Miss Universe decision ‘within 10 days’

By Andrew Adamides

CYPRUS is on the verge of clinching the Miss Universe 2000 pageant, Minister of Commerce Industry and Tourism Nicos Rolandis told the Cyprus Mailyesterday.

Speaking confidently after months of negotiations between the government and the organisers, the Donald Trump Corporation and CBS, he said there were no “substantial” differences between the two sides. Although a couple of other countries were still interested in hosting the millennium pageant, Cyprus would probably have the honour, he added.

Rolandis said it was the first time the contest, which has a global television audience of 2.2 billion, would be held outside the United States, and the organisers were particularly interested in holding it in Cyprus as the legendary birthplace of Aphrodite, Goddess of Love.

Rolandis said Attorney-general Alecos Markides had already gone through the 55-page contract, and lawyers for the Trump corporation and CBS were also going through it to thrash out the final details. The venue will be Nicosia’s Eleftheria Stadium, and the pageant will begin at 4am, so that it can be transmitted live to the US at prime time.

Rolandis said that the final decision would be known within 10 days, and that if it was positive, a massive ad campaign emphasising Aphrodite and the millennium connection would be put into play, in order fully to exploit the boost in US and other tourists the pageant is expected to attract.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.