Greek political parties delayed yet again on Tuesday making the tough choice of accepting painful reforms in return for a new international bailout to avoid a chaotic default, seemingly deaf to EU warnings that the eurozone can live without Athens.

With a series of deadlines come and gone, leaders of the three parties in the coalition of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos postponed what was supposed to be a crunch meeting until Wednesday.

One party official blamed the delay, which is likely to enrage eurozone leaders desperate to tie up the 130 billion euro rescue after months of argument, on missing paperwork - the same reason given when the meeting was postponed from Monday to Tuesday.

Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said people should work till they are 75 rather than expect to retire at 65, sparking a furore in a country that prides itself on its cradle-to-grave welfare system.

Reinfeldt heads a centre-right coalition that has so far cautiously cut taxes and some welfare spending without alienating middle class voters proud of their social security.

He made his remarks ahead of a conference this week on jobs for the elderly and women, which will be attended by some European leaders.

"The question is whether an employer will have a different attitude to someone who is 55 if the 55-year-old says, 'now I am thinking of working for another 20 years'," Reinfeldt was quoted by daily Dagens Nyheter as saying.

Turkey’s EU affairs minister repeated on Tuesday his denial that Ottoman Turks had committed genocide against Armenians nearly 100 years ago, in a challenge to Swiss officials who are investigating whether similar comments last month broke the law.

Turkey summoned the Swiss ambassador on Monday to complain about the decision by Swiss officials to investigate minister Egemen Bagis's comments at the World Economic Forum in Davos and also at a concert in Zurich.

"I said there on that day that what happened in 1915 was not genocide and I repeat that today. Nobody should doubt that I will give the same answer every time I am asked," Bagis told a news conference.

SamKnows has partnered with the European Commission to supply Cypriot consumers with a standalone device called Whitebox (enabled routers) to measure broadband performance across Cyprus. SamKnows is now looking for 1,000 volunteers in Cyprus to join the research, which is part of a pan-European project spread across all EU Member States and three other countries, namely Croatia, Iceland and Norway.

As a token of gratitude, SamKnows is offering the first 500 volunteers that register to take part in this pan-European research, the chance to win an iPad2. Volunteers can sign up through an online registration form found at http://www.samknows.eu/el/ipad

ENGLAND captain Andrew Strauss said there would be no knee-jerk reaction to the 3-0 series defeat by Pakistan that has seen his team's lead at the top of the test rankings slashed to one point.

Another disappointing batting performance from England ended in a 71-run defeat in the third and final test in Dubai on Monday.

Only wicketkeeper Matt Prior averaged more than 30 for the series in which all of England's batsmen struggled for runs.

While they performed admirably with the ball, England only once scored more than 300 in an innings and suffered the ignominy of being dismissed for 72 in the second test.

The second round of licensing for hydrocarbon research within Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) will be announced in eight days, commerce minister Praxoula Antoniadou said today.

“We are only eight days away from the official announcement for the second round of licensing”, Antoniadou told the House Commerce Committee.

Commerce Ministry permanent secretary Zeta Emileanidou said that the Ministry was informed by the Cypriot Permanent Representation to the EU that the official announcement for the licensing will be published in the EU gazette on February 13.

Up to twelve blocks in the eastern Mediterranean off southern Cyprus will be included in the round, officials have previously said.

FOR EVERY €100 of an electric bill, only about €70 accounts for the actual cost of electricity, the remaining €30 covering various fees imposed by the power utility, an opposition MP said yesterday.

Lefteris Christoforou, chairman of the House Commerce Committee, was commenting on the rising number of complaints by consumers over their high bills.

Surcharges levied after the Mari blast of last July (6.96 per cent), fees for carbon emissions and for renewable sources of energy, as well as other tariffs, account for as much as 30 per cent of any electrical bill, Christoforou said.

THERE is still one year to go before the presidential elections but it appears that the two big parties, AKEL and DISY, have already begun campaigning. 

DISY’S campaign is more conventional, as its leader Nicos Anastassiades has declared he would be a candidate and is already talking about what he would do if elected. He has given several interviews in the last couple of weeks, in which he attacked President Christofias’ handling of the Cyprus talks and outlined his plan to appoint a negotiator under the authority of the party leaders.

SECONDARY SCHOOL teachers recorded 25,856 absences in the first quarter of the school year, an average of 319 a day, according to education ministry figures. 

The first four months of the current school year, from September to December 2011, has a total number of 81 working days when one excludes weekends, national holidays and Christmas holidays. During that period, statistics published by Phileleftheros yesterday reveal that from the 5,486 permanent state secondary school teachers, on average 319 were absent per working day, or six per cent of the total permanent staff. 

These figures do not include teachers who were absent for training, away at conferences or seminars or European programmes. 

JUSTICE Minister Loucas Louca yesterday announced a six-year National Action Plan to combat increasing crime, which contains 221 specific steps, he said.

Louca was speaking at a Crime Committee meeting, on the day of an attempted murder at a Strovolos petrol station and only two days after a murder in Nicosia, and grenade was thrown at the home of former police spokesman, Michalis Katsounotos in Limassol.

Referring to the fact that there were two murders in the past three months, Louca said: 

“This is an all-encompassing programme.. it is a long-term six year programme that we will reap the benefits of over the next twenty years.”

THE HIGH-profile trial for the murder of media boss Andis Hadjicostis took another turn for the bizarre yesterday with a witness claiming the “spirit” of the slain Sigma boss was present in the courtroom.

