Cyprus Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Antonis Paschalides has said that for the government and for the Cyprus Tourism Organization (CTO), the promotion of the domestic tourism constitutes a high priority issue. Addressing the 2nd Exhibition on Domestic Tourism, which takes place in the framework of 35th Cyprus International Fair, Paschalides said that the

British Prime Minister David Cameron was holding his first cabinet meeting on Thursday, with rescuing the fragile economy the priority for the coalition government. The centre-right Conservatives and smaller centrist Liberal Democrats on Wednesday agreed on what critics call an unstable partnership of expedience after an inconclusive election. Reducing Britain's record budget deficit of over

Spain belatedly joined the euro zone's austerity bandwagon on Wednesday in response to a widening debt crisis as the European Commission sought an unprecedented right of prior review of national budgets. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Madrid would slash civil service pay by 5 percent this year, freeze it in 2011, cut investment

About 2,000 Greeks marched to parliament on Wednesday to protest against spending cuts and tax hikes, as the debt-choked country received a first instalment of 5.5 billion euros as part of an EU-IMF "pain-for-gain" deal. Marching workers carried banners reading "Cancel the IMF-EU deal now!" and "If we don't react we will starve". Public and

The euro edged up against the dollar on Thursday but remained vulnerable near a recent 14-month low on concerns about the risk of a sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone and the impact of fiscal measures on the region's growth. Gains in the euro are likely to be limited as investors are expected to

Gold surged to a record high on Wednesday as investors piled in, seeking safety from turmoil in government bond markets and the risks of Greece's debt crisis spreading to other countries. Spot gold hit $1,243.55 an ounce, a gain of nearly 20 percent since early February. It was bid at $1,240.75 an ounce at 1006

The U.S. trade deficit hit its widest point in more than a year in March, with a jump in imports swamping a rise in exports as the global economy strengthened, a government report showed on Wednesday. The trade gap increased 2.5 percent to $40.4 billion, the largest since December 2008, up slightly from a revised