- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Israel pounds Lebanon ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Toddler among 4 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
- Five of the best: Pakistan-England Test thrillers
- Man sets arm on fire as marches across US mark Gaza war anniversary
- Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution
- Trump rallies at site of failed assassination: 'Never quit'
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- Is music finally reckoning with #MeToo?
- Fans hail Trump's 'guts' as he returns to site of rally shooting
- Lebanon state media says 'very violent' Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Guardians maul Tigers, miracle Mets rally in MLB series openers
- Lebanon state media says Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Miami on track for MLS record points after win in Toronto
- Madrid beat Villarreal but Carvajal suffers knee injury
- Madrid beat Villarreal to move level with Liga leaders Barcelona
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- French rugby player on rape charge whistled but 'serene' on return
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Toddler among 3 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
Godsend or 'ghetto': Syrian migrants flock to small Cyprus town
On the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, grappling with an influx of asylum seekers, the small town of Chlorakas has become the centre of tensions. One-quarter of its residents are refugees.
While local authorities talk of "ghettoization" and seek to move some of them, many of the newcomers renting flats there refuse to leave, saying they have nowhere else to go.
The Cypriot government says the divided country has the highest number of first-time asylum applications in the European Union per capita, accusing Turkey of sending many across the UN-controlled buffer zone.
"We have a demographic problem," said Chlorakas Mayor Nicholas Liasides.
Five kilometres (three miles) from the west coast city of Paphos, Chlorakas is home to 7,000 people, 1,700 of whom are asylum seekers.
Most of them are from Syria, and their number has more than doubled from 800 over the past three years.
At the heart of the issue, according to the mayor, is the St Nicolas residential complex on the outskirts of town where around 700 of the refugees live.
Located on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, the complex formally known as "St Nicolas Elegant Residence" consists of about 20 peach-coloured residential blocks with terracotta tiles.
But its lustre began to fade following a 2018 financial dispute between the owner and the municipality over unpaid water bills.
When the Covid pandemic from 2020 led to a plunge in foreign visitor arrivals, refugees took their place.
- 'Shameful' -
Liasides told AFP he believes the solution is to resettle the refugees throughout Cyprus.
"This is a ghetto and actually we want to break (up) this ghetto," he said.
One month ago the local authorities declared the site unfit for habitation, and cut off the water supply to 250 apartments.
"It's shameful," said Neofyto Paranetis, who is in his 70s and manages the complex.
He is under criminal investigation for alleged violation of an interior ministry decree, issued in December, which forbids any new refugees from staying in Chlorakas.
"These are just excuses because I am housing refugees," Paranetis said.
Tensions in Chlorakas worsened in early January after two fights between refugees, some of whom lived at St Nicolas, said Paphos police spokesman Michalis Nicolaou.
"For one month we've been patrolling in the village every evening, and we have investigated more than 80 people illegally living there," he said, noting the ministerial ban on new residents.
Since early January townspeople have organised two protests, which drew dozens carrying signs hostile to asylum seekers.
A cafe owner, who asked to remain anonymous because he doesn't "want any trouble" with the refugees, said: "People here are hospitable towards the refugees, but now there are many who are illegal and creating problems here.
"Most of the people in the village are scared to go near the place because there are too many refugees."
Local business owner Geoffrey Velloza, 50, said that "to be honest, I haven't been affected by their presence. They have been perfectly decent with me, but I feel for others who were made uncomfortable."
- Where to go? -
More than 12,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Cyprus since 2011 when their country's civil war began, forcing millions to flee abroad.
Those who reached Cyprus arrived on an island with its own painful history of displacement.
The territory has been divided since Turkish troops invaded in 1974 and occupied its northern third.
Hundreds of thousands of Greek Cypriots in the north and Turkish Cypriots in the south fled to the opposite sides.
Mohammed Ramadan Diab, 37, originally from Idlib in Syria, arrived illegally in Chlorakas via Turkey a little more than a year ago.
In recent weeks police investigated him at St Nicolas.
"Officers took me to the station and made me sign a document, but I didn't know what it said," the father of six recalled.
"I'm trying to find somewhere else to stay, but people refuse to rent to me because I am Syrian."
Another Idlib native, Nayef al-Shouyoukh, 32, has stayed at St Nicolas for three years.
"Police regularly come to see me for an ID check. They pound the door with their feet," scaring his three children, he said.
"I don't know where to go. I am barely surviving."
- 'Sieges and bombs' -
St Nicolas charges 350 euros rent a month ($400) for a two-bedroom apartment with a kitchen -- electricity and internet included.
"We want to stay in our homes," said Abdallah al-Khaled, 25, who reached Chlorakas three years ago after fleeing the ranks of the Syrian army.
"We survived sieges and bombs in Syria. We don't want to find ourselves back on the street."
Local authorities propose to move the refugees into camps in eastern Cyprus but those sites are already overpopulated, according to migrants' rights group Kisa.
In a statement, Kisa said the local authorities should establish programmes to help the refugees integrate.
Paranetis, the St Nicolas manager, said "the government should thank us because these refugees have no alternatives.
"Some day we might also become refugees, like we were in 1974 during the Turkish invasion."
P.Mathewson--AMWN