DEFENDING champions Omonia’s bid to become the third successive Cypriot team to reach the group stage of the UEFA Champions League is off to a good start after a dominant 3-0 victory over FK Renova of FYR Macedonia in the second qualifying round first-leg at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia on Tuesday night.

Michalis Konstantinou opened the scoring with a penalty after only seven minutes and by the 28-minute mark, the visitors were two goals behind and down to ten men.

IT IS REALLY no surprise that the Association of Cyprus Police has started behaving in the same militant way as the public servants’ and teachers’ unions. The leaders of the association, the policemen’s union, have not failed to notice that we have become a union-run country, in which arrogant union bosses call all the shots, and have decided to take advantage of the prevailing climate.

HOURS AFTER Cyprus was formally placed under EU supervision for its excessive budget deficit, the Finance Minister yesterday put on a brave face, saying the government would go it alone, if it had to, in efforts to better the state of public finances.

“In the absence of consensus from the political parties… the government is launching a major drive to cut expenditures and reduce the state payroll,” Charilaos Stavrakis said.

He was referring to last week’s defeat in parliament of two government bills aimed at increasing IPT and corporate tax, which the administration wanted to push through to increase state revenues.

He went on to call on parties and social partners to “help us in our effort to streamline state finances.”

STATE BROADCASTER CyBC could face a fine of up to €8,000 for broadcasting a scene from a satirical TV show deemed inappropriate by viewers and one anti domestic violence charity.

The scene in question, taken from the Cypriot satirical series Patatas Antinaxtes (‘fried potatoes’) involved bandits from the infamous Hasamboulia gang threatening a Paphite village resident.

Neophytos Epaminondas, Director of the Cyprus Radio and Television Authority, CRTA, said that in the scene, a bandit threatened to murder and rape a woman living in a village house. At this point a fellow bandit said that they should rape first and then murder the woman.

DELAYS BY government departments to prepare reports are hindering the newly-appointed Parole Board’s ability to examine prisoners’ applications, the House Human Rights Committee was told yesterday.

Speaking after the meeting, Committee Chairman, DIKO’s Sophocles Fyttis said the Board had received 73 applications so far, of which 29 were deemed premature – based on the Board, the Prison Director and the Attorney-general’s advice.

For the remaining 44 applications, reports were requested from the relevant state departments – such as Social Welfare, the Mental Health Department, the police and Prison Director. But according to Fyttis, only the Prison Director has responded for 18 cases.

EIGHT extra daily routes from Nicosia to Larnaca airport have been added to the Kapnos Airport Shuttle to cover the summer season’s increased needs, the company announced yesterday.

Presenting its two years of operation, company chairman Pambos Kapnos said the shuttle had carried out a total of 24,000 routes since it first started operating.

The shuttle currently operates 38 routes on a 24-hour basis for passengers of all airlines.

“While last summer we transported 1,000 passengers a week, we hope that during this summer period we will approach 1,700 passengers a week,” Kapnos said. “Our goal is to transport around 70,000 passengers a year,” he added.

TWO THIRDS of people living in Cyprus are willing to move either region, country or both if they became unemployed or had trouble finding a job here, according to a report released yesterday.

The Eurobarometer report aimed to shed light on European attitudes to worker mobility.

The geographical and labour market mobility report revealed Cypriots are more ready to move, compared to the 48 per cent of Europeans who believe unemployment is a powerful reason to move.

According to the report, the majority of Europeans have never lived in another country, as only 10 per cent of Europeans have lived abroad for work and 13 per cent for education and training purposes at some point in their lives.

A 39-YEAR-OLD Syrian worker was killed yesterday while trying to repair a paper recycling machine at a recycling plant in the Limassol area.

The incident happened at around 12pm while the man was working with a colleague on a paper recycling press.

“For some reason the machine started without warning, crushing the worker and causing dismemberment,” labour inspector Kypros Kyprou said.

The inspector said that power to the machine should have been interrupted from the moment work was going to be carried out.

“An order banning the use of the specific machine will be issued until the cause of the accident and possible malfunction or other violations are ascertained,” Kyprou said.