PINA

Fiji has recorded 302 new cases of COVID-19 and nine new deaths Tuesday, increasing the total number of cases to 44,420 and 451 deaths since the outbreak in April. Ministry of Health permanent secretary Dr James Fong said 148 cases were from the Western division and 154 cases from the Central division, in Vitilevu, Fiji’s main island. Dr Fong also reported...

Two children have died of whooping cough in Mbabanakira, Guadalcanal Province in Solomon Islands as the province’s health sector declares whooping cough an outbreak. Dr Joel Denty, provincial health director to Guadalcanal, confirmed this report to Island Sun. “I have confirmed this report with the nurse in charge at Mbabanakira clinic. One died in the village while the other died at...

Opposition to the proposed amendment of the Papua New Guinea electoral voting system is mounting. The proposed amendment notice is before Parliament as a Private Member’s Bill sponsored by Gumine MP Nick Kuman. It proposes to change the voting system from the current limited preferential voting to first past the post. The Opposition moved as a bloc and dealt the proposal a...

Samoa's Assistant Attorney General, Fuimaono Sefo Ainu’u is now acting for the Attorney General, Savalenoa Mareva Betham-Annandale while she is suspended until 03 September. The Attorney General was suspend by the Prime Minister last Friday and offered an opportunity to respond by Monday 30 August. “The Attorney General has been suspended from her post, on the basis that I have formed...

The issue of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) is an ugly legacy of World War II, Solomon Islands is still experiencing its effects to this day. Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare highlighted during the launching of the UXO package support from the Australian Government last week. Sogavare said Solomon Islands like all other Pacific Island countries which have had this war fought on their...

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is threatening Asia and the Pacific's progress toward critical targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to a new report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The pandemic pushed an estimated 75 million to 80 million more people in developing Asia1 into extreme poverty as of last year, compared with what would have happened...

New Caledonia's pro and anti-independence camps have launched their campaigns for the third and final referendum on independence from France. In 2018 and 2020, a majority voted against independence, but the winning margin shrank from 56.7 percent to 53.3 percent. A senior member of the pro-independence FLNKS Aloisio Sako has told its weekend meeting in Noumea that a victory in December...

By Catherine Wilson The urgency of finding solutions to the most pressing development challenges of our times has increased as the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to reverse the global momentum in recent years toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). And small island developing states (SIDS), with their physical remoteness, restricted land and resources and dependence on trade and tourism,...

The Adjudicatory Chamber of the OFC Disciplinary and Ethics Committee in a decision notified on 06 July 2021 has found Lee Harmon, President of the Cook Islands Football Association, guilty of having breached the OFC code of ethics. The ethics proceedings are part of an extensive investigation into the OFC in which Harmon was identified as having allegedly breached articles...

Three climate vulnerable Pacific nations have asked the world’s governments to agree to aim to make international shipping emissions-free by 2050. In a proposal to the UN’s shipping body, the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands and Kiribati cited a major report published earlier this month summarising the latest climate science. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said to limit global heating...