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Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 00-12-12
CONTENTS
[01] Teachers resume industrial action
[02] Cyprus to get four votes on EU
[03] Government hopes for Omonia tests by January 10
[04] Brokers' pleas: `Don't sell yet'
[05] CSE Board angry at new bill
[06] 70,000 face the Christmas chop
[07] Archimandrites in court on conspiracy charge
[01] Teachers resume industrial action
AROUND 4,500 secondary school teachers interrupted their classes yesterday
to join meetings held to decide their reactions to the Education Ministry's
"unacceptable" proposals. Peace had seemed likely last week after the
teachers suspended their measures pending the ministry's proposal. But
after rejecting the proposal, teachers yesterday abandoned their pupils,
who subsequently flooded the streets, and attended district union meetings
held to decide their reaction to what they claimed was an unacceptable
proposal. At the same time, Education Minister Ouranios Ioannides said
there could not be any negotiation while the teachers' measures were in
place. The teachers' union, OELMEK, decided to reimplement last week's
suspended measures, which include a 24-hour strike on Wednesday, refusal to
submit students' reports, and no contacts whatsoever with ministry
officials. OELMEK Chairman Andreas Stavrou said yesterday the teachers were
united in their determination to fight for their just demands. "It is a
reply to unacceptable and provocative behaviour of the Education Ministry,
which for months now has been treating teachers in an offensive manner,"
Stavrou said. He added that teachers would tomorrow morning march to the
Presidential Palace to protest. Education Minister Ouranios Ioannides
yesterday described the teachers' actions as unacceptable and exaggerated,
adding that the government would not negotiate with OELMEK for as long as
such measures were in place. Ioannides said the union had rejected his
ministry's proposal but did not table any sort of counter proposal.
Meanwhile parents' organisations expressed their disappointment at the
developments, which they said were not expected after the two sides'
initial agreement. Parents said they would meet both sides to try and sort
the situation out, stressing that they would not hesitate to assign
responsibilities for the crisis. The spat begun last week when elementary
school teachers went on strike demanding pay rises that would bring them in
line with secondary teachers.
But the secondary teachers reacted immediately, asking in turn for an
upgrade in their salary status.
[02] Cyprus to get four votes on EU
CYPRUS is to have six Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and four
votes on the EU's policy-making Council of Ministers when it becomes a
member of the European Union, according to a draft agreement reached at the
Nice summit early yesterday. A statement from Nice said the EU was now in a
position to welcome new member states to take part in the next European
Parliament elections, as soon as they are ready from 2002. The Council of
Ministers asked candidate countries to speed up their reforms in order to
join the Union as soon as possible. The 13 candidate countries are all at
different stages in the harmonisation process. Cyprus, Poland, Hungary, the
Czech Republic, Estonia and Slovenia started entry negotiations in March
1998 and are pressing hard to conclude talks soon. Latvia, Lithuania,
Slovakia, Malta, Romania and Bulgaria began talks last year and want to
catch up. Cyprus is to benefit from a specific package to benefit island
states, given "their structural handicaps, which impair their economic and
social development, within the limits of the budget resources available."
An additional programme is to pour 5.35 billion euros into Mediterranean
countries between now and 2006. The European Investment Bank has pumped an
extra one billion euros into the fund. The government yesterday welcomed
the conclusions of the Nice Summit. Government Spokesman Michalis
Papapetrou confined his comments to the Cyprus problem and the issue of
Turkish candidacy. He said Nicosia had yet to see the finer details of the
Nice agreement on voting. "The government is pleased with the reference to
the solution of the Cyprus issue, in the summit conclusions, which not only
keeps the matter alive in the list of priorities of EU interests but also
defines what the 15 [member states] see as a framework for a solution," he
said. He congratulated the EU for co-operating with every aspect of UN
resolutions on Cyprus, while urging Europe to treat the Turkish military's
hostility to the summit seriously. "The contrast between the different
trends within Turkey is becoming more evident. We continue to see that the
military believes it is in a position to lambaste the decisions of the
political leadership of the country," said Papapetrou. "I believe that the
involvement and the influence of the Turkish military in the political
affairs of the country is something for which the EU cannot display any
flexibility," he added. Cyprus, Luxemburg, Latvia, Slovenia and Estonia
will share the same number of votes in the re-weighted system. Malta is to
be given three votes. Germany, France, Italy and the UK will all have 29
votes each.
