Nationalist Party Leader Bernard Grech is hopeful that the PN can continue to close the gap with the Labour Party in the coming weeks. The Malta Independent on Sunday interviewed Grech on Friday, amid rumours that government could call a March electi...

With a general election seemingly imminent and matters in certain Parliamentary committees – particularly that involving Konrad Mizzi – heating up, many have questioned what happens to the Parliamentary process when an election is called....

The developers behind the Villa Rosa area project in St George’s Bay have told The Malta Independent on Sunday that they are aiming for “high quality tourism” through their new plans.Plans to change the proposed development on the l...

The composition of Parliament as it is now is substantially different from the day when the newly-elected MPs all filed in for the opening ceremony to take their oath of office soon after the 2017 election.We often say that resignations in Malta are ...

Maltese nationals make up over 60% of people who sponsor Ugandan orphans through a Romania-based NGO. The founders of Help one chid thrive told The Malta Independent on Sunday they have no idea how this happened, but put it down to the generosity of ...

TV presenter and model Pauline Marie Chetcuti is making a name for herself on her daily Net show #kikkrate .Like many, she cannot imagine herself without her mobile phone, loves spring and says Lady Gaga is her favourite singer.But which invention sh...

The Central Link Project was officially inaugurated on Sunday and Prime Minister Robert Abela stressed the importance of this project as well as others like it.During a press conference on site, Abela said that Since 2017, the government has embarked...

Along with the rising cost of living, and a scandal here and there, the country’s institutions will undoubtedly be one of the key issues in the upcoming general election. The institutions have been bandied about by both political parties, each ...

Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has called for an investigation into how information was leaked about his house being searched by the police.In a video message posted on Facebook, Muscat voiced his objections with the way the situation was handle...

The number of active Covid-19 cases dipped further on Saturday, while one more death was registered, figures released by the health authorities show.The latest victim was a man aged 92, whose death takes the tally to 545.The authorities said that the...

Italian President Sergio Mattarella was pulled away from his impending retirement and reelected Saturday to a second seven-year term as the country's head of state, ending days of political impasse by party leaders that risked eroding the nation's cr...

MOSCOW (AP) — The daily count of new coronavirus infections in Russia spiked above 110,000 on Saturday as the highly contagious omicron variant races through the vast country.The state coronavirus task force reported 113,122 new infections over...

Prime Minister Robert Abela is expected to nominate Standards Commissioner George Hyzler to the European Court of Auditors (ECA) later this year.PM Abela informed Labour MPs during a parliamentary group meeting about this decision on Friday, Times of...

A man who was found injured on the ground in Pieta on Friday has died in hospital, the police said,The man was found sprawled on the ground, injured, early on Friday morning in Pieta.Police said in a statement that their assistance was requested at a...

Valletta: Collis Williams Pharmacy, 15, Republic Street; Ħamrun: Remedies Pharmacy, 678, St Joseph High Road; Santa Venera: Lantern Pharmacy, Misraħ il-Kebbies; Birkirkara: Brown's Pharmacy, 32, Fleur-de-Lys Road; Pieta: St Anthony Pharmacy...

Minister for Foreign and European Affairs Evarist Bartolo and Stephanie Williams, the Special Advisor on Libya to the Secretary General of the United Nations, on Saturday exchanged views on the situation in Libya during a telephone call. Minister Bar...

The European Union ombudsman on Friday found the bloc's executive arm responsible for "maladministration" after it did not provide access to text messages between its president and the CEO of pharmaceutical company Pfizer relating to coronavirus vacc...

Hibernians failed to win for the third time in a row this time being held by neighbours Sta Lucia in a goalless draw. But so far they remain the only unbeaten team in the Premier League.Their opponents Santa Lucia were now under the guidance of Giova...

Twenty-two Church entities are seeing action to curb the rise in the price of basic items.A statement issued by the Curia said that the entities, who work with vulnerable people, are appealing for the authorities to give priority to the matter and se...

