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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

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MEPs take pot shots at Cyprus Christofias goes on the defensive in Strasbourg as MEPs criticise him

By George Psyllides

D

EMETRIS Christofias was forced to go on the defensive yesterday at the European Parliament when several MEPs took pot shots at Cyprus over money laundering allegations, and at the Cypriot president’s own communist background.

Christofias was in Strasbourg for a review of the Cyprus EU presidency where he told European lawmakers he believed austerity was the wrong approach to the financial crisis.

“It‘s my firm conviction that unilateral policies of austerity are a guaranteed recipe for failure, only succeeding in making the rich richer and the poor poorer,” Christofias said.

“The technocrats who represent the troika promote the same old failed recipes of one-sided strict austerity, leading millions of European citizens into poverty, depravation and social exclusion,” he added.

During his address, Christofias Christofias had to endure criticism and the sarcastic remarks from a Belgian MP, who even addressed him in Russian.

A member of the conservatives, Belgian MEP Derk Jan-Eppink, asked Christofias whether Europe was bailing out Cyprus or “Russian billion-

Pope’s secretary ‘Gorgeous George’ on Vanity Fair cover

aires?” “Mr President you are going from the [Russian] rouble to the rubble,” said Eppink, who also spoke about Christofias’ communist background.

Another MEP censured Eppink, describing his manner as “extremely impolite and aggressive.”

Responding to Eppink, Christofias suggested that some people must “shake off the communist fixation.”

“Yes, I said I am proud to be a communist and I continue to be proud and will be so until the end of my life because I believe the mistake is not the ideology but the way some people put this ideology to practice,” the president said.

“In any case, do we have freedom of expression in the EU or don’t we?”

Corien Wortmann-Kool, on behalf of the conservative European People‘s Party said a new government was needed in Cyprus “to give the Cypriot citizens a new perspective.”

“There has to be a credible plan to allow the Cypriot government to get its house in order ... This government hasn‘t been in a position to do that,’ he said.

Greens leader Rebecca Harms, who is German, also took a shot over tax evasion and money laundering. “Cyprus is a country that enables tax refugees to settle, ... that

TURN TO PAGE 5

President Demetris Christofias addressing the European Parliament yesterday

(CNA)

ARCHBISHOP Georg Ganswein, Pope Benedict’s private secretary, who has been dubbed ‘Gorgeous George’ by the Italian media, is now a real-life cover boy.

The prelate has landed on the cover of Vanity Fair.

The cover on the Italian edition of the magazine shows the 56-year-old archbishop smiling, his blue eyes beaming, above a headline that reads ‘Father Georg - It’s not a sin to be beautiful’.

The magazine calls Ganswein ‘The George Clooney of St Peter’s’ and says it dedicated a cover story to honour his recent promotion to the rank of archbishop and as recognition of his growing power in the Roman Catholic Church.

A spokeswoman for the magazine said Ganswein was not interviewed for the article and did not pose for the cover photo, which she said was a close-up of an existing picture.

Ganswein, who has been Benedict’s personal secretary since the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Roman Catholic leader in 2005, was elevated to the rank of archbishop earlier this month.

A German like the pope, he was also promoted to the job of Prefect of the Pontifical Household, a position that will significantly increase his power as the pope gets older and frailer.

As prefect, Ganswein - already one of the most recognisable and powerful figures in the papal court - will arrange all the pope’s private and public audiences and his daily schedule.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

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Home PICTURE OF THE DAY

Weather Paralimni

Nicosia 17

9

Troodos

19 19

Larnaca

19

19

Paphos

Limassol

TODAY: Clear and sunny. Temperatures will reach 17C inland, 19C along the coasts and 9C over higher ground OUTLOOK: Becoming more unsettled from Thursday, with an increase of dust in the atmosphere YESTERDAY:

Max Temp Nicosia 17 Larnaca 18 Limassol 18 Paphos 18 Paralimni 17 Prodromos 11

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Min 5 7 9 9 7 2

Humidity 59% 53% 62% 63% 53% 74%

SUNRISE: 06:54am

SUNSET: 4:59pm

Pollution Medium/Low Medium/Low Low/High Low Low Low

Air quality in Cyprus is assessed with the aid of a network of nine advanced monitoring stations.

Data is recorded hourly.

Information provided by the Air Quality Section of the Department of Labour Inspection (DLI)

Worldwide Athens Budapest Bucharest Brussels Cairo Copenhagen Damascus Dublin Frankfurt Geneva Istanbul London

16 3 1 -1 20 -4 12 3 0 0 12 1

Cloudy Mist Fog Snow Clear Clear Clear Cloudy Cloudy Mist Clear Cloudy

Madrid Manchester Moscow Oslo Paris Prague Rome Sarajevo Sofia Stockholm Tel Aviv Vienna

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EXCHANGE

€

1.3419

€

0.8351

For a full list of exchange rates, see page 10

CHEMISTS NICOSIA M. Paphiti, Strovolos & Ay Mamantos Ave, Kato Lakatameia. Tel: 22324114, 22323943 (H) K. Solomou, 49E Z Archangelou Ave, Strovolos. Tel: 22357047, 22354816 (H) L. Froso, 69 Larnaca Ave, Aglandjia. Tel: 22338941, 22338941 (H) M. Papadopoulou, 38C Them.

Dervis St. Tel: 22676936, 22338998 (H) I. Papaioakovou, 60 Democratic Ave, Strovolos. Tel: 22450644, 22876916 (H) LIMASSOL S. Nicolaou, 31 Georgiou A Germasoyia, Tel: 25325450, 25383877 (H)

Gr. Gregoriou 37B Kosti Palama Tel: 25754111, 25566818 (H) E. Pitsiakou 26A+B Troodous & Apostolou Varnava Tel: 25662177, 25344887 (H) LARNACA S. K. Eleni, 15. 17 Kilkis St. Tel: 24651035, 24621522 (H) A. Christoforou, 21 Larissa St, Kamares. Tel: 24364270, 24645787 (H) PAPHOS N. Nicolaou, P.E.O. 14 N. Antoniades St. Tel: 26934224, 26953371 (H) M. Taliotou, 57 A. Papagou St. Tel: 26910276, 26932950 (H) PARALIMNI Ch. X. Alapai, 8 Gr. Dighenis Ave. Tel: 23742002, 23744155 (H)

Indian clowns share a light moment before performing at the Kohinoor Circus in Siliguri. The circus, inaugurated in 1988, is one of the most popular as it travels throughout India. At present, there are only ten circuses still active in India whereas in the first half of the 20th century, there were as many as 50 circuses touring the country (AFP)

QUICK CROSSWORD 2286 Across

Down

1 Cloudy (8) 6 Barley used in brewing (4) 8 Full assembly (6) 9 Unarmed combat (6) 10 Urge to action (9) 13 Grasp roughly (4) 14 Tosspot (3) 15 A female (4) 16 Unfading (9) 19 Season before Christmas (6) 20 Avocet (anag.) (6) 21 Norse god (4) 22 First principle (8)

2 Unit of electromotive force (4) 3 Offensively strong (4) 4 Estate manager (13) 5 Begin a journey (4,2,3,4) 6 Orange or yellow flower (8) 7 Toleration (8) 11 On condition that (8) 12 The Granite City (8) 17 Leaf-bearing axis (4) 18 Cooker (4)

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

ON THIS DAY JANUARY 16 1547

28 years ago Wednesday January 16, 1985

‘Ivan The Terrible’ (Ivan IV Vasilyevich) is crowned Tsar of Russia. He is the first ruler of Russia to assume the title of Tsar.

The driver of an excavator employed by the Forestry Department, Modestos Hadjiphilipou, was killed yesterday when the machine overturned during afforestation operations in the wood between Mosphiloti and Sha. Rescuers had to bring in another bulldozer in order to get to his body.

1909 The British Antarctic Expedition, led by Ernest Shackleton, locates the magnetic South Pole.

1919

Cyprus Mail Established 1945. Number 21,429 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

Prohibition, the legal ban on the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drink, goes into effect.

1979 Faced with an army mutiny and violent demonstrations against his rule, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi is forced to flee the country.

2006 Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is inaugurated as Liberia’s new president. She is the first elected female Head of State in Africa.

38 years ago Thursday January 16, 1975 House President Glafkos Clerides will arrange for a deputation of relatives of unlisted missing Greek Cypriots to present their case to the Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash today at their Ledra Palace meeting. Clerides said this during a meeting with the Committee of Relatives of Unlisted Missing Persons. The committee urged for top priority to be given to the matter.

58 years ago, Sunday January 16, 1955 A man was yesterday brought before the Nicosia District Court charged with attempting to murder his wife Panayiota Constanti on December 17, in a house near Omorphita. He stabbed her with a razor, it is alleged and she was removed to hospital in a critical condition. His case was committed for trial at the Assizes court.

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, January 16, 2013

3

Home Revision of EAC prices to be discussed today

‘Milk price ceiling will backfire on shoppers’

By Stefanos Evripidou

Price cap may be set higher, prompting some retailers to charge maximum allowed

By Elias Hazou MANUFACTURERS and consumer advocacy groups were yesterday seething at the commerce minister’s decision to press forward with a price ceiling on milk, warning that the move would backfire on shoppers.

The cap – both on wholesale and retail prices – is likely to be announced today and if so would be published in the government gazette the following day and thus take immediate effect.

An announcement had been expected yesterday, but the decision was apparently deferred.

But industry sources told the Cyprus Mail the caps would be €1.41 for retail and €1.32 for wholesale - significantly higher than what milk currently goes for at points of sale.

Speaking to newsmen, Commerce Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis said he would exercise his powers in ordering a price ceiling for 45 days in order to protect consumers.

“Our intervention is intended to keep prices at bay, protecting consumers first and foremost, and I think that over the next 45 days there is ample time for all concerned to have second thoughts,” Sylikiotis told newsmen.

This followed a move by the cattle farmers who raised raw milk prices by four cents a litre from January 1, announcing

also an additional increase of 1.8 cents as of April 1 to cope with the rising costs of animal feed. In turn, pasteurisers said they would need to crank up the price of wholesale milk by nine cents per litre.

The minister’s stance appeared to be slanted in favour of the producers. He said a nine cents hike on the part of the manufacturers would be “completely unjustified” in the event the farmers went ahead with their four cents increase.

But whereas he suggested that the pasteurisers should absorb most of the extra cost, he did not imply the same for the farmers.

“Who has the more clout?

The farmers or the manufacturers? From my own experience with such negotiations, these decisions are more about politics and less about the technical details,” said one dairy products manufacturer who preferred not to be named.

The minister and the pasteurisers did not see eye to eye during a meeting held later in the day, with the businessmen insisting they could not absorb the extra cost and would have to pass it on.

“We disagree with the whole concept of a price ceiling,” head of the milk pasteurisers’ association Marios Kampanellas told the Cyprus Mail. Moreover the pasteurisers threatened that, should cattle farmers insist on the four cents hike and refuse

Like consumer groups, those in the milk industry are opposed to a price ceiling to negotiate a new price, they might stop processing milk and halt operations until the matter clears up.

Even with a nine cents increase, Kampanellas said, their profit margin would be less than one cent per litre.

Milk prices in Cyprus are already among the highest in the EU. The Pancyprian Cattle Farmers’ Organisation (POA) counters that in recent years they have maintained their sale prices fairly stable (around 48 cents per litre), but despite that milk on store shelves went from €1.28 in 2008 to €1.40 in 2011.

POA is a collective of the individual cattle farmers or-

ganised as a limited liability company. It represents about 90 per cent of milk production on the island. Loukas Aristodemou, head of the Cyprus Consumers & Quality of Life Union, said he could not figure out the logic behind the price cap.

Currently a litre of semiskimmed milk goes from €1.16 to €1.32 at supermarkets, although bakeries and kiosks are far more expensive, selling for as much as €1.40.

“So the minister’s ceiling is even higher than that,” Aristodemou said.

Over the past couple of days his group has been receiving several complaints from

people across the country reporting soaring milk prices at stores. “It’s going to boomerang on consumers, because with a price cap, retailers are thinking: ‘heck, why not sell at the maximum permissible price’?”

He also questioned whether the ministry had the resources to adequately enforce the price ceiling, citing the shortage of manpower.

One Nicosia kiosk was yesterday selling a litre of milk for €1.50. The owner said that, previously he had bought fresh milk from suppliers for €1.26 and was selling at €1.40. Now, to maintain his profit margin, he had to go up to €1.50.

Tense stand-off as anti-fascists face ELAM

By Stefanos Evripidou THOSE AMBLING through the streets of old Nicosia last night might have mistaken their location for a battle zone as nationalist party ELAM and anti-fascists squared up outside the old Phaneromeni Church, armed with helmets, clubs and shields.

On one side, in front of the Phaneromeni school and in the churchyard, around one to two hundred ELAM (National Popular Front) supporters gathered to mark the 63rd anniversary of a referendum held in Cyprus in 1950, where 95.7 per cent of those who took part, voted in favour of union (Enosis) with Greece.

The vast majority of supporters of the far-right group who gathered last night wore motorcycle helmets and carried thick sticks that doubled up as flag holders. Some also carried homemade-looking shields. Others covered

their faces with hoods or balaclavas.

From those whose faces were not hidden, there was a mix of young and old, men, women and teenagers. Former EOKA fighters were also present.

While the ceremony took place, helmet-wearing ELAM members took control of security, closing off access to the site around the school while a small group of police stood in and around the gathering.

However, just a few metres away, a heavily-equipped police anti-riot unit stood firm west of the church, blocking access to the ELAM event to an equally-sized crowd of people who had gathered as a counter-protest to the ELAM march. They shouted antifascist slogans and sang “Happy New Year” to the more organised gathering opposite.

On the frontline facing the police, their members also wore helmets and carried sticks, though the number of ‘battle-ready’ counter-demonstrators was less than the helmet and stick

ELAM supporters, who appeared to have clear chains of command.

The two crowds chanted slogans at each other while the police stood firm in the middle to ensure there was no repeat of the violence that marred the Rainbow Festival in Larnaca when an anti-migrant protest was allowed to mix with a counter-demonstration.

This was the sixth year ELAM organised an event to mark the enosis referendum of 1950.

On their website, they called on the state and authorities to protect the historic Phaneromeni church, claiming it has been left at the mercy of “foreigners and anarchists”.

ELAM head Christos Christou told the Cyprus Mail last night that “certain punks” tried to obstruct an event organised at a place “very holy to the Greeks of Cyprus”.

“Fortunately, thanks to the cool heads and resolve of ELAM, the event took place and no incidents occurred,” he said. Asked to comment on the

large number of helmet-clad participants, he said: “They are part of our security which we were forced to organise to protect the people taking part in the event.”

While tensions were high throughout the event, police appeared to have a clear game plan, keeping both sides well apart until the ELAM supporters marched away.

Some within the anti-fascist crowd left behind shouted out warnings to others not to leave the site alone, fearful of reprisals from their opposite numbers.

ELAM announced this month it would be fielding its own candidate in next month’s presidential elections, for which it has received the support of Greek far-right party ‘Chrysi Avgi’ (Golden Dawn). On December 28, 2010, the group organised a march against Turkish Cypriots and migrants.

Its manifesto proclaims a zero-tolerance, anti-immigration policy against illegal immigration.

THE ELECTRICITY Authority (EAC) will meet with the energy regulator today to decide on whether to revise electricity prices downwards, after the 4.0 per cent increase imposed this month.

The meeting will take place at the offices of the Energy Regulatory Authority (CERA), following a discussion by the EAC board yesterday on the request made by CERA last week to reconsider its prices.

Chairman of the House Commerce Committee Lefteris Christoforou yesterday called on the EAC to remove the surcharge imposed on consumers after the Mari naval base blast wiped out the island’s main power plant.

He argued that the electricity authority has already taken over €100m from consumers who were not to blame for the blast.

On Monday, VAT rose by one percentage point to 18 per cent, bumping up the already high cost of electricity.

Last week, CERA asked the EAC to reconsider the latest rise in electricity prices, which came into effect on January 1.

Prices were adjusted under the EAC’s recalculation of its fuel-cost formula to cover the purchase of carbon credits for greenhouse gas emissions, rising approximately 4.0 per cent. The EAC adjusts its fuel cost formula - the major component of electricity bills - every month. The electricity rate - kilowatt hour (kWh) - is the sum of the fuel cost plus the price of carbon credits.

The EAC will have the opportunity to argue its case in favour of the price increase today in its meeting with the regulatory authority which will be expected to make a decision on whether to revise the adjustment on electricity bills or not.

Cyprus boasts one of the highest, if not the highest, price tag for electricity in Europe. DISY deputy Christoforou also met with CERA head Giorgos Shammas yesterday to call for a 10 per cent reduction in electricity prices.

Speaking after the meeting, the commerce committee chairman said: “The cost of electricity on households and businesses is unbearable.”

He also called on the EAC not to cut electricity for those vulnerable segments of the population, especially the unemployed, who are struggling to pay their bills during the winter.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

4

Home A new era for Amiantos mine

The three main candidates face off with four journalists during the televised election debate on Monday night

(Christos Theodorides)

Three sides claim victory in televised election debate

By Poly Pantelides THE PARTIES backing the three main contenders in next month’s presidential elections looked back on Monday’s televised debate yesterday, all throwing accusations at their opponents and all trying to assert their own candidate was top dog in the debate.

The contenders discussed the economy on Monday during a live televised debate broadcast by Cyprus’ four main TV channels Sigma, Mega, CyBC and Ant1.

The debate was watched by over 70 per cent of viewers with about 243,000 in the first half.

However this number dwindled to 189,000 viewers for the second half, which began at around 10:30pm, according to AGB Cyprus Nielsen audience measurement.

DISY spokesman Haris Georgiades said the party’s leader Nicos Anastasiades was

The debate was watched by over 70pct of viewers, some 243,000, in the first half the only one who managed to “steer clear of irresponsible populism and demagogy”.

“He spoke about how the island could move forward whereas his fellow contenders were restricted to comment and criticised Anastasiades’ proposals,” Georgiades said.

DISY’s Christos Stylianides had more specific things to say on the other two candidates.

He trashed the proposals of EDEK-backed Giorgos Lillikas who, for the better part of the debate, focused on his proposals to pre-sell part of natural gas found in Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone.

It has been already been proven with numbers that Cyprus would get a relatively small amount that would not

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suffice for the island’s needs, Stylianides said. He was referring to statements by experts, including the energy chief Solon Kassinis, who said that Lillikas’ proposal was not viable, both because the actual gas reserves needed to be proved, not only estimated, but also because issuing an initial public offering would be underselling the finds that are worth more with the proper infrastructure in place.

Stylianides also criticised Malas’ take on the bailout and questioned the point of the AKEL candidate’s insistence that he would secure the banks’ recapitalisation needs.

EDEK’s Marinos Sizopoulos said that Anastasiades contradicted himself, going back on positions he previously held including that of privatising semi-governmental organisations.

Sizopoulos also commented on Anastasiades’ outburst against Lillikas who had accused him of constantly apologising, hinting that his political views were easily changed.

Anastasiades said on Mon-

day that he has only offered “two mea culpa” during his career. One to DIKO’s people who are now asked to vote for him, an allusion to his stance in favour of the 2004 proposed settlement to the Cyprus problem, and another mea culpa for being overly tolerant of the current government’s actions [on the economy].

Sizopoulos said that he could count at least four but did not elaborate.

Turning to Malas, Sizopoulos criticised him for his efforts to fend off criticism targeted to the current administration.

“He consistently failed to defend… the policy of a government that he was a member of for 18 months,” Sizopoulos said referring to Malas’ term as health minister.

“This speaks of weakness and shared responsibility,” he said. Former finance minister Kikis Kazamias jumped in to defend Malas arguing that he was the only candidate who gave concrete proposals.

Lillikas failed to convince anyone on his natural gas proposal which he presented

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without evidence, Kazamias said. And Anastasiades “overemphasised his good relationship with foreign leaders” but failed to speak of their clear attempt to “get involved in our domestic affairs”.

Commenting on the European tacit vote of confidence in Anastasiades during last week’s high-profile European People’s Party summit in Limassol, Kazamias questioned the intentions of partners who would declare support for Cyprus only in the event that Anastasiades was elected.

AKEL spokesman Giorgos Loucaides accused Anastasiades of cultivating a myth that he has excellent European relations despite the money laundering accusations emanating from his EEP buddies, he said.

Anastasiades’ “chaotic statements” show that his government would be equally chaotic, Loucaides said, referring to Anastasiades’ softening of his pro-privatisation position.

Only with Malas could the country be safe from “bowing to German and conservative directives” aiming to annul the social state, workers’ rights, and sell off the country’s national wealth, Loucaides said.

A look at people’s comments on online media paints a different picture. A number of people commenting on twitter and Facebook as the debate unfolded criticised the format as ineffective. One journalist would pose a specific question to one of the candidates and once that cycle was up, a colleague would move on with a different question to another candidate.

Others became frustrated at the vague answers. But candidates will have a chance to redeem themselves during two more debates, on January 28 and February 11.

A CONTRACT was signed yesterday between the planning bureau and the forestry department for the financing of the project ‘Biodiversity Conservation in Restoration and Management of the Amiantos Asbestos Mine in Troodos National Forest Park’ The project will be implemented under the EEA Grants 2009-2014 by the forestry department, and the programme under which the project falls will be operated by the planning bureau.

Funding will be on the basis of the relevant provisions of the approved MoU signed between Cyprus and the three Donor States of the EEA Financial Mechanism (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) in December 2011.

The total budget of the Project is €1.35 million.

The EEA Grants will provide 84.3 per cent of the total project budget, which amounts to €1.14, while Cyprus will provide 15.7 per cent of the total project budget, which amounts to €211.833.

The main objective is to contribute to halting loss of biodiversity through the improvement of the restoration and management practices in the Amiantos Asbestos Mine in Troodos National Forest Park.

“Considering the effect of the outcome of the project on the restoration of a large number of abandoned mines (mainly copper), as well as quarries, the project is expected to have a beneficial effect on the economy and social conditions of Cyprus,” said an announcement.

It said society in general, and the inhabitants of local communities surrounding the mine in particular would benefit.

Project jobs will also be created for labourers, scientists and private entrepreneurs.

DISY-DIKO seek extended voting ELECTION partners DISY and DIKO plan to table a proposal before the House Interior Committee tomorrow seeking a two-hour extension on the hours voting stations are open on election day.

The bill, proposed by DISY and DIKO MPs Tasos Mitsopoulos and Fytos Constantinou, requests that ballot boxes are sealed two hours later than planned on election day, scheduled for February 17, and possibly February 24.

According to current legislation, voting stations open at 7am until 12pm, and then again at 1pm until 5pm.

The DISO-DIKO alliance is seeking to push back closing time to 7pm.

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, January 16, 2013

5

Home

MEPs take pot shots at Cyprus This should stop. You must respect a small country suffering occupation, said Christofias

President Demetris Christofias presses home his point in Strasbroug yesterday (AFP)

Fresh onslaught by German media over money laundering

Banks follow in footsteps of sovereign downgrade

By George Psyllides

MOODY`S Investors Service has downgraded the senior unsecured debt and deposit ratings of three Cypriot banks to Caa2 and lowered the standalone credit assessments of two of those banks, Hellenic Bank Public Company Ltd to caa3 from caa2 and Cyprus Popular Bank Public Co Ltd to ca from caa3.

The outlook on the banks` senior debt and deposit ratings is negative, the ratings agency said.

According to Moody’s, the rating action was triggered by the downgrade of Cyprus`s government bond rating to Caa3 on January 10, and reflects the uncertainty regarding the timing and conditions of a finalised Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Cypriot government and the troika to finance bank recapitalisations.

Moreover, the rating agency says that it reflected heightened risk of sovereign default, which could jeopardise the effectiveness of bank recapitalisations once the external support programme is in place, as well as the associated impact of increased sovereign credit risk on banks` standalone credit profiles, given the banks` sizable portfolios of government securities.

Representatives of the USbased investment management firm Pimco - tasked with estimating the recapitalisation needs - are due to meet today with Popular Bank and the Bank of Cyprus in Nicosia.

WHILE Cyprus has repeatedly denied money laundering charges, the German media has continued to fire broadsides at the island, branding Cyprus a safe haven for dubious money.

In a lengthy report published on Monday, Der Spiegel describes Cyprus a haven for Russian oligarchs who have set up shop on the island.

“Several dozen oligarchs and financial sharks have set up offshore companies in Cyprus, where they can protect their assets, at very favourable tax rates, from the Kremlin-controlled Russian justice system,” the media outlet said.

Billionaire Roman Abramovich, known internationally as the owner of some of the world’s largest private yachts and London’s Chelsea Football Club, controls his Evraz holding company through a Cyprus-based company, Lanebrook while financial magnate and former presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov, who owns mining companies in Russia, registered Intergeo Management Ltd. in Cyprus in 2008, Der Spiegel said.

It went on to list all the Russian magnates with interests in Cyprus.

Vladimir Lisin, worth an estimated $15.9 billion, controls more than two-thirds of his most important com-

pany, a steel mill in Novolipetsk, through the Cypriot company Fletcher Holding Ltd. Owners of other companies registered in Cyprus include Lisin’s competitor Alexei Mordashov (worth $15.3 billion), nickel tycoon Vladimir Potanin ($14.5 billion) and oil baron Vagit Alekperov ($13.5 billion).

There is also Suleyman Kerimov ($6.5 billion), and Internet czar and friend of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev Alisher Usmanov, who topped the list of Russia’s richest men last year at $18.1 billion.

It also mentions fertiliser magnate Dmitry Rybolovlev, who is the biggest single shareholder in the Bank of Cyprus, the island’s biggest.

Several of the same Russian oligarchs have bought homes in upscale sections of London, which has been dubbed “Moscow on Thames”.

According to Der Spiegel the German intelligence service, the BND concluded that Cyprus was indeed a “gateway for money laundering activities in the EU.” The Germans say it is “relatively easy” to open accounts anonymously in Cyprus, and that auditing requirements are inadequate.

According to the BND report, attorneys and trustees in Cyprus have specialised in financial services, some of which “are used to conceal money earned illegally,” Der Spiegel said.

(continued from front page) makes tax injustice possible,” she said.

Christofias responded to the criticisms saying: “How shall we say it so it is understood? No money laundering is taking place in Cyprus”.

He put the criticism down to misinformation and the not-so-good will of people with their own agendas. “I am saying this in all honesty because we are the victims of the domestic disputes in various large countries,” Christofias said. “This should stop.

You must respect a small country suffering from (military) occupation.”

Germany, Europe’s paymaster, has expressed concerns about providing bailout funds for Cyprus because of a lack of transparency in its financial sector. The island is considered a popular tax haven for wealthy Russians.

During a press conference afterwards with European Parliament president Martin Schulz, , the president said Cyprus met more requirements on money laundering than countries “whose representatives accuse us of money laundering.”

“Unfortunately, while we have taken tough measures, which other countries have not taken, there is a rumour, which is not true.

It is unfair,” he said.

