Cook Islands

This comes after the importation of avocado trees from New Zealand and Australia seven years ago was believed to be the source of the destructive black twig borer now present in the country.

Minister Kiriau Turepu said both the ministry and private individuals had brought in the plants but he said it was a problem he had only been made aware of in the past two weeks.

Mr Turepu said the problem in the Cook Islands was the lack of a post quarantine facility to ensure the plants were disease free.

But he said he expected this to change quickly.

Cook Islands Associate Minister of Environment, Mr. Mona Ioane shared the actions undertaken by the island nation to mainstream biodiversity into the fisheries and aquaculture sector.

This was one of four theme different High Level Roundtable Discussions that took place. One of these themes is the integration of biodiversity into cultural and traditional planning of locally managed marine areas.
"Ra'ui is our way to protect the harvest of our fisheries through cyclic fishing bans in certain coastal areas at different times.

The pageant week begins with a church service and over the course of the week will assess each contestants through various activities planned.

Contestants representing eight Pacific Islands - American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa and Tonga have all gathered in Apia, Samoa.

Contestants and their teams started arriving in Samoa last week for the 30^th anniversary of the Miss Pacific Islands.

The international newcomers secured the sixth and final berth, by default, after Fiji, Samoa and Tonga all withdrew from last month's Pacific qualifying tournament due to a lack of playing numbers.

The Cook Islands have been drawn in Pool A, alongside defending champions Australia and England, who finished third at the 2013 tournament.

They will also play a crossover match against the Kiwi Ferns and the President of Cook Islands Rugby League, Charles Carlson, said they will have to do it the hard way.

Better known as the Mitre 10 Mega man, Levi Vaoga spent a decade pulling trucks and flipping tractor tyres for the hardware franchise promoting the message "big is good."

But as the New Zealand-born Cook Islands filmmaker Jamie Aureka Maoate Dunn discovers in "The Life I've Lived," there is more to Levi Vaoga than meets the eye.

Levi Vaoga's journey from farmhand to competitor in eleven world strongman tournaments is an honest first-hand account and Jamie Dunn hopes it strikes a chord with young people.

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.

 The Baby Black Pearls prevailed 42-37 and Coach John Glassie said, with five countries vying for three spots in Botswana next year, it sets them up well for the rest of the tournament.

"They're older and a little bit more mature so we knew we were going in for a tough game. If we win two out of the next three games that potentially puts us in the top two, which is where we want to finish - that automatic qualifier," he said.

Cook Islands position has been helped in part by rivals Tonga and Samoa playing out a 1-1 draw to claim just one of the three available points in their encounter.

Following their opener on Monday Cook Islands coach Richard Anderson spoke of his team’s need to show their best selves on the pitch and he says today’s first half was reminiscent of that nervy first match.

“I certainly wasn’t elated with the first half,” he says.

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.