Solomon Islands

RNZI reports the Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare asked for a special adjournment in parliament to facilitate the trip and promised to back the bid with funding.

The Solomons effort is being run on the basis that the Games have eluded the country for far too long, with the last event, the 1982 Mini Games.

RNZI reports senior representatives of the PIF made the consideration yesterday in Honiara after hearing the priorities and plans of the Solomon Islands government and RAMSI.

These include ongoing preparations for RAMSI's drawdown and the staged and limited rearmament of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force.

It will be the fourth summit of the PIDF and the first to be held outside of Fiji.

Island Sun reports that the Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare accepted a proposal by the PIDF Secretariat to be this year's host, while he was in Fiji this month on his tour of Melanesia as chairman of the Melanesia Spearhead Group.

Sogavare was in Suva Wednesday and held talks with Bainimarama as well as Foreign Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola.

He says the situation in West Papua remains an issue for Melanesian countries.

“It’s a transnational issue and is not something that you can shy away from. All right thinking people on planet earth should be able to express concern when a race is actively prosecuted.”

FBC reports the Fijian government has confirmed it recognises Indonesia’s sovereignty over West Papua.

The Solomons Business Magazines reports the suspected gold bars estimated to be worth millions of dollars have been transported to the Central Bank of Solomon Islands for safekeeping.

The shipment is understood to have arrived into the capital Honiara from Ontong Java on Friday where it was confiscated by police acting on a tip-off.

Sir Peter, 72, was the Prime Minister when the country attained independence from Great Britain in 1978.

Solomon Islands Business reports the cause of Sir Peter's death was not announced yesterday but thousands of Solomon Islanders have already gone to the social media to express their condolences to his family and praise his efforts as the founding father of this nation.

The Kurukuru captain Elliot Ragomo said the team was so proud to be going off to Colombia to represent Solomon Islands, Oceania, and each of the nations' who took part in the OFC competition, which was staged in Suva.

The Kurukuru made a clean sweep of the tournament, scoring 23 goals and conceding just three.

Frank Prendergast's comments follow a broad daylight robbery of the Bank South Pacific in the busy Central District of Point Cruz in Central Honiara last week.

The robbers attacked two Chinese businessmen who were on their way to the bank to deposit their weekend takings.

The SIBC reports that a search and rescue operation found the men and their 21-foot fibreglass boat off the coast of South Malaita.

The men went missing last Friday after they set out on a one-hour trip between Hatcha, in Ulawa, to Fanalei, in Malaita.

There are 1,700 confirmed cases across six provinces.

The chairperson of the ministry of health's emergency and operations committee says lab results just back from Australia and Fiji indicate the presence of rotavirus in all patient samples.