| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Menu:



  Limassol Time


Weather Forecast

 

Cyprus News

Cyprus news updated daily courtesy of the Cyprus Mail Online.

Cyprus Mail

Psychic warned Skordelli rival her life might be in danger
by Alexis Pantelides
4 Feb 2012 at 5:16am
Author:  Alexis Pantelides

MURDER suspect Elena Skordelli was so envious of Sigma channel colleague Elita Michaelidou that the psychic she was visiting feared for Michaelidou’s life after Andis Hadjicostis was murdered, the Nicosia court heard yesterday.

Prosecution witness and psychic Kathleen Zachariou said that Skordelli was spiteful of Michaelidou because the latter had her own talk show and got along well with the channel owners, father and son, Costas and Andis Hadjicostis.

“I contacted and met Michaelidou after the Hadjicostis’ murder, because of what Skordelli had mentioned in our meetings…she was jealous of her… I thought Michaelidou’s life was in immediate danger” Zachariou said.

Skordelli is accused of being one of the masterminds behind the attack on Hadjicostis who was gunned down outside his home in Engomi late in the evening in January 2010. 

The former TV presenter is considered the mastermind of the shooting after Fanos Hadjigeorgiou, the confessed getaway driver at the shooting, and chief state’s witness identified her as such. 

The psychic revealed that during four or five meetings since 2007, Skordelli had provided her with several pictures of the victim and his father, stating that Andis Hadjicostis was responsible for her stagnating career.   

Skordelli, according to the prosecution witness, had pleaded with the psychic to use her special powers to “clear all obstacles” holding back her TV career.

The psychic stated that, by using her special powers to read pictures, she told Skordelli that the real obstacle in her career was Hadjicostis’ father, Costas.

“It was then that Skordelli told me to send good vibes towards Andis Hadjicostis so that they could have a love affair,” Zachariou said.

“Skordelli explained that this is what happens in the world of the media, one must jump into several beds if they are to advance in their career” she said.

According to Zachariou, she explained to Skordelli that she could not help her forge a love affair with the younger Hadjicostis, as these matters were determined by every man’s free will.

Zachariou was allowed to stand as a witness after the court had overruled three different objections by the three defence attorneys on the case.

Also on trial for the murder are Skordelli’s brother Tasos Krasopoulis – the second alleged mastermind in the murder-, Andreas Gregoriou the alleged fixer, and Gregoris Xenophontos, the alleged shooter. 

Michalakis Kyprianou, representing Skordelli, claimed that the witness’ testimony was irrelevant, which rendered its value “insignificant.”

Krasopoulis’ lawyer, Marios Georgiou disagreed with Kyprianou’s assessment, claiming that the relationship between the psychic and Skordelli was one of the confidential doctor-patient; as Zachariou was “a doctor, a psychic and a healer of Chinese medicine.”

Zachariou was asked to provide receipts of her meetings with Skordelli as well as the address of the institute where she acquired the certificate of her qualifications. 

The psychic said that she did not hang on the receipts since a lot of time had passed, while she is expected to provide further information on qualifications once the court re-convenes next Monday.

CID officer and prosecution witness, Leonidas Gennadiou who was part of the murder’s investigation team was also grilled by the defence yesterday.

The defence questioned Gennadiou on why the police had not acquired footage from the CCTV circuit in place outside the American Embassy, which apparently had a clear view of Ayia Eleni Street, where the murder took place.

Gennadiou clarified that he was following clear instructions on where to conduct the investigation and said that another colleague had been in charge of further investigations.

The defence once again lambasted the investigation conducted by the police, claiming that the police had “selectively gathered pictures from CCTV circuits which could support the testimony the force wanted to promote.”

Elena Skordelli during one of her court appearances
Our View: Big fuss over Downer comments came to nothing
4 Feb 2012 at 5:14am

IN THE END, the wiser heads prevailed and the legislature did not declare the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advisor Alexander Downer persona non grata. Instead a lukewarm resolution censuring Downer for his “lop-sided and damaging statements,” which “diverge from the UN Charter and UN resolutions on Cyprus” was passed. It also called for the “restoration of the Special Advisor’s objectivity and trustworthiness,” while observing that his comments and actions “constitute an undermining of the Republic of Cyprus as a state.”

