In an attack against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Israeli prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticised Turkish presence in the north of Cyprus.

On his Twitter account Netanyahu wrote: Erdogan – the occupier of northern Cyprus, whose army massacres women and children in Kurdish villages, inside and outside Turkey – should not preach to Israel.

It is not the first time Netanyahu has wrapped Erdogan’s knuckles over the occupation of Cyprus.

In April, when Erdogan called Israel a ‘terrorist state’ follo0wing bloody incidents in Gaza, Netanyahu answered: Erdogan is not used to being answered back. He must learn to get used to it. He who occupies northern Cyprus and the Kurdish zone and slaughters civilians in Afrin, cannot make us preach values and morality.

Netanyahu’s latest criticism comes after Erdogan has spoken on the phone with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas about the decision by some countries to move their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, essentially recognising the divided city as the capital of the Jewish state.

According to the Anadolu news agency, Erdogan reassured Abbas that Ankara will continue to support the Palestinians.

By Daniel Leussink

More than 82,000 well-wishers paid their respects to Emperor Akihito who turned 85 on Sunday, his last birthday celebration at Tokyo’s Imperial Palace before stepping down next year.

The birthday of the emperor, whose position is ceremonial with no political power, is traditionally marked by a national holiday and an address at the palace, which opens to the public on the day.

The crowd of 82,850, according to the Imperial Household Agency, was the largest birthday attendance during Akihito’s three-decade reign, known as the “Heisei” era, which means “achieving peace” in Japanese.

Akihito – flanked by his wife, eldest son Naruhito and other members of the imperial family on a balcony – addressed well-wishers waving small Japanese flags and holding up smartphones.

“My thoughts go out to those who have lost family members or those close to them, or have suffered damage and whose lives are currently impaired,” he said, referring to the natural disasters that hit Japan in the past year.

Earthquakes, severe storms and heatwaves killed hundreds of people, destroyed homes and disrupted supply chains, clouding the outlook for Japan’s export-reliant economy.

Along with Empress Michiko, Akihito has spent much of his reign addressing the legacy of World War Two, which was fought in the name of his father, Hirohito, and consoling victims of natural disasters.

“I would like to thank him for standing by us, the Japanese people, and would like him to rest and enjoy his time from now on,” said 46-year-old Kazuyo Toyama from Nagoya.

Akihito, who has had heart surgery and treatment for prostate cancer, is scheduled to step down on April 30, passing the Chrysanthemum Throne to 58-year-old Crown Prince Naruhito.

The last time a Japanese emperor abdicated was in 1817.

Although he cannot directly influence government policy, Akihito has created a broader consciousness of Japan’s wartime past throughout his symbolic reign, experts said.

In comments made to the media ahead of his birthday, Akihito said “it is important not to forget that countless lives were lost in World War Two…and to pass on this history accurately to those born after the war”.

His conciliatory stance contrasts with gestures made by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has adopted a less apologetic tone over Japan’s past military aggression.

Akihito also referred to foreign workers, saying he hoped that “the Japanese people will be able to warmly welcome as members of our society those who come to Japan to work”.

Japan enacted a law this month to let in more foreign, blue-collar workers to ease a labour shortage, despite criticism it was too hastily crafted and risked exposing the workers to exploitation.

Limassol’s Enaerios parking lot has been transformed into a Christmas wonderland this month with dozens of festive stands and a huge Luna park. After the success Nicosia’s Christmas Wonderland has seen year after year, organisers have decided to spread the joy to the Limassolian coast.

For a whole month, the first ever Limassol Christmas Land is offering a wide range of modern games and rides at the Luna park with numerous activities planned to entertain old and young.

Besides Santa and his little helpers, who will be around to give presents to children, Greek and Cypriot singers will take to the stage for free live concerts in December and early January. Having opened the festivities with Michalis Hadjigiannis and with another lively performance by Greek reggae band Locomondo and 2018’s most talked about singer Eleni Foureira, the next artists to take the stage is the children’s favourite Xana Zoo group on December 23, which will entertain for two hours.

The next big live performance is on December 28 with Stavento performing at 8pm and for the final concert at the Christmas Land, Giorgos Tsalikis is invited to perform.

Whether a fan of adventure rides and Greek music, Limassol’s first Christmas Land is sure to get you in the festive spirit even for a short evening stroll.

Limassol Christmas Land 2018
Festive park with rides, games and stands. Until January 2. Enaerios parking place, Limassol. Free. Tel: 23-724744

A new fountain has been unveiled in the centre of Limassol, which developers referred to as “an important work”.

The Prosperity Group was behind the development as part of its commitment to upgrade the Ayios Nikolas roundabout.

The fountain has 250 jets, which can shoot water in six different ways, in addition to LED light displays, meaning it makes quite a spectacle both during the day and at night. The system of jets can be played in four basic ways, which will be changed every three months.

The fountain was designed by local architects MDG Architects and the Interior Design Office and Maranco Water Techniques of Limassol.

By Jessica Damiana and Wilda Asmarini

Partygoers screamed as tsunami waves smashed into a beachside concert in Indonesia, sending band members tumbling off a collapsing stage, dramatic video footage showed on Sunday.

Some 200 employees of state electricity utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) and family members had gathered at the Tanjung Lesung beach for an end-of-year party when the tsunami struck on Saturday night.

Video footage shared on social media showed partygoers enjoying the music and then screaming as the waves crashed into the stage and band members were swept away. Reuters was not able to immediately verify the video.

“Underwater I could only pray ‘Jesus Christ help!’,” Zack, a crew member of the rock band Seventeen, said in an Instagram post describing how he struggled in the water.

“In the final seconds I almost ran out of breath,” he said, adding he survived by clinging to part of the collapsed stage.

At least 168 people were killed and hundreds injured by the tsunami, triggered by an underwater landslide after the eruption of the Anak Krakatau volcano, and the death toll is expected to climb.

Among the dead were four members of Seventeen – bassist M. Awal “Bani” Purbani, road manager Oki Wijaya, guitarist Herman Sikumbang and crew member Ujang, the band said.

The band’s drummer was missing.

