Neu: 2002-02-18 Contents of this issue:
1. Death To Life 2. Heading Out 3. Teen Sex Warning ======================================================================== February 18th, 2002 1. Death To Life: Hours after Fiji's High Court sentenced indigenous coup leader George Speight to death for treason the South Pacific nation's president commuted the sentence to life in prison. Speight, who overthrew the volatile and ethnically divided country's first ethnic-Indian prime minister in May 2000 in the name of indigenous rights, pleaded guilty to the treason charge and burst into tears on hearing the death sentence. But Fiji's Attorney General Qorinasi Bale told Reuters that President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, himself an indigenous Fijian, had signed a document later in the day commuting the sentence to life in prison. "It means the death penalty imposed by the court is no longer in existence," Bale said. "George Speight now faces a sentence of life imprisonment." Speight's lawyer had lodged the plea for clemency and had predicted that the sentence would not be carried out as the government plans to replace death with life imprisonment as the penalty for treason.(Reuters) 2. Heading Out: The last American Peace Corps volunteer departs Niue today to return to the US ending a seven year long association. The Peace Corps has withdrawn from Niue after a lengthy investigation into what it was achieving on the island. Niue stands to lose about $300,000 a year from the organisation's withdrawal. An average of five volunteers served on Niue each year and although provided with free accommodation, they all received and spent $800 a month for food and expenses. Most volunteers were highly skilled and in relation to paid consultants who visit the island regularly its been estimated their annual input would be worth about $50,000 each per annum. It has been reported some former volunteers to Niue expressed concern that they were not provided with a local counterpart during their term of service and that much of the work they were allocated was within the domain of government employees. Peace Corps officials say New Zealand constitutional responsibility for administration and financial input to Niue along with its educational support and training put the island outside the category of need for Peace Corps volunteers. A large number of volunteers who served for three years on Niue learned the language and participated in village cultural groups. Several married Niuean residents and have settled on the island or moved back to the US. One Peace Corps worker Carrie Stipic-Fawcett wrote a chapter on Niuean phrases and etiquette for the Lonely Planet 1999 South Pacific Phrasebook. 3. Teen Sex Warning: Papua New Guinea judge Justice Don Sawong has sent a message to men who commit carnal knowledge. Justice Sawong - sentencing Gideon Mamasa Apo, 21, in the Madang Court to one year and four months imprisonment for committing the offence against a 13-year-old girl - said: "Whether or not the young girls agree to have sex, the act is morally and ethically wrong." He said that the incidence of mature men having sex with young girls is prevalent in Papua New Guinean societies. Although the judge noted that this was Apo's first offence, he said the message must be clear that this kind of behaviour of abusing girls must stop. "I have taken note of all the good things in your favour but I must send the message to other men like you who are having sex with young girls that they will be penalised," he said. ( Papua New Guinea Post-Courier/PINA Nius Online). __END__
