Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 01-06-12

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

Tuesday, June 12, 2001

CONTENTS

[01] Cyprus issues alert over 'terrorist' on boat

[02] CY engineers call off action

[03] Relatives of 1974 victim postpone funeral

[04] Giant kebab beats the world record

[05] CY moots air rage measures after drunken Russians force plane to land in Salonica

[06] Lab tests confirm hygiene problem in Paphos hotel

[07] Heat wave on its way

[08] Parties share out committee chairs

[09] KISOS to elect new leadership next month

[10] De Soto in Cyprus in July?

[11] Vassiliou confident of Irish change of heart

[12] Murder suspect confessed to killing artiste, court told

[01] Cyprus issues alert over 'terrorist' on boat

POLICE have stepped up air and sea patrols in an attempt to intercept a boat thought to be carrying a terrorist hiding among a group of 50 illegal immigrants headed for Crete.

Marine Police Commander Theodoros Stylianou said the information about the suspected terrorist came from reliable sources in Lebanon, which he said could not be disputed.

The reports said the 14-metre vessel had sailed from the Lebanese port of Tripoli on Saturday with 50 illegal immigrants of Arab origin on board. With them were the 'terrorist', carrying $4 million in cash, as well as a number of suspected accomplices.

Stylianou said the vessel was headed for Crete, but could end up in mainland Greece.

He said that police boats and aircraft had been patrolling the area between Larnaca and Ayia Napa but nothing suspicious had been spotted.

Police have checked a number of vessels within 50 nautical miles of Cyprus but have not found the particular one, Stylianou said.

Authorities in Greece and other countries have been notified to be on alert for the vessel, he said.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[02] CY engineers call off action

A WORK-TO-RULE protest by Cyprus Airways (CY) engineers that delayed many flights on Saturday has been called off, the national carrier said yesterday.

CY spokesman Tassos Angeli said the engineers, represented by the ASYSEKA union, had agreed to discuss their pay demands with management.

Hundreds of passengers were stranded at Larnaca airport because of the engineers' protest on Saturday, but things returned to normal as from Sunday, Angeli said.

ASYSEKA say their demands for higher pay have remained unaddressed for a decade.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[03] Relatives of 1974 victim postpone funeral

RELATIVES of a Paphos man killed during the 1974 invasion have postponed his funeral, which had been due to take place on Sunday, after officials told them more of his remains could be identified.

Antonis Lambrou was killed in action during in July 1974, but his remains were only identified last week after DNA tests were done on bones exhumed from mass graves last year.

Lambrou's funeral had been scheduled for Sunday, but relatives decided to wait after being told by officials on Friday there was a strong possibility that more of his remains might be identified from among the bones exhumed.

Some of Lambrou's relatives travelled from Australia to attend the funeral but agreed to the postponement after officials assured them the identification of more of his remains would not take long.

Humanitarian Affairs Officer Dr Takis Christopoulos said yesterday relatives had been informed of Lambrou's identification by officials who did not take in to account that only a few of his remains were found. When they realised this was the case, they informed the family that the funeral should be postponed.

The DNA testing of exhumed remains began in 1999 when technological advances made identification feasible.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[04] Giant kebab beats the world record

AT LEAST 6,500 people feasted on an oozing one and a half tonne mass of roasting chicken meat prepared on Limassol's waterfront on Sunday, in an attempt to break the existing record for largest doner kebab and raise money for charity.

"It went wonderfully," said fast food restaurateur Sami Eid, who had organised the event in conjunction the Limassol Rotary Club, of which he is a member.

"We didn't sleep last night actually and we are still in action", said Eid, who yesterday afternoon was still cleaning up from the day before.

Eid's crowning triumph came in breaking the world record, set in 1998 with a 1,030-kg kebab in Zurich.

"Even the mayor of Limassol, who was weighing the thing, at the beginning, he was not sure that we would be successful," Eid said. "After that he was laughing, he came to me and told me Bravo! Even the president of the (Rotary) club, he was not expecting that we were going to do it. He said to me 'we didn't think you were going to do it'."

The events of the day went largely according to plan. Just after 8am, Limassol mayor Demetris Kontides showed up to weigh the raw ingredients of the kebab, which, at 1,503.66 kilos, came in just ahead of the predicted 1, 500.

After the 1,500 cleaned and de-boned chickens were stuck on to the two- metre high skewer, Kontides measured the dimensions, which were 1.51 metres in height, 1.41 metres in diameter at the base and 1.16 at the top.

