PINA

The French Polynesian government says France's highest court has approved the local vaccination law, which will now come into force in January. Anyone working in healthcare or with the public has to be vaccinated against Covid-19 according to the law adopted in late August. However, there have been several legal challenges, which prompted the government to defer the law's enforcement from...

Palau last week received 10 police vehicles and four protocol cars from The Indonesian government in support of preparations for the upcoming Our Ocean Conference in February. The donation of vehicles amounting to almost US700,000 will assist Palau’s public safety and protocol functions. The Indonesian government was represented in person by Minister-Counselor Isman Pasha at the handover ceremony on Wednesday. Vice President...

More than 2,000 people in 60 villages in Papua New Guinea’s north – where the country’s largest gold, copper and silver mine is slated to be built – have filed a human rights complaint with the Australian government against developer PanAust. The landowners of the proposed Frieda River mine, on a tributary to the Sepik in the north of New...

With 22 days away to go before the year ends, Papua New Guinea is well short of reaching its goal of vaccinating 1.8 million people against the Coronavirus (Covid-19) in 2021, a doctor says. National Pandemic Response deputy controller Dr Daoni Esorom said so far, only 279,220 had received at least the first dose. There are 211,421 who have been...

A drive to increase Hawaii longliners’ bigeye tuna quota has again fallen short at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC). The U.S delegation to the WCPFC requested that its longline bigeye quota be increased by 3,000 metric tonnes, noting stocks appeared to not be overfished and were not unhealthy, so could withstand an increase in fishing levels. The proposed...

A giant patch of garbage in the Pacific Ocean is now "an immense floating plastic habitat" for marine animals clinging to its plastic debris, researchers have found Coastal plant and animal species that have been carried out to sea on plastic debris aren't just surviving on an area of the ocean called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. They're building communities...

The President of Bougainville has taken a tough stance with Papua New Guinea in the latest talks over the independence referendum. Ishmael Toroama told the third joint consultative meeting that Bougainville has taken the negotiations as far as they can go. He pleaded with the PNG Prime Minister, James Marape, whom he called his friend, saying 'I appeal to you, it...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $150 million loan to improve state-owned enterprises (SOE) in Papua New Guinea (PNG). “ADB has long been engaged in SOE reforms in PNG, and built strong relationships with several SOEs,” said ADB Principal Public Management Specialist for the Pacific Pamela Wyatt. “The Government of PNG has made good progress on reforms and...

Out of 230 countries, a new research has found that Solomon Islands has the World’s most expensive power supply. The research, which analysed 3,883 tariffs across 230 countries, found that Libya offers the cheapest electricity in the world at just USD0.007 per KWh while the most expensive electricity in the world can be found in the Solomon Islands, where one...

Tuvalu will receive a significant boost with the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approving a US$17.5 million commitment to support its ongoing climate adaptation efforts. As one of world’s smallest and most disaster at-risk countries the new support aims to strengthen Tuvalu’s financial, social and environmental resilience to disasters. The Tuvalu Second Resilience Development Policy Operation with a Catastrophe-Deferred...