Turkey snubs full Cyprus troop pulloutAnkara, 13 January 2017 (MIA) - Turkey's president says a full withdrawal of its forces from divided Cyprus is "out of the question" unless Greece also agrees to pull out troops, the BBC reports.
Hopes of reunification have been raised after talks between Turkish and Greek Cypriots in Geneva this week.
But a number of stumbling blocks remain, including whether any Turkish troops would stay in northern Cyprus after reunification.
The island's communities have been split since 1974.
Key obstacles to a deal include the return of property to tens of thousands of Cypriots who fled their homes in 1974, as well as the presence of troops.
Turkey still has 30,000 troops stationed in the island's north, whose presence Greece opposes.
On Friday, Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades reiterated a call for all Turkish troops to leave. Greece is thought to have about 1,000 troops stationed on the island.
Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci said one side demanding that the other remove its troops would rule out a mutually acceptable solution.
On Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had said discussions were "at a critical juncture" and that technical experts would now hold talks.
The meetings are likely to begin on 18 January, with a focus on thorny security issues, reports say.
The end goal is for the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities to share power in a two-state federation.
Any deal would have to win the support of both Cypriot communities in separate referendums.
While diplomats have made positive noises on the progress being made, Erdogan said that Greece and the Cypriot government "still have different expectations" from Turkey.
Another obstacle, he added, was on a possible rotating presidency on Cyprus. Instead of seeing four Greek Cypriot presidencies for every one by Turkish Cypriots, Erdogan said he wanted a 2:1 balance in Greece's favour instead. lk/17:22
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Istanbul building collapse kills 2
Ankara, 13 January 2017 (MIA) - An eight-storey building collapsed in Istanbul on Friday, killing two people including a six-year-old girl, AFP cites local media reports.
Pictures showed the empty building in the working class area of Zeytinburnu on the European side of Turkey’s most populous city had crumbled completely, leaving just rubble and dust.
Private broadcaster NTV said the building had been constructed in 1992 and emptied in 2015, leaving no residents. No reason was given for why it was emptied.
Local officials said other buildings nearby were evacuated on safety grounds after the collapse.
The dead child’s twin sibling was among at least five other injured.
Several ambulances were dispatched to the scene, NTV said, while rescue workers with sniffer dogs sifted through the wreckage to ensure no person was trapped.
“We need to learn a lesson from this building,” Zeytinburnu Mayor Murat Aydin was quoted as saying by NTV. “Most buildings constructed before 2000 are decaying,” he added.
Municipal officials openly admit Istanbul is dotted with buildings that are not earthquake proof and prone to collapse, with numerous campaigns set up to encourage responsible construction.
The city lies in a major earthquake-prone zone and a quake in 1999 outside the city left 17,000 dead. lk/18:41
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Kosovo says Serbia's train to its north violates sovereignty
Pristina, 14 January 2017 (MIA) - Kosovo considers Serbia's effort to launch a rail link between the two countries as a provocation and an aggressive violation of its sovereignty, AP reports.
The Serbian government announced Friday it will launch a railway link between Belgrade and northern Mitrovica in Kosovo, where most of the country's ethnic Serb minority is located.
Kosovo media reported that Marko Djuric, head of the Serbian government office for Kosovo, announced that a train from Russia that was decorated with the Serb flag and names of Serb churches, monasteries and medieval towns would in a month drive in a test between Belgrade and Mitrovica, the first time since the 1998-99 war, for half the price of the bus ticket.
Kosovo State Minister Edita Tahiri on Friday called on the European Union and the international community to stop Serbia, which, she said, "is turning into a threat to peace and stability in the region."
"This is a provocation against Kosovo, which shows that Serbia has openly come out with aggressive politics threatening Kosovo's territorial integrity and sovereignty and its national security," Tahiri said.
It was NATO's bombing in 1999 that stopped a Serbian crackdown against Kosovo separatists and civilians following an ethnic Albanian uprising. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Serbia has not recognized it.
Despite EU-brokered talks to normalize their relations, the two countries' ties have been strained following the recent detention in France of Ramush Haradinaj, a former Kosovo prime minister, on an arrest warrant from Serbia.
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