Kontides told the Mail that his measurements, also observed by District officer Nicos Roussos, were in compliance with rules set out by the Guinness Book of World Records.

The kebab sat roasting and rotating until just after one o'clock, when the first portions were ready to be served on a Lebanese style pita with lemon and garlic.

Patrons bought kebab tickets for £1 each, and drink tickets from stands set up by several local manufacturers for 50 cents.

Although the feast was scheduled to end at dusk, Eid and company continued to dish out hunks of the massive pile of meat until late into the night.

Kontides estimated that more than 10,000 people attended the event during the day, milling about to gape at the behemoth skewer, if not to partake in it.

It appears that banquet proceeds fell well within the expectations of Limassol Rotary Club president Panicos Loizou, who told the Mail on Friday that he expected to earn between £5,000 and £10,000 for local charities.

Although Eid was still unsure of exact figures yesterday afternoon, he thought that about 6,500 of the £1 food tickets were sold, and drinks, which were donated free of charge, would have brought even more.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[05] CY moots air rage measures after drunken Russians force plane to land in Salonica

CYPRUS AIRWAYS (CY) is looking at new ways of controlling unruly passengers in the wake of an incident involving four drunken Russians on Saturday's Moscow to Larnaca flight.

The flight had to be diverted to Salonica after the chief troublemaker among the four had to be restrained as he apparently tried to approach the cockpit. The four Russians were arrested at Salonica airport.

CY spokesman Tassos Angeli said such air rage incidents, though still rare, were increasing alarmingly. "These incidents do happen to us, if rarely, and the worrying thing is that it is happening more frequently," Angeli said. "It is a concern for all airlines as we are not talking of just bad behaviour but of pass1engers who might get out of control and endanger a flight. It is very serious," the CY spokesman said.

He said the increase in air rage was an international phenomenon: "At a recent international conference it was said that it had quadroupled in the last few years," he said.

Like other airlines, CY was keen to find new ways of controlling unruly passengers, Angeli said. "We are in touch with international organisations and we will follow their lead on measures," said the national carrier's spokesman. Among things being considered are giving air stewards specific training on how to calm difficult passengers and providing plastic handcuffs with which to confine serious troublemakers to their seats.

"At the moment, it is up to the plot to decide what action to take. Our policy is to prefer to divert a flight - even though this means extra cost for us and extra hassle for the passengers - rather than to allow a flight to be endangered by such people," Angeli said.

On Saturday, the group of four Russians was drinking heavily on the flight from Moscow.

"They were behaving inappropriately, disturbing fellow passengers, making gestures to a stewardess, throwing food about and smoking in the isle," Angeli said. "The steward took five empty bottles from them, vodka and other alcoholic drinks, which they had smuggled on board," he added.

The trouble began as the plane was over Bulgaria and the captain decided to alert Cyprus police to arrest them at Larnaca.

"But then, one of them got up and headed for the club class section. The head steward stood in his way to stop him as he could not know what he was about to do, given the state this passenger was in," Angeli said.

"The Russian pushed the steward, and though they managed to get him back to his seat, the pilot decided to divert the flight to Salonica, where the troublemakers were arrested."

The flight got to Larnaca safely, if late.

The only other recent report of air rage on a CY flight was a drunk Anglo- Cypriot groping an air hostess on a flight in May last year.

In August last year, a group of passengers "hijacked" a CY plane at Athens airport, delaying its departure for three hours after they were told the plane would, because of minor damage, be flying to Larnaca without stopping off in Paphos.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[06] Lab tests confirm hygiene problem in Paphos hotel

AN OFFICIAL probe has confirmed the existence of hygiene problems at a Paphos hotel where 75 tourists fell foul to food poisoning late last month.

"Tests and analyses are still continuing, but it has been shown that there was indeed a problem (with hygiene)," Tefkros Koulountis, the Paphos municipal councillor in charge of cleanliness in the town, said yesterday. But Koulountis was keen to stress that the salmonella outbreak at the Avlida hotel was an "isolated incident" which in "no way" reflected on the state of play in the coastal resort town as a whole.

The state lab took samples from the Avlida after 75 tourists, including 60 elderly Austrians, had to be rushed to a local clinic with food poisoning symptoms the day after their arrival on May 30.

State broadcaster CyBC last week reported that the official investigation had pointed the finger at lax kitchen hygiene as the cause for the suspected salmonella outbreak. CyBC reported that two kitchen assistants had been allowed to continue working at the hotel despite coming down with salmonella.

Koulountis was yesterday loath to divulge details of the findings of the state lab investigation. "I am not a doctor, I cannot go into details," he told the Cyprus Mail.

