Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1520732
2 NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 15 MAY 2024 2 MATTHEW AGIUS magius@mediatoday.com.mt A 28-year-old man from Sweden, Oscar Olsen, has denied attempted murder charges after allegedly trying to strangle his ex-partner. The man was also accused of threat- ening to kill the woman and holding her against her will. During the man's arraignment on Tuesday, police inspector Sherona Bu- hagiar told the court that the victim had asked for police assistance through Facebook after an incident where the man had tried to choke her. The two had argued at a friend's house, after the defendant snatched away the woman's mobile phone and discovered messages she had exchanged with other men. Later that night, when the woman had gone to bed at their home, Olsen had tried to choke her, while threatening to kill her. The woman told the police that this was the tenth time that the man had done this to her. The inspec- tor added that the police had observed marks around the woman's neck, result- ing from the attack. Bail was requested by defence lawyers Franco Debono and Adreana Zammit. The prosecution objected to the man's release from arrest, arguing that the al- leged victim was yet to testify and that the man had assaulted her several times in the past. The defence depicted the incident as a case of self-defence, claiming that the woman had assaulted the defend- ant first, and that therefore he had de- fended himself. Olsen had a stable job in gaming, had resided in Malta for the past six years and had a fixed address. Magistrate Charmaine Galea denied bail. A protection order was issued for the woman. The prosecution was led by lawyers Etienne Savona and Manuel Grech for the Office of the Attorney General to- gether with inspector Sherona Buha- giar. Lawyers Franco Debono and Adre- ana Zammit assisted the defendant. Accused denies murder charges as victim tells court she was choked at least ten times by her former partner Man remanded in custody after choking former partner and threatening to kill her BOOK loans from public libraries have grown 8% during the first part of 2024, compared to the same January-April pe- riod the previous year. Data from Malta Libraries shows that between January and April 2023, a to- tal of 224,128 books were borrowed, increasing in 2024 by 19,716 to reach 243,844. These figures also include the loans of ebooks and talking books, and books borrowed from libraries found in elderly homes. 33,515 physical books were borrowed from the Central Library of Beltisebħ in the first four months of this year. The majority, 70% were borrowed from the junior library at Beltisebħ. The three li- braries with the largest number of physi- cal book loans after Beltissebħ were Luqa Regional Library, Birkirkara Regional Li- brary and Mosta Regional Library. In Gozo, the number of physical books borrowed from the public libraries amounted to 33,073, mainly from the Central Library in Victoria were the Branch Libraries of Nadur, Xewkija and Għajnsielem. Ebooks registered an increase of 62% in loans when compared to the same period last year. While in the period spanning between January and April 2023, 13,174 ebooks were borrowed from Malta Li- braries' Libby App, the number of eb- ooks that were borrowed in the same period this year increased by more than 22,000 and rose to 35,313. Book loans increase by 8% in the first four months of this year Patients' screening results erroneously revealed in printing malfunction A number of clients received their Na- tional Screening Centre test results in addition to data pertaining to other clients on the other side of their result letter, due to a printing malfunction. The minister for health said a num- ber of clients had erroneously re- ceived data pertaining to other clients on 13 May, with a same-day investi- gation revealing that the service pro- vider commissioned to print and mail the test results had suffered a techni- cal malfunction in the printing equip- ment. It transpired that a batch of test re- sults from the National Screening Centre were erroneously printed on double-sided paper. The ministry instructed the prima- ry health department to file a Data Protection Breach notification with the Information and Data Protection Commissioner for further investiga- tion on its part. At the same time, a letter was also issued to each custom- er who was affected by this technical error in order to rectify the situation. MATTHEW VELLA mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Clients receive screening test results in addition to data pertaining to other clients printed on the other side of their result letter due to printing malfunction