Britain slashes spending

2010-10-21

Retirement age to be raised and welfare cut by extra £7 billion a year

BRITAIN said yesterday it would cut half a million public sector jobs, raise the retirement age and slash the welfare state as part of the biggest spending cuts in a generation.

After months of bitter negotiations, Conservative finance minister George Osborne confirmed he would press ahead with almost all the spending cuts he had outlined in a June budget.

Capital spending, however, he said would be £2 billion higher per year than originally planned because of the difficulty of getting out of contractual obligations.

Helios co-pilot was ‘an accident waiting to happen’

2010-10-21

 

THE HELIOS trial took a dramatic turn yesterday when the prosecution asked for the detention of one of the defendants for allegedly trying to influence witnesses in Britain.

Prosecutor Elena Zahariadou asked the court to detain Giorgos Kikidis, the operations manager at the time of the 2005 air crash, claiming he tried to influence a witness – a former Helios pilot.

A Scotland Yard officer told the court that when he contacted the pilot he had told him that he spoke on the phone with one of the defendants who was a close friend, and he did not wish to testify against him.

Our View: Committee’s ‘kangaroo court’ using Downer to score political points

2010-10-21

THE HOUSE Institutions Committee was scheduled to meet today to discuss the role and the activities in Cyprus of UN Special Representative Alexander Downer and his team. The meeting would provide deputies with an opportunity to attack one of their favourite targets, for his alleged bias and other sins he had supposedly committed, and in so doing advertise their unrivalled patriotism on the television news shows which would cover the proceedings. It is an excuse for individual deputies to score cheap political points.

Baghdatis wins opening match at Kremlin Cup

2010-10-21

MARCOS Baghdatis yesterday advanced into the Kremlin Cup quarter-finals after beating Italian Potitio Starace 6-4, 6-3 in Moscow.

One break of serve was enough for Baghdatis to claim the opening set in less than half an hour. Despite making only 48 per cent of his first serves, the Cypriot won 92 per cent of the points when it did go in and he also fired six aces past Starace.

There were no break points until the tenth service game when the 25-year-old Cypriot converted his first opportunity to break his opponent and take the set.

The Limassol native then built on his momentum in the second set as he broke Starace’s serve in the third game and then kept his own serve in the following game to race into an early 3-0 lead.

Tassos body-theft trial weaves a complex web

2010-10-21

THE trial for the theft of former President Tassos Papadopoulos’ body, yesterday revealed a complex web involving defendants and witnesses from other criminal cases, including the high-profile murder of media boss Andis Hadjicostis this year.

The hearing at the Nicosia Criminal Court also saw one of the main suspects – convicted rapist and murderer Antonis Prokopiou Kitas – cross examine the witness, following a disagreement with his own lawyer.

Yesterday’s witness in the body-theft case was Theophanis Hadjigeorgiou, who is also the main witness in the Hadjicostis murder trial.

Police bird-raid sparks massive brawl in Larnaca

2010-10-21

LAST NIGHT a police raid for illegally poached Blackcaps turned into a mass brawl leaving ten people injured and six arrested in the village of Ayios Theodoros in  Larnaca.

The police raid occurred at around 7:20 pm when 30 officers from the Police Rapid Reaction Unit (MMAD) tried to search houses whose residents according to information were suspected of illegally poaching Blackcaps (ambelopoulia).

The residents took offence, and after a heated argument scuffles broke out.

According to the villagers, MMAD officers pulled out their batons and allegedly hit people. Soon the entire village gathered round and the scuffle escalated into a brawl which spilt into the village’s main square.

PrimeTel and LTV part ways over football cover

2010-10-21

PRIMETEL and LTV engaged in a war of words and accusations yesterday after their long standing relationship reached its absolute lowest-ever point, culminating in the termination of their affiliation.

PrimeTel kicked things off yesterday morning by releasing a bombshell announcement which stated that the internet and television provider would terminate its cooperation with LTV as of October 31. PrimeTel had supplied its subscribers via Lumiere TV the channels LTV, LTV2, LTV3, ALFA, LTVSports1 and LTVSports2.

PrimeTel CEO Ermes Stefanou said that the reasons behind this move was that LTV kept creating new channels which in turn brought additional payments for Prime?el subscribers who wanted to watch the Cypriot football games on the new channels.

Cyprus BBQ becomes eco-friendly and healthy

2010-10-21

THE CYPRIOT equivalent of a national sport — the barbeque — has taken on a healthier and ecological twist in the form of the “eco-souvla”.

Souvla, meaning barbecue in Greek, is probably the Cypriots’ best-loved pastime bar watching football, drinking coffee and smoking.

And it is easy to understand why it is so difficult to resist the temptation of having a nibble on the charcoal-cooked meat or fish on offer — the beguiling smell of barbequed meat wafts through the air on this eastern Mediterranean island most days.

It smells and tastes great, but experts say it is also unhealthy. Doctors have blamed barbequed meat for the majority of heart attacks in Cypriots, and the residue of coal fumes mixed with fat dripping is widely said to be carcinogenic.

Turkish films steal the show at Cyprus film festival

2010-10-21

 

TURKISH film “Love in another Language” amassed the most awards at this year’s fifth Cyprus International Film Festival Awards, which took place on Monday night.

The drama is directed by Ilksen Basharir and tells the story of a modern day romance, between a deaf man, Onur, played by Mert Firat, and a call-centre worker, Zeynep, played by Saadet Aksoy.

The film, which brings to the foreground issues of communication, won four awards, including the much coveted Golden Aphrodite award, at this year’s film festival. It won “Best Leading Actor in a Feature Film,” “Best Script in a Feature Film” and “Best Director in a Feature Film.”

Deputies tackle ‘the scourge of alcohol’

2010-10-21

ALMOST half of serious and fatal road accidents are down to drink driving, the House Crime Committee was told yesterday.

MPs said the alarming data they were given including an increase in 15-year-old alcohol abusers – had pushed them to seek changes in the law that would avert overconsumption of alcohol.

The head of Police Headquarters’ Traffic Department, Demetris Demetriou, informed MPs that even though there had been a reduction in road accidents, those related to alcohol consumption were increasing at an alarming rate. Excessive alcohol consumption, he added, was the main reason for serious and fatal road accidents.

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.