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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

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Inside Laiki: countdown to catastrophe

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Mad Men’s Jessica Paré aré on fairytale marriage that hat made her career centre tre

Bailout concluded, aid to flow in May Government says it has secured a ‘better’ deal than the initial MoU

By Stefanos Evripidou

T

HE GOVERNMENT yesterday clinched a deal with the troika on a €10 billion bailout programme with ‘better’ terms than the previous draft memorandum, said government spokesman Christos Stylianides.

“This is a very important development which ends a very long period of uncertainty,” he said, adding that the conditions have now been put in place to inject life back into the economy.

The deal, which requires ratification from eurozone finance ministers and national EU parliaments, will see Cyprus receiving a €10 billion loan, carrying an interest rate of between 2.5 and 2.7 per cent. It is repayable over a 12 year period after a grace period of a decade.

The spokesman noted that the interest rate was much more competitive than the 4.5 per cent secured by former president Demetris Christofias for a €2.5 billion loan from Russia.

“Unquestionably, the deal with the troika should have been completed earlier under much more favourable political and economic conditions,” said Stylianides.

Despite the delay, “the situation is now normalising, stabilising, creating the conditions to restart the economy,” he added.

Listing the improvements achieved by the government in the new bailout

deal, Stylianides said the government was able to protect Cyprus’ sovereign rights over the planning, exploitation and management of revenue from its natural gas, ensuring that the above remain in the hands of the state.

Explicit references are included on the Cyprus Republic’s exclusive responsibility over its hydrocarbons, he said, adding that a provision for the troika to re-examine the programme was removed from the memorandum.

Compared with the draft deal brokered in November by the previous government, yesterday’s agreement gave authorities additional room to reach a primary surplus by 2018, extending the period of fiscal adjustment by two years from the initial 2016.

Stylianides argued that this allowed a “milder” form of fiscal adjustment, spreading out consolidation over five years and reducing pressure on the state.

The provision for privatisations offers adequate timeframes, which also extend to 2018 from 2016.

“This buffer allows for better planning and implementation under better economic conditions, which will also safeguard the workers,” he said.

The government negotiated to save the jobs of hourly paid workers and contract teachers who were due to enter into unemployment under the old draft, by imposing “a

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Personnel from the American warship USS Kearsarge, which has docked at Limassol port as part of its tour of the Mediterranean and Middle East. Media were given a tour of the ship yesterday (CNA) SEE STORY PAGE 7

Sarris resigns to faciliate job of committee probing economy FINANCE MINISTER Michalis Sarris resigned yesterday after concluding a €10 billion bailout deal with international lenders in which the country almost overnight downsized its dominant banking sector and hit depositors with losses for the first time in the eurozone.

Sarris, who was dispatched to Moscow last month seeking Russian aid as an alternative to across the board bank levies in Cyprus but returned empty-handed, said his main goal of agreeing a deal with lenders had been accomplished.

But he said it was also appropriate to resign since his previous role as

chairman of the Popular Bank, or Laiki - the island’s second largest lender wound down under terms of the bailout - was also likely to come under scrutiny.

“I believe that in order to facilitate the work of (investigators) the right thing would be to place my resignation at the disposal of the president of the republic, which I did,” said Sarris, who headed Popular for a few months in 2012.

President Nicos Anastasiades yesterday appointed a three-member committee of inquiry to investigate the causes of the crisis.

Sarris will be replaced by Haris

Georgiades, who has held the labour ministry post in Anastasiades’s fourweek administration.

The Commerce Ministry’s permanent secretary, Zeta Emilianidou, will, in turn, replace Georgiades. Both will be appointed at a ceremony at the presidential palace this morning.

In a written statement, Anastasiades thanked Sarris for his “valuable services during the course of the difficult negotiations with the troika”.

He also praised the former World Bank economist for demonstrating a “high political ethos and political sensitivity” regarding the reasons given for his resignation.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

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22 22

Larnaca

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LLimassol

TODAY: Growing progressively cloudier through the day. Temperatures will reach 24C inland, 22C along the coasts and 18C over higher ground OUTLOOK: Chance of rain on Thursday. Friday and Saturday fine YESTERDAY:

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Justin Beiber’s monkey Mally in the quarantine station at the Munich-Riem animal shelter in Munich yesterday.

German customs officers seized the capuchin monkey from Justin Bieber’s entourage when the Canadian teen pop idol arrived at the Munich airport. Customs spokesman Thomas Meister said the monkey was taken into quarantine because it lacked documents certifying compliance with animal health and species-protection regulations (EPA)

QUICK CROSSWORD 2355 Across

Down

1 Exaggerated drawing (10) 7 Having no effect (7) 8 Exhorted (5) 10 Loiter (6) 12 Spinet (anag.) (6) 13 Discourage (5) 14 & 16 Part of a mine (8) 17 To father (5) 19 Paper handkerchief (6) 20 Parallelograms (6) 23 Ate (5) 24 Beef (7) 25 University head (10)

1 Witches’ meeting (5) 2 Trusted (6) 3 Tailpiece (4) 4 Shirker (6) 5 Yachting gala (7) 6 Displaced (10) 9 Fall in value (10) 11 Indian princess (5) 12 Imply (5) 15 Liqueur (7) 17 Load (6) 18 Sensation (6) 21 Manufacturer (5) 22 Woodwind instrument (4)

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

ON THIS DAY APRIL 3 1882

25 years ago, Monday April 3, 1978

Jesse James, the notorious American outlaw, is shot in the back by a member of his own gang seeking to claim the US$10,000-reward money.

President Kyprianou yesterday appealed to the people to face the situation resulting from the US Administration’s decision to lift the embargo on the supply of arms to Turkey in a cool manner and avoid fostering anti-American feelings.

1917 Lenin returns from exile to Russia to take control of the Bolshevik revolution.

1936

Cyprus Mail Established 1945. Number 21,498 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

WHAT THE MAIL SAID

Richard Bruno Hauptmann is executed for the kidnapping and death of the Lindbergh baby.

1948 The Marshal Plan, becomes law. The plan was designed to spark economic recovery in European countries devastated by the Second World War and channelled over $13 billion in aid to Europe between 1948 and 1951.

1987 The jewels of the late Duchess of Windsor, the former Mrs Wallis Simpson, fetch more than £30million at auction.

45 years ago, Wednesday April 3, 1968 Turkish Cypriots now seem ready to accept Cyprus as the venue for meetings with the Greek Cypriot side and do not attach any preconditions for holding informal talks, it was learned yesterday. This means that the scene is now set for exploratory discussions to take place between leading personalities from the two communities.

55 years ago, Thursday April 3, 1958 The Greek flag and wreaths from EOKA on the coffin of Christos Cleanthi Englezos yesterday gave the first clear indication that the April 1 shooting in Nicosia was not the work of EOKA. At the same time it was learned that two men have been held for questioning. Cries of “shame on the murderers” and “we demand justice”, interrupted the funeral orators who paid tribute to the man who fell to pistol shots in Nicosia’s ‘murder mile’ on Tuesday.

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Bailout talks conclude, aid to flow in May Much more breathing room for the economy in the new deal, state says (continued from front page) very small and scaled contribution” from public sector workers ranging from 0.8 per cent for low-paid workers up to 2 per cent for highly paid civil servants.

The proposal to increase teaching hours by one period, which would have led 500 teachers to unemployment, was also scrapped.

Under the previous draft memorandum, around 170,000 citizens would have lost access to free healthcare. Now, free healthcare for these people has been safeguarded by imposing a temporary contribution or health insurance fee of 1.5 per cent on monthly salaries of public workers for a transitional period until the National Health Insurance Scheme begins operation.

The spokesman said the same small contribution in exchange for free healthcare will be made available on a voluntary basis to large families with three or more children.

Until now, regardless of income levels, all public servants and their families received free healthcare.

Regarding provident funds deposited in Laiki Bank,

Stylianides said adequate resources are secured in the bailout programme so those funds are not lost but are treated in the same way as those of the Bank of Cyprus.

The government is also putting together a comprehensive plan aiming to protect to the greatest possible degree workers’ pension rights, he said. The obligation to downsize the public service by 5,000 workers was renegotiated down to 4,500, allowing the government to make a “smoother” adjustment through retirements.

Stylianides said the deal also allows for banks and customers to come to an arrangement within 60 days on readjusting the conditions of loan repayments, with the aim of lightening the burden on those citizens seriously affected by the crisis. A banking mediator will also be introduced for these purposes.

Meanwhile, the time needed to go through the procedure of a compulsory sale of a first residence following a default on loan repayments has been extended from two years to two and a half, while the need to pass the rele-

vant legislative adjustments has been pushed back to the end of 2014. In addition, a troika demand for taxing dividends has been avoided, he said.

The spokesman also noted that the provisions relating to the Cooperative Movement have also been “greatly improved”.

“Any conditions which could lead to a drastic and sudden resolution have been removed and instead we have ensured that the process of restructuring the Cooperative Institutions will be smooth,” said Stylianides.

Finance Minister Michalis Sarris, who handed in his resignation yesterday, told reporters that he expected the first disbursement of aid in early May. “The year 2013 will be a very difficult one, while the beginning of 2014 will be difficult. Beyond that period, however, I believe that there will be positive prospects,” said Sarris.

He argued that the new deal providing a more gradual period of adjustment allows Cyprus to be “optimistic for better days to come with no additional sacrifices”.

Michalis Sarris yesterday: he sees better days to come in the second half of 2014

(PIO)

‘Cyprus could be out of the woods by 2016’ No more business class CONTRARY to the government spokesman’s statement that Cyprus would see a primary surplus in 2018, quoting the memorandum, Reuters reported last night that the island should reach a primary surplus of 4.0 per cent of GDP in its budget from 2017 onwards to ensure public debt falls.

It also said Cyprus would have a budget deficit before debt servicing costs of €395 million, or 2.4 per cent of GDP this year, a bigger gap than the 1.9 per cent of GDP in 2012.

Next year the primary deficit would grow to €678 million, or 4.25 per cent of GDP and then shrink to €344 million, or 2.1 per cent of GDP in 2015. In 2016, the island is to reach a primary surplus of €204 million, or 1.2 per cent of GDP and 4.0 per cent from 2017 onwards.

The deficit targets in nominal terms and as a percentage of GDP in the MoU imply that international lenders expect the Cypriot economy to contract almost 8.0 per cent this year against 2012, shrink again by around 3.0 per cent in 2014 and

return to around 1.0 per cent growth in 2015 and 2016. The MoU said Cyprus would raise at least €1.4 billion from selling state-owned assets, including stakes in the country’s telecoms, electricity and port companies.

It said the island had excellent prospects for increasing its revenues from tourism and that the government would conduct a study of how to make that sector more competitive. All the measures are to help bring down Cypriot debt to around 100 per cent of GDP in 2020.

ONLY President Nicos Anastasiades and parliamentary speaker Yiannakis Omirou of all government officials will now be entitled to fly business class, as part of the austerity Cyprus agreed to with international lenders in exchange for a bailout.

The ban on business class travel for government employees will not apply to transatlantic flights, said a memorandum of understanding between Cyprus and the eurozone.

Apart from the restrictions on more comfortable travel, senior government officials will also lose the right to buy duty-free cars and all state officials and parliamentarians will have wages frozen until 2016, the document said.

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Over 20,000 people donate food at Cyprus aid concert Warehouses filled with supplies to help poor

By Maria Gregoriou A MASSIVE crowd of 20,000 people turned up with an overwhelming amount of food and essentials at Monday’s Cyprus Aid concert in Nicosia.

People from all over the island began gathering at 4pm at Constanza moat in Nicosia.

Volunteers created a human chain as they received bags of food, packed them in boxes and loaded them onto trucks while around 50 Greek singers performed.

The Green Party said yesterday the response had been “touching”, and had sent a message of hope.

AKEL’s George Loucaides said: “Once more Cypriots have proven that they have values which will never be demolished by the troika.”

The donated items have been taken to six large warehouses in Nicosia. “It is impossible to calculate how many items were collected because of the sheer amount,” said Maria Papapetrou one of the organisers.

Volunteers, members of the Cyprus Scouts Association and other organisations will sort out the food for distribution. “We hope to get everything delivered by the end of

People turned up in droves for the day-long concert, all carrying bags with food items next week,” said Papapetrou.

“If people in need cannot go to a community markets, they can call me on 99420444 and we will take food to them.

People who want to help out can also call on this number,” Papapetrou said.

An announcement on the Angaliaso charity society Facebook page yesterday asked for people to go to the market of the old town hall in old Nicosia to help from 10am to 7pm over the next few days.

Reaction Cyprus was responsible for collecting the food. “No one expected such a crowd. All volunteers worked for hours and even some children helped us load the

trucks. Some people passing by didn’t know about the event and went to get food.

Other elderly people who couldn’t get out asked us to collect their donations,” said Marios Stavrou, President of Reaction Cyprus.

Trucks were filled and taken to the warehouses but what really made the difference was the presence of the fire department and the army who came with their trucks to help transport the food, Stavrou added.

“The event had nothing to do with politics and no flags were raised. People didn’t just come here for a free concert but they came here for a

more important reason,” said 34-year-old teacher, Minas Zeniou. Concert production manager Nickos Zavallis said at the event “We did not expect this turnout. People have been coming with trucks instead of a bag.”

“I have mixed feelings. I am very happy that people are bringing food but I am also very sad because we are forced to do this. It is almost like war,” said charity worker Melina Shukuroglou.

Around 9pm, Marina Maleni, theatre development officer at the Cyprus Theatre Organisation announced on stage that “an elderly woman had just come with a suitcase of food

(CNA) and said she brought what she could but if someone was in need of a grandmother she could also help with that.”

Demetra Galani, a Greek singer said on stage: “We have come because you have filled our souls with strength. We have seen what you have done and this will be known everywhere, especially where there were lies, lies which think they have won.”

The show ended at around midnight with Greek-Cypriot singer Alkinoos Ioannides who said: “This is not a concert, it is a statement that during the hard times approaching we will stand together and show meaning in our existence.”

The Holy Synod will do all it can for the needy THE HOLY Synod decided yesterday to take further measures to help those affected by the financial crisis and announced the launch of efforts to provide free medical care.

The Bishop of Paphos said that each bishopric would mortgage its property so that the church could continue to provide people with assistance. A committee of six professionals will also be appointed to study how the church’s property can be used for the good of the people.

“Throughout our history we have been through worse situations and have been triumphant because we know our values and priorities. After God, our country is our first priority. We call on the people to support the unemployed during these difficult and essential times for our country,” Bishop Giorgos said.

“The economic crisis is the result of our moving away from God, and our worship of material goods.

The Holy Synod calls on its people for spiritual recovery, repentance and constant prayer,” he added.

The Synod accepted bishop Nikiforos’ recommendation to carry out an overnight vigil at Kykkos Monastery on April 13-14, which will be led by the Archbishop. The church has invited people to join in the vigil and also asked them not to despair under the weight of their problems.

Former BoC boss slams Christofias government for destroying bank

By George Psyllides THE former CEO of the Bank of Cyprus yesterday accused the previous administration and the Central Bank governor of destroying the island’s biggest lender in a bid to cover themselves for the island’s economic woes.

Breaking his silence after nine months, Andreas Eliades, who resigned in July last

year, claimed that certain circles, inside and outside BoC, not only failed to join forces but they undermined every effort to tackle the crisis.

“Unfortunately, developments confirmed that it was all part of a well-devised plan to break up the entire banking sector and especially the Bank of Cyprus, which was in good financial condition at the time,” Eliades said in an article published by financial

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portal Stockwatch. Based on a European stress test, BoC needed €1.56 billion in recapitalisation funds by the end of June last year.

Eliades said BoC managed to raise the bulk of the cash apart from around €300 million “which we aimed to cover through other actions”.

In three meetings with CB Governor Panicos Demetriades in May and June, the bank, among other things, asked for a three to six-month extension to find the funds.

“He gave us to understand that he would try and that a conditional extension might be given,” Eliades said.

BoC also wanted to know if the final write-down on Greek

debt would be 71 per cent as per stress test, or whether it would be higher.

The governor, according to Eliades, said that he would look into it and get back to them. “We should note that if the response was positive, the needs stemming from the stress test would be reduced by around €80 million,” Eliades said. At the same time, BoC was trying to sell its two insurance branches, a deal that would have fetched some €270 million thus covering the lender’s shortfall.

“Instead of supporting the efforts and providing prompt responses from the European Banking Authority, the governor also torpedoed the efforts

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to sell the insurance companies through continuous correspondence that created complications in the procedure,” Eliades said.

The former CEO said that BoC at the time – June 30, 2012 – did not have any major problems: it had not borrowed any emergency liquidity from the European Central Bank; its deposits fully covered the loans; capital ratios were satisfactory; it had several billion in available cash and it was very close to completing its recapitalisation.

“However, it seems that certain circles did not care about this at all,” Eliades said. “What they cared about was how to hurt the BoC’s credibility and

how to deconstruct it, supposedly proving that the large banking sector, the bankers and everyone else was to blame, not their actions and their inaction.”

Eliades also rejected reports he was to receive a €2.0 million bonus. The former CEO said he had relinquished all his legal rights after his resignation apart from his provident fund, which he had been paying into for the past 33 years.

Eliades wondered why there was so much fuss about his provident fund while nothing had been said about how much former finance ministers Charilaos Stavrakis and Vassos Shiarly collected after they left BoC.

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, April 3, 2013

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Home President’s in-laws say lost €15m in write-down Laiki’s UK A COMPANY linked with President Nicos Anastasiades, which the opposition claims transferred millions out of Cyprus after a tip off, said yesterday it would bring back the money under certain conditions.

Both Anastasiades and the company have rejected the allegations, published by Haravghi, the mouthpiece of former ruling party AKEL. The company, belonging to Anastasiades’ daughter’s parentsin-law, A. Loutsios and Sons Ltd,

had never denied transferring €10.5 million to Barclays PLC in London, from its bank accounts in Laiki just days before the Eurogroup decided to raid people’s deposits on March 16.

It said however that the money was needed to pay for the acquisition of two properties in Greece - €1.1 million plus €400,000 for renovations - and to cover a €6.5 million bid made by the family for property belonging to the Greek government in Cyprus.

In a new announcement yesterday, the company said it had decided to repatriate the money if its bid failed.

On top of that, the company said it would impose a voluntary writedown and donate the amount to the Church of Cyprus to be used to help the needy.

The company reiterated that the write-downs imposed by the Eurogroup had cost it over €15 million “a fact that shows there was no intention of avoiding the write-

down or resolution (of Laiki).”

“Our company has operated in Cyprus for more than four decades in full transparency, honesty and credibility,” the statement said.

“We did not opt to hide behind companies but we carried out our bank transactions, as we always do, eponymously and with full transparency.”

The company repeated that any insinuations that it had received preferential information were “malicious and defamatory”.

Panel is sworn in to probe why the economy tanked Three former judges given mandate to find out what led country to the brink

By Poly Pantelides THE three-man Committee of Inquiry into whether there were civil, political or criminal responsibilities attached to the near- bankruptcy of the economy, were sworn in yesterday by President Nicos Anastasiades.

The committee comprises Giorgos Pikis, a former Supreme Court judge and former member of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and former Supreme Court judges Panayiotis Kallis and Yiannakis Constantinides.

The Cabinet appointed the committee on March 28, just days after a harsh bailout deal was reached with Cyprus’ international lenders, the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB).

Referring to the after-

math of the deal reached on March 25, Anastasiades said yesterday the committee would look into the reasons that “led the country to the brink of bankruptcy, the resolution of one of the country’s biggest banks (Laiki), and the loss of billions in a write-down of deposits in the other one (Bank of Cyprus). Innocent fellow citizens who are called to suffer the consequences are justly calling for the punishment of anyone responsible,” Anastasiades said.

“The government and myself would be – in our opinion – equally responsible if we did not respond to the call of our fellow citizens...” he added.

But in the light of reports that he allegedly tipped off family members ahead of an EU decision to dip into bank deposits to transfer their money out of Cyprus, Anastasiades asked the committee to start the in-

The three judges on their way to being sworn in yesterday vestigation with him.

“I ask of you to prioritise investigating with extra scrutiny all that is directly or indirectly attributed to me,” Anastasiades said.

“Do not limit yourselves to my close relatives, but extend your investigations to the law firm in which I was a partner until recently,” he added, referring to Nicos Chr. Anastasiades & Partners that he founded.

The inquiry’s mandate includes the investigation of the “events and decisions relating to the provision or write off or reduction

of loans or the removal of guarantees or banks affording other concessions, in Cyprus and abroad.”

This will necessitate looking into lists that have surfaced naming former and current MPs, prominent individuals and companies who have allegedly had loans written off or moved money out shortly before the troika imposed a deposits haircut.

Anastasiades also asked the committee to keep the Attorney-general, Petros Clerides, informed of any criminal offences so that

(Christos Theodorides) his office could expedite the indictment of any individuals as necessary.

Clerides said that he received a report by professional services firm Alvarez & Marshal which was investigating why the the Bank of Cyprus and Laiki sought state support in June last year, unable to meet their regulatory capital requirements. Clerides said the report would be examined by experts “who understand the banking system” and would be also handed down to the committee of inquiry.

depositors won’t pay bailout levy THOUSANDS of depositors in Britain’s branch of Laiki Bank have been transferred to Bank of Cyprus UK and won’t have to surrender any of their savings to help bail out the Cypriot government.

The move was overseen by Britain’s new financial regulator, the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulatory Authority, on its first official day of operation.

Laiki UK’s 15,000 deposit accounts will be transferred to Bank of Cyprus UK and will not be subject to a levy or “haircut” or other restrictions placed on banks in Cyprus, Bank of Cyprus said in a statement.

Laiki Bank UK is a branch, meaning Britain was not obliged to protect its depositors, unlike Bank of Cyprus UK, which as a subsidiary is regulated in Britain and has more autonomy from the parent group.

This means savings below 85,000 pounds sterling (€100,000) are covered by Britain’s compensation scheme if a bank runs into trouble.

Bank of Cyprus said it has received an equivalent amount in cash from Laiki to cover the liability for the deposits.

Britain was keen to clarify protection for savers in Cypriot banks to avoid a repeat of a 2008 row with Iceland when Landsbanki collapsed.

Britain paid out billions of pounds to UK savers, which is being repaid by Iceland.

Britain’s compensation protection scheme of 85,000 pounds sterling is the equivalent of the €100.000 guarantee in Cyprus and across the EU. The Laiki UK customers have an average of €18,000 in their deposit accounts.

The PRA said all Laiki Bank UK customers will be able to access funds as normal.

All of Laiki Bank UK’s loans, including mortgages, credit cards and overdrawn accounts, will be transferred to Bank of Cyprus Public Co. Ltd, the parent group in Cyprus.

The BoE said the switch follows a decree issued by the Central Bank of Cyprus and the deposits in Laiki are being transferred in full, meaning there are no deductions.

Under an international bailout agreement for Cyprus, Cyprus Popular Bank, is being wound down.

Depositors with savings of more than €100,000 at Cyprus Popular Bank and Bank of Cyprus held at Cypriot branches will lose at least 30 to 40 per cent to help pay for the bailout.

Capital restrictions eased slightly, raising ceiling for some transactions A FINANCE ministry decree, the third since controls were first introduced, yesterday raised the ceiling on transactions which do not require Central Bank approval to €25,000 from €5,000.

It also permits the use of cheques worth up to €9,000 per month.

Other restrictions introduced last week, including a €300 per day cash withdrawal limit and a €1,000 euro limit on the

amount travellers can take overseas, remain in place.

Employer organisation OEV said the measure was in the right direction but was not enough for businesses to cover their obligations.

OEV urged the Central Bank to immediately review its decision and free the whole amount – 40 per cent – of uninsured deposits in the Bank of Cyprus.

“What is important is for the market to start moving immediately by increasing cash flow,” OEV said.

Yesterday’s decree - signed by former finance minister Michalis Sarris and dated April 2 – would be valid for two days.

Officials have said it could take up to a month for restrictions to be fully removed. Before resigning yesterday, Sarris said it was not clear when the remaining

capital controls would be lifted.

Cyprus introduced curbs on money movements when banks reopened on March 28 after a two-week shutdown while the government negotiated a €10 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.

Its capital controls are a first for the eurozone, introduced in an effort to prevent a cash drain.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

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Home Laiki refused to sign the sale of their Greek operations to an as yet unknown Greek bank... so Central Bank Governor Panicos Demetriades signed for them

Countdown to a catastrophe

By Laura Noonan N THE evening of the last Wednesday in March, the directors of Laiki Bank, the second largest in Cyprus, gathered in their sixth floor board room for the last time.

O

With the portraits of chairmen past staring down at them, they all resigned, something that had become inevitable earlier in the week when each director received a letter from the Central Bank of Cyprus telling them a special administrator had been appointed to run their bank and the board was suspended.

After less than an hour, the board broke up for the last time, its members accepting that their 112-year-old institution was no more. “It was like a funeral,” one director said.

The death of Laiki, also known as Cyprus Popular Bank , was brutal. Board members said they had fought to the bitter end, imploring political leaders not to accept the bank’s closure as part of a €10 billion bailout deal last week to save the country from bankruptcy.

The bank the directors were fighting to save lost €1.8 billion before tax in the first nine months of 2012 and another €4.1 billion the year before, as a gamble on Greek bonds ended badly, and bad lending decisions took their toll.

“Laiki Bank was a very good bank for many, many years,” said Afxentis Afxentiou, a former governor of Cyprus’ central bank.

“Unfortunately, they were the victim of too many things.

First, the haircut on the Greek sovereign debt which caused a loss of about €2.5 billion, secondly its exposure to Greece in loans given to Greece, and thirdly the world economy crisis which hit the company.”

