Quantcast
Channel: Times Of Malta
Viewing all 84484 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

Szczesny signs Juventus contract extension

February 11, 2020, 11:29 am
$
0
0

Wojciech Szczesny

Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny has signed a three-year contract extension until 2024, the Italian champions announced on Tuesday. The Polish international joined Juve in 2017 from Arsenal as back-up to club legend Gianluigi Buffon.  The 29-year-old took over as number one after Buffon's departure to Paris Saint-Germain and has held on to the role despite the veteran Italian's return to Turin this season. "This renewal is a demonstration of the club's trust in me," Szczesny told Juventus TV.  "I'm very happy and I'll try to give my best. I'll be here for another four years and I want more titles, I want to win everything. "You have to sweat, run and sacrifice yourself to achieve this goal that is mine but also that of the club." Szczesny joined the club following a two-year loan spell at Roma and has played 84 matches, winning two Serie A titles, one Coppa Italia and an Italian Super Cup.  Juve's reign as eight-time Serie A champions is under threat this season as they sit in second place in Serie A behind leaders Inter Milan on goal difference.  Third-placed Lazio trail the pair by a point. Juve play Milan in the Italian Cup semi-final first leg on Thursday, and are...
↧
Search

Aston Martin to continue Valkyrie work with Red Bull

February 11, 2020, 11:30 am
$
0
0

Aston Martin’s hypercar collaboration project with Red Bull is set to continue, despite the pair concluding their partnership in Formula 1 at the end of the 2020 season. The British luxury car maker recently announced that Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll had bought a €215 million, 20 per cent stake in the company, which will see his Racing Point F1 team rebranded Aston Martin from 2021. [attach id=834488 size="large" align="left" type="image"]Aston Martin’s branding will no longer appear on Red Bull Racing cars from 2021. (Red Bull)[/attach] It will bring an end to the four-year-old Aston Martin Red Bull Racing partnership that has achieved 12 F1 race wins and 50 podiums. However, Red Bull Advanced Technologies (Red Bull Racing’s technological and engineering department for external clients) has announced it will continue to work with Aston Martin on the Valkyrie hypercar project. The ultra-exclusive road car is in the final stages of development, with the first batch of 150 road cars due to be delivered to customers at the end of the year. It will feature a Formula 1-inspired hybrid powertrain, with an electric motor and battery system developed by EV experts Rimac mated...
↧
↧

Barca’s Dembele out of Euro 2020 after hamstring surgery

February 11, 2020, 11:35 am
$
0
0

Ousmane Dembele will miss Euro 2020 after Barcelona announced on Tuesday the France international will be out for around six months following surgery on his right hamstring. Dembele’s absence also means he will be sidelined for the rest of this season for Barca, who will be without another attacker after losing Luis Suarez to a long-term knee injury last month. “The first team player Ousmane Dembele has successfully undergone surgery ... for a ruptured tendon in his proximal hamstring in his right thigh. The Frenchman will be out for around six months,” the La Liga champions said in a statement. The 22-year-old has suffered a number of hamstring problems since joining from Borussia Dortmund in August 2017 in a deal worth up to 147 million euros ($160.5 million). Dembele has made only nine appearances this season.  He was close to recovering from a hamstring injury sustained in November before suffering a relapse in training last week.  The former Rennes attacker also missed the majority of his opening year at Barcelona with a similar problem which kept the forward out for four months. Dembele’s latest disappointment is a blow to France’s hopes of following up 2018’s World Cup...
↧

Children sent home from school if their learning support educator reports sick

February 11, 2020, 11:52 am
$
0
0

Learning support educators are following union directives. Photo: Shutterstock.com

Children with disabilities are being sent home from school when their LSE is sick, following union directives instructing learning support educators not to fill in for their absent colleagues. Parents of children who have one-to-one LSEs are angered at the fact that their children are being “deprived of the right to education” due to directives issued by the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) and the Union of Professional Educators (UPE). Meanwhile, the two unions are blaming the situation on the government’s failure to employ enough LSEs and LSE relievers. Questions sent to the Education Ministry remained unanswered by the time of writing. “I can’t accept that my son is missing out on his education. This is happening to many parents who are having to take time off work and unpaid leave. “We already have a lot of extra expenses due to our children’s disabilities,” said the motherof a seven-year-old primary school student who preferred not to be named. The woman said that last week she was told she had to take her son back home when she dropped him off at school. This was not the first time it had happened. Rebecca Bonello has also been asked to take her eight-year-old son, Matteo,...
↧

