New Zealand

The 1.13pm quake was centred 15km east of Christchurch, at a depth of 15km, Geonet reports.

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.

Consistent performances saw the competition individual awards scooped by Solomon Islanders too, with Ragomo taking the coveted Golden Ball for the best player of the tournament.

Pacific nations to offer new tuna deal to US

http://www.looppng.com/content/pacific-nations-offer-new-tuna-deal-us

Pacific nations have reached agreement to accept American terms to try and resurrect the tuna treaty which fell apart last month.

DWU students enroll online

http://www.looppng.com/content/dwu-students-enroll-online

The event will be held from February 8-13 at Waikato University in Raglan, New Zealand.

SAPNG president Andrew Abel will be present at the event to address surfing academics from around the world and show case what we have achieved in developing and promoting surfing and surf tourism.

This invitation follows on from Bali at the 2015 Global Social Good Surf Conference for world surfing academics and activists.

The incident is embarrassing for FIFA vice president David Chung, who leads the Papua New Guinea soccer federation and the Oceania confederation.

Papua New Guinea lost 7-1 in the first leg at home on Saturday.

New Zealand media reported that visa issues were blamed for the visiting team not travelling for the return match in Auckland.

FIFA did not give a reason Monday when confirming in a statement that the playoff second leg was cancelled.

New Zealand now advances to represent Oceania at the 12-team Rio de Janeiro Olympics tournament in August.

PNG were dwarfed by the tall Kiwi girls.

More to come...

The late goal at extra time was scored by Robertlynn Kig who also scored PNG’s first goal.

PNG was the first to score when Kig floated home a free kick into the top corner of the goal and found the net four minutes into the game.

New Caledonia struggled to escape PNG’s defensive half but couldn’t get past the strong backline as they attempted to score on several occasions.

Our girls pushed through the first half to hold a 1-0 lead over New Caledonia at halftime.

This match will get underway today at the CIFA Academy at 1pm (PNG time).

PNG and New Zealand are the only teams to go through pool play without a defeat.

But after a first-up 7-1 drubbing of Vanuatu, PNG struggled a little, edging Cook Islands 2-1 before the draw with Fiji on Match Day 5.

Our girls will be banking on top striker in the tournament Belinda Giada to help them secure a win.

Giada scored a total of eight goals so far in the tournament, four goals against Vanuatu, two goals against Cook Islands and another two against Fiji.

This match will get underway at the PNG Football Association Academy pitch in Lae and will kick-off at 2pm.

The return leg will be played in New Zealand which is scheduled on 26 January at QBE Stadium in Auckland.

The winner will advance to the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament set to take place during the 2016 Olympic Games at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 5-21 August 2016.

PNG has the biggest economy and consumer base in the Pacific, apart from Australia and New Zealand.    

It was revealed during the formal bilateral meeting between Minister for Trade, Commerce and Industry Richard Maru, and Fiji’s Minister for Public Enterprises, Industry, Trade and Tourism Faiyaz Koya that a Fiji trade delegation will visit PNG.

The leaders meeting was held last week in Suva with trade and investment as the main point of discussion.