Nine NGOs have written to Environment and Planning Minister Dr Aaron Farrugia requesting the removal of Professor Victor Axiak from his role as chair of the Environmental Resources Authority following a spate of abysmal decisions.In their open letter...

The global death toll from the coronavirus topped a staggering 3 million people Saturday amid repeated setbacks in the worldwide vaccination campaign and a deepening crisis in places such as Brazil, India and France.The number of lives lost, as compi...

Italy plans to start emerging from rolling partial lockdowns that were imposed during a fall virus surge, announcing Friday the reopening of outdoor dining and schools at all grade levels in lower-risk regions starting April 26.The government’s...

While most of the Europe Union grapples with new surges of COVID-19 cases and brings back curbs on what people can do, Portugal is going in the other direction.Starting Monday, the Portuguese will be able to go to restaurants, shopping malls and cine...

Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister Carmelo Abela will wait for the Parliamentary Standards' Committee's conclusions before making any declarations on a report which found him in breach of ethics, he said in a Facebook post.The Standards...

The past week or so has seen the announcement of not one, but two new fast ferry services which will run between Malta and Gozo.Virtu Ferries announced last week that they will be running a fast-ferry service from Valletta to Mgarr, Gozo, while a sec...

A 59-year-old man from Zejtun died on Friday, after falling from a height of five storeys while doing some works.The man was in Zabbar, on Triq John Delia and the accident occurred at 4.30pm. A medical team went on site and the man was certified as h...

Tunisian authorities said they recovered the bodies of 21 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, including nine women and a baby, whose boat sank Friday off the central port city of Sfax. The cause of the sinking was unclear.Commander Housemeddine Jebabli...

Some 1,100 parents of minors with a disability between them have received €580,000 in Covid-19 temporary benefits the government handed out, the government said.There were 1,422 applications for such a benefit, meaning that 78% of the applicants...

Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo further announced two new schemes aimed at supporting the accommodation sector as well as the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) sector.Addressing a press conference on Friday, Bartolo said the f...

Former minister Chris Cardona would be called upon to help the hitmen planning Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder, Vince Muscat has testified under cross-examination.Muscat, known as il-Koħħu, said that Alfred Degiorgio was a close friend of C...

Prince Philip will be remembered as a man of “courage, fortitude and faith” at a martial but also personal funeral that will mark the death of a royal patriarch who was a beloved husband and father, and one of a dwindling number of World ...

27 new cases of Covid-19 were reported on Friday in what is the lowest case count registered since 30 September.Public Health chief Charmaine Gauci will be addressing her weekly briefing to give a breakdown about the Covid-19 situation shortly.Two pe...

Malta’s contact tracing app will now work abroad as well as locally after an agreement between 16 European Union countries, Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci said on Friday.Gauci announced the news in her weekly Covid-19 briefing.The contac...

Raul Castro said Friday he is stepping down as head of Cuba’s Communist Party, ending an era of formal leadership that began with his brother Fidel and country’s 1959 revolution.The 89-year-old Castro made the announcement in a speech at ...

The Corradino Correctional Facility is “diabolical” and the prison system should be completely revised, Dean of the Faculty of Social Wellbeing Andrew Azzopardi told The Malta Independent.Azzopardi said that it is “bursting at the s...

The Building and Construction Authority's (BCA) board has been formed. This was announced by Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Planning Aaron Farrugia and Parliamentary Secretary for Construction Chris Agius. Minister Farrugi...

In a study conducted by the Association of Catering Establishments (ACE) in collaboration with a number of suppliers, it transpires that between March 2020 and March 2021 approximately 19% of establishments closed down. “This staggering figure ...

With the first signs of turtle-dove migration over Malta this spring, reports by the public started coming in regarding illegal hunting of this protected bird all over the Maltese Islands, BirdLife Malta has said. “Less than a week from the sta...

Harry Kane scored twice, including a second-half equalizer, before limping off with an ankle injury in Tottenham's 2-2 draw at Everton in the Premier League on Friday as both teams stayed on the fringe of the race for Champions League qualification.T...

