No strikes for Fiji nurses

SUVA, Fiji Islands—Nurses due to walk off their jobs Wednesday night have canceled a planned nationwide strike at the eleventh hour after marathon negotiations with the Public Service Commission.

The Fiji Nursing Association has agreed to enter into new salary negotiations with the government and to lift a ban on working overtime.

The nurses are asking for a starting annual salary of $6,700 and better working conditions.

Union says most PNG people live below poverty line

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea—The national Trade Union Congress, claiming the majority of people now live below the poverty line, has called on the government to address the situation immediately.

The congress said it fully supports a pay rate review by the Minimum Wage Board.

Last year the consumer price index increased 18 percent.

Drug law stirs jail woes in A. Samoa

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa—Gov. Tauese Sunia has told the legislature that the new mandatory five year jail term for drug offenders will create space problems at the local prison.

As a result, he has recommended that the law be amended.

He said it doesn’t distinguish between first time and repeat offenders, between users and pushers, or take into consideration the amount of drugs discovered.

He said the court could offer deportation for life as an alternative to prison.

Pacific internet access slow

HONOLULU, Hawaii—The former executive director of the Pacific Telecommunications Council, Richard Barber, said the growing use of the Internet in the Pacific might not bring the same economic prosperity now being enjoyed in the U.S.

Although the Internet could provide benefits and opportunities to many developing Pacific Island nations, he said, it will also force small local businesses to compete in the global marketplace.

“If you’re running a bookstore in Suva and half the school students are ordering books from Amazon.com, the bookstore guy won’t have any business,” he said.

PNG’s female governor ousted

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea—The nation’s only female governor of a provincial government has been ousted by a 15-3 vote of no confidence in the national parliament.

Dame Josephine Abaijah of Milne Bay province was replaced by Titus Philemon, another national parliamentarian from the province.

It was the fourth no confidence vote against Dame Abaijah, who will remain a member of the national parliament. (Pacific Island Reports)