Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 10-07-27

Cyprus News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>

CONTENTS

[01] LEADERS DOWNER MEETING

[02] GEORGIOU RESIGNATION

[03] MINISTER OF FINANCE ECONOMY

[04] CA FLIGHTS

[01] LEADERS DOWNER MEETING

According to sources from the Presidential Palace, the dinner will take place at the house of the Turkish Cypriot leader, in the northern occupied part of Nicosia, at 8 oclock (1700 GMT) on Wednesday. At the dinner, the two leaders will be accompanied by their spouses. The advisors of the two leaders, George Iacovou and Kudret Ozersay will also attend the dinner.

Downer, speaking after a meeting he had on Tuesday with President Christofias at the Presidential Palace, said that on Wednesday there is the meeting between the two leaders and at night the dinner. So, I am looking forward to a nice day tomorrow and hopefully the leaders will make good progress, he said.

Asked about the dinner, Downer said that he would prefer to leave the two leaders to talk about and announce it. There has been an invitation to us to attend the dinner, he said.

On the direct negotiations, and asked if he believes that President Christofias proposal to link the property issue with the territorial issue can help the negotiations move forward, Downer said that we have to wait and see how the negotiations go tomorrow and over the next few weeks. We have got the whole series of meetings lined up, and clearly there is a focus of the negotiations at the moment on the property question and thats pretty much what we are focusing on the course of tomorrow.

Downer referred to a meeting between Iacovou-Ozersay on Monday, saying that they had a talk about the whole issue of the property question.

Replying to a question whether the UN have any proposals about the property issue, Downer said that the UN do not have proposals on the property issue. We do what we can to help the two sides, to build bridges. You know at the end of the day, the positions of the two parties is a matter for them and not a matter for us, he noted.

Asked if the proposal to link the two issues is still on the table, Downer said it is up to the Turkish Cypriots to speak for themselves on this matter. It is not up to us to be the commentators about their positions. We will leave that to them, he concluded.

President Christofias and Eroglu are engaged in talks to find a negotiated settlement to reunite Cyprus, divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion. Talks began in September 2008 between Christofias and the then leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, Mehmet Ali Talat.

[02] GEORGIOU RESIGNATION

Government Spokesman Stephanos Stephanou said Tuesday that the President of the Republic Demetris Christofias has accepted Georgious resignation, expressing deep regret and thanking him for the co-operation they have had.

Georgious resignation came after a TV report alleged that his office had tried to intervene in appointments and transfers in the Republics armed forces, the National Guard.

[03] MINISTER OF FINANCE ECONOMY

The Minister noted Tuesday that technocrats at the Ministry of Finance are examining many scenarios, which will soon be submitted to the political parties for a decision.

He expressed the view that during the second semester of 2010 there will be a slight recovery of the Cypriot economy, which will be followed by an acceleration of the recovery in 2011.

The Minister announced that the Council of Ministers during its meeting Tuesday approved a draft bill to regulate betting, which he described as ``a very important proposal which attempts to solve a problem, which has developed to a social blight during the past few years.

[04] CA FLIGHTS

In his statements, Cyprus Airways Spokesman Kyriakos Kyriakou said that 52 Cyprus Airways flights - disrupted due to the situation in Greece - are expected to run as planned today.

The flight to Manchester will be conducted on an A330 aircraft which has more passenger capacity in order to carry to Cyprus all passengers who had been stranded in the British city, following the work to rule protest by Greek air traffic controllers, he explained. He said that today the situation appears to have improved considerably and we hope it will continue like this for the rest of the day.

Cyprus News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article