Model Dies Days After Receiving AstraZeneca Covid Vaccine

 

She Trusted "The Science"

and Now She is Dead

(The Sun)  -  BRIT model Stephanie Dubois was "living the dream" in Cyprus before dying after getting a Covid jab, her family said.

Ms Dubois, 39, suffered a “serious thrombotic episode” and a "very rare" blood clot after being given the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab in Paphos, Cyprus on May 6.

The model's heartbroken dad Tony said the family had been "living the dream" in Cyprus, where the ex-RAF officer has lived with Stephanie's mum, Brigitte, since retiring to a village outside Paphos a decade ago.

Stephanie had divided her time between the island and the UK, and had spent much of the pandemic with her beloved parents in Cyprus.

Pambos Charalambos, the owner of one of the couple's favourite restaurants, described the family as "lovely, outgoing" people.

A senior operational logistics executive in the air force, Tony has always been an active member of Paphos' vibrant ex-pat community as has Brigitte.

"They're lovely, outgoing people and Stephanie  is beautiful," he told The Sun Online.

"I had no idea this had happened to her. She was very sweet, very polite. After leaving the military Tony had worked for years in Saudi Arabia.

"The whole family loved Cyprus. They're very good friends but I haven't seen them for a long time because we've had three lockdowns in Cyprus and I've had to keep the taverna closed."

Just 12 days after her jab, Ms Dubois shared what would be her final Facebook post - a picture of her bruised arm.

She wrote: "Done being ill now… Couple more tests today! PS - I still don’t like needles - feeling tired."

Charalambos Charilaou, Cypriot health service spokesman, said that her death would be investigated by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

She shared what would be her final Facebook post - a picture of her bruised arm

Dubois posted on Facebook after she received the first dose: “So I had the vaccination today! I hate needles, today was no exception . . . And now I feel horrendous . . . pizza and bed for me.”

On May 14 she was taken to hospital with breathing problems. She wrote: “Woke up feeling fine and then within an hour I had full body shakes, all my joints seized and I was struggling to breathe and was cold to the bone with a persistent headache and dizziness.

“Mum and dad came to look after me and took me for a Covid test, which thankfully was negative . . . but it still doesn’t explain what the problem is. Maybe I’m having a prolonged reaction to my Covid jab last week.”

By May 19 she had slipped into a coma and “was not expected to come out of it”, according to Andrew Powers, a friend.

Local media reported that she had suffered a brain haemorrhage and died on Saturday afternoon.

Health officials at Cyprus’s main state hospital in the capital, Nicosia, said that she had no underlying health conditions.

More at The Sun.com

Stephanie Dubois was 'living the dream' in Cyprus before she died after getting a Covid jabCredit: Facebook

27% Unemployment & Government Seizes your Bank Accounts

27.1% Unemployment in Spain
UKIP's Nigel Farage warns people to withdraw their money from banks before the Socialist governments confiscate it.

• Cyprus showed that Socialist Big Government will steal anything not nailed down to prop up the Marxist Welfare State.

Spain's unemployment rate soared to a new record of 27.16 percent of the workforce in the first quarter of 2013 as the number of those without jobs surpassed six million, official data showed on Thursday.

The unemployment rate jumped from 26.02 percent in the previous quarter. The number of unemployed climbed by 237,400 people to 6.2 million, the National Statistics Institute said.

Spain, once the motor of job creation in the 17-nation eurozone, is in a double dip recession, having yet to recover from the collapse in 2008 of a labour-intensive property boom in 2008 which had allowed economic growth to outpace the European union's for more than a decade reports France 24 News.


Nigel Farage:
Eurocrats' Cyprus cash grab a template for future stealing
RT's Aleksei Yaroshevsky spoke to a known eurosceptic, the head of the UK Independence party, Nigel Farage. He believes the days of the Eurozone are numbered, and that people should withdraw their money from its banks before what happened in Cyrpus happens elsewhere.

The Spanish economy, the eurozone's fourth biggest, contracted by 1.37 percent last year, the second worst yearly slump since 1970, and the government forecasts it will shrink again by between 1.0 percent and 1.5 percent this year.

Spain's jobless rate fell to an almost 30-year low of 7.95 percent in the second quarter of 2007 at the peak of an economic boom that allowed the country to create more than half the new jobs in the euro zone between 2002 and 2005.

But the jobless rate has risen steadily every quarter since as the country's housing market collapsed, throwing millions of people out of work.

