Premiership-winning Panthers Jarome Luai and Brian To'o carved Greece to bits as Samoa claimed a comprehensive 72-4 victory to put their World Cup campaign back on track. Eight days on from being humbled by England in a 60-6 loss, Samoa piled on the points in Doncaster, with Luai setting up five tries on his way to player of the match honours, while To'o had a colossal 370 run metres, with 17 tackle busts thrown in for good measure. Samoa led 42-0 at the break, and the game was effectively over within the first 20 minutes, with Samoa 12-0 by the time Greece touched the ball for the first time. The Matt Parish-coached side ran for 2409 metres, while restricting Greece to 847, with 75 tackle breaks across the 80 minutes. The win means Samoa will advance to the quarterfinals if they can beat France in their final group game, something which had looked far from certain after they were trounced by England first up.

Distribution of the Government’s tuition fee free education commodity component for schools in the Rabaul District of East New Britain province was rolled out last week. It contains teaching and learning materials for students. They include exercise books, pencils, ball-point pens, rulers, sharpeners and erasers. The kits are packed differently to meet the needs of students from primary to high schools. Rabaul District Administrator, Benedict Mode said today that distribution of the basic learning materials which comes under the support of commodity component kicked off on Monday (Oct 17) and was successfully distributed to the 54 schools in the district by the supplier JJH Seeto. He commended the district education sector for facilitating this important exercise. Since early this week, principals and head teachers were witnessed picking up their truckloads of materials at the JJH Seeto warehouse in Rabaul town. The schools that took delivery of the education materials are Boisen Seondary School, Malaguna Techincal Secondary School, the 17 primary schools and 35 elementary schools. The materials can be able to sustain the schools next year. Meantime, District Education Coordinator Markus Tipepe, said Grade 8 examinations papers were picked up yesterday (Wed) from Kalamanagunan Primary School in Kokopo and delivered to the 16 primary schools in Rabaul in preparation for the National Examinations next week. Last week also saw Grade 12 students at the district’s only two secondary schools- Boisen Secondary School and Malaguna Technical Secondary School sit for their Grade 12 examinations.  

Prime Minister James Marape has congratulated ExxonMobil on its 100 years in Papua New Guinea and says the company is welcome to stay on for another 100 years. He said this when addressing ExxonMobil’s 100th Anniversary Dinner in Port Moresby on Saturday night, which was also attended by Ministers, Governors, MPs, members of the business community and senior executives of ExxonMobil. PM Marape said he had attended ExxonMobil’s 100 anniversary and asked the company to be around for PNG’s 100th anniversary, and hopefully by then, ExxonMobil in partnership with Government had contributed to a better-developed PNG. “Tonight is worth celebrating,” PM Marape said. “One hundred years is a huge milestone, and not just any ordinary company but a global Triple A-rated company and global leader, to have 100 years of unbroken business and service to PNG. “I am duty-bound to thank you on behalf of all Papua New Guineans - past, present and future – for choosing PNG as an investment destination.” PM Marape said ExxonMobil had started from humble beginnings in Rabaul in 1922 and had grown with PNG over the last 100 years. “Your investment in the PNG LNG Project is testament to the fact that PNG, despite many of the headline negativities, remains a vibrant place for consistent presence of businesses,” he said. “ExxonMobil has shown that PNG is a place to do business, and can be a place to do business. “Today, I stand as leader of this nation of a thousand tribes, to thank you and point ExxonMobil to us living together for the next 100 years. “Why not? Yes, we can.” PM Marape said PNG was now moving into an exciting new phase of LNG developments with Papua, P’nyang and others, and goalposts set with investors would remain fixed. He was pleased that Total, the biggest energy company in the world and operator of Papua LNG, was also present for the occasion. “Together with Total, and Exxon Mobil, our participation in the petro-chemical business is set and secured going forward,” PM Marape said. He thanked buyers of PNG LNG in Japan, China and Taiwan for being regular customers since first exports in 2014. “We have other LNG projects that are being lined up and we look forward to more buyers coming onboard,” PM Marape said. PM Marape also thanked ExxonMobil for employing Papua New Guineans in key positions within the company, making available spin-off businesses for nationals and landowners, for paying taxes, and for continued foreign direct investments such as in Papua and Pn’yang. “We look forward to going into the future with you, as you continue to partner us, and to make Papua New Guinea a better place,” he said.

