Weekly News highlights

Katrina Kurucu, the wife of a Turkish drug smuggler, on Monday told a court that she married him after he had been arraigned even though she knew he faced possible life imprisonment for importing more than 10,000 Ecstasy pills into Malta.

She was called to the stand in the Criminal Court in what was to be the beginning of her husband's trial by jury.

Kurucu on Monday pleaded guilty to conspiring to deal in drugs and importing the 10,006 pills. He is expected to be sentenced tomorrow.

Shop owners join FAIR

Some 400 shop owners have already applied to join FAIR (Fair-pricing Agreements in Retailing), the commitment to fairly display prices in Maltese liri and euros, Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech said in Parliament on Tuesday.

Negligent bus driver fined Lm3,500

Bus driver Joseph Grech, 35, of Mqabba, was handed down a two-year jail term suspended for four years and fined Lm3,500 on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to causing serious injuries to a student and to a coach driver through negligence when the bus he was driving collided with the coach carrying schoolchildren in Zebbug on February 27, 2004.

Zejtun burglary

The Police are investigating a theft from a confectionery in Zejtun in which goods worth a few thousand liri - mainly cigarettes and phone cards - and petty cash were stolen on Sunday night.

Girl accused of assaulting facilitator

On Wednesday a 12-year-old girl was charged with threatening and assaulting her facilitator, Nicoletta DeBrincat, by allegedly ramming her with a desk at Erin Serracino Inglott school on Tuesday. She pleaded not guilty.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera ruled that case be heard by the Juvenile Court.

Mother 'bails out' teenager charged with theft

The mother of one of three teenagers charged with burglary, told a magistrate on Wednesday she was willing to accept her son at home as long as he behaved and did not stay out late every night.

The woman agreed to call the police if her son did not abide by the bail conditions. The woman took the stand on the arraignment of her 16-year-old son, who was charged with theft from Che Sarà Sarà shop and the Labour Party club, both in Zejtun, between November 21 and Tuesday.

Another two 17-year-olds were charged with complicity in the burglary of the shop and handling stolen property. The boys all pleaded not guilty and were granted bail against a personal guarantee of Lm500.

Arraigned over neighbour's defilement

On Wednesday a 60-year-old man was charged with defiling a 12-year-old boy neighbour. He pleaded not guilty but was remanded in custody. His name is not being published to protect the identity of the minor.

Hunters push for amended laws

The Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FKNK), led by its president Joseph Buttigieg, has presented a "protest document" to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Environment Minister George Pullicino.

The document calls on the government to stop dragging its feet and put into effect proposed amendments to hunting laws that it had agreed to.

Federation secretary Lino Farrugia said this was a final attempt to settle the issue without having to call national protests.

The Ministry of Rural Affairs and the Environment has been considering proposals to amend legal notice 79/06 published last March, which is at the centre of a dispute between the federation and the Government.

Contacted on Wednesday, a ministry spokesman said the proposals were still under consideration but declined further comment.

Air Malta's future

Public investments Minister Austin Gatt said on Thursday that Air Malta would inevitably have to face job cuts if trade unions opted for a collective agreement rather than a new reform programme.

The problems the company faced stemmed from core operations this year and the year before, not old issues, such as AzzurAir and the purchase of RJ aircraft, which had been a commercial mistake but had nothing to do with the national carrier losing Lm6 million last year, the minister said.

Dr Gatt said the choice was between a new reform pact that would involve sacrifices but would assure jobs, and a collective agreement, which some in the unions wanted, but which would not include job guarantees.

Though Air Malta is in a better financial position, it is still expected to be in the red at the end of its financial year in March. Through a three-year rescue plan, the unions had accepted cuts in overtime and only increases related to the cost of living.

The company is also proposing that, given the seasonality of its operations, workers would work 45 hours in summer and 35 in winter and that the roster would be set from one month to the next. The unions have till mid-January to hand in their reactions.

Drydocks held responsible for man's death

On Thursday the Government was held responsible for damages sustained by the family of a Drydocks worker who had died as a result of asbestos poisoning.

The court put the case off for January 31, expressing the hope that the parties would reach an out-of-court settlement.

