10 years ago - The Sunday Times
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Simshar fisherman’s wife feels joy and despair
Simon Bugeja’s wife was overcome with “indescribable happiness” after finding out last Friday that her husband was alive after he had been in the sea for eight days. But she was deflated soon after when she discovered that reports of her son also making it were false. The search for 11-year-old Teo continued yesterday, though rescuers are not optimistic of finding him alive after his father told them he slipped from a float into the sea last Friday. After hearing her husband had been found, Sharin Bugeja let out a scream of joy, her brother Michael Grech told The Sunday Times. She has been staying at his home since reporting that her husband’s boat, the Simshar, was missing.
Transport strike has cost economy ‘tens of millions’
The public transport strike and the ensuing incidents have cost the economy “tens of millions” of euros, according to Malta Employers’ Association director general Joseph Farrugia. Traffic jams built up, delays were the order of the day, and businesses were drained of shoppers as public transport drivers resorted to illegal methods, ran amok and intimidated passers-by during the strike.
25 years ago - The Times
Tuesday, July 20, 1993
Mixed reaction to revised Paceville licensing regulations
Owners of bars and restaurants in Paceville have branded new licensing regulations as “crazy”. But others agree with the new rules. The regulations, which will come into force on August 2, include closing all bars, restaurants and takeaways in the Paceville area at 11pm. But owners will be able to apply for special licences which will allow them to stay open until 1am, or in extreme cases, 2am.
The regulations were drawn up by the Paceville Monitoring Group and were officially adopted by the Ministry for Home Affairs and Social Development yesterday.
Currently bars in the popular night spot have a wide variety of opening hours, with some open 24 hours a day. Discos which are certified to be sound proofed will be allowed to stay open until 5am, but no bar, restaurant, takeaway or disco will be allowed to open before 8am.
Under the new regulations, bars and restaurants would only be able to stay open until 2am at the latest, and then only after applying to the authorities who will make extensive checks with neighbours, the environment, the nature of the locality, and public order, before issuing extended licences. People aged 14 to 16 will be given pink identity cards to distinguish them from those over 16.
Half a century ago - Times of Malta
Saturday, July 20, 1968
Lord Robens calls for all-round cooperation
Lord Robens, chairman of the Joint Steering Committee, addressing the Malta branch of the Institute of Directors, stressed that there must be an all-round effort and goodwill for progress to be achieved. He said that the steering committee was only one factor in the organisation. “We are not the main factor. If the country is to succeed on becoming viable and prosperous it is essential that every single factor in the country – government, trade unions, the businessmen, the commercial interests and those of us who for the time being are helping as much as we possibly can – ensure that we meet together and, in the totality of what we are doing, march in step.”
GWU rundown resolution
An extraordinary general meeting of the General Workers’ Union yesterday unanimously passed a resolution authorising the general council to take industrial action “unless the government does not go back on its decision not to ask for a revision of the London agreement on the rundown, as the Prime Minister promised at the time”. Mr J. Attard Kingswell, the union’s secretary general, reiterated that for every worker discharged there should be a job waiting for him.