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Editor’s Comment: Appreciating lessons learnt.
The fact that as many as 462 staff members and frontliners from the Health Ministry received mental health screening and psychosocial support at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic is something we should take note...
Donor assist hospital
AFTER witnessing patients using torn curtains as linen and the shortage of adult diapers, the Labasa business community has stepped in to assist the Labasa Hospital. Among the donors is well-known businessman and The People’s Alliance party candidate for the 2022 General Election, Charan Jeath Singh. He made a pledge to provide $1000 worth of...
China says journalists should eschew activities unrelated to their role
BEIJING (Reuters) – Journalists should not engage in activities unrelated to their role, China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday, after broadcaster BBC said one of its reporters had been assaulted and detained while covering weekend protests in Shanghai. The BBC is playing the victim, ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular news conference in Beijing.
Farmer wants water crisis to be solved
ACCESS to water could become an election issue with residents in many communities raising intermittent to no supply as being a major concern over the past few years. Case in point, some families from a farming community in Muaniweni, Naitasiri, claimed they were forced to bathe, wash their clothes and even cook with water from...
Smog engulfs Indian capital as winter pollution worsens
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Thick smog engulfed India’s capital New Delhi on Tuesday as air pollution worsened with the setting in of winter, shooting up concentrations of fine particles in the air three times above the acceptable limits. The world’s most polluted capital city struggles to breathe easy every winter as cold temperatures and calm...
2022 Election: $16k phone bill claims surface
NATIONAL Federation Party leader Prof Biman Prasad claims a minister in the FijiFirst Government has incurred mobile phone charges of about $16,000 in one month recently. He made the statement at a joint rally with The People’s Alliance leader Sitiveni Rabuka in Ba last Thursday night. Mr Prasad did not name the minister but showed...
China to ramp up COVID vaccinations for elderly
BEIJING (Reuters) – China issued a notice on Tuesday to ramp up COVID vaccinations for the elderly, the National Health Commission said. China will step up efforts to increase the rate of vaccination for people aged above 80 and will shorten the time gap between basic vaccination and booster shots to three months for the...
Oil jumps on hopes for easing in China’s COVID controls
TOKYO/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Oil jumped on Tuesday, buoyed by hopes that China would relax its COVID-19 controls after rare protests against the country’s zero-COVID strategy over the weekend in big Chinese cities. Brent crude futures advanced $1.4, or 1.7%, and traded at $84.57 a barrel at 0645 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose...
2022 Election: Don’t wait for 2026 – Vosarogo
VOTERS between the ages of 18 and 40 have been told that the 2022 General Election “is your elections”. Prominent Suva lawyer and The People’s Alliance party candidate Filimoni Vosarogo told people who turned up at a rally at the Naveiwakau Methodist Church hall on Tuesday night that this age group had the power to...
Assistance scheme now open
TRANSPORT assistance applications for students for the 2023 academic year are now open. In a statement, Education Ministry permanent secretary Dr Anjeela Jokhan said all students in Years 1-13 whose parents’/guardians’ combined household income was $16,000 or less were eligible to apply for the assistance. “The ministry will be piloting an optional online transport assistance...
Roche withdraws Tecentriq from U.S. bladder cancer indication
ZURICH (Reuters) – Roche has voluntarily withdrawn the U.S. indication of Tecentriq for treating a form of bladder cancer following consultation with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Swiss drugmaker said on its website on Tuesday. The move follows the failure of a clinical trial that aimed to convert accelerated approval of the drug...
Frontliners provided mental health screening.
AS many as 462 staff members and front liners from the Health Ministry were provided mental health screening and psychosocial support by local counselling and social services NGO, Empower Pacific, at the height of the pandemic. Exposure to daily stressors may have led to negative mental health conditions of Fijian health care workers, states Empower...
For a Good Cause
A COMPANY with a goal to encourage holistic wellbeing in its staff and guests, the Marriott International Hotels and Resorts group held their annual fundraiser sporting event on Saturday, November 19 2022. The ‘Run To Give’ fundraiser is a key event for the Asia Pacific under the company’s ‘TakeCare’ movement, which aims to encourage associates...
2022 General Election: Stay put at your polling stations and vote – Ali
STAY put! That’s the message Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre coordinator and human rights advocate Shamima Ali is sending out to all eligible voters. “Stay near your polling station, cast your vote on December 14 and make it count,” she said. She said December was a time when people, especially the iTaukei, made Christmas plans and...
Cryptoverse: Messi takes on Ronaldo in fan coin world cup
(Reuters) – The market for fan tokens, a volatile cocktail of crypto and sport, is heating up in the desert of Qatar. Interest in this niche breed of cryptocurrencies, typically linked to sports teams like Barcelona or Brazil, has been charged up by the soccer World Cup which began on Nov. 20. Average daily trading...