In France, the second biggest eurozone economy, official data to be released later on Thursday are also expected to show a record number of jobless workers.

Cyprus is becoming an impoverished colony of Europe

Now Socialists look at confiscating 60% of bank accounts

• The EU is a government of the Socialists, by the banks and for a centralized authoritarian state.  Coming soon to the U.S.

Forced by the Socialist European Union the Bank of Cyprus depositors could have up to 60% of their savings confiscated as part of the bailout, reports BBC News.

The central bank says 37.5% of holdings over 100,000 euros will become shares.

Up to 22.5% will go into a fund attracting no interest and may be subject to further write-offs.

The other 40% will attract interest - but this will not be paid unless the bank performs well.

The fear is that once the unprecedented capital controls - which are in place for an indefinite time - are lifted, the wealthiest will rush to move their deposits abroad, the BBC's Mark Lowen reports from Nicosia.

Cyprus has become the first eurozone member country to bring in capital controls to prevent a torrent of money leaving the island and credit institutions collapsing.



House of Representatives President
Yiannakis Omirou

There is no other alternative but to free Cyprus from the bonds of the troika and the memorandum, House of Representatives President Yiannakis Omirou has said.

Omirou also expressed his conviction that no Attorney General would dream of not following through with the results of an investigation led by an independent committee to apportion blame on those responsible for bringing the country’s economy and banking sector near collapse reports the Famagusta Gazette.

Omirou talked about the troika demands, which according to him will multiply and will turn Cyprus to a colony of the worst possible type and warned “I would like to send a message to the Cyprus people that there is no other way, there is no alternative apart from freeing (the country) from the troika’s and the memorandum’s bonds”.

He noted that certainly, “this road will demand sacrifices”, adding that “by leaving the troika and the EMS behind us, we will ensure our national independence, our national sovereignty, our moral integrity and our economic independence”.

“If we remain bound by the Troika and the memorandum Cyprus’ destiny is already foretold and there will be no future”, he pointed out.



.
By mid-2012 Iceland (not a member of the European Union) was regarded as
one of Europe's recovery success stories. It has had two years of economic growth.
Unemployment was down to 6.3% and Iceland was attracting immigrants to
fill jobs. Currency devaluation effectively reduced wages by 50% making
exports more competitive and imports more expensive.
.
Ten year government bonds were issued below 6%, lower than some of the PIIGS nations
in the EU (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain). Tryggvi Thor Herbertsson,
a member of parliament, noted that adjustments via currency devaluations are
less painful than government labor policies and negotiations.

SOCIALISM - "They Have Stolen Our Money"

Cypriot: "They Have Stolen Our Money"

Russia: Cyprus deal is theft

• Kremlin may freeze German assets
• European Socialists steal up to 40% of private property bank accounts and re-distribute the wealth to bankers with the "need" to cover the bad loans they made.

 

 

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has reacted to the Cypriot bailout deal by labelling it as theft. The Kremlin is considering freezing German assets in Russia in retaliation for Russian losses in Cyprus banks.

"The stealing of what has already been stolen continues," is how Medvedev described the Cyprus bailout deal which imposes a sweeping haircut of around 30 percent on bank deposits in excess of €100,000 in two major banks. Nevertheless Russian President Vladimir Putin is willing to support efforts aimed at overcoming the Cypriot crisis.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev

According to the Telegraph the Kremlin is considering freezing German assets in Russia as payback for the bailout deal.

Germany has put pressure on Nicosia throughout the last week, insisting on terms which will effectively end the importance of the Cyprus banking sector.

Open Europe provided this analysis of the Cyprus deal: "This is a bad deal for Cyprus and the Cypriot population. Cypriot GDP is likely to collapse in the wake of the deal with the possible capital controls hampering the functioning of the economy. The large loan from the eurozone will push debt up to unsustainable levels while the austerity accompanying it (along with the bank restructuring plan) will increase unemployment and cause social tension. There is a strong chance Cyprus could become a zombie economy – reliant on eurozone and central bank funding, with little hope of economic growth."

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades fought against the terms insisted upon by the EU, ECB and IMF, according to the Guardian's Ian Traynor who tweeted: "EU sources say Anastasiades fought tooth and nail on bank closure, restructuring, downsizing. #Barroso says Ana fully supported it." Angela Merkel is pleased with the outcome, as is Wolfgang Schäuble. The deal could benefit German banks as deposits are likely to leave Cyprus as soon as capital controls are eased.

