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Abdel Ati al-Obeidi, Libya's acting foreign minister, told the Greek prime minister in Athens that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi wants the fighting to end. "It seems that the Libyan authorities are seeking a solution," Dimitris Droutsas, the Greek foreign minister, said. He added that Obeidi planned to travel on to Malta and Turkey. Obeidi crossed into neighbouring Tunisia and travelled from Djerba airport to the Greek capital on Sunday.

Even long before the times of Jesus and the Apostle Paul, Malta was the rocky knob at the western edge of the Roman Empire, the place where the leftovers of the Mediterranean Sea washed up and dug in. Prehistoric worshipers left mysterious stone structures. Phoenician traders planted their alphabet and Arabic-inflected language. Greeks added new words and traditions. Sailing across the water the Romans grandly called "Mare Nostrum," "Our Sea," a rich Roman governor arrived to add a mosaic-floored villa on a wind-swept hill with a view of the island curved like a pelican's beak to catch the peoples and...

As boats carrying hundreds of Africans set sail for a better life in Europe, they were met on Italy’s Lampedusa island with two words by a 5-foot, 8-inch blonde: go away. “They cannot be allowed on the shore,” Marine Le Pen, the 42-year-old leader of France’s anti-immigration National Front, said in a March 15 interview in Rome after a three-hour visit the previous day to Lampedusa. “Send boats out to feed them. But they must not set foot on land.” The island, a speck in the Mediterranean Sea closer to Tunisia than Sicily, is experiencing first-hand an immigration surge poised...

The special UN appeal to be announced Monday in Geneva is intended to address the burgeoning humanitarian crisis on Libya's borders with Tunisia, Egypt, and Niger, according to UN officials. Most of the Egyptian refugees who fled Libya into Tunisia have been returned to Egypt, the officials say, but they add that thousands of mostly Bangladeshi nationals are still stuck just over the border from Libya in Tunisia, in rapidly deteriorating conditions. The torrent of refugees fleeing Libya has slowed to a trickle -- from nearly 15,000 a day crossing into Tunisia to fewer than 2,000 on Thursday, officials said...

Libyan leader Muommar Qaddafi says he'll stay and die on Libyan soil, but that apparently doesn't apply to his lone daughter, Aisha. Word is she's left the country, but having a hard time finding a country that will take her. A plane she was on just got denied entry into Malta, says Al-Jazeera. Meanwhile, the Lebanese wife of Qaddai son Hanibal was denied entry into Lebanon last night.

Italian navy says it is monitoring a Libyan "naval asset" in the Mediterranean, but is not clear about its intention. The Italian navy has told Al Jazeera it is monitoring a Libyan "naval asset" that has stalled off the coast of Malta. Malta is the closest European Union member to Libya and is located just 340km north of Libyan shores in the Mediterranean Sea. Al Jazeera's Cal Perry, reporting from Malta on Tuesday, said: "We're talking to a very senior source inside the Italian army and what he's telling us basically is that this ship has been spotted off the...

VALLETTA (Reuters) – Two Libyan fighter jets and two civilian helicopters landed unexpectedly in Malta Monday, witnesses said.

A jeweller's son who grabbed the shotgun of one of three assailants during a hold-up last Friday fired 'some five shots' at them, his father said. The incident happened at around 8.30 p.m., when Jeweller Michael Mizzi and his son Silvio were returning to their home in Old Railway Road, Attard, after a long day at work at their shop The Gold Market. Michael Mizzi was carrying a large bag containing cash and other belongings. A hooded man emerged from the darkness brandishing a crowbar and told the 52-year-old jeweller to hand over his black bag. Mr Mizzi refused to...

The Maltese language is costing European taxpayers €30 million a year, we learnt last week. Of course, the 500 million European taxpayers spread over 27 countries only don't fork out money for the Maltese language -- there are 22 other languages to provide for. In fact, the EU's translation and interpretation operation outstrips that of the United Nations, which only has six official languages, despite a record number of 192 member countries. Roughly, the cost of all language services in all EU institutions amounts to around €2 per person per year. To be sure, that's not a lot. For a...

The Russian security service released the crew of the Arctic Sea in Moscow on Sunday. The 11 members of the crew of the hijacked ship were flown from Cape Verde to Russia nearly two weeks ago. The Russian news agency Interfax reports that the men returned to their home town of Archangelsk, where they were met by their families. On Sunday, Russian authorities gave conflicting accounts of whether or not all of the crew would be released. The online portal life.ru reported that only nine members of the crew had been released. Rabbe von Hertzen of the Finnish National Bureau...

