The three-month national amnesty was the first since Australia's major reform on gun laws in 1996
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Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Australians turn in 57,000 illegal firearms during national amnesty
Milan to face Juventus in Coppa Italia final after penalty shootout win
Milan's unbeaten streak in all competitions reached 13 matches with a 5-4 penalty shootout victory over Lazio on Wednesday to advance to the Italian Cup final against Juventus.
After Lazio's Luiz Felipe Ramos placed his penalty attempt high over the bar, Milan center back Alessio Romagnoli — who grew up as a Lazio fan — calmly drilled his decisive shot into the left corner to seal the win.
The game ended 0-0 after extra time, following a scoreless first leg as well.
Earlier, Juventus beat visiting Atalanta 1-0 to advance 2-0 on aggregate.
It was Milan's second win in four days at the Stadio Olimpico after beating Roma 2-0 in Serie A on Sunday.
Up next for Gennaro Gattuso's squad: the Milan derby then a Europa League quarterfinal against Arsenal.
Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and Lazio counterpart Thomas Strakosha each made two saves early in the shootout.
Earlier in the match, the 19-year-old Donnarumma showed his lack of experience when he miscalculated a long ball and let Ciro Immobile run onto it inside the area. The Lazio striker pulled the ball back from the endline and nearly scored from an almost impossible angle.
Otherwise, Donnarumma was on form, leaping to turn away a header from Immobile early on then blocking another effort from Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
Strakosha also had a strong performance, denying a splendid effort from Suso in the first half.
Milan striker Nikola Kalinic wasted a golden chance to finish off a swift counterattack in the second period of extra time.
"Lazio is a very strong team. It's no wonder that they've scored so many goals against everyone this season," Gattuso said. "We could have conceded a goal but we could have also scored."
___
FOUR STRAIGHT FINALS
Miralem Pjanic scored a controversial penalty as Juventus reached its fourth straight final.
It appeared that Juventus midfielder Blaise Matuidi was only slightly touched from behind by Gianluca Mancini while attempting to meet a cross in the 74th.
But the referee's decision was confirmed by the VAR and Pjanic converted into the center of the net as goalkeeper Etrit Berisha leaped to his right.
Juventus advanced 2-0 on aggregate following Gonzalo Higuain's goal in the first leg.
Higuain sat out the second leg due to a minor injury.
Juventus has won the Italian Cup a record 12 times, including the last three years.
"We have to compliment the lads for what they did tonight and are doing this season," Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said. "Our aim was to reach March and still be in all three tournaments."
Juventus drew 2-2 with Tottenham in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16.
After a first half in which Juventus seemed content to protect its first-leg advantage and Atalanta produced little, the match came to life midway through the second half when both sides hit the goalframe.
A long lob from Atalanta's Alejandro "Papu" Gomez hit the post following a defensive error by Medhi Benatia.
Gomez then blasted another dangerous effort over the crossbar before Juve's Douglas Costa curled a long shot off the bar just minutes later.
"We had a few problems in the first half, as we were late closing them down on the flanks and they did well to find passes between the lines," Allegri said.
"In the second half, we created more going forward, as Douglas Costa put himself behind the center forward and that broke the game open."
Juventus was also slated to host Atalanta in Serie A on Sunday but that match was snowed out and will be made up March 14.
Snow also fell during Wednesday's game but it did not stick to the pitch.
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Hope Hicks resigns as White House communications director
Hope's resignation comes one day after she testified before the House intelligence committee and admitted to occassionally telling 'white lies' for the President
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Valletta local council to regulate and limit artisan ‘buskers’
Valletta mayor Alexiei Dingli said the situation is becoming 'intolerable'
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Madness or murder? Trial begins for nanny who killed 2 kids
A defense lawyer says it was an act of madness. Prosecutors will begin trying to prove Thursday that it was murder.
Five years ago, Yoselyn Ortega, a trusted nanny to a well-to-do family, took two young children in her care into a bathroom at their Manhattan apartment, slaughtered them with a knife and then slit her own throat. She survived.
The killings of Leo Krim, 2, and Lucia Krim, 6, shocked New Yorkers, especially the thousands of parents who depend on loving nannies to take care of their children.
At a trial that begins Thursday, the central mystery isn't whether Ortega killed the children, but why she did it — and whether she was too mentally ill to be held responsible.
"This case is about the insanity defense," defense attorney Valerie Van Leer-Greenberg told prospective jurors last week. "Not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect."
Prosecutors plan to present their own psychiatric experts who will say that Ortega understood the consequences of her actions, even if her motive may never be understood.
"It's the slaughter of two innocent children," Assistant District Attorney Stuart Silberg said.
A judge has already declared Ortega, 55, mentally fit to stand trial.
New York has a high bar for the insanity defense and it is rarely successful. To win, Ortega's lawyers will have to prove that she didn't understand the consequences of her actions and didn't know right from wrong at the time.
During jury selection, some potential members of the panel were dismissed after telling the court they believed mental illness does not excuse someone from a moral understanding of right and wrong.
Others were rejected as jurors after saying they couldn't be impartial because they had small children themselves or a close relationship with a caregiver.
Ortega had worked for the Krims for about two years, in one of the city's wealthiest neighborhoods, a block from Central Park, and by some measures had a close relationship with her employers.
Once, the family traveled together to the Dominican Republic to meet Ortega's family.
Some of Ortega's friends and relatives said she appeared to be struggling emotionally and financially before the killings, and she'd started seeing a psychologist.
A doctor who testified for the defense during pre-trial legal hearings said Ortega had serious delusions.
On Oct. 25, 2012, the day of the killings, she asked a neighbor to come over because she was afraid to be alone, Dr. Karen Rosenbaum said. And three days before, she was out of control at her sister's apartment, throwing pots and pans, and then being unable to remember the outburst.
But police said that while she was in custody after the killings, Ortega gave interviews that paint a picture of an unhappy employee: She told authorities that she hurt the children because she was having money problems and was angry at the parents, according to court papers. She said her schedule constantly shifted, she had to act as a cleaning lady though she didn't want to and she missed an appointment with "the psych," according to the papers.
"Oh, my God, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I've done," she said, according to the court papers. "Relieve me of my misery."
The parents of the two slain children rarely speak publicly about the killings, but both are expected to testify.
Their mother, Marina Krim, discovered her two dead children and the bleeding nanny in the darkened apartment after returning from picking up another daughter, age 3, at a class.
Marina Krim and her husband Kevin Krim, a CNBC executive, use a Facebook page to post updates on how they are doing, writing about the arrival of two new children, Felix born in 2013 and Linus in 2016. Strangers post messages of support; more than 80,000 people like and follow the page.
In the wake of the tragedy, the couple started the Lulu and Leo Fund that aims to support innovative art programs for children and they recently posted a video message on Facebook asking that people mention the fund as their case becomes news again.
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Teacher barricades himself in class, fires gun; no one hurt
A social studies teacher barricaded himself inside a classroom at a Georgia high school on Wednesday and fired a handgun, sending students running outside or hunkering down in darkened gym locker rooms, authorities said.
No Dalton High School students were in the classroom when the teacher fired the weapon, and despite the chaotic lockdown and evacuation, the only injury was a student who hurt her ankle running away.
It wasn't immediately clear why the teacher, 53-year-old Jesse Randal Davidson, had the gun. Under questioning by detectives, he refused to discuss what led to the shooting.
The gunfire erupted with a nation on edge two weeks after a Florida school shooting left 17 students and faculty dead and ignited a new debate over gun control in America. Within minutes of the Dalton shooting, students there took to social media, calling for restricting gun rights. In the afternoon, President Donald Trump, who has advocated for arming teachers, convened a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House to address gun violence.
The teacher was taken into custody without incident after a 30- to 45-minute standoff with officers, police spokesman Bruce Frazier said. A teacher since 2004, Davidson also serves as the play-by-play announcer for the high school's football team.
Police noted that Davidson didn't appear to want to hurt the students or faculty. He fired the gun at an exterior window when the principal tried to enter the classroom.
"I don't know whether he was just firing the gun off to let people know to back off or what," Frazier said.
The shooting happened about 11:30 a.m. during Davidson's planning period. At first, students tried to get into the classroom, but they couldn't. The students told the principal, who tried to enter.
