PINA

Fiji's Ministry of Health is working on greater contingency measures after the COVID-19 cases soared to 105 Sunday. This is Fiji's biggest daily toll since the second wave of the pandemic began mid-April. The majority of these cases are linked to the existing clusters, but Permanent Secretary for Health, Doctor James Fong, says they are watching these numbers with a concern. Dr...

Polynesian seafarers likely reached Antarctica hundreds of years before the Western explorers usually credited with discovering the frozen continent, a new study has concluded. New Zealand researchers scoured so-called "grey literature" -- including oral records, historic indigenous artworks and non-academic sources -- looking for links between Maori people and Antarctica. “When you put it together, it's really clear, there's a very...

President of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM)David W Panuelo Monday sent a letter of congratulations to Naftali Bennett, the newly sworn-in Prime Minister of Israel. In addition to the congratulatory remarks, President Panuelo reaffirmed the nations’ commitment to standing with the People and Government of Israel on matters that are “right and just.” Citizens may recall that, while it is...

Samoa caretaker Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi says it is supporters’ encouragements and pleads not to concede that is keeping him in office. Speaking on the state-owned Radio 2AP, Tuilaepa he could drop everything in a second but “what then?” The Human Rights Protection Party(HRPP) leader who has been in power for 22 years said his conscience would not let him...

By Michael Field Since long before the steel-hulled fishing boats from foreign countries arrived in the South Pacific its people have had their own systems for sharing the ocean’s catches. In the New Zealand colony of Tokelau, in the middle of the region, the 1,400 people living on its three atolls practise a system called inati, which ensures every household...

Leaders identify pandemic recovery, climate change, sustainable development as top priorities The leaders of 11 nations and territories across the Pacific have issued a group communiqué following a two-day online gathering of the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders, or PICL. During the June 1-2 summit, a new group of Pacific Island leaders recommitted to the important regional role of the...

The Marshall Islands launched Covid-19 vaccinations for commercial fishermen temporarily in port Majuro this past week — possibly the first Pacific island to vaccinate fishermen. With the country vaccination programme nearing 80 percent completion for the two urban centres, and public health teams now conducting vaccinations for remote outer islands, the Ministry of Health and Human Services announced earlier in...

By Matin Karimli and Sheldon Yett Child labour remains a persistent problem in the world today, including in the Pacific Islands, jeopardising children’s future. Every child has a basic right to protection, as defined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, “The right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is...

Lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines should be considered “global public goods”, the UN chief told journalists on Friday, covering the G7 Summit of leading industrialised nations taking place in the United Kingdom. Speaking via videolink in London, Secretary-General António Guterres said there was no other way of defeating a virus that spreads across developing countries “like wildfire” and risks mutating, other than through...

Samoan women’s issues researcher Dr Mema Motusaga says invoking the gender quota to decide Samoa’s Government following the 2021 General Election was “perverse” and "an insult” to women leaders of the past and is a mockery of the Constitution. Dr Motusaga, who advocates for women’s equality and was born and raised in Samoa, made the statement in Part two of...