PINA

A total of 53 countries had best practice policies in place for tackling industrial trans fats in food as of last year, vastly improving the food environment for 3.7 billion people, or 46 per cent of the world’s population, according to a milestone report published by the UN World Health Organisation on Monday. This is significant progress compared to the...

The Government of Samoa gave SAT$500,000 (US$183,121)to the Samoa Association of Sports and National Olympics Committee (SASNOC) to prepare the Olympic Games in Paris next month. This was confirmed by the SASNOC president Pauga Talalelei Pauga on Friday following the official announcement of the qualified athletes who have been selected to represent Samoa in the Olympics this year. “The whole targeted...

Yap voters gave the nod to a review of the state’s political status, a decision that would commence the process for Yap’s constitutional amendment to unlock other status options for one of the four sovereign jurisdictions of the Federated States of Micronesia(FSM). Unofficial results released by the Yap Election Commission showed the “yes” votes prevailing by a small margin. Of the...

The director of the Pacific Security College Professor Dave Peebles, has addressed one of the urgent security challenges confronting the Pacific. And Professor Peebles shared the concerns of Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka of a “polycrisis” or multiple problems happening at the same time, facing the Blue Pacific. “Climate change, challenges to human security, transnational crime, geopolitics – these represent some...

Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has called for urgent collective action to address the complex “polycrisis” threatening the Blue Pacific. “Seeing everyone here highlights the strength and the solidarity of the Pacific security effort. “All of us can build peaceful and prosperous Pacific communities by cooperating and learning from each other, said Prime Minister Rabuka in his opening address at the...

Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General, Baron Waqa today highlighted the importance of Pacific unity in addressing critical security issues affecting the region. “We gather here to discuss issues of paramount importance to Pacific peoples. Issues that affect the core of what the Forum was established to protect and promote—issues of peace and security,” SG Waqa said in his keynote address...

- The new leader of Solomon Islands is in Australia to discuss security ties, government officials said -- a sensitive area since the Pacific nation signed a secretive pact with China. Solomons Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele is visiting Canberra and Queensland on his week-long trip, Australian officials said. It will be his first visit to Australia as prime minister since he...

The Prime Ministers of Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have signed the ‘Tirvau’ agreement Friday in Honiara. The Tirvau basic border Agreement is the overarching framework that will govern and regulate the joint border arrangements and movements between the maritime border of Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Prime Minister, Jeremiah Manele said the agreement is about promoting peaceful relations, facilitating economic activities, and...

A pro-independence leader in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia will be held in France after being charged on Saturday, over deadly riots last month, his lawyer said. Christian Tein, head of the pro-independence activist CCAT group, will be sent almost 17,000 kilometres to France with the group's communications chief Brenda Wanabo. An investigating magistrate charged Tein in New Caledonia's...

By Stephen Diisango* The hostile, coconut rhinoceros beetle (CRB) is threatening Solomon Islands coconut plantations likely subjecting to extinction. It poses a serious threat to the country’s coconut industry unless urgent steps are taken to exterminate this coconut pest once and for all. Known regionally as the ‘tree of life’, every part of the coconut tree is used – from...