ago.

The teenager said: “I have just worked hard over the last few weeks and I feel like I’m playing very well.

“I have had lots of tough matches against some very experienced opponents so, the way that I see it, it was time to start winning a few of them.”

Ninth seed Li was lacking her usual consistency in the opening set and a half but stepped up her game towards the end of the second to take the match into a decider.

But Robson simply raised her level again and overpowered Li in the third set, and will now face defending champion Sam Stosur.

She said: “I had the opportunity to win it in two. It was a really close tie-break and at 5-5 she played two really good points. There’s not much that I can do off that.

“I knew that if I kept playing the way that I was and kept playing how I started the first set, really aggressive and accelerating on my forehand when I had the opportunity, then I knew that she would struggle. That’s what I did.”

That Robson secured the win despite being on the wrong end of a couple of dubious umpiring calls was also impressive.

The first incident came on break point in the fifth game of the third set when she hit a shot that landed on the baseline and Li could barely get a racquet to.

It was called out and, although Robson’s challenge was correct, she was made to replay the point and Li won it.

The same thing happened in the next game when a Robson serve was erroneously called out and again they replayed it.

Robson said: “I wouldn’t say I wasn’t distracted. I was a little bit annoyed. But that’s what happens from time to time, so you’ve got to deal with it. I think being a little bit annoyed seemed to help me.”

38 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

Sport ‘Rooney injury could work in our favour’ SIR Alex Ferguson believes Wayne Rooney’s thigh injury could turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

Rooney has been ruled out for four weeks after suffering a nasty gash when Fulham’s Hugo Rodallega landed on the Manchester United man at Old Trafford last Saturday.

The injury overshadowed the fact Rooney had been left out of Ferguson’s starting line-up.

But amid reports Ferguson was not happy with the condition Rooney was in when he returned for pre-season training, the United boss feels an enforced break might be just what last season’s top scorer needs.

“It may be a blessing,” Ferguson said. “He can concentrate on his fitness in the gym now in particular because he’s a bit behind other players.”

Rooney has confirmed there is no rift between him and Ferguson, leav-

ing him free to get on with the business of getting fit.

And, despite the severity of the striker’s injury, the United boss insists the four-week timescale he outlined on Saturday has not changed.

‘NOTHING SERIOUS’ “He was in yesterday,” he said. “It’s nothing serious on the actual gash; it’s a bad one but it was treated carefully and very quickly and we don’t expect any complications.

“The fact it’s a gash and not a ligament, muscle or joint injury means he can do a lot of work in the gym so he should be back in four weeks.”

Ferguson is less content at news of the knee injury that will keep Ashley Young out of today’s trip to Southampton leaking out.

Young was the notable absentee when Roy Hodgson announced his

squad on Thursday for the World Cup qualifiers with Moldova and Ukraine.

Although the FA did not explain Young’s absence, Ferguson believes they were to blame for the winger’s injury becoming public.

And, feeling today’s opponents Southampton have been given an advantage by discovering Young will not play, Ferguson aims to prevent any chance of a repeat.

“It was nice of the FA to let everyone know Ashley Young is injured,” Ferguson said. “We have a game on Sunday.

“Why should we let our opponents know who’s fit and who isn’t? It won’t happen again.”

Jonny Evans is set to return at St Mary’s Stadium after a summer ankle operation, meaning Ferguson has a second orthodox central defender to partner skipper Nemanja Vidic for the first time this season.

Rooney has confirmed there is no rift between him and Ferguson, leaving him free to get on with getting fit

Arsene Wenger: don’t write off Gunners

City finally get in on transfer action with five new signings

ARSENE Wenger is looking forward to confounding low expectations of Arsenal’s Barclays Premier League campaign once again.

Wenger has grown accustomed to seeing the Gunners written off after being left trailing in the wake of their bigger-spending rivals during each transfer window.

And ahead of today’s game with Liverpool, Wenger admits the competition for top four places is fierce.

“You never expect much from us, but we always have a good potential to surprise you,” he said.

“If I listened to the predictions on the same day last year, it was predicted we would finish between 10th and 15th. We finished third.

“There are also a lot of expectations at Liverpool. I believe Liverpool are a good team.