Scientists and health officials around the world are keeping their eyes on a descendant of the omicron variant that has been found in more than 50 countries, including the United States.This version of the coronavirus, which scientists call BA.2, is ...

The Collegiate Chapter of St Paul Shipwrecked and the Għaqda tal-Pawlini have requested a meeting with the health authorities on their request to organise a reduced Feast of St Paul. The organisations said they are proposing a reduced programme ...

A woman was grievously injured on Friday afternoon after she fell one storey, the police said.The accident happened in a residence in Kartocc Street, Swieqi, at 6.30pm.The woman, aged 25, fell one storey off a terrace, the police said.She was taken t...

Ash Barty will no longer need to overthink the 1970s when she prepares for the Australian Open.The top-ranked Barty recovered from 5-1 down in the second set to beat Danielle Collins 6-3, 7-6 (2) in the final on Saturday night, ending a 44-year droug...

The comparison between Parliament and a children’s playground is not one which is made all that often, however on certain occasions – particularly when having to watch parliamentary committees discussing matters of a certain degree of sen...

Tempers flared in the courtroom on Friday afternoon, as lawyers defending Vince Muscat clashed with a prosecutor over whether or not convicted bank robber Daren Debono could legally be allowed to testify against Muscat in criminal proceedings about t...

 Support for Italian President Sergio Mattarella to stay on for a second term quickly swelled on Saturday among party leaders after days of failed balloting to find an alternative candidate and amid the risk that protracted political squabbling ...

Omicron, the highly contagious coronavirus variant sweeping across the country, is driving the daily American death toll higher than during last fall's delta wave, with deaths likely to keep rising for days or even weeks.The seven-day rolling average...

The principal permanent secretary has said that he did not testify in the case brought up by Marica Mizzi after her termination of employment.In a right of reply issued through the Department of Information, Cutajar said that he became aware of the c...

At a conference where prospective plans regarding the concept of erosion in our country were discussed, Minister Clayton Bartolo, Parliamentary Secretary Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi and Permanent Secretary Joseph Caruana launched the Coastal-COVER projec...

With an investment of €200,000 an area of around 1,165m2 will be regenerated to provide better access to persons with disability while ensuring the efficient use of resources such as water and electricity.This ...

Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be preparing to launch an invasion of Ukraine, with more than 100,000 troops positioned around the country. Certainly, the U.S. believes that's the case and President Joe Biden has warned Ukrainian Presiden...

Insistence by Italy's center-right bloc that one of their candidates is vaulted to the country's presidency backfired on Friday, as tensions and frustration mounted among the rival parties forming Premier Mario Draghi's pandemic unity government and ...

Three elderly people have died while positive for Covid-19, as health authorities reported 229 new cases of the virus on Friday.Authorities said in their daily update that a man aged 70 and two women aged 84 and 91 respectively had died while positiv...

Right-wing cleric David Muscat has been charged with hate speech and misuse of electronic communications technology, over a Facebook comment he had made earlier this year, saying that homosexuality, which he referred to as “gayaġni”,...

Nationalist MP PN Ivan Bartolo has come up with four proposals to address the issue of poverty. Speaking during a seminar on Friday, the Mosta MP said politicians need to be proactive in addressing social issues as it is useless to stay in the comfor...

At least six Africans trying to migrate to Europe died and an estimated 30 were missing in the Mediterranean Sea after their boat sank off the coast of Tunisia on Thursday, according to Tunisia’s Defense Ministry.Tunisian naval and coast guard ...

Charges are expected to be issued over a shocking incident of bullying of a 12-year-old girl at a school in Malta, Lovin Malta reports.Lovin Malta received a video of a girl being attacked by students outside of a school, showing her being punched, k...

The European Medicines Agency has recommended that Pfizer's coronavirus antiviral drug be authorized for use in the 27-nation European Union, the first time the agency has recommended a pill for treating COVID-19.In a statement on Thursday, the EU dr...

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's coronavirus surge fueled by the omicron variant remains “under control” despite a string of new infection records, the country's health minister said Friday.Cases as a result of the highly contagious variant ...