A government-ordered inquiry into Cyprus’ banking and economic crisis prompted the country’s finance minister Michael Sarris, a former Laiki chairman, to resign yesterday. Reuters spoke to five of Laiki’s 11 recently-departed directors; all requested anonymity as they wanted to be able to speak more freely about sensitive issues Laiki’s first major blow came in 2011 when Europe agreed to an unprecedented restructuring of Greece’s sovereign bonds. Laiki was holding €3.1 billion of the bonds and ultimately suffered losses of €2.3 billion. After merging with Greek bank Marfin in 2007 and coming under Greek management, Laiki in 2009 built up a large position in Greek bonds, which offered attractive interest rates. The eventual losses were a devastating hit for a bank which began 2011 with total equity of just €3.6 billion,

but it was almost a year later before Laiki was rescued after flunking the European Banking Authority’s 2011 stress tests and failing to attract private capital.

In June 2012, Laiki got a €1.8 billion euro bailout from the state, giving the Cyprus government an 84 per cent shareholding. Seven new directors were appointed by the finance minister, and the board was charged with drawing up a business plan that would convince the European Union the bank could be viable again.

The new directors knew of the bank’s Greek bond tragedy, and had also seen accounts of questionable lending practices.

A Greek parliamentary enquiry had called attention to “serious conflicts of interest” in Laiki’s Greek operation. It had loaned money to a community of Greek monks involved in land deals, and to others who used the money to support a share sale by Marfin Investment Group, a company linked to Laiki through a shared chairman, Andreas Vgenopoulos, until November 2011. Vgenopoulos denied any wrongdoing.

The board were taken aback by the size of the problem at Laiki. “I found what I did not expect to find,” said one board source, describing how the bank was already relying

‘Everyone knew the bank had problems, but no one thought it would come to this’ on the Cyprus central bank for more than €9 billion of emergency funding that had to be renewed fortnightly.

The priority was to appoint advisers to help create a plan for Laiki to cut costs, sell assets, recapitalize and “ring fence” its Greek operations so any shocks in its €11.8 billion Greek loan book wouldn’t hurt the Cypriot parent.

At the end of June, they appointed KPMG, which drew up a plan that called for selling assets, cutting costs and putting bad loans into an asset management company.

Laiki was also prepared to

force losses on people who had bought “senior” bonds, a traditionally safe investment that has so far avoided taking any hits in the banking crisis.

Imposing losses on depositors, the strategy controversially included in Cyprus’ bailout plan, was not considered.

“No-one would have the view that we could impact depositors,” said one director.

At the end of August, the plan was submitted to the authorities. Around the same time, the bank’s chief executive Christos Stylianides, a long-time Laiki staffer who had mainly worked in the UK and Cyprus before taking the top job in December 2011, went on sick leave.

As a stand-in, the board chose Takis Phidias, then head of Laiki’s life insurance arm. About 500 staff were laid off in Greece, another 120 in Cyprus, salaries were cut, mobile phone use was restricted, and the bank renegotiated its rents.

Asset sales began, as did talks on selling Laiki’s 50 per cent stake in Russia’s Rossiysky Promyishlenny Bank.

When they started, they were prepared to sell at a 9 per cent discount, targeting loans in Serbia and Ukraine, and part of a €2 billion shipping loan portfolio in Greece, but it was not enough and they began selling at a 15 per cent discount in early 2013.

Stylianides, back after sick leave, clashed with the board, which wanted him to quit so the bank could have a fresh start. Outside the bank, the sands had been shifting since October. Aside from concerns about the efficiency of a bad bank, the troika - the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank - also worried whether Cyprus could foot the bill for a bad bank.

A bad bank was however a critical part of the KPMG plan, so Laiki moved to Plan B. Its idea was to put the “healthy” Cyprus bank into a new subsidiary that could be sold once it was freed from the long shadow cast by Greece, which was to remain in the bank’s main holding company.

“It wasn’t a good bank and a bad bank plan,” said one board source. “We were going to focus on restructuring.” In December 2012 Laiki hired consultants Alvarez and Marsal, who were working with the central bank; Laiki believed hiring the same consultants would boost the plan’s chance of success.

As Plan B was pushed forward, Laiki was facing growing difficulties. News reports of possible haircuts for depositors were already prompting people to pull their cash out.

That left Laiki ever more dependent on the central bank’s emergency liquidity assistance (ELA). “ELA was a continuous struggle, every fort-

The death of Laiki, also known as Cyprus Popular Bank, was brutal night they were asking us for more assets (as collateral),” said one bank source. The bank pledged every building it owned, along with batches of loans and bonds.

The €1.8 billion bailout from June did little to help, since it was done with a government bond that was not accepted by the central bank, which needed approval from the European Central Bank. The ECB declined to comment.

As Laiki sought new collateral, the value of assets it had already used fell further. “You could see the overall amount falling as non-performing loans got worse,” a bank source said.

Laiki ultimately pledged about €20 billion of collateral to draw down €9.95 billions of central bank cash.

Elections in February were a turning point. Before that, the ECB had seen Laiki’s growing vulnerability but had continued to allow it to draw down ELA. Now with a new government in place the ECB wanted action, fast.

On Friday March 15, Finance Minister Michael Sarris went to Brussels to negotiate a bailout deal.

The agreement that emerged in the early hours of March 16 was a shock. Cyprus was to raise €5.8 billion of the money it needed by levying a tax on deposits, including a 6.75 per cent tax on small savings which were explicitly guaranteed. Laiki’s board began to meet almost daily, an intensification even for a body that had met about 100 times since June. The next bombshell came quickly. On

Monday March 18, four Laiki representatives were summoned to the Central Bank.

They were joined by representatives from Bank of Cyprus and Hellenic. The banks were given a two-and-a-half page document, seen by Reuters, detailing the terms of the sale of their Greek operations to an as yet unknown Greek bank.

They were asked to take it to their boards for approval, but immediately protested at the vagueness of the terms, and the lack of board involvement and due diligence. The document asked the Laiki board to confirm that the agreement had been reached “without coercion”. When the bank’s representatives voiced concerns, Central Bank Governor Panicos Demetriades told Laiki that its shareholder, the government, would expect the board to sign.

The directors believed the deal meant Laiki Greece, which a central bank-commissioned review predicted would lose €7.4 billion between June 2012 and June 2015, had to be recapitalized with about €2.8 billion before being sold.

“The board was surprised and disappointed, the deal was obviously very adverse to the bank,” said one director. The board believed they would have got a better deal had the branches been sold in the normal way, with competitive bids.

Laiki refused to sign, so Demetriades signed for them.

The Central Bank did not respond to queries on the issue.

Selling the Greek branches

shrunk Laiki and removed the risk of any further Greek loan losses, but the board believed the bank’s position had been materially worsened by the deal.

Board meetings now sometimes lasted until midnight.

Emissaries were sent to talk to Russia about a takeover deal, which failed.

On the evening of Thursday March 21, Laiki workers began protesting in Nicosia after hearing that the bank was to be put into a “resolution” regime that would see it split into a “good” bank with healthy loans and small deposits, and a “bad” bank that would be wound down. Some directors only heard the news on local TV stations.

“No-one ever explained to us why we had to go into resolution,” said one Laiki source.

Now Cyprus had just three days to formulate a bank restructuring plan that would win troika approval, secure a sovereign bailout, and prevent the ECB from making good on their threat of cutting off the country’s banks from emergency funds.

The plan, as ultimately agreed, will see all the good parts of Laiki bundled into Bank of Cyprus, the island’s largest lender, while deposits above €100,000 and troubled loans are run down under a special administrator. The Laiki brand will likely be consigned to the scrap heap, and the bank’s 8,400 workers face an uncertain future. As one director put it: “Everyone knew the bank had problems, but no one thought it would come to this.”

(R)

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, April 3, 2013

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Home

US warship docks in Limassol The USS Kearsarge is on a tour of the Mediterranean and the Middle East area

By Peter Stevenson THE USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) has docked at Limassol port as part of its tour of the Mediterranean and Middle East.

It is the fourth ship in US naval history to be named after a mountain in central New Hampshire in the States, and is a mountainous climb from bottom to top. It carries 1,893 Marines with a complement of 104 officers and 1,004 sailors.

It was the Kearsarge’s first visit to Cyprus and it took the amphibious assault ship one hour to dock on Monday when it arrived.

“We found Limassol port was well prepared for our visit with excellent security which is always important wherever we travel in the world,” Commanding officer, Captain John Skillman told reporters.

The ship’s primary mission is to load, transport and land troops and their equipment in support of amphibious operations anywhere in the world. Serving as the command ship of an Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), Kearsarge controls and supports all elements of a Marine Air Ground Task Force.

More than 2,000 troops can be quickly deployed for a coordinated assault by air and sea. The Kearsarge’s full combat load consists of 29 aircraft including Harrier jets, Osprey, Super Cobra, Super Stallion, Huey and Seahawk helicopters as well as 3 landing craft air cushion (LCAC) hovercrafts.

In carrying out its primary mission, Kearsarge has the ability to transport and position ashore troops, tanks, trucks, armoured vehicles, artillery, ammunition and other supplies to fully support any mission.

Cargo, as well as troops and vehicles are loaded aboard LCACs, helicopters

and tilt rotor aircraft like the Osprey, for transport to the beach. The ship’s well deck can be ballasted down to as much as ten feet of water, allowing conventional landing craft to quickly enter or exit the well. Kearsarge also has full maintenance and support capabilities for aircraft, amphibious vehicles and other ships in company.

The ship’s extensive medical facilities and berthing capabilities provide efficient and expert care for troops returning from battle conditions, or civilians during disaster relief operations. With the ability to support up to 600 patients, the Kearsarge is second only to the US Navy’s ready-reserve hospital ships in medical support capability.

HUMANITARIAN OPS The Kearsarge was commissioned in 1993 and since entering active service it has participated in a variety of combat and humanitarian operations. These include the rescue of U.S. Air Force Captain Scott O’Grady after he was shot down over Bosnia in 1995, the evacuation of American citizens and foreign nationals from Sierra Leone in 1997, and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.

On August 6, 2008, Kearsarge deployed in support of Mission Continuing Promise.

The ship’s crew, along with augments from the US Marine Corps, Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Public Health Service and a team of multinational forces and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) provided medical, construction and humanitarian services to seven Central, South and Caribbean American countries. They were Panama, Columbia, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Nicaragua and Trinidad.

On August 27, 2010, Kear-

The massive ship carries 1,893 Marines with a complement of 104 officers and 1,004 sailors: now docked at Limassol sarge departed for deployment a month early to provide much-needed humanitarian aid to floodstricken Pakistan.

On March 19, 2011, Harrier jets assigned to 26 Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard the ship, launched strikes against Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi’s forces as part of AFRICOM’s Task Force, Odyssey Dawn.

As well as the various aircraft on board, the ship also carries Abrams Battle Tanks, Hercules Recovery Vehicles, Hummers, M23 7-tonne trucks, MK48 Logistics Vehicle Systems, Extended Boom Forklifts and Tractors.

It is believed the Kearsarge’s stay costs roughly €1 million a day while it is stationed in Limassol. It was not specified how long the ship would remain. For more information contact the US embassy in Nicosia: info@ americanembassy.org.cy

Atmospheric dust returns at least until tomorrow TEMPERATURES have been higher than usual for this time of year over the last few days and high levels of dust were also recorded yesterday as a return to norm is scheduled for tomorrow after rainfall and a drop in temperatures.

“The amount of dust in the atmosphere will decrease after showers on Thursday,” meteorological officer Sophia Louca said. “There will also be a dip in temperatures on Thursday but it will rise again on Friday and Saturday,” she added.

Louca revealed that usual temperatures for this time of year in the mainland tend to be around 22 degrees Celsius but over the last couple of days temperatures have been around 25-26 degrees Celsius.

“The average concentration of breathable particles with diameter less than 10 micrometres (PM10) in the atmosphere at 10am on Tuesday April 2, increased and was between 50

and 246 micrograms per cubic metre,” the department of labour inspection announced yesterday. The department expected the average concentration of breathable particles for the 24-hour period from 10am on Tuesday until 10am on Wednesday, to surpass the minimum legal limit of 50 micrograms per cubic metre.

The previous 24-hour reading fluctuated between 101 and 427 micrograms per cubic metre, depending on the area where the reading was taken.

Because of the small size of the breathable particles and their negative effect on human health, the public and especially vulnerable groups of the population - children, old people and those with respiratory problems - are advised to avoid going outdoors and exercising in open spaces during this period.

Also it is recommended that the workers in open spaces use appropriate means of personal protection.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

8

Europe Putin signs law to allow him to pick governors PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin signed a law yesterday letting him pick candidates to lead Russia’s regions if local lawmakers scrap popular polls, in what critics called a setback for democracy in the Russian leader’s new term.

The law allows each of the country’s 83 regions to repeal direct elections of governors, introduced just last year in a concession during a wave of protests by Russians fed up with Putin’s dominance and demanding a stronger political voice.

Putin has said the law is needed to protect the rights of minorities in ethnically mixed regions such as the mostly Muslim provinces of the insurgency-plagued North Caucasus.

The Kremlin is concerned that direct elections in the volatile regions could spark unrest or involve candidates whose loyalty is in question.

Russia is holding the Winter Olympics next February in Sochi, close to the North Caucasus provinces.

But critics of the president say the law is a rollback in democracy that favours the ruling United Russia party, which is far less popular than Putin himself and had its parliamentary majority sharply reduced in a December 2011 election.

An aircraft sits on its nose after making an emergency landing next to a power distribution box and a house in Haselau, northern Germany yesterday.

Technical problems are believed to be responsible for forcing the plane to make the emergency landing. Both of the people in the aircraft were only slightly injured (EPA)

Italy’s ‘wise men’ seek to end crisis; president gloomy Parties criticise move, centre-right calls for coalition or new elections

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ITALIAN President Giorgio Napolitano expressed despair yesterday at fierce criticism of his latest plan to end a post-election deadlock that has raised fears of months of instability in the eurozone’s third largest economy.

Two groups of “wise men” appointed by Napolitano to try to forge a policy compromise between squabbling parties to end the impasse since the February 24-25 election started work yesterday. Napolitano said they would report back in eight to 10 days.

The 87-year-old head of state reacted angrily to suggestions from the centre-right of Silvio Berlusconi that his plan, which came after all other efforts to find a government failed, were a useless waste of time which the economy could ill afford.

“After seven years I am ending my mandate in a surreal way, finding myself the subject of absurd reactions, suspicions and incomprehensible paranoias, from the harmless to the unhinged,” Napolitano was quoted as saying by Corriere della Sera daily.

Italy is deep in its longest recession for 20 years and although markets have so far remained relatively sanguine about the political deadlock, the economy desperately

needs a stable government to unblock decades of sluggish growth. There are also fears Italy’s borrowing costs could shoot up dangerously if the impasse finally starts to spook investors.

Since the election, the parties have refused to budge from irreconcilable positions that “made one despair of the possibility of governing this country,” Napolitano said.

Even the experts seemed pessimistic about their chances of success and Napolitano’s move may be aimed more at letting the situation “decant” for a bit longer in the hope that the parties will finally agree to a compromise.

REFORMS Napolitano appointed the commissions after centreleft leader Pier Luigi Bersani failed to gather enough support for a government despite a week of efforts.

The election resulted in three main blocs, none of which has enough support in parliament to govern alone.

The centre-left holds a majority in the lower house but not in the Senate.

The two working groups, one of which will discuss socialeconomic reforms and the other institutional changes headed by a new electoral law, include representatives of the main centre-left and centre-

right blocs, the head of the national statistics agency, legal experts and a senior Bank of Italy official.

Berlusconi’s centre-right has been particularly harsh in its criticism of Napolitano’s move - unusual in a country where the president enjoys huge respect and deference.

They say that either Bersani agrees to a broad alliance with them or the country should return to the polls in June, apparently reflecting Berlusconi’s fears that the centreleft is plotting to appoint a leftwing successor to Napolitano in May. Bersani yesterday again rejected a governing coalition with Berlusconi and said new elections would not fix Italy’s problems. He also said Berlusconi’s attempts to pick on the new president were “unacceptable”.

Napolitano’s wise men idea was also criticised by populist 5-Star Movement leader Beppe Grillo who called the experts “domestic carers for democracy”.

“At the end of the day what is it? A fake coalition government ruled by the president?

I have seen the names but my puzzlement remains,” Grillo’s Senate leader Vito Crimi said.

One of the experts, constitutional judge Valerio Onida, shot back at Grillo: “In this parliament, they need babysitters more than carers.”

French doctor on reality show commits suicide A DOCTOR on a French version of a tough reality show has committed suicide following the death of a contestant last month.

Dr Thierry Costa killed himself on location for the series based on the US hit Survivor on an island in Cambodia. Dr Costa, 38, had blamed the press for damaging his professional reputation in a suicide note.

It was the second death in as many weeks to hit the prime-time Koh-Lanta show.

The first was 25-year-old, Gerald Babin, who died on March 22 - the first day of filming for the show’s 2013 season. Babin went

to Dr Costa to get treated for mysterious cramps he had during the first challenge, thought to be a tug-of-war, but died in a hospital soon after following a heart attack.

Anonymous comments appeared in the French media accusing Dr Costa and production company Adventure Line Productions of negligence that contributed to Babin’s death – charges that they denied.

Dr Costa’s suicide note addressed the allegations. “Having to rebuild this destroyed reputation seems unbearable to me, so this is my only possible choice.”

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, April 3, 2013

9

Britain

Waist-deep in mud, PM rescues distressed sheep The BOGGED down by a stagnating economy and sinking poll ratings, British Prime Minister David Cameron ventured into a new swamp when he waded waist-deep into mud to rescue a drowning sheep, it emerged yesterday.

Cameron was on his way back from visiting a farmer near his weekend home in the Oxfordshire countryside last month when he heard bleating and spotted a ewe that had got stuck in the mud

after following her two lambs.

In jeans and rubber boots, Cameron waded into the swamp, followed by his two bodyguards, wrestled the sodden sheep and hoisted it onto safe ground, the Sun newspaper reported.

“When I got there, David (Cameron) was in the swamp, waistdeep in mud, along with the two police, who had all gone in there to help drag this sheep out,” farmer Julian Tustian told the

Daily Telegraph.

“He was brilliant, pulling, pushing and shoving. He was covered in mud, he looked a mess.”

The ewe, which has since been nicknamed Swampy, has fully recovered from the ordeal, which unfolded on the evening of March 1, Tustian said. The lambs drowned.

The story of the lost sheep’s messy rescue could have passed for an April fool joke but a Down-

ing Street spokeswoman confirmed it had taken place.

Twitter users mocked what they labelled Cameron’s “ewe turn”, describing it as an unusual show of compassion from a prime minister imposing harsh welfare cuts and talking tough on immigration.

“Are you sure it was not the other way round? The ewe saved #Cameron from the swamp he’s in?” wrote one user calling himself @Brianma68.

Parents guilty of fire deaths Plan to rescue them from burning house went ‘completely wrong’

The fire-damaged house in which the children died

By Lucy Bogustawski and Emma Sword THE parents of six children who died in a house fire were yesterday found guilty of their manslaughter.

Mick and Mairead Philpott were convicted by jurors at Nottingham Crown Court of the unlawful killing of the six siblings in the blaze at the family home in Victory Road, Derby, on May 11 last year.

A third defendant, 46-yearold Paul Mosley, was also found guilty of manslaughter by the jury following an eightweek trial.

All three will be sentenced today.

As the jury delivered its verdicts in respect of Philpott, he stood in the dock staring straight ahead with his hands clasped in front of him.

As the court heard guilty verdicts in respect of his wife, he shook his head and she looked down at the floor and fought back tears while clutching a tissue in both her hands.

Mosley showed no emotion as he heard the guilty verdicts.

Before leaving the dock, as the judge rose for a short

break after emotional outbursts in the packed public gallery, Philpott, wearing a grey suit, white shirt and pink tie, crossed himself and was heard to say: “It’s not over yet.”

People in the public gallery erupted in tears and shouts as the verdicts came in.

During the trial, the court heard that the six youngsters – Jade Philpott, 10, and her brothers John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six, Jayden, five, and Duwayne, 13 - all died as a result of the petrol-fuelled blaze that tore through their three-bed council house.

The children were asleep in their beds upstairs when the fire, which was set inside the

semi-detached house by the front door, took hold in the early hours.

The blaze was part of a “plan” Philpott had to frame his former mistress Lisa Willis, 29, who had left the family home three months earlier.

She and her five children, four of whom were fathered

by Philpott, had lived with the Philpotts and their six children for 10 years before they left in February last year.

The fire happened at around 3.45am on May 11, just hours before Philpott, who was father to a total of 17 children by five different women, and Willis were due to appear at a pre-scheduled court hearing to discuss residency of their

children.

Jurors heard the blaze was part of a botched plan to blame Willis, who was arrested immediately after the fire but quickly released with no further action, in an effort to get her and the children to return to Victory Road.

During the trial the jury heard the plan the defendants devised was to get all six children into one bedroom at the back of the house – they usually slept scattered across the three bedrooms while the adults slept in the conservatory or in a caravan on the driveway of the property – so that when the fire started, they could be rescued through a window.

Prosecutor Richard Latham QC said the plan had “gone completely wrong” within two minutes because the fire was far bigger than the defendants expected.

The court was told that he was supposed to “act the hero and victim” and use a ladder propped up against the back of the house, smash the window, and get the children out.

The plan went wrong when he climbed the ladder but found the window shut and he was unable to smash a large enough hole to get in, or to rescue the youngsters because of the intense heat and thick black smoke generated by the fire.

Queen gets £6m tax-free pay rise THE Queen has received a 20 per cent “pay rise” after a new system of funding the monarchy came into force. Her annual tax-free government grant increased from £30 million to £36 million, excluding the £1 million she received last year to help cover the costs of the Diamond Jubilee.

Buckingham Palace yesterday declined to explain precisely how the Queen would spend the extra cash but it is likely to be targeted on a backlog of repairs to the Palace and Windsor Castle and the first pay rise in four years for most of her 300 staff.

The bumper rise has come about as a result of the Sovereign Grant which came fully into effect on Monday. This fixes the amount the Queen receives from the Treasury at 15 per cent of the profits of the Crown Estate two years earlier. It made £240.2 million in 2011/12.

Yesterday a poll found strong support for the Queen but a desire for the monarch, who will be 87 this month, to cut down her workload. Last month she was forced to cancel a series of engagements after suffering gastroenteritis.

A poll by Hello! magazine found 69 per cent of 2,000 respondents wanted her to cut back, with 80 per cent backing the idea of the Duke of Cambridge carrying out more royal engagements. William, 30, is under pressure to abandon his military career to offer more support to his ageing grandparents.

The poll also found 62 per cent liked the Duchess of Cambridge teaming up with the Queen on engagements.

The Sovereign Grant is based on – but not drawn from - the profits of the Crown Estate, the property quango that owns vast areas of Regent Street and the 12 miles of seabed around the UK coast.

In 1760, George III became the first monarch to surrender the revenues of the Crown Estate to the Government in return for an annual Civil List payment from Parliament.

Iain Duncan Smith slams £53 petition Mary Rose museum to open next month WORK and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has insisted he knows what it is like to be on the breadline as he dismissed a petition calling for him to live on £53 a week as a “complete stunt”.

The petition, signed by almost 250,000 people, was started after Duncan Smith said during an interview he could get by on that amount.

The remark followed a challenge by market trader David Bennett during a Radio 4 ‘Today’ programme item on the Government’s sweeping reforms to the welfare system.

The online petition, hosted at www.change.org, said: “This petition calls on Iain Duncan Smith to live on this

budget for at least one year.

This would help realise the Conservative Party’s current mantra that ‘We are all in this together’.

“This would mean a 97 per cent reduction in his current income, which is £1,581.02 a week or £225 a day after tax.”

Chingford and Woodford Green MP Mr Duncan Smith told his local newspaper that he had experienced two periods of unemployment and knew what it was like “to live on the breadline”.

He told the Wanstead and Woodford Guardian: “This is a complete stunt which distracts attention from the welfare reforms, which are much more important and which I

have been working hard to get done.

“I have been unemployed twice so I have already done this. I know what it is like to live on the breadline.”

The focus on the Government’s benefits shake-up came as 660,000 social housing tenants deemed to have a spare room began to lose an average £14 a week in what critics have dubbed a “bedroom tax”.

Wider welfare and tax changes coming into force this month will also see council tax benefit funding cut, and working-age benefits and tax credit rises pegged at one per cent - well below inflation - for three years.

By Ben Mitchell A NEW £35 million museum housing Henry VIII’s flagship the Mary Rose is to open to the public next month.

The only sixteenth century warship to be on display anywhere in the world will be at the centre of the new exhibition at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in Hampshire.

The museum will reunite the Tudor warship with 19,000 artefacts raised from the wreck site in the Solent.

The ongoing conservation project has been made possible with a £23 million Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant.

The opening on May 31 marks just over 30 years since the hull was raised from the Solent in 1982 and 437 years after it sank on July 19, 1545.

The ship sank in full view of Henry VIII while leading the attack on a French inva-

sion fleet during the Battle of the Solent.

The new museum was built around the hull of the ship. The building takes the form of a “finely-crafted wooden jewellery box” with the hull at its centre and galleries running the length of the ship, each at a level corresponding to a deck level on the ship. Artefacts are displayed to provide visitors with an insight into what these decks would have looked like moments before the ship sank.

The historic items, including the skeleton of Hatch, the ship’s dog, will also be arranged in galleries by theme to help reveal some of the personal stories of life on board.

The science behind the ongoing conservation work and underwater tales of salvage will also be explained in the museum displays.

Visitors will be able to see the hull through a series of windows giving different aspects over and around the ship.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

10

World

Australia lures 20,000 Leagues Down Under with $22.5m grant

N. Korea set to restart aged nuclear reactor

THE Australian government has granted the Walt Disney Studios production of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea a oneoff A$21.6 million ($22.50m) grant to film the remake of the classic film Down Under.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said yesterday that securing the shoot was a “huge coup” for the local film industry, which has struggled to attract Hollywood productions in recent years because of the strong Australian dollar.

“The filming will give Australian talent the opportunity to work with some of the best screen professionals in the business - both in front of the cameras and behind the scenes,” she added.

