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30th March
Lenora on housing for single mothers
The Ministry of Local Government will be having more conversations with Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM), Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) and other civil society organisations (CSO) that are involved in the space where there...
Kyiv urges Russians not to adopt Ukraine’s ‘stolen’ children
(Reuters) – Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk urged Russians on Tuesday not to adopt children who she said were “stolen” in Ukraine during the war and deported to Russia. The war that Russia has been waging on its neighbour for 13 months now has seen millions of people displaced, including families and children. The...
Legal eagles kept on their toes
Helping beleaguered women access judicial services is but one of the duties shouldered by the five-member legal team at Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC). It is with this zeal that Miliana Tarai, the manager legal services, heads her team to provide initial support to counsellor advocates responsible for looking after women who seek assistance at...
Tabuya: Three centuries to close gender gap
Fijian women entrepreneurs faced many barriers setting up their businesses. One of which is that, it will take three centuries to close the gender gap. Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Lynda Tabuya said this while highlighting the Fiji Country Gender Assessment (FCGA) in Suva last week. She said the assessment revealed there were...
Vietnam artist in race to ensure ‘heroic mothers’ not forgotten
By Minh Nguyen CAO LANH CITY, Vietnam (Reuters) – On her trusty motorcycle, Vietnamese artist Dang Ai Viet travels around the Southeast Asian country in a quest to ensure that the thousands of women who suffered the loss of two or more loved ones during the Vietnam War are not forgotten. The 75-year-old has painted...
What’s happening today!
Bula vinaka everyone. Here is another edition of some basic information you may need to know for today. First, here is your weather forecast for today: Weather Cloudy periods with brief showers over greater Suva/Nausori-Tailevu Area, Coral Coast to Navua, Interior Serua-Namosi, Rakiraki, Macuata, Cakaudrove and southern Bua, Lau & Lomaiviti group. Elsewhere, fine apart...
Alcaraz, Rybakina stay on course for ‘Sunshine Double’ in Miami
(Reuters) -Indian Wells champions Carlos Alcaraz and Elena Rybakina stayed on course to complete the ‘Sunshine Double’ at the Miami Open on Tuesday but men’s second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas was sent packing by Karen Khachanov. World number one Alcaraz beat Tommy Paul 6-4 6-4 in the fourth round, while Rybakina notched up her 12th straight...
29th March
Sacrificing for family
Leaving his young family behind so that he could work overseas was not an easy decision for Salimoni Tabua. He knew he would have to sacrifice a little for the sake of his one-year-old daughter and wife. The Kade villager from Koro Island was one of the 54 workers under the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE)...
Outsourcing industry shares plans
There are plans by Fiji’s outsourcing industry to penetrate at least 5 per cent of the USA market. Outsource Fiji executive director Sagufta Janif said Fiji’s outsourcing industry was largely 75 per cent to 80 per cent) made up of made up of businesses and clients from Australia and New Zealand. In a media release...
Boost for trade
The launch of Fiji’s Electronic Phytosanitary Enhanced Services is a transformation that has the potential to boost Fiji’s trade in agriculture and promote efficiency in the entire export supply chain. Speaking at the launch in Suva last week, permanent secretary for Trade, Co-operatives, SMEs and Communications Shaheen Ali said the Biosecurity Authority of Fiji (BAF)...
Women grateful for the learning opportunity
The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) program was launched in 2020 by the US Embassy and so far, 300 women entrepreneurs have been trained in and graduated from the program. Since its establishment in 2020, this year was the first time for a summit to be held for the alumni of the AWE from Asia...
Back in history: Islanders celebrate
Rotumans joyously celebrated their 100-year link with Britain and Fiji on May 14, 1981. According to an article in The Fiji Times on May 14, 1981, the island had its first patch of good weather towards the end of the week-long celebration. The report stated celebrations were restrained because of problems feeding and housing hundreds...
Call for rapid action
Pacific leaders are not surprised by the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that says current action and plans are insufficient to keep warming below 1.5 degrees. The report said more than a century of burning fossil fuels and unsustainable land use has had led to global warming of 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial...
$782.4m mobile money transfers
As many as 632,123 people used either M-PAiSA and MyCash for mobile money services in 2022, with person to person transfers amounting to $782.4 million in 2022, states the Reserve Bank of Fiji in its 2022 annual report that was tabled in Parliament on Monday. The RBF said mobile money services provided by Vodafone Fiji...
$1.2m profit for company
Bottlers of VaiWai and AquaSafe Natural Artesian water – Pleass Global Ltd (PBP) – recorded a net profit of $1.2 million in 2022. Company chairman Warwick Pleass said this was a growth of 11 per cent compared with the previous financial year. In its 2022 audited financial statements, the company recorded a 92 per cent...
