Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation: News in English, 04-06-24

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

CONTENTS

[01] HEADLINES

[02] IRAQ EXPLOSIONS

[03] TURKEY BOMB

[04] IRAQ KOREA

[05] BRITAIN IRAN

[06] MIDEAST

[07] INDIA BLAST

[08] MOLYVIATIS CYPRUS

[09] WEATHER THURSDAY 24 JUNE 2004

[01] HEADLINES

-- An explosion outside the hotel in the Turkish capital where U.S. President George W. Bush is due to stay on Saturday night was caused by a parcel bomb that injured two people.

-- President Roh Moo-hyun ordered a full investigation today into the kidnapping and beheading of a South Korean hostage by militants in Iraq after it emerged the man was abducted three weeks before Seoul said it found out.

And

--Greece's Foreign Minister Petros Moliviatis said the national aim is to reunite Cyprus on the basis of the Annan Plan, bearing in mind the European Union since Cyprus is a member of the EU.

[02] IRAQ EXPLOSIONS

Iraqi police said more bodies were still being brought in to hospitals. At least seven large explosions were reported in Mosul today.

Meanwhile, at least four members of Iraq's national guard were killed and two civilians were wounded by a car bomb blast in southern Baghdad today.

Hospital sources said five people were killed in the blast. Insurgents launched assaults on Iraqi police and U.S. troops in several cities in Iraq today.

The simultaneous violence in Baquba, Falluja, Ramadi and Mosul intensified a bloody campaign by Iraqi insurgents and foreign militants to sabotage the formal handover from U.S.-led occupation to an interim government in six days' time.

The U.S. military said an American soldier had been killed and three wounded in the blasts. It said a security guard was killed when gunmen attacked a private security company, but did not give the guard's nationality.

Black-clad gunmen, some claiming loyalty to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, attacked a police station in Baquba, 60 km (40 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

Nine policemen and four civilians were killed and 22 people were wounded.

Witnesses said scores of gunmen took control of the town's main intersection after the dawn assault on the police station, attacking any Iraqi police or U.S. troops they encountered.

A U.S. military spokesman said two American soldiers had been killed. U.S. forces had responded with air strikes after gunmen captured the civic centre and attacked another government building. Two insurgents were killed.

[03] TURKEY BOMB

According to NTV television the device was hidden in a package at the entrance to the Hilton Hotel carpark.

A policeman who kicked the package lost his leg. A second policeman suffered facial injuries, Anatolian state news agency said.

Mr. Bush is due to spend Saturday night at the hotel, in the southern part of Ankara where many embassies are located, before talks on Sunday with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

There was little market reaction to the explosion.

[04] IRAQ KOREA

Militants decapitated 33-year-old Kim Sun-il after Seoul rejected their demands to pull 670 South Korean medics and engineers out of Iraq and drop plans to send 3,000 troops.

"President Roh has asked his top advisers for an extensive review into the circumstances surrounding the kidnapping and killing and to work to prevent similar incidents," a presidential spokesman said.

The gruesome killing has shocked South Koreans and inflamed passions, triggering a rally of about 3,000 near the U.S. embassy in Seoul late yesterday against the dispatch of South Korean troops to Iraq.

Over 300 civic groups plan to join a candle-lit rally across the country every evening ahead of Kim's funeral, which will not be arranged until his body is returned home.

[05] BRITAIN IRAN

Diplomats declined to give any details on where the men would be going from the airport. Witnesses saw British Ambassador Richard Dalton waiting with two minibuses and two Land Rovers.

Meanwhile, the British government, through Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, said today it remained committed to a policy of constructive engagement towards Tehran despite diplomatic tensions over the arrest of the eight naval personnel.

[06] MIDEAST

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades -- part of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement -- and militant group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for a "martyrdom operation against the enemies of God", at Dugit settlement in northern Gaza late last night.

[07] INDIA BLAST

The explosion occurred on a road in Sonarin Sibsagar district, about 400 km east of Guwahati, the main city of the northeastern state.

Police blamed the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom, a powerful insurgent group fighting for Assam's independence from India since 1979.

Tea-and-oil-rich Assam is one of seven remote northeastern Indian states inhabited by more than 200 tribal and ethnic groups. Thousands have died in a dozen ongoing tribal and separatist insurgencies in the region over the past two decades.

[08] MOLYVIATIS CYPRUS

Replying to remarks by the opposition that the greek government has put on hold the Cyprus problem, Mr. Moliviatis said the Cyprus problem is a number one issue of priority for Greece.

He also said that Athens and Ankara continue contacts but no one can say that these will reach some sort of agreement on Cyprus. He expressed hope that these contacts will have a result by the end of the year.

[09] WEATHER

Tonight it will be mainly clear with local cloud bringing light rain over coastal areas. Winds will be variable light, two to three beaufort and the sea slight. Temperatures will fall to 20 C inland and on the coasts and 12 over the mountains. The fire hazard is very high in all forest areas.

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