Vanuatu

The initiative was warmly acknowledged by organizers with the festival becoming successful and popular over the years.

Pascal de Gaillande, the coordinator of the event, commented, “we would like to say a big thank you and show our appreciation to Digicel Vanuatu for all its support and for making this event possible.’’

RNZ reports the government wants people to grow and eat locally produced food to help reduce non-communicable diseases and cut reliance on imports.

As part of this push a farmer from Epi Island is farming more onions than ever before to sell to companies that usually depend on imports from Australia and New Zealand.

Nambo Moses of the Ministry of Agriculture says the farmer taught himself how to grow onions which he is aiming to sell to importer Au Bon Marche in Port Vila.

Three Alexandra students thought bringing two cute lambs to the middle of town would help them with the It's Not About Us fundraiser.

Parent Karin Kreher said they had brought sheep to a fundraiser previously and it was a big success. 

"We realised that tourists and other people just love seeing little lambs and love to have the chance to pat them," she said.

In two hours Alani Lerew, 10, Claudia Hammond,11, and Hazel Bodeker,9, raised $222 and also made many smile in Queenstown on Thursday.

PVFA also confirms that some of clubs now have only two or three matches to play before the end of the season.

The fixtures will determine the top four clubs to compete in the PVFA Top Four Super League and the winner to represent Port Vila and Vanuatu Football in the OFC Champions League 2017.

Number of matches for each Premier League clubs.

RNZ reports the 14 men, including a former prime minister, were jailed last year for taking bribes to cross the floor.

In September, 11 of them were given additional jailtime for conspiracy over the former speaker of parliament's decision to pardon himself and his colleagues while he was acting president last year.

The 14 men had sought to have the convictions overturned by claiming parliamentary immunity.

They told the court that they were attending a session of Parliament when they were prosecuted and this is prohibited under the constitution.

According to RNZ, the SPC's Phil Bright said Vanuatu is the first country in the Pacific to perform a fully automated census.

He has been working with the Vanuatu government to deliver a 'tablet based' snapshot of the country's recovery from last year's Cyclone Pam.

Mr Bright said 350 tablets were being used to capture census data over a three week period.

He said the 300 'enumerators', each with a tablet, began gathering data on Monday and uploading it daily to the office server in Port Vila.

The games will be held from 25th November to 4th December 2016.

A fundraising was organised on Friday 4th November   2016 at Willie Jimmy’s recreational compound at Tebakor Area.

We encourage people in Port Vila to join Digicel and support the next fundraising on Friday 18th                      November 2016 from 10am onward.

The day will be full of activities with sport activities and competitions, food and kava on sale and a lottery.

A delegation from Vanuatu has arrived in Tasmania to hold talks with the State Government and fruit growers.

The High Commissioner of Vanuatu Kalfau Kaloris said the delegation wanted to increase the number of people taking part in the Pacific Seasonal Workers Program.

"Today's (Tuesday) visit to Tasmania will give us a better idea of how we can increase the export of our workers into the state," he said.

"We have a very good relationship with Australia and around 1,000 workers from Vanuatu take part in the program, but we want that to increase," Mr Kaloris said.

Paramount chief Maserei, the tribal chief, who initiated Mr Bougeois into the council, says it is because of his historical assistance to his family and village and island.

RNZ reports Mr Bourgeois' late father, Pierre Bourgeois, who was an investor, was also adopted into the chief's family and given the same chiefly name, Maseimata.

The Vaturisu Council of Chiefs, the umbrella organisation of all chiefs of Efate and its offshore islands, has endorsed the move saying it follows the guidelines of Efate's custom governance system.

The theme for this exciting event is presented through the important message of a Healthy and Wealthy Nation.

Vanuatu is leading the way in the development of Agritourism linkages ever since the First Regional Pacific Community Agritourism Week which was held last year, and is key in the lead up to the inaugural Pacific Week of Agriculture to be held in Vanuatu in May 2017.