Watch: Ferrari unveil SF1000 car for coming F1 season

February 11, 2020, 12:29 pm
$
0
0

Ferrari unveiled its new SF1000 car for the 2020 Formula One season, which they hope will deliver a first world drivers title since 2007, during a glitzy ceremony on Tuesday. The single-seater’s name acknowledges the fact that the Italian team will start its 1,000th world championship race during the coming campaign, which begins with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 15. “This is a very special year. It’s 70 years of Formula One, we have been there from the start and we are going to reach the figure of 1,000 Grands Prix, which is something incredible,” said Ferrari Team Manager Mattia Binotto. For the occasion, the Scuderia broke with tradition and presented its new racing car outside of its stronghold of Maranello, unveiling it instead on stage at the Teatro Romolo-Valli in the nearby city of Reggio Emilia. “This is a very important place for our country,” chairman of the Ferrari group John Elkann explained. “It was in this city that the tricolour flag, which became that of Italy, was created. And Ferrari is proud of Italy and of representing Italy.” Narrower than last season’s SF90, with a deeper red colouring the body, Ferrari is pinning its hopes on the...
↧
↧

Lisbon freezes bank accounts of Angola's ex-first daughter

February 11, 2020, 1:29 pm
$
0
0

Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos.

Portugal has ordered a freeze on bank accounts held in the country by Angola's billionaire former first daughter Isabel dos Santos, who is accused of stealing state funds to build a colossal business empire. "The public prosecutors have ordered a freeze on the bank accounts following a request by Angolan authorities," a spokesman for Portuguese public prosecutors told AFP. International media outlets published an inquiry dubbed "Luanda Leaks" on January 19 claiming that Dos Santos fraudulently accumulated fortune estimated at $2.1 billion (1.9 billion euros). Some 10 Maltese companies were believed to have been used to siphon money out of state enterprises. She has denied the "unfounded allegations and false claims" and said she has taken steps "to act legally" against the outlets that published them. Dos Santos, 46, has been living in Europe since President Joao Lourenco fired her as head of the state oil company Sonangol in 2017, soon after he took over from her father. She has been indicted by Angolan prosecutors for a host of top-level financial crimes, including money laundering and forging documents. Angola's prosecutor general Helder Pitta Gros visited Portugal, the...
↧

The Doors revisited

February 11, 2020, 9:21 pm
$
0
0

Spazju Kreattiv is showing The Doors: Break on Thru – A Celebration of Ray Manzarek, a hybrid concert and documentary capturing a 2016 performance in Los Angeles by surviving Doors members John Densmore and Robby Krieger to honour fellow member Ray Manzarek on what would have been his birthday today. The Doors were born when Manzarek met Jim Morrison on Venice Beach, California, in 1965. He became the beating heart of The Doors and the architect of their keyboard sound. Manzarek’s playing fused rock, jazz, blues, bossa nova and an array of other styles into something new.  The set list from the concert consists of Doors songs performed by John and Robby alongside a cast of all-star guest musicians including Taylor Hawkins and Rami Jaffe (Foo Fighters), Robert DeLeo (Stone Temple Pilots) and Stephen Perkins (Jane’s Addiction), among others. The film includes rare archival footage of the band, conversations with Morrison and Manzarek and music journalist Ben Fong-Torres, as well as new interviews with John Densmore and Robby Krieger.  The screening will take place at the Spazju Kreattiv cinema, Valletta, today at 7.30pm.
↧

Malta after Brexit - Ivan Grixti

February 11, 2020, 9:34 pm
$
0
0

Unless Boris Johnson can manage more favourable trade deals after the conclusion of the current transitionary period, it is highly probable that the UK economy will shrink over the next three years. Photo: Frank Augstein/AFP

January 31 has come and gone, and although I personally had hoped for a different outcome after last December’s general election, it is a well-known fact that the UK is now formally out of the European Union. As the leader of the highly respected international magazine –The Economist – puts it, the UK is now sailing “into the unknown”. As I argued in a previous contribution of mine, there is no way of ascertaining the cost of exiting from the EU just as much as it is not possible to ascertain the cost of not joining in the first place. An 11-month transition process is now under way – a process wherein the thorniest issues of trade and migration will be negotiated upon. In terms of trade, statistically, half of what the UK exports goes to the EU and in terms of migration, roughly three million EU citizens live and work in the UK. The current prime minister, Boris Johnson, who projects himself as the reincarnation of Winston Churchill, is banking on the close ties the UK enjoys with the US to improve its current export market. Although London and New York are still the major financial centres around the globe, he is probably banking more on the current buoyant economy the US is...
↧
Search

