Members of the trade unions Peo and Sek went on a 24-hour port strike over the decision of dispute resolution council to suspend action and refer the issue to arbitration.

Despite an announcement from Sek to its workers to not participate in the industrial action, the workers went on strike, CyBC reported.

Akel-affiliated Peo said the port council had ignored the workers’ positions and warned of sanctions if the decision was not enforced.

Peo said the decision was unprecedented in the labour relations system.

“How is it possible for the renewal of collective agreements and workers’ claims be decided by majority either by bodies like the port work council or arbitration courts,” Peo said.

Christos Christophi said it was the fact that the council had ruled the strike illegal that prompted their reaction.

Sek on the other hand asked its members to show up to work despite their disagreement.

“We support the rights of the workers, we support labour rights, but we must act within the boundaries of the law,” spokesman Pantelis Stavrou said.

The chairman of the council, Limassol district officer Marios Alexandrou, stressed that any strike at the port would be illegal.

Anyone who deviates would be subject to disciplinary proceedings, he added.

Industrial action has become a frequent phenomenon since the Limassol port was taken over by the private sector.

Workers and the employers have differences over certain jurisdictions but there are also disagreements regarding the renewal of collective agreements.

Wanting to spread the joy that surrounds the festive season, the Bank of Cyprus and Reaction are organising a different way to share the love this Christmas with children hospitalised at Makarios Hospital in Nicosia. This year they’ve crafted a little teddy bear named Hara, meaning joy, that travels all around the town collecting wishes and positive energy to come back bigger and brighter for the children at the hospital.

How this works is that Hara grows with each wish that people send either through the Facebook pages of the Bank of Cyprus and Reaction or by dropping a note in ‘Hara’s box’ that travels around.

The activities began on December 19 where volunteer employees of the Bank prepared 100 teddy bears to be gifted. On December 20 footballers, members of ‘Goal in Life’ donated their own wishes and sang Christmas carols in front of the Christmas tree, joining in the spirit of the project.

Today, December 22, Hara’s box will be at the Mall of Cyprus urging people to leave their festive wishes, before moving on to the Nicosia Mall the following day to collect more.

The peak of the project and the end of Hara’s journey comes a day before Christmas when she returns to Makarios Hospital from where she set off, who together with Santa Claus will gift children the teddy bears and share everyone’s wishes. Hara will spend her Christmas there, hoping to make this day more joyful for the children in hospital.

Hara the teddy bear collects Christmas wishes
Project by the Bank of Cyprus and Reaction of a teddy bear box collecting wishes for the children hospitalised at Makarios Hospital. Until December 24. Mall of Cyprus and Mall of Nicosia.

A YOUNG, talented Paphos-based architect has won the closed competition to revamp the facilities at the popular municipality beach known locally as ‘Sodap’ and work will get underway at the site at the end of next year.

Konstantinos Psomas, 33, of Psomas Studio of Architecture told the Mail that he signed the relevant contracts with the mayor of Paphos, Phedonas Phedonos, at the town hall around three weeks ago.

“A number of architects of Paphos were invited to submit their designs for Vryssoudia beach, known by everyone as Sodap beach, and we only had about three weeks to create our design after receiving the general brief for the project,” Psomas said.

The project will cost half a million euros and will completely change the face of the area which is currently home to a small nondescript cafe. It will be replaced with a stunning, cutting edge, sculpture- like, modern restaurant cafe- bar, complete with a viewing platform and a roof garden offering stunning views.

“This building will be a landmark for the area and uses fluid architecture, parametric design and also reflects and connects with the history of Paphos, such as the mosaics,” he said.

Psomas said that this is apparent in the rooftop canopy which is made up of different pieces of a special lightweight fabric that mirror the UNESCO protected mosaics of Kato Paphos.

“The fabric is stretched across structure to form a canopy that will self-illuminate at night.”

He explained that this would be achieved by hidden light sources, but that colours have yet to be decided upon.

The concept motivating the design is to create an ‘extension’ of the coastal walkway, adapting to the line and also the topography of the beach.

Konstantinos Psomas

“The building is a sculpture landmark and is making the most of the fantastic 180-degree view which takes in the castle and harbour in the distance, and the sea,” he said.

An eye-catching metal staircase resembles a work of art, and that’s the idea, he said, adding that it leads down to the beach and up to a small viewing platform at the top, to maximize the magnificent view.

The design also includes an interior of around 130m2, an exterior space with a verandah which is almost at beach level, as well as the roof garden, which is around the same level as the coastal walkway. The exterior space totals around 188 m2.

He added that the design was still a concept at the moment, and that it will most probably evolve as the process and project moves along.

The company now has three months to hone the winning design and develop it further. The multiplicity will then call a tender for the construction company to create the building, and a further eight to ten months will then be required to construct the building, Psomas said.

He expects construction, which will take place during the winter months, to get underway at the end of 2019.

“Projects such as these mean a lot to me. I was away from Paphos for 12 years, collecting experience and knowledge and now my hometown and the municipality have given me the chance to share these wonderful and interesting experiences.”

Psomas describes himself as a‘re-generator’ and returned to Paphos a couple of years ago to reinvigorate his father’s architectural business – Psomas studio of Architects (PS-A) which has been operating for almost 30 years.

The young visionary studied architecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and the Ecole Nationale Superieure Paris-Malaquais in France.

He then moved to London to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture and the world-renowned Design Research Laboratory.

Psomas then joined the prestigious Zaha Hadid Architects where he worked for around four years and was involved in various high-edged design and complex projects of different scales

“We are working on many projects of all sizes and scales, including, hotels, hotel renovation, high rise buildings, developments and clinics all over Cyprus. I also redesigned our office to modernise it a little,” he said.

Psomas also designed the three new beach kiosks on Geroskipou beach front.

Two teen boys ended up in the hospital after they crashed a pick-up truck in the village if Yiolou in Paphos on Friday night, police said Saturday.

According to authorities, one of the boys, 16, stole the keys to his father’s truck and took his friend, 16, on joy-ride around the area.

The teen lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the side of the road, where the car turned over.

An ambulance arrived and took the two boys to Paphos general, where they were treated for abrasions.  They were kept in overnight as a precaution.

Russia said on Saturday that the scrapping of a Cold War era nuclear pact may lead to an arms race and direct confrontation between several global regions, after a proposal by Moscow was rejected in a United Nations vote.

Moscow had put forward a resolution in support of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) which bans Moscow and Washington from stationing short- and intermediate-range, land-based missiles in Europe.

Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the UN had failed to vote in favour of the proposal.

“A new blow has been dealt on the global architecture of security and stability. Now, with the collapse of the INF treaty, several global regions could be plunged into the arms race or even into a direct confrontation,” it said.

Washington has threatened to pull out of the accord, saying Moscow failed to comply with it.

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of raising the risk of nuclear war by threatening to spurn the key arms control treaty and refusing to hold talks about another pact that expires soon.

Arsenal forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang shot to the top of the Premier League scoring charts with two goals in Saturday’s 3-1 home win over struggling Burnley, returning his side to winning ways after two straight defeats.

The Gabon forward gave Arsenal the lead in the 14th minute, knocking in a pass from Sead Kolasinac after a classy ball from Mesut Ozil. He then smashed high into the net in the 48th to complete an impressive counter-attack from Unai Emery’s side.

