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Today's front pages - March 25, 2018

March 24, 2018, 10:45 pm
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Good morning. These are the leading stories in this week's Sunday newspapers.  The Sunday Times of Malta reveals that Mr Justice Joseph Azzopardi is the most likely candidate to replace Silvio Camilleri as Chief Justice once he retires next month.  The paper also writes that local investigators have been combing through Pilatus Banks' servers for months, looking for traces of money laundering activity, and that the Prime Minister's chief of staff Keith Schembri was among the guests at the wedding of former bank chairman Sayed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad.  Malta Today writes that lawyers for Maria Efimova, the former Pilatus Bank employee who handed herself in to Greek police last week, have dismissed suggestions that she might apply for political asylum there.  The newspaper also leads with news that US investigators were in Malta to meet with FIAU officials in late 2017, as part of their final preparations leading to the indictment of Ali Sadr Hasheminejad. Il-Mument reports that Joseph Muscat and his Finance Minister Edward Scicluna are at loggerheads. The paper also writes that Gozitan Nationalist Party members have raised a record amount for the PN.  Illum also leads with news of...
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Just 2,000 hunters and trappers reported catches in 2017

March 24, 2018, 11:14 pm
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A mere 2,167 hunters and trappers reported catching game during the 2017 hunting seasons despite the existence of about 15,000 licencees. In its annual Game Reporting Data report for last year, the Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU) noted that a total 3,054 specimens “belonging to huntable species” were reported caught, while another 9,422 were reported captured under live-capturing derogations. For the autumn-winter bird hunting and rabbit hunting seasons, licensees were legally required to report any game they had caught before leaving the hunting area, the WRBU says in the report. For the seasons opened under the derogations for spring hunting and autumn live-capturing, licensees were required to report their bags immediately upon making a catch, which allowed for real-time data to be gathered. A total of 7,729 telephone reports were received on the system from 2,167 individual callers, the WRBU said in the report. TIMES TALK: 'It's normal for us hunters to feel we're the victims' There were 10,467 hunters licensed to shoot on land, and 3,054 birds were shot between September 17 and January 18. This would mean that the vast majority of hunters did not shoot a single bird,...
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The week at a glance - March 25, 2018

March 24, 2018, 11:15 pm
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Activists call for resignations As the news of the arrest in the US of the chairman of Pilatus Bank surfaced, activists took to the streets to demand the resignations of Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri, Konrad Mizzi and Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar. What made the headlines Employers will not pay for parents’ sick leave: The introduction of a measure enabling parents to call in sick when their children are unwell has hit a snag, as employers are insisting that the government should foot the entire cost, the Times of Malta revealed. A spokesman for the government would only say that discussions were ongoing within the Employment Relations Board with a view to introducing the measure later this legislature. However, Malta Employers’ Association director-general Joe Farrugia contradicted this, saying that the matter had not been formally discussed within the Employment Relations Board. Pilatus Bank chairman accused in US of evading Iran economic sanctions: The Malta Financial Services Authority ordered Pilatus Bank to remove its chairman, Seyed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, from the post of director and any executive positions after his US arrest. Charges against Mr Hasheminejad,...
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That melancholic, industrial feel

March 24, 2018, 11:34 pm
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Darkwave synth outfit Hørd will open for crowd favourites The KVB, back in Malta for a second performance, at Tigullio. Interview by Ramona Depares. Who is Hørd? And what is the story behind the name? Hørd is a solo project, created at the end of 2013 when I was splitting with my band of that time. I decided it was time to make the music I wanted to create and to stay away from guitars for a while. I’d been playing the guitar since I was 13 years old. I wanted to radically dive into something new to me. And, because I wanted to explore some real cold and dark music, I decided to use only electronic and synths. No guitars; to just jump directly into an uncomfortable and creative process. The name comes from the fact that I am alone, and I wanted a paradoxical name with paradoxical meaning. How do you describe your sound? My music is a result of the 40 years of electric music I used to play and listen to, mixed with some contemporary dark and electronic music. There is also a bit of goth and some pop accents. This is what I’m trying to do. And it has been a long process to get here in my sound, a process that probably started some 10 to 15 years ago. There seems to be a worldwide...
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The next EU funding cycle post 2020 – making ends meet

