Following confirmation that the body retrieved in Magarima, Hela Province, is that of Senior Constable Nelson Kalimda, Commissioner of Police David Manning has called for calm amongst police personnel and their families as those responsible are arrested. “Now is the time that the country needs our disciplined forces to show restraint and calm as we deal with the death of Senior Constable Nelson Kalimda,” Commissioner Manning said this evening during a media conference at the National Police Headquarters. The conference was held after senior officers visited the family of the late constable to inform them of the death of their husband and father. “I appeal for calm, and to put off any response or protest action, because nothing will be achieved from more violence. “I am appealing to, and I am directing, all uniformed personnel to show restraint and let the law take its course. “I share your pain, and the pain of Senior Constable Kalimda’s family, and I am as angry as every other man and woman in our uniform over what has happened to our brother. “Ours is a dangerous profession that is not free from risk, and our police men and women face threats every day they go to work. “That we confront these risks does not make it any easier to deal with the grief we face, but it reminds us that we lead by example and use the law to bring enemies of the people to justice,” Mr Manning said. Commissioner Manning said investigations are being led by some of the most capable officers in the Police Force to bring swift justice upon those involved in the death of Senior Constable Kalimda. “I issue a clear warning to anyone involved with Senior Constable Kalimda’s death, to not resist arrest when police catch up with them. “If these suspects threaten police with weapons, our police personnel have full authority to escalate the use of force and to use all appropriate means necessary to take control of the situation. “Police have made two arrests so far and there are four other persons of interest that are the subject of an ongoing search. “On behalf of all police and our families, my direction to investigating officers is clear, to go and find the culprits and bring them in using every means at your disposal because the weight of the law and the will of the people is on your side,” Mr Manning said. Commissioner Manning said Hela Governor, Philip Undialu, has supported the search with provincial resources, alongside community leaders with their knowledge at the local level, and all of these efforts have been most valuable in supporting police action.

When Sera Koroi found out she was pregnant in mid-2021, she thought her long-held dream to represent the Orchids at a Rugby League World Cup was over, with the tournament scheduled for November that year. But a 12-month postponement left the door ajar for Sera, whose mother is from New Ireland Province and whose father is from Fiji, to play for PNG after all. Sera explains: “When I got pregnant, it was God’s plan for me. I really trusted that no matter what. Then when the tournament got postponed, I thought it was meant to be. Before I knew I was pregnant, I actually injured my ankle which forced me to stop playing, which was His way of taking me out of the sport and making sure my son would be healthy. “After I had my son Viliame on 28 October 2021, it was pretty hard because I had a C-section, and I knew that would delay my return to rugby league. But I started training again after three months and my club coach at Souths Logan Magpies in Brisbane, Maia Tua-Davidson, was very supportive.” With Viliame celebrating his first birthday this week and 20-year-old Sera joining him via video call from the Orchids’ RLWC base in Leeds, she admits it has been a tough time to be away, but made easier by the support of her family. “I would not be here without my parents – they and my three younger siblings are taking care of my son. My parents have always been 100 per cent supportive because they know I can make a career out of rugby league. We always agreed that I would play in RLWC if I could get selected, and they will continue to support me as I try to earn an NRLW contract. “They say ‘it takes a village to raise a child’, and this is certainly true in my family.” Source: Santos PNG Orchids

On the precipice of famine, Somalia is already in dire straits "I've never seen anything like it," says Paul Healy from the Irish charity Trocaire, which runs several healthcare clinics in the southern Gedo region. Within weeks, the UN predicts a famine will be declared in parts of the country — a technical determination that critics say is abstract from day-to-day reality. There is barely a village across the country untouched by the drought. The most vulnerable are already stricken by catastrophic hunger and fearful of violent insurgency by militants from Al Shabaab — the Islamist group that controls swathes of Somali territory and is responsible for attacks that have killed civilians, including in the capital Mogadishu. [caption id="attachment_29332" align="aligncenter" width="688"] One of the camps near Dolow, a town on the Somali-Ethiopian border.