[03] Government hopes for Omonia tests by January 10
LOCAL residents said yesterday they were sceptical of a new government
deadline to start health tests in Omonia and Zakaki to determine whether
there is a link between ill health and fumes from the Nemitsas foundry. The
Health Ministry announced yesterday that the tests would start on January
10, 2000, but there was confusion about how long it would take for the
tender board to select a particular group of scientists. "We are optimistic
that on or approximately around January 10, we will be able to start the
tests," public health officer Dr Andreou Georgiou told the Cyprus Mail. "We
would love to share their optimism, but we can't stake our lives on it
given past experience," said local campaigner Bernadette Charalambous.
Charalambous said earlier promises that tests would take place during the
summer, or as soon as school re-opened for the autumn term, had come to
nothing. The local primary school, just 300 metres away from the foundry,
was forced to close for a day in October. "The smoke was belching up and
the children were coughing or vomiting, some of them. But they were sent
home to breathe the same fumes, and some went back to empty homes because
their parents were at work," said Charalambous. The British-based team of
experts who carried out similar tests on Ergates residents in September
applied to do the same in Omonia on September 15, for £2,000 less, despite
working with a local population three times the size. The London-based
group, headed by Andis Leonidou, forced the closure of the Ergates foundry,
after tests found lethal toxin poisoning that was over the World Health
Organisation (WHO) danger level. As of January 1, the Labour Ministry will
monitor emission pollutants from Nemitsas to ensure they do not exceed the
European Union maximum of 50 milligrams per cubic metre. The current Cyprus
limit is 300 milligrams. But despite the January 10 date for testing, it is
still unclear how long the tender board will take to select a company to
carry out the tests. Despite the Leonidou offer, the board has to open the
door to other proposals. Charalambous was told that the necessary second
quote would be secured within five days. But another Health Ministry source
said a five-day deadline was impossible, and nor would the procedure be
limited to just one other company. "Meanwhile we're still being bombarded
with smoke and fumes. For the last two years we've been totally fed up. We
are not prepared to have our health and the health of our children damaged
and our lives interrupted by the foundry's working hours," said
Charalambous. Former Minister of Commerce Takis Nemitsas owns the foundry.
[04] Brokers' pleas: `Don't sell yet'
THE MARKET was riding high again yesterday delighting investors but
prompting brokers to sound a note of caution as trading entered its second
week on the upside. Share prices rose almost across the board with winners
outrunning losers by 147 to 18, a complete reversal of recent trends and a
showing a heightened interest in blue chip stocks. The all-share index rose
4.88 per cent after opening at 258, some three points on Friday's close and
continued its steady upward spiral to close at 266.39 points. The FTSE/CySE
top 20 rose 5.36 per cent to 1.209 points. Total volume for the day clocked
in at a healthy £18.5 million. "Last week was the best of the year; this
week has started even better," the CSE web analyst said. "Fortunately the
upside is continuing this week and thus bringing us closer to the bull
market that we are all hungry for and craving for quite sometime now."
Broker Demos Stavrides agreed happy times seemed to be returning to the CSE
but was worried they may not last the week. `Happy days yes. with just a
question mark," he said. "How long is it going to last?" Stavrides said it
would have been much better if the index had stabilised around the 255
mark. "Today's jump makes me feel the happy days won't last long." He said
the downturn could even kick in today. "I expect the upturn will last for
the first half of the session but after that the share prices will come
under some heavy selling pressure," he said. All sectors recorded gains
yesterday although, investor interest focused heavily on tourism, insurance,
hotels and `other' companies which rose between 5.6 per cent and 7.76 per
cent. The banking sector came in fourth with gains of 6.23 per cent pulling
stocks in Bank of Cyprus (BoC) and Laiki further away from the bargain-
basement levels seen ten days ago. Both banks were the star performers
yesterday. BoC added 13 cents to close at £3.88 while Laiki jumped 33 cents
to end at £3.84. On the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), BoC again outperformed
the sliding general and banking indexes by gaining 1.94 per cent. The share
closed at 2365 drachmas (£3.95). Back on the CSE Louis Cruise Lines
continued to make its mark on the most active list, accounting for £1.3
million in volume yesterday after the two banks. Louis, one of the
FTSE/CySE companies, added eight cents to finish at 52 cents with a
whopping 2.6 million shares changing hands. GlobalSoft, one of the
mainstays of the CSE took a back seat yesterday for the first time in
months, shedding three cents to end at £5.40 with only around 70,000 shares
traded. "Everything about today's session was positive," the CSE analyst
said. "Not to be a party pooper, but there still are a lot of problems in
the CSE, so the authorities of the bourse should not just yet relax. It is
nice to see that investors are getting a break though," he added.
