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May 19, 2013

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COFFEESHOP: HALLELUJAH! THE CYPROB IS BACK IN TOWN INSIDE Cyprus New hope for Nicosia’s popular Turkish baths 7

World Hollande signs gay marriage law 8

Business Troika pill is the only cure 22

Property Change technology for creativity in kids’ rooms 23

Sport Retiring Ferguson seeks anything but a quiet life back

PAGE 16

Further raid on BoC is possible Current state of administration needs to end so bank can run its own affairs

By Elias Hazou

T

HE Bank of Cyprus, touted pillar of the economy, may yet stay afloat - but at what cost? If the lender’s consolidated balance sheet - released this week - is anything to go by, it’s likely going to take many more billions to recapitalise the bank to a degree that’s satisfactory to regulators. And given that for the moment a raid on deposits or ‘bail-in’ is virtually the bank’s only way to raise capital, big savers can expect a much larger haircut.

A crew cut, more like it, say some.

It’s plausible that the haircut on uninsured deposits - so far 37.5 per cent - could shoot up to 60 per cent, speculates one leading economist.

“The bank’s capital needs will depend on several things, but a key factor will be the clients’ - businesses as well as households - progressive difficulty in repaying loans.

Another is the falling price of real estate held as collateral,” said Simeon Matsis, who was a member of the BoC’s previous board of directors.

Hardly anyone disputes that the bank’s non-performing loans are bound for an upward trajectory in the midst of a protracted economic slump.

And the lender’s consolidated balance sheet, though provisional, appears to bear out these concerns.

The posting of the bank’s numbers on Thursday was a small stride forward in the long path towards the bank’s normalisation. Up until then,

the main problem delaying the lender’s restructuring had been the regulator’s failure to confirm the balance sheet of Laiki so the Bank of Cyprus would know what it would be getting in terms of assets and liabilities.

Determining the final haircut, the conversion of deposits to equity, and thus the new shareholder base of BoC is a key step towards returning the lender to normalcy.

According to the BoC consolidated balance sheet which factored in the 37.5 per cent haircut on uninsured deposits and also the absorbing of Laiki’s assets and liabilities - the bank boasts a core tier 1 capital ratio of 13 per cent well above the 9 per cent safety net stipulated by the Basel III accounting rules.

Why did the Central Bank overreach the capital adequacy target by four percentage points? Even the memorandum of understanding with the troika of April 2013 called for the conventional 9 per cent buffer for tier 1 capital.

But the same document went on to say that “...if required, an additional conversion of uninsured deposits into class A shares will be undertaken to ensure that the core tier one target of 9 per cent under stress by endprogramme can be met.”

“Under stress” being the operative phrase here. It’s a safe bet that both the troika and Central Bank assume the BoC’s capital adequacy will drop by the time the dust settles. And by the dust settling one means how much equity the bank will be left with after

TURN TO PAGE 3

A visitor sits on the Iron Throne from the epic Game of Thrones series during an exhibition on the US fantasy series at the Posthoornkerk in Amsterdam. The exhibition includes weapons, costumes and props from the series (EPA)

EU finds time for olive oil regulations CRITICS ridiculed European Union bureaucrats yesterday for taking time off fighting the euro zone’s debt crisis to impose strict new rules on how restaurants serve olive oil.

From January 1, 2014, eateries will be banned from serving oil to diners in small glass jugs or dipping bowls, and forced instead to use pre-sealed, non-refillable bottles that must be disposed of when empty.

The European Commission said the move is designed to improve hygiene and reassure consumers the olive oil in restaurants has not been diluted with an inferior product.

But critics say the rules are a sop to Europe’s olive oil producers, and will only add to the

frustration felt by many towards a bloated EU bureaucracy regarded as out of touch with the concerns of ordinary Europeans.

The Commission said its proposal was supported by 15 out of 27 EU member governments, including main olive oil producers Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal - also among the countries worst affected by the euro crisis.

Marina Yannakoudakis, a British MEP said the Commission’s defence of the plans highlighted how out of touch their priorities were.

“The economic crisis in these countries isn’t because of olive oil, it’s because of the euro, and they should be concentrating on solving that problem,” she said.

2 May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

Home

UNHCR ‘concerned’ over Kurdish families

Weather

Nicosia

31

Troodos 24 Limassol Li Paphos

29 Larnaca

29

27

TODAY: A mixture of sunshine and cloud. Temperatures will reach 31C inland, 29C in the south and east, 27C in the west and 24C over higher ground.

OUTLOOK: Remaining relatively settled, with cloud building up inland and over the mountains.

YESTERDAY

Nicosia Larnaca Limassol Paphos Paralimni Prodromos

max/min temp 30 - 18 27 - 18 29 - 20 25 - 18 31 - 18 26 - 15

SUNRISE: 05.45 am

Humidity 35% 61% 52% 75% 35% 30%

SUNSET: 19.41 pm

More than 100 on the streets for two weeks

THE UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has said it was greatly concerned over deteriorating conditions of asylum seekers in Cyprus, offered to support the government and called for accelerating actions on contingency planning.

In a statement, the UNHCR mentioned the instance of more than 100 Kurdish men, women and children of Syrian origin who have “remained for over two weeks without shelter in the streets of Nicosia at the doorsteps of the ministry of interior,” said Nasr Ishak, UNHCR Representative for Cyprus.

“We have examined those cases and conveyed to the competent Cypriot authorities our recommendations for corrective actions in accordance with the Cyprus refugee law.”

The UNHCR said it had no doubt that the economic crisis and the drastic measures that have followed were

Kurds demonstrating in Nicosia this week

bound to have widespread impact on society and affect a segment of the Cypriot population.

“However, our concern is that asylum seekers and refugees being among the most vulnerable people in Cyprus have been enormously affected to the extent of destitution,” said the UNHCR statement.

“The need to preserve the human dignity of those innocent people is an international obligation and UNHCR in Cyprus has responded

immediately from its own resources to requests for support from the Cypriot authorities.”

It said at the same time, Cyprus, as an EU member state experiencing serious financial difficulties was now entitled to receive 95 per cent of the cost of providing appropriate reception facilities for asylum seekers from EU Refugee Funds.

“But our efforts to support the Republic of Cyprus do not stop merely at providing humanitarian assistance

to people of concern to UNHCR,” said Ishak.

“We know that we must fully take into account the multiple challenges facing Cyprus and proceed in a constructive and solutions-oriented manner; in close consultation with government counterparts at various levels.”

A delegation from UNHCR’s Europe Bureau in Brussels and its Headquarters in Geneva visited Nicosia last month to review the potential impact on Cyprus of the Syrian crisis.

Sunday Mail

Oroklini police raids see dozens of gamblers arrested Safety campaign

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LARNACA police arrested dozens of people yesterday during raids in Oroklini to nab gamblers and court warrant dodgers.

Police – acting on a court warrant – conducted a raid between 1am and 4am charging 15 people in relation to gambling and one for obstructing police work and assaulting a police officer.

Another person was arrested because

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Seventeen people, including the premises’ owner, were arrested in relation to working in the place where allegedly gambling took place. Police confiscated a total of €850, a grinder suspected of being used for cannabis, “8 tables for gambling,” and other objects relating to card playing.

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IN LIGHT of world telecommunication day on Friday, the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CyTA) has started a campaign for the proper use of mobile phones while driving.

The theme for this year’s world telecommunication day is ‘telecommunication and improving road safety.’

Until June 1 special booths will be set-up outside certain CyTA shops and CyTA offices, universities and other areas islandwide to test people’s capabilities to drive while using a mobile phone.

Interactive three-hour educational sessions will also be offered to drivers and other business customers, CyTa said. The seminars are being organised in collaboration with the police.

3 SUNDAY MAIL • May 19, 2013

Home IKOS wins legal battle over maths formula

The real figures for the Bank of Cyprus are still unclear

Further BoC raid possible continued from page one a re-evaluation of its riskweighted assets.

Backing up a little, tier 1 capital, also known as the capital adequacy ratio, is a core measure of a bank’s financial strength. It’s defined as the ratio of a bank’s core equity capital to its total riskweighted assets (RWAs).

By way of example, a bank with €2 of equity receives a client deposit of €10 and lends out all €10. Assuming that the loan, now a €10 asset on the bank’s balance sheet, carries a risk weighting of 90 per cent, the bank now holds risk-weighted assets of €9 (€10 x 90 per cent).

Using the original equity of €2, the bank’s tier 1 ratio is calculated to be €2/€9 or 22 per cent.

All other things being equal, the higher the RWAs, the lower the capital adequacy ratio.

In their report, bean counters posted a sanguine 13 per cent tier 1 capital ratio; but a closer look at the BoC’s numbers brings pause.

According to the Central Bank data, prior to the haircut BoC’s tier 1 capital stood at -€785m. In short, it had negative tier 1 capital.

The bank raised €3.186bn through a 37.5 per cent trim on deposits, bringing its consolidated tier 1 capital up to €2.401bn. To this were added €703m in transferred assets of the ‘good’ Laiki for a consolidated total of €3.104bn in tier 1 capital.

The RWAs come to €24.001bn, divided by the core tier 1 capital of €3.104bn, yielding a 12.9 per cent ratio.

The bank’s total consolidated assets stand at €38.343bn, liabilities at €34.730bn. But the equity capital amounts to a mere €3.613bn, and this for the island’s once largest lender.

This poor showing is mainly due to the fact that, along with everything else, the BoC has been saddled with €9.103bn of Laiki’s Emergency Liquidity Assistance (liabilities), another reason being that Laiki bequeathed to BoC a meagre €700m in equity capital.

To sum up: BoC has riskweighted assets totalling €24.001bn, liabilities of

Cloud of uncertainty over the bank ‘killing it’

€34.730bn, and equity capital of €3.613bn. Or, the bank has 6.6 times as much RWAs as it has equity capital.

And as people struggle to keep up with their loans, the risk-weighted assets on the ledger could get worse - far worse.

If and when it does, the only way to beef up the capital adequacy might be a further raid on deposits. The bank’s consolidated customer deposits amount to €23.104bn.

Matsis cites another issue.

In early 2011, Laiki and BoC together had assets of some €80bn. In late 2012, BoC alone held around €40bn in assets. Now, combined, BoC and the ‘good’ Laiki have a little over €38bn.

Although the economist does espouse the mainstream current of thought the need to quickly appoint a CEO to the bank so as to end the state of administration - he stresses that something else has been grossly overlooked: reducing the bank’s operating costs.

Since the ‘merger’ of BoC and Laiki, Matsis says, the ‘new’ BoC employs a combined 6,000 people. Not one has been made redundant to date and, as far as the BoC goes, a mulled 20 to 25 per cent cut in salaries has failed to materialise.

What worries MP Prodromos Prodromou - who makes no secret of his dislike for the Central Bank governor is that he can’t figure out the regulator’s agenda.

The DISY deputy is among the loudest advocates calling for an end to the state of administration at BoC so the bank can be allowed to run its own affairs.

He charges the Central Bank of handling BoC “as if the bank is under resolution, not restructuring.”

According to Prodromou, back in March, Central Bank chief Panicos Demetriades had reassured members of the House Finance Committee that the status of BoC would be “sorted out in 24 to 48 hours.”

“That was two months ago, and BoC is still being run by the Central Bank,” Prodromou said.

At the same session, Demetriades - under pressure from politicians enquiring on the

bank’s fate - revealed that the Central Bank’s targett for e its BoC was actually to raise o 18 core tier 1 capital ratio to per cent, not 13 per cent..

“When I then asked how d to much cash would need airbe raised through a hairnor cut, neither the governor nor other Central Bank ofuld ficials present there could msay, citing technical complexities.” ay Quizzed by the Sunday Mail as to whether at the atime he asked Demetrian des what was the reason for 18 per cent in tier 1 capital, Prodromou conceded he did not pose the question.

But, he says, the 18 per cent capital target, tion: if true, begs an explanation: e lit“Is it because they have tle confidence in the bank ? We recapitalising on its own? ey’re just don’t know what they’re thinking.” tive, A former BoC executive, mity, who requested anonymity, tainsaid the cloud of uncertainnk is ty hanging over the bank “killing it.”

“They must appoint a CEO eone as soon as possible, someone h dewho will make the tough k gocisions and get the bank aid. ing again,” the banker said.

It’s equally important that nted the new CEO be appointed on a long-term basis, for one to two years. And this should be done now, said the source, even before the cted new bank board are elected hing by shareholders - something expected to happen in late August or September once finalthe deposit haircut is fi nal-

WHY DID MINISTERS NOT BLAME BANKERS? CYPRUS’ current predicament was caused by greedy bankers maximising their profits irrespective of risk, former finance minister Kikis Kazamias said yesterday.

“It must finally be understood that the operative cause in creating the problem (leading to Cyprus’ bailout) has been bankers’ unbridled desire to maximise their profits, (and) to a large extent turning those organisations from banks to investing bodies, concentrating a great risk, (and) buying dangerous products as the Greek bonds were at the time.”

Speaking of his two consecutive successors, Kazamias said he was surprised by their “diligence in their assessments of not referring to the bankers’ actions during the time in ques-

tion”.

Kazamias was referring to Vassos Shiarly, who hatook over from him in March 2012, and Michaesilis Sarris, who was appointed by new Presirus’ dent Nicos Anastasiades, negotiating Cyprus’ oon bailout this March and stepping down soon tate afterwards. Sarris said he wanted to facilitate investigations into the bailout. are Kazamias said Sarris and Shiarly were aware lar) that the Bank of Cyprus and Laiki (Popular) wn, bank, which incurred losses in the write-down, had not previously expressed concerns to the finance ministry. As part of the bailout termss by een Cyprus’ international lenders, Laiki has been rus forced to wind down and the Bank of Cyprus is under restructuring.

ised.

“Otherwise, what incentive would the CEO have to get the job done, if he knows he’ll be replaced a few months down the line,” the source said.

A COUPLE whose relationship “turned toxic’’ after they were involved in the creation of a successful investment management business have been criticised by a High Court judge in London following a legal row.

Mathematician Martin Coward and his estranged wife Elena Ambrosiadou became embroiled in a High Court dispute over the ownership of intellectual property rights to software used in their IKOS investment business.

Mrs Justice Asplin ruled on Friday against Dr Coward following a trial at the High Court in London in March.

In a written ruling handed down at a hearing in London, the judge was critical of both parties and said their approach to giving evidence was tainted by their “obvious and deep animosity”.

The judge said she had not found either to be an “entirely satisfactory witness”.

“It was quite clear that they are both highly intelligent and astute individuals,” said Mrs Justice Asplin.

The judge said Dr Coward’s approach to giving evidence was at times “cavalier”, and she found him to be evasive when questioned about various agreements.

EVASIVE

Under attack: Central Bank governor Panicos Demetriades.

Far left: Prodromos Prodromou

She added: “I found Ms Ambrosiadou to be extremely evasive and prone to making lengthy speeches in order to avoid answering questions which did not suit her, in what often appeared to be an attempt to obfuscate and confuse.”

Mrs Justice Asplin said Dr Coward was a mathematician and computer programmer who had graduated from Cambridge University.

She said Ambrosiadou was a chemical engineering graduate who had worked for British Petroleum.

Ambrosiadou and Dr Coward married in 1983 and founded IKOS in the early 1990s.

The judge heard that the venture was hugely successful and generated a “fortune’’.

But the couple became estranged after their relationship “turned toxic’’, the judge was told.

Ambrosiadou filed for divorce in 2009, said the judge.

Dr Coward resigned as chairman of IKOS in the same year – Ambrosiadou was chief executive.

The judge said in the proceedings before her, Dr Coward claimed that he wrote a substantial part of the software used by IKOS and that he owned the copyright on that software.

IKOS bosses contended that rights had either passed to IKOS or that Dr Coward had written software when an employee of IKOS. Mrs Justice Asplin ruled against Dr Coward after analysing ownership and authorship issues at different periods of time.

4 May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

Home

A helping hand for small business in a time of crisis Company promotes office sharing and rent-a-desk to keep business costs down

By Poly Pantelides

E

NTREPRENEURS will tell you time and time again that crisis yields opportunity. Cyprus’ ongoing crisis - expected to get far worse before it gets any better - has been shaking some people into action, including one team bringing to Cyprus the notion of office sharing, and desk renting.

Office sharing is already a successful model elsewhere, such as in Athens where coLab (www.colabworkspace.com) has been catering to businesses needing anything from meeting rooms to office space. The idea is to take away the worry and risk of high rental prices, electricity bills, paying for a secretary, all often overwhelming concerns, especially during a debt crisis. How about internet connectivity, 24/7 desk space, a receptionist, and the panacea for all ills, an unlimited coffee supply, from about €230 a month?

“The last few weeks have been a nightmare,” entrepreneur Hector Kolonas said in late April on his website www2.OnThisIsland.com - a contributor-driven online magazine promoting events to Englishspeaking communities in Cyprus.

“They’ve been horrendous for almost everyone involved with our island, and its businesses.”

Kolonas decided to respond to the horror by launching www.RentADeskCyprus.com to provide a new service for businesses, consultants and freelancers looking to work in the country but feeling deterred by the high costs involved with setting up an office.

Speaking of the harsh Cyprus bailout, Kolonas said that though much has been said about how the country came to agree to a bailout that has seen its second biggest bank forced to wind down and its biggest undergo a restructuring, not much been said about recovery, rebuilding, “or the entrepreneurial spirit our islanders are known for”.

RentADeskCyprus.com is an intermediary service between the

Office sharing allows business to rent desks, conference facilities and secretarial services cheaply businesses with space to rent and the freelancers and entrepreneurs looking for affordable options. Businesses can pay a small fee to advertise their space on the website and RentADesk will list them as long as they meet the criteria (connectivity, facilities, etc.).

Businesses with available space rent out desks directly to entrepreneurs, helping them cover their costs, Kolonas said. So the project serves a dual purpose, he said. On the one hand it helps small businesses enabling them to grow by getting them set up with a working environment minus the high costs, but on the other hand it also helps businesses with empty desk space cover their expenses.

The hope is that “the more small businesses that grow during these tough times, the more people they will be able to hire in the near future,” Kolonas said.

Space is already available in Limassol’s Spyros Kyprianou Avenue, which includes wireless broadband, Mac or PC office computers to rent, reasonable use of printing, photocopying and scanning, a free library of business books and magazines.

Renting a single desk costs €150 a month and making use of a receptionist costs €80 per month. Services

vary depending on people’s needs, from a pay as you go fee of €30 a day or use of a conference/presentation room for €30 per hour.

But is there a market out there for this sort of model? Cyprus may boast a highly-educated workforce but it is not yet teeming with freelancers or even start-ups, ventures that are often focused on high technology and innovation and may potentially be interested in RentADesk.

“The notion of entrepreneurship is new in Cyprus (but) Cypriots have always been entrepreneurial… there’s no reason we can’t do that in Cyprus,” Kolonas said.

And the crisis and the Cyprus bailout that has made the old model of Cyprus as an international business centre obsolete may just be the opportunity entrepreneurs need.

“The crisis changes the model of going to university, graduating and getting a job,” Kolonas said.

Even before the bailout, there have been people preaching that Cyprus needs to create growth through new ventures, start-ups and entrepreneurship.

The Cyprus Enterprise Link has been organising networking events and has helped projects find that elusive source of funding. Environmental scientist Alexandros Char-

alambides has spearheaded ENERMAP, an award winning concept to map online the energy consumption of buildings across the EU. Charalambides is also one of the people who have set up Chrysalis LEAP, an accelerator platform aiming to nourish new start-ups, guiding them and helping them get funding. Cyprus has also recently participated in NASA’s Space Apps Challenge, a two-day technology development event while last year’s Hackathon brought computer programmers, software developers and designers together from ten different countries.

And Open Coffee Cyprus has been arranging meet-ups, with one coming up next week in Nicosia to specifically address how those interested in start-ups can pitch ideas and get funding with on the spot pitch training.

Kolonas said that RentADeskCyprus is part of a bigger plan geared at contributing towards growth and recovery. But for now, the idea is to help in some concrete way.

“We don’t know where (the project) is going to go because it’s a very turbulent time right now, the idea is to help both (established businesses, and entrepreneurs and freelancers),” he said.

‘The Meeting Point’ launches a unique photo contest THE Meeting Point, an initiative supported by the Representation of the European Commission in Cyprus and operated by the Association for Historical Dialogue and Research (AHDR), is organising a photo contest on the theme of ‘cooperation’.

‘The Meeting Point’, housed at the Home for Cooperation, invites you to enter into the true spirit of cooperation by launching a unique photographic competition.

Through a call for entries open to photographers worldwide, the aim of this competition is to create an uninterrupted visual journey made from exquisite imagery, navigating around the notion of ‘cooperation’.

The competition is open to both professional and amateur photographers of any age group.

The Meeting Point’s mission is to promote bi-communal dialogue, facilitate cooperation between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities, and promote multiculturalism in Cyprus.

The jury, who will decide upon the winning photographs, will comprise of the following three professional Cypriot photographers: Vassos Stylianou ABIPP, Kerim Belet and Avo Mangoian.

This competition will culminate with an award ceremony in June 2013, and the inauguration of a photographic exhibition to be hosted at the Home for Cooperation.

Interested participants can download the submission rules and entry form at www.home4cooperation. info. The deadline for submissions is May 21, 2013.

The winners will receive the following prizes: 1st Prize: Tablet iPad mini Wi-Fi 16GB 2nd Prize: Manfrotto Tripod 190XProB plus Head (496RC2 or 804RC2) 3rd Prize: La Sardina 35mm Lomography Camera & Flash DIY Edition Best Teenage Photographer Prize: La Sardina 35mm Lomography Camera and Flash ‘The Guvnor’ Edition For more information, email: photography@home4cooperation.info, or visit www.home4cooperation. info, or contact via phone on 22445740, +90 5488345740

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5 SUNDAY MAIL • May 19, 2013

Home Anastasiades said the government’s focus is not on restarting peace talks

CYPRUS TODAY Teenager dies suddenly A 13-year-old girl died in the early hours yesterday in Nicosia general hospital’s accident and emergency department where her father had taken her after she had complained of feeling unwell.

Police said the 13-year-old was admitted to hospital at 10.40pm on Friday night, and fainted some 50 minutes later following difficulties breathing.

She was declared dead in the early hours of Saturday. A post-mortem is scheduled for Monday.

Bomb hoax at Paphos theatre

President mollifies over UN document DIKO chief Marios Garoyian raises concern over sneaky presentation of ready made solution for discussion

By Poly Pantelides PRESIDENT Nicos Anastasiades yesterday tried to allay concerns over a United Nations document on the Cyprus problem that has been interpreted by some political parties as an effort to force Greek Cypriots into unacceptable concessions.

The government this week confirmed receipt of a lengthy document from the UN on the convergences and divergences between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots on the Cyprus problem between 2008 and 2012.

Parties interpreted the report as an attempt to lock in convergences.

But Anastasiades said yesterday in a written statement that it was he who had requested to see the report “not, of course, to use it as a basis of restarting negotiations from where they were left but so the Greek Cypriot side can be able to know… in a substantiated and serious way how it can withdraw any proposals the majority of the people and political lead-

ers find unacceptable”.

Anastasiades said although he was keen to re-launch peace talks as soon as possible, the government was now focused on tackling “the problems the present economic crisis has accumulated”. Everyone involved, including the United Nations, understands that, Anastasiades said.

“At the same time I consider confrontations to be unnecessary and pointless since a new national council meeting has been set for June 15,” he said. Matters that have been pigeonholed for discussion during the meeting include deciding on a negotiator and coming up with a framework for proposals as well as deciding on the format of a new round of talks, Anastasiades said.

DIKO leader and coalition partner Marios Garoyian said yesterday the UN document cannot serve as a foundation for peace talks. “It is merely an informal departmental document by the UN team on the Cyprus problem, no more,” he said. But he expressed concern the report gave the impres-

Cyprus Handicrafts

sion of “a complete solution plan”.

That may be a sneaky way of presenting a ready-made drafted solution for discussion during peace talks in an effort to limit them in only the divergences, risking “trapping our side in as many possible ‘convergences’ made between 2008-2012,” Garoyian said.

House President and EDEK leader Yiannakis Omirou repeated yesterday his view that Greek Cypriots should not accept the UN document as “an interim agreement in the context of continuing Cyprus problem negotiations”.

But former ruling party AKEL that was in power during the time referenced in the document warned via its spokesman George Loucaides that a clean slate endangered a “significant risk” for Anastasiades who would be tasked with accomplishing something better. The UN document is not a solution proposal, Loucaides said.

“Nothing is considered to be agreed on unless everything is agreed,” he added.

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PAPHOS’ Markideio Theatre was evacuated on Friday night after an unknown person called the police at 9.30pm to warn a bomb was due to go off in half an hour.

A performance taking place at the time was interrupted, and police showed up with a bomb expert but found no bomb.

Europe Day celebrated in Nicosia PASSERSBY at Nicosia’s busy Phaneromeni square in the old town were yesterday treated to songs and performances among stands selling anything from crafts to plants as part of celebrations for the European Year of Citizens and Europe Day. Events took place from 10am until 4pm and enabled students to talk with Cypriot members of the European parliament, while voluntary bodies and diplomatic representations were also present. Performances included music and dance.

The event was organised by the European Commission Representation in Cyprus, the European Parliament information office, the Press and Information Office and the Nicosia municipality.

Missing man buried THEMISTOCLES Drakos, who was killed at the age of 18 during the Turkish invasion of 1974, was buried yesterday.

Drakos was reported missing in 1974 and he was identified decades later via DNA testing. Born in the village of Kambos in Nicosia in 1956, he was one of five children, defence minister Fotis Fotiou said addressing the mourners during Drakos’ funeral.

He was half way through his national service when he was killed in 1974.

6 May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

Home

A forlorn Polis campsite opens for the season Campsite shorn of trademark eucalyptus

By Bejay Browne THE campsite at Polis in Paphos is starting the summer season without any of the longpromised upgrades to ageing facilities and a severe pruning to around 60 of its trademark eucalyptus trees. Some have been felled completely.

The popular beachside camping spot presents a forlorn picture, with one whole section of the campsite now without the welcome shade the eucalyptus trees provide during the summer, and many of the trees in the main camping area cut back to their main trunks.

Site manager, Lakis Matteou, said most of the trees had not been completely felled but instead have been cut “about half way up” and most have already started to grow.

“The tree cutting is part of an ongoing plan implemented by the forestry department to ensure that the trees don’t pose a hazard and that they will keep growing in a healthy manner,” he said.

Senior forestry officer Andreas Christou said the cutting was part of the forestry department’s decade-long plan to ‘upgrade’ the trees.

The campsite which has the capacity for around 200 tents, is set in a small forest of eucalyptus trees, and is popular with young campers in particular.

According to Christou, the eucalyptus plantation has trees which are about 60 to 80 years old. He said the trees are very large and have become dangerous as the braches sometimes break and could cause damage to cars or even to people who are camping. Although the officer is unaware of any such incidents so far, he stressed that this could happen at any time.

“Every year we see fallen braches on the ground, especially after strong winds.”

The forestry officer said that as part of the management plan for the area, this year 50 or 60 of the trees will be cut or managed.

“We do this by cutting the top of the trees; new branches will regrow in some months.

In one or two years the new branches will be strong and vigorous. This is a recognised method of forestry management where only the top of the tree is cut. We have been using it in Nicosia for some years,” he said.

According to Christou only one or two eucalyptus trees whose roots were not strong enough have been completely removed.

“This is to give better space to enable other trees to grow and to provide good shade.”

But regular visitors to the site have been shocked by the stripping of the camping site.

“I’ve been coming here for more than 20 years,” said 50-year-old Sarah Theodorou.

“The Polis campsite is unique primarily because of the eucalyptus trees. It’s a beautiful place. I can understand that trees need to be managed, but the campsite looks so empty now. No way will they grow sufficiently to provide enough shade this summer.”

Theodorou added that it appeared to her that far more than a few eucalyptus had been completely felled.

Christou said other sections of the forest will be treated in the same way next year and that the management plan of the trees will take ten years to complete.

The severe tree surgery has taken place just as another camping season opens with no sign of long-promised upgrades to the facilities at the site.

Matteou, who has managed the campsite for the past 12 years, said that nothing has been done by the municipality - which leases the site from the forestry department - to improve the campsite which opened nearly 30 years ago. “The upgrades are really needed here and they will enhance the camping experience and will not affect the surrounding

Shadow of its former self: Polis campsite after the forestry department went to work on dozens of the famous eucalyptus trees

nature,” he said.

