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/ 21 March 2008

Cyprus leaders agree to relaunch reunification talks

Leaders of Cyprus’s Greek and Turkish communities agreed on Friday to relaunch reunification talks and to open a barricaded street in Nicosia that symbolises the island’s division. It was the first meeting between Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat since Christofias was elected to the Cypriot presidency last month.

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/ 24 February 2008

Cyprus gets ready for a communist ‘takeover’

Fears of a Soviet-educated communist emerging as the next leader of Cyprus — and the first in the European Union — has eclipsed the closest election in the island’s post-colonial history as voters cast their ballots on Sunday. Demetris Christofias, chief of the Marxist-Leninist Akel, has angrily rejected the charges.

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/ 21 August 2006

Sun, sand and ‘decompression’

For Sergeant Lucie Alain, it was the unrelenting fear of an unseen enemy’s rocket salvos raining down on the Afghanistan camp that kept her from catching even a few hours’ shut-eye. ”Attacks came at night, even as you walk through camp you listen and think, ‘Where can I find some shelter in case rockets start coming down?”’ the 37-year-old mother-of-two from Quebec recounts in the lobby of a Cyprus hotel.

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/ 17 July 2006

Cyprus haven hosts ‘foes’ from Lebanon-Israel mayhem

In the charming if somewhat rundown marina of Larnaca, the cedar-emblazoned flag of Lebanon flies proudly from a yacht as nearby Israelis clad in <i>kippa</i> and prayer shawl prepare for the Sabbath. The holiday island of Cyprus and its coastal resorts, which have long played host to sworn foes in the Middle East, is once again gearing up to serve as safe haven for a troubled region.

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/ 29 January 2006

One man, three sons and his dream

”Every parent has the right to dream. There is no tax on dreaming,” said Marcos Baghdatis’s father as he prepared to watch his son take on the mighty Swiss Roger Federer in the Australian Open tennis final on Sunday. ”I always had the dream that one of my three boys would make it on the world stage. All three were champions in Cyprus,” said Christos Baghdatis.

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/ 9 June 2005

Cookie thief’s airport antics cause alarm

A man who stole two trays of cookies from a bakery in the Cypriot town of Larnaca caused a scare at the nearby airport when he drove on to the runway, forcing aircraft to slam on their brakes, police said on Thursday. The saga began when the man walked out of a bakery on Wednesday with 40 assorted cookies without paying.

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/ 15 November 2004

Researcher claims to have found Atlantis

An American researcher claims to have discovered the site of the mythological city of Atlantis at a depth of 1 600m on the seabed between Cyprus and Syria , reported local media on Monday. Robert Sarmast, using sonar scanning, found remnants of ”roads, drains and enormous walls” on the bottom of the sea off Cyprus.