Christofias releases financials to quash ‘malicious rumours’ FORMER President Demetris Christofias yesterday published his family’s accounts in a bid, as he said, to put paid to malicious rumours that members of his family are ultra-rich and that they transferred millions out of the country.The accounts, prepared by Kyprianides, Nicolaou & Associates Chartered Accountants, compare the revenues and expenditures, as well as the assets and liabilities, of Christofias and his wife Elsi on December 31, 2007 and December 31, 2012 – roughly the period spanning Christofias’ presidency... 10 comments

THE former CEO of the Bank of Cyprus yesterday accused the previous administration and the Central Bank governor of destroying the island’s biggest lender in a bid to cover themselves for the island’s economic woes.Breaking his silence after nine months, Andreas Eliades, who resigned in July last year, claimed that certain circles, inside and outside BoC, not only failed to join forces but they undermined every effort to tackle the crisis.“Unfortunately, developments confirmed that it was all part of a well-devised plan to break up the entire banking sector and especially the Bank of Cyprus, which was in good financial condition at the time,” Eliades said in an article published by financial portal Stockwatch... 5 comments

THE chief of the European Central Bank (ECB) had urged former president Demetris Christofias at the end of 2010 to take measures to shore up the island’s declining economy it emerged yesterday after a confidential letter was leaked to the media.In the “strictly confidential” letter to Christofias, former ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet stressed that strong fiscal consolidation should have been Cyprus’ key priority for the 2011 budget and beyond.Dated December 15, the letter, also signed by former Central Bank governor Athanasios Orphanides, followed a surveillance exercise by the ECB.“…Cyprus is considered as one of the countries where the need for policy actions is particularly urgent,” Trichet said... 12 comments

 AROUND 200 people turned up last night outside the Presidential Palace to see off President Demetris Christofias on his last night in power and commemorate the 13 dead of the Mari naval base blast. Relatives of the 13 soldiers and sailors killed in the blast also attended the event where protesters held a banner saying: “Christofias you are leaving with your head held high but you’re leaving exposed! The 13 demand justice.”The crowd sang songs composed after the Mari blast and dedicated to the 13 dead before releasing white balloons in the air and dispersing into the cold night.The July 11, 2011 blast killed 13 and injured many while incapacitating the island’s biggest power station, causing rolling power cuts for around a month... 11 comments

 PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias yesterday spoke of an ‘orchestrated attack’ against the Presidential Palace after the 2011 Mari munitions blast, as he bid farewell to staff ahead of his departure.Thanking the presidential guard, an emotional Christofias said they were the people tasked with protecting him and his family.“They are the people who kept the Presidential Palace intact at the time of the great attack, the orchestrated attack, after the Mari accident,” he said. “I want to thank them wholeheartedly.”The July 2011 blast killed 13 sailors and fire fighters and incapacitated the island’s biggest power station, causing rolling power cuts for around a month... 32 comments