Samoa

Tuilaepa issued the warning as the government expelled and indefinitely blacklisted ten workers for various reasons.

The decision was handed down by the Prime Minister this week after he was informed by Samoa’s Auckland based Trade Commissioner Magele Mauiliu Magele and the RSE Liaison Officer based in New Zealand, Lemalu Nele Leilua.

Shipping Minister Papaliitele Unasa Niko Lee Hang told Parliament, the grant is worth US$23 million and it is for a new replacement ferry to service the inter-Samoa link with American Samoa.

Aside from the ‘Lady Naomi’, the Samoa Shipping Corporation is also looking at a bigger and faster ferry to service the inter-island domestic route between Mulifanua and Salelologa.

That vessel should be operational in time for the 2021 General Elections to cater for voters heading to the Big Island of Savai’i to cast their ballots.

The "Give Every Child a Future" project is the major international focus of civil society group Rotary as it celebrates 100 years of service in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific.

Rotary will partner with the United Nations children's agency UNICEF to support the introduction of three vaccines in the region.

Vathinee Jitjaturunt of UNICEF Pacific said the vaccines targeted three diseases.

"This project I think it will be able to prevent diarrhoea, pneumonia and cervical cancer. These three diseases are high in the Pacific."

Nurses Luse Emo Tauvale and Leutogi Te'o pleaded guilty to manslaughter last month and will be sentenced next Tuesday in Samoa's Supreme Court.

On Friday, prosecution and defence lawyers agreed to recommend to judges the nurses be banned from their profession for two-years and be required to undertake training.

Samoa's health ministry said the babies' deaths were caused by the nurses mixing the wrong liquid with the vaccine for Measles, Mumps and Rubella.

Police commissioner Fuiavailili Egon Keil said he was worried about an incident happening in the next four months.

Newsline Samoa reported police have warned fishers to take more care and carry emergency and survival kits.

It is unclear why the previous patrol boat was returned but it had reportedly been in service for 30 years.

Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said not only have the workers been banned from the scheme but their villages have also been blacklisted until further notice.

This means no more workers from these villages will be allowed to go on the scheme.

"Time and again, I have personally advised all our RSE workers before leaving to remember the importance of their seasonal employment engagement because it's their families, children and their villages which are reaping the fruits of their hard labour," he said.

But the public broadcaster in the French territory said there had to be a bilateral agreement between France and Samoa first.

The approval process then needs to go through aviation authorities in Paris, who will also check with the airline on safety issues.

The airport in Wallis is only served by New Caledonia's international airline although an agreement exists between Fiji and France, which would allow Fiji Airways to open air links.

There is no need for an air services agreement in the case of charter flights.

To have the students carry the baton brought the communities together in unison, manifesting the slogan of the Samoa 2019 Pacific Games, “one in spirit.” 

The Savai'i leg of the relay will continue on Tuesday and Wednesday before coming to Upolu.

People of all ages flooded the streets as the torch baton for the Games made its way through and the event was live-streamed on Facebook.

Thirty-year-old Terry Faatai entered a guilty plea through his lawyer Tuala Joe Ponafasio.

Justice Leiataulesa Daryl Clarke issued name suppression for the complainant and allowed a defence request that Faatai be able to apologise to the complainant before she departed for Australia.

Faatai apologised to the complainant and asked for her forgiveness.

Faatai remains in custody.

The Samoa Observer reports the MP, Faumuina Wayne Fong, also alluded to a waste of public money during the Budget debate this week.

And he said there were members of the party the Prime Minister does not want to listen to.

The Prime Minster Tuila'epa Sailele Malielegaoi told the House the member is not prevented from expressing his views.

But he warned that cabinet members are not fools and are listening to what is being said.

Tuila'epa went on to say there were MPs who used the party's banner to get voted into Parliament that could not be trusted.