“Andis was here on Friday, and he is here today,” prosecution witness and psychic Kathleen Zachariou said under cross-examination.

Zachariou was being grilled by the defence lawyer representing Elena Skordelli – alleged mastermind behind the murder – over her testimony last Friday.

Zachariou had then told the court that Skordelli had asked her (Zachariou) to use her powers to send out positive vibes to Hadjicostis that would lead to a love affair between himself and Skordelli.

CYPRUS has withdrawn its application to register halloumi as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), after dairy producers failed to see eye to eye on the milk quantities for the prototype.

Cleary deflated, Agriculture Minister Sophocles Aletraris yesterday said Cyprus was now in serious danger of missing out and the cheese being registered by another state, with all the economic consequences this would entail.

The minister, who met the Cyprus Dairy Products Manufacturers Association earlier in the day, said cow and goat milk producers had asked for the application to be withdrawn after failing to agree on the percentages of milk that should be used to manufacture the local cheese.

A 24-YEAR-OLD Georgian was critically injured yesterday morning after a man shot him in the chest at his place of work at an ESSO petrol station in Strovolos.

The victim underwent surgery at a private Nicosia hospital, however, he is not believed to be out of danger yet.

“An attempted murder took place this morning at 6.45am at a petrol station in Strovolos where a 24-year-old employee was shot by an unknown man, who then got in his car and fled the scene,” said police spokesman Andreas Angelides. 

Angelides said the assailant got out of his car and spoke to the victim first, before he pulled out a gun and shot him.

A 58-YEAR-OLD Larnaca man was yesterday jailed for 17 years for killing his partner last year.

The murder was committed on April 20, 2011 in Larnaca at the flat where the couple had been staying together for two weeks prior to the killing. . 

Antonis Kalogirou turned up at Larnaca police station a little after 11pm on the night of the murder to report that Irini Andreou, 39, had lost consciousness about an hour earlier.

He told police that he and Andreou, were drinking at the flat on Apostolos Varnavas street when she lost consciousness.

Police found the victim sitting motionless on an armchair. 

CYPRUS HAS cited “insurmountable difficulties” in wrapping its investigation into the death of 20-year-old Russian dancer Oxana Rantseva, who fell to her death in 2001 while trying to escape from a fifth-floor Limassol flat owned by a cabaret-owner’s employee.

In a letter to the Council of Europe (CoE) – published by the Cyprus News Agency yesterday – Cyprus’ Legal Services admitted weaknesses in finding those responsible for the young woman’s death, which was strongly connected to human trafficking rings.

The CoE has been monitoring the investigation since the European Court of Human Rights found Cyprus guilty of failing on multiple accounts to protect Rantseva. 

BUS services were fully restored yesterday after a deal was struck between the government and the companies who had left their drivers unpaid, claiming they did not have sufficient funds because the state had not allocated the agreed subsidies.

Initially, it seemed yesterday that Paphos would continue the strike but the differences with the ministry were ironed out and the company resumed its service.

Earlier, Communications Minister Efthimios Flourentzos had urged the company to lift the measures, otherwise he would seek a ruling from the Attorney-general on how to proceed.

“I hope that with the arrangements made we are eliminating any problems,” the minister said.

THE real estate market saw an unexpected boost last month, with sales documents filed at the land registry recording a 54 per cent rise year on year.

The biggest rise was seen in Paphos followed by Famagusta.

Compared to the 522 contracts in January 2011, the first month of the year saw 803 submitted at the land registry, probably boosted by low prices – especially in coastal areas – and incentives passed by parliament last November.

It is understood that this was the first rise in many months, led by Paphos with 107 per cent – 209 versus 101.

Famagusta followed closely with 105 per cent (86 compared with 42) with Larnaca coming in third – 63 per cent (117 compared with 72).

Limassol chalked up a 57 per cent increase – 209 compared with 133.

THE DAM at Ayia Marina Polis Chrysohous was the latest to overflow on Sunday evening, according to the Water Development Department’s senior technician, Fedros Roussis.

Evretou dam is expected to overflow over the next week.

According to Roussis, the reservoirs are currently 77 per cent full with around 5.3 million cubic metres of water having flowed into them over the last three days.

“The flow of water into the dams has continued but has lessened somewhat,” said Roussis adding that there was an adequate flow nonetheless. “The largest flow was into Kouris dam with 1.7 million cubic metres,” he added.

PRIMARY school students in the Nicosia suburb of Aglandjia are about to become experts in biodiesel – a renewable energy source alternative to diesel – which may soon fuel their heating burners and even give them soap with which to wash their hands.

The project was unveiled yesterday with school students explaining how they would use a mobile unit to convert cooking oil to biodiesel.

All primary students in Aglandjia as well students of Dasoupolis Lyceum will have access to the mobile unit - doing the rounds churning out biodiesel in about two hours, from start to finish.

Children will collect used cooking oil, bring it into schools and then help filter and process the oil into biodiesel.

HOUSE PRESIDENT Yiannakis Omirou has written to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon informing him of parliament’s “disappointment” with UN Special Adviser to Cyprus Alexander Downer. 

Omirou wrote to the UN chief informing him of a unanimous resolution passed by parliament on February 2, urging Ban to act in order to restore the impartiality and credibility of his special adviser. 

Downer has come under fire from political parties following comments made in New York last month when he said that Greek Cypriots would be taking over the EU Presidency.