ALMOST three months have passed since the resignation of Andreas Moleskis, the head of the secretariat of the EU presidency and his replacement has not yet been appointed. It took a little over a month for President Christofias to choose a replacement, but his choice, Ambassador Andreas Mavroyiannis, has still not taken up his new post - he remains in Brussels as Cyprus’ Permanent Representative to the EU... 1 comment

Scientists who are working on various concepts for “geo-engineering” the climate are almost comically eager to stress that they are not trying to come up with a substitute for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the main cause of man-made global warming. They are just researching back-up systems that we might need if the reductions don’t happen fast enough... Read on

We’d met him for the first time a few years ago at the memorial service for Earl Jellicoe in Athens, in his nineties but still handsome and charming. “You must come to our simple home”, he had said. I’d noted the “our” for I’d been told that although his beloved wife Joan had died in 2003, her room untouched and undisturbed.It’s true the house nestling into the cliffs and olive groves just beyond Kardimyli has a simplicity, but as we gathered last week to raise a glass to the life of Patrick Leigh Fermor and his legacy for the future, with its arched walkways and pebbled courtyards, it was one of the most beautiful houses I had seen in Greece. ... Read on

“THE best argument against democracy is a ten minute conversation with the average voter,” Winston Churchill once said, but he might be wrong. Last Sunday was the regional election in Berlin and the liberal party suffered a humiliating defeat. Their party leader, Philipp Roesler, vice chancellor and minister for economic affaires in Angela Merkel’s government, surely had the latest polls in mind when he went in front of the TV cameras last week declaring: “To stabilise the euro we must not take anything off the table. An ‘orderly default’ for Greece is an option and might improve her ability to function... Read on

NOBODY is enjoying the sight of what is happening in Greece, but the truth is that the Greeks are the authors of their bleak economic future. Greece had been living beyond its means for decades, under the illusion that it could carry on financing its ever-growing deficits and profligacy with more and more borrowing from abroad. But the party had to end and now Greeks are staring at a future of deprivation, record unemployment and no prospects. ... 7 comments

Turkey’s sabre-rattling over the start of drilling in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone has kept all Cypriot eyes on the Mediterranean, but for the rest of the world, the question of Palestinian statehood in New York has dominated the agenda. President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas has had diplomats around the world clocking overtime with his pledge to request Palestinian statehood at the UN Security Council (UNSC). ... 2 comments

THE COMPLETE lack of public spirit among state school teachers has been well-documented over the years. The times when teachers took their social responsibility seriously and showed unflinching commitment to their students are long gone, replaced by selfishness, greed and open contempt for the idea of public service... 8 comments

IT WAS encouraging to hear the new Health Minister Stavros Malas express an interest in putting efforts to set up a National Health Scheme back in motion. The Scheme appeared to have been shelved by the government, presumably because of the recession, even though no official decision was ever taken. This prevarication and inaction led to the resignation of the Chairman of the Health Insurance Organisation, the body that would have administered the Scheme. He had refused to stay on without a firm commitment of a start date from the government, which he never received. President Christofias had, after all, suggested that the Scheme could not be pursued in the current economic climate... 2 comments

“He took off the Kremlin dog collar,” explained a friend of Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia’s third-richest man, as the political party Prokhorov had founded to run against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the December elections blew up in his face two weeks ago.Prokhorov spent about $15 million setting up the new party, Right Cause, and now he wants his money back. The Kremlin stole the party from him, he claims, though he never blames President Dmitry Medvedev or Prime Minister Vladimir personally... Read on

 WE HAVE always argued that one of the main obstacles to tackling football violence is the football clubs. Most clubs take an ambiguous stance towards crowd trouble when their fans are involved, half-heartedly condemning the violence and then indirectly excusing it by blaming either bad refereeing or poor policing or both. In other words, the hooligans were provoked into behaving violently... 6 comments