“Having watched all the games I could watch until now in the Premier League, it’s very difficult to single one team out above everyone else.

“Liverpool certainly have a chance to be fighting for the top, but we’re competing with Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United now as well.”

Wenger believes the immediate, charged reaction to results these days is evidence of how the pressures of the game have changed.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers became favourite to be the first manager to be sacked after the Reds’ 3-0 defeat by West Brom on the opening day of the season.

“That tells you a lot about the emotion in modern society,” Wenger said. “There are instant reactions on Twitter, on radio and the internet.

“Society has moved from having a distance to events, to becoming highly emotional.

“We have moved from a thinking society to an emotional society.

“I think it’s better to think before you say something.

It’s easy to speak.”

Capture Javi Garcia with moments left on the clock BARCLAYS Premier League champions Manchester City strengthened their squad with five new signings as the transfer window came to a hectic finale Friday night.

Manager Roberto Mancini had bemoaned a lack of signings earlier in the close season but the Italian was able to add defenders Maicon and Matija Nastasic from Serie A sides Inter Milan and Fiorentina respectively.

Having earlier signed Swansea winger Scott Sinclair, 23, and goalkeeper Richard Wright, 34, City then beat the deadline by moments to sign Benfica midfielder Javi Garcia. The latter is effectively a replacement for Nigel de Jong, who made the switch to AC Milan, while striker Roque Santa Cruz joined Malaga on a season-long loan.

With Sinclair gone, Swansea completed the signing of Valencia winger Pablo Hernandez for a club record fee of £5.55million.

The destination of Fulham’s Clint Dempsey dominated the agenda for much of the day, with the US international joining Tottenham in the final minutes of the window. He had previously been linked with Aston Villa and Liverpool, but a deal was finally agreed for a move across London.

Spurs also brought in France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris from Lyon on a four-year deal for an initial 10million euros (£7.9million).

The fee could rise to 15million euros (£11.9million) and the Ligue 1 side also say they are entitled to 20 per cent of any profit should he leave White Hart Lane in the future.

Javi Garcia, (2L) seen here in his Benfica colours, is a replacement for Nigel de Jong who transferred to AC Milan

Three players left White Hart Lane on Friday, with the highest-profile deal seeing Rafael Van der Vaart seal a move back to Hamburg.

Spurs also reached agreement for the transfer of Mexico international Giovani Dos Santos to Mallorca, while fullback Danny Rose was loaned to Sunderland.

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers, who allowed £35million striker Andy Carroll to join West Ham on loan on Thursday, continued his overhaul at the club by also offloading Charlie Adam.

The Scotland midfielder has joined Stoke on a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee, believed to be in the region of £4million. Jay Spearing is another to leave the Reds after he joined Bolton on a seasonlong loan.

Merseyside rivals Everton signed Bryan Oviedo from FC Copenhagen on a four-year contract for an undisclosed fee. The Costa Rican, 22, can operate at left-back and on the left side of midfield.

The Toffees also picked up young midfielder Matthew Kennedy from Kilmarnock on a three-year deal.

Oviedo had also been a target for West Brom, who duly shifted their sights to sign Dynamo Kiev left-back Goran Popov on a season-long loan.

Elsewhere, Dimitar Berbatov opted for a move to Fulham over a return to Tottenham.

Berbatov joined the Cottagers from Manchester United for an undisclosed fee on a two-year contract and was reunited with Martin Jol, who managed him dur-

ing their time at Tottenham.

Jol also brought in Kieran Richardson from Sunderland on a three-year deal, with the fee undisclosed, and right on the deadline added Wolfsburg winger Ashkan Dejagah.

QPR manager Mark Hughes completed his 12th signing of the summer with the capture of Stephane Mbia from Marseille, while Joey Barton went the other way on a seasonlong loan.

Cameroon international Mbia has regularly operated at centre-half for the Ligue 1 side, but is more at home in a holding midfield role.

Southampton completed the signing of Gaston Ramirez from Bologna for an undisclosed fee, believed to be around £12million.

The 21-year-old playmaker has signed a four-year con-

tract at St Mary’s, allowing Billy Sharp to join Championship side Nottingham Forest on a season-long loan.

