Weekly News highlights

A mother of seven on Monday was jailed for 18 months for abandoning and neglecting her six-year-old daughter and treating her "like an animal" in 2004.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera jailed the woman after hearing how the little girl had been left outside the house, or on the balcony, for hours on end, without food and with only cats for company.

Neighbours reported that one night the girl was seen in the balcony wearing nothing but filthy underwear, not only surrounded by cats, but also human and feline excrement.

The magistrate noted that the maximum punishment by law was a one-year jail term, but she upped the punishment by one degree because the offence was repeated.

The name of the woman and the girl are not being published by court order to protect the identity of the child.

No hunting ban

Government has decided not to ban hunting for the coming season, a decision met with loud approval by hunters gathered at a press conference by the Federation of Hunters, Trappers and Conservationists (FKNK) on Monday.

The health and environment ministries said in a joint statement that they had agreed there was no need for them to suspend the hunting season.

They had been considering such a move in view of concerns about bird flu and said that all factors had been analysed, and the decision had been taken because the EU was encouraging member states not to take any "unilateral measures".

Man defiled adopted girls for seven years

A man last week was jailed for six years for defiling his two Romanian adoptive daughters over a period of seven years, in a crime which Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera said, "gives society the shivers".

Although the man was essentially a first-time offender, the magistrate ruled that this did not mean she ought to be lenient as the court has to protect vulnerable citizens from such crimes. She heard how the man had originally been charged with the defilement and rape of his two adoptive daughters, both minors, on and before May 1998.

But when the case documents were sent to the Attorney General's office, the rape charge was dropped. Neither did the AG charge the man with carrying out a repeated offence - a charge which could have increased the punishment.

Hotel business in first quarter 'a washout'

Hotel business in the first three months of this year was described as a "washout" by Winston J. Zahra, former president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA), who addressed a conference organised by the MHRA on Tuesday.

Mr Zahra said certain tourist operators were considering diverting as much as 10 to 20 per cent of their markets elsewhere, before adding that big names are "considering pulling out of Malta altogether".

Mr Zahra also put forward a motion, supported by the association's president Justin Zammit Tabona, calling for an extraordinary general meeting to be held as soon as possible.

Suspended jail term for beach assault

Two Libyan men, Muftah Ali Shaibi, 25, and Ajyashy Hisam Al Bleed, 30, were on Wednesday given a two-year jail term, suspended for four years, after they admitted to pouncing on a couple of young lovers on a beach, holding them against their will, and sexually assaulting the girl.

The two men admitted to holding the couple against their will, and slightly injuring them, on February 19 at about 4.30 a.m.

On handing down judgment, Magistrate Abigail Lofaro noted that the two men had filed an early guilty plea and had co-operated with the police. She also noted they would be deported.

Libel damages raised eightfold

An appeal court on Wednesday increased eightfold the libel damages previously awarded to former Prime Minister, Dom Mintoff, in a case he had filed against Malta Today.

The ruling was delivered following Mr Mintoff's appeal from a Magistrates' Court award of Lm250 in libel damages - and the Court of Appeal increased the damages to Lm2,000 after noting that the damages ought to correspond to the severity of the libel suffered.

Mr Mintoff had claimed he was libelled by a series of articles concerning the BICAL bank, that had appeared in the newspaper between August 24 and October 12, 2003.

The newspaper's editor, Saviour Balzan, and Roger de Giorgio, director of the company which owns Malta Today, later said they had launched a libel fund "to safeguard the interests of our readers, the right of the reader to know and, most importantly, the freedom of the press". This case, they added, reiterated the need to revisit Malta's Press Act.

Smuggled cigarettes seized

Over three million counterfeit Marlboro cigarettes were seized last week by the Customs Department, the second major tobacco haul at the Malta Freeport.

The cigarettes, which were detected in a container that was supposed to contain clothing in transit from the Far East to North Africa, were in 376 boxes each containing 10,000 and totalling 3.7 million.

Charged with manslaughter

Charlot Calleja, 23, of Paola, on Wednesday was charged with drug trafficking and involuntarily causing the death of a Gozitan young man, Jason Muscat, also 23, who allegedly died of an overdose yesterday week.

Calleja, who pleaded not guilty to the involuntary homicide of Muscat, and to trafficking in heroin and cannabis on and before Saturday, March 18, was also charged with breaching the conditions of a previous release and was remanded in police custody.

