Malta’s civil service dealt with 50 fires a week this summer

Aug 18 2021

The Civil Protection Department has answered around 513 calls of countryside or rubbish dump fires between the 1st of June and 10th of August. Despite on a smaller scale when compared to the massive international fires ravaging Europe, 112 has reported a significant increase in such cases.

Television Malta was informed by the Department’s Chief Assistance and Rescue Officer Kevin Pace how the number of fires reported this year is average, with the past six months’ average standing at 543.

Pace also revealed how despite some of these fires being accidental, many of them are because of irresponsibility. Dumping combustable material in grass and then igniting fires with the dry grass serves as field, with BBQs being the major source of such fires.

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Photo Source: Steve Zammit Lupi FB

82 COVID-19 cases registered overnight with 71 recoveries

54 COVID-19 cases registered with 57 recoveries

Aug 18 2021

Malta has registered 82 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours from 3,192 swab tests, while 71 patients have recovered. No deaths were registered in the past 24 hours. This information was announced by the official Facebook page of Malta’s Ministry for Health.

As of Monday Tuesday 17th August 2021, 787,194 vaccine doses were administered of which 409,095 were 1st doses. 406,325 people are currently fully vaccinated.

To date, Malta has registered 35,516 COVID-19 cases in total, of which: 34,072 have recovered, 433 died and 615 are still active.

Mater Dei Hospital is currently treating a total of 37 COVID-19 positive patients, one of whom is in the ITU.

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Afghanistan female footballers make cry for help

Aug 18 2021

Ever since USA President Joe Biden withdrew American soldiers from Afghanistan, all hell has broken loose as the Taliban, a terroristic, militant group has regained and taken over Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital city. Women in Afghanistan who over the last 20 years have been experiencing freedom, will again be treated like they are not human, even major sport athletes like the Afghani women’s football national team.

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A post shared by Khalida Popal (@khalidagirlpower)

Former Afghani footballer and now human rights activist Khalida Popal has recently come out to the world. She admitted that she has received a number of emotional phone calls from other female football players asking for advice. Her advice to them was to try and leave, she also told AP that her other advice was “I have been encouraging to take down social media channels, take down photos, escape and hide themselves,”.

Khalida is currently living in Denmark after she successfully sought asylum in the Nordic country. Khalida was fundamental in the progression of women’s football in Afghanistan. It was because of her that plans to form an official national team started and those plans were finished in 2007 when the national team was officially formed. She didn’t play for long, as after only 4 years of playing she became director of the Afghanistan Football Association. During this job, she received numerous death threats as she admitted to hating the Taliban on national TV “I was calling Taliban our enemy”. This led her to go to Denmark, but even there she still defends Afghani women and their rights.

She also told AP what she knows about these footballers “They are hiding away. Most of them left their houses to go to relatives and hide because their neighbours know they are (football) players. They are sitting, they are afraid. The Taliban is all over. They are going around creating fear.” Let’s hope that all these problems in Afghanistan can be resolved quickly and that all women regain their natural rights.

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Prosecutors requesting life prison sentence for Yorgen Fenech

Aug 18 2021

Attorney General has filed a Bill of Indictment against Yorgen Fenech as he stands charged with masterminding late journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination. With prosecutors requesting a life sentence, deputy attorney general Philip Galea Farrugia unveiled how the Bill of Indictment had been filed during a sitting due to hear submissions on Fenech’s request for bail.

With an ongoing sitting, lawyers representing the accused submitted a bail application on Monday before the criminal court. They argued for the client’s continued detention was no longer justifiable as the compilation of evidence against him had reached an advanced stage. There exists no fear of him tampering with evidence, they argued, with lawyers pointing to a legal provision which states that an accused must be released on bail if the compilation exceeds 20 months. This is a developing story.

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Photo Source: France 24