Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 00-11-16

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

CONTENTS

[01] Stelios launches easyJet on the LSE

[02] Two remanded after pot plants found

[03] Committee to review 'close the foundry' advice

[04] Helios to operate from Humberside

[05] Ten illegal immigrants given jail terms

[06] Eyebrows lowered as the Smith tackles contemporary music

[07] Waiter admits burgling shops

[08] Synod to rule on Athanassios case tomorrow

[09] Protests mark 17th anniversary of the 'TRNC'

[10] DISY resubmits plan to change House voting system

[01] Stelios launches easyJet on the LSE

Hadji-Ioannou, one of the richest men in Britain, has long since been a source of pride to Cyprus, his homeland. But the relationship turned sour at the beginning of November, when he accused the CSE and the Central Bank of incompetence in mishandling the planned listing of his shipping company, Stelmar Maritime Holdings.

He withdrew his application and announced his decision to find a more professional and welcoming stock exchange elsewhere.

But yesterday all went smoothly on the LSE as easyJet's Initial Public Offering of 63 million new ordinary shares began trading at &pound;3.10, valuing the company at some &pound;777 million.

The share price rose to &pound;3.42 during the morning's session, hauling the company's value up to &pound;860 million.

Analysts expect the IPO to be seven to 10 times over-subscribed in the run- up to unconditional trading, which begins at 8am on November 22.

EasyJet will trade under the ticker symbol EZJ.L. "We are delighted by the high level of interest and support that institutional shareholders have shown in easyJet," Hadji-Ioannou said yesterday. "The IPO is a significant milestone for easyJet and will allow us to maximize our growth potential by helping fund our planned new Boeing 737-700 purchases."

"We look forward to our future as a listed company and to continuing to enhance shareholder value by executing our proven skills in the low fare airline market," he added.

Hadji-Ioannou's personal wealth is likely to receive a considerable boost from the LSE. He owns 50 per cent of the company, granting him a paper fortune of &pound;280 million.

The cost of the LSE offering is only 25 per cent, or about &pound;195 million of easyJet's total value.

Hadji-Ioannou is wary of repeating the lastminute.com experience, of mass selling after flotation. Therefore no shares will be offered publicly before trading begins.

Most of easyJet's 1,400 staff brought shares before the IPO flotation. The majority are committed to a one year lock-in period, intended to put a cap on immediate cash windfalls.

EasyJet has said it does not intend to pay any dividends immediately.

Investment banks Credit Suisse First Boston and UBS Warburg acted as Joint Bookrunners for the listing. Merrill Lynch International and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney were Co-Lead Managers of the placing.

[02] Two remanded after pot plants found

TWO Yugoslav men were yesterday remanded in custody for eight days by the Famagusta District Court, suspected of growing cannabis on the roof of their apartment block.

Police told the court they had information that four pots containing cannabis plants found in the Kapparis area in Paralimni had been dumped there by the suspects.

Police arrested Milos Kristic, 20, and 23-year-old Dejan Stoyanovic. Both men were staying and working on the island illegally.

Police said they found a small quantity of cannabis on the two men during their arrest.

The suspects allegedly admitted to police they were cultivating the plants on the roof, but claimed they were for personal use, the court heard.

Judge Yiasemis Yiasemi remanded the Yugoslavs in custody for eight days while the police investigation continues.

[03] Committee to review 'close the foundry' advice

The seven-doctor British team, in a report handed last Friday to Health Minister Frixos Savvides, urged "in the strongest possible terms" that the state close the Marios & Andreas foundry "with immediate effect", as it would be "dangerous to the public health of Ergates" to reopen it.

The foundry has been closed on orders of the Council of Minster for the duration of the British tests. Savvides, without commenting on the report, gave it to the Technical Committee. After reviewing it, the committee will forward it to the Council of Ministers -- which commissioned the study that produced the report -- in time for the Council's meeting on November 22, Papapetrou said.

The report said the British doctors found "compelling evidence of a serious health problem in Ergates, with raised blood-lead levels in almost 10 per cent of very young children".

This contrasted with no raised blood-lead levels in children in nearby Klirou, which has no foundry pollution, the report noted.

In Ergates, nearly seven per cent of children between one and 11 years old had blood-lead levels above the World Health Organisation's (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) danger point. Nearly 10 per cent of Ergates' children of one to five years of age had lead-poisoning above the WHO-CDC danger point, the report said - double the US percentage for children that age.