South Korea orders striking truckers in cement industry back to jobs
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea ordered striking truckers in the cement industry to return to work on Tuesday, an unprecedented step that invokes tough strike-busting laws as construction sites run out of building materials nationwide. The second strike in less than six months over minimum pay is causing daily losses of an estimated 300 billion won...
What’s Happening Today!
Bula vinaka everyone. Here is another edition of some basic information you may need to know for today. First, here is your weather forecast for today: Weather – Cloudy periods with some showers over Suva/Nausori, interior Serua-Namosi and Naitasiri, Kadavu and nearby smaller islands, Lau and Lomaiviti group and the Northern division. -Fine weather elsewhere...
Chinese authorities seek out COVID protesters
BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese authorities have begun inquiries into some of the people who gathered at weekend protests against COVID-19 curbs, three people who were at the Beijing demonstrations told Reuters, as police remained out in numbers on the city’s streets. In one case, a caller identifying as a police officer in the Chinese capital asked...
The Caregiver’s Lament: How to handle the costs of care
NEW YORK (Reuters) – You might know P.J. Byrne from the movies, most likely as one of the fast-living brokers alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Wolf of Wall Street.” But these days Byrne’s most important role is closer to home: that of son and caregiver. His 79-year-old father has suffered from dementia for about 10...
China to hold weekly COVID control press briefing on Tuesday
BEIJING (Reuters) -China will hold a press conference on COVID prevention and control measures at 3 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Tuesday amid record COVID infections and protests in Shanghai and Beijing. The Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council will invite experts of the National Health Commission and the Center for Disease Control...
Former Ecuador VP released from prison for second time
QUITO (Reuters) – Ecuador’s former Vice President Jorge Glas was on Monday released from prison for the second time after a local judge approved alternative corrective measures in lieu of a custodial sentence for corruption charges. Judge Emerson Curipallo from the province of Santo Domingo said Glas’ rights had been violated by delays in resolving...
China records drop in new daily COVID cases for Nov. 28
SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China reported a decline in new COVID-19 infections for Nov. 28, posting of 38,645 cases, of which 3,624 were symptomatic and 35,021 asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Tuesday. On Monday, China posted a record daily high of 40,347 cases – 3,822 symptomatic and 36,525 asymptomatic infections, which China counts separately. Excluding...
29th November
Lawsuit against Google over app store competition gets class-action designation
(Reuters) – A U.S. judge in California on Monday allowed litigation against Alphabet Inc’s Google to proceed as a consumer class action of 21 million individuals who accuse the company of violating U.S. anti-competition laws in how it runs its Google Play app store. U.S. District Judge James Donato said in a 27-page order that...
WHO to use ‘mpox’ for monkeypox to tackle stigma
GENEVA (Reuters) -The World Health Organization said on Monday it would start using a new preferred term, “mpox”, as a synonym for monkeypox and urged others to follow suit after receiving complaints that the current name for the disease was racist and stigmatising. “Both names will be used simultaneously for one year while ‘monkeypox’ is...
Spain’s Acciona to build $1.3 billion wind farm in Australia in expansion drive
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Spain’s Acciona Energia announced plans on Monday to build a wind farm worth A$2 billion ($1.34 billion) in Australia, nearly doubling its investment and generation capacity at a site in the northeastern state of Queensland. The 1,000-megawatt (MW) Herries Range wind farm will be built at the MacIntyre Wind Precinct, where the...
$4k from Salted Fish
Fish is an important source of protein for Fijians. And while salted fish might not be popular in the iTaukei community, it had the potential to become a booming business. A month’s fishing, which included salting and drying of fish, had netted the Muanicake Fishing group of Muanicake Village in the Lau Group a little...
Leon Black accused in lawsuit of raping woman in Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Leon Black, the billionaire co-founder of private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc, was sued on Monday by a woman who said he raped her two decades ago in the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan mansion. Cheri Pierson said she had been a cash-strapped single mother who had already given...
‘Don’t Fall for Nonsense’
WE are not here to talk about racial differences, says FijiFirst general secretary Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum. While speaking to supporters in Tavua, the Attorney-General took aim at his major political opponents who he claimed have been appealing to voters using race and religion as a drawcard. “We are not here to give a speech about election...
Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano erupts for first time in nearly 40 years
(Reuters) -Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, began erupting on Sunday for the first time since 1984, ending its longest quiet period in recorded history. The night sky above Hawaii’s largest island glowed a hellish red as bright, hot lava sprang forth at the volcano’s summit at around 11:30 p.m. local time on...
Indulge In Nature.
BEACHCOMBER Island Resort is experiencing an influx of day cruise passengers through our local market. It’s fun, it’s exciting and the Resort is definitely your place to get away from the city for the weekend and spend the perfect day in paradise. Bring the family, for an amazing day on our shores and experience the...
