Joseph Muscat said today that the prime minister should have halted the ratification of ACTA, as other countries had done. Referring to Dr Gonzi's statement yesterday afternoon, Dr Gonzi said that was a statement of convenience, not conviction. He had rushed into signing ACTA behind everybody's back. The socialist and liberal MEPs had been consistently against ACTA in the European Parliament, while the Popular Party, of which the PN formed part, was in favour. The least that Dr Gonzi could have done yesterday, Dr Muscat said, was to halt ratification, as other countries had done. But Dr Gonzi had decided that the agreement should stay - effectively ignoring the protest of the morning. He however spoke yesterday of a new law on new civil rights on access to the Internet. One had to see what Bill the government would come up with, and whether he would have a majority in parliament to make it law, Dr Muscat said. Dr Gonzi was the least one to speak on civil rights - one only needed to remember the divorce debate where he even voted against divorce in parliament after the people voted in favour in a referendum. If ACTA was approved by the...

The courts in Malta and Gozo have since September, received 294 applications for divorce and upheld 73, Justice Minister Chris Said said in reply to a parliamentary question. He said 284 applications were made in the courts in Malta and 69 were upheld. Another 10 requests for divorce were submitted before the court in Gozo and four were accepted.   Of the applications made in Malta, 202 came from couples that were already officially separated. 52 of the applications were submitted jointly. 23 divorce applications were made as part of separation proceedings and there were seven cases where the divorce application was made even though the couples were not officially separated.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi failed two democratic tests in this legislature, when he ignored the people's vote during the divorce referendum and when he failed to admit that he lost the majority in Parliament during Thursday 's no-confidence motion, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this morning. "He is acting like a politician of the past... he is trying to buy time," Dr Muscat told a packed hall at the Labour Party club in Marsaxlokk. He stressed that the PL is in no hurry for a general election but, for every day that passed and Dr Gonzi did not call the election, there would be further instability. Ultimately it was the families and businesses that were suffering due to this instability caused because Dr Gonzi was clinging onto power, he said. He said that Dr Gonzi was allowing a clique of people to hold the county hostage by not doing the right thing and calling a general election. When the Prime Minister went to Brussels for a meeting on the euro zone crisis, he was sure that the representatives of the other countries would be questioning whether Dr Gonzi had the power to implement important decisions, Dr...

With an early election looming on the horizon, Opposition leader Joseph Muscat says his party is ready to govern. "I have no say over the election date. I will only say we're ready for an election. More importantly, we're ready to govern," he tells The Sunday Times in an interview today. Whichever way Nationalist rebel MP Franco Debono votes in a motion of no confidence on Thursday, the government remains unstable and unsustainable, Dr Muscat says. The PL leader rejects claims it will not be a "safe" government if given a mandate and guarantees continuity in essential sectors like the taxation system or the EU. "But we need a change in direction. We need to stimulate the economy. We need better leadership. The PL is safe for workers, business and the country." Asked what he would have done if he had the likes of Dr Debono in his team, Dr Muscat said he would never allow the situation to relegate itself to such a state. Pointing out that he too has had to deal with internal dissent on issues like divorce, Dr Muscat says leaders like Dom Mintoff and Eddie Fenech Adami managed one-seat majorities in parliament without creating instability...