[/caption] On the edge of towns in the Gedo region, informal camps full of people who have fled their homes in search of food stretch for kilometres. Residents fashion colourful makeshift shacks from sticks and scavenged fabric in the dirt. Thorny brambles arranged in rings around their base double as shields against the wind and fences to protect from unwanted visitors. When it does rain, the roads turn to mud. The more enterprising, or those with something to contribute, do what they can to help others, forming a kind of unofficial support net for the newest arrivals. When there is a wedding between two in a camp, residents pool their resources to construct a shelter for the newlyweds. The camp lights up with song and laughter, there are howls and dancing into the night. Thousands who turn up every week with little more than the clothes they are wearing are offered water and hot food by their neighbours. If a child is sick, they are given directions to a clinic in a nearby town. Aden Moallim Mohamed, a self-described leader of one camp, who himself arrived earlier in the year, shows exhausted mothers how to plant scavenged deadwood into the soil to build the base of a shelter. "We learned this building technique by pure circumstance," he says with a grin while walking through the camp. Inside displacement camps, 'we share what we have' In Dolow, a small community in Gedo along the Somali-Ethiopian border, roughly 150,000 people crowd the camps around the edge, far eclipsing the residents of the town itself. Life in the camps is bleak and precarious. Every resident knows to expect a difficult night when storm clouds gather overhead. A few hours' deluge is not enough on its own to break the drought, but is sure to cause havoc among the dwellings, which quickly turn into muddy disarray. Mr Mohamed recently spent a wet night underneath a rubber mat in a neighbour's shelter, the pair trying to keep each other dry. "We share what we have," he says. Sanitation is almost non-existent without proper toilets in most camps. [caption id="attachment_29334" align="aligncenter" width="679"] Even a few hours of rain in the displacement camps can cause chaos.[/caption] Disease is common. If uncontained, an outbreak of measles, for example, can spread quickly and kill children already weakened by malnutrition. At Mr Mohamed's camp, on the edge of Baidoa, a major centre in the Gedo region, many residents have lived there for months, and in some cases years. For many, there is nothing to return home to and nothing to look forward to. Life as they know it will eventually come to an end in the muddy squalor of the camp. All that remains is a daily struggle to stay alive. "I have come here with no intent of leaving," says Muslimay Durow, a mother of 10 who arrived after a journey of 90 kilometres by foot. "We are waiting here for the mercy of God." As she speaks, her youngest child cries of thirst. She disappears and returns moments later with a small cup of water, which the child gulps gratefully. Even in towns like Dolow, which attracts thousands of displaced people because of the heavy presence of aid organisations, public health care is severely limited. The town itself is a modest grid of dusty streets, where young men sit idly outside shopfronts and wild goats chew on weeds that crowd hillsides. Somali schoolgirls walk home in groups, wearing colourful garbasaar (a religious shawl) as Ethiopian soldiers slouch in the shade of military checkpoints. On the outskirts, the town's airstrip receives daily UN humanitarian flights. The burnt-out wreckage of a jet aircraft registered to Tajikistan lies abandoned along the edge of the apron. Above the terminal entrance, a sheet of white plastic covers the first part of the sign that hangs above that once read 'international airport'. It now reads 'national airport'. At malnourishment clinics, babies cling on for life A short drive away is the town's only stabilisation centre, a specialised clinic set up to treat the severely malnourished. Every morning, Somali women arrive clutching stricken babies, many of them close to death and showing symptoms of diarrhoea, infection or fever. [caption id="attachment_29333" align="aligncenter" width="687"] A baby is measured for severe malnutrition.[/caption] "The situation is very serious at the moment," says Pamela Wesonga, the centre's head of nutrition. Staff use a band slipped over each child's upper arm to measure its circumference. A reading of 11.5 centimetres or less indicates acute malnutrition. Throughout the centre's only room, women lay exhausted in beds as their starving children sleep or cry. Ms Wesonga estimates nine in 10 live in the camps on the town's outskirts. Some of the children have swollen limbs and torsos — symptoms of oedema, a condition developed in the most severe cases of malnutrition. Three times a day, nurses under Ms Wesonga's watch prepare a formula of therapeutic milk to give to the babies — the only thing their weak stomachs can handle. Later, when they're ready, they're given Plumpy'nut, a nutrition-dense supplement that tastes like peanut butter. A whiteboard in the stabilisation centre's office showing the year's patient data tells the story of the drought's effect on children: admissions have more than tripled from 42 in January to 154 in July. "The number of children you see here is just a fraction of the total number who are malnourished in the community," says Shueb Abdishakur Ali, a Somali physician who performs regular check-ups on the patients. "A number of them might actually die within the camps." Source: ABC News

