The anticipated changes of the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty and the conference of the Ombudsmen of the EU member states were among the issues discussed at Monday’s meeting between the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Markos Kyprianou, and the European Ombudsman Nikiforos Diamantouros. After the meeting, which was also attended by the Cyprus Ombudswoman Liana
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Cyprus President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot community leader Mehmet Ali Talat are scheduled to meet in Nicosia on Friday in an effort to kick-start the peace talks that were stalled after the Greek Cypriot side rejected the UN peace plan in 2004. The fresh momentum is widely expected to achieve some results, in particular
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The Cyprus tourism industry recorded one of its strongest increases for years in February, with arrivals rising by 11.2% compared with the same month of the previous year. On the basis of the results of the Passengers’ Survey, arrivals of tourists reached 70,140 in February 2008 compared to 63,098 in February 2007. The last time
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The Cyprus Ambassador to Damascus, Efstathios Orphanides, met recently with the Information Minister of Syria, Dr Mohsen Bilal, whom he briefed on the election of President Demetris Christofias, the election of the President of the House of Representatives, Marios Karoyian, and the appointment of the new Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou. The Ambassador also briefed the
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Estonia has called on the European Union to make cyber attacks a criminal offence to stop Internet users from freezing public and private Web sites for political revenge. Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said he believed the Russian government was behind an online attack on Estonia over its decision to move a Red Army monument
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Communist Cuba has authorized the unrestricted sale of computers and DVD and video players in the first sign that its new president, Raul Castro, is moving to improve Cubans’ access to consumer goods. An internal government memo seen by Reuters said the appliances long desired by Cubans can go on sale immediately, although air conditioners
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JPMorgan Chase & Co set a deal to buy stricken rival Bear Stearns for a rock-bottom price, while the U.S. Federal Reserve expanded lending to securities firms for the first time since the Great Depression to prop up the financial system. The shock news, the biggest sign yet of how devastating the credit crisis is
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The Federal Reserve unexpectedly lowered the discount rate it charges on direct loans to banks and announced a new facility through which it would lend to financial firms to borrow at the new rate. Analysts were skeptical that the Fed’s action, the latest in a series of emergency moves to support global credit markets, would
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Microsoft Gulf and the Qatar Ministry of Economy and Commerce have raided IT resellers that sold counterfeit Microsoft software in Qatar. In its capacity as a member of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), Microsoft collaborated with Qatar enforcement agents to track down and raid two firms that were conducting the illegal activities. Products seized included
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Cyprus is set to revise higher its inflation rate target while at the same time adjusting lower its GDP growth forecast if the global economic turmoil continues at the current pace and oil prices remain at current levels or even higher, said Finance Minister Chariloas Stavrakis The State Budget for 2008 prepared by former Finance
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