Regarding the island’s bailout, Christofias

said he handed a letter to the European Commission, asking that Cypriot banks were directly recapitalised by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) -- at least the €4.5 billion lost after the write-down to Greece’s debt.

“I believe that the fair thing is this part of the recapitalisation should be direct without burdening Cyprus’ public debt,” he said. Christofias said his government was ready to sign a bailout agreement whenever international lenders were.

If not then it would be the job of the new government “not because we want to shift responsibilities on to the next government but because we need to reach specific amounts and agree with the people giving us the loan.” Still pending is the amount needed to recapitalise the banks, which the two sides disagree on.

He blamed the drawn-out negotiations on the troika, saying that disagreements remained on how large the bailout should be.

“The delays ... are not at the door of the government of Cyprus, but rather the IMF believes that our needs are maximum needs.

We believe that they are lower. We are now awaiting clarification of the situation so that we can confirm finally what the exact figure is,” he said.

Columbia Shipmanagement Ltd – one of the world’s leading ship management companies, located in Limassol, is looking to recruit a:

TECHNICAL SUPERINTENDENT for large Container vessels Candidate Profie A reliable team player with seafaring experience onboard large container vessels or technical skills acquired by working experience in this field in the position of Chief Engineer Able to work effectively in an international environment English language proficiency is essential Have basic computer skills Willing to travel Responsibilities Technical operation of large container vessels Budget Management Develop and maintain in-depth ongoing knowledge of the technical status of the assigned vessels (preferable experience with electronic engine operation) Ensure that annual costs develop in line with ‘best market’ practices Plan and monitor major technical projects for the assigned vessels including the preparation of specs, supervision and negotiation of costs Ensure the vessels are fully certified according to international standards and requirements Liaise with Class and Authorities, manufacturers and repair contractors Work closely with insurance and claims, QA, crewing and marine departments Monitor and report on general ship condition towards managers and owners by completing Technical Audit Reports Ensure cost effective sourcing of technical goods and services for vessels of the fleet Reports to: The Fleet Manager

Offer: A full time contract and an attractive remuneration package

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COLUMBIA SHIPMANAGEMENT LTD P.O.BOX 51624 3507 LIMASSOL – CYPRUS All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

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Police officer met by gruesome sights Chief inspector tells court he set out for Mari believing his task to be simple probe into the cause of a fire

By Elias Hazou DISMEMBERED bodies, mangled vehicles, smoke and ashes were the grisly sight a police officer encountered on arriving at Mari naval base a few minutes after the deadly blast of July 11, 2011.

Testifying in court yesterday at the ongoing criminal trial, Chief Inspector Iacovos Ioannou gave an account of his day from the moment he received a call about an incident at Mari until his arrival there.

Ioannou, who serves at Larnaca police HQ, said he got a call at around 5.10am from a colleague informing him that containers with munitions at Mari had caught fire. The caller said EMAK (emergency response team) was at the site and that “there was no danger” at the time.

On this information, Ioannou and other officers set out for Mari believing their task to be to investigate the causes of the fire. On the highway off Skarinou, he got another call informing him that the naval base had been evacuated, the containers were being doused with water and National Guard helicopters were about to be deployed to help extinguish the flames.

About a kilometre from Chirokitia, at around 5.50am, Ioannou heard a loud thud, which sounded like an explosion, coming from the direction of the base. Soon after, in the distance, he saw a huge mushroom cloud of black smoke.

On the final approach to the base, the witness said, visibility was limited due to a combination of fog and dust in the air, oncoming vehicles were covered with dust, and the road was

strewn with tree branches, metal shards and other debris. On arriving at the base, Ioannou noticed that the facility had in fact not been completely evacuated since he saw a number of soldiers gathered around the main gate.

Meanwhile ambulances and National Guard personnel began arriving at the scene. At one point, Ioannou came upon EMAK commander Andreas Loizides, who told him he was not sure what happened to the soldiers and firemen who had stayed behind in an attempt to put out the fires.

Ioannou recalled that former National Guard Chief, lieutenant-general Petros Tsalikidis arrived at around 6.30am, and a team was assembled to make a first foray into the base subsequent to the explosion.

Making their way toward

the site of the containers, Ioannou saw a destroyed Fire Department vehicle; a little further down the road he spotted the corpse of a fireman, whom he recognised as Spyros Ttandis, one of the 13 casualties.

Nearby the group found dismembered human bodies, then another destroyed Fire Department vehicle, four dead bodies of Natural Guard personnel, and the lower limbs of two bodies that had been severed from the thigh down.

Next the team came upon a third Fire Department vehicle, again totally destroyed, while a charred body lay motionless in the driver’s seat. In a nearby field, Ioannou and the others then saw three more dead men and a destroyed National Guard vehicle.

The witness also recalled police lieutenant Andreas Theofilou frantically searching for his son, who was a member of EMAK and had been dispatched to the base. He was one of the victims.

The massive explosion at Mari left 13 dead and scores injured, while the blast wave tore through a nearby power plant, leading to power cuts islandwide.

Soliders and police search for victims on day of the blast

DISY deputy victim of arson attack

By Stefanos Evripidou DISY DEPUTY Georgios Tasou was the victim of car arson yesterday, while in a separate incident a Nicosia prison officer also had his car destroyed in an arson attack.

At around 1.35am yesterday, the Larnaca DISY deputy noticed fire coming out of his garage. He called the emergency services who responded immediately.

They were unable to save the €10,000 car in the garage, which was completely destroyed by the fire. Police have reason to believe this was another case of arson in Cyprus.

Arson has become a very common method of settling disputes on the island, usually related to financial disagreements.

However, reports yesterday suggested the attack on Tasou was linked to his work as a par-

liamentarian. Specifically, it is believed to be linked to him reporting companies suspected of financial irregularities and tax evasion to the Attorney-general and Auditor-general.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, the DISY MP said he could not rule out that possibility but did not suspect anyone.

He said he had never received threats from anyone before. Making his point, he said he spent the summer sleeping with the window open in his ground floor home.

Tasou also uses the rented home to house his architectural office. The fire started in one garage spread to another used as a storage space. Architectural studies dating back many years were destroyed in the fire.

Police spokesman Andreas Angelides said a number of people were brought in for questioning yesterday

though no arrests were made.

The arson drew wide condemnation from across the political spectrum.

DISY released a statement condemning the “cowardly” act designed to hurt democratic institutions and silence MPs. In a separate incident, an officer working at Nicosia central prison found his car destroyed by arson at around 2am. The car was parked outside his home in Latsia. Footage from a surveillance camera shows a hooded man putting a bomb on the car windshield then walking away. The bomb exploded 90 seconds later.

This is the second attack against the same officer. In 2009, a bomb was thrown at the entrance to his home but failed to explode.

Reports yesterday said police are focusing their investigations on a convict serving time in the prison.

Woman killed when pick-up she was in veered into ditch A WOMAN was killed in a road accident yesterday on the Kofinou-Larnaca road while sitting in the backseat of the car driven by her husband.

Anastasia Antoniadou, 65, from Larnaca was in a double-cabin vehicle driven by her 74year-old husband when in circumstances under investigation the car deviated from its course into a ditch.

According to Larnaca Press Agency, the woman sustained fatal injuries to the head, while her husband and his nephew, were both uninjured. Police closed the road for two hours after the accident.

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Culture capital ‘lacks decent theatre’ Push begins to halt town hall in favour of new venue The Paphos Markideio theatre: some feel that with only 400 seats it will not be adequte for 2017

By Bejay Browne AKEL in Paphos is intent on preventing the construction of a new town hall, claiming the money would be better spent on a municipal theatre.

Paphos councillor and member of the administrative committee Giorgos Siaelis told the Cyprus Mail: “I want all works on the new town hall to cease; instead turning the building into a new theatre for Paphos, as we don’t have one to speak of.”

The current municipal theatre- the Markideio is old, outdated and small, only able to hold an audience of around 400.

“This issue is important as Paphos will be the cultural capital of Europe in 2017 and it’s not possible for us to fulfill this role

without a proper theatre.

People from all over the world will attend cultural events here and we need to have a facility which we can be proud of,” Siaelis said.

If the new Town Hall does go ahead, Siaelis said he had a second suggestion; that the new town hall building could house a new theatre - one building with two purposes.

“Not only would my suggestion save money but I believe it would be technically possible. I have already spoken to an architect and will be discussing the matter with the municipality architects to ensure that the idea is viable,” he said.

Siaelis says he has the backing of Paphos Mayor Savvas Vergas, as well as the municipal council, although the subject has not

been formerly addressed as yet.

According to the municipality, the new town hall, which is being built close to the church of Ayia Pantaras, has been under construction for the last nine months. The time frame for completion is three years.

Officials in Paphos have long been trying to find a suitable place to build a new theatre in the town, none of which have been successful.

A municipality spokesman said yesterday: “There is no official decision to try and find a new site to build a theatre. There are alternative solutions, but nothing concrete as yet. “If we want to meet the time limits guiding us as the European capital of culture 2017, the municipal thea-

‘Time Counts’ a new campaign for prevention of cervical cancer

By Maria Christofide and Despina Procopiou TWENTY seven new cases of cervical cancer in women are reported in Cyprus every year, out of which eight are fatal, while one woman dies every three minutes around the world, Dr Anna Achilleoude, the president of the Cyprus Association of Cancer Patients and Friends (PASYKAF) said yesterday.

With the slogan ‘Time counts. Prevent it’, Achilleoude announced the continuation of the programme for prevention and early diagnosis of cancer of the cervix, in view of the 7th European Cervical Cancer Prevention week, starting on January 21 .

The campaign will include a number of lectures at schools and universities, the broadcasting of an information video on television and radio stations, the provision of free vaccines and PAP tests based on socioeconomic criteria and the sale of brooches with the ‘Pearl of Wisdom’, the universal symbol of the fight against cervical cancer, available at PASIKAF in all towns.

During the press conference yesterday the need for systematic screening with a PAP test and the use of HPV vaccination was stressed, while specialists analysed the causes of cervical cancer.

Dr Dinos Mavromoustakis, president of the Pancyprian colposcopy and cervical

pathology company, noted that cancer of the cervix was caused by the sexually transmitted human Papilloma virus (HPV) and concerns both genders.

According to Mavromoustakis, the highest HPV risk age group comprises teenagers and young adults, both male and female, up to 30 years old.

In 90 per cent of the cases of infection, the human body rejects the virus while in the remaining 10 per cent, it can progress to cancer.

Some aggravating factors for the infection by HPV are the early onset of sexual intercourse, the number of sexual partners, smoking, and low socioeconomic status, he said.

Cervical cancer is the only type of cancer which can be prevented with the use of a vaccine.

The HPV vaccine is provided in three shots and can protect from 95 per cent of the known causes of cervical cancer.

The high cost of the vaccine, which is priced at around €170 per shot, including the doctor’s charge, is a factor that limits its use.

The health minister has stated that the ministry’s limited resources do not allow public hospitals to provide the vaccine for free.

Even though a price ceiling on the vaccine has not been imposed, gynaecologists are trying to offer it at cost price, Mavromoustakis noted.

tre must be ready by the end of 2016. The project needs to get underway by the end of this year at the latest.”

Unlike some other municipalities, Paphos officials say the municipality is in a good position to be granted bank loans, which would be needed for such a sizeable project, but due to

the dire financial situation in Cyprus, especially in the banking sector, loans are not being granted.

According to the spokesman, Paphos municipality has a good source of income through taxes collected from water supply and the hotel overnight stay tax, amongst others.

He said: “We believe that

in the coming months the situation may change. We may be given a special grant by the state for the completion of a new theatre.”

The municipality said different scenarios couldn’t be ruled out and that combining a theatre on the site of the new town hall could be one option.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

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Britain BRITAIN TODAY Snowball warning on Facebook BRITISH police have taken to Facebook to warn youngsters they could be arrested for throwing snowballs at cars, homes or people who do not want to be involved in games.

The message from Crook Neighbourhood Police Team in County Durham brought a mixed response with some people accusing them of spoiling the fun.

The message said: “Crook Beat Team are aware that it has been snowing and that people are going to have fun in it, however if anyone is caught throwing snowballs at vehicles or onto the road, they could be arrested.

“Likewise, if anyone throws snowballs at person’s homes or at people who do not want to be involved in the snow games, they could be arrested and it will be classed as anti-social behaviour.”

Facebook user John Young commented: “What a joke.”

But Julie Nicholson replied: “It’s not a joke when the little darlings r putting stones in the snowballs b4 throwin them!!!!!!”

Paul Emmerton accused officers of “sucking the fun from everything”.

A Durham Police spokeswoman said the force did not want to spoil fun or ban snowballs, but was issuing advice.

“Our general advice is, it might seem like innocent fun but it could have serious consequences,” she said.

Cauldron, NY park up for design award DESIGNS of everything from the London 2012 Olympic cauldron to a New York City park three decades in the making will compete for an annual award handed out by London’s Design Museum.

The more than 90 nominations for the 2013 ‘Designs of the Year’ encompass seven categories and span the globe from London’s newest landmark building, The Shard by Renzo Piano, to a non-stick ketchup bottle invented by a research group at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), the museum said.

The award was won last year by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby for their Olympic torch. This year, Thomas Heatherwick’s Olympic cauldron was nominated alongside Microsoft’s

Windows phone 8, a basic computer for children, a Louis Vuitton collection designed by Yayoi Kusama and a “Donky Bicycle” for carrying heavy loads among other useful and unusual designs.

The seven categories are architecture, digital, fashion, furniture, graphics, product and transport. The designs will be on display at the Design Museum from March 20 until July 7.

Architect Louis Kahn’s Four Freedoms Park in New York, which was finally completed at the end of 2012, will compete with Zaha Hadid’s Galaxy Soho in Beijing, and the Windows phone 8 will test its design mettle against the Raspberry Pi, a tiny and cheap computer for kids developed at Cambridge University.

Scotland could face EU obstacles AN independent Scotland would face difficult negotiations to join the European Union with existing members extracting “concessions” as a warning to breakaway movements in their own nations, a former top diplomat predicted yesterday.

Lord Jay of Ewelme, who was permanent secretary at the Foreign Office from 2002 to 2006, said he expected Scotland would be allowed into the EU if it cut its ties with the UK. But, he told MPs, countries like Spain which themselves face independence demands would not make it an easy process.

“My guess would be that after negotiations that are slightly more difficult than Scotland now thinks, it would become a member of the European Union,” he told the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.

“But it would be in the interests of other countries who fear the same thing happening - such as Spain with Catalonia - to make life more difficult for them to make clear to their own citizens that this is not an absolute shoo-in if they were to become independent.”

Victorious: Nadia Eweida wearing her cross yesterday

Woman wins right to wear a cross at work Sent home without pay by BA for ‘violating dress code’

By Claire Davenport AN EMPLOYEE who was asked by British Airways to remove a Christian cross from around her neck won a religious discrimination case at Europe’s human rights court yesterday.

The ruling by the European Court of Human Rights will mean private companies will have to reconsider how they treat their employees’ rights to express their religious beliefs in the workplace.

Nadia Eweida was sent home without pay from British Airways in 2006 for wearing a necklace with a small silver cross that the company said violated its dress code.

Elweida, 61, said: “Oh my God. I’m so pleased for Christians in the United Kingdom who now have rights. When I heard the verdict I was jumping for

Cameron pledged nearly two years ago to put an end to agreements that meant foreign offenders could not be returned home without their consent.

In April 2010, there were 701 foreign offenders detailed in jail after their sentence, which fell to 516 in April 2011 but rose again to 552 in the same month in 2012, the figures revealed.

The number of people held in immigration detention centres after completing a prison sentence has fallen from 1,213 in April 2010 to 812 in April 2012.

faith.”

Reacting to the ruling, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Twitter: “Delighted that principle of wearing religious symbols at work has been upheld - people shouldn’t suffer discrimination due to religious beliefs.”

Cameron had pledged to introduce legislation allowing individuals to wear religious symbols at work in response to Eweida’s case in July 2012.

Eweida’s case was originally dismissed by British labour courts.

Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission has suggested that the British courts’ interpretation of the law on the manifestation of religion and religious discrimination is too narrow, a position underlined by the European court’s ruling in the case of Eweida.

Commenting on the case,

London-based employment law specialist Fraser Younson said the British courts fully protected the holding of religious beliefs but not how they were demonstrated.

“These cases are about the extent to which an employee can manifest their religious beliefs at work,” he said.

In one previous case, the European court ruled that a French school could make its Muslim students remove their headscarves during sports classes for safety reasons.

In another, it found that an Italian state school did not violate the rights to religious freedom or education by displaying crucifixes in classrooms.

Rulings by the human rights court cannot be appealed and signatories must comply or risk exclusion from the Council of Europe.

BUT THREE OTHER FAITH BIAS COMPLAINTS REJECTED

1,500 foreign inmates ‘beyond term’ NEARLY 1,500 foreign prisoners are being held in British jails beyond the term of their sentence, it emerged last night.

A total of 547 foreign offenders are being held in prisons after their sentences have ended, while a further 919 are in immigration removal centres, immigration minister Mark Harper revealed.

Harper, who was responding to a parliamentary question by Conservative MP Priti Patel, could not confirm how long the prisoners had been held.

Prime Minister David

joy and saying ‘Thank you Jesus’.”

The court ruled that British Airways’ request for Eweida to remove the cross “amounted to an interference with her right to manifest her religion”.

Judges said BA had violated her rights under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights which says that religious freedom is one of the “foundations” of democratic society.

The court in Strasbourg said Eweida, whose claims of mistreatment had been rejected by British judges, had been discriminated against and should be paid £1,600 compensation and £24,000 in costs.

Eweida, a Coptic Christian, said: “It’s a vindication that Christians have a right to express their faith on par with other colleagues at work visibly and not be ashamed of their

Disappointed: Chaplain

EUROPE’S top human rights court ruled yesterday that equality laws and safety concerns trumped religious freedom in three cases where British Christians were sacked or sanctioned for expressing their beliefs at work.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled employers did not violate the religious rights of a registrar who refused to officiate for civil partnerships of same-sex couples and a counsellor deemed unwilling to offer sex therapy for gays.

It also turned down an appeal by a nurse whose hospital barred her from wearing a cross around her neck.

“The principle of non-discrimination against gay people has been upheld,” said Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society which opposed all the appeals.

“The rights of gay people to fair and equal treatment would have been kicked back by decades” if the two appeals concerning same-sex partnership had been upheld, he said.

The ECHR also rejected the appeal of relationship counsellor Gary McFarlane, dismissed in 2008 when his employer, Relate counselling service, concluded his Christian beliefs would stand in the way of providing sex therapy to homo-

sexual couples.

In the third case, the ECHR agreed with hospital officials that nurse Shirley Chaplin’s cross could cause injury to her if a patient pulled it or it came into contact with an open wound.

It said “the protection of health and safety in a hospital ward” was “inherently more important” than her wish to manifest her faith and the hospital was the best judge of each case.

Chaplin rejected that argument as ridiculous. “I’ve been bitten, I’ve been scratched, I’ve had computers thrown at me, but no-one has ever, ever grabbed my crucifix,” she told reporters in London.

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, January 16, 2013

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Europe EU to speed up help for Mali government says Ashton

Married couple on trial is accused of spying for Russia ‘German residents spied on NATO, EU for years’ A MARRIED couple went on trial in Germany yesterday accused of handing hundreds of sensitive NATO and European Union documents to Russia during a two-decade spying career that continued well beyond the end of the Cold War. Federal prosecutors accuse Andreas Anschlag and his wife Heidrun - suspected Russian citizens whose names are aliases - of entering West Germany in 1988 with forged Austrian passports and fabricating a suburban middle-class existence to cover their espionage.

So perfect was the subterfuge that even their own daughter did not know of their spying, German media reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin worked for the Soviet intelligence agency the KGB in East Germany in the 1980s when the couple are accused of having started their career.

“This is a case of treason that has been going on for more than 20 years, involving the entire range of intelligence activity, from trying to recruit new sources to instructing others, all the way to writing their own reports on political and military matters,” federal prosecutor Rolf Hannich said.

“These are documents and evaluations on NATO’s policies which are of course of high interest to the other side because they can then adapt their own behaviour.”

The couple said nothing at yesterday’s court hearing.

In Germany, the accused are not required to submit

a plea.

The indictment said one of the sources for the secret documents procured by the Anschlags was a person working for the Dutch foreign ministry.

German special forces arrested them in separate raids on their family home in Marburg, central Germany, and on an apartment near the south western city of Stuttgart in the early hours of October 18, 2011.

According to reports, Heidrun Anschlag was at home in the process of receiving radio messages from Moscow when the Marburg raid took place at what they described as a typical, middle-class surburban family house.

Hannich said the prosecution’s task had been rendered more difficult because the couple had already been preparing their return to Russia and had destroyed many documents from before 2008.

Documents obtained by the couple related to such matters as NATO’s political and military affairs, the EU’s military, police and civil missions, political negotiations on EU bodies and the situation in eastern European and Central Asian countries.

Economic ties between Russia and Germany are booming but Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in former communist East Germany, has also criticised Moscow’s human rights record and clampdown on political dissent.

In Germany, spying can be punished by up to 10 years in jail.

Happy ever after: Prince Albert and his bride Charlene on their wedding day

Prince Albert bags libel damages

By Jan Colley PRINCE Albert of Monaco and his wife, Princess Charlene, have accepted an offer of damages over a Sunday Times story which suggested she was reluctant to marry him.

The 54-year-old monarch’s solicitor, Mark Thomson, said the July 2011 article - which appeared two days after their wedding - accused the prince of having the princess’ passport confiscated at Nice airport to prevent her from fleeing Monaco.

It suggested she was reluctant to marry because she had discovered the existence of a third love child, but agreed to the marriage for the sake of appearances in return for payment with a view to obtaining an annulment after a seemly interval.

“None of these allegations

are true,” Thomson told Justice Eady.

He said that the newspaper had admitted that they were untrue and accepted liability for making such defamatory claims.

It had apologised and confirmed it would pay the couple damages, to be assessed at a later stage if not agreed, and their legal costs.

Thomson said that the article, entitled ‘The full filthy Monte’ and ‘Curse of the Grimaldis’, falsely alleged that Prince Albert had turned a blind eye to corrupt activity by his courtiers and done nothing effective to curb the activities of mobsters and money launderers in Monaco.

It also made the false claim that he had granted residency to foreigners on the request of advisers or friends for fear of their disclosing embarrassing secrets about his love life.

Thomson said that the pub-

Cleaner steals train and crashes it into apartment building in Sweden A CLEANER stole an empty commuter train from a depot and drove it off the rails and into a Swedish apartment building.

Police said the woman was seriously injured in the early morning crash outside Stockholm and was flown to hospital. No one else was hurt.

Train operator Arriva said the woman, in her 20s, stole the four-car train at a depot outside the city.

She then drove it about a mile to the end station on the railway line, where it jumped off the tracks and crashed into a three-storey building.

“There were three families inside the apartment building, but no one was injured.

At least not physically,” an Aviva spokesman said.

It was not known who the woman, who worked for a company contracted to carry out cleaning for the train

operator, took the train.

“We have only heard good things about her. We’re investigating how this could happen, and why she did what she did,” he said.

He did not know how she got the keys to the train, but added that driving it was not complicated.

“Generally speaking that’s possible even if you’re not a train driver,” he said. “You can read about it on the internet.”

lication caused the newlyweds enormous upset and embarrassment - particularly so in view of the huge publicity and worldwide interest given to their wedding.

THE European Union will speed up and adapt plans for a military training mission for the Malian army and take other new measures to help the country’s government and people, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said yesterday.

Ashton is preparing for an extraordinary meeting of EU foreign ministers, expected to take place in Brussels tomorrow, and she was speaking as France hit Islamist rebels with more air strikes.

The European Union has ruled out taking any combat role in Mali. It plans to send military trainers for the Malian army and expects the first trainers to arrive in late February or early March, although EU states are looking at a proposal to bring forward their arrival by about two weeks.

“We’re going to adapt accordingly the details of our European mission” and send preparatory elements of the mission quicker than previously planned, Ashton said in a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

Ashton said security threats stemming from upheaval in Mali extended to Europe, as the rebels were using territory they had seized for arms smuggling and drug trafficking.

EU governments planned to adopt new measures to help the country, she said, without giving details.

“Colleagues have put together a package of measures that will provide immediate and longer-term help to the Malian government and people,” Ashton said.

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF NICOSIA Αpp. Number 981/2012 In relation to the companies ROSGS LIMITED and ROSCONTRACT PRIVATE EQUITY LIMITED and In relation to the Cyprus Companies Law, Cap 113, as subsequently amended.

In relation to the application of the companies ROSGS LIMITED and ROSCONTRACT PRIVATE EQUITY LIMITED for Merger and Reorganisation.

Notice is hereby given by the companies ROSGS LIMITED and ROSCONTRACT PRIVATE EQUITY LIMITED, by virtue of the Court Order of the District Court of Nicosia dated 20/12/2012 on the application number 981/2012, for the convening of a General Meeting of Creditors of each of the above companies on Thursday 31/01/2013 at 10:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. respectively which will take place at 3 Themistokli Dervi Street, Julia House 5th Floor, 1066, Nicosia, for the examination and approval of the proposed Restructuring and Merger Plan according to which ROSGS LIMITED will undertake and absorb the total assets and liabilities of ROSCONTRACT PRIVATE EQUITY LIMITED. The activities which are conducted by ROSCONTRACT PRIVATE EQUITY LIMITED will continue to be conducted by ROSGS LIMITED. ROSCONTRACT PRIVATE EQUITY LIMITED will be dissolved without going into liquidation.

A creditor who is entitled to attend and vote at the above mentioned meeting is allowed to appoint a proxy who will attend and vote in his place. Any such proxy does not need to be a creditor. The proxy or any other relevant documents must be deposed at the above stated address, at least 48 hours before the commencement of the meeting.

A copy of the Restructuring and Merger Plan and a copy of the Explanatory Statement which explains the consequences of the proposed merger shall be given by the lawyers of the companies ROSGS LIMITED and ROSCONTRACT PRIVATE EQUITY LIMITED to any Member or Creditor of the above companies, which shall request such a copy, at the address shown below.

Crash site: the train

S.A. Evangelou & Co LLC Lawyers of the Applicant companies 3 Themistocles Dervis Street Julia House Annex, 1st Floor 1066, Nicosia Τel. 22559999. Fax 22559998

Wednesday, January 16, 2012 CYPRUS MAIL

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Worried Russian region targets wolves in big three-month hunt

By Steve Gutterman IT’S open season on wolves across a wide swathe of Siberia.

Worried about attacks by wolves that are devouring reindeer in increasing numbers, the leader of Russia’s vast Sakha Republic issued a decree yesterday initiating a three-month hunt targeting the predators.

The goal is to bring the wolf population of the India-sized region also known as Yakutia down from more than 3,500 to the “optimal number” of about 500, Russia’s official gazette, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, reported.

“The population is more con-

cerned than ever about mass wolf attacks on farm animals,” the paper quoted Sakha President Yegor Borisov as saying at a recent regional government meeting. “We must determine a clear plan of action.”

