Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 01-04-18

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

Wednesday, April 18, 2001

CONTENTS

[01] Girl, 5, killed in crash

[02] Fewer firecracker injuries

[03] Student dies in Easter tragedy

[04] Car damaged by bomb in Limassol

[05] Three times more accidents in 'successful' campaign

[06] Police put hash haul on display

[07] German tourist hurt in hit-and-run

[08] MPs want grace period for investors

[09] Tourist drowns off Protaras

[10] Clerides begins Egypt visit

[11] Cem to leave after three-day visit

[12] Resistance to 'HIV cocktails' on the rise

[13] Nude nymphettes included in Akamas tourism plan

[14] Captain fined after Larnaca oil spill

[15] Probe into deaths on Cyprus-flag ship

[16] Eat, drink and be... sorry

[17] Probe into Internet fraud case

[01] Girl, 5, killed in crash

Styliani Tsiarta from Akaki village was sitting in the passenger seat of the car. Neither she nor her 27-year-old mother Maria had been wearing a seatbelt.

The accident happened just after 3pm outside Paliometocho when their car collided with that of Maria Savva, 40, from the same village. The two women were injured in the crash but Styliani was pronounced dead on arrival at Nicosia General Hospital.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[02] Fewer firecracker injuries

Last year there were 11 serious injuries caused by fireworks, while four years ago a 27-year-old was killed when a firecracker exploded in his hand.

Police campaigned on two fronts this year. They stepped up patrols in areas where it was suspected that fireworks were being stored, and they also visited schools and community groups to raise awareness of the dangers of using firecrackers.

This year's serious injury happened last Thursday night when a teenager lost his thumb and part of the index finger when a firecracker exploded in his left hand during services at the Church of the Cross in Strovolos.

He was rushed to Nicosia's Archbishop Makarios III hospital for emergency surgery.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[03] Student dies in Easter tragedy

Koulla Antonis Hadjiafxenti, a student at the University of Athens, had come home to the Larnaca District village of Troulli to spend Easter with her family. On Holy Thursday she complained about a headache, and while getting ready to go to Larnaca to organise her return flight to Greece, suddenly felt dizzy and fainted.

Her older sister, Maria, administered first aid for 20 minutes after calling an ambulance, which took Koulla to Larnaca Hospital. After a brain aneurysm was diagnosed, she was transferred to the Neurological Department at Nicosia General Hospital where she remained unconscious for two days.

After local doctors did everything possible without success, her family called on a neurosurgeon from Israel to help. But high winds conditions at Larnaca Airport on Easter Saturday delayed the small aircraft on which he was travelling, and the doctor arrived too late.

Koulla had no history of medical problems in the past, and her death came as a great shock to the entire community of Troulli. The village cancelled Easter celebrations and her funeral was held on Easter Monday at the local church.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[04] Car damaged by bomb in Limassol

The Mercedes, which was being used by Kyriakos Theocharous, a director of Hawaii Constructions Ltd, was in the parking area of the apartments where he lives. Police suspect a home-made bomb had been placed near the car's windshield. It caused minor damage to the Mercedes and to another car parked next to it.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[05] Three times more accidents in 'successful' campaign

Police based their satisfaction on the fact that there were no road deaths between Good Friday and Easter Monday. One person was killed on the roads over the same period in 2000.

"The traffic police road safety campaign was crowned with complete success as we had no fatal accidents," a police statement said.

But statistics put out by police yesterday suggested road casualties were avoided more by good fortune than by increased traffic police patrols.

There were 91 accidents between April 13 and 16 this year, compared to just 32 for the Easter weekend period of April 28 to May 1, 2000. The number of accidents involving serious injury was also higher: eight this year compared to five in 2000. The number of accidents involving minor injuries was also up: 15 this year compared to eight last.

The leap in accident numbers this year was mostly due to minor accidents involving no injuries. There were 68 such accidents this Easter compared to 18 last year.

Cyprus has one of the highest road death rates per capita in Europe, with more than 100 people killed on the roads in an average year.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[06] Police put hash haul on display

Mohsen Jorabi was remanded in custody for eight days last Thursday.

He was arrested at Larnaca airport last Wednesday, shortly after arriving on the 9.15am flight from Teheran.

Drug squad Chief Dimitrakis Iasonos said yesterday: "This was the first time we had found such a large number of foreign objects (inside a trafficker)."

Iasonos did not reveal any details on how the arrest was achieved, saying only that the suspect looked suspicious to officers.

Jorabi was intercepted at the airport where police found nine capsules in his pockets, which later proved to be a laxative.

During questioning the suspect gave his written permission for further examination and was transferred to Larnaca hospital where x-rays showed a large number of foreign objects inside his gut.