Ground preparation works for the Waste to Energy project are expected to be completed this year, WasteServ said on Friday.The Environmental Impact Assessment for the project has already been completed and the detailed Outline Development Application ...

A court has ordered dentist Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando to pay nearly €16,000 in compensation to a former patient after she was left with chronic facial pain and a permanent disability following dentistry procedures in 2009.Mr Justice Francesco De...

In January, Teatru Manoel commemorated its 290th anniversary. It is celebrating with an exhilarating show celebrating the legendary music of Sweden's most famous pop group ABBA, the Maltese debut of a hit play and a family-friendly Karnival-inspired ...

Lawyer and former PN MP Franco Debono has dropped charges against a Nationalist Party activist who made threats of violence against him in a voice message on a WhatsApp group chat. Nationalist Party activist Charles Zammit made a public apology on hi...

A man was grievously injured after a fall on a construction site, the police said.The accident happened at 3.30am in Trundiera Street, limits of Bahar ic-Caghaq.The man, a 22-year-old from Lithuania, “fell two metres in a construction site&rdqu...

A minibus driver who filed an appeal after being sentenced to 12 years for the rape of an eight-year-old entrusted to his care will have his case retried because the court of the first instance did not allow him to cross-examine the alleged victim.Ja...

Just over two months after her ‘admonishment’ by the standards committee, Rosianne Cutajar has been appointed as chair of Parliament’s health committee. We now understand why the government had shot down a motion by the PN to suspen...

The Nationalist Party’s mega-sized anti-corruption Bill has failed to pass Parliament, after the government voted en-masse against the proposed amendments. 37 MPs voted against the Bill, while 27 voted in favour, meaning that the majority ...

Extensive restoration works on San Anton Gardens were announced by Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Planning Aaron Farrugia. This project, which will be led by the ministry and includes works by GreenServ and Ambjent Malta, ...

Former Minister Konrad Mizzi returned to the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday, and once again refused to answer any of the questions put to him during the almost two hour sitting, citing his willingness to wait for a ruling from the Speaker inst...

The Budget for 2022 was approved in Parliament on Thursday, another indication that the calling of a general election may be imminent.The Implementation of the Budget Measures was approved on Thursday – right after the government shot down a se...

Speaker Anglu Farrugia has ruled that members of the Public Accounts Committee must conduct themselves in an orderly manner and exhibit “caution” in how they frame their questions.The ruling comes at the request of Konrad Mizzi, who claim...

Lawmakers and regional representatives failed for a fourth day Thursday to find consensus on a new Italian president, even after the threshold for victory passed to a simple majority for the first time.The center-right abstained outright in the votin...

Three Covid-19 patients have died since Wednesday, as 230 new cases of the virus have been reported by health authorities.Authorities said that two men aged 70 and 81 years respectively, and a 90-year-old woman had died while positive for Covid-19.Me...

A man died and a second workman was injured in an accident at Ta’ Qali on Wednesday afternoon, the police said.The man, 40 from Gharghur, died on site, the Ta' Qali national park.He has been named as Adrian Muscat, a father of four.A second wor...

Prime Minister Robert Abela defended Rosianne Cutajar, saying that Cutajar is still a Member of Parliament and has been reprimanded for her actions.The Prime Minister was asked by journalists about episodes of bad governance during his legislature, t...

98% of people aged 12 and over have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, Health Minister Chris Fearne told EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides in a meeting at the Health Ministry in Valletta.Fearne's main messa...

Labour propagandist Manuel Cuschieri has warned Repubblika president Robert Aquilina that he will be taught “a lesson you will never forget” if the group tries to be arrogant with Joseph Muscat.Cuschieri, a former president of the Labour ...

The Nationalist Party has been proved right again on discrepancies related to energy bills being received by consumers, deputy leader David Agius said on Thursday.He was referring to the announcement in Parliament made by Minister for Energy, Miriam ...

The PN is not credible about energy bills, the Labour Party said.The PL said that the only government that stole from people was one led by the PN. Not only were such bills increased at an alarming rate but were increased more than they did around th...