[05] CSE Board angry at new bill
A NEW bill to expand the role of the Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) is an insult to the Cyprus Stock Exchange board, the board said
yesterday. In a written announcement, the CSE board said the new law would
create an unregulated bureaucratic monster and negate its own role in the
stock market. The board said that, although it was in favour of reinforcing
the supervisory role of the SEC, the bill was contrary to fundamental
principles of management and supervision, and would adversely affect the
stock market. As it stands, the bill will not allow a revamped SEC to carry
out its supervisory role but instead appears in parts to initiate a
complete transfer of powers from the CSE or an overriding of its authority
in other areas, "resulting in the role of the CSE being either limited or
made useless," the announcement said. "The power of imposing fines on
members of the CSE board, who are appointed by the Council of Ministers
through article 26 is specific and its existence can not be disputed," the
announcement said. "This power is in effect an insult to members of the
board and to the state which appointed them, and to the best or our
knowledge, is not in line with any other European Union country's stock
exchange legislation." The CSE board said that the range of authority given
to the SEC under the new law would create an all-powerful body which would
not be subject to any supervisions "something unprecedented in a democratic
society". "The range of its authority means the SEC will be unable to carry
out its basic role, which is supervision and control," the board added. The
new SEC would also need so much staff that instead of creating a "dynamic
and flexible" organisation, the SEC would become bureaucratic and costly.
The CSE board also believes the new-style SEC would not be fit to oversee
the planned creation and supervision of mutual funds. The board says it
will submit a detailed analysis of its position to the House within the
next few days. The bill to expand the powers of the Securities and Exchange
Commission is currently before the House Finance Minister Takis Klerides
said last month that the SEC would be granted more power of direct
intervention when there are problems on the market. He said the new powers
to be granted to the SEC were in line with EU harmonisation but that the
House had made some small adjustments to "adapt to the realities of
Cyprus". Part of the plan was to expand the SEC's powers to deal with the
setting up of mutual funds, something the CSE has been hoping to get off
the ground for a long time. House Finance Committee chairman Marcos
Kyprianou said last month that it would be criminal to pass a bill on
mutual funds before passing bill the jurisdiction of the SEC. Mutual Funds
are considered an easy and inexpensive way for an individual to make money
from stocks and bonds, without buying them directly. An investor does not
have to have expert knowledge of the market nor does he have to pay high
commission fees, in order to make money with minimal risk.
[06] 70,000 face the Christmas chop
By a Staff Reporter THE CENTRAL Slaughter House at Kofinou said yesterday
staff would be working round the clock to kill over 70,000 animals to adorn
our Christmas dinner tables. "From next Friday to January 1, staff will be
working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with the exception of December
24, 25 and New Year's Day," product manager George Gabriel told the Cyprus
Mail. He said sales at butcheries were up six per cent on last year,
despite this year's consumer panic about the safety of beef. In order to
cater for the Christmas appetite, some 30,000 pigs, 30,000 sheep and over
11,000 cows are to face the chop in Kofinou alone. Gabriel also said huge
numbers of chickens and turkeys would be killed, but he was unable to give
any figures. Simerini yesterday estimated that some 80,000 turkeys would
be sold in the Christmas countdown.
[07] Archimandrites in court on conspiracy charge
By a Staff Reporter
TWO ARCHIMANDRITES were yesterday charged in the Nicosia district court
with conspiring to defame the Bishop of Limassol. Three other people were
also charged with the same offence. Limassol Archimandrites Andreas
Constantinides and Chrysostomos Argyrides were charged with conspiring to
defame Bishop Athanassios of Limassol, an offence allegedly committed
between June 1 and September 30 of this year. Both men pleaded not guilty.
Constantinides spearheaded the attack to out Athanassios as a homosexual,
which dragged the Church of Cyprus through the gutter for many months. A
Major Synod acquitted Athanassios of the gay charges last month, while
Constantinides was suspended indefinitely for allegedly bribing witnesses
to testify against the Bishop. Two of the witnesses, Costas Savva and
Manolis Elia, yesterday pleaded guilty to the charges brought against them
by the court, while a third, Lefteris Psyllos, pleaded not guilty. After
his arraignment, Constantinides repeated his stance: "The Athanassios case
is not finished yet. Whatever I did was right, and the truth will shine in
the end." His trial is set to start on February 23, 2001.
Cyprus Mail 2000
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