An autopsy has confirmed that Sliema murder victim Paulina Dembska was raped and strangled, TVM has reported.  Dembska was found dead in Sliema’s Independence Garden early on Sunday morning. She had wounds to her chest and head. The police...

Claims that the suspect in the murder of a Polish woman assaulted a second person who managed to escape by running into a church are untrue, police sources have confirmed. A voice recording is currently doing the rounds on social media. In the clip, ...

Labour MP Jean-Claude Micallef has spoken against the “daggers” hitting the mother of the man who is under police investigation following the murder of a Polish woman in Sliema last Sunday.Writing on Facebook, Micallef said that everybody...

Why are so many vaccinated people getting COVID-19 lately?A couple of factors are at play, starting with the emergence of the highly contagious omicron variant.Omicron is more likely to infect people, even if it doesn't make them very sick, and its s...

The government aims to be “expeditious” in its approach to establish a new authority that will act as a regulator for the cannabis sector, but will at the same time respect the principles of good governance. This is what reforms minister ...

SYDNEY - New virus cases in Australia surged to record levels on Tuesday, increasing the strain on hospitals and testing centers across the country.In New South Wales, Australia’s most-populous state, 23,131 new cases were reported, an increase...

River of Love has distanced itself from the Abner Aquilina, the main suspect in the Dembska murder that occurred on Sunday.Police said on Monday in a statement that they had to stop their interrogation of the main suspect and refer him to Mount ...

Two thirds of the new Covid-19 cases which were sequenced by the health authorities in Malta were of the Omicron variant. This was revealed by Deputy Minister and Health Minister Chris Fearne in a tweet published on Monday. On the 23rd of December, t...

A woman who says she was sexually trafficked to Britain’s Prince Andrew by Jeffrey Epstein accepted $500,000 in 2009 to settle her lawsuit against the American millionaire and anyone else “who could have been included as a potential defen...

The number of active Covid-19 cases as well as the number of people in hospital with the virus has shot up again, figures released by the health authorities on Monday show.New cases registered total 812, but with only 240 patients recovering the numb...

Police had to stop interrogating Abner Aquilina in connection with the murder of Paulina Dembska after he began to claim that the devil had taken over his mind at the time of the attack.Aquilina – a 20-year-old from Zejtun – is the lead s...

The police issued 156 fines in connection with breaches of Covid regulations last week.The fines were issued by different police districts, the Malta Police Force said in a social media post.Officers performed 542 hours of foot patrols and 189 kilome...

Lawyer Andy Ellul will be co-opted to Parliament, replacing Silvio Grixti, who resigned in December, the Labour Party has announced.In a statement, the PL said Ellul’s nomination had been approved by the Labour Parliamentary Group and the party...

Ralf Rangnick is beginning to understand just how big a job he has taken on at Manchester United.His players are already becoming dispirited, too.Rangnick fell to his first loss as United manager after Joao Moutinho’s 82nd-minute strike earned ...

The suspect in the murder of Paulina Maria Dembska has been referred to Mount Carmel Hospital, police said in a statement on Monday morning.29-year-old Dembska, who is from Poland, was found murdered early on Sunday morning by passers-by at the Indep...

Malta’s new quarantine regulations, which amongst other things sees the reduction of the required isolation period for positive cases to 10 days as long as they have had a booster dose of the vaccine, come into force from today.In a statement, ...

Works on the Barracuda restaurant in Balluta bay started over the New Year’s weekend, despite the application for the project being currently ‘suspended at the request of the architect.’Photos and video taken on site show that worke...

The Malta Football Association has decided to suspend all football matches for two weeks owing to the Covid-19 situation being faced by many clubs on the island.The decision was taken on Monday after a request for the postponement was submitted by th...

SEOUL — South Korea says it has confirmed its first death related to the new omicron variant.The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on Monday that the deceased was in their 90s and living at a nursing home in the southern cit...

2022 is set to be an eventful year in Malta, with a general election set to be held, a number of high-profile court cases set to continue, and the challenges brought about by Covid-19 needing to be tackled.The Malta Independent contacted NGOs, civil ...

