Nauru

A group, dubbed the Nauru 19, was charged over incidents arising from a protest outside parliament in June 2015.

Last year the charges were permanently stayed by an Australian judge, Geoffrey Muecke, who was brought in by the Nauru Government hear the case.

But the government appealed Justice Muecke's decision, and the outcome of that appeal is due for release by the Supreme Court today.

On Tuesday (28 May) New Zealand, became an original member of the committee after having signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Government of Nauru. The agreement includes an annual contribution to the fund.

New Zealand used the celebration of Nauru’s 50th independence in 2018 to announce an initial contribution to the fund of NZ$ 1 million.

The result came after a recount of the votes that took another five hours, subsequently ending 13 hours after the polls closed at 6pm.

A government statement said the initial count of the votes came to a very close result between Mr Scotty and Pyon Deiye with one-16th of a per cent difference between them.

Under the new amendment act, the Returning Officer for the elections, in this case the Electoral Commissioner Joseph Cain can initiate a recount to ensure accuracy.

Athletes, officials, spectators, volunteers, and the workforce involved in the Games are reminded that the event is smokefree.

May 31, which is just 37 days until the Opening Ceremony kicks off a fortnight of sporting competition, is the annual No Tobacco Day organised by the World Health Organization.

The annual campaign raises awareness of the harmful and deadly effects of tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure, and aims to discourage the use of tobacco in any form.

Roy Harris, Permanent Secretary of the National Emergency Service Ministry of Nauru said, “We grew from one staff to a team of four we have now, and we have approval to employ six more people as of July this year.  We went from having to advertise twice with zero applicants, to being a service that is now popular and receiving queries from people who want to work for us.”

The tiny nation lies in the South Pacific and, like other low-lying small island developing states, is particularly exposed to rising sea levels and climate change.

Nauru’s meteorological service was established in May 2015, now has four staff and is part of the Ministry for National Emergency Services.

Jaden Dogireiy was jailed for 13 months after he was convicted of assault.

Such a length automatically disqualifies a member from sitting in parliament, which would have reduced Nauru's opposition to just four MPs.

But Mr Dogireiy was on Friday granted leave to appeal his conviction, and his sentence was stayed until then.

Jaden Dogireiy has been given a sentence of 13 months, which means he will be automatically disqualified from parliament.

Dogireiy's sentence comes after he had been acquitted in the Magistrate's Court but the state appealed and Supreme Court judge Mohammed Khan convicted and sentenced him on Saturday.

The European Commission produced a list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions in 2017 as part of the European Union’s work to clamp down on tax evasion and avoidance.

In total, 213 countries were pre-assessed on 1600 indicators and from that list 92 countries were subject to further assessment.

In March, the Commission announced 15 countries had been blacklisted while another 34 countries will continue to be monitored on the grey list, while 25 countries from the original screening process had been cleared.

The Nauru 19 had been charged with offences relating to a protest against the government outside the Nauru parliament in June 2015.

The legal action went through countless stages before the retired judge brought in to hear the case, Geoff Muecke, strongly condemned the Nauru government's actions.

He said that by denying the defendants representation, imposing a blacklist on them, and publicly denouncing and vilifying them and those seeking to assist them, the Nauru government displayed persecutory conduct.