Jessikah Reeves grew up in Brisbane with the PNG side of her family, but it has been a call-up to the Orchids that has helped her realise how much PNG has been a part of her life. The 21-year-old forward, who was a non-playing member of the Brisbane Broncos NRLW squad for the 2021 season, was persuaded to explore representing her PNG heritage by former Brisbane Tigers club teammate, Orchid #42 Angela Watego. Jessikah explains: “My Dad is from Rabaul and grew up there before moving to Australia. When I met Angela playing footy, she encouraged and persuaded me to become more open about my PNG heritage and helped build confidence in me to strive for an Orchids jersey to make my Dad and family proud. “My Grandma (his mother) lives with our family and, growing up in Brisbane, I used to spend time with her and some of her PNG friends. At the time I never realised how much Tok Pisin I was learning, but when I got into camp with the Orchids this year, I couldn’t believe how much I knew already from back then.” Despite having represented Queensland at U18 level, Jessikah says being around her PNG teammates is even more special. “It’s a different kind of love for a team when they’re all from the same place as my family.” Source: Santos PNG Orchids

Papua New Guinean artist, Anslom is breaking barriers and promoting Papua New Guinea through his music. Anslom has been recognised by the Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala, India in partnership with Lazie Indie Magazine. Lazie Indie Magazine is a well-known global organization that promotes independent musicians worldwide including organizing some of the world’s biggest music tourism festivals. The Department of Tourism of the Government of Kerala in India has invited Anslom to perform at the International Independent Music Festival from November 9th to 13th. Anslom’s participation at the music festival in India also coincides with the release of his new single ‘I will love you’ through Canada based record label ‘Big Records’ in association with Sony Music The Orchard. Music tourism is on the rise in South East Asia and the music festival is set to promote the picturesque and culturally rich state of Kerala as a prime tourist destination and will be held near one of the most exotic locations in the world - Kovalam Beach. The five days of music fete brings together the best of the global music community from countries across the world. “It is a first for a Papua New Guinean musical artist to be invited to such a prestigious event and I am honoured by the invitation to represent Papua New Guinea in the music space at this event,” said Anslom. “The event is more than a music festival. While the platform provides a global prospective marketing platform and networking opportunities for artists, it also promotes music, culture and tourism together – a prospect that Papua New Guinea should also embark on,” he added. Anslom will share the stage with 18 musical artists from seven countries including the USA, UK, India, Singapore, Malaysia and Italy cutting across genres like reggae, rock, fusion, Indian rock, hard rock, heavy metal and pop hip pop. “Music can represent a country and it has been a hard long journey to break through the challenges, but we keep pushing on spreading the love and messages through music. The world is discovering the potential in my music. If the global audience enjoys my music, they remember where I come from, they will want to visit my country,” said the international singing sensation who started his musical career singing with the Barike Band in Rabaul, East New Britain Province, since 1993. Anslom will travel to India with producer, musical director and keyboardist Emmanuel Muganaua. Meanwhile, Anslom’s new single “I will love you” from Break The Barrier Extended Playlist (EP) will be out on all digital platforms on 1st November. The “Break The Barrier” EP contains six songs about social issues faced in everyday struggles and challenges in life,” he said. Distributed by Anslom’s record label in America- known as Big Records - in association with Sony Music The Orchard, songs from Break The Barrier EP has been submitted to four feature films for sync licensing. “It is a long challenging road for musical artists in Papua New Guinea. There are so many opportunities that musical artists can leverage on. It’s all about hard work and finding the right collaboration that will see the potential. One thing is for sure - all PNG musicians need to unite and work together to create this access through our alliance. I am so thankful for the wonderful people that see the potential and continue to support my international exposure. Getting an invitation to perform at an international music festival by the Government of Kerala in India, speaks for itself. Music tourism is growing in countries all over the world. There are passionate driven people who share the same vision and collaborate with us because they recognise the role music plays in tourism. This is the beginning of my world tours in association with global known organisations. We hope that our government can recognize and support music tourism. My journey to greater things through music globally has begun,” said Anslom.

