Film Review: Buried

2010-12-01

It took about 15 minutes – maybe a little more – for the audience to catch on. “Is the whole film going to be like this?” someone behind me asked his friends in a strained voice, making a joke with the niggly feeling that it might not be a joke. It wasn’t a joke. Buried is 95 minutes of one actor in one tiny setting, the actor being Ryan Reynolds, the setting being the inside of a coffin where Ryan’s character – an American contractor working as a truck driver in Iraq – has been buried alive by insurgents. That’s it. That’s the whole movie.

Our View: Is the police force destined to have two heads?

2010-12-01

SPEAKING on a CyBC radio show yesterday morning, the head of the Police Association of Cyprus (SAK), Andreas Symeou, said that his association had never been invited to meetings for dealing with football hooliganism. He found this unacceptable as it was the Association’s members who were on the front-line when trouble broke out at football stadiums and ended up in hospital.

He also had a go at the media, which showed little sympathy for officers injured while performing their duties; injured hooligans received much better treatment by the media. Symeou, although a policeman, was speaking like a true union leader – not only defending his members, but also demanding a say in how the police force should deal with football violence.

AIDS numbers low but stigma remains

2010-12-01

CYPRUS is lacking a support scheme for AIDS sufferers, who are still living under social exclusion along with their families and have difficulty finding work, the House Human Rights Committee was told yesterday.

During the discussion to mark World AIDS day today, MPs realised Cyprus was still way behind most developed countries when it came to preventing, treating and generally supporting sufferers.

According to official figures, from 1986 until 2009, 640 people or 0.1 per cent of the population – have been registered as AIDS sufferers in Cyprus

Of these 327 were Cypriots – 284 men and 43 women – while 264 of those registered were foreigners.

Israelis could bail out defunct airline

2010-12-01

THE DISMANTLING of state-owned airline Eurocypria began with a silver lining yesterday as the newly-appointed liquidator hinted that strategic investors from Israel have shown an interest in performing a rescue operation.

The airline’s liquidator, Chris Iacovides, who has only just taken on the job, told state broadcaster CyBC that Israeli strategic investors have expressed interest in rescuing the charter airline.

Iacovides said he will meet the investors in the coming days. If agreement is reached with the investors, and the proposed “scheme of arrangement” is approved by the airline’s shareholders and creditors, then Eurocypria will move out of liquidation, he said.

UN Secretary-General calls for Unficyp to stay for six more months

2010-12-01

 

U.N. SECRETARY-General Ban Ki-moon has recommended that the UN Security Council extend the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force on the island (UNFICYP) for a further six months until June 15, 2011.

There were few surprises in the nine-page report, giving the impression that the UN chief said all he had to say in last month’s report on the good office’s mission in Cyprus.

The Secretary-General’s report on UNFICYP was shared with members of the Security Council yesterday and will be presented at the Council next Thursday by the UN Special Representative in Cyprus Lisa Buttenheim, six days before the peacekeeping force’s mandate expires.

Poacher tries to run over game wardens

2010-12-01

A 50-YEAR-old man tried to smash his car into three game wardens yesterday as they attempted to remove nets which he had placed to illegally capture blackcaps (ambelopoulia).

The three game wardens and the man were transported to Nicosia General Hospital with minor injuries after the incident, which occurred at 1.30am yesterday morning in the Liopetri – Sotira area. As soon as the 50-year-old recovered sufficiently he was charged in writing and then released by police.

A Police spokesman said:  “Wardens were patrolling the area when they spotted an illegal bird trapping net. They were in the process of taking it down when a man attempted to hit them with his car.”

‘Stop insulting us’ say top civil servants

2010-12-01

PERMANENT secretaries of government ministries yesterday blasted the “insulting and scornful” remarks in the media, made against civil servants.

The group of 11 permanent secretaries, among the highest-paid people in the public service – earning some €123,000 annually – “expresses its strong displeasure over the offensive and scornful statements made to the media against civil servants and especially high-ranking officials,” a written statement said.

These are people who “with hard daily work for countless hours ensure the smooth operation of the state machinery to better serve the public.”

Court evacuated after bomb threat

2010-12-01

A BOMB threat caused the Nicosia District court to be evacuated for more than two hours yesterday morning.

A police spokesman said: “An unknown person called the Nicosia central police station and said that at 9am there would be an explosion inside Nicosia District court.

We then moved to immediately evacuate the area.”

The spokesman said that the bomb squad, sniffer dogs, members of the traffic squad and the Rapid Reaction Unit (MMAD) were all rushed to the scene and after a thorough search the building was cleared. The spokesman added that the police response was merely standard procedure for this type of situation.

Mediterranean temperatures set to soar

2010-12-01

CHILDREN BORN today in southern Europe will witness a 7 degrees Celsius rise in summer temperatures by the end of their lives, the European Union’s environment watchdog warned yesterday.

Deaths due to heat shock will rise, southern crops such as grapes will be pushed northwards and flagship European plants such as Switzerland’s edelweiss will face extinction, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said.

“All across Europe we can begin to see the warning signs of climate change,” EEA director Jacqueline McGlade said, as the agency launched its five-yearly assessment of Europe’s environment.

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.