Cyprus

 Anastasiades plans to visit Athens, according to reports

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades on Monday sought to play down a recent row between Greek Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos and Cypriot MEP Eleni Theocharous amid reports that he plans to visit Athens for talks with the Greek premier in late July.

BELGRADE - Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic presented on Thursday the officers of the 57th class of the National Defence School General Staff professional improvement course with officer sabers and said that Serbian officers on peace missions were ambassadors and the most eloquent testimony of Serbia and its dedication to peace and security in the world.

Turkish Cypriot negotiator Kudret Özersay has given up hopes of a resolution on Cyprus anytime soon unless the current skidding stops, talks are brought to a serious give-and-take stage and the two sides commit themselves to reaching an agreement by a certain date. Will Greek Cypriots agree to that? No way…

Greece's betting monopoly OPAP has begun a voluntary redundancy scheme for about three-quarters of its staff to cut costs, one of its biggest unions said on Thursday.

Cyprus's central bank has demanded that privately held Bank of Cyprus finalise plans this week to raise at least 1 billion euros in a capital issue, media reported on Wednesday.

Central Bank Governor Chrystalla Georghadji, in a letter published in the Simerini newspaper, gave the bank a three-day deadline to affirm its plans for the completion of a capital issue by Aug. 8.

Greece is planning to cut tax rates for oil and gas companies as it wants to attract them to help exploit its untapped offshore hydrocarbon resources, its energy minister said on Tuesday.

Under the plan, oil and gas explorers will pay 25 percent tax, down from 40 percent currently, and 5 percent of the tax will go to local communities.

Deposits in Cyprus remained relatively stable in May, European Central Bank data showed on Monday.

Private sector deposits at Cypriot banks fell by 0.1 percent to 34.303 billion euros from the previous month, data showed.

The deposits are about 32 percent below their peak of 50.5 billion euros in May 2012.

Turkey is the best route for sending offshore natural gas from Cyprus to Europe, EU Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on July 1.

Çavuşoğlu’s comments came amid growing expectations that the reserves from the Aphrodite gas field off the southern coast of Cyprus – estimated to be about 200 billion cubic meters – could prove a catalyst for peace and cooperation in the region.

Turkey has strongly criticized a U.S. House committee bill that directs the State Department to monitor the return of property confiscated from Christians in Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs has adopted a bill on monitoring the return of property confiscated from Christians in Turkey and Northern Cyprus.

The Committee will put a bill before the House to provide annual assessments on the status of, and U.S. efforts to return, property such as churches to the former Christian owners.