Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English, 01-03-16

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

[02] Students fight

[03] Papapetrou Students

[04] Saudi Hijack

[05] Casoulides Maude

[06] Student Accident

[07] Limassol arrest

[08] European Cyprus

[09] Mideast wrap

[10] Iraq explosion

[11] Oil Rig

[12] Tailer

[13] EAC POWER FRIDAY 16 MARCH 2001

[01] HEADLINES

Out-school thugs entered university grounds and came to blows with students belonging to the Agonas and Proodeytiki blocs,

Saudi security forces today stormed a Russian plane hijacked by three men believed to be Chechens.

According to Russian officials, a turkish passenger, a female flight attendant and a hijacker were killed.

Several passengers were injured,

British Conservative party shadow foreign minister Francis Maude, today said that Cyprus should be in the so-called first wave of European Union enlargement, that will take place not later than 2004,

and

For want of a dollar, 7.9 million dollars were lost. A 22-year-old Utah man failed to put a dollar coin into a Wendover, Nevada slot machine and it cost him a jackpot worth 7.96 million.

[02] Students fight

Thugs entered university grounds and came to blows with students belonging to the Agonas and Proodeyftiki blocs.

A student was injured and is being treated at the Nicosia General Hospital.

The student was reportedly punched and kicked, even while lying helpless on the ground, after being attacked.

It was also reported that far-right elements organised the attack, shooting insulting slogans.

The Protoporia bloc president Dimitris Pitsillis claimed that the violence was caused by students of AFE and OPEK blocs, affiliated to the New Horizons party.

Proodeftiki bloc president Petros Kleanthous said that the attack was part of an organised plan, with the purpose of shifting attention from his bloc's success in the elections as well as Protoporia's loss in percentages.

Police, entered university grounds, after permission from the dean, and broke up the scuffles.

[03] Papapetrou Students

He said the clashes were caused by ultra-national, anti-federal elements.

Papapetrou expressed the hope that the Student Movement will protect the principles of healthy student unionism.

[04] Saudi Hijack

According to Russian officials, a turkish passenger, a female flight attendant and a hijacker were killed.

Several passengers were injured.

The hijackers commandeered the Tupolev 154 aircraft after taking off yesterday from Constantinople on a flight to Moscow.

The plane was carrying 162 passengers and 12 crew.

Saudi and Russian officials had said that up to 47 hostages had been released or escaped earlier. The hijackers were demanding that Russia end its campaign against rebels in its breakaway province of Chechnya.

Russian president Vladimir Putin was informed of the successful Saudi operation.

[05] Casoulides Maude

Speaking after a meeting with Foreign Minister Ioannis Casoulides, Maude said that he discussed the future role that the Commonwealth can play inside the EU, after Cyprus and Malta join.

Maude added that the member-states of the Commonwealth, form thirty percent of the world's population and therefore can play an important role, within the globalisation framework.

The British shadow foreign minister said that Panikos Tsiakkourmas should be immediately released by turkish forces in occupied North Cyprus and stressed that his arrest by a regime which is not recognised internationally, was illegal.

[06] Student Accident

A second fifteen-year old, Melina Fournidou, also in the car, suffered serious injuries and is being treated at Paphos hospital.

The accident happened around eight last night in the Argaka-Ayia Marina Chrysochus road.

The double-cabin car Maria was driving, overturned.

Police are investigating the cause of the accident.

[07] Limassol arrest

Pouzouros is reported to have differences with a man, that has repeatedly been involved in illegal activities.

According to our correspondents' sources in Limassol, Pouzouros has, in the recent past, fallen victim to blackmail by an illegal ring that wanted to sell protection to the tune of fifty thousand pounds.

Pouzouros was beaten up when he refused to succumb to their demands.

[08] European Cyprus

The Committee, currently in Cyprus, after a DISY invitation, will visit National Guard military installations.

[09] Mideast wrap

Security was tight after Palestinian groups called for protests to maintain pressure on Israel to relax restrictions imposed since the start of an uprising against Israeli occupation in late September.

Israel says it has already started easing the clampdown, which it says was imposed to prevent attacks, but Palestinian leaders say the changes have been only cosmetic and that the plight of ordinary Palestinians remains difficult.

The Palestinians have been challenging the roadblocks guarded by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and today they were expected to march towards the army checkpoints.

[10] Iraq explosion

The Iraqi news agency quoted a security source as saying that a highly explosive device was planted by "agents of treachery and vice" between two buses at a garage.

The blast -- the second in Baghdad in a month, occurred just after midnight.

An explosion shook the same area of Baghdad on February 25, injuring one person and damaging residential buildings.

Iraq had blamed its former Gulf War foe Iran for several bombings in the past, including a rocket attack on residential districts in Baghdad in September.

But Iraqi officials and media have intensified their diatribes against the United States and Israel following last month's air raids against radar and military communications sites near Baghdad.

[11] Oil Rig

Three explosions ripped through the rig off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, the latest in a series of embarrassing accidents to plague Petrobras.

Authorities at Petrobras said the 350 million dollar platform, the world's largest in terms of capacity, could yet sink.

It was not immediately clear what caused the blasts at the platform, located in the Roncador oil field 78 miles, offshore in the Campos Basin, which produces more than three quarters of Brazil's crude oil.

Some 175 people were on the rig at the time of the first explosion.

The P-36 rig can produce up to 180 thousand barrels of crude oil per day but after starting operations last year, it was only pumping out 80,000 barrels per day, or 5 percent of Brazil's output.

[12] Tailer

Instead he walked away with a $10,000 consolation prize.

It all happened on Wednesday morning at the State Line Hotel and Casino just across the Utah state line.

Kirk Tolman, a steel worker from a Salt Lake City suburb, was playing at a three-coin Megabucks jackpot machine and talking to a friend when the unexpected happened and a row of "Megabucks" signs came up after the wheels stopped spinning.

Frank said he was notified about a big winner and went out to meet the lucky player.

He seemed somewhat chagrined, but not as morose as I would have been. He said he always plays three coins but wasn't paying attention because he was there with his friend.

[13] EAC POWER

According to the electricity authority, the failure is due to a malfunction in a high-voltage cable.

Efforts are under way to restore supply as soo nas possible.

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