Новости за 28.12.2017

Updated 9.10pm The president of a Malta-based company seeking to purchase flight routes to and from the airport of a regional capital in central Italy has been arrested by Italian police. Italian media reported that the 38-year-old, from Parma, was arrested by Modena's Guardia di Finanza in an anti-money laundering operation codenamed ‘Last Drink’, which followed another operation, ‘Barqueiro’. 'F.C' is believed to have worked together with a partner from Reggiano but who lives in Portugal. The Reggiano man... Читать дальше...

Updated 9.15pm Former football star George Weah has defeated Vice President Joseph Boakai to win Liberia's presidential run-off election and succeed incumbent Ellen Johnson Sirleaf next month, the country's first democratic transition in over 70 years. With 98.1 percent of the vote counted, Weah led with 61.5 percent to Boakai's 38.5 percent, National Election Commission Chairman Jerome Korkoyah told reporters in the capital Monrovia on Thursday. At his party headquarters outside Monrovia, tears... Читать дальше...

Former soccer star George Weah has defeated vice president Joseph Boakai to win Liberia's presidential election run-off with 61.5% of the vote, based on 98.1% of ballots cast, the election commission said on Thursday. The announcement by commission chairman Jerome Korkoyah means Weah will succeed Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as Liberia's president next month, in what will be the country's first democratic transition since 1944.

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked. “Oh, you can’t help that,” replied the Cat. “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” “How do you know I’m mad?” Alice asked. “You must be... or you wouldn’t have come here,” said the Cat. That must be why Masquerade chose Alice in Wonderland for their traditional Christmas panto at the newly refurbished Manoel Theatre in Valletta. The theatre company, celebrating its 20th anniversary, decided to trace Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in... Читать дальше...

Former Milan coach Vincenzo Montella has agreed to take over at Sevilla, the LaLiga club have announced.  The ex-Italy international will sign a contract to become Sevilla head coach until June 2019 once his deal at AC Milan is terminated on Friday. Montella, who has also taken charge of Fiorentina and Sampdoria in Serie A, was sacked by Milan in November following a poor run of results. The Italian will take over from Eduardo Berizzo, who lost his job as head coach almost a month after undergoing surgery for prostate cancer... Читать дальше...

There is nothing remarkable with exchanging gifts at Christmas time... unless it happens on prime time television and the protagonists are the country’s political leaders. That is bound to get the attention of the press. But it didn’t.  A shame, really for that gift exchange said a lot about the current political situation, and what lies ahead. On Xarabank, Adrian Delia gave Joseph Muscat a cookery book. Muscat gave Delia a bold red tie. But it was the cookery book which won the day. It caught the Prime Minister by surprise ... Читать дальше...

The first of Din l-Art Ħelwa’s cultural presentations for 2018 will be on the historic Villa Saint Ignatius in Balluta. Architect Edward Said, who specialises in heritage buildings, will explain the historic and architectural value of the building which is steeped in history. In the first decades of the 19th century, Balluta Bay was a remote, idyllic cove. Fields and quiet country lanes met the coastline then fortified by the entrenchment built during the reign of Grand Master Pinto. Dominating... Читать дальше...

Tel Aviv residents have built a world record-contending, 36-metre plastic brick tower, featuring more than 500,000 pieces, to honour a young cancer victim in the Israeli city. The multi-coloured 'Omer Tower', named after eight-year-old Lego fan Omer Sayag, was completed using cranes in Rabin Square on Wednesday after more than a fortnight's construction work by thousands of residents. There was no Guinness World Records adjudicator on site to measure the 'Omer Tower', meaning Tel Aviv must wait for... Читать дальше...

A Gambian national who was last year jailed for six months for stealing an iPad and being in possession of cannabis will be returning to prison after he was on Thursday convicted of stealing a mobile phone and behaving indecently in public. Osman Jarju pleaded guilty to stealing a Sony mobile phone from a woman in Swieqi in the early hours of December 4. On the same day, he also committed an act against public decency or morals. The man was also charged with being a relapser. Taking into consideration... Читать дальше...

An undeclared sum of €16,500 and 2,397 Singaporean dollars were found by Customs officials on an airport passenger arriving from Istanbul. Customs Department said in a statement its officers stopped a Singapore national who passed through the nothing to declare channel and his luggage was passed through the X-ray machine and flagged as suspicious. The money was found following a search on the passenger and his luggage. A total of €10,000 were returned to the passenger while the remaining sum is being withheld pending investigations. Читать дальше...

€16,500 and 2,397 Singaporean dollars were found by Customs officials on an airport passenger arriving from Istanbul. The cash was undeclared. Customs Department said in a statement its officers stopped a Singapore national who passed through the nothing to declare channel and his luggage was passed through the x-ray machine and flagged as suspicious. The money was found following a search on the passenger and his luggage. €10,000 were returned to the passenger while the remaining sum is being withheld pending investigations. Читать дальше...

Charlo Bonnici has replaced Chris Scicluna on the Broadcasting Authority board, the government said. The board is now composed of Mr Bonnici, Frans Ghirxi, Peter Fenech, and Alessandro Lia. The members were appointed for two years with effect from next January 1. The authority is chaired Martin Micallef, whose term expires in April 2019.

New regulations have been introduced with the aim of strengthening the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure required for major developments. The new rules, published by the government last week, transpose an EU directive from 2014 and introduce new topics including human health, climate change, and vulnerability to major accidents or disasters into the assessment process. They also aim to make EIA reports more understandable to the public, particularly with regards to assessments of the... Читать дальше...