The Saints also added American goalkeeper Cody Cropper after a successful trial.

Aston Villa brought in Belgium striker Christian Benteke from Genk and the versatile Ashley Westwood from Crewe in the final 90 minutes.

Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner completed a season-long loan switch to Italian champions Juventus, with South Korean forward Park Chu-young heading to Celta Vigo in a similar deal, while Chelsea allowed midfielder Michael Essien to join Real Madrid on loan.

Fellow Blues midfielder Yossi Benayoun said on Twitter he had joined former club West Ham on loan.

39 SUNDAY MAIL • September 2, 2012

Sport

Black Cats’ Fletcher scores twice to end Swans’ streak

Ashley Cole ashamed of Chelsea performance

Nets brace in stylish Sunderland debut

ASHLEY Cole branded Chelsea’s UEFA Super Cup performance an “absolute joke” after their humiliating 4-1 thrashing by Atletico Madrid.

And fellow defender Gary Cahill admitted the Blues “fell to pieces” as Atletico made a complete mockery of their foes’ status as champions of Europe Friday night.

Cole acknowledged Chelsea showed none of the “fight, desire, passion” that saw them claim club football’s ultimate prize last season.

He tweeted: “Wellll that was a lesson, absolute joke no fight, desire, passion, and a big reality check!!!!!! #sorrycfcfans.”

The loss was one of Chelsea’s heaviest since Roman Abramovich bought the club and would have sowed the first seed of doubt as to whether the £80million he spent on his favourite hobby this summer was value for money.

It had certainly looked that way when Chelsea stormed to the top of the Barclays Premier League, but Friday was another failure with silverware on the line following last month’s Community Shield defeat.

Cahill, who scored Chelsea’s consolation after Radamel Falcao’s hat-trick and Joao Miranda had crushed them, told Sky Sports 2: “We fell to pieces. We started the game sloppy and that went right through the game. If we’re honest with ourselves everyone was below par.

“Obviously we will look to bounce back in the league as today was unacceptable.”

Falcao is a player with whom Chelsea have long been linked. Speculation was most intense when Andre Villas-Boas was manager, having coached the 26-year-old at Porto, but current boss Roberto Di Matteo denied he had ever been interested.

Swansea 2 Sunderland 2

By Andrew Gwilym STEVEN Fletcher’s first goals for Sunderland ended Swansea’s 100 per cent start to the Premier League season in a dramatic Liberty Stadium encounter marred by a serious ankle injury to Neil Taylor.

Fletcher started to repay his big-money fee following his move from Wolves as he struck twice in the first half, either side of Wayne Routledge’s effort for Swansea.

Michu scored his fourth goal in three games for the hosts to level matters, but they then lost defender Chico Flores to a red card for a wild high challenge as the game ended all square.

But prior to all that action, Taylor had already been carted off on a stretcher after his leg buckled awkwardly under him following a challenge with Craig Gardner.

The incident could barely have come at a worse time for Swans boss Michael Laudrup, just a day after the transfer window closed.

Buoyed by their excellent recent form Swansea had started with purpose, and Routledge had a penalty appeal turned away while Nathan Dyer had a shot saved by

Michu (centre) scored his fourth goal in three games for the hosts to level matters, but it was not enough to retain the Swans’ 100 per cent start to the Premier League Simon Mignolet.

But they were dealt a terrible blow by Taylor’s injury after 16 minutes.

The Team GB left-back required prolonged treatment and was given oxygen as he received treatment on his ankle.

The home crowd were furious that Gardner was not punished over the incident by referee Roger East, making his Premier League de-

but, but there appeared to be no malice from the Sunderland player.

John O’Shea did little to help matters by choosing to try to put his viewpoint across to spectators near the incident.

The atmosphere was muted following Taylor’s departure although the hosts continued to press, with Dyer again being denied by Mignolet.

Cottagers defeated in 3-0 hammering West Ham 3 Fulham 0 A CLINICAL first-half display saw West Ham pick up a comfortable 3-0 win in their London derby against Fulham.

Debutant Andy Carroll was in lively form with the Liverpool loanee adding a cutting edge to the Hammers’ front line.

