Talks with preferred bidder Itera on interim supplies of natural gas are officially at an end, says the Natural Gas Public Company DEFA.

Bank of Cyprus (BoC) shareholders elected a new board on Tuesday, of the 16 new board members six are foreign nationals.

Settlement of the Cyprus problem will give the island’s economy a huge boost, the United Nations Special Adviser said on Wednesday.

A fact-finding mission is underway by World Bank experts in relation to restructuring the agriculture ministry.

The biggest dangers for the banking sector have been overcome, the finance minister said, following the election of a board to the island’s biggest lender, the Bank of Cyprus (BoC).

The long-awaited offshore natural gas production test got underway and the flame was finally ignited following the repair of a glitch that temporarily halted the process last week.

A high-ranking officer from Russia’s Itera will be holding talks with officials here tomorrow in an apparently last-ditch attempt to close a deal on interim supplies of natural gas.

The government will go ahead with the privatisation of semi-government organisations (SGOs) very soon because it is part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the troika, deputy government spokesman Victoras Papadopoulos said yesterday.

Azadea Group, the Middle East operator of clothing and restaurant franchises, has acquired the rights to distribute the Gap brand in Cyprus and will open a new Gap store in My Mall Limassol in November.

Cyprus is vulnerable to “major restructurings” of its debt over the coming years, Moody’s Investors’ Service has said.