March 24, 2018, 11:48 pm
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With the European Commission planning to issue its proposals for the next EU funding cycle on May 2, discussions on the 2021-2027 EU funding programme have built momentum over the last couple of months. The Commission is pushing for Member States to agree on a final budget package by May 2019. This would enable the new European Commission and Parliament to roll out the implementing regulations in 2020 and ensure that the EU funds are available on ground on January 1, 2021.  Considering that it took the previous €1 trillion budget 29 months to get approved, compounded with the complexities of a Brexit funding shortfall, there is recognition that the proposed timeframes are overly ambitious.  Brexit will result in a budget short-fall of approximately €12 billion annually. To address this shortfall, the Commission is identifying where savings can be made and priorities delivered more efficiently, such as in the areas of cohesion and agricultural policy. Such saving will, however, not plug the Brexit hole and Member States would need to increase their average contributions.   In May 2018, the Commission is expected to present a 1.15 per cent of GNI target in comparison to the...
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Jesus and Buddha

March 25, 2018, 9:21 pm
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It is interesting to compare the deaths of Jesus and of Gautama Buddha, who preached a religion without God. Christians are indoctrinated to believe that believers in God die a good death while unbelievers die desperate. Their belief is contradicted by the death of Jesus, who died a horrific death, and was abandoned by God: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Christians go to great lengths to put a positive spin on His desperate death. Those who do not share their beliefs view it otherwise. “The figure of the crucified Christ,” said the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, “is a very painful image to me. It does not contain joy or peace”. On the other hand, Buddha died a peaceful and serene death. His last words were: “Now then, O monks, I address you. Subject to decay are composite things. Strive with earnestness.”
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Today's front pages: March 26, 2018

March 25, 2018, 9:26 pm
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The European Commission has questioned the Air Malta deal on its slots at Gatwick and Heathrow, the Times of Malta reveals on Monday, along with a report on the Sunday morning meeting by the Prime Minister in which he spoke of blockchain but not the Pilatus scandal. L-Orizzont lauds the reconfirmation by credit rating Standard and Poor's of Malta's classification. It also reports that more police will be testifying in the case about murdered blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia. The Malta Independent says that the Medical Association of Malta and the government would finish talks on the Vitals hospital concession by the end of April. It also reports that both the Prime Minister and his chief of staff attended the wedding of the Pilatus chairman in Italy. In-Nazzjon dedicates its whole front page to the sum of over €365,000 raised by the Nationalist Party on Sunday, saying this was the largest sum ever raised by the party, which it said showed how many people wanted it to be the voice of the people.
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Rude disposition

March 25, 2018, 9:32 pm
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I was truly shocked to read Kevin Hodkin’s letter, ‘Despicable behaviour’ (March 19). My own wife, who is a foreigner, has also experienced similar ‘go back to your own country’ expletives when involved in altercations in both Malta and Gozo. I suppose that if any of these primitive individuals were meted out the same treatment while residing legally abroad they would be truly shocked and report back home tales of xenophobia and racism. Luckily, I never experienced such behaviour in the 50 years or so during which I resided in the UK or in Germany. It is time Maltese people having such attitudes learn some basic manners for, otherwise, they should never go abroad lest they be faced with similar comments when residing in other people’s countries.
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Commission questions Air Malta deal on slots

