Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English, 03-11-26

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

CONTENTS

[01] HEADLINES

[02] PAPS ATHENS

[03] TITINA PAYMENT

[04] OCCUPIED AREAS

[05] GEORGIA

[06] IRAQ

[07] SAUDI EXPLOSIVES

[08] GREECE HUNGER STRIKE

[09] WEATHER WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2003

[01] HEADLINES

--The Athens News Agency is reporting from Ankara that Turkey paid the compensation the European Court of Human Rights had ruled in the case of Titina Loizidou for depriving her the right to enjoy her property in the occupied areas.

--The so called "high election council" in the illegal regime announced today that the registered voters for the 14 December have reached one hundred and fourty-one thousand four hundred and seventy.

-- Georgia's Mikhail Saakashvili, nominated today by the country's new leadership as their sole candidate in January 4 presidential elections, said he expected to triumph in the polls

And

--Britain's foreign secretary said today a swifter transfer of power to Iraqis would improve security, hours after guerrillas fired rockets at the Baghdad compound where he was staying.

[02] PAPS ATHENS

The talks were expected to focus on developments in the Cyprus problem and Cyprus' entry into the European Union.

President Papadopoulos is accompanied by Foreign Minister Giorgos Iacovou, Unndersecretary to the President Christodoulos Pashiardis, Government Spokesman Kypros Chrisostomides and Director of the President's Diplomatic Office Tasos Tzionis.

Premier Simitis and his wife Daphne, will host a working lunch in honour of Cyprus President and First Lady Fotini.

In the afternoon President Papadopoulos will have separate meetings with New Democracy Party leader Constantinos Karamanlis, President of Coalition of Left, Movements and Ecology, Nicos Konstantopoulos, and representative of Greek Communist Party Orestis Kolozof.

Earlier in the afternoon Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyiani will award the Cyprus President the Golden Medal of Value of the City of Athens.

President Papadopoulos concludes his official visit tomorrow.

[03] TITINA PAYMENT

The agency's correspondent in Strasbourg reported that Turkey's permament representative at the CoE paid one million and a hundred throusand dollars including interest from the day the court had made the ruling, since Turkey had refused to comply.

The CoE Secretariat however has not confirmed the reports from Ankara. A high ranking Cypriot diplomat in Strasbourg said he had asked the secretariat and got a negative response.

Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said the government has no official confirmation from Strasbourg that the money has been paid.

[04] OCCUPIED AREAS

Council chairman Taner Erginel said that those who were not staying in the addresses they had stated have been removed from the lists.

He said that from September when the number of registered voters was 137 thousand five hundred, a total of four thousand new voters were registered.

He also said that foreigners are showing great interest for the elections and many have asked to monitor them.

[05] GEORGIA

He told supporters inside parliament that he is ready for victory in the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.

Mr. Saakashvili, a U.S.-educated lawyer, was the driving force of the people-power revolution that toppled former President Eduard Shevardnadze.

[06] IRAQ

Jack Straw, on a previously unannounced visit, told reporters he had been unaware of the blasts that echoed across Baghdad last night, when loudspeakers in the sprawling compound of the U.S.-British administration sounded an alarm.

"Attack. Take cover. This is not a test," blared loudspeakers at the compound in one of Saddam Hussein's former palace complexes. Sirens wailed, flares lit up the night sky and U.S. helicopters clattered overhead.

In October, guerrillas rocketed a strongly fortified hotel inside the compound where U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying. One U.S. soldier was killed.

Mr. Straw acknowledged that security conditions in Iraq, where insurgents have killed 183 U.S. soldiers since Washington declared major combat over on May 1, remained difficult.

Iraq's U.S. administrator Paul Bremer and the U.S.-appointed Governing Council unveiled a plan 11 days ago to restore Iraqi sovereignty in June, reversing earlier U.S. insistence that a new constitution and general elections should come first.

A spokesman for the U.S. 1st Armored Division said at least two rockets had been fired in Tuesday's attack in Baghdad, but caused no casualties. Two Iraqi police were wounded in a separate rocket-propelled grenade attack near a petrol station.

[07] SAUDI EXPLOSIVES

Okaz newspaper quoted security sources as saying the suspected militants planned to hit either a residential compound or other "vital sites" in the east of the city before a clash with security forces thwarted their plans.

"The quantity of explosives seized greatly exceeded that which was used in the (November 9) Muhaya compound explosion. It was enough to demolish a whole compound," the paper quoted a security source at the scene of the clash as saying.

Saudi officials were not immediately available to comment on the Okaz report.

[08] GREECE HUNGER STRIKE

The five -- two Spaniards, a Syrian, a Briton and a Greek -- are refusing to eat as a protest against their imprisonment since being arrested during riots at a European Union summit in Greece in June. They are awaiting trial on charges of possession of explosives and weapons.

An authoritative Greek legal source confirmed to Reuters an order had been issued and force feeding would be carried out "if doctors determine the health of the five is in danger".

[09] WEATHER

Tonight it will remain partly cloudy with some light rain. Winds will be northerly light to moderate, three to four beaufort and the sea slight to moderate in windward areas. Temperatures will fall to 10 degrees inland, 12 on the coasts and six over the mountains.

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