Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English, 00-02-08

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

CONTENTS

TUESDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2000

[01] CLERIDES DE SOTO

[02] PAPAPETROU

[03] DENKTASH

[04] TALAT

[05] STOCK EXCHANGE

[06] ISRAEL LEBANON

[07] BULATOVIC

[08] MESIC

[09] AFGHAN HIJACK

[10] BURGLARIES

[11] WEATHER

[01] CLERIDES DE SOTO

The meeting of the UN Secretary General's special adviser with President Clerides was followed by de Soto's meeting with Rauf Denktash.

Alvaro de Soto was due to give a news conference after his meetings today.

[02] PAPAPETROU

It is also very likely, he added, that these third parties together with the United Nations will prepare a series of positions, and general principle for an agreement between the two sides to be placed on the table.

Referring to the Geneva talks Papapetrou said that an effort was made to maintain the process in view of the socalled elections in the occupied North, so that the two sides may reach the third, and most decisive round.

The spokesman added that things will be very different during this third round, in the same way that the role of third parties at Geneva will be different, because at Geneva they did not intervene, but simply reaffirmed their presence.

Referring to the possibility of direct talks, Papapetrou said that the UN believe that the two sides are very close to such an eventuality but, he added, there is still ground to be covered.

The spokesman also said that the third round will start with proximity talks, and then if progress is established, it will develop into direct talks.

[03] DENKTASH

In statements published by the Turkish Cypriot Newspaper "Kipris," he alleged that if direct talks are to be held, the President Clerides must first change his mentality.

Denktash added that direct talks are not being ruled out, provided that the realities which will emerge from Geneva, are so specific that they will warrant the direct talks.

He once again put forth his insistence and his intransigent positions about sovereignty, equality, recognition of his pseudostate and about Turkish guarantees.

The Turkish Cypriot leader said he is satisfied with the progress in the Geneva talks, because, he added, he was given the opportunity to explain the problem and to be heard.

[04] TALAT

In an interview with "Kipris," Talat said that the accession of Cyprus to the EU and a Cyprus solution are two parallel cases.

He added that it is impossible for the Turkish Cypriots to remain out of the EU processes./

[05] STOCK EXCHANGE

The general price index showed a marginal rise and closed at 637.80 units by comparison to 6636.60, yesterday.

The amount of transactions reached 29.6 million pounds, in other words remaining at about yesterday's levels.

In reference to specific indexes, there was a rise in investment and insurance organisations as well as in general interest companies.

There was a drop in bank shares, despite that a slight rise was shown at the start of the meeting.

In statements to the CyBC brokers said that despite considerable liquidations, today, the market was kept close to 30 million pounds. This they added, indicates that institutional investors have joined the market.

[06] ISRAEL LEBANON

Tens of thousands of Israelis took to bomb shelters in northern Israel in anticipation of possible Hizbollah retaliatory rocket attacks.

Ben-Ami said the real aim of the operation was to restore proper conditions for the resumption of Israeli-Syrian land-for-peace talks, which have stalled over the key issue of Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights.

"Israel really cannot allow the situation whereby the Hizbollah has become some kind of strategic arm of Syria precisely at the moment when we are in the middle of a delicate peace process," Ben-Ami said.

[07] BULATOVIC

"The Serbian police will once again have to try to solve yet another murder with a political connotation and which could have severe political repercussions," the independent VIP newsletter said on Tuesday.

It was not clear whether the murder had a political motive.

It came only a few weeks after the January 15 killing of feared Serb warlord Zeljko "Arkan" Raznatovic in a hail of bullets in a BelgrThe Yugoslav opposition said Serbia was falling into ade hotel.

The two killings add new names to a growing list of mostly unsolved murders of politicians, businessmen and senior police officers in Belgrade over the last decade which have coincided with the violent collapse of old socialist Yugoslavia.

[08] MESIC

Mesic scored a comprehensive victory in the country's presidential election, ending an extraordinary two months for Croatia, that has seen it's political landscape changed after the death of the autocratic Franjio Tudjman in December.

The West shunned Croatia during the last few months of Tudjman's rule for it''s interference in the affairs of neighboring Bosnia and for refusing to cooperate with the UN War Crimes tribunal.

Mesic, who was the last person to hold the rotating presidency of the former Yugoslavia in 1991, before it broke up, has promised to change all that.

[09] AFGHAN HIJACK

Police spokeswoman Kim White said that during the night medicine for the stomach ailments, possibly diarrhoea, was sent to the Boeing 727, which was crammed with 157 people. " The Ariana Airlines plane was hijacked on Sunday morning shortly after taking off from Kabul on a domestic flight.

More than 20 passengers were let off during stops at Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan, the northern Kazakh town of Aktyubinsk and Moscow, before the plane landed at Stansted on the outskirts of London at 0200 GMT on Monday.

Eight more passengers won their freedom at Stansted.

White said the hijackers briefly broke off negotiations shortly before dawn, apparently weary after negotiating non-stop for 25 of the 28 hours since the plane landed.

"We sensed they were getting a little tired," she said of the break in negotiations.

Talks have since resumed.

Marksmen and other camouflaged security forces, including Britain's famed SAS soldiers, were near the plane but well out of sight.

[10] BURGLARIES

Among places hit was the Home Financing Organisation where an attempt was made to break into strong safes which contained over 100 thousand pounds.

Police said that unknown persons forced the rear door of the establishment and then attempted to force the ssafes.

Police added that in their failure the culprits stole numbers of notes from collection boxes of the Cancer Association. Varioius desk drawers were also forced but first indicatuions showed that nothing was missing.

Unknown persons last night also stole the cash register iof a pharmacy owned by Anna Papaharalambous on Kennedy Ave., , as well as small cash amount from the pharmacy of the Confederation of Cypriot Workers on Stasikratous Street. A kiosk was also robbed on Kennedy Ave. The Criminal Investigation Department is in charge of the cases.

[11] WEATHER

Clear conditions will continue this afternoon with some local passing cloud. Winds will be North Easterly to South Easterly moderate and the sea will be slight. Generally clear conditions will continue this evening with North Easterly light winds and a moderate sea. Temperatures will drop top 2 C inland, 4 C on the coasts and minus 2 C over the higher mountains. Ice will form in many areas. There are 35 centimeters of snow on Mount Olympus and 30 centimeters on troodos Square.

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