Новости за 19.02.2016

A mother who received a parking ticket while her son was in hospital has thanked the "amazing" stranger who left cash on her windscreen to help pay the fine. Mairi Holden returned to her car after an unexpected overnight stay at Edinburgh's Sick Kids hospital to find two penalty notices. Tucked underneath one of the tickets was a £20 and £5 note, and a message saying: "Pay it then forget it happened." Ms Holden, touched by the random act of kindness, decided to pay it forward by using the cash to... Читать дальше...

The row between Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Pope Francis continued today, with Trump weighing in from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. "They had him convinced that illegal immigration is like a wonderful thing - not wonderful for us. It's wonderful for Mexico. It's not wonderful for us," Trump said. The Vatican today tried to tamp down a firestorm ignited by Pope Francis' comments, assailing Donald Trump's views on US immigration as "not Christian", assuring the Republican presidential... Читать дальше...

A hooded man armed with a firearm barged into a lotto booth in San Ġwann this evening and made off with an undisclosed amount of money. The owner, a 60-year-old man from San Ġwann was at the booth, in Triq il-Mensija, during the hold-up, which took place at 7pm, the police said.

Three British nationals have been held in custody pending trial on weapons possession charges after being arrested last weekend near Greece's border with Turkey. Court officials said the three men, who identified themselves as being of Kurdish origin, were ordered to remain in custody by a magistrate in the north-eastern city of Alexandroupolis. The three were arrested in two separate police inspections at the border on Sunday, when police found rifles, gun scopes and bullets in two trailers. A lawyer... Читать дальше...

An ongoing dispute between film distributors KRS and Eden Cinemas has escalated after KRS filed a complaint with the competition authority accusing Eden of abusing its dominant position in the market to the detriment of consumers. The complaint comes a month after Eden filed a similar complaint against KRS, accusing the distributors of behaving like a “cartel” over a dispute concerning a rise in charges which has seen cinema prices go up across the island. KRS manages the local rights of most major film studios... Читать дальше...

Opposition lawmakers in Kosovo disrupted Parliament today by setting off tear gas. It's the latest in a string of protests since the government signed an EU-brokered accord with Serbia in August, giving Kosovo's ethnic Serb minority greater local government powers and the possibility of financing from Belgrade. Earlier this week, thousands protested in Kosovo's capital Pristina, demanding the government's resignation and snap elections as the poor Balkan country marked the eighth anniversary of its independence from Serbia. Читать дальше...

Whether it is the parking headache in Valletta, the flight of steps of the 18th century building or lack of time that is keeping you away from the National Library in Piazza Regina, you now have no more excuses. A digital archive of the documents at the National Library in Valletta is up and running and readers can now download a copy of the first printed books dating back to the 15th century, known as incunabula, to read them at their leisure on their mobile or computer. There will also be no more... Читать дальше...

Harper Lee, author of the literary classic, "To Kill a Mockingbird," has died at the age of 89. The book, about a child's view of right and wrong in 930s Alabama, won Lee a Pulitzer Prize and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. For decades it was thought she would never follow up "To Kill a Mockingbird", but in July of 2015 her publisher released the book "Go Set a Watchman" which presents the same characters at a later time and from a different point of view. Watchman immediately became one of the fastest-selling books ever... Читать дальше...

Aerial footage shot on today shows a house in York, England that was thought to have exploded after a suspected gas leak reduced it to rubble, with neighboring properties also damaged. Residents who lived as far as 100 yards or more from the house located in Haxby said they were bolted out of bed by the sounds of the explosion. A local councillor said there was one fatality and that the neighborhood was "lucky" to not have seen additional injuries or damage.

The Tourism Authority has moved to investigate claims made by a Scottish tourist in a damning newspaper article describing her St Julian’s hotel as a “rundown homeless hostel”. The Blue Sea St George’s Park Hotel was inspected on Tuesday morning and a report is being compiled, the MTA told the Times of Malta when contacted. “The main objective of all our visits is to ensure that all visitors to the Maltese islands are treated in a proper way and in line with the service offer agreed,” MTA CEO Paul Bugeja told this newspaper. Читать дальше...

Six lions have broken out of the Nairobi National Park and were last seen roaming in a residential area of the Kenyan capital, wildlife authorities said. Kenya Wildlife Service spokesman Paul Udoto said the lions were first spotted at 4am on Friday near a hospital in the suburb of Langata, and later near Kibera, Kenya's largest slum. Mr Udoto said wildlife rangers do not know how the lions got out of the park, which is surrounded by an electric fence. He said a team of wildlife rangers tracking the... Читать дальше...

Turkish authorities have detained three more suspects in connection with the deadly bombing in Ankara that Turkey has blamed on Kurdish militants at home and in neighbouring Syria. The Anadolu news agency said authorities have now taken 17 people into custody as part of the investigation into Wednesday's suicide car bombing, which targeted buses carrying military personnel and killed 28 people. It said the latest suspects are believed to be linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Читать дальше...

Warm temperatures, light winds, sunshine and a lack of rain characterised January, the Meteorological Office said. It said in a statement that with a cloud cover of 3.8 oktas and over 211 hours of sunshine, this month rarely slipped out of the sun’s embrace. During the brightest day, the sun made an appearance for as many hours as it normally would on a day in April. The mean temperature was 13.6°C which is warmer than the climate norm of 12.7°C. This uncharacteristically balmy weather was a delight to those wary of wintry weather. Читать дальше...