The resolution, prompted by Downer’s reference in New York to the “Greek Cypriot presidency of the EU,” a slip for which he subsequently apologised, would be sent to Ban Ki-moon. All the fuss the politicians made in the previous week came to nothing. Deputies had elevated Downer to public enemy number one because of his reference to the “Greek Cypriot presidency”, in the aftermath of Greentree, denounced his, supposedly, pro-Turkish stance and planned to declare him persona non grata. The House would also write to Ban to demand his immediate replacement, or so Giorgos Perdikis, the deputy behind the resolution, had hoped.

The self-styled hard-line nationalists have been waging a war against Downer for most of his time in Cyprus, often citing his e-mails – which were stolen by hackers and subsequently published in a book – as proof of his anti-Greek bias. His public comments are also regularly attacked by politicians, who believe this is a sure-fire method of winning public kudos. It has always been like this. Downer is in good company as he joins a long list of UN Secretaries-General and special envoys – de Cuellar, Boutros-Ghali, Annan, Camillion, Feissel, de Soto to mention a few - who have been targets of vicious attacks by the ultra-patriotic Greek Cypriot camp.

These politicians, who label all UN envoys biased and untrustworthy, want negotiations within the UN framework and handled by the UN secretariat. But whenever there are negotiations they attack the UN and its representatives. After all these years of pro-Turkish or anti-Greek bias by the UN, why do they still want the organisation involved in the peace efforts? Instead of attacking de Soto, Annan, or Downer, they should have the honesty to tell people that the UN would never deliver an acceptable settlement and propose other ways of a securing a deal, instead of engaging in this farce every time there are talks.

In a way it would have been no bad thing if the legislature endorsed Perdikis’ call to declare Downer persona non grata and demand his immediate replacement. Ban would have ignored the resolution and the House would have been able to pass another resolution censuring the Secretary-General’s bias and untrustworthiness.   


Parties squabble in wake of ‘Downergate’
by Poly Pantelides
4 Feb 2012 at 5:13am
Author:  Poly Pantelides

AFTER turning against UN Special Adviser Alexander Downer accusing him of hampering the Cyprus negotiations, parties yesterday turned against each other.

Just a day after the House passed a unanimous resolution asking for the “restoration of the Special Adviser’s objectivity and reliability”, AKEL and DISY came under fire for opposing a stronger amendment to the resolution from DIKO, which wanted Downer’s removal.

Downer has lost favour with parties since the latest talks at Greentree after referring to the taking over of the EU Presidency by Greek Cypriots instead of using the term ‘Republic of Cyprus Presidency’ or ‘Cyprus’ EU Presidency’.

His actions stripped him “of credibility… but more importantly they hamper the entire process of talks aimed at solving the Cyprus problem” Thursday’s resolution said.

But it seems that not enough blood was drawn.

Fotis Fotiou, the spokesman for DIKO, which was part of the government coalition until mid 2011, came out accusing their former partner AKEL and main opposition DISY of bowing to foreign powers seven years ago during the divisive Annan plan negotiations. 

“The leaderships of AKEL and DISY not only suggested but strongly indicated to (former President) Tassos Papadopoulos that he should accept mediation and timeframes as various strong international players asked,” Fotiou said. 

Fotiou was referring to a previous incarnation of a DIKO-AKEL coalition when with Papadopoulos at the helm, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots were presented with a referendum on a solution to the Cyprus problem in 2004, with Greek Cypriots rejecting the plan and Turkish Cypriots supporting it. 

Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou called Fotiou’s claim “a historical lie”. 

AKEL spokesman Giorgos Loucaides said that in 2004, AKEL had actually supported DIKO “reviewing its initial ‘yes’ position, and ultimately stood by Papadopoulos, who as President had the responsibility for a final decision (on the proposed solution).”

Apart from DIKO’s stabs at both AKEL and DISY yesterday, the latter two also exchanged bitter words. 

Loucaides accused DISY chief Nicos Anastasiades of “using excuses and reasons” to connect “the whole issue with his own announcements for the presidential elections of 2013”. 

DISY spokesman Harris Georgiades responded by suggesting that AKEL was scared “DISY would come to government after Christofias”.

Others, such as EDEK called for the President’s resignation while all parties took a brief respite to blame each other on their stance on Downer. 

