A Chinese tour operator is hoping to combine Malta into a Mediterranean tour package which will result in thousands of tourists from the Chinese market coming to the country.Duma Wang, the chairman of the Hiseas International Tourism Group, told The ...

Russia’s military kept grinding down Ukraine’s defenses Monday, with combat in eastern areas said to be entering a “decisive” phase, as the war’s consequences for food and fuel supplies incr...

A motorcyclist was grievously injured on Monday evening when he lost control of the bike he was riding and fell, the police said.The accident happened in Mqabba at 8pm.The biker, a 39-year-old from Birkirkara fell off the Honda bike which careened in...

A variation of €457,360 to a government contract that was originally for €1.04 million was granted by the Department of Contracts in September 2021.The contract had originally been for €1,043,930 (excluding VAT) and was for the supply,...

The man who was reported missing to the police last week has been found dead in a room at Ghajn Tuffieha, the police said.The man, Nicholas Camilleri, 55, of Birkirkara was found dead on Monday at 8.30pm.The police said that no foul play is suspected...

Speaker Anglu Farrugia washed his hands on whether the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) should summon Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa to testify before it on the Electrogas power station deal, leaving the matter in the hands of the committee – w...

The Housing Authority has confiscated a total of 392 keys to social housing after investigations of alleged abuse on cases between 2017 till the end of 2021.Minister for Social and Affordable Accommodation Roderick Galdes addressed a press conference...

The CEO of the Gozo Business Chamber Daniel Borg has hit out at the development of what he described as being almost a monopoly by the two operators of the Gozo fast ferry service after they reached an agreement to operate an identical timetable whic...

There are a number of Maltese and Gozitans with very big hearts.We always hear of stories about extraordinary people doing what they can to help others. Whether it is some great feat of physical endurance, like a marathon run or swim in aid of a char...

 A new sectoral agreement has been signed between the government and two categories of workers: phlebotomists and decontamination & sterilisation technicians.The signature was between the Health Ministry and the Malta Union of Midwives &...

Health Minister Chris Fearne announced that the health authorities will be sending out new immunization dates next week for people aged 65 and over who missed their first appointment for the second booster dose.This announcement comes after the rise ...

233 new cases of Covid-19 were reported by health authorities on Monday.72 people meanwhile have recovered from the virus, meaning that the number of active cases currently stands at 2,881.1,273 swab tests were carried out in the last 24 hours, equat...

A number of Sliema residents are considering taking legal action against a particular venue due to the excessive noise it generates every summer, in the hope of seeing more enforcement by the authorities. It is no news that excessive noise from a num...

Summer is set to start with a bang as temperatures are set to rise steadily in the coming days to reach their peak at the weekend.The first day of summer, Tuesday, will start with 31 degrees Celsius but will go up to 33 degrees on Wednesday and 35 on...

Respondents to a Eurobarometer survey in Malta are amongst the most positive about development aid. More than nine in ten (95%) think it is important to partner with countries outside the EU to reduce poverty around the world. This is an increase of ...

Just over 1,000 people from Ukraine have benefitted from temporary protection in Malta, with 76% being women, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO).On 4 March, the European Union activated the Temporary Protection Directive (2001/55/EC) i...

Three Gozitans - Mark Cremona, Aaron Cini and Antonella Zammit - are a week into their ten-day volunteering trip in Slovakia, helping Ukrainian children orphaned due to the on-going war in Ukraine. Cremona, Cini and Zammit are volunteering with the S...

During the first quarter of 2022, Malta registered a current account deficit of €17 million, the National Statistics Office said.This deficit was primarily the result of negative net balances recorded in the goods account (€469.5 million), ...

National Lottery plc. a subsidiary of the IZI Group and the new operator of the National Lottery of Malta, in a joint statement with the representatives of the national lottery agents, announced that it has concluded an agency agreement that will reg...

A man whose identity is still unknown, and a 35-year old motorcyclist were both grievously injured in separate accidents in Fgura on Monday. The first accident, which happened at around 7:15am in Triq Hompesch in Fgura, involved a traffic accide...

