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Local newspapers review

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The following are the top stories in the Maltese newspapers today. Times of Malta reports that Tobruk lawmakers have rejected the UN-brokered unity government in Libya.  l-orizzont says more rehabilitation projects are planned for Cottonera. It also says agreement has been reached between the government, the Malta Employers' Association and the Chamber of Commerce on the employment of persons with disability. There had been disagreement on the minimum number of such persons that have to be engaged by large companies. In-Nazzjon features pictures of an earthquake in Spain and North Morocco yesterday which damaged some buildings but injured no one. It also quotes Simon Busuttil saying Malta has the most corrupt government ever. The newspaper also says the social partners are pressing the government to reduce energy prices.  The Malta Independent says Clint Scerri, the customer care official in Michael Falzon's former secretariat is not on the government list of witnesses in the case filed to revoke the Gaffarena case.   

Pope asks Protestants for forgiveness

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Pope Francis has asked Protestants and other Christian Churches for forgiveness for past persecution by Catholics. Speaking at an annual vespers service in St. Paul's Basilica in Rome attended by representatives of other religions, he said, "Let us ask, above all, forgiveness for the sin of our divisions." The Vatican announced that on October 31, Francis would go to the southern Swedish city of Lund, where the Lutheran World Federation was founded in 1947, for a joint service with Lutherans to launch Reformation commemorations that will continue throughout the world next year. Martin Luther, a German, is credited with starting the Protestant Reformation in 1517 with writing 95 theses - said to have been nailed to a church door in Wittenberg - criticizing the Catholic Church for selling forgiveness from sins for money. It led to a violent, often political schism throughout Europe and Christianity, prompting among other things the 30 Years' War, the destruction of English monasteries, and the burning of numerous "heretics" on both sides. Catholic traditionalists have accused Francis of making too many concessions to Lutherans, particularly in a "common prayer" that both...

Picture of 'shark' in Marsamxett is a fake uploaded by TV team

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A picture of a 'shark' in Marsamxett which went viral on Facebook is a doctored copy of a Great White sighting elsewhere. The photo was uploaded by a team from TVM programme Skjetti to show how many take items uploaded on social media at face value. "So many fell for the joke. A picture which took five minutes to edit was shared by so many. It shows how people just disseminate content without checking the source. It shows that not everything shared on Facebook is reality," show presenter Quinton Scerri told Times of Malta. The joke was made ahead of the February 3 edition of Skjetti which will be tackling the issue of journalism and social media. Alex 'Sharkman' Buttigieg had instantly dismissed the picture as a fake, as he provided the link to a picture of a Great White shark website. But the picture uploaded on Facebook once again triggered off a discussion about the possibility of sharks swimming in the seas around us. Marine biologist Alan Deidun said that sharks have declined drastically in the Mediterranean. He said it is also rare for sharks to venture so close to land and within harbours. Sharks, like marine mammals, are also easily scared by underwater noise generated...

Dead cat bounce or recovery in sight?

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Was last end of week rally a dead cat bounce? Are we in for more heartache or have we reached a bottom? Will markets range trade now that January’s lacklustre performance in risky assets to date has seen a number of investors bottom fishing, or would the tone set by the ECB in last week’s press conference pretty much set the scene for the no highly-anticipated March ECB meeting? By definition from Investopedia, a Dead Cat Bounce is a “temporary recovery from a prolonged decline, followed by the continuation of the downtrend – frequently, downtrends are interrupted by brief periods of recoveries, where prices temporarily rise. A dead cat bounce is a price pattern that is usually identified in hindsight.” Very difficult to say at this stage where markets are heading, what is sure is that following last week’s ECB meeting, markets have a new target date to work towards. Following last Thursday and Friday’s end of week recovery in prices, markets lost ground on Monday whilst Asian and European risky assets also posted losses early on this morning. At these particular crossroads, investors need to remain aware and alert that there has been no significant change in fundamentals,...

