Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 00-04-01

Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cyprus-mail.com/>

Saturday, April 1, 2000

CONTENTS

[01] Papandreou: leukaemia appeal encouraging ahead of talks

[02] New airline signs catering deal with Cyprus Airways

[03] Police have ‘strong evidence’ linking suspect to bank robbery

[04] Cyprus willing to host Middle East talks

[05] Market up for a second day

[06] Put stones in your toilet tank, or else…

[07] Bases rubbish desalination funding claims

[08]

[09] Footballer found dead

[10]

[11] Andreas: doctors look at other treatment options

[12] Clerides promotes regional links

[01] Papandreou: leukaemia appeal encouraging ahead of talks

Thousands of Greek and Turkish Cypriots have donated blood to test for compatibility for a possible bone marrow transplant for Andreas Vassiliou.

The response on both sides of the divide in Cyprus, along with improving relations between traditional rivals Greece and Turkey, could give a boost to the third round of talks between

Greek and Turkish Cypriots due to begin in New York on May 23, Papandreou said in Athens.

Greece recently lifted its objections to Turkey becoming an official candidate for the European Union, a move it had been blocking for years.

"The recent, encouraging reactions of the Greek and Turkish Cypriots in relation to the problem of young Andreas... shows there is a new framework and a new political climate, which gives encouraging elements for developments," Papandreou said after meeting with Britain's special envoy for Cyprus, Sir David Hannay.

The previous round of the UN-sponsored talks was held in February, but made little progress.

Hannay did not comment on preparations for the talks, saying the UN secretary-general had said no details were to be divulged. "We're approaching them with much common ground between us," he said.

He described his talks with Papandreou and other ministry officials as an invaluable part of the preparatory process for the next round, "which we hope will begin to make decisive progress".

The British envoy also welcomed the fact that Turkish Cypriots had come forward to give blood samples for Andreas Vassiliou.

Saturday, April 1, 2000

[02] New airline signs catering deal with Cyprus Airways

HELIOS Airways, the new Cypriot charter firm set for launch next month, has signed a catering contract with Cyprus Airways worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to the national carrier.

Andreas Christodoulides, Helios' Marketing Manager told the Cyprus Mail that the new airline had also established a co-operation deal with CY in the field of engineering services, which he said was beneficial to both companies.

"We are very happy co-operating with Cyprus Airways on these two aspects," Christodoulides said.

Helios will take delivery of its first aircraft, a 170-seat Boeing 737, at a special ceremony at Larnaca Airport on May 17. Its inaugural flight will be to London Gatwick on May 26.

Other routes on the 2000 summer plan include another seven UK destinations, Budapest, Warsaw, Belfast, Verona and Zurich.

"Things are moving fast," Christodoulides said. The airline has hired six foreign captains, six Cypriot co-pilots, including one woman, and 25 cabin crew.

Helios will also be using Air 2000 and Irish company TransAir as back-up support. The airline works in the UK with Cypriot-owned Olympic Holidays and locally with Aeolos.

Helios was set up in September 1998 by the owners of TEA (Cyprus) Ltd, a Cyprus offshore company.

The charter firm has made plans up to the summer of 2003, when it will consider starting scheduled flights to and from Cyprus. It will take delivery of a second and larger Boeing in March 2001 and a third in April 2001.

The company hopes to carry 50,000 passengers this year, rising to 190,000 by the end of 2001 and 215,000 by 2002. These figures represent two, seven and eight per cent respectively of the share of the leisure market to Cyprus.

"We are already signing contracts for summer 2001 and trying to expand and link Cyprus with new regional airports where there was never a direct service," Christodoulides said.

Saturday, April 1, 2000

[03] Police have ‘strong evidence’ linking suspect to bank robbery

A MAN held in connection with Wednesday’s Limassol bank robbery was yesterday remanded in custody for eight days.

Chrysanthos Ioannou, alias Athos, from Kolossi near Limassol, surrendered to police on Thursday afternoon.

He had been wanted in connection with Wednesday's armed raid on a Laiki Bank branch.

Three other suspects were remanded on Thursday in connection with the same case.

Iakovos Sakkos, 27, Vassilis Patouris, 22, both from Trachoni, and 30-year- old Sotiris Charalambous, alias Steve from Limassol, had been arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of conspiracy to commit felony, armed robbery, and illegal possession and transfer of firearms and explosives.