Lead breaches the placenta barrier, damaging brain, nerves and kidneys of infants in the womb, and human reproductive systems in general. It also lowers child IQ levels, making learning hard and delinquency likely. The British doctors also found the Ergates death rate to be six percentage points above the Cyprus national average, and noted Ergates' residents had three times the number of fatal heart attacks as in Klirou.

Deaths were 25 per cent higher in Ergates than in Klirou among people in their 70s, and 50 per cent higher among Ergates octogenarians than in Klirou, the report said.

The doctors also found "significantly higher" rates of low birth-weight in Ergates, compared with Klirou. This low birth-weight, they said, "is of serious concern to future child health in the village".

All in all, the report concluded, "there is overwhelming evidence that toxic pollutants and lead have adversely affected the health of Ergates".

The doctors said their "main recommendation, therefore, is that the Government of Cyprus should close the foundry with immediate effect".

The Marios & Andreas foundry tried to upgrade what the experts described as "very old" furnaces and other equipment. They noted there was evidence that a 'scrubber' - a device which cleans toxins from chimney emissions - was inoperable, adding that "a vital component had been replaced only recently". "With the scrubber inoperable, levels of fine (toxic) particulate matter in the emissions from the foundry would have been 20 times higher than is currently permissible in the European Union," the report noted. Cyprus is already having trouble meeting EU environmental guidelines in its attempt to become an EU member.

The Cabinet ordered the British study of Ergates after local epidemiologist Dr Michalis Voniatis showed the residents had five-times the blood-cadmium and nearly three times the blood-lead as Nicosia residents. He also found brain, kidney and pancreas cancer rates in Ergates nearly three times the Cyprus average, lung cancer 50 per cent higher than the Cyprus average; and leukaemia cases double than in the rest of the island.

Savvides pledged a year ago to close the Ergates foundry "if there is any remote connection with any serious disease emanating out of the foundry". He made the comment a day after schoolchildren in Omonia, outside Limassol, were hospitalised after being overcome by toxins in smoke from the nearby Nemitsas foundry.

The same British team that undertook the Ergates study has tendered to do a similar one - which Savvides agreed to - in Omonia about the Nemitsas foundry's toxic effects on nearby residents. But unexplainable Tender Board delays have prevented awarding the winning bid, and Omonia residents are angry and suspicious at the delays. The ultimate decision on whether or not to heed the recommendations and close one or both of the foundries rests with the Council of Ministers.

[04] Helios to operate from Humberside

HELIOS Airways, Cyprus' second charter airline, will begin operating flights from Humberside International Airport to Larnaca next summer.

The airline said yesterday said it would be the first air link between the two cities.

Humberside, in north Lincolnshire, is one of the fastest growing regional airports in the UK. The airport is close to the towns of Hull, Leeds, Doncaster, Scunthorpe, Grimsby and Sheffield.

In co-operation with the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) and Humberside International Airport, Helios recently organised a Cypriot evening to promote the new flight to 80 local travel agents.

Helios has set as its first target to bring 50,000 tourists to Cyprus this year and hopes to expand its routes and capacity next spring when it takes up delivery of two state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800s.

The airline will operate a Wednesday night service from Humberside, on behalf of Airtours, First Choice and JMC, Humberside's newest operator. Flights will commence in May 2001 and run until October. Andreas Christodoulides, Marketing and Sales Manager for Helios, stressed the importance of having flights to Cyprus from regional airports in the United Kingdom as a way of increasing tourist traffic to the island.

"Cyprus is an extremely popular holiday destination in the UK and it is excellent news for the people in the area that they can now fly direct from their local airport," he said.

Humberside's Airport Marketing Manager, Anja Hazebroek, said: "Humberside passengers have voiced their need for new destinations and we are pleased to celebrate this new route to Larnaca through this useful passenger and agent feedback."

[05] Ten illegal immigrants given jail terms

The immigrants, aged from 24 to 41, were arrested on Saturday shortly after they landed at Protaras, in the Paralimni area.

The Iraqis asked the court not to deport them to Iraq, saying they opposed Saddam Hussein and they faced execution if they returned.

"We'd rather stay here and serve life in prison than go back," one told the court.

Another said his father had been executed in Iraq and his family was persecuted and did not have enough food or medicine.

The Iraqis asked the republic to grant them political asylum.

The two Syrians told the court they had come to the island to work because they had big families to take care of.

Sentencing them, Judge Yiasemis Yiasemi said illegal immigrants create many problems, social and economic, and the penalties should serve to prevent similar situations.