Pelicans 128, Nets 113 Anthony Davis scored a team-high 33 points, DeMarcus Cousins had 27 points and 14 rebounds, and Rajon Rondo dished out a career-high 25 assists to power the New Orleans Pelicans to a 128-113 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night at the Smoothie King Center. Jrue Holiday added 23 points and E'Twaun Moore had 20 for the Pelicans, who won their third consecutive game. The Nets lost for the seventh time in eight games. Brooklyn was led by Caris LeVert with 22 points. Читать дальше...

An air strike in Somalia has killed four members of the al-Shabab extremist group and destroyed a vehicle carrying explosives near the capital, the US military said. The air strike, about 25 kilometres west of Mogadishu, prevented the bomb from being used against residents of the capital, the statement from the US Africa Command said. Al-Shabab was blamed for a massive truck bombing in Mogadishu in October that killed 512 people. The US has carried out 35 drone strikes in Somalia this year against... Читать дальше...

Online shopping does not appear to have negatively affected Maltese businesses, with retailers reporting an increase in customers compared to last year’s Christmas season. The trend of buying online remains popular, to the extent that courier service DHL experienced delivery problems this Christmas, leaving some fearing gifts would not reach their loved ones in time. Both Maltapost and eCabs went to the assistance of DHL. However, retailers at Baystreet, the Embassy shopping complex in Valletta and... Читать дальше...

Vietnam's VietJet Aviation said on Thursday it was standing by a controversial "bikini" calendar, a marketing ploy featuring scantily clad female models that has prompted criticism in conservative Southeast Asia and beyond. The annual calendar, which has gone viral online, is part of a broader marketing push by VietJet that has propelled the start-up airline's rapid growth, as it has taken market share from Vietnam Airlines. The publication of the 2018 calendar - which critics say overly sexualises... Читать дальше...

What do you do when you need to go at 32,000 feet? If you were on a Ryanair flight to Riga on Thursday, the answer is...nothing. Two hours into the flight of 3.15 hours, the captain announced that owing to a technical problem, two of the plane's three toilets were not available. The third could not flush either. The captain asked passengers to refrain, unless it was urgent. Five minutes later, the seatbelt sign came on and passengers were told toilets were closed - an announcement later repeated three times. Читать дальше...

Jason Vella is to take over as Enemalta's chief executive fficer (CEO), effective from January 1, 2018. Inġ. Vella will be heading the Enemalta Board of Management in administering the company’s services and operations and in attaining the strategic objectives set by the Board of Directors. He will also be supporting Inġ. Fredrick Azzopardi, Enemalta plc’s chairman, who will continue to chair the Board of Directors and ensure the company’s long-term sustainability through increased efficiency, higher... Читать дальше...

A clutch of high-profile legal cases over responsibility for the effects of climate change will be fought out in courtrooms next year as claims stack up against both governments and some of the world's biggest oil and energy companies. Lawsuits in the United States brought by young activists and several Californian cities are most likely to make waves, but legal action by a Peruvian farmer in Germany and Greenpeace in Norway could also cause ripples, said lawyers and academics. "There is a trend towards more litigation around climate change... Читать дальше...

Orthographical and grammatical mistakes, a lack of creativity in essay writing, incorrect punctuation and poor analytical skills have once again marred students’ overall performance in the Maltese language Secondary Examination Certificate. Moreover, the poor linguistic skills used on social media, particularly Facebook, are taking their toll on the level of Maltese used by the 16-year-olds sitting for the SEC exam. These shortcomings were flagged in the examiners’ report issued in relation to last May’s session of the exam. Читать дальше...

This time last year we were forecasting a year that should have benefited the equity market. With only two days left, the chance of anything drastic happening is mostly diluted by the festive spirit, literally. We can thus safely review our current 2017 figures as probably being representative for the whole year. European equities have in fact been top performers. The Euro Stoxx 50 index, which reflects the performance of the largest 50 European companies, has increased by 11.5% since December 2016 when dividends are taken into account. Читать дальше...

Plans to add five storeys to the Fortina Hotel tower in Sliema and build a new 15-storey apartment block have been exempted from the need for an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA). The Environment and Resources Authority (ERA), which is assessing the application, said the proposal was “unlikely to result in environmental impacts that can be effectively addressed in an EIA”. Instead, the application will be assessed on the basis of a Project Description Statement submitted by the developers, which... Читать дальше...

From Yorgos Lanthimos, the director of The Lobster, comes the  thriller The Killing of a Sacred Deer, about a successful surgeon who opens the door to sinister events when he introduces a strange young man to his picture-perfect family. Medical power couple Dr Steven (Colin Farrell) and Anne Murphy (Nicole Kidman) are married with children and appear to be living the dream – but not all is what it seems under their roof. When an orphaned teenager, Martin (Barry Keoghan), walks into their life, that... Читать дальше...

Southampton defender Virgil van Dijk is joining Liverpool for a fee that is understood to be worth £75million. It is the highest price ever paid for a defender and guarantees the Dutchman a place in the top 10 of the world's most expensive deals. Here, Press Association Sport lists them. 1. Neymar, Barcelona to Paris St Germain, 2017, £200.6million 2. Ousmane Dembele, Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona, 2017, £96.8m 3. Paul Pogba, Juventus to Manchester United, 2016, £89m 4. Gareth Bale, Tottenham to Real Madrid... Читать дальше...