Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English, 03-07-30

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

CONTENTS

[01] HEADLINES

[02] BOUCHER DEMINING

[03] TALAT

[04] CHECHNYA

[05] PHILIPPINES

[06] INDIA

[07] IRAN JOURNALIST

[08] STABBINGS BRITONS

[09] WEATHER Thursday 30/07/2003

[01] HEADLINES

-- Republican Turkish Party leader, Mehmet Ali Talat claimed President fo the Republic Tassos Papadopoulos and his associates continue to maintain a hard stance on Turkish cypriots.

-- A bomb struck a Russian troop convoy near Chechnya, killing five soldiers, officials said today as Moscow announced a tactical change in its campaign to crush a decade of separatist insurrection.

And,

--Iran's Vice-President Mohammad Ali Abtahi said today Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died in custody in Iran this month, was probably murdered.

[02] BOUCHER DEMINING

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said ''removing the dangers that are posed by existing minefields could make an important contribution toward improving the atmosphere on the island, in particular by improving the safety with which Cypriots may cross the 'Green Line'.''

He noted however that confidence-building measures are not a substitute for a comprehensive settlement.

[03] TALAT

In an interview with Turkish Jumhuriet, Mr. Talat said Turkish Cypriots want a solution to the Cyprus problem and accession to the EUY.

He said if he wins the so called "elections" in the occupied areas in December, then Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash will be relieved of his duties as interlocutor and that Mr. Talat will appeal for talks based on the Annan plan, after he negotiates with the Turkish government.

[04] CHECHNYA

The blast last night in Ingushetia, a Russian region on Chechnya's western border, killed four soldiers immediately. A fifth died of his wounds in hospital today.

A spokesman for Ingushetia's interior ministry said the explosion hit the first of two trucks crossing a bridge near Galashki village. Russian news agencies said another military truck was hit by an explosion southeast of Grozny, Chechnya's regional capital, with one soldier wounded.

The blasts were typical of hit-and-run attacks on forces in and near Chechnya as the region gears up for presidential elections, the next stage of President Vladimir Putin's plan to restore peace while rejecting talks with separatists.

[05] PHILIPPINES

The resignation of Brigadier-General Victor Corpus, a former communist rebel leader who became the chief of the military's top espionage body, was among the demands made by renegade troops after they seized a Manila hotel in a 19-hour uprising on Sunday.

National Security Adviser Roilo Golez denied the departure of Corpus was in response to the soldiers' demands, telling local television it had been considered for a month.

"The current political crisis is far from finished," the general said in his resignation letter to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The renegade soldiers accused Mr. Corpus and Defence Secretary Angelo Reyes of staging some recent bombings on the southern island of Mindanao and then putting the blame on Muslim rebels to garner more military aid from the United States.

Mr. Reyes and Mr. Corpus denied the allegations.

[06] INDIA

The explosion, which ripped through a bus in a northeastern suburb of Bombay on Monday, killed two people and wounded 47, in the latest in a series of blasts in the city since December.

Police have blamed the blast on an outlawed Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Hundreds of activists from Shiv Sena and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fanned out across the city from dawn, squatting on railway tracks, pelting buses with stones and blocking private vehicles on busy highways.

The Shiv Sena and the BJP, the main opposition groups in Maharashtra, called the strike to protest at what they said was the state government's failure to prevent bombings in Bombay, the state capital with a population of nearly 13 million people.

[07] IRAN JOURNALIST

The vice president said the high possibility is that her murder was caused by a haemorrhage caused by a blow to the head. It was the first public admission by an Iranian official that Kazemi, who died on July 10 more than two weeks after her arrest, was probably killed while in custody.

An initial government inquiry found that Kazemi died of a brain haemorrhage caused by a blow to the skull. But it did not establish whether the blow was deliberate or who may have caused it. Further investigations are under way and five security agents have been detained in connection with the case.

Kazemi's mother was quoted on Wednesday as saying she buried her daughter in Iran against her will.

The burial of Kazemi, a Montreal-based photojournalist of Iranian descent, has caused a diplomatic storm between Tehran and Ottawa, which wanted her body returned to Canada.

[08] STABBINGS BRITONS

Gaston is being treated at a Paralimni clinic. Police arrested two britons who were due to appear before Famagusta District court.

A third Briton is wanted by the police.

[09] WEATHER

tonight the weather will be clear but thin mist and low cloud will form over coastal areas. Winds will be westerly to north-westerly light, three beaufort and the sea slight. Temperatures will fall to 25 C inland 23 C on the south coast, 20 C on the west and 18 over the mountains.

The fire hazard remains extremely high in all forest areas.

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