Baghdatis raring to go at Australian Open

2013-01-11

CYPRUS star Marcos Baghdatis is in confident mood and declared he is ready for the start of the Australian Open after a satisfying few months of steady improvement.

Following his semi-final effort at the Brisbane International last week, Baghdatis is competing in the AAMI Classic, an exhibition tournament in Kooyong that gives him guaranteed match practice against Top 10 players before the Australian Open starts on Monday.

Shiarly: we expect equal treatment

2013-01-11

CYPRUS is not looking for special treatment from Europe on its bailout terms but it does want equal treatment, Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly said yesterday.
The comment came as the president of Eurgroup said the island’s financial bailout was unlikely to be agreed by the end of January, and following a spate of bad press in Germany over money laundering.
“I don’t think we will be in a position to find a solution during January. It will take longer,” said Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs meetings of eurozone finance ministers.

‘Debt is manageable and sustainable’

2013-01-11

CYPRUS’ public debt will peak in 2014 to less than 150 per cent of GDP and follow a downward trend after that so that by 2020 it would be close to 100 per cent, the finance ministry said yesterday.
“The analysis we do shows that the debt, despite being at very high levels, is manageable and under the conditions we describe it can be sustainable,” Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly said after a presentation to EU ambassadors.
According to Shiarly, the scenario applied by the ministry assumed banks would need €10 billion to recapitalise since the final figure has not been calculated yet.
Cyprus fears its debt may be deemed unsustainable after a bailout, prompting fresh austerity that will include privatisations.

Lillikas says he and his wife worth a combined €4m

2013-01-11

PRESIDENTIAL candidate Giorgos Lillikas earned around €115,000 last year, while he and his wife are worth a combined €4m, figures disclosed by his election staff show.
According to a statement released yesterday – signed by accounting firm G. Josephakis Audit Ltd – Lillikas’ income was €19,500 in 2009, €72,704 in 2010 and €115,923 in 2011.
The 52 year-old has no deposits in banks. His assets include a residence and plot of land in his home village of Panayia, Paphos, with a market value (1980 prices) of €1,879 and €34, respectively.
In the statement, Lillikas urged his fellow candidates to publish details of their finances “in the interests of transparency.”

Ball finally rolling on cremation

2013-01-11

THE government has approved draft legislation regulating the cremation of human remains, finally getting the ball rolling on an issue that has been pending for more than a decade.
The right to be cremated after death has been the long-standing demand of many expats living in Cyprus – a bill to build a crematorium was first drafted and presented to parliament in 2000 by Marios Matsakis, then an MP – though it is believed that a growing number of Cypriots would also go for that option if it was available.
A 2006 draft did not include Cypriots but it was amended some three years later to redress the inequality.

Driver careers through bank window injuring two

2013-01-11

A YOUNG man drove his car into a branch of Bank of Cyprus in Nicosia just before 1pm yesterday injuring a 63-year-old man on a motorcycle and a 66-year-old male customer inside the bank.
The motorist veered off the road onto the pavement after hitting a bus sideways seconds earlier, police said. According to reports, the car was travelling from Kaimakli to Nicosia on Stasinou Avenue, side-by-side with a bus when the two vehicles collided, causing the car driver to lose control of his vehicle.

Paragliders pick bad time for airport joyride

2013-01-11

TWO British permanent residents, aged 30 and 24, were arrested yesterday afternoon after being spotted paragliding in the area of Larnaca airport.
In addition to their actions being a danger to aircraft, police were concerned at the security breach a day before the arrival of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a host of other European dignitaries to attend a conference in Limassol.

Archbishop: Apostolos Andreas belongs to us

2013-01-11

THE ARCHBISHOP yesterday reasserted his readiness to let the historic Apostolos Andreas Monastery in occupied Karpasia collapse rather than sign onto any plan that does not state that the Church of Cyprus owns the site.
“I’ve said it before that I would rather see the monastery collapse than let go of the property. The monastery is ours,” Archbishop Chrysostomos II said.
He was talking to state broadcaster CyBC, which asked him to comment on an announcement made this week by the ‘TRNC’ saying they would fund a project to fix the complex’s church alone, citing delays on the part of the Greek Cypriots.
After decades of neglect following the 1974 Turkish invasion, the monastery complex now needs to be renovated.

Cyprus and Lebanon deepen ties

2013-01-11

THERE IS no dispute between Cyprus and Lebanon over the issue of hydrocarbons, and the two nations are keen to work together on energy, President Demetris Christofias said yesterday.
“We have a common interest with Lebanon because we have a common Exclusive Economic Zone, so there is no problem between us,” Christofias said in Beirut during an official visit there.
“Of course,” he added, “there is the problem between Lebanon and Israel, and efforts are being made to bridge the difference.”
Christofias expressed the hope that soon Lebanon would proceed with the licensing of its own offshore blocks, and noted that Lebanon wanted to gain from Cyprus’ experience and that Cyprus was ready to pass it on.

Orphanides said he had permission to take laptops

2013-01-11

FORMER Central Bank governor Athanasios Orphanides revealed yesterday that a pair of laptop hard drives he has been accused of not returning to the regulator, were in fact removed with the agreement of the bank’s IT officials.
The current Central Bank administration has been trying to retrieve the hard drives while ruling AKEL has accused the former governor of withholding data and documents belonging to the regulator.
Orphanides had always said that he had no documents in his possession belonging to the Central Bank and that the controversial drives contained his personal correspondence, which could not be deleted.
He said yesterday that they had been removed with the agreement of the officials of the regulator’s IT department.

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.