Burnley, 18th in the table and without an away win since September, hit back with a scrappy goal from Ashley Barnes having spurned a good chance to take an unlikely lead at the start of the game when Ashley Westwood was denied by the feet of Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno.

Substitute Alex Iwobi restored Arsenal’s two-goal cushion with a simple finish in stoppage-time, helped by another clever move from German playmaker Ozil, who was left out of the team for Wednesday’s 2-0 League Cup defeat by Tottenham Hotspur.

Aubameyang’s brace moved him on to 12 goals for the season, leapfrogging Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah as the league’s top scorer and taking fifth-placed Arsenal on to 37 points, level with Chelsea who play Leicester City later.

Arsenal’s 22-game unbeaten run in all competitions was halted on Sunday with a 3-2 defeat at Southampton and they were knocked out of the League Cup at the quarter-final stage with a painful home loss to north London neighbours Tottenham.

The charity event ‘Swim with the Frogmen (Oyk) for our little heroes’ was held on Saturday in Limassol’s old port, at the initiative of journalist Loucas Fourlas for the support of the children’s oncology centre at Makarios Hospital.

Fourlas and other officials, including the mayor of Nicosia Constantinos Yiorkadjis and defence minister Savvas Angelides all swam 1.5 km in Limassol with Cyprus’ frogmen to raise money for the oncology centre.

The swim was also bolstered by a ‘walk for hope’ held at the same time in the Limassol’s Molos park, which was attended by house speaker Demetris Syllouris and police chief Zacharias Chrysostomou.  A motorcade by BMW Motorrad also met the charity swimmers in Limassol after leaving from Makarios Hospital in the morning.

A large number of people welcomed the swimmers at the old port dock.  Syllouris said: “Loucas Fourlas has turned a personal problem into an attempt to give to and aid all who are facing issues.”

Fourlas ran the event last year as well, after his 4-year-old daughter died from cancer in August 2017.  He thanked everyone for their support and said, “a year later, I can say with certainty that no child is fighting with cancer alone.”

Two art forms come together as the collectives of Agora Project combine body movements with painting with the aim to “push the body in the service of art making”. This simply refers to the act of painting by using the body as a tool, leaving paint brushes behind.

Exploring the possibilities of movement and action-painting, the artists, work towards embracing the relationship between art forms by connecting artistic elements in an inventive way. The creation-performance is a collaboration of artists from different fields who together will bring an interactive performance with the body being its main subject. Painters and other artists will join dance group True Enforcers of Advance Movement on December 29.

The concept of the performance “portrays the inevitable change that all humans go through, together with the struggles of accepting a new reality and a new way of being”, say the organisers. “Evolution is not always controlled but our perception of life factors is determined by our mindset.”

The idea behind this Agor(art) performance, revolves around the movement of the body as an art piece itself, using it as an alternative way to produce paintings. This represents a move towards a form of art where the artist and the artwork are more closely integrated. Throughout the performance, dancers and painters will produce an interactive painting, using movement and music with improvisation elements to produce an all-around live performance, where the canvas will come to life on the spot. Whether you’re an art fan or not, this type of artistic work is easy to follow as it creates a visual experience.

For those intrigued by the concept but can’t make the date to view the process, you’ll have a chance to catch the end result as the live creation that is produced will be exhibited through multimedia platforms at a later stage.

And that’s not all Agor(art) is about. The project also aims to produce contemporary storytelling connecting the elements of Hip Hop culture (graffiti/dance/Mcing/Djing) into its theatricalisation (hip-hop theatre production), adding even more creative elements together.

On top of all of that, the fact that the performance is taking place in the old market is also relevant as “since ancient times, markets are the emblem of exchange and mixture between cultures. This project is fusing cultural backgrounds, and brings out the creative freedom of the artists, ready to share it with the audience.”

Agor(art)
Live body painting performance creating a large painting. Part of the Agora Project. Supported by the French Institute of Cyprus, NiMAC and Nicosia Pop Up Festival 2018. December 29. Old Municipal Market, Nicosia. 8.30pm. €10

Libya and Turkey agreed on Saturday to open an urgent joint investigation into a consignment of arms which arrived from Turkey and was seized at a port near Tripoli this week, the UN-backed Libyan government said.

The government released the statement following talks in Tripoli between Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

The statement quoted Cavusoglu as saying Ankara rejected such actions “which do not represent the policy or approach of the Turkish state”.

The weapons were seized by customs on Tuesday in Khoms port, just over 100 km (62 miles) east of Tripoli.

The consignment sent from Turkey contained 3,000 Turkish-made pistols, as well as some other pistols, hunting rifles and ammunition, Benghazi’s Benina airport customs services said on their official Facebook account.

A day earlier a cargo of 2.5 million Turkish-made bullets was seized at the same port, the same source said.

The UN mission in Libya has condemned the shipment of arms to Libya as “extremely disconcerting.”

The UN last June extended an arms embargo on Libya for another year.

The oil-rich country plunged into chaos nearly eight years after a NATO-backed uprising that toppled former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.

The country has been divided between rival governments and military factions based in the east and west of the country since 2014, causing political deadlock and an economic crisis.

By Maria Koniotou

THE repatriation of the last complete fragments from the nearly 1,500-year-old Kanakaria mosaics made 2018 a significant year for cultural heritage, according to Cypriot art historian Maria Paphiti

Maria Paphiti

In an interview with the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), published on Saturday, Paphiti said the repatriation of the mosaics, stolen after 1974 from the church of Panagia Kanakaria in Lythrangomi, in the Famagusta district in the north, was important not only for Cyprus “but for the world cultural heritage too”.

In 2014 it was Paphiti who identified the fragment of Apostle Andrew from the Church’s 6th century mosaic decoration, which was returned to the island in April. She said it was “the most emblematic of all and perhaps the most important treasure that had been missing from Cyprus,  a symbol of our looted cultural heritage in recent years.”

In November, Dutch art investigator, Arthur Brand, returned to the Embassy of Cyprus in The Hague the mosaic of Apostle Mark, which was subsequently repatriated. Also, in September, the first liturgy was held in the church of Panagia Kanakaria since 1976, when the last Greek Cypriots that remained there after the 1974 Turkish invasion, were forced by the Turks to leave their village.

“I believe that the three above events allow us to compare 2018 with 1989, a landmark year for Kanakaria, during which the Republic of Cyprus and the Church of Cyprus won a trial against art dealer Peg Goldberg, who had bought four fragments of the mosaic from the Turkish smuggler Aydin Dikmen, with the intention of selling them for 20 million dollars to the Paul J. Getty Museum,” Paphiti said.

She said the Kanakaria trial, held in Indianapolis, US, was among the first high-profile cases of claiming cultural heritage worldwide. It set a precedent and it is referred to in a similar fashion to the present day. The four fragments won in 1989 depict the upper part of the body of Christ, an archangel and the Apostles James and Matthew.

Asked how she got involved with the Kanakaria case, Paphiti explained that as an art consultant with specialisation in Byzantine and Russian art, she works with collectors in the respective fields from different countries.