“Lost Bani and our road manager Oki,” lead singer Riefian “Ifan” Fajarsyah told followers in a tearful recorded video message on his Instagram account.

At a news conference, PLN said 29 employees and relatives had died and 13 were missing.

Survivors were treated at clinics but could not return to Jakarta because road access was blocked, Yulia Dian, a manager for the band in Jakarta, told Reuters by telephone.

“We were shocked because a lot of the people who went there took their families,” Dian said, noting the band had been due to return to Jakarta on Sunday.

“They’d been sharing stories they were having fun at the beach and we didn’t expect this.”

Not everyone gets to sit back and relax at this time of the year, particularly those who work in the emergency services, carers, hotel workers, taxi drivers, and there are those who even if they don’t work on Christmas Day, are currently in the throes of the busiest period of the year such as shop workers who may spend the day itself exhausted before they get right back to it to prepare for the January sales Sunday Mail staff in some of their past lives have experienced, a few at least, some unusual Christmas jobs.

By Sinead Kelly

COULD there be a more apt holiday job at Christmas than turkey plucking, unless of course you’re a PETA activist or a vegan/vegetarian but in the mid-seventies the former had not yet been created and veganism was not yet a political/religious movement.

By way of explanation as an aside, hard-core vegans who abstain on moral grounds, consider those who do it for health reasons, not ‘vegans’ just ‘people on a plant-based diet’.

If I were not still a meat eater more than 40 years on, I might in these more enlightened times, be filled with self-loathing for feeling nothing for the poor turkeys when the farmhand would wring their necks as a matter of fact, and us schoolkids would set about getting those feathers off while the bird was still warm.

It would take around 20 minutes each though some people could do one in ten.  It took twice as long if the turkey was cold so the faster you plucked, the easier it was and the more you were paid. In those days you had to go earn your own pocket money out in the real world, and you were expected to contribute to the household.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t approve of factory farming as it has developed in the past decades. It is cruel and barbaric and I’ve done the vegetarian thing on and off over the years, but we are talking of another era where animals roamed free on farms, not caged in overcrowded spaces, especially in rural Ireland. Animal rights were not on the school curriculum at the time, there was no internet and only one TV channel showing old western movies wall-to-wall so who was going to tell us that in the late 2010s it would become a moral issue to even ride a horse, or play cowboys and Indians, let alone pull feathers off a dead animal?

It doesn’t mean it was ok for the turkeys to die like they did, or at all really, that but it was just a fact of life then that animals were raised and eaten. It was neither a moral, ethical or political issue like it is now. To get by and not be a financial burden on your one parent who was already doing four jobs herself, you either had to go kill plants i.e. berry-picking in the Autumn or plucking turkeys on the farm at Christmas, or both, with a weekend/summer hotel or shop job thrown in for good measure.  If you plucked ten turkeys in two hours five afternoons a week, it was fairly lucrative for a teenager over a period of three to four weeks so you could buy your granny a Christmas present. You might have made the equivalent of €50 in total, half which you’d hand over to your mother.

One of my brothers could pick berries and pluck turkeys like a robot before robots were a thing, and when he would sleepwalk he would pull apart my mother’s knitting. It must have been because she used to knit bobbled Aran sweaters.  So either my brother was totally into the turkey plucking or he was severely traumatised by it because those bobbles were picked to shreds. We still don’t know because there were no shrinks around to diagnose him with some made-up personality disorder and pump him with meds. He didn’t even eat turkey as it happened and preferred black pudding for Christmas dinner.

For all of us the turkey-plucking gig was also a great way to get out of the house unsupervised – you didn’t have to lie and say you were going to the library or the church just so you could hang out seventies-style on the corner of main street  – and the farm outings had the added bonus of allowing us to mix with the boys as our two schools were segregated and on opposite ends of the town.

The farmer would come along after school and pick us up after we donned our ‘turkey-plucking’ rags, take us out to the farm a few miles away and put us straight to work. Two or three hours later, covered in feathers, blood and turkey-poo dust particles probably, the farmer’s wife would take us all inside – there might be 20 of us at any one time – and she’s feed us hot soup and sandwiches before we were all packed off home, full, stinky, and tired but ready to do it all again the next day.

Looked at from today’s perspective, plucking turkeys as a part-time job for teenagers might appall many but there was at the same time an innocence about that era that is missing from today’s ‘connected’ younger generations, many of whom who are well-versed on armchair social justice and in being keyboard warriors but at the same time remain largely ignorant of history and traditions, and who’d probably melt if you said ‘boo’ to them, let alone ask them to pluck a turkey.

By Rachael Gillett

WOOLWORTHS, the British High St retail staple for decades, should never have been the first port of call for buying Christmas presents. Yet it often was, and nowhere more so than in the small, poor market town in Lincolnshire where I lived as a teenager.

Like thousands of British teenage girls down the decades  — until the shops closed their doors in January 2009 after 100 years in the UK — I cut my working teeth on a Saturday and Christmas job in Woolworths.

Woolies was basic: famous for its pic’n’mix sweets and selling other ‘bits and bobs’ — crockery and kitchenware, a limited range of clothes, toys, haberdashery, tacky stationary and some food. Its record section — LPs and 45s in the late 70s when I worked there — though was often surprisingly good, and a major money earner.

In my town, shops were limited. Though a small branch, Woolies’ only competition was a Co-op across the street, mainly a foodstore but with Woolies-type products upstairs, and a twice weekly outdoor market selling cheap clothes, awful cosmetics and fruit and veg. Tragic.

Decent Christmas shopping meant an expensive, tiring trek by the infrequent bus and train service, or car if you had one, to bigger towns miles away.

So, limited and small though it was, Woolies was big in my town. The days before Christmas were chaotic, the queues in front of my till overwhelming.

And the buying choices were often all too desperate.

I remember a grandmother handing over a pink skirt she was buying for her granddaughter. The size was 7-8 years old.

“She’s only six and small for her age, but you’ve sold out of her size,’’ she told me.

I knew that only too well as I had put the only three skirts in stock in the size she wanted out on the rack days before. They quickly disappeared.

“She’ll grow into it though,” I tried to reassure her.

“But she won’t like it on Christmas Day,” the grandmother replied.

