Trouble brewing in the old town

2011-05-11

 

TROUBLE IS brewing in Nicosia’s old town after nationalist organisation KEA  announced plans to march on a multicultural street party at Phaneromeni Square this coming Friday night.

The party has been organised by a loose collective of regular night-time visitors to Phaneromeni square to celebrate multiculturalism with music, dance, jugglers, clowns and food.

At the same time, the right-wing nationalist Greek Resistance Movement (KEA) plan to march on the church area to protest against illegal immigrants, Turkish settlers and crossing points, which they say allow  in drugs “that are killing Cypriot children”.

Both sides claimed yesterday they were not looking for trouble and defended their right to party and protest respectively.

Our View: Condemnation of Ban remarks betrays a skewed political outlook

2011-05-11

UN SECRETARY-GENERAL Ban Ki-moon’s bland comments about the Cyprus talks at the weekend drew an angry reaction from the Greek Cypriot parties, all of which expressed disapproval for his alleged bias. What had he said that caused such offence and sparked a unanimous condemnation by the political parties?

He appealed to the two leaders to reduce their differences through a “spirit of compromise and win-win” adding that it was essential for them to “show flexibility and examine the issues in depth”. There had been some progress on the economy and the EU but on the issues of security and property there was still much that had to be done.

‘We just want our dignity back’

2011-05-11

TIRED AND run down after four days without food, seven divorcees who are on hunger strike outside parliament yesterday spoke of their frustration with the system that has let them down so badly.

Eleni Hadjicosta’s husband died in 2009 leaving her with €700,000 worth of debts and four children to educate in the meantime. “We’re taking part in this hunger strike because we want justice,” said Hadjicosta adding that she had to mortgage her inherited home because of her husband. Her husband also forced her to sign as a guarantor on their first loan.

The women taking part in the hunger strike all find themselves in the same boat. They all signed as guarantors for their husbands, got divorced and are now being chased by the banks for their ex husband’s debts.

Holiday appeal for young amputee

2011-05-11

A PAPHOS-BASED non-profit scheme operating holidays for injured or traumatised military personnel is appealing for accommodation for a young amputee for next month.

“We have a young soldier coming to Paphos in June and we are hoping that someone has a three or four-bedroom ground floor apartment or villa they would be willing to donate for two weeks,” said Alan Wilson, the founder and coordinator of the scheme.

According to Wilson the young soldier lost both his legs above the knee and sustained other injuries in an IED explosion in Afghanistan.

He will be a guest of the scheme, which is run by Military and Retired Cyprus Holidays (MARCH) in the last two weeks of June.

Cyprus elections an example to others

2011-05-11

CHIEF Returning Officer Lazaros Savvides yesterday rubbished reports that the

Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was in Cyprus due to a discrepancy in the local electoral proceedings.

Savvides said they were here for the opposite reason. He said the OSCE was so impressed by the fact that there had never been any complaints filed over the procedures followed in Cyprus, it decided to visit the island and observe the lead-up to the parliamentary elections on May 22. The nine-member OSCE delegation arrived on the island on Monday.

Savvides was responding to criticism by opposition DISY’s parliamentary spokesman, Christos Pourgourides, who said that in order for the OSCE to visit a member state, a problem must have occurred.

Website to help voters find polling station

2011-05-11

THE OFFICE of the Chief Returning Officer yesterday announced the creation of a website where voters can visit to find out the location of their designated polling station for this month’s parliamentary elections

Voters can go to wtv.elections.moi.gov.cy, type in their ID number and date of birth to get the polling station they are assigned to vote at.

Further information on the elections can be found at www.elections2011.gov.cy, www.moi.gov.cy, www.cyprus.gov.cy and www.pio.gov.cy

For those wishing to find out where to vote, a telephone service is also available, operating from 8am to 6pm during the week, and 8am to 1pm on Saturday. The service will also be available throughout election day on May 22 until the polling booths close.

Key witness accused of making up testimony

2011-05-11

THE DEFENCE in the ongoing trial for the murder of Sigma owner Andis Hadjicostis yesterday argued that the testimony of the key prosecution witness was “the product of negotiation and horse-trading”.

It further tried to pick holes in the testimony of star witness Fanos Hadjigeorgiou, using his failure to remember a Christmas tree in the house of one of the defendants, Tasos Krasopoulis, to argue that his testimony was full of lies.

Marios Georgiou, Krasopoulis’ lawyer, suggested that Fanos Hadjigeorgiou made his testimony up with the aim of getting in the witness protection programme.

Ombudswoman comes up against refugee agency

2011-05-11

THE OMBUDSWOMAN has come into conflict with the agency in charge of supporting refugees, after she ruled against the latter’s decision to reject a refugee’s application for a grant to acquire a home in Larnaca.

The reason offered by the Central Agency for Equal Distribution of Burdens was that the applicant’s wife already owned a property in Nicosia and he was therefore not facing housing difficulties as a result of his refugee status.

The agency also viewed the application as a request for a holiday home, given that it was located along the Larnaca coast.

However Ombudswoman Eliza Savvidou said it was “coincidental and irrelevant” that the refugee’s wife owned an apartment in Nicosia. He was an independent entity, she said.

‘Govt needs to accept we have a problem’

2011-05-11

THE GOVERNMENT’S decision to sell €200 million worth of short-term treasury bills to the internal market has reduced liquidity in the lending market and proved that the credit rating agencies were right to downgrade Cyprus, DISY number two Averof Neophytou said yesterday.

The DISY deputy, who is running again in this month’s parliamentary elections, accused the government of having no plan for the economy thereby affecting Cyprus’ credibility and “leading us to an endless spiral with negative consequences for the economy”.

When the state takes money from the internal market, this leaves the banks who buy the 52-week treasury bills with much less for lending, creating more competition for money in the private sector, he argued.

Record compensation for business tenant

2011-05-11

A RECORD €650,000 in compensation was awarded last Friday to the owner of a small chain of shops specialising in decorative items, one of which was on the popular, upmarket shopping street of Stassicratous in Nicosia.

The tenant’s lawyer Michalis Cleopas confirmed that this was the largest sum that the Rent Control Courts had made a judgement on since they were established in 1983.

“It’s not very much because of all the investments that were lost. I don’t consider it an over the top amount,” said a representative of the company, who preferred to remain anonymous.

According to Cleopas the owner of the shop had originally taken the tenant to court in an effort to get them out so he could tear the shop down.

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.