"I didn't get the door open very far, but he slammed the door and hollered 'Go away, don't come in here.' He had some nonsensical noises that were made as well," Principal Steve Bartoo said.
Bartoo returned a short time later and put his key in the door "and again he slammed the door before I could open it and he said, 'Don't come in here, I have a gun.'"
That's when Davidson fired and the school was placed on lockdown, authorities said.
Davidson faces six charges, including aggravated assault involving a gun and terroristic threats and acts, jail records showed. Other charges include carrying a weapon in a school safety zone and reckless conduct. It's not clear if he has an attorney.
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Archbishop, as Vatican sex abuse investigator, wraps up his mission in Chile
The Vatican's sex crimes investigator has ended his mission in Chile, and Roman Catholic officials say he plans to deliver a report to the pope on a Chilean bishop who has been accused of ignoring sex abuse by a priest.
Archbishop Charles Scicluna closed his visit Wednesday with a message expressing gratitude for "the welcome of the Chilean people" and also thanking abuse victims for meeting with him.
The statement came a day after Scicluna interviewed several victims of sex abuse by members of the Marist Brothers religious order, a development that suggested his mandate had expanded beyond looking into allegations of a cover-up by Osorno Bishop Juan Barros.
Victims of pedophile priest Fernando Karadima have said that as a priest Barros witnessed and ignored the abuse. Barros denies that.
Archbishop meets Marist victims
Archbishop hears testimony of bishop
Archbishop discharged from hospital
Archbishop meets sex abuse victims
Archbishop cried hearing story of man abused by priest
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Legal advice for government’s reply to MEPs’ rule of law report cost €26,000
Opposition good governance spokesperson Simon Busuttil said that despite cost, the government's reply as not being worth the paper it was written on
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Average of 26 mobile phones found in prison each year
Searches in 2018 have already resulted in the discovery of 18 mobile phones, according to data tabled in parliament.
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1356 registered electric cars and motorbikes on Maltese roads in 2017
There were a total of 1356 registered electric cars and motorbikes on Maltese roads in 2017, figures tabled in parliament today show.
Tabled by Transport Minister Ian Borg, the figures, divided yearly between 2013 and 2017, present a steady increase in numbers throughout the five years. In 2017, there were a total of 1061 electric cars and 295 electric motorbikes on Maltese roads.
The number increased over threefold since 2013, when 346 electrics cars and 86 motorbikes were registered.
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Labour insists Wasteserv recruitment under PN administration different to 2017
A cache of leaked emails published by MaltaToday showed the Opposition's hypocrisy, Labour MP Robert Abela said
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Fenech Adami staying on as PAC chairman shows that Delia’s ‘new way’ worse than before - PL
Allowing Beppe Fenech Adami to continue chairing the Public Accounts Committee, which is currently investigating Wasteserv, proves that PN leader Adrian Delia's 'New Way' is even worse than before, the PL have said.
Last Sunday, MaltaToday published emails revealing how former Ministers, MPs, civil servants, party candidates, and representatives of Wasteserv, between 2009 and 2013 under a PN government, would offer employment to specific voters; often using their personal emails rather than their government servers. Beppe Fenech Adami, along with Claudio Grech, Jason Azzopardi, and Chris Said appeared in the emails.
Key figures within the emails are Ray Bezzina, a former political aide to former resources minister George Pullicino, as well as the same ministry's permanent secretary Chris Ciantar.
Speaking at a press conference held at the Labour Party Headquarters, MP Robert Abela said that in previous legislatures MPs who chaired the PAC had stepped down whenever there was interference.
"However, Adrian Delia's PN does not have the decency to try improve political standards within the party, which were already low," Abela said.
"Even worse, this morning Adrian Delia defended Beppe Fenech Adami and the other MPs by saying that they were merely recommendations. However, the emails show that there was political pressure and interference, that not even Wasteserv would accept," he said.
Labour Mp Alex Muscat said that this is another instance were the PN shows they do not have the credibility to lead the nation.
"Why is that every time the PN makes accusations, it is caught having the done the same thing, worse than that they are never reprimanded when they are found out."
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The assassination of a journalist is a failure of the government – David Casa
Nationalist MEP David Casa said it is "disgraceful that in Malta no one has assumed political responsibility for the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia."
Casa made this statement in light of the resignation of the Slovak Minister for Culture Marek Madaric over the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova. In his statement, Madaric said: "Plainly said, I cannot as culture minister put up with a journalist being murdered during my tenure".
Reacting to this news, Casa stated: "The fact that Kuciak was investigating tax evasion, corruption and links between politicians and businessmen means that the situation in Slovakia must be monitored very closely. However the resignation of a Slovak minister is indicative of the recognition of the gravity of the situation and the undeniable realisation that political responsibility must be carried. The assassination of a journalist under these circumstances is a failure of the respective government".
Daphne Caruana Galiza was assassinated on 16 October close to her Bidnija home. Three men were arraigned but no Maltese minister resigned.
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Donald Trump's Nobel Peace Prize nomination possibly fake
A European publication reported that the Norwegian Nobel Institute suspected the nomination on the president for the prize might be a fake one
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Waste incinerator planned to be built in Maghtab by 2023, will address 40 per cent of waste
A 5000 square meter waste to energy facility planned to be built in Maghtab by 2023 will address 40 per cent of Malta's total waste usage, Minister for the Environment Jose Herrera announced today.
The facility will be based on a technology known as 'Moving Grate Combustion', which is the most common type (40 per cent) of waste to energy technology, according to Paul Firth , director of Firth Resource Management who were handed the task to lead the study.
The plant would generate about 69,000 Mwh whilst the plant waste capacity would be 114,000 tonnes per annum.
With the introduction of this facility, recycling at source will no longer be voluntary.
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Girlfriend of Maltese professor at centre of Trump-Russia allegations says he is missing
The 31-year-old unnamed Ukrainian told Buzzfeed she had not heard from Joseph Mifsud since October despite him being the father of her newborn child • She claims Mifsud met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
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Constitutional court orders removal of unassisted statement in lawyer's drug smuggling trial
Graziella Attard was just 23-years-old in 2004, when she was arrested together with her Neapolitan boyfriend for posession and conspiracy to import and traffic drugs
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Former law student’s police statement in drugs case deemed inadmissible in court
A lawyer due to go on trial on drug-smuggling charges, has convinced the Constitutional court to remove from evidence a police statement she released 18 years ago upon arrest and without legal assistance.
Graziella Attard had been a 23-year old law student in 2004 when she was arrested together with her Neapolitan boyfriend, Roberto Conte upon their arrival from Pozzallo, Sicily by police acting on a tip off.
Some 10 kilograms of cannabis resin was found tucked under one of the seats of the couple's Peugeot. A separate search of the couple's Fgura home later that night had yielded more drugs.
The couple were arrested and charged with importation and possession of cannabis and with conspiracy to import and traffic drugs.
Conte had pleaded guilty was handed a 12-year jail term and a €28,000 fine in January 2008.
Attard, however had maintained her innocence and is awaiting trial after the compilation of evidence against her was concluded.
In September 2016 Attard had filed constitutional proceedings against the Attorney General claiming a breach of her right to a fair hearing in view of the fact that, when she made her statement to police, two days after being arrest, she had not consulted a lawyer.
In 2004, Maltese law did not grant the right legal assistance to persons under arrest.
But several judgements by the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court have established that fair trial rights are prejudiced by restrictions on his access to a lawyer during police custody.
The First Hall, of the Civil Court, in its Constitutional jurisdiction, presided over by Madam Justice Lorraine Schembri Orland, observed that the applicant had released her statement to the police after being duly cautioned.
The then young law student had at first denied all allegations, but had later admitted to having known of her boyfriend's plan to acquire and import 38 blocks of cannabis resin from Italy with the intention of handing them over to a third party in return for a cut of the profits.
Conte had benefited from a reduction in punishment by testifying against Attard her regard.
In an extensively-researched 77-page judgment, Madam Justice Schembri Orland turned down Attard's request for a re-hearing of the case, but concluded that her right to a fair hearing could potentially be breached if her police statement were to be produced in evidence against her in the trial.
Since Attard had not consulted a lawyer during the early stages of her arrest, a right which has been consistently reaffirmed by the European Court of Human Rights and local courts, Schembri Orland ordered the removal of the statement containing her admission from the acts of the case.
Lawyers Franco Debono and Amadeus Cachia assisted Attard.
