News
Police officer assaulted by student
A 22-YEAR-OLD tertiary student is in custody after he assaulted a police officer along the Tavakubu Road. Police spokesperson Ana Naisoro said the suspect’s vehicle was seized by the victim and another officer on Friday...
Five in custody for allegedly stoning police vehicle
FIVE men are in police custody at the Nakasi Police Station for allegedly stoning a Police Special Response Unit vehicle along Wainunu Road in Nakasi on Friday night. Police spokesperson Ana Naisoro said the five who are in their 20s allegedly threw stones at the vehicle while officers were on mobile patrol causing damage to the...
UK faces food, fuel and drugs shortages in no-deal Brexit: Times, citing official documents
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will face shortages of fuel, food and medicine if it leaves the European Union without a transition deal, jamming ports and requiring a hard border in Ireland, official government documents leaked to the Sunday Times show. The Times said the forecasts compiled by the Cabinet Office set out the most likely...
Parliament cannot stop Brexit, Johnson to tell Macron and Merkel
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson will tell French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the Westminster parliament cannot stop Brexit and a new deal must be agreed if Britain is to avoid leaving the EU without one. In his first trip abroad as leader, Johnson is due to meet his...
Afghan wedding suicide blast kills 63, amid hopes for talks
KABUL (Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed 63 people and wounded 182 in an attack on a packed wedding reception in the Afghan capital on Saturday night, the interior ministry said, as violence shows no sign of easing despite hopes for a deal on a U.S. troop withdrawal. The attack came as the Taliban and...
Lami roadworks delayed due to weather
ROAD works in Lami has been delayed due to the unfavorable weather. Fiji Roads Authority chief executive officer Jonathan Moore said FRA would prefer to lay the asphalt at night however they are not permitted to operate after 5pm and not before 8am. He said they have lost at four days in the last week...
10 people to front court for disobeying police
TEN people will appear in the Nadi Magistrates Court tomorrow for disobeying police. Charged with one count of disobedience of lawful order, the group which included three women were found drinking in public spaces. According to police, the ten people refused to leave the drinking spots after being told to leave.
Focus on family values
TWO Christian churches in Fiji believe addressing moral decay can only be done by strengthening family values. General-secretary of the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma the Rev Ili Vunisuwai said the basis of society was family and this was an area that the church must highlight to its members. He said children must be...
MenC deaths, no outbreak says minister
TWO people have died recently of the Meningococcal (MenC) disease but Minister for Health and Medical Services Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete says there is no outbreak of the disease. He made the statement while responding to calls from the family of Nadi resident Dhirendra Kumar for testing to determine whether they had contracted the illness. The...
Latabua: I’m so sorry
“I know they are hurting and I am so sorry.” These were the words of a man who is grieving the death of his brother, Jeremiah Digitaki, and at the same time struggling to accept that his deceased sibling was responsible for the tragic death of his 43-year-old wife, Edith Holmes. Police have classified the...
Police classify deaths as murder-suicide
AS families and friends struggle to understand the circumstances that led to the horrific deaths of a former Fijian couple living in the United States, US police have classified the deaths of Edith Holmes and Jerry Digitaki earlier this week as murder-suicide. News of the double deaths has rocked the close knit Fijian community in...
Family escapes early morning blaze
VAKACEGU Tuibua is counting his lucky stars after barely escaping a fire that destroyed the two-bedroom house he was living in at Lami Village Rd. He said the fire started around 8am on Saturday. “I was still sleeping when I felt a part of my hand burning,” he said. “It woke me up. “The fire...
Lesi: Take heed of signs
THE unfavourable weather in Sigatoka yesterday failed to dampen the spirits of families and friends who turned out in huge numbers to participate in the Walk On Walk Strong (WOWS) Kids Fiji walk and fun run. Dressed in superhero attires, the event was dubbed a success. WOWS Kids Fiji team leader Viola Lesi said she...
Mum relives daughter’s final moment
ELEVEN years ago yesterday, Sina Kami spent her final moments with her 15-year-old daughter Tae Kami. Tae’s passing sparked a flame in her mother’s heart and from this emerged the slogan “Walk On Walk Strong” and the birth of WOWS Kids Fiji — an organisation established to assist children living with cancer and their families....
Family returns after 35 years
A Belgian family saved every month for five years so they could revisit their home town, Savusavu, after being away for about 30 years. Florence Deserranno was two when she left Savusavu, her place of birth, in 1983 with her parents, Patrick and Myriam Deserranno who worked in Fiji from 1980 to 1983 under the...
Iran tanker shifts position but still at anchor off Gibraltar
GIBRALTAR (Reuters) – An Iranian tanker caught in the standoff between Tehran and the West shifted position on Friday, but its anchor was still down off Gibraltar and it was unclear if it was ready to set sail soon. Gibraltar authorities could not be reached for comment. The Grace 1 was seized by British Royal...