The government currently offers a 40 per cent tax rebate for all feature films but has stepped into the breach before with additional funds, providing a $A12.8 million

UN leader says nuclear threats ‘not a game’, must stop

grant for the filming of the Hugh Jackman vehicle The Wolverine, which recently completed filming in Sydney.

Gillard’s office said that shoot created 2,000 jobs, contracted just over 1,000 local companies and generated A$80 million of investment.

Local director Baz Luhrmann shot The Great Gatsby, which is set to open the 2013 Cannes film festival, in Australia last year.

The Star Wars Episodes II & III, the Matrix Trilogy and Mission: Impossible II were all filmed in Australia during the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the Australian dollar was weaker, but an extended gap followed.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is based on a novel published in 1870 by French writer Jules Verne, which follows a naval ship expedition in search of a sea monster.

Assange appoints campaign director for Aussie Senate bid FUGITIVE WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, holed up in London’s Ecuadorian embassy for nine months, has appointed a high-profile opponent of Britain’s monarchy to run his campaign for a seat in Australia’s upper house of parliament.

Former Australian Republican Movement head and barrister Greg Barns said he would be campaign director for the WikiLeaks Party spearheading Assange’s rare absentee bid for a Senate seat in Australia’s September 14 election, which even if successful would not bring him any legal protection.

“It’s most definitely a serious campaign,” Barns told Australian radio. “He does attract support from across the political spectrum. The party will offer a refreshing change from the Australian government culture of secrecy.”

The former computer hacker, an Australian citizen, announced last year he would run for the 76-seat Senate and would use the protection of parliament to champion free speech and break court suppression orders.

Assange is considered a long shot to win a Senate seat as he would need to attract about 15 per cent of votes in the Victoria state. If he wins, he would be able to take his seat from July 1, 2014, but would need to return to Australia to be sworn in.

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By Jack Kim and Ju-min Park NORTH Korea said yesterday it would revive a mothballed nuclear reactor able to produce bomb-grade plutonium but stressed it was seeking a deterrent capacity and did not repeat recent threats to attack South Korea and the United States.

United Nations Secretarygeneral Ban Ki-moon said the crisis over North Korea had gone too far and he appealed for dialogue and negotiation to resolve the situation.

“Nuclear threats are not a game. Aggressive rhetoric and military posturing only result in counter-actions, and fuel fear and instability,” Ban, a South Korean, said.

The Pentagon said another guided-missile destroyer had taken position in the western Pacific to assist with missile defence as tensions with North Korea rise.

The crisis flared after Pyongyang was hit with US sanctions for conducting a third nuclear test in February and the United States and South Korea staged military drills that North Korea viewed as “hostile”.

Pyongyang then threatened a nuclear strike on the United States, missile strikes on its Pacific bases and war with South Korea, prompting Washington to bolster forces in the region.

The state-owned KCNA news agency announced yesterday that North Korea would relaunch all nuclear facilities for both electricity and military uses.

A speech by the North’s young leader, Kim Jong-un, given on Sunday but published in full by KCNA yesterday, appeared to dampen any prospect of a direct confrontation with the US by emphasising nuclear weapons would ensure the country’s safety as a deterrent.

A state choir performs during a session of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the North Korean parliament, in Pyongyang (EPA) “Our nuclear strength is a reliable war deterrent and a guarantee to protect our sovereignty,” Kim said. “It is on the basis of a strong nuclear strength that peace and prosperity can exist and so can the happiness of people’s lives.”

But if Pyongyang restarts the nuclear facilities, it would have longer-term implications for the region’s security.

Reactivating the aged Soviet-era reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear plant would yield plutonium, a tested path to stockpile more fissile mate-

rial than a uranium enrichment programme.

The United States is urging Russia and China to do more to rein in North Korea, Carney said.

The United States has said it has seen no evidence of hostile North Korean troop movements. Much of the North Korean rhetoric in recent weeks has echoed previous bouts of anger, but the length and intensity has been new, raising concerns that the tensions could spiral into actual fighting.

US defence officials said on

Monday the USS John McCain, an Aegis-class guidedmissile destroyer used for ballistic missile defence, was being put into position to operate off the Korean peninsula.

At the Pentagon, spokesman George Little said yesterday the McCain had arrived at a “pre-determined location”. He added that another destroyer, the USS Decatur, had also taken position “to perform a missile defence mission as assigned by our combatant commander”.

World Bank chief call for ending extreme poverty by 2030 WORLD Bank President Jim Yong Kim yesterday called for a commitment by the international community to end extreme poverty by 2030 and to improve the lives of the most vulnerable people living in developing countries.

To reach that goal, Kim said the world would have to reduce the number of people living below the poverty line of $1.25 per day to three per cent globally by 2030, and raise the per capita incomes of the bottom 40 per cent of every developing country.

The three per cent target marks a new goal for the World Bank, which did not provide directly comparable numbers for the current rate of extreme poverty.

The goal would help the World Bank

prioritise development projects that have the biggest impact on the poorest and reduce inequality, Kim said.

“Now is the time to commit to ending extreme poverty,” he said in a speech before meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund on April 19 and 20 in Washington.

“We are at an auspicious moment in history, when the successes of past decades and an increasingly favourable economic outlook combine to give developing countries a chance - for the first time ever - to end extreme poverty within a generation,” he added.

Economists have estimated the poverty rate for the developing world in 2012 at about 19 per cent, representing

about 1.1 billion people. That is down from 21 per cent in 2010, or about 1.2 billion people. The overall poverty rate has been falling by about one percentage point a year from 1981 to 2010, according to World Bank data.

The rise of countries like China, India and Brazil has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, according to the World Bank and the United States.

But most of the success in reducing poverty has been in China, while regions such as South Asia and subSaharan Africa still struggle with high poverty levels. Fragile states, such as Afghanistan, are also still mired in poverty.

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, April 3, 2013

11

World Jacko kids to take stand in record $40b damages trial

BRITAIN TODAY Obama unveils brain study THE White House unveiled details yesterday on a new initiative to study the human brain with the goal of treating or curing Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders.

Called the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, the programme is to be funded with $100 million from President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2014 budget. The White House is slated to release Obama’s budget next week.

“The BRAIN Initiative will accelerate the development and application of new technologies that will enable researchers to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that show how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact at the speed of thought,” the White House said.

Rescuers find 59 bodies RESCUE teams have found 59 dead bodies at the site a massive landslide in Tibet and two dozen more workers are still feared buried in the rubble, Chinese state media said yesterday.

Tonnes of rock, mud and debris engulfed a miners’ camp on Friday in Maizhokunggar County where China Gold International Resources Corp Ltd operates its Jiama mine.

Emergency workers and other miners spent the weekend digging through the landslide which was up to 50 metres deep in parts.

Oldest American dies A 113-year-old woman who was listed as the oldest person in the United States has died, only weeks before her birthday, a Florida newspaper reported.

Elsie Thompson died at her home on March 21 in Clearwater, Florida, the Tampa Bay Times reported late on Sunday.

Thompson was born on April 5, 1899, in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.

Models prepare backstage during the Fall/Winter Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia in Moscow yesterday (EPA)

UN approves first global arms treaty US votes in favour as pro-gun lobby strongly opposed

By Louis Charbonneau THE 193-nation UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved yesterday the first-ever treaty on global arms trade that seeks to regulate the $70 billion international business in conventional arms ranging from light weapons to battle tanks and warships.

There were 154 votes in favour, 3 against and 23 abstentions.

Iran, Syria and North Korea last week prevented a treaty-drafting conference at UN headquarters from reaching the required consensus to adopt the treaty. That left delegations that support it no choice but to turn to a General Assembly vote to adopt it.

The Iranian, Syrian and North Korean delegations cast the votes against the treaty.

Iran, which is under a UN arms embargo over its nuclear programme, is eager to ensure its arms imports and exports are not curtailed, diplomats said. Syria’s government is embroiled in a two-year civil war and relies on Russian and Iranian weapons, they added.

North Korea is also under a

THIS WEEK IN YOUR

WIN

UN arms embargo due to its nuclear weapons and missile programmes.

The treaty will be open for signature June 3 and will enter into force 90 days after the 50th signatory ratifies it.

Major arms producers China and Russia joined Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and other countries in abstaining.

A number of countries, led by India, which also abstained, complained the treaty favours exporting over importing

states.

The US, the world’s No. 1 arms exporter, voted in favour of the treaty despite opposition from the National Rifle Association, a powerful US pro-gun lobbying group.

The NRA has vowed to fight to prevent its ratification by the US Senate when it reaches Washington. It says the treaty would undermine domestic gun-ownership rights, a view the US government rejects.

Syrian UN Ambassador

‘6,000 KILLED’ IN SYRIA LAST MONTH MARCH was the bloodiest month yet in Syria’s two-yearold conflict with more than 6,000 documented deaths, a leading anti-regime activist group has said, blaming the increase on heavier shelling and more violent clashes.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the toll is likely to be incomplete because both the Syrian army and the rebel groups fighting President Bashar Assad’s government often under-report their dead in the civil war.

“Both sides are hiding information,” he said.

“It is very difficult to get correct info on the fighters because they don’t want the information to hurt morale.”

The numbers, while provided by only one group, support the appraisal of the conflict offered by many Syria watchers - the civil war is largely a military stalemate that is destroying the country’s social fabric and taking a huge toll on civilians.

The increase also reflects the continuing spread of major hostilities to new parts of Syria.

SundayMail

A NIGHT FOR TWO WITH BREAKFAST AT

ENTER OUR COMPETITION (living page 28)

Bashar Ja’afari repeated that his government opposes the arms trade treaty because it does not ban the sale of weapons to non-state actors and “terrorists” like those allegedly active in Syria.

The treaty does not ban transfers to armed groups but says all arms transfers should be subjected to rigorous risk and human rights assessments first.

British Prime Minister David Cameron hailed the vote as a “landmark agreement that will save lives and ease the immense human suffering caused by armed conflict around the world.”

UN member states began meeting on March 18 in a final push to end years of discussions and hammer out a binding international treaty to end the lack of regulation over cross-border conventional arms sales.

The arms trade treaty aims to set standards for all crossborder transfers of conventional weapons. It also would create binding requirements for states to review all crossborder arms contracts to ensure that arms will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism or violations of humanitarian law.

A BITTER war of words erupted between concert promoter AEG and Michael Jackson’s family yesterday ahead of a $40 billion trial over who is to blame for the pop star’s death.

The late singer’s children Prince, 16, Paris, 14, Blanket, 10, and mother Katherine, 82, are seeking record damages in a wrongful death lawsuit claiming AEG was guilty of negligence which contributed to Jackson’s death.

Jurors were due to be sworn in yesterday in Los Angeles for a case set to reveal new details of Jackson’s final days with Prince and Paris both due to testify.

The Jacksons are seeking billions for lost future earnings and damages, claiming organisers of his abortive comeback tour failed to carry out proper checks in hiring or supervising Dr Conrad Murray.

MANSLAUGHTER Jackson’s personal doctor is serving four years after he was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in 2011.

Murray administered the sedatives which caused the singer’s death.

He died aged 50 in June 2009, shortly before he was due to begin the This Is It tour, a sold-out series of 50 concerts at London’s O2 Arena.

Lawyers for AEG are set to argue Jackson was responsible for his own death because of his addiction to prescription drugs and his penchant for “doctor shopping” to find medics who would prescribe what he wanted.

The civil trial, expected to last two to three months, was due to start with an application for proceedings to be televised. AEG’s lawyers have argued it could create a fan “frenzy” outside the court.

Allegations of child abuse against the singer are due to be raised as part of the promoter’s case that Jackson was mentally unstable.

Jackson lawyer Kevin Boyle said: “The truth about what happened to Michael, which AEG has tried to keep hidden from the public since the day Michael died, is finally emerging. We look forward to the trial where the rest of the story will come to light.”

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

12

Business Wall Street up on health insurers

European manufacturing ebbs further in March

U.S. STOCKS rose yesterday, pushing the S&P 500 within striking distance of its alltime intraday high, as healthcare stocks surged after a government decision raised prospects of higher profits.

The group gained after the US government dropped plans to cut payments for private Medicare Advantage insurers and instead said it would raise them 3.3 per cent.

Humana, which derives about two-thirds of its revenue from Medicare Advantage business, rose 7 per cent to $80.11. UnitedHealth Group rose 6.2 per cent to $62.67, and Cigna Corp was up 4.1 per cent to $65.49.

“Given how lean these companies are, this news is pretty significant and could mean a 10- to 15-per cent increase in earnings,” said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors in New York.

Despite the gains, stocks in the healthcare sector are still seen as cheaper than the overall market. Humana, which has a market cap of about $11.9 billion, has a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 9.4, below the S&P 500 P/E average ratio of about 16.5.

UnitedHealth has a P/E ratio of 10.6 and Cigna has a P/E ratio of 9.7.

The broad market’s rise countered Monday’s sell-off.

Most investors expect moves to be limited this week before Friday’s US monthly payrolls report.

In an effort to bring down the unemployment rate, the Federal Reserve has maintained an accommodative monetary policy, which has also benefited stocks.

“Good numbers are good and bad numbers are good because it keeps the Fed at the side of the market,” said Burt White, managing director and chief investment officer at LPL Financial in Boston.

Factories in Germany, Ireland slip back into contraction

By Andy Bruce MANUFACTURING across Europe’s major economies endured another month of mostly deep decline in March, dragging down even former bright spots, surveys showed yesterday.

The slump among British manufacturers eased slightly, but overall purchasing managers indexes (PMIs) made gloomy reading.

Factories in Germany and Ireland, the relative stars of February’s PMIs, fell back into decline last month. Everywhere else, the industrial rot extended.

Spanish manufacturing declined at its fastest pace since October, which followed news the government will revise its economic forecasts for 2013 to show a 1 per cent contraction, from a 0.5 per cent decline previously.

In France, factory activity retreated for a 13th month and car registrations there dived 16.4 per cent in March, further underlining the malaise sweeping through the eurozone’s second-biggest economy.

“The eurozone’s March manufacturing PMIs ... (banishes) the recovery scenario projected by the European Central Bank further beyond the realm of likely probabilities,” said Lena Komileva from G+ Econom-

The slump among UK manufacturers eased slightly, but overall purchasing managers indexes made gloomy reading ics in London.

Markit’s Eurozone Manufacturing PMI fell in March to 46.8 from 47.9 in February - slightly better than an preliminary estimate of 46.6, but extending its run below the 50 mark that separates growth and contraction for a 20th month.

“Based on the experience of the past four years, the first quarter’s eurozone PMI average of 47.5 is consistent with no GDP growth (at best) and a weakening momentum into the second quarter,” said Komileva.

The escalation of the crisis in Cyprus in the final week of March, however, had little

These Bank of Cyprus rates for telegraphic transfer transactions (spot deals) apply to yesterday, but provide a good guide to today’s value against the euro.

Buying Selling Pound St

0.8486 0.8402

US Dollar

1.2928 1.2800

Australian $

1.2453 1.2145

Canadian Dol.

1.3225 1.2899

Swiss Fr

1.2236 1.2090

Denmark Kr

7.5489 7.3625 120.1114 118.6786

Norwegian Kr

7.5665 7.3797

Polish Zloty

4.2318

4.1274

Romanian Leu 4.5072 4.3304 Russian Ruble 40.4848 39.4852 Swedish Kr

three-month low, March made for an ominous month for the global economy - especially given the extent of jubilance on stock markets so far this year.

European shares extended gains yesterday after the data, although the euro slipped.

Yesterday’s unemployment figures for the eurozone brought little cheer, showing the jobless rate held at 12 per cent in February, a new record jointly with January, which was revised up from 11.9 per cent.

Data from Britain was mixed. The UK manufacturing purchasing PMI index

came in at 48.3, only slightly above February’s surprisingly poor reading of 47.9, and a touch weaker than the Reuters consensus forecast.

While lending to British consumers ticked up in February, the number of mortgage approvals for house purchases fell for a second month, Bank of England data showed. Nonetheless, the value of home-backed lending rose.

“The onus is now on the far larger service sector to prevent the UK from slipping into a triple-dip recession,” said Rob Dobson, senior economist at Markit, which compiles the PMIs.

Google faces Europe privacy probe

Rates

Japan Yen

bearing on eurozone manufacturing activity, at least judging by the fact the final PMI reading was no worse than the preliminary.

“We’ve had the Italian election, we’ve had the Cyprus story; we’re a little bit uncertain to what extent that has played in,” said Anatoli Annenkov, senior European economist at Societe Generale.

“But certainly, on the manufacturing side, that’s a little bit weaker than what we’d hoped.”

Combined with data on Monday from the United States, which showed factory activity growing at a

8.4704 8.2612

A Google Street View camera on top of a car at the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam

EUROPEAN regulators moved a step closer to penalising Google for the way it handles user data after the search engine refused to change its privacy policy.

France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Britain said yesterday they began a process to decide if Google’s policy introduced in March 2012 broke national laws.

Google consolidated 60 privacy policies into one last year and started combining data collected on individual users across its services, such as YouTube, Gmail and social network Google+. It gave the users no means to opt out.

Twenty-nine European data protection regulators began a joint enquiry as a result.

The enquiry, led by France’s CNIL, found in October that Google’s new policy posed a “high risk” to the privacy of individuals, although it stopped short of declaring it illegal.

The regulators gave Google until February to propose changes, but the search engine did not make any after a March 19 meeting with national regulators.

“Regulators in six states have begun the process of looking at penalties, and each must now act based on national law,” said Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, CNIL’s president, in an interview.

“We have put in place a countdown for Google now. Promises to change will no

longer be enough.”

The six states have the power to impose fines on Google, said Falque-Pierrotin, but each must go through a local inquiry to determine that a wrong had been committed under national law even after the European joint position published in October.

They will use the joint analysis to underpin their investigations and will “not start from scratch”, she added.

Google said it would continue to cooperate with European regulators.

“Our privacy policy respects European law and allows us to create simpler, more effective services,” said spokesman Al Verney in an emailed statement.

The year-long tussle with the web search giant is seen by legal experts and policymakers as a test of Europe’s ability to influence the behaviour of international internet companies.

Policymakers are debating a draft Europewide data protection law under which transgressors could be fined as much as 2 per cent of their annual global turnover.

It would impose stricter rules on how companies collect and store customer data and would require notification of data breaches.

The plan has sparked a lobbying effort by big technology companies, banks and other firms who worry it would lumber them with additional costs.

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, April 3, 2013

13

Opinion

Is young, driven new minster the right man for the job? That remains to be seen DID HE jump or was he pushed? This is the question many will be asking after yesterday’s announcement that finance minister Michalis Sarris had tendered his resignation after only a month in the job.

It was certainly no ordinary month, but a month of crises, ultimatums and desperate negotiations that led to the adoption of very painful decisions from which the economy would take many years to recover.

Sarris’ explanation for his resignation was that he wanted to facilitate the work of the committee of inquiry that was sworn in yesterday. “The period the committee would investigate includes the period I served as chairman of Laiki Bank and in order to facilitate the work of the committee, I believe the right thing was to put my resignation at the disposal of the president,” he said yesterday. His offer to help the committee’s work by resigning was applauded by President Anastasiades, who praised Sarris’ “high political ethics and political sensitivity”.

The president did not appear to have tried very hard to dissuade him. This suggested one of two things: either he was unhappy with Sarris’ handling of the bailout negotiations with the Eurogroup and his unsuccessful trip to Moscow or he felt that the finance minister’s departure would ease the pressure on the government. There had been a lot of criticism of Sarris after the first Eurogroup meeting on the grounds that he had gone to Brussels unprepared without a Plan B. Could there have been a Plan B given the ultimatum Cyprus was faced with?

Anastasiades may have been relieved to see Sarris go – there had been strong objections to his appointment within DISY – but this does not reflect well on his judgment.

Why had he chosen as minister a man who had served as chairman of Laiki Bank, given that he was determined to order an in-depth investigation of the causes of the economy’s collapse? Perhaps this was not the real issue. The president might have found that Sarris did not have the tenacity or drive to manage an economy in deep recession.

Admittedly all this is speculation. It is quite possible that Sarris, who turns 67 this month, decided that he did not want to do a job synonymous with daily crisis management that would put him under tremendous pressure and cause him continuous stress. The post of finance minister in the Cyprus of 2013, we suspect, is for a younger person with political ambition, drive and a desire to prove himself. Haris Georgiades, who was moved to finance from the labour ministry, fits the bill but it remains to be seen whether Anastasiades has made the right choice this time.

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The problem is not Cyprus, it’s the euro Comment Lars Seir Christensen

T

HE REAL problem is not Cyprus, it is the euro.

After a few disturbing weeks, I would like to wrap up my comments on Cyprus and, hopefully, turn to other issues going forward. It is astonishing that a €10 billion bailout can keep the world spellbound for so long. But then again, while the amount is not staggering, some of the implications are mind-blowing.

That a small economy can be destroyed over a weekend is in itself very scary. But Cyprus’s fate was basically sealed when the troika revealed its first version of the bailout package. That the final outcome turned out to be even worse should not surprise anyone following the eurozone’s past efforts at saving its project. There is no coherent line, no apparent co-ordination of statements and the grand plans bear the impression of having been scribbled on a napkin long after bedtime. The results are accordingly poor.

So did Cyprus do terrible things that made it deserve this gruesome fate? Actually not. Cyprus had respectable numbers both for growth, public debt and finances - certainly compared with many other countries in the region.

Cyprus successfully built a strong financial services sector, as the island has little industry or agriculture to live from. Cyprus has a wellfunctioning, English-speaking workforce and has based itself on British law. So all in all, not a bad place to do business. It made the most of what they had to offer.

The one thing that went wrong for Cyprus was its bankers expecting that eurozone politicians could be trusted to pay back their loans. Investing heavily in Greek paper is not unusual for a country so intimately related to Greece - and not much different from what other banks do with their own national (in this case quasinational) sovereign debt.

From my own talks in the past with high-ranking officials in the Cyprus banking sector, it was quite clear that not insignificant political pressure was placed on at least those banks operating in Greece to buy the local bonds.

The risks of this concentration were clearly underestimated, but basically, there was a reliance on the eurozone to support any country getting into serious trouble, including Greece. If you remember back just a few years, most people actually believed this was an inherent part of the euro deal, otherwise there would not have been such a massive convergence in bond yields.

So I don’t think you can absolve the Cypriot banking

This could be the start of multiple versions of the euro in the future sector from blame altogether, but all the troubles could only have been built into the system with the eurozone dynamics in place. Otherwise, fewer foreign investors would have placed money in Cyprus, the risk dynamics of a free-floating drachma sovereign bond market would have prohibited such exposures and would have led to a much faster mark-to-market based risk adjustment. Greece itself would probably not have had to default, but would instead have relied on competitive devaluations as the country always did in the past.

Now, instead, the problems grew much bigger than free capitalistic markets would ever have allowed. Now, therefore, we have capital controls and withdrawal restrictions and de facto wealth taxes inside the eurozone, meaning that the concept of the euro can hardly be said to exist in the same format any more.

There are at least two different ‘euros’: the restricted one in Nicosia and the so far unrestricted one in the rest of the eurozone. Totally different dynamics and, I believe, the start of multiple versions of the euro in the future. Similar measures are likely to be used in similar

‘So did Cyprus do terrible things that made it deserve this gruesome fate? Actually not’

situations and already now, people are discussing where the crisis will hit next. Slovenia? Malta? Other, much bigger problem, countries?

The Financial Times reminded us the other day of Friedrich Hayek’s chilling warning about capital controls: “Nothing would at first seem to affect private life less than state control of the dealings in foreign exchange, and most people will regard its introduction with complete indifference. Yet the experience of most Continental countries has taught thoughtful people to regard this step as the decisive advance on the path to totalitarianism and the suppression of individual liberty. It is, in fact, the complete delivery of the individual to the tyranny of the state, the final suppression of all means of escape – not merely for the rich but for everybody.” (The Road to Serfdom, 1944).

Beware of the new tools that have been introduced. Capital controls was one. What looked a lot like a broader wealth tax was another.

I strongly believe that we have witnessed a game changer in the past few weeks. I think anything and everything can and must now be expected as the euro crisis worsens and the euro steamroller moves from one country bailout to the next.

There are very few limits to what you can do to people in the modern interpretation of democracy. A version where only majority rule is required, but where there is no longer a respect for personal negative rights – as we know them from the American Constitution.

The easiest target will always be wealthy people, or even just working people and savers who did the right thing all their lives.

As the bloated welfare states begin to collapse under their irresponsible promises, their crumbling value systems and their unsustainable demographics, it will be easy to con-

vince more than 50 per cent of voters that confiscating and stealing other people’s money is OK for the greater good.

Boston Consulting Group calculated that 28 per cent of ALL private wealth is needed to meet just existing debts – not future obligation, mind you – and the money can only come from one place… Your pockets. Beware.

A lot of things have gone wrong over the past few years, but the seeds were planted many years ago. In the form of pressure for more people having the “right” to own their properties, even if they did not fulfill the traditional mortgage criteria – hence subprime. In the form of enormous “entitlements” to not just poor, but also middle-class people in the welfare states – hence ballooning deficits and debt.

In the form of a euro, a grand, political project with no practical foundation – hence crisis after crisis, with the dominoes stretching far into the distance.

For sure, a lot of financial institutions took advantage of the hands they were dealt.

They are not without guilt and responsibility for the current mess. But the real problems lie not in people trying to take advantage of whatever conditions they operate under.

The real problem lies in the framework that is created by politicians, preventing free markets to deal with excesses in the way capitalism always does. Solving crises and exposing poor business models are part of capitalism, and it is not always pretty – but it is a damn sight more efficient and quicker than trying to desperately salvage what is already doomed. And it will never allow problems to grow to the magnitude that we are now facing. Cyprus is a very good example of this. The problem is not Cyprus. The problem is the euro.

Lars Seir Christenser is cofounder & CEO of Saxo Bank A/S

14

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

Showbiz

South Korean rapper Psy plans new ‘Gentleman’ hit

The late princess, known for her glamour, reportedly had a great time in disguise

Princess Di once went to a gay bar in drag FREDDIE Mercury once dressed Princess Diana as a man and smuggled her into a gay bar, it has been claimed.

