The foreign ministry stirs again

This time it’s to tell us that, no, the Tunisian president has not fled to Malta. The international media, including the BBC, are reporting claims that Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali has been given refuge here.

Can you blame them for thinking it? Malta is Tunisia’s closest neighbour aside from those actually on its land-borders, and yet Malta’s foreign ministry and media have maintained total silence on the chaos and emergency there.

Now our silence has come back to bite us in the ass.

Well, as long as we know that some families ‘of Gozitan extraction’ are coming back to Gozo from Brisbane because of the flooding, that’s us sorted for world affairs.

And what about that hot news item I heard on the radio earlier this evening: Man falls off ladder in own home. No further reports but we hear that he might have broken something.

Tad-disperazzjoni.

timesofmalta.com, this evening

Tunisian President quits, no request to come to Malta

The Maltese Foreign Ministry said this evening that it had received no requests for ousted Tunisian President Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to come to Malta. In a statement issued through the Department of Information, the government said the Tunisian President – who quit the country after days of rioting – is not in Malta.

However a more likely destination is France.

AFP said the Tunisian President’s plane had flown over Malta, heading north.

The Maltese foreign ministry issued a warning against travel to Tunisia yesterday. The UK today evacuated hundreds of British tourists from the country.