“A client of mine purchased a collection of icons and religious works of art, one of which was the mosaic of Apostle Andrew. I identified it when I was asked to study his new acquisitions. I wrote a report and then I explained to the client that the mosaic worth more than six million euros had been looted from occupied Cyprus. He was unpleasantly surprised and initially his reaction was negative because he himself had acquired the collection by lawful proceedings,” she said.

“Then, after having assessed the situation, the client decided to hand over the mosaic for a token sum that would cover the costs of storage, insurance and maintenance while the artwork was in his possession. This settlement was indeed fair because under Article 6 of the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention the possessor is entitled to demand a reasonable compensation.”

Apostle Andrew

She added that the alternative would be for Cyprus and its Church to proceed to litigation that would have probably ended victoriously, but would have been extremely time consuming and would have cost more than the €50,000 compensation given to the possessor. Two donors, Dr Andreas Pittas and Roys Poyiadjis paid the amount, while the legal services were provided free of charge by lawyer Michael Kοrelis. As a result, the cost to Cyprus and the Church was nil.

Paphiti emphasised that “everyone, and especially the professionals in the field of art, must operate in an ethical and transparent way, but should also keep a watchful eye to identify artworks that are illegally marketed, whether they come from our country or elsewhere.”
As far as the missing pieces of the mosaic are concerned, she said there is not much left. Yet, they are all important, because without each and every fragment, the composition that existed in the sanctuary apse pre-1974 cannot be recreated.

Still missing are the mosaics of Apostle Philip, that was in a fragmented state before the pillaging, an unidentified saint, the lower part of Christ`s body and a non-figural decorative fragment, she added.

Paphiti explained that the Kanakaria mosaics, dating back to the beginning of the 6th century, were of great importance to world art history because they are among a handful of Christian artefacts that survived iconoclasm (726-843 AD), thus providing vital information for the portrayal of divine persons during the early Byzantine era.

The mosaic composition that adorned the sanctuary apse of Kanakaria church depicted the enthroned Virgin holding Christ, not as an infant, but as a young boy, framed by a frieze showing portraits of the Apostles in medallions.
She added that the cultural significance of the mosaic was known for a long time. She said
further proof was the fact that the British colonial administration in Cyprus issued in 1955 a stamp that represented the church of Kanakaria.

Paphiti added that the Cyprus Post in 1967 released a stamp dedicated to the mosaic of Apostle Andrew, who stood out from the rest of the Apostles, due to his unique features, namely, his long beard, dishevelled hair and blue eyes.

Paphiti visited the church in Lythrangomi in September, when a liturgy took place there for the first time after 42 years. “Since my childhood, I listened with great interest discussions about the pillaging of our cultural heritage, especially the case of Kanakaria and the occasional repatriation of its fragments,” she said.

“As an art historian I became even more aware of the church`s great importance. Also, due to my involvement in the repatriation of the Apostle Andrew fragment, I developed an emotional and personal relationship with the monument,” she added.

“My visit to Kanakaria…was a pilgrimage, a return to a place that seemed familiar because of my involvement in the matter, yet one, which in fact, had been unknown to me,” she said.

Manchester City suffered their first home Premier League loss in eight months as a shock 3-2 defeat by Crystal Palace on Saturday left Pep Guardiola’s champions trailing leaders Liverpool by four points.

City, who had won all nine home games in the league this season, are in second place on 44 points with Liverpool, who won 2-0 at Wolves on Friday, on 48.

Two defeats in three games for City, who lost at Chelsea a fortnight ago, have given Juergen Klopp’s Liverpool the upper hand in the title race and turned the Jan. 3 clash between the sides at the Etihad into a real showdown.

City, sorely missing injured midfielder David Silva, looked ragged and panicked at times, but Palace and their manager Roy Hodgson deserve huge credit for a magnificent performance which included a brilliant goal by Andros Townsend.

Many teams better than Palace have been unable to find the recipe for beating Guardiola’s side but the London side took their chances and defended resiliently to secure a victory that belies their 14th place in the table.

“Obviously, the result is a setback. We have lost but we are only looking at ourselves game to game,” said City captain Fabian Delph.

“We had a few chances which we have put away in the past, but fair play to Crystal Palace – they were stubborn and organised.

“It’s hard to analyse and we will go back to the drawing board and look at it,” added the England full back.

It seemed to be business as usual for City after German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan nodded them in front in the 27th minute, meeting a Fabian Delph cross from deep with a firm, downward header.

But Jeffrey Schlupp brought Palace level with a low diagonal shot into the bottom corner and Townsend stunned the Etihad Stadium with a sensational volley that will surely be a goal of the season contender.

Bernardo Silva’s header out was met first time by Townsend who blasted his volley from 30 metres past helpless City keeper Ederson who could do nothing about the perfect combination of technique and power from the former Spurs and Newcastle player.

The air of surprise at the Etihad turned to panic in the 51st minute when Palace went 3-1 up through a Luka Milivojevic penalty after Kyle Walker brought down Max Meyer with a wild challenge.

Guardiola brought on substitutes Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne and it was the Belgian midfielder who gave the home side hope with a cross-shot in the 85th minute that caught out Palace keeper Vicente Guaita.

Gabriel Jesus missed a stoppage-time chance when he headed over a De Bruyne cross from a promising position but City were left to taste their first home league loss since the Manchester derby on April 7.

Roy Hodgson’s Palace had picked up just one point from their last six away games and had not won at City since 1990.

Tired of shopping and trudging through streets and malls looking for something unique this Christmas? Paphos is a hotbed of original gifts if you know where to look.

Chocolates are almost-always welcome, and the next big thing in the chocolate world is ‘Ruby Chocolate.’

It is a variety of chocolate introduced in 2017 by Barry Callebaut, a Belgian-Swiss cocoa company. It has been in development since 2004 and was unveiled in 2017. Ruby chocolate was released in 2018, and the chocolate is made from the ruby cocoa bean.

New ruby chocolates handcrafted by award-winning Joulietta chocolatier and patisserie are available from her Paphos shop.

“We have been making them for a number of weeks and are creating Ruby and Champagne truffles and also bars of Ruby chocolate for people to experience the taste,” Joulietta told the Mail.

A box of nine Ruby and Champagne truffles costs €18 and the individual Ruby bars are €5.50 or €15 for a pack of three.

They are created and available at the Paphos shop but they can also be sent anywhere on the island.

If you rather not be tempted to eat the gifts you purchase for others, a voucher to be redeemed at Lockdown Paphos as an alternative.

Opened in 2015 and owned and operated by husband and wife team Matthew and Kate Edmondson, Lockdown is the number one venue for ‘fun and games’ in Paphos, according to TripAdvisor.

The venue is the first and largest of the escape games in Paphos and this winter has three rooms open to play; the Wizzard School- loosely based on Harry Potter, the Tomb of the Kings and a third, titled ‘Space Station’ which opens next week. The venue has five rooms open during the summer months.

“We are launching a brand-new room called ‘Space station which is high tech and we are putting the final touches to it now. Vouchers can be used to play any of the rooms and make great presents,” Edmondson said.

Lockdown Paphos offers an hour of interactive, immersive entertainment, where players work together to recover secret codes, messages and keys by taking part in entertaining logical challenges. The mission is to get out before the 60 minutes are up.
Each themed room is designed so all ages and abilities can get involved.
Two to eight players can be catered for and vouchers start at €20. If two people play a room it costs €20 each, whereas if six play, its only €12 each, he explained.