She was right. Her granddaughter wouldn’t.

But nothing compared to Andy, an irrepressible, puppyish sort of boy who went to my school.

He sauntered in one Christmas Eve just ten minutes before closing. The crowds had thinned, many shelves were nearly empty.

He came up to me and said he was looking for a present for his mother.

“From Woolies?” I squeaked. “Haven’t you got her anything yet?”

“Nah,” he responded, trying and failing to look shame-faced.

We both glanced around the shelves, looking for inspiration. I suggested a record but our selection was too Top 20 for his mum. A sweater? He didn’t know her size. A scarf? She had loads. Crockery? He could only afford a few pieces and it would look naff. A saucepan? “She would kill me.”

Then he noticed the gift card rack besides my till with a few stray cards attached.

I followed his eyes.

“You can’t be serious.”

“Well then she can choose what she wants.”

Who gets anything they WANT from Woolies apart from shoelaces and sweets I wanted to ask, but the shop was about to close and time had run out.

All the Christmas-themed gift cards were long gone but a few birthday ones were left.

Andy thought that might be a good idea. “After all it is Jesus’ birthday tomorrow,” he suggested.

The boy’s an idiot, I thought. What’s Jesus going to do with a gift card from Woolies?

Then his eyes alighted on a card with a baby on the front.

“That’s the one. I’ll give her that and she’ll remember what a cute baby I was.”

I very much doubted that ‘cute’ and ‘Andy’ were going to appear in the same sentence when his mum opened her gift the next morning, but I had lost the will to argue.

His budget was two pounds (about 9.60 pounds today or 10.60 euros) so he handed over the cash and bounced out of the store with a two-pound Woolies gift voucher for his mother.

I envied neither Andy nor his mum the next morning.

By Joseph Ax

A SpaceX rocket carrying a U.S. military navigation satellite blasted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Sunday, marking the space transportation company’s first national security space mission for the United States.

The Falcon 9 rocket carrying a roughly $500 million GPS satellite built by Lockheed Martin Corp lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 8:51 a.m. local time (1351 GMT). Four previous scheduled launches in the last week, including one on Saturday, were canceled due to weather and technical issues.

The successful launch is a significant victory for billionaire Elon Musk’s privately held rocket company, which has spent years trying to break into the lucrative market for military space launches dominated by Lockheed and Boeing Co .

SpaceX sued the U.S. Air Force in 2014 over the military’s award of a multibillion-dollar, non-compete contract for 36 rocket launches to United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed. It dropped the lawsuit in 2015 after the Air Force agreed to open up competition.

The next year, SpaceX won an $83 million Air Force contract to launch the GPS III satellite, which will have a lifespan of 15 years.

The satellite is the first to launch out of 32 in production by Lockheed under contracts worth a combined $12.6 billion for the Air Force GPS III program, according to Lockheed spokesman Chip Eschenfelder.

The launch was originally scheduled for 2014 but has been hobbled by production delays, the Air Force said.

The next GPS III satellite is due to launch in mid-2019, Eschenfelder said, while subsequent satellites undergo testing in the company’s Colorado processing facility.

By Peter Michael

WORKING at Christmas was just part of life for me when I lived in America.  Christmas though was different in New York.  The weather is a bracing cold that hits the skin immediately and makes us feel our fingers are about to fall off.  Especially on Long Island, where my job was.  I worked at my aunt’s ice cream store, selling not only fresh sundaes and milkshakes (yes, in the dead of winter), but also cakes and ice cream sandwiches that customers took home for dessert.

To be fair, homes are very warm in the northern US states and are well insulted, due to the cold that beats the structures.  Snow is just a part of winter for us, so why wouldn’t someone get ice cream, most of our customers think.

Christmas was a fun time of year, because as most things in the US, we had themed cakes and creations.  We have peppermint ice cream, dark chocolate ice creams, and we even had Santa Claus cakes accompanied by little snowmen ice-cream sandwiches and cups with elf faces drawn on them in piping gel.

The Santa cake is made with vanilla and chocolate ice cream separated by a layer of cookie crumbs.  He is frozen and then decorated with red and white whip cream, and a little holly leaf on his hat.  As always, there is still that little twinkle in his eye.

When I worked there (and I worked there for about 13 years), I used to experiment not on design, but on colours.  I would add a hit of orange to yellow whipping cream, to give it a marigold colour that I would pipe into roses that looked rich and buttery.  Or I would just touch up the red with a little black food colouring to give it the deep scarlet hue we are used to seeing Santa wear.

Sales on the novelty items was generally good during the holidays, even if you could use your back garden as a separate freezer due to the cold.  Even customers were different during the holidays.  Always electing to smile, wish you a Merry Christmas, and cheer you up for working on Christmas Eve – we were closed Christmas Day.  We would exchange cookies, jams, and other homemade items, with some of our favourite and regular customers.

America is seen as an overly friendly place sometimes, especially when it comes to service.  Even though, I don’t think New Yorkers are terribly friendly. I am guilty of it myself.

But even if we are overly friendly for Europeans, I still think Christmas and holidays ooze out of us and our wishes and greetings are heartfelt, almost like a hug without the touching.  Selling ice cream is what I have always said: ‘Selling happiness’.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday he deeply regretted U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.

In an abrupt policy shift, Trump announced on Wednesday that Washington would withdraw the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, upending a pillar of American policy in the Middle East and alarming U.S. allies.

“I very deeply regret the decision made on Syria,” Macron said during a news conference in Chad.

“To be allies is to fight shoulder to shoulder. It’s the most important thing for a head of state and head of the military,” he said. “An ally should be dependable.”

Macron stressed the importance of the work of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which has captured large parts of northern and eastern Syria from Islamic State.

“I call on everyone … not to forget what we owe them,” he said.

U.S. officials justified the decision by saying Islamic State had been defeated.

That time of the year has come again; the dreaded decision of how to celebrate New Year’s Eve. There are dozens of after-midnight parties to choose from yet the abundance of possibilities and their similarity make it that much harder.

For those who are ready to welcome the new year with a party Nostalgia Parties, known for their fun and vibrant themed events, are organising their first New Year’s Eve party since 2014.

