FINANCE Minister Charilaos Stavrakis yesterday said if the government hadn’t given Eurocypria a controversial €35 million cash injection, the airline would have collapsed within days.

He also said this would have made it impossible for the state-owned airline to merge with majority-state owned national carrier Cyprus Airways (CY).

Responding to accusations that he had purposely misled parliament into believing Eurocypria’s future was viable, by refusing to present a report by the Accountant-general, Stavrakis said the report had no relation to the €35 million injection whatsoever.

AKEL General Secretary Andros Kyprianou continued his row with DISY’s vice chairman, Averoff Neophytou, yesterday, accusing the opposition MP of monitoring him.

Kyprianou criticised the media’s coverage of Neophytou’s claims that the AKEL leader had provided him with a report on the viability of state-owned airline Eurocypria, which no other party had managed to obtain. The insinuation was that leading party AKEL – and the government – had been aware that the airline’s future was questionable when seeking and achieving the approval of a €35 million injection.

A NEIGHBOUR of slain media boss Andis Hadjicostis saw a man leaving the area where his was shot, wielding a cylindrical object shortly before hearing the victims’ wife screaming over his lifeless body, a court heard yesterday.

Michalis Koursaros, a neighbour of Hadjicostis told the Nicosia Assizes court that he was in his living room when he heart two gun shots.

He said he opened the window and saw a person, wielding a cylindrical object measuring some 40 centimetres, running down the street.

Hadjicostis, 42, was shot from close range outside his Engomi home on January 11 after just getting home from work after 9pm. It is believed the killer used a sawn-off shotgun.

THE FOURTH witness, Sigma television reporter Andreas Azas, testified how he arranged a meeting between Skordelli, who is a friend of his for the past 16 years, and well-known Larnaca businessman Antonis Fanieros, whom Azas knows since 1990.

Azas told the court the Skordelli had asked him to arrange the meeting with Fanieros, but he did not know the reason.

The meeting took place in June or July 2009, Azas said, at the Ermis football club – which is chaired by Fanieros’ son, Loucas.

Azas said he was not present at the meeting, and that he was in Loucas’ office talking football with him.

Two days after the meeting, Antonis Fanieros called Azas and told him: “I do not want to get involved in this kind of business.”

ALTHOUGH the economy grew by 0.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2010, which means that Cyprus has technically emerged from recession, the political row over how to reduce the budget deficit rumbled on yesterday.

Figures released yesterday by the Statistical Service showed 0.1 per cent economic growth in the first quarter of 2010, compared to a 0.3 per cent contraction in the last three months of 2009. The Statistical Service put this first sign of positive growth after five quarters of contraction down to positive results in the banking and services sectors, plus an improved performance in tourism and industry.

THE FINAL phase of an innovative plan to renovate Nicosia’s infrastructure by 2020 envisages a pedestrianised Makarios Avenue shopping area, with lanes only for frequent bus routes and cyclists,

The plan hops to tackle mounting issues with road congestion, as estimates indicate the city’s population is rising by 1.5 per cent per year, and traffic would have risen by 40 per cent in the next decade if nothing is done.

The Steering Committee – Town planning departments, public works and municipalities – has approved the ‘Integrated Mobility Master Plan for Nicosia’ proposed by the Programme of Enhancement of Public Transport, under Michalis Lambrinou.

A BRITISH archaeology team has located evidence for the production of cruciform figurines such as the Idol of Pomos, which is depicted on the Cypriot one and two euro coins, the Antiquities Department said yesterday.

The evidence comes from a settlement of 3000 BC located at Souskiou near Palaepaphos. The Pomos sculpture represents a woman with her arms spread. It was probably used as a fertility symbol.

“This is the first time that such detailed information on this subject has come to light in Cyprus,” a statement from the Department said.