Announcements - February 12, 2020

February 11, 2020, 9:35 pm
$
0
0

Obituaries BAJADA. On Monday, February 10, at Karin Grech Rehabilitation Hospital, VICTOR, aged 88, passed away peacefully comforted by the rites of Holy Church. He leaves to mourn his loss his wife of 67 years, Teresa, and his children Martin and his wife Monica, Evelyn and her husband David, Leslie and his wife Anna, his grandchildren Nathan, Rachel, Reuben, Angela, Daniel, Roberta, Fabbio and Ennio, his great-grandchildren Chloe, Jett and Lara, other relatives and friends. The funeral leaves Mater Dei Hospital, tomorrow, Thursday, February 13, at 8.30am, for Jesus of Nazareth parish church, Sliema, where Mass præsente cadavere will be celebrated at 9.30am, followed by interment in the family grave at Lija cemetery. No flowers by request but prayers to the Lord to grant him eternal rest. CARUANA TRICCAS. On February 4, at Mater Dei Hospital, CHARLES of Ta’ Xbiex, residing in Baħrija, aged 68, passed away peacefully comforted by the rites of Holy Church. Deeply loved by his wife Jessie and his sons David and Adrian, he also left to mourn his loss his father Frank, his sisters Bella and Anna, his brother Joe and their respective families, many relatives and friends. The funeral...
↧
↧

The PN’s implosion - Martin Scicluna

February 11, 2020, 9:40 pm
$
0
0

A leader who does not command the confidence of his own parliamentary colleagues is not a viable Opposition leader. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The political implosion that has afflicted the Nationalist Party has been almost 10 years in its gestation. The party has been demoralised and deeply divided since before Lawrence Gonzi’s downfall in 2013. The seeds of destruction were sown when GonziPN won power five years earlier by just over one thousand votes. In 2013, under Gonzi’s leadership, and in the 2017 general election under Simon Busuttil’s, that tiny majority was reversed by a massive 30,000 votes – the largest two margins of defeat in Malta’s democratic history.  As I submit this column before a possible executive committee meeting that might resolve the PN parliamentary party’s rebellion against its leader, it seems that it’s only a matter of time before Adrian Delia departs from the PN leadership post he has held so precariously for the last two years. PN was once an uneasy coalition between the aspirational working class and what passes in Malta as the entitled, bourgeois class. Today, that alliance is broken. Their beleaguered leader, who was elected by a large popular vote of disaffected members revolting against a succession of leaders imposed by the party establishment, is refusing to leave his...
↧

Police superintendent among 30 traffic cops in overtime probe

February 11, 2020, 9:40 pm
$
0
0

A wide-ranging internal fraud investigation into the traffic squad was first brought to the attention of the police in December.

More than half the officers in the police traffic squad – including the superintendent in charge – are being investigated over claims of overtime abuse first revealed by Times of Malta, police sources say. The police said “around 30” members of the unit, which has about 50 officers, were arrested on Tuesday. Investigations were being carried out by the economic crimes unit, the police statement said. It is alleged the officers, mainly motorcycle officers, collectively filed for “hundreds of hours” of overtime that they did not carry out over at least three years. To investigators’ surprise, the unit’s senior officer, who does not use a motorcycle but instead enjoys the use of a chauffeur-driven car, also appeared to have logged overtime. He was due to be questioned at the time of writing. Investigators are also looking into claims that some motorcycle traffic policemen had been misappropriating fuel and using it for their own private vehicles. The wide-ranging internal fraud investigation into the traffic squad was first brought to the attention of the police in December, by an anonymous letter sent to then-police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar, detailing how officers were...
↧