The mayor of Polis, Angelos Georgiou had previously hoped that upgrading would take place at the end of last year. But, due to a lack of funding, he confirmed that nothing has yet been done.

“I hope that we will be able to start the upgrading work next year. We are waiting for the licence to be able to go ahead with the changes,” Georgiou said. “We are hoping to secure some of the funding from an EU programme

and I hope to be able to have some good news on the matter in the coming weeks.”

The proposed master plan includes significant upgrades to the toilet and shower facilities and water and electricity supplies, as well as creating roads.

Dutch-born Nicosia resident, Margot Kendal, has also been a regular visitor to Polis campsite over the years and says the need for proper infrastructure and the preservation of the trees is paramount.

“Times have changed and the minimal facilities at the camping site are no longer enough.

There are always promises that the site will be upgraded to European standards, but nothing has happened yet and each year the existing facilities, in particular the toilets and bathroom blocks, are unable to cope with the demand,” she said.

But she echoed Theodorou’s concern over the eucalyptus trees. “All of the trees must be preserved and protected; they are what make the area so special. The campsite does look rather sad at the moment,” she said.

Christou from the forestry department said visitors should not worry. “Our purpose is to protect the trees and improve the structure so that all of the trees are safe and strong and provide good shade for visitors to enjoy. The trees are already beginning to grow back,” he said.

Fresh comedy from Paphos-based playwright

By Bejay Browne TOP comedy talent will be touring Cyprus in June with the latest offering by Rubber Ear productions and the Cyprus/Sunday Mail has two pairs of tickets to give away.

Death of a Playboy is penned by award winning writer Kathleen Ruddy of Sex, Chips and Ouzo fame and follows hot on the heels of last year’s success, The Devil Wears Primark.

The Paphos-based Glaswegianborn actress is hoping to write two plays a year and says she already has “something else up her sleeve” for September.

“Death of a Playboy took longer than usual to write as I had to do so much background research on espionage, politics and Russians based

behind the Iron Curtain during 19691970. I had no thought of writing a comedy with any politics in it when I sat down to write a new piece.”

The lead character is an ageing playboy and Ruddy says she gleaned the idea after watching a friend in action.

“A friend of mine works in bars and has done for many years. In his heyday he was a gorgeous twenty something year old. But there he is, in his 40s and he’s still doing the same thing. What do retired playboys in their 40s see when they look in the mirror, I was thinking along those lines,” Ruddy said. “But then the play went in another direction, and I started writing something political which I had no intention of doing.”

Audiences have become accustomed to Ruddy’s clever comedy style and expect to come away

laughing. She has also built a reputation for strong one-liners and a unique, sometimes, scathing and eye-wateringly honest appraisal of human behaviour.

Ruddy has taken a step away from her usual comedy offering with Death of a Playboy which centres on corrupt politicians, a bourbon salesman, Cold War espionage and fetishist sex parties.

Santino, the playboy in the title, has a life which is on the slide. He was once a New York playboy and ‘bourbon salesman of the year’ 196669. By the time the play opens, this has changed and he is sent on a business trip to ’60s London.

Rubber Ear production’s last offering, The Devil Wears Primark played to full houses last year and helped to cement the company’s popular reputation with audiences across

the island.

Despite the success of last year’s play, Ruddy is still probably best known for the hilarious award winning comedy Sex, Chips and Ouzo.

The writer, director and actress has again ensured a strong team for the forthcoming production, which includes husband and producer, George Dickie and Cyprus based production manager Christina Kalozois.

The Cyprus tour of Death of a Playboy kicks off on Thursday, June 6 at Horizon Crown Resorts Amphitheatre in Coral Bay in Paphos. It will go on to Tala, Pissouri, Paralimni, and Curium with the last performance on Sunday June 16 at Paphos Ancient Odeon Amphitheatre in Kato Paphos.

The Cyprus Mail has two pairs of

Playwright: Kathleen Ruddy tickets to give away. To enter, simply email your name and address to editor@cyprus-mail.com. The winners will be picked randomly from the entries received. For tickets, reservations and further information: - 99908434/99069074, www. rubberear.wordpress.com or email rubber.ear@live.com

7 SUNDAY MAIL • May 19, 2013

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Re-opening of old Nicosia’s popular hamam delayed by crisis Tender procedure has finally begun for Turkish baths

By Maria Gregoriou FOR OVER a year now, the popular Turkish baths in the centre of old Nicosia have stood empty, waiting for the funds for minor but necessary renovations before it can re-open.

Fans of the Ottoman era Omerye Hamam will be delighted to learn then that the tender procedure for the renovation began on Wednesday so the baths can re-open once new management has been found.

The baths have been closed since February 2012, after the seven year lease of the previous management expired. “It was decided not to look for new management of the hamam until the inside of the building has been worked on to restore it,” said an official of the Nicosia Municipality this week.

“Due to dramatic differences in temperature inside the building because of the steam treatments, the walls have been damaged. As to avoid further damage we had to close the hamam and we were planning to re-open it shortly after,” the official said.

The ministry found it difficult to find funding for the project due to the economic crisis.

“Unfortunately the ending of the previous lease on the building came at a time when the economy began to feel the effects of the crisis and this is why we have had to leave tender procedures this long.

Now we have found funding from

the government and can go ahead with restoring the building to its original architectural state,” the official explained.

When all the proposals for fixing the hamam have been finalised and the bidding process on the tender is complete, the selected constructor will have three months to complete the preservation works from the day the contract is signed.

The official was not aware of the amount available for funding.

The work which needs to be done on the baths is tiny in comparison to the major renovation project which brought the ancient baths back into widespread public use in 2005.

REGENERATION The original restoration was part of a Nicosia master plan for an integrated regeneration of the walled city and the protection of its architectural heritage and was primarily funded by the European Union through the United Nations Development Progamme and the United Nations Office for Project Services.

By the early 2000s the exterior domes had severely deteriorated, resulting in water infiltration, decay of stones and mortar. This resulted in the development of cracks and loss of stability. Internally, the plaster was peeling and an unhealthy environment was created from high heat and humidity levels, as well as the effects from the electrical and sewerage systems.

State to provide €4m in grants for students

By Peter Stevenson THE EDUCATION ministry has announced it will grant €4 million in student grants for those studying at state-run and private universities for the current academic year.

Speaking on behalf of the absent Education Minister, Kyriacos Kenevezos, was head of higher education at the ministry, Despina Martidou, who revealed prospective students could receive up to €1,800 in housing benefits.

The amount of food allowance students could receive would be €1,092, and they could receive up to €300 for new books and equipment and up to €500 to purchase or upgrade their existing computer. Martidou revealed that a total of 5,108 students from the University of Cyprus, Cyprus University of Technology (TEPAK), Frederick, European University of Cyprus, University of Nicosia, Neapolis University and the Hotel Institute and Forestry College would be able to

receive benefits.

Students planning on studying abroad, whose families are experiencing financial hardships, will be entitled to €1,000 from the government, after a cabinet decision. The State Scholarship Foundation (SSF) is accepting applications from students currently studying abroad with their family’s financial situation the only criteria being taken into consideration.

“The Cabinet recognises that the creation and strengthening of the infrastructure and student welfare institutions in higher education in Cyprus are prerequisites for strengthening the social dimensions on the island, based on European and international standards,” Martidou said.

According to a statement from the foundation, those overseas students who meet the criteria will receive a lump sum of €1,000.

The applications can be found at www.cyscholarships.gov.cy

Retaining the building’s traditional use was of primary consideration in the restoration and the hamam was popular with visitors and locals alike after it reopened in 2005, while the restoration work itself was awarded the annual Europa Nostra prize.

The Omeriye hamam stands to the north of Omeriye mosque, a very important monument of Nicosia’s old city. The mosque itself was once the church of St. Mary of the Augustinians, part of the monastery of the Augustinian order, and dates back to the 14th century.

The baths, built by Lala Mustafa Pasha, the first Ottoman administrator of the island, date back to the late 16th century, the very beginning of Ottoman rule.

The hamam is one of the three public baths in old Nicosia and the only one which was fully restored. It is built of calcareous limestone and has a north and south entrance.

The south entrance is reached through a small courtyard. The entrance is a large square room called the cool chamber, to be used for undressing before entering into the warm chamber. The transitional temperatures of these chambers prepare the body to enter into the hot chamber where massages and other treatments are given.

The original baths date back to the 16th century.

They were fully restored and reopened in 2005, but were closed again in February 2012

8 May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

World

France’s Hollande signs gay marriage bill into law

By Leigh Thomas

Women have won back the hard-fought right to education and work since the Taliban was toppled 12 years ago, but there are fears these freedoms could shrink

Afghans fail to pass divisive women's law Severe blow to progress made in women’s rights

By Miriam Arghandiwal and Ibrahimi Aziz AFGHANISTAN’S parliament failed to pass a law yesterday banning violence against women, a severe blow to progress made in women’s rights in the conservative Muslim country since the Islamist Taliban was toppled over a decade ago.

President Hamid Karzai approved the law by decree in 2009 and parliament’s endorsement was required. But a rift between conservative and more secular members of the assembly resulted in debate being deferred to a later date.

Religious members objected to at least eight articles in the legislation, including keeping the legal age for women to marry at 16, the existence of shelters for domestic abuse victims and the halving of the

number of wives permitted to two.

“Today, the parliamentarians who oppose women’s development, women’s rights and the success of women... made their voices loud and clear,” Fawzia Koofi, head of parliament’s women’s commission, told Reuters.

Women have won back the hard-fought right to education and work since the Taliban was toppled 12 years ago, but there are fears these freedoms could shrink once NATO-led forces leave Afghanistan by the end of next year.

Increasing insecurity is deterring some women from seeking work outside the home, and rights workers accuse the government of doing too little to protect women - allegations rejected by Karzai’s administration.

“2014 is coming, change is coming, and the future of

CHEMISTS NICOSIA SUNDAY 19/05/2013 I. Kitiris, 63 Metochiou St. Tel: 22774950, 22774368 (H) E. Piera Issegiek, 23C Nikis Ave. Tel: 22490580, 22499232 (H) A. Pontou, 38A Eleftheria St, Anthoupolis. Tel: 22382550, 22384724 (H) K. Georgiou. Tifa, 100 Kyrenia Ave, Platy. Tel: 22340340, 22514500 (H) T. Argyrou, Pavlou Mela 28B, Engomi, Tel: 22658628, 22427414 LIMASSOL K. Michael, 18C Sibelius St. Tel: 25576833, 25578521 (H) P. Antoniades 30 Ayias Zonis Tel: 25358034, 25356371 (H) A. Michaelidou, 8C Macedonia St. Tel: 25338270, 25738636 (H) LARNACA K. Evlavis, 69A Arc. Makariou Tel: 24656469, 24662689 (H) E. Vasiliki, Tel: 20 Stratigou Timayia Ave, Tel: 24660688, 24623060 PAPHOS C. Nicolaidou, 14 Gr. Dighenis Ave. Tel: 26935642, 26933793 (H) PARALIMNI A. Mavroyiannou, 216 Gr. Dighenis St. Tel: 23828880, 23829202 (H)

NICOSIA MONDAY 20/05/2013 L. P. Kyprianou, 102 Larnaca Ave, Anglanja. Tel: 22336095, 22435956 (H) M. T. Kyprianou, 88B A. Avraamides St, Dasoupolis. Tel: 22490360, 22871775 (H) M. Mitsi, 18C Pindarou St, Ayios Antonios. Tel: 22750672, 22438434 (H) Chr. Tsaggari, 7 Nicou Kranidioti, Egkomi, Tel: 22480405, 22516861 (H) G. Pafitis, 42B Lykavitou Str., Engomi Tel: 22658161, 22429564 (H) LIMASSOL Ch. Kekkos, 202A Ay. Fylaxeos Lydia Court, Tel: 25339810, 25752352 (H) M. Michaelides, 369 28 Octovriou, Tel: 25582914, 25763863 (H) C. Pantelas, 97 N. Pattichi St. Tel: 25736646, 25734005 (H) LARNACA M. Christodoulou, 2 Armenian Church Rd. Tel: 24652440, 24626763 (H) Kaloudi Christiana-Ekavi, 26 Ayion Anargiron Ave Tel: 24624555, 96473516 PAPHOS K. G. Filippidou, 93 E. Pallikarides St. Tel: 26949259, 26922670 (H) PARALIMNI I. Pittatzis, 7 Ay. Georgiou St. Tel: 23822577, 23827058 (H)

women in this country is uncertain. A new president will come and if he doesn’t take women’s rights seriously he can change the decree,” Koofi said of the Elimination of Violence Against Women Law, which goes by the acronym EVAL. The election for a new president is expected to be held in April 2014.

After almost two hours of clashes between Koofi and the more religious members of the 244-member parliament, speaker Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi said the assembly would consider the law again at a later date.

Some members sought amendments, such as longer prison terms for crimes committed against women, such as beating and rape.

Many lawmakers, most of them male, cited violations of Islamic, or Sharia law.

“It is wrong that a woman

DOCTORS ON DUTY NICOSIA Pathologist: Demetris Syrigos, Tel: 99026239, 22270290 Ophthalmologist: Antonis Glikeriou, Tel: 70000171 Gynaeocologist: Androulla Pericleous, Tel: 22355928, 99623550 Paediatric Surgeon: Panicos Theodorou, Tel: 22469000, 99612311 Dentist: Maria Sozou, Tel: 22667616, 99671867 LIMASSOL Pathologist: Victor Hadjirousos, Tel.: 25346551,99630288, 25729498 Surgeon: Nearchos Zaoskoufis, Tel.: 99622236 Neuro-Surgeon: Michalakis Spirou, Tel.: 99624939 Paediatric: Gavriil Kaimis, Tel.: 25335366 Paediatric Surgeon: Yiannakis Koualis, Tel.: 25731673, 25732256 Doctor: Lampros Theodosiou, Tel.: 25581712, 99624372

and man cannot marry off their child until she is 16,” said Obaidullah Barekzai, a member from southeast Uruzgan province, An Afghan man must be at least 18 years old to marry.

Barekzai argued against all age limits for women, citing historical figure Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddiq, a close companion of the Prophet Mohammad, who married off his daughter at age seven.

At least eight other lawmakers, mostly from a government-appointed body of clerics, joined him in decrying the EVAL as un-Islamic.

Abdul Sattar Khawasi, member for Kapisa province, called women’s shelters “morally corrupt”. Justice Minister Habibullah Ghaleb last year dismissed them as houses of “prostitution and immorality”, provoking fierce condemnation from women’s groups.

FRENCH President Francois Hollande has signed into law a bill allowing same-sex marriage, making France the 14th country to legalise gay weddings.

France’s official journal announced yesterday the bill had become law after the Constitutional Council gave it the go-ahead on Friday.

The bill, a campaign pledge by the Socialist president, has been for months hotly contested by many conservatives in France, where allowing gay marriage is one of the biggest social reforms since abolition of the death penalty in 1981.

Opponents have staged huge and often violent demonstrations against the bill and have called yet another protest on May 26.

The leader of opposition to gay marriage, a political activist and humorist who goes under the name of Frigide Barjot, has said the protest would draw millions into the streets.

Montpellier mayor Helene Mandroux, who is due to celebrate France’s first gay marriage in the southern

city on May 29, said the law marked a major social advance.

“Love has won out over hate,” she said, while voicing concerns the first gay wedding could attract violent protests.

France, a predominantly Catholic country, follows 13 others including Canada, Denmark, Sweden and most recently Uruguay and New Zealand in allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed. In the United States, Washington D.C. and 12 states have legalised samesex marriage.

Unlike former president Francois Mitterrand’s abolition of the death penalty, which most French people opposed at the time, polls showed more than half the country backed gay marriage.

Nonetheless, with Hollande’s popularity ratings at record lows a year into office, the law has proved costly for the president with critics saying it has distracted his attention from reviving the recession-hit economy.

After lawmakers adopted the bill in late April, opponents had sought to scupper it with a last-ditch appeal to the Constitutional Council.

France has become the 14th country to legalise gay weddings

Dozens injured in US train crash MORE than 60 people were injured, at least two critically, after a head-on, rushhour collision between two commuter trains near New York City.

Hundreds of people were on the trains involved in the crash just outside Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Officials said a train that left New York City’s Grand Central Station en route to New Haven, Connecticut, derailed then was hit by another train.

Amtrak has suspended its service between New York and Boston.

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy said on Friday night that the front of one of the trains had been extensively damaged and its wheels were “sticking into the other train”.

He said five people had received serious injuries, describing one person as being in a “very critical”

The two trains after the collision near New York condition.

The two hospitals in Bridgeport that received the wounded said they were each treating one person in a critical condition. By yesterday morning, many of the injured passengers had been released from hospital.

Investigators are trying to find out what caused

the crash, which happened shortly after 18:00 local time (22:00 GMT).

Governor Malloy said he had no reason to believe it was anything other than an accident.

Bridgeport Police Chief Joseph Gaudett said most of those hurt were walking wounded.

“Everybody seemed pretty calm,” he told the Associated Press. “Everybody was thankful they didn’t get seriously hurt. They were anxious to get home to their families.”

But Canadian passenger Alex Cohen told NBC Connecticut that “people were screaming... they had to smash a window to get us out”.

One witness, Brian Alvarez, told CNN: “I saw this one car and it was completely destroyed and they were pulling people out of the car.

They were all bloody.”

9 SUNDAY MAIL • May 19, 2013

World

US chides Russia over Syria missiles Push for peace conference on crisis hits obstacles

By Erika Solomon

While not responding directly to US assertions that it had sent Yakhont missiles, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin said Russia would honour contracts to supply Syria

THE United States chided Russia for sending missiles to the Syrian government as plans for a peace conference promoted by Washington and Moscow were hit by diplomatic rifts over its scope and purpose.

Sectarian bloodshed in neighbouring Iraq during Friday prayers, a hacking attack on a Western newspaper by sympathisers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and defiant comments by a rebel commander filmed eating a slain soldier’s flesh were all reminders of how the two-year-old civil war is metastising.

But the divisions among world powers that have prevented a coordinated resolution were also again on display, just 10 days after Russia and the United States agreed to bury differences and push for an urgent international conference to end the war.

The most senior US military officer, General Martin

Rome protest turns up the heat on new Prime Minister Letta

By Carmelo Carmilli and Roberto Mignucci THOUSANDS of people protested in Rome yesterday against austerity policies and high unemployment, urging new Prime Minister Enrico Letta to focus on creating jobs to help pull the country out of recession.

“We hope that this government will finally start listening to us because we are losing our patience,” said Enzo Bernardis, who joined the sea of protesters waving red flags and calling for more workers’ rights and better contracts.

Less than a month in power, Letta is trying to hold together an uneasy coalition between his centre-left Democratic party and the centre-right People of Freedom, led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Confidence in the government, cobbled together after inconclusive elections, is already falling, with one poll on Friday by the SWG institute showing its approval rating had dropped to 34 per cent from 43 per cent at the start of the month.

“We can’t wait anymore” and “We need money to live” were among slogans on banners held up by the crowds.

Letta promised to make jobs his top priority when he came to power in April after two months of political deadlock. But several protesters complained he was not

Prime Minister Enrico Letta has been urged to focus on creating jobs to help pull Italy out of recession sticking to his vow, focusing instead on a property tax reform outlined this week.

Union leaders said he needed to shift away from the austerity agenda pursued by former Prime Minister Mario Monti, who introduced a range of spending cuts, tax hikes and pension reform to shore up strained public finances.

“We need to start over with more investment. If we don’t restart with public and private investments, there will no new jobs,” said Maurizio Landini, secretary-general of the left-wing metalworkers

union Fiom.

Italy is stuck in its longest recession since quarterly records began in 1970, and jobless rates are close to record highs, with youth unemployment at around 38 percent.

Other protesters were pessimistic that Letta’s fragile government would be able to take effective action.

“This government will last a very short time,” said demonstrator Marco Silvani. What we need is a new leftist party that fights for the rights of the people,” he said.

Dempsey, described Russia’s recent delivery of antiship missiles to Assad as “illtimed and very unfortunate” and risked prolonging a war which has already killed more than 80,000 Syrians and which the UN said had driven 1.5 million abroad.

While not responding directly to US assertions that it had sent Yakhont missiles, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin said Russia would honour contracts to supply Syria, which has been a customer for Moscow’s weaponry since the Cold War. “It’s at the very least an unfortunate decision that will embolden the regime and prolong the suffering,” Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.

With a range of 300 km, the Yakhont could prove a threat to warships in the Mediterranean, should, for example, Western powers abandon their deep reserve and intervene to offer air support to the rebels, as they did inLibya two years ago.

No date has yet been agreed for the international meeting, which appears to face growing obstacles. UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon met Putin in Russia on Friday and said the conference should take place as soon as possible.

But highlighting the diplomatic conundrum it poses, France spelled out explicitly that it would oppose any meeting if Assad’s regional ally Iran were invited - contrary to the Russian position that Tehran should be part of a solution.

The rebels and key Arab and Western backers will meet in Amman on Wednesday to discuss how to approach a conference. But it is also far from clear that Assad’s opponents can forge a united front or agree to meet the president’s representatives.

After months of diplomatic stalemate, Washington and Moscow have been pushed to convene the conference by the rising death toll and atrocities, signs of escalation across Syria’s frontiers and

suspicions that chemical arms may have been used.

Three weeks ago, Israeli air strikes near Damascus that were said to target Iranian weapons heading for Lebanon drove home the risk of the Syrian conflict spreading further afield. As much was true of bombings last week across the border in Turkey.

On Friday, dozens of Iraqis were killed in bombings which fuelled fears that the increasingly sectarian war in Syria, where Sunni Islamists are a part of the rebellion and Assad’s Alawite minority is backed by Shi’ite Iran, could plunge Iraq back into its own bloody civil conflict between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims.

Two bombs exploded outside a Sunni mosque in the city of Baquba as worshippers left Friday prayers, killing at least 43 people in one of the deadliest attacks of recent months.

Several other bombings claimed lives around the country - with 19 killed near a commercial complex in the west of Baghdad.

10 May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

World

Fears that many women are having unnecessary mastectomies does not apply in Jolie’s case

By Julie Steenhuysen

erally cover, breast experts said.

“The reconstructions that are done these days are absolutely incredible, which is why I think that many more women choose to have prophylactic mastectomies than they did in the past,” said Dr Sharon Rosenbaum Smith, a breast cancer surgeon at St Luke’s Roosevelt Medical Center in New York.

“It is done from a very small incision that often is completely hidden either on the areola or underneath the breast, so you basically see no scars,” she said.

However, even among women for whom a double mastectomy could be potentially life saving, choosing to have this surgery is difficult.

Klugman’s hospital runs a support group for women who have a high genetic risk for breast cancer. These women call themselves

A

NGELINA Jolie’s decision to have a double mastectomy to prevent breast cancer may have stunned fans of the Oscar-winning actress, but doctors say her choice is shared by many other women with a high genetic risk for breast cancer.

Jolie, who described her surgery and three-month recovery at length in an opinion piece in the New York Times on Tuesday, says she hopes her experience will encourage other women with a family risk of breast cancer to get tested.

Cancer experts said that Jolie’s treatment was an informed choice reducing her risk of developing cancer from 87 per cent to less than 5 per cent - and hope that it can help frame the discussion for patients facing a similar decision.

For years, researchers have been warning about increases in the use of preventive mastectomy among women with lesser risks than Jolie. A study by Dr Michel Sable of the University of Michigan Medical School last November found that 70 per cent of breast cancer patients who receive a double mastectomy don’t have a clinical reason for getting the procedure.

In 90 per cent of those cases, fear that a cancer might come back was the reason for the decision, the researchers found.

Dr Isabelle Bedrosian, a surgical oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, calls that approach “overkill”, as there is no proof that a double mastectomy helps women who have had breast cancer in one breast.

That was not the case with Jolie, who did not have cancer but sought treatment because of her family’s high risk of breast cancer.

“Angelina Jolie’s situation is very different. In her context, I think moving ahead with a double mastectomy is appropriate and is fully justified oncologically as well,” she said.

Jolie tested positive for a harmful mutation in one of the BRCA genes, making her about five times more likely to develop breast cancer than women who do not carry this mutation, according to the US National Cancer Institute.

Mutations in the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes can increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer by 60 to 80 per cent. Jolie’s risk was amplified by the fact that her mother died from breast cancer at age 56, raising the stakes that she could have a cancer at a younger age.

Jolie said she underwent the surgery to spare her children from the agony she witnessed as her mother struggled with breast cancer for a decade.

That is the case for many women who seek out genetic counselling, said Dr Susan Klugman, director of reproductive genetics at Monte-

Jolie’s surgery leads the way fiore Medical Center in New York, who has done BRCA testing on thousands of women. Klugman said counsellors help women work through what it would mean to learn they are positive for the gene.

“Some women are overwhelmed with the information and some women truly feel empowered,” said Klugman, adding that she has seen several women in their 30s and 40s with similar risks who chose a double mastectomy as a preventive step. “Angelina Jolie realised her mom died in her 50s. She’s got six kids. She wants to live. These are the stories we see on a daily basis.”

Mastectomies have advanced considerably from the days in which surgeons would remove vast amounts of tissue and skin, leaving women alive but disfigured. Jolie underwent a series of procedures that preserved most of her skin and nipples, while the underlying tissue was removed.

Her doctors also used tissue expanders, which are deflated saline implants that are expanded over a

Angelina and her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who died aged 56 period of several weeks during the recovery period and ultimately replaced by either a saline or silicone implant.

Other procedures can involve the use of tissue from other parts of the

body, including fat tissue from the stomach. The whole procedure, including reconstruction, can cost as much as $75,000, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, a cost private insurers gen-

‘Angelina Jolie realised her mom died in her 50s. She’s got six kids. She wants to live’ “pre-vivors”. She recently had an 82-year-old woman with breast cancer come in for genetic testing because her daughter wanted her to be tested.

“She was positive, but her daughter then declined testing,” Klugman said. “She was too nervous.”

Klugman said she hopes Jolie’s decision to make her surgery public has removed some of the stigma. “A lot of people are afraid to talk about their genetics,” Klugman said.

Deborah Capko, a breast surgeon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, urges all of her patients who get the surgery to first undergo genetic testing and counselling.

According to the National Cancer Institute, preventive mastectomy can reduce the risk of developing breast cancer in moderate- and high-risk women by 90 per cent.

But there is no guarantee that the procedure will completely protect a woman. Breast tissue can sometimes be found in the collarbone or chest wall, for example. And like any surgery, there are is a risk of infection or excessive bleeding.

Myriad Genetics owns the patents for these gene tests, which cost between $3,000 to $4,000 each.

Last month, the US Supreme Court took up the issue of whether human DNA can be the subject of a patent and a decision in the case is expected next month. Experts believe a decision against Myriad would help reduce the cost of the tests and increase access.

From the wild child to doting mother

By Belinda Goldsmith and Piya Sinha-Roy

Angelina as Lara Croft

AS A TATTOOED wild child wearing her husband’s blood in a locket and luring Brad Pitt away from Hollywood rival Jennifer Aniston, Angelina Jolie was dream fodder for the tabloid press.

But her transformation into a humanitarian campaigner and now poster girl for the fight against breast cancer with her revelation that, faced with a high cancer risk, she had undergone a double mastectomy has elevated her to heroine status in the media.

Her deeply personal account of the decision to undergo the operation, published in the New York Times, won her wide praise for her courage

and Pitt’s support of her move has put the couple in a new light in and beyond Hollywood.

“This week they have shown that they are real people and a real couple with a solid relationship,” said Wendy Mitchell, editor at trade magazine Screen International, speaking at the world’s largest film festival in Cannes.

“They have both grown up and even though the tabloid press will still chase them, there is a new respect there for them.”

Jolie, 37, has managed to put her wild reputation behind her, staying out of the public spotlight with Pitt and their six children and only taking to the stage to promote films and causes in which she is involved.

In April, she stood alongside British Foreign Secretary William

Hague at a G8 meeting in London, her hair in a bun and in a business suit more typical of Wall Street than Hollywood, to pledge an end to sexual violence and rape in war zones.

A month earlier, in her role as a special envoy for the UN Human Rights Council, Jolie accompanied Hague to refugee camps in the Democratic Republic of Congo, never giving an indication of the personal health traumas she was going through at that time.

“She’s somebody who has transformed herself in so many ways from the very beginning when she was dismissed as more or less some kind of kooky bimbo,” said Jay Weissberg, a movie critic at industry publication Variety.

