Criticism? Go ahead. Make my day

2011-03-27

AFTER TWO and a half years leading UN efforts to reunite the island, there’s one thing UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer’s definitely got going for him: he’s not running for election.

Over his lengthy career in Australian politics, Downer has seen his fair share of criticism, but like most of his predecessors, the crosshairs were set the moment he arrived on the island.

Before Cyprus, Downer completed 11 years as Australian foreign minister, making a name facilitating the introduction of a peacekeeping force in East Timor, keeping asylum seekers off Australia?s shores and vocally supporting Bush’s War on Terror and Iraq.

Radioactivity soars inside Japanese reactor

2011-03-27

Japanese authorities evacuated workers on Sunday from a reactor building they were working in after radiation in water at the crippled nuclear power plant reached potentially lethal levels, the plant’s operator said.

Tokyo Electric Power Co said radiation in the water of the No. 2 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi plant was measured at more than 1,000 millisieverts an hour. That compares with a national safety standard of 250 millisieverts over a year. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says a dose of 1,000 millisieverts is enough to cause haemorrhaging.

Tales from the coffeeshop: Digging up roads is good for the economy

2011-03-27

TV DIVA Erini Charalambidou may have managed to sell herself off as a pioneering historical researcher – thanks to her show – to Akelites and other dimwits but she is having great difficulty promoting her bid for a parliamentary seat.

Erini, who is standing as a guest-star candidate for AKEL in the May elections, showed that she is a political loony in the Dr Matsakis tradition earlier this week when she published torrents of abuse against the Ethnarch’s family on her Facebook page.

Our View: Athens-Nicosia co-operation died in 2004

2011-03-27

 

NOT VERY much was made of the WikLeaks revelations, about the rather peculiar relations between the governments of Athens and Nicosia in the aftermath of the 2004 referendum, published by the Greek newspaper Kathimerini. Some have already dismissed the observations contained in the telegrams sent by US ambassador in Athens Charles Ries as gossip, but this is because some unpalatable truths are mentioned.

DISY deputy says politicians paying stations for TV appearances

2011-03-27

TWO LOCAL television stations approached DISY deputy Andreas Themistocleous seeking €3,000 to €5,000 in exchange for including him in scheduled programming, the opposition MP revealed yesterday.

Themistocleous yesterday confirmed what he had said in a Politis article that such TV appearances were up for sale and that MPs from all parties were in on the action.

He told the paper that two local TV stations in Limassol asked him to pay €3,000 and €5,000 respectively in exchange for having him on a show, proposals which he rejected.

This question of corruption and favourable treatment for certain MPs took place on a national broadcasting level too, he alleged in Politis, adding that even state broadcaster CyBC had lists of favoured personalities.

Commit to a timeframe or else accept my resignation, health official tells government

2011-03-27

Kyriacos Christofi of the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO), the body responsible for the design and implementation of the National Health Scheme (NHS), said yesterday that government procrastination gave him little cause to continue with his work.

“The [NHS] goal is becoming more distant and I see no reason to continue,” Christofi said.

Christofi had submitted his resignation on Thursday in reaction to the government’s statements that the NHS could still not be implemented.

The Health and Finance Ministries postponed the scheme in Parliament in late February, citing finances and caution as two reasons not to rush. At the same parliamentary meeting, Christofi asked for “clear instructions” by the government which were not given.

Scammer on the move stealing money from pensioners

2011-03-27

AN unidentified man is lurking about Cyprus with a partner trying to scam pensioners for hundreds of euros.

A 79-year-old from Limassol coughed up €300 yesterday after a scammer convinced him a relative of his owed him insurance money.

A 77-year-old man and an 81-year-old woman from two different villages in Larnaca were both also told by the scammer that a relative of theirs owed him €360.

Luckily, neither was convinced and they tried calling their perspective relatives to confirm the story when the scammer shut their phone and made a run for it by getting in a car driven by a man on standby outside.

Lights go out and clocks move forward

2011-03-27

MAKE sure you have moved your clocks forward one hour for daylight saving time which began this morning at 03:00. Clocks will move one hour back on October 30.

Yesterday was Earth Hour and as part of a world-wide scheme to save electricity and fight global warming, lights went off in 130 countries around the world.

Earth Hour took place at 8:30pm across Cyprus, including at the Presidential Palace where President Christofias was scheduled to talk at 7:30pm at a reception held on the occasion. The Green party in Cyprus was also an avid supporter of the temporary blackout, urging people to support Earth Hour.

“Try to take it beyond the hour this year,” said Earth Hour’s Andy Ridley. Visit www.earthhour.org to find out more.

 

500,000 join mass London protest over austerity cuts

2011-03-27

HUNDREDS of thousands of protesters from across the UK staged a mass demonstration in London against cuts in public spending yesterday.

TUC sources estimated up to half a million activists had taken to the streets in the biggest protest for years.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said the turnout was “absolutely enormous and showed the anger of ordinary working people at the Government’s cuts”.

The protest was largely peaceful but a breakaway group of hundreds of protesters attacked shops and banks in the Oxford Street area.

Topshop and HSBC had their windows smashed, while paint and glass bottles were thrown at a Royal Bank of Scotland branch. Fireworks and flares were set off and a handful of activists scuffled with police.

Libyan rebels rout Gaddafi forces in strategic town

2011-03-27

LIBYAN rebels backed by allied air strikes retook the strategic town of Ajdabiyah yesterday after an all-night battle that suggests the tide is turning against Muammar Gaddafi’s forces in the east.

Western warplanes bombed the outskirts of Misrata further west to stop Gaddafi forces shelling the city, a rebel spokesman said. One inhabitant said 115 people had died in Misrata in a week and snipers were still shooting people from rooftops.

In Ajdabiyah, rebel fighters danced on tanks, waved flags and fired in the air near buildings riddled with bulletholes. Half a dozen wrecked tanks lay near the eastern entrance to the town and the ground was strewn with empty shell casings.

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.