Pacific Region News
8 dead, 40 missing after Vanuatu tsunami
PORT VILA, Vanuatu—Eight people are dead and at least 40 others are still missing after a tsunami generated by a strong earthquake swept onto Pentecost Island early Saturday.
The National Disaster Management Office said the tsunami struck the villages of Ena and Vemagely.
A church and many houses were destroyed, landslides blocked roads and communication to some parts of the island was cut.
Earlier, the French Earth Sciences Observatory in Strasbourg reported an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale was recorded in the area.
Pentecost has a population of about 12,000 people.
American Samoans oppose gambling
PAGO PAGO, American Samoa—A Samoa News Public Opinion Poll of 743 eligible voters has found that the territory’s citizens overwhelmingly oppose the introduction of casino gambling proposed by some legislators.
Only 25 percent of those polled agree that the American Samoa government “should allow and regulate casino gambling.”
PNG told to back independence
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea—The government must support the Irian Jaya independence struggle, Melanesian Solidarity general secretary Powes Parkop told a University of Papua New Guinea seminar Friday.
He said the Indonesian province, which shares the island of New Guinea with independent PNG, “has a moral obligation to assist West Papuans by changing its policy and supporting Irian Jaya’s right to independence.”
Irian Jaya also is known as West Papua. Indigenous people there have been expressing their desire for self-determination since the province became a part of Indonesia in the 1960s.
Second TV station for Fiji
SUVA, Fiji Islands—Minister of Telecommunications Meli Bogileka has announced plans to establish a second commercial television station next year.
Speaking in Parliament, Bogileka said the public had been penalized for far too long because of the present monopoly.
Fiji Television, the only commercial station in the country, has been operating under an exclusive license granted by the previous government in 1994. (Pacific Islands Report)
