Malta

VALLETTA, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Malta's Prime Minister Robert Abela on Sunday pledged more measures to tackle inflation in 2024 as part of the government's fight against the increased cost of living.

Addressing the nation in his New Year speech, Abela said the government could not be indifferent to the challenges that families were facing.

"I can confirm that in the coming days, we will implement more measures that we have already announced, and we will continue working with all our stakeholders" to tackle the cost of living, he said.

VALLETTA, Dec 2 (NNN-XINHUA) – Thursday’s decision by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, to further cut down oil production next year, has left the market disappointed, according to analysts.

Oct 17 (Reuters) - A passenger on a rubber boat adrift in the Mediterranean Sea called a rescue hotline on June 23 to plead for help. The boat – carrying 14 migrants from the Middle East and Africa – was out of fuel in choppy waters. And a male passenger had just drowned.

The craft was about 70 nautical miles off the coast of Malta, within the small island country’s search and rescue zone, according to position data recorded by Alarm Phone, the hotline operator. Within these zones, countries are obligated under international law to coordinate search and rescue operations.

VALLETTA, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Malta is keen on nourishing the healthy, strong and mutually beneficial relationship with China, with special emphasis on people-to-people links, President George Vella said on Friday.

Addressing a reception to mark the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Vella said that more than 50 years into diplomatic relations between the two countries, the ties were becoming "more dynamic and forward-looking."

VALLETTA, April 18 (NNN-XINHUA) — Around 60 migrants were taken to Malta on Monday evening after being rescued from rough seas as they attempted to cross to Europe from Libya.

Two groups of people were saved by merchant vessels in Malta’s search and rescue zone. The rescue was carried out on the instructions of the Maltese authorities, after the migrants reported being in distress.

The two groups were brought to Marsaxlokk, south of the island, by the Armed Forces of Malta.

VALLETTA, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Interior ministers of five European Union (EU) Mediterranean countries on Saturday called for more EU solidarity on migration and more efforts to prevent irregular migration.

At the end of the so-called "Med 5" ministerial-level meeting held in Malta's capital Valletta on Friday and Saturday, ministers of Malta, Greece, Italy, Spain and Cyprus signed a joint declaration.

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Less than a week after a deadly migrant shipwreck off Italy, five European Union countries on the Mediterranean Sea pushed back Saturday against their northern neighbors for not accepting asylum-seekers under a voluntary relocation initiative.

The ministers responsible for migration policy in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain met in Malta’s capital, Valletta, ahead of an EU ministerial meeting in Brussels next week on migration. The countries started working together as the MED 5 in 2021 to confront the challenges of illegal migration.

VALLETTA, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Celebrations of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, were held in Malta's largest shopping mall in Sliema, a commercial centre in eastern Malta on Saturday.

With the lion and dragon dance performance, brought by the Malta School of Wushu-Longgui, kicking off the celebrations, hundreds of local residents and tourists were attracted by the dance performance, the martial arts performance, and experienced activities such as Chinese calligraphy and painting, lantern folding and traditional Chinese medicine services.

VALLETTA, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Malta plans to spend 508 million euros (501.4 million U.S. dollars) in 2023 to ease the impacts of the rising energy costs, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Monday.

In Malta's 2023 budget plan unveiled by Finance Minister Clyde Caruana on Monday, energy expenditures account for 9.3 percent of the government's recurrent expenditure.

Tax cuts would have saved families with two working adults 510 euros (503.4 dollars) a year, Caruana said, while subsidizing energy costs will save them electricity costs and car fuel.

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Malta on Sunday marked the fifth anniversary of the car bomb slaying of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia with calls for justice, just two days after two key suspects reversed course and pleaded guilty to murder on the first day of their trial.

The archbishop of the small Mediterranean island nation, Charles Scicluna, celebrated a morning Mass in the small Bidnija church near where Caruana Galizia lived, making several references to the need for justice even when it makes the powerful uncomfortable.