Weekly News highlights

The Court of Appeal on Monday overturned a judgment by which the Police Commissioner had been ordered to pay almost Lm50,000 in damages.

The case started in 2000 when Martin Cachia filed a writ in the First Hall of the Civil Court against the commissioner.

Mr Cachia told the court that in January 1997 he had been arraigned in court on charges of commercial fraud and breach of copyright. He was acquitted of all charges.

The police had carried out a search of Mr Cachia's property and had seized a large number of blank video cassettes and machinery connected with recordings of audio cassettes.

After his acquittal in March 1999, Mr Cachia requested the return of the items seized and in April 2000 he filed a writ for damages against the commissioner on the basis that the commissioner had not ensured that the items seized were properly stored.

The First Hall of the Civil Court later found the commissioner answerable for the damages sustained by Mr Cachia and ordered the commissioner to pay Lm49,991 in damages.

Two still in critical condition

A Briton and a Gozitan were still fighting for their lives on Monday after being involved in two separate incidents over last weekend.

On a positive note, the condition of the teenage boy from Vittoriosa, who was in danger of dying after falling into a pool at the Marsa Sports Club yesterday week, has stabilised.

David Whitton, a 35-year-old British man, was critically injured in a traffic accident last Sunday in Bahar ic-Caghaq, with the car he was in ending up on the rocks.

Gozitan Victor Sultana, a 43-year-old from Xaghra, fell a height of around 10 feet while working on the roof of his home.

After yet another serious accident over the weekend, a toddler was discharged from hospital on Monday after being admitted for swallowing a number of pills.

The two-year-old Gozitan girl was first taken to Gozo General Hospital on Sunday and later transferred to St Luke's Hospital for further treatment.

Twenty-year-old Deo Pace of Valletta, who was electrocuted last Sunday in his house in St Christopher Street, died on Thursday in hospital where he was being treated.

EU pledges patrols off Malta this summer

European Union Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini has promised Foreign Minister Michael Frendo that joint EU sea patrols off Malta would start this summer.

Attending a conference on migration and development in Rabat, Morocco, last Monday and Tuesday, Dr Frendo made it a point to raise an issue he had confronted resident EU ambassadors with a couple of weeks ago: that aid should extend to the central Mediterranean route and should not focus exclusively on blocking African migrants into Spain.

He had said that Frontex - the EU border agency - should immediately launch joint sea patrols in the central Mediterranean to signal that concrete action is under way also in respect of this route.

Two ambassadors summoned

The Foreign Ministry has summoned Richard Muscat, Ambassador to Ireland, and Gaetan Naudi, Ambassador to Spain, "for further clarifications" over the auditor general's report on the operations of the Voice of the Mediterranean radio station and statements made by the two diplomats in reaction to the findings.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Mr Muscat and Mr Naudi will be in Malta this week.

The Labour Party last Monday called for the resignation of the two Maltese ambassadors in the light of the report. Mr Muscat is a former VoM managing director and Mr Naudi held the post of permanet secretary within the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

The auditor's report found a number of shortcomings in the way the radio station was run, ranging from the way management awarded major contracts related to the station's expansion and refurbishment by direct order, to hospitality expenses claimed by the managing director in excess of his employment entitlement contract.

Air Malta loses 28 pilots in two years

Air Malta has lost 20 per cent of its pilots - 28 in all - since 2004, the president of the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA), James Fenech, told The Times last week.

Most of those who left now fly for Emirates, Gulf Air, Qatar Airways and Etihad, five are working for European airlines and two have emigrated to Singapore. Air Malta has just issued a call for applications for pilots.

The national airline, Mr Fenech said, must align its pilots' pay and conditions with other airlines unless it wants the "pilot shortage" to continue.

Habitual fraudster jailed

Olaf Cini was jailed for a year on Thursday after a magistrate found him guilty of defrauding a woman of Lm9,000 when he convinced her he was a wealthy man of Greek descent, who wanted to open a travel agency bearing her name. Magistrate Giovanni Grixti heard that when Angela Hathaway got to know Cini he introduced himself as Stafan Stiliatis, whose father was Greek and mother "a Casapinta Moroni Viani".

Vandals attack restored Hastings Garden

Valletta Residents woke up on Thursday morning to find out that Hastings Garden had been vandalised - just a week after the completion of a Lm300,000 restoration project.

Red paint was daubed on the newly installed benches and the 19th century Hastings monument while some of the uplighters were broken a week before CCTV cameras were due to be installed. A spokesman for the Ministry of Resources and Infrastructure, responsible for the garden's embellishment, described the incident as shameful.

Pre-budget document for tax relief

A pre-budget document to be released next month is expected to propose a number of tax relief measures aimed at boosting economic growth while keeping financial targets in sight.

The document is being finalised and will be submitted for Cabinet approval shortly. It will be followed up with a period of consultation with the social partners and the public before the measures are announced in the next budget, Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech said.

Motion of no confidence in entire MFA board

Sliema Wanderers FC president Robert Arrigo is formally calling for the resignation of the Malta Football Association administration board - including president Joe Mifsud - over its handling of a convicted paedophile who was allowed to stay on as groundsman at Pace Grasso.

Mr Arrigo wrote to the MFA general secretary last Thursday formally requesting a secret ballot among the 110 football clubs' representatives who are eligible to vote during the AGM due on July 29.

Mr Arrigo is also seeking the resignation of the sports facilities board and the officials responsible for the administration of the Pace Grasso pitch.

Chief Justice orders suspect's re-arrest

The criminal court on Friday ordered the rearrest of 45-year-old Briton, Steven John Lewis Marsden, charged with conspiring to deal in over 50,000 Ecstasy pills, after ruling that a magistrate's decision to grant him bail had been "unusual".

Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano said he was perplexed at how, contrary to normal practice, the Magistrates' Court had granted Marsden bail before the bulk of the evidence against him had been compiled.

Marsden appeared in court on Tuesday and was charged with importing the pills and conspiring to deal in the drug on and before Sunday night.

Magistrate Dennis Montebello granted him bail on condition he signed daily at the Qawra police station and bound him by a Lm10,000 deposit.

Murder victim's heirs win Lm30,000 damages

The heirs of a man shot dead 16 years ago have been awarded damages amounting to almost Lm30,000 by Mr Justice Raymond Pace, sitting in the First Hall of the Civil Court. The judgment was delivered in the case filed by the heirs of the late Stephen Ellul Bonici against Salvatore Farrugia.

The heirs told the court Farrugia had killed Ellul Bonici when he shot him on the night of January 11, 1990.

The court heard that the late Ellul Bonici had some difficulties with Farrugia's children about the running of Mes Amis Bar and Restaurant in Marsascala. The victim had been in the restaurant before the shooting occurred.

Soldier accused of bank theft

An AFM soldier on Friday was charged with stealing from a bank on Thursday.

Magistrate Lawrence Quintano heard Raymond Cordina, 43, of Paola, plead not guilty to stealing between Lm100 and Lm1,000 from the BoV Fgura branch at about 4 p.m. on Thursday.

He was also charged with committing a crime he was in duty bound to prevent and was granted bail against a personal guarantee of Lm500.