Kirakira police gear up for festival

KIRAKIRA police, Makira Province, are on a policing awareness exercise ahead of next month’s Banana festival next month. Provincial police commander Richard Hane revealed this to the Solomon star yesterday from provincial capital Kirakira. “Clean-up of Kirakira town and awareness programmes have been carried out by my officers since Monday last week,” Mr Hane said.…

Work to reconnect bridge underway

Work on reconnecting the old damaged Mataniko bridge has kicked off early this week. The bridge was washed away during April 3 flash flooding. Its understood work on the bridge kicked off before the arrival the barley bridge next week. New Zealand government is supplying the new bridge. Already work on placing ground and steel…

School raises $5,000 for flood relief

KILUSAKWALO Christian Community High school and Regent Park Christian school in Australia raised more than $5,000 in Auki over the weekend to assist victims of last month’s floods. Students and staff of the Australian school have spent last week at Kilusakwalo, teaming up with their hosts at the end of their stay to raise the…

More negotiation needed for Pacific /EU visas

THE European Union Ambassador for the Pacific says a plan to lift visa requirements for travellers from 10 Pacific nations still needs to be negotiated with each country before it comes into effect. The EU has amended a regulation, which means nationals from Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu…

Vendors: Beef up market security or we leave

VENDORS at the Auki main market are calling on responsible authorities to beef up security within the market premises to avoid unnecessary dumping of wastes and abusing of the market’s vicinity and its properties. This was made following weeks of complaints by vendors over the ever increasing pile of rubbish dumped right at the market’s…

NGO pleas for more help after floods

SAVE the Children in Solomon Islands says it’s disappointed with the low level of funding coming in after last month’s flood It says the immense amount of rain that fell on Guadalcanal resulted in the country’s worst ever disaster. The agency’s logistics and emergency manager Graham Kenna says the scale of the destruction is huge…

NZ, Solomons affirm development cooperation

THE New Zealand and Solomon Islands governments yesterday held high-level consultations on their development cooperation. Central to discussions was progress on the New Zealand and Solomon Islands Joint Commitment for Development, which was signed in September 2011. The New Zealand delegation was led by Craig Hawke, Deputy-Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade…

Central plans to amend licences ordinance

Central Island provincial government under the leadership of premier Stanley Manetiva will amend the current provincial business licences ordinance (PBLO). This is because the current ordinance is outdated and not productive in terms of generating income for the province, premier Manetiva revealed this an interview yesterday. Mr Manetiva said the licences ordinance was passed during…