“She has pushed that idea of the

public figure having responsibility to the public.”

The headlines following Jolie’s announcement signalled enhanced respect for the actress.

Bob Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University, said that while Jolie’s decision to write about her surgery may bring an added “gravitas” to media stories about the actress, it is unlikely to end tabloid attention.

“I don’t know if suddenly this couple is going to be elevated to a new status and talked about and treated in a different way,” Thompson said. “(Jolie’s surgery) is a different subject from the usual stories but there will still be speculation on whether she and Brad Pitt are getting married or breaking up.”

11 SUNDAY MAIL • May 19, 2013

News Review

Cash received, workers stress Bailout tranche THE EUROGROUP gave its blessings to the disbursement of €3 billion to Cyprus on Monday, with the first €2 billion already sent to the island as part of the first tranche of a €10 billion bailout expected to “buy time” for its ailing economy. Disbursements will be made in cash, and will be used for the general financing needs of the public sector, including the considerable sum of maturing debt the government is expected to pay next month, and the country’s fiscal needs.

Workers remove the signs from the Laiki bank headquarters on Wednesday as the bank becomes merged with the Bank of Cyprus (Christos Theodorides)

tive negotiations on a loan agreement with the troika proved disastrous for the economy, said Sarris who served as finance minister under the late Tassos Papadopoulos and in the first five weeks of President Nicos Anastasiades’ government.

Massive failure CYPRUS’ banks suffer from “systemic deficiencies” in implementing anti-money laundering (AML) measures, according to a troika report summarising the results of two audits on credit institutions on the island. The summary states that between 2008 and 2010, Cypriot banks reported not a single suspicious transaction under anti-money laundering regulations, and flagging only one in 2011 and “a few” in 2012. This despite Deloitte’s forensic analysis of sample customer transactions during its short investigation, identifying 29 potentially suspicious transactions during the last 12 months, none of which were reported by the Cypriot banks.

CY board THE BOARD of national carrier Cyprus Airways (CY) handed in its resignation in protest at the government’s promise to find €20m in compensation to pay outgoing workers as part of a last-ditch effort to save the ailing airline from closure. The CY board handed in its resignation to President Nicos Anastasiades, claiming that it simply cannot come up with the compensation money agreed between the government and unions to pay those workers that will be laid off as part of a restructuring plan.

Kurd refugees KURDISH refugees who have been camping outside the interior ministry for 15 days were told on Monday that the government cannot offer them subsidiary protection. Three members of the around 150 protesting refugees met with Interior Minister Socrates Hasikos after starting a hunger strike. He told them to provide him with a list of refugees without a home and those who have applied for work at the labour ministry by Tuesday and then leave or they will be arrested.

Work stress CYPRUS has the highest percentage of workers in Europe who are suffering from work-related stress, at 51 per cent. This is three times higher than the European average of 16 per cent. In Cyprus six out of ten workers, a total of 61 per cent, consider their working hours or workload as being the common cause of work-related stress and nearly nine out of ten, 88 per cent, believe stress in the workplace is a frequent phenomenon while ten per cent feel that it is rare.

More jobless THE RATE of unemployment at the end of last year stood at 11.8 per cent, according to a labour force survey for 2012 released by the Statistical Service

Concerns that lives would be put at risk were expressed by outraged deputies when it was revealed that four urgentlyneeded and longdelayed new regional ambulance stations would not now be going ahead

Waste of money SPEAKING out against wasting taxpayers’ millions to set up a Medical School by the University of Cyprus, MP for ruling party DISY Andreas Themistocleous said politicians needed to “get real”.

Themistocleous, who has submitted a bill to parliament to postpone plans to set up the medical school in September 2013, said the country faced a choice “of either getting real or destroying itself.

He said it would cost €100 million a year to run the medical school and that each graduating doctor would cost the state about €1.0 million.

Handbag dispute

on Monday. Of the total labour force (employed and unemployed persons) of 440,604, 52,000 were out of a job. Men accounted for 52.7 per cent of the unemployed, women for 47.3 per cent. The jobless rate was lower for females at 11.1 per cent, and higher for males at 12.5 per cent. The highest rate of unemployment was observed among persons aged under 25 years, where it accounted for 27.8 per cent of the labour force of that age group.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK “By the end of the meeting g the minister told us to leave hiss office and the ministry. If we do not do so by tomorrow afternoon we e will be arrested” Selaheein Bair, a representative for a Kurdish group camped outside the ministry “One union fights another. I believe some have illusions that the state e can give millions each year ar to keep it [Cyprus Airways] alive live like in the past” Communications Minister er Tasos Mitsopoulos (right) t) “In cases where the use off guns is unavoidable it should uld be taken as a last resort and nd as an exceptional measure, to o be exercised sparingly, as part rt of official duties and in accordance dance with the principles of legality, ity, necessity and proportionality” lity” A statement from the Ombudsmbudswoman’s office after police ce shot a robbery suspect

protected the high “We prot of today and earners o sacrificed jobs for tomorrow. We W created 50,000 unemployed so as not une to rreduce wages in state and semi-state sta organisations. That’s org what we succeeded wh in doing in 2012” Former Finance Fo Minister Michalis M Sarris S “While identifying no “W rregulatory weaknesses, both reports ne suggest that there su are substantial shortcomings in the implementation, by banks, of AML preventive o measures” m A troika document outlining the money outl laundering situation laun Cyprus in C

“Anybody serious who works on financial markets wouldn’t have left any significant amounts in the Cyprus banks. Very simple reason: look at the share price chart of the Bank of Cyprus. It went to zero many months before the freeze happened” Ilya Sherbovich, a former head of investment at Deutsche Bank Russia “I wonder whether the International Monetary Fund’s, Delia Velculescu would accept living in an area where there was insufficient ambulance coverage” Greens MP Giorgos Perdikis on the shelving of four new ambulance stations due to the bailout “The efforts for the survival and rescue of the Bank of Cyprus are on a solid path. The crisis is not over... but positive signs are emerging indicating that we are in a better position than a month ago” Government spokesman Christos Stylianides

Pariah status CYPRUS IS slowly losing its pariah status among EU partners though the country still has a way to go before proving its reliability, said Finance Minister Harris Georgiades on Tuesday. Speaking from Brussels, where he attended the Eurogroup meeting on Monday night, Georgiades said: “We’re doing well, the climate has changed”. The Eurogroup had welcomed the disbursement of the first €3 billion of the EU bailout for Cyprus, €2 billion of which has already arrived in state coffers, while another €1 billion will be despatched at the end of June.

Police shooting ATTORNEY-general Petros Clerides appointed a three-person committee to investigate the events which led to a plainclothes police officer shooting and severely injuring an alleged robber at a bakery in Lakatamia on Monday. The officer, who shot and injured the 34-yearold alleged knife-wielding robber on Monday, was performing his duty as a policeman and had no other option but to fire, according to police association head Andreas Symeou.

Zero credibility THE PREVIOUS government’s economic policy was wide of the mark, leading to devastating consequences for the country, former finance minister Michalis Sarris said on Wednesday before the committee of inquiry looking into Cyprus’ near financial collapse.

The delay by Demetris Christofias’ government in commencing substan-

CUSTOMS officials allegedly humiliated and interrogated a 59-year-old woman from Nicosia on Tuesday after claiming she had brought over a counterfeit handbag from the occupied areas. Andri Ellinas had crossed north at the Ledra Street checkpoint, at around 2pm with her handbag, an umbrella and some clothes she was planning on taking to her Turkish Cypriot tailor. Officials claimed the bag was an expensive counterfeit purchased from the occupied north, which under law is not permitted to be brought over to the Greek Cypriot side.

Ambulances CONCERNS that lives would be put at risk were expressed by outraged deputies on Thursday when it was revealed that four urgently-needed and long-delayed new regional ambulance stations would not now be going ahead. The issue was discussed at a meeting of the House Health Committee, whose chairman Costas Constantinou, a DISY MP, said the move was due to limits being put on recruitment as part of the bailout deal. The halt on hiring 49 newly-trained paramedics means the ambulance stations earmarked for Palaichori, Limassol centre, Oroklini and Peyia will not happen.

Robust on paper DATA released by the banking regulator on Thursday painted a picture of a robust Bank of Cyprus – at least on paper.

The preliminary consolidated balance sheet of Bank of Cyprus (BoC) – following a 37.5 per cent ‘bail-in’ of its own uninsured depositors as well as the absorbing of Laiki’s balance sheet – gave the lender a tier 1 capital ratio of 13 per cent.

Tier 1 capital, also known as the capital adequacy ratio, is a core benchmark of a bank’s financial strength from a regulator’s point of view. Tier 1 capital ratio is defined as the ratio of a bank’s core equity capital to its total risk-weighted assets.

12 May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

Opinion

Politics remains the art of the unattainable VACUOUS rhetoric and conspiracy theories have been constant features of our political life. The politicians may change but the tradition of churning out empty and usually irrational slogans and unearthing imaginary plots against Cyprus are always preserved.

Nothing can temper the passion for meaningless sloganeering, cynically calculated to caress the ears of the electorate and keep politicians free of any responsibility for the problems facing the country.

Not even the devastating shock our economy has suffered has persuaded them to change their ways and abandon this immature political behaviour.

Quite the contrary, the empty rhetoric has been stepped up as have the foreign plots against the country. In the last few weeks, a new slogan has been launched and it has been collectively embraced by the political parties – the need to ‘disengage from the memorandum and the loan agreement’ - all of which have been repeating it.

Once a slogan becomes fashion-

able all parties take it up, because they do not want to be accused of not wanting to ‘disengage from the memorandum’.

Even the government spokesman joined in the fun on Wednesday, declaring after the National Council meeting that “the battle for the exit from the memorandum will take place within the eurozone.” This was a direct response to AKEL’s call for disengagement from the memorandum by leaving the euro, which is certain to lead to a disengagement from the EU as well. AKEL’s idea may have been rejected by the rest of the parties, but the desire for disengagement from the memorandum remains undimmed. How this will be achieved nobody has said because nobody knows. It suffices that it sounds good and everyone supports it like they support the return of all refugees to their homes, because, in Cyprus, politics has always been the art of the unattainable.

Disengagement would also quash the schemes of the troika and our

SundayMail EU partners to get their hands on Cyprus’ hydrocarbon resources.

This is fast becoming a semi-official conspiracy theory with many of our politicians certain that the troika wants to steal our natural gas. Yet if we are to be honest the country would have a better chance of enjoying the eventual benefits from the commercial exploitation of natural gas if the whole enterprise was being overseen by the troika or the EU. There would be less scope for corruption and a guarantee that rational decisions were taken, decisions that would benefit the country rather than a few individuals, parties and companies. We had not yet extracted one cubic foot of natural gas and the previous government had already set up companies to manage the resource and distributed highly-paid jobs to the boys.

The natural gas and meltdown of

the economy have also been combined with the Cyprus problem to give rise to another slogan – the three issues should be kept separate and never combined. Another meaningless slogan, embraced by all the political parties, and diplomatically set out by the Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides when he met US Secretary of State John Kerry 10 days ago. According to the prevailing political wisdom the three issues needed to be kept separate because there was a big danger foreigners would exploit our economic woes to impose an unfair solution to the Cyprus problem and thus take control of our hydrocarbons.

How the three issues could be kept separate, again, nobody has told us. Our weak economic position cannot be kept separate from anything because it now defines Cyprus. And is anyone under the illusion that natural gas would not feature in settlement talks if and when they start? Gas is the reason there would be another push for a settlement. Or perhaps we think

that we can exploit the hydrocarbons without reaching some understanding with Turkey? The NATO General-Secretary Rasmussen recently suggested that Cyprus should start drilling for hydrocarbons only after there was a settlement, but we impulsively declared his view as unacceptable, rather than allow it to enter our political thinking.

But this would require our politicians to have their feet firmly on the ground and think rationally.

Instead Rasmussen’s comments were used as a cue for more vacuous rhetoric and patriotic breastbeating. Perhaps things would have to get worse, as they will, before politicians finally get to grips with the harsh realities of today.

They may even understand that uttering empty slogans, advancing conspiracy theories and promoting wishful thinking are no way to deal with the daunting challenges facing Cyprus. What the country needs now are rational thinkers and problem solvers if it is ever to emerge from the mess it is in.

Letters to the Editor Running a country is about telling people what to do ‘Cypriots really hate being told what to do’. This headline, which appeared in Wednesday May 1 Cyprus Mail, caused me to smile wryly. These few words are exactly why Cyprus is in the mess it is.

The problem didn’t start when they joined the EU. It started in 1960. The Cypriot people were so anxious to gain independence that they failed to acknowledge that running a country is about telling people what to do.

One can see this by the fiasco of getting people to pay taxes and it doesn’t help with having governments of the same ilk.

Traffic directives are abused because no one likes being told to obey the rules of the road. Building regulations went the same way - no one likes being told what to build and where.

Even down to keeping an orderly line seems to raise the hackles of many Cypriots - they refuse to queue. There are so many examples, smok-

ing restrictions being another, that one wonders why Cyprus went into the EU in the first place. We know why and it was certainly not to comply with EU laws.

In fact, I have been reliably informed that Cyprus has been fined on a number of occasions for not obeying some of her obligations.

Of course one cannot expect the average Cypriot to conform when the government itself does not accept the rule of law.

Whatever the regulations are the deputies, cabinet and even those in high office appeared to remove themselves from such decrees. The recent example is the attorney-general. I mean his action sent a clear message for others not to obey the rule of law.

The Cypriot people are, individually, great and are a hardworking race; however, their failure to comply as a nation will always let them down.

Peter Stammers, Mesogi

We need support of countries more powerful than Turkey Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides made a point that I hope is not lost as we move forward towards re-activation of talks to negotiate a settlement to the Cyprus problem.

In the course of his remarks, Mr Kasoulides stated that Cyprus is the most predictable, meaning I think that it’s also the most reliable, neighbour to Israel. In essence, his remarks echo similar remarks made

by President Anastasiades during his recent visit to Israel.

The point, which I think bears repeating, is that Cyprus Israeli relations are not just underpinned by common interests, but also shared values.

The Foreign Minister then went on to add that the only thing that can interfere with that predictability, and I would add dependability or reliability, is a settlement of the Cyprus problem that gives Turkey leverage in the formulation and conduct of foreign and energy policy on the part of a re-united and federal Cyprus.

This is a very powerful point that I think Cypriot officials, at both the executive and legislative branches, should make ceaselessly in all their contacts with their Israeli counterparts, the Jewish lobby in the United States, within the institutions of the EU, and most importantly, with State Department officials, the White House and the Congress in the US. I think the Israeli officials and the Jewish Lobby will have no trouble understanding the argument, especially in light of unfriendly Turkish policy towards Israel in recent years.

I think the Americans also have felt discomfited at times by the arrogant and unhelpful positions taken occasionally by Mr Erdogan in relation to issues bearing on US interests and policies in the Middle East and Iran.

It would not be in the interests of either Israel, the US or the EU to have a settlement of the Cyprus problem that would give Turkey a say or veto in the formulation or conduct of policy by a re-united and federal

Cyprus. Eventually, perhaps as a climax to talks, these will be expanded to include Turkey, Greece and possibly the EU. Undoubtedly, at the sidelines there will be a powerful US State Department official who also enjoys the backing of the President in the US. If Cyprus is to avoid another Burgenstock fiasco, it will be essential that the US sees the importance of a truly sovereign, independent federal Cyprus as an essential factor contributing to stability and predictability in relations between Cyprus and Israel, and by extension between Cyprus and Washington.

The only effective way that Cyprus can counter the military and economic strength of Turkey at the negotiating table is to have the support of powers who are even stronger than Turkey in those respects. That support in large measure is underpinned by shared common values and traditions such as our commitment to democracy and equality and justice for all under the rule of law.

Nikos Pittas, US

Having your cake and eating it?

Are there no rules?

I know a guy who used to have a motorbike rental shop until he became bankrupt. The bank took his bikes and he owed thousands in VAT. After a while he opened a new shop selling motorbikes. I bought a bike at his shop. He was a good talker. I gave him the money for the bike but I never received it. He declared bankruptcy again. It was said his wife left the country with the kids because she couldn’t stand it any more. It was a week ago when I visited Coral Bay and who had opened a new shop? It was same guy with new bikes and his lovely wife sitting in the office.

The blood went to my head. He took €6,000 away from me. He owes so much to the bank and still it is possible for him to open another shop. Are there no rules in this country?

I informed the road tax department, VAT, and police and nobody does anything. His lovely wife escaped the country with their money and after two years she came back and they started again. It’s very hard for people like me who are the victims. It is not right.

Name and address withheld

I refer to my letter ‘A new IPT law by June? Fat chance’ dated April 25, where I asked: Please can someone - not from the authorities - explain how on earth are they going to do all this?

Well, the responses/replies/ comments received, through the CM website letters’ column, though appropriate, resulted in those not in authority but primarily involved being noticeable absent.

The estate agents, lawyers, builders, and banks were nowhere to be seen, or should I say, were all keeping their heads down, or is it, that they agreed with my comments

and have no clue how, by June 2013. ALL those with property - legal or not - and land are to be listed on a database and demands sent out for payment in September 2013.

Even those with property worth between €80.000– €120.000, for whom it would appear that without any unjustifiable reason, will not have to pay one cent. Should they at least pay something, even say a couple of hundred euros, if as they maintain, that this is a tax on property.

Then we have the dreaded outstanding title deeds fiasco, which, under the troika MoU has to be addressed and re-

solved and the deeds issued by the fourth quarter of 2014.

Don’t hold your breath, because they - our government - know that this is a minefield, with far-reaching complications, and they will endeavour to let the timetable slip for as long as possible.

My question here is: the banks that hold land title deeds as security against the loan/mortgage, and have made or are about to make future claims on those securities as non-performing loans/mortgages, where the builder or borrower has already defaulted, can we expect the banks to be paying

the IPT, as the recognised official owner? It is my understanding, that as the banks will have assumed the legal ownership of the title, and thereafter will refuse to recognise that the poor innocent purchaser as the beneficial owner, will they find a way out of paying or will it again be a case of having your cake and eating it?

As I already said, it’s a minefield infested by a pack of wolves who hunted together, picking on the hopes and dreams of others in order to feed their own cubs and live a grand lifestyle.

A, Limassol

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13 SUNDAY MAIL • May 19, 2013

Opinion For nearly 60 years we have rejected sensible decisions. We must no longer do so

Our endless, heroic No’s have cost us dear Comment Nicos Rolandis

W

E HAVE reached a point where people have started wondering how it could have ever been worse.

Where will this bumpy road lead us? How will the wounded grassroots react, now that they realise that the past five years have brought about the pulverisation of their dreams?

There are people who have offered part of their possessions to soothe the pain. I do not know whether this will be sufficient. Poet and philosopher Kahlil Gibran writes in his Prophet: “You give but little when you give of your possessions it is when you give of yourself that you truly give”.

Probably some people have really given of themselves as well. Probably…

I was 20 years old, when the people of this country commenced searching for their aim aims and their d dr eams. In ge dreams. general terms they did d didn’t realise th hem. Alm them.

Almost all the assessme assessments and decisions re reached were proven tto be wrong.

The peo people had upgraded the word “No” to a symbol o of heroism.

They could not tell b between real heroi heroism, which difficu cult national decision ns decisions require, and the heroic stupidity of populism.

They g gradually ruined the country and ttheir lives.

I would like to g go back into hist history.

F From the year 194 1948 until 1958 we had four proposals Before the sea battle of for solving the Cyprus Salamis in 480 BC, Genproblem, eral Themistocles famously declared to his doubters: ‘Hit which were all better me but listen to me’

than what ensued: Consultative Assembly (1948), Harding Proposals (1955-56), Ratcliffe Constitution (1956) and the Macmillan Plan (1958). We shouted “No” to all of them. We opted for armed struggle with enosis (Union with Greece) as its aim, an aim Greece herself had not approved. We had great, really heroic acts during the struggle, but the objective was not achieved. Amongst other things, we caused the uprising of the Turkish minority in Cyprus (18 per cent of the population) which until then had been satisfied with a “second violin” role as long as their rights were safeguarded. We gave them power and status and we converted them into a “community”. So, we ended up in 1960 with the Zurich-London Agreements and the Republic of Cyprus. And we cried out with joy: “We have won”.

Then in 1963, we said “No” to this joyous achievement. We committed the fatal blunder of pursuing a revision of the 1960 Constitution on very sensitive issues touching upon the rights of the Turkish Cypriots (and against the advice of Greece). We thus planted the seeds of partition.

The period 1963-1974 was rife with “No’s” to logic as we aimed for the unattainable. Repeatedly, we went after enosis again, contravening the constitution. I was not in politics at that time, but as an entrepreneur-industrialist I was following events with much uneasiness.

Turkey started threatening “invasion” in 1965.

I was amongst the very few who feared that this might happen - we were the “dangermongers”. Nobody would believe us. Finally, in 1974 came the Greek and Greek Cypriot coup d’etat, which fully opened the gate for the Turkish invasion. This happened despite the many theories that Turkey could not invade because we were a sovereign state, a member of the United Nations, a member of the Council of Europe, a member of the Non-Aligned, and a country which had signed in 1972 an Association Agreement with the European Communities (EEC). It had never occurred to our leaders, that this is a world where “interests” and “power”, not “principles”, prevail. We thus lost more than one third of our country.

From 1978 to 2004 we shouted “No” to all important initiatives to solve our problem (which were getting worse and worse as time went by): the Anglo-American-Canadian Plan (1978), the Indicators (1983), the Consolidated Documents (1985-6), the Set of Ideas (1992), the Troutbeck-Glion Initiative (1997), and the Annan Plan (2002-4). In short, we ourselves buried the Cyprus problem.

With our “No” to the 1983 (Indicators), we paved the way for the unilateral declaration of the Turkish Cypriot “state”. We had many warnings. I myself warned as well. But our top leadership paid no heed and that is when I resigned from the post of foreign minister.

Between 1996 and 1998 and with the active

involvement of Greece, we said “No” to logic by ignoring Turkish military supremacy and ordered the S300 missiles. I was among the few in Cyprus who dared question the above decision. We eventually wasted 270m dollars on the missiles which now rest in peace after having been thrown away on the mountains of Crete.

In the years 2000-2001 we said “No” to the rules of the economy and the markets as we created a stock market “bubble”. When it burst, the financial and social balances of the country were turned upside down.

From 2008 to 2012 we racked up a fiscal deficit of more than €6 billion, through non-existent financial planning. Our banks lost €4.5 billion on the Greek government bonds and €5 billion were transferred to Greece, which were used for uncollateralised loans. We lost our credibility which is now equivalent to junk.

We were thrown out of the markets. “Looking proudly ahead” we said “No” to the basic rules of economics and blew up our country. And our European partners, acting unprecedentedly fierce, gave us the coup de grace.

STUMBLING ON THE SAME STONE When the search for our dreams began, I was 20 years old. Today I am 78. In the intervening 58 years we have been bankrupted nationally, politically, militarily and financially.

In almost all the above years I was one of the very few, who kept warning that we were gradually ruining our country. Nobody would listen. Those stupid “No’s” became the symbol of our lives.

Roman politician and thinker Cicero once stated: “To stumble twice on the same stone is a great shame”. We have stumbled more than 20 times on that same stone in the past 60 years.

Now that I have reached the mature years of my life, I would like to give once more a piece of advice about the dangers emanating from natural gas, the efforts for which started under my ministry in 1998.

Natural gas constitutes huge wealth with a probable value of hundreds of billions of dollars. It is a blessing, which may turn into a nightmare if we are not cautious because the “prey” of hundreds of billions has always come with dangerous predators. We should not forget that most wars today are linked to oil and gas.

Turkey has been threatening for many years.

She invokes the rights of the Turkish Cypriots and the fact that she has not signed and is not bound by the Law of the Sea Convention of 1982.

We invoke our sovereign rights, which are recognised by all countries. But we were invoking these very same rights before 1974, and had their recognition by all countries, yet no-

When friends like the foreign minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, warn that all Cypriots, without exception, must benefit from gas exploitation, we should take heed body came in 1974 to stop the invasion or extend a helping hand. I remember, many people were waiting for Europe, the Non-Aligned, the Soviets or the Americans, to move. At the end of the day, nobody did. We were left alone, with our “rights” and our fate. Forty years have elapsed since then, and not a single square kilometre out of the 3,500 occupied by Turkey was ever returned to us.

Furthermore, we should not forget the continuous admonitions we have from Europeans, Americans, Russians and others, that we should not overlook the rights of the Turkish Cypriots. The most recent statement came from our friend the foreign minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov, who said on April 17: “Any exploitation of the natural resources must be based on consent, so that all Cypriots, without any exception will benefit”.

I am not presenting a fictitious risk and I never did so in my life. I am a realist. If my advice had been adopted in the past we would not be where we are today. I am not suggesting that we should negotiate under pressure. I am simply suggesting that we should not put up another heroic “No”, because I am afraid that we shall pay for it much more dearly than ever before.

We must not stumble once more. We should use natural gas as a catalyst in the effort to solve the problem of Cyprus and probably the wider problems of Greece and Turkey as well.

I have been suggesting this for the past six to seven years.

To friends or opponents who would rather follow the course of the past, despite its disastrous results, I would repeat the words of General Themistocles to Admiral Eurybiades, in 480 BC before the sea battle of Salamis: “Hit me but listen to me.”

Nicos Rolandis is a former foreign minister and commerce minister, MP and president of the Liberal Party

The choice: break eggs or become Christofias II Comment Loucas Charalambous THE NEW DISY leader Averof Neophytou, departing from the presidential palace on April 29, made a rather unusual statement for our strange country. He said, “to make an omelette you have to break eggs.” This is a far from original metaphor, but it was a daring suggestion nevertheless.

He called on the president to proceed with decisiveness and determination, warning him that he should be prepared to clash with vested interests and change people’s mentality. What Neophytou meant is very clear. The vested interests he wanted President Anas-

tasiades to take on were the unions of state and semi-governmental employees.

One could have told Neophytou that the biggest culprits for our desperate predicament - those who created what now needs to be broken - are our politicians and parties, including his own party, DISY. This is the saddest aspect all, when we consider DISY was originally established with the purpose of fighting the demagoguery with which our state and national problem were being handled.

If he goes through the archives of the party he now leads, Neophytou will find prophetic speeches, made in the House in the early 1980s, by DISY deputies who were demanding exactly what he is calling Anastasiades to do today - to clash with vested interests. In these speeches they warned, 30 years ago, that if

we did not stop squandering public monies on the state sector and on insatiable monsters like the CyBC and Cyprus Airways the state would one day be bankrupt.

How DISY has now become a champion of the public sector unions is another story. But Neophytou should not be so naive to believe that anyone will listen to him. Unfortunately, Anastasiades has no intention of taking on public sector unions, but, on the contrary, assures them that they should not worry because the extortionate salaries, pensions and bonuses of the super-privileged public employees will not be touched (I refer to the highly paid public employees and not those on €1500 a month).

When the president himself, gives such assurances to greedy union bosses of PASYDY, EAC and CyTA how many eggs can be broken?

Sadly, he does not realise that pandering to PASYDY boss Glafcos Hadjipetrou is more dangerous than caressing a hyena.

I also wonder whether any of his economic advisors have pointed out to him that if he does not break any eggs he will break his head. The numbers are frightening. The interest payments on the public debt alone are enough to cause sleepless nights. Together with the interest on the troika loan, we are talking about annual interest payments in excess of one billion euros, a sum that is as high as our budget deficit of 2012.

Anastasiades must realise that unless he starts breaking eggs at CyBC, CyTA, EAC, Cyprus Airways, the municipalities, the civil service and every other organisation that employs the super-privileged workers, he will not avoid a second

memorandum in a few months. It is then that AKEL’s leadership Kyprianou, Loucaides, Katsourides and Evagorou - will be ringing the church bells claiming they have been ‘vindicated’.

What applied to Christofias in the last couple of years of his presidency, now also applies to Anastasiades. With every day that passes without anything being done, the problem becomes bigger. By the end of the year, the troika may have to return with a second memorandum. And this will not only impose bigger cuts to pay and pensions, but also thousands of redundancies, as happened in Greece.

He should therefore stop pandering to the union bosses and start breaking those eggs, just as Neophytou has advised. Unless he wants to be known as Christofias the Second.

