Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English, 05-08-25

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

CONTENTS

[01] HEADLINES

[02] CRASH-BODIES

[03] CRASH - GERMAN

[04] CRASH - REVELATIONS

[05] IRAQ

[06] MIDEAST1

[07] ISRAEL ROCKET

[08] PORTUGAL FIRE

[09] LIMASSOL QUAKE

[10] WEATHER THURSDAY 25 AUGUST 2005

[01] HEADLINES

-- A high ranking Civil Aviation department official in statements to CyBC made shocking revelations about gaps in the entire department.

--Six Iraqi civilians were killed and 15 wounded -- mostly elderly men -- when gunmen burst into a popular cafe north of Baghdad today and opened fire.

And

--Israeli troops killed five Palestinians in an overnight West Bank raid, the army's first deadly strike since it removed Jewish settlers from occupied lands this week.

[02] CRASH-BODIES

The bodies were identified through the DNA process and their names were released earlier today. The bodies will be transferred to Cyprus later today on a Greek C-130 aircraft.

Health minister Andreas Gavrielides said that the time of the arrival is not certain yet. The total number of Cypriots identified is 97. Mr. Gavrielides said efforts are underway to identify the remaining seven Cypriots.

Meanwhile, the funerals of another four Cypriots of the same family will take place today.

[03] CRASH - GERMAN

Meanwhile, Greek Television reported that the Greek authorities asked the german embassy to provide a second blood sample from the victim's daughter for the identification.

[04] CRASH - REVELATIONS

According to Charalambos Hadzigeorgiou, during the last ten months there have been no plane checks, despite the fact that airlines pay enormous sums for these checks to be carried out.

He also said that letters of complaint and written statements about the department's poor management hav ebeen ignored by the Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Communications.

Mr. Hadzigeorgiou said the suggestions and assistance offered by the british experts were not put into practice.

Referring to the investigations conducted by EU experts, Mr. Hadzigeorgiou said they will not be successful since they will draw information from the hierarchy of the Civil Aviation department and the Ministry of Communications who will hide the truth which will not be heard from the employees themselves.

He also said that he has given a statement to the police and even though his contract has a clause on confidentiality, he is sure that he will lose his job.

[05] IRAQ

The attack took place in the small town of Abu Sayda, about 60 km north of the Iraqi capital. The official said people had gathered at the cafe for breakfast and hot drinks before gunmen sprayed them with gunfire.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack but survivors said they suspected Muslim militants, who are part of an insurgency seeking to topple the U.S.-backed government with a relentless campaign of suicide bombings and shootings.

Iraqi government officials accuse Muslim militants and insurgents loyal to former leader Saddam Hussein of also carrying out indiscriminate attacks that have killed civilians.

[06] MIDEAST1

Palestinian militant leaders vowed revenge.

A new wave of violence would jeopardise a truce that largely held while Israel scrapped 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank and make it harder to capitalise on the pullout by reviving Middle East peacemaking.

Hours before the raid a Palestinian stabbed to death an ultra-Orthodox Jew and wounded another in Jerusalem's walled Old City in an attack police said was motivated by nationalism.

Troops swept into Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank to arrest five Palestinian militants wanted for two suicide bombings in Israel this year that violated the ceasefire, an Israeli military source said.

Five Palestinians were killed in a gunbattle, the source told Reuters which added that the intention was to arrest them.

Palestinian witnesses said three of the dead were unarmed teenagers and two were militants, one from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, and the other from Islamic Jihad.

"The enemy should prepare coffins because we will respond quickly and decisively in the depths of the Zionist entity," Islamic Jihad said in a statement issued in Gaza City.

[07] ISRAEL ROCKET

Israeli military sources said that troops, investigating an explosion in Margaliot where smoke was seen rising, found a large rocket had been fired from neighbouring Lebanon.

Lebanese security sources said two rockets were fired and that one fell short of its mark, striking inside Lebanon.

Both Lebanese and Israeli security sources said they suspected the rockets were fired by a Palestinian group and not Hizbollah, a Shi'ite group instrumental in ending Israel's 22-year military occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000.

There was no immediate comment from any Palestinian groups in Lebanon. In Beirut, a Hizbollah spokesman had no information on the attack.

[08] PORTUGAL FIRE

For the first time in many days, the national fire service reported no blazes. But 900 firefighters, backed by troops, remained on alert.

Temperatures were expected to drop until tomorrow, with much of Portugal under cloudy skies, the weather service said. In the central city of Coimbra, close to the worst fires, the thermometer was expected to reach only a relatively modest 25 Celsius tomorrow.

Portugal is enduring its worst drought on record. The National Forest Fire Authority estimates that more than 450,000 acres of woodland have burned so far this year, already the second-highest annual figure since 1980.

Since Sunday, aircraft from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain have helped fight the fires that have killed at least 14 people.

[09] LIMASSOL QUAKE

The epicentre was the area of the Gerasa village. No damage has been reported.

[10] WEATHER

Tonight it will be mainly clear with passing cloud which will thicken inland and over the mountains. Winds will be south-westerly to north-westerly light, force three becoming strong reaching force four to five in the afternoon. The sea will be slight to moderate. Temperatures will reach 35 C inland, 33 C on the south and east coast, 31 C on the west and 28 over the mountains. The fire hazard is extremely high in all forest areas.

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