Fiji

The youngest student is a 13-year-old.

This has been highlighted by the Fiji Police Narcotics Bureau.

The Bureau is hoping that parents will spend more time discussing issues regarding drugs with their children.

“We have a shared responsibility as parents, guardians, community leaders, religious denomination leaders, village elders to nurture our children.”

“It says this includes the monitoring of their activities, behavior and who they associate themselves with.”

Saneem was stopped by border officials from flying out of the country this morning.

The Fijian Elections Office said Saneem is alleged to have on numerous occasions during his tenure with FEO unlawfully authorised payments of sitting allowances to members of the Electoral Commission (EC).

The FEO said the Constitutional Offices Commission had clarified to Saneem that the allowance for the Chairperson and members of the EC remained at the same rate of $FJ500 per person, per meeting.

Forum Chair, the Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, said his office has received a letter confirming this intention from the Kiribati President, Taneti Maamau.

Rabuka visited Kiribati just over a week ago, on his first official overseas visit since taking office.

At the time he said bringing Kiribati back into the Forum was the visit's overall objective.

Having won the gold in Rio and Japan, head coach Ben Golling has a tough act to follow and a disappointing finish in Hamilton last weekend where they lost in the quarter-final to Argentina, has dropped the Islands nation down to eighth place in the HSBC World Rugby 7s Series table. Only the top four teams from the 2023 HSBC competition will gain automatic qualification for the Paris Games.

Traditionally, farmers have relied heavily on inherited farming knowledge and practices to establish and manage their farms. A major challenge for the industry remains timely access to the latest farming advice.

This innovative project hopes to connect farmers to the latest information and advisory services to help boost their productivity. The project will first undertake market research to determine the information needs of farmers across several regions in the country.

On Friday, Rabuka led a high-level delegation to Tarawa - and key on the agenda was Kiribati's membership of the Pacific Islands Forum.

Kiribati's withdrawal from the Forum last July fractured regional unity and solidarity.

President Taneti Maamau refused to attend the annual Leaders' gathering in Suva due to what he claimed was failure by the PIF to address concerns of equity, equality and inclusiveness in a number of key decisions including the appointment of the current Secretary General.

He is wanted for questioning by police.

Sayed-Khaiyum, who is the General-Secretary of the FijiFirst party, flew out of the country on Christmas Day following the swearing-in of the new coalition government.

Soon after his departure, the Criminal Investigations Department issued a border alert identifying him as a "person of interest" for allegedly "inciting communal antagonism".

Sayed-Khaiyum was Attorney-General for almost 16 years.

The side lost 3-0 to the hosts at the HFC Bank Stadium in Suva.

17-year-old Jacob Seninawanawa scored Fiji’s opening goal that saw Fiji led 1-0 at the break.

They were also reduced to 10 players after Sailimone Ravonokula was red-carded following a scuffle as tensions flared towards the end of the first half.

But this didn’t stop the Baby Bula Boys from scoring two more goals in the second half through Ibraheem Afazal and William Khan.

However, Tonga will still feature in the quarterfinals against Tahiti at 7pm (Fiji Time) on Saturday.

When Hunga-Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai went off, it sent a shockwave around the world, produced a plume of water and ash that soared higher into the atmosphere than any other on record, and triggered tsunami waves that ricocheted across the region - slamming into the archipelago which lies southeast of Fiji.

Coral reefs were turned to rubble and many fish perished or migrated away.

The Health Ministry stated that Fiji does not have direct travelers from China and so countries that receive passengers directly have the ability to surveil for variants and Fiji now has an in-country capacity to survey for new Covid-19 variants.

However, Tourism Minister Viliame Gavoka said the ministry has committed marketing funds for Japan and China as they are definite that the number of visitors will accelerate this year.

He said they are aware of the surge in Covid-19 cases in China but will ensure that the safety of Fijians is not compromised.