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Funeral directors, hospital employee charged with corruption, data breach
Three men have been released on bail in relation to the leaking of personal details relating to deceased hospital patients to funeral directors
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Malta to get waste incinerator at Maghtab by 2023, Jose Herrera says
An incineration plant covering 5,000 square metres is being proposed for Maghtab to handle 40% of waste generated in Malta • Recycling at source will no longer remain optional
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Three men charged with leaking personal details on deceased patients
Three men have been released on bail in relation to the leaking of personal details relating to deceased hospital patients to funeral directors.
The son of a patient who died at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre had told local newspapers that two funeral directors had turned up at his home to offer their unsolicited services even before he had been officially advised by the hospital about the death.
He accused hospital staff of divulging personal information, giving the undertakers his father's name and time of death and his address and mobile number.
Inspector Anne Marie Xuereb arraigned three men before magistrate Monica Vella today, charging two of them with corrupting a public official and the other with accepting bribes.
57-year-old Mario Lia of Zabbar and 62-year-old Angelo Vella of Zabbar were charged with corrupting public official Anthony Mercieca to obtain this information. 59-year-old Mercieca was charged with passing on sensitive personal data, accepting bribes and relapsing.
All three men pleaded not guilty and were released on bail subject to a personal guarantee of €10,000. Vella and Mercieca were required to make a bail deposit of €2,000, whilst Lia was ordered to deposit €1,000.
Lawyer Keith Borg appeared for Vella and Lia, while lawyer Kenneth Cutajar represented Mercieca.
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Albania police seize Colombian cocaine from banana shipment that passed through Malta
Albanian police say they have seized 613 kilograms (1,350 pounds) of cocaine that arrived in the country in a shipment of bananas from Colombia.
Top policeman Ardi Veliu on Wednesday said two people were arrested a day earlier after the cocaine, in small packages, was found in a container that was unloaded from a ship coming from Colombia via Italy and Malta.
The container was taken to a private storage facility before police intervened. Its owner is still at large.
Police said the estimated market value of the drugs is 180 million euros ($220 million).
Albania was previously known as a crossroad for the trafficking of marijuana, but a government crackdown has led to a significant reduction in the number of plantations, though regular seizures show that traffickers still have marijuana stored.
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Wasteserv e-mails: PN leader supports Beppe Fenech Adami’s justification
Nationalist Party (PN) leader Adrian Delia has backed up PN MP Beppe Fenech Adami's justification on leaked e-mails showing how government officials under the leadership of Lawrence Gonzi had recommended people for jobs within Wasteserv.
Malta Today last week published leaked e-mails showing Fenech Adami, PN MP Claudio Grech and Marthese Portelli had recommended constituents for particular jobs.
Recently, PN MP's had requested an investigation into "hundreds of jobs" created at Wasteserv in the weeks running up to the general elections.
Echoing Fenech Adami's statements, PN leader Adrian Delia stressed that there is a stark different between what PN government officials did under the leadership of former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and what this government did in the weeks leading up to the general election.
Delia also said the government's actions amount to "corrupt practices".
In comments to the press, Delia said he spoke with Fenech Adami and understand that the latter made recommendations for a particular person to be granted an interview for an existing job at Wasteserv.
"It results that the person was not even chosen for the post in the end," he said.
Pressed on whether this is acceptable behaviour, Delia replied:
"If there was an regulation which was breached, let us see which regulation it is. What is certainly not acceptable is [the revelation that] there were hundreds of people brought into Wasteserv, in an abusive way...
"Let's be clear: there was a general election. The government wants to win that election. Government uses your money, my money and everybody's money to employ people for positions which we do not need in the first place. So let's be clear, they did not bring in people for jobs that need filling but people were brought in to buy votes. That is not acceptable."
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No bail for 15-year-old girl who attacked mother with a knife
Before the sitting, the accused was highly agitated and needed to be calmed down by several police and probation officers
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Teenage girl remanded in custody after attacking mother with knife
A 15-year-old girl today was remanded in custody after she was accused of attacking and slightly injuring her mother with a knife.
Very few details of the case may be published due to her age.
Inspector Christabelle Chetcuti arraigned the girl on charges of having, on 21 February, slightly injured her mother, committing an offence against police officers acting in the line of duty, failing to obey legitimate police orders, damaging public property at the police station, breaching the peace.
She was further charged with having threatened her mother with a knife on Monday, insulting and slightly injuring her, causing the woman to fear violence against her or her family or property, breaching a probation order and relapsing.
Before the sitting, the accused was highly agitated and needed to be calmed down by several police and probation officers.
Lawyer Jason Grima, appearing for the troubled young woman, entered a not guilty plea, but did not request bail at this stage.
Magistrate Monica Vella ordered that during her dentention, the girl be treated by a professional team and a treatment plan and provisional probation plan be drawn up "to address her many problems."
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Adrian Delia justifies his MPs' 'recommendations' for Wasteserv jobs
Opposition leader Adrian Delia insists that emails revealed by MaltaToday showing Nationalist Party politicians soliciting jobs for constituents at Wasteserv between 2009 and 2013 are incomparable to government's 'abusive' employment of hundreds on election eve
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Grandma who assaulted headmistress fined, given suspended sentence
A woman who assaulted her grandson's headmistress today was handed a suspended sentence and fined €4,000.
Magistrate Monica Vella heard Inspector Christabelle Chetcuti charge the 47-year-old, who cannot be identified by order of the court, with attacking the headmistress of the Cospicua primary school
She was charged with threatening, attacking and slightly injuring the headmistress – a public officer and breaching the peace.
Lawyer Jason Grima, as defence counsel, entered a guilty plea and formally registered an apology for her behaviour.
The woman asked to apologise to the victim. "I want to apologise to her. I am very sorry. I understand what I have done," she said. "I admit because I know I made a mistake."
Lawyer Maroushka Debono, present for the Education Department, accepted the apology.
The court handed the accused a six-month jail term suspended for two years. A two=year protection order was imposed in favour of the headmistress. The woman was also prohibited from entering the school for two years. She was also ordered to pay a €4,000 fine
"It's important that this behaviour doesn't repeat itself," warned the court. "There is a mitigation because it is your first time, if you do it again there will be no such measure."
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€4,000 fine and suspended sentence for granny who assaulted Birgu school head
Grandmother, 47, who attacked Birgu primary school headmistress gets €4,000 fine and six-month imprisonment suspended for two years
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Court declares son unworthy heir after manipulating mother into leaving him everything
The son's siblings claimed he had deceived his parents, who they said had intended for their wealth to be divided equally between the children
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Delia ‘saddened’ by former PN councillor Charlot Cassar’s comments
Nationalist Party (PN) leader Adrian Delia is "saddened" by remarks made by former PN local councillor Charlor Cassor who wrote on social media that the main problem is how Malta has lost the opposition. His comments were made days after he resigned from the party.
Asked for a reaction about the commentary, in view of the PN's failure to speak out after the resignation was made public, Delia said:
"I am saddened when anybody feels the country has lost the PN because every single opinion is important and one needs to explore why that person things that. My understanding since I have spoken to Charlot Cassar before and have not yet had the occasion to meet with him afterwards is that he spoke in that way with respect to the environment sector which is very close to his heart."
In a post on Facebook on Saturday morning, Charlot Cassar said he is in politics to be of service and work for the common good. "That's what I always did and will continue to do with a sense of obligation, duty and love for the country. I thank all those who have supported me. The main problem is not that the PN lost me but that the country lost the PN," he wrote.
He resigned last Friday, claiming he feels that he is no longer part of the PN.
Cassar, who had been prominent in the fight for Zonqor land to remain in pristine condition at the time the American University of Malta was being given land to develop as a campus, said that his primary obligation is to be guided by what is good and right for the people he serves.
"To achieve this aim, I must be primarily loyal to my values of honest, loyalty, transparency and accountability," he said.
Cassar was the man to suggest that the PN file a motion in Parliament for a debate to take place on whether the government should take back the 18,000sqm of Outside Development Zone (ODZ) land and give it back to the people. He called on his former party to do this back in December 2017. It was eventually filed and MP's battled it out in a plenary debate.
In addition, Cassar was also instrumental in applying pressure to see that the dilapidated and abandoned Jerma Hotel in Marsascala. The once thriving establishment has now been left to ruins, and multiple proposals have been made to the Planning Authority and presented to the Marsascala local council.