Police said it took Jorabi two days to pass all 173 balls containing a total of 1,100 grams of hashish. The suspect's passport showed he had also visited the island twice in January.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[07] German tourist hurt in hit-and-run

Emi Gatzamauer was found by a passer-by who called an ambulance to rush her to Larnaca hospital. She was later released after being treated for minor head injuries.

"Emi Gatzamauer was hit by as she tried to cross the Larnaca to Dhekelia road outside the Lordos Beach hotel at around 10.50pm on Monday. The driver of the car failed to stop," police reported yesterday.

Emi, who is staying at Larnaca's Palm Beach hotel, arrived with her husband on Thursday for a fortnight's holiday. She is due to be re-examined in hospital tomorrow.

Police want any witnesses to the hit-and-run accident to come forward.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[08] MPs want grace period for investors

At a meeting with Finance Minister Takis Klerides yesterday, Committee chairman Marcos Kyprianou asked him to work out a deal with banks under which investors would have at least two years from now to repay loans they had taken out so they could invest in the Stock Market.

Kyprianou urged Klerides to examine the possibility carefully in order to find a solution in line with the Constitution.

The proposal will be discussed at the House Plenum tomorrow, the last session before it dissolves ahead of the May 27 elections.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[09] Tourist drowns off Protaras

Police said Jacob Bossi's body was spotted floating in the sea at around 5pm by Paralimni lifeguards.

After bringing his body ashore the lifeguards called an ambulance and Bossi's death was confirmed on arrival at Larnaca hospital.

A post mortem will be carried out today.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[10] Clerides begins Egypt visit

Clerides, who sailed from Cyprus on his yacht on Sunday, will also meet Prime Minister Atef Ebeid and Foreign Minister Amr Moussa.

He was met at Port Said by Governor Mostafa Kamel and the Cyprus ambassador to Egypt, Demetris Droushiotis.

The visit is the first by a Cyprus president for nearly two decades.

Today he will see Patriarch Petros of Alexandria at Saint George Monastery in Cairo and begin his talks with Egyptian officials tomorrow.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[11] Cem to leave after three-day visit

Turkish press reports said yesterday that issues relating to Cyprus' membership of the EU and what Ankara could do to prevent it would also be discussed, along with Turkey's reported request to the UN to come up with a new formula for the Cyprus talks.

Cem told reporters he brought with him Turkey's "determination and guarantees" for the well being of the 'TRNC', and that any current difficulties would be "overcome together".

He met Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash on Sunday. Afterwards, Cem said Turkey was the biggest assurance the 'TRNC' had. "We might be facing economic and political troubles, but we will overcome these difficulties by working together," he said.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[12] Resistance to 'HIV cocktails' on the rise

"This is something also very common abroad: all doctors who have experience with HIV patients have the problem of HIV resistance," Dr Yiannis Demetriades, director of the Grigoriou AIDS clinic in Larnaca, told the Cyprus Mail.

About 15 per cent of the 125 HIV patients treated at the clinic have had to be switched to alternate drugs for treatment because of the growing problem of resistance, he said.

While this problem owes in part to patients who fail to comply with strict drug regimens, it also results naturally after taking the drugs for an extended period of time.

"Compliance is the only way to keep the virus at an undetectable level and so the immune system becomes stronger and stronger," Demetriades said. "That's why we have a decline of the mortality index, hospitalisation and of the frequency as far as visits to the hospital are concerned."

"You may transmit the virus and also transmit the resistance," he added, explaining that when somebody has become resistant to HIV-fighting drugs and infects another person, the newly infected party will also be resistant to drug treatment, even if he or she has received no prior treatment at all.

In such cases the patients' medical treatment must be fully replaced by other drug combinations.

Demetriades said that while the number of full-blown AIDS cases on the island is in decline, the total number of people infected with the HIV virus has gone up, largely due to the increased survival rate of those who take the new HIV-fighting drugs.

As of last December, 354 people in Cyprus had been diagnosed as HIV positive since 1986. The Health Ministry estimates the number of carriers as between 300 and 500. Of those diagnosed, 118 have developed full-blown AIDS and 51 have died.

One worrying trend is the increase in intravenous drug use in Cyprus. There are two known cases of HIV related to needle sharing among drug users, both of whom contracted the virus while abroad, but Dr Demetriades fears this may rise with the general increase in drug use on the island.

In Europe, 5-10 per cent of those infected with HIV were intravenous drug users who had shared needles.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[13] Nude nymphettes included in Akamas tourism plan

There will also be a 'Temple to Aphrodite' in a natural cave and, next to it, an amphitheatre with a stage floating on a man-made lagoon. The amphitheatre and temple will be venues for classical Greek plays and recreated ancient Greek festivals. Taking part, according to the brochure, will be "pure virgin, airy, girls, in the nude, to frame the temple in a splendid tableau".

