Новости за 02.08.2021

A Malta-based investment firm has welcomed a decision by the financial regulator to drop limitations imposed on it in 2016. The decision paves the way for Futura Investment Management Limited to become a full alternative investment fund manager, in line with EU directives. Futura’s application for a licence upgrade, filed in 2014, was frozen by the MFSA two years later after the company’s name was linked to issues faced by Banca Popolare di Vicenza. The allegations, published by Italian media... Читать дальше...

Edward Zammit Lewis on Monday said he was following the party line in a January 2019 Labour press conference mocking attempts to seek justice in the 17 Black case.  The justice minister is facing a no-confidence motion moved by the Nationalist Party after Times of Malta revealed how he communicated with 17 Black owner Yorgen Fenech after the press conference.  Speaking to Times of Malta, Zammit Lewis, who was a backbench MP at the time, said it was no secret that he was friends with Fenech and communicated with him in a friendly manner. Читать дальше...

Poland has granted a humanitarian visa to Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, a Belarusian Olympic athlete who claimed her team tried to force her to leave Japan, Poland's deputy foreign minister said Monday. Tsimanouskaya "is already in direct contact with Polish diplomats in Tokyo. She has received a humanitarian visa. Poland will do whatever is necessary to help her to continue her sporting career," Marcin Przydacz wrote on Twitter. Przydacz said Tsimanouskaya had turned to Poland for help out of her... Читать дальше...

Simone Biles will return to competition at the Olympic Games for the closing women’s gymnastics beam final on Tuesday, USA Gymnastics announced. “We are so excited to confirm that you will see two U.S. athletes in the balance beam final tomorrow - Suni Lee AND Simone Biles!! Can’t wait to watch you both!” the US gymnastics federation posted on social media on Monday. The confirmation followed the appearance of Biles’ name on the starting list of eight finalists for the beam. Biles, the four-time... Читать дальше...

After last week, Didier Bugeja travelled for 20 hours to get his race-prepared Peugeot 106 on the starting line at Gubbio in the province of Perugia, Italy over the weekend, he was well prepared for a podium finish. Bugeja raced the 4,150 metres long track together with the best Italian Hillclimb Drivers in the seventh round of the prestigious Italian Hillclimb Championship and finished in third place. Bugeja the only non-Italian driver in his class finished only four seconds behind Giovanni Regis, who was racing also on a Peugeot 106. Читать дальше...

The number of persons registering for work stood at 1,711 in June, a drop of  2,559 when compared to the corresponding month in 2020. The National Statistics Office said that according to JobsPlus data,  unemployment decreased across all age groups. Those who had been registering for work for less than 21 weeks, decreased considerably when compared to the same month in 2020. Drops were also recorded amongst those persons who were registering for work for more than 21 weeks. The number of persons... Читать дальше...

Is there anything to like about Monday? Not really. If the weekend is a glass full, then Monday is the dregs – memories of the weekend just passed spiked with the reality of an unenthusiastic return to the office. Roads are busier, some shops are closed, and people are more difficult to deal with – for the simple reason that they are in your same situation. And the worst bit is that before you stretch a full five long days before you can enjoy some weekend me-time. But with Meridianbet’s new promo... Читать дальше...

Afghan forces battled Monday to stop a first major city from falling to the Taliban following weekend offensives by the insurgents on urban centres in a sharp escalation. Taliban fighters assaulted at least three provincial capitals overnight -- Lashkar Gah, Kandahar and Herat -- after a weekend of heavy fighting that saw thousands of civilians flee the advancing militants. Fighting raged in Helmand's provincial capital Lashkar Gah, where the Taliban launched coordinated attacks on the city centre... Читать дальше...

Sliema Wanderers are set to bolster their squad in the coming days as they are closing in on the signing of three players, the Times of Malta can confirm. The Blues, who last week were boosted by the news that coach Andrea Pisanu had agreed to sign a two-year extension, are working hard to bring in reinforcements ahead of the start of the Premier League season next week. The Wanderers are currently in talks to sign Brazilian defender Matheus Freitas Carvalho Da Silva. The 26-year-old has started... Читать дальше...

The company behind an application to develop Malta’s first crematorium says it has been left in the dark over the government’s plans for the sector. Earlier this month, Johann Camilleri submitted an application to the Planning Authority to develop a cremation facility on a plot of agricultural land next to the Santa Maria Addolorata Cemetery. This is the second time Camilleri’s company, Active Group Ltd, has tried to get the thumbs up for the project, with a previous application turned down by the PA in June 2018. Читать дальше...

Yorgen Fenech returns to court on Monday as the compilation of evidence against him for the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia continues. Fenech’s case was last in session last week, when a court heard the testimony of Matthew Caruana Galizia, one of the victim’s sons, as well as of a Europol expert who oversaw the seizure of electronic devices linked to Fenech.  Follow events on our live blog. Refresh the page for the latest updates. As it happened Live blog ends 11.55am A relatively brief court hearing has come to an end... Читать дальше...

Two Turkish mothers plan to file an appeal after being sentenced to prison for six months over forged travel documents, forcing them to be separated from their two small children. Their lawyer, Etienne Calleja, of Calleja & Associates Advocates, said their punishment did not fit the crime. “The crime committed is a victimless crime, and they themselves are victims and should not be targeted by the judicial system to make them victims once more,” Calleja told Times of Malta. Last week, Rabia Yavuz... Читать дальше...

