Cyprus expects to have a clear assessment of the quantity of offshore hydrocarbons in part of its territorial waters by March 2012, the head of its energy service said on Wednesday. Noble, a U.S. firm which has a concession over one offshore block off the east Mediterranean island, is contractually obliged to start drilling between

Cement production in Cyprus fell by 10.6% in 2010 to 1.33 mln tonnes, having already dropped by 22.6% in 2009. The decline reflected a very weak construction sector, with total construction output down by 5.2% in the first three quarters of the year and building construction down by 10.9%.  Sales of cement on the local

VTTI, the joint venture between major energy trader Vitol and maritime giant MISC Berhad of Malaysia, marked the beginning of the construction work on its new oil import, storage and distribution terminal at Vassiliko with a ground breaking ceremony by House President Marios Garoyian. The terminal, to be built by a joint venture of the

Greece said on Tuesday it will enforce a largely ignored smoking ban with hundreds more inspectors, the third time in recent years it has tried but failed to stop the EU's heaviest smokers flouting the ban. "The Greek state cannot continue to be made a laughing stock," Health Minister Andreas Loverdos told reporters. "We are

Iran has banned the production of Valentine's Day gifts and any promotion of the day celebrating romantic love to combat what it sees as a spread of Western culture, Iranian media reported. The February 14 celebration named after a Christian saint is not officially banned but hardliners have repeatedly warned about the corruptive spread of

Elton John said he was awe-struck at becoming a father for the first time, but said he hoped not to spoil his new baby boy. In a cover story and photo spread with celebrity magazine Us Weekly, the British singer and his partner David Furnish said they had used false names initially with the surrogate