Turkish Living Forums - News & Views

Brits, booze and balconies...

Star_Sky — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:35:53 GMT

What is it with drunk british holiday makers and swinging off balconies?

The Press Association: Briton dies in hotel balcony fall

Thats about 5 cases I have read about in the last couple of months and there are probably more that didn't make it into the papers.

9-11 Burn the Koran

Firefox — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:28:53 GMT

These religious nutters in the USA want to start world war III by burning the Koran on the day of the EID end of Ramadan to mark 9-11.

Here
Ten Reasons to Burn a Koran | Dove World Outreach Center
:angry:

Three Troubled Complexes

bobthenob — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 04:58:41 GMT

The voice paper has published 3 good stories on some of the problems these 3 complexes are facing.

Can you see a pattern here,where the first one has not payed any of the water bill for years,because the H.C hasn't been issued.And years to come the council has a change of mind by releasing this huge bill to be payed even though they still haven't the H.C .lt just does not make sense to me.
Voices Newspaper Altinkum Didim Turkey - Residents dig for water after 290,000 TL demand

Voices Newspaper Altinkum Didim Turkey - O'Kane denies GBC fraud

This one, l have always gone on about it for some time now.Where the buyers are duped into thinking they have the right Tapu,but in fact has turned out to be fraudulent copies.The only way to know whether you own the property is through the land registry office.lf your name is in the register book,then you own the property legally.The Tapu is owned with the property and can be forged easily.l heard lots of stories of fraudulent copies being issued.

Voices Newspaper Altinkum Didim Turkey - Royal Garden gets new partner

This one l not sure of,because if you read the paragraph where he said l am an honourable man is not normal thinking.This person cannot class himself honourable until he fully has completed the complex to it's agreed requirements with the right Tapu and H.C in place for the buyers to class as their own legally.And the new company that took over from the previous one sounds suspicious.What company would take on the debts and all the problems faced with the buyers.So!,where is all the buyers money then from the 45 off-plan properties sold to be built and completed at an agreed time of year.
Will the work start this year at the end of Sept.l heard this before and will be keeping a close eye on this one.lf it doesn't,l'll be e-mailing one of the buyers l am in close contact with.
Also look at the photo how the complex is built.Now if anyone knows Akbuk well,they cannot possibly build on such a steep terrain on this side of the mountain.
Very very suspicious to me.

Just how much do you trust the News and Media?

newhorizon — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:03:36 GMT

I have been following some news items recently, as many of you know I have been following the case of the woman in Iran being stoned to death. It may be old news or same old, same old news for some nevertheless I've commented on it.

Now a rather ugly image is emerging from the internal power struggles between various lawyers, political activists who may be posting in the guise of human activists to get their own name in lights using this poor woman Sakineh who case has attracted worldwide attention. Almost every day there is an article written about this case.

Even today France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has said he is willing "to do anything" to save an Iranian woman facing a death sentence for adultery.
"If I must go to Tehran to save her, I'll go to Tehran" Mr Kouchner said of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who was sentenced to death by stoning.

Yesterday a story emerged that she'd been given an extra 99 lashes for an unveiled photo of her that appeared in a British newspaper (it was not her but someone else and the newspaper apologised) they claim Mostafaei (her original lawyer) gave it to them. He has not confirmed, either way a mistake has been made.
Then one of his opposition Mrs Mina Ahadi produces a letter on her site stating its from her son and that Sakineh has been given a new extra punishment of 99 lashes.
Within a couple of hours Mostafaei's site has counterback article saying it is all false.

Also over the weekend many western news channels also wrote about the 99 lashes articles, including The Guardian.
I contacted the journalist who wrote the article in the Guardian as 2 sets of stories were emerging and I just didn't know whom/what to believe.
He explained he's in direct contact with Sakineh's son and current new lawyer Houtan Kian and says they have no reason to think her son would be lying. I think they are right. CNN also have written an article today stating she has already been whipped!

Why the power battles on who says what? or why? Here is a woman in prison in appalling conditions since 2006, who already had lashes and possibly been whipped again recently..what life is that? What is her life worth???

All I want to know is the truth, neither am I Iranian or have any interest in any of the political parties mentioned.

I just do not want to see human beings tortured, or executed and the right for all to have a fair trial....but at what expense or who's expense?

This is just one area of news on this subject but how many others have political biases on what, when and why it is being published? we can't dig around every news item hoping to find the truth....

Dear Tony...