Sanders wins in New Hampshire as Biden crashes and burns

February 11, 2020, 9:47 pm
$
0
0

Bernie Sanders won New Hampshire's high-stakes Democratic primary on Tuesday, according to US network projections, leaving rivals including party stalwart Joe Biden in his wake as he staked his claim to challenge President Donald Trump in November. Sanders, the flag-bearer for the party's progressive wing, had 26% of votes with most of the count complete in the northeastern state, where he routed Hillary Clinton in 2016. "Let me take this opportunity to thank the people of New Hampshire for a great victory tonight," Sanders told cheering supporters after NBC and ABC called the result in his favour. [attach id=834953 type="video"][/attach] "This victory here is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump," the senator from neighbouring Vermont added as raised the roof with his rallying cry for fairer taxes and health care reform.  Indiana ex-mayor Pete Buttigieg finished in second place at 24% as he readied for the more difficult battlegrounds ahead. "Now our campaign moves on to Nevada, to South Carolina, to communities across our country. And we will welcome new allies to our movement at every step," he said. Midwestern moderate Amy Klobuchar maintained a late surge to place...
↧

United and determined we prevail - Jiang Jiang

February 11, 2020, 10:10 pm
$
0
0

The Twin Towers of Nanchang Greenland Central Plaza use blue and red light to write jiayou, Wuhan (“stay strong, Wuhan”) in Nanchang city, east China’s Jiangxi province. Photo: Cai Fuliang/Imaginechina/AFP

There is a Chinese saying that goes: “unity of will is an impenetrable fortress.” It means that when all are united around the same purpose, as resolved as an impregnable stronghold, no difficulty is insurmountable. There is no better phrase to describe the Chinese people under the current situation. To fight against the epidemic caused by the novel coronavirus has been the first-order priority on the Chinese government’s agenda since its outbreak early this year. People’s lives and health are put front and centre and a range of measures, both forceful and science-based, have been promptly rolled out across the country. Cross-sectoral approaches are adopted nationwide where the whole of the population is mobilised in combating the epidemic. The mission is to stop the virus from further spread and to safeguard public health. In this process, a hospital with 1,000 beds was built in only ten days’ time, over 10,000 healthcare professionals have gone to support Hubei (the hardest-hit province) from across China and companies are operating at full capacity to make medical supplies. It is a battle, a race against time, and these trying times have attested to the ‘Chinese speed’. The...
↧
↧

Malta’s femicide problem

February 11, 2020, 10:32 pm
$
0
0

Whether we are talking about the vilification and assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia or the murder of Chantelle Chetcuti, the abusive invective thrown at women’s NGOs or the misogynistic discourse that invades our homes, places of work, and parliament, one thing remains consistent. Women are being forced to bear the burden of Malta’s dangerous socio-cultural conflation of masculinity with aggression, and its explosion in acts of lethal violence. The brutal murder of Chantelle Chetcuti has once again raised concerns about the challenges women face in Maltese society, and as a result, the threats to their families that destabilise our country as a whole. We are called to question the role that men play, in undermining the security and safety of women. The call for adequate protection from gender-based violence is once again being sounded, from the ranks of civil society activists, politicians, and citizens alike. The knee-jerk response that these acts of visible and traumatic violence provoke is clear evidence that we, as a nation, are aware of the depth of the problem. What is less clear, however, is the kind of commitment to a long-term response we intend to pursue. One has...
↧

Four survive 32 days adrift in Pacific

February 11, 2020, 10:35 pm
$
0
0

They survived eating coconuts and drinking rainwater. Photo: Shutterstock

Four people survived a month adrift in the Pacific by eating coconuts and drinking rainwater in an ordeal that claimed the lives of eight of their companions, including a baby, reports said Wednesday. The group, from Papua New Guinea's Bougainville province, are believed to have spent 32 days at sea. The Solomon Star News reported the group set off from Bougainville on December 22, intending to celebrate Christmas in the Carteret Islands, about 100 kilometres away. But survivor Dominic Stally said their small boat capsized and a number of the group drowned. The rest managed to right the vessel but there were further fatalities as they floated in the remote waters at the mercy of powerful ocean currents. "We could do nothing with their dead bodies, we just have to let go of them at sea," he told the newspaper. "A couple have died and left behind their baby and I am the one who held onto the baby and later the baby died as well." Stally said a number of fishing vessels passed nearby without noticing them until they were finally picked up on January 23 off New Caledonia after drifting some 2,000 kilometres. The Star News said the survivors comprised two men, a woman and a girl aged...
↧
Search

Foreign banks wary of opening accounts for ‘risky’ Maltese

February 11, 2020, 10:39 pm
$
0
0

CaixaBank is applying enhanced due diligence with transactions involving Maltese nationals. Photo: Shutterstock.com