He promised the hygiene problems had now been dealt with. "We have intervened dynamically and we are also monitoring the situation. All necessary measures are being taken," the municipal officer said.

"It was a isolated incident and the relevant services are taking all necessary measures. It would be wrong to tar the whole of Paphos with the same brush," Koulountis said.

Avlida hotel management have tried to blame the outbreak on contaminated water in Paphos town, but local water authorities deny that there have been any problems with the water supply and only Avlida guests seem to have been affected by food poisoning.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[07] Heat wave on its way

BRACE yourself for the warm weather because the national weather service forecasts that the first real blast of summer heat will sear the island until at least the end of the week.

Temperatures today will climb to 39 degrees inland and to the mid-thirties on the coast and get even hotter later in the week, predicts Weather Service director Kyriacos Theophilou.

The first signs of the impending heat wave appeared yesterday, when the mercury topped 38 in Nicosia yesterday and pushed its way past 30 in most coastal areas, except for Paphos where highs remained in the upper twenties.

"The following days - Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - the maximum temperature will be between 39 and 40 plus, which is really a heat wave," says the weather service director.

In the coastal areas, temperatures will remain four to five degrees lower and as much as six to seven lower in Paphos.

"I wouldn't like to go further than Friday. This is normally the period to which we can extend our forecast," said Theophilou.

Other factors, such as wind speed and moisture, will also affect how we experience the warmer-than-normal temperatures.

"Quite surely, if high humidity prevails, which is something normal for the coastal areas, this will for sure create more discomfort for people," says Theophilou.

"Normally, from what we have in the previous days, at least for Nicosia, the values are rather low," he reports, but warns that humidity tends to be much higher on the coast.

Health Department warnings:

Avoid sunbathing and in general minimise your exposure to sun.

Avoid heavy physical exercise and unnecessary trips in the daytime.

If it is necessary to go out in the sun, wear a hat with a 360-degree brim. Clothing should be lightweight, light coloured and loose-fitting.

Drink 9-10 glasses of water a day.

Avoid alcoholic drinks, heavy food, chocolate and spices.

Opt for light food, small meals, vegetables and juices.

Use air conditioning or fans to cool indoor areas.

Take utmost care that the elderly and children, who are most sensitive to high temperatures, strictly abide by these measures.

The same precautions apply to people with heart, diabetes, kidney or lung problems.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[08] Parties share out committee chairs

THE FOUR main parties yesterday shared out the chairmanships of Parliament's 17 committees.

DIKO was the big winner, securing one more chairmanship than it had in the last House, although it lost one seat in the May 27 elections. KISOS, which also lost one seat, got only one chairmanship compared to two in the last Parliament.

Representatives from the eight parties represented in Parliament convened for the first time yesterday to take final decisions on the chairmanships of the house committees after backroom manoeuvres on the subject last week.

After a two-hour meting at the House, newly elected Speaker Demetris Christofias, leader of AKEL, announced that AKEL and DISY, with 20 and 19 seats respectively, would get six committee chairmanships each (same as before), DIKO, with nine seats, would get four, compared to three in the last House, and KISOS with four seats would maintain only one of its two previous chairmanships.

Newcomers ADIK, New Horizons and the Greens, as well as the United Democrats, will be allowed to participate in up to three committees each, but will not get any chairmanships as they only have one seat each.

"The meeting was held in a spirit of understanding," Christofias said yesterday.

AKEL will get the chairmanships of the following committees: Interior, Labour, Refugee, Agriculture, Environment and Institutions and Values.

DISY will get the chairmanships of the Education, Foreign Affairs, Legal, Commerce, Health and Watchdog Committees.

DIKO will get the European Affairs, Finance, Communications and Human Rights committee chairmanships.

KISOS will only get the Defence Committee chairmanship.

"What used to be Foreign and European Affairs Committee will split in two committees, one for Foreign Affairs and one for European Affairs because there is too much work to do ahead of Cyprus' EU accession," Christofias said.

A Selection Committee was also set up yesterday to make a proposal on the composition of each house committee and table it before next Thursday's Plenum for approval.

A decision on the formation and chairmanships of ad hoc committees (such as on Crime and on the Cyprus File) is yet to be made.

"Committees will start convening after their appointment next Thursday, whenever there are issues to address," Christofias said.

Asked weather House Committees should hold regular meetings during the summer period instead of starting work in September as planned, the House President replied: "It is something to look into."

Chief EU negotiator and United Democrats leader George Vassiliou has repeatedly sounded the alarm about "the need for the House to work in the summer if we want to be ready for accession in two or three years."