Read more: Digital Journal.

 

Cypriot: They Have Stolen Our Money

Cyprus Looting is Only The Beginning for Global Elite
Sinclair: "Well, it should have frightened many of the players involved, and served as a wake-up call. There was a great miscalculation made with regards to Cyprus, and the situation has quickly turned into a catastrophe. There was no real understanding of the entities that were behind the Russian corporations which have money in Cyprus, and the effect of what is in reality the confiscation of Russian ex-KGB money. 

The people at the IMF, which have spearheaded this disaster, never expected the 'Cyprus Solution' to blow up in their face the way it has....

Judge Napolitano: Government Can Steal Your Money
Judge Napolitano says yes. "The people who have more than $100,000 in the bank are targets for any government that's looking for money to shore up its own inability to manage its finances."

Nigel Farage:  EU wants to steal money from Cypriots bank accounts
UKIP leader Farage on the insanity of Socialist Europe.

Government to confiscate your savings account

It did happen here.
The theft of savings accounts in Cyprus could happen in the U.S. tomorrow morning.

Confiscation of Private Property
Savings accounts in Spain, Italy and other European countries will be raided to preserve Europe's single currency by propping up failing banks

• If governments can steal your savings and retirement accounts then why not your home or business?

A few years ago in Argentina the government "nationalized" private retirement accounts for the good of the people.  Today we have Europe stealing private property savings accounts for the good of the people . . . . and to prop up international bankers.

Now European bankers are drooling over savings accounts in Spain, Italy and more.  As the U.S. runs out of cash to pay for Socialist programs don't think for one second they will not look to 401K plans and bank accounts.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch chairman of the eurozone, announced that the heavy losses inflicted on depositors in Cyprus would be the template for future banking crises across Europe.



Soon they will come for your retirement money
just like they did in Argentina.

"If there is a risk in a bank, our first question should be 'Okay, what are you in the bank going to do about that? What can you do to recapitalise yourself?'," he said in the UK Telegraph.

"If the bank can't do it, then we'll talk to the shareholders and the bondholders, we'll ask them to contribute in recapitalising the bank, and if necessary the uninsured deposit holders."

Ditching a three-year-old policy of protecting senior bondholders and large depositors, over €100,000, in banks, Dijsselbloem argued that the lack of market contagion surrounding Cyprus showed that private investors could now be hit to pay for bad banking debts.

The announcement is highly significant as it signals the mothballing of the euro's €700bn bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which Spain and Ireland wants to be used to recapitalise their troubled banks.

Dijesselbloem's comments will alarm countries like Ireland and Spain that had been hoping to access the ESM in order to restructure banks without killing off their financial sector by inflicting huge losses on investors.

The Steps to Returning to a Gold Standard
Judge Napolitano explains how the United States government can return to the gold standard to restore prosperity and rein in the power of the Federal Reserve.



.
Big Brother Government says:
"Give us your gold and we will give you paper in return."

Illegal in FDR's United States
Now the Federal government was able to print all the money they needed
to fund the cradle-to-grave Marxist welfare state.

SHOCK - Now a 40% confiscation of bank accounts

Fascism  -  European governments act as Mafia enforcers to collect on the bad loans made by banks

• Make Cyprus an offer they can't refuse.

The situation in Cyprus is changing minute by minute.  But the thrust of the story does not change.  Law and order, the respect for private property is breaking down.  A corrupt form of National Socialism is showing itself.  The all-powerful State is out to steal everything not nailed down.

The Socialist Europeans, with the Germans and the IMF taking a particularly hard line, demanded the winding up of Cyprus Popular Bank, the country's second biggest, and the restructuring of Bank of Cyprus, the biggest financial institution.

The parties considered new proposals that had emerged over the weekend with European officials speaking of a levy (confiscation of private property) of up to 40% on Bank of Cyprus depositors with accounts holding more than €100,000, plus a further levy of up to 5% on similar deposits in other banks reports the UK Guardian.

"The numbers have not changed. If anything they've got worse," said Wolfgang Schäuble , Germany's finance minister. He said that last week's agreement to raise €5.8bn had to be achieved. This time, however, savers with less than €100,000 would be spared, meaning the burden would fall much more heavily on the wealthy than the 9.9% levy proposed for their accounts last week.


I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse
Banksters  -  a Mafia like combo of corporations and government.

