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Glimmer of hope for Selmun Palace after seven years

May 2, 2018, 10:12 pm
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Plans are currently been drawn up for the sale of the Selmun Palace and hotel, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna confirmed. The ministry has also commissioned a technical evaluation of its condition, he said. He was responding to a parliamentary question by MP Clayton Bartolo, who asked what state the palace was now in. He reassured him that the site was under constant surveillance by security guards, and that the ministry also sent staff to carry out inspections. The palace was built in the 18th century by the Monte della Redenzione degli Schiavi, funded by the Monte di Pietà. It was turned into a hotel owned by Selmun Palace Hotel Company Ltd, a subsidiary of Air Malta. It was closed in 2011 as part of a restructuring strategy in which the airline began to focus solely on its core operations, and has languished since then.  It was scheduled as a Grade 1 national monument in 2012. In 2014, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said in parliament that informal talks had been held between Air Malta and Mepa on possible development of the Selmun Palace Hotel. The building of a new wing to the Selmun Palace Hotel was included in proposals for the site launched by Mepa at the government's...
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New grants for solar panels, double glazing and roof insulation

May 2, 2018, 5:40 am
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New grant schemes have been introduced for solar water heaters and photovoltaic panels, Energy Minister Joe Mizzi announced on Wednesday.As of May 7, home owners can benefit from a 50 per cent subsidy on solar water heaters up to a maximum of €700, as well as 50 per cent subsidy on PV panels, inverters and support frames, up to €2,300. Meanwhile, grant schemes for roof insulation and double glazing have both been extended from 15 per cent to 50 per cent of the total cost. For roofs built before 2016, the subsidy can cover up to €1,000 worth of materials, or €350 for newer structures. The subsidy for double glazing has also been extended to cover frames as well as glass. The government also announced similar schemes for heat pump water heaters, which can be used in place of solar technology for homes without access to a roof, as well as a grant to repair or maintain private wells, or set up an independent system for recycling water. Mr Mizzi said the new schemes would help families lower their energy consumption and contribute to Malta’s renewable energy goals. In line EU targets, 10 per cent of Malta’s energy consumption must come from renewable sources by 2020. Applications for...
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Watch: Jason Azzopardi 'is playing games', says Joseph Muscat

May 2, 2018, 8:38 am
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The Prime Minister said on Wednesday he had nothing to add to the comments made by the police force and the Malta Security Service about allegations made by MP Jason Azzopardi. The Nationalist MP alleged on Monday that intelligence services were being used to protect criminals, after he asked how the MSS had not figured out the plan to murder Daphne Caruana Galizia despite having tapped one of the suspects’ phones. Dr Azzopardi also alleged that a police sergeant got in touch with the Degiorgio brothers and Vince Cassar, who are accused of the murder, to warn them of their impeding arrest. Speaking to the press on Wednesday, Dr Muscat said he that it was clear that “the PN MP was playing games”. “You can clearly see that games are being played when one speaks to international media houses first, and then quotes the media house saying ‘I’m not saying this - the media is,’” he said. Dr Muscat also pointed out that Dr Azzopardi was speaking under parliamentary privilege. He added that he would continue to speak about Egrant allegations despite a magisterial inquiry into the allegations yet to be concluded. Dr Muscat has forcefully denied claims, first made by Daphne...
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Jason Azzopardi challenged to repeat allegations on Caruana Galizia murder plot under oath

May 2, 2018, 1:11 pm
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Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi was making use of his position as a member of Parliament to manipulate an issue in which he had a personal interest, Labour MP Robert Abela said on Wednesday. Speaking in Parliament, Dr Abela referred to remarks made by Dr Azzopardi on Monday in which the latter alleged that intelligence services were being used to "protect criminals". Dr Azzopardi, who is also representing the Caruana Galizia family in proceedings against three men accused of murdering journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, had asked how Malta's Security Service had not gotten wind of the murder plot despite having tapped one of the suspects' phones. He also alleged that a police sergeant had tipped off the three men accused of murdering Ms Caruana Galizia and was then transferred to a different unit without punishment. The allegations have been denied by the Security Services and investigator Keith Arnaud. Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Dr Abela challenged Dr Azzopardi to repeat his allegations under oath, before the magistrate presiding over the compilation of evidence. “This is a game, and it is a dangerous game,” he said, alluding to an interest in spinning the case for...
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Watch - Delia: Those who do not want the party to progress have an obvious choice to make

