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Busuttil questions PM’s statement on migration

June 28, 2014, 10:51 pm
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The Prime Minister’s statement on irregular migration at the end of an EU summit suggested he was either oblivious to past council meeting conclusions or else he needed to clarify himself, the Opposition leader said yesterday. Simon Busuttil was reacting to a statement on Friday night that for the very first time European leaders had accepted in principle the sharing of responsibility on the issue of irregular migration. Dr Busuttil said in comments to Times of Malta that there was absolutely no mention on burden sharing in the summit’s conclusion. The only reference made was about “fair sharing of responsibility”, which was no new development as it had been repeatedly stated in summit conclusions over the previous 10 years. “The Prime Minister should clarify his statement because he either came back with nothing new or he has not been reading summit conclusions for the past decade, or both,” the Opposition leader said. More in The Sunday Times of Malta and the e-paper on timesofmalta.com Premium.
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111 soldiers promoted and compensated

June 29, 2014, 1:38 am
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A total of 111 members of the Armed Forces received financial compensation and promotions on the advice of a complaints’ commission, tasked to probe allegations of injustices dating back to the previous Administration. A spokeswoman for the Home Affairs Ministry told The Sunday Times of Malta that 62 per cent of the cases dealt with by this commission were deemed justified. “The army acted on the commission’s recommendations for deserving cases and these included compensation for money due and promotions,” she said. However, details on the ranks directly affected by these decisions and the subsequent increase in the army wage bill were not given. Set up a year ago, the commission headed by former Armed Forces Commander Brigadier Maurice Calleja was also tasked to come up with recommendations. Last February, the government said almost two thirds of the 213 complaints filed had been upheld. More in The Sunday Times of Malta and the e-paper on timesofmalta.com Premium.
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Sunbed supply can’t keep up with Comino demand

June 28, 2014, 3:01 pm
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The 70-deckchair allowance at Blue Lagoon falls far short of the demands of the estimated 4,000 bathers who are dropped off at Comino every day, according to service operators on the island. Vendors, sunbed and boat operators who yesterday spoke to The Sunday Times of Malta said hundreds of people are ferried to the island every hour and by noon the place is already crowded. Despite going over the allowance – sometimes there are 400 sunbeds – bathers often have to beg or argue with operators for a deckchair or umbrella, with some offering to pay double the price. Visitors who are not catered for spread towels on the surrounding garigue, a Natura 2000 site. Earlier this month, Malta Tourism Authority CEO Gavin Gulia said order would be brought to the war for sunbed space that dominates the island’s coastline. Two operating licences were this year tendered at €28,000 each for the allocation of 70 units. In previous years, sunbeds have been laid out on the protected garigue and even in the shallow water. Yesterday a part of the bay was left empty of sunbeds and the deckchairs, although sprawling up on to the rocks, stopped short of trespassing on the garigue. Beachgoers said this...
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Boy suffers eye injuries in feast incident

June 28, 2014, 10:18 pm
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A 14-year-old boy from Siggiewi was hospitalized last night after an accident during the feast in Siggiewi. The police said it appeared that the boy was playing with suffarelli (squibs) in Triq Dun Guzepp Aquilina, Siggiewi. They were placed in a glass bottle and exploded. The boy suffered injuries to his eyes. 
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Updated - Passengers fume as airport doors are kept closed

June 28, 2014, 7:21 am
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Passengers fumed at the airport this afternoon when the airside doors into the arrivals lounge were kept closed for over half an hour. A long queue of passengers formed on the tarmac in the blazing sun when the doors would not open, shortly after an Emirates flight arrived. One passenger said an electrical fault appeared to have caused the doors to stay closed. An MIA spokesman apologised for the inconvenience caused. He said the problem stemmed from an electrical fault in the arrivals terminal which was rectified as quickly as possible. The terminal is operating normally. Flights were not affected.
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Updated - Widespread power cut in Sliema area

June 30, 2014, 4:27 am
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A large number of households and business were without electricity early this afternoon following a power outage in the Sliema area. Readers said the whole of Sliema, Ibrag, Gzira, Msida and Ta' Xbiex were affected. Power was lost at about 1 p.m. A spokesman for Enemalta said the outage was caused by a fault in a transformer in the distribution system. Most areas had power restored by 2.15pm Exactly a week ago a fault at Marsa power station in the evening  caused a power cut in St Julian’s, Sliema, Sta Venera, Birkirkara and Lija.
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Pressure group tells foreign tenants not to accept higher tariff charges

