Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English, 03-10-27

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

CONTENTS

[01] HEADLINES

[02] IRAQ BLAST

[03] MIDEAST

[04] KOREA TALKS

[05] GUATEMALA-JOURNALISTS

[06] WEATHER THAILAND

[07] PERDIKIS ANTENNA

[08] BASES SPOKESMAN

[09] GREECE CYPRUS AGRI

[10] WEATHER DEYTERA 27/10/03

[01] HEADLINES

The blasts came after three U.S. soldiers were killed in separate attacks overnight. At least two of the morning explosions appeared to have been suicide bombings, one using a vehicle marked as an ambulance.

-- North Korea, having hinted it might be ready for fresh talks on its nuclear intentions, has offered to show a group of U.S. legislators how it makes weapons-grade plutonium.

-- The Ecologists-Environmentalists Movement are scheduling to take dynamic action in reaction to the installation and operation of the British Bases antenna at Akrotiri.

And -- The heads of the Agriculture ministries of Greece and Cyprus, George Dris and Timis Efthimiou respectively, signed a two-year cooperation programme between their ministries.

[02] IRAQ BLAST

The blasts came after three U.S. soldiers were killed in separate attacks overnight. At least two of the morning explosions appeared to have been suicide bombings, one using a vehicle marked as an ambulance.

The explosions plunged the city, swept by sirens and smoke, into fear and chaos on the first day of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The onslaught "is not only criminal, it's sacrilegious," U.S. Brigadier General Mark Hertling told reporters.

Booms echoed across the capital a day after guerrillas rocketed a heavily guarded Baghdad hotel where U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz was staying, killing a U.S. soldier and wounding 17 people. Wolfowitz was unhurt.

The suicide attack on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) headquarters in central Baghdad killed 10 people and wounded at least 15.

One witness said the bomb appeared to have been packed into an ambulance. Most of the casualties are Iraqis. The ICRC cut its foreign staff from more than 100 to about 30 after a Sri Lankan technician was shot dead in July and after a suicide bomber devastated the U.N. headquarters in August, killing 22 people including U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

In the northeast of Baghdad, eight people were killed in a blast near a police station.

Overnight, three U.S. soldiers were killed, one in a mortar attack in Abu Ghraib, in Baghdad's western outskirts, and two in a roadside bomb blast in the city, the U.S. military said.

The deaths brought to 112 the number of American soldiers killed in hostile action in Iraq since President George W. Bush declared major combat over on May 1.

[03] MIDEAST

The man was killed after failing to heed calls to stop when he was spotted before dawn in an area off-limits to Palestinians about 150 metres from the fence that divides the Gaza Strip from Israel.

Soldiers arrested four other Palestinians who were with him and were questioning them. Palestinian medical officials said the army had informed them of the shooting and they expected the army to transfer the body to them later in the day.

The incident occurred near Kibbutz Nahal Oz, on the Israel-Gaza border, where Palestinians planted an anti-tank land mine earlier this month and tried to carry out a suicide bombing last week.

[04] KOREA TALKS

But the bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation, which had been due to leave for the communist state yesterday, called off the trip at the last minute, citing opposition from the White House.

China, which hosted a first round of multi-party talks on the nuclear crisis in August and sends a senior envoy to Pyongyang on Wednesday, meanwhile, praised North Korea for showing a willingness to consider a U.S. offer of security guarantees.

"China appreciates the positive gesture of North Korea," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said in a statement on the ministry Web site after what was a significant weekend shift by the North in the year-old crisis.

[05] GUATEMALA-JOURNALISTS

The director of the Prensa Libre newspaper, which employed all four of the journalists, said two of them were seized at a demonstration in the western highlands and the other two were taken when they flew in by helicopter with human rights officials in a bid to win the others' release.

One of the captured journalists, photographer Mario Linares, worked occasionally for Reuters.

Police said the ex-paramilitaries were demanding payment for helping Guatemala's security forces during a 36-year civil war that finally ended with peace accords in 1996.

[06] WEATHER THAILAND

At least 200,000 people have been affected in eight provinces. More than 1,600 people were evacuated from homes inundated by up to two metres of roof-high water.

The officials said the floodwaters cut nearly 1,000 roads and disrupted rail traffic between central and southern Thailand.

A schoolboy slipped and drowned in fast-running water in Petchaburi on Friday and rescue workers were still searching for his body.

About 20 Thai and Cambodian fishermen have been missing since last week after two trawlers were hit by storms and capsized in the Gulf of Thailand.

[07] PERDIKIS ANTENNA

The movement's deputy, George Perdikis, said that the Ecologists are ending the period in which they avoided action that might cause tension between Cyprus and Britain.

He said if there is a crisis, then the ones responsible are those who did not take the diplomatic steps suggested by the movement.

[08] BASES SPOKESMAN

Speaking to journalists, he said construction is almost completed and in a few weeks testing will gradually begin until the antenna's full operation.

He said a special machine has been granted to the Akrotiri community which can monitor the emissions in the environment.

[09] GREECE CYPRUS AGRI

It includes informing and exchange of visits.

During the signing ceremony, Mr. Efthimiou thanked the greek government and ministry of agriculture for the invaluable help it offered to the island's accession negotiations.

He also said that Greece's experiences will help towards the efforts and provocations which Cyprus has before it.

Mr. Dris said his ministry will make available its expertise for better adjustment of Cyprus with the acquis communautaire.

He also said there are many common elements, as well as products and common culture between the two countries that should be exploited.

[10] WEATHER

Temperatures will reach 28 C inland and on the south coast, 27 on the west and 19 over the mountains.

Tonight there will be increased cloud. Winds will remain south-westerly to westerly moderate, four beaufort and the sea moderate to rough. Temperatures will fall to 17 C inland and on the east coast, 20 over the west and north and 14 ovewr the mountains.

The fire hazard is extremely high in all forest areas.

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