Meanwhile, 12 alleged illegal immigrants who were arrested in Ayia Napa on Tuesday were remanded in custody for six days by the Famagusta District Court. A further 33 immigrants were detained on a boat at the fishing shelter in Ayia Napa.

Among them were six women, two of them pregnant, and 13 children aged between one and 16. The 45 were arrested after one was spotted wandering in the area by a soldier. He notified police who dispatched several search teams to the area. None of those arrested had any papers or money on them.

The immigrants, mainly Syrian Kurds and Iraqis, arrived on the island in small fishing boats, police said. The court was told the immigrants had paid to be taken to Italy or Crete.

Famagusta Police Chief Christakis Katsikidis, however, said their destination had been Cyprus from the beginning.

[06] Eyebrows lowered as the Smith tackles contemporary music

Contemporary music in Cyprus? Will anyone come? Come they did in Nicosia on Tuesday night, and the reception was surprisingly warm.

It is testament to the insight, musical accomplishment and empathy of this British quartet that they succeeded in communicating to their audience the complexity and the beauty of what is commonly termed 'difficult' music.

The programme began with Michael Nyman's (of The Piano fame) String Quartet No. 3, chosen as a soft introduction to the rest of the evening. No shock to the system, it's a beautiful piece of music, in which the strings build up layer upon layer of sound, steeped in Romanian folk music and haunted by images of the 1989 Romanian revolution.

Larry Austin's fiercely energetic Ottuplo! is an excellent contrast. Meaning eight-fold, the composition unfolds by way of a conversation between the quartet on stage and their 'virtual' counterpart, relayed over the giant amplifier and pre-recorded by the Smith. A mesmerising array of techniques transform the sound of strings into calls of nature, the patter of rain and tolling bells, while Django Bates' Pond Life was also a vivid and rhythmically exciting rendition of the bizarre.

The second half opens with Volans' Hunting and Gathering. The music, although perhaps less satisfying that its forebears, was marked by beautiful harmony and instantaneous mood changes. Conversations between the first violin and the cello were well-executed, and the opening melody from the viola was superb.

Graham Fitkin's Servant, which concluded the evening, epitomised the notion of harmony and interchanging melody. Motifs are passed around, developed and interchanged in both frenzy and peace, beginning and ending with a unitary voice. The Smith Quartet is playing at the Markideio Theatre in Paphos tomorrow night and at the Larnaca Municipal Theatre on Saturday night. All performances start at 8.30pm.

[07] Waiter admits burgling shops

A PONTIAN man was yesterday remanded in custody for eight days suspected of nine shop burglaries, and Famagusta police say they want to question a Russian man in connection with the same case.

Sasha Samarin, a holder of both Greek and Russian passports, was arrested in Ayia Napa where he worked as a waiter.

Police told the court they were investigating the suspect's possible connection with nine burglaries. Police say Samarin has admitted committing four of the burglaries, and has named a Russian man as his accomplice.

The suspect allegedly told police he had stolen a total of &pound;2,000.

[08] Synod to rule on Athanassios case tomorrow

The gay claims threaten to rip the local Orthodox Church apart, and Archbishop Chrysostomos called a Major Synod of two Patriarchs and 20 bishops from across the Orthodox world in an attempt to clear Athanassios and end the crisis.

Athanassios was yesterday called before the Major Synod, with church sources saying he was to be questioned on charges of "looking at men". The chairman of the Major Synod, Patriarch Petros of Alexandria, said the convocation was yesterday getting down to "the essence of the issue".

The spokesman for the Major Synod, Bishop Anthemos of Alexandria, made it clear Athanassios would not be condemned lightly: "We need at least two witnesses who must be eyewitnesses or victims and must be reliable."

Anthemos added that witnesses who had later withdrawn their testimonies were not regarded as reliable. Two of the four laymen who testified against Athanassios before an earlier local inquiry into the gay claims have since retracted their statements. Anthemos' statement appeared to be good news for Athanassios and his supporters, who flatly deny the gay charges and claim the Limassol Bishop is the victim of a conspiracy.

Police have charged two clergymen and three laymen who testified against the Bishop before a local Church inquiry with conspiring to defame Athanassios.

The beleaguered Bishop's many supporters claim Bishop Chrysostomos of Paphos is the driving force behind a plot to get rid of Athanassios.

His lawyer, Christos Clerides, maintains Athanassios is the victim of a conspiracy by detractors who feel threatened by his popularity.

The major Synod decided on Tuesday to expel Bishop Chrysostomos and his close associate, Bishop Georgios of Arsinoe, from its meetings.