John O' Dreams — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 11:48:53 GMT

Lauren Booth: An Al Quds day letter to Tony Blair. From Lauren Booth, in Iran.
Saturday, September 4, 2010 at 2:05PM

I guess that Tony Blair�s sister in law, Lauren Booth, could easily use the phone and tell Tony what she thinks of him, his politics and his new memoir. However, being a peace activist she decided also to share it with the rest of us. Gilad Atzmon:

Article Taken from: Gilad Atzmon - Writings - Lauren Booth: An Al Quds day letter to Tony Blair. From Lauren Booth, in*Iran.

An Al Quds day letter to Tony Blair. From Lauren Booth, in Iran - By Lauren Booth 3 September 2010

Dear Tony,

Congratulations on your political memoir becoming an instant bestseller. I�m in Iran and have the only copy in the country. I can tell you, its so fiercely fought over, it�s worth its weight in WMD�s. Note to Random House; have �A Journey� translated into Farsi and Arabic asap, it�ll fly off the shelves in this part of the world.

Tony, yesterday I went the Al Quds day protest in Tehran. You may have heard of it? It�s the rally where Iranians gather to protest against Israel�s illegal occupation of Palestine, including the Holy city of Jerusalem.

I�m being sarcastic by asking if you�ve heard of Al Quds day, because I know you have. It is your very worst nightmare right? After all Tehran is the place where politics and Islam intertwine.

Personally I�ve never understood this fear of �political Islam� it seems to me that religious people should always be educated on world events rather than kept in ignorance. Like say, Mid West Christian Zionists in the US The kind of folk who can�t find their home city on a map of their state but re certain they hate Islam even if their not sure whether its a type of curry or a foreign make of veh-ic-ule.

Anyway, yesterday, I stood in the midst of more than one million Iranian Muslims all chanting in unison �Marg Bar Isre-hell!� and �Marg Bar Am-ri-ca!� You know what that means Tony I�m sure ; �Down with Israel, down with America�. The men, women and children around me withstood a day of no water and no food (it�s called Ramadan, Tony, it�s a fast). Coping with hunger and thirst in the hundred degrees heat, as if it were nothing. They can withstand deprivation in the Muslim world. Here in Iran they feel proud to suffer in order to express solidarity with the people of Palestine. It';s kind of like the way you express solidarity with America only without illegal chemical weapons and a million civilian deaths.

Some mothers at the rally wept, not out of hatred for �the West� but out of empathy for the mothers of Rafah, Khan Younis, Nablus and Jenin. Do you recognise these place names Tony, as Middle East peace envoy you really should. Israel has massacred children in all of these cities in recent years. Didn�t you know?

Today when the streets of London reverberate with cries of �Allahuakbar!� and �Down Down Israel.� Christians and Jews will join the thunderous cries of �Down Down Israel, marching shoulder to shoulder with the �political� Muslims you say you fear so much.

Perhaps you believe that I am in danger in Iran, especially on a day like Al Quds. Well here again Tony, you�ve been fed and have consumed in its entirety, a massive lie. The lie that says when Muslims express an opinion in groups, in public, it is always spurred on by hatred of 'us' infidels. As if all protests that are led by Muslim communities are a kind of long held grudge against the Crusades.

Perhaps they should be more, not less angry here than they are Tony. Because having read the postcript to your bestseller its clear you are on a modern Crusade.

The �conflict� between Palestine and Israel is according to you all about religion and has nothing at all to do with the ethnic cleansing of the Arab population, nor the degredation of those who remain beneath the boots of their Israeli occupiers. You say that Arabs have and always will see �Jews� as enemies. For God�s sake Tony do your history. And if you�re going to run a �Faith Foundation� then better gen up on Islam 101 don�t you think? Did your pals in Tel Aviv forget to tell you how many thousands of Jews lived in Historic Palestine in harmony with their Arab neighbours before 1948? Do you really not know that even today tens of thousand of Jews reside contentedly in Iran?

I�ve sat with Muslim families, those whose children have been burned by Israeli/US phosphorous bombs. Those who are still suffering hunger due to the Israel siege of Gaza. Those who have lived through the early days of sanctions against Iran when they needed food vouchers just to live. And every single Muslim in these suffering families has the same message; �We don�t hate anyone for their race or their religion. We cannot hate Jews they are in our holy book it is against the teachings of the Koran.� But Tony let me ask you this. Why should any people, Muslim or otherwise, be expected to put up with this kind of constant threats from you and your bosses in Tel Aviv and Washington? Do you have any understanding of what it is like to live in Gaza? Under siege, attacked with chemical weapons, your children�s schools razed to the ground by Israeli missiles, your hospitals shelled, your electricity limited, your water undrinkable?

Actually Tony I think you are a sypathetic person. I actually think that you do feel twinges of pain at the hardships suffered by millions in the Middle East as a direct result of your support for Israel. Then you put that feeling to one side, because on a fundamental level - you think 'they' deserve it don't you?