90s and 00s music, dancers and 3D visuals all await.

“We want to offer to Nicosia a great NYE party! Our first two parties this year with the Versus Club team were fantastic so we were just responding to requests for a NYE party,” say co-organisers Nostalgia Parties and the Versus team.

Those who remember the legendary days of Club Versus, don’t need much to get hyped up about bringing the style of that era back as it was one of the most electric nocturnal dance experiences.

Nostalgia’s Versus-themed parties saw a great turnout, reviving those days so another event sounds promising.

“Anyone who lived through those decades will have an absolutely great time, and anyone who missed those decades should come and find out what they were all about,” express co-organisers Nostalgia Parties and the Versus team. How are they aiming to do that? By bringing back Club Versus’ resident DJ Manic Mike who became the most recognisable DJ of that era.

Playing all the biggest dance classics from the Versus Club period of the 90s and 00s, DJ Manic Mike is a “veteran” according to Nostalgia Parties and “knows exactly how to work the crowd especially on a big night like New Year’s Eve”.

What’s more, RED Club will travel back in time as Nostalgia tries to re-create the Versus Club experience with carefully-selected dancers, special decoration and 3D visuals that have become a sort of trademark of the Nostalgia events.

But what everyone really wants to know now is the price. Seeing as most New Year’s Eve events have sky-high entrance fees, this party sounds reasonable with a €30 ticket which includes three drinks.

Nostalgia x Versus NYE Party
New Year’s Eve party bringing back Club Versus’ legendary 90s and 00s dance music. Organized by Nostalgia Parties and the Versus team. Sponsored by J&B Cyprus and DeeJay radio. December 31. Club RED, Nicosia. 12.30am- 6am. €30 with 3 free drinks. Info / Table RSV 96347007

By Annette Chrysostomou

PAPHOS hotels are more than 80 per cent booked over Christmas and the New Year, and while this may be good news for the country’s economy, it often has a different meaning for those who work in the industry, as instead of celebrating, employees in hotels get to watch people eating and drinking while they have to work hard to make this a great time for the guests.

My experience as a vocational trainee in a German hotel has left me with the capacity to appreciate those who do this kind of job, though it has also given me another chance to visit Cyprus!

Being a trainee, one gets to work in all sorts of departments, but chances are over the ‘festive season’ you get to serve or prepare food, or clean. And Christmas dinner is not likely to be a buffet, which is easier on the staff, but a nicely decorated four-course meal of good quality, all of course to be served at the right time and with the right drinks as, over the holidays, expectations are high, with hotels full of people wanting that special dinner or New Year’s Eve spread.

Thus, I have memories of tired feet and enviously glancing at glasses filled with champagne. As well, trying to find an empty guest room to clean early the next morning, while the guests  – understandably tired from all the eating and drinking – will likely sleep late. You cannot simply happily wait for guests to wake up when the task is to clean 16 rooms plus 16 bathrooms between 7.30am and 4pm.

Well, this is how it works most of the time. As I said, I got lucky once. Apart from serving and cleaning, at the time – this was before mobile phones – a few people had to work as telephone operators, and it was my turn one year.

A wealthy guest for some reason decided to give a tip to that department around Christmas – €3,000. And our boss – bless her, still! – decided not to keep it all for herself, which she could have done without even telling us – but to divide it up among six of us – which for me meant money for a flight to Cyprus. Because this is the (only) nice part of working over the holidays – you get days off afterwards to make up for it.

On the whole, I’d rather have a normal day job, though….

Cyprus and Poland have a very similar take on the meaning of the concept and principle of sovereignty, its deputy foreign minister says

By Agnieszka Rakoczy

POLAND and Cyprus may not have adjoining borders but, as members of the European Union and therefore political and economic partners, the two countries do have shared and common interests which merit ongoing discussion and regular exchanges, Poland’s deputy foreign minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk made clear during his recent official visit to the island.

“We both joined the European Union in 2004 so we have the same experience regarding the accession process and of what unfolded subsequently in the course of our membership to date. Indeed, it is this shared history that has brought us closer together, even though we belong to different geographical regions whose interests sometimes diverge, which makes it all the more important to strengthen and cultivate the common links we enjoy,” Minister Szynkowski vel Sęk told the Sunday Mail during an interview that took place at the Polish Embassy office in the centre of Nicosia.

In his view, one issue that binds the two nations closer together is rooted in their very similar take on the meaning of the concept and principle of sovereignty.

“We [Poland] are deeply attached to and always try to stress in our dealings within the EU that the principles of international law that precede and are older than the Union itself should be the basis for all interactions involving member states in terms of their mutual relations. These principles cannot be bent as they are the pillars on which the functioning of international politics is based. Cyprus, an island that experienced a tragic division of its territory, makes a similar point when it comes to its dealings within the EU,” Szynkowski vel Sęk noted.

The minister took pains to point out that in this instance the principle of sovereignty refers not only to the international politics of the two states but also to their right to take autonomous decisions when dealing with various specific internal matters. By way of example, he cited the issue of reform of the judiciary system.

The Polish minister cited “extremely useful” discussions he had held in the course of his visit with Demetris Syllouris, the RoC Speaker of the House, about the importance of an independent judicial system.

On the issue of trade, he noted that Poland currently exports goods worth approximately 150 million euros to Cyprus while Cypriot exports to Poland now total more than 80 million euros. This, according to the minister, clearly indicated that there was room for growth and that economic links between Warsaw and Nicosia should intensify and strengthen. Acknowledging the growth of Cyprus’s business dealings with Poland’s shipbuilding sector, the minister suggested Cypriot entrepreneurs might benefit further by looking to familiarise themselves with other facets of the expanding Polish economy. In particular, he suggested, they might wish to look at the pharmaceuticals sector or at innovations in the Polish aviation industry which offers a range of technologically advanced aviation equipment including drones. Moreover, he said, Poland is a leader in the field of start-ups development and is ready and eager to share its experiences and to exchange views in this field.

