Weekly News highlights

Herbert Vella, 22, of St Paul's Bay, and his cousin Patrick Cauchi, 20, of Mellieha, died in a horrific accident on the Rabat Road in Attard on Tuesday night, when their car burst into flames.

Antoine, Herbert's younger brother, was a passenger in the front seat of the Alfa 155 which was being driven by Herbert. Antoine, 18, miraculously escaped with cuts and bruises after he was dragged out of the car through the window by mobile squad police just before the Alfa burst into flames.

The Alfa caught fire shortly after it was involved in a collision with a minibus going in the opposite direction along the stretch of road between Mount Carmel Hospital and the Ta' Qali roundabout. The driver of the minibus, Carmel Cilia, 39, of Qormi, was seriously injured.

Man killed in boat accident

Anthony Ciappara, 28, of St Paul's Bay, was killed in a boat accident in Gnejna Bay on Tuesday.

Anthony was with a group of friends at a barbecue at Gnejna Bay. He went out to sea in a dinghy with his 24-year-old friend Reuben Bugeja, of Mosta. Eyewitnesses said that on their way to shore the motor of the 16-foot dinghy became entangled with the rope of a buoy. The dinghy ground to a complete halt and the two men were thrown into the sea. Reuben dragged his friend into the dinghy and drove to shore. Anthony died ten minutes later.

An autopsy later established that Anthony died from drowning and a fractured skull.

Nine months jail for indecent assault

Emmanuel Testa, a 57-year-old bus ticketing inspector from Marsa, on Tuesday was jailed for nine months for trying to molest a 14-year-old girl from St Venera, while on a bus in St Julian's the previous Friday evening. He pleaded guilty to attempted violent and indecent assault.

Lm7,000 stolen in Paola hold-up

About Lm7,000 were stolen in a hold-up on a store in Paola on Thursday night.

The owner and some employees of Freedor Co. were closing the store, in Addolorata Road, when they were approached by four or five armed and hooded men.

The men threatened the owner and an employee and ordered them to open the safe. When the owner told them there was no safe, they entered the office and took money from there. They then locked the owner and his employees inside the store and got away.

35 years for killing elderly neighbour

Mario Pollacco, 38, of Msida, was jailed for 35 years on Friday for the murder of an 82-year-old neighbour, Rose Mary Schembri, at her house in 1998, in the stiffest jail term ever handed down for willful homicide bar life sentences.

Jurors returned an 8-1 guilty verdict for willful homicide. He was also found guilty, by six votes to three, of aggravated theft for which the maximum jail term according to the prosecution was nine years taking into consideration that jurors also found him guilty of relapsing on both counts, by his admission.

In handing down sentence, Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono said that he felt he had to address the fact that this type of crime, on elderly and vulnerable victims, was becoming a frequent occurrence.

June warmer than usual

The weather last week was slightly above the average for the month of June - 27.5°C.

On Thursday the temperature was over three degrees more than the average at 31°C, while on Tuesday it rose five degrees above the average, the Meteorological Office said.

Prehistoric site discovered at Xaghra

The Museums Department last week confirmed the discovery of a prehistoric site in Gozo, located in the district of Tas-Srug on the Xaghra plateau. The visible remains suggest that it is an early neolithic site with its origins dating to around 5,200 BC, if not slightly earlier.

Pembroke golf course proposal refused

An application for an outline development permit for a golf course in Pembroke was refused by the board of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority at a public meeting at the MEPA offices in Floriana on Friday.

The 18-hole golf course required about 150 tumoli of land. The application was submitted by John Ellul Vincenti on behalf of Carmel Golf Club Ltd.

The MEPA directorate said that the area earmarked by the developers had ecological value and scientific interest where further human intervention, particularly in the form proposed, was not desirable. The development would adversely affect and to a large extent destroy the Grade one listed Pembroke rifle ranges. Furthermore, the golf course would require the movement of large quantities of soil.