Cyprus

The International Monetary Fund said on Friday it had reviewed Cyprus’s economy under a bailout program and approved a loan disbursement for about $115 million.

The international lender said the disbursement brings total lending to date under the IMF’s $1.4 billion program with Cyprus to about $459 million.

Cyprus abolished maximum daily cash withdrawal limits from bank accounts on Friday, a year after it imposed capital controls to prevent economic meltdown and a flight of cash under the terms of a painful international bailout.

[Reuters]

Cyprus's economic crisis could hasten a deal to end decades of enmity between the island's estranged Greeks and Turks, its outgoing United Nations envoy said on Thursday.

Reunification talks resumed between the two sides on February 11.

By Nikos Chrysoloras & Eleni Chrepa

Alpha Bank SA and Piraeus Bank SA (TPEIR) raised 2.95 billion euros ($4.07 billion) in new capital from foreign investors in the latest sign Greek lenders are bouncing back from the world’s biggest sovereign debt crisis that pushed them into isolation from international money markets.

Cyprus wants to shield financial flows with Russia, where it’s the biggest foreign investor, as the US and the European Union ratchet up sanctions in response to President Vladimir Putin’s annexing Crimea from Ukraine.

Political parties in Cyprus canceled all their public events over the weekend as a mark of respect for Defense Minister Tasos Mitsopoulos, who died at the age of 48 on Saturday after suffering a brain hemorrhage at his office a day earlier.

The Moody's ratings agency has raised its outlook for Cyprus to positive, while confirming the island's Caa3 credit rating.

Cyprus's recently appointed Defence Minister Tasos Mitsopoulos died in hospital on Saturday after suffering a brain haemorrhage, state media said.

State radio said Mitsopoulos died at Nicosia General Hospital at 1.30 p.m.

Moody's, one of leading rating agencies, has reassessed the outlook of Cyprus to positive.

The agency cited an unexpected fiscal and economic performance over the past year as a reason, Deutsche Welle has reported.

BELGRADE/OSLO - Serbia is firmly committed to taking part in police and military peacekeeping missions, State Secretary at the Serbian Interior Ministry Vladimir Bozovic said in Oslo on Friday at a UN international conference dedicated to the building up and development of police capacities in peacekeeping missions.