Who got what

Finance Marcos Kyprianou (DIKO)

Institutions and Values Andreas Christou (AKEL)

Foreign Affairs Panayiotis Demetriou (DISY)*

European Affairs Tassos Papadopoulos (DIKO)

Communications Nicos Pittokopitis (DIKO)

Environment Undecided AKEL deputy

Education Sofoclis Hadjiyiannis (DISY)

Refugee Aristophanis Georgiou (AKEL)

Interior Nicos Katsourides (AKEL)

Commerce Undecided DISY deputy

Labour Yiannakis Thoma (AKEL)*

Defence Yiannakis Omirou (KISOS)*

Agriculture Christos Mavrokordatos (AKEL)

Legal Panayiotis Demetriou (DISY)

Health Undecided DISY deputy

Watchdog Christos Pourgourides (DISY)

Human Rights Undecided DIKO deputy

* Names marked with an asterisk had yet to be confirmed yesterday

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[09] KISOS to elect new leadership next month

KISOS has decided to hold an electoral conference on July 22 to regroup and decide its new leader and political bureau.

The social-democratic party has been in crisis since it took a hammering at the parliamentary elections in May. The date was set late on Sunday after a one-day extraordinary meeting of the party's central committee.

The conference will signal the official end of 82-year-old Dr Vassos Lyssarides' three-decade stint as party leader.

Lyssarides came under fire from all sides when he failed to step down after his party's dismal showing in the May 27 polls. The veteran politician eventually announced he was going two days later. His announcement was followed the next day by the resignation of the entire KISOS political bureau, throwing the party into turmoil.

KISOS, which won five House of Representatives seats as EDEK in the 1996 elections, secured only four seats in the new parliament. The party garnered just 6.5 per cent of the vote on May 27, 1.6 per cent down compared to 1996.

KISOS' poor showing is generally put down to two things: the decision to change its name from EDEK when it merged with two smaller groupings last year, and Lyssarides' decision to go into government with Clerides after the 1998 presidential elections.

Lyssarides, who founded EDEK 31 years ago, has made it plain he will not seek re-election at the conference and two men are favourites to succeed him. The front-runners are veteran deputy Takis Hadjidemetriou and KISOS number two Yiannakis Omirou.

Despite 25 years in parliament, Hadjidemetriou failed to get re-elected on May 27, even though he received more preference votes than any other of the party's candidate. He automatically made way for party leader Lyssarides, who took KISOS' only seat in Nicosia.

Omirou, who was Defence Minister during EDEK's brief stint as coalition partners in Clerides' government in 1998, did make it into the new House.

Although the decision to hold a conference next month was backed by the overwhelming majority of the central committee's members, some yesterday voiced discomfort at the development.

KISOS vice-president Marinos Sizopoulos, one of Lyssarides' closest associates, said he was considering not seeking re-election at the party conference.

"My view was that an electoral conference should wait a bit. But unfortunately the committee decided otherwise. I think we should not hold a conference in a state of panic, only aiming to renewal," Sizopoulos said.

"We should try to attract new people and bring back our old faithful such as Efstathios Efstathiou and Andreas Sismanis. And the only way to achieve that is by giving them time to express their opinions and let them have a say in the introduction of constitutional changes," Sizopoulos added.

But former senior member of KISOS Efstathios Efstathiou went one step further: "Moving on to an electoral conference so soon just to overthrow Lyssarides will produce devastating results. It will shrink the party further and lead it to complete isolation.

"Those methods are unacceptable and not in line with the socialist philosophy. But socialism is not a party, it is an ideology which has been introduced by all of us in this country. So we shall always be involved despite the differences." Efstathiou said.

Both Hadjidemetriou and Omirou yesterday welcomed the central committee's decision.

"I would like to send this message to the heartbroken faithful of KISOS: We are here and we will fight on until we overcome all these problems. I shall do everything in my power to that end," Hadjidemetriou pledged.

The veteran deputy said that he was thinking about seeking election as party leader but could not "make any announcements yet"

Hadjidemetriou -- among the first to criticise Lyssarides for holding on to power -- has vowed that, at 67, he would only stay at the party's helm for three years if chosen.

Omirou appeared optimistic that, "we are on the way to recovery."

The KISOS acting-president said that the central committee had elected a co- ordinating committee, made up of the party's outgoing political bureau as well as former and current deputies.

"This committee will help the party back on its feet and give a feeling of unity until the new President and the political bureau are ready to take over," Omirou said.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[10] De Soto in Cyprus in July?

