appeal

The 15-year-old, who became the first woman to land a quadruple jump at the Olympics en route to winning a team figure skating gold with the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) on Monday, tested positive for banned heart drug Trimetazidine in a urine sample collected by Russian authorities on 25 December.

However, medals for that event, in which the United States and Japan finished second and third, have yet to be handed out after Olympic officials discovered her positive test.

Previously the board only heard appeals from users about content they felt had been unfairly removed - or referrals which came from Facebook itself.

The board has the power to overrule Facebook's original content decisions.

Its 20 members include former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and ex-Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger.

Anyone can submit content to the board for re-review, providing it has been reported to Facebook in the first instance.

During the trial in December, over twenty prosecution witnesses appeared but Justice Andre Wiltens dismissed the charges.

Mr Salwai, along with former agriculture minister Matai Seremaiah, former health minister Jerome Ludvaune, and former Tafea Outer Islands MP Tom Kerr have confirmed receiving Appeal Court notices.

They will re-appear in court on 8 February.

The original hearing followed complaints from former opposition leader, now deputy prime minister, Ishmael Kalsakau.

The Supreme Court found Salwai had misled the court when he said the Council of Ministers had approved a decision to create parliamentary secretary positions.

The case was brought by then-opposition leader Ishmael Kalsakau in November 2019, who said the council had never approved it.

Salwai told media he will file an appeal as soon as he is sentenced in February.

Photo RNZ Pacific 

Pell, 77, is appealing against a jury's decision to convict him of sexually abusing two choirboys in 1996, and abusing one of the boys again the following year.

He is currently serving a six-year jail sentence for the crimes, but his legal team has presented 13 reasons they say show the convictions should be overturned.

Pell's lawyer, Bret Walker SC, yesterday argued the jury could not have been satisfied of Pell's guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

The Head of State, President Obed Moses Tallis, had sought the legal clarification: he wanted to know if the creation of the parliamentary secretaries - as a second tier ministerial posts - needed a national referendum.

The Chief Justice, Vincent Lunabek, ruled the creation of the posts was unconstitutional without a national referendum.

The fallen NRL star presented himself to Mackay police and was charged with two counts of public nuisance over an incident at the Townsville casino in January.

The former Dally M Medallist will appear in Townsville Magistrates Court on March 22.

Barba reportedly will not face domestic violence-related charges because his partner Ainslie Currie has not made a complaint.

Barba was sacked by NRL club North Queensland without playing a game for the club last month over allegations he was violent towards Currie in the incident.

Vanuatu's Natuman to appeal seat being made vacant

Mr Natuman was convicted on two counts of perverting the course of justice and given a two-year suspended sentence.

The Daily Post newspaper said based on this ruling the speaker declared Mr Natuman's Tanna electorate seat vacant.

Mr. Natuman's appeal is among 26 appeal cases, to be heard from next week.

Another includes former members of parliament jailed for conspiring to defeat the course of justice.

Williams was appealing the four-match ban from the Lions series that rules him out of the first Bledisloe Cup clash against the Wallabies.

The All Blacks centre was handed the suspension for his second Test send-off against the British & Irish Lions earlier this month.

Williams became the first All Black in 50 years to be sent off in a Test when he was red-carded for a shoulder charge on Lions winger Anthony Watson early in the 24-21 loss in Wellington.

He missed the drawn third Test with the Lions, and the Blues' final Super Rugby match against the Sunwolves.