Cassar objected to the dilapidated site to be turned into another hotel or residential block, and called for the government to buy back the property and it be turned into an open space.
On environmental issues, Delia remarked that:
"It is a sector which proposes a lot of challenges. The PN is very much in favour and I have made strong statements that the environment needs to be protected and needs to be at the centre at any policies looking at the future development of Malta. We also need to find solutions of sustainable development to Malta. We need to plan for the future."
He said that there are those who feel that Malta is not doing enough for the environment while others fall on the other side of the balance.
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Court rules man deceived mother into leaving him all possessions in secret will
The First Hall of the Civil Court has declared a man to be an unworthy heir after he deceived his mother into leaving him everything in a secret will.
Siblings Josephine Camilleri, Mary Mifsud, Emanuel Camilleri, Victoria Saliba u Paul Camilleri, children of the deceased Antonia Camilleri filed a lawsuit against their brother Joseph Camilleri. They claimed that the mother, who had died in 2014, had made a secret will in June 2011.
The siblings, none of whom lived with the parents in their twilight years, had enjoyed a good relationship until the death of their parents. They claimed that their brother Joseph had deceived his parents and insisted that the elderly couple had wanted their wealth to be divided equally between the children.
The mother would suffer from bouts of depression and had been partially paralysed by a stroke. Spending 30 years in old people's homes, the woman eventually developed acute dementia and was largely unaware of her surroundings.
The woman was interdicted in 2011, having made an unica charta will with her husband, stipulating that the inheritance was to be divided equally among the children. Joseph Camilleri had unsuccessfully challenged the interdiction order, after which he proceeded to do all he could to obtain the inheritance dishonestly.
The other five siblings said that they had taken care of their mother while Joseph was working at sea, while the latter argued that he had spent long years caring for the mother together with his wife Yvonne and therefore his mother was right to give him preference.
The court established that until the interdiction order could be brought into effect, Camilleri had managed to seize all of his parents' property under his control.
The notary testified, telling the court that there was nothing to suggest that Antonia Camilleri had not been mentally capable of making a will and had not been informed that there were interdiction proceedings in court at the time. He had mentioned to the woman the possibility of conflict amongst her heirs.
Of the vulnerability of the woman, the court said it had no doubt, not least because of certification by several psychiatrists but also because of her erratic testimony.
The woman's physical weakness, her age and vulnerability were such that they created an impediment to her expressing her will and intention or to resist suggestions, requests or threats to change her mind, said the court.
The court ruled that Camilleri's secret will was made by a vice of consent, caused by the pressure placed on the woman that rendered it null.
Judge Mark Chetcuti declared Joseph Camilleri to be unworthy and incapable of receiving the inheritance, ordering him to pay the costs of the case.
Lawyer Kenneth Grima appeared for the defendant. Lawyer Edward Gatt appeared for the five heirs.
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Law report: Jointly and severally liable spouses
In the case P & S Limited et. vs Zammit et., decided on February 16th 2017, the First Hall Civil Court presided over by Mr Justice Toni Abela, discussed the instances when spouses are bound to the same debt in such a way that either spouse may be compelled to discharge the whole debt, and the exception to this rule.
Spouses Zammit (defendants) purchased an immovable property from the plaintiff companies in 2005. When the defendants attempted to transfer a part of their property, they were precluded from doing so due to the existence of a special privilege in favour of the plaintiff companies. When the plaintiff companies were asked to waive this special privilege, they insisted that there was an outstanding balance comprising of accumulated interest owed by the defendants. This obstacle was resolved when the parties entered into a private writing in 2007 by means of which the defendants established themselves as debtors, owing a certain, liquidated and due debt of €23,293.73 to the plaintiff companies.
In 2013, the defendants were called upon by the plaintiff companies to settle the debt. The defendants argued that the time period in which the action could be instituted by the plaintiffs was that of 5 years, which had since expired. In order to determine whether the prescription period of the action had indeed expired, the Court primarily examined whether the spouses, as debtors, were jointly and severally liable, in other words, whether the spouses were bound to the same debt in such a way that each spouse was compelled to discharge the whole debt.
The Court determined that the defendants were married and that according to the Civil Code the assets of spouses who celebrated their marriage in Malta are automatically controlled by a matrimonial regime known as community of acquests, unless any agreement to the contrary is made by the spouses by public deed. The community of acquests includes all that is acquired by each of the spouses by the exercise of their work and all the property which any of the spouses may possess, with the exception of property acquired by either of the spouses before the marriage. The Civil Code establishes that spouses participating in the community of acquests will have any debts relative to an obligation which they entered into together, chargeable to the community of acquests. In this respect, the Court reasoned that the obligations entered into by the spouses on the private writing with the plaintiff companies, in which they established themselves as debtors of the plaintiff companies, constitutes an obligation which the spouses entered into together, and which would therefore be chargeable to the community ofm acquests.
The Court then went on to determine whether the spouses are jointly and severally liable in the payment of the debt to the plaintiff companies. In civil law, joint and several liability does not arise automatically, but must be expressly stipulated. In this regard, the Court made reference to the case Sciberras pro et v. Yousef Rhouni pro et, decided on 9th November 2005, in which case the Court held that each spouse participating in the community of acquests is joint and severally liable. Not only does joint and several liability arise from the contract itself but this also derives from a specific provision in the law. Joint and several liability is represented in three elements:
- The plurality of subjects;
- Joint and several liabilities of parties may arise even when one of the debtors is bound differently to the others for the payment of the same thing (idem debitum);
- Joint and severally liable debtors are bound to the same thing in such a way that each of them may be compelled to discharge the whole debt, and the payment made by one of them operates so as to release the others as against the creditor (eadem causa obligandi).
This leads to the conclusion that each spouse is responsible for whole debt and that the creditors may compel either one of the parties to discharge payment, unless it relates to an act of extraordinary administration which must be performed by spouses together.
In this judgement, the Court observed that under the matrimonial regime of community of acquests, the only derogation from joint and several liability of spouses is found in Article 1329 of the Civil Code. When one of the spouses incurs a debt which is not chargable on the community of acquests, (for reasons that it may have been incurred before the marriage or during the marriage, but is such that does not bind the other spouse) , and the creditors cannot satisfy their claim against the paraphernal property of the debtor spouse, it is possible for the creditors to enforce their claim against the assets forming part of the community of acquests but only to the extent of the value of the share which such spouse has in the community of acquests. This principle operates independently of the fact that the assets of the spouses are controlled by the community of acquests. The obligation assumed by one of the spouses in such an instance would be one that cannot bind the other spouse in joint and several liability. In such an event, although the debtor's spouse has a right to seek judicial separation of property, the debtor's spouse cannot oppose an act which enforces the credit against any property of the debtor or assets of the community of acquests, except when the property in question was acquired by the debtor's spouse before marriage.
Following the above considerations, the Court established that in this case there was no doubt that the spouses were jointly and severally liable by virtue of both article 1094 of the Civil Code which regulates joint and several debtors and also by virtue of the rights attached to the community of acquests in which the spouses participated. The Court then proceeded to determine whether the time period within which the action instituted by the plaintiff companies had indeed expired, and held that the defendants had not successfully managed to prove this to the satisfaction of the Court. The First Hall Civil Court therefore dismissed the arguments brought forward by the defendants.
Maria Grima
Advocate, Ganado and Associates
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Birdlife to pursue second referendum due to unbalanced decisions in hunters' favour
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BirdLife is considering pursuing a second referendum to ban spring hunting after the Ornis Committee recommended the spring hunting take place during the peak migratory season of the now protected turtle dove, despite scientific evidence recommending the contrary.
The NGO will be also approaching the European Commission to intervene
Scientific evidence and the advice from the Environment Resources Authority, Birdlife CEO Mark Sultana explained, categorically suggested that the spring hunting season take place between 15 March April, specifically to avoid the turtle dove, which is now protected in spring, during their peak migration period.
The European Union had issued a moratorium on the hunting of the species during spring after recording a noticeable drop in turtle dove figures. In fact, last year's spring hunting season was moved was moved to the 25 March - 14 April, in order to avoid overlapping with the migration period, while still being able to hunt Quail, which is allowed under law.
"This effectively means that this year's spring hunting season is one which has been designed to target the protected Turtle Dove," a BirdLife statement read.
