Earthquakes prompt record insurance claims in 2011

2012-01-05

Natural disasters, led by catastrophic earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand, cost a record $380 billion in 2011, more than double the figure for 2010 and triple the average for the past decade, insurance experts reported.

Insurance industry losses from these disasters reached a record $105 billion in 2011, according to Munich Re, the world’s biggest reinsurer.

The cost to insurers from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March, which caused nearly 16,000 deaths, was estimated at $35 billion to $40 billion, the company said in its annual review of the prior year’s natural disasters.

That equalled the insured cost of all the natural disasters to strike the United States during the year, it said.

Women are a mystery to British Physicist Hawking

2012-01-05

The biggest mystery in the universe perplexing one of the world’s best known scientists is – women.

When New Scientist magazine asked “Brief History of Time” author Stephen Hawking what he thinks about most, the Cambridge University professor renowned for unravelling some of the most complex questions in modern physics answered: “Women. They are a complete mystery.”

The wheelchair-bound Hawking, who only recently retired from a post once held by Isaac Newton, talked to the magazine in the run-up to celebrations for his 70th birthday about his biggest scientific blunder and his hopes for modern science.

Winds of up to 70mph predicted as storms hit UK

2012-01-05

STRONG winds returned to Britain today following a brief respite from storms which resulted in two deaths.

Gusts of up to 87mph were recorded at Capel Curig in Wales at 2am, and speeds of between 50mph and 70mph are forecast throughout the country.

Aisling Creevey, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: “It’s going to be a very windy day.

“We have a cold front sweeping down across northern Britain that’s going to clear south through the morning. We are going to see quite a chilly day, with strong and gusty winds through much of the morning.

“There will be wind gusts of between 60 and 70mph across northern Britain, Wales and south-west England, with gusts of 80mph in exposed areas of Scotland and northern England.

Police release photo of site where baby was abandoned

2012-01-05

POLICE have released photos of the woman’s pyjamas the newborn girl was wrapped in when she was discovered dead from cold and hunger under an olive tree on Monday.

The police hope the photos might shed some light on the identity of the newborn mother’s whom they have been looking for all week.

The baby was discovered in the Larnaca suburb of Aradippou on Monday morning.

State pathologist Eleni Antoniou who did the post-mortem said that the baby was born by natural labour probably on Sunday night and was still connected to the placenta when found.

“She was probably born at home since I think it’s unlikely that the woman managed to get to a spot, removed from residential areas, in order to give birth in the cold alone,” Antoniou said.

LET LIMASSOL

2012-01-05

House in Akrouta for rent 7 kilometres from Limassol, 3 bedrooms, sitting/lounge open plan, 3 toilets, C/H, A/C, kitchen with sitting area. Large garden with trees, garage. €850pm. Tel 99 917013 

Outlook bleak for New York talks

2012-01-05

IT MAKES no sense for the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides to meet in New York later this month if no progress is achieved in reunification talks, President Demetris Christofias said yesterday, as differences between the two sides persist.

Commenting on an interview he gave to Turkish daily Hurriyet, Christofias repeated that it would not make sense having talks in New York with no progress. “Go there and do what? Repeat ourselves again?” he told reporters.

But he added that the Greek Cypriot side would attend the meeting nevertheless.

“I did not say the Greek Cypriot side would refuse to attend in such a case,” Christofias said. 

“Of course we will go and voice our positions and express our good will and desire for a settlement of the Cyprus problem.”

Our View: Musical chairs leading Cyprus nowhere fast

2012-01-05

UN special envoy Alexander Downer yesterday told reporters…with an almost straight face: “It’s one of those situations. Three courses, two courses in one restaurant and one in the other but the one in the other will be very substantial.  The two will be smaller courses so it will all be perfectly symmetrical and fair.” 

Downer was referring to the dinner tonight the two leaders will have in Pyla.

His comments initially led us to all sorts of bash patriotic thoughts on whether the meal plan was designed based on proportional representation or whether the “substantial” meal was to be held in the Greek Cypriot or Turkish Cypriot restaurant.

Dinner diplomacy heads to Pyla

2012-01-05

THE TWO leaders President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu, will be hosting a dinner tonight in the mixed village of Pyla for the members of the UN team supporting the ongoing negotiations.

The dinner will be preceded by a meeting of the leaders in the village square and a tour of the coffee shops.

It will be attended by the spouses of the leaders, the members of the negotiating teams of the two sides, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative in Cyprus and Special Adviser on the Cyprus issue, Lisa Buttenheim and Alexander Downer respectively, and the members of the UN team at the talks.

Here comes next 1.5 per cent electricity hike

2012-01-05

ELECTRICTY PRICES are set to rise again by around 1.5 per cent as part of the planned three-year phased increase decided in 2009. 

Head of the Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (CERA) Giorgos Shammas yesterday confirmed that the authority will publish the new increases in the Official Gazette, giving the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) the green light to increase prices in the coming days. 

According to CERA, the decision to increase electricity prices by 4.5 per cent over a three-year period was taken in 2009. On January 1 of 2010 and 2011, prices went up by 1.5 per cent respectively. 

This year, CERA plans to do the same, implementing the final phase of the increase. However, not all end users will be affected the same. 

No new leads on mother of abandoned baby

2012-01-05

POLICE yesterday continued searching for the mother of a newborn girl found dead from starvation and hypothermia on Monday under an olive tree in Larnaca. 

“We are carrying on investigations but as of yet have not uncovered any new evidence,” police spokeswoman Nicoletta Tyrimou told the Mail. 

The baby was discovered in Aradippou on Monday morning and according to pathologist Eleni Antoniou was abandoned a few hours after birth, probably on Sunday night. 

She seems to have died from “starvation and climatic conditions – the cold. The baby definitely suffered hypothermia”, said Antoniou who did the post-mortem.

Antoniou said that the baby was born by natural labour and was still connected to the placenta. 

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.