A man is in danger of dying after he suffered injuries from a construction site fall on Monday morning.Police said that they were informed that their assistance was needed at 7am in a construction site in Triq Nardo Sacco in Zurrieq.Preliminary inves...

One photograph shows a kneeling soldier kissing a child inside a subway station, where Ukraine families shelter from Russian airstrikes. In another, an infant and a woman who appears on the brink of tears look out from a departing train car as a man ...

The Nationalist Party is going to have a challenging road ahead.Having just lost an election by a massive landslide margin, being €32 million in debt, seeing just one person submit their nomination for deputy leadership… it’s going ...

Greek authorities said Sunday they have rescued 108 migrants from a sailboat that was found rudderless and leaking water in the Aegean Sea in near gale force winds.The rescued migrants — 63 men, 24 women and 21 children — have t...

A biker was taken to the Gozo general hospital with grievous injuries after a traffic accident in Rabat Road, Zebbug, Gozo on Sunday evening,The biker, a 31-year-old man from Qala, was riding a Kymco MXU which was involved in a collision with a Toyot...

A plan is being worked on that aims to see the Nationalist Party’s media company, Media.Link, operationally break even in 14 months, PN secretary general Michael Piccinino told The Malta Independent on Sunday.Opposition Leader Bernard Grech had...

Malta’s environmental laws could be the perfect case example for the European Union, but they are not implemented, Nature Trust president Vince Attard said in an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday.“I always say that in Malta w...

What activists of the Graffitti movement did a few days ago in Comino earned admiration and support from many, and quite surprisingly, led to action being taken.Members of the group turned up at Blue Lagoon yesterday week to remove deckchairs that ha...

A total of 27 Maltese children have been adopted over the last decade, new data emerging in Parliament earlier this month shows.Nationalist Party MP Paula Mifsud Bonnici asked the Minister for Active Aging Jo Etienne Abela, whose ministry is also res...

315 new Covid-19 cases were registered on Sunday, as the number of cases continues to rise.Currently there are 2,720 active cases of the virus in the country.Since the start of the pandemic, Malta has had 97,872 cases of Covid-19, with 94,026 recover...

A group for widows and widowers to grieve together, share experiences and help each other start a new life has been in operation for the last 25 years.Now, its chairperson has come up with the idea of a book which seeks to help men and women who have...

The Malta Independent met with Ukrainian Deputy Speaker Oleksander Kornienko who opened up about the current situation in Ukraine, international aid, the Russian threat and the possibility of any future relations with Russia were discussed.The curren...

Max Verstappen maintained his hold on the Formula One championship fight by holding off a late challenge from Carlos Sainz Jr. to earn his sixth win of the season in a fairly easy Sunday drive in the Canadian Grand Prix.Verstappen won from the pole a...

Tourism operators must ensure that they do not negatively impact the residential communities amongst which they operate, Chairperson of ADPD Carmel Cacopardo has said."In a small community like ours, this is a basic and integral requirement in order ...

Minister Ian Borg received "the best Father's Day gift" when his daughter went along with his wife to visit him in hospital in London.Posting a touching image on Facebook, Borg, who is recovering from knee surgery, said he is working to get back on h...

Many times editorials tend to focus on negative aspects.They are used by newspapers to highlight shortcomings, put politicians on the spot, criticise decisions taken, and demand that corrective action is taken when things go wrong.Few are the occasio...

The Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe, together with its Member the Cana Movement, have come out against some of the amendments being proposed to the Embryo Protection Act, backing a position paper that said the amendments 'undermi...

Malta should place more focus on event and culture-based tourism which can be attracted on a year-round basis, rather than focusing on mass tourism, a Hungarian MEP who works specifically in tourism told The Malta Independent on Sunday in an intervie...

A woman was grievously injured after crashing her car into two parked vehicles on Vjal De Paule, Balzan.The accident occurred at 1.30am. An Audi A1 being driven by a 31-year-old woman from Birkirkara crashed with two parked vehicles and toppled over ...

The Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (MCCAA) and the Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to ensure more accessibility to products and services for persons with ...