The late Queen rocker and comedian Kenny Everett reportedly gave the British royal - who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 - an army jacket, cap and sunglasses to wear for a night out in South London homosexual haunt the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in the 1980s, according to comedienne Cleo Rocos.

A piece in Cleo’s new memoir The Power of Positive Drinking - which is serialised in the Sunday Times newspaper explains: “Freddie told her we were going to the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, a notorious gay bar in London. Diana said she had never heard of it and said she’d like to come.

“Now this was not a good idea. ‘It’s not for you,’ said Kenny, ‘It’s full of hairy gay men. Sometimes there are fights outside.’ This didn’t put her off in the slightest.”

Cleo claims the princess had a great time and wasn’t recognised during the evening, despite the group’s concerns, and was able to order drinks at the bar.

She wrote: “When we walked in ... we felt she was obviously Princess Diana and would be discovered at any minute.

“But people seemed to blank her. She sort of disappeared but she loved it. She did look like a beautiful young man.”

Freddie died in 1991 aged 45 of complications caused

by AIDS, while Kenny passed away in 1995 aged 50 from an AIDS-related illness.

SOUTH Korean rapper Psy plans to follow his ‘Gangnam Style’ YouTube megahit with a single called ‘Gentleman’ and a new dance, but is playing coy about everything else ahead of the song’s release, which was moved up a day to April 12.

The song will be available for Korean fans then, but Psy will perform it in public for the first time at an April 13 concert.

“The new song is extremely fun and ... what I can tell you is the song title is ‘Gentleman’,” Psy told local television late on Monday.

“I can’t tell you about the dance, but all Koreans know this dance - but (those in) other countries haven’t seen it,” Psy added, hinting at a takeoff on a traditional dance.

The music video for ‘Gangnam Style’, which featured the chubby Psy doing what has become his trademark ‘invis-

ible horse’ dance in a succession of garish jackets, is now YouTube’s most-watched clip, and has made the 35-year-old a global celebrity.

Both the singer and his manager said plans remained fluid.

“There is still more than a week left before the concert so we can’t say (the title) will be unchanged,” manager Hwang Kyuwan told Reuters.

Psy has told his fans to turn up sporting white clothes at the upcoming concert, and posed in a variety of white garb himself, including a spacesuit and a bridal gown.

But the singer also said that stardom has taken a toll. In late March he tweeted a photo of himself covering his face at a recording studio, calling it the “pain of creation”.

Coy: the Korean artist is priming fans’ anticipation ahead of his new song’s release, scheduled for April 12

Glee actor Cory Monteith enters rehab for addiction Voluntary decision spurs wave of support

By Chris Michaud GLEE star Cory Monteith has entered a rehabilitation facility where he is being treated for an unspecified substance addiction, his publicist has said.

Monteith, who plays Finn on the popular Fox television series, “asks for your respect and privacy as he takes the necessary steps towards recovery,” the publicist’s statement said.

The statement said Monteith’s decision to seek treatment at the facility was voluntary.

It offered no details on the nature of the addiction other than that it was a “substance addiction”.

The Canadian actor has starred in the musical series since 2009 as singing jock Finn Hudson, but was expected to be absent from the show’s final episodes later this season.

Lea Michele, Monteith’s girlfriend and Glee co-star, issued a statement saying, “I love and support Cory and will stand by him through

The Canadian actor, who plays singing jock Finn Hudson on Glee, has admitted to earlier problems with drugs

this. I am grateful and proud he made this decision.”

She later tweeted to Monteith’s supporters: “Thank you all so much for all your love, support, and encouragement.

It’s means the world to us”.

In recent years Monteith has openly discussed having had what he characterised as a serious drug problem during his early teenage years,

and entered a treatment facility at age 19.

20th Century Fox Television, a subsidiary of News Corp., also issued a statement of support saying the show looked forward to his return.

Meanwhile, Glee creator Ryan Murphy has said he is “proud” of Monteith for checking himself into rehab.

Murphy tweeted: “I am so

proud of Cory Monteith and love and support him 100 per cent.”

The Glee actor’s co-stars also added their support with Kevin McHale writing “Love you, Cory. So proud of you,” and Jenna Ushkowitz tweeting: “Sending lots of love and light to Cory. We love you.”

Chris Colfer tweeted, “Anyone who helps themselves is a

hero in my book.”

Meanwhile Dot Marie Jones called Cory “the sweetest man” and warned people not to judge others.

She wrote: “We are - and always will be - here for you. I love you always. Stay strong.

“You never know what someone is dealing with in their personal life. Don’t pass judgement.”

TV personality Joan Rivers slams Adele again over weight

Heavy words: Rivers has a history of weight jibes

JOAN Rivers has slammed Adele, saying she is “chubby” and needs to “lose weight”.

The TV personality – who initially branded the 24-year-old singer fat when she won an Academy Award for her James Bond theme ‘Skyfall’ - hit out at the ‘Rolling in the Deep’ singer by accusing her of being overweight, and joked she has taken an advertisement out on Adele’s butt to say sorry for her initial jibes.

Speaking in a HuffPost Live interview, she said: “It’s not mean. She’s a chubby lady who’s very, very rich, and

she should just calm down - or lose weight! She wanted an apology, so I took an ad out on her ass. I said, ‘You are not fat.’ And then I had room for a lot of other ads.

“Adele is beautiful and successful and has what, $100 million? Let’s face reality: she’s fat!”

The 79-year-old star initially hit out at the mother-of-one after meeting her at the Oscars in February.

Speaking on The Late Show with David Letterman, she said: “What’s her song? Rolling in the Deep ... fried chicken!”

Joan had another poultry-inspired dig at Adele in her latest interview, saying sales of the meat will always be good because retailers can always sell it to the ‘Someone Like You’ hitmaker.

She added: “Chicken is good because you can sell it to Adele – you’ll always have a market.”

It’s not the first time Joan has hit out at another star’s weight. In 2011, she said Christina Aguilera looked like a “pig” and accused the blonde star of thinking about food when she forgot some of the lyrics to the US National Anthem at the Super Bowl.

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, April 3, 2013

15

Education

schoolsreport Ship stuff home the easy way

Interschool event at Falcon

Finished your studies and returning to Cyprus?

No problem! The Student Removals Company can ship over your things without any hassle for you.

By using our service, you will only have to pack whatever you want to send back to Cyprus and we will do the rest for you, easily, quickly and economically.

With our long experience as the Student Removals Company, our goal is to offer you, the student, every ease in relocation without any concern, so you’re able to complete your studies without the stress of the move.

The Student Removals Company works closely with a network of international shipping so we can easily move out each item to your destination from anywhere in the UK to Cyprus, with full safety and security.

THE Falcon School invited local primary schools to participate in a morning of sporting activity towards the end of last month.

The visiting children joined their hosts in forming teams, enabling them to play a variety of games, which included football, basketball, volleyball, tennis and badminton.

But exertion was not the only pursuit involved, as there were opportunities to relax between the activities, with refreshments provided by the Falcon around the School’s swimming pool.

At the end of the scheduled activities, each of the young participants received a Certificate of Participation for having taken part in the event, which the Falcon School intends to make a yearly fixture in its calendar.

For more information, please contact us at tel: 22377790 or visit our website at www.student-removals.com where you can fill out the enquiry form.

Further details of the event can be found in the News section of the Falcon School’s website www.falconschool. ac.cy

Falcon hosted a morning of sports for primary schools

Young footballers are groomed for pressure

Teachers in Britain decry regressive ‘raunch culture’

Clubs turn to educational experts for cultivating mental edge

WOMEN’S liberation has been turned back 40 years by a new “raunch culture” that has led to “beauty pageants” being staged by student unions and pole-dancing exercise classes, teachers have claimed.

A resolution debated at the National Union of Teachers (NUT) annual conference has raised fresh concerns that sexism and inequality are still shaping women’s lives. It stated: “Far from being ‘ironic’ or ‘empowering’, the rise of the new sexism is damaging.”

Schoolgirls are growing up in a world where it is normal for women’s bodies to be seen as sex objects, the union observed - and warned this affects the way they see themselves and their place in society.

The resolution called for the NUT to express its concerns over “the rise of what has become commonly known as ‘raunch culture’, where the old sexism of the past has been rebranded by big business”.

The motion stated: “In particular, the gains of the last 40 years in terms of women’s sexual liberation are being turned back on women and girls in commodified form.”

It added that “pole dancing is sold as an ‘empowering’ form of exercise, and that the ‘beauty pageants’ of old have become a staple of student union life”.

The resolution urged the union’s executive to work to increase teachers’ confi-

By Mike Collett THERE is much more to becoming a top-class footballer these days than having the ability to dribble the ball like World Player of the Year Lionel Messi or score goals like Real Madrid’s dynamic Cristiano Ronaldo.

The best players also need mental toughness based on social skills that include self-awareness, the ability to understand team mates and a positive mental attitude honed by years of pastoral support provided by the clubs.

Some of the more enlightened teams are increasingly turning to educational experts such as former head and deputy head teachers Steve Pisano and Kristian Sorensen who set up the LifeSkills Sports firm to aid the development of young players.

Pisano, 56, had trials with lower-league English club Millwall as a youngster and later played in the United States while Sorensen, 38, turned out for various semiprofessional sides.

Both are still involved in coaching at minor-league and grassroots level, independent of their projects in the professional game.

Now they are adapting their specialist skills honed in senior education to help clubs improve all aspects of the development of young players at their academies, giving them an added edge before they hopefully set out on long and successful professional careers.

Specialist skills: educational advisor Kristian Sorensen (right) assists two youths to negotiate their way through a questionnaire designed to evaluate their progress, at Crystal Palace FC Academy at the National Sports Centre in London The players need all the help they can get to thrive in what is an increasingly competitive world and also need guidance in how to cope when their footballing days are over.

Players’ charity Xpro says that more than 130 former professionals are in British jails, 124 aged under-25, as they struggle to adapt to life having been feted and had everything done for them from an early age.

Two of the clubs LifeSkills Sports work with, Premier League Fulham and second tier Crystal Palace, have almost 400 boys between them on their junior books from Under-nines through to the Under-21 development squads.

A fraction are likely to make it all the way to the top, though.

“What we are offering the clubs is a detailed social and psychological profile of a young player’s strengths and areas of development,” Pisano told Reuters.

“We also help the clubs see

where they are succeeding in building up young players.

Our data provides them with a total analysis of where their successes are.

“The key things we provide are the mechanisms to promote a young player’s selfconfidence, to help boost their self-esteem and self-image and help strengthen their social skills so they can be the best player they can be,” added Pisano.

“You need confidence, a secure self-image and a positive mental attitude to be a topclass footballer and we help clubs help their players develop these skills.”

LifeSkills Sports have close links with an educational support company and survey the young players, providing hard data for the clubs who guide them along the rocky road from Under-nines to firstteam level.

“As we are based in London we focused on Fulham in the Premier League and Crystal Palace, who could be back in

the Premier League next season, because of their values in developing youngsters,” said Pisano.

“Palace have got one of the best academy to first-team ratios in the country, they have a strong commitment to recruiting from the local community and a strong pastoral approach to their players.

“Fulham are the absolute benchmark community club in the Premier League. They have a high ratio of academy players to development squad, if not first team as well,” added Pisano.

“Just talking to the staff in the academies you can tell they are seeking very high standards of performance from the players but they also have a very holistic view of how you bring on a player in terms of their all-round personal development.

“At Palace and Fulham they spend a lot of time supporting the social and psychological aspects of a player,” said Pisano.

dence in giving sex education lessons and campaigning to raise the profile of sex education in schools.

NUT general secretary Christine Blower said: “There have been legal advances, but women still suffer significant inequality. Austerity is making women poorer and sexism still needs challenging to ensure that all women can achieve their full potential.

“Teachers are in a good position to empower girls and gay women to be self-confident and to reject stereotypes.”

The resolution came the day after delegates at the NUT’s conference passed a resolution raising concerns that schools are not required to teach personal, social and health education - or sex and relationships lessons.

This was resulting in many young people leaving education ill-informed or unaware of their rights or the relevant services, the union said.

Blower said: “It is important for all children and young people to learn, in an age-appropriate manner, about respect for their own and other people’s bodies and emotions.

“This is all the more important given the rising levels of pornography which is very much in the public domain.

There also continues to be a high rate of sexual harassment and homophobic bullying in society at large, despite efforts in schools to address and reduce it,” she added.

Regressive spin: activities like pole dancing are being sold as a form of exercise warned the NUT

CYPRUS MAIL Wed

16

Lifestyle

‘Acting was like a bad I’d given the best est year relationship…’’

Island life: Jessica and Jon Hamm on location for Mad Men in Hawaii, October 2012

Jessica as Megan and John Hamm as Don Draper in Mad Men

J

ESSICA Paré was napping at home in Los Angeles when she got the call to say she’d be marrying this century’s sexiest man. That was in 2010, towards the end of filming on season four of Mad Men, during which Paré had joined the cast as Megan Calvet, one of a string of secretaries to fall into bed with the partners of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, the show’s fictional Madison Avenue ad firm.

But Megan was different, as

the show’s creator Matthew Weiner informed Paré during that phone call: she would succeed where so many other women had failed, by making an honest man of Don Draper.

“It was a Friday, and the script for the next episode was due on Monday,” Paré says. “My phone rang, and I was terrified because I was sure that my character was going to fall down the elevator shaft. But instead he told me Don was going to pro-

pose to Megan. I didn’t even believe it. But Monday came round and the scene was still there.”

When Paré had first auditioned, it was for the part of a prostitute. But Weiner saw something else in her.

He told the Québécoise that she looked like a French actress; in fact, she looks like several French actresses: Juliette Binoche cheekbones, Brigitte Bardot teeth. Sipping a soy hot chocolate at a French bistro in Los Feliz

village, close to downtown LA, the 30-year-old is giggly, game and disarmingly frank about the difficulties of the industry.

That’s just one of a handful of life experiences she was able to bring to the part of Megan, who, like her, is a French-Canadian thesp.

Megan struggled to establish herself as part of an existing family, the Drapers, just as Paré was having to hold her own alongside Jon Hamm and the rest of Mad Men’s already Emmy-laden cast. “I was going into a show where everyone had been nominated for every award under the sun,” she says. In her first episode, the stakes were low - she had just one line: “Yes, Joan.” But then came that proposal. “There’s a part of Megan that I identified quite strongly with,” Paré says, “that’s very open and free and guileless and full of joy.”

Paré first moved to LA from Montreal nine years ago, to

And then came Don Drap talks to Tim Walker about t saved he work on Jack & Bobby, a political TV drama that lasted for just one series. It included an inordinate number of future stars, including Bradley Cooper, Mad Men’s John Slattery, and Paré, playing Slattery’s daughter. After it ended, she stayed behind in California with her cat, who was then called Tiger, “but it never really suited him”. Now he’s called Black Mist.

Paré slotted into a supportive clique of in-and-out-ofwork actresses. For a time, her next-door neighbour was Morena Baccarin, who is now Mrs Brody in Homeland. One of her room-mates, reports imdb.com, recently played ‘Cute Lesbian #1’ in an episode of 90210. It’s tough out there.

“You have to be pretty deluded to be an actor,” says

dnesday April 3, 2013

17 Television Te

20

Crossword C

21

Sport S

28-32

d boyfriend. rs of my m life to thi this Stardom: Jessica in the Canadian film

‘There’s a part of Megan that I identified quite strongly with,’ Paré says, ‘that’s very open and free and guileless and full of joy’

per. Mad Men’s Jessica Paré the fairy-tale marriage that er career Paré. “I’ve been doing it for 15 years, and it’s really hard.”

Before Mad Men, she often thought about not being one.

“Acting was like a bad boyfriend: I’d given the best years of my life to this relationship.

He called me once a week to put me down, then once a year he’d send me flowers and I’d be on my knees again.

There are a lot of big cities in the world where, if you’re

not feeling your best, you can have your self-esteem eroded in a moment - and LA is one of them. Right now I’m really happy. But I’m also terrified to go back.”

Paré’s parents were both actors before she and her three brothers were born. Her mother became a conference translator. Her father, a professor at Montreal’s McGill University, still performs

now and then. Jessica got her first whiff of the greasepaint when she was 12 years old, helping him to learn his lines for a production of The Tempest. He enrolled her in acting classes, and that was that.

In 2000, still a teenager, she was plucked from obscurity by the Canadian director Denys Arcand to be the star of his film Stardom, about a teenager who is, yes, plucked from obscurity to become a star. Stardom opened the Toronto Film Festival, and was shown at Cannes. Paré was an overnight celebrity in Canada, and soon ventured south to try her luck in a series of American indies, as well as her first Hollywood film, 2004’s Wicker Park, playing Josh Hartnett’s fiancée. That same year, she also appeared in Canadian come-

dy See This Movie, whose cowriter and producer Joseph M Smith she reportedly wed in 2007, only to divorce in 2010.

Her acting success with Mad Men has also had an unexpected side-effect: musical fame. In the first episode of season five, Megan mortified her new husband by dropping a sex-bomb rendition of the 1960s French yé-yé hit ‘Zou Bisou Bisou’ at his surprise birthday party. Paré recorded her own version of the song, which became an iTunes hit, reaching number one on the Billboard World Music chart.

Paré, whose previous musical accomplishments extended only as far as playing the ukulele “poorly”, then joined The Jesus and Mary Chain for a few dates on their 2012 North American tour, singing vocals on two of

Birthday surprise: Jessica as Megan singing ‘Zou Bisou Bisou’ in season five her favourite hits, ‘Just Like Honey’ and ‘Sometimes Always’, to crowds in Buffalo and Montreal. “Every time I had to go on stage I was like, ‘I can’t!’ But then I thought, ‘These people came to see their favourite band; they got a babysitter and they made dinner reservations and they called the cab and bought tickets, so don’t f*** it up for them!’”

Megan Calvet has also made Paré a fashion icon. She has grown “very partial” to Gi-

venchy, and to Jason Wu, who made her a knockout gown to wear to last year’s Emmys. “I used to be more comfortable in jeans, T-shirt and sneakers,” she insists. “But the other day I got out of bed at 7.30am on a Saturday to go to a photo shoot, and I slipped on a pair of stilettos, because apparently that’s who I am now! Big heels are not uncomfortable to me any more.

And the height makes me feel powerful - until I have to run anywhere, that is.”

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

18

What’s on

films

(K) All Audiences (12/15/18) No admittance to Under-12s/ 15s/ 18s (N/A) Not Available

NICOSIA G.I. Joe: Retaliation (N/A) K-Cineplex (Screen 1) at 7.50 and 10.10pm, weekends also at 5.30pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 1) at 5.30, 7.50 and 10.10pm, weekends also at 11am, 1.10pm and 3.20pm The Sessions (15) K-Cineplex (Screen 4) at 8 and 10.10pm, weekends also at 5.30pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 4) at 5.30, 8 and 10.10pm, weekends also at 11.15am, 1.15pm and 3.30pm Zarafa (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 2) (in Greek), weekends only at 5.35pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 2) (in Greek) at 5.35pm, weekends also at 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3.30pm Jack the Giant Slayer (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 2) 7.55 and 10.15pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 2) 7.55 and 10.15pm

Oz the Great and Powerful (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) (in 2D) at 7.40pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 3) (in 2D) at 7.40pm Barbie in the Pink Shoes (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) (in Greek), weekends only at 5.35pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 3) (in Greek) at 5.35pm, weekends also at 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3.30pm Sammy’s Great Escape (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 6) (in Greek), weekends only at 5.35pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 5) (in Greek) at 5.35pm, weekends also at 11.20am, 1.15pm and 3.20pm Sister (in French, with English subtitles) Cine Studio, tonight at 9pm. Tel: 96-420491, www.ofk.org.cy

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

LIMASSOL G.I. Joe: Retaliation (N/A) Rio 1, weekdays at 7.45 and 10pm, weekends and Monday at 6, 8 and 10pm; K-Cineplex (Screen 1) at 7.50 and 10.10pm, weekends also at 5.30pm The Sessions (15) Rio 6 at 8 and 10.10pm, weekends also at 3.30 and 5.30pm, Monday also at 5.30pm; K-Cineplex (Screen 4) at 8 and 10.10pm, weekends also at 5.30pm Zarafa (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 2) (in Greek), weekends only at 5.35pm Hitchcock (12) Rio 4 at 10pm, weekends and Monday also at 5.30pm; KCineplex (Screen 5) at 8pm

Jack the Giant Slayer

Hitchcock (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 5) at 8 and Times are subject to 10.15pm, weekends also at change, so check first 5.30pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of with cinemas before you Cyprus (Screen 5) at 8pm

head out

Telephone no:

The Last Stand (15) K-Cineplex (Screen 6) at 7.50 and 10.10pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 5) at 10.10pm

K-Cineplex: 7777-8383 Identity Thief (12) Rio Limassol: 25-871410 K-Cineplex (Screen 3) at 10.15pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Rio Paphos: 26-207000 Cyprus (Screen 3) at 10.15pm

Jack the Giant Slayer (12) Rio 2 at 7.45 and 10pm, weekends also at 3 and 5.20pm, Monday also at 5.20pm; K-Cineplex (Screen 2) at 7.55 and 10.15pm The Last Stand (15) Rio 5 at 7.45 and 10pm, weekends and Monday also at 5.30pm; K-Cineplex (Screen 5) at 10.10pm Identity Thief (12) Rio 3 at 7.45pm; K-Cineplex (Screen 3) at 10.15pm Oz the Great and Powerful (12) Rio 3, weekends only at 3 and 5.20pm, Monday only at 5.20pm; K-Cineplex (Screen 3) (in 2D) at 7.40pm

The Sessions (15) K-Cineplex (Screen 4) at 8 and 10.10pm, weekends also at 5.30pm Zarafa (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 2) (in Greek), weekends only at 5.35pm Jack the Giant Slayer (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 2) at 7.55 and 10.15pm Hitchcock (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 5) at 8 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 5.30pm The Last Stand (15) K-Cineplex (Screen 6) at 7.50 and 10.10pm

Mama (15) Rio 3 at 10pm

Identity Thief (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) at 10.15pm

Warm Bodies (12) Rio 4 at 7.45pm, weekends also at 3.30pm

Oz the Great and Powerful (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) (in 2D) at 7.40pm

Barbie in the Pink Shoes (K) Rio 1 (in Greek), weekends only at 3 and 4.30pm; K-Cineplex (Screen 3) (in Greek) weekends only at 5.35pm

Barbie in the Pink Shoes (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) (in Greek), weekends only at 5.35pm

Sammy’s Great Escape (K) Rio 5 (in Greek), weekends only at 3.30pm; K-Cineplex (Screen 5), weekends only at 5.35pm

Sammy’s Great Escape (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 6) (in Greek), weekends only at 5.35pm

LARNACA

Moonrise Kingdom Thursday at 8.30pm, presented by the Larnaca Cinema Society.

Tel: 99-658831, 99-462903. www.lfcinema.org

G.I. Joe: Retaliation (N/A) K-Cineplex (Screen 1) at 7.50 and 10.10pm, weekends at 5.30pm

PAPHOS G.I. Joe: Retaliation (N/A) Rio 1 at 5.30, 7.30 and 9.45pm, weekends and Monday also at 3.30pm The Sessions (15) Rio 2 at 5.45, 7.30 and 9.45pm, weekends and Monday also at 3.45pm Jack the Giant Slayer (12) Rio 7 at 5.45, 8 and 10.10pm, weekends and Monday at 3.30pm Hitchcock (12) Rio 4 at 6, 8 and 10pm The Last Stand (15) Rio 3 at 9.45pm Identity Thief (12) Rio 5 at 7.30 and 9.45pm Oz the Great and Powerful (12) Rio 6 at 5.15 and 7.30pm, weekends and Monday at 3pm Mama (15) Rio 6 at 9.45pm Warm Bodies (12) Rio 3 at 5.45pm (weekends and Monday at 6pm) and 7.30pm Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (15) Rio 5 at 5.45pm, weekends and Monday at 3.45pm Barbie in the Pink Shoes (K) Rio 4 (in Greek), weekends and Monday only at 3 and 4.30pm

listings Today Exhibitions Journeying Body Solo painting exhibition by Andriani Roussogenous. Opens April 3, 7.30pm until April 13. Opus 39 Gallery, 21 Kimonos Street, Nicosia.

Monday: 5pm-8pm. Tuesday-Friday: 10.30am-12.30pm and 5pm-8pm.

Tel: 22-424983 Norwegian Architecture Three exhibitions highlighting recent achievements in Norwegian architecture: Contemporary Norwegian Architecture #7, The Oslo Opera House by Snøhetta and Palimpsest – Norway by Claudio Santambrogio.

Opens April 3, 7pm until April 26.

The Department of Architecture, University of Nicosia, 31 Michael Giorgalla Str., Engomi Industrial Zone, Nicosia. Open daily: 9am-6pm.Tel: 22-842600/601 email: info. arc.@unic.ac.cy April 3: 7pm. Lecture by Nina Berre, Directors of Architecture. 8pm official opening of exhibitions Women in a Period of Crisis Third Cypriot women artist exhibition.

Opens April 3, 7pm until April 19.

Katoi, 43 Agioi Omologites, Nicosia.

Open daily: 10.30am-6pm and Saturday: 10.30am-2pm. Tel: 22-774157

Music The Cyprus Trio Concert by Cyprus’ most prestigious chamber ensemble. April 3. Paphos Markideion Theatre. 8.30pm. €10.

Part of the income will be donated to the Paphos Cancer Patients Support Group. Tel: 99-355358/97-658018. thecyprustrio@gmail.com A Journey through Two Continents Music programme travelling from Europe to Latin America. Presenting among others, soundtracks of Greek and foreign films, Argentinean Tango and fragments from the opera Carmen.

April 3. Casteliotissa Hall, old Nicosia.

8.30pm. €12/7. Tel: 22-800970

Other Events TEDxNicosiaChange Broadcast of live streaming event TEDxChange presented by Melinda Gates from in Seattle, Washington.

April 3. Cyta Amphitheatre, Telecommunications Street, Strovolos, Nicosia.

