Islamic State militants released a video on Saturday saying they had executed Japanese hostage Kenji Goto, the SITE monitoring group said.
Reuters could not immediately verify the video, which showed a hooded man standing over Goto with a knife held to his throat, followed by footage of a body with a head placed on it.
Addressing Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the man says: “Because of your reckless decision to take part in an unwinnable war, this knife will not…
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Be Evie Andreou
THERE were emotional scenes on Saturday as the around 80 Syrians remaining in the reception centre in Kokkinotrimithia were given a few more hours, until Sunday morning, to decide whether to apply for asylum or leave the camp and rely on their own means.
They were among the 337 people rescued off the coast of Cyprus en route to Italy in late September when their ship was caught in rough sea.
The government had given them a…
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By Mike Collett
England striker Daniel Sturridge celebrated his return after a five-month injury layoff when he came off the bench to score as Liverpool beat West Ham United 2-0 in the Premier League on Saturday.
Sturridge, who last played on August 31, came on in the 68th minute and found the net 12 minutes later to seal the points for Liverpool who climbed above West Ham into seventh spot in the table.
Raheem Sterling had given them the…
The fifth and final bill of the “insolvency framework” has caused a new rift between the Cyprus government and Troika technocrats, particularly with regard to the proposed treatment of guarantors to bad loans.
Four bills of the insolvency framework have already made their way to parliament, but the fifth was under Troika scrutiny. Cyprus’ international creditors appear to have red-flagged a provision linking guarantors’ obligations to those of the borrower, meaning they should be let off the hook if…
By Paul Carrel and Jussi Rosendahl
German Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out a debt writedown for Greece on Saturday, and a European Central Bank policymaker threatened to cut off funding to Greek banks if Athens does not agree to renew its bailout package.
The eurozone’s paymaster and the ECB are both taking a tough line with Greece’s new leftist government, whose leader swept to victory last Sunday promising that five years of austerity, “humiliation and suffering” were over.
Alexis Tsipras…
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By Sabine Siebold
Former president Richard von Weizsaecker, who challenged German attitudes about the Holocaust by arguing that the country had been liberated by the Nazi defeat in 1945, died on Saturday at the age of 94, the current president’s office said.
A member of one of Germany’s most distinguished aristocratic families, von Weizsaecker also presided over the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990, 11 months after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
He was most remembered for…
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By Andrei Makhovsky and Richard Balmforth
A new round of peace talks got under way involving Ukraine and separatists on Saturday, even as fighting between Kiev government forces and the Russian-backed rebels raged in Ukraine’s east, claiming civilian and military lives.
The main members of the so-called ‘contact group’ – Ukrainian former president Leonid Kuchma, a Russian diplomat and an Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe official – met at a state residence in the Belarussian capital Minsk, where…
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By Steve Scherer and Paolo Biondi
Italian lawmakers elected Sergio Mattarella, a constitutional court judge and veteran centre-left politician, as president on Saturday, handing a welcome political victory to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
Mattarella, speaking at his office in the Constitutional Court after the vote, said: “My first thoughts are of the difficulties and hopes of our citizens.”
The election shows the 40-year-old Renzi in firm control of both his famously fractious party and his allies in the ruling majority…
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More than 100 owners of hunting dogs organised blocked traffic access in two lanes of the Konia roundabout in Paphos at 11 am on Saturday, in protest of the limited areas the Cyprus Wildlife Protection department has granted them for training their dogs.
Dog owners reported the death of several hunting dogs in all four of the areas granted due to poison intentionally placed by unknown individuals.
They demanded the granting of more areas, particularly areas deemed permanently restricted,…
By Greg Stutchbury
For two men who have accomplished so much in their closely intertwined careers, the Australian Open final between friends Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray on Sunday could achieve a number of firsts.
Should Djokovic beat Murray he will become the first man in the Open era to win five titles in Melbourne and be one away from Roy Emerson’s record of six, won before the game went professional in 1968.
Victory will also allow him to reclaim…
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A 24-year-old man was arrested on Friday in connection with a burglary in Nicosia, which linked him to a further six prior burglaries, a police report said.