At RLWC2017, schoolgirl Gloria Kaupa was the youngest player in the Orchids squad and played just a handful of minutes against New Zealand in the team’s final match of the tournament. But she channeled her disappointment into motivation – and rose to become vice-captain of the team by the time of the 2019 test series against England. It has been a long journey for Goroka-based Gloria, who stars in the internationally released PNG Orchids documentary Power Meri, to persuade her community to support her playing rugby league as a woman (for religious reasons). She says the turning point was the Orchids’ match against England in 2019 in her hometown. “When we played in Goroka, it was the first time half of my church members, as well as my community came to watch…more than 50 people who knew me. After that, they were more supportive and started to take women in rugby league more seriously,” she says. Gloria has taken it upon herself to develop women’s rugby league in Goroka, setting up and player-coaching a new club team each year. “Because women’s rugby league in PNG started in Goroka, more Goroka women should be involved at the highest level, so I want to encourage more girls from Goroka to play and stay in rugby league.” Source: Santos PNG Orchids

FinCorp is evolving their branding, offices and services to meet the growing needs of Papua New Guinea. The refreshed logo, new brand look, and company ethos will be rolled out in a new advertising campaign across all of Papua New Guinea, supported with a totally redesigned website for customer experience - fincorp.com.pg - launched on the 26th October 2022. The new simplified website is designed so customers can navigate and access information about FinCorp finance products, with ease and convience. FinCorp CEO Brett Tayler is excited to be offering a streamlined online experience via the new website. “Our new site will offer users immediate access to a range of product options and online tools. Customers will be able to submit loan applications in minutes and immediately calculate whattheirloan repayments will be and over what timeframes.” Since first opening their doors in 1998, FinCorp has achieved many milestones. Introducing SME loans was one of the first steps forward in 2005; offering this product helped grow a typically underserviced market. FinCorp has also focussed on reducing Personal loan processing times to less than 24 hours reflecting our commitment to improving our customer service; and we will continue to challenge ourselves to further improve this turnaround time. We are committed to lowering our interest rates and as an example, our Fincorp Schoolfee loan interest rates are at the lowest since 2015. FinCorp CEO, Brett Tayler commented, “We’re making education more accessible, because investing in our younger generation is an investment in the future of Papua New Guinea. "As Fincorp transforms, Fincorp will maintain our focus on enhancing our product offerings to meet the developing and future needs of our customers. Our commitment extends to the development of our workforce with a strong focus on capacity development, talent cultivation and harnessing leadership from within. Our goal Is to ensure that our staff grow with us". The new brand reflects the organisations bold plans to move forward with a modern new look as we continue to meet our growing customer needs. Stay tuned for FinCorp’s new brand reveal across TV, radio, social, and press.

The Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary’s Special Operation is soon to commence but for the public, it has been confirmed that there will only be police personnel conducting the operation. Deputy Commissioner of Police Operations Donald Yamasombi has confirmed that no other security personnel from sister forces, the Papua New Guinea Defence Force and Correctional Services of Papua New Guinea, will be engaged to take part in the operation. “No personnel for the DF or CS are engaged in this ops, only police. But, I have special Units of Water Police, Police Bandsmen, Special Services Division and K-9 Units deployed to assist the NCD Operation Units,” Yamasombi said. He further added that this is like having extra boots on the ground and it surely looks like the coming days will see men in blue to be patrolling the city in order to maintain peace and safety for the capital. “It’s really the Police Commander in NCD to take lead, I am supporting him with extra men, at certain strategic locations especially in the evenings. Please, do appreciate the fact that I have men at busy roundabouts, bus stops and shopping areas,” the DCP stated. In light of recent events, such as the fighting at Sabama between the Kirakira villagers and the settlers, police in NCD will be looking to minimize such incidents and deal with them with precise efficiency and foster a friendly relationship with the General Public.

