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Saturday, February 23, 2013
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Final messages before big day Debate becomes heated on the topic of the Mari naval base blast By Poly Pantelides
T
HE REMAINING two presidential rivals last night locked horns for the last time before tomorrow’s elections, with the economy and the Mari tragedy taking centre stage during the often heated live television debate. In response to what he perceived as the ‘doom and gloom’ campaigning of DISY leader Nicos Anastasiades against the current government, AKELbacked candidate Stavros Malas played down the situation. “Our country is not clad in black. It is not a scorched earth. Cypriots have known worse, and with a progressive policy I am sure our country can push forward,” Malas said in his opening statement. In his opening statement, Anastasiades called for unity. “Everyone needs to come together so we can face the big, pressing issues at hand,” he said. Unlike the previous two debates where the candidates were sitting in a row, last night they were placed opposite each other giving them more of an opportunity to literally point the finger when the discussion became animated. This time they were also not constrained by time. Anastasiades complained that although Malas’ campaign team accused him of being a ‘yes-man’ for being willing to sign a bailout and slammed him for having ‘connections in Europe’ he said he had never stooped to their level to respond.
Raising his voice to almost shout, Anastasiades said the fact was that it was the same government supporting Malas that had created unemployment and forced people to rely on charity to get by. Trying to get the upper hand Malas dug a hole for himself however. “You say I will bring about another Mari. You are telling me that I will become a murderer through an accident if I am President,” he said referring to the DISY campaign to equate Malas with the current government’s failures. Thirteen people died in the naval base blast and the island’s main power station was crippled. A non-binding report on the political responsibility said President Demetris Christofias was ultimately responsible for the blast, while six state officials are being tried for causing death by want of precaution, and homicide by gross negligence in relation to the 13 deaths. Although Malas later said that the word “murder” was probably too strong, he had opened Pandora’s Box, giving Anastasiades an excuse to keep returning to the matter of Mari during the discussion. When Malas later criticised Anastasiades’ support of a NATO membership saying that it would be akin to “taking our children to war to kill them,” Anastasiades was quick to respond: “There is no need. You kill them in Mari”. “Don’t lose your cool,” Malas said although he
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AKEL-backed Stavros Malas (left) shakes hands with his rival, frontrunner Nicos Anastasiades before last night’s final election debate (Christos Theodorides)
Goodbye Mr Chips as British surnames die out IT’S Goodbye Mr Chips as the British surname is one of tens of thousands that have disappeared over the last 100 years, according to new research. Other surnames such as Clegg, William, Cohen, Kershaw, Sutcliffe, Butterworth and Greenwood are in danger of dying out, the study found. Family history website Ancestry.co.uk compared surnames from the 1901 censuses with those from modern records and found that
many had disappeared, including Chips, Hatman, Rummage, Nithercott, Raynott, Temples, Southwark and Woodbead. William was the 374th most common surname in 1901, but has fallen to 12,500th today, said Ancestry. Many which have vanished were anglicised by their owners, including immigrants who changed name to avoid spelling complications, and WWI also played a part, with towns or villages losing a generation of young men.