PINA

Bougainville's leaders set a deadline of 2027 to gain full independence from Papua New Guinea Tuesday during talks on the future of the once-wartorn Melanesian island. A resounding 97.7 percent of Bougainvilleans voted to secede from Papua New Guinea and become the world's youngest nation in a 2019 referendum. The poll capped a 2001 peace agreement that followed a decade-long war...

A legal expert has added his voice to those who say Samoa's Courts have the final say on constitutional issues, not the Head of State or the Government. Samoa's FAST party holds 26 seats, to the HRPP's 21 seats. But there are more electoral petitions to come. Earlier this week, the Head of State issued a proclamation claiming the Supreme Court...

A Commission has been set up in Samoa to investigate possible criminal charges against FAST Party leaders and its legal advisers. The Police Commissioner, Fuiavailili Egon Keil said that the Commission has been assembled and include the Assistant Police Commissioner, two police attorneys and the Attorney General to investigate any potential criminality following a letter from the caretaker government requesting...

The Australian government has denied undermining China’s plan to roll out Covid vaccines to Pacific countries after Beijing lashed Canberra’s purported “callous” and “irresponsible behaviour”. The allegation, first aired in Chinese state-controlled media and then amplified by the foreign ministry in Beijing, was “absolutely not” true, the Australian government said on Tuesday. The spat is the latest flashpoint in the deteriorating...

For most of the pandemic, when Fijians tuned in each night to updates from the country’s health experts, they were greeted with the same message: the nation had reported zero, or one or two cases that day. While most countries around the world grappled with surging Covid cases and overwhelmed health systems, Fiji – a country of about 900,000 people...

Fiji has recorded 636 new cases of COVID-19 and six deaths related to COVID-19 Tuesday. Permanent secretary for Health Dr James Fong said the first COVID-19 death is a 74-year-old woman from Delainavesi, Lami. “She presented to the FEMAT field hospital in respiratory distress and died on the same day. She was not vaccinated. “The second COVID-19 death is a 74-year-old woman...

Communities in Palau could lose financing access to the homegrown Pacific Islands Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF) if Micronesia leaves the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). One of the issues Pacific leaders will discuss in the upcoming Forum Economic Ministers Meeting slated next week is the main launch of funding support for October 2021. The aim of the PRF is to ensure that...

The last 18 months have been, perhaps, one of the toughest periods for the Pacific region, for countries, and most especially, the people of the Pacific. The Pacific has had to contend with a global pandemic that has shut down major sectors of island economies and plummeted countries into unprecedented levels of debt and growing inequality. Speaking during the Forum Economic...

The All Blacks are expecting a much sterner test when they face Fiji in Dunedin, despite having waltzed to a 102-0 victory over Tonga at Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday. In one of the most one-sided tests in New Zealand history, the All Blacks ran in 16 unanswered tries against a severely understrength Tonga - who were missing a number...

Samoa's police commissioner has received a letter from the caretaker government requesting criminal charges be laid against leaders of the election winning Faatuatua I le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) party and its legal advisers. The commissioner Fuiavailili Egon Keil said he received a letter signed by the caretaker Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) member for Faleata West, Leala'ilepule Rimoni...