Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English, 01-08-24

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

CONTENTS

[01] headlines

[02] taxes

[03] turks

[04] malta

[05] liasides

[06] mideast

[07] macedonia

[08] satellite

[09] accident

[10] kinnis

[11] road

[12] weather FRIDAY 24 AUGUST 2001

[01] headlines

A Turkish delegation travelled to the occupied area yesterday for consultations with Rauf Denktash ahead of the Turkish Cypriot leader's meeting with the UN chief next week,

Israeli forces thrust deep into Hebron in retaliation for an attack that wounded an 11 year old boy,

CyTA has six weeks to make up its mind if it wants part of the new Cyprus-Greece satellite joint venture,

and a Limassol couple were hurt in car accident on the Limassol-Platres road.

[02] taxes

Finance Minister Takis Clerides, EU accession negotiation team chief George Vassiliou and other officials will tackle the difficult issue of bridging the taxation gap between the offshore sector and other companies.

EU accession will mean the end of a two-tier taxation system for offshore and other companies.

Offshore companies currently enjoy less stringent taxation, but the ammendments will scrap this and will group all companies under the same taxation scheme.

George Vassiliou said this will be a very important, but an equally difficult task because offshore companies have a vital role to play in the Cyprus economy.

He added that hasty legal changes should be avoided so as not to impact the sector and cut off an important source of revenue for the government.

Vassiliou said time is working against the govenrment because the taxation chapter has to be closed this year.

The Finance Minister said efforts are focused on keeping Cyprus as an attractive and reputable centre for offshore business even after EU accession.

[03] turks

According to the Turkish Cypriot press, leading the delegation is Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Farouk Lologlu who, on his arrival to the occupied north, said that Turkey will not permit any development which would run counter to Turkish Cypriot interests.

Referring to an agreement based on what he called present realities, Lologlu claimed that Ankara and Denktash see eye to eye on the Cyprus issue.

Denktash departs for Salzburg this coming Sunday for his meeting with Annan.

The meeting will take place on Tuesday, but Denktash will hold talks a day earlier with EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Ferheugen.

[04] malta

Both Dhali and Papadopoulos, as chairman of the House European Affairs committee, stressed the need for cooperation between the two countries before and after European Union accession.

Dhali expressed the wish that Malta and Cyprus pass through the accession threshold together.

[05] liasides

Referring to the government's positions on the Cyprus issue, Liasides told Hollingworth that Austrialia is an outstanding example of a federal political structure in which all citizens, irrespective of race, creed, colour or religion live together in harmony.

On his part, Hollingworth expressed the wish that the Cyprus issue is resolved, stressing that people with different faiths and belonging to different ethnic groups must co-exist within a state as equal citizens, but at the same time maintain their own traditions and religious practices.

[06] mideast

The overnight incursion into Abu Sneineh, a strategic rise from which gunmen fire on Jewish settlements in the heart of the divided city, cast further doubt on fragile efforts to arrange talks on a truce in nearly 11 months of fighting.

Aides to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat branded the assault an act of aggression by the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and vowed to step up the uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army, which withdrew after three hours, said the two houses had been used by Palestinian snipers and warned it might permanently occupy the area if shooting persisted.

It conducted the raid after a bullet fired from Abu Sneineh injured an off-duty soldier, the son of a settler family, and then carried on to wound his 11-year-old brother.

[07] macedonia

NATO's 3,500-strong force is slowly assembling in the ex-Yugoslav republic and is due to flesh out its plan to oversee disarmament under a precarious peace plan later in the day. The government is likely to accept its collection target.

Determined not to get stuck in another indefinite, costly peacekeeping mission as in Bosnia or Kosovo, NATO set a strict 30-day deadline for the rebels to disarm, starting next week.

But critics say the mandate is not long or robust enough to overcome ethnic distrust and enmity.

Echoing their suspicions, Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the West for failing to stop a flow of weapons to the rebels from neighbouring Kosovo in the first place.

Speaking in Kiev, he urged NATO to take tougher action, saying the rebels should be made to understand "they are up against not the imitation of force but its actual use."

[08] satellite

Communications Minister Averof Neophytou said the if the Authority decides to jump on board, then it will gain a 10 percent share in the venture.

Cyprus and Greece yesterday signed an agreement to launch a communications satellite into orbit.

[09] accident

53-year-old Andreas Angeli and his 48-year-old wife Maria were taken to Limassol General Hospital for treatment.

The woman underwent emergency surgery for a ruptured spleen and her condition is listed as serious.

[10] kinnis

New leads prompted police search units to comb through remote, dry wells and pits in the mountainous area between the villages of Fasoula, Paramytha and Spitali.

Limassol police chief Charalambos Koulentis told the CyBC that he is optimistic that the search will be successful and that the ordeal of the missing man's family will come to an end.

[11] road

Coming at a cost of one million pounds, Neophytou said the road is just a small example of how firmly Cyprus has set its sights on Europe by assiduously upgrading its infrastructure.

Neophytou added that road-worthiness tests on cars over four years of age will come into effect as of September.

[12] weather

Seas will be moderate on the southern coast.

More fine conditions tonight with fog patches in some areas.

Winds will be northwesterly light, 3 beaufort with slight seas.

Temperatures will drop to 23 degrees inland and the southern coast, 21 on the western coast and 18 in the highest mountains.

A reminder that the fire hazard is extreme in all forest areas.

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