The following are the top stories in Malta's newspapers on Friday.

Times of Malta leads with news that the former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri has had his police bail lifted after facing questioning by financial crime investigators.

In a separate piece, the newspaper also reports on how the expected arrival of Astra Zeneca vaccine doses on Sunday has brought the national COVID-19 vaccination programme forward by two weeks.

The Malta Independent says in its main story that a Dutch inmate who allegedly recorded his conversations with Melvin Theuma has been summoned to Malta as a witness in the Daphne Caruana Galizia case and a suspect in a money-laundering investigation. 

The newspaper also reports on how an Iranian official has been convicted of masterminding a thwarted bomb attack against an exiled Iranian opposition group in France in 2018. MP Mario Galea was a keynote speaker at the event where the bomb was meant to be planted.

l-orizzont also reports that the vaccination programme will be brought forward for vulnerable people. In a separate article, it says that December sales in Malta fared among the best in the EU.

In-Nazzjon meanwhile reports on a meeting between PN leader Bernard Grech and the Chamber of Commerce, where he spoke on the importance of being well prepared for post-COVID circumstances.

It also says that over the past few days 50 doses of the COVID vaccine had to be discarded because of a change in procedure.