School hit by interracial violence

2011-02-17

VERGINA High School in Larnaca yesterday erupted in violence as dozens of Greek Cypriot pupils fought with Palestinian and other Arabic-speaking classmates in the school yard.

The massive brawl, which included the arrival of around 25 pupils from neighbouring schools, led to four pupils being slightly injured and parts of the school vandalised.

Preliminary police investigations showed that the fight started with an unprovoked attack by Greek Cypriot pupils on their foreign classmates. Greek Cypriot pupils hit back, saying they were being provoked on a daily basis and yesterday’s violence was just the situation coming to a head. Their complaints were endorsed by the head of the school’s parents’ association.

Our view: Final Qatar deal is a face-saving exercise

2011-02-17

IT TOOK more than a year for the government’s joint venture with Qatar for the development near the Hilton Hotel in Nicosia to be finalised. There were times when it seemed the deal would fall through because of the big divergence in the two sides’ valuation of the land which would determine the level of the investment. In the end, the Cyprus government was forced to significantly lower its valuation in order to ensure the project would go ahead.

Citizen’s march against Larnaca violence

2011-02-17

LARNACA Citizens Movement last night carried out a peaceful march through the town to protest last week’s attack by Palestinian refugees on the district welfare office, which resulted in a policeman being injured.

“We condemn the violence; we condemn everything that is happening, wherever it is coming from,” said Movement member Vasos Zanettos.

Referring to the violent clashes between local and foreign pupils at Vergina High School yesterday, Zanettos added: “Our children are at school to learn and be educated, not to exercise violence. But the Education Minister and all implicated state bodies should deal with the situation, as the matter is tragic.”

Noble ‘very excited’ about gas opportunities

2011-02-17

US FIRM Noble Energy said yesterday there are indications of sizable natural gas reserves off the island’s shores, while the government said Cyprus could have its own supply of the fuel by 2016.

The company has a concession to explore for hydrocarbons in a southeast offshore field, known as block 12.

“We don’t have an exact number on the amount of resources available, but the structure that we can tell from seismic looks very favourable to be a sizable quantity,” Terry Gerhart, Noble Energy vice president for international operations, said after a meeting with President Demetris Christofias.

At the same time, Trade and Industry Minister Antonis Paschalides told MPs yesterday that Cyprus could have its own supply of natural gas by 2016.

New domestic worker rules benefit neither workers nor employers

2011-02-17

EMPLOYERS of domestic workers and anti racism organisation KISA yesterday slammed the government’s “terrible” new policies on domestic workers, which they claim are unfair, exacerbate problems and only serve to make more money for the government.

The Pancyprian Association of Employers of Foreign Housemaids (PAEFH), which represents around 200 families that employ domestic workers, raised their objections to seven new government policies in a letter to the interior ministry last week.

PAEFH president Stallo Savouli said that although the interior ministry’s new measures, passed at the beginning of the year, were supposed to solve long-standing problems with domestic worker employment, the opposite is true. “In fact they will increase them,” she said.

Russian MP will challenge Court over $6 billion

2011-02-17

A RUSSIAN MP intends to challenge a Nicosia court ruling to unfreeze $6 billion worth of assets belonging to Russian businessmen on Tuesday, which were frozen after a dispute over a Moscow hotel development.

Ashot Egiazaryan, who is a member of the Russian Duma, filed the case in September 2010 along with two others, Dmitry Fitisov and Artem Egiazaryan, against the businessman Suleiman Kerimov, claiming that he swindled them out of shares in the Moskva Hotel project.

Nicosia district court issued a freeze on Kerimov and several others’ shares in Cyprus-based companies that have a stake in Russian firms, such as Uralkali and Polyus gold.

Secretary General’s report unlikely to find signs of progress

2011-02-17

THE TWO leaders will meet today for what will likely be the second to last time before UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon presents his progress report to the UN Security Council this month.

After today, President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu will have only met twice since their tripartite meeting with Ban in Geneva on January 28, while their respective aides Georgios Iacovou and Kudret Ozersay have been meeting twice a week.

It remains to be seen what kind of progress Ban can talk about when he presents his report at the end of this month or early March to the Security Council.

Short shrift given to copycat tooth implant claims

2011-02-17

DEPUTY Attorney-general Akis Papasavvas who infamously charged the Health Ministry €17,000 for teeth implants has inspired a succession of equally invalid petitions, a Health Ministry official confirmed yesterday.

He was responding to a report in Politis newspaper yesterday which ran a story about civil servant Gianakis Eracleous who copied exactly Papasavvas’ request to have his medical expenses reimbursed. He made the application, he said, as a test case in order to see “whether this government respects the constitution and treats all citizens equally”. Eracleous said he had received no response from the Health Ministry.

Bar owners in staffing protest

2011-02-17

BAR owners yesterday went on the march to protest against new measures which limit the numbers of non-EU staff they can employ.

Dozens of owners marched on the labour and interior ministries, and the Presidential Palace carrying placards which read, “Join us in our hunger” and “You’ve taken away 100 licences and you’ve challenged unemployment. WELL DONE!”

The group delivered a letter of protest asking for the prompt reinstatement of employment licences for non-EU nationals for bars which already employ at least two Europeans.

Golf swings in cash-strapped Paphos

2011-02-17

GOLF is proving popular at Elea, the new Nick Faldo designed golf course in Paphos despite the town’s lacklustre economy.

With its economy reliant on tourism and construction, Paphos has been the worst hit by the recession, but according to Pauline Gabriel, the course’s golf sales and marketing manager, membership sales have already exceeded expectations.

“We have been open for only four months and in that time we expected to meet our target of 50 memberships, but we have already sold 150,” she told a press conference this week.

With a price tag of 2,750 euros a year for a single member and 5,000 euros for a joint membership, it seems that golf is something that people are willing to pay for, even in a crisis.

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.