Vouchers are available from Lockdown which is found just off the Tomb of the Kings Road in Kato Paphos.

In the centre of town, Boo-tea-licious is offering vouchers which can be used to purchase anything from the quaint tea rooms in the heart of the old town.

Owner, Kathryn Swift, creates all sorts of delicious cakes, biscuits, scones, flans, quiches and pastries and also caters for gluten and dairy-free diets.

“The vouchers can be issued for any amount and can be used for any gift, including our afternoon teas,” she said.

Priced at €10 each, the popular afternoon tea includes coffee or tea, a selection of sandwiches with three fillings, large homemade scones, clotted cream, a choice of jams and a choice of cake, she said. Bookings for afternoon tea must be made in advance. For opening hours, check the Boo-tea-licious Facebook page.

If you would rather give family and friends something to keep, a short stroll from the tea house is Ibrahim’s Khan. Recently renovated, the historic building is home to artisans, artists and crafters and a great place to purchase a unique Christmas gift.

House of Olives stocks all things imaginable created using organic olives and Sharen Taylor’s Mosaic workshop has original artworks to suit all budgets. Hand-made jewellery, traditional products and handcrafted items are all on sale in other workshops.

Staying in the old town, Chakra fine art gallery, which opened just over a year ago, is a short stroll away, and focused on making bespoke Cypriot art more accessible to everyone.

“We have a good range of Christmas gifts and small items available from around €30 to €150 euros,” said one of the owners, Joel Dunn.

Artwork, paintings, gifts and small sculptures have all been created by local Cypriot artists. Christmas cards, both handmade and prints, are also available and well-known artist Gabi Boehm has created a range of handbags and other bags using natural material and paints, they depict Cypriot flowers and other images. Her range of Cypriot pomegranate paintings offer a splash of colour to any setting and start at a reasonably priced €30 euros.

It’s also a way to support the Learning Refuge in Paphos. A number of exclusive paintings and drawings created by around 50 artists from around Cyprus to raise awareness and funding for the Learning Refuge, remain for sale following a one-off Paphos exhibition.

All of the works included in the exhibition are the same size and will be sold for the same price €200. The participating artists are donating 50 per cent of the sale price to the children at the Learning Refuge.

The artwork is available to view, by appointment, with artist McConnon

Joulietta Chocolatier and Patisserie: 16A Alexandrou Ipsilandi, Shop 1 (between Lidl and TimeOut kiosk) Paphos. Tel: 70 004004 www.facebook.com/jouliettachocolatier/

Lockdown Paphos: Shop 1, No.4 Parmenionos Street, Kato Paphos. Tel: 96 219883       www.facebook.com/LockdownPaphos/

Boo-Tea- Licious: Paphos Old Town Tel 96 920124 www.facebook.com/bootealicioustearoom

Ibrahim’s Khan, Paphos Old Town: www.facebook.com/ibrahimskhanoldtown/

Chakra Fine Art Gallery, 4 Georgiou Christoforou Street, Paphos old town. Tel: 96957330 www.facebook.com/events/1022944064555034. Miriam McConnon: (m) 99554829

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer enjoyed a dream start as Manchester United’s interim manager as his side turned on the style to thrash his former club Cardiff City 5-1 in the Premier League on Saturday.

Goals from Marcus Rashford, Ander Herrera, Anthony Martial and two from Jesse Lingard gave United an emphatic and a much-needed victory in the Norweigan’s first game in charge.

It was the first time United had scored five since Alex Ferguson’s last game in charge in May 2013.

Solskjaer, handed control after this week’s sacking of Jose Mourinho, spent a miserable nine months at Cardiff in 2014, getting them relegated from the top-flight.

However, he was quickly celebrating on his return to the Welsh capital when Rashford scored with a fiercely-struck free kick from distance after three minutes.

United doubled their lead before the half hour mark. Herrera was given time to unleash a right-footed shot from about 25 yards out which deflected off the head of Greg Cunningham and over the hand of goalkeeper Neil Etheridge.

Cardiff got a lifeline before halftime, however, after Rashford gave away a penalty for handball and Victor Camarasa sent the spot kick into the top left corner for only his second goal of the season.

Two minutes later, Martial started and finished a brilliant quick passing move to weave into the box and restore United’s two goal cushion.

After the break, Cardiff defender Sol Bamba clumsily took down Lingard in the box and the forward got back to his feet to put resulting spot kick to Etheridge’s right.

Another quick passing move from United set up Lingard to round the keeper and score in the 90th minute to put the seal on an emphatic win.

The result and the manner of United’s play, with Paul Pogba restored to the lineup, lifted the mood after United’s worst start for 28 years. They moved back up to sixth having briefly been displaced by Watford.

“Football is easy if you have good players. This is such a great group of players. The quality is just unbelievable,” Solskjaer told BT Sport.

“It’s been a tough week… it’s been loads of things swirling around their heads so the players have responded brilliantly.”

Neil Warnock’s Cardiff, meanwhile, remain 17th and just two points above the relegation zone.

“I thought we started well, even at 2-1 down I thought we had a chance but it’s not a penalty is it, dear me. But you can’t blame the referee,” Warnock said.

“It’s very disappointing, but if you’d have told me at the beginning of the season we wouldn’t be in the bottom three at Christmas I would have snapped your hand off. So we’ve got to take the positives now.”

By Akis Kyradjis

Three reports were issued recently relating to Residency and Citizenship by Investment (R/CBI) programmes, all of which issued strong verdicts and diktats.

The reports were:

l The OECD issued a ‘blacklist’ of countries with R/CBI programmes.

l The European Parliament Research Service (EPRS) called for the preservation of ‘the ideal of citizenship’ (sic)

l Messrs. Kofod & Niedermayer (MEPs) published a draft report for tax matters but called also for the phasing out of R/CBI programmes

The EPRS came out negative on R/CBI programmes, questioning their economic effectiveness but failed to back up its claim with data. Presumably the EPRS assumes that it knows better than the governments it criticises (USA, UK, Canada et al).

Messrs Kofod & Niedermayer call for “the phasing out of these programmes”, proposing this drastic measure without substantiating their diktat with hard facts! They claim that R/CBI pose a high risk for tax evasion, presumably believing that the USA, UK, Canada etc promote tax evasion.

The OECD went as far as issuing a ‘blacklist’ of countries with R/CBI only to start taking countries off the list when these pointed out facts. Clearly, the OECD rushed to issue its blacklist without due diligence, hence the fiasco.

Serious politicians and researchers invite specialists to participate in discussions when serious matters/legislation are being examined. Unfortunately, none of the above thought it necessary to seek information from industry professionals before issuing their verdicts.

At the heart of all reports and articles in the press to date criticising R/CBI lies the belief that citizenship/residency should not be exchanged for money. The EPRS goes as far as referring to the ‘ideal of citizenship’ being ‘devalued’. This begs the question: Should citizenship/residency be exchanged with benefitting a country?

Citizenship is the relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in exchange for the state’s protection. It is a set of legal rights in return for allegiance, military service, paying taxes and participation in the political process.

