UK man hands Cyprus Church icon taken by his officer father

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — An 18th-century icon that a British officer spirited out of war-wracked Cyprus in 1974 has been returned to the island’s Orthodox Church by the officer’s son to reunite it with those “who really appreciate what it stands for.” A representative of the Cyprus Archbishop Chrysostomos II received the icon during a ceremony Wednesday at Geneva’s Villa Moynier which houses the Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. The Royal Air Force officer found the icon during a 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus and took it back to Britain, where his son said it remained locked away “in a box for years.” Authorities praised the son’s wish “to do the right thing.”