PM would have won Grammy Award for his Gaffarena case action last week, PN says

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The Prime Minister would have won the best actor award for sending the police nine months late to secure files at the Government Property Division related to the Gaffarena case, the PN said today. The party spokesman on planning, Ryan Callus, said the search conducted last week by the police should have happened last year when the first allegations on the Gaffarena scandal appeared in the media in May. He accused the Prime Minister of 'covering up for the corruption' that took place at the property department. "The government dragged its feet and whoever wanted to hide his tracks had ample time to do so," Mr Callus said. He was addressing the media outside the offices of the Government Property Division at Auberge de Baviere in Valletta alongside PN candidate Mark Anthony Sammut. Mr Callus insisted the National Audit Office found ample examples of documents and minutes that seemed to have been touched up. With reference to the Prime Minister's decision to suspend government property transfers, Mr Sammut said people were now paying the price for corruption. He said department workers were being treated like criminals when those who should have felt so were welcomed with...

Malta improves in Euro Health Consumer Index

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Malta has moved up four places in the Euro Health Consumer Index issued by the Health Consumer Powerhouse. It was given 663 points and is up from position 27 and 582 points in 2014. The report commented that Malta has decent accessibility to healthcare, but is not too strong on treatment results. The Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Chris Fearne, said there was more to be done, but Malta was definitely on the right track. A cursory look at the data shows Malta in 32nd place out of 43in cancer incidence and mortality (2012 figure)http://www.healthpowerhouse.com/files/EHCI_2015/EHCI_2015_report.pdf http://www.healthpowerhouse.com/ehci2015-indicators/

Malaysia says debris found off Thai coast not from missing MH370

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A piece of suspected plane wreckage found off the coast of southern Thailand does not belong to a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that disappeared almost two years ago, the Malaysian transport ministry said today. The debris does not match those of a Boeing 777 and the part numbers found on the debris were not listed on the Malaysia Airlines parts catalogue manual, the ministry said in a statement following an investigation. A large piece of curved metal washed ashore in Nakhon Si Thammarat province on Saturday, prompting speculation it might belong to the missing Boeing 777. The MH370 disappearance is one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history. The plane disappeared with 239 people on board during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014. A piece of the plane washed up on the French island of Reunion in July 2015 but no further trace has been found. The search, led by Australia and one of the most expensive ever conducted, is focused on a 120,000-sq-km (46,330-sq-mile) band of sea floor in the remote southern Indian Ocean. Earlier this week, Australian authorities searching for the jet said they had lost a deep-water sonar detector being used to scour a patch...

Van Gaal made no offer to quit Man Utd

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Louis van Gaal did not offer to resign after watching his team's latest home defeat at the hands of Southampton at the weekend, sources close to Manchester United told Reuters. Britain's Guardian newspaper earlier reported that the club's executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward had persuaded the Dutchman to stay following the 1-0 defeat which resulted in fans booing the team and Van Gaal off the pitch.

Italy police probing top soccer clubs, including Milan executives, over alleged tax evasion

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Italian finance police has seized assets worth €12 million as part of an investigation into alleged large-scale tax evasion involving 35 Italian soccer clubs, judicial sources said. Senior executives from Serie A clubs AC Milan, Lazio and Napoli are among some 64 people who have been placed under investigation, the sources said. Milan and Napoli declined to comment. A spokesman for Lazio said he was not aware of any probe.

Putin blasts Lenin for 'time bomb' under the state

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Russian president Vladimir Putin has criticised Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin for placing a "time bomb" under the state, and denounced brutal repressions by the Bolshevik government. The harsh criticism of Lenin, who is still revered by communists and many others in Russia, is unusual for Mr Putin, who in the past carefully weighed his comments about the nation's history to avoid alienating some voters. Mr Putin's assessment of Lenin's role in Russian history during a meeting with pro-Kremlin activists in the southern city of Stavropol was markedly more negative than in the past. He denounced Lenin and his government for brutally murdering Russia's last tsar along with all his family and servants, killing thousands of priests and placing a "time bomb" under the Russian state by drawing administrative borders along ethnic lines.  As an example of Lenin's destructive legacy, Mr Putin pointed at Donbass, the industrial region in eastern Ukraine where a pro-Russia separatist rebellion flared up weeks after Russia's March 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. More than 9,000 people have been killed in the conflict and clashes have continued despite a February 2015 peace...

