Vanuatu

More than 11,000 villagers were repatriated back to their villages after the volcano stabilized and a state of emergency was lifted fortnight ago.

According to the Vanuatu Daily Post, the volcanic ash was now showering the north side of the island spoiling cabbages, taro and water as the volcanic alert dropped to level 3.

Despite the size of the ash and fear among the people, the Vanuatu Meteorological and Geo-Hazards Managing Director Esline Garaebiti said that the alert level remained the same.

The government has been aggressively pushing its cattle breeding programme over the past year and has ambitions to get the national herd up to half a million head.

But the chief executive of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Andrew Campbell, said the growth had to be sustainable.

He said there were excellent cattle research projects in Vanuatu, in collaboration with the University of Queensland, which show that production can be substantially increased, but there was a caveat.

The leak, dubbed the Paradise Papers, contains more than 13.4 million documents mostly from the offshore law firm Appleby.

The papers also contained details from the corporate registries of the Cook Islands, Marshall Islands, Samoa and Vanuatu as well as 15 other registries, mostly in the Caribbean.

The papers covered the period from 1950 to 2016.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is investigating the files along with a network of journalists around the world.

Director of Adventist Education for the Vanuatu Mission Gilrick Joshua said the students from Penama Adventist College (PAC) would remain at Aore Adventist Academy until the end of the school year to avoid disturbing their studies.

The students’ parents, who were relocated to the neighboring islands of Pentecost and Santo, returned to Ambae over the past week in a move facilitated by the Vanuatu Government.

Van2017 CEO Clint Flood said the Games organisers were grateful to have the venues completed on time and handed over a month out from the opening ceremonies on December 4.

"Van2017 now has a big job to put in place all the tents, cabins, signage, fencing, sports equipment and get all the food, security and other contractors mobilised on site," he said.

"We will be working 14 hours a day, 7 days a week for the next 30 days to put the finishing touches on the Games preparations at Korman, as well as the other sporting venues being used."

Charlot Salwai made the comment on Wednesday during the official presentation of over 400 athletes and officials who'll take part in the mini games next month in Honiara.

Through its aid programme, China has funded the construction of facilities for the games as well as roads on the islands of Tanna and Malekula.

Mr Salwai said he knew Taiwan's president was currently visiting its allies in the Pacific, but his government will continue to support China.

The Lot 1 works of the World Bank-funded Vanuatu Aviation Investment Project (VAIP) begins immediately, with the contractors handed possession of site officially last week on October 24.

The long-awaited ceremony marks the most important milestone in what has been described time and again as the most important project for the country with Bauerfield being the main gateway for visitors into the country.

Father-of-four Moli, from the remote island of Malo, was one of 50 finalists from around the globe. Until a year ago, he’d never left the country and had limited success growing cocoa. However, aid and development agency World Vision has been working with his community to improve their farming techniques and link them with buyers willing to pay a fair price for their products.

Mabong and Moli have helped put Vanuatu on the global cocoa map for fine chocolate.

The two men celebrated with the winners today as they received Certificates of Recognition at the Salon du Chocolat in Paris, France.

Their cocoa bean samples were among the initial 166 samples submitted from 44 cocoa producing countries.

Every two years, this unique Programme spearheaded by Bioversity International and Event International recognizes quality, flavour and diversity of cocoas according to their origin. 

It's the final note to be launched in the country currency reform programme that began in 2010.

Vanuatu's minister of finance Gaeton Pikioune said the new notes depicted distinct modern and custom features that represent life in Vanuatu.

Photo: Vanuatu Daily Post / Len Garae Minister of finance Gaeton Pikioune watches as governor of Reserve Bank Simeon Athy signs the new note.