6pm-9.30pm. Free but seating limited to 150 on a first come, first served basis. www.ted.com/tedx/events/8161 L’enfant en haut Screening of Swiss films within the framework of Francophone Film Festival.

April 3. Ciné Studio, University of Nicosia, Nicosia. Free. In original language with Greek, French or English subtitles.

Tel: 96-420491. www.ofk.org.cy

Tomorrow

Ongoing

Exhibition

Theatre

Mary-Lynne Stadler Solo art exhibition. Opens April 4, 7pm until April 17. Thesis Furniture Shop, 207 Saint Andrews Street, Limassol. Tel: 25359479. www.marylynnestadler.com

The Switch Theatro Ena presents play by Argiro Toumazou. April 3. Theatro Ena, 4 Athinas Avenue, Nicosia. Every Wednesday at 8.30pm. In Greek. €15/12. Tel: 22-348203

Music Love in Operas and Musicals Concert with the theme of love, featuring excerpts from famous operas and musicals. April 4. Casteliotissa Hall, old Nicosia. 8pm. €10. Tel: 99-421172

Other Events Startup Grind Cyprus Event Entrepreneur Claus Rosenberg Gotthard shares his insights on how to make it in tough times. April 4. Dance House Lemesos, Heroes’ Square, Limassol. 7pm. Tel: 25-340618 Sub-0 Observations & Palimpsest A 20th Century Carnet de Voyage Lecture by architect Skevi Farazi followed by another by Claudio Santambrogio. Within the framework of Norwegian Architecture event. April 4. The Department of Architecture, University of Nicosia, 31 Michael Giorgalla ,Str., Engomi Industrial Zone, Nicosia. 7pm.

Tel: 22-842600, info.arc.@unic.ac.cy

The Harley Jacket THOC’s New Stage presents play by Vasilis Katsikonouris. Until April 5.

THOC New Theatre Building, 9 Gregori Afxentiou, Nicosia. Performances at the exterior spaces of THOC’s New Theatre Building. Every two weeks Wednesday through Friday at 8.30pm. €12/10. In Greek. Tel: 77-772717 The Firebird Theatro Versus presents drama based on the play by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman. Until April 7. B Municipal Market (Theatro Ena), Limassol.

Wednesday, Fridays and Sundays.

8.30pm. In Greek. Tel: 96-458399 Pinocchio Theatre Maskarini unique adaptation of well-known tale. Until April 14. Russian Cultural Centre, 16 Alassias Street, Nicosia. Every Sunday at 10.30am. In Greek. Tel: 22-761607/22-270420

Gone With the Jobless A comedy performance by Marinos Hatzivasiliou who, together with other actors from the popular TV programme Patates, presents a hilarious show with humour and laughter. Until May 5. Diachroniki Music Stage, 2 Yianni Koromia Street, Kaimakli, Nicosia.

Every Sunday at 9pm. €15. In Greek.

Tel: 99-783455 The Dispute The Main Stage of THOC presents tragic comedy by Pierre de Marivaux.

Until May 17. THOC New Theatre Building, 9 Gregori Afxentiou, Nicosia.

Friday and Saturday at 8.30pm and Sunday 6pm. In Greek. €12/10. Tel: 77-772717

Exhibition Metamorphosis Solo painting exhibition by Nikos Kouroussis. Until April 3. Alpha Gallery, Makarios Avenue & 3 Papanikoli Street, Nicosia. Monday-Saturday 10.30 am-1pm and 4.30pm-7.30pm.

Tel: 22-751325 / 99-303366. www. art.com.cy The Last Bride Exhibition by Asteris Gkekas inspired by female Cypriot poetry. Until April 5. ARTos Cultural and Research Foundation, 64, Ay. Omoloyites Ave, Nicosia. Tuesday-Friday: 9am-5pm.

Tel: 22-445455

Uninterrupted Stare Solo art exhibition by Nina Sumarac.

Until April 6. Rouan Gallery, 28 Dodekanisou, Limassol. MondaySaturday: 10.30am-1pm and 4.30pm7.30pm. Tel: 25-350845 Aphrodite Lovestoned Photography and book presentation by Anna Würth. Until April 6.

Chiaki Kamikawa Contemporary Art Gallery 10 Solonos Street, Paphos.

Open Tuesday- Friday: 10am-1pm & 4pm-6pm. Saturday: 10am-1pm. Tel: 99-311225 Constructions + Abstractions An exhibition of paintings and three dimensional constructions by British and Cypriot artists. Sculpture garden also open to the public. Until April 7.

Cyprus College of Art, 6 Eleftherias Street, Lempa, Paphos. Open daily: 11am-5pm. Tel: 99-452757 Coloureceivers Solo art exhibition by Savvinos Pareskevas. Until April 12. Gallery Kypriaki Gonia, 45 Stadiou Street, Larnaca. Monday-Saturday: 10am-1pm & 4.30pm-8pm. Sunday:11am-2pm & 4pm-7pm. Tel: 24-621109 Wonderful Travels Solo art and sculpture exhibition

by Fotos Dimitriou. Until April 13.

Apocalypse Gallery, 30 Chytron Street, Nicosia. Monday- Friday: 10.30am1pm and 5pm-8pm. Saturday: 10.30am-1pm. Tel: 22-766655

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, April 3, 2013

19 To have your event included for FREE in our listings, send details to: Arts Editor, Cyprus Mail, PO Box 21144, Nicosia. Fax: 22-676385.

Email: whatson@cyprus-mail.com Please send your information as early as possible. Include full details, a contact number and good quality photos

Coming Up Music For the love of opera OPERA-lovers have plenty of reason to rejoice with the current shows on offer over the next few days.

Starting with tomorrow’s show at Casteliotissa Hall in old Nicosia, a unique concert of classical songs on the subject of love brings together dramatic tenor Marios Andreou, soprano Venera Meleki, the pianist Annini Tsiouti and storyteller/actress Kalliroe Koroniou.

Crowds can expect arias, songs and duets from famous operas and musicals presented with a different approach that unites excerpts from La Traviata, The Elixir of Love, Romeo and Juliet, The Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story and more.

Meanwhile, over at Limassol’s

Rialto Theatre on Sunday the Hungarian Embassy offers a joyful evening with a balanced mix of famous Hungarian operetta arias and dances as well as a wide range of Hungarian national songs and dances, like czardas.

The singers, Edit Vörös and Tibor Buch, well-known artists from the Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre, will be accompanied by Renáta Darót, Katinka Liscsinszky, Szilárd Kovács and Mátyás Ruzsom, who will arrive in Cyprus for this special one-off event.

Love in Operas and Musicals Concert with the theme of love, featuring excerpts from famous operas and musicals. April 4. Casteliotissa Hall, old Nicosia.

8pm. €10. Tel: 99-421172/22-800970 Operetta Evening Well-known artists from the Operetta Theatre in Budapest present a mix of famous Hungarian operetta arias, dances and a wide range of Hungarian national songs and dances. April 7. Rialto Theatre, Limassol.

8.30pm. Free. Tel: 77-777745

Members of the Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre

On The Scene Other Events Starting from scratch TOMORROW an event called Startup Grind will be kicking-off at Dance House Lemesos to bring together entrepreneurs, investors and founders of technology startups from around the globe.

Startup Grind, founded in 2010, is a global organisation that has emerged from the belief that entrepreneurs gain the most by sharing their experiences, or grind. So it involves a variety of chats, fireside (informal) or otherwise. The US headquartered organisation has a network in 15 countries and 35 cities across the world, including Nicosia.

This week, self-employed entrepreneur Claus Rosenberg Gotthard will be sharing his personal stories and lessons learned on the road to building great companies, while Alex Christoforou, Director of Startup Grind, hosts the event.

Born in Denmark, Gotthard founded his first venture and International Trading company aged 25. He was one of the few and brave to enter the Russian market back in 1994, where he opened an office in Moscow dealing with various foodstuffs.

Entering Russia led to the establishment of one of Russia’s first and largest professional Facility Service companies and later to a

company distributing machinery from Nilfisk-Advance A/S across Russia.

Operating in the aftermath of the post Soviet era as an entrepreneur has equipped Claus with a rare insight into running a business in chaotic and risky environments. In 2001 he was awarded Small Business of the Year by the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia.

Since 2009 Claus has focused investments into the Renewable Energy sector and in 2011 he founded S2 Development Ltd. Gotthard is also the Founder and CEO of AppPointment, a subscription-based Enterprise SaaS booking and CRM system operating in Limassol. AppPointment gives small and medium size businesses the ability to manage existing and potential customers’ activity, leads and campaigns through facebook.

Come to Startup Grind Cyprus tomorrow and get some rare insight into how to make it during times of uncertainty and chaos, certainly applicable for today’s new reality in Cyprus. The day will begin with some networking and registration (pizza and drinks to be served) followed by a fireside chat with Gotthard and round off with Q & A.

Erm, does my bum look big in this?!!

HOW OFTEN do you look in the mirror and say ‘If I could just lose a few kilos, then I would be happy’? Unfortunately, the majority of women are dissatisfied with their body image. Put a group of women together and the subject of which bit of their bodies they would like to improve is bound to come up.

If you’re familiar with the name Eve Ensler, you’ve likely heard of her daring play exploring female sexuality. After a sell-out three city tour in Cyprus of The Vagina Monologues, XMAS Productions is back with The Good Body, another play by the award-winning playwright.

Seven years ago, Ensler put the word vagina into popular usage. Thrust into the spotlight, she went from being a theatre nobody to a feminist playwright with global clout. Sometimes candid, sometimes tongue in cheek, and always extraordinary, Ensler’s Vagina Monologues had a snowball effect, being performed in more than 30 countries and translated into 28 languages.

The Vagina Monologues challenged notions of acceptable topics in theatre and became the impetus for a worldwide movement to combat violence towards women. Every year around Valentine’s Day activists worldwide mount V-Day benefit performances to raise money and awareness to stop violence against women.

Having created a full-out exploration of women’s relationships with their vaginas, The Good Body finds Ensler moving upwards, spending time analysing her mid-life obsession with having, yes, a good body, and a flat stomach. Similar to The Vagina Monologues in structure and form, this piece focuses on women’s often torturous relationships with their bodies. Whether undergoing Botox injections or living beneath burqas, women of all cultures and backgrounds feel compelled to change the way they look in order to fit in.

The Good Body merges cross-cultural explorations with Ensler’s own personal struggles. In a series of vignettes, staged with minimal scenic design – a dark photography backdrop, reflective umbrellas and chairs – women of all d locales deal with shapes, sizes, colours and their feelings about their bodies, corrective and enhancement surgeries, how familial eir underattitudes have shaped their standing of their bodies, exercise, and more.

Like The Vagina Monologu Monologues, ues, T The

Good Body aims to uplift and to empower as it entertains. Ensler wants to soften the ever-fraught relationship between women and their bodies and to expose the destructive formulas that lead them to ease their insecurities. Ultimately, these monologues become a personal wake-up call to love the good bodies we inhabit.

Now making the play all their own and embracing multiculturalism, a cast of 10 women, both professional and amateur actresses, three Cypriots, two American, two British, two Romanian and one Canadian-Cypriot, under the direction of XMAS Productions, will bring a localised version of The Good Body to Melina Merkouri Hall. It’s set to premiere on Friday with a three day run, followed by three more shows next weekend - Friday through Sunday.

The cast includes Xenia Joakim, Nedie Antoniades, Tania Skorda, Shaunna Ioannidou, Diane Avraamides, Tessa Kolessides, Jill MacDonald, Christina Kamberi, Anca Pericleous and Christina Marouchou.

The play’s duration is one hour and fifteen minutes and the monologues will be performed mostly in English, with two exceptions in Greek.

All net profits will go to local charities supporting children in need and abused children, and the Shelter for Abused Women and Children in Cyprus.

Even if you have a great relationship with your body or one that could use some work, Ensler’s short little consideration of the good body is worth seeing. Rather than buying into outside ideas about what makes for a good body, the play encourages us all to love our bodies for the good they are, rather than what they aren’t.

The Good Body XMAS Productions presents a play by Tony award-winning playwright Eve Ensler. April 5-7 and April 12-14. Melina Merkouri Hall, Famagusta Gate, Nicosia. 9 pm. In English, with two exceptions in Greek. All net profits will go to local charities supporting Children in need and abused children children, and the Shelter for Abused Women and Children in Cyprus.

Cypru Tel: 99-467966/22-797650. For reservations please eemail thegoodbodyshow@gmail.com

By Ledha Socratous

Startup Grind Cyprus Event Entrepreneur Claus Rosenberg Gotthard shares his insights on how to make it in tough times. April 4. Dance House Lemesos, 17 Andrea Droushioti Street, Heroes’ Square, Limassol. 7pm. Tel: 25-340618. http://www. eventbrite.com/event/6094134721#

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

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

20

Television CYBC 1 06.45 08.15

Proti Enimerosi Kali Sas Mera Early morning entertainment magazine featuring segments on cooking, fashion, lifestyle issues and more.

11.00

CYBC 2 07.00 08.00 17.00

Kaftes Piperies (rpt) Istories Tou Horkou (rpt) Local comedy series, which happens to be the longest-running show on TV.

12.00 15.30 15.35

Apo Mera Se Mera Lottery Draw Entehnos

18.00 18.50 19.00 19.10

Mazi Sto CyBC News Kaftes Piperies Paizoume Kypriaka

20.00 21.00

Local game show, asking questions having to do with the Cypriot dialect.

19.20

20.00 21.15

23.00

Friends (rpt) American comedy about the lives and loves of six New Yorkers.

22.30 23.30 23.45

I Kypros Konta Sas News Repeats

23.45

05.30 06.30 06.50 07.00 07.50 08.40 09.30 10.25 11.15 12.10 13.00 13.20 14.00 14.50 15.45 16.40

Brothers & Sisters (rpt) Fourth season of drama series. ‘The Wig Party’. Nora offers a distressed Kitty support when she begins to lose her hair.

Rebecca suspects that she might be pregnant, Scotty hears some upsetting news from his father, and Simon asks Nora out for a second night.

News Vimata Stin Ammo Local period drama, based on true events.

22.00

NRG Zone FILM: Fresh And Bone Atmospheric drama about a salesman whose life is changed by an exciting woman he meets on his travels. Drama, starring Dennis Quaid. 1993.

Moiraia Fengaria Local drama series inspired by Maro Kranidioti’s book ‘Otan i Moira Apofasizei’.

Kato Apo Ton Idio Ourano News In English News In Turkish Build It Bigger From the skyscrapers to amusement parks, Danny Forster travels the world to break down astounding, complex engineering feats.

Local cultural show.

16.00 18.00 18.15 18.45

Euronews Kids’ TV Kati Psinetai (rpt) Greek version of reality gameshow where contestants try to outdo each other by throwing the perfect dinner party, which is then judged on its merits by their rivals.

Cookery show.

11.30

ANTENNA

Repeats

Erotas (rpt) Proini Enimerosi Me Agapi Strivein Dia Tou Arravonos (rpt) Akros Oikogeneiakon (rpt) Lyke, Lyke Eisai Edo (rpt) Einai Stigmes (rpt) Pansellinos (rpt) Tis Agapis Mahairia (rpt) Niose Me (rpt) News Mera Mesimeri Konstantinou Kai Elenis (rpt) To Kafe Tis Haras Ta Koritsia Tou Baba (rpt) Aiyia Fuxia (rpt) Local comedy series, with village setting.

17.30 17.40

Lefta Sto Lepto Vals Me 12 Theous (rpt)

MEGA 06.00 06.30 07.00 08.00 09.00 10.00

Lifestyle programme features entertainment, music and more.

Hosted by real-life couple Giorgos Liagas & Fay Skorda.

11.40 14.00 16.00

Enimerosi Tora Eheis Meson Yia Sena

18.00 18.20

News Erastis Ditikon Proastion (rpt) Epomeni Mera News Klemmena Oneira

Tin Patisa (rpt) Niose Me News Vals Me 12 Theous Grey’s Anatomy

23.00 00.00 00.05 00.20 01.40 02.30 03.20 04.40

Oikonomahies News Sports News Ola Bahalo Fetos Horis Oria (rpt) Angigma Psihis (rpt) News Deal (rpt)

US medical drama.

07.00 08.20 10.00 10.50 12.00 14.30 15.20 17.15 18.00 18.05 18.40

19.00 20.00 21.20

Two episodes of Greek drama series.

22.20

Piso Sto Spiti New season of Greek drama series.

23.10

Omorfo Kosmos Greek variety show.

00.00 00.10 01.00 03.00 04.30

News Gimnoi Angeloi (rpt) Yia Sena (rpt) Enimerosi Tora Proino Mou (rpt)

Protoselido Eleni Vasiliki (rpt) Aspra Balonia (rpt) Mesimeri Kai Kati Efta Ourani Kai Sinnefa Alites (rpt) Magazino Siga Min To’ Xeres News Ti Tha Fame Simera Mama Anna Paola Latin American telenovela.

19.30

Local talk-show.

With News at 18.00.

18.40 19.30 20.15 21.15 22.10

Ta Epta Kaka Tis Moiras Mou Retire Epomeni Mera (rpt) Master Chef (rpt) Klemmena Oneira (rpt) Proino Mou

SIGMA

Efta Ourani Kai Sinnefa Alites

PLUS TV 07.20 08.30 09.05 10.00 10.45 11.40 12.30 13.00 15.30 17.00 17.50 19.40

Discussions about various issues based on a woman’s life (men, relationships, sex, kids etc.) with showbiz guests.

Local drama series.

20.20 21.15

News UEFA Champions League Live coverage of first leg of quarter-final between Real Madrid and Galatasaray.

00.55 01.00 02.05 02.50 03.50 04.30 05.00

News Istories Tou Astinomou Beka (rpt) Siga Min To’ Xeres (rpt) Mono Mia Fora (rpt) Se Fonto Kokkino (rpt) Ta Hrisopsara (rpt) Eleni (rpt)

Fotis - Maria Live Best Of Exelixeis Sti Showbiz Mesimeriani Meleti Best Of I Kouzina Me Ti Dina (rpt) Mila (rpt) Berdema (rpt) Star News Mesimeriani Meleti Kids’ TV Berdema Fotis - Maria Live Mila

21.15 22.00

Vathi Kokkino Greek drama series.

23.30

Nistikoi Praktores (rpt) Cooking show, with helpful tips on eating well and nutrition.

00.15 01.15 02.20

06.45 09.00 09.25 10.00 11.00 11.30 12.30 13.20 15.30 16.15 16.45 17.35 18.15 19.15 19.50 20.05 21.00

LTV Sports News Star News Repeats

Kids’ TV Magikos Cosmos Akti Oneiron (rpt) Ston Asterismo Tis Imeras Kouzina Me Apopsi Igeia & Zou (rpt) Milagros Kids’ TV Top Models Kouzina Me Apopsi (rpt) Sabrina, To Koritsi Tis Agapis Akti Oneiron Pacific Blue News Sports News Epi Topou FILM: White Air A trainer encourages a down-and-out snowboarder to prepare for a competition. Action drama, starring Paul Logan. 2007.

Exelixeis Sti Showbiz The Closer Sixth season of detective drama. ‘Off the Hook’. The murder of a parole board member triggers an overreaching plan to boost the police department’s image, but everything depends on Brenda being able to solve the crime first.

22.45

CAPITAL

22.40

FILM: High Crimes A leading attorney fights to prove her husband’s innocence after the military accuse him of killing villagers in El Salvador. Thriller, starring Ashley Judd.

2002.

01.50

FILM: The French Connection Two New York cops use unorthodox methods to break an international drugs ring smuggling heroin into the US from France.

Oscar-winning thriller, with Gene Hackman.

1971.

Arthur (LTV, 21.00)

01:10 The Impressions Show With Culshaw &... 01:40 As Time Goes By 02:10 The Weakest Link 02:55 EastEnders 03:25 Doctors 03:55 South Riding 04:45 Lab Rats 05:15 The Impressions Show With Culshaw &...

05:45 My Family 06:15 The Weakest Link 07:00 3rd & Bird 07:10 Fimbles 07:30 Boogie Beebies 07:45 Tellytales 07:55 Me Too! 08:15 3rd & Bird 08:25 Fimbles 08:45 Boogie Beebies 09:00 Tellytales 09:10 Me Too! 09:30 My Family 10:00 Lab Rats 10:30 The Weakest Link 11:15 EastEnders 11:45 Doctors 12:15 Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky 13:05 Great Ormond Street 13:55 My Family 14:30 The Weakest Link 15:15 The Impressions Show With Culshaw &... 15:45 EastEnders 16:15 Doctors 16:45 Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky 17:35 Great Ormond Street 18:25 The Weakest Link 19:10 EastEnders 19:40 Doctors 20:10 Casualty 21:00 My Family 21:30 Little Britain 22:00 Outcasts 22:50 One Foot In The Grave 23:20 Alan Carr: Chatty Man 00:05 Spooks 00:55 Beautiful People

07:00 Sunrise Earth 07:55 Mega World 08:40 Really Big Things 09:30 Solving History With Olly Steeds 10:15 Crisis Control 11:05 Deadliest Catch 11:50 Weird Connections

12:15 Wild Fisherman: Mozambique 13:05 Rodeo 13:50 Cafe Racer 14:15 Chasing Classic Cars 14:35 1000 Places To See Before You Die 15:25 Solving History With Olly Steeds 16:10 Mythbusters 17:00 The Aviators 17:50 Chasing Classic Cars 19:30 1000 Places To See Before You Die 20:20 Crisis Control 21:10 Solving History With Olly Steeds 22:00 The Aviators 22:50 Chasing Classic Cars 23:40 Deadliest Catch 00:30 Crisis Control 01:15 Mythbusters 02:05 The Aviators 02:50 Chasing Classic Cars 04:30 Solving History With Olly Steeds 05:20 1000 Places To See Before You Die 06:10 Crisis Control

09:30 Football: Next Gen Series 10:30 All Sports: Watts 11:30 All Sports: Eurosport Top 10 12:00 Cycling: Tour Of The Basque Country 13:00 Football: Next Gen Series 14:00 Snooker: China Open Beijing 15:15 Athletics: Greene Light 15:30 Cycling: Tour Of The Basque Country 18:30 Football: Next Gen Series 19:30 Shooting: European Championship 20:00 Curling: World Men’s Championship 21:50 All Sports: Wednesday Selection 21:55 Equestrian Sports: Riders Club 22:00 Golf: U.S. P.G.A. Tour Shell Houston Open Usa 23:00 Golf: The European Tour Hassan Ii Trophy 23:30 Golf: Ladies European Tour Lalla Meryem

Cup Morocco 23:45 Golf: Golf Club 23:50 Sailing: Yacht Club 23:55 All Sports: Wednesday Selection 00:00 Curling: World Men’s Championship

01:40 Hostel 03:20 Cine News 04:05 Melancholia

00:50 Hustler TV 03:00 80 Minutes 04:45 Chloe 06:30 LTV Sports News (E) 05:40 Desperate Housewives 06:25 Bones 07:10 Raising Hope 07:35 Scrubs 08:00 Grey’s Anatomy 08:50 Masterchef 09:40 Desperate Housewives 10:25 Bones 11:10 Raising Hope 11:35 Scrubs 12:00 Grey’s Anatomy 9 12:50 Private Practice 13:40 Grey’s Anatomy 14:30 Masterchef 15:20 Desperate Housewives 16:05 Bones 16:50 Raising Hope 17:15 Scrubs 8 17:40 Grey’s Anatomy 8 18:30 Masterchef 19:20 Desperate Housewives 7 20:10 Bones 3 21:00 Grey’s Anatomy 9 21:50 Private Practice 6 22:40 Raising Hope 23:05 Scrubs 9 23:30 Grey’s Anatomy 9 00:20 Private Practice 6 01:10 Bones 3 02:00 Desperate Housewives 7 02:45 Raising Hope 03:10 Scrubs 9 03:35 Surviving Suburbia 04:00 Grey’s Anatomy 8 04:50 Masterchef

07:30 Unknown (2011) 09:30 Messenger 11:30 Paranormal Activity 13:00 Action Zone (E) 13:30 A Knight’s Tale 16:00 Without A Paddle: Nature’s Calling 17:45 Beyond Borders 20:00 LTV Sports News 21:00 Arthur (2011) 23:00 Cash

07:00 Kids TV 15:45 Justice League Unlimited 16:10 Legion Of Super Heroes 16:35 Young Justice 17:00 Barclays Premier League 2012-13 21:00 La Liga World 21:30 Planet Speed 22:00 Barclays Premier League 2012-13 00:00 La Liga Review 2012-13 01:00 Liga Bbva 201213 03:00 Barclays Premier League 2012-13 05:00 Liga Bbva 2012-13

07:15 2 Broke Girls 08:00 Big Bang Theory 08:30 Mentalist 09:15 C.S.I. Miami 10:00 Friends 10:30 Privileged 11:15 Closer 12:00 Luck 13:00 Closer 13:45 2 Broke Girls 14:35 Mentalist 15:20 C.S.I. Miami 16:05 Friends 16:35 Gossip Girl 17:20 Fringe 19:00 Closer 19:45 2 Broke Girls 20:30 Eastbound & Down 21:00 Hawaii Five-0 22:30 Ncis: Los Angeles 23:15 Supernatural 00:05 Heartbreaker 02:00 Fair Game 03:50 Friends 04:15 Gossip Girl 05:00 Fringe 06:30 Closer

07:20 Fathers And Sons 09:15 Poltergay 11:00 Sucker Punch 13:00 Lost & Found 14:45 Stone 16:45 Search For El Dorado 20:10 In Praise Of Older Women 22:00 Art Of Travel 00:05 Daring! TV 04:05 Botched 06:00 Goodbye Girl (1977)

05:20 Killer Elite 07:20 Unthinkable 08:50 Cine News 09:50 Puss In Boots 11:20 My Future Boyfriend 12:40 Hollywood 1on1 13:25 Five 15:00 There’s Something About Mary 17:05 Cine News 17:35 Abduction 19:25 Action Zone 20:00 Footloose 22:00 The Conspirator 00:10 How I Spent My Summer Vacation 01:50 Cine News 02:15 Catch. 44 03:50 Martha Marcy May Marlene

05:55 Hide And Seek 07:35 Paul 09:20 Heaven 11:00 Cine News 12:00 Shallow Hal 13:55 X-Men: First Class 16:10 Born Yesterday 18:00 Films And Stars 18:35 The Artist 20:20 Young Adult 22:00 Conan The Barbarian 00:00 Shame

19:05 Analyze That 20:45 Fast Five 23:00 Game Of Thrones 00:05 Person Of Interest 00:55 Cine News 01:30 Adult Zone

19:25 My Father The Hero 23:20 The Names Of Love 01:10 One Day

0:30 My Ride Rules 1:00 Golf Central International 1:30 Sea Master 2:00 NHL: Ottawa Senators At Boston Bruins 4:30 My Ride Rules 5:00 MLB: San Francisco Giants At Los Angeles Dodgers 8:00 Feherty - Bobby Knight 9:00 Golf Central International 9:30 Morning Drive 10:30 The Golf Fix 11:00 NHL: Ottawa Senators At Boston Bruins 13:30 Wrecked Keep On Trucking 14:00 Sports Unlimited 15:00 Super Bowl Highlights: XV: Oakland V Philadelphia 15:30 Super Bowl Highlights: XVI: San Francisco V Cincinnati 16:00 America’s Game: 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers 17:00 Mobil 1 The Grid 17:30 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Highlights Daytona International Speedway 18:00 PRE GAME(E) 18:45 CHAMPIONSHIP 2012-13: AEP VS OLYMPIACOS (E)

By Preston Wilder

In Praise of Older Women (LTV3, 20.10) Experience, obviously. A certain maturity, perhaps.

