FOUNDER of easyJet and serial entrepreneur Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou launched the 2010 Stelios Award for Business Cooperation in Cyprus at a bi-communal event in Nicosia’s buffer zone on Monday.
Some 140 people attended, hoping to make business contacts across the Green Line that might also net them one of the five €50,000 prizes on offer this year.
The award, which is in its second year of four, promotes islandwide bi-communal business co-operation between entrepreneurs in Cyprus by giving promising ventures the funding boost they need to grow. The award is funded personally by Haji-Ioannou through the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation.

RIGHT-WING union federation SEK yesterday threw down the gauntlet, threatening strikes against government plans to tackle the economic crisis.
SEK General Secretary Nicos Moyseos warned that the new package of measures announced by Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis last Friday would not be accepted by the union movement.
The package submitted to the EU last month includes measures to raise revenues while implement cost-cutting measures in the civil service, as well as clamping down on tax evasion.
SEK would not accept a freeze on civil service wages, as proposed by the government, but instead would call a pan-union meeting to discuss possible strike measures, said Moyseos.

PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias is set to convene a meeting to deal with football-related violence, while police have invited overseas experts to train them in handling riots similar to those in Limassol on Saturday that saw 11 officers injured – two seriously.
“The issue is complex and has many aspects. It is certainly not limited only to sports grounds and is not only related to football,” government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said. “Violence is foremost a social problem, it has social roots.”
Rival fans ran riot on Saturday, setting fires and hurling petrol bombs.

TWO NICOSIA district men were yesterday remanded in custody for eight days on suspicion of attempted murder.
The men, aged 53 and 34, are suspected of trying to kill a 24-year-old Syrian man who had allegedly been harassing the 53-year-old’s Vietnamese housemaid by telephone. The victim was beaten and shot in the leg and is currently in hospital in a serious condition, the court heard.
The incident took place at 10pm on Monday in Paliometocho village outside the Karapateas reception hall.
Nicosia CID officer Ioannis Azas told the court that the victim, Arar Zohair, went to the Karapatea restaurant when he ran into the 53-year-old, who is also the owner, the 34-year-old and a third man.

THE ARCHBISHOP yesterday slammed religious groups who oppose the Pope’s visit in June, warning that they put themselves outside the Church.
A group, calling itself the ‘Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Motherland Traditions’, has been circulating a booklet entitled Pope: The Cause Of Evil.
“Unfortunately there are in Cyprus too, the mindless who go against the decisions of the official Church,” Archbishop Chrysostomos II said.
He warned that these people were placing themselves outside the Church.
The Archbishop said the Pontiff had been officially invited to Cyprus by the government with the Church’s agreement and “as the official Church we will welcome him with love and respect.”

CYPRUS IS potentially losing millions of euros because of its inability to host air sports, such as parachuting and hang gliding, the House Communications Committee heard yesterday.
Even though an area has been designated in Tseri to create a small airport for aircraft to land, legal hitches have prevented it from operating. This means anyone interested in aerial sports and activities – such as paragliding, hot air ballooning or aerobatics – needs to use the main airports in Larnaca and Paphos at increased costs, which discourages fans from visiting.

THE DEFENCE Ministry has not shelved the proposal for a reduction in military service but before it can be done, the National Guard must reorganise and tackle the issue of draft dodgers, Defence Minister Costas Papacostas said yesterday.
Speaking at a news conference to mark two years in office under the current government where he also talked about new equipment acquisitions, Papacostas said the draft for the modernisation of the army was already being processed by the legal service.
The first phase is due to be implemented in November and will focus on increased manning, better trained senior staff and improved equipment maintenance.