Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 11-07-08

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From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>

CONTENTS

[01] PRESIDENT POLITICAL PARTIES ECONOMY

[02] GERONISOS ISLAND EXCAVATIONS

[01] PRESIDENT POLITICAL PARTIES ECONOMY

During the meeting, they will discuss about the set of economic measures, aiming at rationalizing the public finances, which was agreed by the government and the coalition parties, ruling AKEL and Democratic Party (DIKO) last week.

Government Spokesman Stephanos Stephanou had said that the aim is to achieve consensus and agreement for the assumption of a joint responsibility to tackle the consequences of the global financial crisis and the consolidation of the Cypriot economy``.

He also had said that the fiscal targets include the drafting of a three-year programme for the reduction of the budget deficit, with a focal point the control of public spending on the basis on Cyprus` obligations to the EU.

He added that ``the medium-term fiscal framework will be submitted for approval along with the 2012 state budget.``

[02] GERONISOS ISLAND EXCAVATIONS

Geronisos, meaning Holy Island, lies just off the coast at Agios Georgios tis Pegeias, Paphos District, and was an important place of devotion and pilgrimage during the Hellenistic period, when worshippers crossed the waters to visit its sanctuary of Apollo.

In early Byzantine times, a Christian basilica was built atop Geronisos, a partner to the three basilicas that sit just opposite on the mainland at Agios Georgios tis Pegeias.

Excavations by New York University have established that the island may have been regarded as ``holy`` or at least as symbolically charged, already in the prehistoric period. A deposit of stone tools, a female figurine, and a bead was deliberately placed on Geronisos in a pit with ash during the early Chalcolithic period, around 3800 B.C.

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