The government will be obliged to cut turtle dove hunting quotas by at least 50% following a European Commission decision to regulate autumn hunting of the vulnerable species, Birdlife said on Wednesday.  The decision, which also applies to autumn hunting of the threatened bird species, could shoot down hunters' hopes of being allowed to hunt turtle dove in spring.   Birdlife said that while the EU has acknowledged that a full ban is the only way to secure protection of the species, which is in heavy decline, reductions of 50% that are calculated on declared catches in previous years will also be accepted.  The EU decision will be on the agenda of an emergency Ornis Committee meeting called for Wednesday. The committee serves as the government's consultative committee for hunting.  Malta's declared catch of turtle dove has averaged around 1,000 a year over the past years, meaning the EU decision will likely see that number slashed to 500 per year.  Birdlife Malta CEO Mark Sultana said that the commission’s decision to also meant that the chances of a spring hunting season for turtle doves is “definitely out of the question”, given that spring hunts are considered far more...

One COVID-19 patient died overnight, bringing the number of COVID-19 related deaths in Malta up to 429. The victim is a 79-year-old woman. She died at Mater Dei Hospital, the health authorities said. No other information about her was provided.  Another 87 people tested positive for COVID-19 overnight, while 137 patients recovered. The 87 new cases was the highest daily total recorded in August so far.  Wednesday's statistics brought the number of active cases down to 808. The new cases were detected on a day when healthcare workers administered 3,466 swab tests. Of the active cases, 40 are being treated at Mater Dei Hospital, three of whom are receiving intensive care. On Tuesday, there were 42 patients in hospital and three in intensive care.  Vaccination So far, 399,769 people in Malta are fully vaccinated against the virus. Over the past months, a total of 778,936 doses were administered.  

Dubai International Airport reported on Wednesday a 41 per cent drop in traffic in the first half of 2021, but said it anticipates “robust growth” after the easing of travel restrictions. The number of passengers that passed through the world's largest airport for international travel fell to 10.6 million in the first six months of 2021, according to a statement from the Dubai Media Office. In the first quarter of last year, the airport had welcomed 17.8 million passengers before it temporarily suspended commercial flights in the second quarter to curb the spread of the coronavirus. “Dubai Airports is projecting robust growth for Dubai International in the second half of the year,” the statement said. The emirate, one of the seven that make up the UAE, was one of the first destinations to reopen to tourism in July last year. It became a magnet for visitors escaping dreary winter weather and stringent COVID-19 restrictions. The UAE launched a vaccination campaign in December and has inoculated 72 per cent of its nearly 10 million population. Last year, Dubai International Airport reported a 70 per cent drop in traffic, with the number of travellers falling from more than 86...

Former opposition leader Adrian Delia is suing Lovin Malta for libel over a story claiming that he messaged Yorgen Fenech during a parliamentary debate about the businessman’s secret company, 17 Black.  The story titled “Yorgen Fenech claimed Adrian Delia messaged him During 17 Black Debate” was published on Tuesday. Delia had immediately reacted on social media by denying the allegation and demanding that the article be retracted.  Less than 24 hours later, Delia filed a libel suit against the online news portal and its editor Julian Bonnici, declaring that the allegations in his regard were “absolutely not true.” The story referred to text messages that the former PN leader allegedly sent to Fenech while debating an urgent motion that he himself had pushed forward in Parliament, after the business tycoon had been outed as the owner of 17 Black – a Dubai-based company with alleged ties to government corruption.  The declarations in the Lovin Malta story gave an impression that was not true and were simply intended to tarnish his reputation, integrity and honour, Delia stated in the application filed in the Magistrates’ Courts.  The author of that story had defamed Delia by...

If you want to catch the Perseid meteor shower, known locally as Id-dmugħ ta’ San Lawrenz, head to a dark site, like Dwejra in Gozo, Thursday night or early on Friday. The remnants of well-known comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle will this year be even more visible as they will not be outshone by the moon.  Although there are several meteor showers throughout the year, the August Perseid one is the most highly anticipated. The shower is made up of rocky debris left behind by the 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which returns every 133 years.  The shower peaks on the night between August 12 and 13, when Earthlings can see the debris left behind by the comet in 1992 and centuries before.  “People will still be able to see Perseids on other nights before and after the peak. This year, the advantage is that a crescent moon will already have set at 10.30pm, so no bright moonlight will interfere with observations,” astrophysicist Joseph Caruana told Times of Malta. “The principal factor that determines how many Perseids one is able to see is the brightness of the night sky: one should try seek a site that does not suffer from a lot of light pollution. "Unfortunately, the Maltese Islands are terribly...

