Medvedev visit business boom

2010-10-05

 

RUSSIAN President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit his week will be the most important visit to Cyprus of any head of state in terms of sheer economic impact, business leaders said yesterday.

Medvedev is due on the island tomorrow on a two-day visit, during which it is possible that the two governments will be putting their signatures on a treaty for the avoidance of double taxation.

Russia is among the largest foreign investors in Cyprus, with an investment volume of €2 billion in 2008, according to official figures. In 2008, $34 billion were invested in Russia via Cyprus, while Cypriot investment in the country was €1.5 billion.

Sri Lankans thrash Mustangs to win Cyprus Twenty20 Cup

2010-10-05

KAPILA Wickramathanthrigie starred with a dazzling all-round performance as Sri Lankans Cricket Club beat Mustangs Cricket Club to win the Cyprus Cricket Twenty20 Cup by 71 runs on Sunday morning at the Potamia Grounds in Nicosia.

The Mustangs initially dominated play, reducing the Sri Lankans to 34 for 3, before Wickramathanthrigie’s fighting innings of 58 lifted his side to a match-winning total. He then returned for a masterful spell to jolt the Mustangs’ chase with two wickets.

Wickramathanthrigie walked in with the Sri Lankans wobbling and proceeded to gradually pull them out of a hole before shifting gears to boost them to a winning score.

Our view: New audit team at health ministry is desperately needed

2010-10-05

LAST WEEK the Health Ministry announced that it would set up an internal audit team, made up of technocrats. In a brief announcement it was reported that this team would be responsible for monitoring operations both in the ministry and the state hospitals. The objective was to make management more efficient, by identifying weaknesses and operational problems. Having identified problems the team would submit proposals for solving them.

Pirates and private navies

2010-10-05

THE GOOD news is that something is finally going to be done about the pirates who infest the Somali coast and raid far out into the Indian Ocean. A group of London-based insurance companies led by the Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT) is planning to create a private navy to protect commercial shipping passing through the Red Sea and the north-western Indian Ocean.

It’s about time. Even now, after the monsoon season has kept the pirates relatively quiet for months, sixteen ships and 354 sailors are being held captive in the pirate ports along the Somali coast. The average ransom paid to free those ships and their crews has risen to around $4 million, and it’s also taking longer: an average of almost four months between the hijacking of a ship and its release.

Stavrakis: tightest budget in 30 years

2010-10-05

FINANCE MINISTER Charilaos Stavrakis yesterday described the state’s 2011 budget as “the tightest in the past 30 years”, as he presented it to House President Marios Garoyian.

The minister said the primary goal was to achieve economic recovery.

“It is an extremely important budget, which has the primary aim of economic recovery or improving public finances,” said Stavrakis. “This year’s budget can be described as the tightest budget in the past 30 years.”

He said that total expenditure would increase by 1.1 per cent, “which is the lowest percentage in the past 30 years”, while operational expenditure would be reduced by 3.0 per cent.

Legal limbo for honest prostitutes

2010-10-05

TWO sex workers from Greece have asked to live and ply their trade in Cyprus, leaving authorities here at a loss.

Through their lawyer on the island, the two Greek nationals – one female, the other a transsexual – have written to four government ministers requesting information on which procedures they should follow.

The letter has been sent to the ministries of labour, health, justice and the interior. In it, they inform the ministries that they are registered and employed as sex workers in Athens, that they comply with all public health and public order requirements under Greek law, and that they are able to furnish all the relevant documentation and certificates.

Turkish Cypriot unions fear ‘wave of privatisations’

2010-10-05

 

NEWLY-DISCLOSED plans to privatise the north’s Ercan (Tymbou) Airport have been met with anger from trades unions, who say the Turkish Cypriot authorities want to impose sweeping cuts in public sector employment as part of austerity measures handed down by Ankara.

Ankara has shown signs recently that it wants to see the north doing more to reduce its burden on the Turkish taxpayer.  Currently it gives the Turkish Cypriot side around half a billion dollars annually to maintain its top-heavy public sector and bridge its gaping balance of payment deficit.

The latest privatisation move comes amid what many believe will become a wave of privatisations taking in most of the north’s ‘state-run’ corporations.

Burning of Greek flag enrages APOEL fans

2010-10-05

AN OMONIA FC fan burnt the Greek flag on Sunday during the Nicosia football derby with archrivals APOEL, seemingly worsening the overly hostile climate between the supporters of the two clubs.

At the capital’s GSP stadium it appeared as if two different worlds had met: on the APOEL side – whose fan base is traditionally right-wing — there was a plethora of Greek flags being waved while on the Omonia side none were on display by its mostly left-wing supporters.

That was until an Omonia fan pulled out a Greek flag from his pocket and proceeded to light it on fire.  The incident occurred just a few minutes into the second half and during a 21 minute stoppage of the game due to a flare being thrown on the field.

Ryanair launches one million €8 seat sale

2010-10-05

Ryanair yesterday announced that from midnight last night it would release one million €8 seats – including taxes and charges – for travel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in November.

The low-cost Irish carrier will be commencing flights from Larnaca to Brussels in November and from Larnaca to Barcelona as of December so the offer would apply only to the Brussels flights.

The “all in” low fares will be available on over 500 of Ryanair’s European routes but must be booked on www.ryanair.com before midnight on Thursday this week.

Game fund ‘doing everything we can’ on bird trapping

2010-10-05

THE HEAD of the Game Fund has said his team are working flat out to stamp out illegal poaching after coming under-fire by bird protection activists.

On Saturday, members of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) said they were left without state assistance during an investigation and called for patrols to be more strictly monitored by authorities.

The group claimed they were stalked by men in pick-up trucks on farmland near Avgorou, before being approached by a poacher in a balaclava wielding a shotgun who threatened to shoot them.

Pandelis Hadjigerou, Director of the Cyprus Game Fund described the criticism regrettable, but told the Cyprus Mail that his organisation is proving effective despite resources being stretched and limited manpower.

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.