14 May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

Opinion

Property mess highlights all that is wrong Most of the island’s property is owned, on paper at least, by bankrupt banks Comment Hermes Solomon

D

URING Cyprus’ property sale ‘boom years’, most estate agents/developers employed at least one Russian/ English speaker part-time. Now they employ a Mandarin/English speaker, who is likely to be a Chinese lady married to a Cypriot.

Mainland Chinese do not speak English, and those who say they do are limited to several tens of words enunciated incomprehensibly. In fact, it would be nigh impossible for any to negotiate the purchase of a house and live in Cyprus without the assistance of an interpreter.

Selling 2/3 bedroom flats/houses at a minimum of €300,000 in exchange for long term residence permits sounds ‘crisis’ expensive to me. An additional requirement is that €50,000 per person be left on deposit in a Cypriot bank for at least three years, thus a Chinese household comprising a couple with two children would be ‘coerced’ into investing half a million euros in Cyprus before immigration issues four long term residence permits, which purportedly facilitate easier access to EU member states.

If rumours circulated by estate agents/developers of 1,700 sales so far are to be believed, Paphos should be crawling with Chinese by now, but my Paphian friends report seeing hardly any in local supermarkets or sunbathing on the beaches. Last month, a Paphos estate agent confirmed that Chinese sales virtually dried up as soon as the troika imposed the haircut and the government introduced currency restrictions.

Unlike Russian permanent residents and

second home owners, who mostly live within a three hour flight of Cyprus, a Chinese family would arrive here exhausted at more than twice the cost of their Russian counterparts; I know, I’ve done both the Moscow and Beijing run. The huge disparity in journey times and costs make me wonder whether the 1,700 sales actually refer to 1,700 different purchasers or several Chinese billionaires buying up new-build apartment blocks and entire housing estates.

Last month, a small and seriously bankrupt developer’s property was repossessed by his bank and auctioned off at almost a third of its pre-crisis market value. Four houses valued at a total of €840,000 went ‘hush-hush’ under the hammer to a single Russian purchaser for €280,000. He is reported to have said that he will sit on his investment until market conditions improve?

If strictly non-resident and simply using Cyprus as a means to ‘leak monies’ hors la Chine, the Chinese are hardly likely to be present, or even represented at hush-hush house repossession auctions. And worse still is that if banking restrictions persist, they will be obliged to look elsewhere to free-up profits from their ‘in China’ enterprises.

So, while established Russian residents, numbered in their thousands, pick up the bargains, the Chinese, pay through the nose for the opportunity to do so, when only six months ago the media reported the so called Chinese influx as ‘an invasion’. Yes, elephants do fly in Cyprus as well as donkeys!

But no longer do the Chinese.

This is bad news for our construction industry and banks, who now find themselves left with a critical over-supply of property, currency restrictions and an ever-decreasing number of willingly duped buyers.

For years, our administration and banks have cleverly created a captive audience, holding householders to ransom by refusing to issue title deeds. Oh yes, there is method in this title deed madness! In fact, if all developers’ debts to banks were taken into

Wooing the Chinese in Paphos, but there is little sign of any invasion account, most of the island’s property is owned, on paper, by bankrupt banks.

Sickeningly, we are now paying (via troika haircuts/theft and increased taxation) to restructure our banks, only for them to become the island’s landlords, who are subject to the will of the barons in Brussels; a situation redolent of those times when our Church collected taxes for the Ottomans.

After just 53 years of ‘freedom’, we have again become members of that familiar servile feudal class formerly under imperial rule. Bravo! This is what happens when you grow too big for your boots and can’t afford a new pair.

I recently visited an estate of 4 x 4 bedroom ‘luxury’ houses with pools - summer lets at 200 euros a day, minimum stay two weeks - situated a stone’s throw from the beach. The developer, who spotted me nosing around, invited me to view the one he, his wife and two children were occupying during this past Easter school break.

Spotlessly white concrete, glass trolley sized manicured and characterless, situated next door to a tavern oozing the stench of burnt cooking oil denied even a mild interest. I told him that he’d never sell ’em never mind let ’em with that fish fryer next door!

He pretended not to smell the smell and will walk the walk to the gallows of bankruptcy

like those many deluded developers before him.

Last week, the co-operative bank told a year-long unemployed engineer, who could no longer finance his house loan of €140,000, that he would become a tenant in his own house and pay rent. In other words, the bank has seized landlord status ownership.

The ‘new tenant’, married with three daughters, can see no worthwhile reason to remain in this ‘burnt-out’ island and is emigrating from Cyprus to Australia.

But Cyprus is still burning while those responsible for igniting the fire keep fiddling.

The ‘barons’ gave us just enough rope by which to hang ourselves and are now watching our every move; deviousness is dead. After years of misrule, our administration will be driven to raise standards or be ‘flogged’ for inventing yet more ‘ingenious’ ways around having to do so.

It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation and a few moments of indiscretion to destroy it. How long will it take our present administration to rid itself of its badly soiled name; a few years or another lifetime? I’m betting on never unless we remove those responsible for bringing the nation to its knees, one that will now be compelled to accept a lose/lose solution for us to the Cyprob. Bravo!

Achievements of president’s visit to Israel Comment Andrestinos Papadopoulos IN TWELVE articles, written since April 2010 until recently, I have been unreservedly in favour of further strengthening and deepening our relations with Israel, the only non-Muslim country in our region.

In the first article (“Finding a new approach to Cyprus-Israel relations”, Cyprus Mail, April 1, 2010), I evaluated the factors affecting bilateral ties including the stance of Turkey, the Arab countries and the European Union. Today, there is another important factor: the energy sector and in particular the need to cooperate with a view to exploit and export gas to Europe and the Far East, by making use of a gas liquefaction (LNG) terminal in Cyprus.

In the last article (“Kasoulides’ Israel visit reconfirmed ties”, Cyprus

Mail, April 21, 2013), I said that the forthcoming visit of President Nicos Anastasiades to Israel “will usher in a new era of a deeper geopolitical cooperation between the two countries with a view to promoting peace and stability in the wider region of the Eastern Mediterranean”.

It is gratifying to observe, that at the working lunch with President Shimon Peres, President Anastasiades stated “We are inaugurating a new era in relations between our two countries” and that during the talks there was an exchange of views on all four factors mentioned above. Let us, then, examine them in detail.

The concern that Cyprus-Israel relations might adversely be affected after Netanyahu’s recent apology to Turkey over the Mari Marmara incident was allayed, as assurances were received, at the highest level, that relations between Israel and Cyprus do not depend on any political developments in this respect.

Netanyahu himself promised that Israel would continue to maintain good ties with Cyprus, regardless of its newly rekindled relationship

with Turkey.

No matter what Turkish officials say, the fact remains that there are doubts about Turkey’s sincerity and the rapprochement exercise will not be easy and smooth, as suggested

by Erdogan’s rhetoric of support to the Palestinians and Syrian rebels and the condemnation of Israeli air strikes in and near Damascus, having as a target advanced missiles destined for Hezbollah. Moreover, the fact that Turkey seeks to play a protagonistic role in the region diminishes the chances of Israel talking directly to all its Arab neighbours. Cyprus’ relations with the Arab world are excellent and are not affected by strengthening its relations with Israel.

As stated by Minister of Defence Fotis Fotiou, “our cooperation with Israel is no threat to anyone”.

As a matter of fact, he did not rule out similar cooperation with other neighbouring countries such as Greece, Lebanon and Egypt. In any event, Cypriot diplomacy should follow closely the repercussions of the “Arab Spring” and the developments in Syria.

As far as Europe is concerned, it is a fact that Cyprus lies at the border of the European Union with the Eastern Mediterranean, and in this respect President Peres stressed that without Cyprus, Israel, is far away from Europe. Indeed, Cyprus and Greece constitute the bridge between Israel and Europe and the discovery of hydrocarbons in our region gives this bridge a geostrategic dimension. For this reason, during the talks, the emphasis was on energy matters.

In particular, the common commitment to exploit cross-border natural gas and oil reserves was confirmed. Concerning the creation of an LNG terminal in Cyprus, President Anastasiades stated that the two governments were still “at the stage of deliberations”, adding that private Israeli energy companies had expressed a “manifest interest” in acquiring a stake in an LNG investment for the construction of the terminal at Vassiliko. On energy security, Anastasiades and Netanyahu had agreed, among other things, to cooperate on military projects to protect the gas fields common to

both countries. Moreover, according to President Anastasiades, Netanyahu promised to work with Cyprus to protect offshore gasfields, regardless of any deals it makes with Turkey, or any threats issued by Ankara.

Energy issues aside, the two sides discussed pending agreements on health, research and development, technology, culture and fighting terrorism and organised crime.

In conclusion, President Anastasiades’ visit to Israel, the first after Greece to a foreign country, proved that Cyprus is Israel’s most reliable neighbour and genuine friend. The realism showed by the president in his evaluations, aimed at avoiding over-optimistic expectations, and the personal relationship which developed during the visit constitute a positive contribution towards the strengthening of relations between the two countries. In fact, they guarantee that the strategic dialogue, which started in Jerusalem, will continue and have results.

Dr Andrestinos Papadopoulos is a former ambassador of the Cyprus Republic

15 SUNDAY MAIL • May 19, 2013

Opinion

Paradise lost! Have we learned anything?

uotes of the week

Quick and easy wealth blinded us to the enormous risks lurking in our smoke-and-mirrors economy “Don’t run a cheese grater up and down your cheeks. Don’t dunk your face in engine oil or other caustic substances”.

Actor Hugh Laurie’s tips on skincare

Comment Theodore Panayotou

C

YPRUS has been invariably called a paradise; a paradise for tourists, a paradise for lawyers and accountants, a paradise for bankers and civil servants, a paradise for Russian oligarchs, even a paradise for money launderers; a paradise nevertheless.

No more. Virtually overnight, billions of euros have been lost to the bail-in imposed by the Eurogroup on Cyprus’ two largest banks to save one of them, barely. Lifetime fortunes were wiped out at the stroke of a pen. These losses are on top of all the losses we suffered as the economy went into a nosedive two years ago, following the loss of access to capital markets to successive downgrading, the loss of life and infrastructure to the Mari explosion, and the loss four billion euros in bank assets to the haircut of the Greek debt.

Globally, there are not many other such great and sudden losses of wealth that are worthy of the pithy title of John Milton’s 1667 poem “Paradise Lost”. Like a new Adam and Eve our bankers succumbed to the temptation of the high returns of the supposedly “riskless” Greek bonds and the easy profits of unlimited global expansion.

They enjoyed, and still do, the fruits of their sins while we are stuck with the cost of their profligacy and imprudence, having been unceremoniously expelled from the leagues of the nouveau riche, in the way the human race was expelled from the Garden of Eden.

While the bankers’ rise and fall was the most spectacular, our politicians’ behaviour has been the most pernicious in allowing the banking disaster to happen and in expanding the public sector to such levels as if to ensure that there was a fiscal disaster to match the banking disaster for good measure.

The enormous wealth built over the past four decades, since Cyprus emerged from the ashes of the Turkish invasion, has been wiped out through denial, indecision, and wrong moves in recent years, but the seeds of destruction were planted decades ago when the current economic model of “quick riches by hook or by crook” was adopted. The morality and sustainability of this opportunistic model, based largely on artificial value creation and predatory exploitation, was never questioned.

Bubbles were created in a quick succession: first came

the environmentally destructive mass tourism of the 1980s, followed by the relentless offshore sector expansion and the reckless stock exchange gambling of the 1990s. It was all then capped by the borrowing of billions for opulent consumption and real estate speculation along with the offering of a high-interest, lowtax haven by our casino-like banks in the last decade.

The unprecedented quick and easy wealth had blinded us to the enormous risks lurking in this “smoke-andmirrors” economy with its shallow foundations and wide exposure to external factors largely beyond our control. Nor did we take any measures to spread the risk and to create an “emergency fund” as an insurance against uncertainty. We simply assumed every time that our new bubble was sturdier than the previous one and it would not burst and, at any rate if it did, we would always find another one. We can rightfuly claim the dubious distinction of being the “bubble nation” of the world, the same way that Israel has earned the meritorious distinction of being the “start-up nation” of the world!

We saw our entry into the eurozone more as an opportunity to secure cheap and easy credit, and to attract larger amounts of low-tax, high-interest deposits into our banks as well as a safety net for taking more reckless risks for quick profit, rather than as an opportunity to access capital, technology and knowhow to become more innovative and competitive in the real economy.

Both our public and banking sectors expanded at rates that no reasonable person would consider sustainable.

The banking sector reached a size eight times the size of our economy. The public sector which has doubled in size in the last ten years, by 2025 would be spending more than half our GDP and employing more than half the labour force. The private debt has reached 300 per cent of the GDP; at its pre-crisis rate of growth it would have doubled by 2020.

No one ever stopped to question the sustainability of these rates or to ponder the consequences of the inevitable collapse and the implosion of an economy based on artificially inflated values and borrowed funds, mostly for consumption and unproductive investments. And, the inevitable did happen. With the bubbles bursting all around

good for me for a long time. I was ready for some karmic retribution”.

Actor Michael Douglas, who says his throat cancer was meant “to balance things out” “Art is the soul of our nation. And if the soul isn’t looked after then everything will will go to pieces. Morality, everything, just breaks up and explodes”.

Artist Tracey Emin warns that to remove art from the school curriculum would provoke riots

“We are looking forward to a few dinners in”.

Carina Trimingham, partner of former energy secretary Chris Huhne, who faces a 7pm-7am curfew after his release from prison The stock exchange in the 90s, one of many bubbles to burst us, with the loans coming due, with enterprises closing one after another, with unemployment skyrocketing, and with a deep haircut on bank deposits imposed by our uncharitable European partners, our paradise has been lost. The paradise actually turned into hell for those of us who did not have either the foresight or the inside information to export our savings or the connections to secure a privileged government job.

But the biggest tragedy is not the lost paradise but the lost lessons. From both our words and actions it appears that we have again totally missed the lessons we should have learnt.

The first lesson is that there are no short cuts to sustainable wealth. It can only be derived from real value creation which, in turn, requires investment in knowledge, technology, innovation and creative entrepreneurship to become globally competitive.

The second lesson is that vision and long-term strategy at both the national and the local level are critical for avoiding short-sighted decisions that have a high longterm cost.

The third lesson is that it is never a good strategy to put all of one’s eggs in one basket and, since uncertainty and change are the “new normal”, risk assessment and risk management as well as saving for adversity are indispensable tools of prudent governance.

The fourth lesson is that we should always anticipate change and make it happen before we have to as we then

have the freedom to change on our own terms. Finally, solidarity, even among allies, is earned not granted and is based more on interests than on friendship or pity.

If we had learned these lessons we would have been looking for ways to spend less than the 10 billion the troika has lent us and for ways to make many more changes to our economy and our public sector than the memorandum with the troika requires, in order to avoid falling short of the agreed targets and risking a second tougher memorandum.

More importantly we need to make deeper changes than the troika asks to put in place solid foundations for a new economic model which will lead to a real sustainable paradise not a fake one. The fact that the debate is how fast we can escape from the memorandum and whether the best way to do it is by staying or exiting the eurozone is a sign that we haven’t learned our lessons. Let’s hope we learn them even now, before it is too late. The paradise cannot wait!

Dr Theodore Panayotou, director of CIIM and Professor of Economics and the Environment at Harvard University, served as consultant to the UN and to governments in the US, China, Russia, Brazil, Mexico and Cyprus. He has published and was recognised for his contribution to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

Contact: theo@ciim.ac.cy

“High-flying narcissistic men hate the world to know their domestic foibles, lazy habits and minor failings and the threat of a frank and open story written by a deserted ex-spouse must be a nightmare”.

Margaret Cook, former wife of late foreign secretary Robin Cook, on Vicky Pryce’s announcement of a book deal relating to her term in prison “He is single, right? Well, so am I. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we married?

And he is very tall and good looking, I hear.

Perfect. We are meant to be”.

Nana Meriwether, Miss USA, on Prince Harry and the prospects of becoming a couple

“Things had been going

“You are smiling too much. You look too American, too much like Kennedy”.

Valerie Trierweiler, who is French president Francois Hollande’s live-in girlfriend, on choosing his official photograph

“President Francois Hollande of France is celebrating his first year in office with a triple-dip recession”.

Conservative MP Michael Fabricant “I never really got into orgies. I tried it with a couple of Japanese girls a long time ago and I found it all a bit disappointing and distracting”.

Veteran pop star Rod Stewart “It is an unusual club, Manchester United, it really is. If you look at the behaviour of some clubs, sacking managers left, right and centre and I am not naming any one club, it is the whole bloody lot of them. We as a club have patience, show trust, loyalty, and it’s rewarded”.

Sir Alex Ferguson

16 SUNDAY S SU NDAY MAIL • May 19, 2013 ND

Coffeeshop

Hallelujah, the Cyprob makes welcome return REJOICE, rejoice and hallelujah, the Cyprob is back. Everyone’s favourite problem has returned to our sun-kissed shores, putting the smile back on our politicians’ faces after some very difficult months, giving our freedom-fighters a reason to get out of bed in the morning and setting off the flow of the sexual juices of our journalists.

I thought I would never say this but, like everyone else, I missed it and for a while I was anxious that it would never come back. Existence was empty and meaningless in the last 12 months, the Cyprob had disappeared from our lives replaced by the all-destroying economic problems and the malicious presence of the troikans, compared to whom Big Bad Al is a cuddly teddy-bear.

The Eurogroup meetings, the troika, Delia and Dijsselbloem made us appreciate the benign nature of the Cyprob and its kindly protagonists that never punished our heroic defiance, public posturing, delaying tactics, legalistic hair-splitting and resounding ‘nos’ to everything like our nasty EU partners had done.

The Cyprob is the game we all love to play because we always win – we always achieve our objective of no deal – and that is the reason we want to keep playing. It is no wonder that after the crushing defeats and humiliations we suffered in the last couple of months, the return of our number one national problem was welcomed like manna from heaven by everyone.

FOR A WHILE we thought that it would never arrive. Big Bad Al visited, had meetings with the two leaders, travelled to Greece and Turkey, arranged a dinner for May 29 (more below), made some statements but failed to spark any interest.

This was followed by Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides’ visit to the US where he met the UN chief and American Secretary of State, John Kerry, whom he supposedly persuaded to treat the Cyprob, our economic woes and natural gas as three separate issues; it is what the CyBC correspondent triumphantly reported.

The problem still failed to take centre stage despite the zealous efforts of its salesmen in the media who were warning about foreign efforts to link the three issues and ultimately force ‘the speedy closure of the problem’. Nothing, apart from AKEL, inspires as much stupidity as the Cyprob.

The warnings did not spark any hysteria and neither did Wednesday’s six-hour National Council circus, which discussed the prob as well as the economy and featured a special guest appearance by comrade Gaaaros, not as an economics expert but as an achaparos former president.

A white lie told by the current president, tricky Nicky, to the party bosses paved the way for the triumphant return of the Cyprob to our lives. He told them that there was nothing to report, an innocent lie, considering he was in possession of Al’s 70-page document with the convergences achieved in the talks.

UNFORTUNATELY, on Thursday, a loser Turkish Cypriot politician, who acts like an AKEL mascot and is in charge of a mickey-mouse party in the north called United Kibris, spilled the fasoulia.

keep its existence out of the public domain. But was it the Aussie’s fault that AKEL’s Turkish Cypriot mascot found out about the document and informed his commie masters?

After a meeting with his commie comrade Andros, Izzet Izdjan revealed that the UN had handed over a ‘document work-plan’ to Dervis Eroglu and it was being translated.

Explanations were demanded by the Akelites and the government spokesman said the government had only received the document on that day, which was a bit of a lie.

The document had been handed over by Al a while ago but there had been an agreement with tricky Nicky not to make its existence public. After all, there was nothing in it that was not known but our president had to have an official UN document recording the convergences reached in the talks by his predecessor.

However, the fact that he kept it a secret made a mega-boring matter – could anything be more boring than a 70-page document with the convergences of the talks – sexy for our politicians, hacks and TV bosses. Their love-juices started to flow again as they now had a compelling reason to put our beloved problem on centre stage.

The doom and gloom was lifted as our opinion formers were gripped by sweet-natured paranoia and suspicion once again. AKEL asked why Eroglu had received the document many days before our side and why Nik had not mentioned the existence of it at the National Council meeting. Would he have announced its receipt if Izdjan had said nothing about it?

The fuss did not amount to a hill of fasoulia but was enough to get the Cyprob’s homecoming party going.

ON FRIDAY morning all radio shows had upbeat politicians moaning about the latest outrage by the UN and Big Bad Al, while Phil’s banner headline spoke about the ‘Downer document bomb’.

In the evening, the CyBC’s main TV news reported that the document ‘provoked turmoil.’ But ‘even bigger turmoil’ was caused by the letter sent by tricky Nicky to Ban Ki-moon complaining about Al’s attempt to turn the May 29 dinner into a political meeting and threatening not attending.

Even Nik wanted to play the Cyprob game. He had never in the past publicly attacked Al but now decided to join in the fun. Had he been advised to write the letter by his partners, the DIKO Downer destroyers? How was the Aussie trying to turn the dinner from a social to a political dinner? Was he going to force Nik to sign an unfair settlement while he was waiting for his dessert?

I suspect, although he did not mention in it in his letter to Ban, Nik was upset by the release of the UN document, which made him look a liar, as Al had agreed to

BASH-PATRIOTS took the president’s letter as a cue to renew their old calls for the immediate replacement of Big Bad Al who had proved beyond any doubt that he was a dyed-in-the-wool Turk-lover scheming to politicise a social event. Even Lillikas added his voice to the calls for the Al’s axing.

The Cyprob is back with a vengeance. It made you wonder where all these brave freedom fighters were hiding when the IMF’s deleterious Delia was imposing terms guaranteed to wreck our economy for years. I do not recall hearing any of them publicly demanding the IMF immediately replace her and send someone less nasty to negotiate the bailout, which caused much more harm to the country than Al’s boring document ever would.

This is why we love our Cyprob so much. It allows our politicians to show how brave they really are.

ANOTHER good reason for being angry with Al and the UN was their choice of date for the Nik-Derv dinner. It was May 29, the date of the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453.

The 560th anniversary of the fall of Byzantium’s capital to the bloodthirsty Turkish hordes was a provocatively insensitive date, as the Lazaros Patriotic show reminded its listeners every day in the last week, insisting that this was no day to have dinner with Eroglu.

His rants worked, the presidential palace asking for a re-scheduling of the dinner. Although the Turks initially refused, we hear that the dinner has been moved to May 30.

Don’t be surprised if Eroglu asks for another date because it is the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of London, officially ending the First Balkan War in which Turkey was resoundingly defeated by Greece and Serbia.

APART from spilling the fasoulia, Izdjan also took a direct swipe at Nik attacking the government’s bill that would deprive Turkish Cypriots of free healthcare in our hospitals. Greek Cypriot circles were promoting ‘fanatical, nationalistic, chauvinistic positions that placed obstacles to the efforts for a settlement,’ said the Turkish Cypriot loser.

The TC sense of entitlement is even more advanced than ours. The loser has a nerve, urging Nik not to pass the bill because saving the €5 million cost of treating TCs in our hospitals would not help us exit from the recession. Call me a fanatical, nationalistic, chauvinist but I am with Nik on this one. If Izdjan wants free healthcare, AKEL could send him to a hospital in Cuba.

IS FORMER finance minister Michalis Sarris eyeing the post of Central Bank Governor? If not, what was the reason for his damning view of the banking sector uttered when he appeared before the Committee of Inquiry into the virtual collapse of the economy?

According to reports, on Wednesday Sarris told the panel: “The only euros you have which are equal to German euros are the ones in your

pockets. All re the rest are in doubt.” It appears thatt Professor Panicos has set a trend – if you do not engage in bashing banks and shattering public confidence in them you are not eligible for the post of Centrall rBank Governor.

DURING his appearance before the panel Sarris also explained sor Panicos how Professor d him from had sacked the post off Chairman he professor, of Laiki. The acting like an AKEL apparatchik, wrote to Sarris telling him the bank’s older, the state, new shareholder, wanted to see a change in leadership. ter, Panicos inIn his letter, ris that his comformed Sarris ut the need for a ments about change in the government’s olicy were damaging economic policy n contrast, Panicos’ to Cyprus. In -bashing, slamming daily bank-bashing, of bankers, exaggeration of the ctor’s capital needs, banking sector’s wnsizing of the banks calls for downsizing were beneficial to Cyprus.

THE COPS at the Ledra Street checkpoint confiscated an allegedly fake designer bag from s she was crossing a woman as epublic on the suspiinto the Republic he had bought it in the cion that she north. The woman had a row with ho said they would be the cops, who sending the bag to the official representative of the manufacturer h th it was an auto establish whether thentic product or an imitation.

Reading about this I started wondering whether this new campaign by the police was aimed at all cheap, imitation designer products or just those purchased in the north? I would not be able to live with the humiliation of being stopped in the street by a cop and told to remove my imitation Ralph Lauren polo shirt, purchased in Thailand, so he could send it to the official representative to establish its authenticity as part of the crackdown on fake designer products.

THE CRUSADER for fair prices for prostitutes, Bambos Vasilas, Phil’s Kokkinochoria and Larnaca correspondent two weeks ago carried out an investigation at the park next to Larnaca’s central post office where Asian women, reportedly, go to sell sex. His story in Phil was headlined ‘Sex at humiliating prices.’

The liberal Vasilas has no problem with the Vietnamese and Filippina women who go there to earn some cash on their day off but with the Cypriot grandfathers who boast that they could buy sex for five to 10 euros. “They buy sex for five euros, the equivalent of a pitta of souvlakia, and if they are feeling extravagant they may buy their victim a soft drink,” wrote the deject-

Big Bad Al has already inspired the ire of Tricky Nicky

ed Vasilas.

Some of the randy old boys do not h even pay cash for sex. The reporter revealed that some “lure their victim with wilted celery, crumpled spinach and lettuce and old oranges that can only be used to make juice.”

THE RECESSION had obviously pushed sex rates down since the last time Vasilas wrote about the problem. In July 2012, he reported that in the Kokkinochoria after the end of the potato-picking season jobless women from the EU were offering sex starting from 10 euro plus dinner. The dinner, he reported, consisted of a pitta of souvlakia and a couple of beers, which took the total price for sex services to about €18.

TURKISH Cypriots are more generous according to a report in the Star Kibris newspaper, which reported on Tuesday that many Filippinas who work in the Republic cross north on their days off to sell sexual services. The price they charge is usually €20, the paper reported, which might be higher than the Larnaca market but is still very competitive. Whoever would have thought there would come a day when vice girls would get higher prices for sex in the north?

Now that the TCs are richer than us, shouldn’t Izdjan be offering GCs free health care in the hospital’s of the north?

17 SUNDAY MAIL • May 19, 2013

special report

School’sout Pulling up a new activity If you have a teenager stuck to the couch point them in the direction of Cybarz this summer

By Peter Stevenson ORED of going to the gym and looking for a new way to exercise then look no further than CYBarz, a new movement started by 17year-old Paris Tofarides and 20-year-old Demos Christou.

All that is needed to participate in the activity is a set of bars with which you can pull yourself up from. Words do not particularly do it much justice so for a better idea visit www.youtube.com/user/ CYBarzTeam “We were inspired originally by videos on youtube of groups of people doing crazy things on bars and thought they were really amazing,” Tofarides, who is in his final year at school, told the Sunday Mail. He recalled how both him and Christou, currently serving in the army, began attempting the stunts they saw on the internet two years ago and revealed how they have both managed improve their standard substantially.

Although still small in number, the group has already taken part in a video charity called Pull-up Around the World and participated in the first Health & Fitness exhibition show on the island last year.

“It’s still only the beginning but we hope and believe we

B

For more information and if you would like to become a member too and take part in CYBarz, you can visit their facebook and youtube pages. www.youtube.com/user/ CYBarzTeam, www.facebook.com/CyBarz

can become a big movement on the island,” Tofarides said.

Asked why anyone would choose to take part in such activities, the 17-year-old explained that he finds it very interesting and by making a habit of exercising everyday, you can learn new moves and also meet new people.

“Another advantage is that it’s very cheap, you don’t need much equipment and you’re outside in the fresh air as opposed to sitting at home on the couch playing on a games console,” Tofarides said. “It is the only activity that in such a short period of time has become so overwhelmingly popular

with young people around the world,” he added.

The young man also expressed the feeling that the movement has the potential for growth on the island although there are not many experts in the field yet. “Other countries have organised tournaments but because we are relatively small in number and we haven’t yet reached the level of ability required to plan a tournament we will have to wait and hope that numbers

and ability increases,” he told the Mail.