They know how to humour you, and laugh at your jokes. They’ll understand if you want to stay home on a Saturday night. All this (and more!) may be said in praise of older women - but it’s hard to say how this Canadian-made drama wound up on Cyprus TV, 35 years after being made, since it doesn’t star any big names and it’s not exactly a classic. Tom Berenger is our hero, a young man coming of age in post-war Hungary; as an adolescent he’s seduced by a married neighbour (Karen Black) who sparks a lifelong attraction to mature ladies - and the film takes this rather

smug Lothario through a series of sexual encounters (not all of them with older women), from turbulent youth in Hungary to a job as a philosophy lecturer in Canada. The film also tends to the philosophical, “glibly reflecting on the nature of Women, Love, etc” to quote the Time Out Film Guide - and it’s worth a look just for the nostalgia factor (and 18-rated sex scenes, despite the time slot), though the real question is how it ended up on LTV at all. Made in 1978.

UEFA Champions League (Sigma, 21.15) Manchester Utd fans, look away now. This is the game you would be playing if not for that controver-

sial defeat to Real Madrid - and, given the nationality of the (Turkish) referee who handed out that red card to Nani (changing the course of the game and making Sir Alex ‘Fergie’ Ferguson too “distraught” even to speak to the press), it’s fitting that Real have been drawn against Galatasaray in the Quarter-Finals, with the first leg taking place tonight at the Bernabeu.

Also tonight is Malaga vs. Dortmund, but there’s no doubt what Sigma will be showing as the week’s freeTV game - and you have to think that Ronaldo (who was oddly muted at Old Trafford, yet still managed to score) will prevail over the likes of Wesley Sneijder and Didier Drogba; then again, if you’re a Man. Utd fan you’d probably prefer not to think about it at all.

20:45 POST GAME (E) 21:30 A DIVISION CYPRUS SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP 22:00 NHL: Ottawa Senators At Boston Bruins

06:00 Only Hits 08:00 MTV GreekLips 09:00 MTV Hollywood Heights 10:00 MTV Plain Jane (Commissioned Version) 11:00 Pure Local 12:00 MTV VHI Pop up Video 13:00 MTV Made 14:00 MTV Big Time Rush 14:30 MTV Victorious 15:00 MTV Hollywood Heights 16:00 MTV Crash Canyon 17:00 MTV Pranked 18:00 S7S Lockdown Top10 18:30 Only Hits 20:00 MTV Movies & Stars 21:00 MTV Awkward 22:00 McCafé Music Project 22:30 MTV Awkward 23:00 MTV Underemployed 00:00 MTV Jersey Shore 01:00 Only Hits

07:00 The Adventures of Robin Hood 08:45 Seven Days In May 10:45 Little Women 12:35 Kelly’s Heroes 13:00 House Of Wax 16:25 Casablanca 18:10 Mr. Skeffington 20:15 Key Largo 22:00 The Wrath Of God 23:40 Something Of Value 01:35 Little Caesar 03:00 Presenting Lily Mars 04:50 Rich, Young And Pretty

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, April 3, 2013

21

CRYPTIC CROSSWORD 2355 1

2

3

PREVIOUS DAY’S SOLUTIONS

4

5

6 7

8

10

11

9

12

HOW TO PLAY: Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1-9. There’s no maths involved, you solve the puzzle with reasoning and logic.

With the ‘X’ sudoku, the shaded X must also contain the numbers 1-9.

13 14

15

16 17

18

19

20

21

22 23

EASY

HARD

MEDIUM

HARD

24

25

Across

Down

1 Shade of two beers? (5,5) 7 Perplexed by crossword number 500 (7) 8 Ringing sound in jail (5)

1 Was idle but went first taking in a range of

Rating EASY

Rating EASY Rating HARD

(5,5)

Rating MEDIUM

10 Unusual task for a casual worker (3-3) 12 Revoke true record held (6) 13 Leapt over the crease (5) 14 Takes the chair (4) 16 Guns turned on animal (4) 17 Not yet in a union? (5) 19 Another old Scotsman in the loch (6) 20 Had Ali removed the bloomer? (6) 23 Musical climb (5) 24 Begin to thrive or flourish – or flower (7) 25 Beasts divide the largest portion (5,5)

letters (5)

2 Girl to cut and run (6) 3 Greatest sea power? (4) 4 Bat noise? (6) 5 Palest success in the west (7) 6 Course sailor’s taking of purgative medicine 9 One or two weights (10) 11 Mix left in the corner (5) 12 Removed Edgar who was violent (5) 15 Paint I’m smearing on the drums (7) 17 In fun, see nothing hidden (6) 18 Knockout information about former American territory (6) 21 Yarn from Carlisle (5) 22 Goes down at sea (4)

Answers to crossword 2354

HOROSCOPE

CRYPTIC: Across – 1 Parasol; 7 Inhale; 8 Replace; 10 Titan; 11 Illusion; 13 Ash; 14 Well; 15 Whip; 16 Fee; 18 Cottager; 20 North; 22 Proximo; 23 Enable; 24 Redress. Down – 1 Parking fine; 2 Repel; 3 Sparsely; 4 Lie low; 5 What; 6 Flat-cap; 9 On their toes; 12 Thetford; 14 Wearing; 17 Hopper; 19 Guide; 21 Hobo.

QUICK: Across – 1 Punch-up; 7 Opiate; 8 Inverse; 10 Latin; 11 Salutary; 13 Rev; 14 Sage; 15 Blue; 16 Kin; 18 Colossus; 20 Nepal; 22 All-hail; 23 Beggar; 24 Totally. Down – 1 Painstaking; 2 Novel; 3 Heritage; 4 Poetry; 5 Gill; 6 Stature; 9 Universally; 12 Floodlit; 14 Snippet; 17 Hobart; 19 Small; 21 Logo.

ARIES March 21 - April 20

LEO July 23 - August 22

SAGITTARIUS November 23 - December 21

The Sun in your zodiac sign is forging a very go-ahead link with Jupiter. Also, Venus and Mars remain close together here too. All this points towards putting you in touch with the side of you that though can be impetuous, can also gain, simply because you’re prepared to roll the dice on a hunch. Yet, have you got all the facts? Mercury suggests you might not.

You may project a very dignified persona, but underneath this often lays a more tremulous soul. But people can show a genuine interest in you now, and may ask some searching questions. Chances are, they are not being nosey, just inquisitive, so take any interest in good part. You may also need to challenge your own fear of change.

Quarter Moon’s occur twice a month, and caution us to balance anything which sees the Moon, during these points, at right angles with the Sun. Today’s waxing Moon occurs in Capricorn, but the complication is the close proximity of Pluto. This combination could lead to a wilful desire to spend money, despite the consequences. Buyer beware!

TAURUS April 21 - May 21

VIRGO August 23 - September 23

CAPRICORN December 22 - January 20

The Moon and Mars clash briefly today. The problem may be that some deep emotions and feelings are rumbling away, but you may not have quite realised what these are about. Mars in its current location, can stir up a lot of angst, simply because it activates unprocessed emotions and angers. If you feel on edge, try to think why this might be.

Mercury and Jupiter are still agitating with one another, and you may say or get something said to you, which doesn’t quite match how you really feel. Try not to be knocked off course by this too much. If you are fulfilled in your closest relationship, this can be an enchanting time. Solo? Your sultry vibe can draw a lot of attention just now.

You might find yourself making a stand for something that could just be down to sheer stubbornness. But of course it is a choice, and equally you may avoid this trap. Your emotions have been evoked in a powerful way of late.

However, if you still feel raw you could be tempted to do something today which can go against your own best interests.

GEMINI May 22 - June 21

LIBRA September 24 - October 23

AQUARIUS January 21 - February 19

Friendships and social prospects remain ultra bright, and yet the Moon can rake up some very potent emotions today. There may be more politics in one circle of people than you had appreciated. Because of this, you need to be mindful that not everything might be sweetness and light.

With this, you can have more realistic expectations.

You may have started the week wanting to get a lot done.

But if you’re scattering your energies too widely, chances are progress has been slow. Someone’s demands at home may also keep you on the hop. But fortunately, the Sun’s fine angle with Jupiter can make this a superb time to plan travel or holidays - perhaps as part of a team or a dynamic duo.

You often prefer candour to mind games, but someone you encounter today may require you to be a bit cuter in your approach. On the face of it, they may seem charming, but this may be someone who is always looking for snippets of information and may look to dig a little piece of information out of you. Smile, and give them not a smidgen.

CANCER June 22 - July 22

SCORPIO October 24 - November 22

PISCES February 20 - March 20

Overall there remain some super planetary influences in place, and you may find that the limelight seeks you out very soon. A new job, role or plaudits may follow. But today specifically, there could be one point where you need to be conscious of avoiding any tendency of trying too hard or bigging yourself up. Let your talents do the talking instead.

If you find yourself in a perfectionist mood, just be conscious of not letting this end up as putting too much pressure on yourself, by trying to achieve things on a Herculean scale. Create some slack in your schedule. Be this a gentle stroll for twenty minutes, or having a proper lunch break, this will bring you back fresher for any tasks that are in hand.

If you are a particularly idealistic type of Pisces, today may make you more conscious of a choice you need to make.

This may mean it will seem you have to give something up that you hold dear in order to get to where you want to go. Talk it through with someone who understands your values. Once you assess all the angles, your pathway will emerge.

22

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

Advertiser

ADVERTISER helps you find what you’re looking for

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Nicosia - email: classified@cyprus-mail.com Limassol - email: limassol@cyprus-mail.com Paphos - email: paphos@cyprus-mail.com

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES WANTED: Experienced Dog Groomer - Full/Part time hours For well-established business in Limassol. For more info please contact: 96578094

HEALTH & FITNESS FOR PRETTY WOMAN: anticellulite treatment,reflexology,aroma therapy massage against stress, back pains,headache. also spa for nails. Tel: 99986991

SERVICES

research as regards European families living in Cyprus. If both you and your spouse come from the same or a different country of the EU (except Cyprus and Greece, e.g. both from Germany, or Germany and France), if you have children over 6, and if you are interested in taking part in some research financed by the University of Cyprus please contact us 96530033. Participants will complete a questionnaire and participate in a faceto-face interview. They will also receive a symbolic amount of money. ***************************** 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

PROFESSIONAL UPHOLSTERY CLEANING, also carpets, rugs and mattresses. Special offers now available. FREE STAIN GUARD FOR LIMITED TIME For a quote call Rickys Cleaning Services on 99131044 (all areas) info@rcs-cyprus.net / www.rcs-cyprus.net ***************************** PROFESSIONAL ENGLISH PAINTER AND DECORATOR City and Guilds Advanced 46 years experience of interior and external finishes. Quality work, reliable, estimates and advice freely given. Tala based Phone Terry 96407703 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 ***************************** DO YOU WANT A SHINY LOOKING FLOOR? Full repair & restoration of chipped, scratched, dull and stained, Marble, Terrazzo, Stone & Ceramic tiled floors and surfaces. Professional cleaning, repair & sealing of internal/external ceramic tiles & grout lines. For a free professional consultation & demonstration contact Mark at Premier on 70006766 All areas

MISCELLANEOUS ***************************** WANTED: COUPLES OF EU CITIZENS LIVING IN CYPRUS We are currently conducting

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

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

PETS *****************************

Nicosia - tel: 22 818583 fax: 22 676385 tions@gmail.com *****************************

FOR SALE MISCELLANEOUS FOR SALE Full house of furniture etc. white goods – washing m/c, new fridge/freezer/ new water m/c, unit top Bosch dishwasher, lge fridge/freezer etc. NO Sensible offer ignored.

Please phone 99 847864 ART AND WATCH collector purchases art works and watches in cash. Watches: only high end pieces with the original box and invoice. Art works: international artists for which the provenance can be clearly proved. Send details/pictures to laurentjones1@ gmail.com ***************************** FOR SALE: Electric Cooker, Bosch 4 ceramic hotplates and oven, used 1 1/2 year, €350 For further information contact phone 99757511 ***************************** FOR SALE – PAPHOS CATERING EQUIPMENT 1. Industrial freezer – CORECO Height 200cm, width 68cm, depth 58cm 2. Electrolux Freezer, model EUC3109X, width-595mm, height-1800mm, depth623mm, freezing capacity-24kg/24hours, energy class A 3. CONVOTHERM OVEN modelOBG 6.10Combi Oven-Steamer with Gas Steam Generator Extra: Stand with stainless steel shelving, extractor fan, water supply system and gas installation connections, PLUS CHAFING TRAYS & THERMO BOXES, ALL IN EXCELLENT CONDITION AT REDUCED PRICES. PLEASE CALL : 99622678 *****************************

FOR SALE BUSINESS/ PROPERTY/LAND LOST HUSKY – PAPHOS Answers to the name of Chico went missing on Monday the 4th of February around the International School area chipped Paphiakos Animal Welfare have advised that many large dogs have been taken from the Mesogi/Anarvagos/Ttremithousa areas. Please call 99622678 if you have seen him ***************************** HONEY is a 3 month old pincher/ terrier mix. She is very small sized and very sweet and playful. Honey is looking for a loving family to be hers forever! She will remain small sized so she is ideal for a family with an apartment! For adoptions call 99 520 511 Monday-Friday between hours 10-2 or email ndsadop-

LAND FOR SALE (8 plots) Lakatameia - Nicosia Residential green area. Easy access to the City Centre Call Michael Messaritis: 00357 99622929 FOR SALE plot of land with sea view. In Chlorakas area. Very quiet and private location. Title deed. Tel. 99519370. ***************************** LIMASSOL 1) GREAT INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY PLOT OF LAND FOR SALE 1,789 sq.m, IN THE AREA OF AGIA ZONI BUILDING FACTOR 140% WITH TITLE DEED. The land is located at a central point in the city,

Limassol - tel: 25 761117 fax: 25 761141

very close to various amenities and has excellent accessibility.

Tel: 96885030 owner 2) RESIDENTIAL LAND FOR SALE GREAT INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY The plot of land is located in the area of Foinikaria Total area 5,686 with a 20% Building Factor Tel: 96885030 owner ***************************** PAFOS 1) PLOTS OF LAND FOR SALE ANAVARGOS AREA GREAT INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY The plots can be sold as a single unit or individually.

From 626 sq.m up to 776 sq.m with building factor 60% and title deeds. Mountain and sea view with nice villas developing around the area. Tel: 96885030 owner 2) COMMERCIAL PROPERTY FOR SALE IN KATO PAFOS 96sq.m The shop is within the ‘’Limnaria Complex’’ and faces the main road Melina Mercouri Avenue It’s in good condition with suspended ceiling, recessed lighting, VRV AC, fitted carpet, motorised shutters, CCTV and more. Tel: 96885030 owner ***************************** LAND FOR SALE MITSERO. 7 skalas. 10% build. South facing, unobstructed views. Access road, water, electricity. Fenced compound with 48sq.meter timber framed 2 bedroom unit, septic tank, grey water system, storage, workshop. €135,000 mobile 99594205 pumpitch@ hotmail.com ***************************** PLOT FOR SALE IN KATO PLATRES in a pine tree area. It comes with title deeds, 1095 square feet. Tel. 99881051. ***************************** FOR SALE LAND in Anthoupoli (half plot) 288 sq.metres. for information 99621554. *****************************

FOR SALE MOTOR VEHICLES ***************************** CARS BOUGHT FOR CASH. Contact Mike on 99166532 Mike Johnson Cars e-mail mj@ mikejohnsoncars.com Web Address www.mikejohnsoncars. com *****************************

PROPERTY TO LET NICOSIA ***************************** FOR RENT a spacious two bedroom apartment, near Hilton

Paphos - tel: 26 911383 fax: 26221049

and Central Bank. Living/dining room, sitting room, large veranda, kitchen, c/h, s/h, covered parking. Title deeds. Tel. 99519370. ***************************** HOUSES/FLATS 2 bedr. lux. flat, Ayioi Omoloyites, wooden floors €800, 3 bedr.

Acropolis c/h a/c wooden floors €650, Mak/ssa 3 bedr., modern, open plan €1000 f/f €1200, Nicosia 3 bedr., f/f, luxury €1000 f/f, Latsia 2 bedr., pool €430, Strovolos f/f house 4 bedr €1300, Mak/ssa ground floor house detached €850 Photos www.markidesestates. com Markides 22- 378898 / 99464764 Reg.No. 487 E 16 ***************************** LUXURIOUS APARTMENT FOR RENT - A luxurious one floor apartment situated in central Nicosia in an area of exceptional Beauty at 3 Museum Street, is available to let. It has been recently renovated and consists of four bedrooms, two bathrooms, big dining and sitting rooms, kitchen and a huge veranda. Approximate covered area 250 sqm. Tel: 99622370. ***************************** TO LET 1 bedroom upper floor house, large veranda near restaurant Periyiali in Acropolis 5 Aeantos Street €300 call 99680208 ***************************** LUXURY HOUSES: 1. 4 bedr luxury detached house built in 3/4 of a plot, office space, central heating, full a/c, big sitting and dining area, separate big kitchen with family room and all the electrical appliances, blinds and curtains on all windows, aluminium shutters, big garden with grass, 3 wc, covered parking, in a quiet area – Strovolos €1000 (H4ST10051-R), (photos in the website) 2. 3 bedr luxury terraced house, 210sq.m,central heating, full a/c, marble floor in the sitting areas and solid parquet floor on stairs and bedrooms,4 wc,3 bathrooms, 2 en suite, big verandas, electrical appliances in the kitchen, 3 covered parking spaces, roof garden access, in a quiet neighbourhood on Mon Parnas hill – Engomi €800 (photos in the website).

3. 3 bedr detached house with extra room for office, 250sq.m, central heating independent, 4 a/c, big renovated kitchen with cooker and oven, big sitting and dining room with parquet floor and fireplace, 1 bathroom, 2 shower, 3 wc, 2 covered parking, double glazed windows and shutters in bedrooms, big verandas surrounded by trees and bushes off 28th October street IN the central part of Makedonitissa – €1100 (H3MAK0004-R) (photos on the website) 4. 3 bedr luxury semi-detached

Larnaca - tel: 24 652243 fax: 24 659982

classified contents Employment Opportunities pg 22 Employment Miscellaneous 22 Pets 22 Lessons 22 Health & Fitness 22 Personal 22 Services 22 For Sale Miscellaneous 22 For Sale Land/ Property Business 22 For Sale Motor vehicles 22 Properties Wanted -To Let Nicosia 22 To Let Limassol 24 To Let Larnaca 24 To Let Paphos 25 To Let Protaras, Ayia Napa, Paralimni -For Sale Nicosia 27 For Sale Limassol -For Sale Larnaca -For Sale Paphos 27 For Sale Ayia Napa -For Sale Famagusta Protaras 27 For Sale Athens -Property& Home Services display ads --

abbreviations bdrm c/h a/c s/pool f/f apt pm pw sw nw st rd p/s c/l swb r/cass e/w

bedroom central heating air conditioning swimming pool fully furnished apartment per month per week south west north west street road power steering central locking short wheel base radio cassette electric windows

Please note tel nos. that begin with: 22 = Nicosia 23 = Paralimni/Protaras 24 = Larnaca 25 = Limassol 26 = Paphos

23

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Advertiser TO LET NICOSIA house with character, 200sq.m, central heating, full ac, sitting and dining room with fireplace, big kitchen with cooker and oven, dishwasher and refrigerator, nice mature garden with flowers, trees and small garden with grass, covered parking, 3wc, 2 bathrooms in a quiet neighbourhood. Available middle of January. Agios Andreas €1200 - H3AAD0001-R (photos on website).

5. 3 bedr luxury house, office space, attic room, with central heating, full a/c, separate kitchen, NICELY MODERN FURNISHED, 2 verandas, in a quiet area – Lakatamia €680 (H4LAK009-R), (photos in the website).

6. 3 bedr + attic room with shower and wc luxury detached house with central heating, a/c, fireplace, modern kitchen open plan with expensive electrical appliances, blinds, garden with grass, over flow swimming pool, covered parking in a quiet area. – Makedonitissa €1600 (H4MAK0023-R), (photos on the website).

FOR RENT 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment in Larnaca near new hospital. €400 per month including service charge and refuse collection Call 99358916

TO LET NICOSIA 7. 4 bedr luxury detached house with big sitting and dining room with parquet floor, separate big kitchen with family room and all the electrical appliances, small garden with grass and bbq area,3wc, central heating, full a/c, covered parking, in a very quiet neighbourhood – Archangelos €1200 (H4AR0017-R), (photos in the website).

TO LET NICOSIA

8. 3 bedr +office space partially renovated detached ground floor house, 280sq.m, central heating with oil, full a/c, 3wc, separate tv room, big sitting and dining area, big verandas around the house, bbq area, covered parking, private yard near the parking.– Strovolos €1200 (H4ST10048-R), (photos in the website).

area, kitchen with all the electrical appliances, central heating, full a/c units. Basement with kitchen with cooker and oven, dishwasher, microwave and 2 refrigerators, sitting room with fireplace, and 2 bedrooms with one bathroom. Outside private fenced garden with artificial grass, bbq area and covered veranda. The house has blinds and shutters on all windows, false ceiling with spot lights throughout house, pressure system, covered parking, satellite dish, central music and network system, storage room, very good double glazed windows. Behind General flooring in the centre of Makedonitissa - €2000 (H4MAK0001-R), (photos on the website).

9. New modern luxury very good quality finished semi detached house built in 3 levels. Upstairs 1st level 3 bedrs all en suite+ laundry room, 2nd level big attic room which can be used for office space or bedroom.

Ground floor with 2 sitting areas ,dining area and breakfast

10. 4 bedr semi detached house with central heating, 4 a/c, 3 wc, 2 bathrooms, 180sq.m, electrical appliances, small yard, bbq area, off Kostantinoupoleos street near French ambassador residence.- STROVOLOS €700 (H4ST10043-R), (photos in the website).

English-Painter & Decorator Fully Qualified 30 years’ Experience SUMMER OFFER 30% OFF ALL AREAS • External & Internal painting • Damp Damage Repairs • Spritez Repairs • Free Estimates + very clean work • All areas. All types of woodwork stained and preserved • All work guaranteed

Tel. Tony on 99176557

TO LET NICOSIA 11. 4 bedr new luxury finished detached house with central heating independent, full a/c, 3wc, 2 bathrooms, big kitchen with cooker oven, dishwasher and big family room, aluminium shutters in all the house, separate big sitting and dining room with parquet floor, 2 covered parking, alarm system, big covered patio, SWIMMING POOL, in a newly built area near Falcon school – Strovolos €2000 (photos in the website).

12. 3 bedrs luxury 2 storey, FULLY RENOVATED LISTED HOUSE with high ceilings in the centre of Nicosia, 260sq.m, 2 small attic rooms, big sitting room upstairs, big sitting room and dining area downstairs, wooden floor, kitchen with all the electrical appliances, 2 bathrooms (one en suite),3wc,CH independent, A/C, big garden – Nicosia Centre €1400 (H4NIC0002-R), (photos in the website).

13. 3 bedr upstairs and 2 separate bedrooms in the basement luxury detached house (all the

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TO LET NICOSIA bedrooms with en suite bathrooms/shower), also separate kitchen and sitting room in the basement which also has separate entrance from the house, central heating, full a/c, solid parquet floor throughout house, big sitting and dining room with fireplace, big fully equipped kitchen with breakfast area and family room, big over flow, swimming pool with covered patio area with fully equipped bar (bbq, fridge, freezer, cooker), mature garden around the house,2 parking places, alarm system near the Cyprus Conference Centre – Platy Aglantzias €3500 (H5PAG0002-R).

