French energy giant Total is expected to start drilling for natural gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean near the Cyprus coast some time in 2014.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said the solution to Cyprus’ economic woes must be comprehensive, without however offering any details on how it would be achieved.

Cyprus is among the EU member states with the best performance in transposing EU rules into national law on time, according to the European Commission`s Internal Market Scoreboard.

President of the European Central Bank (ECB) Mario Draghi has said that it is important that an adjustment program with Cyprus be agreed, after the presidential elections on the island, the second round of which will take place this coming Sunday.

The Central Bank will reportedly seek international lenders’ approval to officially inform banks about their recapitalisation needs, thus enabling the banks to accurately inform investors of their financial results for 2012.

DISY leader Nicos Anastasiades won today’s presidential vote but failed to garner the required majority and will now face off against AKEL-backed Stavros Malas in a runoff vote next Sunday.

MOODY’S credit agency warned yesterday that imposing losses on depositors, as part of Cyprus’ bailout, would affect the ratings of European banks in general.

The government has not agreed to a proposal for a private firm to carry out a money-laundering audit of the island’s banking system, Finance Minister Vasos Shiarly reiterated yesterday.

Cyprus banks will not need as much for their recapitalisation as the outgoing government had led us to believe, but would still require anything between 6 to nearly 9 bln euros, according to PIMCO’s final report. The diagnostic test for the capital needs of all financial institutions found that in the baseline scenario, the island’s three main commercial and Cooperative banks would need 5.98 bln euros, of which 5.616 bln would be primarily for Laiki Bank and Bank of Cyprus, as well as Hellenic Bank to a much smaller extent, and some 364 mln for the Cooperative banks, based on the valuation conducted on 65% of all Coops.

Nicos Shacolas put a smile on many desperate peoples’ faces over the weekend when he landed a most welcome bombshell in a near-bankrupt economy, declaring that he is investing in the biggest leisure project ever conceived on the island.