Despite being relatively small in number, CYBarz already have two sponsors, Tofarides revealed. “Our official sponsor is Marks & Spencer but we have also received help from KOMPAN, a company that supplies playground equipment,” he said.

Both sponsors have helped the movement by supplying equipment for free in the Pandora Park in the capital.

“The fact that we were supplied the equipment without any charge is a huge bonus especially now that everyone is having difficulty making ends meet,” Tofarides said.

“We would also like to the

thank Nicosia Municipality with the speed with which they allowed Marks & Spencer to place the equipment inside the park,” he concluded.

Video game maker drops gun makers but not their guns IN THE midst of the bitter national debate on gun violence, gun manufacturers and videogame makers are delicately navigating one of the more peculiar relationships in American business.

Violent “first-person shooter” games such as Call of Duty are the bread and butter of leading video game publishers, and authenticity all but requires that they feature brand-name weapons.

Electronic Arts licensed weapons from companies like McMillan Group International as part of a marketing collaboration for Medal of Honor: Warfighter. Activision Blizzard gives “special thanks” to Colt, Barrett and Remington in the

credits for its Call of Duty titles.

Rifles by Bushmaster, which made the gun used in the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting last December, have appeared in the hugely popular Call of Duty.

Yet, in the wake of the Newtown shooting, the biggest advocate for gun ownership, the National Rifle Association, took aim at videogames to explain gun violence. One week after 20 schoolchildren and six adults were killed in the shooting, NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre called the videogame industry “a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.”

Now at least one game maker, the second largest by revenue in the United States, is publicly distancing itself from the gun industry, even as it finds ways to keep the branded guns in the games. Electronic Arts says it is severing its licensing ties to gun manufacturers - and simultaneously asserting that it has the right, and the intention, to continue to feature branded guns without a license.

For the gunmakers, having their products in games is “free marketing, just like having Coca-Cola” in a movie, said Roxanne Christ, a partner at Latham & Watkins LLP in Los Angeles, who works with video game companies on licensing, but

has not personally done a gun deal.

Yet it is also a virtual doubleedged sword. “It gives publicity to the particular brand of gun being used in the video game,” said Brad J Bushman, a professor at Ohio State University who has studied video game violence. “On the other hand, it’s linking that gun with violent and aggressive behaviour.”

First-person shooter games let players blast their way through battlefields while looking down the barrel of a virtual gun, taking aim with the flick of a controller.

Some of those guns - like the Colt M1911 pistol in Call of Duty - turn sideways to face the screen during reloading, revealing the brand

name. Games also offer lists of branded weapons to choose from.

Licensed images of weapons in Medal of Honor: Warfighter - a game that simulates military missions like fighting pirates in Somalia - offer what EA spokesman Jeff Brown calls “enhanced authenticity.”

EA says video game makers can have branded guns in their games without getting licenses, meaning the industry could drop the gun companies and keep their guns.

The company is asserting a constitutional free speech right to use trademarks without permission in its ever-more-realistic games.

18

School’sout

SUNDAY MAIL • May 19, 2013

Learning is fun at ISOP summer school Summer fun in heart of Nicosia Fully licensed kindergarten Nicholls will be running a summer school again this year, throughout the month of July.

Founded in 1960, the school offers Montessori activities and structured learning for children aged 18 months to six years. The summer school is open for those aged up

to eight.

Aims of the school include encouraging a sense of order in the children and encouraging them to share.

Telephone: 22774166 email: info@nichollskindergarten.com

Nicholls kindergarten FOUNDED IN 1960

The first English speaking Kindergarten Practising the Montessori system. merl m u S hoo e sc ilabl ava

Small groups - Qualified staff Transport is available

E aft ngli claernoosh sse n s

Visit our website: www.nichollskindergarten.com Telephone: 22774166 E-mail: info@nichollskindergarten.com

THE International School of Paphos will again be holding its popular Summer School this year for children aged five to 16.

There will be a Primary Programme (ages 4-12) and a Secondary Programme (ages 13-16). The Summer School is led by well-qualified staff who provide a safe and secure environment in which students can experience a wide range of learning activities. Some members of the team are also trained in First Aid. The school has outstanding facilities for sport that include a swimming pool, a well-equipped Sports Hall and a wide range of indoor and outdoor courts and pitches so that staff can offer football, basketball, team games and swimming.

Central to the aims of the ISOP Summer School

is the provision of opportunities for students of all cultures and backgrounds to work in harmony together and make new friends.

Tuition is in English so students for whom English is not the first language will have the chance to learn vocabulary and practice their skills with others.

The staff ensure that the message ‘learning is fun’ is key to the success of the programme. The Summer School is about enabling students to enjoy an exciting and stimulating programme and to learn to work and play together.

Summer School also provides a valuable opportunity for children who may be considering joining the school to gain first-hand knowledge of the school, its staff and facilities.

The school is very happy to welcome back students who have attended the Summer School for several years, often coming from as far afield as Russia and Europe and extend a warm

welcome to those joining for the first time.

The International School of Paphos is a fully recognised private school which ranges from Kindergarten to A-Level. Its curriculum, while modelled on the English National Curriculum, is specially enhanced to suit the needs of the Cypriot community as well as those of its multicultural student intake. Its facilities include fully air-conditioned and centrally heated classrooms, four science and three computer labs, interactive whiteboards in several rooms and outstanding sports facilities including an astroturf football pitch, tennis and basketball court as well as a heated indoor swimming pool, an indoor gym and performance centre. The playgrounds are enhanced with artificial grass and coloured stamped concrete surfaces, lending a friendly, park-like appearance to the school’s spacious campus.

A student’s impression of last year’s summer school

19 May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

School’sout

Learn through the arts this summer HOW come, as adults we can remember lyrics to a song for years but when asked to explain Pythagoras’ theory we have to stop and think and try to remember, if we can?

It is not what we learn, but how we are taught. Based on this motto and by using music, theatre and art as learning tools children can gain knowledge while having fun at the summer activity Learning through the Arts.

The Foundation of Cultural Creativity for Children and Youth in Larnaca, in cooperation with Theatre Antidote, presents a unique summer programme this year for children aged seven to 12, from June 17 until the July 31. The Learning through the Arts programme will focus on three themes: Space, Environment, Cultures & Traditions.

Through music, theatre and art children will gain knowledge while having fun!

Among other things the children will have the opportunity to learn about the above from guests and professionals and they will get to present their work to their parents. The programme will be offered in both Greek and in English.

The Foundation of Cultural Creativity for Children and Youth is sponsored by the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and has recently moved next to the new Larnaca Hospital.

For more information call 24-664622 or email info@youthfoundationcy.com

Summer School at Little Gems Montessori Nursery WITH Fun at its core and Learning as its format, children from two to six years old are guaranteed to be challenged and active with Little Gems’ exciting and varied summer school programmes. It will be exploring festivals, visiting

countries and continents around the world, cooking, experiencing creative arts and crafts projects, going for weekly picnics in the park, water play, as well as, hip-hop trot and groove & move with Kitty Katz!

The summer school is

held for five weeks, June 25 – July 26, from 8am – 12.30pm, with breakfast and snack included. Registration is available on a weekly basis.

If you are looking for a summer school that will deliver productive days full of fun and learning – then this is for your child!

Little Gems Montessori Nursery is a genuine Montessori setting – the first ever accredited Montessori school in Cyprus. It seeks to provide a loving, caring and stimulating environment in which children may learn, grow and develop under the guidance of caring teachers, other parents and their peers, following the Montessori philosophy and method. An environment where children will flourish, build independence and grow in confidence in a family atmosphere.

For further information call: 22 351319 or 99 950070, littlegemsmontessori@ gmail.com, www. littlegemsmontessori.com.

SUMMER SCHOOL

THROUGHOUT JULY 999 50070 / 22 351 319

www.littlegemsmontessori.com

Join The Heritage Summer School!

THE long-established and always popular Heritage Summer School for two to 18-year-olds will take place from Tuesday June 25 to Friday July 26 from 8am1:20pm every week day, with a daily bus service available.

The educationally stimulating, fun and varied programme includes art, dance, drama, music, computers, sports, team games, day trips – and the chance to make new friends! The €100 per week fee remains the same as last year to ensure affordability, and this also includes all excursions.

You do not need to be an existing Heritage student to attend the Summer School, and flexibility allows attendance for anywhere between one and five weeks.

Optional intensive one-toone/small group lessons are also offered at an additional fee, to improve English, Mathematics, Science, languages, ICT and other subjects, to prepare students for the new school year in September.

Your children will remain in safe, professional care as the Heritage Summer School is staffed entirely by the school’s own quali-

fied and highly-experienced term-time teachers.

The school is fully air-conditioned and is set in a stunning and easily-accessible location just outside Limassol.

With all it has to offer, the Heritage Summer School is THE choice in Limassol.

Registration is now also open at this registered and approved award-winning school for the 2013/14 academic year.

20

School’sout

May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

Summertime fun starts here…

Summer school gets extended for two weeks as it has never looked so cool ILVERLINE Private School opens its doors for Summer School fun on Tuesday June 25 this year, extending the duration from six to eight weeks, until Friday August 16.

The extra two weeks are in response to many frustrated parents who are caught out every summer with childcare problems, and who find it increasingly difficult keeping kids entertained and safely amused during the long, hot summer months while trying to maintain a normal working routine.

“Finding that work/home/family balance while trying to cope with bored children in the intense Cyprus sunshine can be a stressful time, particularly in the summer holidays. We decided to offer an extension to our summer school facility this year, to help long suffering parents who face the same challenge every year,” said Kevin Mace, Head Teacher of Silverline Private School.

Recognising the current economic climate and the dramatic knock-on effect it has had within all sectors of society, the school has taken the decision to offer very competitive rates for this year’s summer school, with considerable discounts for siblings who also register for the summer

S

time fun, of up to 50 per cent for a fourth child.

“We felt it only right to be as competitive as possible; our morning and afternoon sessions begin early; supervision play and activities begin from 7.30am and end late in the afternoon, at 5pm, subject to demand. We have an excellent range of activities and a diverse programme of trips planned for all the age groups”.

Summer School fees include costs for all trips and resources necessary for any activities. The programme is diverse and entertaining, specially designed to suit young two-year-olds to demanding teenagers. The high adult to child ratio and fully air-conditioned premises mean students will be safe and comfortable all day. In addition to planned excursions and events, the school benefits from an all weather sports pitch, dance and music studio, art studio, science lab, ICT suite and interactive boards to help occupy students.

This year students have the chance to devise their own personal timetables, keeping the fully qualified Summer School staff on their toes. Sibling discounts are offered: 2nd child at 20 per cent, 3rd child at 35 per cent, and the 4th child at 50 per cent. Summer School has never looked so cool.

The fun begins earlier and lasts even longer this year…

From Tues 25 June - Friday 16 August From 7.30am - 5pm (subject to demand)

Summer School 2013 2-4 year olds, it’s all about having fun!

5-11 year olds: academic topics mixed with sports, arts & languages 12-18 year olds: dynamic learning environment keeps senior students interested & stimulated

We’re keeping costs down: 7.30am-1pm: 75 euros per week 7.30am-5pm: 125 euros per week Plus up to 50% discount for siblings…call to ask…

21 SUNDAY MAIL • May 19, 2013

Business & Jobs How Amazon has lowered UK tax bill Only one account in the UK pays a high enough return to beat inflation its AMAZON may employ

Interest rates still falling Investment

The ECB has cut its benchmark fixed rate to just 0.5 per cent

Lou Cunningham Senior Partner, Blevins Franks BANK interest rates continue to fall. In the UK, only one account now provides enough return to beat inflation, while here in the eurozone the main interest rate has been cut to a record low.

The European Central Bank (ECB) last cut its benchmark fixed rate in July 2012, when it was reduced by 25 basis points to 0.75 per cent. At its May governing council meeting, policymakers voted to reduce it again, this time to 0.5 per cent, in a bid to kick-start the eurozone’s ailing economy.

ECB President Mario Draghi promised that “monetary policy stance will remain accommodative for as long as needed”. He raised the possibility of another rate cut if necessary, after some policymakers had pushed for a larger cut this time.

The bank also cut its marginal lending rate to banks from 1.5 per cent to 1per cent. The overnight deposit rate was kept at zero per cent, but Draghi is keeping an “open mind” about taking this rate into negative territory if necessary.

He said the ECB was “technically ready” to cut its deposit rate from zero per cent. He acknowledged this could have “several unintended consequences”, but said that the bank would address them and could cope with them if it did decide to act.

This would mean that it would start to charge banks for holding their money on deposit with the central bank, the idea being to encourage them to lend to businesses and consumers instead.

The ECB will also extend its offer

of unlimited cheap loans to banks to at least July 2014, and look at ways of boosting lending to smaller companies. Although a vital part of the economy, they have been starved of credit in many countries.

The Bank of England interest rate is now in its fifth year of 0.5 per cent, after being cut to this historic low in March 2009.

Although economic data has looked better in the UK recently, money markets are not pricing in an interest rate rise to 0.75 per cent until late 2017, with one per cent in early 2019 and 1.25 per cent in the second half of 2020.

This would mean 10 years of rates at 0.5 per cent or one per cent, something which has already had a huge impact on savers.

At the end of March, the UK action group Save our Savers pointed out that the UK government had imposed a more severe confiscation

of savers’ funds than had been initially proposed in Cyprus.

It argued that British savers had lost around £220 billion over the four years since the base rate was cut to 0.5 per cent, largely due to the level of inflation being higher than interest rates. It said: “This is a fifth of the size of the pool of UK cash savings, gone, never to return.... We have suffered a 20 per cent haircut. The barber has just taken longer over it.”

More recently, This is Money reported that there is now just one account in the UK, a tax-free cash ISA, which pays a high enough return to beat inflation.

Bank savings rates in the UK have continued to fall, partly due to the government’s Funding for Lending scheme. Since it offers cheap money to banks they do not need to offer higher rates to attract savers. Inflation remains above target,

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so almost all savers are earning a negative real rate of return once tax and inflation is added in.

In contrast, global shares have been enjoying a rally, with the FTSE 100 index hitting five year highs in early May. There are risks to keeping too much of your savings in the bank.

Besides the possibility of institutional failure, inflation will erode its value year after year, leaving you with considerably less spending power in future.

Speak to an experienced wealth manager like Blevins Franks, to discuss your personal objectives and circumstances and determine the best strategy for holding your savings.

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

thousands of people in the UK, but its European headquarters is in the tax haven of Luxembourg, where it employs several hundred staff.

Consumers buy from the company’s UK website and the items are delivered from British warehouses.

But they and people buying from Amazon websites in other European countries are buying items from a company called Amazon EU Sarl, based in the tiny duchy bordering Belgium, France and Germany.

This allows the company to legitimately lower its tax bill.

It is taxed at the lower rate in Luxembourg and then pays less corporation tax where the rate is higher in the UK. Company reports for 2012 showed Amazon paid tax of £3.2 million on sales of £320 million. In 2011, it paid £1.8 million on sales of £207 million.

However, these figures are being disputed, with claims today that the company told investors its sales in the UK totalled £4.2 billion last year.

If the figures filed are accurate the process is legal.

However some have questioned the morality of such an arrangement, saying taxes should be paid in the country where they are generated rather than being moved offshore to jurisdictions with lower tax rates.

Along with Starbucks and Google, Amazon was accused by the Public Accounts Committee in December of “immorally” minimising their UK tax bills.

Prime Minister David Cameron criticised “aggressive” tax avoidance this week.

In February he said the Government wanted to keep business taxes low, but in return businesses must accept that they have to pay their fair share.

Python Developer Job Code : 135 Division : Ammeon Location : Dublin, Dublin Dublin IE . % of Travel Required : None Job Type : Full Time Career Level : Experienced (Non-Manager) Education : Some College Coursework Completed Category : IT/Software Development Job Description : Python Developers Job Description We currently require Engineers of all levels to join an expanding software team in our Dublin based office. Your role will be to design, develop, test and deliver new functionality. The projects are run as an agile SCRUM process.

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Send your CV to recruit@ammeon.com

22 May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

Business & Jobs

Troika pill is the only cure Memorandum is the consequence and the measure of our failure Comment Yiannis Tirkides YPRUS faces a crisis that is both profound and multi-faceted. To deal with it effectively and constructively will require equally profound and multi-faceted approaches. But however varied these approaches might be, they will have to embrace the faithful implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding and eurozone membership. Success will depend on the decisiveness with which the adjustment programme is implemented and the speed at which the banking system is stabilised.

What is truly required of us is unity of purpose without recourse or experimentation, and societal solidarity. Classifying people into groups for and against the memorandum is meaningless. No one is favouring the memorandum for its own sake. What we need to understand is that the memorandum is the consequence and measure of our failure, of our errors and omissions, of our lack of will at the critical moment.

This is a two-fold crisis: a crisis of the banking system and a crisis of debt, both public and private.

The banking sector was allowed to grow unchecked, reaching a size eight times the economy or Gross Domestic Product in 2011. From accession to the European Union in 2004 to the start of the crisis in 2008, in the domestic economy the rate of credit expansion exceeded significantly the rate of increase of the nominal economy. More so, in Greece, total lending and investments, mainly government bonds, at the peak had grown to almost twice the size of the economy.

The problem, however, was not so much the size of the banking sector per se. In Europe there are other outsized banking systems also, like those of Malta and Luxembourg. The problem lay in the particular characteristics of the outsized Cypriot banking system: a) the high concentration of assets in Cypriot banks - as opposed to branches of foreign subsidiaries as in the case of Malta; b) the excessive exposure in Greece; c) the dependence on high yielding customer deposits with a sizeable share from non-residents, and d) the relatively low capital adequacy. Cypriot banks at the end of 2012 had about half the capital reserves as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product compared to Malta’s banking system for example.

The restructuring of Greek debt in the autumn of 2011 was certainly a blow to Cypriot banks. This alone, however, does not condone the failure of the Central Bank of Cyprus to trace and control risk in the banking system.

In terms of public finances, government debt increased significantly after the introduction of the euro. From 48 per cent of Gross Domestic Product in 2008, public debt rose to 84 per cent in 2012. Public debt at these levels, in itself, constitutes a drag on economic activity. Fiscal policy thus should aim to reduce it as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, even in the absence of the memorandum.

On the other hand, in the private sector, loans outstanding to companies and households had risen to three times the Gross Domestic Product in 2012. Again, debt at these levels limits the potential for further credit expansion in the private sector.

Cyprus today is in a dire economic position, needing to achieve a triple objective:

C

Our need for inelastic imports like oil means a euro exit is impossible the restructuring and rationalisation of the banking sector; the deleveraging of the economy which means the reduction of debt obligations, and the rationalisation of public finances.

We have managed to bind ourselves into an acutely deflationary environment. In this environment, whatever the mix of policies and measures chosen, it will be impossible to avoid the steep contraction of the economy.

But what are really, the options? One, of course, would be the faithful implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding.

Alternatively, we could exit the eurozone and devalue the currency as proposed by a number of people.

Exiting the eurozone and going back to a national currency would certainly lead to its devaluation. Is this truly an alternative option?

In theory and under certain preconditions, devaluing the national currency can lead to higher exports and lower imports that can potentially stimulate economic activity. The economy would at the same time regain its sovereignty over the exercise of fiscal and monetary policies, so it is argued.

This means that the government would be in a position to effectively spend by printing money.

UNREALISTIC This way the economy can grow or at least perform better, the argument goes, than in the case of the memorandum and the euro.

This is not a realistic alternative because it doesn’t take into account the particular structure of the Cyprus economy.

Cyprus is not only an import dependent economy; its import demand is largely inelastic. The structure of imports thus consists of much needed raw materials, oil and food. In this case, the devaluation of the currency will not improve the trade balance, which is what is required. Devaluation would only succeed in increasing the cost of imports and raising inflation.

Inflation in turn would negate any export gains from the initial devaluation. But even worse is the potential for a destabilising loop between devaluation and inflation, where devaluation leads to higher inflation that necessitates more devaluations leading to even higher inflation and so on. In such an environment people’s savings lose their buying value with adverse consequences for consumption and economic activity.

Things do not stop here. Public debt, which is 40 per cent foreign owned, will not be possible to redenominate in the national currency, and thus will not be possible to service, hence risking default.

The only possibility for an expansionary

fiscal policy would be the printing of money.

But this would leave inflation pressures unchecked, in turn leading to more devaluation of the national currency.

In this environment it will be impossible for the banking system to function without capital controls.

How can inflation be checked then? There

is only one way to keep inflation in check: a stable currency and fiscal austerity. We thus return to where we started from, to the adjustment programme and the memorandum.

Implementing the memorandum and staying in the eurozone is also a painful alternative. Yet it is one that offers the prospect of exiting the crisis in the medium term. The memorandum and the euro entail the prospect of the stabilisation of the system and the return to credibility in short order.

However, the combination of a) a credit crunch because of the banking crisis b) deleveraging, that is the reduction of debt in relation to the economy, and c) fiscal austerity, create conditions of internal devaluation and deflation.

This entails reductions in wages and prices, the contraction of economic activity and unfortunately the increase in unemployment.

But at the same time, the rationalisation of public finances, the stabilisation of public debt and the return to a sustainable path, will create the credibility needed to attract foreign investments for sustainable growth and development.

Cyprus is faced with a profound and multifaceted crisis. The restructuring of the banking sector and the rationalisation of public finances are prerequisites for exiting the crisis. These challenges, however, cannot be met successfully outside of the eurozone.

The economic adjustment entailed by the memorandum will be painful no doubt, but it will be considerably less painful in comparison with a policy of euro exit and devaluation.

Yiannis Tirkides is a Cyprus-based economist. This article is based on a speech delivered by the author at the National Economic Forum organised by the Social Democratic Movement (EDEK), at the University of Nicosia on May 11

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23 May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

Property Technology helps with the homework but can starve a child’s imagination. Kate Burnett discovers how good bedroom design can encourage young minds to wander wonderfully

Turn off the tech, tune in to creativity T

ECHNOLOGY is transforming children’s experiences of home life.

But while parents and professionals struggle to decide whether it is a force for good or evil, others simply worry that children might forget how to play, creating their own games and stories.

Could good design encourage children to spend as much time with their imaginations as they do with their iPads?

Ursila Wesselingh, an interior designer specialising in kids’ space, says: “Five years ago parents were keen to put TVs and computers in their children’s bedrooms, now it is a firm ‘No’. Families want technology in a more public part of the house, where they can all see what is going on and how much their children are using it.”

Designer Ashlyn Gibson feels strongly about making sure that technology is just another option for play available to children. Her company, Olive Loves Alfie, avoids the seemingly ubiquitous branded products for children (goodbye Hello Kitty) in favour of well-designed and well-made products from a variety of sources. “I’m not interested in toys that are too prescriptive, or that encourage gender stereotyping,” she says. “I want to create a much more exciting and nurturing environment - it’s a much more old-fashioned approach.”

Ashlyn’s daughter, Olive, is now 10 and like many mums, Ashlyn believes in making time as a parent by putting her own technology aside no phones, no laptops - in order to play. Olive is encouraged to be creative, and their colourful and vibrant house is full of playful pieces such as a carousel horse, vintage dressing-up clothes, hula hoops and Russian dolls. Ol-

ive doesn’t yet have her own computer but her mother has always made a point of engaging her to share in the design of the home.

In architect Francesco Draisci’s household, technology is cautiously welcomed as a tool to enable creativity, though laptops are preferred to computers so they can be put away when in danger of becoming a distraction. Like many Londoners, Draisci does not have a lot of spare room at home. His two sons’

Creating a magical world at home is every parent’s dream but shortages of time, space and money are not easy to overcome room is the size of a train sleeping car and is designed to maximise storage space as well as provide two purpose built bunk beds for the boys,

aged 10 and six. He worked with them to develop the design of the room and choose the digital-image wallpaper that covers one wall. The chosen image of a birch forest makes the room seem larger.

Draisci used his computer to show his sons the room as he designed it and he is happy for them to use technology to explore ideas. “We realise that our boys use it a lot to learn, to acquire knowledge,” adds Draisci. “They really like designing comics, for example, and develop ideas that eventually end up on paper.”

Suzy Harris, director of interior design company Homeology, says: “One client’s son is a bright 10 year-old who develops phone apps in his spare time. When asked what he wanted in his bedroom he gave me a computer-generated presentation. He specified yellow – something to do with his favourite football team.”

She added primary blue and red, an Eames chair, and a Jielde lamp as 20th-century classics. “The paint finish on the wardrobe doors and the headboard can be written on with a marker, so he could scribble down his ideas.”

Creating a magical world at home is, of course, every par-

Ashlyn Gibson watches as her daughter, Olive, 10, plays on the carousel horse in her bedroom

Up the wall: here’s one way of getting round technology, quite literally. Interior designer Sean Cochrane has given her daughter a bedroom climbing wall

ent’s dream but shortages of time, space and money are not easy to overcome.

For stretched parents it can be tempting to take advantage of the hypnotic effect of technology: after all, nothing absorbs a child’s attention quite like a TV, games console or iPad. Professor Mitch Blair, officer for health promotion at the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, cautions against having TVs and computers in the bedroom and recommends less than two hours a day of screen time: “We are becoming increasingly concerned, as are paediatricians in several other countries, as to how this affects the rapidly de-

veloping brain in children and young people. There is evidence that overexposure has an impact on attention span and concentration as well as appetite control - and then there is the big subject of computers encouraging a more sedentary lifestyle.”

Simon Williams is managing director of audio-visual company Olive and he is often asked to help parents configure systems for the family home. “A lot of parents ask me how you can control and contain it [technology] to make sure kids don’t have a one-track mind. In larger houses with solid structures but not in smaller flats, say - it is possible to limit wifi supply to certain rooms.” Williams

also suggests other options including modems that can be configured to block inappropriate content. Internet service providers can also restrict certain types of content, and children can be given a dedicated area close to the rest of the living space they can use technology for games and homework - with parents nearby.

Aside from these limits placed on devices, the most effective limits must surely be placed by the parents themselves. Any restrictions work best when the focus is not simply on limiting one activity but encouraging others, such as using design to engage children in their spaces.

Leptos Venus Gardens: a secure haven for your money VENUS Gardens is a unique Residential Resort located just a short walk from the Paphos coastline.

These hill top homes have a relaxing contemporary design with distinct Mediterranean features. All living areas have direct access to large verandas, terraces and gardens which surround the properties and all interior designs allow the sun and air to flow through. Venus Gardens is a luxury, gated community that will boast large communal greens, two communal swimming pools, a clubhouse and tennis court.

Venus Gardens is perfectly located on a hill top just a short walk from the Paphos western coastline offering beautiful views. The area enjoys cool summer breezes and is the ideal location for a holiday or permanent home. Very close to the project are luxury hotels and beach promenades, holiday attractions, the town centre and historic monuments.

In this special collection of exclusive homes

you will experience the mix of design and architecture with traditional features, comfort and construction of Mediterranean living including large covered outdoor spaces, wood, tiled roofs, earthy colors, Mediterranean landscaped gardens.

Contemporary modern technology includes double glazing, thermal insulation, contemporary interior aesthetics and finishes, modern kitchen, modern wardrobes and baths and underfloor heating in the bathrooms.

The Venus clubhouse is the perfect location for any event. It offers a selection of areas and provides residents with a bar, cafeteria, social area, meeting room, after sales service, management offices and a modest business centre.

New owners and their families will enjoy high quality medical treatments offered at special rates and discounts at The Iasis Hospital, owned by the Leptos Group, considered among the best equipped and staffed hospitals in Cyprus.

Leptos’ new project in Paphos

24 SUNDAY MAIL • May 19, 2013

Property If you are not sure about what your insurance covers you could be left with no pay out

LEGAL ISSUES WITH GEORGE COUCOUNIS

Agency is fiduciary depending on trust

Insuring your home Did you read the small print before signing a contract?

By Antonis Loizou FRICS THE subject on real estate insurance is not taken seriously to the extent that is appropriate by owners. It is mostly treated as a financial burden on something which will not happen. With this in mind, most property owners either underinsure their property and/or cover those events considered as most probable to happen, not therefore having a comprehensive cover.

The most likely causes in Cyprus for insurance are fire, earthquake, burst pipes and acts of God. Items such as bushfire, bad workmanship, sliding soil etc are not covered, being a “rarity” and thus not worth taking a risk. We recommend that a comprehensive insurance is more suitable, but compare the cost of this insurance for the additional items. What is important also to note is that some insurance companies find all sorts of excuses not to pay up when the time comes. Thus, for example, if water comes in the house because of a blocked drain, the insurance company might not pay since reasonable maintenance must be undertaken, whereas other damages caused by bad workmanship might not fall within the compensational items.

