Greek Cypriots

Cyprus has accused Turkey of obstructing a drilling rig from reaching an exploration area in the east Mediterranean. The Italian energy firm Eni was set to undertake exploratory drilling for natural gas.

The European Union's executive on Monday called on Turkey to "refrain from any actions that might damage good neighborly relations" after Cyprus, a member of the bloc, accused the Turkish military of obstructing a ship exploring for gas.

Cyprus is one of several states, also including Israel and Lebanon, racing to tap gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean.

The responsibility for any situation that could arise in the Cypriot exclusive economic zone (EEZ) will be a consequence of "the Greek Cypriot administration continuing its unilateral hydrocarbon-related activities in the Eastern Mediterranean," the Turkish Foreign Ministry has warned.

Greek Cypriots are gearing up for a presidential runoff on Sunday, barely seven months after the latest failure to reunify the eastern Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus.

President Nicos Anastasiades is looking to reprise his triumph over left-leaning Stavros Malas in 2013 when the two men faced each other.

Greek air force members set up on the aircraft the coffins of the remains of five Greek sailors who were killed in the summer of 1964 when Turkish warplanes attacked their patrol boat "Paethon" during fighting between the east Mediterranean island-nation's Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities at Larnaca International Airport on Tuesday.

At over 60 meters (200 feet) high, the four black-coned minarets of the nearly completed Hala Sultan mosque tower over the plain of Mesaoria in the northern, Turkish-Cypriot part of ethnically divided Cyprus.

The United Nations Peace Keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) says that it regrets a decision by Turkish Cypriot authorities to start imposing taxes and fees on humanitarian goods delivered to Greek Cypriots in the breakaway north of the ethnically split island.

Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias has dismissed criticism over his handling of the failed Cyprus reunification talks in Switzerland in July, saying he could not accept the presence of Turkish forces on the island as part of a settlement as that would only perpetuate the problem.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades reiterated Tuesday that the island must again become a normal state and urged Greek and Turkish Cypriots to work toward that goal.

As peace talks between the supposedly most pro-solution leaders of the divided island of Cyprus have collapsed; the answer to "what now" lingers in the air.