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June 2009 Blog Posts (36)

Youth ambassadors prepare to set sail for Pacific

Radio Taiwan International - 26 June 2009

Foreign Minister Francisco Ou on Friday hailed Taiwan's "youth ambassadors" as they prepared to visit Taiwan's six allies in the Pacific region. Six teams made up of students from Taiwan's top universities will travel to Kiribati, Palau, Nauru, Tuvalu, the Solomon Islands and the Marshall Islands in early July. There they will hold summer camps with… Continue

Added by Stacey King on June 30, 2009 at 9:19am — No Comments

Pacific identity a concern

FijiVillage.com 26/06/2009

Pacific Islanders we have to maintain our unique identity and many youths are forgetting theirs and this is a concern. Pacific Youth Festival Organizing Committee member and Fiji Alumni President Jacob Itautoka said one of the pillars to be discussed will be Pacific Identity, due to the fact that modern times and the influence of the western society is slowly… Continue

Added by Stacey King on June 30, 2009 at 9:14am — No Comments

Somali piracy spreads fear to Pacific

By Phil Mercer

BBC News, Sydney

Funafuti Island in Tuvalu

Paradise lost... piracy a world away is ruining the lives of people in Tuvalu

The lawlessness of Somalia has spread fear and panic to one of the world's smallest and most isolated nations, tiny Tuvalu, that sits in the South Pacific Ocean near the International Date Line.

Eleven Tuvaluan seamen aboard the German cargo ship the Hansa Stavanger were abducted when Somali pirates stormed the vessel… Continue

Added by Mr. Atabi Ewekia Baoa on June 25, 2009 at 1:00pm — No Comments

Melbourne should bid for the next rugby union team of Pacific Islander

ABC RADIO AUSTRALIA Updated Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:56pm AEST

A former Wallabies coach says Melbourne should bid for the next rugby union team made up entirely of players from the Pacific islands.The Australian Rugby Union wants to boost the number of teams in the competition to15 but face stiff opposition from a number of countries for the right to host the new team. Even though John Connolly coached the… Continue

Added by Stacey King on June 25, 2009 at 9:46am — No Comments

Rabi Council owes FNPF $69,000

FIJI TIME ONLINE By SERAFINA SILAITOGA Thursday, June 25, 2009

AN island council in the Northern Division owes the Fiji National Provident Fund $69,000 in arrears for two years' contribution. The Rabi Island Council says plans are underway to involve the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption. Newly-elected council chairman Paulo Vanu-alailai said that unpaid contribution for their employees, some of whom have… Continue

Added by Stacey King on June 25, 2009 at 8:44am — 1 Comment

Kiribati says 52 HIV cases now known

RADIO NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL - Posted at 02:51 on 17 June, 2009 UTC

The number of confirmed cases of HIV in Kiribati stands at 52, according to Ministry of Health figures, but authorities believe others are infected. 20 women and 32 men are now confirmed HIV positive. The HIV/AIDS Coordinator Mamao Robate said two women were recently detected through voluntary blood tests.

She says two of those infected have gone… Continue

Added by Stacey King on June 24, 2009 at 8:36am — No Comments

Latest News - Rabi Update 23 June 2009

by Terikano Takesau Rabi (see photos attached)

Rabi Hospital Clean Up Campaign

The Rabi hospital Board of Visitors organized a clean up campaign last saturday 20th June which involved the cleaning of the hospital inside out.

16 students from Buakonikai primary school participated in the clean up campaign together with our medical officer, Dr. Sam Fullman, the staff nurses and the board members.

Despite the preparation for the external exams,these kids… Continue

Added by Stacey King on June 23, 2009 at 7:00pm — 1 Comment

Japan's financial hold on Pacific pro-whale votes

ABC RADIO AUSTRALIA Updated 2 hours 32 minutes ago

The International Whaling Commission's annual meeting begins tomorrow in Portugal, and again pro-whaling nations' arm-twisting for support from Pacific nations will no doubt take place. This time, however, the gathering will have some of the heat taken out of it as a number of contentious issues will not be up for a vote.

Presenter: Michael Cavanagh

Speaker: Sandra Pierantozzi, Palau's Minister for State and… Continue

Added by Stacey King on June 22, 2009 at 11:54am — No Comments

Rabi Council to Restore Ocean Island

The Fiji Sun

6/18/2009

Rabi council to restore Ocean Island

People of Rabi Island now have a chance to return to Ocean Island when rehabilitation works on their native island is completed.

Development plans are already underway to restore the island which was vacated in the early 1900 due to the phosphate extraction by European companies on the island.

The phosphate extraction ruined 90 per cent of the island forcing the native… Continue

Added by Mere Taberanibou on June 19, 2009 at 10:08am — 4 Comments

New hope for Pacific phosphate island - Banaban Rehabilitation

Nauru is another Pacific island country where phosphate mining wreaked environmental havoc. [AFP]

Last Updated: 36 minutes ago RADIO AUSTRALIA NEWS - Melbourne Australia

People forced from Ocean Island - or Banaba - in the Republic of Kiribati, by phosphate works have received a glimmer of hope about an eventual return home.

