Malta

Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley has presented her credentials as U.S. ambassador to Malta, filling a post vacant for more than a year following the resignation of her controversial predecessor. Douglas Kmiec resigned in April 2011 following the publication of a report by the U.S. State Department's Office of Inspector General that claimed the ambassador had been spending too much time writing and speaking about his Catholic faith. Abercrombie-Winstanley, a career diplomat, has previously served as political officer at the embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel; consul in Baghdad; and had postings in Jakarta, Indonesia, and...

Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley has presented her credentials as U.S. ambassador to Malta, filling a post vacant for more than a year following the resignation of her controversial predecessor. Douglas Kmiec resigned in April 2011 following the publication of a report by the U.S. State Department's Office of Inspector General that claimed the ambassador had been spending too much time writing and speaking about his Catholic faith. Abercrombie-Winstanley, a career diplomat, has previously served as political officer at the embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel; consul in Baghdad; and had postings in Jakarta, Indonesia, and...

WASHINGTON — An internal government audit rebukes a key Catholic supporter of President Obama for spending too much time writing and speaking about subjects such as abortion and his religious beliefs, and neglecting his duties as the US ambassador to Malta. The report released yesterday by the State Department’s inspector general is the second critical assessment of a politically appointed top diplomat this year and illustrates the pitfalls that presidents can face when they appoint non-career diplomats to ambassadorships as a reward for their political support.

Actor Tom Hanks appears to be finished with Massachusetts - at least for now. Hanks's movie "Captain Phillips," in which he plays real-life Captain Richard Phillips, who survived being kidnapped by Somali pirates in 2009, has been filming locally but will move to Malta for the next few months, according to Malta Today. "Captain Phillips" is being directed by Paul Greengrass, who helmed "The Bourne Supremacy" and "The Bourne Ultimatum," with a screenplay by Billy Ray, who co-wrote the film "State of Play," which starred Ben Affleck.

VALLETTA, Malta — After three days of delays, a US-chartered ferry carrying Americans and other foreigners out of the chaos of Libya finally arrived yesterday at the Mediterranean island of Malta. The Maria Dolores ferry evacuated over 300 passengers, including at least 167 US citizens, away from the turmoil that has engulfed the North African nation as residents rise up over Moammar Khadafy’s iron-fisted rule. Minutes after the ship docked in Malta’s Valletta harbor, a few people on wheelchairs were escorted out. Women holding babies then walked down a ramp, while others held the...

VALLETTA, Malta — Guido De Marco, a former president of Malta who helped the island nation win European Union membership, has died. He was 79 years old. He died Thursday after suffering a heart attack at home, and the government responded by declaring three days of mourning. A veteran Nationalist Party leader, Mr. De Marco was foreign minister when he submitted Malta’s application for EU membership in 1990. The tiny Mediterranean archipelago joined in 2004, the last year of Mr. De Marco’s five-year term as president.

GOZO, Malta -- Edward Lear, the Victorian-era nonsense poet, was a six-time visitor to Gozo. He termed the island “pomzkizillious and gromphiberous, being as no words can describe its magnificence.’’ Today tourists and locals alike are taken with the tiny Mediterranean isle. “I go every year to Gozo with friends; sometimes we hire a farmhouse or stay at a hotel. The sea in most places is fresher and cleaner, the air is cooler at nights, and the picturesque countryside and the beaches are a treat for us,’’ said Joe Pisani of Birkirkara.

VALLETTA, Malta - Censu Tabone, the onetime president who hosted a US-Soviet summit that declared an end to the Cold War, has died. He was 98. He died Wednesday at his home in the town of St. Julian's. Mr. Tabone, an ophthalmologist, was a military doctor during World War II before he contested the election on behalf of the Nationalist Party in 1962. He was a labor minister in the 1960s and foreign minister in the late 1980s before being appointed president in 1989.

ROME - Italy agreed last night to accept 140 migrants stranded aboard a Turkish cargo ship that rescued them in the Mediterranean, ending a four-day standoff with Malta about who would take them in. The Italian government "has decided to let humanitarian reasons prevail," Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said. "Malta should have taken them in," Frattini told state TV. A Foreign Ministry statement said the decision was made "exclusively in consideration of the painful humanitarian emergency aboard the cargo ship" and that its acceptance of the migrants "must not in any way be...

Maltese lawmakers have approved a law allowing citizens of this heavily Catholic Mediterranean island to divorce in their own country. Malta was the only European Union nation without divorce legislation. Up to now, Maltese citizens could only obtain divorce abroad. In the last 30 years, 785 Maltese couples divorced this way, with numbers gradually rising from seven in 1981 to 47 in 2010. The law takes effect in October, after Malta's president signs it. The Parliament passed the law on Monday with 52 votes in favor, 11 against and five abstentions, after nearly 53...

