The Greek Cypriot side is trying to dilute negotiations on the Cyprus issue by repackaging and selling the issues they brought to the agenda as “confidence-building steps or measures,” Türkiye’s foreign minister said Sunday.

Mevlut Cavusoglu along with Türkiye’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Interior Minister Ziya Ozturkler met with Turkish Cypriots in the town of Lapta in the coastal city of Girne.

Cavusoglu said Turkish Cypriots are "precious" to Türkiye and it has never left them and the TRNC alone and will never do so.

Emphasizing that he had fruitful meetings with representatives of non-governmental organizations as part of their visit to the TRNC, Cavusoglu added that he will meet with his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Tahsin Ertugruloglu, TRNC President Ersin Tatar and the negotiation committee to evaluate the latest developments in Cyprus.

"Ahead of Crans Montana, we said 'we are negotiating for the federation for the last time. After that, there is sovereign equality, not political equality. So the two-state solution," Cavusoglu underlined.

The initiative in Crans-Montana, Switzerland in July 2017 under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece and the UK ended in failure.

"Two states that will live side by side can cooperate with each other in any way. This is quite natural. We are working to make everyone accept the sovereignty of the Turkish Cypriots," he added.

Noting that Türkiye proposed the 5+1 Cyprus talks held in Geneva last year, Cavusoglu said they also clearly expressed their stance of a two-state solution in these talks.

Cyprus was divided into a Turkish Cypriot state in the north and a Greek Cypriot administration in the south after a 1974 military coup by Greece was followed by violence against the island’s Turks and Türkiye's intervention as a guarantor power.

The status of the island remains unresolved, in spite of a series of negotiations over the years./aa

US Food and Drug Administration staff reviewers on Sunday said Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccines were effective and safe for use in children aged six months to four years. 

The FDA reviewers said in briefing documents published on Sunday evening that their evaluation did not reveal any new safety concerns related to the use of the vaccine in young children. 

The FDA analysis of data from Pfizer’s trial was published ahead of a June 15 meeting of its outside advisers. Recommendations from the external advisers will determine the FDA’s decision on the vaccines. 

“Available data support the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine 3-dose primary series in preventing Covid-19 in the age group of six months through four years,” FDA staff said in the review. 

An early analysis of data from Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine based on 10 symptomatic Covid-19 cases identified when the Omicron coronavirus variant was dominant suggested a vaccine efficacy of 80.3 per cent in the under-5 age group. 

Covid-19 shots for children under the age of 6 are yet not approved in most parts of the world. It remains unclear how many parents will get their young ones vaccinated as demand has been low for kids aged 5 to 11. 

US President Joe Biden’s administration expects vaccinations for young children to begin in earnest as early as June 21 if the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approve the vaccines. 

Government officials say pre-orders for use in the under-six age group has been low but demand is expected to pick up once the vaccines gain authorisation. 

The FDA on Friday released a staff review of Moderna Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine which said the doses were safe and effective for use in children aged six months to 17 years old. REUTERS

Rocket firm Astra Space's mission to send tiny storm-monitoring NASA satellites to orbit on Sunday failed after a second-stage booster engine shut down early in space.

The failure occurred roughly 10 minutes after a successful liftoff of Astra's Rocket 3.3 at 1:43 p.m. ET (1743 GMT) from a launchpad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

"We had a nominal first-stage flight. However, the upper-stage engine did shutdown early and we did not deliver our payloads to orbit," said Astra's livestream commentator Amanda Durk Frye.

The rocket was carrying two small satellites designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory to measure moisture and precipitation in tropical storm systems. They were to be the first batch of a six-satellite constellation managed by NASA, the rest of which Astra also plans to launch in the future.

The mission failure on Sunday was Astra's second this year as the newcomer attempts to get its launch business off the ground with Rocket 3.3, an expendable two-stage vehicle capable of lifting 330 pounds (150 kg) of satellites to low-Earth orbit.

Of Astra's seven attempts to reach orbit, which included test missions carrying no revenue-generating payloads, two have been successful - the first in November last year and the second in March.

NASA partners with burgeoning rocket companies to launch low-cost science payloads as a way to spur growth in the rocket industry.