The notion of the ‘ideal of citizenship’ and of ‘belonging to a political community’ is found in ancient Athens where the ‘ideal citizen’ had to have the education, training, culture, ethos and character (pedia) to participate actively, personally and effectively in the affairs of the state.

Modern citizenship is a far cry from the above ideal; military service is largely a thing of the past and political participation is done through representatives (MPs). Thus, citizens are left with the duties of allegiance and taxation. Contrary to the ‘ideal’, modern citizenship is passive with participation done through voting. Yet only about 50 per cent care to vote at best. Most do not even know their MPs and acts of allegiance are rare.

Therefore, talk about the ‘ideal of citizenship’ and of ‘belonging to a political community’ can be used to impress but is divorced from reality: if one asked what how to become an ‘ideal citizen’ today, he would not get a reply. There is no school or skills or actions one can attend or acquire or do to conform to this ideal.

Placing citizenship in the sphere of idealism and considering it sacred has led to nationalism, racism, beliefs about racial supremacy and to extreme views of ‘them and us’. Such views are resurging in the EU today much to the cost of its cohesion and legitimacy.

There has been much talk about the ‘genuine link’ with a country offering R/CBI when considering issues relating to second citizenship. When one asks, however, how this ‘genuine link’ is established and tested objectively, the whole notion collapses.

Jihadist terrorists born and bred in the West are a testament to the fact that birth and/or length of stay do not necessarily establish such a link. Large unassimilated populations in the West with different languages and cultures are proof of absence of a ‘genuine link’.

Granting citizenship based on decent casts further doubt; what is the ‘genuine link’ of decedents of Sephardic Jews expelled from Europe 500 years ago when Spain and Portugal grant them citizenship today?

If one examines laws relating to the granting of citizenship by most states one will discover that the Law in most countries provides that citizenship can be (and has been) granted to individuals who benefit a country. The West has millions who originate from non-European countries. This influx of immigrants rose sharply in the years following WWII as countries such as Germany had huge labour shortages. The basis of granting residency/citizenship to these people has been that they would produce economic benefit for the country, in exchange for the rights, opportunities and quality of life attached to residency/citizenship. This is the same basis for the exchange taking place today when countries try to attract talent and the so called ‘start-ups’.

It follows, therefore, that the principle that Residency/Citizenship can be exchanged with benefit to a country, has been established and has been lawfully in full use for ages now. R/CBI aim to attract foreign investment into countries accepting the above principle. Any talk about morality is grossly delayed, unrealistic and hypocritical.

Citizenship is a set of legal rights/responsibilities. The law grants legal rights/responsibilities for abortions. If countries are said to be ‘selling passports’ then, by the same logic, doctors are being allowed to ‘sell death’ and kill babies for cash. Life is sacred, no?

If one sees citizenship as something that occurs through divine intervention then this exchange cannot be moral. Yet, there is nothing sacred here. Seeing citizenship as sacrosanct can only lead to extremism, racism and violence; this has been the experience of humanity.

The potential for tax evasion, corruption and money laundering applies to a huge number of individuals, government officials and bank transactions which are totally unrelated to R/CBI programmes. Singling R/CBI without proof shows prejudice and bias.

The whole of the EU hands out about 2,500,000 residencies and citizenships every year. The R/CBI programmes account for only 2,500. Why is there no fuss about the 2,497,500 cases and only the 2,500 are singled out?

The EU suffers from a rise in populism and Euroscepticism. It is being depicted as the culprit for economic hardship and for dictating painful fiscal remedies. There is therefore a dire need for polishing its image and practices. The issuing of diktats based on prejudice give credence to accusations about EU arrogance.

Akis Kyradjis is vice-president at financial advisory Arton Capital in Limassol

In the sixteenth century, English tradesmen doing business in the Ottoman Empire adopted a pragmatic approach to life as immigrants. Some were even known to convert to Islam for the duration of their sojourn in Constantinople, reverting back to Christian ways as and when they returned to England.

When in Rome do as the Romans do – a much-neglected motto these days – is good advice to immigrants, migrants, emigres and refugees. It does not mean losing one’s identity but it does mean adapting and showing respect for the host country. People everywhere have a natural xenophobia that needs to be allayed and the best way of doing this is by making yourself less of a xenos – Greek for stranger and, interestingly, for guest too.

As B-Day approaches on March 29, 2019 Europeans will have to learn to be immigrants and my advice is that the Turkish Cypriot community in London is the community to study how to be good immigrants. For example, without abandoning their mild Muslim identity Turkish Cypriots living and working in England participate in the festive spirit of Christmas in the same pragmatic spirit that English tradesmen used to participate in Muslim festivals in Ottoman Turkey.

Although the birth of Jesus in a manger surrounded by animals and shepherds and visited by three oriental royals on camels guided by a comet bringing frankincense and myrrh is a beautiful story it is not just a story of motherhood and apple pie. Symbolically it is a story of the birth of God’s Son on Earth that lies at the heart of Christian teaching that alas does not sit well with Islam or Judaism. But Turkish Cypriots skate over the symbolism preferring to enjoy the spirit of Christmas like most British people do including imbibing the odd glass or two.

So as Britain goes into Christmas mode and as the prospect of leaving the EU without a deal is put on hold it would be as well for Europeans and Britons to stand back and think about how to be good immigrants in each other’s territory post Brexit. After all the civilised values that bind people will survive the shenanigans of mediocre apparatchiks like President of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker and President of the European Council Donald Tusk who are playing games with the lives of millions of peoples over legal technicalities in Northern Ireland. Ultimately they will accept that Britain has to retain the sovereign power to leave the single market and the customs union without EU agreement if this is withheld unreasonably.

To reassure people, however, it is important for everyone to know that under general principles of law changes in the law do not generally speaking operate retrospectively. So if there is no withdrawal deal containing transitional arrangements, individual states will introduce a transitional regime of their own to ensure acquired rights are protected.

The last time a large number of foreign nationals in Britain had their immigration status determined as a group was in 1973 when all those settled in the UK were deemed to have permission to stay permanently by operation of law. In other words, they were all given indefinite leave to remain by statute.

Britain was disengaging from Empire and the Commonwealth and joining the European Economic Community and it was necessary to determine the status of a large number of Commonwealth citizens who had settled in the UK at a time when Commonwealth citizens were not subject to immigration control.

Prior to 1973, all Commonwealth citizens were British Subjects and as such had the right to live, work and settle in the UK under common law – rather like EU citizens do nowadays under EU law. This was gradually restricted as immigration became a political hot potato in the 1960s but not before a large number of Commonwealth immigrants had settled in the UK. They could not all be identified individually when the law was consolidated and reformed in 1973 so Commonwealth citizens were permitted to settle without actually getting individual notification.

They were undocumented immigrants but this did not prevent them from acquiring settled status once they sought to regularise their stay and proved they were ordinarily resident with no time restrictions of their right to remain.

It has been said that Commonwealth immigration took place behind the back of the British people but that is not entirely true. No government passed laws that made Commonwealth immigration easy – as successive governments did with EU migration. It was just the natural consequence of Empire and the grant of British subject status to Commonwealth citizens that enabled them to settle in the UK. This was confirmed in 1967 in a landmark ruling of the highest court in the land that held that at common law British subjects were free to live in England unless statute law said they couldn’t.

