Regional
Pacific must embrace plan to clean up shipping
Wednesday 18 April 2018 | Published in Regional
PACIFIC – There is a call for Pacific nations to maintain a leading role in reducing greenhouse emissions from the shipping industry.
Folau explains his religious convictions
Wednesday 18 April 2018 | Published in Regional
Wallabies star Israel Folau has revealed he offered to walk away from his Rugby Australia contract in the wake of his controversial comments on homosexuality and that tension remains with the game’s administration over the issue.
Israel Folau's beliefs spark backlash
Wednesday 18 April 2018 | Published in Regional
TONGA – The president of Tonga Leiti’s Association is asking for Pacific sporting role models like Israel Folau to be more socially responsible.
Tree-trimming laws frustrating
Wednesday 18 April 2018 | Published in Regional
A DELAY in a government review into tree trimming is incredibly frustrating, the Electricity Networks Association says.
Call to clamp down on clampers
Wednesday 18 April 2018 | Published in Regional
NEW ZEALAND – A South Auckland woman is accusing car clamp companies of deliberately targeting poor areas.
Cancer screening error
Wednesday 18 April 2018 | Published in Regional
A BOWEL cancer screening error affected 12,500 more people than earlier revealed, with 30 of them developing cancer. The Health Ministry said in February a technical glitch involving a pilot screening programme at Waitemata District Health Board meant 2500 people missed out on screening. It said three people developed the killer cancer as a result and one died. But new details released today show about 15,000 Waitemata residents missed out – including the original 2500. Ministry officials said initial analysis showed that more than 30 of those people got bowel cancer. Jane O’Hallahan, the Ministry’s National Screening Unit clinical director, said they had clearly failed some people “and for that we are sorry”. She emphasized the problems only related to Waitemata residents and the pilot, not the national rollout of screening now under way. Russian hackers suspected Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is checking whether New Zealand has been hit by a fresh wave of global cyber attacks, she says. The United States, Britain and Australia have said hackers backed by the Russian government infected computer routers around the world. Speaking in Berlin, Ardern said she was awaiting advice from the New Zealand intelligence agency, GCSB. GCSB director-general Andrew Hampton said in the agency’s annual report in November that 122 local incidents, about a third of the 396 serious incidents recorded by the GCSB’s National Cyber Security Centre, had “indicators of connection to foreign intelligence agencies”. He said Russian state-sponsored hackers were behind some of those incidents. “New Zealand is not immune to the threat of espionage by foreign states or to foreign efforts to interfere with the normal functioning of government or the rights of New Zealanders,” the report said.
Deportation order 'a nightmare'
Wednesday 18 April 2018 | Published in Regional
NEW ZEALAND – A British man whose stepdaughter was murdered in New Zealand could be deported by the government despite residing in the country for more than 50 years, in a situation he describes as an “endless nightmare”.
Kiwi dog owners' love knows no limits
Wednesday 18 April 2018 | Published in Regional
NEW ZEALAND – New Zealand is a nation of dog lovers who will spare no expense when their pets get into trouble.
Political changes were within the law
Tuesday 17 April 2018 | Published in Regional
TONGA – A former prime minister has hit back at allegations made last week by Tonga’s current prime minister that political reforms were made in 2010 without the approval of parliament.
Medical teams deployed to Ambae
Tuesday 17 April 2018 | Published in Regional
VANUATU – Medical emergency teams have for the first time been deployed to the Ambae volcano disaster.
13,000 islanders need to be resettled
Tuesday 17 April 2018 | Published in Regional
VANUATU – The active volcano on Vanuatu’s Ambae island has once again begun spewing out ash and harmful smoke, and Vanuatu’s government is now looking into acquiring land to permanently resettle the island’s 13,000 residents.
Chinese base in Vanuatu 'ridiculous'
Friday 13 April 2018 | Written by Jaimie Keay | Published in Regional
VANUATU – A Chinese embassy spokesman has said the idea that China is planning to establish a military base in Vanuatu is “ridiculous”.
Body of missing man found
Friday 13 April 2018 | Written by Jaimie Keay | Published in Regional
FIJI – The body of a man missing in Fiji’s recent flooding since last weekend has been found.
Superpowers recognise Vanuatu's importance
Thursday 12 April 2018 | Published in Regional
Reports this week that Vanuatu was to be the site of a Chinese military base caught most in Vanuatu by surprise.
Son of Philip the demi-god given chiefly title
Thursday 12 April 2018 | Published in Regional
VANAUTU – Last week Prince Charles touched down in Vanuatu on a side trip from his visit to Australia for the Commonwealth Games, but unfortunately he might not have been the British prince that some of the islanders had been hoping for. It is his father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who is regarded in a very spiritual way to a community of Tanna islanders. When he visited in 1974 many believed Philip was a reincarnation of an ancient warrior. Philip, the husband of the Queen of England, may hold a string of grand titles but for the small community, deep in the rainforests on the southwestern part of the island of Tanna, he is regarded as a an demi-god. “For them Philip is a tabu man – human but possessing qualities and powers that make him sacred,” Matthew Baylis, the British author of Man Belong Mrs Queen: My Adventures with the Philip Worshippers, who spent time living with the villagers, told the ABC. He said the people have a special relationship with the Duke of Edinburgh that is more complex than simple worship. “The closest parallel I can think of is the way we treat our war dead,” Baylis said. “We honour them, remember them, hold ceremonies for them, but we’re not actually worshipping them.” A group of people living around Yaohnanen village on Tanna have an ancient legend, describing a band of warriors who left the island to fight a war to protect and preserve their culture. The leader of the warrior group vowed to one day return with a rich, powerful – and white wife. In 1974, the British Royal family visited Vanuatu – then known as New Hebrides – as part of a tour of the Commonwealth. While he and Queen Elizabeth did not visit the isolated community, it is said that Prince Philip handed a symbolic white pig to a Tanna man in the country’s capital, Port Vila. It is believed that from that gesture the Tanna people formed a strong bond with Prince Philip, believing him to be a physical representation of the ancient warrior leader returning home with his wife. According to Kirk Huffman, a research associate at the Australian Museum in Sydney and honorary curator of the National Museum of Vanuatu, it’s a link they are very serious about. “On Tanna, traditional spiritual belief systems are a 24/7 situation,” Huffman told the ABC.
Highlands rocked by new quake
Tuesday 10 April 2018 | Published in Regional
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Emergency response teams are being flown by helicopter to a remote part of Papua New Guinea – a region already struggling to recover from a magnitude-7.5 quake which hit in February.
Cyclone Keni drenches Fiji's west
Tuesday 10 April 2018 | Published in Regional
FIJI – Fiji’s meteorological service says Cyclone Keni was a category two storm but expected to intensify further as it moves closest to Fiji at around midday yesterday.
Another cyclone bears down on Fiji
Monday 9 April 2018 | Published in Regional
FIJI – With rivers still raging, thousands still in temporary shelters, and streets and farmland caked in silt and mud after Cyclone Josie little more than a week ago, residents in Fiji’s sodden west are now being warned to be prepare for the arrival of yet another cyclone.
First medal for the Solomons
Monday 9 April 2018 | Published in Regional
SOLOMON ISLANDS – Solomon Islands won its first ever Commonwealth Games medal on a historic night on the Gold Coast.
Water and sanitation the top priority
Monday 9 April 2018 | Published in Regional
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – World Vision Papua New Guinea is assisting 5000 people with water and sanitation following February’s magnitude 7.5 earthquake in the Highlands.