This week in history
THIS week last year, water bills in Girne were increased by inflation-busting rises of up to more than 50 per cent. Girne Municipality Water Department head Erdinç Akün said a domestic consumer using the winter average of 15 tonnes of water a month would pay a total of 86TL compared to 57TL under the previous tariff, even though the annual consumer inflation rate was officially some 10 per cent.
Also this week in 2017, sterling hit a new record against the Turkish lira as the TL experienced its worst week in months. The British pound hit 4.80TL at one point, according to exchange rate websites, beating the previous record of 4.70TL set in September 2015, before falling back later in the day.
This week in 2013, a convicted child rapist had been licensed as a taxi driver since 2006, it emerged. Cabbies’ leaders were calling for members of the Interior Ministry-linked commission that issues taxi licences to be dismissed, after it was revealed that they had approved an application by the 45-year-old. Ministry officials claimed that the application, made in April the previous year, had not been formally approved because of the man’s criminal record, which dated back 20 years.
This week in 2008, there was a five-month backlog in speeding fines being delivered after overstretched TRNC traffic police handed the task to the private sector. There were also problems in attempts to speed up the process by employing couriers to hand-deliver penalty notices to drivers caught on the country’s speed cameras.
This week in 1998, Britain halted visa-free entry for TRNC passport-holders in a move aimed at stemming a rising tide of bogus asylum-seekers costing the UK some £30 million a year. The British High Commission was inundated with would-be travellers after a Home Office ruling that Turkish Cypriots with what were described as “non-national” documents must apply for a visa from UK authorities before travelling.
On this very day, January 13, 2004, Harold Shipman, the former GP who was believed to have killed more than 200 people, was found dead in his prison cell. He was discovered hanging by a bed sheet strung around the bars of his cell at Wakefield Prison.
On January 16, 1970, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi took direct control of Libya four months after a bloodless coup that brought an end to the monarchy under King İdris. Col Gaddafi later made a name for himself as one of the world’s most unpredictable and autocratic heads of state.