BRUSSELS - A European rights watchdog blasted NATO and other Western coast guards on Thursday for failing to aid a boat of migrants adrift in the Mediterranean Sea during last year's military campaign against Libya. A report by a Council of Europe committee said only nine of 72 people on board survived after the vessel drifted for two weeks without assistance when its engine failed. NATO, whose warships and maritime aircraft were patrolling the area at the time to enforce an arms embargo against Libya, rejected the accusations.

VALLETTA, Malta - Censu Tabone, the onetime president who hosted a US-Soviet summit that declared an end to the Cold War, has died. He was 98. He died Wednesday at his home in the town of St. Julian's. Mr. Tabone, an ophthalmologist, was a military doctor during World War II before he contested the election on behalf of the Nationalist Party in 1962. He was a labor minister in the 1960s and foreign minister in the late 1980s before being appointed president in 1989.

TUNIS - Tunisia has issued a warrant summoning the widow of deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat over a corruption scandal, the state news agency reported yesterday. The warrant was issued last week over Suha Arafat's role in a scandal involving the former Tunisian dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, his family, and other high government officials, said Kadhem Zine El Abidine, spokesman for the Justice Ministry. He did not provide any details, but an online journal "Attounissia" said she was being investigated over the International School of Carthage, which she founded in 2006 with Ben...

Maltese lawmakers have approved a law allowing citizens of this heavily Catholic Mediterranean island to divorce in their own country. Malta was the only European Union nation without divorce legislation. Up to now, Maltese citizens could only obtain divorce abroad. In the last 30 years, 785 Maltese couples divorced this way, with numbers gradually rising from seven in 1981 to 47 in 2010. The law takes effect in October, after Malta's president signs it. The Parliament passed the law on Monday with 52 votes in favor, 11 against and five abstentions, after nearly 53...

Malta — a tiny, staunchly Catholic Mediterranean island — has voted in favor of legalizing divorce, according to the results of a referendum. Malta is the last remaining European Union nation that bans divorce. But what had been billed as a historic referendum has ushered in a “new Malta,’’ according to a leading politician. Sunday’s final results of the polling the day before showed that 52.67 percent of people voted in favor of divorce, according to the Times of Malta.

BRUSSELS — Chipping away at European unity, the EU proposed revamping its unique system of unfettered cross-border travel yesterday, bowing to the stresses generated by a flood of North African immigrants. The EU Commission suggested reintroducing temporary national border checks “under very exceptional circumstances’’ after France and Italy had demanded changes to the so-called Schengen system, which erases many internal European borders for citizens and travelers. EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said these checks could take place when “part of the...

BERLIN — British and German military planes swooped into Libya’s desert, rescuing hundreds of oil workers and civilians stranded at remote sites yesterday, as thousands of other foreigners remained stuck in Tripoli by bad weather and red tape. The secret military missions into the turbulent North Africa country signal the readiness of Western nations to disregard Libya’s territorial integrity when it comes to the safety of citizens. Three British Royal Air Force planes picked up 150 stranded civilians from multiple locations in the eastern Libyan desert before flying...

TUNIS - Tunisia has issued a warrant summoning the widow of deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat over a corruption scandal, the state news agency reported yesterday. The warrant was issued last week over Suha Arafat's role in a scandal involving the former Tunisian dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, his family, and other high government officials, said Kadhem Zine El Abidine, spokesman for the Justice Ministry. He did not provide any details, but an online journal "Attounissia" said she was being investigated over the International School of Carthage,...

WASHINGTON — An internal government audit rebukes a key Catholic supporter of President Obama for spending too much time writing and speaking about subjects such as abortion and his religious beliefs, and neglecting his duties as the US ambassador to Malta. The report released yesterday by the State Department’s inspector general is the second critical assessment of a politically appointed top diplomat this year and illustrates the pitfalls that presidents can face when they appoint non-career diplomats to ambassadorships as a reward for their political support.

A key Catholic supporter of President Barack Obama complained Friday that a government audit criticizing his work as the U.S. ambassador to Malta reflects some State Department officials’ hostility toward expressions of his religious faith. The report by the department’s inspector general rebuked Douglas Kmiec for spending too much time writing and speaking about subjects such as abortion and his religious beliefs, while neglecting ambassadorial duties. Kmiec was a well-known conservative law professor and commentator before being appointed ambassador in 2009.