This week in history
occurred after a Cyprus Turkish Petroleum (K-Pet) delivery driver left his tanker unattended.
This week in 2013, state hospitals were to shut down for three hours in a countrywide protest stoppage. All government hospitals and health centres were to run on a skeleton staff, with only one doctor assigned to each accident and emergency ward, two to intensive care units and one nurse in each other department. The development followed more than two weeks of warnings by unions, which staged a 10-day work-to-rule at Girne’s State Hospital and threatened to shut down even emergency wards unless the government employed more nurses and doctors.
This week in 2009, the National Unity Party (UBP) government dropped the first bombshell of its new reign by warning pensioners that they might not receive any money. Former Labour and Social Security Minister Türkay Tokel said unless he could find 15 million TL he would not be able to pay pensions from the Social Security budget.
This week in 1998, the Greek Cypriot deployment of Russian missiles in South Cyprus — and Turkish threats to block it — provided a setback to peace efforts, said former United States envoy Thomas Miller who warned that the situation on the island “could get worse before it gets better,” a trend which could seriously impact business on the island, which relies heavily on tourism.
On this very day, May 26, 2000, former Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah was greeted by tens of thousands of supporters during a victory rally to celebrate the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon. He said disputed land and prisoners still held by Israel should be returned to Lebanon — but made no reference to achieving it through combat.
On May 30, 1981, the then president of Bangladesh, Zia Rahman, was assassinated by a group of army officers in the south-eastern city of Chittagong.