Athens/Nicosia - Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt on Friday said there is now a unique window of opportunity for settling the Cyprus issue given that Turkey's membership evaluation by the European Union will take place at the end of the year.

"The failure by Turkey to meet the criteria could not be seen in separation from all the other issues, including the Cyprus problem," said Bildt during a visit to Cyprus.

Nicosia, Apr 23 : The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced a revised outlook for the global air transport industry with losses of 4.7 billion dollars in 2009.

This forecast is significantly worse than IATA''s December forecast of a 2.5 billion dollars loss in 2009, reflecting the rapid deterioration of global economic conditions.

IATA expects industry revenue to fall by 12 per cent to 467 billion dollars.

Girne, Cyprus - Thousands of tourists in Cyprus spend summer nights in air-conditioned hotel rooms. But a few - particularly in the northern, Turkish-Cypriot administered part of the divided Mediterranean island - choose to join conservationists on night-time, turtle-protection patrols along the beach.

During the night, loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) and green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas), both threatened species, come ashore to lay their eggs.

Nicosia/Ankara - The conservative National Unity Party (UBP) won government in elections held in Turkish Cyprus on Sunday, taking 26 seats in the 50-seat parliament, the Turkish Anadolu news agency reported on Monday.

With almost 100 percent of the vote counted, the UBP had won around 44 per cent of the vote, easily defeating the former governing left-wing Republican Turkish Party
(CTP) which received just 29 per cent, winning 15 seats.

Three smaller parties shared between them the remaining nine seats.

Nicosia/Ankara  - The conservative National Unity Party (UBP) was winning by a wide margin in premliminary results after Turkish Cypriots voted Sunday in parliamentary elections.

The UBP had 44 per cent with about two thirds of the vote counted, according to Turkish television reports.

The governing left-wing Republican Turkish Party (CTP), which currently has 25 seats in the 50-seat Parliament, was at about 30 per cent.

Nicosia, Apr 15 : The UAE Minister of Economy Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri has said that the worst period for the United Arab Emirates economy was over and described the steps taken by the government to create a sense of stability as positive.

He added that those responsible understood the size of the challenges and were currently well organized.