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WE WILL hear a lot about illegal immigrants, asylum seekers and political refugees in the coming months. They featured prominently in the budget debate, with a significant number of deputies speaking of the dangers posed to our society and castigating the government’s policy of tolerance on immigration. All views, apart from those of AKEL deputies were negative, focusing primarily on the state benefits collected by immigrants.

THE GOVERNMENT is not bothered by criticism, just so long as it remains within the frame of democratic dialogue, mutual respect and above all respect towards the institutions, Government Spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said yesterday.

Stefanou was asked to comment on the attacks launched on the government during the three-day budget debate at parliament.

“Any modern democracy demands the least bit of understanding, courtesy and consent,” said Stefanou. “When behaviour cancels out or insults institutions, then problems are created in the smooth operation of any modern state.”

DISCUSSIONS will start soon between President Christofias and public servants umbrella union PASYDY for the reduction of wage increases in the public sector, with the aim of saving €35 million in 2011 and the same amount in 2012.

Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis yesterday repeated his view that those with the higher salaries would be affected the most by the government’s measures. He said the pensions problems was a time bomb and that he would invite the social partners and political parties into discussions over the next fortnight with the aim of reaching an agreement on finding an expert actuary.

Stavrakis added that his ministry was preparing a bill that would deal with the issue of public officials receiving up to three separate pensions.

CYPRUS Airways (CY) workers are prepared to contribute their share in a bid to rescue the ailing company, as long as the government, as the main shareholder, does its part, unions said yesterday.

CY unions urged that a comprehensive rescue plan to be drafted immediately so that the company does not end up like state-owned Eurocypria airlines, which went bust last month.

“The losses recorded in 2010 and the negative forecasts for 2011 are such, that if they are not tackled with a comprehensive rescue plan, the future of the company will be very uncertain,” Charalambos Tappas, chairman of pilots union PALPU said.

The airline posted a €25 million loss for the first half of the year, expected to rise to around €30 million for the whole of 2010.

A 73-YEAR-OLD Cypriot man and a 35 year-old Syrian were arrested and then remanded for five days yesterday, after they allegedly conspired to murder a witness in a rape trial in which the 73-year-old is the man accused.

The men were remanded by the Paphos District Court after facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder and trying to pervert the course of justice, while the Syrian man has also been charged with entering and staying on the island illegally.

The 73-year old is accused of repeatedly raping his Vietnamese house maid and is due to stand trial on January 31, one of the key witnesses in the case is another Vietnamese woman who is friends with the victim.

THE DECOMPOSED body of a man was found inside an abandoned pub in Limassol on Thursday night.

A police spokesman said: “The man was lying at the bottom of the stairs inside the bar. From preliminary tests we have established that the man is a foreigner and between the ages of 45 and 55.” The spokesman said that the police acted after members of the public, complained about the smell emanating from the pub.

The abandoned pub where the body was found is in the heart of the Limassol tourist area, in Yermasoyia and specifically in the popular shopping and restaurant mall Galatex Centre.

THE LAST of the three fire trucks stuck in a minefield just outside the buffer zone was yesterday removed by a UN team.

UNFICYP Spokesman Rolando Gomez said that members of the UN’s Mine Action Service “cleared a sizeable section” of the minefield around the truck before towing it out using a transport vehicle.