There has been a heavy build-up of traffic after two vehicles have crashed in Triq San Andrija in St Julians, close to Luxol Sports Club.One driver was a 54 year old man from Hal Qormi and the other driver was a 36 year old man from Santa Lucija, who...

68% of the vaccine doses administered up until last Sunday in Malta were doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, The Malta Independent has learnt.Figures provided to this newsroom by the Health Ministry show that up till last Sunday, 68% of the doses a...

As Air Malta prepares to shortly announce its increased Summer flying program, the airline has confirmed its May schedule.The Parisian airport of Orly is the latest addition to the airline's flight schedule which will now increase to 26 weekly flight...

The Marsa Junction Project, Infrastructure Malta’s biggest project to date, was officially inaugurated on Thursday evening.The project, which cost 70 million euros to complete, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Robert Abela and Minister for Tra...

One in three survivors of COVID-19, those more commonly referred to as COVID-19 long-haulers, suffered from neurologic or psychiatric disability six months after infection, a recent landmark study of more than 200,000 post-COVID-19 patients...

France on Thursday became the third country in Europe after the U.K. and Italy to reach the unwanted milestone of 100,000 COVID-19-related deaths as new infections and deaths surged due to virus variants.The country of 67 million is the eighth nation...

Archbishop Emeritus Paul Cremona OP has been discharged from hospital.The Curia said in a statement that Cremona is continuing his recovery at the Dar tal-Kleru in Birkirkara.The statement added that Cremona expressed his gratitude to all those who p...

For the second year running, the football Premier League was not completed.Last year, it was Floriana FC who were declared champions, having been sitting at the top of the table at the time when all elite sport was stopped because of the Covid-19 pan...

Following its Annual General Meeting, Joanne Bondin has been appointed as the President of the Malta Employers’ Association. Bondin has served on the Council of the MEA for a number of years, and has 15 years of experience in providing consulta...

55 new cases of Covid-19 were reported by health authorities on Thursday.It was another day where no new deaths were reported – the fourth in five days this week.45 people meanwhile have recovered from the virus, meaning that the number of acti...

Arts education schools will remain closed until further notice, the Malta Entertainment Industry and Arts Association (MEIA) confirmed in a statement on Thursday afternoon.The statement was released on MEIA’s Facebook page, following the MEIA&r...

The Office of the Prime Minister told this newsroom that it is the Parliamentary Standards Committee that will take a decision on the report drafter by the Standards Commissioner, which found a breach of ethics on the part of Minister Carmelo Abela.O...

Funding provided by the Malta Council for Science and Technology was crucial for a Maltese company to develop machinery that manufactures ‘Glass Reinforced Polymer Composite Poles’, known in the industry as GRP poles that are longer than ...

Candidates for the Nationalist Party have called for the resignation of Minister Carmelo Abela after the Standards Commissioner declared that he had breached parliamentary ethics.The report found that Abela had used just over €7,000 in public fu...

A top official from the World Health Organization says Europe has surpassed 1 million deaths from COVID-19 and the situation remains “serious,” with about 1.6 million new cases reported each week in the region.Overall, a tally by Johns Ho...

There are sufficient grounds for Brian Tonna, Karl Cini, Manuel Castagna and Katrin Bondin Carter to face trial under a bill of indictment, a magistrate has ruled.The four face charges of money laundering and other financial crimes in relation to inq...

De La Salle sixth form has opted to hold their examinations at home, rather than in-person as another sixth form has chosen to do.Email correspondence seen by The Malta Independent confirms that the sixth form has chosen to have students do their exa...

With their season on the line, Arsenal’s players produced a devastating first-half performance Thursday to beat Slavia Prague and reach the Europa League semifinals.They’ll meet a familiar face there.Arsenal’s 4-0 win in the Czech c...

Two customs officers – the dogs Ted and Zekkin – sniffed out a package of inbound drugs each, the customs department said in a statement.The two pooches were sniffing inbound packages at MaltaPost when they reacted positively to two packa...

The plans for the Covid-19 remembrance garden will be announced shortly, the Health Ministry told The Malta Independent.Last Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne announced via a tweet that the government is planning to erect a grove to commem...