May 2, 2018, 10:16 pm
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Updated - Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia has insisted that 'no one is bigger than the party' and those who do not want to see the party progress have an obvious decision to take. “We have opened the doors for everyone, and spoken with everyone. Those in the party henceforth need to decide. The doors remain open for those who want to work hard for the party to progress, but those who do not now have an obvious choice to make,” he said.  Dr Delia was replying to questions on Net TV's discussion programme Iswed for l-abjad. He said the party should have a single voice. He said that in the past eight months while he has been leader, the party committees and sections were renewed and were now working better. He had made it a point to spend less time in the office and more out meeting people to get to know the realities which the people faced. DELIA DENIES FINANCIAL IRREGULARITIES In the wide-ranging interview, Dr Delia insisted that he had never received any illicit money or money derived from money laundering in his profession as a lawyer. Dr Delia said he had had a client several years ago who had bought property abroad with money from a local bank. This property was rented...
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Husband discovers child is not his after reading wife's diary

May 2, 2018, 9:53 am
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An entry in a woman’s diary planted the doubt which led her husband to discover that the child, brought up as his own flesh and blood, had actually been conceived as a result of an extramarital affair. Born in 2009, five years into the couple’s marriage, the child was welcomed by the man as his own son, showered with every attention and brought up in a normal family environment. However, matters changed drastically after the man happened to stumble across a diary wherein his wife had noted how she had once committed a grave mistake during an encounter with another man. This entry was sufficient to sow the doubt which continued to gnaw at her husband’s tranquility, until he finally decided to submit the child to a DNA test, without letting his wife know of his plans. When the test results confirmed his suspicion, the man’s attitude towards the child changed overnight. Contacting the woman through his lawyer, he informed her that he was filing for separation and that he no longer wanted to have anything to do with the boy, whom he now considered ‘dead’. So adamant was he to severe all ties with the child that he constantly pressured his wife and relatives to tell the boy that he...
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Wall collapses in Gzira, two escape injury

May 3, 2018, 12:22 am
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A wall bordering a building site collapsed in Fleet Street, Gzira, early on Thursday, and a woman reported she was lucky not to have been hurt or killed.  'Luckily, myself and another girl just escaped being killed....The contractor just came out and said sorry," the woman said on Facebook.  "What is this island coming to?"
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Townsquare back to square one - Tribunal sends plans back to the PA

May 3, 2018, 4:32 am
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Updated at 3.45pm: Adds AD statement The Townsquare tower project has been sent back to the Planning Authority for a new decision after the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal accepted an appeal by NGOs against its approval. The tribunal said a fresh assessment is needed in line with the Floor Area Ratio policy. The Environment Authority also needs to re-assess the project on the basis of a new environmental impact assessment, a social impact assessment and a traffic impact assessment.   The €100 million Gasan project was narrowly approved by the Planning Authority in September 2016 and is the subject of separate appeals by the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA), the Sliema local council and Din L-Art Ħelwa, Flimkien Għal Ambjent Aħjar and other eNGOs.  Claire Bonello, representing the FAA, said after the tribunal's decision that certain important studies had not been submitted or made public when the plans were considered by the PA and therefore a proper assessment of the plans could not be made. Now those studies would be made public. Din l-Art Ħelwa described the decision as a positive one.  The developers said they would study the decision but declined further...
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Massive drug haul following raid in Birkirkara

May 3, 2018, 5:52 am
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Two men were arrested in Birkirkara on Wednesday evening, after the police raided their residence and found 111kg believed to be cannabis. The arrest of the men, aged 55 and 25, came after weeks of surveillance by the Drug Squad.  The drugs were packaged and ready to be trafficked, the police said in a statements. The men are expected to be charged on Thursday afternoon.
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Qala council disappointed as Hondoq developers' appeal is upheld

May 3, 2018, 4:46 am
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The fate of Ħondoq ir-Rummien in Gozo remained in the balance on Thursday  after an appeals tribunal decided that the Planning Authority should draw up a new case officer's report which has to take into account new plans by the developers. The tribunal, in a decision on Thursday, said the PA had not followed proper procedure when it had rejected the development. The PA had refused to consider the new plans as they constituted a "material change". Qala local council officials expressed 'deep disappointment' at the decision. They said they are considering an appeal. "We are deeply disappointed," Qala Mayor Paul Buttiġieġ said. "This case has been going on for 16 years and every single report has recommended refusal. The Maltese and Gozitans do not want this project. Ħondoq is a small picturesque bay which will be overtaken by commercialisation leaving nothing for the locals if the project is approved." The 104,000 square metre mega-development by Gozo Prestige Hotels had been unanimously rejected by the Planning Authority board in June 2016, at the end of a 14-year battle by residents and environmental groups who fiercely oppose the project. The developers appealed the refusal,...
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Movie-style wild car chase lands man in court

