The Labour Party is on course for another landslide victory, by a margin of 30,000 votes or more, The Malta Independent is informed as the counting of votes at the Naxxar counting hall continues.The first indication has been confirmed by Prime M...

Malta yesterday went to the polls in a general election, which saw the turnout drop when compared to previous elections. According to figures released late last night by the Electoral Commission, the approximate turnout was 85.5%.This means that 303,...

Despite an increase in the number of registered voters, fewer people cast their vote this year than in 2017.In 2017, there were 341,856 registered voters, compared to the 355,075 registered this time round.However, while in 2017 there were 314,696 pe...

The 2022 election campaign is over. The people have voted, and the counting process will begin this morning.We will likely have a clear idea of the outcome by late morning. The Labour Party was in the lead according to surveys throughout the entire c...

Malta’s already sizeable Parliament could get quite a bit more populated when the full process of this weekend’s general election comes to a close in the coming days and weeks.The reason for this is that this is the first year when Malta&...

Lecturers at Junior College, as well as those at the University of Malta, were not at all consulted over the change in the entry requirements for Junior College which the government decreed last week.On Thursday, the government published a legal noti...

Voting has ended across Malta and Gozo in the 2022 General Election. The ballot boxes from the various polling stations are being sealed and transferred to the countil hall in Naxxar. Political campaigns ended on Thursday and, after what is...

Labour Party leader Robert Abela and Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech have cast their votes in the 2022 General Election.Abela, accompanied by his wife Lydia, voted at around 9:30am at the Marsascala primary school.Grech, accompanied by his wif...

The Nationalist Party said that its analysis showed that 44% of the voters had cast their vote by 2pm, and not 40% as the Electoral Commission was saying.The PN said that it had informed the commission about the matter.The 143,628 voters mentioned by...

President Joe Biden delivered a forceful and highly personal condemnation of Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Saturday, summoning a call for liberal democracy and a durable resolve among Western nations in the face of a brutal autocrat.As he capped a...

LVIV, Ukraine — The governor of the Lviv region says a man was detained on suspicion of espionage at the site of one of the two rocket attacks that rattled the city on Saturday.Maksym Kozytskyy said police found the man had recorded a rocket fl...

Valletta: Collis Williams Pharmacy, 15, Republic Street; Marsa: San Raffael Pharmacy, 247, Qormi Road; Qormi: Brown's Pharmacy, 278, Victory Street; Birkirkara: Rational Pharmacy, 74/75, Valley Road; Gżira: D'Argens Pharmacy, 330, Rue D'Argens; ...

Nearly 400 new Covid-19 cases have pushed the number of active cases up to nearly 4,000 again, as a 46-year-old woman is among three who were reported dead on Saturday.In total, three women died, the other two aged 86 and 91. In all, 630 people have ...

A man is in hospital with grievous injuries after being hit by a car, the police said.The accident took place on Saturday at 6.30am, in Triq tal-Handaq, Qormi.The pedestrian, a man aged 24, was hit by a Hyundai Kona driven by a 33-year-old man of Fon...

Pope Francis prayed for peace in Ukraine in a ceremony Friday that harked back to a century-old apocalyptic prophecy about peace and Russia that was sparked by purported visions of the Virgin Mary to three peasant children in Fatima, Portugal, in 191...

Sergio Perez took his first career pole position at the Saudi Arabian Grand as Formula One continued amid heavy scrutiny on Saturday, the day after an attack on a nearby oil depot.Perez edged the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. on hi...

As clocks march ahead and daylight saving time begins, there can be anxiety around losing an hour of sleep and how to adjust to this change.Usually an hour seems like an insignificant amount of time, but even this minimal loss can cause problems. The...

A biker was grievously injured in an accident in Tarxien on Friday afternoon, the police said.The accident took place at 4.30pm in Triq San Anard.It involved a Nissan NV350 driven by a 20-year-old man from Fgura, and a Junak 123 bike.The biker, a 45-...

Russian forces in Ukraine seem to have shifted their focus from a ground offensive aimed at Kyiv, the capital, to instead prioritizing what Moscow calls liberation of the contested Donbas region in the country's industrial east, officials said Friday...