Führer Angela Merkel reportedly outraged over Cyprus's behaviour

• Germany's chancellor said Cyprus was 'exhausting the patience of its euro partners' who actually want to run their own country.

German chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly expressed outrage at the behaviour of Cyprus during an extraordinary meeting of the parliamentary faction of her "Conservative" Christian Democrats in the Bundestag.

According to reliable sources present at the meeting, she said Cyprus was "exhausting the patience of its euro partners" and she was particularly incensed that the government had failed to produce a "plan B". She also complained about the lack of communication from Nicosia.

On the streets of Cyprus, she is viewed as a hate figure, blamed for the bank deposit tax plan, even though the idea originally came from Nicosia, and for insisting that Cyprus should raise a third of the country's rescue fund itself. The effect of this at home has merely been to increase Merkel's support.

She knows that voters would never forgive her if she used their taxes to bail out banks that offer an offshore haven for the fortunes of Russian oligarchs. Images of Merkel as an SS guard or donning a Hitler moustache have appeared in Cyprus but one German government official said: "The old Nazi cliches are simply too easy to fall back on when someone's looking for an outlet for their anger".

(guardian - angela-merkel)

(guardian - cyprus)                (Bloomberg)

Russia may help Cyprus in exchange for oil

Cyprus  -  When the Banks rob the customers

• A world gone mad  -  A formerly Communist, now Capitalist Russia is looking to protect Cyprus from the evil Socialist European Union looking to steal private property.

Cyprus Finance Minister and top bankers are in Moscow searching financial help after the EU proposal implying private savings levy was rejected by parliament. The Cypriot delegation is looking into whether Moscow’s terms are better.

A world turned upside down.
Russia may help Cyprus
against the European Socialists.

Finance Minister Michael Sarris, who heads the Cyprus delegation, has expressed hope that Moscow is going to lend money to Nicosia on acceptable conditions on Wednesday.

The negotiations between Sarris and his Russian counterpart Anton Siluanov have not brought practical results so far reports RT News.

"There were no offers, nothing concrete... We're happy with a good beginning," Sarris said.

He told reporters after talks that the discussion with Siluanov had been “very honest” and that the Cypriot delegation“underscored how difficult the situation is.”

But Sarris shared hope that "We'll now continue our discussion to find the solution by which we hope we will be getting some support.”

Allegedly, Cyprus has asked Russia for a five-year extension of an existing loan of 2.5 billion euro Moscow that granted the island nation in 2011.


Farage:  EU wants to steal money from Cypriots bank accounts
In Nigel Farage’s first TV appearance since the Cypriot wealth tax was announced, the Englishman pulls no punches. In all his years and all his experience of the desperation of the European Union’s leadership “never did [he] think they would resort to stealing money from people’s savings accounts.” T

he simple fact is that they know they cannot let any country leave, no matter how small, for “once one country goes, the whole deck of cards will come tumbling down.”

Oil deposits can make you many friends.

The demands of the European creditors confiscate 10 per cent of bank deposits in exchange for bailout of the Cyprus economy caused panic among country’s citizens and investors. Parliament on Tuesday voted against the EU demand to tax all accounts registered on the country. The measure supposed to claim 6.75 per cent from accounts under 100,000 euro and 9.9 per cent from those over 100,000 euro.
.

What’s in it for Russia?

The presence of Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Giorgos Lakkotripis in the Cypriot delegation only adds intrigue to talks in Moscow.
.
Speculation is raging as to what Russia is planning to ask from Cyprus in exchange for the money.
.
The Wall Street Journal assures that Nicosia is preparing to exchange some shares in the island’s banks and energy projects in return for a Moscow credit line.

Russian energy giant Gazprom has reportedly offered Cyprus a private bailout plan of its own, proposing to lend money in exchange for rights to offshore gas deposits in the Mediterranean Sea, the New York Times reports.

Cyprus’ gas reserves appear to be promising, yet undeveloped so far. Cypriot gas fields lie next to similar gas deposits recently found off the coast of Israel.

Socialist Cyprus to confiscate 10% of bank deposits

"We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions."
--Adolf Hitler

Communism on the March
The Socialist / Fascist / Communist European Union wants Cyprus to confiscate and re-distribute the wealth for "fairness" and to prop up the international bankers

• European Leftists are running out of money.  Now they are coming for your private savings account.  Soon it will be private property.
• Coming soon to the United States.