Captain Kevin Nolan opened the scoring for the home side inside the opening minute and they were out of sight by the break thanks to further goals from Winston Reid and Matt Taylor.

Carroll, flanked by Ricardo Vaz Te and Taylor, was involved straight away. A long, clearing header from James Collins was flicked on by the England international into the path of Vaz Te who played

West Ham cruised to victory in the London derby the ball in to Nolan, with Carroll’s ex-Newcastle team-mate finishing firmly past Mark Schwarzer.

With less than 10 minutes on the clock Carroll was again involved when he headed Vaz

Te’s cross into the on-rushing Mohamed Diame, who saw his effort tipped onto the crossbar by Schwarzer.

Fulham were soon further behind. Taylor’s 29th-minute corner found Reid on the edge of the six-yard area and he beat Mahamadou Diarra to the ball to power a header past Schwarzer to double the home side’s lead.

Thereafter the third goal was scored by the Hammers as Collins’ free-kick was headed clear by Fulham’s Brede Hangeland. The loose ball broke free to the feet of Taylor who finished well from the edge of the penalty area.

Fulham manager Martin Jol then introduced new signing Dimitar Berbatov at the interval with Mladen Petric making way. But while Jol’s side showed signs of improvement after the break, they never looked like getting back in it.

Swansea had benefited from defensive errors in their wins over QPR and West Ham, but they were hurt by a mistake of their own five minutes before the break.

Ashley Williams’ stubbed his back pass into the ground and Fletcher ran in on goal to despatch a superb low finish beyond Michel Vorm.

Swansea levelled as six minutes of stoppage time began. Dyer and Routledge,

who have started the campaign brilliantly, linked again as the former’s scooped pass allowed the latter to flash home a volley.

But parity did not last to the interval as Sebastian Larsson’s free-kick evaded everyone apart from Fletcher, who tapped home at the back post to give the visitors the half-time lead.

Mignolet pushed away a Dyer volley after more excellent build up play from the hosts, while Leon Britton volleyed over from a rehearsed corner routine shortly after the break.

The ill-feeling between the sides had been bubbling under the surface since Taylor’s injury, but Sunderland boss Martin O’Neill was apoplectic when Flores escaped punishment for a studs-up lunge on James McClean with the home side then ignoring the stricken player by carrying on despite the Wearsiders urging them to put the ball out.

Mignolet did brilliantly to get down to a Jonathan de Guzman free-kick moments later after Gardner, already on a booking for a first-half tackle on Routledge, fouled Danny Graham.

Michu came close to adding to his tally as his header into the ground from De Guzman’s cross bounced up and just over the bar.

But the same combination found the leveller on 66 minutes, De Guzman’s delivery was again pinpoint and Michu’s powerful header gave Mignolet no chance.

Swansea’s comeback efforts were stymied when Flores then saw red for a wild high-footed challenge that grazed substitute Louis Saha’s head.

Despite the numerical disadvantage Swansea dominated the final 18 minutes, but could not find the winner that would have taken them top of the Premier League.

Premier League standings Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Chelsea Manchester United Swansea Chelsea West Brom Arsenal Everton Manchester City West Ham Utd Liverpool Manchester City Tottenham Hotspur Wigan EvertonAthletic Fulham Stoke City Manchester United Bolton Wanderers Stoke City West Brom Newcastle United Fulham Sunderland Newcastle United Arsenal Sunderland Tottenham Aston Villa Hotspur Norwich City Blackburn Rovers Reading Wolves Liverpool Birmingham QPR Blackpool Southampton Wigan Athletic Aston Villa United West Ham

P

W

D

L

F

3 37 3 36 3 36 3 36 3 36 2 36 3 37 3 36 2 37 3 37 2 36 2 36 2 37 3 36 3 37 2 37 2 36 2 37 2 36 2 36

3 22 2 21 2 19 2 19 2 17 1 14 1 12 1 13 1 12 0 12 1 10 0 11 0 11 0 10 0 10 0 11 0 8 0 10 0 7 0 7

0 11 1 7 1 10 0 8 0 7 1 14 1 15 0 7 0 10 3 10 0 15 2 11 2 11 2 12 2 10 1 7 1 15 1 9 0 15 0 12