March 25, 2018, 9:35 pm
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The European Commission has questioned the government’s decision to buy Air Malta’s London landing slots through a newly established company in what critics consider an attempt to circumvent EU State aid rules, the Times of Malta was told. Malta Air Travel was set up by the government in January with an authorised share capital of €70 million. It was set up to buy Air Malta’s lucrative Gatwick and Heathrow slots, only to lease them back to the airline. In a recent interview with The Sunday Times of Malta, Air Malta chairman Charles Mangion said it was paid €58 million for the landing slots. The Times of Malta is informed that Brussels has put a number of questions to the government about this latest arrangement. Dr Mangion said during the interview with The Sunday Times of Malta that submissions to the Commission were being made by the government about the deal. Watch: Air Malta received €58m for its airport slots The deal has been packaged by the government as a protective measure to safeguard one of the airline’s most valuable assets. Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi has said it was a way of both protecting Air Malta and giving it the necessary capital to grow. In 2012, the...
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Is Muscat watching you? - Michael Briguglio

March 25, 2018, 9:43 pm
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The Sunday Times of Malta recently reported that the government is proposing to have all SIM cards registered under their owners’ names in an effort to combat serious crime. Though welcome by some, this also raised concerns over privacy and on technical loopholes that can be worked out to avoid registering.  Indeed, some compared this to an Orwellian scenario where the government has increased control over people’s privacy. CCTV, face profiling and various forms of digital surveillance can lead to a context where big brother is not only watching you but also attempting to influence your behaviour through analytics and various forms of direct and indirect advertising and propaganda. In the process we may end up watching ourselves both consciously and unconsciously. We may be careful of our digital footprint but we may also not notice how we are being nudged towards certain behaviour. Joseph Muscat’s government happens to be very media savvy and it was recently announced that almost 20 per cent of media expenditure by the Office of the Prime Minister is directed towards social media such as Facebook. No wonder we see Muscat’s face all over the place. Which takes us to a global...
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Announcements - March 26, 2018

March 25, 2018, 9:45 pm
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ABLETT.  On March 8, in Cessnock, Australia, MARY (Maria), née Borg, went to meet the Risen Christ. She leaves to mourn her great loss her sons Alan and Arthur and his wife Jarmila, her beloved grandchildren Jesse, Ryan, Brody and Jade, her sisters Joyce, Violet and her husband Robert, Margaret and her husband Saviour, Yvonne, Gladys, her brother Hector and his wife Tessie and her sister-in-law Ines. A Mass for the repose of her soul will be said on Wednesday, March 28, at St Julian’s parish church at 9am. The attendance of family and friends will be very appreciated. BARBARO SANT DEI MARCHESI DI SAN GIORGIO. On March 24, at Mater Dei Hospital, ANNA, aged 71, passed away peacefully comforted by the rites of Holy Church. She leaves to mourn her loss her sister-in-law Emily widow of her brother Arthur, Marie and Stephen Jones, Alfred and Rita, Elisabeth and Maurice Borg, Evelyn and Leslie Pace, George and Maria, nephews and nieces, other relatives and friends. Mass praesente cadavere will be said tomorrow, Tuesday, March 27, at St Dominic’s Church, Rabat, at 1.45pm followed by interment at Santa Maria Addolorata Cemetery. No flowers by request but donations to id-Dar...
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Watch: 53 dead in Russian shopping mall fire - Russian agencies

March 25, 2018, 9:51 pm
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Updated at 8.20am At least 53 people were killed by a fire in a shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said on Monday. The fire, one of the deadliest in Russia since the end of the Soviet Union, swept through the upper floors of the mall where a cinema complex and children's' play area were located. Russian emergency services said the fire, which started on Sunday afternoon, had now been extinguished but that rescuers were struggling to reach the upper floors because the roof of the building had collapsed. More than a dozen people were still unaccounted for. People posted appeals on social media seeking news of their relatives or friends, and authorities set up a centre in a school near the mall to deal with inquiries from people seeking missing family members. Video footage from inside the mall after the fire broke out showed a group of people in a smoke-filled staircase trying to smash a fire exit door, which was jammed. Russian state investigators said four people had been detained over the fire, including the owners and leasers of outlets inside the shopping mall. The Investigative Committee, which handles major crimes, said it...
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Chemical companies fear toxic consequences of Brexit

