Libya names engineer as new prime minister
Engineer and academic Abdel Rahim al-Kib was today elected to head a new Libyan transitional government and immediately vowed to make human rights his priority. "We guarantee that we are going to build a nation that respects human rights and does not accept the abuse of human rights. But we need time," he told a press conference shortly after the vote. On the issue of the former rebel fighters who defeated longtime strongman Muammar Gaddafi, he said his administration would work with the fighters to restore stability. "We are very aware that our brothers, the revolutionairies, the fighters, share the same opinion as us. They also believe that the stability of the country is extremely important." Kib, who hails from the Libyan capital Tripoli, came out in front in the battle for the post ahead of four other candidates in the first round, winning 26 out of 51 votes cast by members of the National Transitional Council. The chairman of the NTC, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, was the first of the council members to cast his ballot. "This vote proves that Libyans are able to build their future," he said. A graduate of the universities of...
Read MoreOctober temperatures ‘below average’ – private Met station
Meteo Malta, a private meteorological station said today that October 2011 was the 5th consecutive October with temperatures below average.The last October with temperatures above average was in 2006. The mean monthly maximum temperature of 23.1°C was also the lowest for October since it started keeping temperature records in 1987. October 2011 was slightly drier than average at Balzan with 66.4mm compared to the average of 76.8mm. However, other locations in Malta and Gozo were notably wetter, particularly Nadur and Xaghra with 116.4mm and 125.8mm respectively. Temperatures were cooler than average particularly during the day with the mean monthly temperature of 20.6°C being 1.3°C below average. The temperature reached a high of only 26.0°C on the 1st and 3rd of the month The most frequent wind direction was from the northeast with an average wind speed at Zebbug Malta of 11.3km/h. The strongest gust of 62.9km/h occurred during the passage of a low pressure system over the central Mediterranean on the 9th of the month. There was one notable weather event in October: a severe thunderstorm with large hail and a...
Read MoreBirkirkara sink 10-man Floriana
FLORIANA-0, BIRKIRKARA-3 Birkirkara made it two wins on the run after beating 10-man Floriana 3-0 in a game that came to life in the second half this evening. The Stripes scored all of their three goals in the second half as Floriana struggled to overcome the dismissal of goalkeeper Manuel Bartolo. Victory for the Stripes lift them to third, level on 16 points with Qormi and Floriana. Floriana had two new players in their starting line-up, Swedish midfielder Andrew Grabowski and Brazilian forward Lucas Pessanha. Birkirkara coach Paul Zammit named newly-signed Serbian goalkeeper Aleksandar Canovic among the substitutes. Birkirkara were the better side in a generally drab first half. It was Floriana who came close to taking the lead after just two minutes. Christian Cassar’s corner from the right was only partially cleared by Birkirkara as the ball landed at the feet of Ivan Woods whose far-post attempt was beaten away by Jorge Mora, Birkirkara’s Spanish goalkeeper. The next scoring chance came on 20 minutes. Trevor Cilia profited from a misunderstanding between goalkeeper...
Read MoreDalli: Unfair to blame European Commission for Air Malta restructuring delay
European Commissioner John Dalli said tonight that it was unfair to blame the European Commission for the fact that no answer had been given to Malta yet on the restructuring of Air Malta. His feeling, Mr Dalli said, was that Competition Commissioner Almunia did not yet have on his desk a good basis of how the restructuring would be carried out. Mr Dalli was replying to questions by Joe Grima on the One TV programme Inkontri. Before asking his question, Mr Grima featured comments by Labour spokesman Karmenu Vella, who said that it appeared that it was Malta, not the EU, that was to blame for the fact that a commission decision on the restructuring plan had been delayed from early autumn to the end of the year. Mr Dalli said Mr Almunia took competition issues very seriously. The EU had its rules and there were supposed to be experts who made their proposals in the format required of the EU. Malta did this very well when it sought EU funding. As for Air Malta, he had spoken to Mr Almunia on its importance for Malta as a small island state where good air connections were vital. He was sure he did take this fact into consideration, but he...
Read MoreLibya’s NTC to pay costs for casualties in Maltese hospitals
Libya’s National Transitional Council will be paying for medical costs incurred by Malta in providing hospitalisation for war casualties.
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