The UN Secretary-General's special advisor for Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, is thought to be planning a visit the island early next month in an attempt to encourage a resumption of the stalled proximity talks, the Cyprus News Agency reported yesterday.

However, De Soto, who has conducted five rounds of proximity talks since December 1999, may have a hard sell, with Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash showing little sign of backing down on the demands he made in bringing the proximity talks to an abrupt end last year.

Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou yesterday reiterated the Republic's unwillingness to bow to any of Denktash's demands. "The government is ready to continue the effort of the UN-sponsored proximity talks without any conditions from the point these were interrupted," he said, adding: "We believe that Denktash had no excuse at all to abandon the dialogue and there is absolutely no reason why he should be offered anything to return to the table."

Denktash, however, told To Vima in Athens said that if the Greek Cypriot side became economically or politically linked with the European Union, the Turkish Cypriot side would have no alternative but to do the same with Turkey. "Then, 10-15 years later, it will be our time to join the European Union and it will only be then that talks on the subject of reunification of Cyprus may begin," he asserted.

He maintained that, "the Turkish Cypriot side is ready to discuss any solution in any negotiation process except proximity talks."

Meanwhile, US state department co-ordinator Tom Weston, in a statement to Greek newspaper Kathimerini, stressed that for a definite solution in Cyprus, the two sides had to return to the process of negotiations.

Papapetrou yesterday welcomed this clarification and told journalists: "Weston has made it clear that the United States would like to see a settlement and a reunited Cyrus join the European Union, but if this is not possible, Cyprus will accede without a solution in accordance with the EU decision in Helsinki."

Last December, Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, backed by Ankara, declared the proximity talks a "waste of time", demanding international recognition for the breakaway regime in the north before returning to the negotiating table.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[11] Vassiliou confident of Irish change of heart

IRELAND will have a change of heart and approve an EU enlargement treaty key to Cyprus' entry hopes, the head of the island's accession talks team, George Vassiliou predicted yesterday.

Vassiliou insisted Ireland's rejection of the Nice treaty in a referendum last week would not stand in the way of Cyprus's accession to the 15-nation block.

If Ireland does not eventually approve the treaty, Cyprus may find herself fighting it out with the other 11 accession candidates for one of five entry 'berths'. The Nice treaty is designed to bring in reforms to allow for 12 new EU members. If not ratified by all 15 EU members, then only up to five new members can technically and legally still accede, as provided for by the 1997 Amsterdam treaty.

But, like Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides and Government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou before him, Vassiliou yesterday appeared confident it would all work out all right for Cyprus in the end.

Vassiliou said there would be a fresh referendum o the Nice treaty in Ireland and that he was confident of a 'yes' vote this time round. He noted that all Irish parties were in favour of the enlargement treaty.

EU officials have been at pains to insist the Irish rejection would not halt enlargement plans and have spoken of tweaking the Nice agreement to allow Irish acceptance without altering its essence.

The timing of the rejection is deeply embarrassing for the EU, coming a week before a meeting between EU leaders and the leaders of candidate nations in Gothenburg, Sweden. Both President Clerides and Foreign Minister Cassoulides will be attending the Gothenburg summit, kicking off on Friday.

Cyprus opened entry negotiations with the EU in 1998 and is seen as a frontrunner among the 12 hopefuls. Nicosia hopes for entry by 2003.

The other candidates are Poland, the Czech republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[12] Murder suspect confessed to killing artiste, court told

A SYRIAN man suspected of murdering a Ukrainian cabaret artiste has confessed to strangling her, a court heard yesterday.

The 45-year-old suspect was arrested earlier this month after he went to the Nicosia hospital for treatment for lacerations to his arm and throat.

There, unconvinced by the man's explanations about his injuries, a suspicious doctor called police.

Police questioned the man and found he was a permanent resident of Cyprus, living in a flat in the suburb of Palouriotissa with another Syrian man.

The 45-year-old baker was married to a Cypriot woman and has two children.

They have since divorced.

Police escorted the man to his flat on Democritos Street, where they found 22-year-old Ilona Li dead on the bathroom floor.

The suspect denied killing the woman, but yesterday police told the court he had since confessed to the murder.

In a testimony given two days after the murder, the suspect described his alleged crime in detail, police said.

The suspect allegedly told police that there had been an argument with Li, during which he strangled her to death.

Evidence found at the scene, along with the marks on his arms and throat, indicated the victim had put up a fight before dying, the court heard.

The court renewed the suspect's remand for seven days.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

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