Two magistrates and two lawyers have been appointed as Judges for Malta’s Superior Courts by the President George Vella.Magistrate Neville Camilleri, Magistrate Audrey Demicoli, Dr. Christian Falzon Scerri, and Dr. Ian Spiteri Bailey were deter...

A teenager who was riding an e-kick scooter was grievously injured after being hit by a car, the police said.The accident took place in San Anard Street, Tarxien, on Wednesday at 9pm.The 17-year-old boy, resident of Fgura, was hit by a Fiat Seicento ...

A man was grievously injured this morning while operating machinery in a field in Attard, the police said.The accident took place in Mdina Road at 8.15am.The man, an Italian 38-year-old who resides in Birkirkara, was taken to Mater Dei Hospital for t...

A man was grievously injured after falling off a ladder while doing maintenance work in a private residence, the police said.The accident took place in Cinju Street, Mosta, at 8.15am.The 40-year-old resident of Mosta was taken to hospital with seriou...

Moviment Graffitti has filed an appeal on the Msida creek project, saying that the Environment Resources Authority's inaction left it no other option."Despite the fact that the Msida Creek Project will turn the area into a car cemetery, result in the...

The Ministry for Education said that those persons who intend to offer an Educational Programme in the form of a Summer School/Club for children aged between 3 and 16 years should apply online to register their Summer School/Club as an Educational Es...

The Malta Employers’ Association described the document – A New Energy Future for Malta presented by the Partit Nazzjonalista - as encouraging, and with a vision to transform the country to achieve renewable targets and goals that transla...

European countries diverged Wednesday on whether they would push ahead with giving their residents Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine after reports of very rare blood clots in a handful of recipients in the United States.While some European Uni...

In a stinging rebuke to pharma giant AstraZeneca Wednesday, the European Union announced plans to negotiate a massive contract extension for Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine insisting the 27-nation bloc had to go with companies that had shown their...

At least three music festivals are being planned for this summer, promising to bring large crowds of drunk revellers to Malta’s streets, and this at a time when the government is trying to pitch Malta as a Covid-safe destination. Tourism Minist...

A bikeability course will be open to the public in the coming days and will involve a number of theory and practical sessions on cycling.This was announced by Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Planning Aaron Farrugia who explained that...

Nexia BT's Brian Tonna remained silent as he faced the parliament's Public Accounts Committee as it continued to investigate the Electrogas power station deal.The committee meeting focused on the Auditor General's report titled "An investigation of M...

Yorgen Fenech messaged a pilot with Falcon jets with an urgent request for a private flight on the eve of his arrest, a court has heard.It was also revealed that Fenech was trying to transfer cash from Dubai and other places through Wings Development...

OPM minister Carmelo Abela breached ethics with the publication of a newspaper advert that was intended to boost his image, rather than provide information of value to the public, Standards Commissioner George Hyzler has found.The report was publishe...

58 new cases of Covid-19 were reported by health authorities on Wednesday, as for the third time in four days no deaths were registered.41 people meanwhile have recovered from the virus, meaning that the number of active cases currently stands at 578...

€13,470 was raised for the son of a Brazilian footballer plying his trade in Malta who was diagnosed with cancer just as his father’s job was cut short.Patrick Maia, 32, was told last week that his one-year and nine-month old son Luca has ...

Five new air routes will start operating in Malta in conjunction with Ryanair this summer, Minister for Tourism and Consumer Protection Clayton Bartolo announced on Wednesday afternoon.Four of the new routes will connect Malta to airports in Italy, a...

Armed Forces of Malta Colonel Brian Gatt was given a final farewell as his funeral took place at the Paola Parish Church on Wednesday morning.Gatt passed away at the age of 54 on Sunday 4 April.A valued and well-respected member of the AFM, Gatt at o...

Zinedine Zidane has shown Jürgen Klopp just how to turn a season around.Zidane is leading Real Madrid into the semifinals of the Champions League. Klopp will finish the season without a trophy.A 0-0 draw at Anfield in the quarterfinals on Wednes...

