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MT 17 November 2013

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8 News maltatoday, SUNDAY, 17 NOVEMBER 2013 Party organ obfuscates on China embassy in Pembroke PN government amended MEPA local plan to site 10,000 square metres for Chinese embassy in 2012 JAMES DEBONO REPORTS suggesting that land earmarked for the siting of the Chinese government's new Malta embassy include the area in proximity to Labour-owned property in Pembroke, omitted to say it was a Nationalist government that changed a local plan for the siting of the mega-embassy. Contrary to the perception given by a report in Nationalist weekly newspaper il-mument, it was under the previous government that the local plan was changed to accommodate the construction of a massive Chinese embassy in Pembroke. On Sunday, il-mument reported that Labour intended to hand over a parcel of land in Pembroke "which would be bigger than the one which would hosts the US embassy in Ta'Qali." The report also suggested the land was in proximity to the dilapidated Australia Hall, which property has belonged to the Labour Party since 1979, when it granted land it owned in Marsa to the government of the time for the development of the Malta Shipbuilding corporation. But il-mument failed to mention that the process to locate the Chinese embassy in Pembroke had started in January 2012 when amendments for the local plan were issued for public consultation and finalised on 15 November 2012 when the amendment was approved by the MEPA board. The amendment deemed the site as being suitable for the develop- ment of an embassy, as it is located within extensive landscaped open areas and directly adjacent to a planned road that is to link Regional Road with Pembroke. In the local plan approved by the government in 2006, the area now earmarked for an embassy had been previously allocated for the development of three-storey high maisonettes and flats on the condition that mature trees found in the area are safeguarded. According to these plans the embassy will be constructed within development zones, as the area was already scheduled for development since the 1990s, even though it has remained undeveloped for the past two decades. The local plan stipulated that a maximum of 304 new housing units could be built in this zone, as well as in another area of the same size in Pembroke, which was also allocated for housing, in the local plan. In February 2007, MaltaToday reported that China had asked the government for a plot of land of up to 10,000 square metres in Pembroke – a prime site that has been earmarked for development by foreign powers since World War II. The land earmarked in the local plan changes – roughly the size of the existing Pembroke cemetery – was significantly smaller than that envisaged in 2007, but still considerably larger than the present Chinese Embassy in St Julian's. The assassination of John Kennedy 50 years ago was a shock to the Maltese, although as three journalists recount, his religious beliefs played a part in the attraction he held for the island. TIM ATTARD MONTALTO NEXT Friday marks the 50th anniver- sary from the day that John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the young and charismatic President of the United States, was shot and killed during a political trip to Texas. Kennedy was travelling in the Presidential limousine along with his wife Jackie and fellow Democrat John Connally on 22 November, 1963. As they reached the Dallas centre, the limo came across a rapturous crowd, gathered there to greet their President. As the unguarded motorcade slowed down, the sound of gunshots came crashing down on the cheery mood. The President was the target, suffering a total of three bullet wounds– one in the throat, one in the back, and a fatal one to the head. Kennedy was rushed to the nearby Parkland Hospital but was pronounced dead shortly afterwards. America stood still. The world stood still. The most powerful man on earth had been killed. At 46, Kennedy would become the youngest US President to die but the manner of his death was what really compounded the general feeling of utter disbelief. Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee at the bank from where the shots are believed to have been fired, was initially suspected of the murder but was himself killed by Jack Ruby a few days later. Oswald was never actually tried and, for many, justice had not been done. The shockwaves that emanated from the fateful events of that day in Dallas were far-reaching. Malta was no exception. The front page of local newspapers of the time, Il-Berqa and L-Orizzont – which had only been in existence for a year before Kennedy's assassination - carried the headlines 'Kennedy Assassinated', whilst the Times of Malta wrote that 'a bright flame was extinguished by a murderer's bullet'. Joseph Zahra, ex-editor of local newspaper In-Nazzjon said that the nation was 'dumbfounded' at the news of Kennedy's killing. "As a nation, we were dumbfounded. I could not believe my ears when I heard the news. It struck me as if I had lost a family member," he said. Zahra said that Kennedy 'had everything to make him popular with the Maltese people'. "Individually a lot of people wept on hearing the news. A great man – a young, handsome, family man - who was changing the face of the world, had been assassinated," he said. Zahra remembers that only a few

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