Fiji

Fiji's Defence Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola has invited his Indonesian counterpart General Ryamizard Ryacudu to an official visit to Fiji.

This follows a meeting between the two in Jakarta on Saturday when their two governments reaffirmed development ties and discussed defence co-operation.

The Fiji Times reports that areas of strategic interest, including peacekeeping and counter terrorism, were discussed.

At 2am on Sunday, clocks will go forward by an hour.

Daylight saving will end on the 15th of January.

This comes after a man, Ricardo Fisher, said on Monday that he was punched and kicked while in custody last week.

Mr Fisher said he spent two days in hospital with injuries including broken ribs.

His case follows the beating of several individuals on a roadside in Suva two weeks ago.

In a speech last week, prime minister Frank Bainimarama admitted torture was an issue, but said it was never sanctioned by the state.

A former Wales sevens coach and player, Baber will start his new job in January once his contract as coach of the Hong Kong sevens team comes to an end.

He said the opportunity to take charge of the World and Olympic champions was too good to pass up.

"As a developing coach you want to try and test yourself at the top levels," he said.

The Championships will be held in Suva, at ANZ Stadium over two days, Friday 11th -Saturday 12th November, and will be the perfect lead in to the start of the 2016-2017 Men’s and Women’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series that kick-off in Dubai in early December.

This year’s Oceania Rugby Sevens Championships will see recently crowned Men’s Olympic Gold medalists and current World Rugby HSBC Sevens Champion Fiji participate for the first time since its Rio de Janeiro triumph.

This was pointed out recently by sales representative from a kava processing company from Fiji called Niugini Kava whose popular market brand Kava Toks was showcased recently at the Madang Investment Summit.

 The company set up a stall at the Sugeng Aben Park near Madang Resort Hotel where it showcased products made from kava that originated from along the NCR in Madang.

An agent for Niugini Kava had been buying kava roots from smallholder farmers along the NCR and later shipping it overseas for processing and marketing.

A long-time champion of human rights and supporter and friend of SPC, Ratu Joni had consulted on various RRRT activities, including its Regional Judges and Magistrates Consultations, Regional Lawyers Consultation, delivering the Human Rights modules of the University of the South Pacific Professional Diploma in Legal Practice, and

The Samoan squad suffered a hiccup midweek when their connecting flight from Chile was cancelled without their knowledge, leaving them stranded at Santiago Airport.

But Samoa Rugby's Director of Coaching Namulauulu Alama Ieremia says the players have settled in well and shrugged off the jet-lag in training.

Samoa A take on Uruguay A first up tomorrow morning in Montevideo and Namulauulu is expecting three difficult matches over the next eight days.

"The Fiji Warriors are obviously champions for the last two or three years (in the Pacific Rugby Cup)," he said.

Fiji beat the Cook Islands in the Oceania qualifying final and finished undefeated over four days.

Cook Islands coach John Glassie believes the tournament, which also featured Papua New Guinea and Tonga, reflected well on netball in the Pacific.

"When you look at these Pacific nations, often people think that the standard isn't quite high but when you look at the intensity they bring to the game they're not full-time athletes like you see in developing countries but as far as the standard goes with gameplay and stuff they're so strong," he said.

Having lost their opening two matches of the tournament, Samoa won three straight to join Fiji and the Cook Islands as the top three teams in the Pacific.