0 4 0 8 0 7 1 9 1 12 0 8 1 10 2 16 1 15 0 15 1 11 0 14 0 15 1 14 1 17 1 19 1 13 1 18 2 14 2 17

8 74 10 67 6 69 4 55 4 59 5 51 4 50 7 46 3 52 3 53 2 45 2 51 0 42 3 45 2 43 3 44 2 36 1 53 2 36 1 41

A Pts 2 35 2 30 1 39 3 33 3 41 4 45 4 45 6 44 3 54 3 68 3 41 2 52 0 56 4 58 7 57 5 63 5 54 6 74 5 59 4 64

9 77 7 70 7 67 6 65 6 58 4 56 4 51 3 46 3 46 3 46 3 45 2 44 2 44 2 42 2 40 1 40 1 39 1 39 0 36 0 33

Premiership results West Ham Fulham

3 0

Swansea Sunderland

2 2

Tottenham Norwich

1 1

West Brom Everton

2 0

Wigan Stoke

2 2

Manchester City QPR

L L

Playing Today Liverpool v Arsenal, 3.30pm Newcastle v Aston Villa, 6pm Southampton v Man Utd, 6pm

40 September 2, 2012 • SUNDAY MAIL

Sport

Roddick knocks out Tomic to progress 37

Fletcher double ends Swans’ 39 streak

Button puts McLaren on pole in Belgium

The pole was McLaren driver Jenson Button’s first since the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix, when he was with Brawn GP

JENSON Button celebrated his 50th Formula One race for McLaren by ending a three-year wait and taking pole position in qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix yesterday.

The pole was Button’s first since the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix, the year in which he won a memorable championship with Brawn GP, and his first at McLaren and at the Spa circuit.

Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi put his Sauber on the front row, a career best for him and only the second time a Japanese driver has qualified so high on the grid, alongside the Briton with Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado in third place for Williams.

“It’s been quite a long time since I got my last pole position,” grinned Button, who whooped with delight after being told he was ‘P1’ over the team radio, on a sunlit afternoon after heavy rain washed out Friday practice.

“It’s pretty emotional...it’s so important to come back after such a long break with a good result on Saturday,” added the Briton, referring to the August shutdown following the previous race in Hungary in July.

“I know the race is tomorrow but this is close to winning a grand prix for me, it’s been so long,” said Button, who had complained in final practice that

his car lacked balance.

Button, who now has eight career poles to his credit, is seventh in the championship and 88 points adrift of Ferrari’s overall leader Fernando Alonso.

The Briton has never won at Spa and nor has Alonso, who can rack up a record-equalling 24th successive points finish today and who qualified in sixth place behind the two Ferrari-powered Saubers.

WEBBER PENALTY Alonso’s closest title rival, Red Bull’s Australian Mark Webber, was seventh fastest but has a five-place penalty due to an unscheduled gearbox change.

Kimi Raikkonen, the driver with the best record at Spa in recent years, with four wins at the longest circuit on the calendar, qualified fourth for Lotus ahead of Sauber’s Mexican Sergio Perez.

Sauber’s form was an eye-opener, with Kobayashi only the second Japanese ever to start a grand prix on the front row. The other was Takuma Sato who qualified second for the 2004 European Grand Prix at Nuerburgring.

“We expected a good weekend, but not to be second in qualifying. We expected a strong result, so we have a good chance in the race,” said Kobayashi, who

was just three tenths off Button’s time.

The Swiss team have not qualified on the front row this century, with their last - and only second ever - appearance at the sharpest end of the grid coming at the 1999 French Grand Prix with Frenchman Jean Alesi.

Maldonado’s third place was his best qualifying since he started on pole in Spain in May. Button’s team mate Lewis Hamilton will start seventh, helped by Webber’s penalty.

“We opted to use an old wing this weekend. After P3 (final practice), the new one wasn’t feeling so great. We went to the old wing and it was an awful lot slower,” said the 2008 champion who won in Budapest from pole before the break.

Red Bull’s double world champion Sebastian Vettel failed to make the final phase of qualifying, but will start 10th due to his team mate’s demotion to 12th.