The Criminal Court is to decree on a request by a former police officer who was shot at during the infamous 2010 HSBC hold up, requesting permission not to testify due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder caused by the incident.The trial by jury of conv...

As the high numbers of COVID-19 infections persist each day, the Nationalist Party again stressed that the government should be more transparent in its decisions.The government cannot remain silent and leave the country in the dark, the PN said in a ...

Pandemics do eventually end, even if omicron is complicating the question of when this one will. But it won't be like flipping a light switch: The world will have to learn to coexist with a virus that's not going away.The ultra-co...

The laying of an undersea cable linking Malta, Marseille and Egypt has started at Golden Bay. This is is the start of the final phase of the PEACE project, an investment by GO of €25 million in a 3rd submarine cable which will directly conn...

Schoolchildren returned to classes Monday in parts of Europe, while the British government pledged to rush ventilation units and enough COVID-19 test kits to schools to ensure they, too, can reopen later this week despite soaring infection rates in t...

Two people have been hospitalised after a car crash early this morning in Pieta.Police said in a statement that at around 2:45am a traffic accident occurred on Triq ix-Xatt in Pieta between a Fiat 500 and a Toyota Corolla.The Fiat was being driven by...

The U.K. government has been making contingency plans in case hospitals, schools and other workplaces are hit by major staff shortages amid the country's record-breaking spike in coronavirus infections.Public sector workplaces have been preparing for...

There was an increase in adoption requests, but not in actual adoptions over the Christmas period, the Association for Abandoned Animals (AAA) told The Malta Independent. The association said that it makes sure that adoptions do not end up being trea...

The Covid-19 pandemic has turned all our lives upside down at some point or other, but some form of normality was achieved in 2021.The pandemic, however, seems to be here to stay, and this will be the backdrop for the year ahead.There are several thi...

A woman was found dead in the Independence Garden in Sliema, the police said on Sunday, and a murder investigation is underway.The 29-year-old Polish woman was found dead, face up on a ramp leading down to the garden beneath the fence just off of Tow...

The number of Covid patients in hospital has now jumped to over 100, standing at 110, seven of whom are in the ITU.This means that 11 more people are in Mater Dei Hospital with Covid-19 than there were on 1 January.Two more people have died while Cov...

Almost one out of every five Covid-19 tests are returning as positive results, as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to tear through the country.In the past week, Malta’s positivity rate – meaning the percentage of tests carried out which re...

An 80-year-old woman from Hamrun has died after being hit by a car, the police said.The accident occurred at 5.30pm on Saturday on Triq Giovanni Barbara, Hamrun. She was hit by a car driven by a 46-year-old man from Santa Venera. She was taken to Mat...

The government aims to be “expeditious” in its approach to establish a new authority that will act as a regulator for the cannabis sector, but will at the same time respect the principles of good governance, reforms minister Owen Bonnici ...

We ended the year in the same predicament as we had started it.The Covid-19 pandemic is still raging, in Malta and in many other parts of the world. It is still the main topic of news bulletins. Some people have learnt to live with it more than other...

The Malta Independent on Sunday met with Antonio Pace, a 28-year-old former resident at the now closed Lourdes home in Ghajnsielem, Gozo. Antonio does not remember how he spent Christmas during his first years of life because of the trauma that he ha...

It would be a bit of an understatement to say that 2021 was an eventful year. The Covid-19 pandemic raged on while there was no shortage of drama in the country’s law courts either, with a number of high-profile cases hitting the headlines thro...

The only winner Sunday was Manchester City. And Romelu Lukaku certainly lost out.What a pulsating, entertaining encounter for Lukaku to miss — not out of his own choosing — as Chelsea recovered to draw 2-2 with Liverpool without...

Prime Minister Robert Abela continues to choose to remain complicit in a corrupt deal, the PN said in a statement.The PN said that the more details about the hospitals deal that emerge, "the more it confirms that the Vitals Global Healthcare deal was...

Israel’s prime minister is warning that the country will soon see tens of thousands of new coronavirus cases a day.Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. He said that despite rolling out mo...

