The European Union's executive recommended on Wednesday launching accession talks with Iceland, the start of a process that Reykjavik hopes will lead to EU membership by 2012. The European Commission said Iceland met many of the EU criteria on democracy and human rights but called in a statement Publication: Financial Mirror (Cyprus) Full story

Author: Sebastian Heller Aa IN A SECRET ballot, DIKO central committee members last night voted by an overwhelming majority to stay in the government coalition, following weeks of speculation and meetings. Full story

Author: George Psyllides SCHOOL attendance is to be cut by one hour a day as part of a major overhaul in the education system, Education Minister Andreas Demetriou said yesterday. Demetriou was speaking after a cabinet meeting where he briefly alluded to "big change" without getting into specifics. Publication: Cyprus Mail (Cyprus) Full story

The CSE Council announced it has accepted the listing of 500 bonds of Primetel Plc of nominal value EUR 10,000 each, which will bear a stable rate equal to 6.75% until their expiry on June 30. Full story

Following the announcement of the 2009 preliminary results, the Board of Directors of Atlantic Insurance Pcl (ATL) decided to propose to the Annual General Meeting the payment of a dividend of EUR0.09 per share (2008: EUR0.09). The total profits attributable to shareholders recorded an increase of Publication: Financial Mirror (Cyprus) Full story

Author: Sebastian Heller THOUSANDS of panicked motorists caused chaos on the roads last night as they went scrambling for petrol to fill up their cars ahead of today's threatened closure of all petrol stations. The mad rush followed the announcement by petrol station owners that they were shutting Publication: Cyprus Mail (Cyprus) Full story

Author: Charles Charalambous THE ELECTRICITY Authority of Cyprus (EAC) is moving ahead with rationalising some of the services it offers its customers, but has only reached an "informal understanding" with the main employees' trade union EPOPAI over targeted reductions in operating costs of up to Publication: Cyprus Mail (Cyprus) Full story

Industrial turnover continued to decline in November, according to the latest figures from the Statistical Service. The industrial turnover index reached 117.5 (base 2005=100), recording a decrease of 11.2% compared with November 2008. In the same period, industrial production fell by 6.4%. Full story

The EU-harmonised inflation rate accelerated in January, reaching 2.5%, compared with just 1.6% in December 2009 and 0.9% in January 2009. The main reason was a big jump in housing, electricity, water and gas prices, owing to the 1.5% increase in tariffs imposed by the Electricity Authority of Publication: Financial Mirror (Cyprus) Full story

Author: Elias Hazou JUST BEFORE the stock exchange came crashing down in 2000, brokers were in cahoots with bank officials to prop up the share prices of the Bank of Cyprus and Hellenic Bank, an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission Aa(SEC) has revealed. Excerpts from the SEC Publication: Cyprus Mail (Cyprus) Full story