In the resulting decree, Borisov announced the start of a threemonth campaign of “special measures for regulating the quantity of wolves” in Sakha, which stretches north of the Arctic Circle and has fewer than one million people.

Domesticated reindeer are part of a way of life for many who herd them, eat their meat and use them for transportation.

The decree contains few details and suggests plans for the hunt

were still in progress as it began, but it recommends local governments declare states of emergency and urges industrial and transportation enterprises to back the hunt.

That means hunting brigades will be provided with ammunition, spare parts and fuel to get around the region, where roads are scarce, state broadcaster Vesti reported.

There will also be monetary rewards for each wolf shot and three prizes of about 1 million roubles ($33,000) each for the top hunters, Vesti said.

According to Vesti, wolves killed 16,111 domesticated reindeer and 313 domesticated horses last year, costing herders a total of about

150 million roubles ($5 million) in losses.

Rossiyskaya Gazeta said the number of reindeer killed by wolves in Sakha was about four times that of 2006, and that hunters in the region killed 730 wolves last year.

Wolf attacks on domesticated reindeer have increased because of a decrease in the numbers of the hares and possibly other animals the predators eat, including wild reindeer, said Vladimir Krever, coordinator of the biodiversity protection programme at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Russia.

Numbers of hares and other animals fluctuate naturally as a result of many factors including weather

and die-offs that occur after populations grow too large to be sustainable, Krever said.

He said the effort to kill more wolves in Sakha this year was the result of the natural ebb and flow of wildlife populations and would not pose a serious threat to the wolf population.

“When wolves can’t get enough food in the wild, they begin to causes losses to herds - in the European part of Russia this is cows and sheep, in Yakutia it is domesticated reindeer.”

“To minimise losses to predators is a completely normal human response in such a situation”, he said. “There’s nothing terrible about this.”

Turkey’s Erdogan says won’t bow to Kurdish militancy

By Daren Butler PRIME Minister Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday his government would never surrender to Kurdish militants but he was cautiously hopeful peace talks could end a conflict that has brought nothing but “pain, blood and tears” to Turkey.

Late last year Turkish intelligence officials began talks with jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan on how to end an insurgency which has killed more than 40,000 people since rebels loyal to him took up arms in 1984.

The talks drew fierce criticism from nationalist circles which accused the government of going soft on Ocalan’s Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union and United States.

In a sign of Ankara’s continued hard line against the guerrillas, media reports said Turkish warplanes struck PKK targets in northern Iraq on Sunday and Monday, the first such attacks since details of the Ocalan talks emerged.

“Nobody can make us surrender. We did not take a step

back in the face of any attack, we will not take any steps back,” Erdogan told his ruling AK Party in parliament in the capital Ankara.

“Violence and terror has brought nothing to this country but pain, blood and tears.

Believe me, we have one goal: that is to halt the mothers’ tears,” he said.

“We are cautious, careful but hopeful.”

The nascent talks were overshadowed last week by the execution-style killings of three Kurdish women activists in Paris, which Erdogan has suggested could be the result of an internal feud in the PKK or a bid to derail the peace talks.

The PKK blamed shadowy elements within the Turkish state or foreign powers and Ocalan issued a call on Monday through his brother for French police to solve the murders. But he gave no indication their killing would disrupt the peace talks.

Ocalan’s younger brother Mehmet, who visited him in his jail on the island of Imrali near Istanbul, said the PKK leader did not comment on the peace process but may make a statement later if Kurdish political party leaders visit him.

Iran says capable of jamming foes’ communication systems IRAN can disrupt enemy communication systems as part of its growing “electronic warfare” capabilities, a senior Iranian commander was quoted as saying yesterday.

Western analysts say Iran has launched increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks in a growing confrontation with foes, including the United States, Israel and Gulf Arabs, at a time of rising pressure on Tehran to curb its nuclear programme.

For its part, Iran has suffered a string of cyber attacks in the past year targeting industrial sites, an oil export terminal and oil platforms, Iranian officials have said. And a computer worm disrupted its nuclear activity in 2010.

The Islamic Republic has denied accusations that it hacked into US banks last year, but has also devoted resources to building up its cyber defence capabilities.

Yesterday, Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, Iran’s ground forces commander, said that Iran was now capable of disrupting its enemies’ communications.

“We have been equipped with electronic warfare systems in order not to remain just a defending force, and rather become able to jam the enemy’s communication systems,” he said, according to the Fars news agency.

“Communications are highly valuable in future and current wars and our armed forces have realised this completely and have prepared themselves proportionate to today’s needs.”

Syrians gather at the scene of an explosion outside Aleppo University yesterday

(AFP)

Explosions kill 52 at university in Aleppo Syrian government, rebels trade blame for latest attack

By Mariam Karouny TWO explosions tore through one of Syria’s biggest universities on the first day of student exams yesterday, killing at least 52 people and wounding dozens, a monitoring group said.

Bloodshed has disrupted civilian life across Syria since a violent government crackdown in early 2011 on peaceful demonstrations for democratic reform turned the unrest into an armed insurgency bent on overthrowing President Bashar al-Assad.

More than 50 countries asked the United Nations Security Council yesterday to refer the crisis to the International Criminal Court, which prosecutes people for genocide and war crimes. But Russia - Assad’s long-standing ally and arms supplier - blocked the initiative, calling it “ill-timed and counterproductive.”

Each side in the 22-month-old conflict blamed the other for yesterday’s blasts at the University of Aleppo, located in a government-held area of Syria’s most populous city.

Some activists in Aleppo said a government attack caused the explosions,

while state television accused “terrorists” - a term they often use to describe the rebels - of firing two rockets at the school. A rebel fighter said the blasts appeared to have been caused by “groundto-ground” missiles.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said at least 52 people were killed and dozens wounded, but it could not identify the source of the blasts.

“Dozens are in critical condition. The death toll could rise to 90,” the Observatory said in a statement, citing doctors and students.

Video footage showed students carrying books out of the university after one of the explosions, walking quickly away from rising smoke. The camera then shakes to the sound of another explosion and people begin running.

If confirmed, the government’s report of a rocket attack would suggest rebels in the area had been able to obtain and deploy more powerful weapons than previously used.

The nearest rebel-controlled area, Bustan al-Qasr, is more than a mile away from the university.

Activists rejected the suggestion that insurgents were behind the attack, how-

ever, and instead blamed the government.

“The warplanes of this criminal regime do not respect a mosque, a church or a university,” said a student who gave his name as Abu Tayem.

The rebels have been trying to take Aleppo - once a thriving commercial hub - since the summer, but have been unable to uproot Assad’s better-armed and more organised forces.

International efforts to find a political solution to Syria’s civil war have similarly resulted in stalemate, even as the conflict’s death toll has surged above 60,000.

The crisis has driven hundreds of thousands of people to flee the country, many to neighbouring Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, where a fire at a camp in the country’s southeast killed a pregnant Syrian woman and her three children yesterday.

Inside Syria, neither the military nor the insurgents have been able to sustain clear momentum.

The rebels remain poorly equipped and disorganised compared with Assad’s forces, despite winning support from some regional powers like Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, January 16, 2012

11

World

New Dan Brown novel due out May DA Vinci Code author Dan Brown’s new novel will be published on May 14, his publisher Doubleday said yesterday after a social media puzzle worthy of the writer helped reveal the title.

Inferno features the return of renowned Harvard symbologist and Da Vinci Code protagonist Robert Langdon, and is set in Italy, centring on the literary masterpiece Dante’s Inferno, Doubleday said. It will have a first printing of four million copies.

“Although I studied Dante’s Inferno as a student, it wasn’t until recently, while researching in Florence, that I came to appreciate the enduring influence of Dante’s work on the modern world,” Brown said on his website.

“With this new novel, I am excited to take readers on a journey deep into this mysterious realm... a landscape of codes, symbols, and more than a few secret passageways,” he added.

Brown’s religion-themed mystery novel The Da Vinci Code, riddled with codes, keys, conspiracies and other puzzling symbols, was published in 2003 and was made into a hit film starring Tom Hanks. It spent more than a year atop the New York Times bestseller list.

The Lost Symbol, his next book, followed in 2009.

In keeping with Brown’s love of puzzles, the book’s title was revealed on his website as fans and others posted items on social media which linked to a mosaic on the site. As posts were made, pieces of the mosaic were revealed, eventually uncovering the title.

China gift crackdown hits booze, watches A CHINESE government crackdown on lavish spending by officials has pushed expensive liquor and highend watches out of favour in the luxury gift-giving market, a survey from the Hurun Report, known for its annual China Rich List, showed yesterday.

Top alcohol maker Kweichow Moutai Co Ltd saw its clear ‘baijiu’ liquor - widely imbibed at official banquets and presented as a premium gift - fall to 13th place on the “best brand for gifting by men” table, down from fifth last year when there was a single, mixed-gender table, according to the report.

Swiss watchmaker Longines was the only watch brand to make the “gifting by men” list at number 15, replacing Rolex, which was ninth in 2012 but dropped off the list altogether this year. The report surveyed 551 Chinese with personal wealth of 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) or more.

WORLD TODAY Pakistan PM’s arrest ordered

An actor wearing a US soldier’s outfit with Congolese flags on it attends a decoration ceremony for 89 new lieutenants, including nine women, at the central city of Kananga military academy (AFP)

NY set to adopt first US gun law changes Month after mass shooting in Connecticut that killed 26

By Barbara Goldberg NEW York State lawmakers yesterday began final debate on one of the toughest gun control bills in the United States and the first major legislation on the matter since the killings at an elementary school in neighbouring Connecticut last month.

The Democrat-led state Assembly took up the bill passed late Monday by the majority Republican state Senate. If approved as expected, it could be signed into law by Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo by the end of the day.

Cuomo pressed for passage of the bill a month after the mass shooting that killed 20 students and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. It includes an expanded ban on assault weapons, limits on ammunition capacity and new measures to keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill people.

It also mandates a life sentence without parole for anyone who murders a first responder, in response to the sniper deaths of two firefighters near Rochester who were ambushed by an arsonist gunman on Christmas Eve, just two weeks after the Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre.

Testerday in Danbury, Connecticut, not far from Newtown, gun control advocates gathered outside a Walmart store in a rally to demand Wal-Mart Stores

Inc, the nation’s largest gun retailer, stop selling assault weapons.

New York’s bill tightens the state’s existing assault weapons ban to include semiautomatic weapons with detachable clips that have one feature associated with military weapons.

The current ban includes assault weapons that have two military-style features.

The proposal also limits magazine capacity to no more than seven cartridges - the current limit is 10 cartridges - and requires a statewide re-registration of all handguns and grandfathered in assault weapons.

Vigorous: Obama

Obama set to unveil gun violence measures today U.S. President Barack Obama will today unveil a series of “concrete proposals” to counter gun violence that will include a push for an assault weapons ban and measures to strengthen background checks for gun buyers.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, who led a task force that developed recommendations on the issue, would present the package of legislative and executive measures at a White House event.

Children from around the country who wrote letters to the president expressing concern about gun violence and school safety were to attend the event with their parents.

“The president has made clear that he intends to take a comprehensive approach,” Carney told reporters.

“There are specific legislative actions that he will continue to call on Congress to take, including the assault weapons ban, including a measure to ban high-capacity magazine clips, including an effort to close the very big loopholes in the background check system in our country,” he said.

Obama, who has said the day of the Newton shooting was the worst of his presidency, said on Monday he would study the panel’s ideas and then move forward “vigorously” on those that he endorsed, including some actions he could take without congressional approval.

It also would require mental health professionals to report dangerous patients to county mental health officers for potential action and would add provisions to suspend or revoke licenses for people found to pose a danger to themselves or others.

“I believe it is the most comprehensive package in the nation,” Cuomo told reporters after the vote on Monday.

“Much of this is common sense. Unfortunately, common sense has eluded us for many, many years when it comes to this issue,” Cuomo said.

The proposal was not directed at and would have no impact on hunters or sport shooters, Cuomo said.

Cuomo said last week that the current ban on assault weapons had so many loopholes that it was unenforceable. For example, current law bans magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, but exempts those made before 1994.

The new legislation would also increase monitoring of high-volume ammunition purchases in-person or over the internet and current owners of assault weapons would be required to register them, as is required with handguns.

This week, officials in Maryland and Delaware also vowed to press for their own state legislation to tighten bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

PAKISTAN’S Supreme Court ordered the arrest of the prime minister yesterday on corruption allegations, ratcheting up pressure on a government that is also facing street protests led by a cleric who has a history of ties to the army.

The combination of the arrest order and the mass protest in the capital Islamabad led by Muslim cleric Muhammad Tahirul Qadri raised fears among politicians that the military was working with the judiciary to force out a civilian leader.

“There is no doubt that Qadri’s march and the Supreme Court’s verdict were masterminded by the military establishment of Pakistan,” Fawad Chaudhry, an aide to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, said.

However, the ruling coalition led by the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) has a majority in parliament and lawmakers can simply elect another prime minister if Ashraf is ousted.

In June, Ashraf replaced Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, who was disqualified by the Supreme Court in a previous showdown between the government and the judiciary.

Heads found INVESTIGATORS probing a shipment of 18 human heads intercepted at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport have determined they came from bodies donated for scientific research and were being transported for disposal, officials said yesterday.

US Customs agents discovered the grisly package, which was shipped to Chicago from Italy shortly before Christmas, on Monday.

Because the shipment’s paperwork was not in order, agents confiscated the heads and sent them to the Cook County Medical Examiner for safekeeping, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner said.

Ivory haul POLICE in Kenya have seized two tonnes of ivory worth 100 million shillings ($1.15 million), the biggest haul on record in the east African country, officials said yesterday.

“This is a big catch, the biggest ever single seizure of ivory at the port of Mombasa,” said Kiberenge Seroney, the port’s police officer in charge of criminal investigations.

“We fail to understand where one gathers the courage to park such enormous quantities of ivory, hoping that they can slip through our security systems.”

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

12

Business

Banks to pay back ECB cash

By Steve Slater

BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Santander set to lead repayment

BNP Paribas, Commerzbank and Santander are among a growing number of banks wanting to repay emergency loans to the European Central Bank to distinguish themselves from weaker rivals.

Some €200 billion or more is expected to be paid back

by European banks in the next few months, bankers and analysts estimate, out of €1 trillion doled last year to ease a funding crisis.

Banks can keep the loans for three years, but many see the so-called LTRO loans as insurance they no longer need and they can reduce their funding costs by repaying early.

Early repayment would be a badge of honour for banks anxious to impress investors and rating agencies and distance themselves from more cash-strapped rivals.

“We believe that big names could exit from the LTRO to send a strong message to the market of their ability to get funding in the market, rather than from the ECB,” said Giuseppe Maraffino, fixed income strategist at Barclays in London.

Most big banks are fine in terms of liquidity and some only borrowed for precautionary reasons, he said.

The ECB’s two LTROs, longer term refinancing operations, were applauded for

providing lifelines for Spanish and Italian banks after their funding costs spiked.

Banks are allowed to start returning some or all of the cash in weekly installments from January 30 for the first €489 billion and from February 27 for the remaining €529 billion.

Germany’s Commerzbank is the only bank to have publicly disclosed its plans to pay back the €10 billion it took in the first tranche this quarter.

France’s BNP Paribas, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole, Germany’s Deutsche Bank are all considering paying some of their cash back, industry sources

and analysts have said.

They say Spain’s Santander, BBVA and Caixabank , Britain’s HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Barclays and Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit are also thinking about it.

Smaller banks are less able or willing to pay back, however. More than 800 tapped the ECB for cash.

Although policymakers are keen for banks to pay back early to avoid a huge repayment hump in 2015, there is a risk it could highlight a two-tier market, and see a stigma return to banks who are unable to pay back, bankers said.

James Longsdon, co-head of EMEA financial institu-

tions at Fitch ratings agency, said up to a third of the loans could be repaid this year.

Banks generally borrowed cash for three reasons: liquidity insurance in case the euro zone crisis worsened; for a “carry trade” to profit from buying higher yielding government bonds; or to fund their loan book if they were struggling to access cheap funding.

“The banks that pay it back are more likely to be those that borrowed the money as an insurance policy against a eurozone breakup now that risk has reduced,” said Andrew Lim, analyst at Espirito Santo.

RBS braced for up to $800m libor fines ROYAL Bank of Scotland is braced for fines of between £400 million and £500 million ($803 million) for its role in an interest rate rigging scandal, sources familiar with the matter said.

The partly state-owned bank is expected to agree a settlement with authorities in Britain and the United States next week and will be hit with a worse punishment than rival Barclays, which was fined $450 million last June.

However, the sources stressed the final number had not yet been decided by all of the regulators involved. Although Britain’s financial regulator has completed its investigations, probes by US authorities are continuing, they said.

RBS’ fines will, however, be well short of the record $1.5 billion punishment which was meted out to Switzerland’s biggest lender UBS last month.

RBS declined to comment on the size of the settlement.

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

0.8351 0.8267

US Dollar

1.3419 1.3285

Australian $

1.2819 1.2503

Canadian Dol.

1.3309 1.2961

Swiss Fr

1.2426 1.2278

Denmark Kr

7.5559 7.3693

Japan Yen

119.5681 118.1419

Norwegian Kr

7.4587 7.2745

Polish Zloty

4.1685

4.0655

Romanian Leu 4.4759 4.3003 Russian Ruble 40.9030 39.8930 Swedish Kr

Greek economic mood climbs to two-year high in December

Farmers take part in a blockade at the Grand’place in Arras, northern France yesterday during a demonstration called to denounce all kinds of pressures affecting their activities (AFP)

Former EBRD director charged with bribery

Rates

8.7335 8.5179

Spanish and Italian banks tapped the lion’s share of the funding, estimated at around €260 billion each, and only the major banks in those countries are expected to go for early partial repayment.

Bankers say even if €200 billion were repaid it would not cut the amount of spare funding in the banking system enough to push up borrowing costs on open markets.

While the ECB’s action plan has been seen as a success in guaranteeing no bank runs out of money, it has been less efficient at boosting lending to companies and other domestic borrowers, particularly in stressed economies such as Spain and Italy.

By Douglas Busvine RUSSIA’S former executive director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was charged with bribery yesterday in a case that has raised wider concerns over possible corruption at the multilateral lender.

Yelena Kotova was charged with soliciting $1.4 million from a representative of a Canadian oil company, along with former banker Igor Lebedev, in return for ensuring the approval of a sizable loan.

The charges were filed two years after Kotova was removed as Russia’s most senior representative at the EBRD, which was created in 1991 to help countries in eastern Europe make the transition from communism to the market economy.

“The perpetrators planned to receive money in return for working to approve a loan of $95 million to the foreign company,” the Russian Interior Ministry said.

Kotova, who returned to Moscow after leaving the bank, has repeatedly protested her innocence. The 58-year-old ex-banker has since launched a career as a writer, recently publishing her third

novel, entitled Women’s Corporation.

In an interview in June 2011 with Russia’s Novaya Gazeta, Kotova said she had been the victim of a politically motivated internal inquiry led by a former criminal investigator from the US Department of Justice.

The goal of the investigation, said her lawyer Sergei Mirzoyev, was to rule Kotova out of contention for a position of vice president at the EBRD that had been due to fall vacant.

BASELESS Mirzoyev also dismissed the charges as baseless, saying investigators were relying on the testimony of one witness only and lacked documentary evidence to back their charges.

“They have been working on the case for a year and a half and they haven’t found any convincing evidence of guilt,” he said.

The witness has been named by Mirzoyev and in media reports as Sergei Chernikov, a Russian-born businessman who owns the Canadian-registered company, called CanBaikal Resources Inc, at the centre of the case.

Chernikov, a former regional official in Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry

who later served on the Public Chamber, a consultative body set up by President Vladimir Putin, has moved to London, Russian news agency Rosbalt reported in late 2011.

He has not commented publicly on the case and could not immediately be reached.

Kotova, who was previously a vice president at state-controlled bank VTB, where Lebedev also used to work, was appointed by the government as its executive director to the London-based EBRD in 2005.

The senior position, in which she represented the interests of Russia and the former Soviet states of Belarus and Tajikistan, put her in a position to influence decisions by the 24-member EBRD board to award development loans.

She left the bank under a cloud at the end of 2010 and her legal immunity was lifted, clearing the way for Russian and British law enforcement authorities to open investigations.

The City of London Police’s own investigation continues, with two people charged in Britain with corruption and money laundering, three others on bail and further suspects abroad, a spokesman said.

GREEK consumers grew more optimistic about their economy in December as foreign lenders agreed to keep financial aid flowing to the country, averting the immediate risk of Athens leaving the euro, data showed yesterday.

The Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE) said its index - based on consumer confidence gauges and indexes for business outlook in manufacturing, construction, retail and services - rose by 5 points to 84.1 in December, the highest in two years.

The euro zone agreed in December to disburse nearly €50 billion in aid to the debt-burdened country by the end of March, after Greece carried out a bond buyback scheme aimed at making its debt more sustainable.

That was followed by ratings agency Standard & Poor’s raising Greece’s rating to B-minus with a stable outlook from selective default.

“The successful completion of the bond buyback and the country’s recent credit rating upgrade confirm a gradual reversal of the climate internationally as well,” IOBE said in its monthly survey.

In return for more aid, Greece needs to implement a series of painful reforms, including tax hikes and wage and pension cuts that have eroded living standards and intensified public anger at the conservative-led coalition government.

The completion of negotiations with the European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders eased uncertainty among Greeks about their country’s future despite the burdens the austerity programme has brought upon many, IOBE said.

The decision to unfreeze aid also eliminated monetary uncertainty “at least in the medium term,” it added.

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, January 16, 2013

13

Opinion

Presidential debate did not reveal anything of substance THE FIRST of the scheduled television debates of the three main presidential candidates did not receive very good reviews in yesterday’s newspapers and on the radio shows. This was also the sentiment of the candidates and the four journalists asking the questions, at the end of the show.

The general feeling was that the format, agreed beforehand by all parties, did not work as it was too rigid. The studio microphone switched off as soon as the allotted time for a question and an answer ran out, preventing participants from completing their arguments; there was no thematic unity to the questions as each journalist was free to ask whatever he or she wanted changing subject for every candidate.

In short, there was not much debate as a candidate did not have the opportunity to respond directly to an accusation made by a rival. Direct confrontation makes for better television, but there is always the danger of things getting out of control, without some structure and time limits. To be fair, setting time limits for answers was correct given that most politicians never know when to stop talking; the time limit forced them to be more concise and precise, if not necessarily more sincere.

Monday night’s debate dealt exclusively with the economy, but nothing was said that the candidates had not said before.

Giorgos Lillikas was the only one to take an anti-memorandum stance, even though he was far from convincing when it came to explaining how the banks and the state would survive without a bailout.

Stavros Malas pledged he would not sign a second memorandum, which was a bit silly considering the first had not been signed yet. Nicos Anastasiades made issue about his good relations with EU leaders, insisting that this would help us improve the terms of the memorandum.

In short, we did not really learn anything new about the candidates’ plans for our ailing economy, apart from the fact that they would all oppose the privatisation of the semi-governmental organisations – Anastasiades conceded that he would agree to shares being sold as long as the state remained the majority shareholder. But why do journalists consider the privatisation of SGOs such an important issue, and keep bringing it up during the debate? We would really like to know who, apart from the overpaid, underworked employees of these inefficient and overstaffed organisations cares about their ownership status?

In the end it was not so much the format that was to blame for the dullness of the debate but the fact that the candidates’ only concern was not to alienate any voters, by talking about the extremely difficult year ahead.

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Why do centrist parties continue to remain weak?

Comment Kemal Dervis

I

N MOST advanced democracies, a large centreright party competes with a large centre-left party.

Of course, the extent to which an electoral system favours large parties – by having high popular-vote thresholds to enter parliament, or through winner-take-all constituencies – affects the degree of political fragmentation. But, by and large, the developed democracies are characterized by competition between large parties on the centre left and centre right. What, then, are true centrists like Mario Monti, Italy’s respected technocratic prime minister, to do?

To be sure, regional and ethnic allegiances play a greater role in some places in Europe – for example, Scotland, Belgium, and Catalonia – but far more so in emerging countries, where political cleavages also reflect specific post-colonial circumstances and often the legacy of single-party rule.

Nonetheless, even in “emerging market” democracies, such as Chile, Mexico, South Korea, and India, a left-right cleavage plays an important role – while those who claim the political centre generally remain weak.

The British Liberal Democrats, for example, have tried for decades to become a strong centrist third party, without success. While the political vocabulary in the United States is different, the Democratic Party, since Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, is indeed a centre-left force, the Republican Party occupies the right, and no other significant party exists.

In France and Germany, there is more fragmentation.

Politics is still dominated by a large centre-left party and a large centre-right party, but smaller groups – some claiming the centre and others the right and left extremes – challenge them to various degrees.

In some countries, the “Greens” have their own identity, close to the left; but, despite remarkable progress in Germany, they remain unable to reach the electoral size of the large centre-right and centre-left parties.

Variations of this basic structure exist in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, and the Nordic countries. The situation is particularly interesting in Italy, where Monti, having decided to contest the upcoming general election, has had to position himself on the right (which he signalled by attending a gathering of the leaders of Europe’s centreright parties). He and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi are now fighting for space on the right, with the centre-left Democrats leading in the polls.

There are at least four differences between centre-right and centre-left approaches to

What are true centrists like Italy’s Mario Monti to do? social and economic challenges. The right has greater confidence in markets to allocate resources and provide appropriate incentives; favours private consumption over public goods; is minimally concerned with economic inequality; and tends to be more nationalistic and less optimistic about international cooperation.

The left, by contrast, believes that markets, particularly financial markets, need considerable government regulation and supervision to function well; gives greater weight to public goods (for example, parks, a clean environment, and mass-transit systems); seeks to reduce economic inequality, believing that it undermines democracy

‘There are at least four differences between centreright and centreleft approaches to social and economic challenges’

and the sense of fairness that is important to well-being; and is more willing to pursue international cooperation as a means to secure peace and provide global public goods, such as climate protection.

When looking at actual economic policies as they have evolved over decades, we see that they always combine centre-right and centre-left elements. Repeated financial crises have tempered even the right’s faith in unregulated markets, while the left has become more realistic and cautious about state planning and bureaucratic processes.

Likewise, the choice between privately consumed and publicly consumed “goods” is often blurred, as politicians tend to reinforce citizens’ understandable tendency to demand public goods while rejecting the taxes needed to pay for them.

As income inequality has increased – dramatically in some countries, such as the US – it is moving to the forefront of the debate, reinforcing the traditional political divide. Nonetheless, the centre right and the centre left are arguing about the degree of redistribution, not about the need for some progressivity in taxes and transfers. Both also agree on the need for international cooperation in an increasingly interdependent world, with differences mainly concerning how much effort to spend on it.

So, given that differences in policies as they are implemented have become largely a matter of degree, why do centrist parties remain weak?

Why have they failed to unite moderates on both sides of the ideological divide?

