Free Republic

Swedish archaeologists in cooperation with the antiquities department have excavated two burial tombs at the site of Dromolaxia-Vyzakia that they believe belonged to two rich families judging by the nature of the finds, they said on Friday.This large Late Bronze Age city, which flourished between 1630 and 1150 BC, is situated along the shores of the Larnaca Salt Lake near the mosque of Hala Sultan Tekke.Both tombs contained material from the outgoing 15th and the 14th centuries BC, which chronologically corresponds to the Late Cypriot IIA-B period, the Late Helladic IIIA1-2 and the famous Egyptian 18th Dynasty. One of the...

The would-be hitman in the alleged Iranian terror plot to assassinate one or more Israeli businessmen in Cyprus reportedly spied out potential targets at an office complex where multiple Israelis worked, Channel 12 news reported Monday night...According to Channel 12, the hired killer was of Azerbaijani origin and recently arrived in Cyprus on a flight from Russia using a Russian passport. Landing in Larnaca on the Cypriot southern side of the island he is said to have made his way to the Turkish-controlled city of Paralimni in the north where he rented a room and two vehicles...Citing Cypriot police suspicions,...

BREAKING: A man who claimed to be wearing a suicide belt when he hijacked an EgyptAir passenger plane and forced it to land in Cyprus Tuesday morning is “not a terrorist,” but a lovestruck “idiot,” Egypt’s foreign ministry said as authorities worked to gain the release of the last seven passengers and crewmembers still aboard. The man forced the EgyptAir Airbus A320, bound from Alexandria to Cairo, to land at Larnaca airport on Tuesday morning and demanded a meeting with his ex-wife, according to reports. He released most of the passengers, but kept three as well as four members of...

An EgyptAir airliner has been hijacked and forced to divert to Larnaca airport on the south coast of Cyprus. Flight MS181, an Airbus A320 carrying 81 passengers from Alexandria to Cairo, was taken over after a passenger said he was wearing an explosives belt. Negotiations are under way but no demands have been made by those in control of the plane, reports say. A local journalist has told the BBC that some passengers had been seen leaving the plane.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says he hopes a series of arrests over an alleged spy ring in the US will not harm US-Russian relations. Mr Putin told former US President Bill Clinton in Moscow that US police had "let themselves go" and were putting people in prison. The FBI claims the spy ring had been operating for more than a decade Ten people have been arrested in the US and one in Cyprus after an FBI inquiry. The Russian foreign ministry has said the US allegations are baseless and a throwback to the Cold War. The 10 people arrested...

"I'm out!!! Got out on the Orient Queen yesterday to Larnaca. Am now in Athens and will be in Chicago tonight. More then. Feel free to share this, as I don't have time to post yet. Got lots of pictures of the evacuation. And about half of the passengers WERE NOT U.S. Citizens!!! Lebanese nationals with Green cards and what all. My group were almost the ONLY people speaking English. It was sickening. MAKE THEM ALL PAY!!! They were treating it as a vacation cruise oblivious that their country is being destroyed. We were so mad we couldn't stand it....

Cypriot Pilot Cried 'Mayday!' Two Seconds Before Crash Monday, August 22, 2005 ATHENS, Greece — The last man conscious in the cockpit of a doomed Cypriot airliner (search) made a desperate call for help — "Mayday! Mayday!" — two seconds before the plane carrying 121 people smashed into a mountain near Athens. The man, apparently a flight attendant with pilot training, twice issued distress calls in the final 10 minutes of Helios Airways Flight 522 (search), chief investigator Akrivos Tsolakis told The Associated Press on Monday. "The second time was a couple of seconds before the crash," Tsolakis said, adding...

Greek Police Raid Helios Airways Offices By ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press Writer Police in Cyprus raided the offices of Helios Airways in the coastal city of Larnaca on Monday, a day after one of the company's passenger jets slammed into a mountainside near Athens, killing all 121 people on board. Police spokeswoman Christalla Dimitriou said officers "carried out a search" after asking the city's court for a search warrant. There were no arrests and she did not say whether police had confiscated any material from the office. Coroners testing the remains of passengers and crew of the Cypriot airliner will...

Ancient vessel retraces voyages of the past By Stefanos Evripidou IT LOOKS like a tree house stuck on a bamboo banana. In reality it's the incarnation of a pre-Pharaonic reed boat, designed and built to unravel the mysteries of prehistoric navigation. The Abora II drifted in to Larnaca marina yesterday. Weighing in at six- tonnes, the vessel is a totra-reed boat. It is 11.5 metres long, 3.5 metres wide and 1.5 metres deep. The man responsible for building the huge boat is Dominique Goerlitz, a biology teacher at a school in Germany. As a student, Goerlitz was fascinated by the...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 11/21/02 - Kabul, Baghdad, Al Basrah, Larnaca, Lahore, Quetta BREAKING: Kabul, FREED BY THE USA, Afghan girls are free to laugh BREAKING: Kabul, at the World Children's Day festival. BREAKING: US Forces Take Fire in 3 Afghanistan Incidents BREAKING: Baghdad, Iraq - Iraqis handle equipment of weapons inspectors BREAKING: Al Basrah - 3 offensive facilities taken BREAKING: Larnaca, Cyprus - Blix may ignore Palaces BREAKING: Lahore, Pakistan, Usama's PMD released BREAKING: Quetta, Pakistan - Murderer Kasi hailed BREAKING: Strasbourg - Scott Ritter as Saddam's PR agent ========= Bagram ========= In Bagram,at the...