Necessary steps were taken by the relevant entities to ensure price stability and low energy tariffs, the Energy Ministry told The Malta Independent in response to questions relating to energy prices.During a Public Accounts Committee meeting earlier...

A new glass sorting line that will be recovering the equivalent of around 45 million glass bottles every year has been set up at WasteServ's facility in Marsascala, the government said.This was announced by Minister for the Environment, Climate Chang...

The popular streaming service from the Walt Disney Company, Disney+ has confirmed that it will be launching its streaming service to 42 new countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa this summer.Malta is one of those countries.So far in Malta, t...

Ahead of the latest inquiry hearing of the El Hiblu 3, an Amnesty International delegation is travelling to Malta to call for the charges against them to be dropped.Three young men are being charged with terrorism and hijacking a merchant vessel that...

There was a time when the General Workers’ Union held protests in the streets when it believed that the government was taking measures that would have led to changes to the conditions of work of Air Malta employees, or some dismissals.There wer...

Two drivers were grievously injured in separate accidents in Zejtun and Birkirkara this morning.The police said that the first accident took place at 6.30am in Triq Dahla ta’ San Tumas, Zejtun.It involved a Seat Ibiza, driven by a 40-year-old m...

Several dozen octogenarians, bundled against the cold, chattered in Russian and Hebrew as they picked through heaps of carrots, onions and grapefruit in a Jerusalem courtyard.Nearly all of them Holocaust survivors, they were picking up donations of f...

Most coronavirus restrictions including mandatory face masks were lifted in England on Thursday, after Britain’s government said its vaccine booster rollout successfully reduced serious illness and COVID-19 hospitalizations.From Thursday, face ...

Former minister Konrad Mizzi walked out of a Public Accounts Committee meeting to ask for a ruling from the Speaker on the way he was being treated during the committee's meeting today.He was testifying on a report compiled by the Auditor General on ...

BERLIN (AP) — Austria will end its lockdown for unvaccinated residents next Monday — one day before a COVID-19 vaccine mandate takes effect in the country, the country's chancellor announced Wednesday.Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer sai...

Prime Minister Robert Abela is continuing to keep his cards close to his chest when it comes to the date of this year’s general election.Asked by journalists outside Castille what his comments were over rumours swirling that Malta will go to th...

Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Robert Abela is unable to take decisions and is “led by others.”Speaking in Parliament, Grech referred to Abela’s claim that there was not a single case of bad go...

The Planning Authority has suspended a decision on a controversial plan for the construction of apartment blocks on arable land in a rural area of Nadur over concerns on who owns the land in question.The project at hand was the “proposed excava...

The Court of Appeal has overturned a judge’s decision not to uphold a claim for unpaid terminal benefits, instead awarding €14,398 to a former President’s communications coordinator whose employment had been terminated when the Presi...

A new energy billing system that will help consumers save their unused cheaper energy units for use at a later stage is being introduced this month, energy minister Miriam Dalli said Wednesday.Speaking in Parliament, Dalli said the new system will ad...

The Opposition said Wednesday that the new appointment of Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar as the president of the parliamentary health committee was an insult to the House. Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, PN MP Robert Cutajar said that despite what w...

Hamrun Spartans and Birkirkara fired blanks yesterday in a rather drab affair, with both sides earning a point, when only the three points at stake mattered. In fact both teams were the great losers yesterday as their only aim was victory to keepe in...

Two more patients have died with Covid-19 as the number of active cases dipped slightly, figures released by the health authorities show.The latest victims are two men aged 86 and 88. Their deaths take the tally to 538.There were 314 new cases record...

A drug report presented today showed that in 2020, a significant increase in cocaine users was noted and that, although drug related emergencies have decreased slightly, the number is still high.Co-Author of the report Manuel Gellel stated that the r...

Occupy Justice activist Pia Zammit, who is also an actress, won an appeal against a decision by the courts to dismiss a libel case she had filed against it-Torca over an article it published containing a photograph of her in a Nazi uniform while back...

