Montana

Greece's foreign minister said Thursday that rival sides in talks to reunify ethnically divided Cyprus haven't broken any new ground on the key issue of security that could pave the way to a peace deal.

Greek media claims about an alleged plan to cut Turkish troop numbers in Cyprus by 80 percent have been dismissed as "not true" by Ankara. 

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hüseyin Müftüoğlu rejected stories claiming that Turkey had presented a four-step plan to reduce its military presence on the divided island on June 29.

The weather will be mostly sunny today with clouds in the afternoon. There could be rains in some areas, mainly in mountainous regions.
The wind will be light to moderate from South-Southeast.

Code yellow for dangerously high temperatures is in force for 14 districts in Bulgaria on 28th of June, the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences said, quoted by BNT. 

United Nations envoy Espen Barth Eide said on Tuesday that there are no guarantees of success at Wednesday's Cyprus Conference in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana, but insisted that it remains an opportunity for a breakthrough "as there is an awareness that there is no time like the present."

The UN-brokered Cyprus negotiations in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, aiming to reunite the divided island will take place in two separate “tables,” informed sources said on Tuesday.

Despite a new push by the United Nations for progress in Cyprus peace talks ahead of a conference in the ski resort of Crans-Montana in Switzerland on Wednesday, the Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot sides appear to remain at loggerheads on the key issue of guarantees.

Rival Cypriot leaders at a make-or-break summit in Switzerland this week will come under pressure to seal an elusive peace deal for their divided island or face the consequences.

"We are looking for a final settlement... We expect both parties to come with determination, will and leadership for a final settlement," a U.N. spokesperson told AFP.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday described the fact that Greece was not on the agenda of talks at a summit of European Union leaders in Brussels as a "positive development."

In comments to reporters at the end of the two-day meeting, Tsipras hailed last week's Eurogroup agreement, declaring that it did not mark the end but the beginning of the road for Greece.

Ahead of the June 28 Cyprus conference in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, Greek-Cypriot negotiator Andreas Mavroyiannis Wednesday informed Cypriot political party leaders on the draft common document, regarding security and guarantees, he received earlier in the day from the UN secretary-general's special adviser on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide.