PINA

A second half fightback wasn’t enough for Australia A as Tonga secured a historic 27-21 win in Friday’s international fixture at Teufaiva Stadium. The hosts took just three minutes to open the scoring through Salesi Piutau, who barged through Australia A’s defence out wide after a blistering start from the Ikale Tahi forward pack. A Taniela Tupou scrum penalty saw the...

The past two weeks of training together will be put to the test on Saturday when the Flying Fijians host Tonga in the Punjas Test Series. Head Coach Simon Raiwalui is impressed with the Ikale Tahi after beating Australia A in Nukualofa Friday. The Tongans have the advantage having a game under their belt while Raiwalui will work things around before...

Don Opeloge has done it again. He claimed yet another gold medal for Samoa in the Men's 102kg category at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship in India lifting with a total lift of 379kg. He defeated India’s Singh Harcharan who settled for silver and Australia’s Leon Vogeler-Schmidt who claimed bronze. Samoa's weightlifting team's coach, Tuaopepe Jerry Wallwork shared the good news with...

Fiji has won its first gold medal at the 2023 Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Delhi, India. Taniela Rainibogi claimed Fiji’s gold today. Rainibogi snatched 163kg and 200kg in the clean and jerk for a new total of 263kg. This means Weightlifting Fiji now have a gold, silver and bronze medals at the championship. Nehemiah Elder claimed Fiji’s first medal after settling for silver. Miriama...

Confidential documents obtained by PACNEWS have revealed that a week after back-tracking support for Japan on the release of treated nuclear wastewater in Fukushima, the Office of the Prime Minister in Papua New Guinea sought approval from the National Executive Council (NEC) to support Japan’s discharge plan. The confidential submission to NEC dated 22 June 2023 highlighted the on-going regional...

The Pacific Islands Forum chair Mark Brown says the planned release of treated nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean cannot be a breach of the Rarotonga Treaty as it's a controlled release and not a dump. The Treaty commits the Pacific to being nuclear free, and bans the dumping of nuclear waste in the region. “No, I don't think it would...

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has lavished praise on China during his visit to the country, declaring that Beijing has no “strategic interests” in the Pacific and suggesting the emerging great power has been unfairly tarred by the West. The two countries have officially elevated their relationship to a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” during Sogavare's week-long trip to China, and...

Pacific delegates played a crucial role in discussions at the International Maritime Organisation's (IMO) talks on greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction strategies, aimed to make a significant impact on combating climate change and safeguarding the region's vulnerable ecosystems. Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu were among several voices who strongly called for the IMO member states to adopt...

The foreign minister of the Marshall Islands has called for more U.S compensation over the legacy of massive U.S nuclear testing to enable the renewal of a strategic agreement governing bilateral relations. Marshall Islanders are still plagued by health and environmental effects of 67 nuclear bomb tests from 1946 to 1958, which included Castle Bravo at Bikini Atoll in 1954...

The danger of indiscriminately releasing nuclear fission products into the ocean is that the products can find their way into the food chain, a New Zealand scientist has said on the impending discharge of radioactively-contaminated cooling water from Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean. "Once in the food chain the long-lived nuclear fission heavy nuclei like cesium-137,...