APOEL wind down calendar year with AEK clash

2011-12-17

 

The defending champions APOEL host the only other Cypriot team that remained in the European competitions until December, AEK Larnaca, at the GSP Stadium tomorrow evening at 6pm, in Round 14 of the national football championship.

“I watched the game between AEK and Steaua in Romania. AEK played really well and yet again showed their maturity as a team. It will be a difficult game for us despite of the fact that they just had an European game and could be more tired than us. Those are the normal things in professional football and we should not count on them,” said APOEL’s manager Ivan Jovanovic.

Baghdatis victorious in Buenos Aires

2011-12-17

Marcos Baghdatis made a winning start at the Copa Peugeot Argentina de Tenis at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club defeating Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain 6-3, 6-4 early yesterday morning.

After a long rain delay Baghdatis displayed tennis that reminded of the days when he reached the Australian Open final to beat the Spaniard in straight sets and eliminate him from the exhibition tournament as he also lost his first match of the event to the local start David Nalbandian on Friday.

Baghdatis had been due to face Nalbandian early this morning in the second match of Group B, but the 2002 Wimbledon runner-up was forced to withdraw from the six-player tournament due to tendonitis in his right knee.

Troops assault Egypt protesters, clashes kill 9

2011-12-17

Soldiers beat demonstrators with batons in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Saturday in a second day of clashes that have killed nine people and wounded more than 300, marring the first free election most Egyptians can remember.

Protesters fled into side streets to escape the troops in riot gear, who grabbed people and battered them repeatedly even after they had been beaten to the ground, a Reuters journalist said. Shots were fired in the air.

Soldiers pulled down protester tents and set them on fire, local television footage showed.

In footage filmed by Reuters one soldier in a line of charging troops drew a pistol and fired a shot at retreating protesters.

Arabs may take Syria peace plan to UN

2011-12-17

Arab states may ask the U.N. Security Council to endorse their peace plan aimed at ending a Syrian crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad, Qatar’s foreign minister said after talks with Arab League ministers on Saturday.

Expressing frustration that Syria had not implemented the plan, six weeks after it was first agreed, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said the window for an Arab solution to the crisis was closing.

“If this matter is not solved in the weeks ahead, or couple of months, it will no longer be in Arab control,” Sheikh Hamad told journalists after an Arab ministerial committee meeting in Qatar. “That is what we told the Syrians from the beginning”.

Typhoon kills over 400 in Southern Philippines

2011-12-17

More then 400 people have been killed and hundreds more were missing after a typhoon hit the southern Philippines, National Red Cross Secretary-General Gwendolyn Pang said on Saturday.

She said in a text message to Reuters that the death toll of 426 was expected to rise due to flash floods and landslides that forced tens of thousands to flee from their homes.

Typhoon Washi, with winds gusting up to 90km/h (56 mph), hit the resource-rich island of Mindanao late on Friday, bringing heavy rain that also grounded some domestic flights and left wide areas without power.

Hometown hero Ogilvy roars ahead at Australian Masters

2011-12-17

A rampaging Geoff Ogilvy set his home course alight by shooting a record-equalling 63 on Saturday to take a two-stroke lead over Britain’s Ian Poulter heading into the final round of the Australian Masters.

Former U.S. Open champion Ogilvy, a long-time member of the tournament’s Victoria Golf Club venue, put on a clinic of iron-play and putting on a windy afternoon as he charged past overnight leader Poulter to move to a 13-under total of 200.

“Obviously, I’m very comfortable out here on this golf course. I’ve probably played here more than I’ve played any other course in the world,” Ogilvy told reporters.

“It’s fun to come back to Melbourne always … especially to play here.”

Neymar threatens Barca's world ambitions

2011-12-17

Barcelona have had their thunder stolen before Sunday’s Club World Cup final in Japan, with endless questions about hot-shot Santos striker Neymar rammed down their throats daily.

The Spanish and European champions, bidding to win the seven-team competition for the second time in three years, boast arguably the world’s best player in Lionel Messi.

Yet try as Barcelona might not to talk about Neymar, the name of the 19-year-old Brazil forward so coveted by Europe’s biggest clubs keeps cropping up.

“Neymar is a very dangerous player,” Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola told reporters on the eve of a mouth-watering final in Yokohama. “I expect a cracking game.”

Parliament approves 2012 state budget

2011-12-17

PARLIAMENT last night approved the 2012 state budget, cutting proposed state spending by some €120 million and drawing the fiscal shortfall below the government’s stated target of 2.5 per cent of GDP next year.

Lawmakers also blocked – a practice known as ‘crossing’ – a string of other expenses totaling around €90 million.

The budget was passed with 30 votes in favour – AKEL, EDEK and DIKO – and 20 against – main opposition DISY, EVROKO and the Green party.

MPs cut government proposed expenditure for next year by around 8.0 per cent. 

As the government-proposed 2012 budget stood, it projected a deficit of between 2.4 and 2.5 per cent. 

Our View: We need to rediscover our communal spirit

2011-12-17

“ASK NOT what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country,” President John F Kennedy told Americans in his inaugural address 52 years ago. Those were different times, but this exhortation is more relevant today than ever before. It certainly applies to today’s Cyprus where avarice and self-interest have become our society’s dominant values, with organised groups’ interest only in what their country can do for them. 

Costly private healthcare

2011-12-17

PRIVATE hospitals charge Cypriots 2.5 times more than the European Union average with Cypriots incurring significantly higher costs even on simple blood tests, Health Minister Stavros Malas said yesterday when he delivered the ministry’s report for 2011. 

A cholesterol blood test for example costs €15 in Cyprus versus about €1.9 in Italy and about €2.4 in Sweden while  taking a triglycerides’ count would set a Cypriot resident back by €10 while it cost about €1.3 in both Italy and Sweden, Malas said commenting on 2009 figures. 

A liver biopsy costs €684 versus €157 in Switzerland according to 2008 figures, Malas said. 

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.