The first question to ask oneself is what level of value is the property to be insured for. Its replacement cost or its value? Say a large building plot on a commercial high street worth as a vacant plot €1m but within it there is an old house, which is there for demolition, in the event of redevelopment of the plot. What will one take into account? The land value only,

or plus the building value? But then the building has no value since the property’s value (land and buildings) is to be found in the land only. However if you choose not to insure the building and something goes wrong, then no premium will be paid. In this example if you use the house or it is of use to you e.g. you live in it or your workers/parents etc, then opt for the replacement cost of the building, as opposed to the value. Again if you own for example an aged property you will find that the replacement cost is higher than its value.

For certain areas in Nicosia, certain blocks in Limassol, as well as in Paphos the replacement cost is higher than the sale value. On the other hand, for buildings of good quality you might opt for an insurance based on the value of the building (not to include the land). But then the whole idea of an insurance cover is to make good the property to the standard that it was before the event.

As such if an apartment block is damaged, your idea will be for the property to be rebuilt. We are not aware what will happen in circumstances where say in an apartment block of say 10 units and only seven units are adequately insured.

So how can the whole block be replaced if the three units which are not insured do not come up with their own contribution? Simply the building cannot be reerected and you must negotiate with the insurance company what form of compensation you are entitled to, eg. the replacement cost of your unit, retaining the portion of land, or based on the value of the property and let the insurance company retain your portion of land.

WHAT YOU GET FOR

These and others items must be discussed with your insurance company in detail and we are aware, like car insurance, very few people read the whole contract and/or understand it. To this end the insurance company representatives do not go into details explaining the full extent of the insurance, in fear that the potential insurer will run away. As an example we were told that if your property burns down because of a fire in the surrounding area you are not insured unless specifically recorded in the contract. But then even if it is included, reading the small letters you are required to have a constantly cleared zone 3m outside your boundaries – how can this be, cleaning the neighbour’s field? Such details are not widely known as aren’t any changes that you effect on your property after the insurance contract (eg. building a BBQ or a fireplace which is the cause of damage) - which will give cause to the insurance company not to pay.

We do recommend that you take out a third party insurance for your home for invited and even uninvited visitors. This is particularly important for those who let their properties – check with your insurance company if you let the property, you are covered and pay particular attention to the standard clause that if a property is empty for a continuous period of 30 days, then it is not insured (it refers 80 per cent of the holiday/retirement homes).

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

MANY people carry out the business of others, acting as agents, having authority to execute acts in favour of their principal or representing him in transactions with others. These transactions may relate to immovable property, such as the sale, purchase, transfer, acceptance of transfer, payments, collection of money, mortgaging, assignment, declarations, rental and other relevant issues. They may also relate to commercial business, trade, investments, banking or even shareholding and money saving. The agent is not a servant or an independent contractor since he is not under the control or the supervision of the principal. The agency relation is fiduciary depending on trust between the principal and the agent. For this reason the agent has higher duties deriving from the principles of equity rather than the agency agreement. In this respect, the agent is obliged to abstain from gaining unlawful profit during the exercise of his duties, to act with reasonable diligence and care and to give account to his principal.

In the event the agent contravenes any of his obligations, the principal is entitled to claim damages for the actual loss and damage he suffered and the loss of his real profit.

He is also entitled to claim any amount he gave or entrusted to the agent plus interest from the date of the claim and request an account wherever necessary; however, he cannot claim any expected profit in the event the agent would have executed his duties. With regard to the claim for giving accounts, this remedy is only available where the principal cannot prove the amount he is entitled to. Moreover, where the agent holds money, property or goods for the principal and refuses to return them, the

principal has the right to claim them.

The aforesaid issue was examined by the court in a case where a defendant was appointed as the agent of the plaintiff to invest money given to him from time to time to gain profit. Although the agent was entitled to decide on how to invest the money, he undertook the obligation to give full and immediate account to the principal. He was given a certain amount of money in two different currencies, which however he denied that he had invested and did not return it to the principal.

The court, having referred to the above, decided the plaintiff was entitled to be indemnified by receiving his money back. Since it was not proven that the money was invested, no account was necessary to be given nor was any profit made.

The court went further to examine the issue that part of the money referred to in the statement of claim was in a foreign currency. Following the authorities, the court decided it had authority to issue such a judgment in a foreign currency because in this way justice was to be done. The principle is that in proper cases a judgment can be issued in a foreign currency taking into consideration the inflation and the fluctuation of the values of the various currencies. The loss of the plaintiff in this particular case was money in a foreign currency and therefore, the court issued a judgement accordingly and ordered the statement of claim to be amended.

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

€730,000 compiled by Peter Stevenson

How much: €730,000 What you get: This three-bedroom villa in Peyia in Paphos has a landscaped garden and spacious veranda. It comes fully furnished with a private swimming pool and a sea view.

From: www.foxrealty.com.cy Tel: 800 800 82

How much: €715,000 What you get: This three-bedroom maisonette in Larnaca is very close to the beach in a quiet area. It has a marble staircase and is close to all amenities.

From: www.buysellcyprus.com Tel: 26 200000

How much: €730,000 What you get: This four-bedroom house in Limassol has its own fish pond, fireplace and garage. It is only three minutes drive away from the Mall and Lady’s Mile beach.

From: www.aloizou.com.cy/ Tel: 25 871552

25 SUNDAY MAIL • May 19, 2013

ADVERTISER helps you find what you’re looking for

Advertiser Only

€14 (plus VAT)

a week for classifieds (up to 40 words)

Send your classified by fax or email and pay by credit card, cheque or cash. It couldn’t be simpler!

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

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES **************************** TONY & GUY are hiring. We require Stylists, Technicians and Apprentices for our Nicosia and Limassol salons.

Training will be offered to the right candidates. For more information, please send your CV along with a cover letter to hr@toniandguy. com.cy Closing date for applications 01/07/2013. **************************** TONY & GUY are hiring. We require Beauticians and Technicians for our Nicosia and Limassol salons, to work on a partnership basis.

For more information, please send your CV along with a cover letter to hr@toniandguy.com.cy Closing date for applications 01/07/2013. **************************** OVERSEAS PRIVATE EQUITY / Foreign Capital is seeking a female representative and administrator based in Nicosia with relevant Finance background and education with or without experience (fresh graduate). Application with C.V. to: anthony.pmc@ gmail.com **************************** JPW DIVE IN LIMASSOL LTD, Social Insurance no.

1947699/5/8551, is seeking to hire a Padi Master Scuba Diver Trainer who must speak and teach in Russian and English. Interested parties are asked to contact the Limassol District Employment office on 25827320. ****************************

MISCELLANEOUS **************************** TRANSLATIONS from Greek to English and English to Greek. €5 a double-spaced page (Arial - 12). Specialised translations €7 a page.

95110524 **************************** HELP WANTED and commission paid for advice regarding purchase of surplus Russian military items from Cypriot military. Please reply your details to info@rme-ltd. eu

*************************** WANTED: COUPLES OF EU CITIZENS LIVING IN CYPRUS We are currently conducting research as regards European families living in Cyprus. If both you and your spouse come from the same or a different country of the EU (except Cyprus and Greece, e.g. both from Germany, or Germany and

France), if you have children over 6, and if you are interested in taking part in some research financed by the University of Cyprus please contact us 96530033. Participants will complete a questionnaire and participate in a 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 Sunday 99013596 Paphos Tuesday / Thursday / Saturday 99916331 / 99399240 Details of meetings are available on www.aa-europe. net ***************************

LESSON **************************** I’M A QUALIFIED ENGLISH TEACHER with a PhD in English Literature and 8 years experience in teaching A-Level English Literature, ESL and IELTS, preparing students for exams and marking dissertations. If interested in private lessons, please contact me: 99377257. Limassol **************************** PRIVATE TUITION Experienced, UK-qualified teacher offers full/part-time private home tuition in Maths, English, Science, I.C.T.,Geography, History, Business Studies and Economics, from KS2 to iGCSE, AS and A2 levels. 9 years experience in Cyprus; references available. Telephone 99318796 ****************************

Nicosia - tel: 22 818583 fax: 22 676385 ternationally known aura photographer Eileen Augusti will be at the Gaia Centre Larnaca on the 25-26 May and 1-2 June. Aura photograph with reading – 35 euros, please contact Eileen at 99637093 - www.eileenaugusti.com, 24252615 - www. gaiacyprus.com **************************** KEEP YOUR HOME COOLER THIS SUMMER by having Windowfilm professionally fitted. Stops up to 86% of heat from entering your home! Windowfilm increases privacy, blocks harmful uv-rays which cause fading, reduces glare and saves energy costs on air-con. Also keeps your home warmer in winter. Call Ian on 99979671 *************************** PROFESSIONAL UPHOLSTERY CLEANING, also carpets, rugs and mattresses. Special offers now available. FREE STAIN GUARD FOR LIMITED TIME For a quote call Rickys Cleaning Services on 99131044 (all areas) info@rcs-cyprus.net / www.rcs-cyprus.net *************************** K.D.FLYSCREENS LTD. We manufacture top quality sliding screens, opening doors and roller systems.

We also do repairs. For a FREE QUOTE please contact Phone: 99119582 Website: www.kdflyscreens.com *************************** SWIFT SERVICE AND REPAIRS air-cons, commercial and domestic fridges and freezers, ice machines, cool rooms, supply and fit air-cons VRV S. Call Nik on 99579602 Limassol **************************** DO YOU WANT A SHINY LOOKING FLOOR? Full repair & restoration of chipped, scratched, dull and stained, Marble, Terrazzo, Stone & Ceramic tiled floors and surfaces. Professional cleaning, repair & sealing of internal/ external ceramic tiles & grout lines. For a free professional consultation & demonstration contact Mark at Premier on 70006766 All areas ****************************

PETS

SERVICES UK TV CHANNELS in Cyprus!

Watch all your favourite UK TV Channels including Sky Sports, Sky Movies ITV, BBC & Channel 4 & 5 in Cyprus!

65 Channels in all! Visit www. uktvcyprus.net for details or Telephone 95116359 **************************** AURA PHOTOGRAPHY In-

**************************** LOOKING FOR A NEW LOVING HOME; Beautiful and healthy 11 year old white female cross Labrador.

Neutered, obedient, house trained, can stay alone in house, does not bite. Perfect family dog. Microchipped and vaccinated. For info call 99320436 **************************** HONEY is a 3 month old

Limassol - tel: 25 761117 fax: 25 761141

pincher/terrier mix. She is very small sized and very sweet and playful. Honey is looking for a loving family to be hers forever! She will remain small sized so she is ideal for a family with an apartment! For adoptions call 99 520 511 Monday-Friday between hours 10-2 or email ndsadoptions@gmail. com ****************************

JULIE Young female (probably a hound – lab cross) only around a year old. A friendly, loving and playful dog. This is a medium sized but heavybuilt, strong dog best suited to families with older children. ***************************

Paphos - tel: 26 911383 fax: 26221049

manual Wood surround and steps plus cover Genuine reason for sale - stand alone solar powered electric runs down batteries overnight so hardly used. Cost CYP 4200. Sell for €2200. Call 99350898 *************************** FOR SALE – PAPHOS CATERING EQUIPMENT 1.

Industrial freezer – CORECO Height 200cm, width 68cm, depth 58cm 2. Electrolux Freezer, model EUC3109X, width-595mm, height-1800mm, depth623mm, freezing capacity24kg/24hours, energy class A 3.

CONVOTHERM OVEN model-OBG 6.10Combi Oven-Steamer with Gas Steam Generator Extra: Stand with stainless steel shelving, extractor fan, water supply system and gas installation connections, PLUS CHAFING TRAYS & THERMO BOXES, ALL IN EXCELLENT CONDITION AT REDUCED PRICES. PLEASE CALL: 99622678 ****************************

FOR SALE BUSINESS/ PROPERTY/LAND

RAOUL The gentle giant!!!! A beautiful male black large strong dog. Gentle, nice character, amazing with kids, people, cats and other dogs. He is an inside dog and trained. He will make a perfect family dog. ***************************

***************************** PLOT FOR SALE IN KATO PLATRES in a pine tree area. It comes with title deeds, 1095 square feet. Tel. 99881051. ***************************** FOR SALE LAND in Anthoupoli (half plot) 288 sq.metres. for information 99621554.

PROPERTY TO LET NICOSIA

VICTOR Male Jack Russell cross around 2 years old. Very dynamic little dog, best suited to homes with older children, active families and ones with a well fenced yard for him to run and let-off steam. He is dominant with other dogs, males and females alike. Victor is very entertaining and needs an owner who is patient and with a good sense of humour. With guidance and training this dog will adjust well to a new home and a structured lifestyle.

FOR SALE MISCELLANEOUS ***************************** 7 PERSON JACUZZI with 32 jets 2.2m square Owner’s

***************************** ACROPOLIS LUXURY FLAT; three bedrooms; bathroom; laundry room; fully fitted kitchen; large sitting/dining room; everyday room; two verandas; guest WC; central heating, air-conditioning, broadband internet, satellite TV; covered parking. Furnished €950, unfurnished €800, Tel: 22312255, 99557457. ***************************** BRAND NEW 1 BEDROOM apartment (55sqm), good condition, panoramic view, fully furnished, electric appliances, a/c, storage heater, solar system, covered parking,storage room. On third floor of Kalipoleos avenue. For information call 99663999 ***************************** FURNISHED 2-bed Flat (95sm).

Close to town centre. ONE MONTH FREE RENT! Spacious living area, Separate kitchen. Parquet floors. Central Heating & A/C. Covered

Larnaca - tel: 99 634725

classified contents Employment Opportunities pg 25 Employment Miscellaneous 25 Pets 25 Lessons 25 Health & Fitness 25 Personal 25 Services 25 For Sale Miscellaneous 25 For Sale Land/ Property Business 25 For Sale Motor vehicles 25 Properties Wanted -To Let Nicosia 25 To Let Limassol 28 To Let Larnaca 28 To Let Paphos 29 To Let Protaras, Ayia Napa, Paralimni -For Sale Nicosia 30 For Sale Limassol -For Sale Larnaca -For Sale Paphos 30 For Sale Ayia Napa -For Sale Famagusta Protaras 30 For Sale Paralimni 30 Property& Home Services display ads -Churches 29

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

26 May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

Advertiser TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

balcony, Covered parking. Suit professional single/couple. . €500pm. Tel: 9955 9525. ***************************** FLATS/HOUSES FOR RENT studio kennedy av. €300, 1 bdrm Str/los €300, Ag. Andreas new furnished €420, 2 bdrm Lycavitos €460 fully equipped, Kennedy €430, G/F Str/los €450, 3 bdrm Ag. Omologites furnished €500, Parissinos €500, Acropolis independent ideal for office/health centre €700, Ag. Antonios traditional €650, Acropolis €500, 4 bdrm Str/los independent with garden €1,000. 21PROPERTY FINDER LTD. Licenced & Registered Estate Agents A.M.627A.A.108/E 99474839 99646822 ***************************** TO LET 1 bedroom upper floor house, large veranda near restaurant Periyiali in Acropo-

lis 5 Aeantos Street €300 call 99680208 ***************************** LUXURY HOUSES: 1. 3 bedr luxury fully renovated semi detached house with storage heaters, full a/c, 2wc, big bedrooms, big sitting and dining area with semi open plan kitchen, FULLY NICELY MODERN FURNISHED, big garden with grass and big covered patio with bbq, in a very quiet area in a dead end opposite Orfanides supermarket – Strovolos €800 (H3ST10014-R), (photos in the website).

2. 3 bedr luxury terraced house, 210sq.m,central heating, full a/c, marble floor in the sitting areas and solid parquet floor on stairs and bedrooms, 4 wc,3 bathrooms, 2 en suite, big verandas, electrical appliances in the kitchen, 3 covered

parking spaces, roof garden access, in a quiet neighbourhood on Mon Parnas hill – Engomi €850 (photos in the website).

3. 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 neighborhood off Tseriou Avenue.

AVAILABLE IN JUNE – Strovolos €1500 (H4ST10024-R), (photos in the website).

4. 4 bedrs new luxury detached house,230sq.m,big sitting and dining area with solid parquet floor, big kitchen with cooker and oven,3wc,2 bathrooms, curtains on all windows, small garden, patio, central heating, full A/C, covered parking in a dead and near French Ambassa-

dor house- Strovolos €950 (H4ST10012-R) (photos in the website) 5. 4 bedr+ very big attic room separated in 2 rooms +separate room for the maid in the basement luxury fully renovated detached house with big sitting and dining room with fire place, big kitchen with electrical appliances sitting room and breakfast area, 3 bathrooms, floor heating independent with grass, a/c units, garden with grass and covered patio, in a quiet area near the International fair in the central part of Makedonitissa - €1500 Negotiable –(H4MAK0018-R) (photos in the website) 6. 3 bedr + attic room with shower and wc luxury detached house with central heating, a/c, fireplace, modern kitchen open plan with expensive electrical appliances, blinds, garden with grass, over flow swimming pool, covered parking in a quiet area. – Makedonitissa €1500 (H4MAK0023-R), (photos on the website).

7. 4 bedr luxury detached house with 2 big extra rooms on the attic with shower and wc, central heating, air condition units, 360sq.m, solid parquet floor all the house except the kitchen, big sitting and dining areas with fire place, big separate kitchen with family room and breakfast area, big mature garden with grass and swimming pool, covered parking, in a quiet neighborhood close to Alfa Mega supermarket – Dasoupoli €2000 - Available middle of June (H4DAS0001-R) (photos in the website) 8. 3 bedr +office space luxury detached house with storage heaters, full a/c, 3 wc, 260 m², big kitchen with big family room opening to a big garden with grass, electrical appliances, covered parking, in a very quiet neighborhood in a dead end - Makedonitissa €2000 (H4MAK0034-R) (photos in the website) 9. New modern luxury very good quality finished semi detached house built in 3 levels. Upstairs 1st level 3 bedrs all en suite+ laundry room, 2nd level big attic room which can be used for office space or bedroom.

Ground floor with 2 sitting areas ,dining area and break-

fast area, kitchen with all the electrical appliances, central heating, full a/c units. Basement with kitchen with cooker and oven, dishwasher, microwave and 2 refrigerators, sitting room with fireplace, and 2 bedrooms with one bathroom.

Outside private fenced garden with artificial grass, bbq area and covered veranda. The house has blinds and shutters on all windows, false ceiling with spot lights throughout house, pressure system, covered parking, satellite dish, central music and network system, storage room, very good double glazed windows.

Behind General flooring in the centre of Makedonitissa €1900 (H4MAK0001-R), (photos on the website).

10. 4 bedrs new luxury detached house, 450sq.m, central heating, full a/c, office space, separate maid’s room, big kitchen with sitting room and fire place and all the electrical appliances, all the sitting areas viewing the garden with grass, blinds on all windows downstairs, very big bedrooms with parquet floor, main bedroom with jacuzzi,2 covered parking’s near Alpha Mega supermarket and English School. – Stro-

KIOSK FOR SALE 20.000 EUROS (OVNO) PAPHOS PRICE INCLUDES ALL STOCK AND EQUIPMENT FOOD, DRINKS, CHILLED PRODUCTS, PET FOODS, CIGARETTES FROZEN PRODUCTS, HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS, TOILETRIES. FREEZERS, CHILLER CABINET, ELECTRONIC TILL SYSTEM, SHELVING ETC INTERESTED PARTIES SHOULD E-MAIL – midnight011963@gmail.com

27 SUNDAY MAIL • May 19, 2013

Advertiser

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

volos €2200 (H4ST10001-R) (photos in the website) 11. 4 bedr + big attic room luxury detached house with central heating, full a/c, 3wc, 260sq.m, big sitting and dining room, big kitchen with family room, big covered patio on the back with bbq area, covered parking, FULLY NICELY FURNISHED, BEHIND Apoel training field- Archangelos €1500 (H4AR0018-R), (photos in the website).

12. 3 bedrs luxury 2 storey, FULLY RENOVATED LISTED HOUSE with high ceilings in the centre of Nicosia, 260sq.m, 2 small attic rooms, big sitting room upstairs, big sitting room and dining area downstairs, wooden floor, kitchen with all the electrical appliances, 2 bathrooms (one en suite),3wc,CH independent, A/C, big garden – Nicosia Centre €1400 (H4NIC0002-R), (photos in the website).

13. 4 bedrs luxury renovated detached house built in 3

plots of land,550sq.m aprox, central heating, full a/c, all the bedrooms with en suite shower/bathroom, extra room upstairs for sitting room/office space/bedroom, solid parquet floor in bedrooms, big kitchen with granite and all the electrical appliances, maid’s room, big sitting areas with fire place and internal yard, big swimming pool 6 x 12,big mature garden with grass and big trees surrounding the house giving privacy, in a very quiet neighborhood near Acropolis park. Available in August €5500 – (H4DAS0006-R) (photos in the website) 14.4 bedrs new luxury detached house, all the bedrooms very big and all with big bathroom/ shower, sitting room upstairs, attic room with shower and wc, office space/maid’s room with shower and wc, central heating, full AC,450sq.m, big sitting and dining areas, big kitchen with sitting area and fitted cooker and oven, 6wc,

2 covered parking, yard with tiles and SWIMMING POOL, bbq area in a very quiet neighbourhood near CYBC (RIK) station and near a neighbourhood park – Platy Aglantzias €2500 (H4AGZ0005-R), (photos in the website) For many more properties with photos visit our website at www.landtouristestates.com which is updated daily. LANDTOURIST ESTATES LTD 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 through, central heating independent, full a/c, all the bedrooms with en suite shower/bathroom, 4wc, big kitchen with all the electrical appliances, blinds

on all windows, big covered veranda, covered parking, big storage room, on a small 3 storey building in a quiet neighbourhood – Agios Andreas- €1100 – A3AAD0005-R (photos on website).

2. 1 bedr spacious fully luxury renovated apartment,60sq.m, big sitting and dining room, big bedroom, fully newly modern furnished with LCD TV 32’, covered veranda, covered parking, storage heaters, full a/c, near Cyta, Laiki and Hellenic Bank headquarters – Dasoupolis €490 (A1DAS0004-R) (photos in the website).

3.

1 bedr spacious apartment,60sq.m, storage heater, 1 a/c, big sitting and dining room, NICELY FURNISHED , near Europa hotel and 5 minutes Walk from European University – Engomi €380 (A1ENG0001-R), (photos in the website).

4. 2 bedr FULLY RENOVATED spacious apartment with lami-

nate parquet floor, a/c for hot and cold in all the rooms, big sitting and dining room, separate kitchen, big bedrooms, FULLY NICELY FURNISHED, covered veranda with nice view, near the American Embassy - €450 (A2ENG0018-R) 5. 1 bedr luxury spacious apartment with big sitting and dining room, storage heaters, 2 a/c, cooker, oven, dishwasher, washing machine/dryer, refrigerator in the kitchen, 2 wc, 1 bathroom, blinds, big covered veranda, storage room, parking, big common SWIMMING pool. Price includes common expenses – Latsia €420(A1LAT0004-R), (photos in the website).

6. 2 bedr spacious renovated

apartment 100sq.m with separate big kitchen, air condition for hot and cold in all the rooms, covered veranda, nicely newly fully furnished , off Kyriakou Matsi street very close to the centre on foot – Agioi Omologites €450 (A2AOM0003-R), (photos in the website).

7. 2 bedr new luxury apartment with central heating independent, full a/c, 2wc, big sitting and dining room, separate kitchen with cooker and oven, blinds on all windows, covered veranda, solar heater, pressure system, covered parking, storage room, on a small building in a quiet neighborhood next to a playground, near Central offices of Cyta and Laiki Head

FOR RENT

English-Painter & Decorator

2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment in Larnaca near new hospital. €400 per month including service charge and refuse collection Call 99358916

Fully Qualified 30 years’ Experience SUMMER OFFER 30% OFF ALL AREAS • External & Internal painting • Damp Damage Repairs • Spritez Repairs • Free Estimates + very clean work • All areas. All types of woodwork stained and preserved • All work guaranteed

Tel. Tony on 99176557

SELECT 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

Roofing flat & tired roofing repairs and construction Tel. SELECT fencing 99176557

28 May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

Advertiser TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

TO LET NICOSIA

quarters – Dasoupoli €500 (A2DAS0018-R), (photos in the website).

8. 2 bedr new modern luxury apartment with separate central heating, full a/c, 2bathrooms(one en suite), blinds on all windows, electrical appliances in the kitchen, big sitting & dining room, big covered veranda, covered parking near Alpha Mega – Engomi €500. (A2ENG0014-R), (photos in the website).

9. New top quality 2 bedr apartment, 93sq.m+20sq.m veranda, on a small modern building with 6 flats only.

Central heating independent, full a/c, 2 bathrooms, 2wc, fully fitted kitchen with all the electrical appliances, water

pressure system roller blinds and shutters on windows, big sitting and dining room, big bedrooms, covered parking and storage room, in a quiet neighbourhood near Akropolis park. – Acropolis €700 A2ACS0002-R (photos in the website) .

10. New luxury finished 1 bedr penthouse apartment with big verandah with nice view, in a small modern building,55sq.m,storage heaters,2 a/c, blinds on the windows, expensive electrical appliances (cooker, oven, extractor, refrigerator, washing machine, dryer), covered parking and storage room, off Kalippoleos street opposite Dessange Day Spa near the University – Lykavitos €400

(A1LYK0002-R), (photos in the website).

11. 2 bedr luxury apartment with a/c for hot and cold, separate kitchen, big covered veranda, FULLY NICELY FURNISHED, covered parking, near the Ministry of Education – Acropolis €550 (A2ACS0036-R), (photos in the website) 12. 2 bedr new luxury apartment,7 years old,89sq.m,central heating independent, 3 A/C, 2 bathrooms, 2 wc, cooker and oven in the kitchen, blinds, covered verandah, covered parking and storage room in a quiet area opposite Akropolis Park – €500(A2ACS0038-R), (photos in the website.

13. New luxury finished 3 bedr penthouse (floor apartment)

on the 5th floor,165sq.m+ big verandas(one bigger with bbq), solid parquet floor all the flat,3wc,2 bathrooms, central heating ind, full a/c, big separate Italian kitchen with electrical appliances and dining area, big sitting room, covered parking and storage room off Makarios Avenue walking distance to the centre €850 (A3NIC0030-R), (photos in the website).

14. 2 bedr brand new nicely finished ground floor apartment with economic a/c for hot and cold, FULLY NICELY MODERN FURNISHED, covered veranda, covered parking, on a small 2 storey building off Kennedy Avenue near the centre. No extra common expenses – Nicosia Centre €500

(A2NIC0032-R), (photos in the website).

15. 3 bedr luxury penthouse apartment with central heating independent, full a/c, 2 wc, big sitting and dining room with fire place, separate kitchen, NICELY MODERN FURNISHED, big covered and uncovered veranda, covered parking, in Strovolos near the Municipal building €575 (A3ST10014-R), (photos in the website).

16. 3 bedr luxury apartment, 150sq.m + very big verandah, nicely modern furnished storage heaters,3ac,2 bathrooms,2wc,parquet floor in the bedrooms, big sitting and dining room with open plan kitchen, covered parking, off Makarios Avenue behind Hilton hotel – Nicosia Centre €700 (A3NIC0017-R), (photos in the website) For many more properties with photos visit our website at www.landtouristestates. com which is updated daily. LANDTOURIST ESTATES LTD 22-422225 / 96-422225 / 96422226 www.landtouristestates.com ****************************** 2 BDRM flat in the centre of Nicosia. Rent €450. For information call 99453663, 99663927. *****************************

SPECIAL OFFER In Kokkinotrimithia, 15km from Nicosia in a good area, (in the centre, opposite Maragos bakery, 41/2 acres or 7 plot with 90% building factor.

For more information please call 99673286, 99918830.

LIMASSOL ***************************** TO LET Hebrew homes, by Limassol twin towers, Kosher or Free, 3 monthly let. Call

TO LET LIMASSOL 035799036312. ***************************** TRADITIONAL VILLAGE STONE HOUSE IN APESHIA. Very quiet village, 20mins from Limassol. Road to heritage school/Troodos. 2 bedrooms, office available top floor with veranda great view of mountains. Small courtyard with trees. Electric solar water. A/C-toilet in main bedroom. Semi/full furnished.