In a radical departure from previous aid packages, euro zone finance ministers want Cyprus to confiscate 10% of the money in their people's bank accounts and in return the Euro bankers will loan the nation another 10 billion euros ($13 Billion).

The decision, announced on Saturday morning, stunned Cypriots and caused a run on cash points, most of which were depleted within hours. Electronic transfers were stopped.

The originally proposed levy on deposits is 9.9 percent for those accounts exceeding 100,000 euros and 6.7 percent on anything below that reports Reuters News.

The Cypriot government on Sunday discussed with lenders the possibility of changing the levy to 3.0 percent for deposits below 100,000 euros, and to 12.5 percent for above that sum, a source close to the consultations told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The source said the discussions had the "blessing" of a troika of lenders from the European Commission, the IMF and the European Central Bank.

In Brussels, a spokesman for Olli Rehn, the European commissioner in charge of economic affairs, said discussions were still under way in Cyprus.

"If the Cypriot leaders agree on a more progressive scale for the one-off levy, in view of making it fairer for smaller savers and provided this would have the same financial impact, the Commission would be ready to recommend that the Eurogroup endorse such an agreement," the spokesman said.

The move to take a percentage of deposits, which could raise almost 6 billion euros.

ATMs drained as bailout tax triggers run on bank deposits.
Anxious depositors drained cash from ATMs in Cyprus on Saturday, hours after European officials in Brussels required that part of a new €10 billion ($12.6 billion) bailout must be paid for directly from the bank accounts of savers.
Read more: www.theage.com.au

Bolshevik Terror and Tyranny in Russia
The fruits of Socialism  -  death and poverty.

Communist Party of Cyprus

 

Full-Blown Socialism is coming to America

Saxo Bank CEO: “This Is Full-Blown Socialism And I Still Can’t Believe It Happened”

• Law and order and respect for private property is vanishing in both Europe and America.
• Political hacks from all parties are desperately looking to steal anything not nailed down to fund the Marxist welfare state.

Authored by Lars Seier Christensen, CEO Saxo Bank; originally posted at his blog at TradingFloor.com,

It is difficult to describe the weekend bailout package to Cyprus in any other way. The confiscation of 6.75 percent of small depositors’ money and 9.9 percent of big depositors’ funds is without precedence that I can think of in a supposedly civilised and democratic society.

But maybe the European Union (EU) is no longer a civilised democracy?

I heard rumours about this when I visited Limassol last week, but dismissed them as completely outlandish. And yet, here we are. The consequences are unpredictable, but we are clearly looking at a significant paradigm shift.


Lars Seier Christensen

This is a breach of fundamental property rights, dictated to a small country by foreign powers and it must make every bank depositor in Europe shiver.

Although the representatives at the bailout press conference tried to present this as a one-off, they were not willing to rule out similar measures elsewhere – not that it would have mattered much as the trust is gone anyway. It is now difficult to expect any kind of limitation to what measures the Troika and EU might take when the crisis really starts to bite.

If you can do this once, you can do it again. if you can confiscate 10 percent of a bank customer’s money, you can confiscate 25, 50 or even 100 percent. I now believe we will see worse as the panic increases, with politicians desperately trying to keep the EUR alive.

Depositors in other prospective bailout countries must be running scared – is it safe to keep money in an Italian, Spanish or Greek bank any more?

I don't know, must be the answer. Is it prudent to take the risk? You decide. I fear this will lead to massive capital outflows from weak Eurozone countries, just about the last thing they need right now. Even from the EU as a whole, I suspect, as the banking union is in place in most countries already.

Another open question is what will happen to the huge number of brokerages based in Cyprus?

There is about 100 or more FX and other brokers currently operating under the relatively light Cypriot regulation. How will this impact the trustworthiness of these many small institutions? What IS the exact impact on the client deposits they might be holding in Cyprus? Will anyone dare to do business with them going forward?..

This is a major, MAJOR game changer and the fallout will be with us for a long time to come. I believe it could be the beginning of the end for the Eurozone as this is an unbelievable blow to the already challenged trust that might be left among investors. Talk about a possible own goal.

Market reaction? it must be very good for gold – and for safe-haven countries like Switzerland, Singapore and economically more healthy non-Euro countries in, for example, Scandinavia. I would think the EUR and associated markets will be undermined by increasing lack of confidence when the full implications become clear for investors.