Szynkowski vel Sęk, who during his visit also met with Cyprus Foreign Minister Nicos Christodoulides and Permanent Secretary Minas Hadjimichael, allowed that their different geographical locations meant that when it came to the sphere of international relations there were times when the two countries’ interests and priorities differed. This mirrored the reality of international politics, he said, and where such differences arise, acknowledging and discussing them frankly is the best way to move forward and create a mutual understanding while strengthening bilateral relations.

“The Eastern Partnership [an EU initiative governing its relationship with the post-Soviet states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine], for example, is something important for us, and not crucial for Cyprus,” Minister Szynkowski vel Sęk pointed out by way of an example. “The same applied with regards to Russia whose aggressive policy is a very big challenge to Poland but with whom Cyprus has friendly relations.”

In keeping with this view, when asked to comment on Moscow’s involvement in the Eastern Mediterranean region, the minister was sceptical. “Russia is involved in many regions. We have extreme cases of such involvement in places such as Abkhazia, South Ossetia, eastern Ukraine and the Crimea. So, unfortunately, I don’t believe that such a presence usually leads to stability.”

To add emphasis to his remarks about the fractious relationship with Moscow, the minister pointed to the ongoing debate about the presence of Nato rapid reaction forces in Poland as well as the establishment of a permanent US army base on the Polish territory as finite examples of Warsaw’s tough response “to Russian actions aimed at showing that we are not going to stay idle while Moscow flexes its muscles”.

He spoke of Warsaw’s unresolved issues in Poland’s relations with Russia and specifically about Moscow’s handling of the controversial air crash at Smolensk Severny Aerodrome on April 10, 2010, when all 96 on board, including Polish President Lech Kaczyński died. The President and a delegation of senior Polish government and military officials were en route to a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre in Smolensk.

Warsaw has been seeking the return to Poland of the wreckage as is its right in keeping with the Chicago Convention, which requires the state where an incident or crash occurs to return the wreckage and other potential evidence to the aircraft’s state of registration once the technical air safety investigation is completed. That investigation was completed in January 2011.

In October, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace) called on Russia to hand over the wreckage without further delay, and to do so in a manner that “avoids any further deterioration” of potential evidence. Pace also issued a statement claiming: “The continuing refusal of the Russian authorities to return the wreckage and other evidence constitutes an abuse of rights and has fuelled speculation on the Polish side that Russia has something to hide.”

Poland, Szynkowski vel Sęk told the Sunday Mail, greatly appreciated Pace’s support. Warsaw was determined to continue its efforts to enlist the assistance of other states in order to maintain pressure on Russia to comply. “It is in our interest to get this wreckage back in order to make progress in our own investigation into the crash and we will not give up on this matter,” he said.

Turning to another topic, the minister explained Warsaw’s stance on the migrant crisis. Along with Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, Poland is opposed to the mass influx of migrants into the European Union and has refused to take in any under the 2015 deal designed to allocate 160,000 people among EU member countries in an effort to alleviate the burden on Greece and Italy.

“We have always made it clear that we believe each country should choose its own path as to how it will contribute to the migrant crisis. Our position is that we should concentrate on helping more in the regions of conflict and/or in the neighbouring countries. We simply cannot afford to bring all the people to Europe. Nor should we allow the drainage of all human skills from these regions when those skills will be key to the rebuilding effort once stability is restored. This is why Poland now spends four or five times more on development and humanitarian aid than it did before 2015. We build hospitals, we participate in the construction of schools. We believe that one euro or a dollar spent in the region is a much better spend than the same amount spent on a refugee in Europe.”

Poland, currently a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, firmly supports all peaceful initiatives aimed at unifying Cyprus including the presence of the UN Peacekeeping Mission on the island.

“We also support all confidence building initiatives between the two communities — the proverbial small steps that should lead eventually to Cyprus to unification,” the Minister noted.

Warsaw is following the ongoing gas explorations in the Eastern Mediterranean with great interest. Once the potential of the large deposits indicated by research start being exploited, “the EastMed pipeline from Israel through Cyprus and Greece to Italy will be crucial.”

According to the minister, the Polish Petroleum and Gas Mining Co (PGNiG)) has been monitoring the progress of East Mediterranean gas exploration from the outset. Now, it is looking at the possibilities of including the EastMed pipeline in The Three Seas Initiative, a forum consisting of 12 EU states located in Central and Eastern Europe. The Initiative aims to promote co-operation in economic matters, particularly in the field of energy as well as transport and communications infrastructure.

Concluding what was his first visit to Cyprus, the minister said he would carry away a lasting impression of the island’s beauty, its abundant nature and its rich cultural heritage had made a lasting impression on him.

“Cyprus has been one of the top ten most favourite tourist destinations for the people of Poland for years. When I return home, I will be more than happy to encourage my friends to visit the island. Of course, I would also like to invite Cypriots to come to Poland where they will always find a warm welcome.”

The minister noted that Cyprus had played a part in the recent worldwide celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Poland’s independence on November 11^th. The Polish independence anniversary was memorably and visibly saluted at famous monuments and sites around the world, among them the Pyramids in Giza, the statue of Christ high above Rio de Janeiro, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Buildings and monuments were lit up with the Polish colours to mark the day. Nicosia’s municipal building was one shining example, aglow with “our national colours of white and red.”

“Here on the island, members of the Polish community gathered together at the embassy and, like similar gatherings in Polish embassies elsewhere, sang the national anthem knowing that thousands of other Poles were doing the same thing at exactly the same hour worldwide,”

By Christos P. Panayiotides

Distressed by Cyprus rolling down the road of partition, I decided to disappear for a short while, as far away as possible, in the hope that I would thus forget the misery of my home country. Unfortunately, my goal proved unattainable as a result of having daily at my disposal the electronic versions of both the Cyprus Mail and Alithia and by extension a full and comprehensive account of what has been happening in Cyprus. Nonetheless, my stay in the Land of the Rising Sun for a period of ten days was an experience that I am seeking to summarise below.

Japan is located east of the Asian continent, comprising 7,000-odd large and small islands, with a population of 130 million and a total land area of almost 400,000 square kilometers. The capital is Tokyo with a population of almost 40 million.