Meanwhile UN spokesman Marin Nesirky said the UN was aware of the House’s resolution adding that UNSG Ban Ki-moon fully trusted Downer.


No end to bus strike
4 Feb 2012 at 5:13am

THE BUS strike continued for a third day yesterday with drivers warning that if government and companies did not work out their differences, they would escalate measures. 

Bus drivers who have been striking over not been paid their January wages said that if nothing changed by Monday they carry out their threat.

 “We are thinking of how we can escalate our struggle,” union SEK’s Pantelis Stavrou said.

While services resumed in Larnaca on Thursday, commuters in the island’s remaining districts continued being inconvenienced.

Stavrou said that if by Monday the situation had not changed that strikers from all districts should get together to decided “what stronger actions we should take”.

“We are determined to see this through,” Stavrou’s Paphos colleague Petros Demosthenous said. 

The bus companies are saying they have no cash flow because the government has not paid them the agreed subsidies while the government said it had transferred enough cash for companies to pay their staff. 

Communications Minister Efthymios Flourentzos said yesterday that he was hoping that companies would exhibit good will “just as the Ministry has by supporting (the companies) so that they have the necessary cash flow to respond to their obligations and so lift any strike measures”. 

Flourentzos said that the system would not fail. 

“The system is given the necessary support… Any weakness arose by companies presenting cash flows,” he said adding this was the reason they were still waiting for the companies’ financial reports.


Cypriot businessman suing Russian ministry over arrest
by Alexis Pantelides
4 Feb 2012 at 5:12am
Author:  Alexis Pantelides

A CYPRIOT businessman is suing the investigation department of the Russian Interior Ministry, after he was illegally detained and interrogated during his last visit to Moscow on January 20. 

George Philippides, who manages the assets and oversees investments of several offshore Russian companies in Cyprus, had flown to Moscow to negotiate a payoff of a loan owed to the Bank of Moscow.

According to Philippides’ lawyer, Christos Clerides, policemen dressed in civilian clothes, barged into his client’s hotel room on the pretext that they were searching for drugs and guns. 

The officers confiscated Philippides’ mobile phone, laptop and all his dossiers, including files on other clients. 

He was then taken to the police station, where he was interrogated for seven hours “exclusively on the Bank of Moscow loan” Clerides said.

After the mediation of his lawyers, Philippides was freed and was allowed to return to Cyprus, where he consulted the Russian-Cypriot business association and decided to file suit.

Major Russian forestry company Investlesprom, which Philippides represents in Cyprus, was set up by the bank’s former top men Andrey Borodin and Dmitry Akulinin, while the bank remains a considerable shareholder.

The two men were ousted from the bank leadership in 2011, shortly after their close ally, Yuri Luzhkov was driven out of his position as Moscow mayor by President Dmitry Medvedev.

The Russian authorities are suspecting Borodin and Akulinin of abusing their position at the bank to earn over €152 million through the “disappearance of several Investlesprom shares”, as Russian reports comment.

According to the Russian investigators, Philippides was interrogated as a witness with regard to this case but had approached the police on his own accord.

Clerides said that political motives were behind the “horrible treatment” of his client and the persecution of Borodin and Akulinin concerning Investlesprom, since the money from the bank’s loan had not gone missing but was invested.

“Investlesprom had already cleared over half of the debt from the loan and my client was visiting Moscow to arrange the clearance of the rest but suddenly the bank’s new management refused to meet him and proceeded with a criminal investigation” Clerides said.

Clerides said that the clash between Medvedev and Luzhkov had resulted in the bank both launching a criminal investigation against illegal finances and demanding the clearing up of the loan.

“This is clearly a tort case, it has no criminal dimension” Clerides said.

Borodin and Akulinin, who currently reside in London, have a criminal case pending in Russia, concerning charges of alleged large scale-fraud, after an unsecured loan of over €400 million, which was intended for the purchase of some land in Moscow, ended up in the private bank account of Luzhkov’s wife, in an offshore company in Cyprus.


Ryanair adds 15th route to Paphos hub
4 Feb 2012 at 5:12am

LOW-COST airline Ryanair will open a new route from Paphos to Budapest, it announced yesterday.

The airline is celebrating the new route by releasing one million €12 seats for travel in April on more than 1,000 routes within Europe. 

The seats are available for booking up until midnight of Monday, February 6.

