Cypriot legislative election

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.

Voters in ethnically divided Cyprus have elected a Turkish Cypriot to the European Parliament for the first time since the island nation joined the 28-member bloc in 2004.

Just a few days before the stalled Cyprus peace talks are set to resume, the Greek Cypriot parliament overturned the law that called for the celebration of a 1950 referendum seeking unification with Greece to be celebrated in schools, the main cause that led to a breakdown in talks.

Was it indeed an effort aimed at arresting the decline in the share of his Movement for Social Democracy's (EDEK) votes or was he really concerned about the Cyprus talks process?

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and AKEL party secretary general Andros Kyprianou met to discuss the negotiations of the Greek government with the Brussels Group, the economic situation of Greece and Cyprus, the Cyprus issue dominated a meeting on Monday.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades is due in Athens on Monday for talks with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

Anastasiades will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides and government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides for talks that are expected to focus on Nicosia’s reunification talks with Turkish-Cypriots.

By Georgios Georgiou & Paul Tugwell

Voters in Cyprus won’t reject Europe in this weekend’s European Union Parliament elections, even after international creditors last year forced the government to impose losses on bank deposits, Cypriot politicians and officials said.