Fiji eventually got the better of a much-improved Scotland 30-14 in their final Group B game, to secure a showdown with New Zealand in next week's quarterfinals. It was a scrappy performance from The Bati, who enjoyed 60 percent of the possession but for the most part failed to put it to good use, making 16 errors to Scotland's 10. The Bravehearts had two players spend time in the sin bin, while Bulldogs-bound forward Viliame Kikau also had 10 minutes off the field for his role in a skirmish. Fiji scored three converted tries in the opening stanza, but leaked a pair of tries which meant they led just 18-8 at the break. In the end Fiji's two converted tries in the second half was enough to see off the spirited Scottish effort, and while the performance leaves plenty to work on for The Bati, they are through to face the Kiwis in the knockout stage.       Source: NRL.com

EU-STREIT PNG joins hands with students and teachers in Sepik region of Papua New Guinea to commemorate ‘EU Climate Diplomacy Weeks’ with a message to promote the use of renewable energy sources to reduce global warming. The EU-STREIT PNG Programme in collaboration with students and teachers from three schools in East Sepik Province marked the Climate Diplomacy Weeks on Friday 21 October 2022 with highlights on the importance, benefits and practical functionality of renewable energy solutions to save the planet from global warming. Led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the EU-STREIT PNG Programme brought together 60 students to take part in learning activities that improved their knowledge and understanding of greenhouse gas emissions that have already increased temperatures and are drying up water sources, raising sea levels and threatening lives and livelihoods around the world including Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Region. Participating schools were Passam National School of Excellence, Nagum Secondary and Hawain Technical High. Explaining the purpose of the EU Climate Diplomacy Weeks’s event and the topic of climate change, the EU-STREIT PNG Programme Coordinator, Dr Xuebing Sun, in his official remarks said: “Extreme weather events like intense rain, dangerous storms and prolonged droughts affecting lives and livelihoods are challenges posed by the climate crisis that can undermine human security and increasing the risks of conflict and instability among other things. Addressing them requires global-level strategic and coordinated response and this is where climate diplomacy comes in.” “Climate diplomacy encompasses the use of diplomatic tools to support the ambition and functioning of the international climate change regime and to attenuate the negative impacts climate change risks pose to peace, stability and prosperity.” He added: “Climate diplomacy also means prioritising climate action with partners worldwide – in diplomatic dialogues, public diplomacy and external policy instruments.” Dr. Sun also told the students and their teachers including the local media to share this message with all, “caring for the environment is not only our responsibility, but also a question of survival, as millions of human beings all over the world including in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific are under threat”. In her intervention, the UNDP Project Manager for Renewable Energy under EU-STREIT PNG, Ms Karen Anawe explained to students how the Programme in partnership with PNG stakeholders is installing mini grid PV Solar Systems in selected remote public facilities like schools and community health centers in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-7 which is “Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy” and UN SDG-13 which is “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”. It was an exciting and fun day for the students who learned the basics as well as the different kinds of renewable energy sources suitable for rural areas/farming communities explained by the Programme’s national experts. A short video was also presented on renewable energy solutions. Female and male students took part in a quiz competition and drawings as well, depicting the benefits of renewable energy for the Planet, Country, Province and Village. To encourage youth involvement along nodes of the agri-food value chains, prizes were awarded to the students/schools by the Programme for their participation: six wheelbarrows, six spades and three 50 meters long shade cloths. The students were also taken on a tour of the Programme’s green/solar-powered office building. “We’re excited to participate in this event because it helps us to understand greenhouse gas emissions and how it affects the environment and our lives,” said a female grade 11 student Joycelyn Siteseneve of Nagum Secondary. The event was equally exciting for teachers. “We’re privilege to attend this EU Diplomacy Weeks’s event here in Wewak. This is an eye-opener and I believe it will be a good learning curve for all schools in East Sepik if all of us could participate,” said Mr Nelson Sangisi of Passam National School of Excellence. Concluding the event, the Programme’s Gender and Youth Inclusion Specialist, Ms Patu Shang in her remarks reminded the youths: “You are the future of tomorrow and we rely on you to develop alternative energy solutions for your villages and households. In the next one year, we look forward to your