March 25, 2018, 9:59 pm
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Julian Sarkar has spent over 10 years and around €600,000 making his small UK company com­pliant with strict EU regulations to import chemicals into the bloc. Now, incensed by the government’s pursuit of what he sees as an extreme version of Brexit, he is shifting a third of his business to continental Europe, fearing that higher costs and bureaucracy will prove toxic for his firm over time. “I despair,” said the 59-year-old, who will avoid UK ports when shipping goods from India and China to continental Europe with his firm Zanos. “Everything I’ve seen in terms of the new approach will involve additional cost and additional work”. Zanos is one of thousands of British companies that could be stripped of the right to trade seamlessly in Europe after Brexit if a way cannot be found to keep Britain in or aligned to the regulatory system Reach, which acts as a passport for chemicals. At stake is not just the future of an £11 billion industry and its thousands of British jobs, but also the other sectors it supplies, including cars, aerospace and pharmaceuticals. The chemicals sector’s quandary is more acute than most industries’ because of its dense web of regulations, but it is also...
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Mutts gets movie opportunity

March 25, 2018, 10:00 pm
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A cinema in Dublin has hosted Ireland's first dog-friendly movie. The Lighthouse cinema, in conjunction with 20th Century Fox, the founders of the Doggy Do festival and Dogs Trust Ireland held an exclusive screening of Isle Of Dogs on Sunday. Isle Of Dogs is a new stop-motion film from Wes Anderson following a young boy's quest to find his beloved dog in a dystopian future Japan and the dogs who attended were said to be entranced by those on screen.  
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The unkindest cut of all - Mario de Marco

March 25, 2018, 10:04 pm
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Like the bloodstains on Lady Macbeth’s hands, the political crimes of this government will not wash away. The more the government tries to focus our attention away from the Panama Papers, from the dubious billion-dollar Vitals hospital deal and from its links to known dictators, the more these stories keep appearing like Banquo’s ghost to haunt it. The latest in a never-ending list of scandals concerns Pilatus Bank. Seyed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, the bank’s shareholder and chairman, is in a United States prison facing charges involving money laundering that could see him spend the rest of his life behind bars. In its short existence since being licensed in January 2014, Pilatus Bank has become a household name in Malta for all the wrong reasons. A 2016 report by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, the agency responsible for combating money laundering, raised the concern and alarm that Hasheminejad “is subject to a criminal investigation… in a foreign jurisdiction for money laundering, illegal money transmission”. That same FIAU report examined a series of payments made by three Russian individuals who had applied for registration under the Individual Investor Programme to an...
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Tazza l-Kbira gets underway with six heats

March 25, 2018, 10:05 pm
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The 11th meeting of the year, consisting of eleven races all for trotters, heralded the start of the prestigious Tazza l-Kbira championship for class Premier and Gold trotters. This, with six heats on a long distance of 2640m. From these heats, 36 horses qualified for the semi-final stage. This year, this competition is being organized by the Malta Racing Club with the financial support of Bank Of Valletta. Rodney Gatt ended the best driver with four wins. In the first heat, there was a keen tussle in the final metres between French newcomer Tallien (Melvin Farrugia) and Tchao Chamant (Shawn Axisa). It was the former which sealed its first win in Malta with Urido d’Alban (Charles Camilleri) and Acteur De Larre (Omar Cauchi) ending respectively in third and fourth place. M.T. Gogogirl (Nathaniel Barbara) and Quiet Du Chene (Mario Fenech) also made it to the semi-final stage. Rififi Nontantais (Rodney Gatt) led all the way during the 2640m distance of the second heat. This French thirteen-year-old trotter gained its first win of the season by a length from Uccello Jet (Charles Camilleri), Urgos Du Cedre (Jean Paul Polidano) and Service Secret (Andrew Farrugia). Sensei (Nicholas...
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Truly no laughing matter