Fitted kitchen with electrical appliances, fireplace. Toilet/ shower. €550pm negotiable.

Tel 96891800. ***************************** GROUND FLOOR HOUSE, furnished renovated this year. Laminated parke floor, and big wardrobes in the 3 bedrooms. Rent €590.00 Tel 99497576 99886775 *****************************

LARNACA LOVELY SOUTH FACING furnished apt, first floor, four balconies, sea views. Good area, Pyla Beach 2 kms, 3 double bedrooms, A/C, flyscreens, ceiling fans. Lounge, free internet access, B flat screen cable TV. B Kitchen, all modcons €575 euros pcm. Photos Tel: 99935294 or 99935263. ***************************** TO LET SEAFRONT STUDIO, fully furnished, sleeps 2 adults, all amenities including satellite, common pool and tennis court, basement parking, spacious verandas. Rent €1000 pm incl utilities. Available 1st

CHURCHES GRACE CHURCH, LARNACA 8 Ayiou Neofytou St Sundays 10 a.m.

Also Midweek Meetings Details: Colin 24530700 HOLY CROSS CATHOLIC CHURCH, PAPHOS GATE, NICOSIA Sunday Masses: Saturdays 6.30 pm, Sundays 8.00am, 9.30am & 6.30pm Weekday Masses: 6.30 pm Monday to Friday Tel: 22662132 Email: holcross@logos.cy.net

LARNAKA COMMUNITY CHURCH APHRODITE STREET, LARNAKA 10.00 AM MORNING SERVICE and SUNDAY SCHOOL For more details ring Fred 24365152

International EVANGELICAL CHURCH (Reformed) Limassol 352 St. Andrew’s Street (1½ blocks from Starbucks/Fat Boy) Sunday worship 10:30am Wednesday Bible Discussion 7pm For info: 99384742 ALL ARE WELCOME

St Helena’s Anglican Church, Larnaca St Helena’s Court, Grigoris Afx Sunday Service: Holy Communion 9.30 am

NICOSIA CHRISTIAN CENTRE 10 PINDOU STR, ENGOMI, NICOSIA, TEL. 22464375 SERVICES: SUNDAY 10AM, WEDNESDAY 8PM

Family oriented evangelical church Contemporary Christian Worship Sunday 10am (Holy Communion - 1st Sunday of the month) Sunday School (Juniors and Teens) Outreach and Evangelism Bible Studies

Tel. 99 293489, 99 279960 Email: immanuel.church.nicosia@gmail.com Website: www.immanuelchurchnicosia.org

ALL WELCOME Tel:24651327 office@sainthelenas.com

THE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF ST ANDREW AND ST JOHN THE BAPTIST MESA GEITONIA, LIMASSOL The Orthodox Liturgy in English served fortnightly on Saturdays at 9.00 am. We also hold a Discussion Group every Thursday evening at 7.30 pm For information please call Fr. Christopher Klitou Mobile: 99957144 Fax: 25710318 You can email us at: klitoux@logos.cy.net or visit our website: www.christopherklitou.com

THE REFORMED CHURCH OF LIMASSOL Clear exposition of the Bible in the presence of God, and relevant to our lives.

Our Sunday services start at 10:30 am sharp, and the Wednesday Bible discussion at 7 pm.

International Evangelical Church (Reformed) is located at 352 St. Andrew’s Street. 1½ blocks from Starbucks / Fat Boy, and 1 block from the Municipal Gardens, Zoo. For further information call Steve at 99384742, or email: iee.limassol@gmail.com All are welcome!

PROPHETIC CALL-OUT Grieved by preachers living in sin ? Pastors collaborating with idolaters?

Bored with just being a spectator?

In Prophecy there is no ‘us and them: Everyone contributes (1 Cor 14:26) 10am start 9/2/2013 God willing, Meet: Entrance Palaiopafos, Kouklia Instruments/shofars welcome

Open Door Baptist Church

St Barnabas’ Anglican Church 153 Leontiou A Street Limassol www.stbarnabas-cyprus.com Telephone: 25362713 - All welcome ALL SAINTS GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH (ENGLISH) Sunday Divine Liturgy 8-10am. Followed by Fellowship hour (coffee) Services are now being held at the underground Chapel of All Saints of Cyprus at St. Panteleimonos Church Makedonitissa Archangelos (Engomi) For more info please contact Fr. Joseph Coleman Tel. 99938924

THE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF AGIOS ARSENIOS, LIMASSOL (near Tsirion Stadium) The Orthodox Liturgy in English Saturday, 4 February at 8:30 am For information please contact: Father M. Spanou at 99 – 401365 (msspanou@googlemail.com)

9 Larnakos Street Katholiki Area Limassol Sundays: 9:45, 11:00 AM, 1:30 PM Wednesdays: 7:30 PM 25 751193 or 99 758729 www.cbm-odbc.org

GRACE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH Invites you to COME AND EXPERIEBNCE THE LOVE OF GOD WITH US Int. Christian Business Fellowship Meeting Centre Sundays: 10.00am Sunday School 11.00 am Main Service (Dine with us centre services) Wednesdays: Prayer meeting 6pm Address: To Arsinois Str., 1010 Nicosia (Next to Western Union Office to KISA) Contact: 99988900 or 97667932. \VISITORS ESPECIALLY WELCOME!!!

The Anglican Church of Paphos Ayia Kyriaki (St. Paul by the Pillar) Sunday 8.15am Holy Eucharist 6.00pm Sung Eucharist th 4 Sunday 6.00pm Choral Evensong Wednesday 9.00am Holy Eucharist 3rd Wednesday (BCP) St. Stephen’s, Tala st rd 1 & 3 Sunday 11.00 am Holy Eucharist 2nd & 4th Sunday 11.00am Morning Worship St. Luke’s, Prodromi 1st & 5th Sunday 9.30am Morning Worship 2nd , 3rd & 4th Sunday 9.30am Holy Eucharist 1st & 3rd Wednesday 9.30am Holy Eucharist 1st Sunday 6.00 p.m. Peace & Wholeness with Holy Eucharist 4th Sunday every quarter 9.30 am Holy Eucharist from BPC Church Office: 26-953044 Fax: 26-952486 Email: anglicancofp@cytanet.com.cy for directions to each church

DEUTSCHE GOTTESDIENSTE IN ZYPERN Nikosia: Am 1. und 3. Samstag im Monat in der St. Paul’s Cathedral um 18 Uhr Limassol: Am 2. Sonntag im Monat im Gemeindehaus in Germasogeia um 11 Uhr Am 4. Sonntag im Monat in der St. Barnabaskirche um 18 Uhr Paphos: Am 2. Samstag in der Kirche an der Paulussaeule um 16 Uhr Agia Napa: Am 4. Sonntag im Monat im Hof des Klosters um 9.30 Uhr Näheres Informationen durch Pfarrer Dr. Herold, Tel 25-317092 oder im Internet www.ev-kirche-zypern.de

St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral Byron Avenue, Nicosia, 22 445221/22 677897 www.st-pauls-nicosia.com

Sunday 0930 : Holy Communion Sunday School in the hall 1800 : Evening Prayer Monday/Tuesday/Thursday 0830: Morning Prayer Wednesday 1030 : Holy Communion First Monday of each month 1930 : Guild of St Raphael Parish Office : Mon-Fri : 0900 – 1100 Saturday 1000-1200

Bookshop and Thrift Shop

29 SUNDAY MAIL • May 19, 2013

TO LET LARNACA June 2013. Better rate for full season or year booking. Tel 99657055 ***************************** TO LET SEAFRONT 2 BEDROOM FLAT, modern fully furnished, easily sleeps 4 adults, all amenities including satellite, common pool and tennis court, basement parking, spacious verandah. Rent €2000 pm incl utilities. Available 1st June 2013. Better rate for full season or year booking. Tel 99657055 ***************************** FOR RENT fully furnished 1 bedroom flat near Larco Hotel Larnaca. Price €370. Tel 99202543 ***************************** 1 BEDROOM flat in Ermou Square area Larnaca - 2 bedroom flat in Phaneromenis area Larnaca. Call 96693375 **************************** 1. Superior Real Estate Larnaca. 3 bedroom detached unfurnished property set on a fantastic development in the village of Tersefanou. Available for immediate occupation.

Ref. TLL973. Tel 24815926

2. Superior Real Estate Larnaca. 2 bedroom fully furnished apartment, nr the Metro/American Academy Larnaca. Ref. TLL1654 Please call to arrange a viewing Tel. 24815926 3. www.superiorrealestatelarnaca.com – LARGE RANGE OF RENTAL PROPERTIES. From studio apartments to 5 bedroom villa’s for rent, all properties have detailed descriptions, professional photographs. Interactive Virtual/

Advertiser TO LET LARNACA

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

PAPHOS ***************************** 1. CORAL BAY, 1 bedroom fully furnished apartment walking distance to the sea. Communal pool, parking, amazing sea views. € 450 PTR 116

2. TSADA, modern 3 bedrooms unfurnished detached villa in a cul de sac. One bedroom downstairs, low maintenance garden, private pool. € 600 PTR 110 3. TRACHYPEDOULA, stunning 3 bedroom stone house only 30 minute drive from Paphos town and above humidity. Property which is suitable for retired families but not only.

All bedrooms en suite, modern furnished. A wonderful family home in a rural location! Must be seen to be appreciated!

Book a viewing, no obligation, it’s free! € 500 PTR 115 4. Chloraka, 4 bedrooms unfurnished detached villa with private pool in a cul de sac.

Separate kitchen, spacious bedrooms, master en suite, c/ h, a/c, shutters, fly screens.

Easy access to town, covered parking. € 700 PTR 111 PAPHOS TO RENT Tel:

TO LET PAPHOS 99389198.

For listings and many other properties please visit our web www. paphostorent.com and give us a call. ***************************** PEYIA, luxury villa, 3 double bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, fully or part furnished, private pool, quiet location, paved garden area, sea and mountain views.

Sky satellite, €550 ono, please call: 99771532 – no agents **************************** LEYTIMBOUv- Stunning 2 Bedroom Traditional Stone House that’s been completely Modernized to a very high standard although all the Original Features remain, Beamed ceilings, Under Floor Heating Flagstone floors, 2 en-suites with power showers, Large Enclosed Courtyard, Double Glazed Windows with Shutters, Open Fireplace €350

TREMITHOUSA - Superb Detached 3 Bedroom Villa with Large Pool, F/F to a very High Standard, Mater En-Suite, Family Bathroom with Jacuzzi, Beautifully Fitted Kitchen, Utility, Separate Shower room, Spectacular Mountain and Sea views, Quite Cul-DeSac location €700 KISSONERGA - Beautiful Detached U/F 3 Bedroomed Villa ,Large Pool,2 Bedrooms Upstairs Master En-suite ,Family Bathroom, modern Fitted Kitchen ,Downstairs Bedroom with En-suite Shower room, Low maintenance Garden, Large Terraces and Separate Storage

TO LET PAPHOS Room €600 KALEPIA - Fabulas Detached 3 Bedroom F/F OR U/F Villa, 2 En-suites, Great Views, Large Pool, Gated Driveway, Garage €600 URGENTLY WANTED – 3 Bedroom U/F Detached Villas 600/700 MORE PROPERTIES AVAILABLE FOR INFORMATION PLEASE CALL 99862922 ***************************** FOR RENT a selection of 1 to 5 bedroom houses & apartments F/F & U/F Universal, Peyia, Tomb of the Kings, Tsada, Timi, Kato Paphos & Kissonerga Landlord & Owners please call 99329357 Or please view at our website www.cyprussands.com Fully Registered Company in Cyprus ***************************** MR RENT PAPHOS, THE LEADING PROPERTY RENTAL AGENCY IN PAPHOS OFFICE: 26271858 (00357) IF YOU HAVE A PROPERTY TO RENT WE ARE THE RENTAL AGENCY TO CONTACT OFFERING FULL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT & RENT COLLECTION SERVICE

1. MESOGI €500 we are delighted to offer this beautifully restored traditional stone village house set in a picturesque courtyard with stone built barbeque & covered verandah. this spacious character home offers a modern fitted kitchen, separate dining room

TO LET PAPHOS & separate living room with modern gas fire, guest wc.

Gas central heating throughout. 2 bedrooms both with ensuite bathrooms & walk-in wardrobe. Plus an additional room perfect for an office or 3rd bedroom. This property is full of charm & unique detail and well worth taking a look. website reference number: RTL_687 2. KONIA €600 this fantastic price includes pool cleaning & gardening. Modern detached 3 bedroom villa, master with ensuite. Real fire to living area for those winter months. Good sized storage room & guest wc. Available unfurnished though includes, a/c throughout, blackout blinds, pressurised water system, flyscreens & shutters. Situated on a corner plot with large beautifully landscaped garden, offering a lovely private pool, mature plants & fruit trees. Gated entrance & covered off street parking. website reference

Cello & piano duet wide repertoire available for bars, cafes, hotels, receptions etc.

99947442 or 99418282 piano-arco-duet.blogspot.com/

TO LET PAPHOS number: RTL_685 3. KAMARES TALA €750 a spacious 3 bedroom bungalow, master with ensuite. Living area with real fire place for those winter months. Separate utility room. Good sized low maintenance garden with private pool offering breathtaking panoramic sea views.

Large outdoor storage room. covered car port. Available furnished with good furniture.

Situated in a quiet residential area with free membership to the Kamares club. website ref-

30 May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

Advertiser erence number: RTL_471 4. SECRET VALLEY €750 spacious modern detached 3 bedroom villa situated on a corner plot in a peaceful residential area. Offering large private pool with a low maintaince enclosed garden with sea views.

Off street parking. Fully furnished with modern furniture and includes gas central heating throughout. Modern fitted kitchen with granite worktops.

One bedroom on ground floor with bathroom. Pets allowed at owners discretion. Viewings highly recommended. website reference number: RTL_561 5. KAMARES TALA €850 a stunning 4 bedroom 3 bathroom detached villa in this peaceful sought after residential area.

Beautifully furnished with modern furniture. gas central heating throughout plus real fire for those winter months. Low maintenance landscaped garden with private pool offering the most beautiful sea views.

Only 15 minutes drive to the International School of Paphos & includes free membership to the Kamares club. website refence number: RTL_686 6. LOWER PEYIA €900 price includes pool cleaning, gardening, water and community tax bills. This 4 bedroom detached bungalow all with ensuite bathrooms, offers spacious accommodation of 200 sq meters. Available unfurnished. Situated in a quiet residential area. A lovely enclosed garden with fruit trees, a gazebo & private infinity pool with sea views. website refer-

TO LET PAPHOS ence number: RTL_683 7. SEA CAVES €1,200 price includes pool cleaning & gardening. Situated in this sought after residential area we offer this suburb 3 bedroom detached villa set in stunning landscaped gardens on a 1200 sq meter plot, offering a private kidney shaped swimming pool with sea views. Separate kitchen and spacious living area with conservatory. Master bedroom with ensuite. Downstairs guest wc. Available furnished or part furnished with classic furniture. Large garage/storage area and covered car port. website reference number: RTL_684 8. AGIA MARINOUDA €2,500 luxury modern 4 bedroom villa with additional office plus maids quarters and separate annex for guests. This amazing property offers an ultra modern fitted kitchen, sitting room & living room. Beautifully presented with modern furniture. Includes gas central heating. Entrance with electric gates leading to a spacious landscaped garden with private pool & entertainment area. Situated close to the elea golf course with sea and country side views. Viewings highly recommended. website reference number: rtl_681 Tel: 97790883 Tel: 99133422 office: 26271858 visit our website for many more properties www.mrrent-paphos. net email: info@mrrent-paphos.net **************************** FLOWRON PROPERTY RENT-

TO LET PAPHOS ALS : Offering a full range of property services, the company you can TRUST. Melanos 2 bedroom fully furnished top floor apartment with exceptionally large veranda and amazing views.

Sitting/dining area, kitchen and guest WC. Family bathroom. Outside veranda. Covered parking and communal pool. Includes communal fees. REF 1147 Amount €300 SPECIAL OFFER Lower Peyia 3 bedroom furnished older style villa in a small cul-de-sac. 3 bedrooms upstairs, family bathroom. Sitting room, spacious kitchen downstairs in a quiet location.

Private pool and BBQ area.

REF 1242 Amount €600 Timi 4 bedroom furnished large house on outskirts of Timi Village in its own private grounds surrounded by fruit trees. Very nice standard and lots of living space. Large quality kitchen. 3 large bedrooms upstairs, master with ensuite, family bathroom. Additional room used as office and upstairs loft. REF 1049 Amount €650 Armou 4 bedroom modern villa offered unfurnished.

Woodburner and airconditioning throughout. Dowstairs is large living room, large kitchen, dining area and guest cloakroom. Upstairs 4 bedrooms, Family bathroom.

Private pool and great sea/ mountain views. REF 1001 Amount €900

TO LET PAPHOS

TO LET PAPHOS

dential road. Private pool, gated, covered parking.

Downstairs bedroom, sitting room, kitchen. Upstairs 3 bedrooms all with ensuite shower rooms. REF 1241 Amount €900

flowron.com – Your Vision is our Mission LANDLORDS FLOWRON PROPERTY RENTALS WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU, WE WELCOME ALL PROPERTIES FROM STUDIOS VILLAS

Peyia 3 bedroom villa, unfurnished. Bedrooms all with fitted wardrobes and family bathroom. Airconditioning, flyscreens, fans and sat TV. Sitting/dining area, kitchen with white goods and guest cloakroom. Outside private pool with shaded offstreet parking and great mountain and seaviews. REF 1214 Amount €550

**************************** PEYIA – 3 bedroom villa with modern quality furniture and finishes.

Central heating, sky, alarm, infinity pool and stunning sea and mountain views €700 per month, call: 99389426

Tala 3 bedroom part-furnished modern villa with quality interior Italian kitchen, central heating, private pool and great seaviews in peaceful residential location. REF 988 Amount €750 Sea Caves 5 bedroom modern, fully furnished luxury villa in centre of Sea Caves/Coral Bay property with central heating double garage and downstairs bedroom. Outside – large grounds with private pool and beautiful seaviews.

REF 9999b Amount €1,800 Please call for a free viewing on 26600450 – 97616070 many more properties including commercial lettings on our website at www.

**************************** BRAND NEW APT, opposite Poseidonio Gym, near Carrefour, F/F, a/c, great quality, 1 bdrm, from €340 p.m. Tel 99403261

FOR SALE PAPHOS PAPHOS ***************************** REDUCED TO 300K. Detached modernised stone bungalow in peaceful Paphos village, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, large kitchen/diner and large separate lounge. Open views to the coast and Troodos, a real must see. contact 99246121 or jimicyprus@gmail.com for further info.

EXO-VRISI – 2 bed townhouse in quiet cul-de-sac. Panoramic sea views, car port, a/c, ceiling fans, tastefully furnished, plus all white goods, €105.000 o.n.o with title deeds Call : 26954147/ 99137828 *****************************

PROPERTY FOR SALE

PARALIMNI 2

NICOSIA FOR SALE upper floor house 210 sq.m built on 301 sq. m land, Lapatsa area, Pereous 1a. 4 bedrooms with attic room (not finished), c/h ,4 a/c, aluminium doors & window, covered parking and storage room. Price €310.000 pm call 22431095 99330632. *****************************

BDRM APPARTMENT in Paralimni fully furnished walking distance to local beaches cash price €49,000 no offers for further details contact Peter 99142734

PROTARAS 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.

LIMITED XMAS OFFER!

Secret Valley 4 bedroom large unfurnished villa in nice resi-

It may seem early but with a small deposit you can secure your room for 3 nts at Christmas on an All Inclusive basis

4* Crown Horizon Hotel Paphos ¤300 per couple!!

We have very few rooms available – book before the end of May for this special rate!! info@centurycyprus.com www.centurycyprus.com

Tel: 70 000 970

EMBA

TO LET PAPHOS

INDOOR MARKET & CAR BOOT SALE FRI FRIDAY – SATURDAY – SUNDAY 8:00AM – 2:00PM

FRESH VILLAGE FRUIT AND VEGETABLES WATCH REPAIRS & JEWELLERY POTTED FLOWERS NEW & USED HANDBAGS & CLOTHES SECOND HAND BOOKS COMPUTERS & TELEPHONE ACCESSORIES SECOND HAND FURNITURE & ANTIQUES INDIAN TAKE AWAY HOME MADE FRESH CAKES & PIES

STALLHOLDERS & CAR-BOOTERS WELCOME ALL ENQUIRIES CALL: 96533839/99771532

31 May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

Compiled by Rosie Ogden

Rare bug sighted: limited edition VW Beetle GSR SOME 40 years after the original Volkswagen Beetle GSR made its debut in the European market, the German car giant has released a limited edition of the car.

Unveiled earlier this year at the Chicago Auto Show, the Beetle GSR has “a unique design” and a powerful 210 PS turbocharged engine.

Just 3,500 of these cars will be made worldwide, so they are likely to become collectors’ items.

The GSR has a legendary predecessor, which was based on the Beetle 1303 S and made its debut 40 years ago (GSR stands for ‘Gelb-Schwarze Renner’ in German, which means Gold-Black Racer). Only 3,500 of the original model were produced as well.

Volkswagen says it has ‘re-interpreted’ the concept of the 1970’s GSR for the modern era. Just like the GSR from days gone by, the body of the new version is yellow. The bonnet and the boot lid of the 1973 Beetle were painted in matt black, as were the bumpers, while black trim strips underneath the side windows and black/yellow side stripes above the door sills rounded off the look.

Now, yellow and black are the link between old and new – the bonnet and the boot lid of the new GSR are black once again, and this time so are the roof and the exterior mirror trims. Black/yellow stripes with ‘GSR’ lettering feature above the side sills.

Yellow painted bumpers and a larger than standard yellow and black rear spoiler complete the GSR look. For those who prefer something a little more subtle, the new Beetle GSR can also be ordered in Platinum Grey and Black.

While the 1973 GSR came with 15-inch steel wheels with 175 size tyres, the latest model features 19-inch ‘Tornado’ alloy wheels with 235/40 tyres. The black/yellow interior of the GSR from days gone by featured a leather sports steering wheel and sports

seats. Four decades later, customers demand more, and the GSR comes with R-Line racing seats (with fabric covers and contrasting yellow stitching), a high-grip leather sports steering wheel (also with contrasting yellow stitching) and a badge with the car’s special-edition number (1 to 3,500).

The car also boasts an RLine dash pad, GSR gear stick, leather handbrake lever gaiter and black floor mats with contrasting yellow embroidery.

VW says “forty years ago, the yellow/black Beetle needed just 50 PS to turn the world of compact cars on its head. These days, it takes somewhat more than that to make headlines, and with its 2.0-litre turbocharged 210 PS engine the GSR needs just 7.3 seconds to accelerate to 62 mph”.

It has a top speed of 142 mph, 280 Nm of torque from 1,700 rpm to 5,200 rpm, and is expected to return a combined fuel economy of 38.7 mpg with CO2 emissions of 169 g/km.

There’s either a six-speed manual or a DSG gearbox and first deliveries are expected in September.

‘Just 3,500 of these cars will be made worldwide, so they are likely to become collectors’ items’

Volkswagen says it has ‘re-interpreted’ the concept of the 1970’s GSR for the modern era

Motoring

MILLE MIGLIA A ‘MUST ATTEND HISTORICAL DRIVING EVENT’

Alex Buncombe and Norman Dewis in the Jaguar C-Type - once owned by former Formula 1 champion Juan Manuel Fangio

Stars all set to drive for Jaguar heritage THE Mille Miglia - the thousand-mile rally from Brescia to Rome and back – is a ‘must-attend’ historical driving event for car enthusiasts across the world and this year Jaguar has curated a unique team of drivers for its Jaguar Heritage Racing entry. The classic car tour is arguably the most famous vintage car rally in the world.

Behind the wheel of outstanding examples of Jaguar C-Type and XK120 heritage race cars are six-time Olympic cycling champion Sir Chris Hoy, global supermodel David Gandy, Le Mans 24 Hours race winner Andy Wallace, Chairman & CEO of 20th Century Fox Jim Gianopoulos – who is driving with a film industry colleague, German actress Hannah Herzsprung, Italian Salvatore Ferragamo Jr., fashion icon Yasmin Le Bon and Michael Quinn, the grandson of Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons.

This list of classic car enthusiasts are led by Jaguar Heritage Racing’s own multiple race winner Alex Buncombe and motoring journalist Chris Harris, who link up for the event in a Jaguar C-Type once owned by former Formula 1 Champion Juan Manuel Fangio.

The Mille Miglia is considered by many to be the pinnacle of classic motorsport, and the competitive event in 1952 saw Jaguar debut the disc brake on its C-type sports car, piloted then by Jaguar Chief Development

A real beauty: the Jaguar XK120 Engineer Norman Dewis and Formula 1 legend Sir Stirling Moss. Dewis was with some of the 2013 Jaguar Heritage Racing team at Goodwood Motor Circuit last week, in a driver training session.

The line-up of three C-Type race cars and three XK12Os are being followed on most of the route by five new Jaguar F-TYPE sports cars.

Before the start on Thursday, Jaguar’s Regional Director for Europe, Bernard Kuhnt, said: “Jaguar’s 1952 entry into the Mille Miglia was hugely significant in the evolution of Jaguar products. Seductive design, intelligent performance and technological innovation were features of all Jaguar sports cars in the 1950s and 60s and they are prevalent in the incredible new F-TYPE. I am delighted that the Jag-

uar sports car ‘bloodline’ will be together in this great race and that such an exciting list of individuals will come together to celebrate the occasion and drive our cars.”

This year Bugatti has two cars at the classic race, including a 1926 Bugatti Type 35T - one of the most successful racing cars in automotive history.

Dr Wolfgang Schreiber, president of Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S, takes the wheel of the factory car, and a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse, the latest model from the legendary French brand, will also start, though not compete.

The Type 35T draws its 120 PS from a 2.3 litre, straighteight engine. Its 750 kilos are distributed 50/50 across the axles, giving the car ‘in-

credible manoeuvrability’.

The modern day Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse, meanwhile, is powered by an 8-litre W16 engine. It boasts some impressive statistics: 1,200 PS, 1,500 Nm of torque and acceleration of 0 to 100 km/h in just 2.6 seconds. With the top down, it can reach a top speed of 410 km/h, which makes it the fastest production roadster in the world.

Recently, the Vitesse also broke the world record for open-top driving with a top speed of 408 km/h.

This year, the Mille Miglia is being held for the 36th time since 1977, as a tribute to the former legendary motor race. From its debut in 1927 to its temporary closure in 1957, the Mille Miglia was considered one of the longest and most challenging races in the world. Although today it is organised as a moderate and safe drive, it is by no means a Sunday outing for vintage car lovers.

The three-day, multi-stage rally places considerable demands on driver and vintage car alike. The race runs over 1,000 miles from its start in Brescia, Northern Italy, passes cities such as Verona, Ferrara, San Marino and Rome, and returns via Siena, Florence and Cremona, cheered on by hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts at the roadside along the way.

The rules stipulate that only cars that took part in the original Italian classic race and are still in their original condition may participate in the competition.

32 May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

Sport Beale testing Australia’s capacity for forgiveness

Poulter calls World Match Play display ‘disgraceful’

Wayward star checks into health clinic

IAN Poulter has labelled his performance as “disgusting, disgraceful and unacceptable” as he crashed out of the Volvo World Match Play Championship in Bulgaria.

Poulter (below), who inspired Europe’s Ryder Cup triumph at Medinah last year with four wins from four matches, lost his opening group game to Thongchai Jaidee and was then beaten on the 18th hole at Thracian Cliffs by Thomas Aiken.

Two down with four to play, Poulter got back on level terms with birdies on the 15th and 16th, but then bogeyed the last after hooking his drive onto the adjacent fourth fairway and failing to get up and down after hitting his approach just over the green.

“I have no excuses,” said Poulter, who won the event in 2011 and felt it had come at the right time after missing the cut at the Players Championship last week followed a first missed cut of his career at the US Masters.

“There is no excuse for that display of golf over the last two days. It’s disgusting, disgraceful and there’s no explanation. I should have been able to finish the match off.

“My concentration was simply not there and therefore you make mental errors when you have not used your brain. It’s completely unacceptable.”

Asked where he went to next, Poulter added: “The tallest tree with the shortest rope. I am p***** off. I will stay p***** off for a couple of hours and then get to England and win at Wentworth (venue for next week’s BMW PGA Championship).”