PRAGUE — Several thousand Russians living in the Czech Republic in Prague and thousands more people in London have rallied to protest the Russian military aggression against Ukraine.The organizers from Prague’s Russian anti-war committee ...

By the end of February 2022, the Government’s Consolidated Fund reported a deficit of €80.7 million, the National Statistics Office said in a statement on Friday. In the first two months of 2022, Recurrent Revenue amounted to €797.5 m...

European Union leaders struggled for hours Friday to find a compromise on a deal aimed at curbing energy prices that have gone through the roof and hurt households and businesses across the 27-nation bloc.There was a clear rift between the bloc's sou...

MEP Josianne Cutajar has been appointed to an important new COVID-19 Pandemic Strategy Committee. On Thursday, the European Parliament announced the names of MEPs who will sit on three new Committees set up on 10th of March.Cutajar is the only Maltes...

It is the day when the Maltese get to decide which political party will govern them in the next five years.The political campaigns came to an end on Thursday night and, after observing a day of silence, the so-called day of reflection, the Maltese ar...

Political parties and a number of candidates are still running adverts on social media and youtube, despite the day of silence. The day before voting has been traditionally known as the silent day, one in which it is prohibited at law to in any way t...

The Electoral Commission said Friday that 14,473 voting documents were not collected, a four per cent cut from the total of 354,896 registered voters. This is nearly double the 8,372 voting documents not collected in the last election in 2017, a 2.44...

Four men carrying a total of €64,967 in undeclared cash were intercepted by Customs Malta at the MIA, the customs department said on Friday.Two Maltese passengers en-route to Turkey and Australia respectively, were found to be carrying a total o...

The head of a ferry operator at the center of a bitter labor dispute stunned U.K. lawmakers Thursday when he acknowledged that the company chose to ignore the law and labor contracts when it fired 786 workers without consulting with them in advance.P...

An 81-year-old woman has died while positive for Covid-19, as health authorities reported 465 new cases of the virus.127 people have recovered meanwhile, meaning that the number of active cases has increased to 3,590.77 patients are currently receivi...

With stunning speed, Russia's war in Ukraine is driving Western Europe into the outstretched arms of the United States again, especially apparent when President Joe Biden offered a major expansion of natural gas shipments to his European Un...

Ukraine accused Moscow of forcibly removing hundreds of thousands of civilians from shattered Ukrainian cities to Russia to pressure Kyiv to give up, while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged his country to keep up its military defense and not stop &...

President Vladimir Putin's threat to have “unfriendly” countries pay for Russian natural gas exports only in rubles from now on got the not-so-friendly treatment from European Union nations Thursday.“I don’t think anybody in E...

The election campaign is over and, tomorrow, we are being invited to exercise our right to vote to elect the new government.The Friday before the election has been traditionally known as the silent day, one in which it is prohibited at law to in any ...

Prime Minister and PL leader Robert Abela warned against the PN's "politics of division" as he addressed a party mass meeting for the last time in the electoral campaign on Thursday.Speaking at the MFCC in Ta' Qali, Abela said that the PN is anchored...

Similar to every industry, gambling is a legalised sector with special regulations created to maintain fair and transparent gambling. The operators who want to lawfully offer gambling services in both land-based and online sectors require an operatin...

BERLIN — Germany’s economy minister says his country has forged contracts with new suppliers that will allow it to significantly reduce its reliance on Russian coal, gas and oil in the coming weeks.Robert Habeck told reporters in Berlin o...

It would be a mistake not to realise that the country's democracy is once again in danger under a PL government, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said, calling for a change in administration.Addressing a large crowd in the PN's final rally at St Georg...

The Committee on Rules of Procedure of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly has voted that there was a “serious breach of the rules of conduct” by Rosianne Cutajar.The former Parliamentary Secretary was investigated for fa...

Students will no longer require a pass mark in all three of the core O-level subjects in order to be admitted to Junior College, a legal notice published by the government has decreed.Previously, students needed to achieve a grade of 5 or higher in t...