American University of Malta formally becomes American Institute of Malta, but will seek university licence

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The National Commission for Further and Higher Education (NCFHE) said it has recently issued a licence to the Sadeen Education Investment Ltd to start operating as a Higher Education Institution under the name of ‘American Institute of Malta’. "The NCFHE has also been informed by the applicant that the intention remains to further pursue a fully-fledged University licence with the name ‘American University of Malta (AUM)’. The Higher Education Institution licence is a necessary first step towards establishing a University." The commission said a Higher Education Institution is defined by Subsidiary Legislation 327.433 (Further and Higher Education (Licensing, Accreditation and Quality Assurance) Regulations) as an entity with a distinct legal personality, which has obtained a license by the NCFHE to provide higher education programmes. Higher education programmes include all non-compulsory, formal, non-formal and informal learning or research, which serves to obtain qualifications at Level 5 or higher within the Malta Qualifications Framework, or a foreign qualification at a comparable level. For a Higher Education Institution to operate, it needs to have at least one...

Emmy Bezzina dances to the tune in new video

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Controversial TV presenter and lawyer Emmy Bezzina has perfected his dance steps... or so it seems, according to a video uploaded on Facebook. Prancing about to Drake's Hot Line Bling, Dr Bezzina's head is superimposed to the main character having the time of his life on a cruise. The video uploaded by the page 'Dr Emmy Bezzina Fan Club' on Facebook shows the presenter holding an umbrella and dancing about in an uncanny resemblance to his well-known client, far-right leader Norman Lowell. Contacted for a reaction, Dr Bezzina quipped: "I'm already a star but when Hollywood contacted me to show them all I've got I told them 'over my dead body'". "People need to laugh," he said. The song includes the lyrics: "You used to call me on my cell phone, Late night when you need my love, Call me on my cell phone." The controversial TV presenter's latest insults against his viewers on Smash TV has prompted a probe by the Broadcasting Authority. After being called a "pea brain" by one of his listeners, Dr Bezzina hit back, calling him an "idiot" and then urging him to "jump off Dingli Cliffs with a noose attached to his neck... "You're an onion marinated in mice droppings," he told his viewer.

Children now spend more time online than on TV, UK survey shows

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The amount of time children spend online has overtaken that spent watching television for the first time, according to a new report in the UK. An annual survey by research agency Childwise suggested young people now use the internet for three hours a day on average, compared with just 2.1 hours sitting in front of the television. Video-sharing website YouTube, image-sharing sites Instagram and Snapchat and social network Facebook were among the most popular online destinations for children. And half of the more than 2,000 five to 16-year-olds who took part in the survey had watched programmes on Netflix, ahead of ITV on 47% and BBC One on 46%. The trend may have been aided by a surge in tablet ownership among children, which was up 50% on last year. Simon Leggett, Childwise research director, said this year's survey showed that "TV viewing has been redefined". He told the BBC: "Growing access to the internet at any time and in any place, and a blurring of television content across channels and devices, brings a landmark change in behaviour this year. "Children are now seeking out the content of their choice. They still find traditional TV programmes engaging but are increasingly...

Hotel arrivals up 3.3% in November

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Total arrivals and nights spent in hotels during November 2015 increased by 3.3 and 5.3 per cent respectively compared to the corresponding month in 2014, official figures issued today show.  In November, total arrivals numbered 103,251, while total nights spent amounted to 567,873. All hotel categories registered increases in total nights spent. The largest share of guest nights was reported in 4-star hotels, accounting for 304,367 nights, or 53.6 per cent of the total. The average length of stay in collective accommodation establishments stood at 5.5 nights during the month under review, compared to 5.4 nights in November 2014. The net use of bed-places stood at 49.4 per cent, down by 1.8 percentage points when compared to the corresponding month of the previous year. On a national level, there were 157 active collective accommodation establishments during November, with a net capacity of 17,598 bedrooms and 38,718 bed-places. January-November Total arrivals during the first 11 months of 2015 amounted to almost 1.5 million, an increase of 2.1 per cent over the same period in 2014. Total nights spent went up by 1.8 per cent, reaching almost 8.5 million. The net use of bed-places...

