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Cyprus won’t halt its gas-drilling for dispute-solving talks with Turkey – president Cyprus won’t put its exploratory gas drilling plans on hold despite Ankara’s attempt to force the east Mediterranean island nation to halt its activities by conducting its own gas search in Cypriot waters, Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades has said. Pausing drilling in the face of Turkish pressure would be tantamount to Cyprus abrogating its sovereign rights, Anastasiades added on Sunday. However, the president is ready to engage with Turkey on charting a course to a deal that would reunify Cyprus, which has been divided into ethnically Greek and Turkish areas since the 1970s, AP reported. That, he said, won’t happen if Turkey sets preconditions such as the suspension of offshore drilling fo...

Sinn Fein preference is to form Irish left-wing govt – leader Sinn Fein’s first priority is to form a government with fellow left-wing parties, leader Mary Lou McDonald said on Monday. However, the Irish nationalist party will also talk to the country’s dominant center-right parties Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, she told RTE. “My first job of work… is to establish with other parties whether or not there are the numbers, whether there is the political will, to deliver a new government without Fianna Fail or Fine Gael,” McDonald said. But she added that “of course” she would talk to everyone, including Fianna Fail and PM Leo Varadkar’s Fine Gael. Irish nationalists Sinn Fein demanded on Sunday to be part of the next government, Reuters said. The former political wing of the Irish R...