“We need you”; Politicians unite in Scicluna praise after he announces retirement from politics

"We need you"; Politicians unite in Oliver Scicluna praise after he announces retirement from politics

Apr 8 2022

Prominent voices from all across the political spectrum have joined forces to call for Oliver Scicluna to stay in politics after the young MP announced his retirement from politics on Thursday.

In a recently-published Facebook post, Scicluna stated that he looks forward to the future before going on to congratulate the newly-elected MPs. Scicluna was co-opted to Robert Abela’s Parliament back in January 2021 and was not elected on either district in the 2022 election, missing out on casual elections to Glenn Bedingfield on the second district and Katya De Giovanni on the fourth district.

The highly-respected former MP’s posted was flooded with hundreds of comments calling for Scicluna to stay in politics. Amongst them, Ministers Byron Camilleri & Miriam Dalli, Labour MEP Agius Saliba, Labour Deputy Leader Daniel Micallef and the PN’s Kristy Debono, Alan Abela-Wadge and many others. Micallef said that he will do everything in his power to convince him to remain in politics as he believes in his qualities and values – a role at the Labour Party may also be up for grabs.

Local media personality Peppi Azzopardi also suggested that Scicluna becomes the Speaker of the Parliament, with others disagreeing because the young politician has so much more to offer.

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Malta reimbursed €14 million for COVID-19 vaccines by European Union

Apr 8 2022

Malta has been reimbursed with nearly €14 million in funds for a portion of the COVID-19 vaccines procured by the country up until mid-November 2021.

An official statement by a commission representative revealed that the grant was worth €13,810,622. Until May 2021, the Maltese government had spent close to €100 million on vaccine procurement, with Malta being one of the countries pushing for European Commission joint procurement, which also considered funding for vaccine development.

The report unveiled that Malta administered at least 1,233,948 doses, due to little vaccine scepticism and high vaccine availability.

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5-month-old baby Chayan dies only days after being blessed by Pope Francis

Apr 8 2022

Five-month-old baby Chayan has sadly passed away, only days after being blessed by Pope Francis on his meeting with vulnerable individuals in Rabat’s St. Paul’s Basilica on Sunday.

His mother, Valerie Ciantar, told tvmnews.mt that their angel Chayan had a heart condition. “Our baby has finally found peace. We’d like to thank everyone who was supportive during the past weeks and we ask for your prayers”, she said.

Despite medical professionals advising the Ciantar family that Chayan only had a few days, the baby lived for more than five months, long enough to meet Pope Francis and get his blessing.

The baby’s mother went on to say that “it’s a miracle and the Lord really exists”, stating that it is with God’s strength that Chayan could meet the Pope. His funeral will be held on Saturday at the Isla Basilica and those attending have been requested to wear coloured clothes.

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A record breaking 800kg of cocaine intercepted by Malta Customs

Apr 7 2022

Malta Customs has, once again, succeeded in blocking a huge amount of cocaine from reaching the streets. Due to high purity, the street value of the cocaine intercepted is estimated at 108.2 million euro.

In a long operation, that spanned from Wednesday morning till late Thursday afternoon, Customs Officials, stationed at the Freeport Scanning facility, intercepted and seized a record breaking 800kg of cocaine hidden in a 40ft reefer container.

The container was selected by the Customs Container Monitoring Unit following intelligence received and a meticulous risk assessment on containers transiting through Malta’s Freeport. The container was then screened, along several other containers, by Customs officials stationed at the Scanning Facility and flagged some discrepancies in scan.

The cargo was en-route from the port of Turbo, in Columbia, to the port of Mersin, in Turkey, with a refrigerated payload of 1,200 boxes of bananas. The Officials, together with members from the Malta Police Drug Squad who were called on scene, opened the reefer and started physically inspecting all the boxes and, subsequently, elevated 800 packets of a white substance hidden in 26 boxes which gave a positive indication for high purity cocaine.

The packets carried a net weight of 1kg each and were concealed within the boxes of fruit. However, the difference in density and consistency was immediately flagged by the scanning officials.

Last year, in a similar bust, the Customs Department made a record breaking haul of 740 packages, totaling at 740kg of cocaine, worth 100 million euro, also hidden in boxes of banana.

Today’s seizure is historical both in its size and in its street value, which has been estimated at 108.2 million euro.

The Customs Department has been breaking its cocaine seizure records, year on year, with 2019 recording a total of 750kg (in 13 separate seizures), 2020: 612kg (in 1 seizure), 2021:740kg (in 1 seizure) and 2022: 800kg (in 1 seizure) .

The case was handed over to the Malta Police Drug Force, for further investigation, and duty Magistrate Marsianne Farrugia is leading the inquiry.

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