Lionel Messi has set his sights on more Champions League glory after being unveiled as a Paris Saint-Germain player on Wednesday as hundreds of fans gathered outside the club’s stadium hoping to see their new idol. The 34-year-old Argentinian superstar was presented to media from all over the world at a news conference at the Parc des Princes after arriving in the French capital the previous day and penning a two-year contract with the option of a third season. PSG quickly emerged as the favourites to sign Messi following the shock of his departure last week from Barcelona and he arrives eyeing a fifth Champions League, with the most recent of his four victories with his old club coming in 2015. “I have said many times that my dream is to win another Champions League and I think I am in the ideal place to have that chance and to do it,” Messi told reporters inside a packed auditorium, with the audience including his wife Antonella, their children, and his father and agent, Jorge. Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of the Times of Malta

Siġġiewi’s PL-led local council is seeking to overturn a decision by the director-general for local government to strip a former Labour MP of the locality’s highest award.  Bertu Pace was last month handed Onorifiċenza Mertu Siġġiewi despite a stalemate by councillors on whether he deserved the award.  While three PL councillors had in February voted in favour of Pace receiving the award, three PN councillors raised concern as they said he was “a person who has been embroiled in controversy”. In 2016, Times of Malta had reported that Pace, consultant to then agriculture parliamentary secretary Roderick Galdes, had been suspended after the police launched an investigation into a permit for his daughter for a villa outside a development zone. Back in February, Mayor Dominic Grech did not use his casting vote to decide the matter, however, he still went ahead with presenting Pace the award on July 13. However, in an email seen by Times of Malta, the directorate informed the Siġġiewi council it had broken the law and it was therefore annulling the award. On Monday Grech asked the councillors to vote on whether Pace should keep the award.  Grech, deputy mayor Rodianne Haber,...

A blistering heatwave is sweeping across Italy this week, fuelling fires in the south of the country, notably Sicily and Calabria, where a UNESCO-designated natural park is threatened. Temperatures hit 47 degrees Celsius in Sicily on Tuesday, near Syracuse, with meteorologists warning that Italy's all-time record of 48.5 degrees, in Sicily in 1999, could be beaten on Wednesday. Elsewhere in the south of Italy, the anticyclone dubbed Lucifer was forecast to send the mercury rising to 39-42 degrees Wednesday before sweeping northwards, with weekend temperatures of up to 40 degrees in the central regions of Tuscany and Lazio, which includes Rome. The island of Sicily and the region of Calabria have already been battling fires throughout the summer - many caused by arson but fuelled by the heat - with firefighters recording 300 interventions in the past 12 hours. The Madonie mountain range, near the Sicilian capital Palermo, has for several days been besieged by flames that have destroyed crops, animals, homes and industrial buildings. Sicily's governor, Nello Musumeci, called for a state of emergency to be declared for mountains, while Agriculture Minister Stefano Patuanelli...

A young driver who lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a bus, landing himself and his fellow passenger in intensive care, has been found guilty of causing the accident through negligence. The crash occurred on November 23, 2015 when Owen Xuereb, then 21, was driving back from the McDonald’s outlet at Luqa airport where he and a fellow Mcast student had gone for a takeaway in between school assignments. Heading down Paola hill at 2pm, Xuereb suddenly lost control of his Citroen Saxo as he maneuvered a bend, skidding and crashing head-on into a bus that was just about to pull away from a stage. A police officer who rushed on site recalled that Xuereb was moaning in pain, while the other youth in the passenger seat was unconscious. Members of the Civil Protection Department were called to assist in freeing the two youths from the wreckage. Two bus passengers suffered slight injuries and the bus was out of order for 16 days, a company representative subsequently testified, stating that damages had amounted to €4,897. Xuereb, who spent 57 days in intensive care, later explained how he had been heading down Paola hill at some 60km per hour when he lost control. But he could...

The government has been urged to immediately intervene to stop a situation which is seeing farmers evicted from fields they have tilled for many years. Eighteen organisations in a joint statement on Wednesday observed that the Agricultural Leases Board has been ordering the eviction of farmers after the Constitutional Court ruled in November 2020  that the law denied landowners their fundamental rights. The court had found that the law which effectively granted the farmers an indefinite right of renewal of their lease, breached the owners’ fundamental rights. The developing situation, the organisations warned, will have a major negative impact on society and the environment. "Dozens of farmers will lose their livelihood, while the land they manage will fall in the hands of those who have neither the intention nor knowledge on how to farm it, or utilised for purposes that are not necessarily agricultural." The situation would also impact domestic food production.   The organisations acknowledged that in some cases, the rent paid for private land was ridiculous, saying it would be wise to revise such prices so that landowners would be more justly compensated. "However, such a...