In your book you say you knew full well how many Beirut homes were flattened, how many civilians died in Lebanon in 2006. Yet you dismiss Lebanese rage about Israeli occupation of �Shebas Farm� as being an irrelevance, about a �tiny� amount of land. You cannot see it as part of the constant pressure on Lebanese society as a whole by their heavily armed aggressive Israeli neighbour. You see it as: �Israel is attacked. Israel strikes back.� As if Israel lives in placid peace, being kindly to all around it in between these massacres.

As other world leaders came out to demand Israel immediately cease its 2006 bombing raids on Lebanese cities, you stayed silent.

�If I had condemned Israel� you say in your book �I would have been more than dishonest. It would have undermined my world view.�

Your world view is that Muslims, are mad, bad, dangerous to know. A contagion to be contained. Your final chapter is a must read here in the Middle East Tony, congratulations! For it lays out the �them� and �us� agenda of your friends in Washington and Tel Aviv.

In the final chapter you say; �we need a religious counter attack� against Islam. And by �Islam� you mean the Al Quds rallies, the Palestinian intifada (based on an anti Apartheid struggle Tony, NOT religious bigotry), against every Arab who fails to put their arms in the air as the F16 missiles rain on their homes and refugee camps and sing a rousing chorus of �Imagine all the people...�

When you say �extremism� must be �controlled and beaten� you mean that you and your kind of morally bankrupt (but filthy rich) world leader wants control over the rising solidarity spreading through the Ummah and being joined by activist of all creeds on the streets of Paris, London, Bradford, Rome.

�Not only extremism must be defeated� you have written but �the narrative' ' has to be assailed.�

Iran is indeed the place where Islamic tradition meets political action.

They are highly aware of the history of this region, the wrongs perpetrated by Israel against Palestine and the political machinations of the US and the UK governments to isolate them.. All thing considered and nice as the people have been during my stay. I wouldn't recommend coming over on a book tour though...

Lauren Booth
Broadcaster and Journalist
Mail on Sunday
Press TV, UK

More (dangerous) EU legislation

Gamuret — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:49:05 GMT

The European Investigation Order (EIO) is
intended as a partner to the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), to which
Britain is already a signatory. Unless we opt out pronto, it is due
to come into effect at the end of this month.

The EIO is intended to make it easier to gather evidence on another
member state's soil. Amongst other things, it would grant foreign
police the right to carry out the 'real time' interception of
communications, monitor a person's bank account, demand bodily
samples, DNA or fingerprints from a person in another EU state. They
would be able to order British officers to conduct undercover-spying
missions, and pursue people for 'crimes' which are not recognised in
UK law - such as the Portuguese offence of criminal defamation:
Other EU countries could demand the personal details of entire
plane-loads of holidaymakers, and force hard-pressed British police to
trail suspects on their behalf. The countries demanding the new
powers on behalf of the European Union include ex-Eastern Bloc states
Bulgaria, Estonia and Slovenia.

Tory MP and friend of Big Brother Watch, Dominic Raab, raised his concerns in the Commons:

"Britain should not opt into this half-baked measure. It would allow
European police to order British officers to embark on wild-goose
chases. It would force our police to hand over personal information
on British citizens, even if they are not suspects and the conduct
under investigation is not a crime in this country. And it gives
foreign police law enforcement authority on British soil. The Order
won't help tackle crime, it will waste police time and ditch
safeguards that UK citizens expect from the British justice system."
Big Brother Watch understands that Raab's parliamentary colleague,
civil liberties champion David Davis MP, is on the case.

Fair Trials International points out that, under the EIO, the Spanish
police investigating a murder in a nightclub to demand the ID of every
British citizen who flew to the country in the month the offence took
place. They could force the UK to search its DNA database - which
contains the profiles of nearly one million innocent people - and send
the Spanish police profiles of anybody on the database who was in
Spain at the time. FTI is also concerned about UK police being
obliged to investigate matters which are not even crimes here, such as
the Portuguese offence of criminal defamation.

Worst of all, as barrister and former MP Jerry Hayes points out in strong terms, none of this even requires sign-off from a judge:

In its present form the EIO would allow any EU police force to start
investigations and gather evidence on UK soil... where it offends
against everything we hold sacred, is that no judicial authority is
needed to verify whether there are reasonable grounds for an offence
to have been committed. In this country the police can't investigate
on a whim, they have to have reasonable grounds to believe that
someone is up to no good. So, potentially, every corrupt police
officer in the pay of the Mafia in Southern Italy, could come over
here, obtain your DNA and bank balances without going to obtain
permission from a judge first. Insane. And downright dangerous.
But given all of the above, isn't it worth asking... why might we
even think about entering into such a terrible arrangement?
Well, as the Mail points out, the Liberal Democrat manifesto contained
a telling policy commitment: "Keep Britain part of international
crime-fighting measures such as the European Arrest Warrant, European
Police Office, Eurojust, and the European Criminal Records Information
System."

