PINA

Coach Aaron Mauger has blended international experience with raw talent in the Moana Pasifika team that will make history when it meets the Crusaders in the Super Rugby Pacific match Friday night. Moana Pasific's long-awaited arrival into the competition will finally become reality when captain and former Wallaby Sekope Kepu leads the side on to Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin. While...

Fiji Olympic gold medalist Meli Derenalagi will lead the Fijian Drua for the first time in Super Rugby Pacific against the Melbourne Rebels Friday. Derenalagi is one of five changes made to the starting 15. Fiji Drua tight five from the Brumbies game has been retained while Derenalagi is in at blindside flanker replacing Vilive Miramira who shifts to seven in...

UN human rights experts today expressed serious concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua, citing shocking abuses against indigenous Papuans, including child killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of people. The experts called for urgent humanitarian access to the region, and urged the Indonesian Government to conduct full and independent investigations...

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape has again raised his concern over the country’s very Covid-19 vaccination rate of 4.6 percent, telling health officials and partners to work on increasing it urgently. A Health Department report shows that only 5.8 percent (295,610) of the population of more than eight million people have received the first dose and just 4.6...

Cook Islands Prime Minister and Minister of Marine Resources (MMR), Mark Brown welcomed the London Privy Council’s judgement on the Government’s decision to expand the Cook Islands purse seine fishery in 2013, saying it is both “constitutionally and internationally significant”. “The Privy Council confirmed that the Cook Islands Government has acted consistently with both its domestic and international level obligations....

By Mark Howden and Ofa Ma’asi-Kaisamy In the past decade the two most intense cyclones recorded to date in the southern hemisphere ripped through the Pacific. Tropical Cyclone Pam, the second worst, devastated Vanuatu in 2015 while in 2016 Tropical Cyclone Winston, the worst, ravaged Fiji. Both not only caused extreme environmental damage but economic damage worth 64% and...

By Catherine Wilson Oceans play a pivotal role in regulating the world’s climate and maintaining the conditions for human life on earth. And they are a crucial source of sustenance and economic wellbeing in many developing countries, including small island developing states. But Pacific Islanders are deeply concerned about the fate of the oceans if world leaders fail to...

Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama arrived into the country this morning from Melbourne, Australia where he underwent a cardiovascular surgery. Bainimarama tweeted this morning about his arrival and thanked everyone for their prayers. “There’s no better feeling than coming home to the family I love and the people I’m privileged to lead,” Bainimarama said in his tweet. “Safe to say I know...

Freely Associated States (FAS) nations strongly condemned Russian’s action in Ukraine, supporting the United Nations resolution with other countries. Palau, FSM, and Marshall Islands supported the UN Security Council resolution to condemn and halt Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ambassador Ilana Seid, Palau’s permanent representative to the UN said Russia’s action against Ukraine is “a violation of the principles of the UN...

As a sovereign state and as a member of the United Nations, Fiji should openly express its strong support for Ukraine and its people and openly condemn Russia for its armed aggression and flagrant breach of international law. This is the opinion of Jioji Kotobalavu who lectures in Public Law and in International Relations and Diplomacy at the University of...