India and England tie up an all-time classic

2011-03-01

THE World Cup caught fire on Sunday when co-hosts India and England shared a tie in one of the most thrilling matches ever seen after a record-breaking 676-run slug-fest went down to the last ball.

It was not a game for the faint-hearted and those Indian fans who left the stadium early thinking their team was doomed three-quarters of the way through will surely kick themselves forever after missing a truly classic finale.

First India, then England looked to have a complete stranglehold on this Group B encounter in a power struggle which showed off to its very best the supposedly dull and outdated 50-over version of the game.

Yet this was a match with just as much high-octane excitement as anything served up by cricket’s brash Twenty20 format.

Cyprus Mail readers’ survey draw- Winner

2011-03-01

Dear All,

Thank you to everybody who completed the Cyprus Mail readers’ survey. We received a great number of results which will certainly help us to improve CM online in the future.

Two names were drawn at random from the list of entrants, using this random number generator

The winner of the first prize of €150 is the pseudonymously named Erasmus, from Bangor in the UK.

The winner of the second prize of €50 is Joanne Demetriou from Paralimni.

Emails will be sent to the winners to confirm this.

Hooligan battle won, but the war continues

2011-03-01

POLICEMEN on duty refused to be intimidated on Sunday afternoon when faced with a group of some 500 football supporters who tried to push their way through police lines outside the Antonis Papadopoulos football ground. The supporters had no tickets and when police prevented them from heading to the stadium entrance the crowd started throwing stones and setting fire to refuse bins and car-tyres.

Arab revolutions, China and oil

2011-03-01

MUAMMAR Gaddafi’s speeches grow ever more delusional: last Thursday he accused al-Qaeda of putting hallucinogenic pills into the coffee of unsuspecting Libyan 17-year-olds in order to get them to attack the regime. But he also said something important. Defending his massacres of Libyan protesters, he pointed to the example of China, arguing that “the integrity of China was more important than [the people] on Tiananmen Square.”

Bank profits dip but they’re still making millions

2011-03-01

BANK of Cyprus (BoC) and Marfin Laiki yesterday said 2010 profits had fallen but both banks still reported millions in net profits for the year.

Net profit at Bank of Cyprus fell 2 per cent last year to €306 million after a jump in loan provisions and is likely to be at a similar level in 2011, the bank said while Marfin Laiki said its full year net profit fell 49.9 per cent to €87.1 million.

In the case of BoC, the bank reported that group net interest income last year rose 23 per cent to €1.04 billion. The net profit is at the lower end of earlier bank guidance for between €300 million and €400 million in net gains. Pretax profit fell 5 per cent to €348 million.

Strike to paralyse construction averted

2011-03-01

THE GOVERNMENT yesterday averted a large-scale freeze in the construction sector after reaching a “compromise” deal with ready-mix cement producers, who went on an indefinite strike in the morning.

The drivers of around 300 cement-mixers attempted to converge upon the capital but were stopped from clogging the roads in protest by police just outside Nicosia, in Latsia. Instead, around 30 cement-mixer vehicles were permitted to enter the city.

While the majority of cement-mixers were parked outside the capital, the Cyprus Association of Ready-Mix Manufacturers met with the Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis, during which the two reached a compromise agreement on the standards to be adopted for making concrete.

Waiting 30 years for a diagnosis

2011-03-01

SOME PATIENTS with rare diseases can be suffering between five and thirty years for a diagnosis and are often misdiagnosed, Thalassaemia International Federation (TIF) and Cyprus Alliance for Rare Disorders (CARD.) said yesterday on occasion of Rare Disease Day.

Between 50,000 and 60.000 thousand people in Cyprus are affected from one of about 6,000 rare diseases including thalassaemia, heart diseases, neurological, muscle and metabolic diseases. Eighty per cent or rare diseases are genetic.

In Europe, seven to eight per cent of the population – about 30 million people – are stricken with a rare disease. A disease is rare when it affects one person in every two thousand. Eighty per cent of rare diseases are genetic.

MPs ‘deliberately’ muddying migration issues

2011-03-01

PUBLIC financial assistance to “political refugees” constitutes a brutal provocation and should be scrapped, an opposition lawmaker said yesterday, as MPs proposed to replace cash with material assistance for refugees, people under subsidiary protection and asylum seekers.

The government “should realise that they cannot take €2.0 million a month from the pockets of the hardworking Cypriot taxpayers and give them as generous transfers to political refugees,” DISY deputy Lefteris Christoforou said. “Public assistance to political refugees constitutes a brutal provocation” and it should be scrapped right now.

Christoforou accused the government of being incapable and inefficient in implementing their migration policy, which has gone bankrupt.

Migration policies ‘far below average and falling’

2011-03-01

A 2010 SURVEY of 31 countries’ migration policies has shown Cyprus has the worst access and long-term integration into the labour market for migrants, and is the only surveyed country to be both below average and falling behind.

The British Council and Migration Policy Group’s Migration Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) which was released yesterday said that Cypriot law “creates the least favourable conditions for these workers to access and integrate long-term on the labour market. They have few real opportunities to participate in democratic life or to naturalise.”

Furthermore, the report said that “At 35 points, Cyprus is the only country far below average and falling further behind, ranking 2nd last of all 31 countries.”

Federation is back on the table

2011-03-01

 

THE TWO leaders yesterday appeared to overcome another stumbling block in the talks, reaffirming that the peace process would continue on the UN-agreed basis of a federation and not a confederation.

The agreement came just hours before the UN was due to finalise UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s latest progress report on the Cyprus talks, expected at the UN Security Council by the end of the week.

According to UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer yesterday, the leaders “had a good and long discussion” for around two and a half hours where they had the opportunity to discuss “a range of issues”.

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.