Vanuatu’s PM gets another 7 days<\/p>\n
PORT VILA, Vanuatu (PIR) — Embattled Prime Minister Barak Sope has won at least another seven days in power.<\/p>\n
Speaker Paul Ren Tari has adjourned Parliament for a week, saying a motion of no confidence now will be introduced for voting next Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Opposition politicians, who have asked the Supreme Court to overturn the voting delay, have charged Sope with corruption and bringing Vanuatu to the verge of a military coup.<\/p>\n
Solomons’ economy on verge of collapse<\/p>\n
CANBERRA, Australia (PIR) — Australia’s Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the Solomon Islands economy is on the verge of collapse.<\/p>\n
In a Radio Australia interview, he said he is exasperated that Prime Minister Manasseh Sogovare and other top leaders will not focus on the economic crisis.<\/p>\n
He said the Solomons has reached the point “where the country can’t afford to import fuel to generate electricity and drive cars and the lights go out in the towns.<\/p>\n
“The path they’re following is a complete disaster,” Downer said.<\/p>\n
No rush for Tokelau independence<\/p>\n
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (PIR) — Tokelau, with a population of 1,500 on three atolls north of the Samoas, is exploring a new political status. New Zealand is under pressure from the United Nations to grant its isolated territory self-government status.<\/p>\n
But the head of the Tokelau Public Service Commission, Aleki Silau, said the people will not be rushed into making a decision.<\/p>\n
Silau told Radio New Zealand International that a House of Tokelau has been set up to handle internal governance, while constitutional status somewhere between integration and self-government in free association with New Zealand is considered.<\/p>\n
He said virtually no one wants full independence.<\/p>\n
Uss Mississinewa, sunk during WWII found off Yap<\/p>\n
YAP, Federated States of Micronesia (PIR) — A team of three divers from California located the 553-foot USS Mississinewa in Ulithi lagoon last week. The taker was the only U.S. naval ship sunk by a kaiten, a one-man Japanese suicide submarine.<\/p>\n
The dive team, headed by Lewis “Chip” Lambert, searching in a small dive boat and using a portable sonar unit, located the vessel on a sandy bottom in 120 feet of water.<\/p>\n
The sinking of the USS Mississinewa in 1944 took 50 lives. Forty-eight crewmembers survived.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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