$7.6b commercial banks’ loans and advances
Commercial banks’ loans and advances in 2022 was $7.6 billion, states the Reserve Bank of Fiji’s 2022 annual report that was tabled in Parliament on Monday. The RBF said the commercial banking industry was able to withstand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, having maintained satisfactory levels of capital, earnings, liquidity, and marginal asset quality...
Hundreds pay their respect to the late Ratu Epeli Ganilau
Hundreds of family and friends paid their final respect and farewell to the late former Commander of the Republic of the Military Forces and Great Council of Chiefs Chairman Ratu Epeli Gavidi Ganilau at a funeral service at the military chapel at the RFMF Barracks in Nabua. The funeral cortege left this afternoon for Taveuni...
Exiled leader tells US Congress Tibet faces ‘slow death’ under China
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tibet is dying a “slow death” under Chinese rule, the head of the India-based organization known as Tibet’s government in-exile said on Tuesday in a first address to the U.S. Congress. Some Tibetan activists lament what they see as a fading focus on alleged abuses in Tibet amid growing concerns in Washington...
$36.8m bonus
BSP Life yesterday announced a bonus payout of $36.8 million for the 2022 financial year which will benefit about 40,000 policyholders. Managing director Michael Nacola said last year they recorded the highest growth in their investment portfolio. According to Mr Nacola, last year BSP Life received around $89m in investment income, achieved a higher degree...
The many aspects of a five-member FWCC team’s brief
The Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) legal team is able to provide attestation of documents and help draft policy on sexual harassment and domestic violence for organisations that reach out for assistance. Manager legal services Miliana Tarai said their five-member team consisted of lawyers and a legal research officer. “There was a time when the...
WHO revises COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for Omicron-era
(Reuters) – The World Health Organization has tailored its COVID-19 vaccination recommendations for a new phase of the pandemic, suggesting that healthy children and adolescents may not necessarily need a shot but older, high-risk groups should get a booster between 6 to 12 months after their last vaccine. The U.N. agency said the aim was...
Surveillance patrol
The Republic of Fiji Navy vessel Kikau recently returned from a maritime surveillance patrol of Fiji’s northern and eastern side of Fiji’s Exclusive Economic Zone and territorial waters. According to the RFN, the patrol was part of a planned routine tasked to safeguard national maritime sovereignty and protection of maritime resources such as fisheries. “RFNS...
Compliance through maritime audit
The reconvening of the National IMO Member State Audit Scheme (IMSAS) Steering Committee now allows the collaboration between the Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji (MSAF) and relevant agencies in rectifying findings of the IMO in the maritime sphere. MSAF stated that most of the findings that needed change were those regarding laws. MSAF further added...
Navy vessel returns
Following a five month repair and refit at Cairns, Australia, the RFNS Savenaca is finally back on home shores. According to the Republic of Fiji Navy’s social media update, during its time away the ship underwent routine maintenance and repairs onboard the ship. “The RFN is glad the ship and crew is back and look...
Minister warns disease is still a threat
Health Minister Dr Ratu Atonio Lalabalavu says tuberculosis (TB) still remains a formidable disease in Fiji. Officiating at the World Tuberculosis Day in Suva last week, Dr Atonio said in 2021, the ministry reported one out of 1500 Fijians had TB. He said rates were high in the Nausori, Suva and Lami corridor. “Effective medications...
Gifts worth $3k in books
Executives from Star Printery Ltd have handed over 17 cartons of exercise books, valued at $3000 to the Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Lynda Tabuya. Star Printery director Vikesh Chauhan stated the company wished to complement Government’s work towards improving access to education for all Fijian children, through the provision of exercise books...
Giant meatball of extinct mammoth unveiled in The Netherlands
By Charlotte Van Campenhout and Piroschka Van der Wouw AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A giant meatball made from flesh cultivated using the DNA of an extinct woolly mammoth was unveiled on Tuesday at Nemo, a science museum in the Netherlands. The meatball was created by Australian cultured meat company Vow which – promising this was not...
Endangered Komodo dragons hatch at Spanish zoo
By Jon Nazca FUENGIROLA, Spain (Reuters) – Five Komodo dragon hatchlings have been born at a zoo in Spain, the first successful breeding of the world’s largest lizard – an endangered species – in the country for a decade. “This is a great achievement for all of us,” Milagros Robledo, the head of the Herpetology...
$973.4m in circulation
Total currency in circulation as at July 31, 2022 stood at $973.4 million, states the Reserve Bank of Fiji annual report from August 2021–July 2022 that was presented in Parliament on Monday. This compares to $932.7m a year ago. “The value of notes in circulation increased by 4.5 per cent, with the $10, $50 and...
Muscovites unfazed by rising nuclear rhetoric
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Electronic billboards in Moscow tell the public what to pack for a nuclear emergency, and President Vladimir Putin periodically warns darkly that Russia is ready to use its ultimate deterrent – but Muscovites seem to be taking it all in their stride. “I don’t think anything will happen, if you mean a...
