The Cypriot parliament delayed voting Friday on controversial foreclosure legislation demanded by international lenders after protesters scuffled with police outside parliament.

Amid tight security, around 250 protesters had gathered to shout down the bill, chanting "No homes in the hands of bankers" and "Stop the country being sold off."

Hundreds of mostly Syrian refugees rescued by a cruise liner in the Mediterranean agreed to disembark in Cyprus on Friday after a standoff triggered by their demand to go to Italy.

A total of 345 migrants were plucked by the Salamis Filoxenia from a trawler in rough seas off the coast of Cyprus on Thursday.

Cyprus president-elect Nicos Anastasiades on Monday began forming a government to secure an international bailout for the financially crippled EU state after romping to victory in a run-off vote.

Rightwinger Anastasiades cruised to victory in the Cyprus presidential election on Sunday, vowing to secure an "earliest possible" bailout for the crisis-hit euro state winning support from the European Commission.

Turkey accused Israel on Thursday of violating the airspace of Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus in a controversial oil and gas exploration area.

The Israeli aircraft violated the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus's airspace five times in Monday's incident which saw Turkish fighter jets chase out the intruder, the army command said in a statement.

Nine people were killed on Sunday as Syrian security forces pressed a crackdown on political dissent in three separate hubs of protest against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, activists said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in emailed statements received by Agence France Presse in Nicosia that four civilians died in the central city of Homs when security forces opened fire on a protest outside the home of a detained activist, Mansur al-Arassi.

The Turkish part of Cyprus has warned the island’s Greek side and Israel against a unilateral decision to invest oil and natural gas in their territorial waters, saying Lebanon should not go ahead in approving a deal signed with the Cypriot government.

In December, Jerusalem reached an agreement with Cyprus marking the two countries’ sea borders. That agreement came after Cyprus reached a similar understanding four years ago with Lebanon, though that pact has yet to be approved in the Lebanese parliament.

Anger mounted in Cyprus on Tuesday over the deaths of 12 fire brigade and service personnel in a huge munitions blast that sparked severe power and water cuts.

Frustrated Cypriots were using social networking sites and mobile texting to organize protests against what they perceived as government negligence in not preventing the Mediterranean island's worst peacetime military accident.