North Korea’s Kim oversaw the test-firing of new weapon again: KCNA
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test-firing of a new weapon again on Friday morning, state media KCNA said on Saturday. North Korea launched at least two short-range ballistic missiles on Friday, South Korea’s military said, its sixth round of weapons launches since late July, complicating efforts to restart talks...
U.S. appeals court deals partial setback to Trump rule to curtail asylum
(Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Friday dealt a setback to the Trump administration attempt to bar almost all asylum applications at the U.S.-Mexico border, but stopped short of applying its decision nationwide. While ruling against a provision of President Donald Trump’s hard-line anti-immigration policy, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the...
Trump, Trudeau discussed developments in Hong Kong, Canadians held in China
OTTAWA (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discussed the Hong Kong protests and the ongoing detention of two Canadians by the Chinese government, a statement from Trudeau’s office said on Friday. The Hong Kong protests started as a peaceful rebuke of the government in April but have evolved into...
Democratic and Republican lawmakers back $8 billion F-16 sale to Taiwan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Congress should move quickly with an $8 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan as the self-ruled island faces pressure from China’s increased military presence in the region, leading U.S. Democratic and Republican lawmakers said on Friday. China denounced the planned sale, one of the biggest yet by the United States...
Osaka retires at Cincinnati with knee injury
(Reuters) – World number one Naomi Osaka retired from the Cincinnati Masters with an apparent knee injury on Friday, less than two weeks before the start of her U.S. Open title defence. Osaka was trailing American Sofia Kenin in the third set of their quarter-final in Cincinnati when she sought treatment on her left knee....
Tiger’s charge fizzles in second 71 at BMW
Tiger Woods was unable to keep a mid-round charge going Friday and will have to rally over the weekend at the BMW Championship in order to qualify for next week’s Tour Championship. Woods traded a pair of birdies and bogeys over his first nine holes at Medinah Country Club outside of Chicago to make the...
Relentless Djokovic beats Pouille to reach semi-finals
(Reuters) – Novak Djokovic wore down Lucas Pouille after an even first set, dispatching the Frenchman 7-6(2) 6-1 in a Cincinnati Masters quarter-final in Ohio on Friday. The match was much closer than when the pair met in the Australian Open semi-finals in January, when Djokovic conceded only four games before going on to win...
Where’s Cristina? Argentina’s fiery ex-president stands back as left scents victory
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – When opposition presidential candidate Alberto Fernandez addressed a crowd of supporters after his landslide victory in Argentina’s primary election, there was one notable absence from the stage: former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Fernandez de Kirchner, a firebrand leftist who is reviled and revered by Argentines in equal measure, has been...
Cathay CEO resigns amid Hong Kong protest blowback as more rallies planned
HONG KONG (Reuters) – The boss of Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific Airways quit on Friday, the highest-profile corporate casualty of unrest roiling the former British colony, after Beijing targeted the airline over staff involvement in mass protests. The corporate upheaval comes ahead of a weekend where further protests are planned, including what could be...
Schools, telephone lines to reopen in Kashmir after lockdown
SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) – Authorities began restoring some telephone lines in Indian Kashmir on Friday night, the top state official said, as heavy security prevented some protests in the region’s main city of Srinagar from getting out of control. Telephone and internet links were cut and public assembly banned in Kashmir just before New Delhi...
17th August
Greenland tells Trump it is open for business but not for sale
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Greenland on Friday dismissed the notion that it might be up for sale after reports that U.S. President Donald Trump had privately discussed with his advisers the idea of buying the world’s biggest island. “We are open for business, but we’re not for sale,” Greenland’s foreign minister Ane Lone Bagger told Reuters....
U.S. warrant issued for seizure of Iranian oil tanker in Gibraltar
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. court has issued a warrant for the seizure of an Iranian tanker that British Royal Marines had seized last month in Gibraltar, a court document showed on Friday. The oil tanker Grace 1, the more than 2 million barrels of oil it carries and $995,000 are subject to forfeiture based...
U.S. Rep. Tlaib rejects West Bank visit, citing Israel’s ‘oppressive conditions’
WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. congresswoman Rashida Tlaib on Friday rejected an offer by Israel to let her travel to the West Bank, the latest twist in a dispute drawing Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu together against U.S. Democrats ahead of elections in both countries. Tlaib, a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives who has...
Trump gets update from aides on Afghan peace plan with troop pullout possible
BRIDGEWATER, N.J./WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump was briefed on Friday by top national security advisers on the status of negotiations with the Taliban on a U.S. troop pullout from Afghanistan and the potential for a political settlement between the warring sides. There was no indication that any conclusions were reached at the session, which...