Sultana said that the government is completely disregarding environmentalists and respective NGOs while catering to the whims of the hunting lobby.
The NGO will be also approaching the European Commission to intervene
Saviour Balzan, who is the Secretary General of the NGO, went a step further saying that this was a sign of weakness from the government, who he explained were effectively ignoring the needs of half the population who voted against spring hunting, despite Prime Minister Joseph Muscat saying after the first referendum that he would make environmental protection a priority.
"We need to change our strategy. We have tried to use dialogue, but we know have ERA advice and scientific evidence from the Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU) being completely ignored. This is purely a political decision, and it's not even as though we are close to an election and they need to win votes from the lobby," Balzan said.
BirdLife President Darrell Grima, who revealed that that the NGO will be pursuing another referendum, explained that they have "been pushed into a corner, as there is no balance between both sides of the debate."
"We are obliged to pursue a referendum on what has been happening. We believe we will win, 100%, with the support we have," he said.
"No one has a leader to speak about the destruction of the environment, so we must occupy that space," Balzan added.
The first referendum on spring hunting was held in Malta on 11 April 2015, with 50.4% of voters (turnout was 74.8%) voting for the existing law to remain in place.
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Three Junior College students held for interrogation after surprise police inspection
Three Junior College students have been arrested after the police carried out a surprise inspection after being informed by the college that some students might have been making use of illicit substances within the precincts of the college.
The college said it had informed the police after receiving a tip-off.
The Junior College authorities are now awaiting further information from the police relating to this case, following which disciplinary action may be taken against the students.
"The Junior College is a pre-tertiary college catering for nearly 2,000 students providing a safe and secure learning enviornment and the authorities take all the necessary precautions to address any misbehaviour or breach of regualtions. All students seeking access within the precincts of the College need to show proof of identity that they are registered students," the college said.
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Public sector employees, on average, take one more day of sick leave than private sector workers
The average days of sick leave taken by public sector employees is 3.6 days annually, compared to 2.6 days taken by private sector worker, head of civil service Mario Cutajar said.
In a press conference at the Excelsior hotel in Floriana, Cutajar said that the common perception that public sector employees take triple the amount of sick leave is leave is simply not true.
Cutajar was addressing a colloquium for unions to discuss ongoing industrial and employee relations within the public sector.
Responding to media questions, Cutajar said that the majority of public sector employees do not work half days in summer and that he still believed that those who do should continue to benefit from this measure.
Cutajar said that one public sector department will immediately begin opening earlier and closing later in a pilot project aimed to make
The principal permanent secretary said statistics showed that most sick leave days were taken in the October-January period. Industrial employees take the most number of sick leave days, with workers in professional levels taking less.
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Jail-time changed to suspended sentence for man who permanently injured dancer
The man behind the wheel of an out-of-control car which hit and permanently injured a young dancer has had his prison sentence suspended on appeal.
Massimo Abela, 46, from Mqabba, was driving his newly purchased Mitsubishi Lancer along the Coast Road towards Buġibba shortly after midnight one morning in September 2005, when he lost control of the vehicle, crashing into two cars approaching in the opposite direction.
The driver of one of them, a Mercedes Benz, told the court how he had seen the turbo-charged Mitsubishi skid out of control after brushing against the pavement while negotiating a bend.
The car crossed over to the opposite lane, crashing into an Opel Corsa which disappeared from view and finally collided sideways with the Mercedes which had braked suddenly.
The Opel Corsa ended up on the rocky beach, one storey below street level, its engine landing some 12 metres away.
Abela claimed to have been driving at 50-60km/hr and that the road surface had been wet, but Magistrate Marse-Ann Farrugia, observed that forensic evidence showed that the road conditions at the time of the accident were dry and that he could not have been driving at 50-60km/hr as the impact was too great.
On the basis of all evidence produced, the court was convinced that the accused's reckless and dangerous driving had caused the massive crash.
The driver of the Opel had suffered multiple fractures which left him with a permanent disability, thereby ruining his aspirations of becoming a dancer and hairdresser.
Magistrate Farrugia had handed Abela a one-year prison sentence, from which Aebla had filed an appeal.
In his appeal, he argued that the cause of the incident was never conclusively established, as an one eyewitness had said that the Opel had been in the wrong lane. The conviction was not safe and satisfactory, argued his lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri as not even the speed at which the car was being driven had been established. Abela also submitted that the punishment was excessive and would cost him his job. Nobody had been killed in the accident he said, saying the punishment was "disproportionate and exaggerated." In addition, the accident had occurred 12 years before and this wait ought to be taken into account, he said.
The evidence all pointed to the appellant having lost control and drifted into the opposing lane, said the court. The appellant's contention was that the loss of control was due to the road conditions and vehicle's new tyres, but the court noted otherwise, saying it was not proven even to the level of probability, with the inquiring experts contending that the road was dry on the day of the accident and the car's tyres having been in good condition. He had failed to prove that the loss of control was not caused by his negligence or dangerous driving.
However on the punishment front, the court noted that the victim had been compensated and had recovered almost full function. "The court cannot ignore the passage of time from when this incident occurred in September 2005…the appellant has today matured in his behaviour and recognised his error. Therefore this court is of the opinion that although the amount of punishment should not be changed, the imprisonment should be suspended."
His sentence was changed to one year imprisonment suspended for two years.
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Driver's prison sentence suspended on appeal
The man who hit and permanently injured a young dancer in 2005 had his prison sentence suspended on appeal
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BirdLife Malta pushed to consider second spring hunting referendum
Environment NGO BirdLife Malta is being pressured to consider another referendum as they say the government is ignoring scientific data and advice from its own institutions
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Restored statue of Jesus the Redeemer in Senglea to be inaugurated
The statue of Jesus the Redeemer of Senglea, famous for its beauty, has been restored and will be inaugurated during a special ceremony to be held on Saturday.
The event, which starts at 5.30pm, will include a documentary of the restoration process which took nine months.
The Senglea parish commissioned a number of scientific studies on the statue, venerated all over Malta, before the restoration process started.
Archbishop Mgr Charles Scicluna will be leading a pilgrimage with the statue on 9 March, followed by mass in the basilica.
The restoration programme will continue after the Good Friday activities.
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Valletta 2018 – a cultural year for all to enjoy
Was the Valletta 2018 Foundation satisfied with the level of creativity and atmosphere of the opening ceremony?
Watching plans, which have been months in the making come to life and seeing over 110,000 people come together on that Saturday night and thousands more throughout the week, to celebrate the beginning of our year as European Capital of Culture was definitely very satisfying. Hundreds of artists, producers and participants were involved in the Erbá Pjazez programme held on 20 January - some were learning new skills under international artists, others were creating new music, digital projections, new interactive dance performances and much more. Almost as many were involved in a fringe programme which brought music, theatre and dance to Valletta's streets and ferries throughout the days with initiatives such as the Museum of Invented Cultures and Holm Butik. In parallel, the Foundation initiated and supported a programme of activities created by the Valletta community and organisations especially for the occasion which ranged from the more traditional regatta to nights of alternative music and stand-up comedy. So overall, I think that the start of the EcoC year has brought a fantastic level of energy and creativity to the capital in this first event. I hope this will keep growing throughout the next months.
What other main events can the public look forward to throughout the year?
The Cultural Programme we have created for the year includes a vast range of events. Throughout the year the public will be invited to experience and participate in national scale events as well as programmes created for music lovers, children and youths of all ages, theatre-goers, film buffs and dance aficionados.
Valletta will see its fair share of large events. Our first major contemporary art exhibition with international and local artists will be opening its doors on 24 March, with installations in spaces which are not usually accessible to the public. On 7 April, Valletta will experience its largest festa ever when all four of Valletta's feasts will join together in harmony to celebrate the year. A few days later, starting on 13 April, families and small communities in five different localities will be opening the doors to their homes to artists and the public in the first home-based arts festival in Malta, part of the award-winning Neapolitan Altofest festival. The Valletta Pageant of the Seas returns bigger and better than before on 7 June in celebration of the harbour which has been so influential in Maltese history.
September and October will be a feast of performing arts events including the brand new, purposely created, very contemporary opera in Maltese Ahna Refugjati, which will be taking place on 31 August and 2 and 4 September at The Granaries in Floriana. Only a few days later, between 7 and 9 September, an immersive hybrid performance which links theatre, music, text and gambling called Kazin Barokk will take over Notre Dame Gate in Birgu. And the list goes on and on. With over 400 events, this is only a taste of what the people can expect over the next months.