University Pro-Rector Carmen Sammut has defended the change in Junior College entrance policy.She was reacting to news that students will no longer require a pass mark in all three of the core O-level subjects in order to be admitted to Junior Colleg...

Ryanair has announced a new schedule for summer 2022, with nine new routes to destinations in Italy, France, Croatia, Israel, Ireland, and Poland on the cards. During a press conference, it was said that besides including new routes and, the sch...

Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said he would offer his name once again for the PN leadership elections should the PN lose Saturday’s election.Addressing a press conference in Valletta, Grech was answering questions from journalists, one of whi...

Italy has gone from winning the European Championship to failing to qualify for the World Cup in just eight months.In a rapid and stunning fall from grace, the Azzurri were upset by North Macedonia in a 1-0 loss that headlined a night of dr...

Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said that Prime Minister Robert Abela could have given malicious advice to former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, with aims to take his position as leader of the country.Addressing a press conference in Valletta on Thurs...

In the final debate before Saturday’s general election, Prime Minister Robert Abela and Opposition Leader Bernard Grech faced off on the national broadcasting station, Public Broadcasting Services.The debate, which was moderated by PBS journali...

In just the last three days, the CABS teams in Malta and Gozo, together with the police, were able to uncover no less than six cases of illegal bird trapping and convict the perpetrators, Cabs said in a statement."In order to catch greenfinches, linn...

415 new cases of Covid-19 were reported by health authorities on Thursday.131 new recoveries were reported, and with no new deaths reported, the number of active cases has risen to 3,253.75 patients are currently receiving treatment at Mater Dei Hosp...

Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said that the PN’s costings are detailed, whilst Prime Minister Robert Abela only provided a number for his electoral programme, that of €3.3 billion, he said, addressing a press conference in Valletta.Asked...

Ukraine President Volodymr Zelenskyy called on people worldwide to gather in public Thursday to show support for his embattled country on the one-month anniversary of the Russian invasion that he said breaks the heart of “every free person on t...

The election campaign comes to an end today.The political parties will make their final push for votes. Most of us have already made up their minds what they will do on Saturday. It is only a few who still have to decide which way to go.It has been a...

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the military alliance is stepping up its defenses against chemical and nuclear weapons as concern mounts that Russia might use such weapons in Ukraine.Stoltenberg says that NATO leaders agreed at their sum...

Pop music star and multi-award winner, Lewis Capaldi will be making his debut on the iconic Fosos in Malta on 2 July, the Malta Tourism Authority announced.2019 opened in the midst of Capaldi finding himself plauded from seemingly every critic spanni...

Independent candidate Arnold Cassola has said that Malta deserves better, telling voters to go for it and vote for change.This is an election where there is no competiton. The result is known: The Prime Minister for the next 5 years will be Robert Ab...

An agreement has been reached whereby two cruise liners will be allowed to retain their berths at the Grand Harbour during the 31 March regatta. The Malta Maritime Forum had requested a meeting with the authorities after Transport Malta told operator...

An elderly man was taken to hospital with grievous injuries after he was hit by a car in Fgura, the police said.The accident happened in Triq is-Sur at 7.15pm on Wednesday.The police said that the 82-year-old was hit by a Jeep Renegade driven by a 28...

Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Luigi di Maio said relations between Italy and Malta have improved in recent months thanks to the efforts of his Maltese counterpart, Minister Evarist Bartolo, while Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush said that th...

 It took three judges of the Constitutional Court less than an hour to dismiss a case filed by the PN against the Electoral Commission over an irregular prison vote, ruling that the Constitutional Court - Malta's highest court - did not have leg...

Prime Minister Robert Abela stressed on the importance of voting while stating that the Nationalist Party does not want people to vote “in order for them to do as they wish with the country.”Addressing followers in Xewkija Gozo, Abela urg...

PN leader Bernard Grech questioned on Wednesday why the government has resorted to “trying to buy votes” when the trust rating gaps between him and Prime Minister Robert Abela are so much in Abela’s favour.Grech was asked whether he...

