Did the security services also tell him to do that?

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2021-02-08T07:58:04+01:00Mon, 8th Feb '21, 07:58|

As I see it, the significance of Times of Malta’s story yesterday that as late as March 2019 Joseph Muscat was brokering international business deals for Yorgen Fenech, is not only in how revolting the fact in itself is. It should also dissolve any remaining doubts in his inveterate fans’ minds that still prefer to [...]

Adrian Delia’s 500,000 for charity, like everything he’s ever promised, never materialised

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2021-02-07T08:37:33+01:00Sat, 6th Feb '21, 16:42|

It must surprise no one, not even, if he could be honest with himself, Adrian Delia, that Adrian Delia’s big cheque for 500,000 euro for the Dar tal-Providenza bounced. I believe the technical term is dishonoured cheque, and how appropriate that adjective is. I would say that the managers, volunteers and beneficiaries of the great [...]

The sign is hardly the problem, Byron Camilleri

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2021-02-05T16:00:12+01:00Fri, 5th Feb '21, 11:57|

Byron Camilleri said today he ordered the removal of a sign put up in prison by its director Alex Dalli that told prison staff they must teach “fear” to prisoners. Byron Camilleri said he “learned of the existence of this notice in (his) first few days as home affairs minister, and (he) had taken steps [...]

GUEST POST: Einstein and Clyde

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2021-02-05T07:22:12+01:00Fri, 5th Feb '21, 07:22|

Newly minted minister for the Finance Clyde Caruana reportedly said that his predecessor Edward Scicluna, raised the remuneration of the Governor of the Central Bank by €11,000 to €100,000 per annum because of relativity and not because Scicluna was manoeuvring to slither into this position once he’d resigned from ministerial office. Now that’s a new [...]

Pierre

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2021-02-04T15:13:04+01:00Thu, 4th Feb '21, 15:13|

Pierre Portelli and I were buddies at university. He’s a bit older than I am. He joined the communications program as a mature student. We shared an interest in horror movies and politics and you know, at some point in one’s life that’s enough to go watch movies and have meaning-of-life conversation into the wee [...]

Why have two magistrates refused to hear the case against Yorgen Fenech’s errand boys?

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2021-02-04T09:41:59+01:00Thu, 4th Feb '21, 09:41|

Newsbook reported that the chief justice has to handpick a magistrate to hear the police’s case against lawyers Gianluca Caruana Curran and Charles Mercieca for trying to bribe Times of Malta’s Ivan Martin. That means two magistrates must have already dodged the duty to try the case. Admittedly it’s awkward for a magistrate to try [...]

Abolish the statute of limitations for crimes against children

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2021-02-04T08:57:17+01:00Thu, 4th Feb '21, 08:55|

In August 2018, this website reported the church had suspended a senior Gozitan cleric from the priesthood after “credible” allegations emerged that up to 16 years previously he had groomed and sexually abused a child for several years. That was the case of Eucharist Sultana who was archpriest in Xagħra for several years and who [...]

Does Robert Abela read l-orizzont?

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2021-02-03T16:33:05+01:00Wed, 3rd Feb '21, 16:33|

Here’s this morning’s editorial on General Workers’ Union daily l-orizzont. It takes a point from an important decision at the Royal Court of Justice four days ago that quashed guilty verdicts by a lower court that convicted 15 protesters who broke into the airfield of Stansted airport in 2017 to disrupt a repatriation flight dragging [...]

Food porn

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2021-02-03T15:06:48+01:00Wed, 3rd Feb '21, 08:09|

Yesterday’s decision by the industrial tribunal to award damages to John Bundy after he was unlawfully thrown out of his job as boss at the national broadcaster shows one thing at least. The board members hired to oversee the company were a bunch of amateurs who did not know the first thing about how to [...]

Don’t be fooled by this. You’re still paying.

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2021-02-03T07:37:18+01:00Wed, 3rd Feb '21, 07:37|

I enjoy a spot of fireworks as much as the next guy and I am in awe of the skills involved in putting together extraordinary spectacles. I live and work in Mqabba, the mecca of the national fireworks cult, so I get to see the best stuff, or so folks in Mqabba say. If anything [...]

Fire

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2021-02-02T12:19:36+01:00Tue, 2nd Feb '21, 12:19|

From Times of Malta's court blog of today reporting as evidence is heard against Yorgen Fenech, accused of killing Daphne Caruana Galizia: Francis Sant, a Bidnija resident, is the next witness. He says he was driving towards Bidnija at around 3 pm on the day. As he drove up the hill, he saw a small [...]

GUEST POST: BIZNISEZYUXWAL

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2021-02-02T09:41:57+01:00Tue, 2nd Feb '21, 09:41|

I don’t like Robert Abela. It’s nothing personal. I don’t know the man, never met him, never spoke to him. Probably never will. We move in different circles. He walks the corridors of power flanked by people with fancy whimsical names like Clayton, Clifton, Clint, Clyde, Byron, Aaron and of course, the one and only [...]

In spite of denials, Henley & Partners outed for helping key-player in Malaysia embezzlement scandal get EU passport

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2021-02-02T08:53:16+01:00Tue, 2nd Feb '21, 08:53|

The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project reported last night that Jho Taek Low, charged in Malaysia for embezzling billions of dollars in the worst corruption scandal of that country’s history, acquired a Cyprus passport with the help of Henley & Partners. Henley & Partners is one of the intermediaries that helped foreign clients acquire [...]

The other Sultana

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2021-02-01T15:14:58+01:00Mon, 1st Feb '21, 15:14|

Press reports covering the continuation of the cases against two priests who sexually abused and in one case raped an altar boy in their care referred to the brief testimony of another priest. That’s Eucharist Sultana who was the Xagħra parish priest between 1974 and 2004. He told the court he knew Joseph Sultana (accused [...]

PODCAST: Robert Abela, the defender of journalists

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2021-02-01T10:38:45+01:00Mon, 1st Feb '21, 10:38|

Manuel Delia · Robert Abela, The Defender Of Journalists If Zeus were still alive, he’d have blasted Robert Abela with a freshly forged thunderbolt yesterday when he spoke from his party platform about the sacred right of journalists to ask politicians tough questions. The hypocrisy festival came after Bernard Grech’s complaint that a TVM journalist [...]

The courage to disagree

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2021-02-01T08:55:52+01:00Mon, 1st Feb '21, 08:55|

Robert Abela yesterday challenged the opposition party to back him on major policy fronts. He inherited from his predecessor an opposition that did that, so he expects no less now that there’s a different leader of the opposition. One can only hope the opposition doesn’t dance to his tune. The PN’s decision to withdraw their [...]

Opting out of the law

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2021-02-01T08:31:22+01:00Mon, 1st Feb '21, 08:31|

There's a report on this morning's rTimes of Malta about Aaron Farrugia and Clint Camilleri "working together" to manage hunting and to hire the members of the committee that is supposed to advise the government on when to allow hunting and when not to. This is supposed to be good news. Indeed the government wanted [...]

The personal touch

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2021-02-01T08:14:00+01:00Mon, 1st Feb '21, 08:14|

Why can't they just remember what their proper place is? Here's a letter to an elderly lady advising her of her appointment for the covid vaccine. The Deputy Prime Minister is now scheduling hospital appointments. It's as if the hospital staff, the nursing professionals, all those doctors, administrators, public health officials and epidemiologists are no [...]

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