The Major Synod has appointed a sub-committee to examine the evidence against Athanassios gathered by two local inquiries ordered by the Cyprus Holy Synod.

Anthemos said the Major Synod, which convened on Tuesday, would continue to meet twice a day until tomorrow, when a ruling on the Athanassios crisis is expected.

The Limassol Bishop, who has voluntarily excluded himself from the Major Synod's sessions, reportedly appeared before the probe sub-committee yesterday. This is only the second time a Major Synod has met on the island in the 2,000-year history of the Church of Cyprus, the last time being in 1973, when it convened to defrock a group of Bishops for conspiring against the late Archbishop Makarios. More than 18 bishops and two patriarchs from the church of Greece and the Orthodox apostolic seats of Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch in Damascus are attending the congregation, which is being held behind closed doors at the Archbishopric in Nicosia.

[09] Protests mark 17th anniversary of the 'TRNC'

With the sirens wailing, people stopped whatever they were doing at 10am to protest at the Turkish Cypriot action, while parties and organisations issued written statements of condemnation.

At around 11am hundreds of pupils and students converged on the Ledra Palace checkpoint bordering the buffer zone in Nicosia to denounce the breakaway state which is only recognised by Turkey.

The protesters waved Greek and Cypriot flags, chanted slogans against the illegal state, and called for the withdrawal of Turkish troops.

The protest called on the international community to exercise its influence on Turkey to help pave the way for a settlement of the Cyprus problem.

In a petition to the UN, the students expressed their frustration at the continuing occupation of part of Cyprus, which they described as a "flagrant challenge to humanity which claims to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms".

The student rally, which was supported by the education authorities, was more subdued than in past years when such rallies often erupted in violence. At the same time in the north part of Nicosia the climate was one of celebration as Turkish Cypriots marked 17 years since their declaration of 'independence' with declarations, parades and air shows.

Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash said the day belonged to the courageous Turkish Cypriot people, and thanked all the Turks who had fought in Cyprus. He promised to those who died on the island that the flag would never be lowered.

Denktash criticised those who want a federal solution for Cyprus, saying that a people without a country were sentenced to remain slaves for ever.

[10] DISY resubmits plan to change House voting system

The suggestion was first tabled before the other political parties last February, but was strongly opposed by smaller parties, who would be squeezed out if the plan were implemented.

The proposal, which was resubmitted to the House Interior Committee yesterday, suggests that the threshold required by parties to secure a seat in parliament rise from the current 1.79 per cent to 3.4 per cent of the vote.

Junior government partners, the United Democrats, as well as opposition AKEL and KISOS, opposed DISY's call to raise the threshold just six months ahead of the elections to take place in May 2001. At the last elections, the UD got 3.69 per cent of the vote, only just clear of the 3.4 per cent threshold sought by DISY.

The third largest party, DIKO, has still not decided on the matter.

Katerina Pantelidou was the only DISY deputy at the Committee meeting to agree with the opposition and the United Democrats, submitting a proposal to rule out a change to the voting system when election time is less than two years away.

"The proposal to rise the threshold now, six months ahead of the elections, is very suspicious. It seems some try to promote their own interests," she said. But Christos Pourgourides of DISY told the Committee that in some European countries such as France, Sweden, Finland and Belgium, the decision to raise the threshold was taken just three months ahead of elections.

"There are no limits and no laws concerning the time to change the voting system," he said.

The proposal also includes a suggestion for horizontal voting (allowing voters to cast preference votes across the party lines), the introduction of ten new deputies representing all of Cyprus, and a rise in the number of district deputies from 56 to 60.

A suggestion for horizontal voting was also tabled before the Committee by 14 deputies from across party lines.

But George Theodorou, representing the Election Services Centre of the Interior Ministry, told the Committee that the implementation of such a decision would be "destructive" for the elections.

"We do not have time to make the necessary practical adjustments, and I fear that the plan would end in disaster, something like this year's American elections," Theodorou said.

The Committee also discussed on ways to enable Cypriots living abroad to vote without having to fly to Cyprus.

Marios Matsakis of DIKO suggested they could vote at Cyprus' High Commissions.

Stathis Kittis, also of DIKO, submitted a proposal to ban exit polls, saying they were used by parties to influence undecided voters.

Kittis suggested that polls should not be run in the last two weeks before voting day.

The Committee will continue its discussion on election-associated issues next Wednesday. The current system gives parties the right to appoint deputies of their choice to the House seats, depending on the ratio of votes they achieve in the parliamentary elections.

Cyprus Mail 2000

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