A group of ancient tombs dating back to the Punic period were discovered during excavation works for the construction of a new primary school at the Archbishop's Seminary in Tal-Virtù... According to Nathaniel Cutajar from the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, the discovery is of "great scientific interest" and "confirms the archaeological importance" of the Tal-Virtù area in Rabat. The superintendence is responsible for all scientific investigation of cultural assets, including archaeological excavations. An investigation of the discovery is under way by its team of archaeologists. The Archbishop's Seminary has a planning permit to build a primary school extension to its...

The excavation being carried out at Tal-Log'g'a in Mg'arr ix-Xini. An archaeological site being excavated at Mg'arr ix-Xini has further enforced the notion that viticulture and wine production have been an important part of the Maltese economy since the Classical period. The excavation site, at Tal-Log'g'a, is in a field next to where two troughs dug into the rock were found and is believed to have been used for grape pressing. The field is being excavated in a bid to shed more light on the troughs' use. Some 15 sets of troughs have been found in Mg'arr ix-Xini valley to...

If there is one thing most people work to avoid, it is abject poverty. But this is just what Michael Farrugia, 33, chose, and he seems very happy about it. A brother with the Poor Friars, a religious community which embraces total poverty, Michael, born of Maltese parents in Australia, relies on God's providence and people's generosity to get through life, and travels around Europe just by hitch-hiking. When contacted by The Times to arrange an interview, Brother Antonio, the name chosen when he joined the order, politely enquired whether it would be possible to get a lift from Qormi...

On the Trip to Malta "The Plan of the Love of God Is Even Greater Than the Storms" VATICAN CITY, APRIL 21, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today at the general audience in St. Peter's Square. * * * Dear brothers and sisters: As you know, last Saturday and Sunday I undertook an apostolic journey to Malta, on which I would like to reflect briefly today. The occasion of the pastoral visit was the 1,950th anniversary of the Apostle Paul's shipwreck on the coasts of the Maltese archipelago and of his sojourn on...

Victims of clerical sex abuse in Malta have described how they wept as they prayed with the Pope today after he agreed to meet them on his trip to the island. They said that the Pope also had “tears in his eyes”. The eight victims, who were abused systematically at an orphanage in Malta in the 1980s and 1990s, have long campaigned for the Church authorities to recognise their suffering in the face of decades of cover-ups from the Vatican downwards. Vatican officials said that the Pope, who the Vatican claims has “done more than anyone” to clean up the...

One of the eight child abuse victims who met the Pope this afternoon said that the meeting had given the group peace in their hearts. The group had a 20-minute meeting with the Pope at the Apostolic Nunciature. Malta's bishops shed tears during their meeting, Lawrence Grech said. "I admire the Pope for his courage in meeting us. He was embarrassed by the failings of others". One of the victims told the press that it had been a deeply moving meeting, at the end of which the Pope presented rosary beads to all the victims. One of the victims asked...

Pope Benedict XVI about to give his address at Malta's airport. For readers who’d like to know more about Malta’s interesting Christian history, here’s a summary of the main events, courtesy of the Archdiocese of Malta. CHRISTIANITY IN MALTA At Paul’s Shipwreck on his way to Rome in AD 60 saw the beginning of Christianity in Malta. We read in the Acts of the Apostles (28, 1-11) that the people of the island showed no small courtesy to Paul and his companions and loaded them with such things as were necessary. According to St John Chrysostom, this shows that Paul...

Pope Benedict XVI, accompanied by Malta's Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi (3rd L) and President George Abela (3rd R), waves to gathered children in front. While the sex abuse crisis is inevitably part of the subtext to Pope Benedict XVI’s April 17-18 visit to Malta, so far it has not been the top note in the pope’s own remarks. Instead, Benedict has interwoven notes of gratitude for Malta’s Catholic past with strong pleas to preserve the that identity in the present. In his brief remarks at Luqa airport, Benedict applauded the rich tradition of Maltese missionaries, and called upon Malta to...

Pope Benedict XVI. Vatican City, Apr 16, 2010 / 10:20 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Just one day before his first Apostolic Journey for 2010, Pope Benedict XVI is celebrating his 83rd birthday today. This afternoon he will spend some time resting as the final preparations are being made for his whirlwind trip to the Mediterranean island of Malta. The Holy Father will spend his birthday in the Vatican, before an event-filled weekend in Malta. Besides separate morning audiences with Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who is the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, five Brazilian bishops finishing up their “ad Limina”...

Centuries ago, come September, galleys would be rowed into Mg˙arr ix-Xini harbour and loaded with amphorae filled with wine that had been pressed in the valley. Winemakers would fill shallow basins with grapes and, once pressed, the juice would flow through holes and channels into a deeper collecting holder, all carved into the rock. These wine presses, said to date back to 500 BC, can still be seen embedded in the Gozitan valley and are being studied and documented in a project carried out by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and the Sannat and Xewkija local councils with the support...