By Ian Ransom

IN BRIEF

KURTLEY Beale has drawn praise for his decision to enter a private health clinic to tackle his alcohol problems, and while the troubled Wallabies back has walked a fine line with his behaviour, Australian rugby is unlikely to turn its back on one of its brightest stars.

Blessed with explosive pace and skill in abundance, the 24-year-old playmaker has been treated with patience since first donning the Wallabies’ golden jersey in 2009 as a callow 20-yearold against Wales.

Australian rugby’s capacity for forgiveness was evident when Beale was reinstated by the Melbourne Rebels little more than a month after punching two team mates in a boozy incident on the team bus in South Africa in March.

That tolerance appeared naive when it emerged last week that Beale had broken a team-imposed no-alcohol policy only a night after his return to action for the Rebels against the Chiefs earlier this month.

Promptly stood down for the second time this season, Beale would take a leave of absence from rugby after voluntarily checking himself into a clinic, the Rebels said.

The move drew praise from Beale’s former Wallabies team mate Drew Mitchell, who voiced his approval on Twitter, but Beale’s availability for the upcoming British and Irish Lions tour will be the subject of fierce speculation as he recovers in

Australia’s 1991 World Cup-winning coach Bob Dwyer described Kurtley Beale (left) as ‘a massively talented guy who does things other people couldn’t even dream of doing’ seclusion.

“Another infringement is disappointing,” Bob Dwyer, who coached Australia to their first World Cup triumph in 1991, told Reuters.

“The guy is obviously a massive talent. He does things other people couldn’t even dream of doing.

“But you can’t continually break the law and expect to stay out of jail.”

Australia coach Robbie Deans names his first 25man squad for the threeTest series against the Lions today, but will name another six players when the Super Rugby season takes a break next month for the international window.

The first Lions Test will be held in Brisbane on June 22, giving Beale less than six weeks to prove he is healthy.

Otherwise an automatic selection in Deans’s starting 15, Beale’s ability to slot back into top-flight rugby after a lengthy layoff was showcased by a brilliant half-hour cameo for the Rebels against New Zealand’s Chiefs.

TEMPTATION The temptation to rush Beale back into the Wallabies for the series against the Lions, which comes around once every 12 years, would be strong, but could also be fraught with danger.

James Pitts, the CEO of Sydney-based Odyssey House, a clinic that treats drug and alcohol addictions, said the player might need more time.

“The sports administrators might say, ‘Well, the best

thing for him is to get right back into rugby,’” Pitts, a former professional basketballer who also struggled with drug addiction, told Reuters.

“I don’t know ... He might need a little bit more time.”

Beale’s value to rugby in Australia goes far beyond his exploits on the playing field, with his Aboriginal heritage and roots in a working class suburb of Sydney making him an ambassador for the sport among local indigenous communities.

Raised in hardscrabble Mt Druitt, far from the waterfront mansions lining Sydney’s iconic harbour, Beale earned an indigenous scholarship to renowned rugby nursery St Joseph’s College, where his dominance for the school’s first 15 led to a con-

tract with Super Rugby’s New South Wales Waratahs at 16.

Anointed a future Wallaby even before finding his feet in club competition, Beale initially struggled to live up to the hype, battling injuries and ballooning weight at the Waratahs.

Further problems emerged with his transition to the big-time.

Within weeks of making his 2009 Wallabies debut as a 20-year-old off the bench against Wales, Beale was charged with assaulting a teenage cousin at a party.

He was acquitted the following year, but a month later he came under further scrutiny for urinating in public near a Brisbane nightclub following a test match against Ireland.

Spurs aim to tame Grizzlies America’s Cup team calls for ‘Manx Missile’ Cavendish after overcoming Warriors safety changes to regatta steals the show at Giro THE San Antonio Spurs advanced to the Western Conference finals after closing out the Golden State Warriors 94-82 in Game Six of their semi-final series.

Led by Tim Duncan’s 19 points, the second-seeded Spurs claimed victory on the road in Oakland to seal a 4-2 triumph in the best-of-seven series and set up a showdown against the fifth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies.

All five Spurs starters contributed to the victory by registering double figure scores to help overcome unusually subdued performances from Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.

THE head of the Italian sailing team in the America’s Cup has called for lowering limits on wind speeds and other safety measures to make the regatta less dangerous following a deadly accident last week.

Prada fashion house co-founder Patrizio Bertelli said if the other three participants cannot agree on ways to improve safety, his team Luna Rossa Challenge could withdraw from the competition due to get underway in San Francisco Bay in July. Organisers have said races will go ahead, despite growing concerns over safety after a British champion sailor was killed when one of the sleek, ultra-fast AC72 catamarans capsized and broke apart last week.

A SERIES of small but challenging climbs late on the 13th stage of the Giro d’Italia could not stop Britain’s Mark Cavendish taking his fourth stage win and second in two days.

Cavendish, nicknamed the ‘Manx Missile’, stole the show again in the 254 kilometre stage, the longest in this year’s Giro.

In a bunch sprint finish Cavendish outgunned Italy’s Giacomo Nizzolo and Slovenia’s Luka Mezgec.

After clinching his 40th Grand Tour stage win and 101st of his career, Cavendish said he had not expected to take the victory on a course with such a difficult finale.

33 SUNDAY MAIL • May 19, 2013

Sport Golf Hall of Famer Venturi dies aged 82

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso made four pit stops on his way to victory at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, exactly the same number as Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel made in finishing fourth

Ferrari ridicule tyre critics FERRARI have ridiculed critics of the tyres in Formula 1 in what amounts to a veiled attack on champions Red Bull.

Red Bull said tyre strategy meant F1 was “not racing anymore” and the number of pit stops in the Spanish Grand Prix made it “confusing for the fans”.

Ferrari’s satirical ‘Horse Whisperer’ column said these were “difficult times for those with poor memories”.

It mentioned Red Bull wins featuring the same number of stops Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso made in his Spain win.

Alonso made four pit stops on his way to victory at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, exactly the same number as Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel made in finishing fourth.

Vettel also made four stops on his way to victory at the same track in 2011, when

Veiled attack on F1 champions Red Bull Red Bull did not make an issue of tyre strategy.

Alonso’s victory meant he closed his deficit to championship leader Vettel after five races to 17 points, despite crashing out of the Malaysian race in March and finishing only eighth in Bahrain.

Red Bull have been lobbying tyre supplier Pirelli to make more durable tyres, feeling the need to look after the rubber is preventing them unleashing the full potential of their car.

The Italian company announced this week that it would change the tyres from next month’s Canadian Grand Prix “in the interests of the sport”.

It said it recognised that four stops was too many and it would try to ensure there

were between two and three at each race for the rest of the season.

The ‘Horse Whisperer’ said: “Maybe it’s because of the huge amount of information available today that people are too quick to talk, forgetting things that happened pretty much in the recent past.

“Or maybe the brain cells that control memory only operate selectively, depending on the results achieved on track by their owners.

“A classic example of this is the current saga regarding the number of pit stops.

Voices have been raised to underline the fact that various teams, some of whom got to the podium and others who were quite a way off, made four pit stops in the recent Spanish Grand Prix,

making the race hard to follow.

“It’s a shame that these worthy souls kept quiet two years ago when, at the very same Catalunya Circuit and on the Istanbul track, five of the six drivers who got to those two podiums made exactly the same number of pit stops as did Alonso and (Ferrari’s second driver) Massa last Sunday in the Spanish Grand Prix.

“In fact, there’s nothing new about winning a race making so many pit stops, even discounting those where it was down to changeable weather.

“One only has to look back to 2004, when Michael Schumacher won the French Grand Prix thanks to what was a three-stop strategy, later changed to a four stop-

per.

“That was the key which allowed the multiple champion’s F2004 to get ahead of the then Renault driver, Fernando Alonso, who made three stops. And on that day and we remember it well, our strategy and the tyre supplier were showered with praise for allowing us to get the most out of the car.

“Today however, it seems one must almost feel ashamed for choosing a strategy that, as always for that matter, is aimed at getting the most out of the package one has available.

“On top of that, if this choice emerges right from the Friday, because all the simulations are unanimous in selecting it, then why on earth should one feel embarrassed when compared to those who have gone for a different choice, only to regret it during the race itself.”

Djokovic admits mistakes after collapsing in Rome

World No.1 Novak Djokovic hadn’t lost to Tomas Berdych since Wimbledon in 2010

NOVAK Djokovic admitted he only had himself to blame after collapsing with victory in sight as Tomas Berdych pulled off a remarkable comeback at the Internazionali d’Italia in Rome.

The Czech world number six rallied from 2-6 2-5 down to pull off a battling 2-6 7-5 6-4 win over the world number one and top seed in two hours and 22 minutes.

It was Berdych’s first win over Djokovic since the 2010 Wimbledon semi-final, and only his second in 15 attempts.

“I lost concentration and started to play more defensively,” the Serbian said on the ATP website.

“I played a bad game at 5-3 and I made some unforced errors. At this level you have to take advantage

of the opportunities and I lost this game by myself.

“Overall I played very well and was two points from winning. Then the entire match changed.

“I know I can play well on clay and so I shouldn’t allow myself to have these drops.

Let’s hope it won’t happen for Roland Garros,” Djokovic said of the French Open, the only major he has not won. “I’m fine. I just lost my rhythm. It’s a very strange situation.”

Berdych was just delighted to have broken his hoodoo against the world’s top player.

“One day you have to break the run and I am happy that it was today,” he said.

“It was a great game and I am happy. I was trying to stay positive from the beginning. He didn’t give me a

single chance.

“I was trying to stay there and there are matches when you don’t get a single chance, but then if you get one then you are ready.

Then everything could turn the other way and this is what happened.”

Maria Sharapova meanwhile has withdrawn from the Rome event due to illness, sparking fears over the defence of her French Open title.

Sharapova, a former twotime winner in Rome, announced her decision to pull out prior to her scheduled meeting with Italian seventh seed Sara Errani.

Sharapova wrote on her Twitter feed: “I’m sorry for having to withdraw from the tournament. Didn’t recover after being sick last week and it got me again.”

FORMER US Open champion and television broadcaster Ken Venturi, a 14-time winner on the PGA Tour, died on Friday at the age of 82 following various health complications.

Inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame just 13 days ago, Venturi had been in hospital for the last two months for a spinal infection, pneumonia and an intestinal infection, the PGA Tour said in a statement.

Venturi’s son, Matt, said his father had died in a hospital in Rancho Mirage, California, where he had been living for several years.

The highlight of Venturi’s playing career came in the 1964 US Open at Congressional Country Club where he overcame 100-degree temperatures and severe dehydration to win his only major championship.

He was forced to quit competitive golf because of carpal tunnel syndrome in 1967. The following year, he joined CBS television as an analyst and enjoyed a lengthy career as one of the most insightful and respected figures in the game.

“He played on the Ryder Cup in 1965, he captained the US Presidents Cup in 2000,” PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said last October after Venturi was voted into the World Golf Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2013.

“But to fans around the United States and around the world, he was the conduit of what PGA Tour level golf was to those fans for an incredible 35-year broadcast career which spanned many, many careers on the PGA Tour.

“Ken Venturi was a fixture to the game of golf for fans everywhere in terms of his ability to analyse the game and excite fans about the play they were watching.”

Venturi, a San Francisco native who learned to play golf at Harding Park, described his induction into the Hall of Fame as “just an honour” when speaking on a conference call from Pebble Beach Golf Links in California.

“The greatest reward in life is to be remembered and I thank the World Golf Hall of Fame for remembering me,” Venturi said.

“I was taught by Byron Nelson and I asked him one time, ‘How could I ever repay you for all you’ve done for me?’ He said, ‘Ken, be good to the game and give back.’

“And that’s what I’ve tried to do because I’ve said many times, the world will never remember you for what you take from it, but only what you leave behind.”

34 May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

Sport

Real contemplate ‘disastrous’ season after King’s Cup loss Mourinho finishes season with no trophy for first time

By Iain Rogers REAL Madrid and Jose Mourinho were sifting through the debris of what the Portuguese coach termed a “disastrous” 2012-13 campaign after Friday’s King’s Cup final defeat left the world’s richest club without a major trophy for the season.

The 2-1 reverse to Atletico Madrid at their own Bernabeu stadium meant Mourinho, widely expected to move on at the end of this term, finished a season without significant silverware for the first time in his otherwise glittering career.

It represents a huge setback for the self-appointed ‘special one’, as well as for Real president Florentino Perez, who lured Mourinho from Inter Milan at great expense in 2010 and has constantly referred to him as “the world’s best coach”.

Obsessed with winning the 10th European crown that has

eluded Real since 2002, Perez has splurged more than 400 million euros on players since returning to lead the club in 2009, including a record 94 million on Cristiano Ronaldo.

That investment has so far yielded one King’s Cup in 2011 in Mourinho’s first season and a La Liga title last term with a record points haul of 100, a meagre haul for a club as ambitious and as wealthy as Real.

The nine-time kings of Europe have fallen in the semifinals of the Champions League in each of Mourinho’s three campaigns and surrendered their La Liga title to Barcelona last weekend, a fourth for their arch rivals in five years.

Friday’s extra time defeat to Atletico was made even more painful - and damaging for the club’s image - by the dismissal of Mourinho from the bench for furiously protesting a decision by the referee and a red card for Ronaldo for kicking out at Atletico cap-

tain Gabi.

Mourinho, who has done little to quash speculation he is on his way back to Chelsea, spent a large part of his post-match press conference defending his record at Real while claiming that Atletico had not deserved to win the match.

“What for many would be a good season is my worst,” he told reporters. “We have been close but that does not exist in football.”

Always outspoken and often controversial, Mourinho has alienated some Real fans in recent months with his treatment of club captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas, who has been benched since returning from a broken hand.

Dressing room divisions burst into the open in the last few weeks, with Mourinho’s Portuguese compatriot Pepe earning the coach’s wrath after a public defence of Casillas.

Before recent games at the Bernabeu, a large section

of the crowd have cheered Casillas when his name has been read out among the list of substitutes while roundly whistling Mourinho.

All this leaves Perez in a tricky position and a number of reports have suggested he is lining up Paris St Germain’s Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti as a replacement for Mourinho.

Mourinho, who has a contract until June 2016, said he would sit down with Perez after Real’s final two La Liga matches to decide whether he will continue.

If he does stay, he will be in charge of a divided dressing room and a club where a significant section of the home support have lost faith in him.

Atletico’s fans gleefully mocked their Real counterparts at the Bernabeu on Friday with their ironic chants of ‘Mourinho stay! Mourinho stay!’ but a change of coach may now be inevitable after the events of recent weeks.

Cristiano Ronaldo (right) was sent off for kicking out at Atletico captain Gabi in Real’s 2-1 extra-time defeat

Stoke probe ‘banter gone wild’

By Ian Parkes STOKE have promised to launch an internal investigation after suggestions a pig’s head was placed in the locker of striker Kenwyne Jones on Friday.

Jones is believed to have reacted furiously to the incident at Stoke’s Clayton Wood training ground, which comes just two days before the club’s final Barclays Premier League match of the season at Southampton.

“The club takes seriously reports of an incident at our training ground,” the club said in a statement.

“A full internal investigation will be carried out and those responsible for any unacceptable behaviour will be dealt with in accordance with the club’s disciplinary procedures.”

Stoke midfielder Brek Shea earlier tweeted a picture of himself with the pig’s head with the words “locker room banter gone wild”.

It seems the incident went beyond mere banter, however, with reports suggesting the windscreen of midfielder Glenn Whelan was smashed in the wake of the grizzly discovery.

When put to him by a Twitter follower that he had been responsible for the damage, Jones replied: “For your info I didn’t do that get ur info correct.”

Jones’ partner, Kissa Abdullah, expressed her anger at the incident on her Twitter account, adding that the actions did not take into account religious beliefs.

She wrote: “Big men acting

Stoke’s Brek Shea holds up the offending pig head like kids a pigs head is not a prank its just disgusting!!!!!

I don’t get how was that sup 2 be funny!!!! Really???

“Where I come from that’s not anywhere close 2 funny!

Esp not knowing religious beliefs.

“It just takes a minute to be sensitive to someone’s beliefs no one says u can’t have a sense of humour but let it be a joke! This wasn’t!”

The incident comes just days after retiring Stoke striker Michael Owen had his car covered in eggs and flour by team-mates. Jones was also involved on that occasion, tweeting a picture of Owen’s car to his followers with the explanation that it was a “leaving present” for the former England star.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live, Stoke manager Tony Pulis said he would speak to his players regarding recent events.

“We have a smashing dressing room, and there are four or five lads who are always up to something. There is always banter going on,” he said.

“I honestly don’t know what’s gone on, I’ve missed all of what’s happened. I try to stay away from the home dressing room as much as I possibly can, I let the lads get on with it.

“We will look at it. I will have a chat with the lads and find out exactly what has happened. From that point onwards we’ll let everybody know exactly what the situation was.”

35 SUNDAY MAIL • May 19, 2013

Sport

Spurs captain Dawson desperate to grab Champions League berth

Sacked Mancini thanks City supporters

Long-serving defender hoping to avoid more heartbreak

FORMER Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has thanked fans for their support during his threeand-a-half year stint at the club.

The Italian, who led City to their first league title since 1968 last season, was sacked earlier this week following a disappointing campaign where they lost their Premier League crown to Manchester United and were knocked out of the Champions League at the group stage.

Mancini has always has a good relationship with the fans and in a full-page advert in the Manchester Evening News wrote: “Manchester City Supporters 3 unforgettable years, you will always be in my heart, ciao, Roberto Mancini.”

As well as the league title, Mancini won the FA Cup with City in 2011 and the Community Shield last summer.

City great Dennis Tueart meanwhile believes the club were right to get the decision to sack Mancini out of the way this week.

Tueart, who had two spells at City in the 1970s and 1980s and later served as a director, feels if the club wanted to remove Mancini, it was better done sooner rather than later.

Tueart told Press Association Sport: “Obviously we don’t know what goes on behind the scenes but the owners have decided that is the move they want to make.

“If you are going to make the decision, because of what was happening in the press with things coming out, it was best to make a break.

“If you are going to do it, do it without dragging your feet.”

City wrap up their season at home to Norwich today with nothing but pride at stake having secured second spot by beating Reading on Tuesday.

By Paul Hirst MICHAEL Dawson is desperately hoping Tottenham will not suffer yet more Champions League heartbreak this afternoon.

The only way that Tottenham will qualify for the Champions League in this weekend’s final round of matches is if they beat Sunderland at White Hart Lane and the Gunners drop points at lowly Newcastle.

Spurs narrowly missed out on the Champions League two years ago and last year Dawson led the team to fourth place, only to be denied a place at Europe’s top table thanks to Chelsea’s victory in Munich.

Dawson was also part of the Tottenham team that just failed to qualify for the competition seven years ago thanks to a dodgy lasagne.

If Spurs beat Sunderland, they will end with 72 points a club record in the Premier League era. That will be of little consolation to their captain, though, after the final day turmoil he has suffered at the club since he joined in 2005.

“If we win and get 72 it will be a great season, but it will only be a fantastic season if we get that Champions League spot,” Dawson said.

“That’s what we set out to achieve at the start of the season.

“If we can get that number

Michael Dawson, who joined Tottenham in 2005, is hoping to celebrate a happy end to the season at Arsenal’s expense of points then great, but we want to be in the Champions League with the way we missed out on it last year.”

Tottenham’s 2-1 win over Arsenal on March 3 left the team seven points clear of their rivals but, just like last year, Spurs’ form has dipped in the last quarter of the season.

Tottenham have won just four of their eight Barclays Premier League fixtures since that date, with defeats against Fulham and Liverpool taking the team’s destiny out of their own hands.

On paper, they could have hardly wished for a worse team to rely on than Newcastle.

The Magpies have won just three of their last 10 games and only secured their survival last weekend by beating QPR. Toon boss Alan Pardew hardly seemed up for the game following the win at Loftus Road when he said: “I don’t really care if Arsenal beat Newcastle 4-0.

He has, however, backtracked on those comments since.

Dawson thinks there may be one last twist in the tale, but he insists his team cannot afford to concentrate on what is happening at St James’ Park.

“There may be another twist to come,” the defender told Spurs TV Online.

“But all we can do is concentrate on what we do, and fingers crossed Newcastle can do us a favour.

“We have just got to go out there and get three points and see where it takes us on Sunday evening.”

Arsenal’s 4-1 win over Wigan on Tuesday means Sunderland are safe, but manager Paolo Di Canio has made it clear to his players that he will not tolerate any substandard performances tomorrow at White Hart Lane.

The Italian this week called on his players to end the season “with dignity” and threatened to cut short the number of holidays taken by squad members who are not pulling

their weight.

Dawson is sure the Black Cats will be giving it their all as a result.

“I don’t think it will make a difference that they are safe with Paolo Di Canio,” the centre-back said.

“He will have them riled up. He will want to get 110 per cent commitment from them.

“They will want to put on a performance and we have to make sure that we stop that and play the way we know we can.

“The atmosphere will be great. It’s the last game of the season and hopefully we will get the three points and it will be good enough.”

Mission accomplished, says Benitez

By Matt McGeehan

Rafa Benitez is stepping down as Chelsea manager after guiding the club to the Europa League and a top-four finish

RAFA Benitez declared “job done” as he prepared for his final match as Chelsea manager.

In seven months in charge, Benitez has led Chelsea back to the Champions League - today’s match with Everton will determine whether the Blues finish third or fourth in the Barclays Premier League - and this week won the Europa League.

If Jose Mourinho is appointed his permanent successor, the self-titled ‘special one’ will likely continue his long-standing war of words with Benitez, who followed the Portuguese as boss at Inter Milan in 2010.

Asked about the prospect of his work at Stamford Bridge being criticised, Benitez was defiant.

Benitez said: “It doesn’t matter what some people will say. I think the job is done.”

Benitez does not believe his successor - the 10th permanent boss in 10 years of Roman Abramovich’s ownership - will need a handover meeting, but the Spaniard maintains the new boss, whether Mourinho or not, will inherit a vastly-improved team.

“I think maybe the next manager will have some experience here, too, so I don’t need to give him any advice,” said Benitez, again suggesting he believes Mourinho will be in charge next term.

Benitez has had numerous critics since his November appointment after Champions League-winning boss Roberto Di Matteo’s departure, not least the supporters, who hurled vitriol towards the former Liverpool manager.

He does not expect everyone to praise the job he has done, but the players expressed their appreciation following Wednesday’s Europa League win over Benfica in Amsterdam.

“You cannot convince everyone,” Benitez said.

“I’ve been consistent in my message. I was trying to do my best every single day. I did it the other day and we won.

Benitez has no regrets about taking up the job and highlighted qualification for the Champions League, lifting the Europa League trophy and scoring eight goals against Aston Villa in December as his most memorable moments at Stamford Bridge.

“As a manager you have to be satisfied. A lot of very good memories,” he said.

Premier League Playing today Chelsea v Everton, 6pm Liverpool v QPR, 6pm Man City v Norwich, 6pm Newcastle v Arsenal, 6pm Southampton v Stoke, 6pm Swansea v Fulham, 6pm Spurs v Sunderland, 6pm West Brom v Man United, 6pm West Ham v Reading, 6pm Wigan v Aston Villa, 6pm

Cyprus Championship Anorthosis APOEL

2 1

Apollon AEL

1 3

E.N Paralimni Doxa

2 4

Omonia AEK

3 1

Playing today Achna v Nea Salamina 5pm Olympiakos v Alki 5pm

36 May 19, 2013 • SUNDAY MAIL

Sport

Ferrari ridicule tyre critics 33

Real and Mourinho contemplate ‘disastrous’ season after loss 34

Retiring Ferguson seeks anything but a quiet life ‘1,500 matches - quite incredible’ says Sir Alex ahead of swansong at West Brom

By Sonia Oxley

W

HEN Alex Ferguson wakes up tomorrow morning without a Manchester United team to manage he will not be putting his feet up and settling into a quiet retirement.

The 71-year-old Scot takes charge of his 1,500th and final United game at West Bromwich Albion this afternoon (6pm) before stepping down after more than 26 years at Old Trafford.

He might have had 10 hours’ sleep for the first time ever last Monday night after a huge celebratory open-top bus parade through Manchester to mark his 13th and the club’s 20th top-flight title, but rest is not on his agenda.

“I don’t think I’m going to be that way, I’m driven to take on some challenges and some other things right away,” he told his final prematch news conference where he entered to applause from reporters who have not always enjoyed the easiest relationship with him.

“I’ve got a league managers’ meeting on Monday, I’m going to Newmarket races on Tuesday and Wednesday ... it’s the Derby at Epsom on June 1, I’m going on holiday for a month, then I’m having the (hip) operation, then I’ve got the recuperation, then the season starts

Thanks for the memories: Sir Alex Ferguson says goodbye to Old Trafford for the final time as Manchester United manager last Sunday, after lifing his 13th Premier League trophy so we’re ok.”

Ferguson is staying on at the club as a director and has hand-picked his successor in Everton manager David Moyes and few people would imagine him sitting quietly upstairs when the new season gets underway.

He took time to consider what had changed in the 39 years he has managed in a career that has taken him from East Stirlingshire to St Mirren to Aberdeen before his appointment at United in 1986.

“Thirty nine years as a

manager, 1974 - going from that day when I had eight players, no goalkeeper to today - six goalkeepers, 100 players,” he said.

“Change is inevitable, you have to manage that,” he added. There have been big changes in this club in terms

of number of staff, sports science, modern technology has come into it.

“When I started as a manager there were no agents, media was different then too... the changes are all there... but I don’t think I’ve changed much.”

United wrapped up the Premier League title last month with four games to spare and have been basking in the glory ever since with celebrations on the pitch after last Sunday’s final home game against Swansea City, parties and a bus parade.

“I got home that night (after Monday’s parade) and I got 10 hours’ sleep - the first time in my life that I’ve had 10 hours’ sleep,” Ferguson, who has a reputation as a workaholic and is always the first to arrive at the training ground, said.

“My wife Cathy kept making sounds round about me, I think she was just checking to see if I was alive.”

United are 10 points clear of second-placed Manchester City and guaranteed to win the title by at least seven points even if they lose at West Brom.

Ferguson, however, will want to go out on a winning note today when he will make some changes to his team to give some of his youngsters a chance to play.

“1,500 matches - quite incredible. Every team wants to win their last home game, that’s a fact of life and also I want to win this one more than last week’s even,” he said.

“Twenty six years at Manchester United is fantastic.

The day I came here was a privilege and the day I’ve left will be an honour. I’m lucky to have been here that long.”

Wenger challenges Arsenal to ‘finish the job’

By Jim van Wijk

Arsenal travel to Newcastle, where they only need a point to qualify for next season’s Champions League

ARSENAL manager Arsene Wenger has challenged his team to concentrate on winning a football match and nothing more when they head to Newcastle for today’s Barclays Premier League finale.

The Gunners would secure a top-four finish with victory at St James’ Park.

Indeed, depending on Chelsea’s result at home to Everton, they still have an outside chance of snatching third place and with it automatic entry into the Champions League - or even forcing an unprecedented play-off, set for May 26 at Villa Park, were the two clubs’ overall statistics

to finish equal.

However, should Wenger’s side slip up against the Magpies, who are now safe from the threat of relegation after FA Cup winners Wigan were sent down following a 4-1 defeat at Arsenal on Tuesday night, then Tottenham could leapfrog them by beating Sunderland.

Having fought so hard through a superb ninematch unbeaten league run to stand on the brink of what, given the circumstances of earlier in the campaign, would be a quite remarkable turnaround, Wenger expects his side to hold their nerve when it matters most.

“We know how to behave to win the games, so it’s about

getting that certainty from our long run and bringing that into our next game.

It’s as simple as that,” the Arsenal manager said.

“It is a football match and recently we have shown that we can win these games.

“We will just continue to do what we did until now.”

Arsenal deserve great credit for still being in contention to secure a top-four finish having dropped some seven points behind Tottenham when they lost 2-1 at White Hart Lane on March 3.

It is a similar scenario to the end of last season, when victory at West Brom kept them in third place and would eventually see Spurs miss out on even the chance to play a Champi-

ons League qualifier when Chelsea went on to win the European Cup. Wenger would rather have his men involved in such an all-or-nothing encounter than to just be going through the motions.

“The pressure is big, of course, but I always said the worst thing in my job is to play games without any pressure,” said the Frenchman, whose side have not won a trophy since the 2005 FA Cup.