Pep Guardiola shared an emotional moment with goal scorer Phil Foden as Manchester City ended its run of failure in the Champions League quarterfinals Wednesday, beating Borussia Dortmund 2-1 for a 4-2 aggregate win.Jude Bellingham scored to put Dort...

A Bill that will lead to increased female participation in Parliament was approved on Wednesday with 63 votes in favour and two against.The ‘corrective mechanism’ will allow – in case only two parties are elected to Parliament &ndas...

BNF Bank has said that a former official who was charged with money laundering on Tuesday retired from the bank in 2018, and has no ties or associations with it.Albert Buttigieg – not to be confused with the mayor for St. Julians – was ye...

The Committee of Standards in Public Life has decided to publish the report by the Standards Commissioner, which looked into a reported ethics breach by Minister Carmelo Abela over his alleged use of public funds to pay for newspaper adverts pro...

An elderly man was seriously after he was hit by a car in Qormi on Wednesday.The accident took place at around 4:15pm in Triq San Bastjan, the police said.The victim, a 79-year-old man from Qormi, was hit by a Kia Avella driven by a 31-year-old man w...

Gozo Fast Ferry Ltd announced today that will it start operating a fast-ferry service between Gozo and Valletta from June, using two state-of-the-art high-speed passenger craft.The company — backed by Bianchi Group and Merrill Investments, who ...

Mark Camilleri, Head of the National Book Council (NBC), has called for an election of the head of the council in a bid to stop government from selecting a candidate for the post.Camilleri called for the election himself in a statement issued on Wedn...

The Nationalist Party is calling on the government to launch a wide consultation process with the opposition as well as with all parties concerned on changes that will have a "fundamental impact on the future of Air Malta and the way it operates."Thi...

An Albanian man has died after falling seven storeys at a construction site in Marsascala, police said on Wednesday morning.The incident happened at around 8am at a construction site in Triq il-Qrempuc in Marsascala.The Albanian was 38 years old and ...

Dizz Group said that they had filed a judicial protest against PN MP Jason Azzopardi in January 2020 – a protest to which Azzopardi never replied.In a right of reply to an article published yesterday, where Jason Azzopardi questioned why Diane ...

BirdLife Malta has published a video showing a bird that was injured after accidentally being caught on a fishing line weeks ago being released back into the wild.On Easter Sunday, A group of Scopoli's Shearwater birds had been filmed as having been ...

A skull discovered at St. Paul's Catacombs has been brought to life using facial reconstruction, and Heritage Malta will be streaming a masterclass on Facebook that follows the journey, from site to lab, of this creation.Heritage Malta wrote, in a st...

One of Yorgen Fenech’s team of lawyers has requested access to murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s tax returns, in a compensation case filed by Caruana Galizia’s heirs.Caruana Galizia was murdered in a 2017 car bombing. Tum...

The arrest and arraignment of Keith Schembri and associates on 20 March was the culmination of years of investigations which included magisterial inquiries as well as delicate police work.The former OPM chief of staff and others were charged with a s...

President Joe Biden says the Sept. 11 attacks “cannot explain” why U.S. forces should remain in Afghanistan 20 years later and that “it is time for American troops to come home” from the country's longest war.Bidensays the U.S...

The effects of the coronavirus pandemic are expected to contribute over the next year to “humanitarian and economic crises, political unrest, and geopolitical competition,” according to a new intelligence report that also warns ...

Bernie Madoff, the financier who pleaded guilty to orchestrating a massive Ponzi scheme, died in a federal prison early Wednesday, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. He was 82.Madoff died at the Federal Medical Center in But...

Britain began offering coronavirus vaccinations to anyone over 45 on Tuesday after hitting its target of giving at least one dose to everyone over 50 by the middle of April.Despite the good news, Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that the U.K. woul...

The EU is still a long way from reaching its Green Deal target of 1 million charging points by 2025, and it lacks an overall strategic roadmap for electro-mobility, according to a new report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA). Despite successes ...

The step-daughter of Darren Debono, who faces charges of money laundering in Malta over an oil smuggling operation, has been charged with money laundering.Florinda (Floren Sultana), 29, and a former high-ranking BNF Bank official, Albert Buttigieg (w...

Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo has pronounced himself on the issue of planned mass party festivals, saying that it’s not illegal for these to be advertised, but it is illegal for them to take place.Mass events have been a public bone of conte...

59 new cases of Covid-19 were reported by health authorities as another patient passed away on Tuesday.A 68-year-old woman passed away at Mater Dei Hospital in the last 24 hours while Covid-19 positive, taking Malta’s current death count up to ...

Another four-day party festival is being advertised as taking place in Malta between 3 and 7 June 2021, prompting raised eyebrows and some concern amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.The event, titled ‘Summer in Malta’ and promoted as ‘4 d...

Teenagers are increasingly spending more time on the internet, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic where social activities and gatherings are highly discouraged.Internet use and online communication can be healthy ways of keeping in contact with ...

Fashion retailer Dian Izzo's time period within which she was able to file a libel case against PN MP Jason Azzopardi over money laundering claims has expired, the PN MP said on Facebook.Businesswoman Diane Izzo said in early 2020 that she would be f...

Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo said that Malta is at the forefront of Europe in digital green certificate preparations.He was responding to a number of Parliamentary Questions posed by MPs, including Claudio Grech and Jean Claude Micallef.He said t...

The government will finance the costs to transport the body of Lassane Cisse back to the Ivory Coast, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri revealed while answering a Parliamentary Question.While responding to PN MP Mario Galia, Camilleri said t...

The Environment and Resources Authority Board's decision to allow the controversial Comino works to continue were taken on the grounds that mitigation measures will be included, the authority said.The news broke today that the controversial works on...

The cross from the right was curling away from goal at shoulder height when Mehdi Taremi took off, connecting with a spectacular scissor kick that sent the ball into the top corner from 12 meters out.A beautiful goal — arguably the best in the ...

After Neymar missed several chances to finish off defending champion Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain was left clinging to a 1-0 home defeat that nevertheless sealed the French club’s second straight Champions League semifinal on Tuesday.Baye...

Johnson & Johnson says it is delaying the rollout of its coronavirus vaccine in Europe amid a U.S. probe into rare blood clots.The company announced the decision Tuesday after regulators in the United States said they were recommending a "pause" ...

“The rule of law is the ultimate test of a functioning state. Key to this is the principle that there be one rule for both powerful and powerless.”This was written in a piece by John Stanton, a Senior Lecturer in Law at the City, Universi...

In 2020, Malta's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 7%, the Central Bank of Malta (CBM) revealed in its Annual Report.The Central Bank of Malta released its Annual Report for 2020, including its detailed financial statements, an opening state...

A 40-year-old man was charged in court today over injuring another man.The incident dealt with a fight in Port Street in Żebbuġ, Gozo last Saturday, after two men allegedly fought using a broken bottle and a knife.The 40-year-old was charge...

Amendments to the law pertaining to the care and protection of minors were put in place on Tuesday and Minister for Family and Children's Rights Michael Falzon proudly said that another important step has been taken for the care of minors.Together wi...

The government needs to devise a “solid plan” and provide more clarification for the reintroduction of arts education, the Malta Entertainment Industry and Arts Association (MEIA) has told The Malta Independent.This newsroom is informed t...

 More students attending the University of Malta (UoM) have turned to alcohol and substance to cope with Covid-19 fears, a study conducted by the Faculty of Social Wellbeing has found.The findings of the study were shared in a seminar organized ...

A technical issue led to the double registration of pledged donations during several fundraising marathons last year, meaning that the real amount collected is €1.4 million less than originally thought.GO said on Monday that donors were not bill...

Opposition and PN leader Bernard Grech has said that he will be making “difficult decisions” within the PN, after two survey results were published on Sunday.Grech acknowledged the “encouraging” results which are being shown i...

Investigations into an illegal party that was held last week, in full breach of Covid-19 rules, are still ongoing, a police spokesperson has told The Malta Independent. Video footage of the party, which took place inside an unidentified villa and was...

Losing out on a summer of tourism this year could be a “death knell” for tourism agencies, the Federated Association of Travel and Tourism Agents (FATTA) told The Malta Independent.Last Sunday, Prime Minister Robert Abela said that Malta ...