Domestic violence reports doubled after Bernice Cassar murder, minister reveals

Dec 10 2022

During an event held towards the end of the 16 days of activism against domestic violence, Minister for Home Affairs Byron Camilleri revealed that domestic violence reports doubled after the murder of Bernice Cassar.

One of the biggest concerns emerging from the University of Malta’s Faculty for Social Wellbeing’s research was that a court decision takes an average of 97 weeks to be made, potentially putting those involved at risk.

Between 2016 and 2020, 55 cases were taken to court, with 11 resulting in a prison sentence, 11 being served a suspended sentence, 7 given a probation order and another 7 ordered treatment. Six cases were given conditional release, 16 were released on a personal guarantee, one case was given a sentence of community service and another 8 were given fines.

Dr. Lydia Abela, who commissioned the study, stated that the research will give a clearer picture of the ‘who’ and ‘how’ of domestic violence in Malta and why people are failing victim to such abuse.

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Passenger traffic through Malta Airport registers recovery of 88% in November

Dec 10 2022

Malta International Airport’s November traffic amounted to 433,621 passengers. This total translates to a recovery of 87.9 per cent of pre-pandemic traffic, which is the strongest recovery rate Malta International Airport has registered so far.

The number of seats available on flights to and from Malta International Airport remained at 19.9 per cent below 2019 levels. On the other hand, the seat load factor (SLF) gained 7.7 percentage points, reaching an all-time high occupancy rate for November of 85.8 per cent.

Malta International Airport’s top five markets remained unchanged from October, with Italy topping the leaderboard for the ninth consecutive month. In contrast with previous months which had seen Italy register growth over pre-pandemic numbers, in November, the Italian market suffered a drop of 8.2 per cent in passenger numbers which was mainly due to a decrease in seat capacity.

Italy was followed by the United Kingdom and Germany, both of which continued to recover at a slow pace. France and Poland, which ranked fourth and fifth, registered growth of 33.8 per cent and 39.8 per cent respectively compared to 2019 levels.

The Polish market achieved a high seat load factor (SLF) of 91 per cent despite an increase in seat capacity over 2019, and was one of five markets in the top 10 drivers of passenger traffic for November to exceed the 90 per cent mark.

The airport’s winter schedule officially came into effect in November, with one of the highlights for the month being the return of Air Serbia following the airline’s temporary suspension of services at the onset on the pandemic.

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PL & PN MPs team up for a good cause

Dec 10 2022

PL and PN Members of Parliament have teamed up to raise funds for Puttinu Cares.

The activity took place at the National Sports School in Pembroke.

MPs from both sides of Parliament, collaborated with the Malta Futsal and Malta Netball Association, and played separate games of the sport.

At the end of the event, Puttinu Cares where presented with multiple sport items to be used for an auction.

The items include official signed merchandise of Barcelona, Inter, Tottenham Hotspur and Ireland.

Visit our Instagram to view more photos of the event.

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Croatia beat Brazil on penalties to progress to semi final

Dec 9 2022

Croatia have narrowly beaten Brazil with the help of a penalty shootout to reach the World Cup semi final.

The 90 minutes between the two countries was very close with both having chances that they could have scored from. The Croatian defence especially keeper Dominik Livaković shone throughout the two halves saving multiple shots from the Brazilian attackers including talisman Neymar Jr.

The opening goal finally came in the last minute of the first half of extra time when Brazilian superstar and leader Neymar Jr managed to dribble past Livaković and blast the ball in the back of the net. The goal was also important as it was his record equaling goal to join Pele as Brazil’s top goalscorer.

To everyone’s surprise Croatia managed to score an unlikely equalizer late on in the 117th minute to give hope back to every Croatian supporter in the stadium and back home.

The game had to be decided on a penalty shootout and it was Brazil that came up on top.

Croatia will now turn their attention to the semi finals where they will face one of Argentina or Holland.

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