The PGT screening approved by Parliament in amendments to the IVF law will give my future child a chance to be free of my condition, Labour candidate Gianluca Cutajar said in an appeal in favour of embryo genetic testing.Cutajar suffers from the rare...

A celebrated Ukrainian medic whose footage was smuggled out of the besieged city of Mariupol by an Associated Press team was freed by Russian forces on Friday, three months after she was taken captive on the streets of the city.Yuliia Paievska is&nbs...

The organizer of the Eurovision Song Contest said that it will start talks with the BBC on possibly holding next year's event in the U.K. after concluding that it can't be held in Ukraine. Kyiv said it disagreed with the decision and called for &ldqu...

A restaurant owner was on Saturday charged with the murder of another man in a St Paul’s Bay restaurant.Before Magistrate Victor Axiak, David Busuttil, 59, who is the owner of Munchies Bar in Triq it-Turisti, was charged with killing a 60-year-...

An elderly man was found dead on Saturday after falling off the cliffs at Birzebbuga, the police said.The man was later named as Mario Dalli by the Tarxien local council. In their statement, the police said that relatives of the man, aged 72, of...

A teenager was critically hurt on Saturday morning when he fell five storeys, the police said.The accident happened in a construction site in Ramla Street, Mellieha, at 2.30am.The police said that two teenagers from Austria, aged 18 and 19, had enter...

A 47-year-old man from Cospicua was jailed for 15 years after jurors delivered a rare 9-0 guilty verdict late on Friday night.In view of the jurors’ unanimity, Mr Justice Aaron Bugeja, presiding over the trial that was held behind closed doors,...

Alex Perici Calascione is the sole contender for the Nationalist Party leadership post.A statement by the PN said that he was the only official to submit an expression of interest in the position.The call for applications ended at noon.The PN’s...

Singer and pianist Godwin Lucas has passed away, his nephew said on Facebook.Lucas was 63. In his career, he collaborated with many singers and musicians including Phylissienne Brincat, Paul Abela and Paul Giordemaina.He took part in several son...

Valletta: 20/21, Republic Street; Ħamrun: Remedies Pharmacy, 678, St Joseph High Road; Qormi: Pinto Pharmacy, 43, St Sebastian Street; Birkirkara, (Fleur-de-Lys): Marrit Pharmacy, 1st of May Street; Gżira: St Matthew's Pharmacy, The Promena...

A driver was injured on Saturday morning after the car he was driving was involved in a collision with two other vehicles, the police said.The accident happened in Qormi Road, Qormi at 8.30am.The vehicles involved were a BMW 520D driven by a 31-year-...

The health authorities said Saturday that 279 new Covid-19 cases were recorded, along with two deaths.No details about the victims were given, as the number of deaths related to Covid-19 has now climbed to 730.The total number of cases has reached 97...

The European Union’s executive arm recommended putting Ukraine on a path to membership Friday, a symbolic boost for a country fending off a Russian onslaught that is killing civilians, flattening cities and threatening its very surviv...

The Sliema local council said that police will be patrolling the Sliema promenade, from the Exiles area to the Strand, from 5am to midnight.The police patrolling system will be in place as from Monday 20 June after talks with the Prime Minister and t...

Max Verstappen overcame slick conditions to win his second pole of the season, and Fernando Alonso used the wet track to earn his first front row start in a decade in rainy qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix.The Saturday run for Verstappen, the r...

Friday's official announcement that Malta has been removed from the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) grey list confirms that Malta is a 'serious and reputable' jurisdiction, Prime Minister Robert Abela said.Abela spoke after a secret vote was tak...

The PN has said that the news of Malta's removal from the grey list 'is positive'."With this news comes the onus of maintaining standards, building further robust control mechanisms and heightening our collective vigilance. We cannot afford to let ou...

Malta has officially been removed from the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) grey list, and the FATF has encouraged Malta to 'strongly focus' on continuing to strengthen its systems and measures to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing.T...

