Italian energy company ENI will start exploratory drilling for natural gas off Cyprus in the second half of 2014, says its chief executive.

The government has stepped in to provide much-needed liquidity to the tune of €5.6m to ailing national airline Cyprus Airways (CY), it transpired yesterday.

Cyprus and Russia have reached a preliminary agreement on the restructuring of the €2.5 billion lent to the previous government in 2011, said Russian Ambassador to Nicosia Vyacheslav Shumskiy yesterday.

The house plenum managed to legislate on key items yesterday despite a number of hiccups, including a bomb scare in the afternoon that turned out to be a hoax.

The Cyprus Tourism Organisation has recently participated in the Coordination meeting of the partners of the project “ECOTOUR” which took place in Lithuania and which is co-financed be the European Program Leonardo da Vinci. CTO was represented by Ms. Maro Kazepi, Tourist Officer A’ – Tourism Strategy Department, Coordinator of the program.

The company behind the debt-ridden Orphanides supermarket chain has filed a lawsuit against Laiki Bank for over €2 billion in damages claiming the lender has violated lending agreements and damaged the company’s finances.

Natural gas and a Cyprus peace solution would provide “great” benefits to all Cypriots and help spread peace and security in the region, said President Nicos Anastasiades in an interview with Turkish daily Milliyet yesterday.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde has reassured President Nicos Anastasiades of the organisation’s support in Cyprus’s efforts to implement its aid programme.

Two days short of the second anniversary of the fatal blast at the Mari Naval Base, the EAC announced that the power station was almost working at full capacity.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said yesterday there had not been any delays in the implementation of Cyprus’ bailout adjustment programme but some practical difficulties would be tackled in co-operation with EU partners.