Further back, there was dismay for Mercedes who saw Nico Rosberg fail to get through the first session. The German will start 23rd due to a five-place penalty.

His illustrious team mate Michael Schumacher, celebrating his 300th grand prix at the circuit where he made his debut in 1991, starts 13th.

Norwich hold 10-man Spurs AVB still without a competitive victory Tottenham 1 Norwich 1

By Paul Hirst

T

ottenham conceded a late equaliser for the second week running as Andre Villas-Boas’ wait for his first win in charge continued.

After a hugely disappointing performance in the first hour Mousa Dembele thought he had saved Villas-Boas’ blushes by scoring on his debut with an 18-yard strike.

The £15m man’s goal was not enough to give Villas-Boas the victory, though as Robert Snodgrass scored five minutes from time after Spurs buckled under pressure in the same way they did against West Brom last week.

The London club lacked penetration up front and were almost totally devoid of ideas in midfield and on the flanks until the introduction of Dembele and Emmanuel Adebayor and the home support made their feelings known at the final whistle by booing their team off.

Tom Huddlestone was also sent off for a very poor tackle on Jonny Howson with a minute left.

Norwich’s Snodgrass (3R) is congratulated by team-mates after scoring the equaliser against Spurs yesterday Had it not been for an excellent performance from Brad Friedel, Spurs could have been 3-0 down by the time Dembele struck.

The American pulled off brilliant saves from Snodgrass and Anthony Pilkington in his 307th consecutive Barclays Premier League game.

Shortly after kick-off, Aaron Lennon, fresh from signing a new four-year contract before kick-off, burst down the right flank and cut back for Gylfi Sigurdsson, but he shot wide in the opening minute.

Thereafter Norwich took

hold of the game and Snodgrass floated in a perfect cross for Russell Martin, who headed on to the bar via the fingertips of Friedel.

Martin then made light work of shrugging off Jermain Defoe and released Simeon Jackson, who ran 50 yards before slipping a shot just wide of Friedel’s goal.

Defoe looked isolated up front and his only effort at goal was a tame shot that dribbled in to John Ruddy’s arms.

Thereafter Howson’s cross was cleared only as far as Johnson, who belted a screaming

half-volley just over.

The level of Spurs’ desperation was summed up 10 minutes from the break when Sandro resorted to a 35-yard shot that sailed in to the stands.

Norwich then almost took the lead just before half-time when Pilkington crossed for Snodgrass who was denied by a brilliant one-handed save from Friedel.

Norwich felt they should have had a penalty moments later when William Gallas clattered in to Jackson, but Mark Halsey waved play on.

Villas-Boas brought on Dembele for Sandro at halftime and the Belgian impressed early on. Sigurdsson also sprung into life, volleying a powerful shot but Ruddy saved with ease.

Pilkington curled a clever free-kick just wide after a clumsy foul by Gallas, but Spurs hit back through Gareth Bale, who thumped a powerful drive just over the bar.

Villas-Boas then turned to Adebayor, the striker coming on for Sigurdsson.

Leon Barnett hacked down Defoe on the edge of the box

but the England striker could only shoot at the wall from the resulting free-kick.

Friedel once again proved his worth by saving a powerful low shot from Pilkington.

Finally, the tense atmosphere inside White Hart Lane was eased after 68 minutes when Dembele opened the scoring. Defoe drifted into the left-hand side of the box and laid the ball off to the Belgian, who shot beyond Ruddy, whose sight was partially blocked by Howson.

Villas-Boas then looked to pack his midfield by bringing on Huddlestone for his first game in just over a year, but the move did not work, however, as Norwich snatched an equaliser through Snodgrass.

Moments after Kyle Walker had cleared off the line, the former Leeds man seized on a loose ball by smashing home through a crowded box with five minutes left.

Huddlestone thumped a powerful drive wide but his return ended in disappointment two minutes from time when he was given a straight red for a horror tackle on Howson.

Bale was also booked for dissent shortly after as Tottenham lost their discipline.

Johnson almost won it with 30 seconds left when he powered a fierce shot which Friedel did well to save.

The home fans made their feelings clear at the final whistle, greeting their team’s draw with a huge chorus of boos.