Samoa

But there are plenty of journalists across the Pacific who won't be celebrating following a series of concerning media developments in Vanuatu, Tonga and Papua New Guinea.

While Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Fiji all rose in this year's World Press Freedom Index, Tonga dropped 12 places in the annual survey from Reporters Without Borders to 49th in the world.

Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) translated the Qurans into Samoan and shipped them to the Pacific island, which has a population of 193,200, including 130 Muslims.

Samoa Muslims Union Representative Mohommad Irfan Ahmed asked the Diyanet to help the Turkish organisation provide Samoa with the Muslim holy book at the First Summit of the Religious Leaders of the Asia-Pacific Countries in October 2015.

The initiative was undertaken by Turkey’s General Directorate of Religious Publications and the General Directorate of Foreign Affairs. 

In yesterday’s match between Samoa and Japan, the trend of bowling first continued as Samoa sent Japan in.

Japan never looked like setting a competitive total with a run rate of under two runs an over for most of the match.

Some late hitting from Rio Endo (9 not out) brought some spark to the last quarter of the innings but it was too late and Japan could only manage 49 runs from their 20 overs.

Despite making 13 changes from the team that thrashed Fiji by 60 points, New Zealand illustrated their depth, scoring 12 tries to overpower the Baby Manu 80-23 on the Gold Coast.

However Samoa captain Losi Filipo did not believe the lopsided scoreline was a fair reflection of his side's performance.

"We definitely made a goal for it to slow down their set-piece and I think we pretty much did that," he said.

Their 53-run win over an up and coming Vanuatu came on the back of a dominant performance with bat and ball from Feala Pula who was named player of the match.

Pula joined her captain Regina Lili’I (38) for a 54-run fourth wicket partnership as Samoa went on to post 114 from their 20 overs.

20-year-old Leimauri Chilia picked up three wickets for Vanuatu who continue to improve with each match.

Pula was pleased with both her performance and that of the team acknowledging that “we couldn’t take Vanuatu lightly,” she said.

The cyclone season officially ended yesterday, after starting in November.

The region experienced high force cyclone winds and heavy rain during Cyclone Bart, that went through in February, and Cyclone Cook in April.

Assistant chief executive of meteorology Mulipola Ta'inau Ausetalia Titimaea said officials had predicted a lower number of tropical cyclones this time round after so many more the year before, but didn't expect so few.

With daily and weekly prizes the promotion will run from Monday 1st May to mid-night 9th July 2017, ending with one major prize.

The massive giveaways includes ten daily Digicel credit prizes, two weekly prizes of $1,000 cash, two weekly prizes of Huawei tablets and the final prize, to be drawn on Friday 7th July, will reward one ultimate winner with $30,000 cash, a Samsung S8 - as well as FREE talk and FREE data for a whole year.

The Samoa Observer says this was confirmed by the health minister Tuitama Dr Leao Talalelei Tuitama after finding that some eggs were not complying with shelf-life requirements.

He said for imported eggs to be sold, they must be within a 30-day limit from the day the egg was laid to the day they are in the shops.

Tuitama said this regulation had been in place for a long time and the main purpose of the ban was to ensure the health of the people was protected.

The Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa is testing the eggs taken off the shelves.

RNZ reports he helped the island countries negotiate the deal and said it should bring significant benefits.

But Dr Kessie said a key is that New Zealand and Australia meet their commitments to allocate up to 20 per cent of their Pacific aid budgets to helping the island nations develop such things as the capacity to meet international bio-security requirements.

He said this would amount to $US300 million dollars annually being allocated.

Samoa's chief executive officer for the Ministry of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Agafili Shem Leo, said 4,000 applicants had been registered for the next season.

The government said that if Samoa is to increase the number of people participating it is essential they send the best possible people who are physically and mentally fit.

Agafili said the recent deaths of two RSE while in New Zealand and Australia had nothing to do with the new test.

He said the pilot programme had been months in the making.