FURIOUS airlines were yesterday told they must pay passengers up to £480 compensation each for delayed flights.

An EU judge said the firms should fork out when customers are left waiting for over three hours.

Advocate General Yves Bot rejected a joint challenge from British Airways, easyJet and Thomson Holidays owner TUI.

His landmark ruling is aimed at settling a legal row over a regulation introduced in 2004.

Experts said it could force airlines to shell out £1BILLION a year in compensation.

As the European Union seemingly crumbles under the weight of the economic crisis that is engulfing country after country, questions have arisen, does Turkey NEED the EU? Or does the EU NEED Turkey?

Turkey’s stock is rising, the country is on the rise; posting better than ever financial results and growing as one of the fasted nations in the world. The previous goal of Recep Tayyip Erdogan to orchestrate Turkey’s entry into the European Union when the Prime Minister first came to power in 2002 now seems in some quarters, as unnecessary and most importantly – not wanted by the Turks.

Erol Yarar, founder of a business group of 20,000 companies in Turkey, said: “Prime Minister Erdogan wanted to be the first conservative Muslim leader who would bring Turkey to the West, but after Europe betrayed him, he abandoned those ambitions. Today, the EU has absolutely no influence over Turkey, and most Turks are asking themselves,

The unemployment rate in February period fell 1.1 points to 10.4 compared with the same period last year, offical data shows. But it has maintained its double-digit rate as the economy began to slow this year.

The unemployment rate in Turkey remained at a double-digit level of 10.4 percent in the February period, but did see a 1.1-point decrease compared with the same period in 2011. It hit 10.2 percent in the January period after nine months of single-digit unemployment levels, a report from the Turkish Statistical Institute’s (TÜİK) showed yesterday.

While the number of unemployed decreased by 243,000, falling to about 2.7 million compared to the same period of the previous year, it was up 57,000 from the previous month. According to seasonally adjusted data the unemployment rate was down by 0.1 point to 9.1 percent. TÜİK publishes unemployment data covering three-month periods; yesterday’s report pertains to January, February and March 2012.

Seasonal effects and drop in newly employed lift the joblessness rate, said Garanti Bank analyst in a report yesterday

Seeing increased popularity across the continent, Turkey's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) is now hoping to export its management model to European markets.

The Ponz Charity Social Club recently celebrated the finale evening for this season and handed over a staggering 10,000TL for Kusadaşi's school for the disabled (Kusadaşi Engelliler Köyü).

The Turkish Parliament has been discussing a new property law, to end reciprocity as a barrier to foreign buyers and allow foreigners to buy more land in Turkey. Well, now the law is passed.

With the approval of new legislation last week regulating the sale of Turkish land to foreigners, tourism centres like Alanya, Didim, Fethiye and Kusadasi have received more attention from prospective buyers, leading experts to predict a rise in property and housing prices as the demand increases. The new law will pave the way for foreign citizens from the Middle East, Gulf countries, the United States and the Far East to purchase real estate in Turkey.

The law, which no longer requires reciprocity in terms of land ownership between countries, makes it much easier for foreign citizens to purchase land in Turkey without having previously signed a reciprocity agreement. Citizens of countries like Libya, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the Turkic Republics under the previous legislation were unable to purchase real estate in Turkey because their countries did not have reciprocity agreements with Turkey.

Before last week only foreigners from countries that allowed Turks to buy property could buy property in Turkey, but now foreigners from anywhere can buy in Turkey. They can also buy up to 30 hectares before they need special permission, whereas before the limit was 2.5 hectares.

The law is unsurprisingly

The trial of Sarah Ferguson, Britain’s Duchess of York, in an Ankara court began today over footage she secretly filmed at a branch of the Social Services and Child Protection Agency (SHÇEK) and passed on to a British TV channel.

Therapists and teachers from the rehab center Ferguson filmed also attended the hearing. A settlement offer from Ferguson was read in court, but was rejected for

Speaking to deputies in Parliament on Thursday, Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker stated that not a single student among some 4,000 who were hospitalized after drinking milk provided via the government's free milk program instituted on Wednesday were hospitalized due to contaminated milk.

Hundreds of school children are hospitalized in a number of cities across Turkey, right after they are given free milk as part of a recent project. Government officials say the children are not poisoned, but ‘effected’

On the first day of a recent government project overseeing the distribution of free milk in state schools, hundreds of students around Turkey were hospitalized after drinking their milk. More than 1,000 students went to hospitals complaining of poisoning in nine cities and a number of towns in Turkey yesterday.

Education Minister Ömer Dinçer said the students had not been poisoned, but “had sensitivities to milk,” while Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç claimed that “the students got sick since they drank milk for the first time in their lives, or they drank too much.”

On the other hand, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy from the southern province of Aydın, Lütfi Baydar, commented on the incident by asking if the milk was purchased from “government partisan” firms.

“A governor said the symptoms stemmed from psychological causes. I am a doctor, and it is the first time I’ve ever heard such a thing,” Baydar said.

A doctor from the Sivas Public Hospital, speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News, said expired milk could be the reason for the mass sickness. Some 600 students