Malta says yes to same-sex marriage

VALLETTA - Malta's parliament voted Wednesday to allow same-sex couples to marry, three years after passing a law permitting civil partnerships in the overwhelmingly Catholic country.

Lawmakers gave near-unanimous approval to the bill, which represents a major step for LGBT rights on the island, which legalized divorce only in 2011 and where abortion is outlawed.

Malta, the EU's smallest nation, becomes the bloc's 15th member to legalize same-sex unions.

The vote was one of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's first actions following his election victory last month.

"It's a historic vote. This shows that our democracy and society have reached a level of maturity and we can now say that we are all equal," he said after the text was passed.

"Pledge delivered, future secured," he later tweeted.

The Catholic church was solidly opposed to the bill but gay rights activists on Wednesday hailed the result, rallying outside the premier's office in downtown Valetta.

The facade of the building was lit in rainbow colors and the slogan: "We've made history".

'WHOEVER THEY LOVE'

All but one lawmaker supported the new law, which will now open the door for same-sex couples to adopt. Previously this was possible only if one person applied rather than as a couple.

Though Malta scores relatively well in European-wide freedom indexes, society in the tiny Mediterranean island is still influenced by religion.

A major bone of contention ahead of the vote was a change in legal jargon to replace terms such as husband, wife, mother and father with more gender-neutral phrasing such as partner or parent.

On Tuesday evening, opponents of the measure held a silent vigil outside parliament, but Wednesday's vote was hailed by many commenters on social media.

"Now I'm proud to be a dad who can tell my boys that whoever they are and whoever they love, they can still call Malta home," said one Twitter user.

Since gay unions were approved in 2014, 141 couples have taken advantage of the partnerships, while 22 others who had gotten married outside the country had registered their unions.

The Netherlands was the first European country to legalize same-sex marriage, in 2001, with the most recent being Germany on June 30 after a surprising shift on the issue by Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Gay marriage has also been approved in Canada and the United States, and in four South American countries, though it remains illegal in most of Africa and Asia.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Armed men hijack Libyan plane, surrender in Malta

Two men armed with a grenade and at least one gun hijacked a Libyan plane with 117 people on board Friday and diverted it to Malta before releasing everyone and surrendering, officials said.

The Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A320 was en route from Sabha in southern Libya to the capital Tripoli when it was taken over and forced to fly to Malta, sparking a four-hour runway standoff.

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the pair, probably of Libyan nationality, had given up a grenade and a pistol when they were arrested and a second pistol was found on the plane.

Libyan Foreign Minister Taher Siala from Libya's fledgling national unity government said the two were supporters of slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi, whose death in 2011 has plunged Libya into chaos.

Siala said they wanted to set up a pro-Kadhafi political party and would ask for political asylum in Malta, although Muscat said they had not done so.

The plane landed at Malta International Airport at 11:34 am (1034 GMT), with 109 passengers, six crew and the two hijackers on board.

All flights in and out of the island were initially shut down while the Maltese military conducted negotiations.

It stood immobile for around an hour on a secondary runway surrounded by military vehicles, before a door opened and a first group of women and children were seen descending from a mobile staircase.

Dozens more passengers followed minutes later.

Muscat said the hijackers were told there would be no negotiations unless all passengers were released.

After the release of all passengers and two of the crew members, the hijackers were holding only the four remaining staff "for a period of time," he said.

Following further negotiations "the hijackers agreed to free the remaining members of the crew and to surrender," he continued, adding that "the hijackers did not make any requests".

Armed Maltese military personnel were later seen storming the plane.

All passengers and crew members would be interrogated before a charter flight takes them back to Libya, Muscat said.

Hijackings have become relatively rare since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States led to increased security on flights.

Other recent hijackings have been carried out by individuals for reasons ranging from personal to political, and almost all ended swiftly and safely.

In the most recent incident in March, a man hijacked an Egyptair flight from Alexandria to Cairo and forced it to land in Cyprus so he could see his ex-wife.

Seif al-Din Mohamed Mostafa was described as "psychologically unstable" and claimed to have explosives strapped to his waist, but gave himself up after releasing fellow travellers.

In February 2014, an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Rome with 202 people on board was diverted by its unarmed copilot to Geneva where he asked for asylum.

- Libyan planes banned in Europe -

During the crisis, Muscat spoke to Libya's prime minister-designate Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of the north African country's unity government.

Flights into Malta were diverted to different airports in Italy and outgoing ones were delayed.

Services later resumed after what Malta International Airport called "an unlawful interference".

Libya has been in a state of chaos since the 2011 overthrow of Moamer Kadhafi left warring militias battling for control of different parts of the country.

Forces loyal to a national unity government recently took control of the coastal city of Sirte, which had been a bastion for the Islamic State group since June 2015.

Western powers have pinned their hopes of containing jihadism in the energy-rich North African state on the government but it has failed to establish its authority over all of the country.

A rival authority rules the country's far east, backed by the forces under military strongman Marshal Khalifa Haftar who have been battling jihadists in second city Benghazi.

Only local airlines -- banned from European airspace -- operate in Libya, with flights to Tunis, Cairo, Amman, Istanbul and Khartoum.

source: news.abs-cbn.com