A 10-year-old girl from Inverness has become one of the youngest people to conquer all 282 Munros in Scotland. Quinn Young began the challenge with her dad Ian when she was just four years old. She climbed Ben Nevis shortly before turning five. She told BBC Scotland: "I feel proud of myself, but also a little upset because the adventure with my dad's kind of finished." Munros are Scottish peaks of more than 3,000ft (914m). Quinn wanted to complete her 'Munro bagging' challenge before she finished primary school. She said: "It's a big deal because it's something I've been doing with my dad since I was four. "Sometimes when the weather was bad I thought 'why are we up here?'. "I didn't know if I could stand up but I managed to." Quinn carries her own food, water, waterproofs and other equipment - topping up water in streams as they walk. Dad Ian said: "The encouragement from other people was absolutely fantastic, when this young little toot is walking up there. "Quinn hit 100 Munros last August and she wanted to finish before she finished primary school. "She took them all in her stride, there was never any complaints when we were out, even in winter." Ian said there were never any "massively hairy moments" and they always assessed safety, turning back if they had to. "The hills are always there, we kept it safe," he said. "It was a great adventure and just about going at her pace. "It's an amazing opportunity we have living up here in the Highlands." The phenomenon known as Munro bagging was inspired by Sir Hugh Munro. Munro, whose family were Scottish landowners, was born in London in 1856 and brought up at Lindertis near Kirriemuir in Angus. While studying in Germany, he climbed in the Alps and continued his interest in climbing when he settled at the family estate in Scotland. Sir Hugh was a founder and president of the Scottish Mountaineering Club which set him the task of listing all the country's hills of 3,000ft or more. According to the Munro Society, he was the ideal choice because of his meticulous record-keeping, enthusiasm for work in the outdoors and fascination with mountain landscapes. His table, comprising 283 separate mountains, was published in the club's journal in September 1891. Over the years, the list has both grown and shrunk as new measurements have been taken - the most recent revision found Beinn a'Chlaidheimh in Fisherfield to be just under 3,000ft. The current total stands at 282. Sir Hugh never managed to climb all the peaks on his original list. Three summits are thought to have eluded him. In 1919 he died of pneumonia at the age of 63, while running a canteen for soldiers in France. Source: BBC News                                                                                              

Towards the end of the 1985 sci-fi classic "Back to the Future," the archetypal mad inventor Doc Brown announces "where we're going, we don't need roads" as the time-travelling DeLorean lifts into the air. Whilst flying cars aren't yet filling our skies, a number are in development. Last week the Chinese XPeng X2 successfully completed the first public test flight of its two-seater flying car at GITEX technology expo in Dubai -- and it even shares the DeLorean's famous gull-wing door design. The XPeng X2 lifts vertically off the ground using eight propellers, without need for a runway and is therefore suitable for built-up urban areas. The vehicle, designed to carry two passengers, is fully electric and its makers say it can rise through the air at around two meters per second and reach speeds of up to 80 miles per hour. Although the test flight lasted just 90 seconds, according to Liu Xinyin, chief aviation specialist at XPeng Aeroht, the technology is close to being ready for public use, but regulations around flying cars are still some way off. XPeng plans to work with governments to establish a physical regulatory infrastructure for flying cars in urban areas, and Liu believes that people will be able to use the flying cars within limited regulated spaces in just five years. This lines up pretty well with ambitious plans from the Chinese government to launch flying taxis by 2025. If flying wasn't futuristic enough, the XPeng X2 is equipped with AI automation -- it can be driven manually or it can be set to self-drive. "It learns how to avoid traffic, avoid buildings and people," says Liu. The self-driving elements pose further difficulties with regulation, and also throw into question public acceptance. Many people are still concerned with safety issues around self-driving cars on the ground, let alone vehicles that are zooming around above their heads. However, XPeng says it's safer for its flying car is to be self-driving than to be driven by a human. There are dozens of flying cars currently in development around the world, and many of them actually fly, like Canadian firm Opener's "BlackFly," SkyDrive Inc's "SD-03" and Klein Vision's prototype "AirCar" -- which made a successful 35-minute test-flight between two cities in Slovakia last year. The benefits of flying cars like the XPeng X2 are further reaching than just realizing wild pop-culture dreams. Advocates say flying cars could revolutionize urban transport, making roads less busy and therefore safer for pedestrians and cyclists, and for electric vehicles like the XPeng X2, also reduce carbon emissions. Source: CNN

