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Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 01-07-25Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cyprus-mail.com/>Wednesday, July 25, 2001CONTENTS
[01] Limassol teacher finds space on earthBy Melina DemetriouLIMASSOL schoolteacher Myrto Pouangare is representing Cyprus in the 'Boeing Educators to Space Camp' programme at the Space and Rocket Centre in Huntsville, Alabama and at the Space Centre at Houston in Texas. In the programme, teachers from the US and six other countries follow a curriculum of lectures, classroom activities, astronaut training and simulated space missions. "The programme is aimed at providing educators with many of the resources they need to inspire and motivate their students about maths, science and space," Boeing said. Pouangare, from the Lanitio Lyceum A in Limassol, was selected as a part of Boeing's key partnership programme with the University of Cyprus and the Cyprus Fulbright Commission. "We're pleased to provide teachers with hands-on exposure to the nation's -- and the world's -- work in space so they can create exciting new programmes for successive generations of students," Michelle Bandoian, director of International Communications and Community Relations at Boeing, said. More than 250 teachers have been sponsored for the annual programme since 1992. As part of the key partnership programme, three other Cypriots - Ioannis Papadopolos, Christodoulos Rafael and Solomos Solomou - are also starting a six-month internship with Boeing in Seattle this month. Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001 [02] Police find grenades in NicosiaPOLICE found two unexploded hand grenades near the Carlsberg factory in Nicosia last night.Acting on a tip-off, officers from the bomb squad went to the factory and located the type MK2 and M26 grenades. They were removed by police and taken to headquarters for examination. Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001 [03] Pilots retrace historic 1920 flightBy Martin HellicarSIX Italian pilots retracing the historic 1920 Rome to Tokyo flight touched down at Larnaca Airport in their two small propeller planes early yesterday afternoon. The two four-seater S-205 20/R aircraft landed at 2pm and took off again about an hour later, continuing a 16-leg tour that kicked off in the Italian capital on Monday and is expected to end in Tokyo on August 10. The six pilots are following the same route that Arturo Ferrarin and Guido Masiero took in their SVA biplanes in 1920. Ferrarin and Masiero's journey, which lasted 106 days and consisted of 42 legs, is considered a major landmark in aviation history. "The experience for me is very beautiful, because it makes me remember the flight of our old pilots," Antonello Filippone, one of the six pilots taking part in the challenge, told reporters at Larnaca. The next stop after Cyprus for the single-engine S-205s was Jordan. The pilots then head off over the Middle East, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Vietnam and China, covering the 15,000 km from Italy to Japan at an average speed of 200 km/hour and at an altitude of between 2,000 and 3,000 metres. The return flight will follow a more northerly route, over Russia. More information on the flight of the two S0205 20/Rs, organised by the Aero Club of Rome and the Trasvolare Association, can be found (in Italian) at the website www.trasvolare.it Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001 [04] Water park accident girl flown to hospitalBy Jean ChristouAN 11-year old Belgian girl was rushed to Nicosia by police helicopter last night after being seriously injured at the Aphrodite water park at Yeroskipou in Paphos. Police said the child had been injured in the genitals from the pressure of the water on one of the rides. She was taken to a private clinic after the incident at 6pm, but because of the seriousness of her condition was later taken by helicopter to Nicosia and transferred to the Makarios hospital. A three-year-old boy, Vassilis Amdjias, drowned at the same park on July 30 last year after escaping their attention of his parents and venturing into a 1.2m deep 'leisure pool' screened from the view of the lifeguard by a curtain of water from a waterfall feature. The park was operating without a licence at the time, but by August 17 it had managed to meet the Yeroskipou Municipality's eight-day deadline to acquire the necessary permits. The municipality said it was fully confident of the park's safety after completing a full investigation. Before the drowning, the park averaged 1,000 visitors a day - a figure that plummeted by up to 70 per cent in the aftermath of the accident. But two days later a British tourist threatened to sue the water park for negligence after his ten-year-old son fell and gashed his leg. He had to have twenty stitches in the wound. He said his son Matthew, aged 10, slipped and fell near the restaurant area, cutting his knee on what he described as "cracked tiles". Management said the boy had broken the tiles himself with the force of his fall. Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001 [05] Traffic accident victim diesA 25-year-old man has died of injuries sustained during a traffic accident, police said yesterday. Christos Vittis from the village of Fini in the Limassol district was critically injured in an accident last Friday on the Limassol to Platres road. He died at 7.45am yesterday in Nicosia General hospital.A post mortem will be carried out today, police said. Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001 [06] Divers find sunken WWII fighter off KyreniaSWISS divers have discovered the sunken remains of a World War II fighter plane in the sea off Ayios Ambrosios near occupied Kyrenia. According to Turkish Cypriot press reports yesterday, the warplane was shot down and sank off the Kyrenia coast. The skeleton of a pilot was found on board.The papers said the remains of the British pilot would he handed over to the British military authorities on the island for identification and burial. A spokesman at he British High Commission in Nicosia said they were looking into the case. Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001 [07] Tsada fire burns 25 hectaresA FIRE broke out at around 9pm on Monday in the village of Tsada and burned 25 hectares of wild vegetation, carob and almond trees. A spokesman for Paphos Fire Services said the fire was extinguished at around 11.45pm. The fire brigade is monitoring the area in case of a new outbreak.The cause of the fire is not yet known. Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001 [08] Cautious welcome for Denktash 'change of heart'By Jean ChristouREACTION to reports that Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash might return to negotiations was mixed yesterday. Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides said the government was willing to resume negotiations but he expressed some reservations about a "change of heart" on the part of the Turkish side. Cassoulides said the Turkish side's possible return to the talks was likely to have been the result of its realisation that it was now politically isolated. Denktash said on Monday that he was willing to meet UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan and might discuss moves to resume the Cyprus talks. He said the meeting would take place in New York but no date has been fixed yet. The UN-led 'proximity' talks collapsed last year when Denktash refused to negotiate unless his breakaway regime in the north was recognised, and unless his proposal for a confederation was on the table. Since then he has refused every attempt to persuade him back to talks, but it is believed the international community has been putting heavy pressure on Ankara to persuade Denktash to resume the negotiations. "There is a strong indication that they (the Turkish side) may return to the negotiating table without any of the preconditions they have been putting forward," Cassoulides told journalists at a joint press conference with his Luxembourg counterpart Lydie Polfer, who is concluding a two-day official visit to Cyprus. The minister said that indications are that the Turkish side, if it returns to the talks, would continue the process on the same basis and from the point these talks ended last November. "If this is so, it is fine with us," he added. "The fact that the attitude of leaving the table is now replaced by an attitude of 'let us say we will come back and resume the discussions where we have left them' is a positive fact," Polfer added. Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has already referred to the need to continue the dialogue on the basis of what he called "the realities" in Cyprus, a comment which has given rise to some concern among the political parties. House President and communist AKEL leader Demetris Christofias gave a cautious welcome yesterday to the new development. "I want to hope and believe that the Secretary-general will be clear with Denktash so that at the every least we will start where we left off in November last year in Geneva," he said. "And we hope there will not be the slightest move by the Secretary-general to appease Denktash." Ruling right-wing DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades warned that the Greek Cypriot side should be careful of "Turkish manoeuvrings", while DIKO leader Tassos Papadopoulos called the development bad news. Papadopoulos said Denktash's return to the talks could herald a change in the basis of the talks. "Turkey never lies about what it plans," he said. "If we have the ears to hear it." Papadopoulos said if the Greek Cypriot side agrees to return to the talks without insisting that they be resumed where they left off, it could leave the government open to charges of intransigence. He said when the Turkish side backed out of the talks it was clear that they were at fault. "All of this time we should have been making clear that we are not prepared to go back to talks if Denktash is going to put on the negotiating table the issue of two separate states," he said. Commenting on the caution expressed by the party leaders, Cassoulides also said he had reservations about 'the change of heart'. "Whether they are returning with the political will to seek a settlement or not remains to be seen," he said. Annan said on Monday he would be in a better position to comment on whether the talks would resume following his meeting with Denktash. "But I hope that we will be able to get things moving in the not too distant future," he told journalists in New York. Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001 [09] Seven more dead from 1974 have been identifiedBy Martin HellicarSOME 115 Greek Cypriot victims of the Turkish invasion have been identified since Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) team began exhumations at two Nicosia cemeteries two years ago, the Foreign Ministry announced yesterday. Only 12 of the 115 identifications have concerned persons classified as 'missing'. The Ministry said the remains of seven more invasion dead, including two classified as 'missing', had been identified recently. Overall, 18 of the 115 identified belonged to the list of 126 persons originally listed among the 1,696 missing but later re-classified as having been killed in action. The bulk of identifications, 85 in total, have been of people known to have died in 1974, but whose burial site was unknown. The relatives of the seven newly identified dead have been informed, the Foreign Ministry stated, expressing "sincere condolences" to the families concerned. The government has officially apologised to the relatives of 1974 missing and dead for the decades-long delay before the exhumation and identification process began. The PHR team, headed by Dr William Haglund, began exhumations at the Constantinou & Eleni and Lakatamia cemeteries in the summer of 1999. Remains have been identified by matching their DNA with that of blood samples given by relatives of missing persons and 1974 victims. The Foreign Ministry yesterday pleaded with more relatives of the missing to come forward to give blood samples to facilitate the exhumation programme. Earlier this year, the government announced it planned to extend its exhumation programme to cover mass graves of Turkish Cypriot victims of 1974 and the intercommunal fighting of 1963-63. The plan floundered as the Turkish Cypriot side refused to co-operate by providing blood samples from relatives of the dead. Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001 [10] Rolandis announces rescue plan for wine industryTHE GOVERNMENT yesterday announced a rescue package for the island's wine industry that it hopes will save this year's grape harvest from being buried in landfills. Commerce Minister Nicos Rolandis, who met representatives of the wine-makers yesterday, said the problem was that Cyprus wine is not selling in Europe. Rolandis attributed this slump in the fortunes of the local product to tough competition from other wine-making countries.The net result, the minister said, was that local wineries had accumulated a huge surplus of unsellable wine over recent years. The solution agreed yesterday is for the wine industry to distil much of the unwanted wine into pure alcohol, which the state will then buy up at a set price in return for the wineries taking in this year's grape harvest. "The plan we have agreed is for the wine industries to distil a quantity of about 50,000 tonnes of wine into alcohol, which the government will buy and store, at £1.73 per litre. The wine companies, for their part, will undertake to take in this year's production of grapes, so we can avoid the landfill solutions of the last two years," Rolandis said. Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001 [11] Man offers reward for missing wife and childrenA KUWAITI man has reported to Famagusta police that his Irish wife and two children disappeared the day after the family arrived in Cyprus for a holiday. Tarek Sina, 40, and his wife Carol and two young children arrived in Cyprus last Saturday and were staying at a hotel in Paralimni.He told police that on Sunday his wife said she was going to take the children for a walk but they never returned. He also said his wife had no travel documents with her and that she had very little money. Sina told police he did not believe that she had left him. Although he admitted they couple had some problems he said they were not serious and he has expressed fears for the safety of his wife and children. He has appealed to the public to help trace is wife and is offering a £5, 000 reward. It is believed a private detective has also been hired to help trace them. Sina also informed the Irish consulate and the Kuwaiti embassy of his family's disappearance. Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001 [12] Arsonists target Paralimni churchARSONISTS attempted to torch a chapel in Paralimni in the Famagusta district at the weekend, police said yesterday. The fire destroyed the door, chairs and several icons in the Ayios Mamas chapel two kilometres east of Paralimni.The damage was only discovered on Monday by a municipal worker. Forensic experts found that the blaze had been started in three separate places with the use of flammable liquid. The cost of the damage was estimated at £500. Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001 [13] Church 'being turned into a nightclub'WORK has begun in the north to transform a Greek Orthodox church into a nightclub, the Turkish Cypriot press reported yesterday. According to opposition newspaper Avrupa, the church of Panayia Thermiotissa in Thermia village near Kyrenia has been leased to a woman named Naciye Turksever for three million Turkish lira a month (around £1.50).Avrupa said that bulldozers moved into the churchyard three days ago and began digging up the cemetery. It also said that the British High Commission had searched the cemetery for the graves of two British soldiers buried there and had taken photographs. No official response to the newspaper's enquiries was forthcoming, it said. "The fact that the Antiquities Department remains silent is amazing, given that the church and its surroundings, which belonged to the 17th century, are a archaeological site," the paper said. It added that an archaeologist who visited the site last week found ceramics from the Bronze Age. Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001 [14] Run on banks helps cut new CSE lossesBy Jean ChristouINVESTOR inertia continued on the stock market yesterday, dragging the index down another 0.14 per cent to close at a new two-year low of 158.5 points. At its lowest point the index hit 157 points yesterday, but a sudden run on banking stocks at the last minute helped to cut the day's losses marginally. The interest in banking stocks also helped the FTSE/CySE to end in the black, closing 0.75 per cent up at 590.9 points while volume stood at £9.3 million. The banking sector itself was only one of two subsectors to end the day with gains, ending 1.04 per cent up. Construction companies were up slightly by 0.13 per cent. Bank of Cyprus (BoC) added three cents to £2 and Laiki one cent to £1.60. Biggest losing sectors were fish culture companies, which recorded losses of 4.41 per cent and IT companies 2.04 per cent, after being dragged down again by pressure on GlobalSoft. The heavyweight technology company saw its shares decline another three cents yesterday to end at 57 cents after 1.6 million were traded. Most active share of the day was Farm Renos Hatzioannou, which shed one cent to 73 cents after 2.8 million shares worth £1.9 million changed hands. "Investor morale seems to have hit the bottom," said one Nicosia broker. "They don't know what to do any more, whether to invest at these bargain- basement levels or to salvage what they have left by selling." Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001 [15] Tourists suspected of selling Ecstasy tabletsTWO British women holidaying in Ayia Napa were yesterday remanded in custody for eight days suspected of possessing and trafficking the drug Ecstasy. The women, both unemployed, aged 22 and 27, were allegedly caught while trying to sell 20 Ecstasy tablets.At the time of her arrest, the 22-year-old was allegedly holding a lit cannabis joint. In a subsequent search of the pair's flat, police say they found 150 additional tablets, 25 grams of hashish and 11 grams of cannabis, which the 27-year-old said belonged to her. Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001 Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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