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Football Sport March 4, 2015

Greek league to restart behind closed doors

By Graham Wood

Greece’s top flight Super League will resume this weekend behind closed doors after the government on Wednesday lifted the suspension imposed last week after trouble at the Athens derby.

“The government’s decision is that this weekend’s games will be held behind closed doors without supporters and then we’ll look at that again for the following round of matches,” deputy sports minister Stavros Kontonis told reporters.

He announced the news barely an hour after Super League and Hellenic…

Local News Business March 4, 2015

Draghi: Cyprus must do its part (Update 1)

By Jean Christou

Cyprus is on track to exit the adjustment programme before the original deadline of 2016, European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi said on Wednesday, something which he said was “remarkable”.

Draghi was speaking at an official dinner hosted for him and the ECB’s governing council by President Nicos Anastasiades at the presidential palace in Nicosia.

Draghi warned however that there was no room for complacency as the Cyprus economy and the island’s financial sector in particular…

Local News March 4, 2015

Anti-austerity demo welcomes Draghi to Cyprus

By Evie Andreou

AROUND 4,000 protesters participated in the mass anti–austerity rally on Wednesday evening outside the Filoxenia conference centre in Nicosia while the European Central Bank’s (ECB) two-day council meeting got underway.

Ordinary workers, employees from semi-government organisations, teachers, unemployed, pensioners, farmers and students from all towns and demonstrators from Greece, Portugal, Austria, Serbia, France and Italy gathered at three meeting points and marched at 5pm to the conference centre to protest against the harsh austerity measures imposed by…

Football Sport March 4, 2015

Cyprus Cup results

Quarter-final, First Leg

Anorthosis 0-0 APOEL

Quarter-final, Second Leg

Ermis 1-1 AEL
Aggregate: 1-2

International News March 4, 2015

Palestinian president calls Israel a ‘gangster’

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of “gangsterism” on Wednesday over its decision to withhold the transfer of more than $100 million a month in tax revenues it collects on the Palestinians’ behalf.

Opening a two-day meeting of senior Palestinian officials, when overall ties with Israel and the possibility of suspending security coordination with the Israelis will be discussed, Abbas described the tax move as a provocation.

“How are they allowed to take away our money? Are we dealing with…

International News March 4, 2015

‘It was him’ Boston bomber’s lawyers admit guilt, focus on brother

By Scott Malone and Elizabeth Barber

Attorneys for the accused Boston Marathon bomber opened his trial on Wednesday with a stunning statement about their client, charged with killing three people and injuring 264: “It was him.”

Defense and prosecution attorneys gave opening statements on the first day of the trial in Boston that will determine whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is found guilty of the largest mass-casualty attack on US soil since Sept. 11, 2001. If he is convicted, the jury will…

Sport March 4, 2015

Under-prepared Clarke basks in record glory

By David Gray

Glenn Maxwell’s promotion against Afghanistan denied Michael Clarke some much-needed batting time but the Australia captain insisted he took the right decision that eventually led to the team’s record-shattering 275-run victory on Wednesday.

Returning from a hamstring surgery, Clarke made his first appearance in the tournament in Australia’s third Pool A match against New Zealand on Saturday.

The 33-year-old right-hander’s time in the middle, however, did not last long as he was out for 12 as Australia…

Entertainment What's On March 4, 2015

Music making

By Maria Gregoriou

Sunday is looking like a day full of fun things to do, and you don’t have to be a woman to do all of them, you just have to know what is going on and take your pick.

If you would like to pick something to do with music and something educational, then the European University in Nicosia will be holding a music workshop and presentation by Professor Lee Higgins, director of the International Centre of Community…

Local News March 4, 2015

Baby girl dies from meningitis

By Constantinos Psillides

A nine-month-old baby girl died in the early hours of Wednesday, two days after she was admitted to the Makarios Hospital with symptoms of bacterial meningitis, according to a statement issued by the health ministry.

The ministry assured the public that there was no wider health risk and that all containment measures had been taken.

Dr Thanasis Athanasiou, a doctor at the child intensive care unit doctor at the Makarios Hospital, told Sigma TV that the baby’s…

Business March 4, 2015

Vgenopoulos case could have been handled ‘differently’ CBC board member says

By Stelios Orphanides

A member of the Central Bank of Cyprus’ board of directors, which makes up the resolution authority, has said that the Andreas Vgenopoulos case could have been handled ”differently”.

