Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English, 01-03-02

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

CONTENTS

[01] HEADLINES

[02] CLERIDES/BANDLER

[03] MILOSEVIC

[04] DIKO

[05] STOCK

[06] Mideast

[07] Escape

[08] World

[09] SHAKESPEARE

[10] WEATHER FRIDAY 2 MARCH 2001

[01] HEADLINES

--- Traded value on the Cyprus Stock Exchange reached a record low today.

--- Israel's army said today it had killed a Gaza resident suspected of planning to attack Israelis, but Palestinians said he was an innocent homeless man.

And

--- Sixty-one convicts, many of them incarcerated for rape and murder, escaped from a jail in the southern Philippines after boring a tunnel to freedom from their cell block.

[02] CLERIDES/BANDLER

Speaking after the meeting, Mr. Bandler said despite the fact Cyprus is in a pre-election period, there is much to be done in the background.

[03] MILOSEVIC

Swiss authorities earlier this week said they would ask Cyprus and Greece to investigate the ownership of companies where proceeds were deposited from the sale of 173 kg of gold Switzerland.

Cypriot government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou told Reuters that the government knew nothing about this case.

Yugoslav media have reported Milosevic sent the gold to Switzerland shortly before he was toppled last autumn, had it sold, then deposited the cash in Greece and Cyprus.

Western diplomatic sources based in Cyprus say that the island has all the legal mechanisms in place to prevent money laundering.

Another source said the alleged transaction was unlikely since it would have coincided with Cyprus being under close scrutiny by The Hague War Crimes Tribunal, which asked the island in October to freeze the accounts of businesses with apparently close ties to Milosevic.

[04] DIKO

DIKO also said that among its candidates were seven women while 14 candidates are lawyers.

[05] STOCK

The All Share Index recorded losses of 0,61 percent, closing at 196,84 units.

[06] Mideast

In Jerusalem, the army said troops shot the man overnight, suspecting him of planting a bomb to be used on Israeli civilians or soldiers travelling a road which links an Israeli border crossing to a Jewish settlement.

Palestinian security forces and ambulance workers who recovered the man's body said they had recognised the face -- about a third of which was blown off -- as that of a vagrant known to spend a lot of time in the area.

The incident took place along a road that has been a flashpoint of violence during more than five months of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed. It links the Netzarim Jewish settlement with the Karni crossing to Israel.

An Israeli army communique issued in Jerusalem said the troops had been in action along the road when they identified "a terrorist placing a device on the route and fired at him".

It said the man had been killed, and that the soldiers had thwarted an attempted attack against "civilians and soldiers travelling the road".

The Gaza Strip has been the scene of several Palestinian militant roadside attacks against Israeli vehicles.

At least 335 Palestinians, 61 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed in the violence which erupted after a breakdown in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

[07] Escape

Of those who escaped from the district jail in the province of Agusan del Sur during a downpour on Wednesday night, nine were recaptured and two shot and killed by guards.

The mass escape began after dinner and lasted until about midnight. Only one person at a time could pass through the tunnel, which apparently had been built over several months.

After dinner, many of the prisoners sang and others played cards, while some began slipping out through the tunnel. The escape was discovered several hours later.

[08] World

- - - -

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban fired mortars and cannon at the world-famous, rock-hewn Buddhas at Bamiyan in defiance of international protests.

A day after the radical Islamic movement announced it had begun destroying all statues in the 90 percent of Afghanistan it controls, an Afghan news agency also said the Taliban were also assembling explosives to blow up the two ancient monuments.

- - - -

Japan's opposition agreed to submit a no-confidence motion against Yoshiro Mori on Monday, a move expected to electrify the ruling coalition's own campaign to unseat the deeply unpopular prime minister -- even if voted down.

- - - -

China has jailed 37 Falun Gong followers for up to 10 years for disseminating statements downloaded from the spiritual group's Websites.

Courts in several districts of Beijing handed down sentences of between three and 10 years to 37 defendants who printed and distributed fliers from the banned sect.

- - - -

A tense calm hung over the South Pacific nation of Fiji, a day after the country's highest court declared illegal a military-backed regime installed last year and called for a return to democratic rule.

Despite sharp winds and stinging rain brought by Cyclone Paula, shops opened in the capital Suva, people turned up for work, and the army -- which days before made the town look like a barracks -- had withdrawn from around parliament.

- - - -

South Africa bolstered flood relief efforts in Mozambique by sending eight aircraft to assist with food supply operations and with the evacuation of thousands of people still trapped on shrinking islands.

A South African Defence Force spokesman said 80 pilots, navy divers and health workers were ready to go to work as soon as the aircraft flying in from Maputo and an airbase in South Africa's Northern Province were ready.

- - - -

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit is under pressure to inject optimism into crisis-hit markets by making key economic appointments before a holiday week in which Turkey must come up with a revamped economic programme.

US President George W. Bush sent a letter to Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, whose public row with Ecevit sparked the crisis almost two weeks ago, pledging continued US support in economic reforms.

- - - -

Seven foreign oil workers held hostage in Ecuador's Amazon jungle region for four and a half months by an unidentified armed group have been freed, a week after their employers paid a 13 million dollar ransom.

Four US citizens, a New Zealander, an Argentine and a Chilean were released near Lago Agrio, 305 km east of Quito close to the Colombian border. They were subsequently flown to the capital where they were escorted to a local hotel by a police caravan.

[09] SHAKESPEARE

While there is no proof the bard delved into narcotics, clay pipe fragments excavated from his Stratford-upon-Avon home and of the 17th century period show conclusively that cocaine and myristic acid - a hallucinogenic derived from plants, including nutmeg - were smoked in Shakespeare's England.

The findings, published in the latest issue of the South African Journal of Science, also show hints of residues of cannabis or marijuana, but this has not been proven. Nicotine was one of the compounds firmly identified.

[10] WEATHER

Winds will be westerly, moderate and locally strong, four to five beaufort, over moderate to rough seas.

Temperatures will reach 19 degrees inland and 21 along the coast.

Tonight will be generally clear.

Winds will be westerly, light to moderate, two to three beaufort, over slight to moderate seas.

Temperatures will drop to 9 degrees inland, to 12 along the coast, and to 6 over the mountains.

The snow on Mount Olympus is 25 centimetres deep and in Troodos Square 5.

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