renewable energy innovative solutions proposals that have been inspired by your presence here today,  we are waiting.” The EU-STREIT PNG Programme as part of its comprehensive packages of interventions to foster sustainable agri-business development in the Sepik, supports development and improvement of renewable energy solutions to create an enabling environment which will embrace development of the three targeted value chains (cocoa, vanilla, and fisheries) that thousands of rural communities in the Sepik Region depend on to sustain their livelihoods. In this framework, the Programme, among other interventions, also works on setting up solar power generation in six select facilities in the Sepik Region to promote awareness of sustainable and renewable energy. The EU-STREIT PNG Programme Office Building in Wewak, currently co-resided by the Programme and provincial agricultural bodies which will be transferred over to the East Sepik Provincial Administration at the end of the Programme, is a good example to showcase how renewable energy solutions – in this case, solar panel generated energy – is an efficient way to provide reliable energy for public, and other private, business and educational facilities. This office building is powered by 189 solar panels, which significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduces the collective dependence of around 90 experts, technicians and extension service officers on fossil fuel and can support staff’s operation for 36 hours. The EU-STREIT PNG Programme, being implemented as a UN Joint Programme (FAO as the leading agency, and ILO, ITU, UNCDF and UNDP as partners), is the largest grant-funded Programme of the European Union in the country and the Pacific region. The Programme aims to help improve the lives of the people from East Sepik and Sandaun provinces, by focusing on increasing sustainable and inclusive economic development of rural areas through improved economic returns and opportunities from cocoa, vanilla and fishery value chains while strengthening and improving the efficiency of value chain enablers, including the business environment, and supporting sustainable, climate-proof transport and energy infrastructure development.

At least 146 people have been killed and more than 150 injured after being crushed by a large crowd pushing forward on a narrow street during Halloween festivities in the capital Seoul, South Korean officials say. Choi Seong-beom, chief of Seoul’s Yongsan fire department, said the death toll could rise as emergency workers were continuing to transport the injured to hospitals. He said many of the dead had been sent to hospitals while the bodies of the remaining 46 were still on the streets in the leisure district of Itaewon on Saturday night. Officials said it was believed people were crushed to death after a large crowd began pushing forward in a narrow alley near Hamilton Hotel, a major party spot in Seoul. The incident took place at about 10:20pm local time. [caption id="attachment_29309" align="aligncenter" width="691"] Many of the victims were women in their 20s[/caption] A large number of people fell down in the alley during the festivities, Mr Choi said, with many of the party-goers wearing masks and Halloween costumes. Many of the victims were women in their 20s, Mr Choi said. Officials from the National Fire Agency and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety earlier said about 100 were injured and about 50 were being treated for cardiac arrest as of early Sunday. More than 400 emergency workers and 140 vehicles from around the nation, including all available personnel in Seoul, were deployed to the streets to treat the injured. The National Fire Agency separately said in a statement that officials were still trying to determine the exact number of emergency patients. Foreigners were among those transferred to nearby hospitals. Chaotic scenes TV footage and photos from the scene showed ambulance vehicles lined up in streets amid a heavy police presence and emergency workers moving the injured in stretchers. Emergency workers and pedestrians were also seen performing CPR on people lying in the streets. In one section, paramedics were seen checking on at least a dozen people who lying motionless under blue blankets. Police, who were restricting traffic in nearby areas to speed up the transportation of the injured to hospitals across the city, also confirmed that dozens of people were being given CPR on Itaewon streets. The Seoul metropolitan government issued emergency text messages urging people in the area to swiftly return home. Some local media reports said the crush happened after a large number of people rushed to an Itaewon bar after hearing an unidentified celebrity visited there. One eyewitness said a makeshift morgue was set up in a building adjacent to the scene. About four dozen bodies were carried out later on wheeled stretchers and moved to a government facility to identify the victims, according to the witness. [caption id="attachment_29310" align="aligncenter" width="694"] It was the first Halloween event in three years after the country lifted COVID restrictions and social distancing.[/caption] Largest gathering since COVID Local media said about 100,000 people flocked to Itaewon streets for the Halloween festivities, which were the biggest since the start of the pandemic following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in recent months. It was the first Halloween event in three years. Some witnesses described the crowd becoming increasingly unruly and agitated as the evening deepened. The Itaewon district is popular with young South Koreans and expatriates alike. Its dozens of bars and restaurants were packed on Saturday for Halloween after businesses had suffered a sharp decline over three years of the pandemic. Curfew on bars and restaurants and a limit of 10 people for private gatherings were lifted in April. An outdoor mask mandate was dropped in May. [caption id="attachment_29312" align="aligncenter" width="710"] Emergency services arrive after more than 140 killed during Seoul crowd surge[/caption] President Yoon Suk-yeol presided over an emergency meeting with senior aides. "The area is still chaotic so we are still trying to figure out the exact number of people injured," said Moon Hyun-joo, an official at the National Fire Agency. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol issued a statement calling for officials to ensure swift treatment for those injured and review the safety of the festivity sites. He also instructed the Health Ministry to swiftly deploy disaster medical assistance teams and secure beds in nearby hospitals to treat the injured. Source: ABC News

Biosecurity and plant protection officers, development partners, Ministry of Agriculture representatives and IT experts came together in Nadi, Fiji, this week to train on electronic phytosanitary (ePhyto) certificates. The training represents a crucial step forward to improve agricultural trade facilitation and safeguard regional food security. The event was funded by the Australian and New Zealand Governments through the Regional ePhyto project and supported by the European Union through the Pacific Community (SPC) implemented Safe Agricultural Trade Facilitation through Economic Integration in the Pacific (SAFE Pacific) project. The ePhyto certificate is the electronic equivalent of a paper phytosanitary certificate issued to indicate that export consignments of plants, plant products or other regulated articles meet specified import requirements. The certification ensures the continuity of trade despite travel and shipping limitations. It also improves trade efficiency by reducing the time and cost of sending paper certificates from country to country. "The International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) ePhyto initiative comes at a crucial time when our members are faced with different dilemmas as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This platform will ensure that members are kept connected, that challenges are shared, advice is being sought out and that information and guidance are being provided by the entire Pacific Plant Protection Organisation (PPPO),” said SPC’s Land Resources Division Director Karen Mapusua at the opening event. The training taught participants about new developments in ePhyto and shared implementation experiences from different countries. Participants also checked their newly learned ePhyto skills by sending test certificates to other countries during the workshop to gain hands-on experience using the Generic ePhyto National System (GeNs) portal. GeNS is a centralised web-based system used to create, send and receive ePhytos between the National Plant Protection Organisations (NPPOs) of two trading countries through the IPPC Hub. “ePhyto enables governments to share phytosanitary data well before a commodity’s arrival. As a result, importing countries save time in determining compliance and can address any biosecurity or documentary issues directly with the exporting authority. This will help to pre-plan their inspections, logistics and testing,” said PPPO’s Vice Chair Mr. Nacanieli Waqa. The ePhyto Solution leads to better regulation of plant exports and imports across the Pacific region and provides efficient market access opportunities at a reduced operational cost. “Developing countries in the Pacific are often at a disadvantage when it comes to adopting technological advances, and continue to rely on paper certificates,” said Mr Waqa. “Many Pacific countries share common hurdles such as funding, infrastructure, personnel and training. The successful implementation of GeNS in the Pacific will result in a consolidated approach by Australia and New Zealand to support the ePhyto Solution.” Key development partners working in collaboration to implement the ePhyto Solution in the region include the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation (GATF), World Bank Group (WBG) and PACER Plus. A number of countries such as Argentina, Chile, Fiji, Ghana, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Samoa and USA are already operating the system to transmit phytosanitary certificates safely. As part of the training, a field trip was organised to the Sigatoka valley to attend the launch of the first Tahitian lime export from Fiji to New Zealand. In addition,  participants had the opportunity to follow the process from production to the ePhyto issuance phase. Mr. Waqa concluded that the improved ePhyto implementation plan recognises and reflects on the importance of regional coordination, identifies synergies and operates in a complementary way for better delivery of activities that address Pacific country and territory needs.