Police have still not found the £74,000 the robbers stole. They said yesterday the suspects were refusing to co-operate over the issue.

Limassol court heard yesterday that police had substantial evidence linking Athos to the robbery.

Inside a jacket found in a bag together with a sawn-off shotgun and pistol believed to have been used in the heist, police found a letter addressed to Athos from the police warrants office, asking him to settle an outstanding fine.

They also found a key belonging to a car rented by the suspect a while ago.

Police believe a notebook with telephones and addresses also found in the jacket belongs to Athos too.

The investigating officer told the court that police had testimony saying the suspects had been planning the robbery for some time.

The armed robbery took place at 9.30am on Wednesday at the Laiki branch on the corner of Ayia Zoni and Makarios Avenue.

Two robbers, dressed in black and wearing black motorcycle helmets, one of them armed with a shotgun, got away with the cash.

According to witnesses, they entered the bank through the back door and forced staff and customers on the floor at gunpoint.

They escaped on a red scooter, which was later found on a nearby street.

But they were seen abandoning the scooter and fleeing in a silver car. Witnesses noted the number plate, which led police to its owner, Sakkos.

The car was found in a Trachoni carwash, owned by Patouris.

Saturday, April 1, 2000

[04] Cyprus willing to host Middle East talks

Welcoming the Cypriot position, Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy, who has accepted an invitation to visit Cyprus, said he would be delighted if Cyprus were to host meetings between Israel and Lebanon.

An official statement issued on Thursday night by the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Levy had accepted an invitation to visit in the near future.

"The Cypriot Foreign Minister stated that Cyprus wished to assist where possible and whenever requested to do so in order to advance the peace process and stated that he hopes the negotiations with the Syrians would continue," the statement said.

Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides, visiting Israel with President Glafcos Clerides, said that Cyprus would be happy to host any meeting that would assist the peace process both in regards to the Syrians and the Palestinians.

Levy thanked Cassoulides for his good will and said he would be delighted if Cyprus would host a meeting between Israelis and Lebanese at any venue and on any level in order to enable Israel to made clear to them that they re ready to help them rebuild their independence and power.

Yesterday Clerides met with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Both leaders pledged to continue to support and help each other in their efforts to establish peace.

Speaking to reporters after their talks in Ramallah, Arafat said: "We are very happy to have this opportunity and this visit... and we cannot forget the continuous support we have from the people of Cyprus in the difficult years."

Stressing the friendly relations between the two peoples, Arafat also referred to the newly established air links between Gaza and Cyprus.

He added he had asked Clerides to help in the peace process and referred to the difficulties of both peoples in "getting our freedom and our independence".

Clerides briefed Arafat on the Cyprus issue and the current difficulties being faced.

"We have quite a few common factors in the difficulties we are facing," he said.

After his meeting with Arafat, Clerides visited the Greek Orthodox church of Ayios Georgios Metamorphosis in Ramallah, where some 7,000 Christian Orthodox Arabs live.

Saturday, April 1, 2000

[05] Market up for a second day

MORE investors emerged on the buy side of the Cyprus stock market yesterday, pushing the day's gains up by 1.7 per cent with some profit taking in mid- session paring a higher climb.

With the exception of insurance stocks, which retreated half a per cent, the six other sectors of the market posted gains with the strongest advance coming again from the tourism sector, which was up 3.4 per cent.

Banking stocks climbed 1.7 per cent, prodded by renewed buying in Bank of Cyprus, which jumped 16 cents to £7.73, Laiki ex-dividend which was up nine cents to £12.05 and Hellenic, which closed at £2.85, up 10 cents.

The all-share CSE benchmark spiked in its opening minutes to 481 points, then scaled back to a close of 475.69 in a session where shares moved in tight range.

Traded value was a respectable £27.2 million, the highest registered on the bourse this week.

"Buyers clearly outstripped sellers," said stockbroker Costas Hadjigavriel, adding that smaller investors were now less cautious at taking up positions because of the active involvement of institutional investors on the market this week.

There was still about £600 million out of the market in new companies awaiting approval to float their shares on the market and this will have to be reinvested. Brokers believe an upsurge of the market is a matter of time, but caution that it will not take on the proportions of last years' rally but will be more selective, reflecting more wisdom on the part of investors.

