LAWMAKERS were coerced into backing a rescue package for ailing Laiki Bank last May, European Party MP Demetris Syllouris said yesterday.“Parliament was forced to vote for the €1.8bn,” Syllouris told a panel that is looking into the circumstances leading to the economy’s near-collapse.In May 2012 parliament overwhelmingly voted in favour of the state underwriting the issue of €1.8bn in new shares for Laiki to help it recapitalise from its exposure to toxic Greek debt.A government bill had been rushed through the House plenum, leaving legislators little time to study it, Syllouris said.MPs were then told to pass the bill “as is” on the same day - before the bank re-opened for business - or else Laiki would go under, taking the rest of the economy with it... Read on

A TEAM of troika technocrats arrived in Cyprus yesterday to monitor developments in the island’s financial sector.The troika contacts will begin tomorrow with meetings with finance ministry officials, the Central Bank and management of commercial banks. The troika delegation departs on Saturday.The technocrats are on an “interim mission” to screen developments in the local banking sector. It’s understood they will be looking at steps taken so far to recapitalise the island’s largest lender Bank of Cyprus through a haircut on deposits.Cyprus has struck a deal with the troika to receive a €10bn bailout after bailing in bank uninsured deposits in a bid to recapitalise the island’s troubled banks... Read on

THE BANK of Cyprus’ survival must be secured so that the economy and the financial sector can have a future despite the gloomy forecasts, the chairman of the employers and industrialists federation (OEV) said yesterday. Speaking at OEV’s annual general meeting, Philios Zachariades said that the deterioration of economic indicators has been the most dramatic the island has known during a time of peace.Cyprus’ GDP is expected to contract by 8.7 per cent this year.  Borrowing rates for businesses and the price of electricity remain “prohibitively high,” Zachariades said while unemployment continues edging closer to an unprecedented 15 per cent, “testing the limits of society and the state... Read on

DISY LEADER Averof Neophytou yesterday raised the issue of removing the right to advertising from state broadcaster CyBC during discussion of its 2013 budget in the House Finance Committee. Speaking before the committee, Neophytou said the ruling party plans to table a legal amendment removing the right of CyBC to sell advertising since it is a recipient of state grants. He gave as an example, the operation of the BBC.    By removing itself from the advertising world, the state broadcaster can get out of the race for viewers and instead focus on its main aim of producing TV programmes that promote Cyprus’ culture, regardless of ratings... Read on

INTERNAL STRIFE within the ruling National Unity Party (UBP) in the breakaway regime yesterday led to the announcement of early ‘parliamentary’ elections in the north.  According to reports, seven or eight UBP rebels led by Ahmet Kasif had planned with the Turkish Cypriot opposition to table a motion of censure in ‘parliament’, forcing Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Irsen Kucuk to resign. A provisional government would then have been set up until new elections could be held three months later at the end of September. Trouble within the UBP has been brewing for some time with the party seemingly divided between the old guard, supporting former UBP head and current Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu, and the new guard, who back the incumbent party head Kucuk... Read on

TWO POLICE vehicles and a shop window were damaged in Nicosia by APOEL fans on Saturday after the Anorthosis vs. APOEL match, police said. According to reports, at around 7.20pm on Limassol Avenue in Nicosia, 30 APOEL fans with covered faces attacked officers by throwing rocks, firecrackers and Molotov cocktails at them while they were on duty in the area. Two APOEL fans then allegedly threw a rock, breaking the windscreen of a patrol car and then threw an object which they had lit, into the car, setting it on fire.The Fire Service was called to the scene but not before the car had been completely destroyed by the fire. The windscreen of a police bus and the glass door of a nearby shop were also damaged in the stone throwing... Read on

THE MEMBERS of a new parole board were sworn in yesterday, 11 months after the previous board’s tenure expired, leaving dozens of convicts hanging because there was nobody to examine their applications. Chairman and former judge Philippos Charalambous, and members Giorgos Demetriades, Evaggelos Anastasiou, Giorgos Mavrolefteros and Marios Argyrou were sworn in at the Presidential Palace in the presence of President Nicos Anastasiades. “I can definitely say that this is a very delicate (task) because approving or rejecting any application for parole entails many social consequences not just for the imprisoned applicant and his family, but specifically (and) to a larger extent for our small society,” Charalambous said... Read on

THREE institutions from abroad have displayed an interest in a proposal by semi-state companies (SGOs) to secure a €1.4 billion loan in order to avoid being privatised as part of Cyprus’ €10 billion bailout, the telecommunications company (CyTA) chairman said yesterday. Stathis Kittis previously proposed that CyTA, the Electricity Authority (EAC), and the Ports Authority (CPA) could mortgage the SGOs’ property and come up with the same amount the troika said could be raised through privatisations. Kittis told state broadcaster CyBC yesterday that three bodies – two hailing from the UK and one from the US – were interested in mulling the proposal. He did not name them and could not be reached to comment... 3 comments

THE POST mortem carried out on the 13-year-old girl who passed away during the early hours of Saturday was inconclusive and did not clearly show the cause of death state-pathologist Sophocles Sophocleous has said. Specialised histopathological tests will be carried out both in Cyprus and abroad in an attempt to find out the exact cause of death of the teenager, named as Ioanna Demetriou. “The post-mortem did not indicate the exact cause of death so we will await specialised tests which should give us the exact reason she passed away,” Sophocleous said. Sophocleous told the Cyprus Mail that the results of the tests would not be received soon and could be a while as it is s time-consuming procedure. Histopathology is the study of changes in tissues caused by disease... Read on

THE MANAGER of a Nicosia pizza restaurant was arrested yesterday in connection with the theft of €21,000 from his workplace, just hours after he had reported the money stolen by two armed robbers.  The 45-year-old Greek national reported to police yesterday that two robbers, carrying an axe and a bat, beat him and stole around €21,000 from a pizza restaurant in Strovolos in the early hours of yesterday morning. According to the 45-year-old restaurant manager, just after midnight as he was about to close shop, two hooded men wearing dark clothes entered the restaurant and threatened him with a bat and an axe. The two assailants allegedly forced the manager to open the restaurant safe, stealing the contents, believed to be around €21,000... Read on