The administrator of Cyprus Popular Bank, also known as Laiki, quit her job on Monday, citing the resolution authority’s decision to replace the Andreas Neocleous law office with the Chrysses Demetriades law office, after Neocleous lawyers served subpoenas to former Laiki chairman Andreas Vgenopoulos for violating an asset-freezing…

International News March 4, 2015

Mexico captures Omar Trevino, leader of Zetas drug gang

By Lizbeth Diaz

Mexican security forces on Wednesday arrested Omar Trevino, leader of the bloody Zetas drug cartel, giving President Enrique Pena Nieto his second capture of a kingpin in less than a week.

Trevino, brother of captured ex-Zetas leader Miguel Angel Trevino, was caught by members of the army and the federal police in the northern city of Monterrey in the early hours of Wednesday, a senior government official said.

His arrest comes just days after the capture of…

Local News March 4, 2015

Local council to sue over SAPA works

A local council has decided to sue the former mayor of Paphos and another official – both jailed for corruption — over the sorry state of their community’s roads as a result of the construction of the sewage system.

Savvas Vergas and Eftyhios Malekides, the head of Paphos’ sewerage board (SAPA) were recently jailed for six years on corruption charges relating to the construction of the system.

The pair admitted to taking bribes to award contracts and to agree to…

Local News March 4, 2015

Lidington says Britain ‘fully engaged’ with Cyprus

Britain’s Minister for Europe David Lidington took a step back from the UK’s icy stance last week on President Nicos Anastasiades’ visit to Russia, saying his government remained engaged with Cyprus on security and military issues.

Lidington was responding to a question from Conservative MP Nicholas Soames to the Foreign Office on what discussions the British government had had with Cyprus on the country’s proposed renewal of its military cooperation agreement with Russia.
In his written answer Lidington said…

Local News Business March 4, 2015

Government generates a 0.4% of GDP budget surplus in January

By Stelios Orphanides

The government generated a €74.5m primary surplus in January on a cash basis which accounts for 0.4 per cent of the economy and is almost half of the primary surplus generated a year before, the finance ministry said.

International News March 4, 2015

Indian home minister to investigate rape documentary (Update 3)

By Aditya Kalra

India’s home minister said on Wednesday he would investigate how a film crew managed to interview a death row convict who expressed no remorse for his part in the fatal gang rape of a woman in New Delhi in 2012, an attack that sparked outrage.

Leslee Udwin’s India’s Daughter features conversations with Mukesh Singh and fellow convicts who raped and tortured a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in December 2012.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the…

International News March 4, 2015

US, Iran wrap up round of talks after Netanyahu warning (Updated)

By Arshad Mohammed

The US and Iranian foreign ministers wrapped up three days of talks over Iran’s nuclear programme on Wednesday, a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal being negotiated was a serious mistake.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran’s Mohammad Javad Zarif have negotiated for more than 10 hours since Monday in the Swiss lakeside town of Montreux, hoping to work out a framework deal by late March.

The next US-Iran bilateral meeting…

International News March 4, 2015

Russia’s Putin calls Nemtsov’s murder political

By Denis Pinchuk

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the murder of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov was a shameful tragedy that carried a political subtext.

Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, was shot dead as he walked with his girlfriend on Friday night near Red Square. He was the most prominent opposition figure to be killed in Russia during Putin’s 15-year rule.

The Kremlin has denied any involvement, saying that the killing was a “provocation” designed to discredit…

International News March 4, 2015

Dozens of miners missing feared dead in rebel east Ukraine (Update 3)

By Maria Tsvetkova

Dozens of miners were trapped underground and feared dead after a blast on Wednesday at a coal mine in the eastern Ukrainian rebel stronghold of Donetsk, with rescuers saying the chance of finding many survivors was slim.

Mine officials said the explosion was not linked to fighting at the nearby frontline in the war between Moscow-backed rebels and Ukraine government forces. Kiev accused the separatists of holding up the rescue effort by restricting access.

Outside the gates…

Local News Business March 4, 2015

Anastasiades to discuss Cyprus’s programme, quantitative easing with Draghi

By Stelios Orphanides

President Nicos Anastasiades will discuss with European Central Bank chairman Mario Draghi the progress of Cyprus’s economic and financial reform programme agreed with international creditors at their meeting tonight, the government spokesman said.

The two men will also discuss the ECB’s expanded asset purchase programme, also known as quantitative easing, announced by Draghi in January, government spokesman Nikos Christodoulides said.

Local News March 4, 2015

Cheating husband’s defamation case against three ex mistresses thrown out by court

By Constantinos Psillides

A Cypriot sports journalist found himself in a very awkward situation, after the Nicosia district court not only threw out a defamation lawsuit he filed against three of his former mistresses but also publicly branded him an adulterer.

Daily Politis reported that the journalist filed a defamation suit against his three former mistresses after his wife received an anonymous letter detailing the affairs he had, including the fact that he had a son with one of the…