This is what businessman Photos Photiades plans for his plot of land in the heart of the Akamas wilderness, a project that goes under the title 'A Work of Poetry'.

Arguably the greatest threat to the preservation of the pristine peninsula - - with its turtle-nesting beaches, dramatic scenery and unique flora -- lies in government plans to permit businessman Photiades to develop part of the area.

If the brochure Photiades has put out promoting his tourism complex plans is anything to go by, then the worst nightmares of those who have fought to see Akamas preserved will come true.

The government, under pressure from environmentalists, has repeatedly vowed to preserve the remote peninsula as a national park. But the latest cabinet plan for Akamas provides for Photiades' plot of land at Fontana Amorosa, near the tip of the peninsula, being swapped for a smaller plot just beyond the Baths of Aphrodite on the peninsula's north coast. The businessman, alone among Akamas landowners, would then be granted free reign to develop this new plot.

The cabinet plan, with its talk of limiting the national park to already protected parts of Akamas and allowing "mild and controlled" development elsewhere, has been slammed by greens and deputies. The plan's special arrangements for Photiades are a particular sore point for greens and are widely seen as a sell-out to big private interests. The government insists the cabinet plan, which was supposed to have been turned into a final blueprint for Akamas over a year ago, holds the key to marrying preservation and development.

The development proposal, seen by the Cyprus Mail, details Photiades' visions for his Fontana Amorosa land, and provides an insight into what the businessman might want to put up at the site on offer just north of the Baths of Aphrodite.

Photiades is evidently aware of the sensibilities of those, the EU and the House of Representatives among them, who think Akamas should be one coastal site where environment wins out over concrete. His brochure, put out by a company called Fontana Amorosa Coast Ltd, makes extensive mention of the need to respect the environment.

"The greatest part of the 1,500,000 square metre site will remain green. In carefully selected spots, where the physical environment will not be disturbed in any way, works will be carried out with ecological care and within the framework of sustainable development, the target being perfection in all respects," the prospectus says.

"Akamas is a uniquely beautiful place. Here, it is as if Gods and mortals, man and nature, sky and sea and creation around are engaged in an erotic, clasping embrace. The vision, the conception and the realisation of this undertaking will keep alive and unaffected all these unique features," it adds.

"Cyprus is too little and too precious to be wasted in cheap mass tourism," it pronounces on its front page. "Quality tourists throughout the world are today looking for a alternative choice," the project's designers say, adding that we need to "get away from the sun and sea mentality".

Much is made of legends that Akamas was a playground for the Greek goddess Aphrodite. "Such conditions and atmosphere will be created that the visitor may sense waves of musical harmony arising from his very own senses. In moments of pure ecstasy, he will dreamingly visualise in front of him the refreshing, heavenly, sweet-smiling and sparkle-eyed Goddess of beauty and love in the nude," the pamphlet gushes.

But the catalogue of what would go up at Fontana Amorosa if Photiades had his way is more enlightening than the prose. It includes more than twenty separate developments crammed into 1.5 square kilometres.

Copies of the brochure were circulated at the meeting on the Joint EU- Cyprus parliamentary committee in Limassol late last month. It was reportedly a source of both mirth and concern for participants.

One Euro MP read extracts from the Photiades pamphlet aloud, adopting a distinctly sarcastic tone. The Euro MP then warned that a failure to protect Akamas properly could yet lead to the island's exclusion from the EU: "Everyone remembers Norway. The issue that changed everything was the killing of whales. It caused negotiations to collapse. The Akamas could become such an issue (for Cyprus)."

Other Euro MPs and local participants agreed. "Environmental issues, particularly the Akamas, could assume great prominence during the accession period," another visiting MP said.

The EU-Cyprus parliamentarians approved a resolution calling on the government to adopt World Bank recommendations that the Akamas be preserved as a wilderness, with tourism development limited to within existing village boundaries.

'A WORK OF POETRY'

A two-storey luxurious hotel built on the hillside overlooking the sea, comprising three separate buildings separated by ravines "planted with centuries-old olive trees" and connected by wooden bridges;

An elegant, fully-equipped, modern marina;

An 18-hole golf-course;

"Picturesque" open air or covered conference facilities in "quiet valleys";

A luxurious 200-room hotel to meet the needs of marina users;

A luxurious hotel of 100 rooms with "special" facilities;

A Cypriot village-style centre with administration, shops, museums, folk art workshops and exhibitions;

A sports centre;

An exotic lagoon in an existing deep valley to be connected with the sea;

An amphitheatre on the side of the lagoon;

A Temple of Aphrodite in a natural cave;

A health, healing and "life enhancing" centre combining latest technology with Byzantine Baths;

A horse riding school, providing horse safaris and chariot races;

Contemporary entertainment centres and a "refined" entertainment centre based on the "ancient Greek spirit";

Executive houses, villas, country houses and chalets for sale or lease;

Nature study pathways;

A special open-air space for ecologists and environmentalists;

A pollution monitoring centre;

A chain of cabanas for day use by Cypriots, "specially priced";

An access road from Aphrodite's Baths;

Another, hilltop, road to the complex to offer "the best views" or, if no roads allowed in the Akamas national park, chariots or electric trains to ferry visitors;

"Impressive" statues of Aphrodite, emerging from the sea and lit up at night, to be placed at the marina's entrance.