Tourism is the most important economic sector in Malta.At the same time, one questions whether we are doing enough to safeguard it, or to ensure that we are offering the best product possible. We must also ask whether locals are being made to suffer ...

An international watchdog said Friday it will keep Pakistan on a so-called “grey list” of countries that do not take full measures to combat money laundering and terror financing but raised hopes that its removal would follow an upcoming ...

A Constitutional case challenging Malta’s Freedom of Information Act kicked off in court on Friday, challenging the misuse of FOI procedures to block or limit access to information within a reasonable time. A team of Public Interest Litigation ...

 A man died early this morning after falling down a flight of stairs during a fight, the police said.The police are treating the incident as a murder.The incident took place in Triq it-Turisti, St Paul’s Bay, at 1.30am.The police said that...

Lawyers for Luke Milton, one of the men charged in connection with the abduction of a man in Rabat, have filed court proceedings requesting a protection order in favour of Milton's former girlfriend, who claims to have recently been approached on Fac...

The Chamber of Advocates said that a kiss in the courtroom is not appropriate but a verbal warning should have been enough.It was referring Magistrate Yana Micallef Stafrace’s “disproportionate reaction” after Dr Janice Chetcuti, a ...

A 55-year-old man named Nicholas Camilleri, who is a Birkirkara resident, has been reported as missing.He was last seen in the Għajn Tuffieħa area, limits of Mgarr. Anyone with information is kindly asked to contact the police, even confide...

Three men were injured in two separate fights in St Julian’s on Thursday night, the police said.Just before midnight, the police were informed of a fight that was taking place in St Augustine Street.The fight involved three men, one of whom esc...

During 2021, 17 boat landings were recorded in Malta, with 838 persons being brought to Maltese shores (including persons air lifted at sea), a decrease of 63.3% when compared to 2020, the National Statistics Office said.The majority of persons broug...

The executive arm of the European Union recommended Friday that Ukraine be granted candidate status to one day join the 27-nation bloc.The promise of membership in a union created to safeguard peace on the continent holds deep symbolism for the natio...

Four European leaders expressed their support for Ukraine on Thursday while meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, vowing to back Kyiv's candidacy to eventually join the European Union and offering more weapons to fend off Russia's invasion.Fren...

There were 260 new Covid-19 cases reported Friday, with the number of active patients jumping to 2,316, figures released by the health authorities show.No new deaths were recorded, meaning that the number of victims remains at 728.Since the first cas...

Author Mark Camilleri has filed a constitutional case against the State Advocate and the National Book Council, claiming that the latter discriminated against him because of his political views and had refused to review and promote his book, A R...

It’s been two years and three months since Malta registered its first Covid-19 case.We have since learnt to understand that the virus comes in waves. In the first few months of the pandemic, we were told that waves are only in the sea, but peop...

Murdered taxi driver Mario Farrugia had spoken to his brother before his death, expressing concerns about two troublesome clients, whom he suspected to be involved in the drugs trade, and who were repeatedly booking his services but only paying half ...

The Nationalist Party has filed a motion in Parliament in order to revoke the legal notice for Valletta, which allows music to be played till 1 a.m in some streets.The PN argued that the legal notices issued by the government on 6 and 13 June go agai...

French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that there are signs of war crimes in a Kyiv suburb following “massacres” by Russian forces.He spoke in the town of Irpin while on a visit with the German, Italian and Romanian leaders to sho...

European Union Director General for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and Tourism Valentina Superti, in an interview with The Malta Business Weekly, briefly explains the way the EU and Malta are taking when it comes to accommodating not...

A 17-year-old girl, Doaa Kasem, has been reported missing.She was last seen around Santa Venera. Anyone with information about her is asked to please pass it on to the police, even confidentially, by calling 21 224001 / 119 or by heading to the neare...

A court hearing a libel case filed by Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar against Mark Camilleri has ordered the lead homicide investigator Keith Arnaud to search for evidence of an email confirming a trip abroad involving Yorgen Fenech and MP ...

Malta's unfortunate grey listing episode should serve as a lesson to all of us for a very long time The Malta Chamber of SMEs has said.The Malta Chamber of SMEs said that it is very pleased that Malta is no longer grey listed by the Financial Action ...