The Maltese have a bad reputation for dumping their unwanted bulky goods in the countryside, despite the free bulky refuse service offered. Some vandals decided to take it one step further by dumping pieces of furniture right in the middle of a pavement in Rudolph Street, Sliema, metres away from the police station. Were it not enough, the unwanted goods were dumped two days ago right below a 'Do Not Dump Rubbish' sign. Residents said it was not the first time that such items were deposited on the pavement of the busy, narrow Sliema road. Читать дальше...

The share index advanced by 0.31 per cent to 4,487.932 points – the highest level for this month – as seven equites trended in positive territory, four closed unchanged whilst only two (BOV and MIA) finished lower. Today’s trading volumes of €861,000 declined from yesterday’s exceptionally high level, but still remained elevated. Week-on-week, the index advanced by 0.42 per cent on robust trading volumes of €3.82 million. Today’s top performer was FIMBank. The equity advanced 4.1 per cent to the 63c5US level across 23,467 shares. Читать дальше...

State-run television KRT has released photos of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un giving out awards to scientists, technicians and officials involved in the recent rocket launch. During his speech, Kim called for further space development, according to KRT. KRT also broadcast photos showing scientists posing with Kim in front of the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang, where the embalmed bodies of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung and former leader Kim Jong Il are preserved. North Korea launched a long-range rocket called Kwangmyongsong-4... Читать дальше...

Detention officials should not be caught up the midst of political issues, the General Workers' Union warned this afternoon. The union was reacting after it emerged in Parliament that 165 officials were overseeing just 12 persons in detention. One should remember the work carried out by these detention officials when Malta was assisting with the influx of irregular migrants, the GWU said. The possibility of a reduction of irregular migrants was discussed between the GWU and the Home Affairs Minister last year during sectoral talks. Читать дальше...

Malta and Albania will be revising a 1996 agreement to facilitate the child adoption process, the government said this afternoon. During a meeting with the Albanian Justice Minister Ylli Manjnani, Social Justice Minister Michael Farrugia underlined the need for more harmony to facilitate adoptions of children from Albania. It is hoped that the agreement will be signed in the shortest time possible, the government said in a statement.  No details of the revisions being proposed have been given. The... Читать дальше...

A rare copy of a comic book featuring the first appearance of Spider-Man has sold for $454,100. It was purchased by an anonymous collector, and Heritage Auctions of Dallas, Texas, says the sale is a record for a public auction price for any Spider-Man comic book. The 1962 edition of Amazing Fantasy No. 15 was graded as near-mint, with a score of 9.4 on a scale of 1-to-10. Walter Yakoboski, of Long Island, New York, had bought the comic book in 1980 for $1,200. He told The Associated Press last week... Читать дальше...

More than 80 per cent of households in Malta had access to the internet, up by 1.1 per cent from the previous year, according to official figures released today. A total of 81.9 per cent of households had access to the internet, while regular internet users reached 251,395 or 76.2 per cent of the total population. Internet access in households during 2015 increased by 1.1 percentage points when compared with 2014. The largest percentage of households having internet access was registered in the Western... Читать дальше...

A 25-year-old prostitute from Birkirkara has been sentenced to 12 months in jail after admitting to violently resisting arrest. The woman was also charged with loitering with the intent of prostitution, threatening and offending an officer, disrupting public order, using offensive language, disobeying an officer’s orders, committing a crime during the operative period of a suspended sentence and breaching the conditions of a previous release. Defence lawyer Yanika Bugeja pleaded with the courts to... Читать дальше...

Taxpayers are paying high fuel prices to make good for the €11 million EU funds lost on the Coast Road, shadow minister MEP Roberta Metsola said this afternoon. Addressing a news conference at Baħar ic-Cagħaq, she blamed "government's incompetence" for the loss. She added that, to date, the government had not found the courage to face the people and admit its own mistakes. The Labour administration had instead given three different versions of what happened in 24 hours in an attempt to keep the facts concealed from the independent media... Читать дальше...

Photos taken by a NASA spacecraft in July 2015 suggest that Pluto's biggest moon, Charon, once had a subsurface ocean. Its outer layer could have been warm enough to cause the ice to melt deep down, creating a subsurface ocean. But as the moon cooled over time, the ocean would have frozen and expanded, producing the chasms. The side viewed by the probe has a system of tectonic faults, including ridges more than 6.5 km deep.

A 47-year-old man entrusted with delivering bread to a warehouse has been remanded in custody after he was accused of stealing money and cigarettes from the warehouse. John Bugeja, from Ghasri, was employed with a baker who had an agreement to deliver fresh loaves of bread every morning to a warehouse. The accused was entrusted with the warehouse's key so that he could drop off the loaves every morning. However, one evening in November, the accused used the key to access the warehouse and made off... Читать дальше...

Michael Carrick has apologised to Manchester United fans after the team produced a performance in last night's Europa League defeat at FC Midtjylland for which he felt there could be "no excuses". The latest substandard display of United's increasingly troubled season saw them throw away the lead to go down 2-1 in the last-32, first-leg contest in Denmark - a result set to be looked back upon as one of the most embarrassing in their European history. Eight hundred Red Devils supporters made the trip... Читать дальше...