A number of international banks were declining to do business with Maltese nationals as they viewed the jurisdiction to be too risky, sources within Malta’s financial institutions warned. Sources from the financial sector and banking regulators confirmed they had received reports from Maltese nationals and Malta-based businesses after overseas banks declined to provide them with services. “This is a reality. In part, it is a result of the negative perception of Malta in the international community and, in part, it is also the ripple effect of the reaction of large banks that have themselves been embroiled in some sort of scandal in recent years,” according to a senior regulator. One Maltese national told Times of Malta he had recently been informed by CaixaBank, Spain’s third largest lender, that he would not be able to provide him with a bank account as Malta was viewed by the bank as a risky jurisdiction. A spokeswoman for the bank said that as a bank following strict compliance rules, CaixaBank analysed all jurisdictions according to internal and external economic and banking data. “The category into which Malta is included (jurisdiction with risk) means that CaixaBank, in...
↧

Italy Senate to vote on migrant trial for far-right head Salvini

February 11, 2020, 10:48 pm
$
0
0

Italian senators will decide Wednesday whether far-right leader Matteo Salvini should face trial on charges of illegally detaining migrants at sea last year, for which he could be jailed for 15 years. A court in Sicily has recommended that former interior minister Salvini stand trial for blocking migrants on a coast guard boat last July. Under Italian law, ministers cannot be tried for actions taken while in office unless a parliamentary committee gives the go-ahead. That committee voted in January to strip the anti-immigrant head of the Lega party of his parliamentary immunity, and now the final decision rests with the Senate. A simple majority of 319 senators is required, with the result of the vote to be known around 1800 GMT, if not before. Salvini had refused to allow 116 rescued migrants off of the Gregoretti coastguard boat - where they had been languishing for about a week in insalubrious conditions - until a deal was reached with other European states to host them. A Catania court accused him of "abuse of power" in blocking them on board from July 27-31, 2019, and of illegally detaining them. Salvini insists the decision was not his alone, but had the backing of the...
↧
↧

Today's front pages - February 12, 2020

February 11, 2020, 10:48 pm
$
0
0

The following are the main stories in Wednesday’s newspapers. Times of Malta says more than half the officers in the police traffic squad, including the superintendent in charge, are being investigated over claims of overtime abuse. In another story, the newspaper says sources within Malta’s financial institutions warned that a number of international banks were declining to do business with Maltese nationals as they viewed the jurisdiction to be too risky. The Malta Independent says the split within the PN has worsened as MPs are branded heroes and traitors. Malta Today says that the PN’s debt stands at €34 million. L-Orizzont says that a sexual abuse victim has requested a meeting with the Pope. In-Nazzjon says Francis Zammit Dimech has been appointed interim general secretary of the Nationalist Party until the reform within the party is carried out.
↧

Sliema eye ‘club old boy’ as they look to name new coach

February 11, 2020, 11:00 pm
$
0
0

Sliema’s Arthur Oyama (left) races past Justin Grioli, of Gudja. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Sliema Wanderers are looking at a ‘club old boy’ in their quest to appoint a new first team coach as the Premier League strugglers look to find a replacement for Alfonso Greco.  On Monday, the Wanderers announced that they had parted ways with Greco following Saturday’s shock defeat to Gudja United which left the team third from bottom, on 17 points, just one ahead of 13th placed Senglea Athletic.   The Italian coach was in his third spell at the Wanderers after he replaced Stefano Macoppi at the start of the season. But since his appointment, the Blues struggled to find their best form and in fact they spent the majority of the season hovering around the relegation places. Added to that they were also knocked out of the FA Trophy at the first hurdle back in December.  Contacted by the Times of Malta yesterday, Perry refused to be drawn on the shortlist of candidates for the job but admitted that he was considering handing the team to a coach who knows well the club environment. “At the moment, we’re looking at a number of possible candidates for the job,” Perry said. “It’s still too early to mention any names but what I can say is that at the moment our priority is to appoint...
↧

What happened on... February 12

February 11, 2020, 11:21 pm
$
0
0

The front pages of Times of Malta from 50, 25 and 10 years ago.  Become a Times of Malta premium member to gain full access to our archive dating back to January 1930.
↧
Viewing all 84484 articles
Browse latest View live
Search
<script src="https://jsc.adskeeper.com/r/s/rssing.com.1596347.js" async> </script>