Basketball international referee Bernard Vassallo has reached the top levels in officiating basketball games all over Europe.But what is his favourite food? And what kind of books does he like to read?His favourite season is summer, but which footbal...

The New Year officially started yesterday, and many hope that 2022 will not be another 2021; that it will be different and better.Many will have made their New Year’s resolutions and pledged to be better persons this year … perhaps healt...

Seven-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi is among four players in the Paris Saint-Germain squad to have tested positive for the coronavirus ahead of the team's French Cup game on Monday night.PSG added that one staff member also had COVID-19 in a s...

Prince Andrew’s effort to immediately block the progression of a lawsuit by a woman who says he sexually assaulted her when she was 17 — on the grounds that she no longer lives in the U.S. — was rejected by a federal judge as oral a...

More than €1.4 million were collected for the Dar tal-Providenza home for the disabled during a fund-raising telethon on New Year’s Day.“Once again the people of Malta and Gozo have shown their generosity towards Dar tal-Providenza b...

The New Year has started with 1,030 new Covid-19 cases as the number of active cases continues to climb higher, reaching more than 12,000 for the first time since the pandemic started in Malta in March 2020.The health authorities said that the number...

Pope Francis ushered in the new year Saturday by praising the skills women bring to promoting peace in the world, and he equated violence against women to an offense against God.The Roman Catholic Church marks Jan. 1 as a day dedicated to world peace...

The seven-day moving average of Covid-19 cases has nearly doubled in the past two weeks, statistics show.In the week before Christmas, the number of new Covid-19 cases was 4,107, with an average of 586.In the week leading up to New Year’s Day, ...

Valletta: Collis Williams Pharmacy, 15, Republic Street; Ħamrun: National Pharmacy, 17, St Mary Street; Qormi: Pinto Pharmacy, 43, St Sebastian Street; Birkirkara: The Local Dispensary, Kan. K. Pirotta Street; Ta' Xbiex: Remedies Chemists, Marin...

If there is any resolution people should have for 2022, it should be to stop hate speech by setting an example and not engaging in tit-for-tats, Prime Minister Robert Abela said in his New Year's message."There should be no space for hate in our hear...

Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said, in his New Year's message, that in 2022 he will be asking the people to place their trust in him.Malta will hold a general election in 2022.Delivering his message for the new year, he said that looking back on 20...

There is a definite element of uncertainty when it comes to eating out at restaurants, which is also impacted by the media, CEO of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association Andrew Agius Muscat told The Malta Independent.“Due to the new proto...

A man was grievously injured as a car overturned in Nadur early on New Year’s Day, the police said.The accident took place in Rabat Road, Nadur, at midnight.The man, aged 27 of Xaghra, was riding as a passenger in a Toyota, which was being driv...

Sorrow for the dead and dying, fear of more infections to come and hopes for an end to the coronavirus pandemic were — again — the bittersweet cocktail with which the world said good riddance to 2021 and ushered in 2022.New Year's Eve, wh...

Watching an electrifying first half and wowed by Bukayo Saka’s goal, Arsenal fans were euphoric with the display against Manchester City.For 45 minutes, Arsenal made the runaway Premier League leader look average. Then the second half brought a...

DALLAS -- For air travellers, the new year picked up where the old one left off – with lots of frustration.By midmorning Saturday on the East Coast, more than 2,300 U.S. flights had been canceled, according to tracking service FlightAware. That...

More canceled flights frustrated air travelers on the final day of 2021 and appeared all but certain to inconvenience hundreds of thousands more over the New Year's holiday weekend.Airlines blamed many of the cancellations on crew shortages rela...

Betty White, whose saucy, up-for-anything charm made her a television mainstay for more than 60 years, whether as a man-crazy TV hostess on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” or the loopy housemate on “The Golden Girls,” has died. Sh...

Earlier this week, the Malta Police Force said that a number of victims were scammed out of over €10,000.In a Facebook post, the police said a “substantial amount” of scam reports had been received over a period of 24 hours. Members ...

