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16 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 12 JANUARY 2022 ACROSS 1) Royal domain 6) Cheerfulness 10) Cote chorus 14) Keen in desire 15) Mil. student body 16) Welcome sight after a shipwreck 17) Hotel banquet entree, often 20) B&B's 21) Had the desired effect 22) Homer Simpson's neigh- bour 23) Some storage compart- ments 24) Lunchbox fruit 28) Fire-breathing monster 30) Current principle? 32) Lute relative 35) Have markers out 36) Catchers of certain bugs 40) Energy 41) Almond liqueur 42) In the midst of 45) Encroachment 49) Lord's residence 50) Protected, on board 52) Gene material, in brief 53) Advisory group 56) King of beasts 57) Film score, essentially 61) Instrument among the reeds 62) Poker-pot starter 63) Lying facedown 64) Pixie stick? 65) Knowing look 66) Well-bred Londoners DOWN 1) Tie again 2) One with a wage 3) Committee's program 4) Vast green fields 5) What your wife may be called 6) Where thighs meet the body 7) Artists' pads? 8) Engrave 9) Sound rebound 10) Curler's pride 11) Seek to know 12) Drink on draft 13) D.C. employee 18) Dilutants 19) Muslim chief 23) Gravy container 25) Novel idea? 26) They're on the books 27) Lamb's mother 29) Clock std. 30) Clay pot 31) Thing on a big farm 33) "Phooey!" 34) Frequently, poetically 36) Place for the clergy and choir 37) "Once ___ a midnight dreary ..." 38) Baseball quota 39) Hearing organ 40) Brand of cooking spray 43) Made small marks into the surface of 44) Pirate's potation 46) Prayer 47) Consecrate 48) Social events 50) Very sharp 51) Large ocean vessel 54) Caspian Sea feeder 55) "And then there were ___" 56) Artificial bait 57) It may be part of the present? 58) Atty.'s org. 59) Pen denizen 60) EPA calculation Solution to last week's crossword The answers to today's crossword will be published in next week's Midweek edition Weather Rather cloudy with isolated showers Visibility Good except in showers Wind North force 4 locally force 5 veering Northeast force 3 locally force 4. TODAY TOMORROW Crossword WEATHER ISOLATED SHOWERS SHOWERS 14 0 / 9 0 14 0 / 8 0 FEELS LIKE 13 0 FEELS LIKE 12 0 LAURA CALLEJA MALTA has ranked 15 out of 43 European countries with a score of 71% in the Atlas of Fertility Treatment Policies, a comparative index. The atlas, a joint initiative between Fertility Europe, a lobby group, and the Euro- pean Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, classifies Malta as having a "very good" score in the same category as Eng- land, Sweden, Spain, Finland and Demark. The island is also ahead of other countries that have been offering IVF services for much longer, such as Germa- ny, Italy, Ireland and Cyprus. The report uses three in- dicators. The first indicator focuses on legislation that in- cludes regulation and availa- ble treatments. Malta passed 14 out of the 18 sections after failing to provide PGT testing and strictly anonymous gam- ete and embryo donation. Regarding public funding, Malta scored high as IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm in- jection are partially funded by the government. Lastly, the island scored low regarding patients' perspec- tives as it does not provide a state-funded fertility educa- tion programme, and an in- fertility patients association does not exist. However, Malta was award- ed points for providing psy- chological support. In 2021, 41 pregnancies resulted from IVF, Health Minister Chris Fearne said on Monday when visiting the offices of the Embryo Protec- tion Authority (EPA). Fearne said that it was a positive year for EPA and the number of pregnancies was higher than in 2020. According to the 2020 an- nual report on fertility treat- ments released by the health authorities, the take-home baby rate for 2020 was 16.8% resulting in a 1.5% decrease over 2019. The annual report for 2021 has not yet been published. Malta ranked 15th out of 43 for successful IVF