Weekly News highlights

Three Illegal immigrants who had been on hunger strike for ten days at Hal Far detention centre were taken to hospital yesterday week. Two were returned to the centre on Sunday.

The migrants were on hunger strike to protest against prolonged detention.

Inquiry links stuntman's death with set injury

A magisterial inquiry linked the death of George Camilleri - a 39-year-old film extra who died during the filming of Troy last year - to an injury sustained during shooting.

He was admitted to hospital suffering from a trauma to the left ankle, but was discharged on a crutch five days later, on June 6. He was readmitted to hospital on June 15 suffering from chest pain and shortage of breath. He died two days later.

Drop in new registered vehicles

January 2004 saw the registration of 577 new vehicles compared to 1,098 in January 2000. There were 718 new vehicles registered in January 2001, 680 in January 2002 and 619 in January 2003.

New regulations for vehicle disposal and packaging waste

New regulations impose costs on suppliers and distributors for the disposal of end-of-life vehicles, which will probably be reflected on car prices. If a person brought a vehicle from abroad, he would be considered as the importer and would have to foot the cost of disposal.

Around 4,500 cars come to the end of their usable life every year.

In another legal notice, also announced on Monday, the production of packaging waste should be prevented and recycling increased through the application of the "polluter pays" principal.

Bid to keeph Air Malta flying

The government will inject Lm30 million into Air Malta over the next five or six years, aiming to help the national airline stand on its own feet. Government will plough back the money from the sale of the company's subsidiaries.

The government is also taking on itself a provisional loss of Lm14 million for AzzurrAir and Air Malta will not be injecting any more capital into this company.

€960,000 in EU funds for flood damage

Malta will recieve Lm417,000 in compensation from the EU for the damage caused by the floods last September, the college of commissioners decided on Tuesday. This was part of€21.9 million that will be used for reimbursing the cost of emergency measures, such as rescue services, providing for temporary accommodations, energy and water, and repairs to the basic infrastructure.

The rest of the money will be allotted to France for the Rhône river valley flooding on December 1, and to Spain for the forest fires in August.

Shipyards' loss Lm3m over projections

Malta Shipyards Ltd has incurred losses amounting to an estimated Lm3 million over the projections for the first two months of year, industry sources said on Thursday.

Smoking ban postponed

The ban on smoking for bars and restaurants has been postponed by six months to a year. Bars and restaurant measuring over 60 m2 have up to six months to designate specific smoking areas.

Establishments under 60 m2 would be given up to April 2005 to install air purification equipment according to the criteria established by the Malta Standards Authority.

GRTU - Malta Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises director general Vincent Farrugia yesterday requested the article intended for today's issue to be withdrawn.