The brochure also promises that only "traditional" building materials will be used and that most rooftops will be planted with bushes to conceal the development. Photiades also promises that solar, wind and hydroelectric power will be "widely used" at the complex and that almost all food consumed by visitors will be organically produced on site.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[14] Captain fined after Larnaca oil spill

Agriculture Minister Costas Themistocleous said the spill, which he described as "small", had come from a cargo ship whose fuel tanks had leaked in Larnaca harbour on Saturday. Fisheries Department official Loizos Loizides said the captain of the ship, the Maltese-flagged Strofades II, had been fined £5,000 for polluting the seas and would also be billed for the entire cost of the clean-up operation. Loizides said the captain had admitted responsibility.

Loizides also said the oil spill, which he said totalled some 1,000 litres, had not been large enough to cause serious ecological damage. He charged that the fish seen lying in the slick had been planted keen to make the incident look more impressive on TV.

Themistocleous said most of the escaping oil had been contained on Saturday: "The spill in the harbour on Saturday was cleaned up totally, but some appears to have escaped to wash up in the Oroklini and Pyla area."

Fisheries Department officials and Larnaca District Office workmen joined forces yesterday to shovel congealed oil from the beach into black plastic bags. Long white plastic floats were strung out in the water in front of nearby rocks as a precautionary measure to prevent oil encroaching from the sea, even though officials said they were pretty sure the use of detergents had dispersed any sea-borne oil.

Larnaca District Officer Kyprianos Matheou, who went to the scene to see the clean-up operation, said the job would be finished by the end of the day.

Spyros Elenodorou, the chairman of the union of Larnaca communities, said such incidents of pollution were a constant problem in the area. "As soon as the tourist season begins, we get oil slicks and trash washing up on the beach, coming from passing ships," he complained.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[15] Probe into deaths on Cyprus-flag ship

Captain Andreas Constantinou, a senior surveyor with the Merchant Shipping Department, yesterday confirmed reports of casualties aboard the Safmarine Galana on Sunday night.

Three people, two Greeks and a Russian, died when fire broke out on board the ship. Reports from Johannesburg said the victims died from smoke inhalation. The South African press association quoted Captain Vishnu Naidoo as saying the fire broke out in one of the ship's cabins and spread quickly.

Constantinou said the fire was most probably caused by an electrical short circuit. Two of those who died were crew members and the third a representative of the company which had planned to purchase the ship from Safmarine.

Constantinou said Safmarine had already applied to the Shipping Department to have the vessel deleted from the Cyprus register and plans were also afoot to change the flag state.

"Whether or not it was flying the Cyprus flag at the time we don't know," he said. "But in any case we are sending someone to investigate."

The vessel was built in Argentina in 1983 and put up for sale in February this year after its owners Safmarine and Rennies Holdings went into liquidation in South Africa.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[16] Eat, drink and be... sorry

Following the Cypriot tradition of overeating during Easter celebrations on Sunday and Monday after Holy Week, many people were rushed to hospital suffering from the effects of over-indulgence.

"People suffered 'flaouniasis' from eating flaounas," joked one Nicosia Hospital employee yesterday.

Eating too much flaouna, the traditional Easter pastry, as well as too much souvla caused gastric problems for many unable to resist the temptations after a period of fasting.

"The number of cases treated on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday was up by 10 per cent compared to a normal day. We have treated 1,200 patients so far. The increase was about the same as last year," Doctor Costas Antoniades, head of Nicosia Hospital's Emergencies Department, told the Cyprus Mail.

He said that stomach pains, vomiting and diarrhoea were the main symptoms.

"We knew what was coming so we were well prepared," he said. "We dealt with the situation quite well and all patients have been cured."

Residents of Larnaca were more restrained.

Fotini Chari, a nurse at the town's hospital, said fewer cases of overeating were treated this year.

"The reason is that the Health ministry had warned people in advance about the dangers of overeating," she said.

But in Limassol between 270 and 300 patients were treated per day from Sunday to Tuesday when normally it treats only 230 a day, said Doctor Petros Koureas in the hospital's emergencies unit.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[17] Probe into Internet fraud case

A NICOSIA man has complained to police that his credit card number was stolen and used on 14 different occasions over the Christmas period to buy goods worth £1,703 on the Internet both in Cyprus and abroad. Police are investigating.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

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