The foreign minister of neighbouring Greece boycotted festivities on Wednesday marking 100 years of Albania's independence after its prime minister hailed a town over the border as "Albanian lands". Reflecting the delicate nature of Balkan politics after the wars that split Yugoslavia, the president of Macedonia also stayed away after the car of his prime
More
Bank of Cyprus posted a nine-month loss after tax of 211 mln euros on Wednesday after including an impairment in the value of Greek bonds held and on higher provisions for non-performing loans. The island's biggest lender posted a net loss of 793 mln euros in the nine month period of 2011 on its Greek
More
A Greek firm has refused to refuel an Iranian-owned tanker flying the Tanzanian flag, the company said on Wednesday, in one of the first such cases to show European sanctions are taking their toll on Iran's oil trade. A EU embargo on Iranian oil exports to Europe and a ban on European ship insurance are
More
* Orphanides counters communist “mud slinging” * With the presidential election campaigning in full swing, political parties and their parliamentary deputies have finally found the time to deal with loans given to banking and public officials at privileged rates. During a heated session of the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday, MPs demanded that
More
The number of Cypriot households with internet access increased in 2012, compared to 2011, with the most popular internet activities being information retrieval, e-mailing and access to social networks. The percentage of households with access to a computer reaches 70% in 2012 compared to 63.9% in 2011, the Statistical Service said on Wednesday in its
More
Abu Dhabi National Energy Co (TAQA) will buy a number of BP's North Sea assets for over $1.3 billion in a sign relations between Britain and the Gulf emirate are on the mend. The deal comes weeks after a visit by Prime Minister David Cameron to the emirate amid reports BP was set to loose
More
Intellectual Property rights plagued by Inadequate Protection; Copyright piracy is a publicly-approved practice in Cyprus At a time when Cyprus wants to evolve from a jurisdiction where only taxes are collected on intellectual property (IP) to a fully-fledged international centre where businesses are encouraged to create and protect their assets, it is a
More
Asian shares ended a seven-day winning streak on Wednesday and commodities eased as investors fretted that a lack of progress in talks on U.S. budget woes risked putting the world's largest economy into recession, dragging down global growth with it. European shares will likely track Asian peers lower. Financial spreadbetters predicted London's FTSE 100, Paris's
More
Chinese shares fell to their lowest in almost four years on Wednesday, pulling down the Hong Kong market, as hopes of monetary easing anytime this year faded in the light of improving economic data. A lack of progress on U.S. budget talks also weighed on markets, reigniting fears of a fiscal crisis in the world's
More
A debt compromise agreed to unlock aid for Greece was a good one, removing the danger that lenders would have to take a haircut, European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny said. "I believe in such a difficult situation as we see in Greece there are no ideal solutions but it is probably a solution that
More