Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/439085
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 28 DECEMBER 2014 3 The disappearance of Flight MH370 (March 9) Despite 21st century satellite and tracking systems, a jet aircraft with 227 passengers and 12 crew, disap- peared off the face of the earth. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it went off air traffic control- lers' radars without the aircraft or its crew having relayed a distress call and without any indications of bad weather. What followed was the largest and most costly search mission in avia- tion history, with the United King- dom, the United States, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, China, Japan and Australia all sending out their own ships and aircraft to find it. Satellite company DigitalGlobe re- positioned two of its satellites over the plane's last known location in the Gulf of Thailand, allowing almost 2.3 million people to scan 24,000 square kilometres of satellite imagery on the Tomnod website. However, no flight debris or bodies of the missing people have yet been found, spawning a range of conspir- acy theories ranging from the plane's abduction by aliens to its hijacking by jihadists. Death of a comic (August 11) The suicide of much-loved actor and comic Robin Williams stunned the world and prompted a global de- bate on the elusive nature of depres- sion. Williams, winner of an Academy Award for his role as a psycholo- gist in 'Good Will Hunting', hanged himself with a belt in his stepson's bedroom soon after reading online forums discussing anti-seizure med- ications. It was later revealed that Williams had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and that he had been suffering from immense de- pression and paranoia. Williams was the most searched topic on Google in 2014. The Suarez bite incident (June 24) Germany fans may disagree but the 2014 World Cup will not only be remembered for the country's 7-1 thrashing of hosts Brazil but also for Uruguay striker Luis Suarez's infa- mous bite on Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini. FIFA did not buy Suarez's excuse that he had tripped and landed mouth-first on Chiellini's shoulder and suspended the Uruguayan strik- er from all football-related activity for four months and from nine inter- national football games, the longest ban in World Cup history. Notwithstanding this, Barcelona soon splashed out around €94 mil- lion to sign him from Liverpool, making Suarez the Spanish club's most expensive signing as well as the third most expensive transfer in football history. Scotland's failed independence referendum (September 18) The future of the United King- dom hung in the balance as Scottish voters took to the polls to decide whether Scotland should become an independent country. Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond led a charge of revitalised Scottish nationalism, saying that a Scottish government would be more representative of the Scottish people. The Conservative Party, the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrat Party and the United Kingdom Independence Party put aside their differences and cam- paigned in favour of a united United Kingdom. After weeks of contra- dictory poll indications, the 'No' vote ended up winning quite c o m f o r t a b l y , with around 55% voting against an in- dependent Scotland and 45% voting in favour of it. Following the results, Salmond resigned after seven years in office. Rosetta comet landing (November 12) 2014 was not all doom and gloom. Space probe 'Rosetta' made history when it became the first spacecraft to orbit a comet back in August, following a space mission that was launched in 2004. In November, its robotic space lander 'Philae' success- fully performed the first-ever soft landing on a comet. Initial results relayed to earth via Philae and Ro- setta showed that the comet's water composition is significantly denser to water on Earth, casting serious scientific doubts as to whether wa- ter, and therefore life, on Earth origi- nated from comet bombardments. Muscat's first Cabinet reshuffle (April 2) A major Cab- inet reshuffle became neces- sary following the sacking of then Health Minister God- frey Farrugia, the resigna- tion of Franco M e r c i e c a a n d t h e nominations of Marie Louise Co- leiro Preca and Karmenu Vella as President and EU Commissioner re- spectively. Konrad Mizzi's portfolio expanded to include health, Michael Farrugia became social solidarity minister, Edward Zammit Lewis be- came tourism minister and Owen Bonnici became justice and culture minister. C h r i s Fearne, Michael F a l - zon, Justyne Caruana and Chris Agius were promoted from the backbench to be- come parliamentary secretar- ies for health, planning, active ageing, and sport and youth respectively. Marie Louise Coleiro Preca appointed President (April 4) Marie Louise Co- leiro Preca gave up her Cabinet duty as social solidarity minister to accept Muscat's nomination of her as Mal- ta's youngest-ever President and on- ly its second woman President. Par- liament voted unanimously in favour of her appointment, the first time an Opposition has voted in favour of a President from the government's party. Her husband Edgar Preca also became Malta's first First Gentleman. Last Friday, President Coleiro Preca presided over the most successful Strina charity fund- raising telethon cam- paign that raised over €3.6 million. 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According to the National Audit Office report, the former Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs under George Pullicino had re- ceived four submissions after issu- ing a call for expressions of interest in 2009 for the running of an ani- mal clinic. However, the auditors could only locate the signed agreement tween the government and the win- ning bidder, and not the evaluation report justifying the government's selection of the winning bidder. "This is indicative of a lack transparency that could lead efficient spending of public the audit report said. Moreover, according to the ment, the winning bidder fered to provide treatment mals "at the current market without quoting any actual "No comfort could from the fact that, at least, economical offer was selected," audit report said. According to the original ment between the government San Frangisk Clinic, bound to pay for the and rehabilitation mals brought in for the Animal Welfare The Animal Welfare was similarly bound medical treatment to the clinic by animal ficers. However, on the the government signed this agreement, signed a "contradicting" randum of understanding tially waived to provide free animals. According the clinic was bill to the Animal torate for medical excluding rendered to Green NGOs disagree with government's intention to tweak development boundaries CONTINUES ON PAGE 5 DIN l-Art Helwa and Flimkien ghall-Ambjent Ahjar have expressed complete disagreement with the government's intention to tweak de- velopment boundaries as announced by plan- ning parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon in an interview with MaltaToday last Sunday. On its part the opposition is calling on the government to present a justification for any extension of development boundaries and to submit any such proposal to a Strategic Envi- ronmental Impact Assessment (SEA). Din l-Art Helwa president Simone Mizzi in- sisted that the country is still paying the cost of the extension of development boundaries in 2006. NO CONFIRMATION ON HERRERA HIT-AND-RUN Parliamentary secretary José Herrera reportedly involved in hit-and- run incident. SEE MORE ON PAGE 4 PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD MALTATODAY MIDWEEK EDITION Make sure you order your copy of Maltatoday Midweek next Wednesday 31 December 2014