EU citizens have the right to move to the UK and remain without being subject to immigration control as well as the right to access services on proof of identity. These rights will eventually go after March 29, 2019 but not automatically. Those with permanent residence after five years in any country of the EU or the UK, for example, will not be deprived of the free-standing status they already acquired as individuals.

It is very important for people to know that rights, particularly of permanent residence, acquired by persons owing to their own particular circumstances will not be lost when Britain leaves the EU. Thus if a British citizen obtained permanent residence in another member state because he worked or lived or married there he would not lose his right just because Britain ceases to be a member of the EU. It is only rights that derive exclusively from the fact of UK membership of the EU that would be affected.

So on March 29, 2019, Britain will leave the EU and it will be astonishing if EU citizens settled in Britain are not treated the same way as Commonwealth citizens were in 1973. So deal or no deal EU citizens settled in the UK will be deemed to have indefinite leave to remain and I have no doubt that Britons living in other EU states who acquired permanent residence rights will retain their residence as well.

As a former Chief Justice of England told me many years ago across the well of the court in an immigration case in which I was surmising the possibility of unfair treatment of my client by the UK immigration authorities: ‘but Mr Riza we are a civilised country with civilised laws.’ EU states with sizeable British residents are civilised countries with civilised laws too. They are members of the Council of Europe and subscribe to the European Convention on Human Rights and other conventions that protect immigrants and although Britain is leaving the EU she will remain a member of the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights will continue to protect the rights and fundamental freedoms EU nationals in the UK and Britons in the EU.

Alper Ali Riza is a queen’s counsel and a part time judge in the UK

THE BIRTH of another Kyproulla sacred calf was announced on Thursday at the Cyprus-Greece-Israel trilateral summit, in Beer Sheva in the Negev desert in Israel – the EastMed pipeline. By the next day, in Nicosia the calf had grown in into a sacred cow, media treating the EastMed with the same awe and respect they usually reserve for Gesy.

Newspaper commentators were already urging the doubters and detractors of the pipeline to keep their thoughts to themselves, because this development could act as a counterweight to Turkey’s arrogance and, possibly force it to show more flexibility on the Cyprob if it did not want to be left out of the region’s energy plans. We have been warned.

The only people bothered by the discussion of the EastMed were those that have taken the decision that “Cyprus must co-operate with Turkey, be transformed into a Turkish protectorate and abandon any other effort,” wrote one columnist, making it very clear that any doubt voiced, would come from people that wanted us to become a Turkish protectorate.

Gas and oil expert, Charles Ellinas, who had said the EastMed was more pipe-dream than pipeline, a few weeks ago will presumably have to modify his view to avoid being classed as a Turkish protectorate champion now that the pipe-dream has become a sacred cow.

US AMBASSADOR to Israel, David Friedman, was also present at the summit indicating the project also had the blessing of America. Reports also made much of the fact that Friedman was a close associate of President Donald Trump, having worked as an advisor in his election campaign, and getting the ambassadorial post as a result.

The fifth trilateral summit reached agreement on the inter-state declaration for the pipeline, which has now been forwarded to the European Commission for its comments. It was the first step towards its implementation, said foreign minister Nicos Christodoulides, although he highlighted a second “significant thing” arising from the summit.

It was the agreement for the creation of a permanent secretariat in Nicosia for all trilateral alliances, which, according to Christodoulides, has the aim of eventually bringing all the trilateral alliances struck by Prez Nik into one mega, multilateral alliance on regional security and cooperation. In this way there would be “added value” said the churchgoing minister, on Trito.

Delusions of grandeur have always afflicted our politicians who now believe they will create an alliance of security and cooperation, involving Israel, Egypt, Jordan, (Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority), under the guidance of Prez Nik, the visionary peacemaker. We can call it the East Mediterranean Treaty Organisation (EMTO) and one day it could become a mini-Nato.

THERE is even a master plan for achieving this and creating the added value for the participating countries, according to Makarios IV, who, in a rare show of pragmatism, acknowledged it would be difficult to bring all the countries invited into threesomes by our Prez into a multilateral alliance run by the secretariat.

A small first step would be taken by the secretariat promoting agreement on low politics issues. For instance, Prez Nik’s initiative on climate change could be a starting point, said the foreign minister. Our prez has an initiative on climate change?

What does it involve? Stopping global warming in the eastern Mediterranean through island-wide prayers under the Archbishop, preventing dust arriving in Kyproulla from the deserts of our alliance partners, or issuing Cyprus passports to individuals that drive low-emission cars?

Once the trilateral states reach agreement on climate change and relations among them are improved, the secretariat would deal with “more strictly political” issues, said Mak IV, who did not to put a time-frame on the fruition of his boss’ visionary plan for regional security and cooperation.

The only danger now is that Bashar al Assad might be so impressed with Nik’s climate change initiative he would start agitating for Syria to enter a trilateral alliance with us, which might not go down well in Israel.

“CREATION of multilateral force to protect the EastMed pipeline, decided the trilateral summit in Israel,” declared the CyBC news on Friday morning, in what sounded as a classic bit of fake news.

Quoting diplomatic sources, the corporation’s correspondent covering the summit in Beer Sheva, Paris Potamitis, said that the “aim was for all countries whose companies are involved in the procedure of EastMed to participate in the multilateral force so there is collective responsibility and effort.”

As Noble Energy and Exxon Mobil were involved, it was expected that the US would participate in the multilateral force for the security of the EastMed pipeline, reported Potamitis. The viability of the EastMed had not yet been established, adequate quantities of gas had not yet been found in the region, there are no plans for its construction, but Potamitis’ diplomatic sources had set up a multilateral force, led by the US, to offer the pipeline security.

What was even more peculiar that after this news was reported, Christodoulides was a guest on the same radio show and was not asked anything about our military alliance with the US, Israel, Greece and Italy. The foreign minister spoke about the geopolitical dimension of the agreement and the interest of the US in its energy and security aspects, without saying anything about the multilateral force.

I won’t say anything else in case I am accused of opposing the multilateral force and supporting Kyproulla becoming a Turkish protectorate.

THE STORY about the multilateral force was only marginally less plausible than the report featured on the front page of last Monday’s Phil about an African man being beaten up outside his home in Larnaca, at 4am, by five men wearing white hoods.

The five, were in a car parked outside the African’s house, which was close to the town’s police station. As he approached, they “jumped on him, immobilised him and started hitting him in different parts of his body. Subsequently, they opened his mouth and with the use of pliers managed to remove four of his teeth.”

The attack took place “with lightning speed, but the shouts, like the screams of the African, it seemed did not bother any of the neighbours, because no call was made to the police for help,” reported Phil. The paper said the attack was “reminiscent of the way the Ku Klux Klan acted against blacks in the US,” given that the assailants were wearing white hoods.

The police had no report of the incident and were unable to confirm it took place. According to Phil, the victim chose not to go to the police because when he had gone to the police in the past he had been treated in a racist way. Why no neighbour ran to his help after hearing his screaming and shouting it did not say. Perhaps they were all afraid of the KKKK, the Kyproulla Ku Klux Klan.

LAWYER Nicos Clerides came up with quite an amazing conspiracy theory in trying to defend his brother, the attorney-general, in an exchange on Facebook. He responded to a post, directed at the AG following the acquittal of two executives of the Bank of Cyprus.