MUT directives 'a success'

Teachers on Thursday reported for work an hour late in solidarity with a geography teacher who was attacked by a student last month.

The Malta Union of Teachers said on Thursday evening that its directive was followed by 99 per cent of teachers in all grades.

The 14-year-old student, who had attacked the teacher and who was due to return to school on Thursday, now that his suspension had come to an end, did not turn up.

MUT president John Bencini said he was satisfied at the fact that the directive had been followed by most teachers, including heads and assistant heads. It was also followed by teachers in private and Church schools.

Education Minister Louis Galea on Friday expressed his determination that reform in the educational sector will go on, after fears that the present impasse between the MUT and his ministry would put the reform in the balance.

The union was irked by the fact that when it issued the directive to schools to open an hour late on Thursday, the ministry appealed to the school heads' and assistant heads' sense of duty to report for work on time, to ensure the students were safely ushered into school at the usual time.

Malta mulls link to European power grid

Government is actively considering the possibility of using a good part of its EU structural funds to connect the island to the European electricity grid.

Sources close to Enemalta told The Times on Thursday a formal proposal was submitted recently to the government to include the issue among the priorities when deciding how to allocate the €805 million of EU funds to be spent during 2007-2013.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, who on Thursday took part in the first session of an EU summit discussing the Lisbon Strategy and a new energy policy for Europe, hinted at the possibility of joining Malta to the European electricity grid, but without giving any details.

Malta, Singapore sign taxation agreement

Malta and Singapore have signed an agreement on the avoidance of double taxation.

The treaty was signed by Foreign Minister Michael Frendo, and the Deputy Foreign Minister of Singapore Raymond Lim, at the Ministry of Finance in Singapore on Tuesday.

The agreement with Singapore follows a similar accord signed a couple of weeks ago with the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi during a nine-day trip by Dr Frendo covering the UAE, Singapore, Malaysia and five cities in Australia.

Tug Malta's profit

Tug Malta has posted a pre-tax profit of Lm671,217 for the financial year ending September last year - overturning a pre-tax loss in the preceding year of Lm21,467.

During a press conference on Thursday to discuss the company's performance, Investments Minister Austin Gatt said that a call for international tenders will be issued in the coming months to attract a strategic investor for Tug Malta so that the company would expand into international offshore tug work, salvage services and towing in international ports.

Jailed for defilement

Peter Ohaka, a 24-year-old Nigerian, on Thursday was jailed for six months for defiling two 17-year-old Danish girls, and committing the crime during a suspended jail term.

Ohaka, who resides in San Gwann, had pleaded guilty.

Child wins Lm35,000 in damages

A child injured in the collapse of a Qawra restaurant wall on Thursday was awarded damages exceeding Lm35,000 by Mr Justice Tonio Mallia, sitting in the First Hall of the Civil Court.

The award was given in the case filed by George and Sandra Borg, on behalf of their daughter Carly, against Anthony and Carmen Borg, and against Renzo Borg.

The court heard that the accident occurred on September 17, 2000, at the Strawberry Grove restaurant when the child, and her parents, went for a meal with friends.

The child, who at the time was five, was playing with the other children of the group on the restaurant's terrace which was surrounded with a three-foot-high wall on which were some troughs filled with plants.

One of the troughs fell onto the child's right hand inflicting serious injuries, estimated by court experts as causing a permanent disability of 16 per cent.

Boy charged with molesting four-year-old girl

A 16-Year-Old boy was arraigned on Friday and accused of sexually molesting a four-year-old girl in 2003.

The court banned publication of names and the sitting was held behind closed doors.

Migrants stage mass breakout

Scores of irregular immigrants broke out of the Floriana detention centre early on Friday afternoon in protest against their lengthy incarceration.

The vast majority of the 90-odd escapees were rounded up within a couple of hours as the police mounted an intensive search. By evening, just four immigrants were still on the run.

The protests appeared to be timed to coincide with the visit to Malta of members of the European Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, who also toured detention centres.

A couple of hours after the Floriana breakout, at about 12.15 p.m., "agitation" was reported at the Ta' Kandja detention centre, though there were no escapes.

Two police officers at Ta' Kandja were, however, seriously injured, with one of them nearly losing a finger, the other sustaining grievous facial injuries. Another two officers were slightly injured at Floriana while stopping the immigrants from escaping.

Sources said the escape took place after two detainees in Floriana asked to speak to a police inspector. As soon as the door was opened, the detainees charged their way out of the police headquarters and darted in different directions.