One reason is that only a minority of any population is

active politically. Active party members hold more ideologically consistent views – and hold them more strongly – than most of those who are politically less engaged, giving activists disproportionate influence in the political process. After all, more nuanced ideas and policy proposals are relatively difficult to propagate effectively enough to generate broad and enthusiastic popular support.

But there also really are fundamental differences in values and economic philosophies, as well as in economic interests, leading to a fairly consistent positioning of voters on the right or left. Disagreement may lead to compromises, but that does not change the underlying differences in starting positions.

It is probably a good thing that structured competition between large centre-right and centre-left parties persists. Such parties can help to integrate the extremes into the political mainstream, while facilitating alternation in power, which is essential to any democracy’s dynamism; a system in which a large centrist party remained permanently in power would be far less desirable. Those, like Monti, who want to mount a challenge from the centre, however personally impressive they may be, have steep obstacles to overcome, and for good reasons.

Kemal Derviş, a former minister of economy in Turkey, administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and vice president of the World Bank, is currently Vice President of the Brookings Institution. © Project Syndicate 2013

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

14

Showbiz

Big ratings for Globes, high praise for hosts Fey, Poehler Awards show goes down well with viewers and critics

By Piya Sinha-Roy

By Chris Michaud BEN Affleck and Argo were not the only big winners at Sunday’s Golden Globes - the show itself scored big numbers in the ratings while cohosts Tiny Fey and Amy Poehler won warm notices from critics and fans alike.

Sunday’s broadcast of the 70th annual Golden Globe Awards received its best ratings in six years, outpacing other award shows such as the Emmys and People’s Choice Awards, NBC said.

The three-hour broadcast on NBC was up 28 percent from last year in the coveted 18-to49 age group, and spiked 17 percent in total viewers, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research.

Some 19.7 million Americans tuned in to the show hosted

by Fey and Poehler, compared with 16.8 million who watched last year, when acidic Briton Ricky Gervais was host, prompting comparisons from many quarters.

Sunday’s big Golden Globe winners were musical Les Miserables, which garnered three awards, and Iran hostage drama Argo, which won best dramatic movie and best director for Affleck.

Viewers seemed enthusiastic about this year’s show and the

Timberlake brings sexy back with new song

Golden Globes co-hosts Tiny Fey (left) and Amy Poehler won warm notices from critics and fans alike hosts. The movie site Fandango.com found in an overnight poll that 87 percent of moviegoers thought Fey and Poehler were more entertaining than Gervais, who has hosted several times.

And nearly two-thirds of respondents said wins for Argo and Affleck for best drama and best director were the night’s biggest surprises. Nearly onethird named Lincoln, which won only one award for Daniel Day-Lewis as best actor in a drama, as having been accorded the biggest snub.

Media experts also gave Fey

and Poehler a big thumbs up, while fans and celebrities alike took to Twitter to express their delight with the pair.

The Hollywood Reporter raved that the annual show, where stars are known for imbibing freely, table hopping and generally letting loose, was “a funny, rousing and swiftly paced affair,” adding “credit in large part goes to” Fey and Poehler.

Comparing the duo to previous host Gervais, it noted that “it was nice to see Fey and Poehler prove that they could be fantastic, funny hosts while

also staying out of the limelight.”

The New York Times said the co-hosts “brought charm and easy good humor to a ceremony where stars are supposed to relax and have fun. And it was one of the more amusing awards shows because of it.”

It added that after three years of Gervais’ “puerile bullying,” the two comedians “were gentle - up to a point,” citing their joke about Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow knowing a bit about torture, having “spent three years married to James Cam-

eron.” Bigelow and Titanic director Cameron divorced in 1991.

The Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, worried for the host of this year’s Oscars, which will air on February 24.

“Poor Seth MacFarlane,” its critic wrote. “Until Sunday night, hosting the Oscars must have seemed so easy.”

But Fey and Poehler, “lovely, brilliant and utterly fearless ... made awards-show hosting an art form again, helming three hours of occasionally hilarious, occasionally emotional and surprisingly enjoyable TV.”

Strictly Come Dancing Lindsay Lohan fires her lawyer judge ‘gave wrong score’

By Anthony Barnes CRAIG Revel Horwood has confessed he has accidentally held up the wrong score while judging Strictly Come Dancing - then had to find fault with the contestant to avoid admitting his blunder.

The notoriously hard-to-please panellist says he aimed to give a seven - a generous score for him - but ended up giving a four to one poor dancer.

Revel Horwood admitted the gaffe during an edition of BBC2’s Sarah Millican television programme.

“Of course, because it was a low score I then had to find as many things wrong with it as I could,” he said.

The choreographer - whose tenth recent series of Strictly finished last month - did not name the hapless contestant.

“I remember it was a four but I wanted to give a seven, you see, so it was a bit of a disaster.”

He added: “It’s live television - what can you do, darling?”

Millican also dresses as a naughty nurse as she teams up with guests from BBC1 series Casualty for a comedy sketch. She is joined by Tony Marshall, Suzanne Packer, Charles Dale and Azuka Oforka from the show as she uses a defibrillator on a patient who is wheeled on to the show.

Millican nipped off to get changed into a PVC outfit for the scene after stepping behind a curtain. She tells them: “I’ve got my own uniform - it’s wipe-clean.”

Packer - who plays Casualty’s Tess Bateman - told how viewers asked her for medical advice in real life.

The actress has been accused of lying to police

ACTRESS Lindsay Lohan sacked Shawn Holley, who has represented her through her numerous court appearances, and hired New York attorney Mark Heller, according to gossip website TMZ. Heller reportedly informed Shawn in a letter that he was taking over as Lindsay’s legal representative, which she received just as she was on her way to a courthouse in Los Angeles to try to negotiate a settlement for Lindsay, 26, who has been accused of lying to police.

The Liz & Dick actress was involved in a crash on the Pacific Coast Highway near Los Angeles in June and was charged after she told officers she was a passenger in the car involved, when she is believed to have been driving.

Lindsay was put on probation after being found guilty of stealing a necklace in July 2011, for which she was sentenced to 120 days in prison and 480 hours of community service.

POP star Justin Timberlake has brought his trademark sexy crooner voice back with his first new song in five years, receiving a warm welcome from fans and critics yesterday on his long-awaited return to music.

The singer released Suit & Tie featuring Jay-Z on Sunday night, and within hours, the song had topped the US iTunes chart. The new single also came with the announcement of a new album, The 20/20 Experience, to be released later this year.

The new song, produced

by Timberlake’s long-time collaborator Timbaland, features the singer’s falsetto voice over a laid-back, hiphop beat, fusing R&B and pop sounds.

Critics drew on Timberlake’s newly married status - the singer wed actress Jessica Biel last October - as a possible inspiration for the track.

Rolling Stone magazine reviewer Jody Rosen called the single “a gift to the world’s wedding DJs ... an ode to dressing to the nines and going dancing.”

Pitchfork music website reviewer Stephen Deusner said the track was “one hell of a wedding reception jam, as bubbly as champagne,” while Billboard’s Jason Lipschultz called the song a “sleek, wholly assured dance number.”

Timberlake, 31, who teased fans with cryptic Twitter messages last week, quickly became a trending topic on social media, along with the song.

MTV Buzzworthy’s editor, Tamar Anitai, said the avid online response was no surprise, given Timberlake’s vast fan base and the long wait for new music.

“None of his fans have gone anywhere. He’s the type of artist who can take 7 years between albums and his fans are still waiting outside his studio door,” Anitai told Reuters.

The singer’s last album, FutureSex/LoveSounds in 2006, produced six hit singles including SexyBack, which brought the singer four Grammy awards.

Timberlake rose to fame as one-fifth of 1990’s boy band N’Sync, becoming a pin-up for his good looks. He dated fellow singer Britney Spears.

After N’Sync parted ways in 2002, Timberlake launched his solo career with a new look and edgier sound in his debut solo album Justified, with songs like Cry Me A River and Rock Your Body, becoming chart hits. The album won a Grammy award.

His FutureSex/LoveSounds album arrived at the forefront of a new sound in the pop charts, fusing pop, R&B, hip hop and dance.

Timberlake took a musical hiatus the last five years to focus on his acting career. He appeared in 2010 Facebook film The Social Network, 2011’s Friends with Benefits and last year’s The Trouble With The Curve.

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, January 16, 2013

15

Education

Internships vital for graduate employment

By Alison Kershaw MORE JOBS will be available for graduates in Britain this year, but those without work experience stand little chance of securing a position, research suggests.

Almost half of employers expect to recruit extra graduates in 2013, and a further third plan to take on the same numbers as last year, according to a report by High Fliers research.

But a more than a third of the jobs available will be taken by people who have already worked for the firm while studying, it warns.

The report examines the state of the graduate job market in 2012, and considers the prospects for those leaving university this summer.

Papaellinas contributes to MBA programme FOR the fourth consecutive year, the Papaellinas group of companies is supporting the MBA programme of the University of Cyprus and its students by granting scholarships amounting to €10,250 for students of the MBA programme with proven financial need.

With this contribution, the Papaellinas group of companies proves that it recognises the role of education in modern society. The connection between business and the University of Cyprus is an important step towards development and progress. Under such partnerships, the expertise and experience of business and academia are combined.

For more information visit www.mba.ucy.ac.cy, phone 22 893600 and by email mba@ucy.ac.cy

One in seven London schools set to become an academy ALMOST one in seven London schools is now an academy or plans to convert, new figures reveal.

The dramatic rise of the new type of school is highlighted in statistics released last week, which show that in some parts of London more than a quarter of schools are academies.

British Education Secretary Michael Gove wants more failing primaries to be taken over by a sponsor and turned into academies. In Bexley every secondary school in the borough has converted to academy status, meaning the schools are free of council control but still state funded. In Haringey, where the policy met huge resistance from parents, 12 per cent of primaries are now academies.

It found that overall, graduate vacancies are set to rise by 2.7 per cent this year, compared to last.

This is an improvement on last year, when Britain’s leading employers recruited slightly fewer graduates than expected.

The research suggests that the biggest increase in job openings will be among public sector employers, engineering and industrial companies and retailers.

And Teach First, which recruits top graduates to work as teachers in schools in disadvantaged areas, is likely to take on the highest number of university leavers, with around 1,260 vacancies in total.

But while more graduate jobs will be on offer, competition will still be tough, with those students who have not taken part in internships or work placements, especially

A degree is no longer enough those hoping to work in banking or law, likely to find themselves left out in the cold.

The report, based on a survey of the 100 top graduate employers, found that firms believe that 36 per cent of entry-level jobs will be filled by students who have al-

ready worked for the company.

It reveals that three quarters of the jobs advertised this year by City investment banks are set to be filled by people who have undertaken work experience with these firms, along with half of the training contracts offered by leading law firms.

More than half of the recruiters surveyed suggested that students who are leaving university with no previous work experience have little or no chance of getting a job offer for their company’s graduate programme.

The research did find that more than four in five employers are offering paid work experience for students and recent graduates this academic year.

It also notes that while more jobs are expected to be on offer,

the number of vacancies is still around 11 per cent lower than in 2007, before the recession.

Martin Birchall, managing director of High Fliers Research said: “It’s welcome news that Britain’s best-known and most sought-after employers are offering more jobs for graduates this year, particularly after a drop in vacancies for university-leavers in 2012.

“This latest research confirms that taking part in work placements or internships whilst at university is now just as important as getting a 2.1 or a first-class degree.

Graduate recruiters warn that in a highly competitive job market, new graduates who’ve not had any work experience at all during their studies are increasingly unlikely to be offered a good graduate job after university.”

Oxford in Changzhou?

International schools spread across China as incomes rise

By Lucy Hornby

T

HE WEBSITE for a private school in Changzhou, one of China’s smaller cities, features blue blazers and plaid skirts, music classes and an ivy-clad brick doorway - all the trappings of the British school system designed to appeal to wealthy Chinese parents.

In choosing a smaller city, Oxford International College - no relation to the British university - is tapping into a growing market of upwardly mobile Chinese willing to pay as much as 260,000 yuan ($41,700) a year for a Western-style education and a ticket to college overseas for their children.

“Changzhou is quite an affluent area and many people want to send their kids overseas, so the proportion of Chinese students is ticking up. The expat community is not enough to justify a school,” said Frank Lu, the general manager of Oxford International Colleges of China.

“The market really is the Chinese - it’s the Chinese who want their children to go abroad and are willing to pay the fees.”

Some of the schools offer programmes specifically tailored to British A-levels or the US Advanced Placement tests; all promise the English proficiency needed to attend a foreign university.

In a sign of the eagerness to get the Changzhou school up and running, classes have already started even though the campus - complete with an artificial lake and boathouse - is under construction until September.

That international aura is key to persuading ambitious Chinese parents to pay steep tuition fees. Many schools feature foreign-looking children on their websites or name themselves after elite schools in Britain or North America.

Oxford International is one example. Then there is Eton-

House, a Singaporean company that operates schools in eight Chinese provincial cities.

Maple Leaf Educational Systems has expanded to seven cities in China from its original home in Dalian, a northeastern Chinese port city, by offering a curriculum endorsed by the British Columbia board of education in Canada.

Established British schools like Harrow and Dulwich are also expanding their branches in China.

“My dad wanted me to go abroad at an early age, but my mom did not support the idea,” said Jiang Xin, the 17year old son of a real estate developer, whose parents compromised by sending him to Maple Leaf’s Chongqing campus at 50,000 yuan a year.

“In the future I want to study abroad. My experience here at Maple Leaf is helping me adapt to the Western learning style earlier.”

Pupils and teachers at the new Oxford International College in Changzhou

CLOSE TO HOME Indeed, many wealthy Chinese parents see these schools as a way to get a foreign-style education while keeping their only children close to home.

“Later when she goes overseas to college we will have few chances to see her. We treasure the time we have with her now,” said Zhuang Zhengyi, the head of the parents association for Oxford International in Changzhou, where his daughter is in tenth grade.

The number of international schools registered in mainland China has skyrocketed in the past 12 years, from 22 to 338, according to Nicholas Brummitt, managing director of the Britain-based International School Consultancy Group. Enrollment has risen by 25 times in the same period, to 184,073 students.

Overall, 28.8 million students attend state-run primary or middle schools in Chinese cities, which are officially free but in reality

charge a number of fees.

Just under half the international schools in China are in provincial cities like Changzhou, well apart from the main expatriate centres of Beijing, Shanghai or Guangdong. The trend coincides with the increasing incomes of China’s middle-classes, who are spread across the country, and their aspirations.

Parents who can afford it believe the international schools are the passport to a better life for their children, despite the steeply higher costs. They offer the chance for a university education overseas, avoiding the pressure cooker of the national college entrance exam, taken by more than 9 million Chinese students last June.

There are good state

schools in every city, but the problem is their teaching is aimed entirely to the university entrance exams.

“This hurts students’ confidence and the quality of the teaching,” said Xu Jin, whose 16-year-daughter started at a branch of Dulwich College in Suzhou city in September.

“She was at the best public school but we were more and more dissatisfied. The teachers just taught the right answers and didn’t want the students to ask why... We can already see the difference. She’s happier and learning faster.”

The international schools in Beijing or Shanghai generally are limited by law to foreign passport-holders.

But that’s not the case in many provincial cities, where growth in private education including bilingual schools is exploding.

For newly wealthy Chinese parents, the international schools offer an alternative to China’s conformist, competitive exam-based state school system, and, some say, make for more wellrounded youngsters.

CYPRUS MAIL Wedne

16

Lifestyle

Once a symbol of new can an its policewomen s Sexual harassment, rape and neglect among recruitment challenges reports Amie Ferris-Rotman President Hamid Karzai’s goal is for 5,000 women to join the police by next year

S

HORTLY after Friba joined the Afghan National Police, she gave herself the nickname “dragon” and vowed to bring law and order to her tormented homeland.

Five years later, she is tired of rebuffing the sexual advances of male colleagues, worries the budget for the female force will shrink and fears the government will abandon them.

Women in the police force were held up as a showcase for Afghan-Western efforts to promote rights in the new Afghanistan, born from the optimism that swept the country after the oustering of the Taliban in 2001.

Images of gun-wielding Afghan policewomen have been broadcast across the globe,

even inspiring a television programme popular with young Afghan women.

But going from the burqa to the olive green uniform has not been easy.

In Reuters interviews with 12 policewomen in districts across the Afghan capital, complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination and bitter frustration were prevalent.

President Hamid Karzai’s goal is for 5,000 women to join the Afghan National Police (ANP) by the end of 2014, when most foreign troops will leave the country.

But government neglect, poor recruitment and a lack of interest on the part of authorities and the male-dominated society mean there are only 1,850 female police offic-

Man’s world: Members of the Afghan National Police march during a graduation ceremony

ers on the beat, or about 1.25 per cent of the entire force.

And it looks to get worse.

Friba, who asked that her second name not be used, says it all when she runs a manicured finger across her throat: “Once foreigners leave we won’t even be able to go to the market. We’ll be back in burqas. The Taliban are coming back and we all know it.”

Conditions for women in Afghanistan have improved significantly since the Taliban were ousted. Women have won back basic rights in voting, education and work since Taliban rule, when they were not allowed out of their homes without a male escort and could be publicly stoned to death for adultery.

But problems persist in the deeply conservative Muslim society scarred by decades of conflict. The United Nations said last month that despite progress, there was a dramatic under reporting of cases of violence against women.

Some female lawmakers and rights groups blame Karzai’s government for a waning interest in women’s rights as it seeks peace talks with the Taliban, accusations his administration deny.

“We have largely failed in our campaign to create a female police force,” said a senior Afghan security official who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject.

“Mullahs are against it, and the women are seen as not up to the job,” he added, referring to Muslim preachers.

Almost a third of the members of the female force work in Kabul, performing duties such as conducting security checks on women at the airport and checking biometric data.

Friba sat in a city police station room decorated with posters of policemen clutching weapons to talk to Reuters.

“I am the dragon and I can defend myself, but most of the girls are constantly harassed,” she said.

“Just yesterday my colleague put his hands on one of the girl’s breasts. She was embarrassed and giggled while he squeezed them.

Then she turned to us and burst into tears.”

On the other side of Kabul, detective Lailoma, who also asked that her family name not be used, said several policewomen under her command had been raped by their male colleagues.

Dyed russet hair poking out from her black hijab, part of the female ANP uniform, Lailoma wrung her hands as she complained about male colleagues: “They want it to be like the time of the Taliban. They tell us every day we are bad women and should not be allowed to work here.”

Male colleagues also taunt the women, she added, often preventing them from entering the kitchen, meaning they miss out on lunch.

On several occasions, male colleagues interrupted Reuters interviews in what the policewomen said were attempts to intimidate them into silence.

One male officer entered the room without knocking three times to retrieve pencils; another spent 20 minutes dusting off his hat, only to put it back on a shelf. The women switched subjects when the men came in.

Rana, a 31-year-old, heavy-

set policewoman with curly hair, said policewomen were expected to perform sexual favours: “We’re expected to do them to just stay in the force.”

The raping of policewomen

In interviews with in districts acro capital, compl harassment, dis bitter frustration by their male counterparts “definitely takes place”, said Colonel Sayed Omar Saboor, deputy director for gender and human rights at the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police.

esday, January 16, 2013

17 Television

20

Crossword

21

Sport p

28-32

w Afghanistan, survive?

An Afghan policewoman salutes during her graduation ceremony

Debt ceiling: despite coming out as a winner Obama still has no backing for fighting the debt ceiling

“These men are largely illiterate and see the women as immoral.”

Insecurity, opposition to women working out of the home and sexism deter many women from signing up, said

12 policewomen oss the Afghan aints of sexual crimination and n were prevalent Saboor.

But impoverished widows sometimes have no choice. A starting salary is about 10,500 afghanis a month ($210).

The Interior Ministry and foreign organisations respon-

sible for training the women police - NATO, the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - say recruitment poses the main challenge to the force.

“It is just difficult. There is no real history of women in the police force, there is no precedent, even having an open space for women in employment is a challenge,” UNDP Associate Administrator Rebeca Grynspan said.

A recruitment campaign of television adverts and posters has not produced the desired effect in a country where there are huge social and religious divides between the rural and urban populations.

Even fewer join the national army, where some 350 women serve amongst 190,000.

“Much of the male leadership don’t want to have anything to do with women in the ANP. Commanders want them out of their units,” Sa-

boor said, adding that having 2,500 female police officers could be realistic by end2014.

Of those who join, few have prospects for promotion.

They often find themselves in police stations without proper facilities for women, such as toilets or changing rooms which are vital for the many who hide the fact that they work from their families.

The sprawling Interior Ministry has only recently started work on installing toilets for women. “Ten years of this war have passed, and we’re only now building them a toilet,” Saboor said with a wry laugh.

For First Lieutenant Naderah Keshmiri, whose humble yet stern approach helps her pursue cases of violence against women, life as a policewoman means being undervalued.

“My male subordinates quickly became generals.

But not me. Where’s my promotion?” she asked in a UNDP-backed Family Response Unit, which she heads.

The UNDP has set up 33 of the units countrywide, which help increase female visibility in the ANP, with plans to more than double them by 2015.

A Western female police trainer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said policewomen are almost always passed over for promotion by their male commanders.

US lawmakers are hoping to amend a defence bill by yearend to protect the rights of

Afghan women during the security transition. They want to reduce physical and cultural barriers to women joining the security forces.

Ethnicity also plays a role: 55 per cent of women in the ANP are ethnic Tajik, Afghanistan’s second-largest ethnic group. Recruiting from the largest and most conservative ethnic group, the Pashtuns, is difficult.

The Taliban draw most of their support from the Pashtuns, who dominate the south of the country. Pashtun women make up only 15 per cent of the force.

Hazaras, a largely Shi’ite minority who suffered enormous losses at the hands of the Taliban, are overrepresented amongst the women, making up 24 per cent, according to figures from NATO’s training mission in Afghanistan.

But many of the policewomen are wondering whether their force can survive.

Lowering her voice, Friba whispered: “As soon as the foreigners leave, they’ll reduce our salaries. This will not happen to the men. Or perhaps they’ll kick us out entirely.”

Sexual disparity: few women are among the graduating ranks

Wednesday, January 16, 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 Les Miserables (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 1) at 7 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.30pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 1) at 7 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 11.30am and 3.30pm Hope Springs (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 4) at 5.35, 7.50 and 10.20pm, weekends also at 3.25pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 1) at 7.50 and 10.20pm Jack Reacher (15) K-Cineplex (Screen 5) at 5.25, 7.50 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.05pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 5) at 7.50 and 10.15pm House at the End of the Street (15) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) at 10.20pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 3) at 10.20pm.

Times are subject to change, so check first with cinemas before you head out

Cloud Atlas (15) K-Cineplex (Screen 6) at 10.15pm An… (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 2) (in Greek) at 7.55 and 10.20pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 2) (in Greek) at 7.55 and 10.20pm Wreck-It Ralph (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 2) (in Greek) at 5.35pm, weekends also at 3.20pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 2) (in Greek) at 5.35pm, weekends also at 11am, 1.10pm and 3.20pm Life of Pi (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 6) at 7.50pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 4) at 5.30pm, weekends also at 11.30am and 3.05pm The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) at 7pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 3) at 7pm Hotel Transylvania (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 1) (in Greek, in 2D) at 5.15pm, weekends only at 3.25pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 3) (in Greek, in 2D) at 5.15pm, weekends only at 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3.25pm.

Telephone no: K-Cineplex: 7777-8383

Rise of the Guardians (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 6) (in English, in 2D) at 5.30pm, weekends also at 3.25pm; K-Cineplex, Mall of Cyprus (Screen 5) (in English, in 2D) at 5.30pm, weekends also at 11.20am, 1.20pm and 3.25pm

Rio Limassol: 25-871410 Rio Paphos: 26-207000

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

About Elly (in Farsi, with Greek subtitles) Cine Studio, Thursday at 9pm, presented by the Friends of the Cinema Society. Tel: 96420491, www.ofk.org.cy

LIMASSOL Les Miserables (K) Rio 1 at 7.30 and 10.25pm, weekends also at 4.15pm. Tel: 25-871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 1) at 7 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.30pm Hope Springs (12) Rio 6 at 7.45pm, weekends also at 3.30 and 5.30pm. Tel: 25-871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 4) at 7.50 and 10.20pm Jack Reacher (15) Rio 2 at 7.35pm. Rio 4 at 10pm. Tel: 25-871410; KCineplex (Screen 5) at 7.50 and 10.15pm House at the End of the Street (15) Rio 5 at 7.45 and 10pm, weekends also at 5.30pm. Tel: 25-871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 3) at 10.20pm Cloud Atlas (15) Rio 6 at 10pm. Tel: 25-871410 An… (12) Rio 3 (in Greek) at 7.45 and 10pm. Tel: 25-871410; KCineplex (Screen 2) (in Greek) at 7.55 and 10.20pm Wreck-It Ralph (K) Rio 2 (in Greek) at 5.30pm.; KCineplex (Screen 2) (in Greek) at 5.35pm, weekends also at 3.20pm

Life of Pi (K) Rio 4 at 7.45pm, weekends also at 3 and 5.20pm; KCineplex (Screen 4) at 5.30pm, weekends also at 3.05pm Zarafa (K) Rio 2 (in Greek), weekends only at 2.30 and 4pm; Rio 3 (in Greek), weekdays only at 6pm The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (12) Rio 2 at 10pm; Rio 3, weekends only at 4.30pm. Tel: 25-871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 3) at 7pm Hotel Transylvania (K) Rio 3 (in Greek, in 3D), weekends only at 2.50pm. Tel: 25-871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 3) (in Greek, in 2D) at 5.15pm, weekends only at 3.25pm Rise of the Guardians (K) Rio 5 (in English, in 2D), weekends only at 3.30pm. Tel: 25871410; K-Cineplex (Screen 5) (in English, in 2D) at 5.30pm, weekends also at 3.25pm

LARNACA Les Miserables (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 4) at 7 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.30pm Hope Springs (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 5) at 5.35, 7.50 and 10.20pm, weekends also at 3.25pm Jack Reacher (15) K-Cineplex (Screen 1) at 5.25, 7.50 and 10.15pm, weekends also at 3.05pm

Tomorrow

Exhibitions

Exhibition

Impressions Solo photo exhibition by Sergey Yastrzhembskiy. Opens January 16, 6.30pm until 28 February 28. The Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, Phaneromenis Street, Nicosia. MondaySunday: 10am-7pm. Tel: 22-128157

Place – Light – Man: As Memory and as Expectation Paintings, collage and engravings by Nikos Papaloukas. Opens January 17, 7.30pm until January 31. Apocalypse Gallery, Chytron Street, Nicosia. MondayFriday: 10.30am-1pm and 5pm-8pm.

