Nicosia - The two leaders of the ethnically divided island of Cyprus were set to meet again on Friday to decide whether the conditions were favourable to launch direct reunification talks.

Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat have held several meetings to discuss progress made by working and technical groups striving to set the groundwork for the start of peace talks to end the decades-old division of the island.

The working and technical groups from both communities are trying to narrow the divide on a number of issues ranging from environmental protection, health, security, power-sharing, culture, ways of linking the island's two economies as well as property and territory disputes.

Athens - Firefighters battled to contain a forest fire that has been burning out of control on the Greek island of Rhodes for the third straight day, forcing the evacuation of at least two villages, reports said Thursday.

Authorities declared a disaster on the island, where dozens of homes have been burned and at least 2,500 acres of forest destroyed.

At least two mountain villages in the region of Laerma have been evacuated after the fire began destroying homes.

A number of other fires which blazed throughout the night in the Varymbobi area, approximately 20 kilometres from Athens, and in Mani in the southern Peloponnese were brought under control on Thursday.

Athens - A 20-year-old British woman has been charged with causing the death of her newborn baby soon after she gave birth alone in a hotel room on the holiday island of Crete, reports said Wednesday.

A Greek prosecutor charged the woman with strangling her newborn son late Tuesday night. A coroner said the baby appeared to have been suffocated.

Under Greek law the woman could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

The suspect remains hospitalised under police guard in the capital city of Iraklion where she is being treated for severe blood loss after giving birth early on Monday.

Athens - Hundreds of firefighters, assisted by dozens of planes and helicopters battled to contain forest fires that raged out of control along the outskirts of the Greek capital on Wednesday.

More than 25 fire engines and a handful of planes and helicopters were trying to extinguish the blaze near the industrial town of Aspropyrgos, approximately 20 kilometers west of Athens, reports said.

Firefighting officials said the fire in Aspropygos may have been set off accidently by a gypsy camp which normally burns tyres and plastic coated cables which they sell for scrap.

London, July 15: An archaeological team has discovered the site of the ancient hippodrome race course in Olympia in Greece, where the emperor Nero competed for Olympian laurels 1,600 years ago.

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