What made the headlines
Gozo sheep guards cost whopping €1.5m: The round-the-clock surveillance by police officers outside a sheep farm in Għarb has cost the exchequer a whopping €1.5 million, Times of Malta revealed. The police are there, by court order, to ensure the sheep and any of their products are not traded, due to fears they might be sick, pending the outcome of a long drawn-out legal battle. The sheep formed part of a larger flock before the authorities raided Ġianni Attard’s farm in November 2012 and culled 216 animals while he was under arrest in connection with the animals’ registration.
Over fifth of young people at risk of depression: One in every five youths in Malta aged between 18 and 24 is at risk of depression, a rate that is the third-highest in Europe. According to a recently-published report on the well-being of young people by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), an EU agency, 22 per cent of Malta’s youths fell into this category. Eurofound based its findings on a World Health Organisation measure of respondents’ self-reported mental well-being.
Summer carnival cancelled after tragic death: Former Progress Press employee Jean Paul Bonett died on Thursday after being electrocuted while working on a float. Affectionately known as ‘iċ-Chippy’, Mr Bonett was known for his life-long passion for carnival. After his death was announced the Ministry of Culture cancelled all the weekend’s carnival activities.
Mould outbreak at new National Art Museum: Valletta’s new National Museum for Contemporary Art, known as MUŻA, has been infested with mould, forcing the temporary removal of various works of art, Times of Malta revealed. MUŻA was inaugurated last December following a €10 million investment from national and EU funds. MUŻA sources said that although the new building has been armed with expensive climate control systems, it seems that humidity levels were not being monitored. The day after Times of Malta broke the story the newspaper revealed that the museum was opened prematurely amid a potential mould outbreak warning and against internal advice by Heritage Malta senior officials.
FBI watched Malta ‘months’ before BOV hacking: A diplomatic cable sent by the US Justice Department to the Maltese government the day after BOV temporarily went offline last February details how a North Korean group known as Lazarus was the most likely culprit. The cable, seen by Times of Malta said the FBI had already been monitoring the island for possible North Korean hacking attempts five months before the attack on BOV.
What they said
“Not something we’ve seen in any other country where a journalist has been assassinated.”
Rebecca Vincent, UK bureau chief of Reporters Without Borders, commenting on the fact that the makeshift memorial in Valletta to Daphne Caruana Galizia is regularly cleared by government officials.
“You survived the cruelty of the desert and the sea only to die at the hands of men!”
Abraham Livingston, speaking to a small crowd who gathered at the John XXIII Peace Laboratory for the celebration of the life of his friend, Diedy Coulibaly, a 23-year-old migrant worker from Mali, who died on a building site last June.
“We cannot speak English and we didn’t have a translator.”
Kone Amara, one of a group of asylum seekers who received an eviction notice from the Ħal Far Tent Village, who claimed he and most of the other migrants did not understand the service agreement they signed, which outlined their right to reside there for nine to 12 months.