The addition of the new route will bring to 15 the number of Ryanair flights to be operated out of Paphos. For more information look to www.ryanair.com 

 


Foundation stone laid for new UCY library
by Natalie Hami
4 Feb 2012 at 5:11am
Author:  Natalie Hami

PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias yesterday laid the foundations stone for the new state-of-the-art University of Cyprus library, which is set to open its doors in September 2014.

The library’s collection, which will be housed in an impressive dome-shaped building holding  around 600,000 books, more than 30,000 magazines and 40,000 books all in digital format plus 10,000 audio books and 150 databases. Its contents will be accessible to all Cypriots.

“The completion of this particular project, the Stelios Ioannou Information Centre-Library, will constitute a significant core for the development of society’s knowledge, as well as being an architectural landmark,” said Christofias at the ceremony held yesterday.

Also present at the ceremony was Education Minister Giorgos Demosthenous along with various government officials and mps.

The project , which in addition to the library, includes an information centre, technical support for teaching and a language centre, was designed by the internationally acclaimed French architect Jean Nouvel. 

It is being constructed north east of the Aglandjia campus and will cover over 15,000 square metres of land. The project was undertaken by construction company J&P and J&P Avax Joint Ventures-Stelios Ioannou Library at a cost of €27.7 million.

It will have the potential not only to cover the needs of every academic but also any member of the public interested in using its facilities.

“This will help immensely in the fulfilment of dreams for years to come for the University of Cyprus as well as for Cyprus and its people,” said Christofias, thanking Elli Ioannou for gifting the University with €8 million in memory of her husband, Stelios Ioannou.

The University’s rector Constantinos Christofides called the library a legacy for future generations and a project that fulfils the University’s goals. It is designed to serve around 10,000 students.

He also said that it would be the island’s first library to be built on such an enormous scale because despite the shift to a more technological age, “the book remains a powerful symbol of knowledge and a bridge between student and teacher”, he said.

With over quarter of a million books on its shelves already and adding12,000 new titles a year, the UCY library is setting its sights on becoming a national research facility in collaboration with other local libraries

 


Higher penalty points for bad drivers
by Jacqueline Agathocleous
4 Feb 2012 at 5:10am
Author:  Jacqueline Agathocleous

THE COMMUNICATIONS Ministry is preparing a bill that will increase penalty points and impose heftier fines for traffic violations.

If the new changes are passed into law, drivers could lose their licences for up to two years if they keep reoffending. 

In a meeting at the ministry– headed by Minister Efthymios Flourentzos with representatives of the Supreme Court, Police Traffic Department and the ministry’s Road Safety Unit – the final changes were decided.

The bill will now be sent to the Attorney-general to check the legal aspects, before being sent to the Cabinet for approval and then Parliament to be passed into law.

According to Georgios Morfakis, the head of the Road Safety Unit, the ministry hopes the bill will reach the House in the next few weeks.

“A bill was prepared regarding, among others, the points system that is applied in Cyprus,” Morfakis said yesterday. “But before it was promoted to parliament, the Communications Minister felt it should first be discussed with the judges to see their view on it, seeing that they are the ones who use the law’s provisions to impose the penalties, fines, points and so on,” he added.

According to Morfakis, the bill currently provides that if a motorist is caught drink driving, he or she will automatically be led to court and apart from a fine, they will also receive from four to eight points on their licences – previously, the court could impose between three and six points.

There will also be an increase in fines, as well as the length of time someone can lose their licence. Previously, the court could revoke someone’s licence for up to six months, whereas the new regulations increase this timeframe to 12 months. And if someone loses their licence for a second time, they are then subject to up to a two-year driving ban.

Depending on how parliament reacts to the bill, fines could even be doubled.

“In general lines, these are thoughts,” said Morfakis. “But of course it all depends on the Cabinet and parliament.”


North in hot water again over gay ban
by Simon Bahceli
4 Feb 2012 at 5:10am
Author:  Simon Bahceli

CALLS were renewed yesterday for a repeal of the north’s antiquated homesexuality laws after two prisoners appeared in court charged with carrying out “unnatural sex acts” in their prison cell. 

The two, one of whom is a Nigerian national, were ordered to be “remanded for no longer than a month” to await trial. The Nigerian is already on remand facing charges of larceny, while the other, a Turkish national, is serving ten months for forgery. 

