Cook Islands

The government is set to sign a deal with the EU that would allow Spanish vessels to fish in its exclusive economic zone for at least eight years.

About 4,000 people have signed a petition against the move.

The opposition's finance and economy spokesman, James Beer, has written to Sweden's minister for International Development Cooperation, Isabella Lovin, to lobby the EU.

Ms Lovin is a former member of the EU parliament and experienced in fisheries.

RNZi reports currently, Cook Islands law does not recognise marital rape as a crime.

There are however, proposed Crimes Act amendments which include changes to make marital rape a criminal offence.

Director of Research and Development Division William Wigmore said that it was in August 2015 that he took the samples to Samoa.

“These materials were provided to the Samoan Ministry of Agriculture for testing against the blight under quarantine protocols and we are still awaiting results,” Wigmore said.

He said they are hoping to get some promising information on the performance of the samples against the leaf blight disease. 

Wigmore said only one species of common taro with the botanical name Colocasia esculenta was taken.    

There's an active convergence zone slowly moving around the Cook Islands, with Palmerston to continue to experience winds up to 100 kilometres per hour.

A gale warning remains in place for Palmerston and a strong wind warning for the rest of the Cooks.

The atoll has been on high alert as the cyclone, upgraded to category 3 on Sunday and centred several hundred kilometres away, moved slowly towards it.

Winds close to the centre are about 115 km/h. The Fiji Meteorological Service says the cyclone is intensifying and the wind strength will increase to 150 km/h.

The category two cyclone currently has winds of 90 kilometres an hour at its centre as it moves south-southwest past the northern atolls at about three kilometres an hour.

Palmerston is closest to the cyclone's path, and a resident, William Rowe, says every warning has Victor inching closer to the atoll.

The Fiji Met services says a tropical disturbance, which has been hovering over the northern Cook Islands over the last few days, has developed into a tropical cyclone.

It says cyclone Victor, a category two system, is moving southwest at nine kilometres an hour, and that close to the centre the cyclone is expected to have average winds of 92 kilometers an hour.

The welcoming ceremony was attended by players from New Zealand, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga and hosts Cook Islands and along with CIFA President Lee Harmon, Cook Islands Minister of Youth and Sports Albert Nicholas and CISNOC President Hugh Graham who took time from their busy schedules to assist in making it a memorable occasion for the visitors.

The tournament, which starts on Wednesday, will for the first time feature eight regional teams from Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.

Tournament director and CIFA competitions manager Pauline Dean said preparation was well underway for the regional meet, which will end on January 23.

She said they were working around the clock to ensure a memorable tournament for the budding footballers from around the region.

Over 150 leaders from across the globe met in Paris, France to demonstrate their support to save the Planet through a new climate change agreement. The form of this is to be finalised by the end of the two weeks of negotiations. The Cook Islands are uniting with the Alliance of Small Island States and are calling for a legally binding agreement that limits global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius.