More Top Stories
Fifth weekly Sydney flight to Rarotonga announced
23 October 2024
CIIC directors seek $350,000 in damages over defamatory claims
21 October 2024
Man found guilty of rape, burglary
24 September 2024
Tenants face water bill burden
8 October 2024
BRO CHECK campaign: ‘Reach out, you’re not alone’
8 October 2024
Concerns over Minister’s role in inmate work releases: PAC
5 October 2024
Tourism contribution set to surpass half-billion dollar mark
25 September 2024
Parliament’s 12 sitting days sufficient for business: Clerk
24 September 2024
Parliament Clerk sparks outrage over deep sea mining statement
23 September 2024
Parliament’s 12 sitting days sufficient for business: Clerk
24 September 2024
Tapaitau and Charlie-Puna released to ‘family jobs’
21 September 2024
3000 companies at risk due to Act oversight: Browne
23 September 2024
Police apprehend four juveniles in connection with motorcycle thefts
23 September 2024
Deep sea dilemma: Cook Islanders weigh the cost of mineral riches
21 September 2024
Anxiety on the rise: Cook Islands faces mental health challenge
7 September 2024
Cook Islands deep sea mining poll sparks controversy
7 September 2024
Helmet safety concerns raised amid enforcement challenges
2 September 2024
MCI rejects ‘dark fleet’ label
3 August 2024
STI cases on the rise
2 September 2024
Rising seas, rising costs: Climate impacts on Cook Islands economy
2 September 2024
Inflation eases but concerns remain
31 August 2024
Prime Minister defends $659,000 MPs travel bill
23 August 2024
Taxpayers foot $659,000 bill for MPs travel and allowance
22 August 2024
Corruption report exposes ‘bribe and sexual favours’
17 January 2023
PM Brown eager to hand over Forum chair role to Tonga
13 August 2024
ICI explains road works delay in front of old Sheraton site
10 August 2024
Diaspora dismayed over lack of Te Maeva Nui livestream
8 August 2024
Everyone is a winner, says Culture
7 August 2024
Local women outshine global peers in business leadership
8 August 2024
Housing crisis hits tourism industry
27 July 2024
MCI rejects ‘dark fleet’ label
3 August 2024
Tapaitau appeal dismissed
17 July 2024
Challenging ‘rape culture’
8 July 2024
Pacific
Tahiti sailors win 2024 Regatta in Raro
Sailors from Tahiti edged over Rarotonga, proving to be very competitive taking out first place in both the Lasers and the Optimist classes, winning the 2024 sailing challenge overall trophy.
Former PM Puna first Cook Islander elected to East-West Center Board
Former Cook Islands prime minister and secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum, Henry Puna, has been confirmed as the first Cook Islander appointed to the East-West Center Board of Governors based in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Tree-trimming laws frustrating
A DELAY in a government review into tree trimming is incredibly frustrating, the Electricity Networks Association says.
Call to clamp down on clampers
NEW ZEALAND – A South Auckland woman is accusing car clamp companies of deliberately targeting poor areas.
Cancer screening error
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'
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
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
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
VANUATU – Medical emergency teams have for the first time been deployed to the Ambae volcano disaster.
13,000 islanders need to be resettled
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'
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
FIJI – The body of a man missing in Fiji’s recent flooding since last weekend has been found.
Superpowers recognise Vanuatu's importance
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
Ban overturned but too late for Games
SAMOA – Samoan weightlifter Iuniarra Sipaia has been cleared of any wrongdoing after mistakenly taking a banned substance.
Homeless children live in toilets
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Urban migration is leading to an increase in the number of homeless children in Papua New Guinea capital.
China diplomats accused of squatting
FRENCH POLYNESIA – China’s diplomats in French Polynesia are accused of illegally occupying premises in Tahiti.