Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Fenech, PN Secretary General Joe Saliba and several others within the party filed the libel suit regarding the article entitled PN leaked Dalli story to MLP that was published on the front page of the 25 July Malta Today edition.

The officials claim this article was libellous, offended their honour and exposed them to public disdain. They demanded the court order Mr Balzan to pay for the damage this article caused them.

Fined for theft

A man was fined Lm300 for stealing items from a Pembroke residence while another man was acquitted of the same charges.

John Zammit, 42, from Birkirkara, was fined after being found guilty of stealing items from a residence in Pembroke in February 2003.

Carmelo Zammit, 40 from Mosta was, however, acquitted of the same charges.

Several antique items had been stolen from the Pembroke residence, and the accused had claimed that they found them abandoned on an road and thought that someone had thrown them away.

The court, presided over by magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera, ruled that sufficient evidence had been presented to convict Zammit.