A Government spokesman said the coalition was 'actively considering
whether or not to opt in to the proposed EIO':
"The coalition agreement states that the Government 'will approach
forthcoming legislation in the area of criminal justice on a case by
case basis, with a view to maximising our country's security,
protecting Britain's civil liberties and preserving the integrity of
our criminal justice system.

Sorry this is rather long but the points made are extremely disconcerting. At this rate we shall all be constantly looking over our shoulders unless we stay out of the EU altogether. Lucky are the people who live in Turkey full-time and never set foot in the EU!!

GCE Scholarship Level

Gamuret — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:47:15 GMT

Does anybody remember this examination?

It was taken round about the time that the A Level was taken. There were three grades - Pass, Merit and Distinction. In other words you could not fail - that is the sort of examination that I like! In essay-type examinations there were just two questions to answer in the three hours. I wonder how today's candidates would cope with this?

I believe that it was used mainly for those hoping to go to university. Unlike the current A* grade this enabled the really gifted candidates to prove that they were of outstanding ability.

We hear a lot of debate nowadays suggesting that today's examinations are harder than hitherto. What do members think?

I seem to remember a television series a little while ago where a group of youngsters were taught as if it were the 1950's. Does anybody remember that. I found it quite illuminating and it certainly brought back many memories!

Hypertension problems?

Gamuret — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 17:21:25 GMT

A new study in the American Journal of Hypertension has found that some commonly-prescribed drugs used to lower blood pressure may actually have the opposite effect.

The drugs – which included diuretics, calcium channel blockers, beta blockers and ACE inhibitors - raised blood pressure in around 16 per cent of the 945 patients who were monitored.

Researchers say that the problem is that doctors are adopting a one-drug-treats-all approach, when they should be more careful in selecting the most appropriate drug for their patient.

They also go on to suggest that doctors could avoid this problem by measuring blood levels of the enzyme renin through a blood test that is becoming more widely available.

"Our findings suggest that physicians should use renin levels to predict the most appropriate first drug for treating patients with hypertension," said lead author Michael Alderman, M.D. "This would increase the likelihood of achieving blood pressure control and reduce the need for patients to take additional antihypertensive medications."

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An omlette for Blair

saoirse — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:01:21 GMT

Shoes and eggs thrown at Blair - Yahoo! News UK

Let stewardesses land the plane in a crisis, says Ryanair boss

suzyq — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 08:33:18 GMT

Ryanair's ever-controversial boss has called for the second pilot to be dumped from the flight deck of aircraft to save money.

Michael O'Leary suggested air stewardesses could be trained to take over and land the plane in the event of a crisis.

The idea is the latest in a long line of cash-saving wheezes from the budget airline boss who once suggested, apparently seriously, that aircraft could fly with standing-only areas for passengers.

Read more: Let stewardesses land the plane in a crisis, says Ryanair boss: Airline wants to ditch co-pilots | Mail Online

Tax overpaid or underpaid!

parrot — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 07:54:10 GMT

BBC News - Six million people in UK have overpaid or underpaid tax

Apparantly caused by a new computor.

End in tears maybe?

parrot — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:01:07 GMT

YouTube - Jackie Evancho America's Got Talent...

Just been on the news.

Plod strikes again.

parrot — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:15:54 GMT

Their training worth every penny.

Four police fine veteran for cycling on pavement | Metro.co.uk

Explosion on Gulf of Mexico rig

Tommie — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:50:05 GMT

Another explosion in the Gulf of Mexico!

BBC News - Explosion on Gulf of Mexico rig

Fortunately, no reported fatalities and no oil spill.

Good news! Iranian Lawyer reunited with family!

newhorizon — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:24:25 GMT

Iranian lawyer reunited with his wife and 7 year old daughter today

see the moment here:-

Her gjenforenes familien etter flukten - VG Nett om Iran
now same on youtube

YouTube- Mohammad Mostafai meets his family in...

Now other news reports have been published on this mother & daughter fleeing Iran now they have safley landed in Norway.

report here

Latest report of how wife and daughter escaped Iran click on the ???:- added 04/09/2010
????? - ?? ???? ???? ???? ???????
Think the old thread was getting a bit long and such happy news deserves a new thread..:)