The European Union council has officially appointed George Hyzler on the European Court of Auditors, a statement from the court said today.He will serve for six years, starting from 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2028. He will be replacing Leo Brinca...

The PN has appealed for dialogue with health workers, and for government not to treat their representatives 'like criminals'.The party issued a statement after the news broke that the First Hall of the Civil Court upheld a request by the Health Minis...

A biker was critically injured in an accident in San Gwann on Thursday morning, the police said.The biker, a Hungarian man aged 25, was riding a Kymco bike which was involved in a collision with a Tesla Model 3 driven by a woman, aged 38 of St Paul&r...

The Maltese National Federation of the Past Pupils and Friends of Don Bosco launched their new project CheckIn in the presence of the Minister for Tourism Clayton Bartolo. This took place at their new offices in Sliema.CheckIn is a new project which ...

The number of Covid-19 active cases went up again as 255 new patients were registered, figures released by the health authorities said.Active cases now total 2,164, climbing up by more than 150 in one day as the number of recoveries was low.There wer...

The Bank of England raised interest rates by a quarter-percentage point Thursday, shrugging off pressure for a bolder move to combat price increases that have pushed inflation to a 40-year high.While the United Kingdom’s central bank began...

As previously announced, Bank of Valletta held an information session for its shareholders at the Hilton Hotel in St. Julian's. Several topics related to the operations of the bank were discussed during the session, which was attended by a substantia...

Malta has been removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list, The Malta Independent has learnt.The news came after a secret vote was taken at the currently ongoing FATF set of meetings, which includes a plenary, in Germany.The news w...

A judicial protest calling for the decriminalisation and legalisation of abortion has been filed in the Maltese courts. The Women's Rights Foundation filed the judicial protest on behalf of 188 women and persons who can get pregnant, the lobby g...

Both the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party Members of Parliament voted in favour of changing the IVF laws in accordance to today’s realities, with the PN particularly changing tack somewhat from its initial stance on the amendments.Health ...

For years on end we all wondered why Valletta, our capital city, went to sleep at 7pm when the shops closed and all the workers returned home.We questioned why, whereas other European capital cities remained alive well into the night, there was too l...

The Archdiocese of Malta has called on former minister and media commentator Michael Falzon to substantiate remarks he made in the local media alleging “there are stories of…corruption…in the Curia’s own administrative struc...

The Criminal Court has turned down a bail request made by the man indicted over a double murder which took place in Sliema, two years ago. In a decree handed down earlier today, Mr Justice Aaron Bugeja denied the request, which had been filed by...

The Nationalist Party is filing a parliamentary motion in which it is calling for two legal notices allowing music to be played in some Valletta streets until 1am to be revoked.In a statement, the PN said that a decision on the motion was taken after...

The government will be requesting that €60 million Malta “lost” from the EU recovery package as a result of its economic growth will still be handed over to the country, Parliamentary Secretary for EU Funds Chris Bonett said.The &eur...

For the second time in a week, the head of the Labour Party’s media and chairman of the Valletta agency Jason Micallef has turned the guns against the country's authorities, saying it is shameful that permits such as those issued for a pool in ...

273 new cases of Covid-19 were reported by health authorities on Wednesday.114 people meanwhile have recovered from the virus, meaning that the number of active cases currently stands at 2,012.1,321 swab tests were carried out in the last 24 hours, e...

The Environmental Health Directorate within the Superintendence of Public Health said Wednesday that as a precaution and until further notice, bathing is not recommended due to the presence of sewage overflow affecting bathing water quality and prese...

A Nigerian man has become the latest person who will face charges in connection with a romance fraud racket, after he was arrested abroad and deported to Malta, police said on Wednesday.In a statement, the police said that after a number of people we...

The truck driver had the radio on, his daughter's stuffed toy keeping him company, and was bouncing his lumbering vehicle down one of the innumerable dirt tracks in Ukraine that are vital thoroughfares in the country's vast agricultural heartlands.Th...