Новости за 27.05.2021

Destiny Chukunyere's manager has questioned the motivation behind the "drama" over the Eurovision Song Contest spend, after concerns the budget could have been used to inflate Malta's odds with bookmakers. Times of Malta revealed that an investigation is to be launched into whether taxpayers funds were used to place bets on the performer. More than €650,000 was spent on promoting the entry. Howard Keith Debono questioned the focus on the "light-hearted TV show" and suggested it showed a lack of support for the 18-year-old singer. Читать дальше...

Massimiliano Allegri is set for a shock return to Juventus as reports said he has agreed terms with the former Italian champions to replace Andrea Pirlo at the helm of the Serie A club. Juventus are coming from a disappointing campaign by their standards as they finished fourth in the Italian Serie A and were ousted in the Last 16 of the Champions League by Porto. Their only satisfaction was the fact that they won the Coppa Italia and the Italian Super Cup. But that failed to placate criticism... Читать дальше...

Malta has recorded four new cases as the island reaches more milestones in its fight to contain COVID-19. After eight recoveries and no new deaths, there are currently 65 active cases of the virus in the country.  The new COVID-19 cases were reported on Thursday as the health minister announced that the number of vaccination jabs will reach 500,000 within hours.   Malta has also been placed on a ‘green list’ for low case numbers compiled by the European Centre of Disease Prevention and Control. Читать дальше...

A Punic tomb dating back over 2,000 years has been unearthed near Żejtun by workers of the Water Services Corporation. The corporation said the sealed tomb was opened, revealing a number of urns containing the cremated remains of human bones. It appeared that an adult and a young child were buried there, based on the bones discovered so far. An amphora, two urns, an oil lamp, a glass perfume bottle and other pottery typically of the Punic period were found. The material is being removed from the tomb and transported to a laboratory... Читать дальше...

A judge has put off the 2010 HSBC failed heist case indefinitely on grounds that the court still had to hear a new "witness or witnesses" testify about the crime.  Vince Muscat, known as il-Koħħu, and Darren Debono, known as it-Topo, are waiting for their trial over their alleged involvement in the failed 2010 heist. The two, along with Fabio Psaila, are believed to have broken into the bank headquarters in Qormi, before the police scuppered their plans.  The unexpected legal twist surfaced on... Читать дальше...

Auto manufacturers were cautiously navigating a landscape of tenuous global demand before coronavirus pandemic concerns disrupted worldwide production and upset supply and demand. Indeed, the impact on consumption was severe. However, robust balance sheets allowed most automakers to navigate a difficult 2020 safely. Ensuing such challenging period for auto manufacturers, 2021 has thus far proved optimistic.  Total vehicles sales in China increased 8.6 per cent year-on-year to 2.25 million units in April 2021... Читать дальше...

The EU is intent on making Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko pay a high price for the forced landing of a European airliner to arrest regime opponents, the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told AFP.   "The heads of state and government asked us on Monday (at a summit) to propose sectoral economic sanctions, something that we are not used to doing in the EU, and there are some that immediately come to mind," Borrell said in an interview Wednesday in Lisbon on the eve of an informal meeting of foreign ministers. Читать дальше...

A California judge has ruled that a custody order concerning Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's children must be modified in his favour, according to court documents filed by the Fight Club actor's lawyers. Superstars Pitt and Jolie, who have six children and were once Hollywood's highest-profile couple, formally divorced two years ago but have remained locked in a private court battle since. The pair announced in 2018 they had reached an amicable settlement over the children – three biological and three adopted ... Читать дальше...

A woman who has played the same Super 5 lottery numbers for some 30 years only discovered she had won the May 12 jackpot last week when she called at her local lotto office to buy the usual ticket. Maltco said it was one of its agents in Żejtun who delivered the good news to the regular client, a pensioner with all her five numbers having been drawn. She rushed home and shared the news with another relative who had also been betting on the same numbers for many years.   They claimed their prize from Maltco offices on Wednesday... Читать дальше...

Lawyers Noel Bartolo, Leonard Caruana, Lara Lanfranco and Elaine Mercieca are to be appointed magistrates, the Office of the President announced on Thursday. It follows a list of nominations for the post sent to the president by the Judicial Appointments Committee. A public call for applications had been issued by the Justice Ministry and 28 applications were received by the committee.   Each was evaluated by the committee with a shortlist of suitable candidates sent to the Office of the President with a recommendation for the appointments. Читать дальше...

