Weekly News highlights

Salesman Robert Gatt, 22, of Hamrun, was granted bail after pleading not guilty to attempting to seriously injure another man during a heated argument.

Gatt clashed with Alan Chetcuti, of Naxxar, after an argument broke out between the two as they were driving their vehicles in L-Iklin yesterday week.

Gatt is accused of striking Chetcuti with a sharp and pointed instrument. Chetcuti was taken to hospital where he was found to be slightly injured.

Gatt was also charged with carrying a weapon without a permit and breaching the peace.

Duty Magistrate Michael Mallia granted Gatt bail against a personal guarantee of Lm1,000 and a Lm400 deposit.

Main parties' electoral deal

Prime Minister and Nationalist Party leader Lawrence Gonzi is to recommend the approval, by party's MPs, of an agreement reached between the PN and the Opposition Labour Party, which would impose strict proportionality between votes and seats.

The agreement was drawn up on Friday night between representatives of the two parties, the Home Affairs Ministry told The Times.

Though the proposals have not yet been discussed by the Nationalist parliamentary group, Dr Gonzi will be recommending their approval since they are based on the PN's own proposals, the ministry said.

The PN had insisted that Gozo should continue to be considered as a single electoral district, irrespective of the number of voters registered there. Last year, the Electoral Commission had said that Ghajnsielem would be detached from Gozo, the 13th district, and joined to the 12th district (which includes Mellieha), because the population of Gozo had exceeded the average number of voters for each district by more than five per cent.

Alternattiva Demokratika has lambasted the deal reached between the two main political parties as "anti-democratic", since it did not provide for the representation of other parties, which do not reach the 16.6 per cent quota in one district needed to elect an MP, although they would have obtained a respectable number of votes on a national scale.

While the PN and the MLP were busy trying to take the credit, AD said it was shameful that the two big parties had agreed to make Gozitans' votes count less than those of the Maltese.

Truck crashes on Manwel Dimech Bridge

One lane on Manwel Dimech Bridge, which is undergoing repairs, was closed to traffic on Monday after an accident.

A Roads Ministry spokesman said the lane in the direction of St Julian's would remain closed until the necessary checks on the bridge, along Regional Road, were carried out.

The disruption was caused after the driver of a Scammel truck, heading towards St Julian's, lost control and veered to the left, smashing through the crash barriers and coming to rest against the bridge railing, the spokesman added.

Door-to-door collection of packaging waste

Greenpak is launching a new service early next year - the Door-2-Door bag collection scheme.

Colour-coded bags for the separate disposal of packaging waste will be distributed to every household and the bags collected on specific days. Since packaging does not decay, weekly or fortnightly collections would be possible, Greenpak said.

For more information about GreenPak, log on to www.greenpak.com.mt.

Man dies, another critical after falls

A construction worker died and another was critically injured on Monday in two falls that happened in Sliema within three hours of each other.

At about 11 a.m. a Libyan worker fell a height of about four storeys on the construction site of MIDI Consortium's Tigné project and died on the spot. Sources said the man was a plasterer who had been working in Tigné for only a week.

Earlier, at around 8.30 a.m., a 30-year-old man from Sliema fell through a skylight two storeys up while working at a property in St Alphonse Street. An ambulance rushed the injured man to hospital where he was found to be in a critical condition.

The police did not release the victims' names.

Cleared of friend's manslaughter

Last week Leon David Madden was jailed for six months and fined Lm500 for trafficking in cannabis and possessing other drugs but was cleared of the manslaughter of his friend, who died of a heroin overdose six years ago.

Madden, now 27, had been charged with trafficking in heroin and involuntarily causing the death of his 24-year-old friend Jason Sammut on August 2, 2000.

He was also charged with trafficking in cannabis and possessing heroin and LSD.

Madden pleaded not guilty to trafficking in heroin and to manslaughter but admitted to the other charges.

