SOME MONTHS ago, the Minister of Health Christos Patsalides called a news conference to present a study that was supposedly aimed at tackling cancer. This was an embarrassingly superficial document, consisting of vague generalities which betrayed the little thought that had been put into the ministry’s otherwise well-intentioned initiative. We have heard nothing about it since it was announced last year, which should come as no surprise given its lack of depth and focus.

CENTRAL BANK Governor Athanasios Orphanides has said a comparison between the Cypriot and Greek economies was not warranted days after Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis said Cyprus should take the economic crisis in Greece as a lesson.
In an interview with the Bloomberg news agency, released yesterday, Orphanides said: A comparison with the Greek economy is not warranted. Our budget finances are in better shape and our debt to GDP ratio is considerably smaller.”
He conceded that the the deterioration of the fiscal finances Cyprus has experienced recently was “very unpleasant”.
“The government should take the appropriate steps to tackle it as quickly as possible, precisely to avoid a further deterioration that would have adverse longer-term consequences for our economy,” he said.  

TEACHERS who are being hit by their students should be asking themselves what went wrong in their relationship, the Education Minister said yesterday.

Speaking on CyBC radio’s breakfast show Andreas Demetriou said a student who hit his teacher “obviously has a huge problem” but “on the other hand if a teacher is struck by a student it is an equally big problem for the teaching community in the sense each teacher has to ask what went wrong in his relationship with the student and each head teacher has to ask what responsibility he has in displays of such behaviours”.

Demetriou’s comments are sure to infuriate teachers union OELMEK which was yesterday already calling for a meeting with the minister to discuss the growing issue of delinquent behaviours in schools.

TRADE unions representing Cyprus Airways (CY) employees held a “spontaneous” demonstration outside the House of Representatives yesterday morning, protesting against the government’s proposal to inject €35 million in the form of share capital into 100 per cent state-owned charter airline Eurocypria.

Speaking to reporters on behalf of the six unions which represent CY employees, SYNIKA-SEK President Andreas Pierides said that the “spontaneous demonstration by CY employees” was an indication that they would “seriously and responsibly try to save the Cypriot air transport industry”.

He added that then CY unions are calling for the two airlines to be merged in order to end competition between them, but “without a single employee losing his or her job”.

BRITISH taxpayers forked out whopping £14 million sterling in winter fuel allowance to retired expats living abroad in warmer climes such as Spain, Greece and Cyprus, The Times reported yesterday.

And despite the TaxPayers’ Alliance group, which campaigns for lower taxes, demanding that cash payments sent abroad be slashed, the number of people living in EU countries abroad and receiving the annual payment, hit a massive 63,740 last year.

British pensioners living in Cyprus, also qualify for the allowance of £250 pounds a year. The payment rises to £400 pounds for those over 80.

The coastal town of Paphos is home to a large population of retired British ex pats who see the yearly payment as their right.

TWO PAKISTANI men were yesterday remanded in custody on suspicion of raping two Vietnamese women at the weekend.

Police are still searching for a third Pakistani man suspected of raping a third Vietnamese woman.

The Nicosia district court heard the alleged rape took place on the evening of Valentine’s Day in an isolated spot just outside Nicosia.

CID officer Constantinos Sophocleous told the court police had received information about the rape after two of the three women reported what had happened to them at Nicosia general hospital’s Accident and Emergency department.

Cyprus a base to promote environmentally-friendly IT solutions

NEC Computers, a subsidiary of the Japanese NEC group, has announced the launch of its new “EcoCenter” platform in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region (EMEA), and will use Cyprus to promote its environmentally-friendly IT infrastructure solutions, with the goal of becoming one of the three leading players in the European Server and Storage market by 2015.

NEC’s EMEA Executive Director Tong Chhor said: “Reducing energy consumption is of particular interest to companies operating in intensely competitive markets. Thanks to patented solutions such as the NEC EcoCenter, NEC works with organisations to support their green IT policy.”

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL has launched an investigation into why over 500 people who are claiming disability benefits are in possession of a professional driver’s license.

The investigation was announced yesterday by police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos.

Katsounotos said AG Petros Clerides had issued the investigation following the Auditor-general’s report into the matter.

According to the police officer 7,040 people claim disability benefits and yet 533 of them have 1,666 professional licenses.

The police investigation will be carried out in collaboration with the Social Insurance Services and the Social Welfare Services.

A LARNACA farmer reported to police that unknown individuals had stolen his crop of 1,500 artichokes worth some €3,000.

Panayiotis Aristodimou discovered the theft in his Alaminos field on Saturday.

The artichokes were earmarked to be put on the market two days ago on Green Monday.

Authorities suspect the theft was the work of a group of people who carried the crops to an adjacent field where they had hidden their truck.