Saturday: 10.30am-1pm. Tel: 22-766655

Nikolaos Voulgaredis Solo painting exhibition. Opens January 16, 7.30pm until January 26. Gallery Kypriaki Gonia, 45 Stadiou Street, Larnaca. Monday-Saturday: 10am-1pm & 4.30pm-8pm. Sunday:11am-2pm & 4pm-7pm. Tel: 24-621109

Theatre

Music Lavrentis Macheritsas A musical presentation full of new melodies, nostalgic feelings and humour with Demetris Starovas and Zenovia Arvanitidi.

January 17. Rialto Theatre, Limassol.

8.30pm. €18/12. Tel: 77-777745

The Whore from Ohio ETHAL presents black comedy.

January 16-17. THOC New Theatre Building, 9 Gregori Afxentiou, Nicosia.

8.30pm. In Greek with English subtitles. Tel: 77-772717

Fusion Music Pop meets opera meets show-tunes with Tina Chester: Soprano and Andrew Oliver: Piano. January 17. Latchi Y & P Hotel. Concert 7pm, dinner 9pm. €20 inc. dinner. B & B rooms available.

Reservations - Tel: 26-321411

The Harley Jacket The Motorcycle Club of Nicosia and the European University, THOC and the Cyprus Motorcycle Federation present a free performance. January 16.

European University, Engomi, Nicosia.

8pm. In Greek. Free. Tel: 22-713000

J.Kriste, Master of Disguise Seven-piece band play songs from new and old album and some covers. January 17-31. Antonaki’s Music Hall, 17 Vasileiou Voulgaroktonou Street, Nicosia. Thursday at 9.30pm. €10. Tel: 99-566485

Hope Springs (12) Rio 2 at 5.30, 7.30 and 9.45pm

Cloud Atlas (15) K-Cineplex (Screen 6) at 10.15pm

Jack Reacher (15) Rio 7 at 5 and 7.30pm; Rio 1 at 10.20pm

An… (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 2) (in Greek) at 7.55 and 10.20pm

House at the End of the Street (15) Rio 4 at 7.30 and 9.45pm

Wreck-It Ralph (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 2) (in Greek) at 5.35pm, weekends also at 3.20pm

Cloud Atlas (15) Rio 5 at 7pm

Life of Pi (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 6) at 7.50pm The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (12) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) at 7pm Hotel Transylvania (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) (in Greek, in 2D) at 5.15pm, weekends only at 3.25pm Rise of the Guardians (K) K-Cineplex (Screen 6) (in English, in 2D) at 5.30pm, weekends also at 3.25pm My Brother is an Only Child (in Italian, with Greek subtitles) Thursday at 8.30pm, presented by the Larnaca Cinema Society.

Call for details of venue. Tel: 99-658831, 99-462903. www. lfcinema.org

PAPHOS Les Miserables (K) Rio 1 at 7.30pm, weekends also at 4.30pm; Rio 7 at 10pm

An… (12) Rio 6 (in Greek) at 7.30pm; Rio 5 (in Greek) at 10pm Wreck-It Ralph (K) Rio 6 (in Greek) weekdays only at 5.30pm, weekends only at 11am and 2.30pm Life of Pi (K) Rio 3 at 5, 7.30 and 10pm.

Zarafa (K) Rio 5 (in Greek) at 5.30pm, weekends also at 11am and 4pm The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (12) Rio 6 at 9.45pm, weekends also at 4.30pm Hotel Transylvania (K) Rio 7 (in Greek, in 3D), weekends only at 11am and 3pm Rise of the Guardians (K) Rio 4 (in English, in 2D) at 5.30pm, weekends also at 11am and 3.30pm; Rio 1 (in Greek, in 3D), weekdays only at 5.30pm, weekends only at 11am and 2.30pm

listings

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Today

House at the End of the Street (15) K-Cineplex (Screen 3) at 10.20pm

Theatre Social Security THOC presents satire on modern high society by Andrew Bergman.

January 17. Markidio Theatre, Paphos. 8.30pm. €12/6. With Greek and English surtitles. Tel: 77772717/26-932571

Other Events Cursed to Isolation The Costas and Rita Severis Foundation present a lecture with Senem Gokel on lepers in Cyprus. January 17.

Famagusta Gate Cultural Centre. 7pm.

In English. Tel: 99-630872

Ongoing Other Events First Exhibition of Vespa And Lambretta See classic models of Vespa and Lambretta scooters, Registration and renewals of membership, kids Vespa drawing-painting competition. Until January 19. The Mall of Cyprus.

10am-6pm. Free. Tel: 99-455844. www.vlccyprus.com

European Political Thought A series of seminars by Dr Eleni Papamichael, followed by a discussion.

Participants to more than six seminars will be awarded Diplomas of Attendance. Until January 23. M106 at the University of Nicosia 8.45pm. Every Wednesday. €50. Monitoring individual lectures €10. Tel: 22-841600/ 99-536311 and/or cceia@unic.ac.cy Climate – Culture – Change Screenings of international documentary films about climate change. January 14-18. Goethe-Institut, next to Ledra Palace Hotel, Nicosia. 7pm. All films are with English subtitles. Free. Tel: 22-674608 or www.goethe.de/cyprus

Theatre Death and the Maiden Satiriko Theatro presents play by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman. Until January 25. Vladimiros Kafkarides Cultural Centre, Vladimiros, Kafkarides Street, Aglantzia, Nicosia. Wednesdays and Fridays at 8.30pm. €15/10. In Greek. Tel: 22-312940/22-421609 The Elephant Man Theatro Ena presents a play by Bernard Pomerance, translated and directed by Andreas Christodoulides.

Until January 27. Theatro Ena, 4 Athinas Avenue, Nicosia. Every Friday through Sunday at 8.30pm. In Greek. €15/12. Tel: 22-348203

Heights Three actors confront their personal conflicts among the spectators. Until January 29. Theatro Ena, 4 Athinas Avenue, Nicosia. €10 including the first glass of wine. 10pm. In Greek.

Tel: 2234 8203 or email theatroena@cytanet.com.cy

Shakespeare in an Hour Pirasmos Productions presents a theatrical comedy directed by popular Cypriot actor and director Loris Loizides. Until March 29. Pantheon Art Cinema, 29 Diagorou Street, Nicosia.

Thursday and Friday at 8.30pm. In Greek. Tel: 70-001910

Social Security THOC presents satire on modern high society by Andrew Bergman. Until February 3. THOC New Theatre Building, 9 Gregori Afxentiou, Nicosia. Friday through Sunday at 8.30pm, Saturday at 6pm and 8.30pm. €12/6 . In Greek. Tel: 77772717/22-864300

Exhibitions

Spring Awakening THOC presents work by Frank Wedekind, about sexual and spiritual awakening of teenagers. Until February 9. THOC New Theatre Building, 9 Gregori Afxentiou, Nicosia. On specific days at 8.30pm. In Greek.. €12/6. Tel: 77-772717/22-864300 Misery Stephen King’s psychological thriller staged by Satiriko Theatre. Every Friday and Saturday. Until February 13. Vladimiros Kafkarides Cultural Centre, 11-15 Vladimiros Kafkarides Street, Aglantzia, Nicosia. Every Wednesday and Friday at 8.30pm. In Greek. Tel: 22-312940/22-421609

The of Art as a Functional Object Group art exhibition. Until January 18.

Centre of Contemporary Art Diotopos, 11 DZ, Crete Street, Nicosia. Monday: 5pm-8pm.Tuesday-Friday: 11am-1pm and 5pm-8pm. Saturday: 11am-1pm.

Tel: 22-766117 AnThrOPOS: Faces of Cyprus through the Ages An exhibition that explores the human form as it is represented in the art of Cyprus from the Neolithic period until today. Until January 18. The Cyprus Museum 1 Special Exhibition Hall, Museum Street, Nicosia. Tel: 22-865854. www.mcw.gov.cy White Christmas Group exhibition. Until January 19.

Argo Gallery, 64E D. Akrita Avenue, Nicosia. Monday-Friday: 10am1pm and 5pm-8pm. Saturday: 10am-1pm. Tel: 22-754009. www. argogallery.org

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, January 16, 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

Bird’s eye view: aerial shots by former Russian politician Sergey Yastzhembskiy (top left to right) Cyprus and Africa. Bottom (left to right): Europe and Russia

View from the top of the world FROM hundreds of metres above sea level you can see stunning landscapes of coastlines and mountains to floodplains and river deltas. Capturing these images is all part of the working week for former Russian presidential aide Sergey Yastrzhembskiy.

From today until the end of February over 60 shots will be on display, at the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, all created during the last three years by the famous politician who left his post in order to pursue his hobby – photography.

Entitled Impressions, the most prominent feature of these impressive photographs, which in fact are more reminiscent of paintings, is that they all depict the Earth but have been taken from great heights. The world feels so different when viewed from above. Aerial photography provides a unique and drastic view of our surroundings and environment which we are unable to get

Don’t Forget Music Return of a Greek legend A RANGE of quality musical evenings is scheduled to begin this week in a new spot in Limassol’s Carob Mill. The modern and cozy stage is designed specifically to accommodate ac-

from shooting on the ground.

The exhibition consists of photographs from Africa and Europe, as well as Russia and Cyprus.

Unique combinations of patterns and colours make up the landscapes of the exhibition, which seem to be without a beginning or end. Visitors will receive the unique opportunity to compare countries and continents from a bird’s eye view, and to enjoy the wonderful combination presented from unique perspectives and angles.

Olga Sviblova, the Director of Moscow’s House of Photography, notes that “Yastrzhembskiy is mostly interested in visual structure and subtractive composition, highlighting the differences between countries and continents by means of the colours’ texture and scale… Africa looks so brutal whilst, before it, Europe comes out graphic and more impressionistic…” Our landscapes tell the stories of our heritage, bring alive

claimed artists over the following months and first up is none other than legendary Greek singer George Dalaras.

Last spring Dalaras received a hostile reception in Athens when the veteran Greek singer was booed off the stage and called a traitor during a free concert organised to express solidarity with crisis-slammed Greeks by a group of protesters who accused him of pandering to the system. However, when he made his comeback just

the beauty of our environment, and challenge us all to understand the changes taking place in our towns and cities.

See for yourself how Yastrzhembskiy’s camera catches the contrast and the harmony of this alive and changing world. The stories of these landscapes are revealed so visitors can truly explore and discover something new.

Born in Moscow in 1953, Yastrzhembskiy had a high-profile career, working in the administrations of Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin before making the transition to journalism. His favourite subjects are ethno photography and aero impressionism (air shooting of the landscapes). One can find his artworks in the Moscow House of Photography, in private collections in Russia, Belgium, Italy, France, Slovakia and China. In addition, his photos are periodically published in magazines such as Fotodelo, Ogonjok, Export, and in newspapers such as Izvestija, Kommersant and

before Christmas with a new nned by album of songs penned Nikos Antypas all was forn as crowds given and forgotten h. couldn’t get enough.

In a few days time Dalaras will nt his new be Cyprus to present y Is So? acwork What You Say ypas and companied by Antypas pampali, singer Adrianna Mpampali, ogramme in a three-hour programme that presents new songs, popular rembetika as well der as a selection of older favourites.

Rossikaya Gazeta.

Tonight guests will also get the opportunity to see Yastrzhembskiy’s film Africa: Blood and Beauty, a survey of what ancient customs still remain in tribal Africa. The doc offers plenty of eyewitness recordings of rituals from trance dances organised to communicate with dead ancestors to a colourful Berber wedding and many varieties of bodily adornments. The film will be shown in Russian with English subtitles and presents a bounty of ethnographic footage, but be warned this is not for the squeamish.

Impressions Solo photo exhibition by Sergey Yastrzhembskiy.

Opens January 16, 6.30pm until 28 February 28. The Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, 86-88-90 Phaneromenis Street, Nicosia. Visiting hours: Monday-Sunday: 10am-7pm. (except on bank holidays). Tel: 22-128157

Dalaras, 63, has released 70 pe personal albums that have sold over 14 milcopie worldlion copies ran wide, ranging c from classic remb rembetiko op to opera and pop.

Aud Audiences can expect he to hear song about songs every everyday

By Ledha Socratous stories filled with strong emotions and a pervading sense of melancholy. And while the price tag of €50 may seem a little steep, it’s not every day you get the chance see a living star perform live in such an intimate environment.

George Dalaras A three hour programme presenting new songs, popular rembetika and great range of well known hits. January 18-19. Lanitis Carob Mill Complex, Vasilissis Street, Limassol. 10pm. €50. Tel: 25-372855

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

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

20

Television CYBC 1 06.45 08.15

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

11.00

Kaftes Piperies (rpt)

11.30

Istories Tou Horkou (rpt)

Cookery show.

CYBC 2 07.00 08.00 16.30 17.00 18.00 18.50 19.00 19.10

Apo Mera Se Mera

15.30

Entehnos

Current affairs show.

Local cultural show.

16.00 18.00 18.15 18.45

Mazi Sto CyBC News Kaftes Piperies Paizoume Kypriaka

20.00 21.00

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

20.00 21.15

23.00

News Vimata Stin Ammo

Greek FILM: O Trellos Ta’ Hei 400 Comedy, starring Labros Konstadaras.

1968.

23.30 23.45

07.50 08.40

NRG Zone FILM: Elizabethtown

Desperate Housewives Seventh season. ‘Truly Content’. Susan is forced to reveal her secret to Mike, and Juanita becomes suspicious of Gabrielle’s sudden interest in Grace. Lynette is concerned about her mother-in-law’s lapses of memory, and Paul takes Beth out on a date in an effort to spark their marriage into life.

New season of local period drama, based on true events.

22.00

05.30 06.20 06.50 07.00

A depressed man visits his home town for his father’s funeral, where a free-spirited woman turns his life around.

Romantic drama, starring Orlando Bloom.

2005.

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

19.20

NRG Zone Kids’ TV Euromaxx Kati Psinetai (rpt) Kato Apo Ton Idio Ourano News In English News In Turkish Doctor Who (rpt) Fourth season.

‘Silence in the Library’.

Part one of two. The Tardis takes Donna and the Doctor to the universe’s largest library, which was sealed up and abandoned 100 years ago amid stories of terrifying living shadows within.

Local comedy series, which happens to be the longest-running show on TV.

12.00

ANTENNA

News Repeats 23.45

Repeats

09.30 10.25 11.15 12.10 13.00 13.20 14.00 14.50 15.45 16.40 17.30

Erotas (rpt) Proini Enimerosi Me Agapi Idiatera Yia Klamata (rpt) Englimata (rpt) Lyke, Lyke Eisai Edo (rpt) Einai Stigmes (rpt) Pansellinos (rpt) Ekeino To Kalokairi (rpt) Niose Me (rpt) News Mera Mesimeri Konstantinou Kai Elenis (rpt) To Kafe Tis Haras (rpt) Oneiropagida (rpt) Vals Me 12 Theous (rpt) Ekeino To Kalokairi (rpt)

MEGA 06.30 07.00

A revamped version of its predecessor (Koinonia Ora 8).

Current affairs show that examines the issues affecting everyday people in Greece and abroad.

08.00 10.00 12.45 14.00 15.00 16.00 18.00 18.20

Aiyia Fuxia Local comedy series, with village setting.

19.30 20.15 21.15 22.10 23.00 00.00 00.05 00.20 01.40 02.30 03.20 04.40

Niose Me News Vals Me 12 Theous Ekeino To Kalokairi Presidential Elections 2013 News Sports News Ola Bahalo Fetos Yia Tin Anna (rpt) I Agapi Irthe Apo Makria (rpt) News Deal (rpt)

Nea Mera Proino Mou Enimerosi Tora Klemmena Oneira (rpt) Eheis Meson Yia Sena News Master Chef New season of Greek reality series. Amateur cooks compete to win the coveted MasterChef title.

19.20

Eftyhismenoi Mazi (rpt)

20.15 21.15

News Klemmena Oneira

With News at 18.00.

18.30

Emeis Ki Emeis (rpt) Koinonia Ora Mega

SIGMA 07.00 08.20 10.20 11.10 12.00 14.20 15.20 18.00 18.05 18.30 19.30 20.20 21.15 22.20 23.30

08.35 09.05 10.15 10.35 12.30 13.00 15.30 17.00 17.50 19.40 21.15 22.00

00.20 00.25 01.20 02.10 02.40 03.00 04.30

News Dekati Entoli (rpt) Althinoi Erotes (rpt) Mila Mou (rpt) Se Fonto Kokkino (rpt) Ta Hrisopsara (rpt) Eleni (rpt)

Fotis - Maria Live Best Of Exelixeis Sti Showbiz Mesimeriani Meleti Best Of Mila (rpt) Nistikoi Praktores (rpt) Star News Mesimeriani Meleti Classic Cartoons To Kleidi Fotis - Maria Live Mila Exelixeis Sti Showbiz The Closer (rpt) Fifth season. ‘Maternal Instincts’. Brenda causes conflict with Fritz when she involves her niece in the investigation of a school shooting that left one person dead and another critically injured.

Meanwhile, Provenza makes a life-changing decision.

Las Vegas First season. ‘Luck Be a Lady’. Sandra Adlman, a former CIA friend of Ed’s, strolls into the casino as an adviser to a singer. While the boss enjoys catching up on old times with the lustful lady, the diva worries about a possible stalker.

Greek drama series.

Enoha Mystika Anonymous (rpt) News Fae Ti Sokolata Sou Yia Sena (rpt) Enimerosi Tora (rpt) Proino Mou (rpt)

07.20

Local investigative show.

Greek comedy series.

22.10 23.10 00.00 00.10 01.00 03.00 04.20

Protoselido Eleni Vasiliki (rpt) Efta Ourani Kai Sinnefa Alites (rpt) Mesimeri Kai Kati Aspra Balonia (rpt) Magazino News Ti Tha Fame Simera Mama The Del Monte Heirs Efta Ourani Kai Sinnefa Alites News Oikogeneiakes Istories 60 Lepta

PLUS TV

22.45

06.45 08.20 09.25 10.00 11.00 11.30 12.30 13.25 15.25 16.15 16.50 17.35 18.15 19.15 19.50 20.05 21.00

LTV Sports News Star News Repeats

Kids’ TV S’ Agapo (rpt) Akti Oneiron (rpt) Ston Asterismo Tis Imeras Kouzina Me Apopsi Igeia & Zou (rpt) Milagros Kids’ TV Top Models S’ Agapo Sabrina, To Koritsi Tis Agapis Akti Oneiron Pacific Blue News Sports News Epi Topou FILM: Passion Of Mind A New York literary agent appears to have it all but is haunted by dreams of living another life. Romantic drama, starring Demi Moore. 2000.

23.00

FILM: Sunset Grill A private eye sets out to discover who killed his ex-wife : and uncovers a grisly organisation led by a wealthy philanthropist. Thriller, starring Peter Weller 1992.

FILM: Adam Resurrected In the aftermath of WWII, a former circus entertainer who was spared from the gas chamber becomes the ringleader at an asylum for Holocaust survivors War drama, starring Jeff Goldblum and Willem Defoe. 2008.

00.25 01.15 02.20

CAPITAL

01.00

FILM: Alien Hunter A communications expert is decoding strange signals at an Antarctic research station when events take a deadly turn. Sci-fi thriller, starring James Spader. 2003.

The Artist (Novacinema1, 20.15)

06:15 The Weakest Link 07:00 3rd & Bird 07:10 Boogie Beebies 07:25 Gigglebiz 07:40 The Roly Mo Show 07:55 Me Too! 08:15 3rd & Bird 08:25 Boogie Beebies 08:40 Gigglebiz 08:55 The Roly Mo Show 09:10 Me Too! 09:30 Buzz & Tell 09:35 Fawlty Towers 10:05 Twenty Twelve 10:35 The Weakest Link 11:20 EastEnders 11:50 Doctors 12:20 Coast 13:20 Upstairs Downstairs 14:15 Last Of The Summer Wine 14:45 The Weakest Link 15:30 EastEnders 16:00 Doctors 16:30 Coast 17:30 Upstairs Downstairs 18:25 The Weakest Link 19:10 EastEnders 19:40 Doctors 20:10 Casualty 21:00 My Family 21:30 Getting On 22:00 Unforgiven 22:50 One Foot In The Grave 23:20 Live At The Apollo 00:05 Waking The Dead 00:55 Taking the Flak 01:25 The Weakest Link 02:10 EastEnders 02:40 Doctors 03:10 Casualty 04:00 My Family 04:30 Getting On 05:00 Live At The Apollo 05:45 One Foot In The Grave

07:00 How It’s Made 07:25 Wheeler Dealers 08:15 American Chopper 09:10 Dirty Jobs 10:05 Deadliest Catch 10:55 Ultimate Survival 11:50 How Do They Do It? 12:15 How It’s Made 12:40 Ex-

treme Engineering 13:35 Wreckreation Nation 14:30 Wheeler Dealers 15:25 American Chopper 16:20 Mythbusters 17:15 Dirty Jobs 18:10 Deadliest Catch 19:05 Ultimate Survival 20:00 How It’s Made 21:00 Alone In The Wild 22:00 Beyond Survival With Les Stroud 23:00 Dynamo: Magician Impossible 01:00 The Real Hustle 01:55 Alone In The Wild 02:50 Beyond Survival With Les Stroud 03:50 Dynamo: Magician Impossible 05:45 How Do They Do It? 06:10 Overhaulin’l

04:00 Tennis: Australian Open, Melbourne 15:30 Snooker: International Masters London 18:00 Motorsports: Gta Race To Dubai 18:15 Tennis: Australian Open, Melbourne 19:30 Tennis: Game, Set And Mats 20:00 Snooker: International Masters London 00:00 Rally: Rally Raid Dakar 00:30 Tennis: Australian Open, Melbourne 01:30 Tennis: Game, Set And Mats 02:00 Tennis: Australian Open, Melbourne

05:40 Desperate Housewives 06:25 Castle 07:10 Modern Family 07:35 New Girl 08:00 Body Of Proof 08:50 Masterchef

09:40 Desperate Housewives 10:25 Castle 11:10 Modern Family 11:35 New Girl 12:00 Grey’s Anatomy 12:50 Private Practice 13:40 Body Of Proof 14:30 Masterchef 15:20 Desperate Housewives 16:05 Castle 16:50 Modern Family 17:15 New Girl 17:40 Body Of Proof 18:30 Tabatha’s Salon Takeover 19:20 Desperate Housewives 20:10 Castle 21:00 Grey’s Anatomy 21:50 Private Practice 22:40 Modern Family 23:05 New Girl 23:30 Grey’s Anatomy 00:20 Private Practice 01:10 Castle 02:00 Desperate Housewives 02:45 Modern Family 03:10 New Girl 03:35 Rita Rocks 04:00 Body Of Proof 04:50 Tabatha’s Salon Takeover l

07:00 Pawn Stars 07:30 Storage Wars 08:00 Mud Men 09:00 Pawn Stars 09:30 American Restoration 10:00 Pawn Stars 10:30 Storage Wars 11:00 Ancient Aliens 12:00 Storage Wars 13:00 American Pickers 14:00 Pawn Stars 14:30 American Restoration 15:00 Mud Men 16:00 Storage Wars 17:00 American Pickers 18:00 Pawn Stars 18:30 American Restoration 19:00 Mud Men 20:00 Pawn Stars 20:30 Storage Wars 21:00 Ancient Aliens 22:00 Swamp People 23:00 Storage Wars 00:00 Pawn Stars 00:30 Storage

Wars 01:00 Ancient Aliens 02:00 Swamp People 03:00 Storage Wars 04:00 Mud Men 05:00 Pawn Stars 05:30 American Restoration 06:00 Ancient Aliens

07:30 Letters To Juliet 09:15 Another Year 11:30 Zack And Miri Make A Porno 13:15 Spoken Word 15:15 Wild Things 17:10 Action Zone 17:45 Brideshead Revisited 20:00 Ltv Sports News 21:00 500 Days Of Summer 23:00 Horse Whisperer, The 01:50 Hustler Tv 03:20 Strangers, The 04:50 Christmas With The Kranks 06:30 Ltv Sports News

07:00 Chowder I 07:25 Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack, The 07:50 Tom & Jerry Show, The 08:15 Shaggy & ScoobyDoo Get A Clue! I 08:40 Loonatics Unleashed I 09:05 Superman: The Animated Series Ii 09:30 Superman: The Animated Series Ii

09:55 Looney Tunes Show, The 10:20 Tak & The Power Of Juju 10:45 Fanboy & Chum Chum 11:10 X’s, The 11:35 Ni Hao, Kai-Lan 12:00 Dora The Explorer 12:25 Spongebob Squarepants 12:50 Spongebob Squarepants 13:15 Mighty B!, The 13:40 My Life As A Teenage Robot 14:05 Hey Arnold! 14:30 Icarly 14:55 Icarly 15:20 Shaggy & ScoobyDoo Get A Clue! I 15:45 Justice League Unlimited I 16:10 Legion Of Super Heroes I 16:35 Young Justice 17:00 Barclays Premier League 2012-13 19:00 Liga Bbva 2012-13 21:00 La Liga World 21:30 Planet Speed 22:00 La Liga Review 2012-13 23:00 Copa Del Rey 2012-13 01:00 Liga Bbva 2012-13 03:00 Copa Del Rey 2012-13 05:00 Liga Bbva 2012-13

07:15 According To Jim 08:00 Big Bang Theory, The 08:30 Mentalist, The 09:15 Top Boy 10:10 Friends 10:35 Two And A Half Men 11:25 Closer, The

12:10 Harry’s Law 13:00 Pan Am 13:45 According To Jim 14:30 Mentalist, The 15:15 Top Boy 16:10 Friends 16:35 Gossip Girl 17:20 Ncis: Los Angeles 19:00 Pan Am 19:45 According To Jim 20:30 2 Broke Girls 21:00 Necessary Roughness 22:30 C.S.I. New York 23:15 Luck 00:10 Somewhere 02:00 Boxer, The (2009) 03:45 Friends 04:15 Gossip Girl 05:00 Ncis: Los Angeles 06:30 Pan Am

07:45 Skyline 09:40 Chloe 11:20 Crackie 12:55 Heyday! 14:30 St. Trinian’s Ii: The Legend Of Fritton’s Gold 16:20 Unknown 18:15 Spaced Invaders 20:00 Trucker 22:00 Underbelly Files - Infiltration 23:30 Action Zone 00:05 Daring! TV 04:05 Insignificant Harvey N 05:30 Veronica Guerin

05:05 Trust 06:55 I Am Legend 08:40 Hugo 10:45 Hollywood 1on1 11:15 The Dilemma 13:10 Welcome To The Sticks 15:00 Wings Of The Dove 16:45 Winnie The Pooh 17:55 $5 A Day 19:40 Action Zone 20:15 The Artist 22:00 Confucius 00:15 ; The Change-Up 02:10 Cine News 02:40 Point Blank 04:05 Room In Rome

By Preston Wilder

Trucker (LTV3, 20.00) She’s a mother. She’s a trucker. She’s a baaaad mothertrucker. She’s Michelle Monaghan, driving her truck down the back-roads of America, prone to hard drinking and casual sex, beholden to no-one though also going nowhere much - at least till the 11-yearold son she deserted years before shows up, openly rebellious and resentful but also forced to stay with his mother, at least for a while. A familiar scenario (will mum and son eventually bond? yes they will) but done with restraint, country music on the soundtrack and a lead performance that’s willing to be unsympathetic (she even slaps the kid at one point!) in the interests of better drama; almost Hollywood but not

exactly, a film with an air of authenticity - comments at the Internet Movie Database include an endorsement from a real-life truck driver - and a certain rugged regional vibe. Also with Nathan Fillion, as a married man who has a thing for Michelle. Made in 2008.