The Solomon Islands Secretary to the Prime Minister is defending a $US308,000 trip to the UN General Assembly. Dr Jimmy Rodgers told local media the money was worth spending because government 'got all the agendas brought up at global level.' Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs Collin Beck added the cost of the trip is small compared to its benefit. The Solomon Star obtained documents listing charges of the trip. The Solomon Star obtained details of the types of hotels used, and daily rates for each hotel in Australia, New York, and the Pacific Leaders' Summit with US President Joe Biden in Washington DC as well as a five-day transit in Singapore. The 12-member delegation including Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and his wife spent seven nights in Brisbane on the way to New York costing $US24, 500. There were nine nights at the Westin Hotel in New York and five nights at the Hotel Washington, coming to $49,000. On its return, the delegation flew back via Singapore where members spent five nights at the Hilton Orchard. The bill for this was $US17, 500. According to a memo, the government was only springing for accommodation and other provisions, including hosting official dinners, transit and local transportation costs and gifts. The memo said travel and per diems for the delegation were met by the Honiara-based South Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency.   Source: Radio New Zealand

Indian vaccine maker Serum Institute of India (SII) has said it had to dump 100 million doses of their Covid-19 vaccine after they expired. The firm stopped producing Covishield in December last year due to low demand, CEO Adar Poonawalla said on Thursday. SII, the world's largest vaccine maker, has been making the local version of AstraZeneca's Vaxzevria jab. Covishield accounts for over 90% of the doses given in India. India has administered over two billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines. More than 70% of the Indian population has taken at least two doses, according to the federal health ministry. In January 2022, India began giving boosters to healthcare and frontline workers, and those above 60 years with comorbidities. It was later expanded to all adults. In July, free booster doses - or precaution doses as the government calls it - were provided to all adults for 75 days to mark 75 years of India's independence. But so far, India has administered just 298 million booster doses, according to the health ministry. "The booster vaccines have no demand as people now seem fed up with Covid," Mr Poonawala told reporters on Thursday. "Honestly, I'm also fed up. We all are." According to Mr Poonawala, the SII had around 100 million doses of Covishield in stock. The vaccines - which have a shelf life of nine months - expired in September this year. The CEO was speaking on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN) in the western Indian city of Pune. "Going forward, when people take a flu shot every year, they may take a Covid vaccine along with it," Mr Poonawala said. "But in India, there is no culture of taking a flu shot every year, like in the West." Meanwhile, Mr Poonawala said the SII had completed trials for the Covid vaccine Covovax as a booster dose. The company expects the vaccine to get approval within the next two weeks. It has also partnered with the US biotech company Novavax for an Omicron-specific booster, he said.   Source: BBC News

