The Fiji Times

Blessed with music | Chand’s rise to musical stardom

Music truly runs in Prunal Prasheel Chand’s family and he believes this gift is a blessing. The 27-year-old, who released an album titled Small world, big dreams in 2019, says his love for music developed from childhood. The logistics manager at Thuderstruck Pte Ltd from Waituri, Nausori, said he was motivated whenever he saw his...

Back in history | Untidy at the lines | National jumpers fail to impress selectors

If there was anything lacking at the 1984 East rugby trials at the National Stadium in Suva, it was the failure of the jumpers in the lineouts to take clean two-handed catches. An article in The Fiji Times on March 11 that year said there were attempts by national reps Koli Rakoroi and Lewis Politini,...

Culture shock in Canberra

Traveling overseas for the first time as a young undergraduate at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) was both exciting and nerve-racking. Getting selected to attend the 2023 ANU-UPNG Partnership Summer School Program at the Australian National University (ANU) Crawford School of Public Policy in Canberra, Australia, exceeded my expectations. While the program provided...

Resort phases out single use plastics

Joining the tourism industry’s environmentally conscious move, Intercontinental Fiji Golf Resort and Spa is slowly phasing out the use of plastic within the resort property. The sustainability program launched by resort this year aims to remove the use of single use plastic bottles from resort’s guest rooms and public areas. According to the resort, since...

Sustainable tourism

Intercontinental Fiji Golf Resort and Spa are strengthening their sustainability initiatives to mark World Environment Day celebrations this week. The programs were designed for holidaymakers getting a chance to participate in the preservation of the resort’s environment. According to the hotel, the programs include the Coral Reef Restoration program, on-site herb garden at the Spa...

Minam elected as first vice chairman of ADFIAP

Fiji Development Bank’s chief executive officer Saud Minam has been elected as one of the three vice chairman of the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP). The decision was made during the 46th Annual Meeting of ADFIAP held in Kazakhstan, from May 15 to 17. “The appointment of these three...

Serbia’s PM Ana Brnabic says she is willing to resign amid opposition protests

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia’s Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said on Wednesday she was willing to resign to test popularity of the ruling coalition, following weeks of opposition protests. For five consecutive weeks, tens of thousands of people have gathered for weekly anti-government rallies in Belgrade, blaming a culture of violence for the deaths of 18...

Service expansion

Asco Motors expects to have its new financial services division operational by early 2024. According to Asco Motors chief executive officer Ronald Kumar, the local Toyota dealership’s recently announced service expansion should be ready for customers by the first quarter of next year. Having a captive finance business would allow customers to procure financing for...

Macron returns to former minister to help break Lebanon deadlock

PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron appointed on Wednesday his former foreign minister as personal envoy to Lebanon just a year after he stepped down and having previously not been able to make any inroads in the political deadlock in the country. Macron led international efforts after a massive explosion that killed more than...

Support for young girls’ and women’s education

A team from Westpac has visited more than a hundred schools and universities across Fiji to promote the Westpac Women and Girls Education Grant program. The popular grant program is still open for applications for 2023 with a total of 30 grants being offered this year to help women and girls continue their studies or...

Mexico investigates troops over video of ‘execution’ of five men

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican prosecutors are investigating what the country’s president on Wednesday called an “execution” after soldiers were filmed beating and then shooting five men they pulled from a crashed pick-up truck. The investigation, confirmed by the defense ministry, follows the publication by media outlets on Tuesday of a video dated May 18...

Chile’s conservative assembly begins drafting new constitution

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – A new Constitutional Council dominated by conservative parties in charge of drafting Chile’s new constitution began its official duties on Wednesday, in the second attempt to replace the current text that dates back to the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. The new council, elected on May 7, is a sharp shift from the predominantly...

TLTB to pay $360k

The Supreme Court of Fiji has ordered the iTaukei Land Trust Board (TLTB) to pay $360,240 to a man who was evicted from a 13-acre native land in Nadi in 2000 after the agriculture lease was terminated. The TLTB issued a 20-year lease certificate to Shanti Lal on April 30, 1986. Mr Lal took the...

Assault case thrown out

The Lautoka Magistrate’s Court has thrown out a case of sexual assault after it found insufficient evidence to prove the alleged offence. Acquitted was Mohammed Abran, who was charged with two counts of sexual assault. The court explained that the prosecution’s main witness did not appear for cross-examination and therefore it was unable to fairly...

Project to boost services

A Fiji share project of about $2,980,011.75 was launched on Tuesday by the Ministry of Health and Medical Services in collaboration with the French Polynesian Government and Agence Francaise de Development (ADF). Health Minister Dr Atonio Lalabalavu said the project was focused on combating arbovirus infections in Fiji and the Pacific region. “The Fiji SHARE...