14. 4 bedr very big luxury semi detached house 350sq.m, with big separate basement 80sq.m with 2 rooms, sitting room, kitchen and bathroom. Con-

TO LET NICOSIA sists of big sitting and dining areas upstairs, big kitchen with big family room and breakfast area, big bedrooms, 3 showers, 1 bathroom, central heating, full a/c, black out blinds on all windows, cooker and oven in the kitchen, covered parking and patio with bbq in a very quiet neighbourhood close to Makarios football stadium. CAN BE RENTED FURNISHED, PARTIALLY FURNISHED OR UNFURNISHED - Makedonitissa €1500 (H4MAK0032-R), (photos in the website) 15. 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

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24

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

Advertiser TO LET NICOSIA dining areas, big kitchen with sitting area and fitted cooker and oven, 6wc, 2 covered parking, yard with tiles and SWIMMING POOL, bbq area in a very quiet neighbourhood near CYBC ( RIK) station and near a neighbourhood park – Platy Aglantzias €2500 (H4AGZ0005-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 22422225/96-422225/96422226, www.landtouristestates.com ***************************** LUXURY FLATS: 1. 3 bedr luxury finished spacious floor apartment with very big sitting and dining areas with family room with fire place, solid parquet floor all through, central heating independent, full a/c, all the bedrooms with en suite shower/bathroom, 4wc, big kitchen with all the electrical appliances, blinds on all windows, big covered veranda, covered parking, big storage room, on a small 3 storey building in a quiet neighbourhood – Agios Andreas- €1300 – A3AAD0005-R (photos on website).

2. 1 bedr spacious fully luxury renovated apartment,60sq.m, big sitting and dining room, big bedroom, fully newly modern furnished with LCD TV 32’, covered veranda, covered parking, storage heaters, full a/c, near Cyta, Laiki and Hellenic Bank headquarters – Dasoupolis €550 (photos in the website).

3. 2 bedr penthouse apartment,

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA 100sq.m + 80sq.m veranda with flowers and bbq, big sitting and dining room with big 60” TV, storage heaters, full a/v, 2 wc, en suite bathroom/jacuzzi, roman blinds, cooker, oven, microwave, washing machine and refrigerator in the kitchen, covered parking, near Metro supermarket – Aglantzia €600 (photos in the website).

4. 2 bedr luxury ground floor apartment with central heatingindependent, full a/c, structure cabling internet and satellite network, FULLY MODERN EXPENSIVE FURNISHED, with 46”LCD TV, covered parking, double glazed windows, aluminium shutters, on Pericleous street near Klimataria traffic lights – Strovolos €650 (A2ST10054-R) (photos in the website) 5. 4 bedr new spacious luxury finished floor apartment with floor heating independent, full a/c, 3wc, electrical appliances in the kitchen, blinds on all windows, very big 50sq.m covered veranda, fireplace, covered parking and big over floor heated covered swimming pool on the ground floor, on a small 3 storey building in a quiet neighbourhood near a playground and near Ippokration private hospital – Engomi €1500 (A4ENG0003-R) (photos in the website) 6. 1 bedr new luxury apartment in a modern building (TSENTAS),with central heating ind, 2 a/c, cooker and oven, refrigerator and washing machine in the kitchen, parquet floor, NICELY FURNISHED big

covered veranda, big sitting room off Kyriakou Matsi street, 1 km from the centre €460 (A1AOM0002-R), (photos in the website).

7.

1 bedr cozy luxury apartment,60sq.m,parquet floor, nicely furnished ,all fitted electrical appliances (cooker, oven, microwave, washing machine, dishwasher, fridge), roman blinds, provisions for home cinema, big covered verandah, storage heaters, 2 a/c ,covered parking in Dasoupolis near Alpha Mega supermarket and Areteion hospital. – Dasoupoli €470 (A1DAS0009-R) (photos in the website)

8. 2 bedr spacious renovated apartment 100sq.m with separate big kitchen, air condition for hot and cold in all the rooms, covered veranda, nicely newly fully furnished , off Kyriakou Matsi street very close to the centre on foot– Agioi Omologites €500 (A2AOM0003-R) (photos in the website) 9. New top quality 2 bedr apartment, 93sq.m+20sq.m veranda, on a small modern building with 6 flats only. Central heating independent, full a/c, 2 bathrooms, 2wc, fully fitted kitchen with all the electrical appliances, water pressure system roller blinds and shutters on windows, big sitting and dining room, big bedrooms, covered parking and storage room, in a quiet neighbourhood near Akropolis park. AVAILABLE end of March – Acropolis €800 A2ACS0002-R (photos in the website) .

10. New luxury finished 1 bedr penthouse apart-

TO LET NICOSIA ment with big verandah with nice view, in a small modern building,55sq.m,storage heaters,2 a/c, blinds on the windows, expensive electrical appliances(cooker, oven, extractor, refrigerator, washing machine, dryer),covered parking and storage room, off Kalippoleos street opposite Dessange Day Spa near the University – Lykavitos €420 (A1LYK0002-R), (photos in the website).

11. 3 bedrs luxury penthouse one floor apartment in a small building with 3 apartments,250sq.m plus big covered verandas, fire place, solid parquet floor,2 bathrooms,3 wc, cooker, oven, fridge, washing machine and dishwasher in the kitchen, CH independent, full a/c, big reception areas opening to the verandas, pressure system and 2 Pcovered with remote control entrance, walking distance to the centre very close to Debenhams €1300 (A3NIC0028-R), (photos in the website) 12. 2 bedr new modern luxury finished apartment with parquet floor, central heating independent, 2 a/c, modern kitchen with all fitted expensive electrical appliances, blinds on the windows, big covered veranda, FULLY NICELY FURNISHED, covered parking in a quiet neighbourhood off Kallipoleos Street Lykavitos €700 (A2LYK0024-R) (photos on the website) 13. 3 bedr luxury penthouse apartment with central heating independent, full a/c, 2wc, big sitting and dining room with fireplace, separate kitchen, NICE-

TO LET NICOSIA LY MODERN FURNISHED, big covered and uncovered veranda, covered parking, in Strovolos near the Municipal building - €650 (A3ST10014-R) (photos on the website) 14. 3 bedr spacious luxury finished apartment 150sq.m+30sq.m covered veranda, central heating independent with petrol, full wall a/c units, solid parquet floor, expensive electrical appliances in the kitchen, 3wc, curtains and blinds on windows, 3 COVERED PARKING, storage room, near Pizza Hut in Strovolos €1100 (photos in the website).

15.

3 bedrs luxury penthouse,165sq.m+80sq.m verandah with bbq, central heating ind, full AC, 3 wc, 2 bathrooms, solid parquet floor all the flat, big kitchen with dining area, fully MODERN FURNISHED, covered parking off Athalassa Avenue near Stephanis Electrinics and English school – Strovolos €800 (A3ST10013-R) (photos in the website) 16. New luxury finished 4 bed PENTHOUSE apartment in a small modern building, 186sq. m+90sq.m big veranda with nice view, separate floor heating, fully air conditioned, 4wc, 2 en suite bedrooms with shower,1 bathroom, solid parquet floor all through, big sitting and dining areas with electric modern shutters opening to the veranda, fully equipped kitchen with expensive electrical appliances, 2 parking places (1 covered), in a very quiet neighbourhood ,near the Russian

TO LET NICOSIA Embassy. AVAILABLE END OF MARCH –Engomi €1900 (A4ENG0005-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 22422225 / 96-422225 / 96422226 www.landtouristestates.com ***************************** 2 BDRM flat in the centre of Nicosia. Rent €450. For information call 99453663, 99663927. *****************************

LIMASSOL ***************************** FOR RENT HOUSE IN AGIOS ATHANASIOS, ground floor, 3 bedrooms, 2w/c,1 bathroom.

C/H, A/C. Fully furnished. Fitted kitchen, full electrical appliances. Basement covered parking. €600 negotiable. Tel 99331318 or 96590930 ***************************** FOR RENT office of around 85m2, with partitions, kitchenette and parking in a peaceful, green yet central area at Helladion House(off. 302; 3rd floor), 5 Andrea Kalvou Str. For viewing, please call Ms. Jenny on 25-340987(3rd flloor of building; office hours). For further details, please call 25-521873 after 8:00pm. ***************************** UN-DETACHED HOUSE for rent in Apshiou village, 2 bedrooms, kitchen, sitting room, bathroom

25

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Advertiser TO LET LARNACA

TO LET LIMASSOL with solar water heater. A/C, satellite, 15mins to roundabout. €350. Tel 25369219, work 10.30-17.30 25542968 home 99773151 ***************************** TO LET Large 4 bedroom unfurnished house in the village of Asomatos nr Akrotiri Limassol.

Fully A/C & Heating (storage heaters). 5 wc’s, large kitchen/ diner, lounge and sitting room.

Large loft with own shower/wc (suitable for office/playroom/ gym). Carport - prominent position in cul-de-sac - lots of parking. €850 pcm (negotiable).

Available from April 2013. Tel. 99831431 ***************************** TRADITIONAL VILLAGE STONE HOUSE IN APESHIA. Very quiet village, 20mins from Limassol. Road to heritage school/ Troodos. 2 bedrooms, office available top floor with veranda great view of mountains. Small courtyard with trees. Electric solar water. A/C-toilet in main bedroom. Semi/full furnished.

Fitted kitchen with electrical appliances, fireplace. Toilet/ shower. €550pm negotiable.

Tel 96891800.

lounge, balcony, seperate kitchen, furnished. Flyscreens, ceiling fans, aircon. Upstairs three double bedrooms, balcony, sea views. Bathroom. Downstairs toilet. Free internet. Digi box.

Garden,Patios,Gazebo, Pavilion. €550 euros pcm. Tel 99935294 www.improdiavilla. com/jr486 FOR RENT fully furnished 1 bedroom flat near Larco hotel Larnaca. Price €370. Tel 99202543 1

BEDROOM flat in Ermou Square area Larnaca - 2 bedroom flat in Phaneromenis area Larnaca. Call 96693375 ***************************** 1. Superior Real Estate Larnaca. 3 bedroom detached unfurnished property set on a fantastic development in the village of Tersefanou. Available for immediate occupation. Ref. TLL973. Tel 24815926

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w/c upstairs, 1 bedroom downstairs with en-suite, airconditoned throughout, garage for 2 cars, storage room, swimming pool, with established garden, quiet area, beautiful mountain and sea views, euro 600 p/m – o.N.O call: 99553741 ***************************** 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 & Kissonerga Landlord & Owners please call 99329357 Or please view at our website www.cyprussands.com Fully Registered Company in Cyprus *****************************

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UK House Offered in Exchange for Apartment or House in Cyprus A four bedroom Semi Detached house in the East Midlands, less than three miles from Clumber Park, is offered in exchange for a 2 bedroom (minimum) residential property anywhere in Cyprus. The house has been recently renovated at a cost of over £25,000.

If interested, please email Natalia Zakharova at nzah50@hotmail.com for a detailed description of my property and please include the internal size in square meters and photos of what you are offering in exchange.

26

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

Advertiser TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

Terraces and Separate Storage Room 600 Euros

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URGENTLY WANTED – 2/3 Bedroom F/F Properties MORE PROPETIES AVAILABLE FOR INFORMATION PLEASE CALL 99862922 ***************************** TOK’s – 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, Immaculate, very high spec top oor apartment, Luxury furnished with Flatscreen TV’s in living room and bedrooms, lift, pool, beautiful development, fantastic location ₏425 pm Lower Peyia – 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom Modern Unfurnished Villa with beautiful sea views.

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LANDLORDS/OWNERS – We always require more properties to list for waiting clients. Please call NOW: 96241965 ***************************** PEYIA, luxury villa, 3 double bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, fully or part furnished, private pool, quiet location, paved garden area, sea and mountain views. Sky satellite, euro 650 ono, please call: 99771532 – no agents LOW COST, long term 3 bedroom bungalow, Polis area, Gialia village, on 3 acres of property, large variety of fruit trees, extremely private with panoramic mountain and sea views, unfurnished, swimming pool, a/c and ďŹ replace, fence around the property â‚Ź550 per month ono – available from 1st of April For more info call: 99 442485 ***************************** MR RENT PAPHOS, the leading

TO LET PAPHOS property rental agency in Paphos ofďŹ ce: 26271858 (00357) if you have a property to rent we are the rental agency to contact offering full property management & rent collection service 1. Anarita â‚Ź375 beautifully furnished modern 2 bedroom townhouse situated on a quiet complex with air conditioned spacious gym also communal pools & well tended gardens.

Townhouse offers modern quality furniture & ďŹ ttings. Guest wc and small patio garden. Viewings highly recommended.

Website reference number: RTL_667 2. Tombs of the Kings ₏400 spacious 3 bedroom ground oor apartment (120 sq meters) conveniently located close to bus stop. Less than 10 minutes walk to tomb of the kings road & old town. Beautifully presented, fully furnished with yscreens & a/c throughout. Enclosed garden. Pets allowed at owners discretion. Website reference number: RTL_662 3. Peyia ₏550 modern detached 2 bedroom villa, situated on private road. Available unfurnished though includes central heating

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Circular dining room with vaulted dome ceiling. Stunning private pool area. Available unfurnished. Website reference numer: RTL_579

TO LET PAPHOS property. Ref: 1224 ₏500 MESOGI PAFOS 4 bedroom house offered furnished, near all amenities. Property has sitting,dining area, kitchen, storage, downstairs bedroom, guest wc. Upstairs 3 additional bedrooms, master en suite, family bathroom. Off street parking, back garden with lawn Ref 1211 ₏690 SEA CAVES PAFOS modern bungalow offered furnished or unfurnished, 3 bedroom, master en suite shower, family bathroom, kitchen, sitting area, outside private pool, roof garden, outside shower-toilte, yscreens nice location with sea views. Ref: 1213 ₏750 MELANOS/CHLORAKA PAFOS Part-furnished, modern 4 bedroom villa, with private pool and amazing sea views. Has modern appliances, off-street covered parking in a nice quiet location. Pets welcome. Ref: 1206 ₏800 PEGEIA PAFOS 3 bedroom unfurnished villa with great sea and mountain views. Property has sitting/dining area, kitchen, 3 bedrooms, master en suite, private pool, covered parking.

Ref: 1214 â‚Ź550 CORAL BAY PAFOS 3 bedroom Villa offered furnished or unfurnished in a lovely private and peaceful location. Property is cosy with a small kitchen, sitting room and dining area with a ďŹ re place, ac, guest wc, 3 bedrooms master en suite, family bathroom. Nice views Ref: 842 â‚Ź750 CHLORAKA PAFOS 2 and 1 bedroom apartments in a lovely modern complex offered furnished or unfurnished with y screens, nice large kitchen, bathroom, communal pool, nice location. Ref 1219 from â‚Ź300 Please call for a free viewing on OfďŹ ce 26600450 Mobile: 97614070 many more properties on our website at www. owron.com - Your Vision is our Mission LANDLORDS IF YOU HAVE A PROPERTY FOR RENT, PLEASE CALL US!!!!!! ***************************** PEYIA – 3 bedroom villa with mod-

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Situated in a quiet residential street opposite orange groves.

Gated entrance, enclosed good sized low maintenance mature garden with fruit trees & private pool. Spacious living area with real ďŹ replace. Downstairs guest wc. Master bedroom with ensuite. Available fully furnished.

Website reference number: RTL_550

7. Peyia â‚Ź950 we are delighted to offer this ultra modern 4 bedroom villa with luxury furnishings & ďŹ ttings. Offering spacious accomodation with breathtaking sea views. Finished to a very high quality. Spacious living area with modern ďŹ tted kitchen & utility area. One bedroom on ground oor with ensuite & kitchenette. Guest wc. Private inďŹ nity pool & enclosed low maintenace garden. A must to see! Website reference number: RTL_670

AYIA MARINOUDA PAFOS 2 bedroom furnished bungalow in lovely quiet complex with communal pool. Property has ďŹ replace, off street parking, nice stone features, character

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4. Mesogi â‚Ź700 spacious 4 bedroom villa plus playroom or ofďŹ ce including gas central heating. One bedroom & bathroom on ground oor. Available unfurnished. Enclosed low maintenance garden with private pool offering privacy & views over countryside. Situated in a quiet residential area. Website reference number: RTL_618

6. Kamares Tala â‚Ź850 a stunning detached villa offering 4 bedrooms plus ofďŹ ce in a quiet & private residential area with large parking bay for numerous cars and covered off street parking. Offering spacious living accommodation and breathtaking views of the sea. This property includes a lift to all 4 oors.

Lovely garden with spacious verandah & private pool. Available unfurnished. Website reference number: RTL_669

***************************** MANDRIA PAFOS 2 bedroom furnished bungalow within walking distance of the village.

Large bedrooms, kitchen, sitting room/dining area with ďŹ re place, large bathroom. Outside gated area and fenced off, pets welcomed Ref: 1217 â‚Ź450

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27

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Advertiser TO LET PAPHOS

FOR SALE NICOSIA

FOR SALE PAPHOS

ern 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

vate parking, lift, title deeds, reduced price €95.000 (including VAT) (no offers) tel: 99266282 (no agents) ***************************** FOR SALE upper floor house 210 sq.m built on 301 sq. m land, Lapatsa area, Pereous 1a. 4 bedrooms with attic room (not finished), c/h ,4 a/c, aluminium doors& window, covered parking and storage room. Price €310.000 pm call 22431095 99330632.

underground private parking, storage room and lift, reduced price: €98.000 (including VAT) with title deeds (no agents) please call: 99266282 *****************************

PROPERTY FOR SALE NICOSIA ***************************** FOR SALE a very nice, large, two bedroom apartment near Hilton and Central Bank. Living, dining room, sitting room, large veranda. Spacious kitchen, c/h, s/h, covered parking. Title deed.

Tel. 99519370. ***************************** FOR SALE OFFICES, ground floor space, suitable for offices or any other business. Centrally located, off Arch. Makarios Avenue, in the Commercial Centre of Nicosia, near Hilton.

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PAPHOS ***************************** FOR SALE large, beautiful, nice designed, sea view house. In Chlorakas area, very quiet and private location. 4 en-suite bedrooms. Spacious living - dinijng room, sitting room, kitchen with all electrical appliances, breakfast room, two fireplaces, builtin bookcases, eletrical shutters, a/c, swimming pool, garden, patio, garage, store room. Option for second floor. Title deed.

Adjacent to above. Sold separately plot of land, with sea view.

Title deed. Tel. 99519370. ***************************** 2 BEDROOM top floor apartment built in 2006, 75 sqm, large sunny balcony with sea views, 2 bathrooms (en-suite), communal pool, air conditioning. Small block of 9 apartments, located behind darmart store, near the debenhams roundabout,

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28

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

Sport Hibbert on song for Indiana Pacers

Kershaw shines bright as Dodgers fell Giants

Team errors blamed for Rasmussen decision

ROY Hibbert scored a game-high 26 points as the Central Divisionleading Indiana Pacers took a 109-106 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers to stretch their winning run to five games.

The Clippers, top of the Pacific Division, suffered a third straight loss as Hibbert’s efforts were supplemented by 23 points and 10 assists from Paul George.

Among current streaks, only the New York Knicks have won more consecutively than the Clippers. The Knicks head the Atlantic Division and have strung together eight straight wins. They were inactive in the latest round of games.

Pitcher burnishes golden arm credentials

Ace leftie: Clayton Kershaw, #22 of the Los Angeles Dodgers throws a pitch on his way to a complete-game shutout against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium

ALEX Rasmussen’s removal from the Circuit de la Sarthe was due to administrative errors from the Danish rider’s GarminSharp team, the International Cycling Union (UCI) said yesterday.

The UCI said Rasmussen was not eligible to race after “documents he was required to provide to Ernst & Young to allow registration were not provided in time”.

The governing body did not elaborate.

Rasmussen wrote on his Twitter feed yesterday from western France: “Just got taken out of La Sarthe by the evil and powerful UCI. Lifetime ban in effect by the UCI apparently.”

Rasmussen’s tweet led to some confusion with the UCI and pundits alike mentioning a possible mix-up with fellow Dane Michael Rasmussen, who this year confessed to doping over a 12-year period.

Alex Rasmussen was initially cleared by the Danish Olympic Committee after he missed two tests and failed to provide his whereabouts once in an 18-month period, but the UCI appealed against the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which imposed the ban on him.

There is no lifetime ban on Alex Rasmussen whose suspension ended on Monday.

last season to acquire the stellar likes of Hanley Ramirez, Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Carl Crawford.

But the Dodgers’ most important piece remains Kershaw, who was drafted by the team in 2006 and won the Cy Young Award in 2011.

He showed why he is so valuable with an outing that included seven strikeouts and just four allowed hits.

In the eighth inning, he blasted a solo home run off reliever George Kontos over the centre-field wall to break up a scoreless game.

Alex Rasmussen’s suspension ended on Monday

SPURS DOWNED

IN BRIEF

The San Antonio Spurs, top of the Southwest, lost 92-90 to the team directly behind them in the division, the Memphis Grizzlies, after 25-point Tony Parker missed a last-gasp jump shot.

Elsewhere, the Detroit Pistons beat the Toronto Raptors 108-98, with Rudy Gay going on to score 34 points in a losing cause.

Al Jefferson’s 24 points helped the Utah Jazz rack up a fifth straight win as they prevailed 112-102 against the Portland Trail Blazers, and Larry Sanders’ 24 points and 13 rebounds assisted the Milwaukee Bucks in their 131-102 rout of the Charlotte Bobcats.

A 29-point haul from Nikola Pekovic helped the Minnesota Timberwolves win 110-100 against the sliding Boston Celtics, while the Houston Rockets beat the Orlando Magic 111-103 and the Atlanta Hawks overcame the Cleveland Cavaliers 10294, who have lost nine in a row.

By Jahmal Corner THE Los Angeles Dodgers rolled out their new bigname signings on Monday but it was their ace pitcher Clayton Kershaw who stole the show in Monday’s Opening Day game with the San Francisco Giants.

The 25-year-old ace leftie tossed a complete-game shutout and smacked his first career home run as the Dodgers registered a 4-0 win over the defending World Series champions.

On a day when Hall of Fame Dodgers hurler Sandy Koufax threw out the first pitch, Kershaw enhanced his position as the current golden arm of the franchise with a stellar performance.

“You got a sense on this day, with the first pitch thrown by Sandy Koufax and the last pitch by Clayton Kershaw, it’s almost like a passing of the torch today,” Los Angeles catcher A.J. Ellis told reporters.

“He’s the most special player I’ve ever played with.”

The Dodgers have other special players, too, and the season-opener was a chance to show off the team’s $215 million dollar payroll, not to mention their newly renovated stadium.

Los Angeles has made waves with big-time roster moves, signing starting pitcher Zack Greinke to a six-year, $147 million contract in December and also adding young Korean lefthander Ryu Hyun-jin.

Those acquisitions came on the heels of Los Angeles making blockbuster trades

“He’s an athlete,” said San Francisco’s Buster Posey, last year’s National League Most Valuable Player.

“The ball ran back to the middle a little bit, and he was all in.”

With their expensive roster, the Dodgers are looming as the biggest threat to the Giants in the NL West but Kershaw wasn’t getting carried away.

“It means we’re 1-0 and we’ve got 161 more (games),” Kershaw said.

“Can’t get too excited but it’s a good way to start, for sure.”

‘You got a sense on this day ... it’s almost like a passing of the torch’

Youngest world record holder Muir dies aged 60

Matsuyama set to debut as pro at Nagoya this month

Two NZ forwards re-sign, another departs for Japan

FORMER South African swimming great Karen Muir, the youngest-ever world record holder in any sport, has died of breast cancer aged 60.

Muir was elected to the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1980 having set 15 world records in the backstroke at 100 metres, 200 metres, 110 yards and 220 yards.

Her first was in the 110-yards event at the 1965 ASA National Junior Championships in Blackpool aged 12, making her the youngest world record holder in any sport. Muir also won 22 South African Championships and three US National Championships, but never competed at the Olympics due to the sports boycott imposed on her country.

TOP Japanese amateur Hideki Matsuyama will make his professional debut at this month’s Token Homemate Cup, the 21-year-old golfer said yesterday.

“I had many top-10 finishes last year in professional competitions, and this gave me the confidence that I can make it,” the 2010 and 2011 Asian amateur champion said in a statement.

“I want to become a player who can win around the world,” added the golfer, whose 2011 Taiheiyo Masters triumph made him only the third amateur to win on the Japan Golf Tour. The 130m yen ($1.39m) Token Homemate Cup begins at Nagoya’s Token Tado Country Club on April 18.

NEW Zealand Rugby agreed contract extensions with lock Brodie Retallick and prop Wyatt Crockett yesterday but second row Anthony Boric opted to join the growing number of All Blacks plying their trade in Japan.

Crockett, 30, and Retallick, 21, have agreed deals to stay with the Canterbury Crusaders and Waikato Chiefs until the end of the 2015 Super Rugby season, making them available to compete in the World Cup later that year in England and Wales.

Their commitment was welcomed by All Blacks coach Steve Hansen.

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, April 3, 2013

29

Sport

Force India’s Di Resta feeling confident ahead of China, Bahrain double header

Di Resta would like to think Force India will again have their noses in front of the McLarens at the next two races

PAUL Di Resta faces Formula One’s next double header in an upbeat mood despite the misery suffered in Malaysia recently.

Following a promising start in the opening grand prix in Australia where Di Resta and team-mate Adrian Sutil finished eighth and seventh respectively, the wheels almost came off - quite literally - a week later in Sepang.

Problems with Force India’s new captive wheel-nut system forced both Di Resta and Sutil to retire when another double points finish was potentially on the cards.

Ahead of the upcoming grands prix in China and Bahrain, Di Resta sees no reason why the Silverstonebased team cannot again force their way into the top 10 in qualifying and then press the frontrunners in both races.

“The next two races can’t really come quick enough,” said Di Resta,

speaking to Press Association Sport.

“Despite what happened in Malaysia we took very good positives from the weekend through our performance, so I’m looking forward to China and Bahrain.

‘MORE KNOWLEDGE’ “I’d like to think we’d have some more knowledge on our car to make it quicker, although China is a different philosophy compared to what we have experienced so far this season.

“But we had a good car there two years ago, and there is no reason why we can’t go there and repeat that,” he said.

“As for Bahrain, that is probably one of the strongest grands prix we had last year, and with the climate similar there to Malaysia with the heat, I’m confident,” he added.

Although the team failed to collect any points in Malaysia, what has so

far been proven is that Force India are, quite comfortably, top-10 material.

That has been due in part to McLaren’s early-season malaise with a car woefully off the pace, although there were signs in Malaysia some of its faults were being corrected.

Di Resta would like to think Force India will again have their noses in front of the McLarens at the next two races.

