Marcos Baghdatis, No. 29 in world rankings, has been knocked out of the Roland Garros tennis tournament in Paris.
Baghdatis went out in the second round of the competition after Argentine Leonardo Mayer, number 217 in the world rankings beat him in three straight sets (5-7, 4-6, 6-7).
The game lasted almost 3 hours.
I must be a really bad parent. Twice in the last few days, I have found myself at odds with what appears to be the moral majority over at least two high profile parenting issues: The McCanns and Facebook.
THE SUPREME Court has unanimously overturned a decision by the Competition Commission (CPC) to fine four fuel companies close to €43 million for collusion, after finding that the watchdog’s chairman had been appointed illegally, it was announced yesterday.
In September 2009, the CPC, under Costakis Christoforou, fined Petrolina, Lukoil, Exxon Mobile and Hellenic Petroleum (EKO) €42.9 million for “concerted practice,” a term meaning the informal and tacit understanding between firms to influence the conduct of the market.
The heaviest fine was imposed on EKO – €14.26 million while Exxon Mobile was fined €13.36 million, Petrolina, €12.56 million and Lukoil €2.7 million.
The violations concerned the period from October 2004 to late 2006.
GREECE’ Prime Minister George Papandreou had meetings with all the country’s party leaders, apart from the Communist Party’s, ahead of yesterday’s start of discussions with the representatives of the Troika (IMF, EU, European Central Bank). The discussions, which are expected to last more than a week, would examine the proposed government measures aimed at reducing Greece’s budget deficit to 7.5 per cent of GDP by the end of this year.
PET owners across the island are on high alert after a spate of malicious dog poisonings, reportedly using a banned – and highly toxic – pesticide.
According to one Latsia resident whose dog was poisoned on Friday, 12 cats and three dogs have been killed in the area after ingesting a white crystalline substance, thought to be Furadan.
Afroditi Michael wrote on the Cyprus Voice for Animals’ (CVA) facebook page: “I lost my dog on Friday night because of this poison… It looks like salt, it doesn’t need to be put on food they can just scatter it on the edge of the road.”
TWO CYPRUS-LINKED companies and a Norwegian tycoon with Cypriot citizenship are at the centre of one of the biggest-ever crackdowns by US regulators on oil price manipulation, it emerged yesterday.
Regulators are suing two well-known traders and two trading firms owned by Norwegian billionaire John Fredriksen for allegedly making $50 million by squeezing markets in 2008.
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission said traders James Dyer of Parnon Energy, and Nick Wildgoose of Arcadia Energy, amassed large physical positions at a key US trading hub to create the impression of tight supplies that would boost oil prices.
CYPRUS IS turning into a concrete jungle at a faster rate than its population growth, as soil is being replaced by impermeable surfaces, or ‘soil sealing’ at a rate three times that of the EU average.
According to an EU soil quality report, Cyprus is “under enormous land use pressure” .
The report, says the rate of soil sealing on the island is “considerably faster than population growth” that the authorities have no specific measures or targets in place to tackle it:
“Between 2000 and 2006, the average increase in artificial areas in the EU was three per cent, with figures exceeding 14 per cent in Cyprus… Due to rapidly growing population and touristic infrastructure land use pressures are significant in Cyprus.”
THE ESTRANGED husband of millionairess Elena Ambrosiadou yesterday strongly denied” any wrongdoing related to IKOS, the hedge fund company they co-founded, which is now based in Cyprus.
“It is no secret that Dr Martin Coward and his estranged wife, Ms Elena Ambrosiadou, are involved in an acrimonious divorce. IKOS was co-founded by them in happier times and is now embroiled in their dispute,” said a statement from Coward, following allegations against him in the wake of counter claims that Ambrosiadou was spying on ex IKOS staff.
PRESIDENT DEMETRIS Christofias yesterday hailed as a “success” the start of his five-day official tour of Australia, home to the second largest Cypriot community outside Cyprus.
Speaking during a state dinner given in his honour by Australia’s Governor General Quentin Bryce, Christofias said he considers his visit to Australia “extremely important, being the first official visit of the President of the Republic of Cyprus since 1995”.
It is “a visit that highlights the deep-rooted relations between our two countries and peoples”, he added.
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.
