Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English, 03-08-25

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

CONTENTS

[01] HEADLINES

[02] PRESIDENT SPEECH

[03] TASSOS STATEMENTS

[04] INDIA BLASTS

[05] MIDEAST

[06] IRAQ

[07] CHINA

[08] SPACE TELESCOPE

[09] WEATHER Monday 25/8/03

[01] HEADLINES

--President Papadopoulos also said that if parties which support the Denktash regime in the north win the so called "elections" in occupied areas in December, then there are no prospects for a Cyprus settlement.

--The Cyprus problem and the issues that the overseas Cypriots face are at the epicentre of the 13th World Conference of Overseas Cypriots, which opened in Nicosia this morning.

And,

-- At least 25 people were killed in two bomb explosions in India's financial capital Bombay today.

[02] PRESIDENT SPEECH

Declaring the opening of the deliberations of the 13th Conference of the World Federation of Cypriots in Nicosia, President Papadopoulos said he will purus changes to the Annan Plan which will allow not only its formal compliance with the acquis communautaire but will also allow Cyprus substantially participate in decision making in Europe.

He also expressed certainty that negotiations for a Cyprus settlement will take place, President Papadopoulos also assured that the GReek Cypriot side will not pursue fundamental changes to the Annna Plan but only changes that will be to the benefit of both sides in Cyprus, without removing the rights of Turkish Cypriots.

President Papadopoulos said "we are in a hurry for a functional and viable solution but should not be dragged to a fragile settlement because that would lead to devastating circumstances".

[03] TASSOS STATEMENTS

He explained that Rauf Denktash will try to implement his vision for separate entities, something which is a nightmare for the Greek Cypriot side. He also said that Ankara is the negotiator and that it stance shows that Ankara supports the Denktash policy.

President Papadopoulos also confimed the existence of a letter by a Greek Cypriot refugee who claims that he represents 200 more people, and is threatening that if the government does not freeze the loans of the refugees, then he will resort to Denktash for compensation.

The president said the loans issue will be examined, although he stressed he is not obliged to respond to a letter which demands compensation in foreign currency. POMAK STARTS

The Cyprus problem and the issues that the overseas Cypriots face are at the epicentre of the 13th World Conference of Overseas Cypriots, which opened in Nicosia this morning.

Foreign Minister George Iacovou, in his speech, thanked the overseas Cypriots for their work in promoting the Cyprus problem and keeping the interest on the issue alive.

However, he said, efforts to end the unaccfeptable international illegality in Cyprus still face problems because of the intransigent position of the Turkish side.

He said the struggle will only end with the island's reunification and accession to the European Union.

The opening ceremony was also addressed by the World Council of Hellenes, Andrew Athens and World Coordinating committee - Justice for Cyprus, Philip Christopher, as well as political party leaders or representatives.

The Greek Government is represented by Deputy Foreign Minister, Ioannis Mangriotis, who assured that Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash's efforts to remove the negotiations from the UN with the announcement of so called "confidence building measures" will not find any response.

He also said that the greek and Cyprus governments are united on this issue and that the choices of the political leadership wioll not change.

[04] INDIA BLASTS

Police told Reuters more than 100 were injured.

A state home ministry official told Reuters that he was unsure if all four explosions were caused by bombs.

[05] MIDEAST

In the latest such strike, Israel killed a commander and three other members of Hamas's armed wing in the Gaza Strip yesterday, accusing the Palestinian Authority of failing to crack down on militants as mandated by the "road map" peace plan.

U.S. President George W. Bush has responded to a surge in tit-for-tat violence and the collapse of a seven-week-old truce by stepping up calls for Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to dismantle militant groups.

Palestinian security forces under his control have begun sealing weapons smuggling tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip and have arrested several militants -- moves which Israel dismissed as superficial.

Hamas's spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said Israel would "pay the price" for killing members of his group.

[06] IRAQ

Carrying posters of Ayatollah Mohammed Saeed al-Hakim, who suffered light neck wounds in yesterday's bombing, some blamed the attack on supporters of rival Shi'ite leader Moqtada al Sadr and called for revenge.

Power struggles in Najaf are a key influence on the political future of majority Shi'ite Iraq.

The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the country's main Shi'ite groups but criticised by some Shi'ites for cooperating with the U.S.-led administration in Baghdad, said it was the target of the attack.

In Beirut, the Shi'ite Muslim guerrilla group Hizbollah, which is a fixture on a U.S. list of "terrorist" groups, condemned the bomb attack as a "very serious development".

[07] CHINA

A disaster-relief official in Haikou, capital of Hainan province said the typhoon has cut power supply in a large area of Haikou and due to the power cut, some high residential buildings have no water.

Local officials said they were investigating the extent of damage to buildings and crops but had received no reports of deaths since the typhoon made landfall early today.

Hainan is a centre of tourism and a big rubber and sugar producer.

Typhoon Krovanh, named after a Cambodian tree, is the most powerful cyclone in the region this year with winds at the epicentre monitored at force 12, equivalent to 35 metres per second.

[08] SPACE TELESCOPE

Lift off of the Boeing Delta II rocket carrying the 700 million dollar satellite came at 0535 GMT.

Dave Gallagher, NASA's mission project manager said the expectation is to really revolutionize the understanding of the universe by looking in a completely new low length spectrum.

From failed stars that never turned on, to the galaxy's own dust-shrouded heart, the Space Infra Red Telescope Facility will look into the dark, cold corners of the universe, making itself sensitive to the faintest heat signatures by cooling its own instruments to just a degree or two above absolute zero.

SIRTF is the last of NASA's so-called Great Observatories. When combined with the Hubble Space Telescope, which sees in the visible light spectrum, and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, astronomers will get their most complete view yet of matter and energy near the edge of the known universe.

[09] WEATHER

Tonight, the weather will be clea with thin mist. Winds will be south-westerly to westerly light to moderate, three to four beaufort becoming westerly to north-westerly light two to three beaufort. The sea will be calm to slight. Temperatures will fall to 21 C inland and on the coasts and 18 over the mountains.

The fire hazard remains extremely high in all forest areas.

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