Northern Marianas - firearms
Nine firearms in the custody of the CNMI Division of Fish and Wildlife are unaccounted for and the local police have no idea where they went.
It was discovered that nine DFW firearms - eight rifles and a Glock 34 handgun - were unaccounted for and were deemed missing after the Office of the Public Auditor conducted a survey of all government-issued firearms in the CNMI last May.
The Department of Lands and Natural Resources, which DFW is under, said it remained committed to the safety and well-being of the community and has instructed all department employees to fully cooperate with the investigation.
It hopes to find these firearms swiftly and properly store them and find out how they went missing in the first place and make sure appropriate steps are taken to ensure this never occurs again.
NZ/Pacific - language week
New Zealand's Minister of Pacific Peoples Barbara Edmonds has announced two new additional languages to the Pacific language weeks series next year.
In a statement, Minister Edmonds said a total of 11 Pacific languages will be celebrated including Solomon Islands Pidgin and Papua New Guinea Tok Pisin.
She said the decision to expand the series to include more Melanesian languages is a reflection of the fast-growing Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea population in New Zealand.
Last year, the ministry was criticised by Melanesian advocates for the lack of engagement and input from the communities towards the Pacific languages strategy.
Fiji - nightclub
In Fiji, police officers will be out in numbers on the streets of the main urban centres such as Suva, Nadi and Lautoka this weekend as new early closure laws come into force for nightclubs.
fijivillage.com reports the Liquor Amendment Act comes into effect Friday night as per the date gazzetted by attorney general Siromi Turaga.
Under the new law, nightclubs must close at 1am local time. Previously they had been allowed to stay open overnight.
Acting police commissioner Livai Driu said more officers would be out in anticipation of the spillover of nightlife social activities into residential areas.
Driu said the main focus was to ensure everyone enjoyed their weekend without any major incident.
Fiji - chiefs
The Great Council of Chiefs review team in Fiji has completed its work on gathering recommendations from Fijians locally and overseas.
The team are now finalising a report and hope to present to the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs later this month before they then present to the GCC in September, GCC Review Committee chairman Ratu Jone Baledrokadroka confirmed to RNZ Pacific.
The team covered the whole of Fiji and also travelled overseas to speak with Fijians abroad.
Vanuatu - climate
A new timeline has been approved by the International Court of Justice for written statements and comments on the landmark Advisory Opinion on the legal responsibilities of countries fighting climate change.
Pacnews news agency reports that UN member states and organisations have until 22 January 2024 to submit written statements to the ICJ Secretariat in The Hague.
ICJ President, Joan Donoghue, further allowed a three-month extension to 22 April 2024 for countries to submit written comments on written submissions by other States and organisations.
On 24 July 2023, Vanuatu's Permanent Representative to the United Nations supported by the 14 co-signatory States to the Advisory Opinion, requested an extension of three months to the original submission deadline, which was set at 20 October 2023 by the ICJ.
Photo: Supplied