Although this year's correction has in part been blamed on new companies drawing liquidity out of the market and subsequently not investing it, one broker disagreed with the logic of placing blame for the downturn firmly on those companies' doorstep.

"The market corrected itself because it was overvalued. Besides, if I were an investor in those companies I certainly wouldn't want them to have put money on the market two months ago when the market was still correcting," one broker said.

K&G Complex continued to dominate turnover yesterday with an 838,031 slice of the volume. Touted as a possible takeover target earlier in the week, that speculation appeared to be fizzling out yesterday as the share slipped back down to 25 cents.

Speculation on the share had been moved by disclosures a large investor had made soundings to other companies on the prospect of selling his share.

Other bigmovers on the market yesterday were Toxotis, the firm that CLR Investments plans to issue a public offer to buy. The share rose 30 cents to £1.39, while it has risen more than 100 per cent in the past week.

CLR's offer is to buy 60 per cent of Toxotis at 48.9 cents per share,less than half the level bullish investors have pushed the current market price up to.

Saturday, April 1, 2000

[06] Put stones in your toilet tank, or else…

NICOSIA Mayor Lellos Demetriades wants "a huge fine" slapped on people who refuse to place stone-filled plastic bags in their toilet tanks to save water by reducing the volume used in a single flush.

"We'll find ways and means (to enforce the rule) through the local authorities," Demetriades told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.

"We have authority to enter premises sometimes, and we enter and we give them a ticket," he said. It would be the same for toilet-tank stone-bags.

"They're not my ideas - they're California's," he added, referring to droughts there in the 1970s, where people were encouraged to place bricks in toilet tanks to conserve water.

It doesn’t matter if it’s stones, or bricks or water-bags or bottles of water that go into the toilet tanks, he indicated, just so long as people do something to conserve flush water.

"There is no justification for not doing it," he said. "So we must be very, very harsh. If you don't have the plastic bag, you pay so much. Anybody who doesn't do that pays a huge fine."

His proposed £100 fine, he said, "is indicative of the seriousness" of the situation.

Demetriades said he also wanted local authorities to start making apartment blocks and hotels install tanks for collecting bathtub and sink water - also called "grey water" - for recycling into toilet tanks for flushing, thereby saving drinking water.

And he said he ultimately wanted authorities to set deadlines after which they would deny building permits to any building that did not incorporate such separate grey-water collection and recycling systems for toilet flushing.

"In order to get things moving," he said he had asked the Nicosia Water Board to set a meeting for around April 20, "to review the situation at that time, when the Council of Ministers takes a decision" on the island's water policy.

As far as the Council of Minister's mid-April meeting is concerned, Demetriades said he was confident "they will not put Nicosia in a worse position than last year. I think they have had enough of us and they are a little bit scared" at this point, he added.

Demetriades earlier this month led a delegation of the mayors of Nicosia's six suburbs into meetings with Nicos Anastassiades, Acting President of the House of Representatives, and Agriculture Minister Costas Themistocleous to voice their concerns about the water crisis.

There they broached their plan to strike out on their own and develop city water desalination capabilities, in the face of government failure to have its two planned desalination plants on line by mid-summer in Zakaki and Ayios Theodoros.

The mayors’ plan, he said, is to have their own municipal de-salting plant on-line by December, so that "during the summer period, the authorities who supply the water to Cyprus will feel less nervous about giving more water" to Nicosia if they know the mayors are going to be able to provide (reimbursing) desalinated water to the government water system for the rest of the year."

Mooring desalination ships offshore and increasing the use of boreholes are two other alternatives the mayors are considering.

"Twelve years ago," Demetriades said, "I started a campaign" to conserve Cyprus' water resources. "The government stopped me, saying they would do this all over Cyprus. They did nothing. So this time, we are taking things in our own hands," he said.

Saturday, April 1, 2000

[07] Bases rubbish desalination funding claims

Politis claimed yesterday that the issue had been discussed and that the SBA had initially decided to finance the unit, but they did not want under any circumstances to be exposed before the final decision by the government.

Asked by the Cyprus Mail yesterday to confirm the report, an SBA spokesman was adamant: "It is complete and utter rubbish… It is not true," he said.

