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The Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) are still currently searching for the remaining missing persons that were onboard the Maltese-registered fishing-vessel ?Simshar?, AFM said in a statement.

The ?Simshar? was reported overdue by relatives last Saturday evening. The vessel had five persons onboard, and had left Malta on Monday July 7th. The 12-metre vessel was expected back to port that following Friday evening and had onboard its owner Simon Bugeja, his 11-year-old son Theo and his father Carmelo, Noel Carabott and an East African national.

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Late in the evening on Saturday at around 21:15CET, the police were informed that another boatload of illegal immigrants landed in Wied iz-Zurrieq limits of Qrendi.

District police and police from the mobile squad were immediately on site. The group consisted of 28 persons, all of them men.

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A car fell 4 storeys into the sea on Saturday at 1830CET in Triq Santa Marija, Marsalforn, Gozo the police said.

The driver, a Dutch man, had come out of the vehicle and climbed on shore by the time the police arrived. He was taken to the Gozo General Hospital, where he was found to be suffering light injuries.

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Dr Chris Said, Parliamentary Secretary for Public Consultation, said in a press conference on Saturday morning that the new Parliamentary Secretariat for Public Consultation was already involved in consultation projects.

The Secretariat is charged with ensuring that public consultation is done continuously and over a wide range.

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Four offshore blocks totaling 5715 square kilometers were awarded by the Government of Malta to the oil company Malta Oil Pty Limited this afternoon for the exploration and production of oil and gas under a Production Sharing Contract.

The company is a subsidiary of Mediterranean Oil & Gas Plc with head office in Perth, Australia, and operations in the Mediterranean region including Italy, France and Tunisia.

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A corpse of a man has been found close to the area where the corpses of two missing fishermen were recovered on Thursday and Friday.

The corpse is in an advanced state of decomposition and his identity is not clear.

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UPDATED 2153CET: A 44-year-old construction worker was injured by falling stones on Saturday at 1415CET while working on a construction site in Triq Raheb Kurradu, Naxxar.

The man, who is from M ġarr, was taken to Mater Dei hospital where he was found to be seriously injured but not in danger of dying.

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Kavallieri’s player Daniel Grima received the Best Player award during the annual dinner held by the MFRU at Eden Lodge, Zurrieq on Friday.

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Alternattiva Demokratika has called upon Government to cater for parentless children as recent statistics revealed a mixture of family configurations with 37% of Maltese children living with just one parent whilst 10% are registered as being of unknown fathers.

?These genuine cases are the most vulnerable and need to be supported by the State to prevent them from falling into poverty,  but  there are others who are simply abusing the Social Welfare System and these are the ones who are misappropriating the available funds and hindering the other genuine cases." said AD?s spokesperson for Health and Social Protection Mary Anne Zammit.

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The Armed Forces of Malta together with some fishermen are continuing their search for 11-year-old Theo Bugeja and an Ethiopian fisherman who, some eight days ago, went missing on their fishing boat Simshar.

Meanwhile, Simon Bugeja, Theo's father, was found alive on Friday and confirmed that he was with his son up until Friday morning.

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The Malta Transport Reform Action Group (MTRAG) has stated that it is pleased that the transport strike has come to an end. The Facebook-based group, which boasts some 3,000 members, said that finally workers can go back to work as usual. The group is now asking for justice, consultation on reform and explanations for subsidies granted.

The group said in a statement that ?Even though the Government has stated that the liberalisation process will take place, we wish to ensure that the expectations of the vast majority of the Maltese people are fulfilled.?

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Kimberley Cassar claimed double honours in the tournament organised by Tennis Club Kordin in collaboration with the Malta Tennis Federation .

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The Malta Judo national team, under the leadership of Maestro Monti, started going through a process of technical and endurance preparation with only a year away from the Games of the Small States of Europe.

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The photographic works of Alexandra Pace, Patrick Fenech and Gilbert Calleja are being displayed at The European Night and at Café de l’Europe Exhibition – European Photographic Identities.

These two events form part of the “Rencontres de la Photographie d'Arles”, an annual celebration of top contemporary artistic photography in France.

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Emirates Airline, the Dubai-based international airline, has announced the launch of Vision Beijing – a series of Beijing Olympic promotional films – onboard Emirates flights starting July 2008.

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In the recently held Digital Arts Expo, Vodafone Malta Limited participated by promoting the benefits of IP Transit Solutions to the media industry. Vodafone also delivered a seminar about new media and why leading digital media producers team up with Vodafone.

“New technologies and the democratization of media are changing the way we do content, exchange ideas and communicate brands,” said Karl Galea, one of the Vodafone speakers.

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On Friday morning Dr Mario De Marco, Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, met the 90 students who were first-hand witnesses to an act of aggression against their coach driver 2 days ago.

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A group of illegal migrants was intercepted by a patrol boat of the Maritime Squadron of the Armed Forces of Malta in a position some 3 miles off Marsaxlokk harbour, the AFM said in a statement on Friday afternoon.
 
The boat, which was taking water, carried 28 males.

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Air Malta rebuttal of Ryanair’s comments were vindicated this week when the Irish airline announced that this winter it will be cutting weekly flights at Dublin by 12 percent and it would also cut some at Stansted in the UK due to the rising cost of fuel.

The Irish airline said that it expects to ground just over 10% of its fleet for next winter. Moreover redundancies are expected in the company according to press reports in Ireland, even though it had stated earlier on that there would be no redundancies.

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UPDATED-2: Simon Bugeja, father of 11 year-old Theo who was also on the fishing boat that went missing last week, has been found alive.

Meanwhile two corpses have been retrieved from the sea, one of which has been identified as that of Noel Carabott, a 33 year-old fisherman from Marsaxlokk.

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