Prime Minister Robert Abela has said that he hopes the PN will "respect the democratic process," when asked about the prison votes court case, while adding that until now the PL is not involved in the court process.The Nationalist Party is taking cou...

Prime Minister Robert Abela evaded answering a question on whether the public will be given the same payments on overtime work as he did when he was a lawyer for the Planning Authority.Lovin Malta revealed on Wednesday that Abela had charged the PA f...

Enemalta Corporation said it is investigating the damage caused to the energy interconnector which was caused by the anchor of a ship that went out of control during last Saturday’s storm.In a post on its Facebook page, Enemalta said that the f...

375 new cases of Covid-19 were reported by health authorities on Wednesday as hospitalisations jumped upwards in a single day.127 people have recovered from the virus, meaning that the number of active cases has continued to rise, this time reaching ...

With Italy’s worst soccer moment on many people’s minds, coach Roberto Mancini is not thinking about the unthinkable but about winning the World Cup in Qatar.Italy failed to qualify for the 2018 tournament. Missing two straight World Cups...

Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. secretary of state, has died of cancer, her family said Wednesday. She was 84.President Bill Clinton chose Albright as America’s top diplomat in 1996, and she served in that capacity for the last four y...

The Nationalist Party said today that its "transformative vision set out in its electoral programme will earn the country an additional €42.6 billion over eight years, while creating 32,500 new high-end jobs with an average salary of €43,00...

The Electoral Commission said today it is revising the previous notice published yesterday and notifies that on polling day which is going to be held at Mater Dei including SAMOC, Karin Grech, Mount Carmel and Gozo General Hospitals includi...

Surveys continue to show that Maltese voters will give the Labour Party another comfortable victory in Saturday’s election. It would be the third in a row.And yet Prime Minister Robert Abela continues to push for more, at times also coming up w...

The Police are seeking information about a man who was last seen on 5 March, and has been reported missing.Jonathan Baldacchino, who is 36 years old and lives in Sliema, was reported missing to Police.Police said that he was last seen around Attard o...

Three people have been arrested by police and are set to be charged with the manufacturing and trafficking of cocaine, along with money laundering, amongst other things.The police said that its anti-drug squad carried out two separate raids in connec...

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was set to meet with U.S. lawmakers Wednesday to discuss a possible freeze on Russian reserves of gold.The move comes after several lawmakers introduced the Stop Russian GOLD Act, meant to target Rus...

Ukrainian leaders accused Russia of seizing 15 rescue workers and drivers from a humanitarian convoy trying to get desperately needed food and other supplies into the bloodied port city of Mariupol, which also came under naval attack after weeks of a...

Even before Air Force One touches down in Brussels to bring President Joe Biden to three Ukraine summits on Thursday, Western allies have already found what they are looking for — that all too rare sense of unity.They have Russian President Vla...

The World Meteorological Organisation is dedicating this year’s World Meteorological Day, which has been celebrated on 23 March for the past 61 years, to raising awareness about the importance of issuing early warnings which enable the public, ...

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry have all praised Malta’s Foreign Affairs Minister Evarist Bartolo for his continuous efforts to en...

The Nationalist Party is taking court action after the Electoral Commission refused the PN's request to annul the early voting that was held at the Corradino Correctional Facility and is asking for a new election there to take place.The request was m...

Hotel owner Michael Zammit Tabona has filed constitutional proceedings against the Superintendent of Public Health, claiming that the quarantine requirement upon returning from abroad for Maltese residents who have not taken a booster dose of the COV...

333 new cases of Covid-19 cases were reported by health authorities on Tuesday.149 people have recovered from the virus, and with no new deaths reported on Tuesday, it means that the number of active cases is up to 2,723.41 patients are currently rec...

The Bank of Valletta Group has reported a profit before tax of €80.7 million for the financial year ending 31 December 2021.The Group’s results were announced by BOV Chairman Dr Gordon Cordina and Chief Executive Officer Rick Hunkin throug...

Infrastructure Minister Ian Borg has announced that the first lanes of the Luqa Junction project as well as the Kirkop tunnels and the Airport intersection will open by the first half of this year.  Borg, as well as Parliamentary Secretary ...