A website dedicated to well-known De La Salle brother Louis Camilleri has been launched on the 10th anniversary of his death. It is the work of The Core Group, which five years ago was assigned to coordinate the promotion of the veneration of Bro. Louis as prescribed by the Church to initiate the process for canonisation.  Bro. Louis taught at De La Salle and Stella Maris colleges and was later provincial of the brothers in Malta.  In the last years of his life, he established the local branch of the Signum Fidei Association... Читать дальше...

Malta has demonstrated “significant progress” in fighting money-laundering and terrorism financing, an assessment by Moneyval has found. The Council of Europe anti-money laundering body said on Thursday that Malta has succeeded to meet general expectations after a raft of deficiencies were first identified by Moneyval in 2019.  The country has achieved full compliance with twelve of the 40 recommendations on how to improve its anti-money laundering regime, its report said.  Malta retains minor... Читать дальше...

A genitourinary medicine clinic has been opened at Gozo General Hospital by Steward Health Care. The clinic will operate on Friday afternoons on a fortnightly basis and offer services aimed at the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and infections (commonly referred to as STD’s and STI’s respectively) as part of the national health service. Gozo General Hospital executive director Joseph Fenech said that the clinic is part of Steward Health Care’s drive towards providing... Читать дальше...

HSBC announced on Wednesday that it is exiting the retail and small business banking market in the United States, in line with its strategy to refocus on corporate and investment banking in Asia. The London-headquartered, Asia-focused giant intends to “focus on the banking and wealth management needs of globally connected affluent and high net worth clients,” it said in a statement. Of its 148 US branches, 90 are to be sold, including to Citizens Bank and Cathay General Bancorp. The bank plans... Читать дальше...

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said “one kick” was the difference after his side slumped to a surprise Europa League final defeat by Villarreal on Wednesday. The Premier League giants remain without a major trophy in four years after losing 11-10 on penalties following a 1-1 draw in Gdansk, with goalkeeper David de Gea missing the final spot-kick. “It’s quiet, a disappointed dressing room. That’s football for you. Sometimes it’s decided on one kick – and that’s the difference between... Читать дальше...

  Scientists in Germany say they have found the cause of rare blood clots linked to the Oxford/AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines and believe the jabs could be tweaked to stop the reaction happening altogether, the Financial Times has reported.  It quotes Rolf Marschalek, a professor at Goethe university in Frankfurt as saying that his research showed the problem was the adenovirus vectors that both vaccines use to deliver the genetic instructions for the spike protein of the Sars-Cov-2 virus into the body. Читать дальше...

The 72nd edition of the national league was one of the most memorable in the history of the competition. It was certainly one of the most interesting campaigns of the post-war era. Every match was vital and as the competition progressed, seven of the eight Premier clubs were involved in both the race for the championship and in the relegation battle. In the end, only four points separated the champions from the relegated team. That season apart from Ta’ Qali, four matches out of 52 were played at Marsa... Читать дальше...

Jean Paul Gaultier is returning to ready-to-wear fashion, six years after he stopped designing off-the-peg clothes to focus on haute couture, the house said on Wednesday. The "enfant terrible" of French fashion bowed out after five decades in the business with a final Paris haute couture show 16 months ago. The house still bears his name and is owned by Barcelona-based Puig and will work with rotating teams of young collaborators for new collections.  The first collection – which reinterprets his trademark striped sailor tops ... Читать дальше...

Five million people in Melbourne were ordered into a snap week-long lockdown Thursday, with officials blaming Australia's sluggish vaccine rollout and hotel quarantine failures for yet another virus outbreak in the country's second-biggest city. Facing a cluster of 26 cases linked to the "highly infectious" Indian strain of Covid-19, authorities issued stay-at-home orders for Melbourne and surrounding Victoria state from midnight. It is the fourth time Melbourne has been plunged into lockdown since the pandemic began... Читать дальше...

Asian markets were mixed on Thursday as investors took a breather following a recent run-up, while optimism about the global recovery remains shackled by concerns that a surge in inflation will force central banks to rein in monetary policy earlier than flagged. The rollout of vaccines, reopening of economies, trillions of dollars in stimulus and central bank largesse have combined to fuel a rally in world equities since their pandemic-induced collapse at the start of last year. And while that enormous splurge appears to have paid off... Читать дальше...