North Cyprus online daily news - political, business & general interest daily news stories for Northern Cyprus

North Cyprus Daily News - North Cyprus Politics, Business & General information

In the light of recent developments in Japan Cypriot energy minister Antonis Paschalides said "I've expressed our grave concern over the nuclear programme of Turkey, and in particular the plans of Ankara to construct a nuclear power station in a seismically active area”.

Officials from Turkey have said they will be using third generation technology which is safer than the older technology used at the Fukushima nuclear plant which engineers have been struggling with since the earthquake and tsunami hit the country earlier this month.

The book will detail what really goes on in Welsh brothels. “I want to strip away the taboos”. The expose will also look into the problem of trafficking – girls forced into prostitution, as well as examining the lives of girls who choose to sell their bodies for money.

The book will also reveal what really happened to Plaid Assembly Member Phil Williams (one of her more famous clients), who suffered a heart attack while visiting her [Diana’s] ‘Twice as Nice’ parlour in 2003. According to Diana – “it was a real shame for his family as he was quite young; he was a really nice guy who came in often”.

Forty seven year old Diana Jones was ordered to pay back £2.6 million of her estimated £4 million earnings after the nature of her business was exposed in court. She was also given a 12 month suspended sentence.

Jones admitted that she was aware that the sentence was never going to go away but in the meantime “the weather is here is nice and I have made a good life for myself”.

Jones ran a string of brothels in both Swindon and Cardiff and included Cardiff vice dens The Ambassador Health Suite, Twice as Nice, and Heaven.

Jones now lives in apartment and has a part time job which she says provides her with enough money for her and her granddaughter.

More than 25,000 protesters, angry about what they believe are efforts by Turkey to exert more control over North Cyprus, gathered at Inonu Square inside ancient Venetian walls in the city's northern Turkish section in what is believed to be one of the largest demonstrations ever in North Cyprus.

Many waved banners reading, "This is our country, let's run it ourselves" and "Take your hands off Turkish Cypriots."

They said an economic austerity package blamed on Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan erodes their ability to govern themselves effectively.

Last week a meeting between Union leaders and the TRNC Prime Minister broke down after just fifteen minutes. Mr. Kucuk said he was happy to negotiate on the two dozen demands presented by the unions but the unions insisted that they would not start talks unless all the economic measures implemented so far were revoked. Prime Minister Kucuk said this was why an agreement could not be reached.

Ahmet Kaptan, leader of the Public Servants’ Union said that as long as we are unable to run our own country the demonstrations would continue.

January’s march brought criticism from Turkey after protesters waved anti-Turkish banners. Mr. Kucuk has asked Union leaders to ensure that no such banners are present at tomorrow’s march.

Fortunately at the time there were no planes landing or taking off. The directory of Civil Aviation, Hasan Topaloglu, said that luckily the main part of the system is located in another building which was unaffected by the storm. Also controllers were able to relocate to the old control tower which was fully functional within 30 minutes.

Windows were smashed by the unusually strong winds. Ceiling lights, computer monitors and control panels were also damaged.

The damage was blamed on contractors using inferior materials. The president of the Contractors Union, Cafer Gurcafer, criticized the build quality and pointed out that the project was carried out by a Turkish company. Mr. Cafer also said that unfortunately because the company is based in Turkey they could not be held accountable.

Derviş Eroğlu said that the relationship between Northern Cyprus and the mainland was not based on money and comments like “Money cut out from the pockets of the poor in Turkey is being sent to northern Cyprus for the Cypriots to use” were not helpful and were wrong. He did add that Turkey does support the state as its income is limited.

Mr. Stayrakis said that the ban on using Turkish airspace increased the fuel costs and journey times to some destinations which directly affected the national carrier’s ability to compete with other airlines unaffected by the ban.

The minister said that if the aid was not forthcoming one thousand employees would lose their jobs and that this would have huge repercussions for the tourism industry and the economy in general.

The gynecologist has been sending women to North Cyprus where, for a cost of £14,000, they can choose the gender of the embryo that they are implanted with.

A hospital spokesman wouldn’t confirm if hospital executives had been aware of Dr. Kingsland’s activities but he did state that they did not support the practice of gender selection, which is illegal in the UK except if it is for medical reasons.

Addressing an international conference on transport in Larnaca, Erato Kozakou-Markoulli, Communications and Works Minister, claimed that the Turkish embargo was affecting 2,800 ships and was costing the equivalent of 1.3% of the republic’s G.D.P. She also said that the Turkish embargo had many negative financial repercussions for the EU and its member states, noting that 16% of E.U. registered vessels cannot dock at Turkish sea ports.

With regard to air transport, the minister said that Turkey creates problems to Cypriot air carriers by illegally restricting flights over its territory. She stressed that this was unacceptable and that the policy violates the International Air Services Transit Agreement and the Chicago Convention of 1944.

Cyprus is Europe’s largest third party-ship management centre.

Of the 425 million Euros given as aid to the TRNC, 84% went on public sector wages. Cicek stated that as a result “there is very little left in the coffers for investment in the private sector”.

Ankara has met with fierce opposition to the austerity measures by unions who feel that Turkish Cypriots will leave the country rather than work in the public sector if wages are cut. Economists agree that the public sector in the north is highly over staffed, but it is the only sector that is almost completely staffed and run by Turkish Cypriots rather than non indigenous mainland Turkish workers.

Cicek has also criticised the North for paying its public sector workers a 13th month salary. Mr. Cicek pointed out that last year’s 13th month salary has had to be paid out of this year’s budget, therefore “it’s not hard to see where this leads”.

The TRNC Finance Minister, Ersin Tatar has responded by saying that they [the Turkish Cypriots] have to implement the [austerity] measures as the north will go bankrupt if Turkey withdraws its support of the state. Mr. Tatar said that although wages were not being cut they were no longer linked to inflation and he felt that this would not affect people so badly.

Public workers plan to stage rallies and more industrial inaction in March.

Gynaecologist Charles Kingsland, clinical director of Britain’s largest NHS fertility unit and a former inspector for the fertility watchdog, refers at least one woman a week to a clinic in Northern Cyprus to be implanted with a selected embryo.

Last night a leading cross-bench peer demanded an urgent inquiry into the ‘enormous moral issues’ after a Mail on Sunday investigation revealed that:

• Mr Kingsland uses NHS premises and staff to organise for profit a medical procedure that is illegal in Britain.
• Couples are paying up to £14,000 for the controversial service – more than four times the cost of standard private fertility treatment.
• Mr Kingsland tells patients he must cover up his involvement by claiming to be ‘ignorant’ of their reasons for travelling to Cyprus.

Mr Kingsland admitted that the treatment was illegal in Britain, but that many women select the gender of their embryo ‘just because they fancy it’ and that the procedure was ‘perfectly doable’ for a cost of about £11,000.

Mr. Cicek called upon the local administration to introduce tough austerity measures if they didn’t want to see their budget deficit increase to a staggering $314 million. The proposed measures include a 40% drop in state sector wages and privatisation of energy supplying companies.

Enraged by the proposed cuts, the local trade unions have planned a mass rally, along with general strikes, on March 2. The rally will take place in Inonu Square in Lefkosa and promises to have a higher attendance than the last one on January 28.