Cyprus

As Bulgarians are voting in the European Parliament elections on Sunday, the first overseas polling station to open was the one in Tokyo.

At 5 am EET on Sunday, the polling stations in Russia, Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates opened, according to reports of news.bg.

US Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday said Cyprus has the potential to become a “key player” in the Eastern Mediterranean and expressed Washington’s support for a resolution to new peace talks on the divided island.

US Vice President Joe Biden met with Cypriot leaders as he seeks to drum up support for sanctions against Russia and looks for natural gas supply routes into Europe.

Cypriot banking group Bank of Cyprus has sold loans extended to Serbian real estate company Robne Kuce Beograd to Piraeus Bank of Greece, it said on Thursday.

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.

US Vice President Joe Biden gives a statement to the media in front of Air Force Two, after he arrives in Larnaca international airport, Cyprus, on Wednesday.

US Vice President Joe Biden flew in to Cyprus on Wednesday for talks on the divided island’s peace process and on Western sanctions against Russia over Ukraine.

Nikos Chrysoloras & Georgios Georgiou

Vice President Joe Biden will become on Wednesday the most senior U.S. official in more than half a century to visit Cyprus as the search for alternative gas-supply routes into Europe draws international attention to the divided island.

The Republic of Cyprus could be on the road to send its first ever MEP from the northern Turkish-occupied region.

The northern part of the island has been occupied by Turkey since 1974, while the country joined the EU in 2004.

The airport in the city of Larnaca, Cyprus was evacuated on Tuesday morning after authorities received a bomb threat.

The police received a phone call from someone saying that an explosive device had been placed in a toilet at the airport at around 9.30 am, according to local media reports.

Police in Cyprus on Tuesday had to evacuate the island's main airport in Larnaca on the southern coast after receiving an anonymous call that there was a "suspicious package" on the premises, the Associated Press reported, quoting Communications Minister Marios Demetriades as saying.