Cyprus

A land-based facility to process Cyprus’s new offshore gas remains a top priority, but the search for additional sources of the fuel must move quickly to keep up with a rapidly shifting market, the country’s energy minister said late on Thursday.

Cyprus relaxes banking restrictions

Cypriots can now cash cheques and have higher limits on transactions. Also in business news: Switzerland will grant 500 Croatian workers access to the country's labour market.

Banking regulations were imposed last year as part of the austerity measures in Cyprus. [AFP]

A delegation from the troika of international lenders on Tuesday began its fourth assessment of Cyprus’s economy and troubled banking system to see whether Nicosia is meeting its obligations under the bailout.

A team of inspectors from the Troika of international lenders is back in Cyprus to conclude the fourth evaluation of the country's economic adjustment program.

The international song contest Eurovision 2014 starts Sunday evening in Copenhagen without Bulgaria's participation.

The official opening ceremony is to be held in City Hall Square in Copenhagen.

By Stathis Kousounis

Greece has in the first months of the year recorded far greater growth rates in foreign tourism arrivals and in travel revenues than its direct competitors in the region, according to official data.

Only 5% of Poles firmly support the idea that their country should join the Eurozone, a survey by the GfK Polonia Institute has shown.

Nearly three-quarters of Polish citizens do not want to abandon the zlota, Poland's national currency, with 42% of them being "strongly against" and 32% being "against" the euro, as Bulgaria's bTV

STRASBOURG - Around 1.7 million people were held in European prisons in 2012, and Serbia ranked first in prison overcrowding, show the Annual Penal Statistics of the Council of Europe, released in Strasbourg on Tuesday.

Private-sector deposits in Cypriot banks rose slightly in March, the first monthly increase since November, while deposits in other southern European countries hit by the eurozone debt crisis remained relatively stable, ECB data showed.

Credit agency Standard and Poor’s raised its rating on Cyprus to B from B- on Friday, saying the Mediterranean nation was faring better than expected after last year’s tumultuous international bailout.

Cyprus was meeting terms set out by its foreign lenders and risks to its debt repayments were less, the ratings agency said.