Regional Archive June 2009

Press Release - The single biggest and most important regional adaptation to climate change project that spans 13 countries is the focus of a one week workshop in Apia, Samoa.

The number of people confirmed with the A(H1N1) flu, or Swine flu, in the region has increased with Fiji and American Samoa confirming new cases.

Press Release: Adapting to the adverse effects of current and future changes in climate is a reality that a five year regional project will help Pacific communities put into action.

The A(H1N1) flu, otherwise known as Swine Flu, is now present in 5 countries in the region with the latest reported case in Vanuatu.

A Pacific Islander is the recipient of the prestigious US Fulbright Foreign Student Program for a scholarship, the first from this region in over a decade to do so.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - Governments in Asia and the Pacific must continue to invest in water infrastructure in spite of the economic crisis or face fundamental threats to their economic growth and social development, ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said yesterday.

Press Statement: 22 June - The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat is calling for Tenders to establish a Project Implementation Unit under Phase One of the Pacific Petroleum Project.

The A(H1N1) flu is officially in the region as two more countries confirm cases.

Greenpeace activated a loud alarm outside the UN climate talks in Bonn last week, Friday, calling for emergency action on climate change.

Samoa has confirmed its first case of the A(H1N1) flu, better known as swine flu, yesterday, becoming the second country in the region to test positive for the virus.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched an Energy for All Partnership that aims to provide access to modern energy to an additional 100 million people in the Asia-Pacific region by 2015.

An article by Wallace J. Nichols that appeared in the Huffington Post about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a large area of rubbish, mostly plastic, that is posing a great threat to marine life.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - Government leaders, policymakers, and climate change experts from around the world will gather in the Philippines this week for a high-level dialogue and a series of technical meetings aimed at helping Asia-Pacific countries move toward low-carbon and climate-resilient development paths.

Samoa's health authorities are waiting on flu samples to find out if a group of visiting Australian students have the A(H1N1) flu, otherwise known as swine flu.

Work has begun to repair Gizo town road after it was severely damaged following the earthquake and subsequent tsunami which devastated parts of the Solomon Islands in 2007.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that the world is now on Phase 6 of its alert of the A(H1N1) flu or swine flu, the highest level signaling a pandemic.

Fiji's interim government has extended the Public Emergency Regulation (PER) in the country for another 30 days citing "security situation" in the country as the reason. This has fueled further criticisms and questions as to the real purpose.

Disaster managers and Meteorological Service Directors came together, for the first time in over a decade, for a Joint Pacific Regional Meeting in May. The last such meeting took place in 1998, at which time there was a resolution passed calling upon more joint meetings of the two groups of professionals.

Veterans who were part of the British nuclear testing carried out on Christmas Island between 1952 and 1958 will be compensated after a British court decision ruled that they were due compensation for ill effects they suffered.

Tahiti has confirmed one case of the A(H1N1) flu, otherwise known as Swine Flu, marking the first confirmed case in the region.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - ADB and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have agreed to share access to their trade finance programs, linking more than 100 financial institutions to support trade between companies in Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of the Republic of Palau have agreed to a five-year strategic partnership aimed at supporting sustainable development and alleviating the impacts of climate change.

The world's first climate refugee, the inhabitants of Papua New Guinea's Carteret Islands, are frustrated with the lack of funding promised to them to help with their resettlement to Bougainville.

A new Asian Development Bank, ADB, publication released yesterday has said that Solomon Islands and Fiji remain the economies most at risk.

About 12 Pacific Islanders are among the crew of a German ship that is still in the hands of Somali pirates.