Local activists’ calls for homosexuality charges against the two men to be dropped were yeseterday backed by the European Parliament’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Intergroup.

In a letter sent to Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu and the media, LGBT Intergroup called on the north to stick to promises he twice made to London MEP Maria Yannakoudakis to repeal the outdated and draconian laws. It attacked Eroglu for not sticking to his word. 

“Dr. Ero?lu has twice promised me that the northern part of Cyprus would repeal the ban on homosexuality. I have so far taken him at his word, but now he needs to back up these words with deeds,” Yannakoudakis said in the letter.

“There must be an immediate moratorium on arrests under Section 171 and the men arrested last month must be released without delay. Draft legislation submitted by the Communal Democratic Party must be fast-tracked through the assembly to ensure that there are no further miscarriages of justice and Dr. Ero?lu must keep his promise to sign the repeal into law,” she added. 

Intergroup also said it was concerned by the way the media in the north had handled the case, in particular top-selling Kibris which printed not only the men’s names but also their protographs in what appeared an effort to publicly humiliate them. 

According to Kibris, police had said the two charged men’s behaviour had caused “disturbances” among other inmates. It was unclear however what this meant. 

The arrests follow two similar cases in recent months. In October last year the north’s outdated homosexuality laws made world news when former Cypriot finance minister Michalis Sarris was arreseted and charged for allegedly having homosexual sex. Sarris was released on bail but did not return to the north to face charges, preferring to forfeit tens of thousands of euros. Those charged with him are still “under investigation”, according to the Turkish Cypriot police, which falls under the direct command of the Turkish miliatry in Ankara.

Many homosexuals in the north say they are concerned that laws which had lain dormant for years are increasingly being used to persecute known homosexuals.

One homosexual man who preferred to remain anonymous told the Cyprus Mail that until recently gays in the north had felt that expressing and living according to their sexuality was becoming more acceptable.

“Things here are not moving forward; they are going backward,” he said, adding that being arrested for being gay was “now a real possibility for anyone practicing gay sex”.

Co-president of the LGBT Intergroup MEP Michael Cashman concluded that the current laws in the north “wrecks lives” and called on Ero?lu’s promise to be followed by “steadfast action”. The former soap star said he would “personally go to Cyprus in order to meet him [Eroglu], other leaders and NGOs, and encourage repealing this outdated piece of legislation which has no place in Europe—or anywhere in the world.”

 

 

 


Way opens for third-country experts
by Jacqueline Agathocleous
4 Feb 2012 at 5:09am
Author:  Jacqueline Agathocleous

PARLIAMENT has finally started discussions on the EU harmonising bill for blue cards, which will allow employment of highly qualified non-European nationals into the country.

Speaking after the meeting, Committee Chairman, AKEL’s Yiannos Lamaris said the EU directive should in fact have been ratified at the start of 2011.

“The Blue Card is valid indefinitely; however, if the beneficiary remains unemployed for over a period of three months, the card will be revoked,” Lamaris explained.

“The directive offers EU member states the ability to acquire people with high expertise in specific sectors,” said Lamaris, adding that strict conditions would be included in the law to ensure local scientists weren’t aversely affected.

More specifically, the blue cards will be issued to third country experts, provided there are no Cypriots to fill the position.

Lamaris said the directive gave member states the right to determine the amount of cards that can be issued, as well as the sectors for which they can be given.

“The Committee’s effort is to secure the Cypriots’ best interests first and foremost,” he added. “We are going through a period where the unemployment figures are very high and still rising; we already have over 110,000 EU workers and anything that opens the way for non-Cypriot workers to work in Cyprus should put us on alert, so that employment is allowed in a way that isn’t at the expense of Cypriot workers.”

The new law will prove relevant now that Cyprus is launching procedures for natural gas explorations, said Lamaris.

“In the energy sector, seeing that no one ever imagined that Cyprus would become an energy centre, there aren’t many Cypriots with expertise in the mining, production and trading of reserves,” he pointed out.

Currently, Cyprus legislation includes no provisions on highly qualified third country nationals and the issuing of the relevant EU Blue Card.

The card is expected to help third-country nationals to enter and stay freely within the EU, seek work in the sector concerned and enjoy equal treatment with regard to working conditions, social security, pensions, recognition of diplomas and education.



Newsfeed display by CaRP

News Archive