Local
Safer insecticide being sprayed
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Wednesday 22: Public health has advised Cook Islands News it no longer uses the insecticide known as reslin to spray for mosquitoes. This week the ministry of health has carried out spraying of pyrethrum insecticide in vaka Puaikura. The ministry now uses pyrethrum after concerns about the environmental effects of Reslin were raised with it […]
Keen interest in tourism awards
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Thursday 16: More than 40 local tourism operators are expected to be entered in the inaugural 2009 Air New Zealand Cook Islands Tourism Awards when entries close tomorrow. Tourism Industry Council awards chair Steve Lyon says that in a phone survey last week of tourism based operators, about 50 companies indicated they would submit entries […]
DPM gets new portfolio
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Wednesday 22: Cabinet has increased deputy prime minister Sir Terepai Maoate’s number of portfolios by making him the minister of minerals, natural resources and mines. He now has around 14 portfolios – almost twice that of prime minister Jim Marurai. The rather ambiguous new portfolio, according to Sir Terepai’s office relates to his responsibilities relating […]
PM attends Flag Day in Pago Pago
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Thursday 16: Prime Minister Jim Marurai is currently in Pago Pago, American Samoa, attending their Flag Day celebrations. Marurai was invited by Governor Togiola Tulafono to attend the celebrations – the first time the PM has accepted after four successive invites. American Samoa marks the raising of the United States flag on the island of […]
Games organisers wait for coral removal reports
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Wednesday 22: Pacific Mini Games CEO Mac Mokoroa says the proposal to remove coral from Muri lagoon for an oe vaka course is still on hold while environmental reports are being completed. Mokoroa told Radio New Zealand International earlier this month that around eight coral outcrops could be removed and replanted in other parts of […]
Rasmussen condemns gagging of Fiji media
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Thursday 16: Foreign affairs and immigration minister Wilkie Rasmussen says he expects Pacific Forum members to respond with one voice on developments in Fiji. “The prime minister is presently overseas, but I am in touch with his office,” says Rasmussen in a media statement. “The chairman of the Forum, the premier of Niue, Toke Talagi, […]
Spraying begins in Puaikura
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Tuesday 21: A public health team has begun spraying Reslin around the vaka Puaikura area this week in an attempt to combat the growing number of dengue cases there. While the ministry of health has not been able to confirm the outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease because it is still waiting for lab results, the […]
Shipping situation hots up
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Thursday 16: The competition between the two rival shipping companies, Pacific Forum Line and Reef Shipping, is picking up with both releasing schedules for the next few months. Reef’s Southern Tiare voyage 080 is scheduled to leave Auckland on May 4 for Rarotonga but no approval has been granted to the ship as yet. Niue […]
Market to open on ANZAC Day
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Tuesday 21: The Punanga Nui market will open this Saturday, despite it being ANZAC Day. ANZAC Day is deemed a public holiday however secretary of internal affairs Tamarii Tutangata says that there is no rule against stores opening on the day. Punanga Nui market manager Elmah McBirney confirmed that the market place will be open […]
Sir Geoffrey new CISNOC head
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Thursday 16: Former prime minister Sir Geoffrey Henry said that he agonised over the decision to stand against Tiki Matapo at the Cook Islands Sports & National Olympic Committee annual general meeting on Tuesday night. “Tiki and I are good mates from way back,” said Sir Geoffrey after being voted in as the new president. […]
DPM defends UN trip for continental shelf claim
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Tuesday 21: Cabinet asked for $12,000 for entertainment and gifts Deputy prime minister Sir Terepai has defended the spending of the reported $30,000 for his delegation to undertake the country’s extension to its continental shelf claim handover in New York. Growing criticism of the meeting at the United Nations headquarters last week includes concern that […]
Fuel order for Raro
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Monday 20: The latest fuel price order for Triad Pacific applies to all islands except Aitutaki. The order which appeared in last Saturday’s paper mistakenly inserted Aitutaki instead of Rarotonga in the advertisement. The maximum retail petrol price for Triad in Rarotonga is set to go up seven cents to $2.14 a litre as of […]
Health appeals for return of waste bin
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Monday 20: The ministry of health is appealing for the return of a yellow bio-medical waste bin taken from outside the hospital maternity ward this month. The ministry’s maintenance manager Craig Miller says the bright yellow wheelie bin is an expensive one of a kind medical bin and has a code written on the side […]
CICC assembly gets underway
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Monday 20: The Cook Islands Christian Church 28th general assembly got underway yesterday morning with the opening ceremony at the Nikao CICC church, ‘Kanaana’. The ministers, observers and visitors were welcomed through a guard of honour set up by representatives from the uniformed organisations on Rarotonga. Yesterday’s sermon was delivered by the organisation’s president, Rev. […]
Cooks should benefit from Fiji situation
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Monday 20: New Zealand media reported last week that travel agents say Kiwis are still planning to visit Fiji and Thailand despite unrest in both countries. Both countries are on the NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s travel advisory risk list, with Fiji at “some risk” and Thailand at “high risk”. Cook Islands Tourism […]
Opinion on MP with speaker
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Saturday 18: Parliament’s speaker Mapu Taia was to have received a legal opinion on the status of Pukapuka-Nassau’s MP. Clerk of parliament Nga Valoa said that he received the opinion from the crown law office on Thursday afternoon, and was due to pass it on to the speaker who was due in Rarotonga yesterday. Valoa […]
DPM is 'out of control', George
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Saturday 18: Nothing is more embarrassing than a senior government minister making uninformed, inconsistent and contradictory public statements says Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Norman George. George is once again lashing out at deputy prime minister Sir Terepai Maoate and repeating his claim that the minister is ‘out of control.’ “The DPM, who is not renowned […]
Continental shelf claim lodged with UN
Wednesday 22 April 2009 | Published in Local
Saturday 18: The Cook Islands is the first Pacific island country to lodge its extended continental shelf claim, one of the biggest that will be submitted to the United Nations. Deputy prime minister Sir Terepai Maoate has successfully submitted the Cook Islands claim to the Secretary of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental […]
Two teens admit to robbery
Wednesday 15 April 2009 | Published in Local
Wednesday 15: Two teenagers pleaded guilty on Saturday to the armed robbery of Raviz Indian restaurant. The two 15-year-olds appeared in the Cook Islands High Court before Chief Justice David Williams. Their names are unable to be printed as the matter has fallen under the jurisdiction of the Children’s Court. One defendant pleaded guilty to […]
Work halts at airport
Wednesday 15 April 2009 | Published in Local
Wednesday 15: Work on the airport terminal has almost ground to a halt, with materials not making it on the last voyage of the Southern Express. Airport authority chief executive Joe Ngamata says most of the steel needed for starting on the foundation has not arrived, along with pre-cast moulds, which are needed for the […]