Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/715731
3 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 17 AUGUST 2016 News Tal-Villagg Cafe & Wine Lounge 77, Triq il-Forn, Lija Tel: 27427058 • 9940 4487 Email: talvillagg@gmail.com talvillagglounge PN denounces Nexia BT involvement in LNG power station procurement Labour insists links "merely a figment of PN leader's imagination" and says Simon Busuttil remains "a politically broken leader playing a broken record" THE Nationalist Party has called on the government to ex- plain any links between Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi's secret Panama companies and the new gas power station. In a statement issued yester- day, the opposition said that a news article in The Times – which revealed that the gov- ernment had appointed a sub- sidiary of Nexia BT to advise it in relation to the LNG power plant procurement – was "very grave". The PN said it was unaccep- table that Nexia BT were, at the same time, consultants to the office of the prime minister, consultants to Enemalta, an auditor of the private consorti- um building the power station and the body opening secret companies for senior govern- ment officials. "This was asking for trouble and stinks of corruption," it said. The party noted that Schem- bri, the PM's chief of staff, and Mizzi, minister without port- folio within the OPM, were the major proponents and backers of the power station develop- ment, and had – together with prime minister Joseph Muscat – promised the building of the power station before the elec- tion. The party said that Mr Schembri, the PM's chief of staff, and Minister without Portfolio Konrad Mizzi were the minds behind the power station and were the two per- sons who, together with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, had promised the power station be- fore the election. Responding to the opposi- tion's statement, the Labour Party said the links between Nexia BT and the other parties were merely a figment of PN leader Simon Busuttil's imagi- nation. Busuttil concocted such the- ories because he had yet to un- derstand the big and positive changes the government was introducing in the energy sec- tor, Labour said. "Simon Busuttil insists our country does not need a new power station and he therefore wants Malta to continue using harmful oil," it said. "He cannot acknowledge the fact that our country will do away with the Marsa powersta- tion, demolish the Delimara chimney and have 90% less dust in the air." The PL said Busuttil had al- ways claimed that water and electricty bills would rise un- der a Labour government and he therefore could not accept that this government in fact managed to reduce the bills. "Simon Busuttil remains a politically broken leader play- ing a broken record," the PL said. The new power plant is expected to be operative some time before the end of the year New 'extreme pornography' rules replace obscenity laws MAT THEW VELLA THE Pornography and Obscen- ity Regulations have been of- ficially revoked, as a new legal regime enters into force with criminal sanctions against all forms of "extreme pornogra- phy". The new rules are part of a package of laws that overhauled Malta's outdated censorship and obscenity laws, which in the past led to the forced withdraw- al of theatre productions and the prosecution of novelist Alex Vella Gera and Mark Camilleri over a short story published in a university pamphlet. Under the rules, published 12 August, an "extreme porno- graphic image" will be such if it portrays, in an explicit and realistic way, any of the follow- ing characteristics: an act which takes or threatens a person's life; an act which results, or is likely to result, in a person's severe injury; rape or other non-con- sensual penetrative sexual ac- tivity; sexual activity involving, directly or indirectly, a human corpse; an act which involves sexual activity between a person and an animal or the carcass of an animal. The new rules accord some lee- way to the courts to assess when images have not been produced for the holder's sexual arousal, an important caveat when deal- ing with artistic productions. Specifically, the material must be intended for the holder's sex- ual arousal. In determining whether an image depicts an extreme act when found in the person's pos- session, the courts will have to consider how the image is or was described, whether the descrip- tion is part of the image itself or otherwise; any sounds accompa- nying the image; where the im- age forms an integral part of a narrative constituted by a series of images, and any sounds ac- companying the series of images The rules do not apply to clas- sified films within the meaning of the Cinema and Stage Age- Classification Regulations or when an image serves the pub- lic good in the interests of sci- ence, literature, art or learning or other objects of general con- cern.