THE FOREIGN workers located on ‘slave farms’ earlier this week were themselves to blame for their squalid living conditions, the head of a farmers’ association claimed yesterday.

Nektarios Karios, head of the Panagrotikos association, said the workers – which included nationals from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India and Egypt – did not heed their employers’ repeated calls to keep their living quarters clean.

“They did not take the proper sanitary measures,” Karios told a press conference.

He also denied initial media reports that the workers had no beds to sleep on.

On Tuesday, police carried out sting operations at two farms in the Nicosia area, where they found 32 foreign workers.

ISRAELI FOREIGN Minister Avigdor Lieberman is skipping the latest Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Washington, to visit Cyprus instead and strengthen ties with Israel’s ‘new ally’ in the region.

Lieberman was due on the island last night, ahead of a meeting today with Cypriot counterpart, Marcos Kyprianou, and another tomorrow with opposition DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades. He leaves Saturday evening.

This is Lieberman’s second official visit to Cyprus in nine months, after last January’s visit. Speculation is rife that the Israeli delegation will discuss a number of key issues with their Cypriot counterparts, including security in the Middle East, the discovery of natural gas and the question of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza.

IN AN act of open defiance toward their boss, the Chief of Police, the Cyprus Police Association (SAK) yesterday took its first step to becoming a fully-fledged trade union.

The association will hold a vote in early December to approve proposed changes to SAK’s articles of association enabling it to join PASYDY, the civil servants’ blanket union.

“Today, the green light was given for SAK’s integration into PASYDY,” association spokesman Andreas Symeou told newsmen.

SAK’s spiralling row with the Police Chief Michalis Papageorgiou was triggered by a disagreement over the work timetable. The Chief has ordered that from now on all police officers, no matter where they are stationed, must work eight-hour shifts, back to back.

THE UNITED Nations is ‘investing’ a great deal in the upcoming full-day talks between the leaders of the two communities, DISY chief Nikos Anastassiades said yesterday.

“They are investing a great deal in the leaders’ two full-day meetings,” Anastassiades said after meeting UN Special Advisor Alexander Downer at the DISY headquarters.

“They are attaching a lot of importance on what will be the content of the dialogue at those two meetings,” he added.

President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu are meeting today and next week will hold two all-day talks.

Earlier this week Downer said he hoped that the two leaders could ‘break the back’ of the property issue – the trickiest dispute in the peace talks.

THE government yesterday agreed to satisfy the paraplegic association’s demand for two wheelchair spaces in public buses instead of one – the current configuration.

Following a meeting with Communications Minister Erato Kozakou Markoullis and the director of the transport department, the association said all buses ordered from now on would have space for two wheelchairs.

The new bus system, which includes an overhaul of the ageing fleets, was officially launched in early July as the government tries to increase public transport use from two per cent to ten per cent by 2019.

“If demand shows that the current new buses – those bought so far — need to have two spaces for wheelchairs then they will be modified,” the association said in a written statement

TWO MORE people were arrested yesterday in connection with the theft of plastic explosives from the Palodia army depot last July.

The suspects, aged 27 and 29, both male from Limassol, will appear before a court today for their remand hearing.

A 31-year-old is currently being held after DNA tests placed him at the scene of the crime. Police are expected to ask for his remand to be extended today.

So far authorities have recovered 118 out of the 200 sticks, or 172 kilos, of the explosives stolen on July 21.

IN LINE with policy to conserve energy and cut emissions, the European Union this month banned the manufacture and import of 75W incandescent light bulbs in the bloc.

Last year the EU banned the 100W incandescent bulbs, and in September 2011 it will phase out 60W bulbs.

The EU is also gradually phasing out halogen lamps, with a view to completing this in 2013. All incandescent light bulbs as well as halogen ones will ultimately be removed and replaced by LED lights.

IN LINE with a French government decision to modernise and unify its cultural network across the globe, the French Cultural Centre will change its name to French Institute from January 1.

The centre will also be moving on September 13, to a new location in Ayios Andreas in Nicosia.

It will be housed in a recently restored neo-classical house on No3, Vasilisis Amalias Street.

The phone numbers will remain the same: 22459333/4/5/6/7/8/9.