June 29, 2014, 8:00 am
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Up in Arms, a lobby group of expatriates living in Malta, has instructed tenants who live in Malta as their primary residence  to pay only the residential rate for their utilities. They are currently charged considerably more for utilities. The lobby group this afternoon held a protest in sun-baked St George’s Square in Valletta. Group founder Patricia Graham said foreigners living in Malta were being made to pay what is called ‘domestic rate’ which is about 45 per cent more than the ‘residential rate’” “The two tier tariff is illegal under EU Law. It is illegal for ARMS to charge us 45 per cent more than our next door neighbour,” Ms Graham said.  “This ripping people off in order to make money.” Why do we have to pay a different rate, it doesn’t t happen anywhere else in the EU.” She said that landlords often do not endorse the Form H provided by Arms, which means that tenants will not be able to avail themselves of a residential tariff. The group has been campaigning for four years. “It’s almost a full time job now,” said Ms Graham. Last November, the group had been assured by Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi that all consumers will be treated as Maltese nationals with no...
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Filipinos top list of work permit holders

June 29, 2014, 10:39 pm
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Filipinos living in Malta top the list of (non EU) foreigners holding employment permits, International Organisation for Migration figures show. They had a total of 946 permits as of January and were followed by Serbians (671), Chinese (434), Indians (247) and Russians (196). Most employment licences are issued for low skills occupations. Most of the employment licences were for cleaners (474) and office helpers (399) followed by care workers (305), chefs (274) and labourers (231). Asylum seekers and refugees made up about 1,980 in total. More in Times of Malta and the e-paper on timesofmalta.com Premium.
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Baggage handler fined €90,000 for contraband

June 30, 2014, 4:18 am
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A 55-year-old man who was caught in possession of contraband cigarettes and alcohol in July 2003, has finally been served justice and fined €90,000 and given a suspended jail term. Raymond Camilleri, from Ibrag, who worked as a baggage handler at the airport, was originally charged with stealing 20 mobile phones which were brought from Sicily and tax evasion on alcohol, cigarettes, cordless phones and two air rifles. He was acquitted of stealing the phones dues to lack of evidence, but found guilty of evading tax on the rest of the items found at his home. Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera found how he had offered a weak explanation of how he came into possession of the contraband items.She fined him a total of €91,000 and sentenced him to three months behind bars suspended for 18 months.
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‘Bring back check-ups to reduce dive deaths’

June 29, 2014, 11:36 pm
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Some scuba diving deaths could be avoided if regular medical checks became mandatory again, a leading physician specialised in undersea and hyperbaric medicine says. “When you look at the cases of people who die while diving over the past 10 years or so, you realise that there is a growing trend of people whose deaths are, strictly speaking, not caused by the diving itself but by their underlying medical conditions,” the government’s chief diving medical officer, Stephen Muscat, told Times of Malta. His comments come after three divers died in one day in two separate incidents on June 17. Two of the dead appear to have had difficulties and surfaced too quickly, which causes decompression sickness because nitrogen bubbles form in the body’s tissues. The third, a 67-year-old Austrian man, is believed to have had some underlying medical conditions. The same seems to have been the case with a German woman, 46, who died while diving with her husband in an area known as Ix-Xatt l-Aħmar, in Gozo. It used to be mandatory for all divers to have a medical examination certifying they were fit. The older you were, the more often you had to be tested and dive shops would not provide you with...
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Case against grandfather accused of showing porn to grandsons dropped

June 30, 2014, 2:40 am
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The case against a 59-year-old grandfather of two young boys charged with showing them pornographic films has been declared extinguished after a magistrate deemed the boys' testimony evasive and inconclusive and their father renounced criminal action against his father. The case came to light after the boys' mother, who was visiting them at Appogg in the presence of two social workers saw them kissing each other on the lips, in November 2012. One was aged six and the other seven. According to the social workers, one of the boys said that he would tell his brother to pretend to be a girl and he would kiss him and undress. He said he had watched these things on videos shown to them by their grandfather. The father of the boys had full custody of the children and they all lived with their grandfather, the court heard. During testimony, the seven-year-old said among other things, that they would watch films with their grandfather. He said that if his grandfather saw something inappropriate on television he would immediately switch channels. The six-year-old testified that he had seen films "pastazi" but they consisted of blood and worms coming out of people. Films seized...
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Fined for breaching bail after slipping out of house to buy an ice cream

