Dimitris Christofias

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has lashed back after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan dismissed his declaration that Greece is prepared for all scenarios in defending its sovereign rights under international law and that Greece and Cyprus enjoy the support of their European partners and the international community in confronting Ankara's bellicose behaviour.

The Cypriot government has declared a three-day period of mourning for the east Mediterranean island's former president, Dimitris Christofias, who died at the age of 72.
Government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou said Saturday that Christofias' funeral will be held with honors befitting a sitting head of state.

The former president of the Republic of Cyprus Dimitris Christofias, died today at age 72 after a long hospitalisation in the ICU of the General Hospital of Nicosia. Christofias had been in critical condition since May 20.

In 2008 he was elected president of the Republic of Cyprus, a position he held until 2013, when Nicos Anastasiades defeated AKEL candidate Stavros Malas.

Dimitris Christofias, Cyprus' first communist president whose troubled tenure was marked by near financial ruin that necessitated an international rescue, uproar over a deadly Iranian munitions blast and failure to end the country's ethnic division, died Friday. He was 72.

Former Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias died on Friday in Nicosia General Hospital. He was 72.

He was admitted to hospital in critical condition with respiratory problems. 

He led the communist-rooted AKEL party as its general secretary for more than two decades.

Cyprus' health ministry says the country's former president Dimitris Christofias is in a critical condition in hospital with respiratory problems.
In a statement Monday, the ministry said Christofias was admitted to Nicosia General Hospital's transplantation unit on Saturday.

By John O'Donnell & Michele Kambas

Doubts over Greece's future membership of the euro are straining its historic kinship with Cyprus, as Nicosia distances itself from Athens to try to secure its foothold in the currency bloc.