Japan has its own unique culture. The dominant element of this culture is the harmony which persists between absolute order and apparent total chaos. Most Japanese do not speak any foreign language and, thus, communicating with them is not easy. Nonetheless, these people are extremely helpful and polite and would often go out of their way to help a foreign visitor seeking help. What is truly impressive is the precision with which the system functions. For example, if the scheduled departure or arrival time of a train is 10:22, the corresponding actual time will be 10:22: neither 10:21 nor 10:23.

In a conversation, almost without exception, the Japanese would repeat three times the information or the instructions given to them, to be absolutely certain there is no room for a misunderstanding. This is how they secure absolute consistency. The other characteristic features of the Japanese culture are hard work, compliance with the rules of the game and cleanliness.

Nobody expresses an assessment, opinion or a position if he or she has not previously studied the issue in depth and has satisfied himself/herself as to the correctness of the conclusion reached.

However, what is their true distinguishing feature is the soberness with which their political system functions and with which they confront their national problems, with pride but without arrogance, despite their prominent position in the world rankings.

I read in the English language daily Japan Times that Japan continues to be in a confrontation with Russia, the latter refusing to return four islands that had been looted in the course of World War II. In a radio interview last Monday, Sergey Lavrof, the Russian foreign minister, did not mince his words. He stated that “the acceptance of the legality of the effective Russian control of the 4 islands off the Hokkaido coast is a basic precondition for reaching a Peace Agreement”.

Japan perceives the existence of political and military threats on the part of Russia as well as on the part of China. For these precise reasons, it welcomes the presence of American bases on Japanese soil. One of these bases is currently being relocated on land that is reclaimed from the sea.

The presence of the American bases combined with Japan’s own military expenditure, amounting to 27 trillion yen (over €200 billion) in the next five years, approved this week by the Japanese Council of Ministers, is indicative of what is necessary for confronting these threats.

And now comes the comparing and contrasting with our situation:

Cyprus is a small island at the centre of a cyclone. In Japan, I asked around 50 people in all walks of life about Cyprus. With the exception of two or three, the rest did not know Cyprus or had a very vague understanding of the fact that it was an island in the Mediterranean. A few said that Cyprus is a Greek god or goddess. The only comforting thing was that the name of Cyprus (Kypros) is, in fact, pronounced as Kypros and is written using 4 characters of the Japanese alphabet. Our belief that with peanuts (net of the applicable bribes) we will be able to militarily confront countries such as Turkey discloses the magnitude of our political naivety and ignorance.

In contrast to the Japanese, we are omniscient, we swiftly come to a conclusion on whatever issue preoccupies our mind and we have a strongly-held opinion on almost any matter that we come across. If something misfires, it is always somebody else’s fault (who failed to adequately explain what was the target of the exercise or who is seeking to serve his interests, as opposed to serving our interests).

From the perspective of political consistency and accountability, for us it is sufficient to have satisfied ourselves (one way or another) that the path which we choose to follow is the right one. It is clearly understood that for us it is sufficient to state that we object to criticism. In fact, we reject criticism outright.

I suspect that these are the attributes that the Secretary General of the United Nations had in mind when he wished us “good luck”.

Christos Panayiotides is a regular columnist writing in the Cyprus Mail, Sunday Mail and Alithia

By Evie Andreou

I‘VE WORKED so many times on Christmas, mostly at a television station I toiled away almost my entire 20’s, I can’t really single out one, although the highlight of those festive days was the food our employer so graciously had delivered at lunch and dinnertime to the station, usually from a posh catering service.

That was, for me, an if-you-can’t-avoid-it-at-least-enjoy-it situation. I’ve always been a foodie, I’m not ashamed of admitting, so the idea of a scrumptious meal at the workplace including a selection of salads, between two to three hot dishes and a piece of the most divine chocolate cake, the caterer in question was known for at the time, was not bad at all! No souvla on the menu.

The surroundings of course left much to be desired, we usually ate our meals inside the continuity room in front of around 10 screens to monitor the sound and picture quality of the programmes being broadcast, which was anything Christmassy, including long-forgotten films the programming department dusted off the station’s archives, plus entertainment shows and concerts.

The job, in itself, especially after a few years there, was a dreary, tedious one; the excitement of pushing buttons on a console for the transition of one programme to the other had faded at some point. At the time we were doing that manually, it was shortly before deciding a career change and handing in my resignation – in the late noughties – that the station had introduced a more automated system. But having to watch day in day out every TV programme broadcast including soap operas, low-quality local series, live sports and talk shows was draining the life out of me, let alone on Christmas where everyone else you knew was somewhere being merry and bright.

Imagine, having as a young adult, to wake up at the crack of dawn on Christmas Day, not even to go to the church, though in my case this was never the norm, but to get ready for eight hours of broadcasting television shows thousands would be watching surrounded by loved ones, or just enjoying with their festive cup/glass of hot/alcoholic beverage at hand.

I wouldn’t call myself a Grinch since I really don’t hate Christmas, but having to be at the station at 6.30am on that day just killed the holiday magic in me.

And it wasn’t just on Christmas. Being a university student at the time, I would usually do late and holiday shifts because I had classes in the mornings on weekdays, which means I had my fair share of holiday and weekend work. No complaints though, at least that job put me through university.

So yes, If I would choose to remember something from those years it would be the fabulous catering food that gave the day a special note and made us feel appreciated for our ‘sacrifice’. Of course, that was in the good-old days before the economic crisis put a stop to such luxuries. Luckily for me, I don’t have to work on holidays anymore so now I can enjoy my Christmas meals wherever and with whomever I choose to.

Tottenham Hotspur showed the Premier League title race might not be just a two-horse affair with a hugely impressive 6-2 win at Everton on Sunday with Harry Kane and Son Heung-min both scoring twice.

Scintillating Spurs are now just two points behind second-placed Manchester City and trail Liverpool by six but after this performance, the London club look well capable of pushing their rivals all the way.

“Everybody’s been talking about Liverpool and Manchester City, and we’ve been getting on with it and doing well, like we normally do,” said Kane.

“We’ve had a good month and hopefully we can take that into January now – and February – and we’ll see where we’re at come April time.”