How is the V18 Foundation managing to collaborate with artists in Leewarden and when will the theatrical opera be staged?
The collaborations with Leeuwarden have taken many forms. One of the highlights of this collaboration is the Poetry in Potato Bags project which explores an unexpected link between the two countries - the journey of the potato seed that travels to Malta to grow and back to Leeuwarden to be eaten. Led by literary NGO Inizjamed, this project has exploited the link to create and share the work of emerging and established poets in Maltese, Frysian and English across the two countries. Working with children and youths is also a focus of our collaboration, starting from the project Tafxnaf and its Dutch counterpart Look at Me, which aims to give children a voice through films they create themselves, to the academic and artistic exchanges with MCAST which have been ongoing for a number of years. One project to look forward to is the contribution by MCAST students to the performance of the Dutch production of the popular opera Aida, which will be taking place between 13 and 15 September at Pjazza Teatru Rjal in Valletta.
How do you think the quality of life of Valletta will improve and how will various contemporary artists benefit through their collaborations during this wonderful year of cultural activities?
Thanks to a conscious effort from the very beginning of this process, and in part to our small size, the impact of the work we are doing for Valletta 2018 goes beyond the boundaries of Valletta. The city and the nation will benefit from essential infrastructural projects which include the launch of Muza, our new re-conceived Muzew tal-Arti, as well as the creation of the creative hub for young talent in design, the Valletta Design Cluster.
Children across the islands are benefitting from a three-year long programme both within and outside schools which aims to help them discover their creativity through various means including the U19 Malta: Create Your World competition, the projects with schools and Resource Centres and the collaboration with Ziguzajg.
Projects playing to the strengths and needs of artists in a number of fields have provided opportunities for development through artist residencies, workshops and collaborative work with established artists; for exposure through major contemporary art exhibitions and performances; for research and networking both within and outside Europe. And I believe that both artists and communities are, and will, continue to benefit from forging a closer and stronger relationship between them, through the work of our special representatives within Malta and Gozo's regions and projects such as Gewwa Barra and Altofest.
Here are some of the highlights of this year's events
The strange travels of Señor Tonet
28 March - 1 April, Esplora Interactive Science Centre, Kalkara
4 April - 8 April, Public Spaces in Valletta
During the first week of Spring break a fair full of fun, interactive mechanical installations designed by Barcelona-based artists, Tombs Creatius, lands in Malta for an island adventure. At the fair we meet Señor Tonet, a peculiar character who introduces us to the many creatures encountered on his strange and wondrous journeys by means of individual installations set inside a box, each one reflecting a different story. During their stay, Tombs Creatius is also teaming up with Esplora and technical students to create a new mechanical installation tailored specifically for Valletta 2018. Starting its stay against the inspiring background of the Esplora centre, and then moving to Valletta for the second week, these interactive games provide a highly creative storytelling experience that is sure to appeal to the young and the young at heart.
Created by: Tombs Creatius, Organised by: Valletta 2018
In Collaboration with: Esplora Interactive Science Centre
European eyes on Japan
30 March - 29 April, Spazju Kreattiv, St James Cavalier
Led by artistic director Mikiko Kikuta, European Eyes on Japan is a visual arts project that has toured over 30 European Capitals of Culture since 1999. In anticipation of our European Capital of Culture year, the project extends an invitation to Maltese photographer, Alexandra Pace, from Valletta 2018 and another photographer from our twin European Capital of Culture, Leeuwarden-Fryslân 2018. Both photographers will live and work in Japan, looking to capture the country's lifestyle through a European lens. An exhibition featuring the work of both artists will be hosted in Malta at Spazju Kreattiv, after which it will travel to Leeuwarden and Japan.
Created by: Mikiko Kikuta
Organised by: Valletta 2018, Fondazzjoni Kreattività
Valletta Green Festival
4 - 6 May, St George's Square, Valletta
Each year, the Valletta Green Festival transforms one of the largest open urban spaces in Valletta, Pjazza San Ġorġ, with its colourful signature feature - a huge floral carpet composed of some 80,000 potted plants. A programme of family-friendly activities happening in the capital city and other localities have established this much-loved weekend-long festival as a fun and accessible platform for initiatives promoting environmental consciousness on the Maltese Islands. The festival also offers visitors rare glimpses into some of the capital city's little-known historical treasures, including the 400-year-old gardens of the Archbishop's Palace and the Convent of St Catherine.
Created and Organised by: Valletta 2018 in collaboration with the Maltese Archdiocese, the Ministry for Transport and Infrastructure, the Ministry for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change, the Environmental Landscapes Consortium (ELC), the P.A.R.K.S Directorate as part of the Tree 4 U (34U) campaign and WasteServ Malta Ltd with the participation of several local environmental NGOs.
Dal Bahar Madwarha
24 March - 1 July
Underground Cistern, Valletta
Il-Pixkerija, Valletta
24 March - 27 May
St Elmo's Old Examination Centre, Valletta
Curator Maren Richter brings Valletta 2018's major visual arts exhibition to our European Capital of Culture, with large installations and performances taking place in both traditional and unexpected locales across the country. Among the exhibition's star sites is the Pixkerija at Barriera Wharf, built in the 1930s. Richter is working with more than 25 established and emerging artists from several countries -including Malta, Germany, Scotland, Austria, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and Ghana.
The title Dal-Baħar Madwarha is inspired by a quote from the work of philosopher Gilles Deleuze, The island is what the sea surrounds. This sets the tone for newly commissioned and existing pieces that explore the idea of "islandness" in playful and critical ways. It's an artistic journey through the contemporary realities of the Maltese Islands, placing at their helm the Islands' relationship with their closest neighbour - the Mediterranean Sea.
In Richter's words: "The multi-site programme invites international and Maltese artists to recast and respond to current and past urgencies and challenges, in which the Mediterranean Sea plays a significant role."
In the light of such thought-provoking inquiries, the exhibition explores the identity of our Islands within a wider global context, bringing creative, social and political visions of the Mediterranean to light through the region's most iconic and enduring image: the deep blue sea.
Curated by: Maren Richter
Organised by: Valletta 2018 Foundation
Valletta Pageant of the Seas
7 June
Grand Harbour, Valletta
Set against the majestic backdrop of Valletta's Grand Harbour, the Pageant of the Seas, hosts a programme teeming with exciting daytime activities - competitive races, visual demonstrations and water acts - and a colourful celebration by night. Local communities take part in races on specially designed vessels, constructed specifically for the day. Other races are held between local swimmers, all competing to outperform each other while enduring routes between the two forts dominating the harbour. After sundown, the atmosphere transfigures into a spectacular display of fireworks and light effects.
Created and organised by: Mario Philip Azzopardi, Valletta 2018
Utopian Nights
Camp and Borders - 29 July to 5 August, Howard Gardens, L-Imdina (Commons // Date TBC, Venue TBC)
Utopian Nights aims to bring together artists, thinkers and the public to discuss important social issues related to four themes: displacement, borders, encampment and the rise of global commons. It's a series of four evenings where 'Utopia' is a democratic space. It creates a platform for discussion where the starting point is the work of art. The idea is that Utopia is not for dreamers, the lazy escapist or for people who like heroic fantasies - it's a participatory project that searches for alternatives, inside which everyone may debate, challenge and be challenged. Each night will culminate with a social gathering, providing the participants with the opportunity to get together.
Created by: Elise Billiard
Organised by: Elise Billiard, Sarah Mallia, Valletta 2018
Ira Losco & Friends: Women in Music
Summer 2018 - Pjazza Teatru Rjal, Valletta
Women in Music is a two-night event featuring Ira Losco & Friends, which brings a true treasure trove of music to our capital city. These concerts are a celebration of the integral roles that female artists have played in boosting both the local and international music industry, with vibrant performances that unite artists from different genres while celebrating women's creative collaborations. The line-up spans different generations and offers a music repertoire infused with diverse sounds that bridges music from the past and the present across
various genres.
Ira Losco & Friends: Women in Music promises to be a memorable event for music lovers of all ages.
Created and Organised by: Ira Losco, Howard Keith.
