Weekly News highlights

Road works forming part of a Lm12.5 million project funded by the fifth Italo-Maltese protocol started two weeks ago. The first part of the works is the scarifying of Zebbug Road, leading from Rabat to Zebbug and Qormi. The works should be complete by November next year. The next phase is the reconstruction of Zebbug Road up to Zebbug junction.

Mayors call for more action to prevent drug abuse

Caritas warned that drug abusers were becoming younger and younger, and mayors of some localities cried out for more police surveillance to avoid its further spread.

Yesterday was International Day Against Drug Abuse. The mayors of Marsascala and Senglea suspect that young people in their localities who are caught in the vice, are mainly drug victims, with traffickers coming to the locality from other areas.

School vans seized

The Public Transport Authority's enforcement staff on Monday seized two minivans which bore illegal registration plates.

The authority said the vans were stopped for routine inspection in the vicinity of the Convent of the Sacred Heart, St Julian's.

AFM rescue illegal immigrants

The Armed Forces of Malta on Monday rescued 18 Somali migrants from a boat some 100 km to the south of the island. The AFM said the boat was stationary after having run out of fuel, and the 16 males and two females were picked by an AFM patrol boat in the afternoon.

Another two boats were sighted, but they kept going on their own steam until contact was lost.

On Tuesday morning 17 Somalis were taken into police custody after landing at Ghar Ahmar. Another 17 immigrants, three Pakistani and the rest suspected to be Egyptians, were brought ashore after their boat was intercepted off Xghajra. A group of 21 Somalis were brought in by an AFM patrol boat on Tuesday evening after they were rescued by a ship.

Cruise passengers down by over 24,000

The number of cruise liner passengers visiting Malta in May this year dropped to 30,740, down by 24,112 from May 2003. US passengers rose by 2,354 to 6,622, as well as increases in the Austrian, Canadian and Greek markets among others, but there were larger decreases in the Italian, Spanish, Swiss, British, Belgian, French, German, Irish, Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish markets, among others.

President in audience with Pope

During a 30-minute audience with President Eddie Fenech Adami, who was making a state visit to the Vatican, the Pope expressed in a short prepared speech his "sincere appreciation" for Malta's support for the inclusion of a reference to Europe's Christian heritage in the Preamble of the EU's constitutional treaty.

The President then presented him with a book on Malta's prehistory and in return received a case filled with 20 medals which marked each mystery of the Rosary.