Valletta: Empire Pharmacy, 77, Old Theatre Street; Ħamrun: Darwin Pharmacy, 152, St Joseph High Road; Qormi: Drugshop Dispensary, Vjal De La Cruz; Birkirkara: Remedies Pharmacy, Tumas Fenech Street; Msida: Deby's Pharmacy, 1, Misraħ il-Barr...

1,403 new Covid-19 cases were reported on New Year's Eve, another daily record for the country. One person, a 62-year-old man, has also died.The number of cases have been skyrocketing over the past few days as more and more people are contracting the...

The daughter of Victor Calvagna has personally said goodbye to her father, who is currently in hospital and whose condition is seemingly bleak.Calvagna, a well-known oncologist and president of Puttinu Cares, remains in critical condition after he wa...

Schools and education institutions will start the second term online, but will then physically return to classroom teaching on 10 January, a government statement read.Childcare centres will also open on the same date.The announcement was made followi...

New figures from Britain’s official statistics body estimate that about 1 in 25 people in private households in England had COVID-19 in the week before Christmas, as the highly transmissible omicron variant spread rapidly across the country.The...

Questions on whether university exams will be held physically or online will be answered “well before” the exams arrive and the semester starts, University of Malta rector Alfred J. Vella has told The Malta Independent.Vella said the univ...

No nominations were submitted for the casual election to fill the seat vacated by Labour MP Silvio Grixti, which means that his replacement will have to be co-opted to Parliament.Grixti resigned last week after it emerged that he had been interrogate...

On the occasion of the end of the year, Repubblika expressed its appreciation toward the institutions "that are still observing the oath of office that they undertook in favour of upholding standards of good governance and promoting the rule of law, ...

The U.K. reported a sharp increase in coronavirus-related deaths Thursday as the National Health Service announced it was building temporary structures at hospitals in England to prepare for a possible surge of patients infected with the highly trans...

The forces that have scrambled thousands of flights since Christmas Eve could ease in January, but that's cold comfort to the millions of flyers with New Year's plans.And if 2021 has taught us anything, it’s that 2022 will likely be just as unp...

The number of active Covid-19 cases in Malta has jumped over the 10,000 mark, with the country now having 10,137 Covid positive people.The number of new cases registered on Thursday reached a new daily record - 1,353. This is higher than the previous...

Warmer weather coupled with clear skies will be arriving on the Maltese islands just in time for the New Year's weekend, as a mainly sunny end to December flows into a sunny and dry New Year's Day, the Malta Airport has said."The first day of 2022 is...

The Covid wage supplement needs to be extended beyond January.Delaying the announcement will only create uncertainty for businesses. Minister Miriam Dalli was asked whether the government is ready to extend the scheme if the current spike persists. S...

An MRI has shown that Dr Victor Calvagna is "brain dead", his wife Carmen said in a heartbreaking update on social media.Calvagna, a well-known oncologist and president of Puttinu Cares, remains in critical condition after he was hit by a car in Qawr...

Former prison chief Alex Dalli has been appointed special government representative in Libya on the fields of home affairs and national security, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said Thursday.He was appointed to the role as part of the agreemen...

As part of the government's efforts in battling single-use plastics (SUPs) and in line with the budget speech, Malta will be banning the sale of various single-use plastic products as of 2022, a government statement read.Malta was among the firs...

Nationalist MP David Thake has asked to be submitted to an investigation by the Standards Commissioner to ensure that no ethical standards have been breached after a newspaper reported that he owes some €270,000 to the taxman.Times of Malta repo...

Studenti Graffitti, the student wing of Moviment Graffitti, said that it supports KSU in a call to move exams online.The student organisation stated that the policy issued by the University, which states that students in quarantine cannot sit for exa...

Social media is rife with misinformation regarding Covid, ADPD - The Green Party, insisted on Thursday."It is inevitable that a novel virus causes uncertainty, but there are some truths which must be emphasised. First of all, Covid has crea...

Cristiano Ronaldo scored a fourth goal in his last five Premier League games to help Manchester United beat Burnley 3-1 on Thursday for its biggest win under recently hired manager Ralf Rangnick.Ronaldo grabbed the third of United’s first-half ...

