Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 99-02-10

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Wednesday, February 10, 1999

Confidence building measures are back

YESTERDAY'S papers focused their attentions on the Cyprus Problem and continuing strikes at Larnaca port and two of the town's hotels. Attention was also given to a second Limassol bomb blast in the last few days.

Phileleftheros led with a report suggesting that Britain, Germany and other countries were "sounding off about the start of exchanges". The paper said the "foreign elements are turning towards the promotion of Confidence Building Measures involving commercial exchanges between Greek and Turkish Cypriots."

According to Phileleftheros sources, brainstorming on this issue had already taken place on an unofficial basis. The paper added that the UN also supported the idea.

Haravghi headlined "Clinton and Blair involved in the Cyprus Problem." The paper focused on comments by the State Department's special representative on Cyprus, Thomas Miller, to the effect that the direct intervention of the two leaders was required to reach a solution in Cyprus.

Alithia's headline was "Chaos at the harbours." The paper said that "hundreds of millions of pounds in investments" would soon be lost if problems at Limassol and Larnaca harbours were not resolved. The paper was referring to an ongoing strike at Larnaca harbour and discussions about Limassol port's inability to compete internationally.

Machi focused on the Larnaca strikes, saying that the Chamber of Commerce (Keve), the Employers and Industrialists Foundation (Oev) and the Tourism Industries Association (Stek) were concerned about both strikes.

The paper also said that the police were searching the "dark narcotics circuits" for the culprits of the latest Limassol bomb attack. Machi said that the explosion was the third attempted murder against the Stavrou family. Stavros Andreas Stavrou, 21, was the victim of the latest attempt on Monday morning.

Simerini ran a report alleging that Interior Minister Dinos Michaelides had threatened to 'dish the dirt' on his fellow politicians if he was ousted during a rumoured government reshuffle. Simerini said that the news had been broken on Sigma television, which belongs to the same company as the newspaper.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999

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