This is full-blown socialism and I still cannot believe this really happened.
Be careful out there….
.
(via Inforwars News)


Dr. Michael Savage
Savage on the American Marxist Death Tax

Socialism in America
In the U.S. the Republican House and Democrat Senate "compromised" and now we have a 45% bi-partisan confiscation of the wealth at death.

Greece borrows money to re-pay borrowed money

Socialist Insanity  -  European Leftists have Greece borrowing even more money in order to make the payments on their debt.

• Insane Socialism - it's not just in Congress anymore.

Greece raised €4.06 billion ($5.15 billion) from the sale of short-term treasury bills Tuesday, money that will help it make a crucial debt repayment at the end of the week.

With the disbursement of a massive €31.5 billion ($40.1 billion) installment from Greece’s international bailout long delayed, the country’s finances have gone down to the wire.

Without Tuesday’s sale, Athens would have found it impossible to repay the €5 billion ($6.4 billion) treasury bill maturing on Friday, the day on which Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has said Greece would run out of money reports the Washington Times.

Despite concerns over Greece’s long-term economic outlook, the country’s euro partners and the International Monetary Fund are expected to agree on the release of the next tranche of the bailout over the next week.

The country’s debt management agency raised €2.76 billion ($3.51 billion) from the sale of 4-week bills at an interest rate of 3.95 percent, and €1.3 billion ($1.66 billion) of 13-week bills at 4.2 percent.


Communism  -  The Greek debt that became Cyprus' Trojan Horse

Progressive Party of Working People of Cyprus.
Ανορθωτικό Κόμμα Εργαζόμενου Λαού

Some news from Leftist Cyprus, which sounds uncannily like news from Socialist Greece: the country does not have access to the international capital markets and economic reforms are going at a snail's pace. Cypriot banks are drowning in Greek junk bonds. That's why they need a multi-billion euro lifeline now too.

More new faces are showing up at the soup kitchen in the southern Cypriot city of Limassol, entire families asking the Orthodox Church for a free meal. The church is warning that some radical new changes are afoot.

Cyprus needs a bailout. The Communist ruled EU-member is cash-strapped. Unemployment is on the rise and the economic outlook is gloomy.

Turkey threatens to send warships against Cyprus



Turkey may send in their navy to protect what they view as their mineral rights.



Turkey will provide naval escorts for its own oil and gas exploration vessels


Welcome to the future.  The nations pf the world throwing their weight and military around to lay claim to oil, gas and mineral rights.

Noble Energy Corp. this week began drilling work on an exploration well in the Mediterranean south of Cyprus under an agreement with the government that controls the southern side of the divided island, despite protests from Turkey, according to reports on Tuesday.

Noble Energy Corp. has moved a rig to Cyprus waters not far from its Leviathan discovery off the coast of Israel, the largest exploration success in the Houston firm’s history with an estimated 16 trillion cubic feet of reserves, says Market Watch.

Cyprus has been politically divided since 1974, with the internationally recognized Greek-Cypriot government in the south, and a Turkish Cypriot administration in the north.

Cyprus deputy government spokesman Christos Christofides told the Associated Press that rounds of exploratory drilling will likely last for months and may provide more information about the size of the deposit. Efforts are now focused on an area 115 miles south of Cyprus. 

Is war in the future over 16 trillion cubic feet
of natural gas reserves.



Turkey to take action?

Turkey has vowed to send warships to protect its claims off its side of the Cyprus coast, and has said that any mineral riches found should be divided, according to reports.

Cyprus raised the stakes in a dispute with Turkey over energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean on Tuesday when it announced it had started to drill for gas offshore.

Turkey said this week that it would provide naval escorts for its own oil and gas exploration vessels in the region unless the Greek Cypriot government gave up its drilling plans.

The dispute over what are thought to be major energy reserves beneath the waters of the eastern Mediterranean has also further strained Turkey's relations with Israel, which lays claims to a big gas field in the area, at a time when Ankara is seeking to expand its influence in the Middle East.

Turkey has also questioned the jurisdiction of a maritime boundary agreed between Cyprus and Israel in a area rich in hydrocarbon deposits.

By going ahead with drilling, Cyprus ignored warnings from Turkey that the move could derail peace talks on the future of the ethnically divided island.

Cyprus and Turkey have been at loggerheads over a conflict which has kept the island's Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities estranged for decades. But the drilling controversy has added a new and potentially explosive element into a row which has defied mediation.

For more on this story