Kiribati President stranded<\/p>\n
SUVA, Fiji (PIR) — Kiribati President Teburoro Tito is stranded in Nadi following mechanical problems with Air Nauru’s only plane.<\/p>\n
Tito and his delegation are in a local hotel, awaiting the arrival of parts to repair the Boeing 737.<\/p>\n
Air Nauru’s Fiji manager Ishaq Ali said the plane should be ready to fly to Tarawa, the Kiribati capital, on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Tito, who is also current president of the Pacific Islands Forum, was in Fiji to meet with Interim Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase about Fiji’s ongoing political crisis.<\/p>\n
Food stamp fraud group jailed<\/p>\n
PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (PIR) — Five government workers convicted of food stamp fraud have begun serving prison sentences of at least 60 days each.<\/p>\n
They also are required to repay the value of all food vouchers they used for their own benefit, which totals more than $500,000.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors proved before the High Court that the five defrauded the U.S. government.<\/p>\n
PM wants nuclear waste compensation<\/p>\n
RAROTONGA, Cook Islands (PIR) — Prime Minister Dr. Terepai Maoate has called for the regional Pacific Islands Forum to establish compensation standards in the event of a nuclear waste spillage in Pacific waters.<\/p>\n
Moate said continued waste shipments between Europe and Japan pose a threat to the livelihood of Pacific islanders and “every effort” must be made to reach an agreed solution on liability.<\/p>\n
Two freighters transporting nuclear waste now are on the high seas between France and Japan.<\/p>\n
Condoms required for extra-marital sex<\/p>\n
JAKARTA, Indonesia (PIR) —\u00a0Officials in Irian Jaya plan to make the use of condoms compulsory for extra-marital sex.<\/p>\n
Governor J.P. Solossa said the obligatory use of condoms is aimed at curbing the spread of AIDS.<\/p>\n
He gave no details on how the regulation would be policed, but said violators would be punished.<\/p>\n
Health Ministry estimates put the prevalence of AIDS in Irian Jaya at 4.86 per 100,000 people, or 25 times the national average of 0.2 per 100,000 people.<\/p>\n
Pacific leaders to attend Japan seminar<\/p>\n
TOKYO, Japan (PIR) — Asia-Pacific region leaders will participate in a seminar next month that will focus on creating sustainable development in Pacific Island countries.<\/p>\n
The participants also will consider such matters as how to promote solidarity between Pacific Island countries and Japan and recent regional political instabilities.<\/p>\n
Among the speakers will be former Palau President Kuniwo Nakamura, former Papua New Guinea President Sir Michael Somare and Dr. Sitiveni Halapua, Director of the East-West Center’s Pacific Islands Development Program.<\/p>\n
The seminar will take place February 9 at the Hotel New Otani in Tokyo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kiribati President stranded SUVA, Fiji (PIR) — Kiribati President Teburoro Tito is stranded in Nadi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}