Pierre J. Mejlak was all smiles yesterday as the world media swarmed to get a glimpse of the handsome award-winning e-journalist. Asked about the secret of his premature success, Mejlak, 23, pictured above, startled the assembled hacks by producing a shiny, silver ball and fondling it lovingly. "Life is like a game of bocci", he quipped to the amazement of all those present at the glitzy, exclusive apres-awards party. "Trid tolqot il-likk", he added to rupturous applause from his mainly female fan-base who later carried him off to the nearest kazin to chants of "Viva Malta, Viva l-Mejlak".

Lanzarote called Mejlak this morning to quiz him about The Times of Malta's triumphant clean-sweep of the remaining prestigious awards but the Gozitan journalist was understandably unavailable for comment.

¶ 4:07 AM