News

Monday, June 17, 2013

Former Żebbuġ mayor cleared

Former Żebbuġ mayor Brian Bonnici has been acquitted of charges that he used council-paid staff to carry out works at his house. Mr Bonnici had resigned from the council after allegations surfaced in the Nationalist Party media that he was abusing...

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Monday, June 17, 2013

Grant agreements for NGOs

Twenty-three voluntary organisations and NGOs received grant agreements for small projects and initiatives which they will be carrying out throughout the coming year. The grants were awarded by Civil Liberties Minister Helena Dalli under the Small...

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Monday, June 17, 2013 by
Juan Ameen

Health Minister behind decision to recruit Dalli

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said yesterday it had been Health Minister Godfrey Farrugia’s idea to ask former European Commissioner John Dalli to work within the health sector. Following Mr Dalli’s offer of help to the Government, Dr Farrugia...

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Monday, June 17, 2013

Barroso ‘needs to explain’

Alternattiva Demokratika has called for an open hearing to take place at the European Parliament over John Dalli’s accusation that the EU’s anti-fraud agency OLAF and the tobacco company Swedish Match were “out to get him”. In a letter to European...

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Monday, June 17, 2013

Two admit to human trafficking charges

Two Syrians pleaded guilty yesterday to human trafficking while two Maltese denied similar charges in a connected case. Mahmoud Hamad, 28, and Issam Hamad, 29, both residents of Marsascala, were accused of trying to help some people to land in Malta...

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Monday, June 17, 2013

Speaker in ‘historic’ meeting

Relations between Malta and the Sicilian town of Enna were discussed during an official meeting between Speaker Anġu Farrugia and the town’s mayor Paolo Garofaro. Calling the meeting “historic”, a government statement said that Dr Farrugia...

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Monday, June 17, 2013 by
Claudia Calleja

Curbs to AG’s power seen as the next step after rights case

Common sense has been vindicated by a recent European Court of Human Rights’ decision that Maltese law should regulate the Attorney General’s discretion over which court hears drug cases, according to Judge Giovanni Bonello. It was now important...

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Monday, June 17, 2013 by
Ivan Martin

23 migrants rescued from drifting dinghy

A group of 23 migrants were brought ashore in a rescue operation coordinated by the armed forces yesterday, bringing the number of irregular migrants rescued this year up to 290. The migrants’ crowded inflatable vessel was found adrift some 58...

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Monday, June 17, 2013

AD calls for holistic study on Gozo links

Gozo’s connectivity to Malta should be viewed holistically and include the social, environmental and economic impacts generated, according to Alternattiva Demokratika’s spokesman on sustainable development Carmel Cacopardo. Last week Gozo Minister...

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Monday, June 17, 2013

Appeal for weed killer tests to be published

Environmental organisation Friends of the Earth has called on the Government to publish the results of tests for the presence of weed killer contamination in food samples. Last week the NGO published a study showing that nine out of 10 urine...

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Monday, June 17, 2013 by
Reuters

Thousands rally for Erdogan amid more Turkey protests

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan rallied hundreds of thousands of supporters at an Istanbul parade ground yesterday as riot police fired teargas several kilometres away in the city centre to disperse anti-government protesters. Erdogan told a...

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Monday, June 17, 2013 by
Reuters

PM dismisses talk of early election

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras yesterday dismissed talk of an early election over the abrupt closure of the state broadcaster, which brought protests from viewers, workers, the opposition and his coalition partners. Samaras defended his...

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Monday, June 17, 2013

AFM treats bathers to a search and rescue show

The loud, pounding sound of helicopter blades drowned out the mundane chatter on the beach as the aircraft approached the Sliema front yesterday morning. Like a scene from a movie, bathers and strollers put their hands over their eyes to block out...

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Monday, June 17, 2013 by
Reuters

Al-Qaeda wing confirms death of two leaders

Al-Qaeda’s North African wing (Aqim) yesterday confirmed the death of two of its senior commanders in Mali earlier this year, veteran jihadist Abdelhamid Abou Zeid and brigade commander Abdallah Al Chinguetti, Mauritania’s Ani news agency said. The...

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Monday, June 17, 2013 by
Karl Grech Orr

Medserv held responsible as local agents for Agip

The Court of Appeal, composed of Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri, Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo and Mr Justice Noel Cuschieri, on May 31, 2013, in the case “Middle Sea Insurance plc in its own name and as subrogated in the rights of Salvo Grima...

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Monday, June 17, 2013 by
Reuters

Rebel brigades checking loyalist advances in Aleppo

Rebel brigades fought Hizbollah-backed forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in and around Syria’s commercial hub of Aleppo yesterday, trying to claw back territory lost to an assault that threatens the opposition’s grip on the city, activists...

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Monday, June 17, 2013

Barrier crash

A 48-year-old man was seriously injured when his Toyota Hilux truck crashed head-on into the barrier on a traffic strip at the Birkirkara bypass yesterday morning. His injuries are not life-threatening.

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Monday, June 17, 2013 by
Reuters

Car bombs, shootings kill 30 in Iraq

Attacks across Iraq targeting mainly Shi’ite Muslims killed at least 30 people yesterday, police and medics said, intensifying fears of a descent into an all-out sectarian war. Ten years after the US-led invasion that toppled Sunni leader Saddam...

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Monday, June 17, 2013

On the dot

• Controversy had reigned over town names that were appearing only in Maltese on road and traffic signs. It seems as though common sense has prevailed as this sign in Tal-Barrani has shown. Rubbish dump • Large waste items, including a cot, have...

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Monday, June 17, 2013 by
Reuters

North Korea calls for talks with US

North Korea yesterday offered high-level talks with the US to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, but the White House said that any talks must involve Pyongyang taking action to show it is moving toward scrapping its nuclear weapons. The offer...

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