PINA

The new Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Henry Puna said he will continue to champion for unity in the region, amid the leadership row that prompted Micronesian nations, including Palau to quit the Forum. Puna held his first virtual press conference with Pacific journalists last week said the Pacific region is “a family” that will continue to work...

A Chinese envoy has urged Japan to reverse its decision to dump contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear accident into the sea. Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, exercised China's right to reply to the Japanese representative at 31st Meeting of States Parties to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. “Just now the Japanese...

Australia urged Samoa's political parties on Saturday to work together to form a government after a top court in the Pacific nation dealt a blow to a prime minister who has refused to accept an election defeat by saying there was no legal reason to delay convening Parliament. The islands' politics descended into chaos after Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, Samoa's prime...

Fiji recorded 262 new cases of COVID-19 Sunday with 43 cases from six new areas of interest. Permanent Secretary for Health and Medical Services, Dr James Fong said five cases are known contacts of cases from the Nawakalevu containment zone that have been undergoing 14-day quarantine in quarantine facilities in Nadi. He said three are contacts from within the existing Korovou...

A career epidemiology field officer for U.S affiliated Pacific Islands with U.S Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr W Thane Hancock said Palau is one of the first countries to have beaten COVID. “Palau has done an amazing job vaccinating their community and, in my opinion, have ended the COVID threat to their community. One of the first...

By Nic Maclellan When France’s overseas minister, Sébastien Lecornu, announced that New Caledonia’s third self-determination referendum will be held this December, he created a major challenge for the main independence coalition, the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste, or FLNKS. The stakes are high, and time is short. Under a 1998 agreement known as the Noumea Accord, two referendums have...

Some of the Olympic rugby gold medal contenders for Tokyo 2020 next month are set to be in action this weekend for the final warmup tournament before the Games at the Oceania Sevens Championships in Townsville. The tournament at the Queensland Country Bank Stadium will include Fiji, winners of the men’s first Olympic rugby sevens gold medals at Rio 2016,...

The Samoa Court of Appeal has clarified that it did not stop parliament from convening when it ruled on Article 44(1a) where the provision requires 6 women representatives in the Assembly. The declaratory order from the Court means that there is nothing stopping parliament from convening and it does not require it to wait until all petitions and by-elections are...

The maximum number of seats that will be contested in the 2022 General Election will be 55. This as the Electoral Commission has approved that the composition of Parliament for the next General Election will be 55 seats, an increase of four seats from the current 51-member Parliament. The Electoral Commission has approved this in accordance with section 54 of the...

Claims by overseas media that Fiji is on the brink of social unrest have been shot down. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Pacific Beat service has published an article, claiming the brawl in Jittu Estate, Suva is a sign of things to come. The article lacks corroboration from any local authority or individual and quotes local reports as saying there are mounting...