December 2009

Newsletter Number 122

As we announced in last month’s newsletter, AboutMalta.com is undergoing a radical change. Regular visitors to the site will have started to experience some of the new features we’re working on to give the world’s oldest Malta-related website a new lease of life.

We really appreciate the feedback we’ve received so far, and we hope there’s still more to come, especially since it all remains a work-in-progress. Clicking on the links at the top of this newsletter will give you a glimpse of the soon to be launched new look for the whole website.

The core team behind all this hopes to start the new year within the rebuild site. AboutMalta.com’s new managing editor, Giselle Borg Olivier, is making sure that we retain most of the active links from the old site as we prepare to gather more new links to Maltese websites and other Malta-related resources on the Internet. Simon Willans continues to support the underpinning technical structure for the new AboutMalta.com, while Owen Cutajar will soon be revealing a wonderful new way for all to enjoy the perennial Today in Maltese History feature.

Although this is the last AboutMalta.com monthly newsletter for the year 2009 we will be sending you a special Christmas edition in a couple of weeks. We do this every year because we feel that it is too early to include Christmas material just yet. We will also give you full details about our annual feature on the year in review. Look out for our seasonal newsletter in your mailbox, about two weeks from now.

Toni Sant
Consulting Editor

1. MaltaMedia.com Daily News from November 2009

01 Third coldest ever October since 1987
02 Briton has 25-year jail term revoked
03 Video: Czech president signs Lisbon Treaty
04 Video: German diver dies at Mgarr ix-Xini
05 Malta has highest rate of heroin use in EU
06 Man gets 10 years for raping his young niece
07 Video: Malta Eurosong selection process paralysed
08 Crew of hijacked Arctic Sea recount their ordeal
09 Budget 2010: the measures at a glance
10 Man rescued after Gharghur fall
11 Video: Ukranian husband to be charged with wife’s murder
12 Residents evacuated from fire at old people’s home
13 Video: Auditor criticises MEPA for approving Qala complex
14 Video: Pope to visit Malta on 17 and 18 April 2010
15 Video: Boy dies after fall into Sliema shaft
16 Video: Australian PM apologises for abused Maltese children
17 Video: New Malta-based aircraft maintenance company to employ 350
18 Video: Explosion at Marsa power station causes blackout
19 BBC cameraman say CIA made polic chief decline Lockerbie interview
20 Caught with 80 cocaine capsules in stomach
21 Two drivers injured in two separate accidents
22 Church statue of Our Lady of Graces robbed of gold
23 John Dalli for European Commission job
24 Video: Government and MIA in dispute over SR Technics project
25 Video: Man jailed for stealing pills from pharmacy
26 Video: Former Chief Justice sentenced to two years, nine months in prison
27 Video: 10 imqaret cost man his life
28 Video: Animal circus claims discrimination
29 Video: Commonwealth summit insists on climate change action
30 Malta to hist EU Asylum Office

2. Top Web Picks

a. Mużika Mod Ieħor 2009 Listeners’ Picks

Toni Sant’s Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast first appeared just over four years ago. Each year of podcasting on this series is marked through an invitation for listeners to vote for their Maltese music picks from that year. This year the six categories are: Maltese Album, Single, EP, Internet Release, Online Music Video, and Overseas-based Release for 2009. You can vote for one title from each category on Facebook, the popular online social network. The final results will be included in Toni Sant’s first podcast for 2010 in the Mużika Mod Ieħor series

b. On This Day in Maltese History

The daily service providing updates on this day in Maltese history is one of the most popular services on the MaltaMedia Online Network. In line with the planned upgrading of AboutMalta.com, this service is now also featuring a daily video with highlights from that particular day in Maltese history, including noteworthy events, birthdays and death anniversaries. This page will soon have a new look but full listings will continue coming your way on AboutMalta.com as they have since 1999.

3. This Month in Maltese History

30 YEARS AGO ( 8 December 1979 )
Archbishop Mercieca announces new appointments in the Cathedral Chapter among them that of Vicar General Carmelo Xuereb as Archdeacon.

20 YEARS AGO ( 3 December 1989 )
President Bush and Premier Gorbachev conduct over eight hours of talks on a ship just outside Marsaxlokk; both are optimistic of the future looking at the present as a threshold of a new era in US-Soviet relations and leave Malta later on in the afternoon.

10 YEARS AGO ( 31 December 1999 )
Malta joins the rest of the world for the most-expensive New Year celebrations ever, costing about Lm500,000; the evening’s celebrations start with the opening of the Arts Center at St James Cavalier in Valletta followed by a spectacular performances and a dazzling display of fireworks at the Independence Arena in Floriana.

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS
11 December 1951: Jane Marshall, Actress
21 December 1927: Charles Thake, Actor
23 December 1951: Joe Dimech, Broadcaster
29 December 1947: Albert Marshall, Poet

DEATH ANNIVERSARIES
2 December 1952: Meme Scicluna, Soccer Impressario, dies at 65
16 December 1996: Cecil Satariano, Amateur Film-maker, dies at 66
20 December 1950: Nerik Mizzi, Prime Minister, dies at 65
21 December 1981: Hannibal P. Scicluna, Historian, dies at 101

• See aboutmalta.com’s daily full list of birthdays, deaths, and events in Maltese history

Today in Maltese History is produced exclusively for aboutmalta.com by Mario Axiaq.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact us.