'Aħna Refuġjati' (We are refugees)
31 August, 2 and 4 September, Il Fosos, Floriana
Valletta 2018's opera season includes a challenging new operatic work by Maltese composer, Mario Sammut. Aħna Refuġjati is Sammut's first operatic venture after working on multiple international and local media projects. In recounting the struggles of a family attempting to escape their war-torn country, the opera addresses timely concerns in the Euro-Mediterranean region, the human cost of large-scale migration and the universal theme of loss as a result of political convenience, racism and prejudice.
Music by: Mario Sammut, Music Direction by: Richard Merrill Brown
Libretto by: Mario Philip Azzopardi
Organised and created by: Valletta 2018
In collaboration with the Floriana Local Council, Grand Harbour Regeneration Corporation, Armed Forces of Malta, Mad About Video and Transport Malta
'Każin Barokk'
7, 8 and 9 September
In this immersive hybrid performance directed by Elli Papakonstantinou, visuals, music, text and interviews unite to form a "Baroque pastiche" that's rife with passion, innocence, gambling and mistrust. Każin Barokk plays with many sources, including Regnard's The Gamester, Pushkin's The Queen of Spades and Dostoyevsky's The Gambler. As a decadent cast of lovers, saints and sinners go about the maze-like performance, the piece becomes a soul-searching experience that invites contemporary audiences to influence its structure while exploring Valletta's Baroque aesthetic.
Created by: Elli Papakonstantinou, ODC Ensemble
Organised by: Valletta 2018, In Collaboration with: University of Malta
Mewġa Mużika
September, Venue TBC
Mewga Muzika is a music project being curated by Ondamarela (Portugal). It is open for communities of any age or musical background. It proposes the creation of a big public musical performance that shall stimulate the dilution of barriers between amateurs and professionals, artists and audience and different communities. These communities shall work intensively with the maestro, Tim Steiner, to form a big orchestra that shall produce a unique and unrepeatable concert. The proposal is to involve professional orchestra musicians, amateur musicians and musical communities from the most different and eclectic musical backgrounds. This project reinforces the idea of any citizen being able to take part in an artistic initiative with huge scale and impact. It also grounds itself on the concept of creating a new community as a means to identify links between different people and to promote the building of bridges, through music.
Created by: Ondamarela, Tim Steiner
Organised by: Valletta 2018
Rima
5 - 28 October - Final Exhibition
St James Cavalier, Valletta
Rima is a Maltese word used to describe the ripple that a boat leaves behind as it moves across the water; it also means rhyme. Together, these connotations reflect the themes of departure, exile, detachment, trace and desire that Rima explores through a series of creative collaborations produced by artists, scholars and migrants. Since its inception in 2014, the project has published a collection of migrant narratives and images in the book, Undertow: Poetics of Displacement, published with EDE Books (Malta), produced diverse workshops and public events, launched a sold-out theatrical performance and produced a successful migrant film festival with Archivio delle Memorie Migranti (Rome). The year 2018 sees more workshops taking place, the production of a short movie, a film festival and a final exhibition that showcases work produced.
Created by: Elise Billiard, Virginia Monteforte Reljić
Organised by: Virginia Monteforte Reljić, Sarah Mallia, Valletta 2018
Orfeo & Majnun
19 and 20 October, Mediterranean Conference Centre, Valletta
Drawing on the timeless themes of forsaken love, loss and longing, this interdisciplinary project in two parts connects the Middle Eastern legend of Layla and Majnun and the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Orfeo & Majnun is an exciting new retelling expressed through multiple textures; the narration interweaves Maltese, English and Arabic, while the score combines oriental and occidental styles. This poetic music theatre also encourages local citizens to take part in creative workshops under the artistic direction of Martina Winkel and Airan Berg, the first part of the performance celebrates co-creation with associative stories and a cast of animal puppets conceived during workshops.
Created by: La Monnale (BEL), Le Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provance (FRA)
Organised by: Valletta 2018, Supported by: Creative Europe
Constellation Malta
October - December
Various locations across Malta and Gozo
Curator Rosa Martinez, first female director of the Venice Biennale in 2005, brings an experimental and multi-disciplinary project to generate dialogue about contemporary art and popular culture in public spaces and heritage sites all over the Maltese archipelago. A series of site-specific interventions, performances and exhibitions shed new light on megalithic sites like Tarxien, the rural areas and heritage sites in both Malta and Gozo, and other historical and popular venues on the Islands.
Just as celestial constellations were shaped to provide orientation, the artistic interventions in Constellation Malta will propose points, routes and new itineraries to navigate the local crossover of social, political, economic and artistic contexts. Moving from the local to the cosmic, the project will address the complexities of our contemporary world.
Curated by: Rosa Martinez, Organised by: Valletta 2018
Closing Spectacle
15 December
St George's Square, Valletta
The year 2018 sets the stage for a more vibrant and welcoming capital city - and this special after party promises to keep spirits high! With plenty of surprises in store on the day, we look forward to hosting everyone in the heart of the capital city, for an amazing celebration that sees out our tenure as a European Capital of Culture. Expect a spectacular line-up of live shows, music and a few unexpected touches, too. The success of any European Capital of Culture is rooted in the passion, imagination, support, dedication, enthusiasm and generosity of its communities. Indeed - as with the traditional festa - Valletta 2018's Closing Spectacle is all about celebrating community, life and culture while forging new friendships. Only together can we truly celebrate Valletta 2018's year-long programme of incredible events, initiatives and activities with the same energy and love that's gone into it.
So save the date and join guests, visitors, artists, curators, residents, Tal-Kultura volunteers and the Valletta 2018 team in a lively closing event that pays tribute to the creative diversity that exists on our Islands, in Europe and beyond.
Organised by: Valletta 2018
In collaboration with the Valletta Local Council
To view the whole programme of the V18 European Capital of Culture and book your tickets visit: http://ift.tt/2EZxzj2
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Three Junior College students held after school drug raid
Police were called in after the administration believed that some students were using illicit substances on school premises
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Watch: Drag-racing driver escapes serious injury after spectacular crash in Arizona
Drag racing legend John Force escaped serious injuries in a spectacular crash at the NHRA Arizona Nationals.
Force was racing Jonnie Lindberg in the elimination round when his car blew up and crossed the centre line after the finish. Force's car's parachutes were tangled with Lindberg's.
Force was speaking with safety personnel and was transported to the local hospital for evaluation. Lindberg exited the car under his own power. Force was later released from Chandler Regional Hospital Sunday night.
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Number of guests, guest-nights increase in by 13%, 6.8% in 2017 – NSO
Total guests and nights spent in collective accommodation establishments during the fourth quarter of 2017 advanced by 11.7 per cent and 8.3 per cent respectively when compared to the corresponding quarter in 2016.
Collective Accommodation Establishments: Q4/2017
In the fourth quarter, total guests in collective accommodation establishments numbered 433,149, while total nights spent amounted to 2,166,208. The largest share of guest nights was reported in 4-star hotels, accounting for 1,050,303 nights, or 48.5 per cent of the total.
The average length of stay in collective accommodation establishments went down to 5.0 nights in the fourth quarter of 2017 from the average of 5.2 nights registered during the same quarter of 2016, the NSO said today.
The net use of bed-places stood at 58.2 per cent, up by 1.4 percentage points when compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
During December 2017, there were 174 active collective accommodation establishments with a net capacity of 17,385 bedrooms and 39,047 bed-places on a national level.
Regional breakdown
Total guests in Malta region numbered 411,505, up by 11.6 per cent over the fourth quarter of 2016. Additionally, an increase of 8.3 per cent was recorded in the number of nights spent. Total guests and nights spent in Gozo and Comino region increased by 13.7 per cent and 9.2 per cent when compared to the comparative quarter of the previous year, to 21,643 and 72,054 respectively.
In Malta region, the average length of stay went down by 0.1 of a night to 5.1 nights; and that in Gozo and Comino region decreased by 0.2 of a night to 3.3 nights, when compared with the same quarter of the previous year. The net occupancy rate in Malta region increased by 1.2 percentage points, reaching 58.9 per cent, and that in Gozo and Comino region increased by 3.3 percentage points to 42.7 per cent over the same quarter of 2016.
January-December 2017
In 2017, total guests surpassed 1.8 million, an increase of 13.0 per cent over the same period in 2016. Total nights spent went up by 6.8 per cent, reaching nearly 9.6 million. The net use of bed-places advanced by 1.9 percentage points to 65.6 per cent.
