10 years ago - The Times

Monday, August 4, 2008

Labour votes for general secretary today

Labour delegates will meet tonight at an extraordinary general conference to choose the party’s general secretary from among four candidates. They will also choose the rest of the party’s administration, though that of general secretary will be the most hotly contested of the seven posts to be decided upon.

The election for the 10 seats on the party’s executive council will take place tomorrow. One of the contenders for the job of general secretary is incumbent Jason Micallef who has held the post since November 2003, when he replaced Jimmy Magro.

There are four contenders for the hot seat: Mr Micallef, headmaster Alfred Grixti, economist Joe Vella Bonnici and former deputy general secretary Keith Grech, a former mayor of Ta’ Xbiex and former St Paul’s Bay councillor.

Originally, Gino Cauchi, former journalist and One TV sales and marketing manager, and Joe Chetcuti, a former election candidate, were also in the race but they withdrew their nominations late last week “out of loyalty to the party”.

The party’s administrative elections are usually held in January but were brought forward to August by the party’s new leadership, which is seeking to start working as soon as possible with a new team.

25 years ago - The Times

Wednesday, August 4, 1993

Unexpected bonanza for Maltese fishermen

Contrary to all expectations, Maltese fishermen have had an unexpected bonanza in tuna fish landings this year.

“At the beginning of the year,” Mr Charles Busuttil, fisheries officer at the Fisheries Department said, “we were getting worried and there was even talk of a close season”.

But the projections were (fortunately) wrong.

Between January and last month, fishermen landed 138,973 kilos of tuna fish, up from 48,221 kilos last year.

Some 75 per cent of their landings went to foreign markets.

The figures have completely reversed trends which have seen landings rise from 23,869kg in 1988 to 63,311 in 1991 before plummeting down again in 1992.

Fishermen and market watchers had expected the downward trend to continue.

And although the tuna season is now sadly over, to herald in swordfish catches, the lucky streak appears to have remained.

Swordfish landings are edging close to last year’s total of 70,648kg. Although there is no proper swordfish season, as it is caught all year round, landings of swordfish normally reach their peak in August.

Half a century ago - Sunday times of Malta

Sunday, August 4, 1968

Sicilian prisoner escapes from St Luke’s Hospital

The police are keeping a close watch around the island’s harbours and inlets, and the port authorities and Customs are double-checking incoming and outgoing vessels, in an effort to trace a Sicilian, Francesco Certo, who disappeared from St Luke’s Hospital on Friday evening.

Francesco Certo, together with another Sicilian, Salvatore Costanzo, had been found guilty by the Criminal Court of Magistrates of illegal entry into Malta, of possessing cigarettes on which excise duty had not been paid, and of importing and selling a speedboat without Customs authority.

Dr Who actor on holiday

Twenty-two-year-old Fraser Hines who played the role of Jamie in the Dr Who series, which has just ended its run on Malta Television, is on holiday in Malta “for a complete period of rest and relaxation”.

Interviewed at the Eden Rock Hotel, Sliema, yesterday Mr Hines said that he has also acted in the series The Stories of D. H. Lawrence, currently being screened by MTV.

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