Media speculation has suggested Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino could be a target for Manchester United at the end of the season, but if the Argentine had any doubts about the potential of the side he has created they would have vanished with this display.

Despite falling a goal behind, Spurs were simply unstoppable once Son had brought them level in the 27th minute, with their devastating movement in attack and precision passing from midfield too much for an Everton side whose limitations were ruthlessly exposed.

Everton took the lead in the 21st minute when Dominic Calvert-Lewin pulled the ball back to former Arsenal forward Theo Walcott who turned it past Hugo Lloris.

After Calvert-Lewin had a header harshly ruled out, Spurs drew level from an awful mix-up between Everton keeper Jordan Pickford and defender Kurt Zouma with South Korean Son doing well from a tight angle to curl the ball into the unguarded goal.

That error changed the game and Spurs never looked back as their flowing, attacking football, a joy to watch, overwhelmed Marco Silva’s side.

Spurs went in front in the 35th minute when Dele Alli drilled home the ball after Son’s shot was parried by Pickford.

Three minutes before the break, the visitors made it 3-1 when a Kieran Trippier free kick flew out off the post straight to Kane who gleefully converted.

Christian Eriksen made it 4-1 in the 48th minute when Kane’s shot was blocked by Seamus Coleman and the Dane showed great technique as he drove the ball past Pickford from 20 metres out.

Everton responded though, three minutes later, with Gylfi Sigurdsson cutting across the edge of the area and reversing a shot into the bottom corner.

Any hope of an Everton revival was short-lived as substitute Erik Lamela slipped in the superb Son who confidently drove past Pickford to make it 5-2.

The irrepressible Son then created the sixth, with his perfectly delivered cross from the left met with a textbook finish by the sliding Kane.

Such was the quality of Son’s display that parts of the Everton crowd joined in with the visiting fans to applaud him off the field.

The South Korean had tormented Everton throughout but the entire Spurs team had shown that they are certainly more than also-rans in the title race.

City’s loss to Crystal Palace on Saturday allowed Liverpool to take command with a four-point lead at the top but it also opened the door to a Spurs team who have marched through it in such emphatic fashion.

DOZENS of fundraisers in Paphos will enter the water on Boxing Day, whatever the weather, to raise funds for their chosen charities.

The annual event has become a firm fixture on the local festive calendar and the 11th Boxing Day swim will see participants enter the water at Vardas Beach in Kissonerga at 11am on December 26.

They will have to stay immersed in the water for 15 minutes. No wetsuits are permitted, although swimmers may wear t-shirts and leggings over their swimsuits while some will wear fancy dress,

Many of the participants are retirees and pensioners and all are raising money for various Paphos-based charities.

John Tremain, 70, will be taking part in the swim for the first time and said he may wear special attire relating to animal welfare. He is raising funds for Animal Rescue Cyprus (previously Paphiakos and CCP animal welfare.)

“My wife Melanie and I have been involved with animal welfare for many years and as this is a special year for me as I’m 70, I wanted to do something to mark the occasion,” he told the Sunday Mail.

Animal Rescue Cyprus was founded in 1982. It provides numerous services including, veterinary clinics in Paphos and Polis, a tea shop, charity shops, a rescue line and a re-homing service. The shelter is home to numerous donkeys, horses, dogs, cats, rabbits and goats.

Tremain will be accompanied on the swim by a trainee vet from Slovenia and his wife will be waiting on the beach with a hot coffee, he said.

“People can come and sponsor me there as well, as we will have the forms with us and it would be great to have support from the public,” he said.

The couple retired to Paphos eight years ago, and Tremain is the coordinator of Erasmus funding from the EU which is used to support newly qualified or trainee vets to visit Animal Rescue Cyprus for around four months at a time.

“They gain invaluable experience and we make strong and excellent relationships in Europe,” he said.

Last year, €2,500 was raised for the charity by supporters taking part in the swim, said Animal Rescue’s Oana Bodnaras.

She said that the facility costs around half a million euros a year to run.

It is home to around 1,300 cats and dogs, 40 rabbits and guinea pigs, 130 horses and donkeys and 30 goats.

“The medical care alone for 2017 was €220,000,” she said.

Another swimmer, Tam Todrick, aged 63, from Tala in Paphos is raising funds for SSAFA- the armed force charity.

He is a member of the UKCA club in Paphos which has a number of members taking part.

“I am ex-Navy and as a large number of the UKCA members are ex-forces. I wanted to do something to help,” he said.

He added that as well as raising sponsorship money the event is also great fun.

“We have a laugh and it’s a great experience,” he said.

Todrick also participated in the charity swim last year and said that he has an affinity with the water.

“I used to sail and I was still swimming in October.”

Other members of the UKCA club will also be swimming and club chairman Debbie Bell said that it will be an open house on Boxing Day.

Traditionally, swimmers and members of the public go to the club after the swim, from around 11.30am onwards, to eat, relax and be entertained.

“Non-members are also welcome and entrance is free. We are giving out free soup to all of the swimmers and there will be a special Boxing Day lunch which is open to everyone,” she said.

Homemade dishes such as lasagne, chilli, curry and fish and chips will be priced at a reasonable €5.50.

At 2pm, live entertainment will be provided by ‘The Fender Benders,’ and the venue gets very busy, only closing when the last guest leaves.

By Fergus Jensen

LABUAN, Indonesia, Dec 24 (Reuters) – The death toll from a tsunami that hit the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra after the Anak Krakatau volcano erupted rose to at least 280 on Monday, officials said, as rescuers using heavy machinery and their bare hands searched for more victims.

Hundreds more were injured when the tsunami struck, almost without warning, along the rim of the Sunda Strait late on Saturday. More than 3,000 coastal residents were forced to evacuate to higher ground, with a high-tide warning in place until Tuesday.

The vast archipelago, which sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, has suffered its worst annual death toll from disasters in more than a decade. Earthquakes flattened parts of the tourist island of Lombok in July and August, and a double quake-and-tsunami killed more than 2,000 people on Sulawesi island in September.

Search and rescue officials used their bare hands and some heavy machinery to clear the remains of buildings on Monday. Government and non-government aid trickled in to Pandeglang, the worst-affected area on Java’s west coast.

