Solomon Island

The Tinakula volcano in the country's easternmost Temotu Province erupted over the weekend spewing ash over nearby islands covering crops and contaminating water supplies.

The National Disaster Management Office is struggling to get together enough water and relief supplies to send to the island which are at least a day's boat journey from the capital Honiara.

A no-fly zone is also hampering relief efforts and no attempt has yet been made to do an aerial survey of the volcano.

In support of this camp, HP Sport PNG hosted talks on Nutrition and Recovery and ran the squad members through sport specific gym sessions

"Our team from HP Sport PNG was absolutely thrilled to be engaging with swimming in their first camp leading into the Oceania Swimming Champs to be held here in Port Moresby in 2018.

“We were excited that there were so many young individuals in the room; to develop a sport well, it needs to start with younger athletes.

“In this case, we were pleased to see the young group so eager to learn.

According to his press secretary Deli Oso, Sogavare already visited two other MSG capitals of Port Vila, Vanuatu, and Suva, Fiji in January.

He did not travel to Port Moresby because his counterpart, Peter O’Neil was unavailable at the time.

Sogavare also met New Caledonia’s FLNKs representative in his January visit to Port Vila.

And while in Suva, Sogavare witnessed the signing of the new Melanesian Free Trade Agreement by Fiji’s Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama.

The ABC ends its short-wave service to the region from 1pm Solomon Islands time and says it will focus on FM and online services.

Ruth Liloqula said people from Choiseul to Malaita and as far south east as Tikopia tuned in to the ABC because the signal was stronger than that of the country's public broadcaster SIBC.

Ms Liloqula who works with Transparency International says the ABC has been very valuable for the country and a good way to get her message across.

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.

He says Westpac, which recently operated in the same premises, was also robbed in broad daylight, as was BSP in Auki, the provincial capital of Malaita.

The robbers in Auki were armed with guns while those in Honiara had knives.

Solomon Islands Police, National Security and Correctional Services Commission secretary, Wilson Orisi, says the mission, to be led by MP Jimmy Lusibaea, will travel to the Shortland Islands, Gizo and Munda.

He says problems at the border have developed because the area has been left unattended by agencies such as police, immigration, customs and quarantine for some time.

Mr Orisi says the border has allegedly been violated by criminals and the Commission wants to learn about people's experiences regarding both illegal and legal crossings.

The finding is one of many to feature in a report by the aid agency Save The Children, based on a wide ranging exploration of child trafficking practices in the Solomons.

Researchers discovered that some logging site managers have been finding children for some of their laregely foreign workforce, and there are also reports of girls being recruited for sexual exploitation in Honiara schools.

The Solomons High Commission in Suva has confirmed that the action saying 28 of the students are being terminated for failing all four courses for the semester and the rest are being suspended for failing 3 of 4 courses.

All implicated students bar a few who are being regraded will be flying back to Honiara this weekend.

The Solomon Islands Ministry of Education says government scholarship grants come from public and donor funding and their recipients are expected to perform.

This month, Cyclone Raquel became the first July cyclone in Australia's eastern region since the satellite era began in the early 1970s.

Jess Carey, a spokesman from the Bureau of Meteorology's Queensland office, said there was only about a one in five chance that the low over the islands would develop into a cyclone.

Conditions were not yet conducive for the low to form into a cyclone-strength storm but they might be “enhanced” over the weekend or early next week, Carey said. 

The secretary general of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, Octo Mote, says membership is needed to highlight the human rights abuses in the Indonesian region.

The leaders of the MSG, representing Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Kanaks of New Caledonia, meet this week in Honiara.

At least two of the countries are pushing for the ULMWP to get observer status.

Mr Mote says the decision is for the leaders to make.