Former world football chief Sepp Blatter remains “optimistic” Wednesday, his spokesman said, as he faces a fourth day of questioning by a Swiss prosecutor investigating a suspect FIFA payment to Michel Platini. FIFA’s ex-president Blatter is being investigated over a two million Swiss franc ($2.2 million, 1.85 million euro) payment in 2011 to Platini, who was then in charge of European football’s governing body UEFA. In final hearings in the investigation, Blatter has met with a federal prosecutor from the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) of Switzerland for three consecutive days in Zurich, where FIFA has its headquarters. Due to Blatter’s fragile health, he can only stay at the hearing venue for a couple of hours maximum at a time. Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of the Times of Malta

Two men were seriously injured in separate traffic accidents on Wednesday morning, the police said. The first accident happened in St George Street, Qormi, at about 7.30am when a 31-year-old pedestrian from Qormi was hit by a  Renault Megane car driven by a 30-year-old man from Somalia. The injured man was given medical assistance on site and taken to hospital, where he was found to be seriously hurt.   Car did not stop after crash The second accident took place at 8.30am in Main Street, Lija, when a 47-year-old motorcyclist from Qormi was hit by a car that allegedly kept on going. The motorcyclist was seriously injured. The police are investigating. 

US cyber security giant NortonLifeLock is to buy Czech rival Avast for over $8 billion (€6.8bn) to create a leading consumer business, the pair announced on Wednesday after the pandemic fuelled online activity. The deal “is a huge step forward for consumer cyber safety and will ultimately enable us to achieve our vision to protect and empower people to live their digital lives safely”, Norton chief executive Vincent Pilette said in a joint statement. Ondrej Vlcek, chief executive of London-listed Avast, said that amid increasing global cyber threats, the tie-up would allow for “enhanced solutions and services, with improved capabilities”. More than 500 million users will benefit from the new group’s safety offerings, the statement added. Pilette was set to become chief executive of the expanded group, while Vlcek is to join NortonLifeLock as president and become a member of the NortonLifeLock board. The combined company, to be listed on the Nasdaq, will be dual headquartered in Prague and Tempe, Arizona. Businesses worldwide are at threat from an increasingly lucrative form of digital hostage-taking, or ransomware attacks, that typically see hackers encrypting victims’ data and...

A slice of cake from the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer sold for £1,850 at auction in Britain on Wednesday -- with a warning not to eat it. The 40-year-old slab of marzipan and thick white icing decorated with the royal coat of arms fetched more than three times its asking price of £300 to £500. "We were amazed at the numbers of people wanting to bid on this large and unique piece of royal cake icing," said auctioneer Chris Albury, a royal memorabilia specialist at Dominic Winter Auctioneers in Cirencester, western England. "There were lots of enquiries from bidders, mostly in the UK, the USA and several countries in the Middle East," he added in an email. The successful bidder comes from Leeds in the north of England, Albury said.  The cake was originally given to Moyra Smith, who worked for Queen Elizabeth II's mother at her Clarence House residence in central London. Following Smith's death, her family sold it at the same auction house in 2008 for £1,000 to a private collector, who has now sold it at a profit. "It appears to be in exactly the same good condition as when originally sold, but we advise against eating it," the auctioneers said. - 'Handle...

Athletics Malta has over the years been blessed by a number of talented track and field athletes. In the last few months, Jeremy Zammit has emerged as one of the rising stars in Maltese sport as the 17-year-old has not only managed to set a number of national marks in various junior categories but has also shone on the international stage. Last month, Zammit secured Malta's best ever result in the European U-20 Championships, held in Tallinn, Estonia, where he managed to set back-to-back national records in the junior categories when first leaping to 7.58m and then 7.62 metres in the final. Zammit's leap in the final saw him finish in fifth place overall at the prestigious championships. Zammit and his coach Mario Bonello spoke with the Times of Malta on his latest achievements and his rise in the sport throughout the past few months. Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of the Times of Malta

Firefighters, troops and civilian volunteers battled blazes in forests across northern Algeria on Wednesday as the country reeled at a death toll of at least 65 people in the latest wildfires to hit the Mediterranean. Soldiers deployed to back the overstretched emergency services tackle the rash of more than 50 fires that broke out on Tuesday accounted for 28 of those killed, state television reported. The authorities say they suspect widespread arson after so many fires erupted in such a short space of time. They have announced several arrests but have yet to elaborate on the identity or suspected motives of those detained. Images of trapped villagers, terrified livestock and forested hillsides reduced to blackened stumps were shared on social media, many of them accompanied by pleas for help. AFP journalists saw villagers desperately trying to put out the spreading fires with makeshift brooms in an effort to save their homes. High winds fuelled the rapid spread of the fires in the tinder-dry conditions created by a heat wave across North Africa and the wider Mediterranean, fire official Youcef Ould Mohamed told the state-run APS news agency. A total of 69 separate wildfires...

Many sports bettors will tell you about the time when they placed a bet on a sure thing, but as the game went on, they watched their well-worked out bet slowly circling the drain as it failed to reach its full potential. The worst part is that they could see it coming, and there was nothing they could do about it.  This is where the cash out betting feature has become a widely popular option for punters everywhere. The cash out option offers you the opportunity to settle a bet before one or more of your selected events has concluded. This attractive offering is available at top online sportsbooks in Malta. When should I use the cash out option? This is a feature used by many punters either in order to secure their current winnings, or when they feel the outcome of their bet may not be as favourable as they had first assumed. There are many ways a bet can turn out, especially when there are bet builders and accumulators. There are a few things to take into account when considering a cash out offer. The most important is, don’t be impulsive. Don’t take an offer just because it’s presented to you. Take your time to think about what the offer means before coming to a...

A Chinese court on Wednesday jailed Canadian businessman Michael Spavor for 11 years for spying, a sentence swiftly condemned by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as "unacceptable and unjust".  Spavor was detained in 2018 along with compatriot Michael Kovrig on what Ottawa has said are politically orchestrated charges after Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada on a US extradition warrant. Relations between the two countries have hit rock bottom, with China also accusing Canada of politicising legal cases. Spavor "was convicted of espionage and illegally providing state secrets", Dandong city's Intermediate People's Court said in a statement. "He was sentenced to 11 years in prison." - 'I want to get home' - The Canadian ambassador to China, who was present in the courtroom, linked the verdict to Meng's ongoing hearings in Vancouver. "I don't take it as a coincidence that we have heard the verdicts of these two cases while that trial is going on," Dominic Barton told reporters. In a message relayed in a consular visit after the sentencing, Spavor said: "Thank you for all your support. I am in good spirits. I want to get home." Trudeau called the conviction and...

The head of the hunting regulator has expressed his wish to resign after cancelling what was expected to be a heated meeting to discuss the upcoming autumn hunting season.   Sources said Wild Birds Regulation Unit head Richard Lia announced his intention to resign to committee members as he cancelled not only Wednesday’s meeting but also others set for the coming weeks.   Committee members speaking with Times of Malta on condition of anonymity said they were taken aback by Lia’s sudden announcement.  Lia is understood to have been taken aback by an angry exchange with hunting minister Clint Camilleri, who only learnt that the Ornis committee was to meet on Wednesday after reading about it in the press.  “I can’t work like this,” he told committee members. One source privy to the committee said they interpreted Lia’s outburst as meaning “he had enough of political interference”. Attempts to contact Lia have so far been unsuccessful.  It is understood that he has not yet formally resigned his position.  Lia was appointed to the position in 2020 after previously serving as acting head. His appointment was criticised by Birdlife after it was revealed he had a licence for bird...

The grape harvest got off to a difficult start this month as farmers estimate losses of up to a quarter of their yield due to the heat and this year’s dry, warm winter. As the country suffers itself  third summer heatwave, Gerald Vella, administrative secretary of grape producer cooperative Vitimalta said the extreme temperatures were causing berries to shrivel and burn. “The last three to four harvests were really bad,” he said. “So far, we think that we have lost 25 to 30 per cent of the usual weight and we’ll have to wait and see if it gets worse because the harvest will continue until September.” Vella said the losses were terrible for grape farmers because they had already been dealing with dwindling yields over the last four to five years, due to ageing vines as well as climate change. “It is becoming less and less financially sustainable for us to work,” Vella said. “We get paid by weight, and we’ve been enduring lower yields due to low rainfall and higher temperatures in winter, as well as the age of the vines.” Vines need warm summers and long hours of sunlight, but cold winters in order for them to enter a dormancy period and “rest”, the cooperative official pointed...