Confucius (Novacinema1, 22.00) Confucius say, Chinese movie like sudoku puzzle: very confusing if don’t have the clues, then waste of time anyway. A “boring, if impressively big-haired Chinese history lesson,” sighed British magazine Total Film but maybe you have to be Chinese to appreciate this irony-free historical drama, set in the 6th century B.C. (the “Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history,”

according to Wikipedia) when the philosopher Confucius became the country’s official sage, a position he occupies more or less to this day. Chow Yun-Fat is a rather low-key hero, the film weighed down by historical minutiae (Wikipedia notes that Confucius’ ideas became trendy “following the victory of Han over Chu after the collapse of Qin,” which suggests the profusion of names you have to wade through) and CGI-heavy battles - yet it’s also expensive and lavishly mounted, with the epic grandeur you’d expect from a costume drama approved by the Chinese government. Confucius say, biopic of famous scholar like opening ceremony of Beijing 2008: big, patriotic and little bit exhausting. In Mandarin; made in 2009.

Confucius

06:20 The Skin I Live In 08:25 Cine News 11:15 The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn 13:05 Cine News 13:55 Zorba The Greek 16:20 The Emperor’s Club 18:10 Films & Stars 18:45 Robinson Crusoe 20:20 Management 00:10 True Grit 2010 02:05 The Crimson Rivers 04:05 Colombiana

19:05 Route Irish 21:00 Gynekes Dilitirio 22:45 Person Of Interest 23:45 Blitz 01:30 Adult Zone

19:05 Cars 2 21:00 Made In Dagenham 23:00 Ever After: A Cinderella Story 01:05 In Love And War

07:00 Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm 09:10 Big Sleep 11:05 Doctor Zhivago 14:15 Come Fly With Me 16:00 Easter Parade 17:45 Bad Day At Black Rock 19:10 Edge of the City 20:35 Honeymoon Machine 22:00 Now, Voyager 23:55 Cat On A Hot Tin Roof 01:40 Kelly’s Heroes 04:00 Live A Little, Love A Little 05:30 Bad Day At Black Rock

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, January 16, 2013

21

CRYPTIC CROSSWORD 2286 1

2

3

4

8

5

PREVIOUS DAY’S SOLUTIONS

6

7

9

10 11 13

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.

12 14

15

16 17 19

EASY

MEDIUM

HARD

20

1 Hampered literary drudge in the snow vehicle (8) 6 Not a straight act! (4) 8 I got starting-price first for Peg (6) 9 Church Union has risqué office in the church! (6) 10 Join a colleague (9) 13 Only one piece of merchandise from town in Hertfordshire? (4) 14 Father takes the ball away (3) 15 Some drinking-water used to make the frozen surface (4) 16 All take part that is conducive to health (9) 19 Artist rearranged the clouds (6) 20 Son hit out at religion (6) 21 There is something to be said for this test (4) 22 Poisonous alkaloid made into nice mixture! (8)

2 In radiography, possible fixing agent (4) 3 One might be barred from entering this enclosure (4) 4 Remove half a stone, it’s the trend (6,7) 5 Noted medico (6,2,5) 6 College of the third degree (8) 7 Repeating from memory about the said placing (8) 11 Trace the faulty tube (8) 12 He’ll yell aloud for this shoe-blacking (8) 17 An open-handed person cannot shake this (4) 18 Astonish with endlessly dangerous act (4)

Rating EASY

Down

Rating HARD

Across

Rating HARD

22

Rating MEDIUM

21

18

MEDIUM

Answers to crossword 2285

HOROSCOPE

CRYPTIC: Across – 1 Wapiti; 4 Stir up; 9 Interpret; 10 Doc; 11 Satanic; 13 Niece; 14 Archdiocese; 18 Abhor; 19 Abridge; 21 Coo; 22 Ill-judged; 24 Pagoda; 25 Shiner. Down – 1 Whimsy; 2 Pet; 3 Turin; 5 Titanic; 6 Redressed; 7 Packet; 8 Practically; 12 Torch-song; 15 Harried; 16 Madcap; 17 Leader; 20 Rough; 23 Gen.

QUICK: Across – 1 Fiesta; 4 Cancan; 9 Nourished; 10 Vat; 11 Lesotho; 13 Ruler; 14 Slenderness; 18 Wiper; 19 Insider; 21 Let; 22 In advance; 24 Teethe; 25 Grubby. Down – 1 Finale; 2 Eau; 3 Twist; 5 Andiron; 6 Civilised; 7 Notary; 8 Theoretical; 12 Saltpetre; 15 Norwich; 16 Twilit; 17 Creepy; 20 Sever; 23 Nab.

ARIES March 21 - April 20

LEO July 23 - August 22

SAGITTARIUS November 23 - December 21

The Sun and Mercury are still travelling closely together through Capricorn. This can see a lot of activity in the way you link with the wider world, your thinking about yourself, and your personal standing. You may get the chance to attend a course or seminar which will help you to assimilate new skills or meet life’s movers and shakers.

There might be a bit of a brittle vibe today. Things that wouldn’t ordinarily get to you, could seem bigger and more vivid. If you are someone with a dislike of minutia, you may groan if you need to pick out dull facts. Then again, a picky or critical person can seem keen to criticise you or make a lot out of something which to you is trivial.

With Venus continuing alongside Pluto, issues around money can take on more intensity. More positively, you could transform your fortunes and use what you have constructively. Less helpfully, there may be some politics around cash. Someone may use dark tactics. In love, things can get steamy, more passionate, but potentially more argumentative.

TAURUS April 21 - May 21

VIRGO August 23 - September 23

CAPRICORN December 22 - January 20

Once more you are jolted by planetary influences, asking you to go beyond your comfort zone. But that is often easier than said isn’t it? However, if you do spot yourself making excuses of why you can’t do this or pursue that, perhaps you need to consider those exciting experiences you are missing out on by taking a stick rather than twist approach.

Your sense of fun may be bubbling away, but what you see as a hilarious jape or joke may seem anything but to someone else. If you receive a round robin text or email which is risqué, think twice before you choose to press that send button. Your taste and someone you send to may not dovetail very well, and indeed offence could be caused.

You can give out a very alluring vibe at this time. Your sex appeal can be high, and this can see you get more attention, and some heads can turn your way. This can also add to the power you have, so be conscious of anyone who may like you a lot, because they may take what you say literally. Then again, a makeover can add to your magnetism.

GEMINI May 22 - June 21

LIBRA September 24 - October 23

AQUARIUS January 21 - February 19

Your quick take on situations is often one of your best assets, but today this could be counterproductive. Something may look obvious but can benefit from taking a step back and thinking more carefully about what it all means.

Don’t be fearful of probing beneath the surface. This is especially so around financial or shared asset situations.

Mercury continues its passage through a tender part of your solar horoscope, but it has its upsides in Capricorn, helping you to focus intently. And if you are wanting to improve the organisation of a home based office or start a small enterprise there, it’s great. Less helpful can be a tendency to let worries whir around and around your mind.

This can be a time of ends or beginnings in all sorts of relationships, and equally it can be a time when you reflect very deeply about what you want and need. The depth of feeling that lies between you and anyone you have been connected to can seem very powerful. There can also be thoughts of past involvements, or even contact with an old flame.

CANCER June 22 - July 22

SCORPIO October 24 - November 22

PISCES February 20 - March 20

You could have a real meeting of minds with someone today, but the trick to achieve this, is not to take what anyone says to you too personally. By respecting that they see things differently makes it less of a case of whose right, and more a mutual respect. With this, all sorts of awesome things are possible. You can even mesh together complementary skill sets.

Your mind could be crystal clear. If you need to write an application, compile a proposal or submit a hefty piece of study, your ability to structure and organise what you need to do, can be truly awesome. There is one small caveat, and that is that it is important that you don’t rush what you need to do. It really can be a case of less haste more speed.

This continues to be a time of change potentially, in your social world and friendships. Who holds the power in certain involvements can come to the fore, and also you may find yourself becoming closer, or moving away from associates. If you enjoy the friendship side of any relationship, you can celebrate it now, but don’t feel obliged towards anyone.

22

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

Advertiser

ADVERTISER helps you find what you’re looking for

Only

€14 (plus VAT)

a week for classifieds (up to 40 words)

Send your classified by fax or email and pay by credit card, cheque or cash. It couldn’t be simpler!

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

MISCELLANEOUS ***************************** IN CONCERN OF: COUPLES OF EU CITIZENS LIVING IN CYPRUS We are currently conducting a 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 above 6, and if you are interested in taking part in a research financed by the University of Cyprus please contact us at the no. 96530033.

Participants will complete a questionnaire and participate in a face-to-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 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 ****************************

LESSONS ***************************** PRIVATE TUITION Experienced, UK-qualified teacher offers fulltime or part-time private home tuition in Maths, English, the Sciences, I.C.T., Geography, History, Business Studies and Economics, from KS3 to iGCSE, AS and A2 levels. 9 years experience in Cyprus; references available. Telephone 99318796 *****************************

piratory problems and fires. All areas, call Dave, a professional sweep, now on 99819137. Also available for weddings. www. paphosluckychimneysweep. 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 **************************** PROFESSIONAL UPHOLSTERY CLEANING, also carpets, rugs and mattresses.

Special offers now available.

For a quote call Rickys Cleaning Services on 99131044 (all areas) rickyscleaningservices@gmail.com **************************** UPHOLSTERY, RUG, BLINDS + CURTAIN Cleaning Rugs from 20€ - Carpets from 38€ - Fabric Suites form 85€ Leather Suites from 95€ - Mattresses from 25€. Curtains, Roman blinds, Vertical Blinds need to be surveyed. Collection Service available. For a free quotation call Mark on 70006766 All areas **************************** 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 or 96333961 All areas **************************** WE UNDERTAKE REFURBISHING of houses or holiday homes, construction of pergolas, undertaking of plumbing, house painting, garden work. For information call JIMMYS: 96587137, MELIS: 96547879 ****************************

very gentle. Aged around 2 yrs, she is a pinscher cross, small sized and will do best in a quiet home. She is good with other dogs. A bit scared/shy around children and prefers peace, quiet and cuddles. At the Nicosia Dog Shelter, many more dogs and puppies like this one are looking for forever homes !

To provide a temporary foster home or to adopt contact on 99520511 mon-frid. *****************************

Limassol - tel: 25 761117 fax: 25 761141

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES BABYSITTING/CHILD minder for two 3 year old boys in Engomi, Nicosia . All year round Monday – Thursday hours between 15:00 – 18:00 extra hours during school holidays.

We are looking for a fun, active and patient English speaking person that can take care of the boys after school hours, preferably with previous experience. Please call at 99 679412 or send your cv at vana papa@hotmail.com with the title babysitting .

JOB WANTED YOUNG MAN from Sri Lanka with release paper is looking for any job in Nicosia District.

Speak Greek and English language. For info contact 97841633.

MIKA is a beautiful and sweet female puppy, around 4 months, is looking for a loving home. She is very lovable and she will definitely be your best friend. At the Nicosia Dog Shelter, many more dogs and puppies like this one are looking for forever homes ! To provide a temporary foster home or to adopt contact on 99520511 mon-frid 10-2pm. ***************************

PERSONAL SMART GERMAN BUSINESSWOMAN, 43, living in Cyprus, seeks a nice, intelligent man for marriage. Pls write with picture to: salieris@ymail.com.

HEALTH & FITNESS CLINICAL PILATES. Personalised Clinical Pilates by Physiotherapists in Nicosia. Individual assessment and supervision of exercises. “Clinical pilates” is a modified form of therapeutic exercise used by physiotherapists to assist in the rehabilitation and prevention of musculoskeletal injury especially lower back pain, sacro-iliac pain and neck pain. More info on 22446988.

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

FOR SALE BUSINESS/ PROPERTY/LAND

SERVICES CHIMNEY SWEEP, when did you last have your chimney swept or log burner cleaned?

Build-up of soot can cause res-

Nicosia - tel: 22 818583 fax: 22 676385

MOLLY is sweet and polite and

PENNY, a loving gentle female.

Will make a wonderful family pet. Around 3 years old.

Excellent temperament, very loving and well behaved. He will make an amazing companion. Worth Meeting! He is small size. At the Nicosia Dog Shelter, many more dogs and puppies like this one are looking for forever homes ! To provide a temporary foster home or to adopt contact on 99520511 monfrid 10-2pm. *****************************

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

‘PROPERTY BUSINESS FOR SALE’ ‘Unique Opportunity to

Paphos - tel: 26 911383 fax: 26221049

purchase FREEHOLD stonebuilt village property currently operating as a Cafe, with fully equipped kitchen.Seating for 40. Potential for further expansion. Easily converted to residential dwelling.Viewing highly recommended. Greatly Reduced. Details ring Tel: 99864097’ – Paphos Area **************************** PRIME LAND IS AVAILABLE FOR LONG LEASE IN LIMASSOL. 40, 000 sq.m., zoning Ka7 (80% -45% - 3 stories). Regular amphitheatrical shape overlooking Ladies Mile. Close to New Limassol Hospital with direct access to Limassol – Paphos Highway.

Water supply, electricity and telephones are readily available. Suitable for immediate development. Ideal for various health facilities and resorts, holiday centres, commercial and shopping centres, entertainment enterprises etc.

Information: Tel. 22 674338, 99621554 FOR SALE LAND in Anthoupoli (half plot) 288 sq.metres. for information 99621554.

FOR SALE MOTOR VEHICLES 2005 MINI 1 1.6 taxed MOT one owner good all round 6000 Euros O.N.O Tel: 99096902 – Paphos area.

ROVER 600. 1998. 126000 km. €1200. Price Negotiable. A Honda-Era Rover, so the engine is a Honda Accord. Has Never had engine problem.

Any parts I found at both Rover AND Honda. Oil change, MOT included Tel No: 99564063.

FORD FOCUS GHIA (2006) diesel, 1600cc, 98000km, blue, automatic - tiptronic. dual zone climate control, power steering, electric windows, 6 airbags, central locking, cruise control, computer board, alloy wheels, and many extras. €6900 ono.

Contact: 99022779 - Nicosia

PROPERTY TO LET NICOSIA 3 BEDROOM flat 140 sq.metres plus 80 sq.m veranda with extra room (studio). Fireplace, fitted kitchen appliances. Split-units in all areas, covered parking.

In Pindarou str, 5 min walk to Makariou. 600 Euro. hadjidas@ yahoo.com 0049 17670769271 99067198 2 BEDROOM flat, fully furnished.

Fully A/C, small block, 3rd floor. Covered parking. Central heating. Near Hilton hotel off Makarios Avenue. €480pm. Tel 99444336

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 -For Sale Land/ Property Business 22 For Sale Motor vehicles 22 Wanted -To Let Nicosia 22 To Let Limassol 25 To Let Larnaca 25 To Let Paphos 25 To Let Protaras, Ayia Napa, Paralimni -For Sale Nicosia 26 For Sale Limassol -For Sale Larnaca -For Sale Paphos 26 For Sale Ayia Napa -For Sale Famagusta Protaras 26 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, January 16, 2013

Advertiser TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

***************************** FLATS/HOUSES for rent 1 bdrm in Aglantzia near the new university semi-furnished €430, 1 bdrm with furniture in Engomi €280, 1 bdrm in Akropoli near Philips college €450, 2 bdrm €550, Strovolos brand new 3 bdrm €650, Penthouse 3 bdrm roof-garden €850, detached house Aglantzia 2 bdrm big yard €450, detached house Pallouriotissa 3 bdrm €550.

STAVRINOS REAL ESTATE AGENCE A.M. 497 A A 166/E Tel: 99666703 email: yemo@ cytanet.com.cy ***************************** FOR RENT or sell: 2 bed-room flat in Nikis Avn in Nicosia, 80 m. Completely renovated, with electric supplies. Excellent for office or flat. 3 bed-room flat with electric supplies and some

furnitures in Nicosia near Central Bank, 140m. Completely renovated like new. For info call mob: 99460860. ***************************** STROVOLOS 4 bdrm., house, c/h, a/c from €1000 now €800, Mak/ssa f/f house, pool, 4 bdrm., 4wc, 2 shower €1700, Kornos villa, pool, mature garden €4000 (2) penthouse luxury Acropolis 1 bdrm, f/f, centre €450. For info www. markidesestates.com Markides 22378898, 99464764, Reg. No. 487, E16 ***************************** FLATS/HOUSES FOR RENT studio Acropolis €300, 1bdrm P/ssa €450, Aglantzia €350, Str/los €350, Acropolis €350 2bdrm Lycavito furnished €530, Acropolis €550, Ag. Dometios €500, 3bdrm Nikis av. €550 Str/

los G/F €660, Tymbos independent €800, Ag. Omologites colonial listed building swimming pool maids room €2,500.

PROPERTY FINDER LTD. 99474839 99646822 A.M.627 A.A.108/E ***************************** STUDIO flat in Pallouriotissa (next to McDonald) furnished €280. For info call 99606984. ***************************** TO LET spacious 2 bdrm apartment in a small building in Strovolos area near ARETAIEION hospital (dead-end) with independent petrol heating, 3 a/c, water pressure system, satellite. Directly available. TEL.: 96275151 ***************************** FLATS TO LET - Nicosia: A wide selection of furnished & unfurnished in all areas of Nicosia.

TO LET NICOSIA NIKARIA ESTATE LTD Theo Loizides 22761616 / 99660050 nikaria@cablenet.com.cy ***************************** 2 BDRM flat (almost new, 4 years old) at Lycavitos with good area near University of Cyprus with fully equipment kitchen, a/c in all rooms. For info call 96530532. ***************************** TO LET 3 bedroom house situated on a dead end street next to a small quiet park near Falcon School. Has an En-suite master room, large study room, central heating, a/c and fire place in the living room. For enquiries tel 99660758 ***************************** MODERN 2 BDRM, first floor flat in attractive building in Anthoupolis, very quiet area

SONNY’S RESTAURANT WE WOULD LIKE TO WISH ALL OUR CUSTOMERS A HAPPY NEW YEAR !

WE WILL BE OPEN FROM WEDNESDAY 16 JANUARY, 6PM UNTIL LATE. ROAST DINNERS ON SUNDAY FROM 1PM TO LATE CLOSED TUESDAYS WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU! CALL: 96877248

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

between the Grammar School and the European University, also very convenient for Pascal and Highgate Schools and the University of Nicosia. Large front veranda, all appliances, modern fittings, light and bright. Furnished or unfurnished €550p.m. Call 99900177.

3 BEDROOMS flat on second floor in a block of six flats, in a nice position at Strovolos area, fully a/c, c/h, covered parking place for one car, recently painted. Rent €650pm. (furnished if required). Tel: 97773358.

***************************** 2 ROOMS €125 each, near McDonald’s Engomi only Philippine girls. Call 99663927.

1. 5 bedrs detached house, 550sq.m, built in 2 big plots of land, big garden with grass, big swimming pool with extra fence for children and big covered patio with bbq area, big reception areas with marble floor, fire place and bar, big kitchen with all electrical appliances and sitting room with fire place, maid’s room, floor heating, full a/c, blinds on the windows, master bedroom with en suite bathroom and show-

***************************** FOR RENT 3 B/R apartment fully furnished close to Central Bank. 3 W.C., fully air-conditioned extra storeroom, owned covered parking. Excellent condition. Information: Tel. 99621554 *****************************

***************************** LUXURY HOUSES:

24

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

Advertiser TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

er, big bathroom for the other 3 bedrooms and extra shower in the 5th bedroom - Strovolos €2500 (H5ST10001-R), (photos in the website).

2. 3 bedrs luxury terraced house,210sq.m,central heating, full a/c, marble floor in the sitting areas and solid parquet floor the stairs and bedrooms,4 wc,3 bathrooms the 2 en suite ,big verandas, electrical appliances in the kitchen,3 covered parking, roof garden access, in a quiet neighbourhood on Mon Parnas hill – Engomi €800 (photos in the website).

3. 2 bedr fully renovated semi detached house 120 sq. m, a/c for hot and cold, small yard, FULLY FURNSIHED or not, double glazed windows with aluminum shutters, in a quiet area off Nikis behind Burger King - ACROPOLIS €600 (H2ACS0001-R), (photos in the website).

4. 3 bedr luxury semi-detached house with character, 200sq.m,

central heating, full ac, sitting and dining room with fire place, 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 neighborhood. Available middle of January. Agios Andreas - €1200 - H3AAD0001-R (photos in website).

5. 3 bedr luxury detached house, 200sq.m, central heating, full a/c, 3wc, blinds and curtains, open plan kitchen with cooker, oven and dishwasher, veranda with bbq, good size garden, covered parking, storage room, alarm system, in a quiet area – Archangellos €1100 (photos in the website).

6. 3 bedr+big attic room with shower and wc luxury new house, 210sq.m, central heating, full a/c, 4wc, blinds on all windows, cooker and oven in the kitchen, small garden, covered parking near Alpha Mega

supermarket - STROVOLOS €1100 (H4ST10007-R), (photos in the website).

7. 3 bedr detached ground floor house with separate maid’s room, with very big garden with grass(200sq.m) and covered patio with bbq and bar, central heating, full a/c, 180sq.m, FULLY FURNISHED or NOT, 2 covered parking, storage room, in a very quiet neighborhood opposite Acropolis park - Acropolis - €1000 - H3ACS0004-R (photos in website).

8. 4 bedr very big luxury semi detached house 350sq.m, with big separate basement 80sq.m with 2 rooms, sitting room, kitchen and bathroom. Consists 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 foorball stadium.

Available END of February Makedonitissa €1500.

9. 4 bedr new luxury detached house build in a big plot of land, central heating, full a/c, 2 bedrs with en suite shower, 4 wc, bathroom with jacuzzi, big open space sitting and dining areas, 330sq.m, big swimming pool 5x10, big garden with grass, big covered patio with bbq area, roller blinds and curtains on all the windows, electrical appliances in kitchen, covered parking, in a quiet neighbourhood off Tseriou avenue. AVAILABLE end of February –Strovolos €1800 (photos in the website).

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).

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, aluminum 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. 4 bedr luxury detached house, 350sq.m,central heating, full ac, big garden with fruit trees, grass and swimming pool 6 X 12,2 covered parking, electrical appliances in the kitchen, 4 years old in a very quiet area 25 min from the centre – DEYTERA - €2000 – H4DEF0001-R (photos in website).

13. 3 bedr ground floor house with big separate 80sq,m room with shower and wc for multi

use, central heating independent, full a/c, 2wc, 2 shower,1 bathroom, fully furnished, small garden, bbq area, parking, on a small building in a very quiet area near Agios Vasilios church. Strovolos €900 - H4ST10028-R (photos in website).

14. 4 bedr new luxury finished top quality detached house, 290sq.m, central heating, full a/c, master bedroom with en suite shower/jacuzzi, guest bedroom with shower, main bathroom with jacuzzi, 4w , fully expensive furnished with LCD televisions (all furniture and appliances cost 100,000 EURO), kitchen with very expensive electrical appliances and family room, garden with grass, big covered patio with bbq area,2 covered parkings, alarm system, pressure system, in a nice quiet neighbourhood - Strovolos €2000 (photos in the website).

For many more properties

English-Painter & Decorator

FOR SALE – JAGUAR XJ6 (2003)

SELEC Fencing & Decking Specialist For all your Garden and Security Fencing ♦ Quality approved workmanship ♦ 15 years experience + guaranteed work ♦ English workers ♦ also garden gates ♦ sheds ♦ chain link fencing ♦ free estimates ♦ all types of fencing & decking

Tel. SELEC fencing 99176557

Fully Qualified 30 years’ Experience ALL AREAS • External & Internal painting • Damp Damage Repairs • Spritze Repairs • Free Estimates + very clean work • All areas. All types of woodwork stained and preserved • All work guaranteed

Tel. Tony on 99176557

BLACK, TIPTRONIC, P/M/ P/W, LEATHER POWER SEATS, NAVIGATION, CD CHANGER, CLIMATE CONTROL, TV, DVD, CRUISE CONTROPARKTRONIC, ALARM ETC PRICE: €19,700 Tel. 99628928

25

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Advertiser TO LET NICOSIA with photos visit our website at www.landtouristestates.com which is updated daily. LANDTOURIST ESTATES LTD 22-422225/96422225/96422226, 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 throught, 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 neighborhood – Agios Andreas- € 1300 – A3AAD0005-R (photos in 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,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).

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

4. A1DAS0010-R, 1 bedr luxury spacious apartment with big sitting and dining room, big bathroom, big bedroom with shutters, covered veranda, storage heaters, 2a/c, cooker and oven in the kitchen, covered parking in a quiet area in a small modern building near Acropolis Park. Dasoupolis €400 (photos in website).

5. 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 neighborhood off Kallipoleos street – Lykavitos €650 (photos in the website).

6. 2 bedr luxury finished apartment on a small building with 4 flats only, central heating with petrol independent, full a/c, 2 bedrooms with en suite bathroom/shower, separate guest wc, NICELY MODERN EXPENSIVE FURNISHED, big covered veranda, covered parking, storage room, in a very quiet neighbourhood very close to Junior school and the park – Agioi Omologites €800 (photos in the website).

7.

4 bedr luxury floor apartment,250sq.m, office, maid’s room, central heating ind, full hidden wall unit a/c,2 showers, 1 bathroom, 3wc, parquet floor, big kitchen with cooker and oven, bbq on the veranda in the kitchen, big sitting area, roller blinds on all the windows, alarm system, big veranda on a small build-

ing off Athalasas avenue near Alpha Mega supermarket and Areteion hospital – Dasoupolis - € 1100 - A4DAS0002-R (photos in website).

8. A1ACS0007- R, 1 bedr luxury spacious apartment with 2 a/c for hot and cold, electrical appliances in the kitchen, big bedroom, covered veranda, blinds, covered parking, in a quiet area near Acropolis park.

NICELY FURNISHED. Acropolis €450 (photos in 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 neibourhood near Akropolis park. AVAILABLE middle of February – Acropolis €850 (photos in the website).

10. 2 bedr luxury apartment with 3 a/c for hot and cold, big covered veranda, covered parking and storage room, NICELY FURNISHED, near Acropoli park behind Tseriotis showroom – ACROPOLIS - €450 – A2ACS0033-R (photos in website).

11. 3 bedr luxury spacious ground floor apartment with separate entrance, big verandas and garden, big sitting and dining room, central heating independent, full a/c, 2wc, very big master bedroom, electrical appliances in the kitchen, aluminum shutters on windows,

parquet laminate floor all the flat, covered parking, storage room, in a very quiet neighbourhood in a dead end street, off Athalasas Avenue behind Stephanis near English School €650 (A3ST10030-R), (photos in the website).