According to the report, at around 9:30am on Friday, police rushed to a house in Nicosia after a tip that a man was trying to force his way in.
Upon arrival, the policemen spotted a young pedestrian, who was approached and transferred to CID Nicosia for questioning.
It turned out…
By Greg Stutchbury
Top seed Serena Williams fought off a barking cough to clinch her 19th grand slam singles title with a 6-3 7-6(5) victory over Maria Sharapova in the Australian Open final on Saturday.
Williams’ sixth title at Melbourne Park moved her into a tie with fellow American Helen Wills Moody in third on the all-time list after she joined Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert on 18 at last year’s US Open.
Only Australia’s Margaret Court (24) and Germany’s…
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By Larry Fine
Tiger Woods slumped to his worst round as a professional when he carded an 11-over-par 82 in the second round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
The 14-time major winner, struggling in his return to competitive golf after a long layoff due to a back injury, had six bogeys, two double bogeys, a triple bogey and two birdies in the round.
“It’s golf, we all have days like this,” Tiger told reporters.”Unfortunately, mine was in a public…
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By Dan Whitcomb
More than 100 people in the United States have been confirmed as infected with measles including 91 in California, most of them linked to an outbreak that began at Disneyland in December, public health officials said on Friday.
The California Department of Public Health said at least 58 of the cases of the highly infectious disease in the state have been epidemiologically linked to the Disneyland cluster. More than a dozen other cases have been confirmed in…
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The implementation of an overall digital strategy will bring many benefits to the state, the economy and society, minister of Commerce Yiorgos Lakkotrypis said on Saturday.
Addressing an event in Nicosia on the occasion of the second phase of Digital Championship 2014-2015, the minister said the implementation of a digital strategy will be important to strengthen the competitiveness of the economy, to create new jobs, to modernise and restructure the state and increase productivity.
Lakkotrypis said that Information…
Chelsea striker Diego Costa will miss his side’s top-of-the-table Premier League clash against Manchester City after losing his appeal against a charge of violent conduct, the English Football Association said on Friday.
The Brazilian-born Spain striker has been banned for three matches after treading down on Liverpool’s Emre Can in the first half of the League Cup semi-final, second leg at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday.
Chelsea, who are five points clear at the top of the table, will be without…
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By Allison Lampert and Allison Martell
Aviation leaders will try to secure a mandate to implement new safety standards when they meet next week after a string of high-profile accidents around the world made 2014 the deadliest year for commercial airlines in almost a decade.
Efforts to adopt new standards for global plane tracking and co-operation on the risks of flying over conflict zones will dominate the meeting on safety in Montreal from Feb. 2-5, weeks ahead of the anniversary…
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By Constantinos Psillides
EDEK deputy chairman Marinos Sizopoulos and party MP Giorgos Varnava will be facing off for the top spot in the party, on March 1.
Sizopoulos announced his candidacy on Friday, promising to bring an air of renewal to the party, promote younger members, bring back those that left, and strive for unity.
He also promised to work to ensure that anyone who was involved in a corruption scandal was brought to justice. The last one was a…
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TROIKA technocrats, who met health ministry officials on Wednesday to discuss the progress being made in the preparations for the introduction of the national health scheme, should have taken note of what was going on at Nicosia General Hospital.
The night before, the hospital’s emergency department was unable to cope with the influx of patients some of whom had to be turned away. And this was part of a wider problem – there were not enough beds in the…
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Teachers’ unions OELMEK and POED yesterday hit back at University of Cyprus rector Constantinos Christofides, who accused them in an open letter to the president as being the main culprits for the sorry state of education.
“The rector’s insulting, subjective and arbitrary comments regarding the teachers’ unions to not reflect the unions’ work done throughout the years to promote public education on every level,” said primary teachers’ union POED.
It called on Christofides to “stop with the publicity stunts that…
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Long time Cyprus Mail contributor and former CyBC reporter Rosie Charalambous kicks off a series of weekly podcasts covering politics, current affairs and culture every Friday. NEW For the latest Cyprus News Digest episode click here
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