The post accused the AG of being an “accessory to the economic crime,” and added: “You have been registered as yet another criminally inadequate, though highly-paid employee at the service of corrupt, politico-economic nomenclature.”

The AG’s brother took such offence he responded. “The nomenclature, as you call it, and the favouritism exist and the only one fighting them are the attorney general and auditor general. This favouritism, unfortunately has expanded to the judiciary. Our courts are controlled by the ‘Chrysafinis and Polyviou’ law office. There is no judge of the supreme court that does not have offspring at the law office which promotes the interests of the banks. Wake up.”

It was a sweeping generalisation you would not expect a lawyer to make, as he implied all judges of the supreme court were corrupt or at best, lacking integrity. Any one of them could sue him for defamation. And another thing, is it possible that all supreme court judges would have kids working for Polys Polyviou?

Nicos did not consider the possibility that his bro lost those cases because the AG’s office did a lousy job, as family loyalty always comes ahead of rationality.

FOLLOWING the example of his former health minister Giorgos Pamborides, Prez Nik also implied that private doctors were against Gesy because they wanted to carry on evading tax. If they joined Gesy, their incomes would be monitored he said in a TV interview and suggested they submitted their tax declarations of the last seven years, “so they could be rewarded accordingly within the Gesy framework.”

As we know, lawyers are perfectly placed to pass judgment on the tax behaviour of doctors, because lawyers belong to the only profession that never cheats the taxman. Nik’s televised moralising, did not stop at the issue of tax evasion. He also questioned the morals of doctors, giving them a brief lesson on the Hippocratic Oath.

Those who took the Hippocratic Oath, should have been more humble he said, because being a doctor “was not just to get rich, but also to serve.” They should follow our Prez’s example who never took any oath, but always put serving the people above money and becoming rich.

ALTHOUGH the University of Cyprus has established a good academic reputation steadily rising in international university rankings, it remains on the fringes of our society. Many had hoped that its academics would take a more active part in public matters, raising the level of public debate, introducing new ideas and ways of doing things and generally contributing to the creation of a more dynamic society. This may be taking place at a very slow pace because the politicians and media people that set the public agenda do not want academics intruding in their domain.

The new Rector of the University Tasos Christofides (no relation to his predecessor) raised the subject in an interview with Politis Radio on Wednesday, when he said that the university produced a lot of ideas but its help was not sought. His colleagues had a lot to say about science, the economy and education, among other things, but were rarely asked to contribute on big issues. Decision-makers should ask for help and seek bigger participation in shaping of policies, said Christofides, citing the big education row that lasted months as an example of the reluctance of government to seek the expertise of the university, which has a big education department that could have made suggestions and given ideas on what needed to be done.

It was ironic that on the same day the new rector was saying this, the state radio station, CyBC, featured a discussion about the meeting of a committee that was addressing the problems that had caused the education dispute in the summer. Among the people invited to express their opinions were, of course, a union boss, a ministry official, a representative of the parents’ associations and the teenage leader of the secondary school students’ union. No academic was invited, presumably because the views on education of an academic were not considered as relevant as those of a clueless teenager, who, predictably, opposed the holding of exams twice a year, a parent with limited knowledge of education and a self-serving union boss concerned solely with the interests of his members.

And we wonder why the standards of public education are constantly declining. It is inevitable really, considering that it is run by civil servants, teaching unions, parents and teenage kids. Education is primarily a union issue, approached with union values and mentality, which also suits our union-minded politicians. Giving academics a say on such matters would threaten this mediocrity-worshipping world run by the consensus of the unionised and the politicians.

Christofides was careful not to cause direct offence in his interview, but his critique of the “obsolete education model that served the needs of the ‘50s and ‘60s,” was eye-opening. He referred to the “knowledge-centred model of education” that was out of place in modern society which demanded something completely different. Now, with rapid technological development the requirements were different he said. Education needed to focus on two things – skills and critical thought. Knowledge was so great now, it was much more important for someone to learn how to utilise it in order to produce more knowledge.

The problem was evident at the university, he explained: “We have the phenomenon that our students that come from public education are in a position to reproduce things they have learned but they have great difficulty in using what they have learned to produce something new. This is the disadvantage of the knowledge-based model of education.” The rector makes very valid points that we have never heard from reactionary union bosses and conservative education ministry officials that dare not rock the boat.

For the last 10 years, we have been hearing complaints that the curriculum was far too broad to be covered and that schools needed to focus on developing critical thinking, but nothing has been done, because unions and the ministry prefer to quibble about things that have nothing to do with education. In the last year the main education issues discussed, were the weekly teaching hours, the rights of contractual teachers, the retirement bonus, security at public schools, frequency of exams, school buildings and whether striking teachers should still be paid. This is what is discussed when union bosses are free to run public education.

Why does the government not use the education expertise that exists at the University of Cyprus to take public education into the 21^st century and thus give students the capability to cope in the modern world. It would help society, which has stagnated, progress and move forward. As Christofides asked, “What education model do we want, do we want a model that reproduces the knowledge we have or a model that uses skills and critical thought to produce something new?” The government needs to answer this question, without seeking the views of the unions and parents’ associations.

A Larnaca residential development at odds with a noisy ramshackle past

By Lizzy Ioannidou

WITH urban development and expansion of cities come large-scale reconfigurations of the urban landscape as all potentially profitable land is scoured and apartments are raised, urban infrastructure installed, and economic activity is reorganised.

But when urban development is brought about arbitrarily and uncoordinated, without cohesive strategy, as in many cases in Cyprus, the city’s past will inevitably clash with present development endeavours, as industrial and urban dwellings compete for space.

This is the case with the areas lining Larnaca’s seafront, and especially the streets that run parallel to the shiny new coastal road at Piale Pasa, which consist mostly of Turkish Cypriot ‘hali’ (uncultivatable) land.

The majority of the land that runs along and branches off the Umm Haram and Touzhane streets was allocated after the 1974 invasion as a crafts industry area for refugees, and was then also offered along with financial and other incentives to non-displaced craftsmen who worked at home, disturbing residential areas, to move their workshops to these areas, of which there are now three in Larnaca.

It is in this area, just 300 metres inland from the seafront between Larnaca’s tourist hotspots, the Phinikoudes and Mackenzie beaches, that Jimmy Christofi and Mahboubh Parcham paid large sums to acquire an apartment in one of the many buildings that have been raised as part of the city’s development, which has stretched further and further into areas originally designated for other uses and to serve a different population group.

The result, is an area Christofi and Parcham call “uninhabitable”: a coastal area consisting of disorganised and unstructured mixed zones of both residential homes going for high prices, alongside especially loud and unattractive industrial workshops.

“No one wants to live here,” Christofi said, who has been trying to sell his penthouse apartment, bought five years ago for €300,000, for the last two years to no avail.

“I mean, look at this view, and you can’t imagine the noise and the smell,” he said, looking over his balcony to the opposite fields which host a scrap yard with towers of junk and a car garage next to it.

The road in front of the apartment building has been closed off for over two years for sewerage works, with a sign apologising for the inconvenience. An above ground septic tank, needed to accommodate the increasing waste in the area which has reached total capacity, is fenced off but still visible, and feeds waste which flows above ground onto a bank and into the exposed sewerage tunnel that the eye can follow for kilometres.

