ALMOST three months have passed since the resignation of Andreas Moleskis, the head of the secretariat of the EU presidency and his replacement has not yet been appointed. It took a little over a month for President Christofias to choose a replacement, but his choice, Ambassador Andreas Mavroyiannis, has still not taken up his new post – he remains in Brussels as Cyprus’ Permanent Representative to the EU.

EUROPE’S banking regulator said there were no plans to force more than a dozen weaker mid-tier banks – including Marfin Popular Bank — to raise capital quickly, saying an original timetable remained in place despite pressure building for action.

The Financial Times said on Thursday that European officials were set to speed up plans to recapitalise 16 banks that came close to failing this year’s pan-EU stress tests, citing European officials.

But the European Banking Authority (EBA) said a call on Wednesday from the Europe’s super-watchdog, the European Systemic Risk Board, for a coordinated action to strengthen banks’ capital position chimed with the recommendation issued by the EBA in July after the stress test. 

RUSSIA will decide on going ahead with a long-term loan to Cyprus no earlier than the end of 2011, Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said late on Thursday.  

“We will reach final agreement probably no earlier than at the end of the year,” Storchak told journalists on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund/World Bank fall meeting in Washington DC.  

Earlier this month, Cyprus said it was in talks with Russia for a loan of up to €2.5 billion, aimed at alleviating its budgetary strains and outstanding debt burden.  

“The volume will depend on the needs of the borrower,” Storchak said. “Calculations will be made virtually at the last moment, when we sign the agreement.”  

PARLIAMENT rejected the Government’s counter-offer on tax rates for first-time home buyers on Wednesday, opting instead for greater tax relaxation to boost the housing market and benefit buyers. 

The President of the Republic had refused to sign the previous proposal into law and had sent it back to Parliament. 

 Legislators voted for a five-per cent tax rate for up to 200 square metres instead of the 150 square metres proposed by the Finance Minister as a compromise.

This applies to homes of up to 363 square metres, including all building additions (275 square metres without them). 

PROSECUTION witness Rea Andronikou yesterday denied being the mastermind behind covert efforts to take over Sigma TV station during the ongoing trial for the murder of Sigma boss Andis Hadjicostis. 

Defence lawyers grilled the witness on two fronts: on her husband’s and her own Sigma interests and on her initial and subsequent statements to the police versus those in court. 

Andronikou and her husband are Sigma shareholders. 

Andronikou’s husband was jailed in 2007 for stealing millions from a pension fund belonging to the Electricity Authority of Cyprus. 

A call for a one-week boycott of bread and milk has been issued by a group of citizens acting in tandem with the Cyprus Consumers’ Union and the Quality of Life Association.

Given Cyprus has Europe’s most expensive bread and milk, and in light of the Government’s inability to curb high prices, those issuing the call have decided to take matters into their own hands.

The aim of the boycott is to convince local bread and milk companies to reduce their prices, or at least discourage them from increasing them further than the already “unacceptable” present-day levels. 

The boycott is also meant to show sellers, described by the action takers as “greedy and exploitive”, that consumers are a force to be reckoned with.

A SRI Lankan maid who last week faced deportation has received a one-year work permit to stay in Cyprus from immigration authorities.

Priyanka Dona, who was left unemployed and homeless after a serious workplace accident in 2010 was released from Phinikoudes police station in Larnaca on Friday, where she spent 44 days awaiting a decision.

Dona will now spend the next year living with and employed by the Stylianou family in Lefkara, who have supported her through the difficult months since her accident.

An elated Dona told the Cyprus Mail yesterday: “I am so happy to be out. I could not believe it when I heard (I could stay)”