The judgment was delivered by Mr Justice Philip Sciberras in the case filed by Carmena, Dorothy and James Fenech, heirs of the late Joseph Fenech, against Malta Drydocks.

In 2004 the government took over the case as defendant instead of Malta Drydocks.

Mr Fenech died in February 1997; he had worked at the Drydocks from 1959 until he was boarded out in 1995. He had worked as a yard boy, skilled labourer and boilermaker, and had been exposed to asbestos. Mr Fenech's widow and two children submitted that he had died as a direct result of exposure to asbestos at work.

The heirs asked the court to declare Malta Drydocks responsible for Mr Fenech's death and to condemn the enterprise and the Government to make good the damages they had sustained.

GDP grows by 2.7 per cent

Provisional estimates for the third quarter of this year indicate a GDP growth of 5.7 per cent at current prices and 2.7 per cent at constant prices over the same period last year, the National Statistics Office said on Thursday.

Gross domestic product is an estimate of the value of goods and services produced in the economy over a period of time.

Court orders destruction of over five million cigarettes

The First Hall of the Civil Court on Thursday ordered the destruction of 527 boxes each containing 10,000 cigarettes on the basis that the rights of the trademark's proprietor had been violated.

The judgment was delivered by Mr Justice Raymond C. Pace in the case filed by the foreign company Rothmans of Pall Mall Ltd against Ryad Alsalheen Trading, Al Mursheed Co. and Al Rowad Shipping Agency.

The court heard that in the course of a routine inspection at Malta Freeport in October 2004 a number of cartons of cigarettes were found in a container, even though its manifest declared it contained general merchandise destined for Benghazi, Libya.

5,000 bottles of spirits seized in a month

Over 5,000 bottles of spirits were seized by Customs last month, Parliamentary Secretary at the Finance Ministry Tonio Fenech said on Thursday at a news conference on recent Customs seizures related to alcohol.

Forty-eight inspections were carried out by Customs personnel during this period.

No person may manufacture, process, prepare for sale, expose or offer for sale, sell or otherwise dispose of any ethyl alcohol with an actual alcoholic strength by volume of 25 per cent or more, and in containers of 50 centilitres capacity or above, unless a band or stamp has been affixed to the bottles.

Survey on work conditions in Malta

Maltese workers are more optimistic than their European counterparts about prospects of career advancement, even if half of them complain of work-related illnesses, a study has shown.

The fourth European Working Conditions Survey, carried out among 600 respondents, paints a rosy picture of working conditions in Malta in comparison to the EU.

The new study, drawn up by the EU's European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, shows improved working conditions when compared to the 2001 survey.

Cyclist dies in road accident

A Sudanese immigrant, Fadla-Lah Mohammed Ahmed Moh-Bahkret, who resided at the Hal Far open centre, died in a traffic accident while cycling in Aviation Road, Luqa, towards Birzebbuga on Friday evening, the police said.

The man was hit by a Volkswagen Passat driven by a 20-year-old from Tarxien.

The driver's girlfriend, who was a passenger in the car, was slightly injured.

Man accused of running a brothel

A man whose name cannot be published by court order, was accused of living off prostitution and running a brothel, among other offences, on Friday.

The accused pleaded not guilty.

Police Inspector Raymond Aquilina charged the man before Magistrate Joseph Apap Bologna with forcing, through violence or encouragement, two women to prostitute themselves.

The man was accused of allowing premises to be used for prostitution and with living in whole or in part on the earnings from prostitution.

He was also charged with being in possession of a firearm without a permit and with making alterations to the firearm.

Malta criticises EU tuna deal

Government on Friday harshly criticised the European Commission's Fisheries Directorate, politically headed by Maltese Commissioner Joe Borg, over a recently negotiated agreement on a recovery plan for tuna stocks in the Mediterranean and insisted that Maltese fishermen should not suffer any cuts in their current tuna quota of 344 tonnes a year.

In a letter to Dr Borg, released on Friday night by the DOI, Rural Affairs and Environment Minister George Pullicino insisted that the deal reached is not in the interests of Maltese fishermen.

Malta was insisting that the Commission should keep the same level of quota allocated to Maltese fishermen, despite the reduction in the global EU quota.