Cyprus

Prince William and his wife are bringing Christmas gifts and holiday greetings to British servicemen at the Royal Air Force Base Akrotiri in Cyprus.

Wednesday's visit by of William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, is designed to honor the estimated 11,000 British soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines deployed on foreign operations over the holidays.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow "will have to take response measures in case of a military build-up by the US in Cyprus.''

Developments in the Western Balkans and the European Union membership ambitions of countries in the region were at the center of talks between Alternate Foreign Minister Giorgos Katrougalos and the bloc's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Wednesday.

Talks were held on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers' meeting at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels.

Nine-year-old Miles imagines himself a Manchester United player as he kicks a ball down Clarendon Road, a lonely street in a corner of this British military base on Cyprus that's been his home all his life.

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled against Cyprus in a case where a Vietnamese woman had complained about the conditions of her detention back in 2012.

The plaintiff, 38-year-old Thi Nguyen Khanh, was placed in a women's detention facility in Limassol from 1 March 2012 until 25 July 2012.

Over 40 years of U.N.-led federal partnership negotiations to resolve the Cyprus issue have failed to yield a result and there is no sign that this will change in the foreseeable future.

Britain has granted permanent residency to a group of refugees who have been stranded for 20 years on a UK military base in Cyprus.

The Leigh Day law firm that represents the refugees said Monday that the government settled the case involving 31 members of six families just before it was to be heard by the Supreme Court.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) welcomed the strong recovery of Cyprus' economy but warned over the banking sector's bad loans ratio, in a report published on Monday as part of the Article IV consultation with the country.

Despite rising tensions between Ankara and Nicosia over gas exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean, Exxon-Mobil Vice President Tristan Asprey has said that the American energy giant and its partner, Qatar Petroleum, remain focused on drilling in plot 10 of Cyprus's exclusive economic zone.

Greece is experiencing a rise in employment at companies that are reliant on brain power, according to a report by the European Center for Policy Reform and Entrepreneurship (ECEPR).