Pacific Region News

Y2K may disrupt Fiji water supply

SUVA, Fiji Islands—Officials have expressed concern that the country’s major water systems may be disrupted on January 1 because the Fiji Electricity Authority is not yet fully Y2K compliant.

A government spokesperson warned of possible serious water supply and sewerage problems at the stroke of midnight, because the systems depend on electricity to function properly.

He said contingency plans now are being put in place.

Meantime, residents in the Nausori area outside the capital have complained about ongoing water problems. One homeowner said no water has been provided for the past two weeks.

Sweden organizing song relay for Tonga

NUKU’ALOFA, Tonga—Swedish music professor Erik Westerberg has organized a 24-hour world song relay that will begin at midnight New Years’ Eve from Tonga and continue until the start of the new millennium January 1.

The music will pass like a torch through 125 choirs in 45 countries as midnight strikes in each time-zone, ending 24 hours later in Samoa with the final round sung again by Westerberg’s group from northern Sweden.

The choral piece, “Across the Bridge of Hope,” is a specially composed arrangement of a poem for peace by 12-year-old Irish schoolboy Shaun McLaughlin. It was submitted for a school poetry contest just a few days before he died in an August 1998 Northern Ireland bomb explosion.

Chinese fishermen detained off Kosrae

MAJURO, Marshall Islands—A Chinese long liner was detained by the Sea Force’s “Lomor” patrol boat recently for fishing illegally off Kosrae in the Federated States of Micronesia.

Police commissioner George Lanwi said the arrest resulted from new, joint fisheries surveillance and law enforcement work involving ships and personnel from both neighboring Micronesia area nations.

After detecting the Chinese vessel fishing eight miles off shore – a violation of the 12- mile limit – “Lomor” alerted FSM fisheries authorities, who sent a patrol vessel out to board the long liner and conduct an investigation.

Police quells fears over AIDS spread

RABAUL, Papua New Guinea—East New Britain police chief Bernard Orim has condemned as false widespread reports that a group of Gazelle Peninsula residents are injecting the AIDS virus into innocent people.

Rabaul residents told The National newspaper that they understood three people had been rushed to the hospital after they had been injected with the virus at three different Kokopo supermarkets last week.

Orim said the rumors were causing fear and panic among members of the public