Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English, 03-10-29

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

CONTENTS

[01] HEADLINES

[02] RUSSIA MINE BLAST

[03] RUSSIA MINERS

[04] MIDEAST

[05] POWELL IRA1

[06] SUDAN

[07] BRITAIN CONSERVATIVES

[08] ISRAEL ELECTIONS

[09] GUL

[10] TALAT REAX

[11] WEATHER WEDNESDAY 29/10/03

[01] HEADLINES

-- Eleven Russian miners, trapped for nearly a week after a giant underground lake burst into their shaft in southern Russia, have been found alive.

One was dead and another was still missing.

-- Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian and wounded another today near Israel's boundary with the Gaza Strip.

And

--Interior Minister Andreas Christou and Democratic Rally chairman Nicos Anastasiades, described as "unfortunate" statements made yesterday by Republican Turkish Party leader Mehmet Ali Talat on the arrest of four students which crossed to the free areas.

[02] RUSSIA MINE BLAST

During the methane blast 71 miners were underground. Five were killed, and all the others were rescued but one was in critical condition.

The coal mine is in the town of Partizansk, some 130 km from the city of Vladivostok on Russia's Pacific coast.

[03] RUSSIA MINERS

One was dead and another was still missing.

A Reuters correspondent saw 10 exhausted miners, their faces pitch black and hair covered in grime, emerge from the shaft man after man -- some wrapped in blankets, some on stretchers, and some smiling broadly as relatives cried out their names.

Rescuers have yet to bring to the surface the remaining miner found alive in Zapadnaya-Kapitalnaya shaft in Novoshakhtinsk, a small town near the Ukrainian border about 1,000 km south of Moscow.

[04] MIDEAST

Soldiers opened fire after two Palestinians entered an off-limits area used in the past by gunmen to launch attacks on troops or to try and infiltrate Israel.

Palestinian security officials said Israel had informed them of the death and had handed the body over, while the second Palestinian was hospitalised.

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

A sixteen year old boy died today from wounds ge sustained in an Israeli air strike on October 20. The attack killed 12 Palestinians, both militants and civilians.

[05] POWELL IRA1

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Mr. Powell would encourage the people to stay there and do the important work that they have been doing.

The attack on the Red Cross headquarters killed 10 to 12 people. It was one of four suicide bombings that killed 35 people and wounded 230 on Monday. The organization has said it will review its presence in Iraq.

[06] SUDAN

A statement said the 11 members of the armed forces, a student and crew of eight, also military personnel, were killed when the helicopter crashed on Tuesday near the region of Umm Saiyala, 270 km southwest of Khartoum.

The statement did not identify the type of helicopter.

[07] BRITAIN CONSERVATIVES

The man in the firing line is Iain Duncan Smith, 49, widely regarded as one of the most ineffective and uninspiring leaders in the history of a party whose former icons include towering figures like Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.

Lampooned in newspapers for his weak oratory -- and even likened in one to Iraq's "Comical Ali" for his inability to accept the seemingly inevitable -- Mr. Duncan Smith made a last plea to his few followers, urging them not to oust him in a no-confidence vote later today.

Mr. Duncan Smith said a new leadership battle risked ripping apart the party which dominated 20th Century British politics, rendering it unelectable for years.

He stands accused of failing to capitalise on a terrible year for Mr. Blair, whose public trust ratings have plunged after waging war on Iraq.

[08] ISRAEL ELECTIONS

The results did not affect Likud's dominance on the national level where Mr. Sharon's tough security policies against Palestinian militants are popular. He does not face another vote until 2007.

But yesterday's municipal polling attested to growing dissatisfaction on bread-and-butter issues, despite a low turnout of around 40 percent.

Run-off votes were scheduled in 10 municipalities because no candidate managed to win over 40 percent of the vote.

[09] GUL

Speaking after a meeting with the group which is monitoring the reforms in the country, Mr. Gul said the reforms are being appreciated by all members of the EU, something which Enlargement Commissioner Gunter Verheugen confirms too.

He said the progress report on Turkey will be positive, noting that Turkey has still some obligations to fulfil before the deadline expires.

[10] TALAT REAX

Mr. Christou said it was inappropriate for Mr. Talat to rank President Tassos Papadopoulos with Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash. He cautioned Mr. Talat noting that the rights of the Republic of Cyprus should never be questioned adding he appreciates that there are so called "elections" in the occupied areas.

Mr. Anastasiades said that President Papadopoulos cannot act like a detective and deal with theser kind of issues.

[11] WEATHER

Tonight the weather will remain clear. Winds will be north-westerly light to moderate, three to four beaufort, becoming light, three beaufort. The sea will be slight. Temperatures will fall to six degrees inland and nine on the coasts and one over the mountains with frost forming.

The fire hazard remains high in all forest areas.

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