Indonesia’s disaster agency had put the death toll at 222 on Sunday, with about 850 injured and 28 people missing, but raised it to 280 early on Monday. A disaster mitigation agency official in Banten province named Jhony told reporters most victims were Indonesian holidaymakers.

Dudi Dwiriadi, a district military commander, said personnel and volunteers had been briefed to sweep at least 100 km (60 miles) of coastline in search of victims.

The timing of the tsunami over the Christmas holiday season evoked memories of the Indian Ocean tsunami triggered by an earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004, which killed 226,000 people in 14 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia.

Graphic of disaster zone https://tmsnrt.rs/2RdjsMd

ROADS BLOCKED

Some roads remained blocked by debris and traffic, with families streaming out of the area for fear of further tsunamis.

President Joko Widodo, who is running for re-election in April, was scheduled to visit the area later on Monday.

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

Many coastal residents reported not seeing or feeling any warning signs, such as an earthquake, on Saturday night before waves of 2-3 metres (6-10 feet) washed ashore.

Yuni, a resident of Lampung in Sumatra, was watching television at home when she heard the water coming.

“I heard a rumbling sound and I thought it was the wind. After I opened the door, water came in quickly and dragged me out. When I saw outside, the sea was receding. I decided to run and go as the water came again for the second time,” she said.

Roman, a resident of the area who operates tours to Anak Krakatau, said by text message the weather had been fine when the waves struck, although residents had become wary of the rumbling volcano.

He said many others had taken refuge in his elevated village of Tahura Carita, which is about 100 metres from the sea. Evacuees were relying on instant noodles, he said.

Rescue workers carry a body bag containing the remains of a victim of the tsunami in Pandeglang, Banten province, Indonesia, December 24, 2018. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

The western coast of Banten province in Java, Indonesia’s most populated island, was also badly hit, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency.

At least 48 people were reported dead in Lampung in southern Sumatra, he said.

With the exact cause of the disaster still unknown, authorities were wary of the risk of a recurrence. Public works minister Basuki Hadimuljono said emergency operations would be carried out continuously but “would stop at the first sign of possible high tides”.

“WASHED AWAY”

Television footage showed how the tsunami washed away an outdoor stage where Indonesian rock band Seventeen was performing for hundreds of guests at an end-of-year party for state utility company PLN.

At least four band members and support crew were killed, lead singer Riefian “Ifan” Fajarsyah told followers in a tearful Instagram account. The band’s drummer was among the missing.

Another 29 PLN employees and relatives were also killed.

Anak Krakatau, 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 about 30 minutes later, according to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

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

Ben van der Pluijm, an earthquake geologist and professor at 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.

The eruption of Krakatau, previously known as Krakatoa, in 1883 killed more than 36,000 people in a series of tsunamis.

Anak Krakatau, which means child of 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.

By Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON, Dec 23 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s budget director and chief of staff on Sunday said the partial U.S. government shutdown could continue to Jan. 3, when the new Congress convenes and Democrats take over the House of Representatives.

“It’s very possible this shutdown will go beyond (December) the 28th and into the new Congress,” Mick Mulvaney said on Fox News Sunday.

“I don’t think things are going to move very quickly here for the next few days” because of the Christmas holiday, added Mulvaney, who serves as director of the Office of Management and Budget and was named acting White House chief of staff 10 days ago.

The U.S. Senate adjourned on Saturday, unable to break an impasse over Trump’s demand for more funds for a wall on the border with Mexico that Democrats are unwilling to accept.

Mulvaney said the White House made a “counter-offer” to Democrats on funding for border security that fell between the Democratic offer of $1.3 billion and Trump’s demand for $5 billion.

As part of those talks on Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence offered to drop the demand for $5 billion for a border wall, substituting instead $2.1 billion, ABC News reported, citing unnamed sources.

A Democratic source familiar with the negotiations said real discussions have been happening between Democratic lawmakers and Republican Senator Richard Shelby, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, who has been talking to the White House. It was unclear what Democrats had offered.

Mulvaney sought to shift blame for the partial shutdown to Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic nominee for speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, saying she might hold up negotiations to ensure she secures the position.

“I think she’s in that unfortunate position of being beholden to her left wing to where she cannot be seen as agreeing with the president on anything until after she is speaker,” Mulvaney said. “If that’s the case, again, there’s a chance we go into the next Congress.”

Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill disputed that account, saying in a statement: “As Mr. Mulvaney well knows, House Democrats are united in their opposition to the President’s immoral, expensive and ineffective wall.”

The White House should “stop the posturing and start serious bipartisan talks,” Hammill said.

Financing for about a quarter of federal government programs – including the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Agriculture – expired at midnight on Friday. More than 400,000 “essential” employees in those agencies will work without pay until the dispute is resolved. Another 380,000 will be “furloughed,” meaning they are put on temporary leave.

Law enforcement efforts, border patrols, mail delivery and airport operations will keep running.

Building a wall to try to prevent migrants from entering the United States illegally was a central plank of Trump’s presidential campaign, but Democrats are vehemently opposed and have rejected his funding request.

Trump reiterated his push for border security on Sunday, saying on Twitter that “the only way” to stop drugs, gangs, and human trafficking at the border was with a wall or barrier.

“Drones and all of the rest are wonderful and lots of fun, but it is only a good old fashioned Wall that works!,” the president said in the tweet.

Earlier in the week, leaders in both the Senate and House thought they had reached a deal that Trump would sign that contained less money for border security, only to watch the president, under pressure from conservatives, re-assert his demand for $5 billion at the last minute.

Senator David Perdue, a Republican from Georgia on the Senate Banking Committee, said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that he thought a deal this week was possible.

“I spoke to the president last night, he wants that,” Purdue said, adding: “I’m hopeful that cooler heads will prevail and we’ll get to some number between $1.6 (billion) and $5 billion on that.”

A 46-year-old man in Ayia Napa was arrested early Monday for allegedly possessing child pornography on his mobile phone, police said.

Police said that members of the Famagusta Task Force, after receiving a tip-off arrested the man in his home at around 2am.

During a check carried on the phone a number of child pornography files was found., police said.