THREATS made on the life of Sener levent, the editor of Turkish Cypriot newspaper Afrika, were roundly condemned on the Greek Cypriot side yesterday.

THE Journalists’ Union (ESK) condemned the threats against Levent. Two shots were fired into the front door of the daily on Friday afternoon and a note was left warning Levent that if he continued writing he “would be killed.”

“ESK expresses its full solidarity an support to Sener Levent and his associates and urges journalists and international media organizations to condemn this criminal act,” a written statement said.

The Green Party, and ruling AKEL issued similar statements yesterday.

CYPRUS Airways, the island’s national airline, may look for alternative ways to by-pass Turkey’s ban on air traffic from Cyprus if this is what really threatens its viability, economist Bernard Musyck said.

The government’s plan to rescue the company it owns by 70 per cent by injecting in it €20 million cash in the form of compensation for additional costs incurred from Turkey’s airspace ban, will not solve the national carrier’s main problem, Musyck, an expert in aviation economics, told the Sunday Mail in an interview.

A PAPHOS businesswoman has been invited to sing three solos with a renowned Welsh male voice choir at their forthcoming performances in the town.

The Morlais male voice choir will be in Paphos to give two performances next week.

Judith Evans-Davies, originally from Wales, is a classically trained singer and has performed in Cyprus on previous occasions, but says that this is the first time she will sing with a male voice choir. She made her debut performance in the Welsh National Opera “Madame Butterfly”

Although she will be performing three solos, along with another female singer, Margaret Bevan, who lives in Wales, she will also be joining them at some point during the performance.

THE Registrar of Companies has announced the operation of ‘e-search’, a service that enables online searches of registered organisations without hassle.

Researchers can now search the registry, for a fee, without having to visit the registrar’s offices and wait until the files are retrieved and then have to pay an extra fee to copy documents.

The fee is €8.54 per search, payable through JCCsmart.

After the payment, researchers can login using the codes sent to their email.

The registrar had previously said that online, people would be able to see the whole history of companies ranked from 115,000 onwards.

The files of those companies with a serial number preceding 115,000 will only contain changes from the year 2000 to the present.

THE CYPRUS International Institute of Management (CIIM) is now offering a programme for recent university graduates who want to pursue management careers in the public or private sectors.

CIIM said the MSc Management programme is specifically designed for recent graduates in any field, who have limited work experience and who are looking for a postgraduate course to prepare them for successful business or government executive careers.

The programme is also suitable for those who want to switch careers because they are unable to secure gainful employment in their chosen field of study or lack the relevant training and work experience to be employed elsewhere.

BI-COMMUNALITY is being bolstered by the Cyprus Community Media Centre (CCMC) which offers various media courses for civil society organisations, also known as NGOs, in an effort to help them develop media and communication skills with the public.

One such group, last week, presented their experience of a two-day video editing course in the form of short films.

The aim of these courses is to encourage community media in Cyprus and support local organisations in getting their message across to the public.

THE INTERNATIONALLY renowned magazine “The Banker” included the Bank of Cyprus (BoC) amongst a group of 18 banks worldwide, which were rated with ?AA- (extremely strong) in its annual report on the ‘Top 500 Banking Brands’.

According to an announcement, the BoC is also amongst the leading banking brand names and is at 210th position, ranking higher than any other Cypriot bank.

The evaluation by ‘The Banker’ is done in association with the independent British organisation for the evaluation of brand names ‘Brand Finance’.

Since the very future of our national carrier is in doubt, this is perhaps a minor point – on the other hand, it could be viewed as symptomatic of the approach that has led the company to the brink.

It’s 2011, and most travellers are encouraged to book online, check-in online – indeed, do the airlines’ jobs for them online. Most of us comply, and when the system works, it does indeed facilitate matters for all.

I’m sure many people, like me, shun Internet Explorer (IE) as a browser because of its inherent security weaknesses. Most, I believe, use Firefox or Google Chrome for their online transactions (in Europe, Firefox has replaced IE as the leading browser – and one assumes that most people booking with Cyprus Airways are in Europe).