Vanuatu

The Danish royal touched down on the tiny island in the Pacific region to visit crisis responses areas following the area's recent cyclones and earthquakes. 

The 51-year-old's visit will focus on the impact that climate change has had in the region. Vanuatu has faced ruin after it experienced two cyclones over a two-day period at the beginning of March and was also hit by two earthquakes.

RNZ Pacific's correspondent in Port Vila Hilaire Bule said said now this process would lead to the guilty party or parties developing a physical ailment to a part of their body which can only be cured if they confess to their crime.

The decision to conduct the traditional investigation was made after council members were told there had been little progress made in a formal police investigation into the fire.

That had been undertaken by both local police with assistance from the Australian Federal Police.

The Vanuatu Ocean Monitoring Network is a chain of six ocean climate monitoring buoys deployed across the archipelago to monitor how climate change is affecting the ocean around the country, and to provide early warning to communities and key agencies of impending climate-related events.

The buoys are deployed at Port Vila, Efate; Million Dollar Point, Santo; Lonnoc Beach, Santo; Port Resolution, Tanna; Inyeug Island, Aneityum and Tomman Island, Malekula.

Vanuatu Daily Post said that major works were underway to prepare Luganville Soccer City, Luganville's main football arena, to host Group A matches on May 14-20.

Preparation are being done to improve the football fields, grounds facilities, and security to cater for this week-long event

Major discussions are also underway with partners and stakeholders for a smooth roll out of OFC group play offs.

Vanuatu is testing the ground-breaking app that looks to provide a solution to data collection challenges faced by Pacific Island countries.

It will act as traditional knowledge indicators for climate.

The Pacific Island nation is made up of 80 islands stretched out over 1,300 kilometres across the central Pacific ocean.

Travel to some of the outer islands to collect data is a challenge, and because the country's current observation and monitoring systems is in paper form, postage costs and return time delays are also issues from it.

Vanuatu Meteorology and Geohazards Department said the monitoring system at Saratama Ambae recorded volcanic earthquakes and emissions of steam and clouds of smoke high up to 694.48m and contains sulphur dioxide gas (SO2 gas) which can cause acid rain.

The Met office said the Manaro Vui volcano is continuing in a major unrest state.

The Volcanic Alert Level remains at Level 2.

People in the South East of Ambae have been advised to give serious consideration to potential volcanic hazards.

Top champion club teams from eight OFC member countries will all be competing in Vanuatu during the last two weeks of May.

The teams have been drawn into two groups, with Group A including top teams like Auckland City of New Zealand Football, Suva FC of Fiji Football, Solomon Warriors of Solomon Islands Football and Lope FC of Samoa Football.

All Group A matches will be played at the Soccer City Stadium in Luganville Santo, starting on 14 May.

“Santo as that economic hub must be realised now and engaging with the private sector and businesses from large to small, is a key interest for me to ensure continuity and growth is imminent in our country’s economic recovery,” said the Minister Tourism, Trade, Commerce and Ni-Vanuatu Business, Matai Seremaiah Nawalu.

The tournament which will be held in Darwin, Australia is set to take place from 12-21 June in which teams from Fiji, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu will take part.

The winner of this tournament will be awarded direct qualification into the 16-team 2024 World Cup to be held in Sri Lanka.

Tari welcomed the challenge and opportunity to coach the U19 national team.

MOH, the Government, including all the communities in the country have seen great impacts in the fight against malaria.

During a one-day dialogue, Acting Director General, Judith Melsul said there have been remarkable achievements over the past and current Global Fund Grants that the ministry has achieved.

One of which is the continuous downward trend of cases for the last 3 - 4 years back.

“Vanuatu has experienced drastic reductions in malaria incidence through concerted efforts guided by the National Malaria Strategic Plan (2015-2020) and earlier plans”