Good evening,
This is a quick roundup of the essential news reported by Malta’s news portals.
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The Attorney General has handed House Speaker Angelo Farrugia with the Annual Audit Report on the Public Accounts for 2017. The Malta Independent, Net News, and TVM, report say that the Auditor’s Office found a series of shortcomings linked to initiatives during the Maltese Presidency of the EU Council between January and June that year.
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MaltaToday reports that Malta will study a taxation proposal put forwards by Germany and France which would hit advertising sales for tech giants Facebook and Google. The two states voted against EU-wide plans to introduce a digital tax on tech companies. In the proposal, companies such as Airbnb and Amazon will not be affected.
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A balcony in Sliema collapsed while it was being worked on, reports LovinMalta. No one was injured but the portal says that construction workers came out laughing after the incident to the shock of passers-by.
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Newsbook says that a site in Ta’ Qali, close to the picnic area, has been completely covered by construction waste. The website says that between January and today, the area turned into a ‘desert of waste’.
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One News reports that Sicily Governor Sebastiano Musumeci is in Malta to hold talks with Energy Minister Joe MIzzi over the gas pipeline. The news portal says that the project is moving ahead, and geological studies are underway to determine the environmental impact of the installation.
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The Panama Appeals saga has taken a new twist as the newly appointed judge to replace the recently retired Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi has decreed that submissions are to be made in writing within four days of notification, with the final decision to be delivered in chambers. The Times reports that Mr Justice Giovanni Grixti, assigned the case after Mr Justice Mizzi’s retirement, outlined the various steps in the ongoing saga. It was sparked off by an application filed by former Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil on July 14, 2017, requesting duty magistrate Ian Farrugia to launch an investigation into revelations emerging from the Panama Papers.
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The Asset Recovery Bureau set up in 2015 is still not fully functional, says The Times, following a parliamentary question on Monday to Justice Minister Owen Bonnici by Opposition MP Claudio Grech. The Minister said that the unit is critical to the fight against organised crime but that in the past three years it has been busy training staff.
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The Shift News reports that nine international organisations are calling on the Prime Minister to open an independent inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The portal says that, a year after the death of the journalist, the ongoing investigation has yet to provide tangible results.