The newspaper had claimed that the SBA had handled in a similar manner the project for a desalination unit at the Ladies Mile area, again not keeping any intention to finance the project under wraps pending a final decision on the project by the government.

The SBA was ready to cover the cost of equipping the unit with state-of-the- art systems and materials, said Politis.

Saturday, April 1, 2000

[08]

[09] Footballer found dead

Perica Andic was found at his flat at around 9pm on Thursday by fellow footballers and team officials, worried when he did not show up for practice on Thursday afternoon.

Police said he was found with a sheet wrapped around his neck and hanging from a chandelier.

Police called pathologist Sophoclis Sophocleous to the scene, where he carried out an autopsy, ruling out foul play.

According to team officials, Andic visited the chairman's office on Wednesday seeking permission to fly home and see his family.

Team coach Motsa Vukotic granted Andic permission, but when he failed to show up for training on Thursday they went looking for him to find him dead.

Andic, who lived alone, had been transferred to Ethnikos Achnas from a Greek team last year.

[10]

Saturday, April 1, 2000

[11] Andreas: doctors look at other treatment options

DOCTORS treating six-year-old leukaemia victim Andreas Vassiliou yesterday said they were looking at options other than a bone marrow transplant to save the boy.

Andreas flies out today to a clinic in Houston, Texas, for chemotherapy treatment ahead of any transplant.

Dr Loizos Loizou, head of Nicosia=s Makarios hospital paediatric unit, said yesterday that while the search for a compatible donor was continuing, time for Andreas was beginning to run out. Loizou said that on Thursday Andreas had undergone a blood transfusion made necessary by advanced blood abnormalities consistent with his condition, but was yesterday in a satisfactory condition and able to travel today.

"Because the chances of finding a completely compatible donor have started to deteriorate, we have to look towards alternative solutions. One of these is the use of bone marrow cells found in the umbilical cord and placenta.

"It is a method used in the last two or three years,@ Loizou said. AIn 1999 the first studies were published and showed that it has a good result with a lot of patients. It has better results than not completely compatible bone marrow transplants from donors who are older."

The doctor said this was only one of the options under discussion, but that it was an important development for current and future victims of leukaemia and similar illnesses.

Loizou also underlined the need for hopes to be kept up and said the effort to find a donor for Andreas had not been in vain. He said that while Andreas' condition could not be ignored and alternative treatment had to be considered, a match could still be found in the 50,000 samples yet to be processed in Cyprus.

"We have also already searched through 5.5 million donors on worldwide lists and another attempt in Cyprus last summer led to 18,000 people being tested. We cannot be certain one will be found so we have to think of all possibilities."

Loizou said that three suitable, but not completely compatible, donors had been found by Ankara University and 10 in the United States. Similar donors have, however, also been found in Cyprus, Loizou added.

A suitable donor has also yet to be found for a young Turkish Cypriot leukaemia patient. Twelve-year-old Kemal Saracoglu is currently undergoing treatment in the UK.

[12] Clerides promotes regional links

REGIONAL co-operation and the creation of stability in the East Mediterranean formed the core of President Clerides' visit to Israel and the Palestinian Autonomous Territory, he said last night.

"The largest part of our talks was taken up by a discussion on regional co- operation and the creation of conditions of stability, peace and prosperity, " Clerides told reporters on his arrival at Larnaca Airport at the end of his four-day visit. He also said more should be expected in this direction in the future.

Replying to questions on the role Cyprus could play in Israel's talks with its Arab neighbours, Clerides said he had reiterated that Cyprus "would be happy to host talks when and if they begin". He described the whole visit as very satisfactory and said that during his meetings with the Israeli President, and in meetings Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides had with his counterpart, common ground was established on a number of issues.

On his meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Clerides said the two mean had the opportunity to exchange thoughts views on the problems faced by both peoples and ways in which they could co-operate in the future.

Referring to the Cyprus problem, Clerides said the government remained firm in its effort to reach a solution establishing a bizonal, bicommunal federation. "If we do what the Turkish side does and say that we do not accept a bizonal, bicommunal federation then we have no basis for a settlement," Clerides said. This would also result in the loss of international interest in a settlement.

The third round of UN-led proximity talks opens in New York on May 23.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 2000

Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article