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 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.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – New Zealand should bypass Australia and negotiate the resettlement of Manus Island refugees with the PNG government, a sick asylum seeker says.
NAURU – A senior United Nations official has demanded Australia reconsider its offshore processing policy as concerns about detainees’ mental health grows.
TONGA – Tongans have prayed for forgiveness following a month of shocking murders and road accident deaths in the Christian kingdom.
PACIFIC – The Pacific Rugby Players Association says professional contracts are already on the table for some of the players who attended this week’s Pacific Island combined training camp.
Tonga – Three container loads of building supplies from Fletcher Building South Pacific are set to arrive in Tonga to assist in rebuilding cyclone-damaged homes of people most in need.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – The Papua New Guinea government wants Australia to set a deadline to get refugees from Manus Island out of the country.
NEW ZEALAND – Organisers of Pasifika Festival, held in Auckland this weekend, want to focus the two-day event on re-connecting with grassroots this year.
VANUATU – Vanuatu’s government has signed orders limiting the use of plastic and regulating waste throughout its 82 islands.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Papua New Guinea’s weather office is warning people to prepare for a possible tropical cyclone.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – More than a quarter of a million people remain in need of urgent assistance almost a month after a large earthquake devastated the Papua New Guinea highlands.
TONGA – A Tongan community centre for young women has announced a ‘Girls in Rugby’ project to boost support for gender equality through sport.
TONGA – Tonga’s ban on school girls playing rugby is over already.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Violence and lawlessness are surging again in Papua New Guinea’s Hela province.
TONGA –The Tongan government has banned schoolgirls from playing rugby or boxing because the sports are deemed undignified and not in keeping with the island’s traditional culture.
SOLOMON ISLANDS – The recent discovery of the USS Juneau in the depths of the South Pacific has provided some closure to people with connections to the warship, which was blown apart during World War Two.
SAMOA – It takes the smallest of sparks to start a fire. If that small fire finds fuel and if it is not contained properly, it has the potential to develop into an inferno destroying everything in its wake.
KIRIBATI –The New Zealand Defence Force says two missing Kiribati fishermen were found 300 kilometres from the atoll they set off from.
SAMOA – A Samoa Member of Parliament has made a public apology in Parliament for the incident that injured several police officers and affected the public when young men from a village in his electorate blocked a public road this week.
MARSHALL ISLANDS – A steady flow of women seeking court relief from domestic violence confirms that spouse abuse continues as a serious problem in the Marshall Islands.
PACIFIC – As debate continues about the Catholic Church’s approach to the national redress scheme for Australian victims of child sexual abuse, the church is now being challenged to take responsibility and deal with crimes carried out by church officials overseas – in developing countries that include Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.