MEPA approves waste plant upgrade

The MEPA board on Thursday approved the controversial Marsascala waste recycling project during a nerve-wracking three-and-a-half-hour long public hearing.

Calls for the resignation of the board members were made throughout the hearing as those lobbying against the demolition and rebuilding of the Sant'Antnin plant claimed the process lacked transparency and had been flawed from the start.

Board members were called names when MEPA chairman Andrew Calleja called the vote at the end of the meeting.

Police were called in to calm objectors and to expel Marsascala mayor Mario Calleja, who was then allowed to stay in the boardroom after strong objections by lobbyists.

The main objection, presented by architect Lino Bianco, was that the plans presented during the board meeting were not the same ones submitted with the original application.

Circus protest

Members of animal welfare NGOs on Thursday protested in Floriana as part of their campaign dubbed "Animal circus = cruelty" as the Circo Bellucci started its shows under the big top at the Independence Arena.

The NGOs object that animals at the circus are forced to live in captivity and say they are subjected to continuous maltreatment, a claim strongly denied by the organisers.

Noisy protesters gathered behind barriers near the circus entrance under continuous rain and booed people entering the tent.

Two shows will be held daily at 5 and 7.30 p.m. until January 7. Extra shows at 2.30 p.m. will be held on Sundays, public holidays, Boxing Day and January 2.

Three charged with defrauding casino

Two Italians and a Slovenian allegedly defrauded the Casinò di Venezia in Vittoriosa of about €172,000 (Lm74,000) when they used stolen bank drafts and forged cheques to gamble and then cashed in the winnings, a court heard on Thursday.

Magistrate Miriam Hayman heard Police Inspector Antonovich Muscat give an overview of the investigations that led to the arraignment of Italians Fabio Zulian, 41, and Gaetano Caramazza, 58, and Slovenian Nevio Barut, 44.

All three are charged with defrauding Vittoriosa Gaming Ltd, that runs the casino, and other people of thousands of liri and making use of false documents.

Zulian and Caramazza are also charged with money laundering.

Jailed for bag-snatching

Two libyans, Khaled El Bahlul Masaud, 36, and Nafaa Ali Arbi Ossta, 29, were jailed for 18 months and 13 months respectively last week for robbing Maria Cauchi's bag containing Lm1,700 in cash and slightly injuring her on February 2 in Birkirkara.

Masaud was also found guilty of possessing a penknife which he used to rob the woman.

Pedestrian critical

A 43-year-old pedestrian from Birkirkara was in a critical condition after he was run over by a car while crossing St Andrews Road, St Julian's, early on Thursday morning.

Preliminary investigations indicated that the man was run over by a Suzuki car, driven by a 24-year-old Vittoriosa man.

Gunner cleared of trafficking Ecstasy

A former gunner with the Armed Forces of Malta, Anthony Joseph Portelli, 30, of Bugibba, who had been convicted of trafficking in Ecstasy, was acquitted on appeal on Friday.

The Magistrates' Court had found Portelli guilty of trafficking in Ecstasy and committing the crime on August 15, 1997. He had subsequently appealed.

Two teenagers on danger list

Two 17-year-olds from Xaghra are in critical condition following a collision between the scrambler they were on and a Pajero at their Gozitan hometown on Thursday afternoon.

Both teenagers were taken to Gozo General Hospital, where they were certified to be on the danger list and transferred to St Luke's Hospital by helicopter.

The Pajero driver, also from Xaghra, was slightly injured.

Ireland to take 10 refugees

The Irish government has agreed to take 10 refugees from Malta, the Home Affairs Ministry said on Friday.

The 10 individuals were identified after the necessary interviews were carried out, the ministry said.

While thanking the Irish government, the ministry said the resettlement was also possible thanks to the Maltese Ambassador in Dublin, Richard Muscat.

Malta is asking EU member states, adhering to the principle of solidarity and burden sharing, to help it deal with the sheer numbers.

Over the past year, a number of immigrants were resettled in the Netherlands and Germany, and soon others will leave for the US and Lithuania.