A 32-year-old motorcycle rider was grievously injured in an accident at 9am this morning in Msida.The motorcycle rider - a 32-year-old woman from Qormi, was riding a Peugeot Django. She was involved in a collision with a Toyota Vitz driven by a 42-ye...

The Malta Film Commission has refused a Freedom of Information request filed by The Malta Independent in order to ascertain how much money was spent on the extravagant Malta Film Awards.In the reason provided for the FOI refusal, the Commission said ...

Prime Minister Robert Abela's proposals for the PL's electoral campaign are either copied from the PN's electoral programme, or recycled from past PL manifestos, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said on Tuesday.He said that this is especially the case...

Over the past five weeks the opposition has shown that it does not deserve people's trust, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Tuesday.During a political event in Paola, Abela said that with their proposals the nationalist party wants to remove all t...

Energy Minister Miriam Dalli launched a €40 million project for the regeneration of the San Lucjan plant, that will turn it into a recreational facility for families.The plant, which was used for storing oil, will be known as 'is-Siċċa...

The visiting hours at hospitals have been significantly shortened on the day early voting for patients will take place, while the Electoral Commission has called on relatives to bring the voting documents of patients to hospital so that they can vote...

Two young men were arrested over a drug find on Sunday, in an incident during which two police officers were injured. The police said they were notified about two individuals acting suspiciously in Triq Notabile, where they jumped over a fence surrou...

Addressing key issues faced by Gozitans, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech focused on the importance of the Gozo General Hospital being given back to the people in order to offer specialised care close to home. Speaking at a business breakfast org...

BRUSSELS — International news channel Euronews says it has been blocked from broadcasting in Russia due to its Ukraine war coverage.“We firmly condemn this intolerable restriction imposed on millions ... in Russia who relied on us to get ...

Malta welcomed 59,928 visitors to its shores in the month of January, data published by the National Statistics Office on Tuesday showed.The number of people travelling to the island is far higher than in 2021, when only 13,806 people travelled to Ma...

As Mariupol’s defenders held out Monday against Russian demands that they surrender, the number of bodies in the rubble of the bombarded and encircled Ukrainian city remained shrouded in uncertainty, the full extent of the horror not ...

The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) said that it fully supports calls by travel and tourism stakeholders to end all remaining travel restrictions."Whilst recognizing efforts spearheaded by the relevant national authorities in managing...

Ukraine welcomed the Government of Malta’s political support and assistance to Ukrainians living in Malta, a Foreign Ministry statement said Tuesday. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba expressed his appreciation for Malta’s Eur...

Whilst progress has been achieved since the launch of the pension reform programme in 2004, much is yet to be done to secure the pension system's adequacy, solidarity, and sustainability, The Malta Chamber of Commerce and the General Workers' Union s...

An urgent investigation is required into what took place during the early voting day last Saturday.It was recently revealed that two prisoners who were not meant to be allowed to vote, are on the electoral register.Darren Debono, known as ‘it-T...

The Nationalist Party has written to the Electoral Commission, telling it to cancel the votes of prisoners who were ineligible to cast their ballot in the general election.Earlier, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said the PN was reserving the right t...

PL Leader Robert Abela is a serial tax Evader, as the thousands that he made from his property in Zejtun have not been declared in his tax declarations, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said on Monday.Speaking in Gzira, Grech said Abela is still refus...

In the final week of the election, Prime Minister Robert Abela said that the Nationalist Party has been urging voters not to cast their vote on Saturday, hinting that the PN is hoping for a low voter turnout to maximise its chances.Addressing followe...

Several citizens have expressed concerns over their elderly relatives who have dementia being taken to vote without the relative’s prior knowledge or permission.On a Facebook post, Maltese television personality Peppi Azzopardi said that his mo...

Two elderly men have died while positive for Covid-19 as 251 cases of the virus were reported by health authorities on Monday.Authorities said that the men were aged 79 and 85 respectively, and their deaths take the total number of people who have di...