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Economic conditions have started to stabilize after the economic downturn, and the Cypriot economy is poised to return to modest growth in 2011. However, global financial risks remain elevated and growth prospects in main trading partners remain muted, which weigh on the outlook for Cyprus. Meanwhile, pressures in Euro area sovereign debt markets have intensified, and countries across the Euro area are responding by undertaking ambitious fiscal consolidation efforts. Cyprus also should act forcefully and with a greater sense of urgency to reverse its high fiscal deficits, in order to safeguard the sustainability of public financing and increase the scope for private sector growth. The banking sector remains sound overall, although the growth in non-performing loans calls for vigilance. Turning to medium-term prospects, containing the growth of public spending and enhancing wage flexibility are needed to boost productivity and improve growth.

NEW DELHI: The Defence Ministry has filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court in the wake of the High Court seeking responses from the Army Chief and the Defence Secretary over their failure to comply with the directive granting permanent comission to serving women officers.

NEW DELHI: It was a role with a difference for the jawans of the Indian Army showing the humane side of the men whose valour on the battle field is well known showing that they too are playing a critical role in wildlife conservation when they saved the lives of two abandoned leopard cubs.

There is no escape from actions and their fruits. We are helplessly compelled to do something throughout our life, right from our birth to death. There cannot be any moment in our life when one does not work. There is no escape from action, and therefore, there is no question of escapism. Our all actions to escape from unhappy situations of our lives are also actions. And where there is action, there is bondage. All actions bind us to certain fruits.

When Israel launched a commando attack on the Freedom Flotilla carrying humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip, its leaders could scarcely have imagined that they would have to beat a retreat on the Gaza blockade issue in less than three weeks. Yet, such was the global public revulsion at the murderous assault on the Mavi Marmara in international waters—even among Israel's allies and supporters—that Israel had to relax the blockade. The blockade banned more than 2,000 items, including cement, glass, paper, iron, pencils, cancer medicines, toys, chocolate, fabrics and fruit juice.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - Many countries in Asia and the Pacific are well-suited to solar power initiatives, and incentives and low-cost financing mechanisms should be made available to help the region make the transition possible, Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Haruhiko Kuroda said yesterday.

The old anti-Congress tactic which guided the opposition parties for decades after 1947 is back. Although the Left tried to pretend that it was a mere coincidence that its bandh against the fuel price hike was on the same day as the one called by the BJP, the fact that both were on the same side of the fence could not be hidden.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - Closer cooperation on monetary and financial issues would enable Cambodia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), and Viet Nam to effectively address challenges arising from the use of multiple currencies in their respective economies, says a new book from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Despite a series of jolts for its cohesion, UPA-II had singularly failed over months to act effectively to reverse the historically high food prices millions have had to pay for more than a year and a half, already translated into generalised all-commodity inflation (WPI) since February last. Raging inflation, exacerbated by the first steps in deregulation of oil pricing, has forced vacillating RBI to effect a quarter percentage point increase in its key policy rates (repo and reverse repo), ahead of its first quarter review due on July 27. These rates now stand at 5.5 and 4 per cent respectively.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - Rising inequalities in income and access to employment and social services in Asia are casting a shadow over its unprecedented economic boom, and governments and the private sector need to work together to make the benefits of growth more inclusive, says a new book from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).