Mustafa Akinci

The UN Secretary-General's report on the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) is expected to be handed over to the UN Security Council members on Thursday or Friday the latest.

The report will also be posted on the UN website.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavosuglu says it is time to consider alternative solutions to the Cyprus issue beyond the bi-zonal, by-communal federation.

In an interview to Cyprus's Politis newspaper, Cavusoglu expresses Turkey's readiness to discuss other solutions, such as a confederation or two separate states.

An accord reunifying ethnically split Cyprus could unlock a deal to convey gas discovered in fields off Israel, Egypt and Cyprus to markets through neighboring Turkey's existing pipeline network, the leader of the island's breakaway Turkish Cypriots said Monday.

A Turkish Cypriot girl in traditional dress gives gifts to a Greek Cypriot as he drives through the newly opened checkpoint linking the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities in Lefka-Aplici, Monday.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades will brief the Cypriot public Tuesday in a press conference on his idea for a decentralized federation as a model for reuniting the war-torn island.

United Nations special envoy Jane Holl Lute met in Nicosia on Wednesday with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and reportedly conveyed a message from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urging all parties involved in the Cyprus issue to agree on the terms that will allow the resumption of reunification talks.

UN envoy Jane Hall Lute will hold separate meetings on Wednesday with Cyprus President, Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci.

Lute will visit the two leaders by herself, without being accompanied by an aide or any other UN official.

The rival leaders of ethnically divided Cyprus agreed Friday to open next month two more crossing points along a United Nations-controlled buffer zone that cuts across the small island nation, in a bid to generate some momentum toward resuming stalled reunification talks.

A protestor holds a placard reading in Greek "Go solution now" during a peace protest from Greek and Turkish Cypriots outside the presidential palace in the divided capital Nicosia, Thursday.

The upcoming meeting of the two leaders on Friday is a significant step in terms of keeping the dialogue open on issues that are of importance to both communities, UN envoy Elizabeth Spehar said on Wednesday evening.