THE PROVOCATIVE comments made by Archbishop Chrysostomos last week, after it was announced that the Church did not owe the Inland Revenue Department €170 million euros, were a sad reminder of his boundless arrogance. He sounded like a high-ranking, 18th century, cleric publicly announcing that the Church would carry on exploiting the privileges afforded to it by feudal society.
It was as if he was oblivious to the fact that he is living in a democratic society of the 21st century, in which all individuals and legal entities are supposedly equal before the law. And even though the Church has certain privileges safeguarded by the Cyprus constitution, we would not have expected the Archbishop to boast about them in the despicable way he did last week.

NEARLY 70,000 new jobs will be created in Cyprus in the next ten years, the Human Resource Development Authority of Cyprus (HRDA) announced yesterday.
According to the Authority, the number of employed Cypriots in 2010 was 382,547 and this number  was expected to increase to 451,423 in ten years’ time, marking an 18.0 per cent increase.
As a result, the coming decade is expected to see 69,000 new job positions open – 32,000 by 2015 and another 37,000 by 2020, HRDA said.
Up until 2007, the HRDA said there was an impressive 5.8 per cent upward trend in employment opportunities rates. But from 2008 onwards once the effects of the financial crisis started being felt, Cyprus noted a 0.4 per cent increase in unemployment by 2009.

DISY Vice Chairman Averoff Neophytou was yesterday accused of encouraging a “national depression”, after claiming the state’s deficit would be much higher than the Finance Minister’s “ambitious” predictions.
The accusation came from leading party AKEL’s spokesman, Stavros Evagorou, during a heated debate over the state of the economy at the House yesterday.
Neophytou led the way with his party’s predictions for this year’s deficit.
“The government insists the deficit will be around 6.0 per cent for 2010; I truly hope so, because it is much more possible that the deficit for 2010 will range between 7.0 and 8.0 per cent,” said Neophytou.
In numbers, he added, this would mean a deficit of up to €1.3 billion.

PRESIDENT DEMETRIS Christofias yesterday pointed the finger at governments around the world for not matching their words with deeds when it came to fighting poverty, hunger and gender equality.
Addressing the UN High Level Plenary Meeting in New York on the challenges of poverty, hunger and gender equality, Christofias said: “We have been generous with words which, however, we have not matched with deeds.”
During the discussion on the Millennium Development Goals chaired by Turkish President Abdullah Gul, the Turkish premier addressed Christofias by his official title, as president of the Cyprus Republic, calling on him to speak. 

THE TRIAL concerning the December 2008, escape of convicted rapist and murderer Antonis Prokopiou Kitas’ from the Apollonion Hospital has been postponed until late November.
Kitas – who was convicted to life after brutally raping and murdering two women in the 1990s – escaped from the private clinic, after being treated there for six months for gastric reflux.
The Drug Law Enforcement Unit’s former Deputy Commander, Avraam Charalambous, along with Chief Inspectors Charalambos Ioannou and Pantelis Polyviou, Sergeants Yiannos Yiannakou and Ioanni Ioannou, and Constable Savvas Savva are suspects in the case.
All have pleaded not guilty to 15 charges.
The hearing, which was meant to start at Nicosia District Court yesterday, has been postponed until November 29.

A CONTROLLED EXPLOSION was carried out by the Sovereign Base Area (SBA) bomb squad yesterday as a suspicious bag was spotted in the middle of a road approximately 30m away from the Dhekelia roundabout.
The travel bag which was one-metre long and 50 centimetres wide, was discovered at 5:45am by an SBA patrol car which immediately called the SBA bomb squad unit to the scene to investigate.
The road which the travel bag was found has been closed for over two years due to dangerous landslides. After deliberation it was decided that the surrounding area needed to be closed down and with the help of the Cyprus police department all traffic was diverted away from the area.

THE PROCEDURE to select a long-term natural gas supplier is now in its ‘final stages’, the Natural Gas Public Company (DEFA) said yesterday.
In a statement, DEFA said it was continuing its ‘intensive negotiations’ with the interested suppliers.
Given that negotiations have entered a sensitive stage, no announcements or comments would be made to the media ‘until there is something new to announce’, DEFA said, citing a confidentiality agreement with the suppliers.
The body also appealed to the media to ‘respect this decision, because the publication of any information would be detrimental to both the procedure and Cyprus’.

AT LEAST 6,000 school aged children in Cyprus have AD/HD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), according to conservative estimates of ADD-ADHD Cyprus, a voluntary association that provides support, information and education in order to establish an integrated AD/HD community on the island.
The association is organising an AD/HD Awareness Week, which will last until Saturday and is part of a European programme undertaken by all AD/HD organizations within the bloc.
AD/HD is a neurobiological disorder that causes chronic problems with inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity. It can affect children and adults and can have serious consequences such as school failure, depression, failed relationships, underachievement in the workplace, and substance abuse.