NOUMEA (Pacnews) — The official tally for the victims of the dengue epidemic sweeping across New Caledonia now stands at 41, the daily newspaper Les Nouvelles Caledoniennes reported in the weekend.
The surge in the number of those affected with the mosquito borne disease has prompted health authorities to intensify efforts to combat the spread of the mosquito borne disease.
PAPEETE (Tahitipresse) — The pro-autonomy Fetia Api party says it will keep on searching for the missing plane that disappeared on May 23 in the Tuamotu archipelago. Five persons were aboard, including Fetia Api President Boris Leontieff and three other Fetia Api members.
A special committee has been created to collect funds for the search. The $15,000 collected so far have been used to pay for fuel used by small fishing boats patrolling in the search zone. The funds are also used to buy binoculars.
SUVA (Pacnews) — Fiji’s sugar export to the United States has been extended a further 10 years in a trade agreement that has been renewed under the U.S. Farm Bill.
Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase said the next shipment of sugar to the U.S., which will leave in November, would earn the country F$9 million ($4.5 million). Fiji’s total sugar export to the U.S. amounts to only 0.9 percent of America’s total sugar import.
PORT MORESBY (Papua New Guinea Post-Courier/PINA) — Bougainville is on the way back to being Papua New Guinea’s number one cocoa producer with the distribution of eight million cocoa seedlings throughout the island.
European Union’s 3.4 million kina (around $1 million) cocoa-rehabilitation program supported by the Australian government and the United Nations Development Program will soon help the province regain its title.