June 30, 2014, 5:17 am
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A man who was found eating an ice cream 15 metres away from his house was today fined €700 for breaching bail, because he was supposed to stay indoors. Pierre Cremona, 40 of Balzan, was arraigned after the police checked on his boathouse in Marfa, where he lives during the summer. They found him 15 metres away. Sergeant Alan Calleja said the accused was meant to be indoors after 8.30pm but he was outside at 11.30pm. Mr Cremona told the court that he had a medical problem and needed to regulate his blood sugar levels. That was why he had gone out to buy an ice cream. Police Inspector Malcolm Bondin said that while this was not a particularly serious breach of bail conditions, it was a breach nonetheless, and the accused should realise such things were not done. The court fined Mr Cremona €700 and warned him of the consequences of breaching bail. Mr Cremona is on bail pending a court case for alleged drug possession. Some years ago Mr Cremona's boathouse was the target of a bomb attack. Mr Cremona and a friend were lucky to escape injury. Lawyers Franco Debono and Veronique Dalli appeared for Mr Cremona.
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No word on fireworks’ food contamination

June 29, 2014, 10:00 am
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The Health Ministry is avoiding answering questions on concerns raised last week by chemical expert Alfred Vella about food contamination resulting from fireworks. His team at the University of Malta conducted studies over six years that revealed perchlorate, one of the more important chemicals used in fireworks, in certain crops grown in local fields, such as lettuce. Times of Malta asked the ministry if the Environmental Health Directorate was concerned about the presence of perchlorate in food and whether it planned to look into the evidence. It was also asked whether authorities believed any kind of remedial action was necessary to alleviate concerns. The role of the Environmental Health Directorate, which falls under the Health Ministry, is to safeguard public health from adverse environmental effects. The reply to daily reminders sent to the ministry was that information was still being collected. On Friday, the ministry eventually sent a paragraph as comment that failed to answer questions posed. The ministry said that legislative amendments recently introduced were “a step in the right direction in addressing issues related to fireworks”. More in the e-paper on...
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Driver, 18, critically injured in Gozo crash

June 29, 2014, 11:53 pm
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An 18-year-old driver from Zebbug, Gozo, was critically injured last night when his Honda Civic slammed into a wall and rolled over in Xlendi Road, Fontana. The incident happened at about 12.30am. A 16-year-old girl who was a passenger was seriously injured while another two passengers, both boys aged 16 and 17, were slightly injured. All are from Xaghra. The car was extensively damaged and rescuers needed to be called to pull some of them out of the wreckage. A Magisterial inquiry is under way.  
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Adoptions Board chief axed after criticism

June 29, 2014, 7:55 am
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Ivan Grech Mintoff has been replaced as chairman of the Adoptions Board weeks after expressing his “disgust” about the manner in which the government “surreptitiously” introduced gay adoptions. The change was announced in the Government Gazette of June 20, which said Cynthia Pace Asciak was the new chairman. Last month, Times of Malta revealed the board was not consulted before adoptions by same-sex couples became part of the Civil Unions Bill. At the same time, board members were instructed not to speak to the media. When contacted, Mr Grech Mintoff said that following the Cabinet reshuffle in March, all board members falling under the Social Policy Ministry were told to submit their resignation “in line with standard practice”. In spite of this, he was later informed he would retain his post. However, just weeks after publicly venting his frustration with this newspaper about the lack of consultation, he learned his resignation had been accepted after all. More in The Sunday Times of Malta and the e-paper on timesofmalta.com Premium.
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Police outrider injured while escorting the President

June 30, 2014, 1:30 am
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A police motorcyclist who was escorting the President's car was injured in a traffic accident in December 13 Road, Marsa, this morning. The accident happened at about 10.,20am when the motorcyclist was knocked off his motorcycle by a white car. He managed to get up but was taken to hospital in an ambulance. President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca saw the incident as it happened and appeared shaken. She stayed on the scene and spoke to the policeman until the ambulance arrived.
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Council seeks investigation into boy's accident during feast