“We’ve proven where we are at the moment, but whether we will be in that position after the next two will be hard,” added Di Resta.

“I’ve a lot of respect for what McLaren do. Although they are struggling at the moment, they can develop.

“But we will be pushing to stay in front of them. Our performance so far has been far better than people expected, far better than people could probably overhaul in two weeks.”

‘Grand National must stay unique’

Two years on, Clarke still has stomach for fight Despite Australia’s Test series whitewash

by India, believes his side can win Ashes

By Nick Mulvenney AUSTRALIAN cricketing prospects have rarely looked bleaker than when Michael Clarke took over the test captaincy after the last Ashes series, but only an out-and-out optimist would declare the outlook that much brighter two years on.

While his personal stock has risen inexorably on the back of a torrent of runs, Clarke’s Australia could hardly be said to be looking ready, willing and able to contest backto-back test series against England this year.

At the weekend, Clarke celebrated the second anniversary of his appointment as Australia’s 43rd test captain with a night in hospital suffering from gastroenteritis.

If the illness was a lingering reminder of the recent tour of India, it was not the only unpleasantness to accompany him back from the subcontinent.

The 4-0 test drubbing not only once again exposed the frailties of the Australian batting but also featured offfield problems, most notably when four players were dropped for not performing a post-match assignment.

Clarke pugnaciously defended the “homework-gate” exclusions as necessary to foster the team ethic required to fulfil the ambition

he starkly laid out two years ago - to become the number one ranked team in all forms of the game.

The Australians flirted with taking the top test ranking off South Africa in their home series at the end of last year but ultimately went down 1-0 to the Proteas. They are currently ranked fourth.

Clarke will have plenty of time to reflect on how much progress has been made over the last two years in the next seven to 10 weeks as he recovers from hamstring and lower back injuries that ruled him out of the final test in India.

‘A BIT HARSH’ What he probably did not anticipate when he succeeded Ricky Ponting was defending his team against the accusation that they were the worst Australian side to ever take the field.

“All of us understand our performances over the last four tests were not acceptable,” he wrote in a column for an Australian website this week.

“But, that said, we are only a couple of months removed from advancing to within one test match of taking the number one ranking from South Africa.

“That suggests all is not lost and talk of us being the worst Australian team in his-

tory is a bit harsh. One bad tour doesn’t define a squad and I’m confident we can take the fight to England.”

Clarke singled out the performances of batsmen Phil Hughes, Ed Cowan and Steve Smith as positives to come out of the tour, along with the workrate of seamers such as James Pattinson, Peter Siddle and Mitchell Starc.

Whereas Ponting during his reign as captain was not on the selection panel and therefore able to shrug off, or even share, media incredulity at mismanagement of players, Clarke has no such luxury.

Along with South African coach Mickey Arthur, Clarke is part of the four-man panel and must take his share of responsibility.

Leaving aside “homeworkgate”, the most baffling decision in India was to drop spinner Nathan Lyon from the Hyderabad test, which Australia lost by an innings and 135 runs.

Although Lyon is not, and would never claim to be, another Shane Warne, he has been a solid test bowler and returned to take nine wickets in the final match in Delhi - a “good reward for effort” according to Clarke.

Still, if the India tour was the nadir for the Clarke-led Australia team, there have been plenty of highlights too.

Clarke, who turned 32 yes-

While his personal stock has risen inexorably, Clarke’s Australia could hardly be said to be looking ready to contest back-to-back test series against England this year terday, has led the team to 12 wins, six defeats and five draws in 23 tests.

There have been series sweeps of India (4-0) and Sri Lanka (3-0) at home, series wins in West Indies and Sri Lanka as well as a 1-1 draw in an extraordinary series in South Africa.

There has also been his own remarkable form since he took the job, 2,533 test runs at an average of 68.45 with

one triple century, three double centuries and five other hundreds.

But Clarke repeatedly, and apparently genuinely, trots out the line that he would trade all his runs for victories for his team.

And, as Ponting discovered to his cost after three Ashes defeats, Australian captains will only ultimately be defined by how they fare against England.

SAFETY and welfare should always be a priority in jumps racing but the Grand National must remain a test of horse and jockey and not lose its unique character, according to Aintree racecourse chief John Baker.

The deaths of two horses during last year’s race and two in 2011 brought equine safety into focus and prompted an official inquiry amid calls by animal welfare groups for the National, first run in 1839 and now with an estimated global television audience of 600 million, to be banned.

A number of modifications were subsequently recommended, with the organisers making alterations to iconic fences such as the notorious Becher’s Brook.

“They (the National fences) still need jumping, they still need respect and it remains a challenge for horse and jockey which is what it should be,” Baker, overseeing his first National on Saturday, told Reuters.

“This is the greatest race in the world, those fences still need to be respected ... we’ve maintained that, we’re very strong in that the distance of the race is unique, the number of runners is unique and we need to retain the character of the Grand National,” Baker said.

“We have to get the balance right from protecting that uniqueness and character and moving with the times and trying to make sure that safety and welfare is on top of our agenda.”

According to British Horseracing Authority figures, 10 horses have been fatally injured in the Grand National since 2000.

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Wednesday, April 3, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

Sport

FOOTBALL IN BRIEF Samba apologises after QPR defeat by Fulham QPR defender Christopher Samba admits he “let the side down” in Monday night’s west London derby defeat at Fulham, but was quick to hit out at those questioning his value.

The 29-year-old arrived to much fanfare in January but Monday at Craven Cottage showed little of the ability that spurred Rangers to fork out a reported £12.5million.

Samba gave away the penalty from which Dimitar Berbatov opened the scoring, before losing possession under pressure to allow the Bulgarian to net his second goal.

QPR went further behind after a Clint Hill own goal and despite fighting back valiantly through Adel Taarabt and Loic Remy goals fell to a 3-2 defeat.

The result leaves Harry Redknapp’s side seven points adrift of safety with just seven matches left.

“I’m really sorry I let the side down,” Samba said through his Twitter ac-

count, @cs4christsamba1.

“Really upset with my 1st half performance I can’t say sorry enough to all the supporters, won’t give up.”

A little later he added: “to all you (who) keep talking about 100k performance, tell me what is a 100k performance? we as players go out and give our all.

“We do are best every week, what I get paid has nothing to do with any of you, as for my price tag I didn’t put a price on my head, grow up pls.”

United boss turns attention to City after FA Cup defeat SIR Alex Ferguson challenged Manchester United to bounce back from their FA Cup exit by hammering the final nail into Roberto Mancini’s title hopes at Old Trafford next week.

A fantastic goal from Demba Ba, and an equally impressive save from Petr Cech, put an end to United’s Cup hopes on Monday as Rafael Benitez enjoyed a rare victory against his old enemy at Stamford Bridge.

The 1-0 defeat dashed Ferguson’s hopes of lifting his first FA Cup in nine years, but the Scot knows the disappointing defeat will be all but forgotten if United beat their neighbours City at Old Trafford on Monday night.

Victory over their bitter rivals will put the Red Devils 18 points clear at the top of the Barclays Premier League with seven games left.

A miracle would then be the only thing to prevent

United from clinching their 20th title against Stoke or West Ham in the following weeks.

“We will kick on,” the United boss said.

“It was disappointing (to lose against Chelsea), of course, but we have to forget all about it and move on to the game against City next Monday.

“We are in a good position obviously and I think a positive result for us on Monday will just about seal the title for us.”

With City sure to be up for the derby at Old Trafford, where they won 6-1 last season, United will have to up their overall performance from the one they put on yesterday in west London.

Ferguson’s men dominated the first half, but failed to test Cech properly, and they lost their composure after the break, allowing Chelsea to dominate and win the tie through Ba’s well-taken volley.

Pilloried for resting players for Saturday’s 2-1 Premier League defeat at Southampton, Chelsea’s interim manager Rafa Benitez (right) gambled - and won - on a refreshed squad being able to book a spot in the FA Cup semi-finals

Vindication for Benitez

By Toby Davis AFTER another weekend of cutting criticism, Chelsea’s stop-gap manager Rafa Benitez achieved a measure of vindication with Monday’s FA Cup victory over Manchester United.

Pilloried for resting players for Saturday’s 2-1 Premier League defeat at Southampton, Chelsea’s interim coach put all his Easter weekend eggs in one basket by gambling on a refreshed squad being able to book a spot in the semi-finals of the Cup. Thanks to Demba Ba’s stunning volley and Petr Cech’s astonishing save from Javier Hernandez, Chelsea pulled off a 1-0 win in the quarterfinal replay to leave two trophies hovering tantalisingly on the horizon.

With two words almost perfectly designed to provoke debate among Chelsea’s fractious fanbase, Benitez declared they were in the midst

of a “great season”.

While the Spaniard’s critics will point to their inconsistent league form that has left them in a three-way battle for two Champions League qualifying spots, Benitez has some justification.

They remain in the Premier League’s coveted top four, will play an FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City with either Wigan Athletic or Millwall awaiting the victors, and have a winnable Europa League quarter-final against Rubin Kazan to come.

Not bad for a club that has spent much of the season tearing itself apart from inside, with fans protesting on the terraces and a pall of gloom hovering over Stamford Bridge like the persistent English winter.

What would London rivals Arsenal, without a trophy since 2005, give to be in their position?

Even Benitez’s most vocal critics, of which there are many, would have been hard pushed to blame the former Liverpool boss for responding to an astonishing fixture pile-up by prioritising a cup tie that oozed glamour and potential for silverware.

Having played Southampton and United within 48 hours of each other, Chelsea are now set to embark on a run of five matches in 13 days.

It is likely to be an almost impossible juggling act for a manager whose every team sheet is scrutinised by fans who have called for his head since he walked through the door to replace terrace fa-

vourite Roberto Di Matteo.

In defending his squad rotation policy, Benitez, who made seven changes against United, called for balance.

It is an appeal that is likely to be in vain given their battle with Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal for Champions League qualification is likely to go to the wire.

“Before the international break we played against United, Steaua Bucharest and West Ham,” he said. “We were the best in the world. We lost against Southampton and we’re the worst in the world.

“You have to have balance.

We only had 48 hours between games and don’t have a long (deep) squad. We had to approach Southampton in a different way because of the players we had on the pitch.

“These were skilful players with talent and ability. You cannot kill players by playing them two games in a row in that time. Sometimes, for you, a strong team is something different to what I pick.”

Beckham would welcome England call

PSG: no approach for Rooney PARIS St Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi has admitted his admiration for Wayne Rooney, but the French club have not made an approach for the Manchester United striker.

Rooney’s absence from the United side for last month’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Real Madrid sparked suggestions the England international could leave Old Trafford in the summer.

Manager Sir Alex Ferguson quickly poured cold water on the prospect but it did not stop rumours of Rooney’s departure, with PSG one of the few clubs who could match his ambitions and wages.

“He is a great player, he is one of the best strikers in the world,” Al-Khelaifi told Sky Sports News.

“I think everybody would like to have him but, if you want to talk about the fact, we didn’t approach him.”

Chelsea now face run of five matches in 13 days

Beckham hasn’t played for his country since 2009

DAVID Beckham has not given up hope of playing for England again.

The former England captain has recently returned to European football with Paris St Germain, signing up for the rest of the season, but the French giants have indicated they would love to keep him at the Parc des Princes beyond that duration.

And Beckham would rush to his country’s aid if Roy Hodgson decided he could do a job for the national team again.

He told CNN World Sport: “One of the reasons why I’ve never retired from the England team is because if there’s ever an opportunity to play for them again, then I’m available.

“If there is any chance of me ever playing for my country again, I would never turn that down. Like I said, I’m almost 38 years old so the chances are very slight, but you never know.”

Beckham has 115 England caps, more than

any other outfield player in the team’s history, but has not featured since October 2009.

The former Manchester United and Real Madrid man has played mainly cameo roles for PSG since joining at the end of January, following his spell in the United States with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

But new team-mate Zlatan Ibrahimovic has no doubt Beckham’s move to the French capital club has already been a success.

“He has a big impact on the team, he has a lot of qualities,” Ibrahimovic said yesterday.

“He is a winner and he has a great feel for the ball. He brings us his experience of big matches. He’s also a player with a big heart, who has won a lot of trophies.

“As for his free-kicks, he takes them, I take them, sometimes it’s Alex - it’s good to vary.”

Club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi is set to open talks with Beckham about extending his stay.

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, April 3, 2013

31

Sport

Didier Drogba to come full circle with Real clash

Di Canio not talking politics

Gala striker to re-visit Champs League debut

By Iain Rogers THE wheel will have come full circle for Galatasaray forward Didier Drogba when he takes to the pitch for today’s Champions League quarter-final first leg match at Real Madrid.

The Ivory Coast international, who turned 35 last month, made his debut in Europe’s elite club competition at Real’s Bernabeu stadium in September 2003 playing for Ligue 1 side Olympique Marseille.

Although he scored to put Marseille ahead in the 26th minute, goals from Roberto Carlos and Luis Figo and a double from Brazilian Ronaldo fired Real’s “Galacticos” to an easy 4-2 group stage victory.

“It will be very special for me, I will never forget that day,” Drogba was quoted as saying in Galatasaray’s club magazine this week.

“It was very important for my career,” added the former Chelsea player.

Drogba was Chelsea’s key performer on their run to a first Champions League triumph last season before quitting the London club for a stint in China and then moving to Turkey.

He struck the winning penalty in the final shootout against Bayern Munich having earlier kept Chelsea in the match with a crashing header two minutes

from the end of regular time that levelled the score at 1-1.

“I just grabbed this chance to be able to play at the highest level in Europe again without thinking,” he said. “That’s why I am here.

To have the opportunity to win again.”

MOURINHO LOOMS Today’s clash, the fourth between the clubs in UEFA competition, also pits Drogba against his former manager at Chelsea Jose Mourinho, who is bidding to lead Real to the 10th European crown that has eluded the club since 2002.

The pair were together at Stamford Bridge from 2004 to 2007 and won Premier League titles in 2005 and 2006.

Drogba said Mourinho and his Galatasaray counterpart Fatih Terim were excellent motivators.

“Fatih Terim is a lot like Mourinho in that he is very close to the players and always talking with them,” he said.

“The psychological factor is very important in soccer and Terim is very meticulous in that respect.”

While Real have fallen in the semi-finals the past two seasons, it is almost a quarter of a century since Galatasaray last reached the last four.

Alongside Drogba, the

other heavyweight in their ranks is Dutchman Wesley Sneijder, who won the Champions League with Mourinho at Inter Milan in 2010.

Their attacking trident is completed by Burak Yilmaz, who is joint top scorer in the competition with Real’s Cristiano Ronaldo on eight goals.

“Our only weapon against Real Madrid is that we are not afraid,” Terim, a former Turkey, AC Milan and Fiorentina boss, told reporters on Saturday.

“That’s the way we have always played,” he added.

“Our strongest side is that we are not afraid to lose, or to be eliminated.”

Probable teams: Real Madrid: 41-Diego Lopez; 17-Alvaro Arbeloa, 3-Pepe, 4-Sergio Ramos, 5-Fabio Coentrao; 6-Sami Khedira, 14-Xabi Alonso; 22-Angel Di Maria, 10Mesut Ozil, 7-Cristiano Ronaldo; 9-Karim Benzema Galatasaray: 1-Fernando Muslera; 27-Emmanuel Eboue, 26-Semih Kaya, 13Dany Nounkeu, 11-Albert Riera; 14-Wesley Sneijder, 10-Felipe Melo, 8-Selcuk Inan, 4-Hamit Altintop; 17-Burak Yilmaz, 12-Didier Drogba Referee: Svein Moen (Norway)

Oddvar

Didier Drogba (left) said his former manager at Chelsea Jose Mourinho and Galatasaray counterpart Fatih Terim (right) were both excellent motivators

PAOLO Di Canio refused to confirm or deny whether he was a fascist yesterday as the furore over the new Sunderland manager’s political views intensified.

The 44-year-old Italian was asked if he was a fascist on several occasions at a news conference yesterday but did not directly respond, even though he was clearly angered by the questioning and the briefing was abruptly ended.

Di Canio previously stated in a 2005 interview with an Italian news agency to being “a fascist, but not a racist”, and his apparent political leanings have already led to the resignation of the club’s vice-chairman David Miliband, Labour MP for South Shields and a former foreign secretary.

Di Canio said yesterday morning: “I don’t have to answer any more this question. There was a very good statement from the club, (with) very, very clear words that came out from me.

“My life speaks for me so there is no need to speak any more about this situation because it’s ridiculous and pathetic.

“I can’t every two weeks, every two months, every 10 months answer the same questions that are not really in my area.

“We are in a football club and not in the House of Parliament.

“I’m not a political person, I will talk about only football.”

Di Canio has been pictured making a fascist salute to Lazio fans in the past and the Durham Miners’ Association has asked the club to return a symbolic banner which is kept at the Stadium of Light if Di Canio remains in his post, describing his appointment as a “betrayal and a disgrace”.

Debutants Malaga eyeing prize Dortmund scalp

Giant killers: Pellegrini and his players have thus far propelled the Costa del Sol club to unprecedented success

DEBUTANTS Malaga have toppled European giants AC Milan and Porto on their way to the Champions League quarter-finals and have another former winner in their sights when they host Borussia Dortmund today.

Coach Manuel Pellegrini and his players have propelled the Costa del Sol club to unprecedented success despite uncertainty over the commitment of their Qatari owner and cash-flow problems that prompted a ban from UEFA competition from next season.

Chilean Pellegrini has moulded a squad of experienced campaigners including Joaquin, Martin Demichelis, Jeremy Toulalan and Roque Santa Cruz into a highly efficient outfit, with promising youngsters like Isco providing a creative spark.

After beating seven-time European champions Milan 1-0 at the Rosaleda stadium on the way to topping Group C, Malaga dispatched 2004 winners Porto 2-0 in the last round on a festive night for local fans, including Hollywood actor Antonio Banderas.

They are brimming with confidence ahead of the first leg with Dortmund - who won the Champions League in 1997 - according to former Spain winger Joaquin.

“If we are here it is because we have

proved we are a great team,” the 31-yearold told a news conference on Monday.

“This is the time when the great teams express themselves and we have not said the last word here at the Rosaleda,” he added.

Malaga’s success is in large measure down to their well-drilled defence, one of the meanest in La Liga this season, and preventing Dortmund from scoring an away goal could be key to their chances of progressing after next week’s return leg.

Malaga have kept nine clean sheets in their 12 European home games, including against Milan in October and the success against Porto last month.

If they reach the semi-finals, they will match the debut-season achievement of La Liga rivals Villarreal under Pellegrini in the 2005-06 season.

Known as “the engineer”, the cerebral Pellegrini led an unfancied Villarreal team to the last four before they were narrowly beaten by Premier League side Arsenal.

“This is a tie lasting 180 minutes in which we have to be intelligent, dominate the match but without forgetting the return leg,” Pellegrini told a news conference after Malaga’s 3-1 La Liga victory at Rayo Vallecano on Saturday.

“Hopefully we will go to Dortmund with

a solid advantage,” added the former Real Madrid coach, who was sacked in 2010 to make way for Jose Mourinho.

Dortmund have several players battling for fitness after a hard-fought 2-1 victory at VfB Stuttgart that kept them in a distant second place in the Bundesliga on Saturday.

With only one trophy to chase for after losing the domestic battle to Bayern Munich this season, they are eager to leave their mark on Europe’s elite club competition.

Probable teams: Malaga: 13-Willy Caballero; 2-Jesus Gamez, 3-Weligton, 5-Martin Demichelis, 25-Antunes; 8-Jeremy Toulalan, 16-Manuel Iturra; 7-Joaquin, 10-Julio Baptista, 22-Isco; 24-Roque Santa Cruz Borussia Dortmund: 1-Roman Weidenfeller; 26-Lukasz Piszczek, 4-Neven Subotic, 27-Felipe Santana, 29-Marcel Schmelzer; 6-Sven Bender, 8-Ilkay Guendogan; 16-Jakub Blaszczykowski, 10Mario Goetze, 11-Marco Reus; 9-Robert Lewandowski Referee: Jonas Eriksson (Sweden)

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

32 Two years on, Clarke still has stomach for fight 29

Sport

Drogba to come full circle with Real clash 31

Late drama as Matuidi earns PSG draw with Barca

By Julien Pretot BLAISE MATUIDI grabbed a dramatic equaliser in stoppage time to earn Paris St Germain a 2-2 draw with title favourites Barcelona in a pulsating Champions League quarter-final first leg last night.

Barca went in front seven minutes before halftime when Dani Alves produced an exquisite pass with the outside of his right boot straight into the path of Lionel Messi who drove the ball in with his left foot from an acute angle.

World Player of the Year Messi then sustained a hamstring injury and had to go off at halftime, replaced by Cesc Fabregas.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave PSG a lifeline when he scrambled in the equaliser after a soaring header from Thiago Silva hit the post in the 79th minute.

Xavi calmly restored Barca’s advantage from the penalty spot after goal-

PSG 2 Barcelona 2 keeper Salvatore Sirigu rushed off his line in the 89th minute and brought down Alexis Sanchez.

Matuidi then struck with the last kick of the game as his long-range shot eluded the outstretched fingers of keeper Victor Valdes.

Midfielder Matuidi and Barca defender Javier Mascherano were booked and will miss the second leg at the Nou Camp on April 10 through suspension.

David Beckham became the first British player to appear for four different clubs in the Champions League when he was named in the starting lineup.

The former England captain did well in midfield before he was taken off midway through the second half.

“I think we deserved a draw tonight,”

Beckham told ITV Sport. “There’s no reason why we can’t go there and get a result.

“I was very happy, the manager (Carlo Ancelotti) has always shown confidence in me. Tonight was a big moment for the club - it doesn’t get much better than these nights.”

PSG went for Barca’s throat in the opening stages but were not rewarded for their efforts.

They went close in the fifth minute when Javier Pastore chested an Ibrahimovic pass into the path of Ezequiel Lavezzi who struck Valdes’ right post.

Lavezzi wasted another good opportunity five minutes later, shooting straight at Valdes after collecting a brilliant through ball from Lucas.

Pastore then fired a powerful low shot that forced Valdes to dive to his right.

The Spain keeper was at full stretch again as he stopped Ibrahimovic’s 20-metre free kick.

Barca only had Andres Iniesta’s curling shot - which went wide - to show for their silky passing as PSG stamped their authority on the game.

Thiago Silva thwarted the dangerous Messi as the Argentine dribbled his way towards goal before Lucas released Ibrahimovic and the Sweden striker’s low shot went wide.

Lucas’ dazzling runs were a nightmare to handle for Barca but it was the visitors who took the lead.

Messi was in acres of space 12 metres out and he beat Sirigu to notch his eighth goal in this season’s competition.

PSG seemed to be running out of steam when Ibrahimovic, looking suspiciously offside when Thiago Silva hit the woodwork, levelled from two metres.

Xavi was coolness personified as he wrong-footed Sirigu from the penalty spot to put Barca 2-1 up but Matuidi sent the crowd wild with delight with his late goal.

Matuidi celebrates after scoring the equaliser last night

Lightning strike sets up win for rampant Bayern Munich Third final in four years takes step closer to reality Bayern 2 Juventus 0

B

AYERN Munich’s bid to reach a third Champions League final in four years remains on track after they earned a deserved victory over Juventus in the first leg of their quarter-final clash last night.

A goal inside the first minute from David Alaba set Bayern on their way and Thomas Muller added a second just after the hour mark as the German giants built a healthy advantage to take to Italy for their return leg.

However Bayern, runnersup in 2010 and again last year when they lost the final on home soil to Chelsea following a penalty shoot-out, will be wary of getting too confident.

In the previous round they beat Arsenal 3-1 away from home in the first leg but were then made to sweat for a place in the last eight after losing the home leg 2-0.

That was Bayern’s only setback during a run of 13 wins in 14 matches coming into last night’s game

Bayern Munich’s David Alaba (second right) celebrates with team-mates after scoring last night’s opening goal though, and on Saturday they moved to within one win of claiming the Bundesliga title with a 9-2 thrashing of Hamburg.

Confidence was flying and they could hardly have had a better start against Italian title hopefuls Juve at the Allianz Arena.

There were less than 30 seconds on the clock when Alaba picked up the ball 30

yards from goal before unleashing a left-footed effort which, after clipping the end of Arturo Vidal’s boot, swerved past the hopelessly wrong-footed Gianluigi Buffon and into the bottom corner.

Juve might have felt a little unlucky to have conceded in that fashion but they could consider themselves fortunate not to have conceded

more during a first half that Bayern largely dominated.

After Juve playmaker Andrea Pirlo saw a dipping long-range free-kick land on the roof of Manuel Neuer’s net, the home side started to create a number of good openings.

Substitute Arjen Robben, having replaced the injured Toni Kroos moments before, almost marked his

EPA)

introduction with a goal in the 18th minute only to be denied by a fine save from Buffon.

Franck Ribery then saw a shot deflected into the sidenetting before Robben fired another great opening wide just after the half-hour.

Robben drew another save from Buffon in the 35th minute, albeit a comfortable one, before Bastian

Schweinsteiger fired a halfchance over the bar.

Juve’s best hope of success looked to be from Pirlo’s set-pieces and they almost drew level from one on the stroke of half-time, Leonardo Bonucci glancing a header just over from the veteran playmaker’s inswinging corner.

That effort, and the halftime interval, offered some respite to Juve but they were back on the defensive at the start of the second half, with Buffon denying Mario Mandzukic at his near post before then flying to his left to parry an Alaba free-kick.

Bayern were employing a shoot-on-sight policy and another effort from outside the box led to their second goal in the 63rd minute.

Buffon kept out Luiz Gustavo’s shot but the rebound was picked up by Mandzukic and he laid the ball back into the centre for Muller to tap into an empty net.

Jupp Heynckes’ side sensed they could all but finish Juve off before the second leg and Buffon needed to be alert to deflect away a thunderbolt from Ribery in the 70th minute.

Buffon then produced a superb one-handed save to deny Muller in the 90th minute and, with the Germany international firing the rebound over with the goal at his mercy, that could yet prove decisive in the second leg.