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Qawra shipwreck crew on way back home
The crew of a ship that ran aground in Qawra on the feast of St Paul had nothing but words of praise to the Maltese people who helped them after their ordeal.
"I will never forget them," were Captain Joynal Abedin's last remarks, before the whole crew was escorted by police to the airport to fly back to their home countries.
The crew, made up of five Bangladeshis and two Russians, left Malta Tuesday. They had been at sea for four months before the shipwreck. After the shipwreck, they were offered shelter at the Seafarers' Centre, in Floriana.
The Togo-registered vessel, the 885-tonne Hephaestus, ran aground in Qawra not far from the site where St Paul and St Luke, according to the Bible, were shipwrecked about 2,000 years ago. The ship ran aground in a thunderstorm and northerly Force 6 to winds when it was approaching Malta.
The bunkering vessel, which still remains aground in Qawra, was reported to have fuel leak a week after the shipwreck. The Maltese maritime authorities had confirmed that the tanker had no cargo and that there had been no risk of pollution because the vessel had not been carrying heavy oil. Transport Malta had then confirmed that the leak consisted of a "minor diesel sheen" which had seeped out from the vessel. Both Transport Malta and Environment Resources Authority had assured that the sheen remained on the surface of water and would eventually evaporate.
Speaking to The Malta Independent yesterday, Abedin personally thanked Port and Freeport Chaplain Fr Joe Borg who housed the crewmen at Seafarers' Centre, which sits alongside the Ta' Liesse church in Valletta. He also thanked Paul Falzon, from the International Transport Workers' Federation and "all the Maltese people who have been very nice".
Abedin described the experience the crew went through when the vessel they were on hit the rocks at Qawra. "It was sudden. A cyclone emerged near the coast of Malta about one and half miles away. We could not fight it and so we started to hit the rocks and that's when I called for rescue. Thankfully I saved my whole crew," he said.
Paul Falzon, the ITF International Transport Workers' Federation representative, explained his satisfaction that the crew was finally going home. He described how it was not easy to keep the crew in Malta while planning for their departure, because they were third country nationals with no visas. "Technically they were here illegally but due to cooperation with the police we managed to keep them here at the shelter".
Photos/Video - Baskal Mallia
The ITF is a general workers union for sailors. Falzon explained that according to maritime law, once it appeared that the owner of ship had abandoned the vessel, the crew had the right to apply for financial security from the ship's insurance company. The union also made sure that the crew members received their salaries for the two months. According to the Maritime Convention, they received their salaries due to them for the period November-February.
Fr Borg who housed the crew men described how the centre is there for sailors who find themselves in difficulty. "This shipwreck is the perfect example for why we're here" he said. He noted how the seven seamen where left with nothing but the clothes they wore, adding that they had lost many of their possessions. "We received donations, one considerable donation from the arch bishop," Fr Borg stated.
The crew embraced Fr Borg as they departed, thanking him for his generosity and care. Fr Borg light heartedly told one crew member he would see him next in Bangladesh.
The seafarers' centre opened its doors in 2016 following collaboration between the Apostleship of the Sea Malta, the Grand Harbour Regeneration Corporation and the Transport Ministry.
It was furnished with the help of the International Transport Workers' Federation.
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An unlikely heart transplant
Your parents were both eminent cardiologists. What drove you to become a writer?
Actually I was very drawn to medicine. I grew up with bits of human heart in the family fridge because when mother lost a patient she needed to understand what had happened. When someone is sick I have to resist the urge to tell them what they need to do, prescribe medicines and as a matter of fact, I quite fancied doing a bit of surgery... However it was not to be, literature was my great love.
Some people become writers because they want to be an author, they are beset with dreams of smoking in cafés in Paris and Hemingway-esque or Woolfe-rine fantasies of heroic solitariness and boozy lunches and others like me cannot imagine being themselves any other way - thus it becomes a privilege.
What gave you the idea to write a book with such a difficult and controversial subject?
As soon as I heard about the terrible bomb which begins the book, something about this particular tragedy grabbed me. News stories of innocent Israeli civilians killed by bombs were as familiar in 2001, as tales of the slaughters in Iraqi market places today, but for me the Dolphinarium attack, a night club in Tel Aviv in which 23 young people were killed and hundreds injured, was different. For once this modern tragedy touched me as it should - rather than the depersonalised shrug, or perhaps a brief frown, with which I heard other such terrible news.
I did not at the time have any particular connection or even sympathy with the state of Israel. The Jewish people I knew, my neighbours, friends, and colleagues, I did not associate with Israel. They were no less "London" than me, and those with two English parents were more so (my father was Irish). But I could not stop obsessing about those young people waiting outside the night club on that Friday night, a child called Sasha who lost both his sisters, a fifteen-year-old girl celebrating the end of her exams, a social worker (the oldest of the dead) walking past at random. Haunting me most was Sheva-Moffat, the high school in a Tel Aviv suburb where there would be six gaps at assembly when school resumed.
How many years of research did you undertake in order to become so familiar with the Dolphinarium tragedy and your characters?
About seven years. I spoke to as many people as I could who had been at the Dolphi that night. I spoke to the medics who treated them; I spoke to the family of the suicide bomber; I spoke to taxidrivers, paramilitaries, people you might call terrorists, priests, rabbis, mothers, strategists, children, journalists... everybody I could... And then of course there was the South Africa chapter. I found out everything I could about the first heart transplant in South Africa in 1967. I researched apartheid and what it meant philosophically and actually and how it related to identity, and how it was compromised by the first heart transplant between a black and white person... It was difficult to speak to the victims of the bomb, it was difficult speaking to the family of the suicide bomber, it was amazing and not without challenges to watch a heart transplant.
How would you describe Beat to someone who was considering reading it?
This is a book, a real story about a heart that moves between the bodies of enemies, it is the story of grace and hatred, it is a story of understanding and misunderstanding, a story of doing the worst thing you can to anybody (killing their child) and story of giving them your own heart.
Tell us a little about your literary pilgrimage to Israel in order to unearth the truth first hand.
You must have been moved many a time as you interviewed various people. Was there one particular instance which stands out even today?
There was a moment when I was interviewing a young girl who was present at the bombing and lost her friends and recalling the body of the boy she had kissed two weeks before, the first boy she had ever kissed. There was a moment when I started crying and she was amazed and smiled at me. It was not my story. There was a moment when I was speaking to a man I called Bashir, but in fact his name was Bassam (only now do I have permission to name him) and he explained how his only daughter was shot in the head by the IDF aged nine and he still believed that peace and reconciliation was the only way forward... that Palestinians should go to Yad Vashem (the Holocaust museum) so they could understand the pain of the Jews, and the Israelis must understand what they had done to the Palestinians and what they were still doing....
There was another moment. I'd been spending many hours with the father of the suicide bomber who was so stricken with grief at the loss of his son...but also full of the justifications of his action in killing 22 young unarmed people and I asked him if he ever thought of the pain of the parents, the 22 sets of parents of children younger than his who had lost their beloved ones from his son's actions... These were all big moments in my life.
Give us three 'Good to know' facts about you. e.g. Do you get up every now and then to do sit-ups when you are writing
I normally sleep every day at some point when I'm writing. As soon as I feel sleepy I lie down on the floor. I don't allow myself the couch or a cushion. I sleep like a baby for 15 minutes and wake up feeling wonderful.
Writing is hard, most of the time it's very uncomfortable and only very occasionally do I feel pleased with what I've done.
I am a good cook and a good reader.
About the book
On 1 June 2001 Saïd Hotari detonated a bomb outside the Dolphinarium nightclub in Tel Aviv, killing himself and 21 Israelis, most of them teenagers from former Soviet states. On 2 June in an apparently retributive act of random violence, an Israeli settler shot the Palestinian pharmacist Mazan Al-Joulani in the neck, rendering him brain-dead. Out of this violence came an extraordinary act of humanity, when the family of Al-Joulani agreed to donate his heart for transplantation to an Israeli man dying of heart disease.
Rowan Somerville was on the popular Richie Allan show on which they rarely feature books. Allan's assessment of Beat was "One of the best books I've read for many years. I have never read anything so descriptive, emotive, evocative. This is an incredibly honest book which deserves to be read."
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