May 3, 2018, 6:20 am
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A Qormi victim of a recent arson attempt was granted bail on Thursday after taking matters into his own hands by going after the suspected mastermind of the arson in a wild movie-style car chase. Paul Mallia, 36, was escorted to court under arrest after his wild antics behind the wheel were captured on footage which showed a black vehicle, allegedly driven by the man, chasing and twice ramming a smaller car allegedly driven by Sage Gauci. The latter, an 18-year old Valletta resident currently out on bail following his arraignment earlier in April after being found in possession of 10 kilograms of cannabis, was targeted as the prime suspect by Mr Mallia after the front door of his home was set on fire in the early hours of Monday. Spurred on by this suspicion, the man acted upon instinct when he glimpsed Mr Gauci driving by and, rather than allowing the police to carry on with investigations so that the arsonist might be brought to justice, decided to resolve matters himself. “This was a western-style attitude,” prosecuting officer Inspector James Grech explained in court during the arraignment where Mr Mallia pleaded not guilty to attempted grievous bodily harm, voluntary damage...
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Multi-million fuel smuggling operation coordinated from Malta

May 3, 2018, 9:00 am
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Malta is at the centre of a well-coordinated multimillion fuel smuggling operation, with stolen Libyan fuel traded easily in territorial waters and through established storage facilities inside the Grand Harbour and Birżebbuġa, a Daphne Project investigation reveals. The operation, which had started following the 2011 collapse of Libya’s Gaddafi regime, evolved into a large criminal organisation coordinated by Maltese, Libyan and Sicilian businessmen close to the mafia and who were left to carry on with their business despite various reports passed onto the Maltese authorities, including by the United Nations. Hundreds of Italian financial police files, corporate documents, marine data and UN reports, as well as corroborative interviews, carried by Investigative Report Project Italy (IRPI) and the Times of Malta over the last months as part of the Daphne Project, discovered how the multi-million business, which is believed to be still ongoing, is carried out under Maltese authorities' noses. Although it was already well-known that Malta was being used for the trafficking of illegal Libyan oil, the picture became clearer last October when Darren Debono – a former Maltese...
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Journalists’ committee asks PM to drop Daphne libel case

May 3, 2018, 10:10 pm
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The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday asked Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to drop his libel lawsuit against murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The New York-based CPJ is a non-profit organisation made up of around 40 experts who seek to promote press freedom worldwide. The libel lawsuit revolves around a report by Ms Caruana Galizia alleging that Dr Muscat’s wife was the ultimate beneficial owner of offshore company Egrant. The blogger also reported that Egrant had received a payment of over €1 million from a Dubai company owned by Leyla Aliyeva, the daughter of Azerbaijan’s ruler Ilham Aliyev. The Prime Minister called the report “the biggest political lie in Malta’s history” and initiated an investigation into the allegations. In a letter sent on World Press Freedom Day, the organisation asked Dr Muscat to drop the libel case “as a personal affirmation of his commitment to justice”. The organisation also said that the libel cases place an unjust burden on the late journalist’s family. Continuing to pursue the case diminishes the Prime Minister’s commitment to bringing Mrs Caruana Galizia’s killers to justice, the CPJ said. The organisation also asked...
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Jerma demolition stopped after owners win appeal

May 3, 2018, 11:20 pm
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The abandoned Jerma Hotel in Marsascala. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

The abandoned Jerma hotel in Marsascala will remain in its current state of decay after its owners succeeded in overturning an order for its demolition. The Planning Authority issued an enforcement order against owners Jeffrey and Peter Montebello in August 2016, requiring that the “injury to amenity” be addressed after years of complaints by the local council and residents over the dangerous state of the site. Read: No change at abandoned Jerma Palace hotel site despite PA fanfare However, the Environment and Planning Review Tribunal on Thursday upheld an appeal by the owners and annulled the enforcement order. The reasons behind the decision had not been made public by the time of publication. The tribunal’s ruling means that the structure can remain in place until the owners, who have long sought to redevelop the site, decide otherwise - without facing any fines or other measures. A planning application to develop a hotel and luxury apartments on the Jerma site was filed in 2008, a year after the hotel closed its doors to business, but the plans were dropped due to financial troubles. Read: Developers announce plans to build luxury hotel, apartments on Jerma site An attempt...
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Couple in failed Fgura car bomb attempt testify in court

