10 years ago - The Times
Friday, January 30, 2009
Nationalist MPs disagree on St John’s museum project
Former ministers Jesmond Mugliett and Ninu Zammit have expressed serious reservations over the planned extension of the St John’s Co-Cathedral Museum in a Nationalist Party parliamentary group meeting earlier this week.
The two MPs, now backbenchers, joined Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando in voicing their disagreement over aspects of the project during their party’s parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday. The meeting was held just before Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi gave notice of a motion that will change Parliament’s regular timetable for the first time in some 30 years because of the continuing absence of a pairing agreement.
Comedian Charles Clews dies
One of Malta’s most renowned comedians and radio personalities, Charles Clews, who started his long-spanning career during the war, passed away yesterday. Mr Clews, who would have turned 90 in September, has entertained the Maltese both locally and abroad, travelling to Australia twice to crack his jokes. The Senglea-born father of eight started his career as a comedian by accident, during World War II, when he used to entertain his colleagues at the shipyards, where he worked as a surveyor.
25 years ago - The Sunday Times
Sunday, January 30, 1994
Reno Mercieca appeals 20-year sentence
Even days in jail after a guilty verdict, 20-year-old Reno Mercieca is still insisting he should be totally cleared of complicity in the gruesome 1991 murder of Bertu Vella, 45, of Għargħur.
In a 47-page appeal filed on Friday, Mercieca asked the Court of Criminal Appeal to find him not guilty, hold another trial or at least give him a lighter sentence.
The Criminal Court on January 21 jailed him for 20 years after a jury found him guilty, by seven votes to two, of complicity to wilful homicide, and unanimously of the dismemberment of the body.
His lawyers, Dr Michael Scirha and Dr John Attard Montaldo, are insisting that the outcome of the trial was a miscarriage of justice and are alleging there was a misinterpretation or misapplication of the law, which might have wrongly influenced the jury.
They said Mercieca had proved his innocence during the trial. Gaetano Scerri, who was found guilty of Vella’s murder at the same trial, had completely exonerated Mercieca, they added. Since Mercieca had been the one to tell on Scerri, it is only natural to expect that Scerri would retaliate by thoroughly implicating Mercieca in the murder, as he had done in the dismemberment.
Half a century ago - Times of Malta
Thursday, January 30, 1969
Best seller author gets more ‘thinking time’ in Malta
Desmond Morris, whose erudite popular book on human behaviour The Naked Ape has been such a best seller, is now at work on a major study of killer animals such as tigers, hyenas, panthers and wolves. Dr Morris said yesterday that in the year he has lived in Malta, he has, as he hoped, gained in “thinking time”.
His wife, Ramona, herself a historian, also writes. They are working together on a special guide of the Maltese islands. The guide will look deep into the less obvious aspects of Malta, its people, history and various other subjects. Living at Attard, Morris said there is an intimate link with the island now – their first child, Jason, was born here in October.
Buoys to be laid at Msida quay
A trot of buoys is expected to be laid shortly along the length of the newly constructed quay running as far as Whitehall Mansions, Msida.
The buoys will be laid in about three weeks’ time after owners of yachts berthed there will be asked to berth their craft alongside the quay while the mooring vessel lays the new moorings. Heavy moorings for the larger yachts anchored near the Lazzaretto hospital have been laid, adding considerably to the safety of the large, expensive yachts anchored there.