Public consultation on drafting of the National Book Council law

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The National Book Council (NBC) is consulting authors and publishers as part of a process that will lead to the drafting of National Book Council legislation. The NBC was set up in 2001 to coordinate institutional services relating to books such as the National Book Prize, the National Book Festival and the distribution of ISBN in Malta. The NBC’s aim is to promote books and a widespread reading culture in society. The council explained that in the past three years its remit and activity grew considerably, thus making the need for a law.  Amongst issues raised by authors during a discussion was that they often found themselves lacking the authority to ask their publisher for an audit of their book sales. Authors’ payments was another crucial point raised since several authors felt that they were e not being treated entirely fairly in this regard.   During this meeting, the NBC proposed that certain mechanisms be introduced in the NBC law that would recognise a writers’ syndicate and a publishers’ collective. Meaning that the NBC would have a legal mechanism that would officially recognise a non-governmental writers’ and publishers’ institution: institutions that would, in turn,...

Malaysian PM cleared of graft after $620m in his account are declared a Saudi 'gift'

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Malaysia's attorney-general has cleared Prime Minister Najib Razak of any criminal offences or corruption, closing investigations into a murky multi-million-dollar funding scandal that his opponents had hoped would bring him down. Najib was buffeted last year by allegations of graft and mismanagement at the debt-laden state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and by a revelation that about $681 million was deposited into his personal bank account. But Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali said the transfer was a gift from Saudi Arabia's royal family, adding that no further action needed to be taken on the matter. Opposition party leaders denounced the finding, saying the appointment of the attorney-general by the prime minister in the midst of the crisis suggested a conflict of interest. But analysts said it was a victory for Najib that would allow him to focus on winning the next election in 2018. "The AG's statement today pretty much allows the government to move on ... As far as things are legally concerned, the prime minister is in the clear," said Ibrahim Suffian, director of independent opinion polling firm Merdeka Center. Apandi told a news conference no criminal...

Court urged to reject extradition request due to human rights breaches in Lithuanian prisons

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A request for the extradition of a Maltese-Australian man to Lithuania must be rejected as otherwise the courts could be an accomplice in human rights breaches due to the appalling conditions in Lithuanian prisons, a judge heard this morning. The call for the request to be rejected was made by defence counsel appearing for 44-year-old company director Angelo Spiteri who is wanted in Lithuania over allegations of forgery and swindling. Mr Spiteri is a director of the Vilnius-registered travel company Atostogu Sandelis. Iif found guilty he could spend a total of 17 years in prison. On January 15, a Magistrates Court had acceded to a European Arrest Warrant issued last summer, but the man filed an appeal which started being heard this morning before Madame Justice Edwina Grima. In his submissions, lawyer Jason Azzopardi who forms part of a the three-man defence team, noted how the arrest warrant was issued in line with the provisions of an EU framework decision. The latter stated that no persons shall be extradited to a state where there is a “serious risk” of inhuman treatment and torture, he pointed out. The defence argued that it had presented sufficient evidence to back its...

Two injured in separate incidents near Portes des Bombes

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A man and a woman were injured in separate traffic accidents on National Road near Portes des Bombes this morning. In the first incident, a 24-year-old man from Paola was seriously injured when he was hit by a Nissan Sunny. Shortly after, an 80-year-old woman who was in an electric wheelchair was hit by a bus and also seriously injured.      

SMEs given easier access to funds

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The European Investment Fund and Bank of Valletta have signed an agreement which will result in easier access to funds for SMEs. The agreement was signed in the presence of deputy prime minister Louis Grech, who is leading the government's SME Initiative. SMEs will have €60m at their disposal over five years and can borrow up to €500,000 each at low interest rates with reduced collateral.  

An unwinnable battle?

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By some strange coincidence, the Today Public Policy Institute (TPPI – a Maltese think-tank) document on Maltese obesity and its serious health, longevity and public health service costs consequences, was published practically at the same time as a New York Times feature on Malta’s non-Mediterranean diet and its dire sequelae. More worryingly, the American article quotes International Diabetes Federation statistics putting the prevalence of diabetes in Maltese adults (20 to 79 years) at almost 14 per cent, and highest in 56 European countries. Quoting a World Health Organisation report, the... This article is part of our premium content. Full story is available on Times of Malta Premium.
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