Russia rebuffed Cypriot entreaties for aid yesterday, leaving the country’s increasingly isolated leaders scrambling to strike a bailout deal with the EU by next week or face the collapse of its financial system.
In Nicosia, the country’s biggest bank urged politicians to make haste and cut a deal with their EU partners, while parliament considered proposals to nationalize pension funds, pool state assets and split the country’s second-largest bank in a desperate effort to satisfy exasperated European allies.
The governor of the Cypriot Central Bank, Panicos Demetriades, warned political leaders the country would face a disorderly bankruptcy on Tuesday unless they approved the bills, an official present at the talks said.
Photo: Reuters
“The next few hours will determine the future of the country,” government spokesman Christos Stylianides said before the parliamentary debate. “We must all assume our share of the responsibility.”
Even if the measures are approved, there was no confirmation they would raise the 5.8 billion euros (US$7.5 billion) demanded by the EU in return for a 10 billion euro bailout to avoid a default.
The biggest local bank, the Bank of Cyprus, urged the government to go back and make a deal with the EU, under which larger deposits of more than 100,000 euros would be taxed. It was preferable, it said, to a collapse of the system and a return to the Cypriot pound, which would wipe out assets.
“There must be no further delay,” the bank said.
Cypriot insistence on taxing even small savers — in hopes of limiting damage to an offshore banking sector heavily dependent on larger Russian depositors — saw a bailout deal that had been agreed with the EU a week ago rejected by parliament on Tuesday.
Several hundred people rallied peacefully outside parliament yesterday, holding banners saying: “No to the victimization of banks.”
Elsewhere, depositors, who have been besieging bank cash machines all week, queued again to withdraw what they could.
The clock was running down to a Monday deadline set by the European Central Bank for a deal to be struck before it cuts funds to Cyprus’ stricken banks, potentially pushing it out of Europe’s single currency.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique