Solomon Islands

Crunch time for no jab no job policy fast approaching in Solomon Islands

on half-pay from the 31st of October.

This was announced by the Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare this week and will apply to any employee of the national or provincial governments as well as state owned enterprises.

Mr Sogavare said if by 1 January 2022 they still have not taken up the vaccine their employment will be terminated.

It is the strongest messaging yet to come from the government with so far only 6.4 percent of the eligible population full vaccinated against the virus.

Solomon Islands thrashed 6-0 by Morocco

The Kurukuru conceded three goals in each half against the African champions.

Soufiane El-Mesrar opened the scoring in just the second minute before Achraf Souad doubled their advantage a minutes later.

Idriss Raiss El-Fenni made it 3-0 close to half-time, while Bilal Bakkali, Otmane Boumezou and Soufiane Borite all found the back of the net in the second spell.

Solomon Islands, who are competing in their fourth consecutive World Cup, are back in action on Friday morning against Portugal, who outclassed Thailand 4-1 in the other Group C clash.

 

Peter Stewart appointed CEO of 2023 Pacific Games

The Australian-based administrator was CEO of the 2015 Pacific Games in Port Moresby and has held several other positions in Papua New Guinea and at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji.

He replaces Shalom Akao Waita, who was the first woman to lead a Pacific Games Organising Committee.

The former Solomon Islands netball and basketball representative was appointed in October but stood down earlier this year.

Solomons govt to conduct test lockdown of national capital

In a statement on Friday the government said the lockdown was necessary given the surge of the deadly COVID-19 delta variant globally.

It said this was especially important as the country prepares for a limited re-opening of incoming flights which have been suspended for weeks because of worsening delta outbreaks in neighbouring countries.

It said Cabinet has approved the trial of the revised Lock-down plan for the Honiara Emergency Zone through a 36-hour lockdown from 6pm on Sunday 29th August to 6am Tuesday 31 August 2021.

Five killed in Solomons as car ploughs into crowd

A statement from the Royal Solomon Islands police said a land cruiser was being chased by police outside the capital Honiara for driving dangerously.

The police said there were parked vehicles and a car on the main bridge, so the chased driver chose to use an old where a group was fundraising.

After ploughing into the crowd, the driver fled but has now been arrested.

The vehicle was later burnt down to ashes.

2023 Pacific Games start date deferred

The dates for the Games have been moved from their original slot of mid to late July 2023, to the two weeks from November 16th to December 2nd 2023.

The Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare says that in March, the Solomons Pacific Games Association submitted a paper to cabinet for their support to defer the 17th Games.

"The reason for their request is simply that delays forced upon us as the host nation by the Covid-19 pandemic had undermined our ability to complete the construction of all the facilities we require to successfully host the games," he said.

Solomons latrine pit uncovers more than 100 WWII explosives

Police said the man, who lives at Gilbert Camp in the hills above the capital Honiara, had dug down several metres on Saturday, when he struck something metal.

When he discovered it was a WWII shell, he called police and an explosive ordnance disposal team then removed 101 highly explosive shells from the site.

They were 105mm shells of the kind widely used with light field howitzer artillery by US troops in the Pacific theatre.

Last week, a 105mm WWII shell detonated under a cooking fire in Honiara, fatally wounding two men and injuring another two other people.

Fatal Solomons blast highlights threat in a country littered with bombs

A central Honiara residential area was rocked on Sunday by the detonation of a buried Howitzer shell which left one person dead and three others injured, two seriously.

The 101mm cannon round exploded in the Lengakiki area where the four youth members of the Kukum Seventh Day Adventist Church had been holding a fund-raising barbecue.

An elder from the church, Lloyd Tahani, said the open fire they were cooking on was directly above the shell.

"Maybe, because they had been cooking a long time, it triggered the bomb to explode," mused Tahani.

Young Adventist killed by bomb blast in Solomon Islands, others injured

Kukum youth leader Raziv Hilly (aged 29) died from injuries after being rushed to the National Referral Hospital. Two others remain in hospital in critical condition, and one sustained minor injuries.

Reports stated that four young people were cooking food on a wood fire for a fundraiser when the incident occurred, unaware that that the heat from the fire would trigger the bomb.

According to Solomon Star, Mr Hilly was from Vella La Vella and Ranoggah in the Western Province and was a qualified aviation engineer and property manager.

Solomons bomb blast kills 1, injures 3 others

Officer In-charge (OIC), Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Team, Inspector Clifford Tunuki said, “One of the four casualties has been confirmed dead, the other two are in critical condition and one has some minor injuries.”

Two of the three casualties are females according to OIC Tunuki.