A key challenge for the Forum is to maintain its solidarity as staunchly pro-Blue Pacific...where we are custodians of some of the world’s richest biodiversity and marine and terrestrial resources. Leaders have articulated a desire for a shift in the development trajectory for the Pacific, through the Blue Pacific narrative and through it the opportunity to exercise our will. This is the strategic lens through which any conversation over China, and the associated geopolitical and geostrategic environment we find ourselves in, must occur. Our political conversations and settlements must be driven by the well-being of our Blue Pacific continent and its people, not by the goals and ambitions of others. By Dame Meg Taylor.
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Results for Pacific Islands
Tuesday 19 February 2019
Port Vila, Vanuatu
Thursday 3 January 2019
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Two tropical cyclones have formed in the Western Pacific. TC Mona (Cat.1) is expected to track over Fiji at the weekend and may intensify to a Category 2 cyclone.
Thursday 13 December 2018
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Sigatoka, Fiji
Disaster relief in the Pacific would be more effective if post-natural disaster relief donors opened up conversations with local women's groups on the ground, the director of the Tonga Women and Children Crisis Centre, 'Ofa Guttenbeil-Likiliki told a regional women's meeting this week.
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Thursday 13 December 2018
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Strike notices that threatened to disrupt travel for 120,000 Air New Zealand customers over the three busiest travel days of the year, have been lifted after an agreement was reached with the the unions representing its aircraft maintenance and logistics workers, air New Zealand stated last night.
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Wednesday 12 December 2018
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Auckland, New Zealand
Facing three days of strike action by aircraft engineers, Air New Zealand stated this morning that, at this stage, no flight delays or cancellations are in place for the three days of proposed strikes by aircraft maintenance unions next week and normal fare conditions remain.
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Thursday 6 December 2018
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Dr Geoff Neal, lead veterinarian for South Pacific Animal Welfare (SPAW) is currently in Tongatapu with his team of volunteers offering much needed vet treatment for the island's animals. They say Tonga has the greatest need in the Pacific because vet care is not easily accessible here.
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Wednesday 25 July 2018
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Pacific Islands are way behind the rest of the world with regards to public accessibility to basic utilities such as Water, Sanitation and Electricity, according to the Asian Development Bank’s July 2018 Pacific Economic Monitor, but some of the 15 countries in the study, including Tonga, are doing better than others.
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Wednesday 18 July 2018
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Apia, Samoa
Dr Viliami Fakava has relocated to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia in Budapest, Hungary.
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Tuesday 10 July 2018
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
A Tongan lawyer, Dr Manumatavai Tupou-Roosen, is the new Director General of the Forum Fisheries Agency starting in November this year.
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Wednesday 27 June 2018
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
A study into the source and transmission of typhoid fever, which has been increasing in Pacific countries such as Fiji over the past decade, has revealed that poor sanitation is a major source of Salmonella Typhi, the cause of the disease. Professor Crump, who led the study says the research also highlights the serious concern that Oceania has fallen behind both Asia and sub-Saharan Africa to become the region with the lowest coverage of improved drinking water and improved sanitation.
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Wednesday 11 April 2018
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
The Pacific Geospatial and Surveying Council's Strategy for 2017-2027 was launched by Tonga's Prime Minister, Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva and the Australian High Commissioner to Tonga, HE Andrew Ford, at the Tanoa Hotel yesterday evening, April 10.
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Thursday 11 January 2018
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Australia’s Development Minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells – who visited Tonga in 2016 to sign the ‘Tonga-Australia Aid Partnership’ – is facing a formal complaint by China’s Foreign Ministry. The complaint responds to scathing remarks that Fierravanti-Wells made yesterday in a prominent Australian newspaper ‘The Australian’ where she berated China’s development aid projects in Pacific Island countries.
Thursday 14 December 2017
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Shenzhen, China
China wants to share its development experiences with other countries, with a belief that everybody in the world shares the same future, Pacific Island journalists learned this week when they visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing. By Linny Folau.
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Friday 8 December 2017
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Manila, Philippines
A new Tropical Tunas Bridging Measure was adopted in the early hours of this morning, after a marathon session by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission meeting in the Philippines this week. The Chair and the Executive Director today issued a joint statement on the outcomes of the 14th annual meeting of the Commission, which also include a Conservation and Management Measure on Pacific Bluefin, bycatch mitigation strategies and conservation measures on marine pollution.
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Sunday 19 November 2017
Bonn, Germany
Next year’s “Talanoa Dialogue” – to be convened by Fiji, which last week became the first island state to chair UN climate talks – will help countries identify exactly how they can achieve the goals set in the Paris agreement. That dialogue, which countries should approach in good faith, must be a springboard for further action. By Hilda Heine and Kevin Rudd
Thursday 9 November 2017
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Over the last few weeks there has been ample amounts of negative media attention given to Mate Ma'a Tonga fans. I in no way support fans fighting or being aggressive and it is worrying. However, what I am most concerned about is the amount of negative articles that have been circulated by some media outlets. The constant reporting of a few incidents where a minority group of fans were fighting has dominated the media and has painted all Mate Ma'a Tonga fans as being out of control. - Jean Allen
Wednesday 25 October 2017
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Manila, Philippines
Urging countries to conserve and protect Blue Sharks, delegates from Samoa and Sri Lanka are defending the future of the migratory species at a conference on conserving wild animals held in Manila, Philippines from October 23-28.
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Thursday 31 August 2017
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
While Tonga argues over its protocol for signing the PACER Plus Trade Agreement, the other signatories and donor partners Australia and New Zealand say it is a matter for the Kingdom to sort out.
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Tuesday 6 June 2017
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Important questions over massive environmental damage caused by site works for the Va'epopua 18-holes golf course and its associated commercial developments remain unanswered, in spite of fears that the project is killing the reef and endangering the health and fishing livelihoods of its coastal communities.
Tuesday 25 April 2017
1 comment
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Portland, Maine, USA
A new study has found that 96 percent of women of childbearing age living in four Pacific Island countries who were sampled have elevated levels of mercury in their bodies.
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Tonga weather forecast from yr.no, delivered by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and the NRK. See also Fua'amotu Weather Forecasting Center, Tonga, for latest local weather bulletin.