Nauru

 Nauruan powerlifters Deamo Baguga and Erving Harris have set their goals higher in the sport of powerlifting after breaking world records at the annual Fitness and Health Expo held in Sydney, Australia.

Baguga was up against some strong opponents in the 83kg category, and he was determined to break the world record.

He set a new world record in the deadlift with his lift of 316.5kg. He benched 140kg and his squat was 270kg giving him an overall of 726.5kg.

The Australian reported that the country was on a list of nations Canberra was considering sending refugees to.

It said other former Soviet republics were also being considered for resettlement, but no deals had yet been struck.

Australia's finance minister Mathias Cormann refused to confirm or deny the reports in an interview with Sky News, saying the government was speaking with a number of countries regarding resettlement, and would not comment until it was "in a position to do so".

The charity winds up its operations at the Australia-run asylum seeker detention centre on Saturday, after the Australian government granted the welfare contract to the multinational, Transfield Services.

A recent Senate report outlined allegations of child abuse and sexual assault against Transfield staff on Nauru and found the contractor hadn't been adequately accountable to border authorities.

Today is World Day Against the Death Penalty, but execution has yet to be abolished in Tonga, Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

The death penalty was revived in PNG in 2013, but was put under review in May without being implemented.

Justice Minister David Adeang pointed to recent claims by the ‘Refugee Action Coalition’ of an ‘assault’ on two male refugees which he said was used to criticise Nauru’s new open centre arrangements before the program had even started, and called on the media to show a greater level of scrutiny to the group’s unfounded claims.

Mr Adeang said this group has a history of making unsubstantiated allegations of assault that have regularly been found to be false, and that others including lawyers, willingly spread these false claims.

The Cambodia Daily reports that Sar Kheng told a local television station on Thursday that a delegation had just returned from Nauru where it met the applicants.

Mr Kheng says Australia had said it had four people who had volunteered for resettlement, but two of them have since decided to remain on Nauru.

He would not say when the two would arrive or why the others had changed their minds.

Cambodia has so far only resettled four refugees from Nauru under a 38 million US dollar deal between the governments of Australia and Cambodia signed last year.

The Granma newspaper reported that during his stay the head of state will hold official talks with Army General Raul Castro, President of the councils of State and Ministers, and will carry out other activities.

The promotion has been running for 3 months and has now ended on 30^th of September, 2015.

The September Grand Prize winner was Mr. Papa Ratabwiy who won a brand new Yamaha scooter worth over AUD$2,000 with the two runner up prizes of iPads being presented to Ms. Eniga Bod and Mr. Brad. Gilla.  The prize giving was attended by Jezza Uepa with the winners announce live on Local radio where Jezza called the winners live during the FM 105 Radio Nauru show.

HAPPY NATIONAL YOUTH DAY TO ALL!!

And a big thanks to DIGICEL NAURU for their support for this event. 

As well as providing water and tents, every child who took part got a FREE DIGICEL T-shirts to go home with. 

The competition was launched to offer Pacific design talent the opportunity to help design the company’s new retail, corporate and casual uniforms.  

“In support of the regions growing creative and Fashion industries we are offering Pacific based Designers a chance to design our uniforms and deliver us with a design that will embody or signify all Pacific Islanders” commented Katie Taylor, Head of Marketing, Digicel Asia Pacific.