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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.
At least 11 fugitives wanted by Interpol are stuck on the Turkish-Cypriot occupied side of the island where they can’t be reached, but unable to travel elsewhere, the territory unaccepted in the world apart from Turkey giving them safe haven.
The fugitives, including Australian underworld boss Mark Douglas Buddle, Russian drug lord Viktor Panyushin, Chinese criminal Yanxi Xia also known as Arman Kaya, and Italian mafioso Sebastiano Claudio Saia bought properties there, said The Cyprus Mail.
They were said to be living the high life and setting up businesses, no report if the self-declared republic would try to oust them or make them leave, nor if anything had been gotten in return for allowing them to stay.
Moldovan authorities believe that fugitive oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc, one of the most influential Moldovan politicians until 2019, is hiding there. He was sanctioned by the USA and the EU, and is wanted for embezzlement of state funds, fraud and bribery.
According to the 2023 Global Organised Crime Index, in the northern part of Cyprus “There are a number of people wanted by Interpol” and “these foreign criminal actors collaborate closely with domestic criminals.”
The index also shows that organized crime; human, sex and drug trafficking; money laundering; and gambling networks are largely operating there with impunity.
A study on corruption in the northern part of Cyprus based on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index said 40 percent of the business executives interviewed resorted to bribery.
And 72 percent of the 350 interviewed said bribery and corruption was ‘very common’. Bribery was found to be most rampant among the ‘prime minister’ and ‘ministers,’ indicating the criminals had government protection.
Besides those wanted by Interpol, 21 other individuals including Iranian Arash Maheri were deported in the last 20 months for reasons like threatening public law and order spreading enmity among people and against the state, and conspiracy, the report said.