"Although today’s launch with @Astra did not go as planned, the mission offered a great opportunity for new science and launch capabilities," Thomas Zurbuchen, the head of NASA's science unit that oversaw the mission, wrote on Twitter.

"Even though we are disappointed right now, we know: There is value in taking risks in our overall NASA Science portfolio because innovation is required for us to lead."/Reuters

A total of 1,104 irregular migrants were held across Turkey’s northwestern metropolitan of Istanbul, security sources said on Sunday.

Police held the migrants from various districts in Istanbul, said the source who did not want to be named due to media restrictions.

They were later referred to local migration offices for due process.

Turkey has been a key transit point for asylum seekers aiming to cross to Europe to start new lives, especially those fleeing war and persecution.

The country already hosts over 4 million refugees, more than any other country in the world, and is taking new security measures on its borders to humanely prevent a fresh influx of migrants./aa

Two Turkish soldiers were killed in an ongoing anti-terror operation in northern Iraq, the National Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

Infantry Specialist Sergeant Omer Yildirim and Infantry Specialist Corporal Mehmet Ali Cap were fatally wounded on Saturday during Turkey’s counterterrorism Operation Claw-Lock, the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry offered condolences to the families of the soldiers and the Turkish nation.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also hailed the soldiers for their services to the country in a condolence message to their families.

- Weapons recovered

A large cache of weapons and ammunition belonging to the PKK terrorist group was seized by Turkish forces in the Operation Claw-Lock area.

Anti-aircraft weapons, rocket launchers and various types of grenades and explosives were found, along with life supplies, according to the National Defense Ministry.

Turkey launched Operation Claw-Lock in April to target the PKK terror group’s hideouts in Iraq’s northern regions of Metina, Zap and Avasin-Basyan, near the Turkish border.

It was preceded by Operations Claw-Tiger and Claw-Eagle, which were launched in 2020 to root out terrorists hiding in northern Iraq and plotting cross-border attacks in Turkey.

- 4 terrorists ‘neutralized’ in eastern Turkey

Turkish forces “neutralized” four more PKK terrorists in the ongoing Operation Eren Abluka-2 in Turkey’s eastern province of Mus.

Drones were used to confirm the terrorists’ location and they were targeted in an air-backed operation, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Twitter.

Turkish authorities use the term “neutralize” to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.

Turkiye launched the Eren operations last year, named after Eren Bulbul, a 15-year-old boy killed by PKK terrorists in August 2017.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children and infants./aa

More than 50 trade ministers at the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Geneva on Sunday issued a supporting statement for embattled Ukraine and its ability to trade, underlining the importance of maintaining open and predictable markets.

The ministers issued the statement on the opening day in Geneva of the first meeting of trade ministers in five years, an event that was postponed several times from June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

They expressed deep sadness “at the devastating human losses and profound suffering caused by the aggression against Ukraine,” supporting UN General Assembly resolutions that have condemned the war started by Russia on Feb. 24.

“The war is also having a devastating impact, including on Ukraine’s economy and ability to trade,” said the ministers, warning that the blockage of access to the Black Sea is seriously jeopardizing food supplies to some of the most vulnerable parts of the world.

“The destruction of a significant part of Ukraine’s transportation infrastructure, including roads, bridges, ports, and railroads, is substantially impeding Ukraine’s ability to produce, export, and import,” they added.

They said they are gravely concerned about the consequences of this destruction for Ukraine and global trade, particularly for supplying international markets with several vital commodities produced by Ukraine.

Food products and fertilizers

These include agricultural and food products, fertilizers, sunflower oil, and critical minerals.

“We are also deeply concerned by numerous reports of grain being plundered from Ukraine,” said the ministers, referring to accusations against Russia.

They said such actions run counter to the principles and values of the WTO, which has 164 nations as members.

The nations which signed the statement include Albania, Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Moldova, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, and the United States, plus the European Union.

Taiwan also signed the statement.

After the meeting opened, Turkish Trade Minister Mehmet Mus, the WTO’s director-general, said that world’s post-COVID recovery is now being hindered by “geopolitical unrest.”

“In this respect, strengthening the rules-based, free, predictable, fair, and inclusive multilateral trading system, with the WTO at its center, is the only way to address the current challenges of the world economy,” he said./aa