June 28, 2014, 10:18 pm
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Siggiewi local council has demanded an investigation after a 14-year-old boy was hospitalized last night after an accident during the feast in the locality. The police said it appeared that the boy was playing with suffarelli (squibs) in Triq Dun Guzepp Aquilina, Siggiewi. They were placed in a glass bottle and exploded. The boy suffered injuries to his eyes and was operated urgently. Siggiewi Mayor Karol Aquilina expressed solidarity with the boy and his family and wished him a quick recovery. The council urged the authorities to investigate the incident and called on anyone having any information to contact the police. A Magisterial inquiry is under way. The use of suffarelli is illegal other then for particular purposes, such as in ground fireworks. It is not know how the boy acquired the firework.
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Quality and Amporn top the list of unusual names

June 29, 2014, 10:05 am
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The good news is that the most popular children’s names last year were still the traditional ones: Luke, Elena and Matthew. The bad news is that the public registry in 2013 still had its fair share of specially coined names which are hard to pronounce, like Zveyrone, Netsrik, Jaceyrhaer, Zarkareia and Chinenye. One of the most unusual names given to babies in 2013 is Amporn. One assumes the baby was called after the Thai volleyball player Amporn Hyapha and not inspired by other activities. Other contenders for the most unusual names of the year are: Enonima, Kobbun, Gundula, Limoni, Hunter, Loic and Coco (not Chanel). Some baby names appear to point at romantic parents: Breeze, Summer, Diamond, Love, Freedom, Symphony, Dolce and Innocent. International film and sports celebrities have clearly influenced newborn names. Last year there was a baby named Delson, after the Linkin Park guitarist; Diyas for the tennis player Zarina Diyas; Aizley, for the actress Carrie Aizley; Alaric after Alaric Saltzman from The Vampire Diaries; Mikaiel Cain and Aaron Flynn, whose parents are presumably fans of Errol Flynn, the swashbuckling actor. Fourteen boys were called Gianluca last year,...
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Feasibility study for fibre optic cable between Malta and Gozo to be held - PM

July 1, 2014, 1:09 am
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Funds for a feasibility study for a fibre optic cable between Malta and Gozo have been allocated, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning. Addressing a cabinet meeting in Gozo, he said this would help software companies like RS2 operate from the sister island. Dr Muscat also said that the government was exploring ideas on how to attract medical tourism through a public private partnership. This could include the creation of a medical school in Gozo, he said, pointing out that the Gozo General Hospital was on a prime site that was under utilised. The government, he said, was also consolidating the Gozo Mcast campus by having one centre rather than two in separate locations. Gozo Regional Committee chairman Michael Grech highlighted the initiatives taken in the past year as part of its remit to advise the government on matters related to the sister island. On his part, Gozo Tourism Association President Joe Muscat spoke about the need for incentives for Gozo to attract foreign direct investment, establish a Gozo brand and draft separate policies in niche tourism areas such as religious and agro tourism, as well as tourism in general. He emphasised the need for niche...
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PM accepts Opposition proposal for 'common front' on migration, but says it would not be new

June 30, 2014, 9:34 am
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Updated - Opposition leader Simon Busuttil this evening proposed a 'common front' between the government and the opposition on migration. Speaking in Parliament after a statement by the prime minister on last week's EU summit, Dr Busuttil said migration should be taken out of partisan politics and the government and the opposition should work together in Malta and abroad. This offer, he said, was being on condition that: The first priority would be to save lives. Secondly, once migrants were rescued, every effort should be made to control the influx of migrants in the country such that Malta did not shoulder an excessive burden. Thirdly, everyone had the right to be treated with dignity and enjoy the right to seek protection. Therefore, there should be no pushbacks of migrants, but those who were not eligible for protection should be sent back. Lastly, Dr Busuttil said, populism should be taken out of migration and the language used, because it fomented racism and xenophobia. Dr Busuttil said there should be sincere cooperation between the government and the opposition, with the opposition being kept fully informed of the situation, even through meetings of the House committee...
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