prominent
member of President Anastasiades’s Democratic Rally party is said to have had more than 100,000-euro worth of loans wiped out.
Savers with more than 100,000 euros in the banks currently face losses under a levy imposed in return for an EU bailout. Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Cyprus has eased some of their financial restrictions imposed after the country received its bailout. Debit and credit cards can be used normally for domestic payments, but strict controls will remain on international transfers to stop money flowing out of the country.
Talks about forming a coalition government in Italy have again broken up without agreement. The president, Giorgio Napolitano, who’s been chairing the negotiations, said it was now time to pause for reflection. The centre-left Democrats won the largest share of the vote in the elections in February but fell short of a majority. Alan Johnston reports from Rome.
One after the other, representatives of each of the big political parties went into talks with President Napolitano and each group emerged to give a brief statement. But nothing any of them said through the day suggested that much progress was being made. There was no indication that compromise might be in the air. Nobody really knows how President Napolitano might attempt to play his very difficult hand and the situation is made more complicated by the fact that this key figure in the drama is entering the final weeks of his period in office.