May 3, 2018, 9:36 am
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A Fgura businessman targeted in a failed bomb attack in January had suffered a terrible shock which had kept him indoors for days. This information was revealed in open court by the victim himself when testifying on Thursday in the compilation of evidence against Lorenzo Callus, known as 'ħeswes', Paul Farrugia, known as 'kwattru', and Jonathan Farrugia, known as 'Ġanni ta’ Nina.’ The three men stand accused of the attempted murder of Mario Scicluna and his partner Elaine Galdes by planting a bomb under the couple’s Mitsubishi Pajero which was parked outside the family’s Fgura home. Earlier, the prosecution had revealed how a low battery alert on a mobile phone attached to the homemade bomb, had apparently caused the device to malfunction, thereby foiling the planned explosion. Mr Scicluna, a car dealer also involved in the construction industry, on Thursday explained, before presiding magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit, how on that fateful January 4 day, he had received a call from his partner telling him about the suspected attempt. Finding it hard to believe her story, he had called a trusted mechanic asking him to take a look at the Pajero parked outside his home, being...
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Daphne reinforced view that Labour women are 'monsters and whores' - Farrugia Portelli

May 4, 2018, 1:06 am
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Daphne Caruana Galizia worked hard to reinforce the narrative of Labour Party women being "monsters and whores", parliamentary secretary Julia Farrugia Portelli has written. In a Talking Point published in Friday's Times of Malta, Ms Farrugia Portelli, who earlier this week was likened to a "village escort" in a Facebook post uploaded by Partit Demokratiku's official Facebook page, argues that attacks on women such as herself did not begin a week ago.  She writes that "Labour women have been at the receiving end of vehement attacks on their reputation for decades," and that it is all too convenient to slam PD - "whose neophyte leader apologised immediately" - without acknowledging the bigger picture. Ms Farrugia Portelli argues that Malta's first female president, Agatha Barbara, "was called all sorts of negative names" and notes that Ms Caruana Galizia had "gleefully described her as a 'butch dyke'".  Ms Caruana Galizia, she goes on to say, played a significant role in the vilification of Labour women, encouraging the view that they were dim, were incapable of becoming politicians and "also made bad lovers, bad wives and bad mothers."  She writes that despite having won a libel...
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Car plunged over the quay at Gżira Gardens marina

May 3, 2018, 5:34 am
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Divers are currently trying to ascertain what happened at around 1pm when a car rolled off the quay and into the sea at Gżira Gardens marina. The police said that it appeared no-one was in the car at the time, according to reports, but that the divers were still on site and that it would be premature to give any further details.
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Gaffarena’s ODZ plans for Kirkop get a new lease of life

May 4, 2018, 3:33 am
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The ODZ land in Kirkop where Mark Gaffarena plans to build 34 warehouses.

Mark Gaffarena’s plans to build 34 warehouses on ODZ land in Kirkop are back on the table after an appeals tribunal overturned the Planning Authority’s refusal and ordered the application to be reassessed. The tribunal also cleared one of the major hurdles to the development, ruling that the construction of warehouses in the area was acceptable in principle as long as the buildings themselves did not rise above ground level, while the surface level could be used as parking space. Mr Gaffarena had applied in 2014 to build the warehouses on two levels on a 2,900 square metre plot in an area known as Tal-Ponta, outside the limits of development and close to the airport runway. The site was classified as agricultural land until 2012 and lies within a groundwater protection zone and partly on a listed archaeological buffer zone. The application was refused by the PA board in November 2016, as the use of the land for warehouses was not considered “legitimate or necessary within the rural area” in terms of planning policy, as well as concerns over road safety due to the significant increase in vehicles passing through. READ: How is your Planning Authority voting? The proposal had...
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Watch: Bus goes up in flames in Buġibba

May 4, 2018, 5:12 am
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Updated 3.50pm A public bus caught fire in spectacular fashion in Buġibba on Friday afternoon, sending flames high into the afternoon sky.  The Malta Public Transport bus went up in flames as it carried passengers on its route along Mosta Road. Its quick-thinking driver rapidly escorted passengers to a safe distance, and firefighters who rushed to the scene put out the flames before anybody was hurt.  In a statement, MPT said that it had treated the driver, who it thanked, for shock as a precautionary measure. It offered authorities its full support in investigations and said it would also be carrying out its own independent inquiry into the incident.  Rapid Intervention Unit police officers diverted traffic away from the road to allow the incident site to be brought under control, while MPT route buses travelling along Mosta Road were also diverted.  Once firefighters had put out the flames, they shattered glass panels on the facade of a showroom right next to the burning bus, to remove any potential danger the glass, which was scalded by the fire, might have posed.   
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Car plunged over the quay at Gżira Gardens marina

May 3, 2018, 5:34 am
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Divers are currently trying to ascertain what happened at around 1pm when a car rolled off the quay and into the sea at Gżira Gardens marina. The police said that it appeared no-one was in the car at the time, according to reports, but that the divers were still on site and that it would be premature to give any further details.
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