Samoa

Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has reiterated his call for an extension of New Zealand's RSE scheme to areas such as construction, while speaking at the Pip Fruit Industry conference in Wellington on Thursday.

Tuilaepa says Samoa is keen to supply tradesmen to help New Zealand with its large large scale infrastructure projects such as the Christchurch rebuild.

He says while he respects the position taken by unions in New Zealand he believes Pacific Islanders can help fill labour gaps in the industry.

Samoa were beaten 39-29 by Fiji in the PNC final on Tuesday and now have the next week off before reassembling in camp.

Stephen Betham says with a number of front-line players rested for the tournament he was impressed with the form of the new faces.

He says the World Cup picture is now a lot clearer.

Fiji will firstly host Tonga on 19 August at Govind Park in Ba, before playing American Samoa at Prince Charles Park in Nadi on 27 August.

The two visitors will compete when Oceania FIFA World Cup qualifying commences on 31 August in Tonga. One spot will be up for grabs in Stage 2 over the course of the five-day tournament, which also features Cook Islands and Samoa.

Fiji coach Carlos Buzzetti has named a strong 23-man squad for the matches including Wellington Phoenix striker Roy Krishna, powerful attacker Osea Vakatalesau and U-20 captain Jale Dreloa.

The new jobs will be in addition to the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme New Zealand currently offers to unskilled workers from the Pacific.

Confirmation of the new jobs offer was disclosed by the Pacific Islands' Lead Spokesperson at the PACER Plus talks, Joseph Ma'ahanua. He's the acting permanent secretary for foreign affairs and external trade in the Solomon Islands.

The offences happened in a village on Savaii island on two separate occasions two years ago.

The 21 year old has been imprisoned for 10 years on two counts of rape while the younger of the pair, who is nineteen, has been sentenced to 12 months in jail for incest.

The victim is under the care of the Samoa Victim Support Group.

In his decision, Justice Vui Clarence Nelson, said the actions of the brothers are clear violations of the sacred cultural values between a brother and a sister.

Evelina had just competed in the Women’s 100m Backstroke clocking a time of 1 minute 08.43 seconds.

The smile was justified as she had just broken her personal best and set a new national record for Samoa. It also clearly meant so much more to a teenager whose love of representing Samoa gives her “the opportunity to represent who I am.”

Evelina went on to explain to us that, “ I just felt really fast and light in the water, my finish was a bit slow but I’m still happy with how I went”

Samoa arrive in Sydney on Wednesday and will have one training session before playing a warm-up game against Uganda the following day.

Samoa, who are currently ranked 13th, are expecting a tough encounter against the Jamaicans.

The coach Marcia Hardcastle says Caribbean teams tend to play an aerial style but is expecting them to look a little different now they have former Australian coach Jill McIntosh in charge

His first event was the 400m freestyle.

In this event, he has knocked an incredible 26 seconds off his time from just before the 2013 World Championships, in Barcelona, to this year’s Pacific Games, in early July 2015. His time of 4:10.15 at the Pacific Games in Port Moresby set a national record which today he was determined to beat.

Manu Samoa needed a try on the stroke of full-time to snatch a 21-20 victory over hosts Canada, to earn a place in the final.

The Manu Samoa captain, Alesana Tuilagi, says they will have to step up their game against Fiji.

"The way we played we need to look deep at it and we need to cut down the simple mistakes that we're giving away. You know playing [against] good teams coming up the final we can't afford to play like that and we know it."

Alesana Tuilagi.

He's responding to concerns in the local community, which does not want genetically modified organisms in the staple crop.

The American Samoa Community College horticulturist, Ian Gurr, says disease resistance and salt tolerance is better achieved through traditional breeding techniques.

He says in genetic modification only one specific gene is transferred, whereas conventional methods use several genes.