While both residents say they are aware that Cyprus doesn’t have a track record for speedy completion of public works, and that the industrial workshops and scrap yard are remnants from a bygone period and which have yet to be moved to established (crafts) industrial areas, they say that the ever-expanding illegal metal welding shack in the adjacent residential plot was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“I’ve complained everywhere I can think of, but I’ve been sent from one place to another,” Christofi said. “I’ve even reported the situation to the office of the commissioner for administration and the protection of human rights (ombudsman), who said they’ll be investigating the matter and getting back to me.”

“I’ve been in direct contact with the mayor, Andreas Vyras, but I’ve had no reply and nothing has been done about it. I’ve been in contact with the police, who came and ‘warned’ the metal welders, but that was it,” Christofi said.

You could feel the fumes coming out of the metal welding shack itching your nostrils and hear noise rising up, which was soon joined by other layers of sound coming from the scrapyard trucks, the car-garage tools, and the woodcutting workshop next to the metal welders.

“I paid to have triple glazed windows put in, but not everyone can afford that, and they don’t even do the job since it seems that nothing can keep this noise out,” Parcham, who has been a resident of the area for the past 11 years, said.

There’s no such thing as a calm, quiet day at home, she continued, as work starts early in the morning and finishes late at night, “even on Sundays.”

The workers of the metal-welding shack, where mobile home units are manufactured according to a sign outside the entrance, said they were only asked to close the shop once some months ago by the police, with no follow-up since then.

“We’re just trying to do a day’s work,” they said, “and shacks like ours have been in the area long before people started building and buying luxury apartments.”

The Larnaca municipality could not be reached for comment, and despite Parcham’s insistence that nothing is being done because the craftsmen “have friends in high places”, it may be that the municipality is not as interested in clearing up backstreets, no matter how close they are to tourist centres, when their main roads display similar images of worn-down shacks built after the war, and which are only now beginning to be addressed by the mayor.

Indifference of the authorities may be another factor, as Christofi recalled that when officers came to the scene in response to his call, “they told me there’s nothing they can do, so I told them about a European law that states that you can’t make more than 50 decibels of noise in a residential area, and he replied that this is an EU law, not a Cypriot law, and I just stared at him.”

This clash between the old and new, according to municipal secretary Andreas Louka, “is an inevitable consequence of development.”

The area is cleaned up once a year, he said, admitting that this may not be enough now that the area has become increasingly residential.

The Turkish Cypriot property management department should have been more careful in granting licences arbitrarily for the raising of apartment buildings in a crafts industry area, to house non-displaced persons who are not considered beneficiaries of Turkish Cypriot land, Louka said, adding that complaining residents should have first checked where they were buying apartments.

The bottom line, according to Louka, is that “development has created these issues for itself, and while there may be areas where these industries could move to, everything is a matter of money, and so for the time being there’s no plan to move them.”

By Johan Purnomo and Adi Kurniawan

A tsunami killed at least 168 people and injured hundreds on the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra following an underwater landslide believed caused by the erupting Anak Krakatau volcano, officials and media said on Sunday.

Hundreds of homes and other buildings were “heavily damaged” when the tsunami struck along the rim of the Sunda Strait late on Saturday, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency, said.

Thousands of residents were forced to evacuate to higher ground. There was no estimate on the number of missing.

TV images showed the seconds when the tsunami hit the beach and residential areas in Pandeglang on Java island, dragging with it victims, debris, and large chunks of wood and metal.

On Dec. 26 in 2004, an Indian Ocean tsunami triggered by an earthquake killed 226,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia.

The eruption of Krakatau in 1883 killed more than 36,000 people in a series of tsunamis. Anak Krakatau is the island that emerged from the area once occupied by Krakatau, which was destroyed in 1883. It first appeared in 1927 and has been growing ever since.

Saturday’s tsunami was the latest in a series of tragedies that have struck Indonesia, a vast archipelago, this year. Successive earthquakes flattened parts of the tourist island of Lombok, and a double quake-and-tsunami killed thousands on Sulawesi island. Nearly 200 people died when a Lion Air passenger plane crashed into the Java Sea in October.

Authorities warned residents and tourists in coastal areas around the Sunda Strait to stay away from beaches and a high-tide warning remained in place through till Dec. 25.

“Those who have evacuated, please do not return yet,” said Rahmat Triyono, an official at the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

President Joko Widodo, who is running for re-election in April, said on Twitter that he had “ordered all relevant government agencies to immediately take emergency response steps, find victims and care for the injured”.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla told a news conference the death toll would “likely increase”.

A resident searches for items among the ruins of a villa after the area was hit by a tsunami, at Carita beach in Padeglang, Banten province, Indonesia, Decemnber 23, 2018 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Asep Fathulrahman/ via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. INDONESIA OUT.

Rescue workers and ambulances were finding it difficult to reach affected areas because some roads were blocked by debris from damaged houses, overturned cars and fallen trees.

The waves washed away an outdoor stage where a local rock band was performing in Tanjung Lesung in Banten province, a popular tourist getaway not far from the capital, Jakarta, killing at least one musician. Others were missing.

The western coast of Banten province in Java was the worst-hit area, Nugroho told reporters in Yogyakarta. He said at least 35 people were reported dead in Lampung in southern Sumatra.

Around 250 employees of the state utility company PLN had gathered in Tanjung Lesung for an end-of-year event, company spokesman I Made Suprateka told Reuters. At least seven people were killed, and around 89 are missing, he said.

Dramatic TV footage showed the seconds when the tsunami hit a concert at the event and washed away the stage where local rock band Seventeen was performing.

“The water washed away the stage which was located very close to the sea,” the band said in a statement. “The water rose and dragged away everyone at the location. We have lost loved ones, including our bassist and manager…and others are missing.”

Coastal residents reported not seeing or feeling any warning signs, like receding water or an earthquake, before waves of up to two metres washed ashore, according to media.

But authorities said a warning siren went off in some areas.

Officials were trying to determine the exact cause of the disaster. Anak Krakatau, an active volcano roughly halfway between Java and Sumatra, has been spewing ash and lava for months. It erupted again just after 9 p.m. on Saturday and the tsunami struck at around 9.30 p.m., according to BMKG.

The tsunami was caused by “an undersea landslide resulting from volcanic activity on Anak Krakatau” and was exacerbated by abnormally high tide because of the full moon, Nugroho said.

Ben van der Pluijm, an earthquake geologist and a professor in the University of Michigan, said the tsunami may have been caused by a “partial collapse” of Anak Krakatau.

“Instability of the slope of an active volcano can create a rock slide that moves a large volume of water, creating local tsunami waves that can be very powerful. This is like suddenly dropping a bag of sand in a tub filled with water,” he said.

Neighbouring Malaysia and Australia both said they were ready to provide assistance if needed.

Police in Paphos are investigating a case of break in and theft from a house in the area.

According to the police, the owner of the house reported that unknown people broke into his house at 8pm on Saturday and took around €500 in cash and jewellery worth around €2,500.

Members of the Paphos police force went to the scene and initial investigations show the suspects entered and exited the house through forcing a bedroom window with a sharp object.

Police said the home had a burglar alarm which went off but was then disabled.

Paphos CID are investigating.