Teilweise neu: 2001-10-23 Contents of this issue:
1. Chicken Lick'n Backfires 2. Sweet Deal? 3. Back To Normal 4. Solomons Collapse ======================================================================== Old contents were: 1. Solomons Collapse October 23rd, 2001 1. Chicken Lick'n Backfires: An attempt to cook a frozen chicken by dousing it in petrol and setting it alight resulted in a jail sentence for a New Zealand man. Raymond Thomas Jacobson, 19, of Tokoroa broke into a house, setting it on fire and causing more than $160,000 worth of damage when he tried to cook the chicken using petrol, Rotorua District Court was told. Jacobson, who earlier pleaded guilty to arson, five charges of burglary and one of theft, was jailed for two years by Judge Phillip Cooper. Police said Jacobson broke into the basement garage of the house about 5am on August 26 to steal food. He took the chicken and other meat from a freezer then used petrol to get a fire going to cook it. The fire got out of control, waking the home owners, who were unable to put it out.(NZPA) 2. Sweet Deal? Negotiations opened today on a regional sugar agreement between Fiji and five of its Pacific Island neighbours. The sugar agreement with Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Tuvalu was suspended in 1998 due to supply and production difficulties experienced by the Fiji sugar industry. "The Long Term Regional Sugar Agreement is one of the region's most effective, and long standing examples of true intra-regional trade cooperation," said Deputy Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum, Mr Iosefa Maiava, while opening the meeting.. "Despite the suspension of the Agreement for the last three years, the sugar importing FICs have pledged full support to review and revive this Agreement. As many of you will be aware, this is the 25th year since the Agreement first entered into force". 3. Back To Normal: Government offices on Niue re-open today after closing for six days during the centennial and commemorative celebrations of association with NZ and self government. The festivities placed a strain on the tiny community of 1700 with most families contributing to cultural and sporting events and providing food for many of the 200 visitors who were quick to praise the organisation of the many functions. Premier Sani Lakatani departed for Auckland on an air force 727 with NZ and Niue Governor General Dame Silvia Cartwright Sunday. He is heading to Kiribati for a small island states meeting and then travels to Brussels for aid discussions with the European Union. It is now countdown time to the general election likely to be called in March 2002. The world's smallest state elects 20 members of the Legislative Assembly - 14 from village constituencies and six from the common roll. Around 900 electors will cast their votes for MP's who will face having to make tough decisions on future governance and association with NZ and the restructuring of its own Parliament. 4. Solomons Collapse: A high-level delegation from Australia and New Zealand flies into the Solomon Islands today amid growing fears of a breakdown in law and order and a collapse of social infrastructure, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.. The islands are racked by crime, violence against political leaders and power shortages in the aftermath of two years of ethnic conflict, the newspaper said. And the crucially important international operations of Solomon Airlines have now been effectively shut down by Australian authorities over safety concerns. The visit follows talks on the deteriorating situation between Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, and his New Zealand counterpart, Phil Goff, the Sydney Morning Herald said. Tensions have been inflamed by the arrival of a new tranche of soft loan funds from Taiwan to compensate victims of ethnic violence, the newspaper reported. Gangs of former ethnic militiamen are trying to get money for themselves or extort it from people they say should not be receiving it, the Sydney Morning Herald said. It said shots have been fired at politicians and officials. Houses and vehicles have been destroyed. "Things are getting pretty bad up here," a foreign businessman in Honiara told the Sydney Morning Herald by telephone yesterday. "Just about all the four-wheel-drive vehicles have been stolen, and there is a lot of extortion going on." He said much of the trouble was being caused by so-called police special constables, who were former ethnic militiamen.(PINA Nius) __END__
