General News
Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s central bank kept a key interest rate unchanged on Thursday, halting a string of rate cuts that triggered a currency crisis and sent consumer prices skyrocketing.
The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee said it decided to keep its policy rate “constant” at 14%, putting on hold a rate-cutting policy that has reduced borrowing costs by 5 percentage points since September despite soaring inflation. By contrast, many other central banks have increased rates to control surging prices.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insists on lowering borrowing costs to boost growth. He has long argued that high interest rates cause inflation, even though economists say raising them is the way to tame soaring prices.
Erdogan has turned to unconventional measures to halt the depreciation of the Turkish lira instead of raising interest rates. The measures include a program that encourages people to keep their savings in lira through guarantees to compensate losses from the decline of the Turkish currency. Economists warn the system could put an extra burden on the treasury.
The lira, which lost around 45% of its value against the dollar last year, strengthened slightly against the U.S. currency following Thursday’s interest rate decision.
Inflation in Turkey surged 36% last month — reaching a 19-year high and leaving many in the country of nearly 84 million struggling to buy food and other basic goods.
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza (AP) — An international team of doctors visiting a hospital in central Gaza was prepared for the worst.
NICOSIA - A meeting between the ministers of energy for Cyprus and Israel - George Papanastasiou and Eli Cohen - led to an agreement that the countries would make an underwater electric cable link a top priority, linking them to Europe.
LONDON (AP) — The British Museum on Thursday appointed National Portrait Gallery chief Nicholas Cullinan as its new director, as the 265-year-old institution grapples with the apparent theft of hundreds of artifacts and growing international scrutiny of its collection.
ATHENS - The European Union needs to get involved in the case of the two-year jail sentence given ethnic Greek Fredi Beleri who was elected Mayor of the seaside town of Himare and said the trial was a farce to get him and protect Prime Minister Edi Rama’s business friends.
Brace yourself for what could be another scorching summer in Greece as scientists are anxious that a warm winter - the warmest January recorded - and climate change will continue to bring weather anomalies.