At present, some of the… Continue

Added by Stacey King on June 19, 2009 at 9:30am — No Comments

70 free laptops recalled from Cook Islands

Jun 16, 2009 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX)

70 laptops earmarked for outer island schools in Cook Islands have been recalled. The wait for a consultants report on information communications technology has stopped the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project for Mitiaro from going ahead. The plan had been for Mitiaro school students to receive about 70 of the colourful laptops last year. Now the Ministry of Education… Continue

Added by Stacey King on June 18, 2009 at 2:36pm — 1 Comment

Laptop scheme rolls-out to Marshall Islands students

ABC RADIO AUSTRALIA Updated Tue Jun 16, 2009 4:19pm AEST

The One Laptop Per Child program is gaining momentum in the Pacific, with Marshall Islands the latest nation to adopt the educational scheme. The OLPC attempts to supply every child in less-developed areas of the world with a high-tech laptop suitable for each country's climate. The laptops have already been piloted in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu,… Continue

Added by Stacey King on June 17, 2009 at 8:58am — 1 Comment

Rising sea levels force island populations to evacuate

WORLD FOCUS - Blog Watch June 12, 2009 Kiribati is one of the island countries threatened by climate change.

Last week, the U.N. passed a resolution introduced by small islands that will recognize climate change as a threat to security. Climate change could potentially create 200 million refugees by 2050. The people of the… Continue

Added by Stacey King on June 15, 2009 at 4:06pm — 2 Comments

Campaign launched to reduced TB levels in Kiribati

Radio New Zealand International - Posted at 19:22 on 14 June, 2009 UTC

A national campaign to reduce tuberculosis levels in Kiribati has been launched with a massive public awareness programme. TB Controller, Ken Reeue, says the awareness programme will be followed by more practical and constructive measures, including treatment, in an effort to curb the increasing number of TB cases in Kiribati. Dr Reeue… Continue

Added by Stacey King on June 15, 2009 at 3:59pm — No Comments

Japan PM Taro Aso: "The generation that saved the future"

ISRIA - 15 June 2009

"[We need] as leaders to offer life and hope to our people where there seems to be only despair and desperation."

These were the solemn words spoken to me at a summit meeting of the island countries of the Pacific, by the President of the Republic of Kiribati, a beautiful island nation in the South Pacific. For a certain house, the shore which until a few years ago was one kilometre distant now looms at… Continue

Added by Stacey King on June 15, 2009 at 3:56pm — No Comments

Life under a cloud after nuclear tests

STUFF.CO.NZ by LEE UMBERS - Sunday News Last updated 05:00 14/06/2009

War hero's son Bill Anderson thought he was embarking on a patriotic adventure when he joined the New Zealand Navy at age 16. But he says he was sailing into disaster when he boarded HMNZS Pukaki for Christmas Island in the South Pacific to become one of hundreds of Kiwi servicemen exposed to a series of British nuclear… Continue

Added by Stacey King on June 15, 2009 at 3:53pm — No Comments

SCAM - HILTON HOTEL LONDON- Do not answer emails

If you recieved an email with the title above please don't open it or reply but delete it immediately as it is an internet scam. This member has now been banned from BV network.

Added by Stacey King on June 13, 2009 at 8:57pm — No Comments

Lawyers prepare case for Fiji nuclear test victims

ABC RADIO AUSTRALIA Updated 6 hours 31 minutes ago

British lawyers acting for Fijian veterans affected by nuclear testing during the fifties and sixties are hoping that the British Ministry of Defence will finally agree to sit down and discuss compensation. The legal team is back in London after meeting in Fiji with the surviving servicemen and relatives of those who have died. A British court has… Continue

Added by Stacey King on June 12, 2009 at 10:43pm — No Comments

Catholic Mission backs National Climate Emergency Rally

CATHNEWS.Com Published: June 11, 2009

With its Village Space program focused on climate change and its effects on people in the developing world, Catholic Mission has given its backing to this week's National Climate Emergency Rally. Climate change affects people all around the world and it is often the most vulnerable who are affected the most, a Catholic Mission statement says. Catholic Mission's Village Space program, an interactive performance… Continue

Added by Stacey King on June 12, 2009 at 9:13am — No Comments

Historic day for Good Samaritans

AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC LEADER - 11 June 09

Good Samaritan Sisters congregational leader Sr Clare Condon (right) witnesses the vows of Sr Ameria Etuare

THE Sisters of the Good Samaritan of the Order of St Benedict, an Australian order, have celebrated the first perpetual profession of a woman from the Republic of Kiribati. Sr Ameria Etuare made her perpetual profession at the… Continue

Added by Stacey King on June 11, 2009 at 3:00pm — No Comments