A hold-up was attempted at the Eurochange exchange bureau in Tower Road, Sliema, at about 7 p.m. last Sunday.
An 18-year-old cashier was injured when one of two thieves emerged from a Citroën car and fired two shots from a sawn-off shotgun.
Some of the pellets got through the slit through which money is exchanged and ricocheted, hitting the cashier in the face, neck and back of the head. The woman was operated on and later discharged.
The thieves left empty-handed as the girl fell to the ground and they could not force their way through the bullet-proof door.
The car used by the thieves had been reported stolen a few weeks ago. It was later found three blocks away in MacIver Street.
Government to change law
The government is to go ahead with legislation to cut the number of public holidays after a five-and-a-half-hour long meeting of the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development on Wednesday failed to come up with a workable solution.
The way the law is to be amended will hit employees worse than the original measure announced in the budget, which had proposed forfeiting public holidays falling on weekends for vacation leave entitlement purposes. Under the likely changes to the law, such days will no longer be considered as public holidays, meaning that those on duty will lose their public holiday premium.
However, Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech on Thursday agreed to a request from Gejtu Vella, secretary-general of the Union Haddiema Maghqudin, to convene another meeting of the MCESD on Wednesday to discuss the issue.
The General Workers Union is holding a protest march on the public holidays issue in Valletta tomorrow evening.
Tunisia accident victim's body arrives
The body of Joe Abela, a 41-year-old bachelor from Tarxien who died tragically while on holiday in Tunisia on New Year's Day, was flown to Malta on Thursday.
Mr Abela had just visited the Friguia Park with his relatives and was waiting at a nearby train station to return to his accommodation. He had just spotted the train arriving and turned to inform his relatives when the locomotive's mirror hit him on the head and slammed him against a wall, the sources added. He died on the spot.
Animal skins seized by Customs
Customs officials at the airport seized four pieces of luggage containing over 500 animal skins, including several rare species, in what they described as one of the largest hauls involving the illicit wildlife trade.
The discovery on Wednesday night, worth thousands of liri, was made after the suitcases - just arriving from Malpensa airport in Milan on board an Alitalia flight - were found to be emitting a pungent smell.
The cases were left stranded on the conveyor belt and were not collected by any of the passengers.
The police administrative law enforcement unit was alerted and informed the duty magistrate about the case.
Some protected and very rare species were stacked in among the carcasses, including foxes, an Egyptian mongoose, a jungle cat, eagles, ducks, egrets and a kingfisher.
Further investigations showed that the owners of the suitcases had arrived in Malta a few days earlier. Their point of departure was Cairo.
Eco-tax on degradable plastic bags slashed
The eco-contribution on plastic bags will now be charged per item instead of per kilo after the government on Friday announced it would be amending the Eco-Contribution Act, just one week after it came into force.
Under the amendment, bags made of normal plastic will be charged a tax of 6c each and degradable bags will have an eco-tax of 1c per item. Bio-degradable bags will not be taxed at all, as under the original legal notice.
New policy on immigrants
A wide-ranging document on illegal immigration published by the government on Friday contains "generous" policies for foreigners who deserve protection but confirms the authorities' tough stance against those who do not warrant it.
The document consolidates all rules, regulations and policies relating to illegal immigration, refugees and integration - with a few amendments.
The policy of detention, often a point of contention with NGOs, remains unchanged, though the document argues against equating detention centres with another form of imprisonment.
The document, launched by Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg and Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina, will be discussed during a national conference on illegal immigration at the beginning of next month, following which a national policy document on the subject will be drawn up.
Record haul of fake goods
Millions Of Euros' worth of fake branded and branded sportswear, shoes, cigarettes and other goods were seized by Maltese customs officials in what has been described as the biggest ever haul of contraband goods made in Malta.
Details were given on Friday by Tony Abela, Parliamentary Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, who said the haul, made at Malta Freeport, consisted of 13 six-metre containers and four 12-metre containers packed with fake Puma, Nike, Timberland and Adidas goods, among them 85,000 pairs of shoes, 8,500 jackets, 11,500 other pairs of shoes, and nine million cigarettes.
The customs investigation started on December 20, with officials using X-ray equipment donated by the US government, to examine containers suspected of containing non-declared goods.