MALTA’S new cabinet has lost its first minister less than a week after the swearing-in of new Prime Minister Robert Abela’s much changed government.
Justyne Caruana resigned as minister for the island of Gozo. She had held the same post under Abela’s predecessor, Joseph Muscat, who resigned over allegations he hampered the probe into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
On Sunday it was reported that Caruana’s husband and Malta’s former deputy police chief, Silvio Valletta, attended a Champions League match in the UK with tycoon Yorgen Fenech, who has been charged with complicity in the murder of the journalist. Galizia was assassinated by a car bomb in 2017 after reporting on corruption in Maltese government and business circles.
Caruana described her self as “totally extraneous” to the matter in her resignation letter.
The country, with a population about the size of Edinburgh, now has the largest Cabinet in its history. It declared independence from the UK in 1974.
With reform of politics at the heart of his policies, Abela has given big promotions to younger MPs and sidelined anyone seen as too close to Muscat and his regime.
Abela’s government stated: “The decisions of the prime minister are based on the priority that the country keeps moving forward in a sense of continuity but with a mind to implement the necessary reforms.”
Among those in the cabinet are Chris Fearne, deputy prime minister, and Evarist Bartolo, minister for foreign affairs.
READ MORE: Malta wins case over the arrest of ship off west coast of Africa
Norway government in crisis over 'Daesh bride'
IT is an issue that has caused pain and upset in many countries but now the question of what to do about a single so-called “Daesh bride” has put the government of Norway on the brink of collapse.
The crisis broke out at the weekend when a woman returned to Norway with her two children, one of whom is reported to be seriously ill.
The woman, who has not been named, is a Norwegian citizen of Pakistani descent who went to live in a Daesh controlled area in 2013.
She married a Norwegian foreign fighter, who was later killed fighting.
Following a heated debate on whether she should be allowed to return, the centre-right government of Prime Minister Erna Solberg gave the go ahead for her repatriation on grounds that the sick child needed treatment.
This prompted the head of the right-wing anti-immigrant Progress Party, Siv Jensen, the country’s finance minister, to resign and pull her party out of the ruling coalition.
Jensen said: “I brought us into government, and I’m now bringing the party out.”
The Progress leader had angered her opponents by saying many believed the mother “used her child as a shield to come back to Norway”.
Solberg replied: “A majority in the government believed that concern for the child was paramount.”
The “Daesh bride” was arrested at the hospital in Oslo where her child was being treated. Her lawyer told reporters that she has denied the charges against her and will fully cooperate with the police during interrogation, which is expected to take place once the child has recovered.
Solberg said the centre-right coalition would stay on as a minority government, but without the Progress Party members in support – it’s the third largest party in Norway – it is difficult to see how the coalition can carry on.
Norway, like many other smaller European states, is used to coalition rule involving multiple parties but the issue of immigration has proven particularly divisive.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon meets Erna Solberg to discuss climate change
Luxembourg citizens don't understand their own euthanasia laws
WHILE 85 percent of the people of Luxembourg are in favour of the country’s liberal laws on euthanasia and assisted suicide, less than half of the population are aware of what rights those laws give them.
A study out this week showed that only 43 percent of those who were surveyed were aware that euthanasia is legal under strict conditions in Luxembourg.
The country with a population slightly less than Glasgow has a law that came into force in March 2009 which allows euthanasia and assisted suicide, the latter defined “as a medical procedure by which a doctor intentionally ends the life of another person at the express and voluntary request of the latter”.
Recent figures showed that 71 people have ended their lives this way in the Grand Duchy in the past ten years.
Last year assisted suicide stopped being classed as a separate defined cause of death and doctors are hopeful that the change will encourage Luxembourgers to be more open about the subject.
The guidelines are strict and assisted suicide is only allowed when damage to the patient’s health “may result from any serious, incurable and irreversible affliction which leads to unbearable physical or mental suffering”.
There is also little “euthanasia tourism” in Luxembourg because although foreign nationals can make use of the law, their GP must be registered in Luxembourg and have been their primary doctor for some time.
Luxembourg’s RTL reported: “Belgium and the Netherlands have similar laws but far higher rates of euthanasia. The survey concluded that Luxembourg should do more to inform its people about possible options.”
The president of Luxembourg’s euthanasia control commission, Lotty Prussen, said euthanasia, in her view, should no longer be taboo.
READ MORE: Would membership of EFTA be a good thing for Scotland?
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