Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English, 99-06-24

Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation at <http://www.cybc.com.cy/>

CONTENTS

[01] HEADLINES THURSDAY 24 JUNE 99

[02] CYPRUS AIRWAYS

[03] PILOTS STRIKE

[04] CYPRUS UN

[05] HOUSE DEFENCE

[06] MAURER ACCESSION

[07] YUGOSLAVIA

[08] OCALAN TRIAL

[09] ANCIENT SHIPS

[10] WEATHER TV

[01] HEADLINES THURSDAY 24 JUNE 99

--- Security Council members began talks today on adopting two resolutions by Monday on Cyprus.

--- Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic today called for an end to all sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia.

--- Judges in the treason trial of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan adjourned proceedings and said they would deliver a verdict on Tuesday.

AND

--- After finding the wreck of the Titanic, a researcher said he had discovered two Phoenician ships 2,700 years after they sank.

[02] CYPRUS AIRWAYS

The Council of Ministers today adopted a proposal by Minister of Communications and Works, Leontios Ierodiakonou, to liberalise air transport.

Cyprus Airways was the main topic of today's cabinet meeting.

Mr Ierodiakonou said that the Council of Ministers drew up a policy, but he did not elaborate.

He said that the Government has adopted a proposal to liberalise air transport, adding that the Government's policy is to protect Cyprus Airways for a while, especially regarding profitable destinations.

However, he said that this would depend on the pilots' attitude, which he described as irresponsible.

Mr Ierodiakonou said that if the pilots did not pull themselves together, then the decision on liberalisation would be final.

[03] PILOTS STRIKE

This morning, tension grew at Larnaca Airport and incidents between members of the pilots union and other personnel were prevented by the Police.

Scheduled flights were carried out smoothly and the Cyprus Airways emergency plan was implemented successfully.

[04] CYPRUS UN

The first resolution is to extend the UNFICYP mandate on the island.

The second resolution concerns calling direct talks on the Cyprus problem.

Sources said that the talks are to take place at West Point of New York, on October 10.

President Glafcos Clerides did not comment on the report publicised yesterday by UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.

The President will inform the National Council first on his views.

Meanwhile, the Government officially accepted Dame Ann Hercus taking on the role of Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Cyprus.

Government Spokesman, Costas Serezis, said that the Government also requested the involvement of the UN chief in any talks.

Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, said once again that he is not willing to play the game of talks, as long as President Clerides pretends - as he said - that runs the Government of the whole of Cyprus.

[05] HOUSE DEFENCE

All MPs voted in favour of the budget, with abstentions only from those of left-wing AKEL.

[06] MAURER ACCESSION

Mr Maurer, who is visiting Cyprus, said that Value Added Tax must soon go up to 15 per cent, like the other members of the European Union.

He also said that Cyprus must move decisively toward free movement of capital, lifting all bans and abolishing interest limits.

[07] YUGOSLAVIA

In a speech to parliament before a vote on whether to lift a state of war, Mr Bulatovic also demanded compensation for damage caused by 11 weeks of NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

Mr Bulatovic was presenting the government's proposal to parliament to lift the state of war, imposed on March 24 when NATO began its bombing campaign, and abolish related decrees.

He said that the restoration and normalisation of relations with the United States and the European Union could not be fast or simple, partly because of their role in the bombing campaign which caused massive destruction and loss of civilian lives.

The government has estimated damage from the bombing campaign at around $100 billion. A group of independent economists today put the figure at $30 billion.

Yugoslavia has been subject to a variety of economic sanctions since 1992 for its role in the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.

Most Western nations have said they will give no reconstruction aid to Yugoslavia as long as Mr Milosevic remains in power.

[08] OCALAN TRIAL

Defence lawyers for Ocalan said today that the court trying him for treason was biased and politically motivated.

Ocalan, founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party, may be hanged for his leadership of a 14-year-old armed insurgency fighting for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey. More than 29,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

He delivered his personal defence yesterday, asking for his life to be spared so he could work to engineer a negotiated settlement to the conflict.

Any death sentence would first have to be upheld on appeal and then ratified in a parliament where a powerful nationalist bloc has pledged to vote in favour of execution.

While Turkey keeps the death penalty on its books, it has not carried out an execution since 1984. Ocalan's lawyers are also widely expected to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, to which Turkey is a signatory, once they have exhausted the Turkish appeals system.

[09] ANCIENT SHIPS

Underwater researcher Robert D. Ballard and a team of oceanographers and archaeologists including Harvard University Professor Lawrence Stager spent three weeks locating the vessels off the southern port of Ashkelon in the eastern Mediterranean.

They said the ships, lying more than 300 metres under the surface, were the oldest vessels to be found in deep water and were well preserved.

Ballard's team mounted their latest expedition, after a US Navy nuclear research submarine picked up fuzzy images of the two ancient wrecks during an unconnected search of the area two years ago.

The team recovered 15 amphorae, or ceramic jars, from each of the vessels, which date back to about 750 to 700 B.C.

The ships probably left the ancient port of Tyre, in present-day Lebanon, bound for either Egypt or the Phoenician colony of Carthage in North Africa near the modern Tunis.

The ships are about 15 metres and about 18 metres long.

One ship contained about 400 amphorae and the other held about 350, indicating they were probably carrying about 10 tonnes of wine each.

The artefacts will be studied at Harvard and other institutes in the United States.

[10] WEATHER TV

Winds in the morning will be southwesterly to westerly, light to moderate, three to four beaufort, and in the afternoon moderate to strong, four to five beaufort.

The sea will be moderate to rough.

The temperature will reach 31 degrees inland, 29 on the south coast, 27 on the west coast, and 22 over the mountains.

The fire hazard is very high in all forest areas.

Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article