Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English, 04-05-26

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

CONTENTS

[01] HEADLINES

[02] PAPS OVERSEAS

[03] EURO ELEX DECISION

[04] IDS REGIME

[05] PAPS MOVEMENT

[06] IRAQ

[07] PUTIN

[08] LONDON ART

[09] ROGGE IOC

[10] WEATHER WEDNESDAY 26 MAY 2004

[01] HEADLINES

--Political parties, party coalitions and individual candidates contesting next month's European Parliament elections can claim a seat in Brussels, provided they secure a percentage of the vote which must not exceed five per cent of the vote on a national level.

--All Greek Cypriots, including EU citizens, can cross to the Turkish occupied north of the island by showing their Identity cards and not their passports.

And

--Iraq's new government is taking shape, with U.S. officials leaking names of a prime minister and president, but confusion remained today over what power they would have over a vast U.S. army in the country.

[02] PAPS OVERSEAS

Speaking at Larnaca airport before leaving for a trip to Mexico to attend the EU-Latin America-Caribbean summit and then the United States, President Papadopoulos said that any move towards improving the standard of living of Turkish Cypriots should be contributing to reunification and not the consolidation of division.

He said he has asked to see the Secretary General to discuss the need to keep open the road towards the reunification of Cyprus and the prospects, if they exist, politically and in terms of time, which would maintain this possibility.

With regard to efforts to agree with the political leadership on changes to be sought on the Annan plan, President Papadopoulos said the government would talk to the political forces when appropriate.

President Papadopoulos stressed that ''we have a very clear idea of what we want and I think we cannot ignore the will of the people that the Annan plan as it stood cannot be accepted by the people and there is no purpose and no use in bringing back this plan as it is to another referendum

In the US, President Papadopoulos will sign an agreement with Harvard University to set up a research centre in Cyprus and will then move on to New York for his June 3 meeting with Kofi Annan.

[03] EURO ELEX DECISION

Chief Returning Officer for the European Parliament elections Lazaros Savides said last night that EU law supercedes national legislation and therefore the provision that individual candidates and party coalitions could not claim a seat in the second distribution of the six seats for Cyprus at the Europarliament cannot be applied.

The decision dispels controversy that had arisen in the past few weeks in Cyprus following the submission of candidacies by individuals as well as party coalitions.

Current legislation stipulates that only political parties can claim a parliamentary seat in the second distribution. Cyprus goes to the polls on 13 June to elect its six Euro MPS and 59 hopefuls are contesting the elections, including one Turkish Cypriot.

[04] IDS REGIME

However, the occupation regime do not accept identity cards where the names are written in Greek. However they accept new plastic ids where the names are written in both Greek and English. For children under twelve the occupation regime demands the parents' passport where the name of the child is written on. The entry procedure has not changed and visitors have to complete an application form for a so called visa.

[05] PAPS MOVEMENT

He described the action however as a move to create the impression that the regime is a separate entity, adding that the requirement to show any kind of document was legally and politically unacceptable since there should be freedom of movement.

[06] IRAQ

Five weeks before the interim government is due to take over from the U.S. occupation authority on June 30, U.S. officials said the prime minister will be Hussain Shahristani, a nuclear scientist who paid for his defiance of Saddam Hussein with torture and years of imprisonment in Abu Ghraib and exile.

Violence, which U.S. President George W. Bush has said could increase in the run-up to the handover, continued unabated with a fatal attack on Russian engineers and fresh clashes between U.S. troops and Shi'ite militia in the holy city of Najaf.

Two engineers from a Russian company and two Iraqis were killed when their bus was attacked as it left Baghdad's Dora power station, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Five other employees of Russia's Interenergoservis company were wounded.

Despite Moscow's vocal opposition to the U.S. occupation, Russians working on Iraqi power stations have been targeted more than once.

U.S. tanks and airborne gunships were again in action before dawn around Najaf, where medical staff said at least four people were killed and 29 wounded in an ancient cemetery in fighting between U.S. forces and militia loyal to anti-occupation cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

[07] PUTIN

"The success of top-priority tasks depends alone on us... Doubling of gross domestic product within a decade, reducing poverty, growth of people's prosperity and restructuring the army," he said in his annual state of the nation speech to both houses of parliament.

Mr. Putin also pressed his government to work harder to push inflation well below its current levels. It is targeted at 10 percent this year.

Investors are closely monitoring the address in the Kremlin, Mr. Putin's first since his landslide re-election in March, for evidence he will go through with painful reforms.

Economic growth was 7.3 percent in 2003 and remains robust, with officials this week suggesting the final 2004 figure will exceed forecasts of 6.4 percent.

[08] LONDON ART

More than 100 works by Britain's leading contemporary artists are feared lost in the blaze, many of them belonging to millionaire collector Charles Saatchi.

Among works thought to have been destroyed are key pieces of the BritArt genre, including pieces by Turner Prize-nominated Tracey Emin and the Chapman brothers.

The fire started in the early hours of Monday at an east London warehouse owned by art storage and transport firm Momart.

"The warehouse has been razed to the ground," said Carole Hastings, a director at Momart, whose client list includes the National Gallery, the Tate Modern and Tate Britain. "

She was unable to confirm or deny whether Emin's tent "Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995" and "Hell", a sculpture by Jake and Dinos Chapman, were among the works destroyed, as newspapers have speculated.

A spokesman for Mr. Saatchi was also unable to confirm what had been lost.

[09] ROGGE IOC

Mr. Rogge, who was accompanied by Cyprus Olympic Committee President and IOC Member Kikis Lazarides, expressed his admiration for the construction of the Olympic Building and Park and said it would mean ''a tremendous development for sports in Cyprus''.

He said he greatly admired what is being done on the island, noting it is something unique. He said Cyprus is a model to follow for small countries.

The park which will cost around five million pounds will be ready in june 2005.

[10] WEATHER

Tonight thin mist and low cloud will form locally. Winds will be north-westerly to north-easterly light, two to three beaufort and the sea calm to slight. Temperatures will fall to 14 C inland and on the coasts and 12 over the mountains. The fire hazard remains very high in all forest areas.

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