Bahanaga Bazar, the rural Indian train station rocked by disaster

By Krishn Kaushik BAHANAGA BAZAR, India (Reuters) – Few trains stop at Bahanaga Bazar, the sleepy, small rural station in the Balasore district of Odisha state where India’s deadliest train accident in more than two decades happened. Three rooms, topped by a corrugated metal roof, and three platforms make up the station, which serves 14...

Police forges new media relations

The conclusion of a three-day workshop in Suva this week ushers in a new beginning for relations between Fiji’s media organisations and the Fiji Police Force. Work is now starting to decentralise police responses to the media in an effort to bolster accountability and transparency. This opening of channels between journalists, divisional heads, and directors...

Plan for more inclusive polls

Members of the Election Disability Access Working Group (EDAWG) convened in Suva for a four-year work plan Workshop on Inclusive Elections in Suva on Tuesday. The plan is to adopt a participatory approach to developing a comprehensive plan that will guide the EDAWG to promote and achieve a more inclusive general election in 2026. At...

Blinken speaks with Senegal’s president, discusses recent unrest -US State Dept

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Senegal’s President Macky Sall on Wednesday, and the two discussed the political situation and recent unrest in the African country, a State Department spokesperson said. “Blinken expressed his condolences for those killed and injured during the recent violence. The Secretary reiterated the United States’...

2023-2024 National Budget | ‘Use only one VAT system in Fiji’

There should only be one VAT system in Fiji instead of two or three different systems, says Lautoka Residents and Ratepayers Association president Narayan Reddy. “I hope the Minister of Finance will look at either increasing VAT by 15 per cent or decreasing VAT by nine per cent,” he said. “I also believe having two...

2023-2024 National Budget | Dean: More options for canefarmers

Jainu Dean, 65, says finding alternative sources of income for sugarcane farmers should be considered. The life-long sugar cane farmer says he hopes that the 2023-2024 National Budget provides more opportunities for farmers. “During off-season, I go out fishing to earn money,” he said. “What I earn from harvesting cane and from fishing is not...

Prince Harry: It would be injustice if court rules I’m not hacking victim

By Michael Holden and Sam Tobin LONDON (Reuters) -Prince Harry said on Wednesday he would feel a sense of injustice if London’s High Court did not conclude he was a phone-hacking victim, as he completed more than eight hours giving evidence against a British tabloid newspaper group. Harry, King Charles’ younger son, spent a day-and-a-half...

2023-2024 National Budget | Bring down prices of flour, rice – Kara

Fisherman Pita Kara says the cost of basic food items is too high. The Lomolomo villager says he hoped Fijians living below poverty line are not badly affected by the 2023-2024 National Budget. “For example, sugar. We make it but the price is still too much for me,” he said. “Prices for rice and flour...

Fiji is always there for you, says PM

Fiji is always there for you. Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said this to members of the Fijian community in Wellington, New Zealand on Tuesday night while updating them on Fiji’s national development priorities. He said his visit to Aotearoa affirmed the importance of New Zealand as a friend and development partner to Fiji in strategic...

Climate change support | NZ gives $15.2m

New Zealand has announced a further $F15.2 million ($NZ11.1 million) of climate change support for Fiji to respond to the impacts of climate change. New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced this yesterday while meeting his Fijian counterpart, Sitiveni Rabuka, in Wellington. He reaffirmed the strength and spirit of New Zealand and Fiji’s relationship, as...

Tough choices to tackle mounting debt

Fiji will probably have to take “tough” measures to get the country out of its debt situation. University of the South Pacific (USP) senior lecturer in economics Dr Neelesh Gounder said this in an interview on The Fiji Times online news portal The Lens@177. “If you don’t want to touch VAT, that’s fine. But your...

North American lobster industry confronts ‘ropeless’ traps after whale entanglements

By Lauren Owens Lambert MONHEGAN ISLAND, Maine (Reuters) – An emerging technology to fish for lobsters virtually ropeless to prevent whale entanglements is exciting conservationists, but getting a frigid reception from harvesters worried it will drive them out of business and upend their way of life. Injuries to endangered North Atlantic Right Whales ensnared in...

Australia grants $81m budget support

Australia has provided $81 million to Government as its budget support contribution to Fiji’s 2023-2024 National Budget. Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Professor Biman Prasad thanked the Australian Government for its continued support, and said the funds would be significant in meeting the budget requirements and commitments. He said the Coalition Government faced...

Boost in tourism

Tourism recovery is almost 100 per cent, says Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Professor Biman Prasad. He said the revised forecast for last year was even more now. “That reflects the recovery in tourism which is driving very strongly our growth,” Prof Prasad said. “In fact, the tourism recovery is more than expected,...

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