Spanish police seize €29 million of stuffed endangered animals

Apr 11 2022

Spanish police have captured a haul of hundreds of stuffed animals which belong to endangered and protected species, amounting to €29 million.

Authorities have described the haul as one of the largest and most expensive to ever be confiscated in Europe.

Two people, codenamed Valcites, are being formally investigated as part of an ongoing operation, authorities confirmed. The suspects have not been named although they did confirm one was confirmed as a well-known businessman.

A total of 1,090 stuffed animals were found, 405 of which are supposedly covered by CITES, which is the treaty to protect endangered animals. Even extinct species formed part of the collection.

Among the animals were a snow leopard, a Bengal tiger and a scimitar oryx. 200 large elephant ivory tusks were found, as well as a cheetah, lion, play bear and white rhinoceros. The search and confiscation operation was carried out on a plot of land believed to be where the businessman lives.

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PN members won’t vote if Bernard Grech sole leader contestant

Apr 11 2022

Members of the Nationalist Party will not have a vote in the upcoming Opposition leadership election if Bernard Grech is the only candidate.

According to the party statute, Grech will only need a simple majority in the PN’s general council if he runs on his own. The council is made up of more than 1,600 party delegates (councillors) from the party’s various structures.

Predecessor Adrian Delia has ruled out leadership, with Joe Giglio and Mark Anthony Sammut also ruling it out as well. This makes Grech the only person in the party to announce contestation for the leadership.

If only one person runs for the post, members will not get the chance to vote and the decision will be limited to councillors.

If more than two candidates contest, a secret vote will be held in the general council to trim the list down. The top two candidates will face off in an election among party members whereas if if only two candidates contest, the decision will be taken directly by the membership base.

Two years ago, during the leadership race, Grech obtained 69.3% of the members’ vote against Adrian Delia. Grech obtained 12,663 votes against Delia’s 5,622, with 77 invalid votes.

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Manchester City against Liverpool ends in dramatic draw

Apr 10 2022

Manchester City versus Liverpool has ended in a dramatic 2-2 draw. The game was played in the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, and lived up to the massive expectations the game had before any ball was kicked.

The game started with Manchester City trying to control the ball and Liverpool trying to make the game more physical with various long passes from center backs Virgil Van Dijk and Joel Matip. In only the fifth minute the first goal of the game came from Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne who scored from distance after a quick freekick.

After the goal Liverpool woke up and immediately took the sting out of the game making the game and themselves calmer with a long passage of play that ultimately led to a well worked equalizer from Diogo Jota in the thirteenth minute. The game was very tight after both goals but it was Manchester City that looked the most confident. City striker Gabriel Jesus managed to convert a beautiful cross from Cancelo in the thirty sixth minute to give the champions the lead before the first half ended.

Liverpool entered the second half searching for a goal and their search didn’t last long with Mohammed Salah and Sadio Mane linking up in the forty sixth minute to score the all important equalizer. The game ended with both teams searching for a crucial winner but no able to actually finish the job. This leaves Manchester City only one point above Liverpool with only a few games to go.

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Gozo Minister stands ground on promise to hunters despite EU rules breach

Apr 10 2022

With today being the first official day of the spring hunting season, Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri took to Facebook to share a couple of points regarding hunting in Malta.

Camilleri highlighted that quail hunting season opens today and is possible until the end of April while turtle dove hunting will be allowed in Malta from the 17th to the 30th of April. The Minister held that the spring season is limited to a number of afternoons, with a number of derogations respecting the 2015 referendum and the European Court sentence stating that Autumn is not an alternative to Spring.

The Minister stood by his promise to support hunters, stating that they will act as promised and claim “what is rightfully [theirs]”.

Meanwhile, BirdLife Malta have filed a judicial protest with regards to turtle dove hunting, stating that it is incompatible with EU directives on wildlife conservation and thus, cannot be used for the issuing of a derogation.

In March, The Malta Ornis Committee, responsible for advisory with regards to wildlife conservation, voted to lift the turtle dove hunting moratorium, which was enforced in 2017 after the European Commission threatened with legal action if the process was to continue.

What do you make of this?

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