PINA

The Pacific Games Council has confirmed that two athletes failed dope tests at the Honiara Games last year, and each has been disqualified and banned for three years. For Mahaasin Daoe from Nauru it means he has had to surrender the gold medal he won in men's powerlifting, while shot putter Tumatai Dauphin from Tahiti has forfeited his silver medal. Daoe's...

The Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) submitted a powerful oral statement at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, urging immediate and decisive international action to combat climate change. Representing the agency’s 17-member nations in the Pacific, Deputy Director General, Pio Manoa warned of the profound threat climate change poses to the Pacific region’s vital tuna fisheries...

The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) has delivered a powerful plea to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, calling for urgent legal measures to address the existential threat posed by climate change and rising sea levels. Representing 39 small island and low-lying coastal developing states, Samoa’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Fatumanava-o-Upolu III Pa’olelei...

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele is set to face a vote of no confidence in Parliament on Monday, 16 December 2024. Clerk to the National Parliament, Jefferson Hallu confirmed to SIBC news. Hallu said the motion was formally put on notice on Thursday, 05 December. “I put it on notice last Thursday, so by Monday, 16 December, it’s next week, and...

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister is prepared to “bet his life” on NRL players remaining safe on relocating to Port Moresby to join the league’s forthcoming franchise. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his PNG counterpart James Marape met in Sydney on Thursday to shake hands over the deal to welcome a PNG team into the NRL in 2028. The pair reached...

With just US$69 million in the bank account of the fledgling loss and damage fund so far, its new executive director was urged to keep running costs as low as possible at his first board meeting this month. Board members from 26 governments around the world questioned the fund’s current and planned spending on consultants, business-class plane tickets and the...

A team from Papua New Guinea will enter the NRL from 2028 after officially being granted a licence by the league. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his PNG counterpart James Marape met in Sydney on Thursday to shake hands over the deal, the culmination of two years of planning. The pair reached an in-principle agreement with the NRL in May, and...

Papua New Guinea's copper- and gold-rich Bougainville region is set to declare independence by 2027, eight years after a landslide vote to secede, its leader said Wednesday. The region -- home to about 300,000 people and a vast, long-shuttered copper and gold mine -- voted 97.7 percent in favour of independence in a 2019 referendum. But some analysts say it is...

The United States will spend more than US$864 million (3.5 billion kina) on infrastructure and military training in Papua New Guinea over 10 years under a defence deal signed between the two nations in 2023, PNG’s foreign minister has said. No figure putting a value on the agreement has previously been publicly released. The size of the package reflects increasing U.S...

The village of Veraibari in Papua New Guinea sits at the mouth of the Kikori River, just before it opens into the Pacific. “Veraibari was so beautiful when I was a child,” remembers Ara Kouwo, 52. “I used to walk down to the beach passing under mango trees.” Kouwo’s testimony was one of many included in written submissions to the international...