The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) welcomes the announcement by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health Dr Chris Fearne that most of the measures that came in force on the 17th January will be lifted on the 7th and 14th Febr...

Captain Morgan's general manager Kevin Zammit Briffa has told a judge that the vessels used as an offshore detention centre for migrants had their registration changed from "passenger vessels" to "workboats" at around the same time that the company w...

The Prime Minister's silence makes him an accomplice in Labour Whip Glenn Bedingfield’s outburst in Parliament on Tuesday, the Nationalist Party said today.PL Whip Bedingfield lashed out at the courts and the police over the search of former Pr...

An application for a garage complex adjacent to the historic Turkish Cemetery in Marsa was refused by the Planning Commission.The project's architect Stephen Farrugia argued that after being told to scale down the plans and introduce a buffer zone to...

Minister for Animal Rights Anton Refalo told the Malta Independent on Wednesday that the 2016 laws regarding the possession of ‘dangerous animals,’ particularly big cats, must be amended to ensure the protection of these animals. This new...

The NGO Repubblika has compared a speech by PL Whip Glenn Bedingfield to other speeches which served as a precursor to dictatorships or totalitarianism.Prime Minister Robert Abela must clearly declare whether his government is in favour of democracy,...

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Animal Rights Anton Refalo announced on Wednesday a new system for the traceability of wine, a new digital transformation within the agricultural sector. A video shown during the conference displayed that...

Malta’s vaccine certificate rules will be relaxed in the first half of February for a number of establishments, Health Minister Chris Fearne announced in Parliament on Tuesday.Fearne announced that as from Monday 7 February, a valid vaccine cer...

MEP Alex Agius Saliba's nomination by the Socialists and Democrats to become Vice-Chair of the Committee on Petitions in the European Parliament was approved unanimously by all members of the Committee, the Labour Party said.For the past two and a ha...

The Malta Football Association expressed its disagreement with the Health Authorities’ decision not to include outdoor sports events among the several activities that will no longer require attendees to present a vaccination certificate for ent...

Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer has been chosen by the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament to represent them within the European Parliament’s committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM). Engerer...

The seasonally adjusted monthly unemployment rate for December 2021 stood at 3.4 per cent, at par with the previous month and declining by 0.9 percentage points from December 2020, the NSO said today.In December 2021, the monthly unemployment rate wa...

The World Health Organization said there were 21 million new coronavirus cases reported globally last week, the highest weekly number of COVID-19 cases recorded since the pandemic began. The number of deaths was largely unchanged, at more than 50,000...

PL Whip Glenn Bedingfield lashed out at the courts and the police over the search of former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's home, and also took aim at other institutions within the country.The Burmarrad home of former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was ...

Temperatures inside school classrooms are the same as outside, the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) said. “Whilst Ministry and Directorates personnel are having AC units on heating mode running day and night at their respective offices, schools ar...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is bracing for the conclusions of an investigation into allegations of lockdown-breaching parties, a document that could help him end weeks of scandal and discontent, or bring his time in office to an abrupt close.Senior ...

There’s a Maltese saying, quite vulgar, which refers to times when people do not think enough before they speak up. It mentions an anatomical part which does not see the light of day, unless one goes to a nudist beach. The English have a more p...

The European Union is seeking to streamline the sometimes chaotic travel between its member states during the pandemic by relying more clearly on a person's vaccine or infection status rather than where a traveler came from.The EU's 27 Euro...

Pope Francis is set to visit Malta on 2 and 3 April, sparking rumours that an election will have to be slated for March.Times of Malta reports that the Vatican has informed the Maltese government that the pontiff is willing to travel to Malta before ...

TOKYO (AP) — Tokyo on Tuesday reported a record high of COVID-19 cases, as Japan prepared to implement new anti-virus measures amid surging infections driven by the highly contagious omicron variant.The capital city logged 12,813 new cases, whi...

Malta has made very slight progress in this year’s Corruption Perception Index, gaining only one point over its 2020 score.The CPI is published yearly by Transparency International. Malta received a score of 54 this year, edging up only one poi...