12. 2 bedr luxury apartment with central heating independent, full a/c, electrical appliances in the kitchen, blinds, big covered veranda, in a small 2 storey building in a quiet area behind Tymvos – MAKEDONITISSA € 500 – A2MAK0008-R (photos in website).

13. 3 bedr luxury apartment with central heating independent, full a/c, 2 bathrooms, parquet floor, big sitting and dining area, big covered veranda, covered parking, storage room, blinds, shutters in the bedrooms, big kitchen with all expensive electrical appliances, off Makarios avenue near the centre – Nicosia Centre- € 800 – A3NIC0025-R (photos in website).

15. 2 bedrs new luxury apartment, sitting room open plan with kitchen which includes cooker, oven, refrigerator and washing machine, 2 wc, central heating, full AC, blinds on the windows, very big covered verandas, covered parking and storage room in a dead end off Athalassas avenue near Laiki popular bank and Hellenic bank headquarters. - DASOUPOLI €500 (A2DAS0006-R), (photos in the website).

16. 3 bedr new luxury ground floor apartment, with separate big TV room or guest room, 225sq.m, big kitchen with all the electrical appliances and breakfast area, 4 bathrooms, 4 wc, 2 bedrs with en suite bathroom, floor heating independent, full a/c, blinds on all the windows, marble and parquet floor, big veranda with bbq, small garden, closed 2 covered parking with remote control, in a very quiet area very close to Junior school and 50 metres from the park. FULLY NICELY FURNISHED – Agioi Omologites €1200 (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.

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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).

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

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

LIMASSOL ***************************** PROPERTY TO LET - A 2 bdrm furnished flat in Yermasoyia (close to Miramare Hotel) and 20 yds from the beach. It consist of 55sq.mtrs of balcony, private access and swimming pool €750/month excluding water consumption, electricity and refuge collection. Mob: 96381524(cy) Mob(uk) 0044 7714400279.

PAPHOS LONDON TRAINED HAIRDRESSER **SPECIAL OFFERS** *Free Cut & Blowdry (worth €25) with any Colour Service* *Gents Cut & Style 8 euro* Claim your reward by simply quoting ‘Cyprus Mail’ (valid until 28th Feb ‛13) VENUS BEACH HAIR SALON Find us -1 Venus Beach Hotel, Tomb of Kings.

Call Michelle: 99760543 or 26949200 (ext 350) Visit: facebook.com/VenusBeach HotelHairSalon for more info.

26

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

Advertiser TO LET LIMASSOL

TO LET LARNACA

TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

***************************** GROUND FLOOR HOUSE, furnished renovated this year.

Laminated parke floor, and big wardrobes in the 3 bedrooms.

Rent €590.00 Tel 99497576 99886775 *****************************

***************************** 2 BEDROOM NICOLADES SEA VIEW CITY BLOCK, a/c’s in all rooms, private parking, sea view, walking distance to everything, can be used for office or residential. €750, minimum 12 months contract. 99320077 Larnaca

LARNACA

***************************** FOR RENT 2 bed, 2 bath, new built apartment, in a quiet scenic location In Alethriko, Larnaca 5 min. to Larnaka, 5 min. to the beach Fully furnished, A/C, communal pool, under covered parking, Long term rent, €350.00 per month For more info pls call 99639378

PLEASE CALL EITHER 96 545 174 OR E-MAIL ON info@ u n i q u e - c o n s u l t a n c y. e u LANDLORDS; WE NEED YOUR PROPERTIES NOW. PLEASE CONTACT US IMMEDIATELY IF YOU HAVE A PROPERTY FOR RENT. **************************** KILI – PAPHOS, 3 bedroom villa, with swimming pool and garden, unfurnished, gas central heating, large verandas, lovely mountain views, very quiet and tranquil area, €500 per month o.n.o. Call: 99479006 **************************** PAPHOS / PEYIA VILLA, villa for rent in Peyia, 4 bedroom, 4 bathrooms, large sitting-dining area, fully airconditioned and heated, unfurnished, panoramic views, large parking, low rent contact: 99490953, 26815534

MENT WITH KEY HOLDING AND RENT COLLECTIONS OFFERED ANAVARGOS: 1 to 3 Bedroom apartments available near to the general hospital, furnished or unfurnished. All properties, have white goods and are modern. The building has a lift and off street parking. Prices from 300-400 Euros per month.

Ref 7777 Price 300-400 ANARITA: 3 bed nicely furnished villa in the centre of Anarita village with private pool, off street parking. Property has a modern kitchen with granite work tops, sitting and dining area, guest wc. Upstairs 3 bedrooms Master with en suite shower, separate family bathroom. Outside shaded pergolas. Ref 855 Price 600 SECRET VALLEY: 3 bed villa fully furnished 3 bedroom villa with private pool. Nice furniture, master bedroom with on suite shower, family bathroom, 2 bedrooms with twin beds.

Dining area, kitchen, guest WC, off street parking, private pool. Modern Villa. Ref: 1035 Price 700 SERCRET VALLEY: 4 bed beautiful furnished bungalow to the highest of standards, with large bedrooms - en suites, Modern large kitchen fully equipped, sitting and dining area with fire place. Outside heated pool, off street parking, landscaped gardens and great views. Ref: 1151 Price 1800 TIMI: 3 bed nicely furnished villa with large sitting and dining areas, fire place, full AC. Upstairs large family bathroom, 3 bedrooms, master bedroom having en suite shower and walk in wardrobes. Off street parking, private pool Ref: 722 Price: 600 PEGEIA: 4 bed villa with stunning situated in a lovely quiet location in Pegeia offered unfurnished. The property has 2 down stairs bedrooms, a large sitting room with fire place, central heating, kitchen with Stylish design, dining area.

Upstairs 2 bedrooms, large outside veranda. Outside stunning views Private pool.

Ref: 765 Price: 900 MESGOI: large unfurnished villa situated in a residential area.

Property is very modern with fire place, downstairs bedroom with en suite, kitchen and separate utility room, 3 additional bedroom upstairs with master en suite, family bathroom. Outside private pool, fully fenced and private, nice views, pets welcome, suit

family with children going to local international school. Ref: 783 Price: 750 TALA: A family home offered part furnished in a quiet residential area, property has off street parking, private pool, central heating and AC, modern kitchen, sitting/dining area, guest wc, upstairs 3 bedrooms with master en suite, family bathroom, sea views. Ref: 988 Price: 750 OFFICE: 120 MAKARIOS AVENUE, PAPHOS. OFFICE: 26600450 MOBILE: 97614070 many properties available on WEB: www.flowron.com Email info@flowron.com

5. TRIMITHOUSA – 4 bed, 3.5 bath unfurnished villa set in quiet location. Open plan living area. Fully fitted kitchen.

Ground floor bedroom with en-suite shower. Guest WC. Stairs to 3 more bedrooms, one with en-suite and family bathroom. Garden areas, large terraces and feature BBQ area and pergola. Private pool, garage. Never been occupied.

Available 1 Feb. €725.00 per month OVNO. 6. UNIVERSAL AREA – 2 bed fully furnished apartment.

Living area, fitted kitchen. 2 double bedrooms and family bathroom. A/C, Enclosed garden area. Comm pool and parking. €375.00 a month or offers. 1 & 2 bed apartments available on Universal starting at €250per month.

7. LOWER PEYIA – 3 bed, 2.5 bath part furnished villa situated in quiet cul du sac. Open plan living and dining area with doors out the to pool and garden.. Very large breakfast fitted kitchen. Doors out to garden and pool. Separate guest WC. Stairs to 3 double bedrooms. Master bedroom very large with en-suite shower. Family bathroom. Private pool, gardens, shutters. €550.00 per month or close offers only.

8. STROUMBI – 3 bed 2.5 bath large unfurnished villa in quiet village area. Spacious open plan living area with feature fireplace and dining space Good sized fitted kitchen and breakfast area. Guest WC with storage area.3 double bedrooms. Master with en-suite bathroom. Family bathroom.

Enclosed gardens, pool and off street parking. Realistically priced €550.00 per month.

OVNO FOR FULL LISTINGS OF APARTMENTS/TOWNHOUSES AND VILLA PLEASE CALL FOR DETAILS. ALL TYPES OF PROPERTY URGENTLY REQUIRED FOR LONG TERM RENTAL LANDLORDS/OWNERS PLEASE CALL. PLEASE CALL 97648440 or email:inforentals@aol.com

***************************** 1. Superior Real Estate Larnaca.

Town centre, fully furnished one bedroom apartment available for immediate occupation. Ref. TLL341. Tel 24815926

2. Superior Real Estate Larnaca. Stunning two bedroom fully furnished apartment in Oroklini. Ref. TLL1574 Please call to arrange a viewing Tel. 24815926 3. www.SuperiorRealEstateLarnaca.com – LARGE RANGE OF RENTAL PROPERTIES. From studio apartments to 5 bedroom villas for rent, all properties have detailed descriptions, professional photographs. Interactive Virtual/ Video Tours. Please visit our website. www.SuperiorRealEstateLarnaca.com 4. www.SuperiorRealEstateLarnaca.com. License No. 419.

LANDLORDS AVERTISE YOUR PROPERTY WITH US FOR FREE. Tel. 24815926 Email. info@superiorrealestatelarnaca.com ***************************** 2 BDRM ground floor semifurnished in Larnaca, Dhekelia road opposite Marine club 30 metre from the beach €450.

Stavrinos Real Estate R.B. 497 L/N 166/E Phone: 99666703 email yemo@cytanet.com.cy FLAT IN CENTRAL LARNACA, Stasinou St, f/f, a/c, one bedroom, Off street car parking.

Foinikoudes, Zenonos Kiteos shops 200 metres. Rent €350 p/m. Tel: 24 815104/9939 5954 ***************************** ON THE PHINIKOUDES PROMENADE. An unobrstructed, panoramic view of the sea and the marina. An exclusive superb 1 bdrm on the 4th floor on the beach. Fully renovated, brand new. Has fitted new kitchen, w/m, fully a/c and sauna room!! Also suitable for office use. Must see to appreciate. Rent €450. Call 99222197, 99541828.

***************************** FULLY FURNISHED one bedroom flat near Larco hotel Larnaca. Price €370. Tel: 99202543 *****************************

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PAPHOS ***************************** EMBA, 3 bedroom detached house, with attached separate one bedroom apartment, large garden, mountain and sea views, unfurnished, €600 p/m o.n.o – agents welcome, call : 99683379 **************************** LONG TERM RENTALS

1. Geroskipou A large 2 bed apartment with large balcony facing the sea, fully furnished, covered parking, a/c €345 pcm 2. Tala 2 bed fully furnished apartment.

Stunning sea views, large balcony, well kept gardens, communal pool, and quiet area. €350 pcm 3. Peyia Large 3 or 4 bed detached villas, secluded position, large private pool, a/c, and parking. Unfurnished or furnished. Very nice, well worth seeing. €650pcm & €750pcm 4. Kato Paphos Furnished 1 bedroom apartment, a/c, private parking, well kept garden, communal swimming pool, large balcony with sea view.

From €300 pcm REDUCED THIS IS JUST A SMALL SELECTION OF PROPERTIES THAT ARE AVAILABLE. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THESE AND MANY MORE

U SEFUL PHONE NUMBERS POLICE DIVISION HQ

HOSPITALS ........ 1400

Nicosia ........................22 802 020 Limassol ......................25 805 050 Larnaca .......................24 804 040 Paphos ........................26 806 060 Famagusta ..................23 803 030

Nicosia General .............22-801400 Nicosia Makarios ...........22-405000 Limassol Old ................25-305333 Limassol New ................25-801100 Larnaca Old...................24-630312 Larnaca New .................24-630300 Paphos ..........................26-821800 Famagusta ....................23-821211

Drug Law Enforcement Unit ......................................... 1498 (Confidential Information) Rescue Co-ordination Centre ............................. 1441 (Immediate Response Service for Aeronautical or Maritime Accident & Incidents) Game Fund Service: (Wildlife and hunting) Central offices (Nicosia): 22867786, 22-867897 Nicosia: 22-664606, 99-445697 Limassol: 25-343800, 99-445728, Larnaca/Famagusta: 24-805128, 99-634325 Paphos: 26-306211, 99-445679

APHRODITE HILLS - Villa share at this amazing resort? Now available for discerning people, luxury double rooms, each with own en suite and heating unit and plus of large lounge/ dining/kitchen area, external patios, gardens and swimming pool. Fully furnished and equipped €800pm plus share of running expenses, min period 6 months or yearly contract renewal. To enquire (or view from January 2013) ring 99178141. A chance not to be missed! **************************** FOR RENT A selection of 1 to 5 bedroom houses & apartments F/F & U/F Universal, Peyia, Tomb of the Kings, Tsada, Timi, Chlorakas & Kato Paphos Landlord & Owners please call 99329357 Or please view at are website www.cyprussands.com Fully Registered Company in Cyprus **************************** FLOWRON PROPERTY SERVICES LTD: PROVIDING AN EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE FOR TENANTS AND LANDLORDS: PROPERTIES AVAILABLE FOR RENT LONG TERM RENTAL, PROPERTIES WANTED: FULL PROPERTY MANAGE-

FOR SALE – PAPHOS CATERING EQUIPMENT:

Narcotics Helpline ......... 1410 (Outside hours.............. 22304160)

• 2 stand up freezers

AIDS Advisory Bureau ................................ 22-302826

• chafing trays

Domestic Violence Centre .......................................... 1440 (Emergency Centre for Victims) Drug Info & Poison Control ............... 1401 Cyprus Samaritans ... 77777267 Police Duty Officer ......... 1499 (Confidential Information)

Forest Fires ..................... 1407 Airports Larnaca ..........................77778833 Paphos ...........................77778833

• industrial oven • thermo boxes • catering tables • tablecloths with frills • glassware, cutlery • All in excellent condition at reduced prices

please call : 99532841

**************************** PEYIA – 3 bedroom villa with modern quality furniture and finishes. Central heating, sky, alarm, infinity pool and stunnning sea and mountain views €700 per month, call: 99389426 **************************** BRAND NEW APT, opposite Poseidonio Gym, near Carrefour, F/F, a/c, great quality, 1 bdrm, from €340p.m.Tel 99403261 **************************** RENTAL POINT - PAPHOS PROPERTIES AVAILABLE TO RENT IN THE PAPHOS DISTRICT. JUST A SMALL SAMPLE OF AVAILABLE PROPERTIES. ALL TYPES OF PROPERTY URGENTLY REQUIRED FOR LONG TERM RENTAL. CALL 97648440 FOR MORE INFORMATION. LANDLORDS CALL IF YOU HAVE A PROPERTY FOR RENT.!!!

1. MESA CHORIO – 2 bed 2 bath fully furnished ground floor apartment set on an elevated position on this prestigious development. Open plan living area. Good sized kitchen. 2 double, bedrooms, master with en-suite shower room. Family bathroom. Large patio areas with enclosed gardens and lovely sea views.

Covered parking and security gates.. Comm swimming pool. €425.00 or near offer 2 EMBA 3 bed 2 bath unfurnished villa in handy location close to the shopping areas.

Property also has separate 1 bed apartment on the lower level. Large open plan living area and dining area. Fully fitted dining/kitchen with appliances . Guest WC. 3 double bedrooms one with en-suite.

Family bathroom. Separate 1 bed apartment on lower level. Perfect for dual living.

Small garden & and parking. €550.00 a month.

3. GIOLOU – 5 bed unfurnished villa consisting of 3 bed, 2 bath main house (bungalow) with self contained 2 bed apartment with own entrance. Main house, open plan living area, beamed ceilings with feature fireplace. Dining space and kitchen. 3 bedrooms, master with en-suite and family bathroom. Covered balcony with sea and rural views, swimming pool and garden areas. Lower level apartment reached via the main house or separate entrance. Large open plan living area, kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms. €850.00 per month 4. TALA – 3 bed 3 bath quality furnished villa. Set in enclosed gardens the villa consists of open plan living area with dining space. Fully fitted kitchen with all appliances, door to rear garden. Storage room. Ground floor bed room with adjacent shower. Stairs to two double bedrooms both en-suite, one with Jacuzzi tub.

Small seating area with adjacent balcony. Pool and off street parking. Lnadscaped gardens €750.00 per month or close offers only

**************************** REFURBISHED stone-built village house located in Kili Paphos. Consists of 3 large rooms 1 small. Traditional wood burnt fireplace, fully tiled secluded yard and garage.

Tel: 99210610. ****************************

PROPERTY FOR SALE PAPHOS FLAT FOR SALE 1 bdrm at Peyia village with title deeds, fully furnished. €65.000. For information call 99526562. **************************** UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY IN LOFOS/ TALA, 2 three bedroom detached villas on large plot. House 1 with studio flat & pool. Both open plan with A/C, provision for C/H, BBQ, pergolas, gardens, private drives, sea/ mountain views, SEPARATE DEEDS. Available together or separately. Tel: 96718163/ 96366419 Price: €399,000 & €299,000 **************************** FOR SALE special offer, €79, 000 first floor apartment in Protaras, fully furnished with 2 bedrooms and a swimming pool. Walking distance to the beach of Ayia Triada and all amenities. Tel: 97 608941.

27

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Advertiser FOR PAPHIAKOS ANIMAL WELFARE SOS HELPLINE, 24 HOUR MEDICAL EMERGENCY SERVICE - CALL 99655581 CONTACT DETAILS FOR PAPHIAKOS. Paphiakos & C.C.P. Animal Welfare Education/Information Centre, No. 12 Dedalos Building, 8049 Kato Paphos PO Box 61272 8132 Kato Paphos Web. www.cyprusanimalwelfare.com www.facebook/paphiakos Email info@cyprusanimalwelfare.com Larnaca Emergency Service - The contact point for animal emergencies in Larnaca is Maria at the Paphiakos Animal Welfare Charity Shop, telephone 24623494 or 99325897 STOP, SHOP AND GIVE TO THE ANIMALS! ALL DONATIONS ARE WELCOME AT OUR CHARITY SHOPS! PAPHIAKOS & C.C.P. ANIMAL WELFARE Registered Charity No 1529 Contact our shops and we can take your clutter The Charity Shops are located at: Shop No.1 Agapinoros Street, Kato Paphos Tel 26910325 Shop No.2 Ap Pavlou Avenue, Kato Paphos Tel 26942894 Shop No.3 Gr. Afxentiou Avensia Court 3 Larnaca 24623494 Shop No.4 9 Ayiou Ioanni Street 3061 Limassol 25561695 Peyia Information Centre & Shop & T Rooms 26622828 Polis Information Centre & Shop & T Rooms 99223572 Book Exchange Shop Trimithousa 99771763 Our shops are always happy to receive your unwanted goods!

NOW YOU CAN HELP BY COLLECTING YOUR ALUMINIUM CANS AND HANDING THEM IN AT ANY PAPHIAKOS CHARITY SHOP OR THE CLINIC. SAVE AN ANIMAL AND SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT!!

PAPHIAKOS CAR BOOT SALE EVERY SATURDAY at the Ambassador Restaurant and outside in the grounds at Paphiakos. Free parking. Sellers from 7am, buyers from 8am. For information & bookings please call MIKE on 96702600.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS FOR PAPHIAKOS CHARITY NO. 1529 WORLD ANIMAL DAY. On Thursday October 4th Paphiakos will be micro chipping pets for only €20 including all the paperwork. For further information telephone 26953496.

To celebrate World Animal Day on Thursday October 4th Paphiakos will be offering free spaying/neutering for all feral and unwanted animals as they do throughout the year. Contact 26953496 for further details.

PAPHIAKOS SHELTER OPEN DAY The Open Day will be held on Sunday October 7th between 10am and 3pm. It will be a Family Fun Day out with a lot of different activities. There is car parking, toilets and refreshments on site so enjoy and join in the celebration of animals and what they bring to our lives. Entrance is €2 CHARITY HAIR CUT. On Thursday 4th October 09.30-17.30 without an appointment Andri at Atlantic Bay Hotel (2nd Floor) will be charging €5 for a haircut with all proceeds going to Paphiakos. Telephone Suzanne on 99151996 or Andri on 99604783.

PAPHIAKOS CHRISTMAS BAZAAR. Saturday November 24th 9am – 3pm at the Crazy Spoon Restaurant. For further details contact 99151996. Stalls, Santa’s Grotto, Donkey Rides, Pirate Pat and many more.

SATURDAY SERVICES NICOSIA St Paul’s Church Hall, Byron Ave LIMASSOL ‘Meeting Point’, 193A Christodoulou H’pavlou, opp Molos Park on beach rd BIBLE STUDY FOR ADULTS & CHILDREN 10.00 am Nicosia • 10.30 am Limassol FAMILY WORSHIP SERVICE 11.30 am Nicosia • 11.45 am Limassol Pastor: Branislav Mirilov 96702349 Info: Nsia 96207014 • Lsol 99322614 www.adventist.org | www.hopetv.org

AYIA NAPA and DHERYNIA (Anglican Church in S.E Cyprus) Sunday Worship 9.30am Morning Prayer every Sunday morning at St Constantinos & Eleni Chapel, Dherynia (near Hospital in Dherynia) 11am at Scandinavian Church, off Nissi Avenue (opp Tassia Maris Hotel), Ayia Napa nd 6pm at St Constantinos & Eleni (2 week) Chaplain : Revd Simon Holloway M.A. Tel: 97 839349 www.angsecyp.org Visitors especially welcome

28

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

Sport McIlroy says massive Nike deal will improve his game ‘This is really taking it to a new level’

By Matt Smith WORLD number one golfer Rory McIlroy praised the clubs of his new sponsor Nike, saying he was hitting the ball further than ever after agreeing a multi-year sponsorship deal with the US sportswear firm.

Although commercial terms were not disclosed, media reports say the agreement with the Northern Irishman is worth as much as $250 million over ten years, one of the most lucrative in global sports as Nike moves on after dropping disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong last year.

McIlroy, 23, was previously sponsored by golf brand Titleist and other golfers have struggled to replicate their earlier success after switching to a new equipment provider. However, McIlroy was full of confidence ahead of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship which starts tomorrow.

“The new driver that I will play with this week is awesome,” he told a news conference to announce his sponsorship. “As soon as I hit it I knew it was going in the bag straight away. I’m hitting it further - I thought I was hitting it far before, but this is really taking it to a new level.”

The US PGA champion visited Nike’s research and

Media reports say the agreement with the world number one Northern Irishman is worth as much as $250 million over ten years, one of the most lucrative in global sports development facility in Fort Worth, Texas, in late 2012 to try out his new clubs and balls and has continued to practice over Christmas and New Year. He said the sponsorship deal was about improving his game rather than personal riches.

“I play for titles, I don’t play for money...If at the end of 2013 I haven’t won a major I will be disappointed,” said McIlroy, adding the new Nike balls were more more stable in the wind and he was now driving the ball at about 180 miles (290 kms) an hour.

The twice major winner topped the tournament

earnings lists in both the United States and Europe last year.

Nike is also a long-time sponsor of world number two Tiger Woods, standing by the US golfer in 2009 despite the bad publicity he suffered when a series of extra-marital affairs came to light.

A new Nike TV commercial featuring the two golfers was shown for the first time at a news conference in Abu Dhabi where Nike officially confirmed it had recruited McIlroy - one of the worst kept secrets in sport.

“There is still some equity

(value) in the Woods’ brand.

McIlroy, rather than being a replacement, is the heir apparent,” said Simon Chadwick, professor of sport business strategy at England’s Coventry University.

“In golf and cycling they built much of their business on the back of two individuals. They needed to move quickly and decisively to make a big signing and with McIlroy that is what they have done.”

Golf provides 3-4 percent of Nike’s total revenue, Cindy Davis, Nike Golf president, told Reuters.

Under the deal, McIlroy

will use the company’s clubs and balls and wear its clothing with the familiar swoosh logo.

McIlroy is part of a highprofile sporting couple with former world women’s tennis number one Caroline Wozniacki.

The agreement with Nike has not been accepted by all of McIlroy’s previous sponsors.

Sunglasses maker Oakley has begun legal action to try to retain its sponsorship deal with McIlroy, saying it had the right to match any improved agreement with another company.

New Zealand start Rugby Championship defence in Sydney

By Patrick Johnston

All Blacks captain Richie McCaw with the trophy last year

NEW Zealand will begin the defence of their Rugby Championship crown against Australia in Sydney on August 17, organisers said yesterday.

The World Cup-winning All Blacks will then host the Wallabies in Wellington before facing Argentina in Hamilton and South Africa at Eden Park, Auckland.

They finish their campaign on the road, firstly taking on Argentina before moving on to Johannesburg to face the Springboks on October 5.

Argentina, who lost five matches and drew one in their tournament debut last year, will again begin their campaign away to South Africa before hosting the Springboks the following week.

SANZAR Ceo Greg Peters said the inclusion of Argentina into the expanded

Tri-Nations had been a success.

“A total of over 16 million viewers tuned into the 12 Tests of the Rugby Championship and an average of 44,000 attended the matches, which saw stadiums at 91 percent capacity,” the New Zealander said.

“The first round of action, with the Wallabies playing the All Blacks in Sydney, and the Springboks hosting the Pumas in Bloemfontein, will have added spice considering the last time each of these two nations played - the result was an 18-18 and 16-16 draw respectively.”

August 17 fixtures: Australia v New Zealand, ANZ Stadium, Sydney.

South Africa v Argentina, Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein August 24 fixtures: New Zealand v Australia, Westpac Stadium, Wellington.

Argentina v South Africa, Estadio Malvinas Argentinas

IN BRIEF England crumble to India defeat ENGLAND were soundly beaten as India levelled the Airtel Series with a 127-run victory in the second one-day international at Kochi yesterday.

Sixty thousand raucous fans saw Mahendra Singh Dhoni (72) and Ravindra Jadeja (61 not out) change the game with a thrilling first-innings stand of 96 in 60 balls, dragging the hosts back from a modest start to post 285 for six.

Kevin Pietersen appeared England’s best hope of success but when Bhuvneshwar Kumar removed him and Eoin Morgan in the space of three deliveries the game was up and the tourists rolled over for just 158.

It was harsh on England’s bowlers, who had showed admirable discipline for 40 overs but had no answer for the late powerhitting of Dhoni and Jadeja.

Kumar and Ravichandran Ashwin each took three wickets, with Jadeja’s good day continuing with a pair of cheap scalps.

The margin of victory does not tell the full story, with England exerting good pressure at times, but losing nine wickets for 100 runs is a collapse that requires attention.

Joe Root, playing his maiden ODI innings, made a tidy 36 but by then England were on damage limitation.

Jazz stifle champs Heat THE Miami Heat were unable to complete a furious second half fightback as the defending NBA champions continued to struggle on the road, falling to a 104-97 loss to the Jazz in Utah.

LeBron James scored 32 points to help the Heat cut a 21-point deficit to just two when they pulled within 93-91 in the final few minutes, but the Jazz held firm to consign Miami to a third loss in four contests on their six-game road trip.

