Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 98-07-25

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Saturday, July 25, 1998

Clerides wrestles with missile furore

Simerini reported that President Clerides was having a hard time of it dealing with mounting international pressure to scrap the S-300 missile deal.

Too much talk and the occasionally slipshod handling of the missile deal have pushed the government into a corner, the paper said.

The Greek government, and Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis in particular, were distancing themselves from the whole affair and the missiles had come to dominate totally all other Cyprus-problem issues.

This state of play explains the "strange" visit of National Guard chief Dimitris Dimou to Athens, Simerini said. Dimou's mission was to brief Simitis on the missile situation, but the Cyprus government was unhappy Simitis had chosen to speak to Dimou rather than Defence Minister Yiannakis Omirou and Clerides on the matter.

Clerides is to ask for a summit meeting in Athens to clear the air and take decisions on the S-300 issue, the paper said.

Machi reported that two Turkish spies had been caught red-handed taking photographs in the Tseri area outside Nicosia.

The two men are thought to have crossed from the occupied areas near the village, the paper reported.

The spies were apparently targeting National Guard camps in the area. The Turks were spotted by a guard on duty at a factory in the vicinity, who thought the movements of the two men suspicious. When he spotted them taking photos in the area he alerted police who rushed to the scene and detained the suspects, Machi reported.

Phileleftheros carried a story about the continuing heat wave, reporting that the first-aid section of the Nicosia general hospital was being swamped with people suffering from dehydration, food-poisoning and gastro- enteritis.

According to doctors, the number of such cases is not unexpected or particularly worrying given the prevailing high temperatures.

The food-poisoning cases were the result of food spoiling in the heat, while the dehydration cases concerned mostly elderly individuals living alone who failed to look after themselves properly.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1998

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