Last week’s market action was one of the busiest so far this summer, with a slew of corporate earnings announcements, important economic data releases, a highly anticipated Fed meeting and another regulatory-induced sell-off in Chinese equities. There was a lot of push and pull with equities finishing slightly lower to where they started the week, but still near all-time highs. In terms of economic data, the initial estimate of second-quarter GDP showed that US economic activity reclaimed its... Читать дальше...

HSBC Malta said Monday that its pre-tax profit in the first half of the year increased by €15.6m to €17.5m. Revenue increased by 16% driven by favourable market movements (equity and interest rates) positively impacting the life insurance subsidiary results. (HSBC Life Assurance (Malta) Limited reported a profit of €4.2m compared to a loss reported in the same period last year of €8.9m.) Excluding the insurance subsidiary, revenue decreased by 5% as a result of lower interest rates and subdued demand for corporate borrowing... Читать дальше...

Jasmine Camacho-Quinn stormed to an emphatic first Olympic track and field gold medal for Puerto Rico on Monday, powering to victory in the 100m hurdles to exorcise the ghost of her 2016 Rio Games nightmare. Five years ago, Camacho-Quinn was helped off the Rio Olympic Stadium track in tears after crashing and falling at the last hurdle in the semi-finals with a place in the final within touching distance. But on Monday the powerfully built 24-year-old US-born hurdler banished that bitter memory in style... Читать дальше...

The Malta Maritime Forum has spent the past few weeks evalua­ting and discussing the most urgent and pressing needs of the maritime industry ahead of an electoral campaign which could be called sooner or later at the discretion of the prime minister. The outcome of discussions was collated in a document which was presented to the leaders of the major political parties on July 15. The initiative was taken as part of the forum’s mission to serve as a maritime cluster and a common platform for the... Читать дальше...

The front pages of Times of Malta from 25 and 10 years ago.  Become a Times of Malta premium member to gain full access to our archive dating back to January 1930.

Six Maltese villages have been identified as the first to go car-free as part of a pandemic-inspired plan to temporarily pedestrianise squares and roads across the country. The project is expected to begin with Żejtun, Dingli, Qrendi, Żurrieq, Mqabba and Safi, according to Local Councils Association president Mario Fava, although he did not reveal a timeline. The initiative is planned to be much wider – urban development studies on pedestrianised zones have been completed on 43 local council areas. Читать дальше...

For almost two decades, the global economy has been administered a potent steroid – lowinterest rates. There is no doubt that this has prevented some economies from falling into a depression, as first the financial crisis, the stagnation in the EU economies and then the COVID pandemic forced central banks to use monetary policy to help businesses survive. The trillions of dollars and euros pumped into the global economies in the last two years will sooner or later give rise to high inflation. However... Читать дальше...

Obituary GATT. On July 31, TARCISIO, aged 86, passed away peacefully. He leaves to mourn his loss his beloved and devoted wife for 60 years Maria née Mousu, his sons Pierre and his wife Miriam, Michael and his wife Fiona, as well as their children Nadya, Simon, Karl, Daniel and Julian. He will also be sadly missed by his sister Mary, his in-laws Eileen and Bernard Zahra de Domenico, John and Patricia Mousu, Lino and Rosabelle Mousu, Lydia Mousu, his nephews and nieces, other numerous relatives... Читать дальше...

Government parliamentary whip Glenn Bedingfield maintains he played no part in facilitating the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia after a public inquiry last week concluded that he carried out a sustained campaign to denigrate her.  Replying to questions sent by Times of Malta, Bedingfield said: “I played absolutely no role in facilitating any murder”. He was contacted after the conclusions of the public inquiry into the car bomb assassination of Caruana Galizia were published. The inquiry found... Читать дальше...

Information on around 20 Maltese nationals’ offshore holdings in Dubai has been passed on to the financial crime police by the tax authorities. Information from the so-called ‘Dubai list’ was obtained from Germany last week following a request by Malta’s Inland Revenue Department.  On July 25, Times of Malta reported how a request for data on any Maltese passport holders was sent to the German government by the island’s tax officials after Berlin had in June purchased data on millions of international... Читать дальше...

Waiting.... I am waiting with some excitement... for the first court case to be opened by simple honest people who object to next door or close-by building developers (what an obscene word, as Revel Barker so rightly says) swinging the booms and jibs of their high-rise cranes over their property, that is through the air space belonging to third parties. We were taught at law school that immovable property ownership, and that includes owned air space, carries with it certain rights, including that... Читать дальше...

The Xagħra parish recently marked the 70th anniversary of the death of its second parish priest, Maurizio Cauchi, with a Mass attended among others by some of his relatives, including Joe Scicluna, a great nephew of Cauchi.  During Mass, the Scicluna family donated two coloured bozzetti by the Roman artist Virginio Monti. They are to be exhibited at the Xagħra parish museum. The bozzetti were in the collection of the Scicluna family and represented the central paintings on the vault of the lateral transepts of the parish church. Читать дальше...

The APL Austria from Koper to Port Said, the Ruth from Sfax to Annaba, the Atlantic Monaco from Tripoli to Catania, the Contship Cub from Trapani to Annaba, the Fas Dammam from Sousse to Sfax (all CMA CGM Malta Agency Ltd), the MV Eco Livorno from Genoa to Catania, the MV Eurocargo Palermo from Catania to Catania (both Sullivan Maritime Ltd), the Dalian Express to Genoa (Bianchi and Co. Ltd), the MV Elizabeth Russ from Genoa to Genoa (Gollcher Co. Ltd) and the Spirit of Chennai from Gioia Tauro to Koper (John Ripard and Son Ltd) today. Читать дальше...