Toughest fight ever for UK university places

2010-06-13

CYPRIOT students who miss their required A level grades to enter British universities this August will face the toughest competition yet for ‘clearing’ places, after the recession has forced the UK government to cap university places and slash higher education funding by 200 million pounds.

The cap means that the British Council’s annual August clearing event, which gives UK colleges with places still to fill a chance to visit and recruit students at the last minute, will not be going ahead.

Tales from the Coffeeshop: The dumb Franks have been warned

2010-06-13

NOW THAT Turkey’s deep state has been marginalised by the Erdogan government and can no longer be blamed for preventing a fair and lasting settlement of the Cyprob, the resourceful editorial writers of Simerini have identified a new cause for panic. On Friday the paper wrote:

“Turkey was, is and will remain an Islamic country. Not just any Islamic state, but a state of Islamic fanaticism, which has elevated state terrorism, the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities to a science.” And if she managed to get into the EU, “Turkey would bring in the most repugnant Islamist fanaticism and with her big population, military and economic might would constitute a nightmare for Europe.”

Our View: Christofias needs to make a decision and stick to it

2010-06-13

FOR SEVERAL weeks now, the UN Special advisor Alexander Downer has been at pains to make the Cyprus government understand that the stuttering peace process will not be allowed to drag on indefinitely, as seems to be the prevailing view in Nicosia. He first made this point after a visit to New York, during a break in the talks, and has repeated it publicly at every given opportunity.

Gambling debate splits on ideological lines

2010-06-13

AS the House of Representatives continues to prepare the legal framework for combating illegal online gambling by banning online gambling altogether, more establishment voices are being raised in favour of allowing casinos to operate legally on the island.

So far, the debate seems to have polarised on ideological lines, with President Demetris Christofias and government party AKEL insisting on an outright ban as a way of combating a growing social problem.

Warm thanks extended to blood donors

2010-06-13

THE Cyprus Blood Bank yesterday thanked donors across the island for their selfless contributions.

The thank you was extended in light of tomorrow’s World Blood Donor Day (WBDD).

“The sensitivity of thousands of blood donors has classed Cyprus as fully self-sufficient in blood, despite our huge daily needs,” the statement said.

“The least we can do as a Blood Bank is to express our warmest wishes to all blood donors and to call on them to always be by our side, beside our compatriots, who need them. Special gratitude must be given to the young, who once again were first in line, starting their blood donations from the Lyceum and National Guard,” it added.

CYTA subsidiary under investigation

2010-06-13

THE executive chairman of a subsidiary company of CYTA is under investigation for allegedly violating company regulations when he sold so-easy SIM cards to third parties without first securing approval from his board members.

Furthermore the executive chairman, who is also a board member of CYTA, allegedly made cash payments of €300,000 to CYTA for the pre-paid phone cards instead of making those payments through bank transfers.

The transactions eventually came to the attention of CYTA chairman Stathis Kittis who informed both President Demetris Christofias and the Attorney-general Petros Clerides. It is thought Kittis, who has gathered a file on the matter, wants a criminal investigation launched.

2010 outlook still grim

2010-06-13

THE recession in Cyprus will continue in 2010 and the recovery in 2011 will be slower than previously thought, according to new forecasts released by the Central Bank (CB) on Friday.

Also, inflation is now expected to reach 2.9 per cent in 2010 compared to 0.2 per cent in 2009, reaching 3.2 per cent in 2011, and unemployment is expected to reach 7.0 per cent in 2010, remaining at the same level in 2011.

Following similar moves by both the European Commission (EC) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) a few weeks ago, the CB revised downwards its growth forecasts for the Cypriot economy for 2010 and 2011 compared to forecasts made in December 2009.

The black, filthy substance that maintains our high standard of living

2010-06-13

I NEVER visit confessionals yet can no longer sleep soundly, no longer take my grandchildren in my arms and kiss them benignly like Pope Benedict did to Catholic cherubs during his recent visit here.

He evidently has a clear conscience. I do not and must own up to being in possession of British Petroleum shares, which have lost 30% of their value since the beginning of the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe. I could have sold them on the day the oil drilling rig exploded, causing the loss of 11 lives, and made a profit of 10% on the purchase price. But due to a sense of shareholder loyalty, not forgetting the generous dividend, I did not, and am now kicking myself.

Plotting in the dark, just like the mafia

2010-06-13

OUR POLITICAL mafia continues, undeterred, its conspiratorial efforts to increase the number of parliamentary seats, despite the widespread angry reaction to this provocative move.

The weird thing is that the primary movers are AKEL and DISY leadership, even though the initiative was first undertaken by the pseudo-socialists EDEK, who wanted to resolve internal party problems in the Limassol district.

How to break the Gaza blockade

2010-06-13

UNITED NATIONS Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for an end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. Britain, France, Germany and Russia have done the same. After Israeli commandos killed nine peace activists aboard a ship that was trying to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, even US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the blockade “unsustainable and unacceptable”. But how can it be ended?

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.