Weekly News highlights

Maltese army officials arrived in Libya on Tuesday morning to establish clear areas of responsibility for search and rescue in this part of the Mediterranean.

The government is hoping that the two-day meetings between Malta and Libya will lead to a breakthrough in the constant wrangle over illegal immigration.

An AFM patrol vessel left for Tripoli on Monday following a rare invitation by Libya to tackle issues of co-operation at sea. The meeting also discussed the possibility of training Libyan rescue officials in Malta.

Jobless figure falls by 748

The registered number of unemployed in July dropped by 748 to 6,332 when compared to the same month last year, the National Statistics Office said on Tuesday.

Migrants rescued from drifting boat

A group of 28 illegal immigrants arrived in Malta on Tuesday evening after they were rescued at sea by the motor vessel Norfolk Express to the east of Malta.

A spokesman for the Armed Forces of Malta said the army received information from the US Naval Command in Naples that a US Navy plane has spotted a boat adrift.

The rescue co-ordination centre (RCC) in Malta asked the Norfolk Express to carry out the rescue and the migrants were taken on board the motor vessel at about 11 a.m.

GWU executive resigns

Charles Mizzi, who for the past three and a half years chaired the boards of Untours Travel Ltd - companies owned by the General Workers Union - has stepped down, saying he had been ridiculed by the union's president Salvu Sammut and deputy secretary general Geitu Mercieca.

In a five-page letter of resignation submitted to GWU secretary general Tony Zarb by hand on Tuesday morning, Mr Mizzi said he was resigning both from chairman of Untours Insurance Agents Ltd and Untours Travel Ltd as well as from the board of directors of both companies and from the Industrial Tribunal, where he represented the GWU.

LifeCycle challengers return home

Lifecyclists and their back-up team returned to Malta on Wednesday, a day after finishing a gruelling 13-day, 2,300-kilometre challenge - dubbed "Where Only Eagles Dare" - from Romania to Germany through Ukraine and Poland.

The challengers were greeted with applause by relatives and friends waiting for them at Malta International Airport.

This year the challenge started with 25 cyclists and ended with 22, two having to stop because of injuries and one withdrawing just a few hours before reaching the finish line on Tuesday, because he had to fly back to Malta for an important interview.

Charged with stealing Lm8,000

Last week, two men were charged with stealing about Lm8,000 from a Gozo house six months ago.

Johan Micallef, 30, of Msida, and Joscar Camilleri, 21, of Fontana, pleaded not guilty to burgling the home of Paul and Regina Zammit, causing over Lm50 damage to the house and conspiring to commit a crime on February 25.

Both men were remanded in police custody by Magistrate Anthony Ellul.

Probation for youth who bit off man's ear

Charles Deguara on Thursday was placed on probation for three years for seriously injuring Lee Ross when he bit off a part of his ear during a Christmas Eve party in 2005.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera handed down the judgment after noting that Deguara bitterly regretted his actions, was a first-time offender and had fully co-operated with the police.

Aggressors jailed

Costantino Felice, 21, of Qormi, and an 18-year-old, whose name is not being published because he was a minor at the time - who had been given a suspended jail term for holding elderly couple Grazia and Francesco Camilleri against their will in an attempted robbery - on Thursday were jailed for eight years on appeal.

The two men had also pleaded guilty to threatening the couple and their grandchildren Lee and Stephanie Cortis, seriously injuring Mrs Camilleri and being in possession of firearms on October 26, 2005.

Felice had been given a 22-month jail term suspended for four years, while the 18-year-old, who was 16 at the time, was given a two-year jail term suspended for four years.

Charged with biting soldier's leg

Ismail Obssa, a 26-year-old Ethiopian, who is an irregular immigrant residing at Lyster Barracks in Hal Far, last week was charged with assaulting and slightly injuring a female soldier when he bit her leg last month.

He pleaded not guilty to trying to seriously injure the soldier, slighting injuring her and threatening three other soldiers on July 25.

He was remanded in police custody.

Two caught with 5,200 steroids

Two Libyan men are being held by the police for questioning in connection with what the police said was the illegal importation of 5,200 steroid pills on Tuesday.

The men were stopped and checked as they were passing through the Green Channel of the airport after a direct flight from Tripoli.

After a luggage search proved futile, the two passengers were requested to go to the search room where they were body-searched. It was at this stage that the Customs officers found 5,200 pills on them. The pills were immediately confiscated.

The Medicine Authority was called in to help identify the pills.

Libel suits

Minister of Resources and Infrastructure Ninu Zammit filed two libel suits against Labour leader Alfred Sant and the party's secretary general Jason Micallef last week.

Mr Zammit filed the suits over comments made by Dr Sant during a speech on One Radio last Sunday, in which he spoke about compensation awarded to Mr Zammit following the expropriation of a piece of land.

He also filed a suit against Mr Micallef over an opinion piece he wrote, following Dr Sant's speech, and which appeared on Sunday's KullHadd.

Geitu Mercieca, deputy general secretary of the General Workers Union, also filed a libel suit against the Nationalist Party's daily newspaper In-Nazzjon.

Mr Mercieca claimed that the article Ipprova jxolji l-bord tad-diretturi tal-Untours (Attempt to dissolve Untours' board of directors), which appeared on Friday, was libellous.

Vandals target medieval chapel in Gozo

Wirt Ghawdex has condemned what it termed as "barbaric vandalism" at St Cecilia chapel in Ghajnsielem, the only surviving medieval chapel in Gozo.

It said the vandals struck on Thursday night when unknown persons forced their way into the chapel and set it on fire.

Wirt Ghawdex said it has been calling for a number of years for the enforcement of the expropriation order on the chapel made 10 years ago.