UN chief urges Cyprus leaders to seize peace deal chance

The United Nations chief on Monday urged the rival leaders of ethnically divided Cyprus to seize the opportunity for a reunification deal that he said is within their grasp.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the two leaders are at a "critical juncture" in talks now taking place in Mont Pelerin, Switzerland, and encouraged them to make the most of the moment.

Last 5 hostages on hijacked Egypt plane recall fear, photo

First the hijacker said the women could leave. All the children, too. Then the man in the suicide vest agreed that all Egyptians and others from Muslim backgrounds would be allowed to escape from the plane.

That left five Western men — at least one of whom thought they were about to die.

"We looked each other in the eyes and we said: Here we are. We're at the end of the line. It's over," recalled the Italian in the group, Andrea Banchetti, the day after an Egyptian man took control of a short EgyptAir flight to Cairo by donning a fake explosives belt and diverting it across the Mediterranean to Cyprus.

Hijack drama ends in Cyprus with arrest of 'unstable' man

A man described as "psychologically unstable" hijacked a flight Tuesday from Egypt to Cyprus and threatened to blow it up. His explosives turned out to be fake, and he surrendered with all passengers released unharmed after a bizarre six-hour standoff.

As more became known about the motive of the 59-year-old Egyptian who was taken into custody, authorities characterized the commandeering of the EgyptAir jetliner not as an act of terrorism but more like a "family feud" with his former wife.