“The game was too close to be nervous,” Utah big man Al Jefferson told reporters.

“I knew they would make their run, they are too good.”

“We can’t dig ourselves a hole,” said James, who moved to within 18 of becoming the youngest NBA player to reach 20,000 career points.

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, January 16, 2013

29

Australian Open Del Potro realistic about gatecrashing the top four

Bring on the heat, says man-for-all seasons Federer

By Nick Mulvenney

Swiss maestro confident after demolition

By Ian Ransom SEARING heat forecast to hit Melbourne Park’s second round matches tomorrow holds no fear for Roger Federer, who welcomed the chance to test his 31-yearold body in extreme conditions.

The Swiss maestro played his opening match of the Australian Open in far gentler weather yesterday, trouncing France’s Benoit Paire 6-2 6-4 6-1 on a sundrenched afternoon at Rod Laver Arena.

Former players and pundits have cast doubts on Federer’s ability to handle a marathon in draining heat at Melbourne Park, particularly against the likes of the ultra-fit Novak Djokovic and his fellow 25-year-old Andy Murray.

Federer, who plays Russian former world number three Nikolay Davydenko on Thursday when 39 degrees Celsius heat is forecast, said he was not concerned about the weather.

“Obviously it has a big effect, but I’m not worried about the heat in any way,” he told reporters.

“I have practised and played so many matches over the years in a lot of

heat. I almost favour myself over my opponent in the heat.

“Obviously when you get the hot match, you try not to stay out there for too long.

But then again, if you have to, that’s what it is. That’s part of the game.”

John McEnroe questioned second seed Federer’s ability to overcome champion Djokovic and twice finalist Murray in a long match in the heat this week.

Swede Mats Wilander, a three-time Australian Open champion, agreed with the American great’s assessment.

“I don’t think that he can match them in the heat, but I think he is the master at dealing with the unexpected,” seven-time Grand Slam champion Wilander told Reuters at Melbourne Park yesterday.

“If you’re thinking Novak and Andy, at some point they’re going to just get ahead of him a little bit.”

Federer also shrugged off doubts about a lack of competition in his preparations for the year’s first Grand Slam, needing only 83 minutes to despatch 46thranked Paire, the Swiss’s first official match since playing the ATP Tour Finals in November.

The 17-time Grand Slam champion, bidding for a fifth title at Melbourne Park, eschewed all competition in the leadup in favour of working on his game on the practice courts.

Little rust was evident, however, as Federer compiled 25 sweetly-struck winners in a match more akin to a clinical training session.

The lessons were lost on Paire, however, who admitted to feeling clueless as to how to fight back.

“It’s tough. I don’t know what to do against him,” the Frenchman said. “I don’t know how to handle his serving or his returning. For me, I can do nothing.”

Federer said the 40thranked Davydenko was a player who could do a lot of ‘damage’ despite his struggles with injuries in recent years.

“I had a very close match with him in Rotterdam last year. Should have won in two,” the Swiss said. “It ended up being 4-4, love-40 in the third.

“I was very close to losing.

Next thing you know, nobody talks about it. I went on to win the tournament and nobody talks about Nikolay.

“So it’s nice to see him playing well again.”

The record 17-time Grand Slam champion was far too good for hapless opponent Benoit Paire

Tumbling Serena leads march

By Nick Mulvenney

Scare: Serena Williams receives treatment on her ankle after a nasty fall. She wasn’t affected, winning 6-0 6-0

SERENA Williams refused to let a painful tumble divert her from her quest for a sixth Australian Open title yesterday on day two at Melbourne Park.

Williams picked herself up to complete a resounding 6-0 6-0 victory over Edina Gallovits-Hall, a ruthless dominance that world number one and defending champion Victoria Azarenka was unable to replicate as she progressed to the second round.

After an underwhelming opening day of the tournament on Monday, the sheer wealth of talent on display on the show courts almost ensured a better day two under sunny skies.

There is no bigger personality in tennis than Williams, who is chasing a third successive Grand Slam title after wins at Wimbledon and the US Open, and the American almost inevitably hogged the spotlight.

Rampaging towards victory, the 31-year-old turned her ankle after hitting a forehand and lay prone on

the court for a couple of dramatic minutes - immediately recalling her fall at Brisbane last year that ultimately ended her 2012 Melbourne campaign.

“It was definitely a lot of pain,” she said. “Also a little bit of the memory, as well. So it was definitely a little bit of both. But also at the same time trying to gather myself together and trying to make sure that I can continue.”

She was soon back up, ankle strapped, to complete the rout and said nothing would stop her from taking to court for her second round tie against Spain’s Garbine Muguruza.

“I’ll be out there,” she said.

“I mean, unless something fatal happens to me, there’s no way I’m not going to be competing. I’m alive. My heart’s beating. I’ll be fine.”

Women’s top seed Azarenka was forced to come back from 3-0 down in the second set in her 6-1 6-4 victory over Romania’s Monica Niculescu.

With second seed Maria Sharapova having also won her first round match without conceding a game, Azarenka might have been

looking to make a similar statement but the Belarussian said she was just happy to be back on court.

“I couldn’t wait to get out there and play,” said the 23year-old, who pulled out of the Brisbane warm-up after suffering a toe infection following a pedicure.

“I think I had a good first match. That’s what I needed to get into that competitive spirit, which I did. I’m happy.”

After only two seeds fell in the entirety of day one of the tournament, women’s seventh seed Sara Errani and 12th ranked Nadia Petrova departed in quick succession yesterday.

While Errani’s 6-4 6-4 loss to Carla Suarez Navarro was not a huge shock, 42-yearold Kimiko Date-Krumm’s 6-2 6-0 victory over Petrova earned her a place in the record books as the oldest winner of a women’s singles match at the tournament.

Date-Krumm’s upset was also the harbinger of an excellent start to the tournament for Japan, with all six of the country’s players going through to the second round.

JUAN Martin del Potro, the only player outside the ‘big four’ of men’s tennis to have won a Grand Slam in the last eight years, remained circumspect about his chances of breaking back into the elite after a winning start at the Australian Open yesterday.

The towering Argentine lost a year of his career to a wrist injury after winning the US Open in 2009 and since his return, has failed to rediscover the heights of form he reached at Flushing Meadows three-and-ahalf years ago.

On Tuesday, the sixth seed beat qualifier Adrian Mannarino 6-1 6-2 6-2 to reach the second round, an improvement on the four sets he took to beat the Frenchman at the same stage last year.

“I played really well,” he said. “I remember last year when we played the first round also, and he had a better match than today.

“But I think I played really aggressive. I made a lot of winners with my forehand.

I served well. I made very good start to this Open.”

Despite his good start and the absence of the injured world number four Rafa Nadal, Del Potro was not confident of emerging from a half of the draw which also includes Roger Federer and the newest member of the Grand Slam winner’s club, Andy Murray.

“They are so far from me at the moment,” he added.

“We play five sets and matches can be tough for all the players, so I am just thinking about my second round.

“Hopefully I can go far, but I need to play better and better.

“I think the favourites are the same even if Rafa is not here. If Rafa was here, he would be a favourite for sure also. But Roger, Novak, Andy Murray, and other guys are the favourites to win the tournament.”

Del Potro will face Germany’s Benjamin Becker in the second round tomorrow.

Still only 24, he reached the quarter-finals at three of the four Grand Slams last year, including at Melbourne Park, but he knows from experience what it takes to go those extra three steps.

“I’m here trying to do that, but it’s not easy,” he said.

“I know how tough it is to win a Grand Slam. But I also know the way to win a Grand Slam.

“So I’m trying to do that for this year. Could be my biggest challenge this year, to win another Grand Slam.

But they are playing really good tennis, and it’s not easy.”

30

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

Sport

Football the best therapy for Barca’s recovering Vilanova

Blatter: points deduction would help curb racism

Cup holders face Malaga in last eight

By Patrick Johnston

By Mark Elkington WHEN Barcelona promoted the little known Tito Vilanova to replace Pep Guardiola, the most successful coach in the club’s history, few expected him to be breaking his predecessor’s records six months down the line.

A 3-1 victory at Malaga on Sunday completed a Spanish best first half of a La Liga season with 55 of a possible 57 points in the bag, surpassing Guardiola’s 52-point record for the same spell two years ago.

Holders Barca are back in action against fifth-placed Malaga at the Nou Camp tonight in a King’s Cup quarterfinal first leg, when cancer sufferer Vilanova has the chance to move a step closer towards his first piece of silverware.

Guardiola amassed 14 trophies from a possible 19 before he stepped aside last May, and Vilanova, having lost out to Real Madrid in the season-opening Spanish Super Cup in August, has his eyes on a May 18 Cup final.

Many in the local media have already declared Barca league champions as they hold an 11-point advantage over second-placed Atletico Madrid and an 18-point lead over ailing champions Real, but Vilanova is being prudent.

Thumbs up: Tito Vilanova (right) says being back in the dugout is the best way to cope with his ongoing cancer treatment “The league isn’t won yet. I am a fan of mathematics,” he said after the Malaga game.

“It will get more difficult from now on. Coming up we have the Cup and the Champions League. We aren’t invincible. If we ease up, we will lose games.”

Vilanova was Guardiola’s assistant and remains a close personal friend, but his early success has been all the more impressive considering he was forced to constantly rejig his defence at the start of the campaign.

A string of injuries to de-

fenders, which included losing first-choice centre backs Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique for two months apiece, tested his abilities while he appears to have solved the riddle of how to blend Cesc Fabregas into the side.

The former Arsenal captain was overlooked by Guardiola for key games towards the end of last season but has now become a fixture in Barca’s slick-passing midfield alongside Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets.

Guardiola had a special relationship with World Player

of the Year Lionel Messi, who was too distraught to even attend his former boss’ farewell news conference, but the change in coach has not disrupted the Argentine’s incredible goal-scoring rhythm.

The only negative for Vilanova so far has been the need for him to have a second round of throat surgery, after having had a tumour removed from his saliva glands in November 2011.

The 44-year-old is still combining chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment with

his work after last month’s second operation but is keen to play down his illness.

“I am well and able to work,” he said. “But in my case, I love football. To be with the players, to kick a ball and to train, there is no better therapy.

“I want to be the protagonist for my work, not for my illness.”

Malaga, who have also reached the Champions League last 16, gave a good account of themselves at the Rosaleda on Sunday despite the scoreline and remain dangerous opponents.

Africa awaits new goal king at Nations Cup finals

By Mark Gleeson

Didier Drogba, with 56 goals in 89 games for Ivory Coast, has been virtually unstoppable at international level

AFRICA is waiting to anoint a new goal king at the Nations Cup to succeed Didier Drogba, likely to be playing in his last tournament, and Samuel Eto’o who misses out again.

The list of potential successors at this month’s finals in South Africa is thin but there is always hope that at least one future goal machine could emerge from among the 16 finalists.

Drogba, with 56 goals in 89 games for Ivory Coast, has been virtually unstoppable at international level while Eto’o holds the record for most goals at the tournament - 18 at six finals.

However, Eto’o’s hopes of extending that have been halted by Cameroon’s failure to qualify for the last two editions.

While a path is clearing for pretenders to emerge, there has been a dearth of striking talent from Africa in the last few years.

The top scorers at the last

Nations Cup managed just three goals - and there were seven of them.

Drogba, Zambia pair Chris Katongo and Emmanuel Mayuka, Cheick Tidiane Diabate of Mali and Angola’s Manucho return for the 2013 finals, which kick off in Johannesburg on Saturday.

But it is more likely that a new scoring sensation could emerge from near obscurity.

Ivory Coast’s Wilfried Bony has been dubbed the ‘next Drogba’ and, if preferred in the starting lineup in South Africato struggling pair Salomon Kalou or Gervinho, could go on to make good on his promise at club level.

Sixteen goals in 18 games for Vitesse Arnhem this season makes him the top scorer in the Dutch league, the only African to head the scoring charts in a major league.

Lancina Traore has been restored to the Ivory Coast squad after a run of nine goals for Anzhi Makhachkala in the Russian league,

one more than Nigeria’s big hope Ahmed Musa, who has eight for CSKA Moscow.

Musa first made an impact in the Dutch league too.

Manucho, briefly on Manchester United’s books, has six goals for Spain’s Real Valladolid, including a pair last month against Real Madrid, but has often failed to fulfil his potential.

Holders Zambia hope a return from injury for Jacob Mulenga will provide them with a prolific target man, while hosts South Africa are relying on Katlego Mphela, top scorer in domestic competition over the last three seasons but just back from a six month lay-off following knee surgery.

The best bet to step up is a player proven at club level already. Tottenham Hotspur’s Emmanuel Adebayor has often been in the shadow of Drogba and Eto’o but, just when opportunity knocks, he has been embroiled in off-field turmoil which leaves little scope for him or his Togo team to make an impact.

DEDUCTING points from teams whose fans or players are guilty of racism is a better way of tackling the problem than players walking off the pitch and abandoning matches, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said this week.

Racism was thrust back into the spotlight when AC Milan midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng led his team mates off the field during a friendly against Italian fourth-tier side Pro Patria earlier this month after suffering abuse from fans on the terraces.

Pro Patria were ordered to play their next home match behind closed doors because of their fans’ behaviour but Blatter suggested racism might warrant greater punishment.

“I think a more radical solution would be deduction of points,” Blatter told Sky Sports News in England.

BETTER IMPACT “Deduction of points would have a better impact on that (racism) than any other sanction.”

Blatter, who had to clarify 2011 comments denying racism was a problem in football and that incidents could be settled with a handshake, praised Boateng for showing courage in walking off but said it was not a long-term fix.

“I made a comment on that and I still have the same feeling, it was good what he has done in order to give this impact by saying ‘listen, look at what has happened,’ but it can’t be the solution,” the Swiss said.

“It can’t be the solution because you can never solve any problem in your life, being in private life, in economic life, wherever, by running away.

“This is a good sign, it’s a good sign, to now say ‘listen, if you don’t take care now of our sport they will do it.’”

Blatter had promised to tackle the ‘devil’ of racism in what he says will be his final four-year term as the head of the sport’s world governing body, but despite his efforts the high profile cases keep coming.

Last week FIFA ordered Bulgaria and Hungary to play World Cup qualifiers behind closed doors because of racism, with European body UEFA handing out fines to Serbia and clubs Porto and Lazio in other recent cases.

“I think we can never do enough to eradicate all the racism in football,” Blatter said.

CYPRUS MAIL Wednesday, January 16, 2013

31

Sport APOEL keep up the pressure after late drama

Time to pay back fans, says Scotland manager Strachan

By Nemanja Bjedov

Country targets end to dismal barren run

By Tom Pilcher GORDON Strachan was unveiled as the new Scotland manager yesterday and said his players should aim to repay the loyalty of their world-famous fans after 15 years without qualifying for a major tournament.

The former Scotland and Manchester United midfielder, who won 50 caps in the 1980s and 1990s, replaces Craig Levein after his sacking in November.

“The fans are more famous than the squad now.

They’re famous all over the world. So I want to give something back to them,” Strachan told a news conference at Glasgow’s Hampden Park when asked about the unwavering support of the ‘Tartan Army’.

“We want to make a major tournament now,” added the 55-year-old exCeltic boss, who will get a first look at his new team on February 6 for a home friendly against Estonia.

Strachan will take over the reins of the national side for the remainder of their disappointing 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign and will attempt to guide Scotland to the 2016 European Championship

in France where 24 teams, not 16, will compete.

Scotland have not made a major tournament since the 1998 World Cup, also in France, and are bottom of 2014 World Cup European qualifying Group A with two points after four matches, eight behind leaders Belgium and Croatia.

Strachan said that although the format for the European Championship has changed to include eight more nations, the quality of play has gone through the roof.

“The standard throughout Europe is incredible just now, it’s come on incredibly well in the last 20 years. So it’s harder to get to these things,” he said.

“I know there’ll be rough times but hopefully there’ll be good times as well. If you’re successful you can make a nation happy and proud. I’ve got to try and do that with help from other people.”

Strachan, who last managed English second tier side Middlesbrough for an unhappy spell in 2009 and 2010, identified finding a system that suited the players as vitally important to Scotland’s chances of improving.

“It’s not far away. I’ve named a team that I’d

like to play like but that’s not going to happen right away,” said the former Coventry City and Southampton boss.

“Look at Man United, their system is to win games of football. So we’ll try and win games of football,” he added, hinting that his preferred system was the classic 4-4-2 formation.

His old club Celtic showed that unfashionable football played by underdogs can still thrive in the modern fast-paced game when they stunned Barcelona last year in the Champions League group stages.

“Celtic got a result against Barcelona because they played to their strengths,” said Strachan.

Scottish FA chief executive Stewart Regan said Strachan’s “passion and desire” were key to the former international getting the job, while Strachan himself said the time was right.

“I’ve had the experience and I like trying to make people better. I think it’s a great job. I can deal with this at this time in my life,” said Strachan, who also had lengthy playing stints at Leeds United and Aberdeen, where he won the European Cup Winners Cup in 1983 under Alex Ferguson.

The former Scotland midfielder, who won 50 caps, replaces Craig Levein after his sacking in November

Hammers down to ‘bare bones’

By Justin Palmer

James Collins, who scored both West Ham goals at Upton Park, has joined the club’s long injury list

WEST Ham United are down to “less than the bare bones” in defence for tonight’s FA Cup third round replay against Manchester United at Old Trafford, manager Sam Allardyce said.

The Londoners have just three senior defenders available after James Collins (hamstring), Joey O’Brien (hamstring) were ruled out, joining George McCartney (knee) on the sidelines.

Centre back Collins headed both of West Ham’s goals at Upton Park but United forced a replay when Robin van Persie netted a superb equaliser in the final minute to secure a 2-2 draw on January 5.

“It’s not great from a defensive point of view with James Collins going down injured and with both George McCartney and Joey O’Brien unavailable,” Allardyce told the club’s website (www.whufc. co.uk) yesterday.

“It’s less than the bare bones at the moment, so it gives me great difficulty going to Old Trafford with only Guy Demel, James Tomkins and Winston Reid of our sen-

ior defenders fit. After that we’re down to young lads like Jordan Spence and Danny Potts.”

Worryingly for West Ham, free-scoring United continue to bang in the goals having netted 56 in 22 league games - 13 more than second best Manchester City and Chelsea have managed. Van Persie accounts for 17 of the 56.

Allardyce said he could be forced to sign defensive cover in the January transfer window because it was “very desperate in that particular area”.

The manager has already been busy beefing up his attacking options, signing Joe Cole, Marouane Chamakh on loan from Arsenal and Brazilian Wellington Paulista on loan from Cruzeiro.

A deal for Wellington was completed on Friday but Allardyce said he was not sure when West Ham fans will first get a glimpse of a striker who has scored 39 goals in 110 Brazilian Serie A and Copa Libertadores matches for Cruzeiro.

“I think he’s a talented player in terms of his ability on the front line. Let’s see if we can apply the talent into the

team as quickly as possible,” Allardyce said.

“I don’t know how quickly that’s going to be, sooner rather than later hopefully, but it might take a little while.

“Talent is the most important thing and then applying that talent where it’s most difficult in the Premier League and that’s in the final third.”

Striker Javier Hernandez meanwhile is adopting a selfless attitude to Manchester United’s trophy quest.

After being surprisingly overlooked for Sunday’s win over Liverpool, Hernandez is likely to be recalled against West Ham. Being left on the bench did seem a bit harsh on the Mexico forward given his outstanding contribution to United’s Christmas campaign.

But it is typical of Hernandez that he shrugs such issues to one side, such is his determination to improve and his burning desire to help United towards more silverware.

“I’m not saying I’m the perfect player,” he told www.manutd.com. “I am always looking to improve my game so that I can help the team.”

HELIO Pinto’s free kick 12 minutes into injury time gave APOEL a vital 2-1 victory over Apollon in Round 17 of the national championship at the Tsirion Stadium in Limassol on Monday evening.

“It was definitely a very tough match and I believe that the victory came as a reward for our efforts,” said APOEL coach Ivan Jovanovic, whose side are second on 41 points, six behind leaders Anorthosis who beat Alki 3-0, also on Monday.

“We played really well, especially in the first half when we had lots of possession and created many chances. Despite conceding a goal and falling behind we kept playing the same way. It was difficult to keep up the same pace in the second half, but we scored early and then it was down to the faith of my players to lead us to victory,” Jovanovic added.

Apollon skipper Giorgos Merkis broke the deadlock with a short range header midway through the first half, but Selim Benachour levelled the score seven minutes after the interval.

Fotios Papoulis missed a penalty for the hosts midway through the second half and just a couple of minutes later Bojan Markovski was shown a red card for a foul on Aldo Adorno.

APOEL’s winner came with the last kick of the match as the officials added twelve minutes of injury time due to a lot of stoppages in the second half.

There were also disturbances in the crowd, with police arresting four fans.

“APOEL were better than us in the first half but we took the lead and we had a chance to retake the lead when Papoulis missed the penalty at 1-1. Unfortunately it did not happen and from that point on, things got much more difficult for us,” said Apollon coach Nikodimos Papavasiliou.

Anorthosis meanwhile outclassed Alki 3-0 away from home with Yiannis Okkas scoring twice in the first half after Alki defender Ricardo Santamaria was sent off early on. Juliano Spadacio set up the final score from the penalty spot in the 57th minute.

“I am happy we managed to win. Scoring goals early boosted our confidence, but the fact that they had to play most of the match with ten players also helped us,” said Anorthosis manager Ronny Levy.

“I am pleased with my players. We played well and followed through with our game plan. However, there are many more matches left until the end of the championship and we have to continue to do the same day in, day out,” Levy concluded.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL

32 McIlroy says massive Nike deal will improve his game 28

Sport Armstrong ‘admits to doping’ during Oprah interview

By Corrie MacLaggan HIS fall nearly complete, disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong finally confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs in an interview on Monday with Oprah Winfrey, USA Today has reported.

Although American media had widely speculated that Armstrong would admit to cheating in the interview, neither Winfrey nor Armstrong would confirm the report, in which the newspaper cited an anonymous source.

The report did not say which drugs Armstrong admitted to using, and the American’s attorney and his spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Armstrong, 41, has always vehemently denied using performance-enhancing drugs and had never tested positive to a doping test. But the evidence against him has been overwhelming.

Oprah, on Twitter afterwards, offered little more herself other than to say Armstrong came prepared for the interview, which will be broadcast on Thursday and Friday.

“Just wrapped with @ lancearmstrong More than 2 1/2 hours. He came READY,” Winfrey tweeted.

In an appearance on CBS This Morning yesterday, Winfrey added that the interview, the “biggest of my career” had been “difficult,” but that she was “satisfied” with what Armstrong had to say.

“We were mesmerized and riveted by some of his answers,” adding that Armstrong says what “people around the world have been waiting to hear.”

CBS reported Armstrong had indicated he may be willing to testify against others involved in illegal doping and was in talks about repaying part of the taxpayer money he earned during his career.

The unconfirmed reports about his admissions followed Armstrong’s apology

to the staff of the cancer foundation he had started over difficulties they may have experienced because of the doping controversy.

“He had a private conversation with the staff, who have done the important work of the foundation for many years,” said Livestrong Foundation spokeswoman Katherine McLane.

“It was a very sincere and heartfelt expression of regret over any stress that they’ve suffered over the course of the last few years as a result of the media attention,” she said.

Shortly after, Armstrong joined his legal team to meet with Winfrey for an interview described as “no-holdsbarred.”

The interview was supposed to take place at Armstrong’s Texas home but was switched to a hotel in downtown Austin after news crews camped outside his house before dawn.

A former cancer survivor who went on to become the greatest cyclist the world has seen, Armstrong’s fall from grace has been as swift and spectacular as his rise through the French alps.

Long dogged by accusations he cheated his way to the top, an October report from the US anti-doping body USADA ultimately triggered his rapid slide.

USADA exposed Armstrong as a liar and a cheat, describing him as the ringmaster of the “most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen,” involving anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, blood transfusions and other doping.

Throughout it all, Armstrong remained silent, unrepentant and seemingly unconcerned as the cycling world was left reeling by the revelations.

That was until last week, when he announced he had agreed to an interview with Winfrey, prompting speculation he was ready to confess he cheated.

Newspaper USA Today reported Armstrong’s alleged confession to US chat show queen Oprah Winfrey

Time to pay back fans, says new Scotland manager Strachan 31

US OPEN AND OLYMPIC CHAMP PRODUCES NEAR-FLAWLESS DISPLAY

Up and running: the Scot is trying to become the first man to follow up his maiden Grand Slam title with another major win

Merciless Murray breezes through A

NDY Murray looked every inch a Grand Slam champion with a near-flawless display to brush aside the challenge of Robin Haase at the Australian Open yesterday.

The world number three claimed beforehand he was stepping into the unknown as he set out to win one of the game’s four biggest prizes as a major winner for the first time following his success at the US Open in September.

The Scot eased to a 6-3 6-1 6-3 victory in just one hour and 37 minutes.

Haase took Murray to five sets at the 2011 US Open, but any thoughts the Dutchman might extend him similarly this time were quickly blown away.

Two early breaks of serve set the tone and Murray rarely troubled on his way to setting up a second-round tie with Joao Sousa of Portugal.

Murray, also the Olympic champion, is trying to become the first man to follow up his maiden Grand Slam title with another major win.

Asked if he felt different walking onto court as

‘There are nerves in the build-up.

It’s always nice to get through the first round of a tournament, but especially here’ a Grand Slam champion, Murray said: “Not really, it didn’t feel much different to me. I was still nervous before I went on to the play the match.

“I think when I would see the benefits of it is if I get myself deep into a Slam this year and you’re playing against the top players.

That’s when I think you’ll draw on that experience and use it in the right way.”

Scheduled first on Rod Laver Arena for his opening match, the Scot took full advantage by getting the job done before a predicted hot afternoon in Melbourne.

Murray, 25, began to turn the screw as early as the third game, winning the kind of long and punishing rally

that is the foundation of his game, before drawing a wild volley from Haase to break.

The advantage extended to 4-1 soon after, and when Murray then saw off five break points with some big serving, the set was as good as his.

A wayward drop shot gifted back one of the breaks, and possibly gave watching coach Ivan Lendl something to discuss in the post-match debrief, but otherwise it was plain sailing.

Murray rolled through the second set in 26 minutes, working his man relentlessly from side to side, and broke to love at the start of the third with a backhand winner down the line.

One final lapse allowed

Haase a second service break of the match but it hardly detained Murray, who broke for the eighth time to secure the win.

“I started the year well in Brisbane but obviously coming into the Slams, the first match is normally pretty tough,” added the Scot.

“There are nerves in the build-up. You’ve just got to try and focus and play solid, not make too many silly mistakes. I did a good job of that today. It’s always nice to get through the first round of a tournament, but especially here.”

Murray is the only British man left in the draw after world number 246 Jamie Baker lost 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 6-2 to Lukas Rosol, the Czech who beat Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon last year.

ALL THE DAY’S ACTION FROM MELBOURNE: PAGE 29