March 25, 2018, 10:18 pm
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It is not really what Equality Minister Helena Dalli said that was shocking but that she laughed. Maybe it was because she went off script but she was unusually open. Addressing a conference on the status of women, she said the 2013 Labour Party electoral programme had promised equality but people did not know what the party had intended by that. She readily admitted that when Labour was moving a Bill to introduce civil unions in 2014, a survey showed that 80 per of respondents were against the idea. She laughed when saying people did not know what “equality” had meant in the manifesto, adding they forged ahead anyway. Dr Dalli was obviously trying to highlight her government’s commitment to gay issues. Naturally, none of this came out in a Department of Information statement on the conference, which, maybe significantly, referred to ‘LBTIQ women’ issues and not the usual LGBTIQ term, which generally refers to gays. Evidently, women issues are now on the government’s PR agenda, having electorally exploited the gay population to the limit. Dr Dalli’s admittance that Labour misled people in its manifesto is shocking, indeed, resignation material, but only to a certain extent.
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29 housing applicants have waited for 25 years

March 25, 2018, 10:28 pm
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Among the applicants for social housing, 29 people have been on the waiting list for 25 years, according to data provided by the Parliamentary Secretariat for Social Accommodation. Data shows that only slightly over six per cent of people on the social housing waiting list were given a place to reside in last year. By the end of 2017, only 210 out of 3,290 people had been taken off the waiting list. A spokeswoman for the parliamentary secretariat said the Housing Authority is currently conducting a profiling exercise to identify the status of all the applications.  The waiting list is consulted by an Allocation Board whenever premises are freed up, she said.  Occasionally, urgent humanitarian cases arise which require immediate attention. The spokeswoman added that the Allocation Board was restricted to the locality preference that applicants demand. “The process is a continuous one where conditions of applicants and availability of alternative property changes on a daily basis,” she said. The Parliamentary Secretariat for Social Accommodation was also asked for data of those given social housing during the last five years and the total applications pending on the social housing...
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EU antitrust chief keeps open threat to break up Google - report

March 25, 2018, 10:35 pm
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The European Union holds "grave suspicions" about the dominance of internet giant Google and has not ruled out breaking it up, according to a warning by the EU's antitrust chief, Britain's Telegraph reported on Sunday. European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager reckons the threat to split Google into smaller companies must be kept open, the newspaper said. Google currently faces new EU rules on its commercial practices with smaller businesses that use its services. Late last year, Vestager said more cases against Google were likely in the future, after the European Commission slapped a record €2.4 billion fine on the world's most popular internet search engine and told the firm to stop favouring its shopping service. The European Commission is in the process of drafting a new regulation aimed at regulating e-commerce sites, app stores and search engines to be more transparent in how they rank search results and why they delist some services. The antitrust chief's office was not immediately available for comment on the Telegraph report.
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Change in school performance is sign of future teenage depression

March 25, 2018, 11:07 pm
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Millions of people all over the world are experiencing mental health problems. And though the causes vary, we know that half of all these illnesses will have started in childhood or the teenage years. In the UK, referrals for and reports of teenagers with depression and anxiety and other mental issues have risen significantly in recent decades – reportedly increasing by 70% in the 25 years to 2016. Researchers have known for many years that education and mental health are strongly linked and that doing well in school gives children a strong sense of feeling good about themselves – which in turn is linked to higher levels of well-being in adulthood. Depression, on the other hand, is linked to poor future academic success, and this link between depression and school failure is stronger for girls than for boys. However, while depression leads to poor academic success, it is not clear if poor academic success leads to depression. So, for our recent study, we looked to see if the risk of future mental health problems could be predicted from school key stage test results. Achievement and depression We looked at the education and health records (consisting of GP and hospital admission...
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