Weekly News highlights

Vandals sprayed orange paint on the base of the Zebbug monument to National Poet Dun Karm Psaila. Zebbug mayor Brian Bonnici said last week the council was restoring the monument and the base had been sprayed with a protective film. The locality has seen a spate of vandalism over the past two months.

Woman jailed

Josette Bickle, 37, was jailed on Monday for two years and fined Lm1,500 after she admitted trafficking in heroin and cocaine three years ago. Magistrate Giovanni Grixti noted how Ms Bickle was arraigned following investigations into the death of a man who had been found dead in a Valletta apartment, but the only tie there existed between her and the dead man were allegations that she had sold him drugs.

Dockers' union officials

The newly formed Malta Dockers' Union held its first annual general meeting on Monday, adopting its statute and electing its first executive committee for four years. The committee is made up of the same people who sat on the executive committee of the General Workers' Union port workers' section, and who had resigned en masse.

The Malta Dockers' Union, led by president Joe Saliba, was registered earlier this month, with 312 port workers who resigned from the GWU, as members.

12 migrants presumed dead

Twelve Immigrants were presumed dead on Monday after a search and rescue operation for survivors of a capsized boat southwest of Malta yielded nothing. Another 12 people, including a child, were rescued and a corpse was recovered from the sea by a Tunisian search vessel on Sunday.

€1.3 million EU grant

Malta on Tuesday was allocated an additional €1.3 million (Lm600,000) in EU funds to compensate for the costs associated with illegal immigration, under the EU ARGO programme. The money will be used for improving detention centre conditions, co-ordinated by the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs and by the Armed Forces of Malta this year.

Malta received €120,000 in aid towards its immigration costs under the same programme last year and €600,000 from other EU programmes.

Zurrieq boy loses hand

A 14-Year-Old Zurrieq boy lost his right hand and seriously injured the other in a petard explosion on Tuesday afternoon. The teenager was playing with a group of children in Wied Babu, Zurrieq. On Wednesday, a 17-year-old from Kirkop suffered slight injuries after setting alight some petard remnants he and some friends found in a field.

150 Air Malta staff for voluntary redundancy

Some 150 Air Malta employees have subscribed to the voluntary redundancy scheme, under a plan to rescue the ailing national airline. The airline's management recently turned down a request by the General Workers Union to extend the scheme's closing date. Government categorically denied that staff were being pressured to take early retirement. The scheme was launched on May 15 and was open for four months.

Drug traffickers jailed

Magistrate Lawrence Quintano on Tuesday jailed six men, including a former police constable, to terms ranging from six months to two years, after they were convicted of trafficking or planning to sell drugs.

Man killed by bull

Saviour Sciberras, killed by a stud bull on Tuesday, died of a ruptured heart caused by the animal's hornless head butt, the autopsy established. The 58-year-old of Sannat also suffered a shattered ribcage and terrible injuries to his head which were enough to kill him while herding cows and the bull into a pen alone.

Young man dies in road accident

Christopher Tabone, 21, of St Paul's Bay, died four hours after a horrific collision on the Coast Road on Wednesday morning. His Ford swerved onto the other side of the road and crashed into an oncoming loaded truck. His distraught parents watched as Civil Protection personnel freed him from the mangled car before he was rushed to hospital.

Meanwhile, figures released by Eurostat showed that despite its high density of cars, Malta has the lowest rate of fatal road accidents in the EU: in 2004, the islands had a rate of only 33 road deaths per million inhabitants compared to second-placed Netherlands with 49 and Sweden with 53.

Charged with defiling girlfriend's sister

An unnamed 36-year-old Paola man on Wednesday denied charges of defiling his girlfriend's 15-year-old sister over the past nine months. His lawyer claimed that his client had been provoked by the girl. The magistrate turned down a request for bail.

Archbishop calls for support for mothers

Archbishop Joseph Mercieca on Thursday called on the state to strive to support stay-at-home mothers in his Independence Day homily at St John's Co-Cathedral. Mgr Mercieca expressed concern over the damage done when both parents are constrained to work to pay off debts and cautioned against the creation of a climate where full-time mothers were seen as failures.

Five charged with jet fuel theft

Four Enemalta employees - Emanuel Borg, 60, Joseph Farrugia, 52, Michael Attard, 43 and Carmel Gatt, 43 - were accused of allowing bowsers to fill up with the corporation's fuel from its Has-Saptan stores. Sean Abela, 18 of Zejtun, was alleged to be one of the bowser drivers. Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani Grima put them under house arrest against a personal guarantee of Lm5,000 each.

Schwarzenegger pledges protection

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a declaration stating that were a Maltese man wanted in the US for 18 counts of paedophilia extradited and found guilty, he would not be subject to cruelty in the California state prison.

The declaration was exhibited in court on Friday by the Attorney General's representatives during the constitutional proceedings initiated by Lewis Muscat, 56, who is wanted in California for defiling a girl when she was between nine and 11 years of age. On August 4, the Magistrates Court had ruled in favour of the extradition of Mr Muscat to the US.

Toxic ship turned away

MEPA, in its capacity as the local agency responsible for the trans-frontier shipment of waste, on Wednesday denied entry to ms Otopan, a toxic ship currently roaming the Mediterranean in search of a port. Campaigners were last week hoping that Malta's refusal will have a domino effect on the Dutch government's bid to have the vessel broken somewhere in the Mediterranean.

Four more state colleges

Four New colleges, bringing together primary and secondary schools into a school network, will start operating tomorrow. Public colleges now number seven; another three are expected to start operating in the near future. The colleges aim to improve the transition of pupils from the feeder primary into the secondary schools that form part of each school network.

Hunters nabbed at sea after chase

Four Men, aged between 21 and 31, were apprehended on Friday morning while hunting illegally at sea off Marsalforn following a high-speed chase by AFM Maritime Squadron personnel. Members of the Rapid Deployment Team found several shotguns, a harpoon, and ammunition in containers CD-playing equipment with bird calls, and other hunting related equipment when they boarded the craft.