People who test positive for Covid-19 but who have received the booster jab will be able to quarantine for 10 days instead of 14 as from next Monday.Changes to the quarantine rules were announced on Wednesday by Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne dur...

France's government is forging ahead with efforts to increase pressure on unvaccinated people to get coronavirus shots, as the country reported 208,000 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday — a record fueled by the omicron variant.Health Minister Olivie...

Two men have been remanded in custody after being charged with stealing some €400,000 from a jeweller in Attard in October.40 year-old Josuel Farrugia from Qrendi and Anthony Rapa, 52, from Mtarfa were arraigned this morning before magistrate Ia...

Part of a man’s nose and lip were bitten off in a horrific fight that took place in Zabbar on Tuesday, a court has heard.Ehis Imobhio, 40, of Zabbar, was arraigned on Thursday and charged with having assaulted another man, causing him grievous ...

A number of victims were scammed over €10,000 over the past 24 hours, the Malta Police Force has warned.In a Facebook post, the police said a “substantial amount” of scam reports have been received over the past 24 hours.Members of t...

The 22 semi-finalists for the upcoming Malta Eurovision Song Contest for the year 2022 have been revealed.The contest can now proceed on to the semi-finals.Television Malta will be directly broadcasting the semi-finals as well as the finals of the Ma...

The Environmental Health Directorate (EHD) within the Superintendence of Public Health has been following the use of 'bamboo fibres' in food contact materials for some time.During the past year, the European Commission's Food Contact Materials Workin...

Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne has thanked two Opposition MPs for helping out with the Covid-19 vaccination campaign.Maria Deguara helped administer vaccine shots during the summer while Mario Galea is currently helping with the vaccination drive...

The sheer number of education ministers seen over recent years makes one worry.The sector is by far one of the most important on the island, yet right now we are seeing a constant change of the person at the top.Prime Minister Robert Abela has appoin...

More than a year after the vaccine was rolled out, new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to their highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average, a surge driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant.New cases per day ha...

Malta hit another daily record of Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, as 1,337 new cases were reported.The first time Malta had over 1,000 cases was on Tuesday, when Malta hit its previous daily record 1,298 cases.116 people recovered from the virus on Wedn...

Puttinu Cares Founder Victor Calvagna is in hospital with serious injuries after he was hit by a car on Tuesday evening, the police said.The accident took place in Triq it-Trunciera, St Paul’s Bay, at 8.30pm, next to the Aquarium.63-year-old Ca...

The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry is concerned that the current 14-day quarantine period for Covid-19 positive cases and their contacts is unsustainable. "The government should reduce isolation to 10 days, and to 7 days for fully...

The Covid-19 wage supplement has helped around 17,000 businesses protect more than 105,000 jobs, Malta Enterprise Chief Executive Officer Kurt Farrugia said on Wednesday.Speaking at a press conference, Farrugia said Malta Enterprise has invested some...

The head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that he's worried about the omicron and delta variants of COVID-19 combining to produce a “tsunami” of cases, but said he's still hopeful that the world will put the worst of the pa...

The Nationalist Party has reiterated its call for the Covid-19 wage supplement to be extended to March, rather than January.Following a press conference by Enterprise Minister Miriam Dalli, the PN highlighted that in view of the Covid-19 measures and...

The Gozo University Group has expressed concern over the January exam situation."Due to the fact that Covid-19 cases are constantly rising and with a large number of students currently in mandatory quarantine, students are being put under unnecessary...

In the last weeks of the year, 14 more vehicles, stolen from Canada, on their way to Kuwait, were seized by Customs in Malta.These 14 vehicles were found hidden inside eight 40-foot containers. Customs officials at the Freeport intercepted, through t...

Due to the recent surge in Covid-19 cases, HSBC Bank Malta announced that with immediate effect it will be reintroducing a Minimum Cash Withdrawal policy in its branch network. This policy is being implemented to reduce the amount of times customers ...

Manchester City's grip on its Premier League title hasn't been this strong all season.A 1-0 win at Brentford on Wednesday, coupled with Chelsea conceding a stoppage-time goal to draw 1-1 against Brighton, left the defending champions with an eight-po...