A first half double from departing Panthers forward Viliame Kikau and a second half double from Eels winger Maika Sivo has paved the way for a dominant Fiji to secure their first victory of this year's World Cup with a 60-4 win over Italy. After going down against Australia in their opening game of the World Cup, the Bati raced out of the blocks against the Azzurri with three tries in the opening 15 minutes paving the way for one of Fiji's biggest ever wins on the international stage. Kikau was one of many who shone in the first half blitz by Fiji, bagging his first international double since 2019, while young fullback Sunia Turuva continued to show his bright future with a number of impressive touches. The result puts Fiji in the box seat for a spot in the knockout rounds, with Joe Dakuitoga's side needing to defeat Scotland to progress through to the quarterfinals should Australia do the job as expected against Italy in the other pool match. Having gone into the match with plenty of confidence after their opening round win over Scotland, Italy were made to pay for an ill-disciplined start to the contest with errors directly leading to points for all of Fiji's first three tries. A dropped bomb from Brandon Wakeham allowed Kikau to open the scoring after eight minutes before an error from dummy half moments later allowed captain Kevin Naiqama to scoop up a loose pass and run 50 metres to double the Bati's lead. Penioni Tagituimua made it three tries in six minutes for Fiji when he crossed from dummy half in the 14th minute after Jake Maizen was taken into touch, before Kikau grabbed a second shortly after to blow the scoreline out to 24-0. Such was Fiji's dominance that Italy only recorded their first play-the-ball in their opponents' 20-metre line in the 31st minute — an attack that was quickly nullified by the defensive work of Turuva in dealing with a kick in behind. Another departing Panther in Apisai Koroisau made it 30-0 just before the break as a sustained spell of pressure led to more points from Fiji, before turning provider early in the second half to set up tries for both Tagituimua and Ben Nakubuwai. Jake Maizen gave Italian fans something to cheer about when he showed good awareness to narrowly ground the ball in the in-goal in the 55th minute, with his fourth try of this year's World Cup eventually putting the Azzurri on the board. However, Fiji quickly returned to normal service shortly after, with Kikau and Sivo continuing to cause havoc on the left wing as the Eels winger secured his second try of the game after a delightful late offload from the forward. After registering four direct try involvements, Kikau was given an early mark with the result all but confirmed — smiling alongside five-eighth Brandon Wakeham on the sidelines for the final 20 minutes as Taniela Sadrugu's late effort ensured Fiji would run out comfortable winners in the end. Source: NRL.com

Her rise to power at the head of the party she founded has been meteoric, but Giorgia Meloni has been politically active since she was a teenage activist in a neo-fascist party's youth wing in Rome. Now at 45 she has accepted the role of Italy's first female prime minister, although she has picked a government in which only one in four ministers are women. Meloni has come to power partly by fortune. Her Brothers of Italy party was one of very few that chose not to join Mario Draghi's national unity government and she became a solitary opposition voice. Although she has led her party for 10 years, her experience in government is limited to a spell as Italy's youngest minister in the Berlusconi government from 2008-11. Her party won the September 2022 elections with 26% of the vote, even though it had polled only 4.3% four years earlier. "Italians have sent a clear message in favour of a right-wing government led by Brothers of Italy," she declared after her election win. With her partners from the far-right League and centre-right of ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, she has a strong majority to steer through her programme. A clue to her priorities came in a typically raucous speech she gave in Spain last June. "Yes to the natural family, no to the LGBT lobby, yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology... no to Islamist violence, yes to secure borders, no to mass migration... no to big international finance... no to the bureaucrats of Brussels!" In another well-quoted speech from 2019 she said: "I am Giorgia, I'm a woman, I'm a mother... I'm Christian." For the role of Italy's new family and birth rate minister, she has picked Eugenia Roccella who has spoken out against abortion and threatened to reverse recently agreed rights for same-sex parents. Nevertheless, the new prime minister has promised to govern "for everyone" and she has sought to assure Italy's allies in both Nato and the European Union that there will be no change in direction in foreign policy. An important point as both Matteo Salvini who heads the League and Silvio Berlusconi have been strong admirers of Russia's Vladimir Putin. "Giorgia Meloni comes from a post-fascist cultural background but recently she's taken a very moderate position and stated she won't change [predecessor Mario] Draghi's policy on Ukraine," Italian political scientist Prof Roberto D'Alimonte told the BBC. "She did this because she had to build her credentials to be a legitimate candidate for prime minister." Giorgia Meloni hails from Garbatella in southern Rome, a working class but up-and-coming area. It isn't easy to find many Brothers of Italy voters in this district seen traditionally as left of centre. Raised by her mother, after her parents separated, she gravitated to the youth wing of the Italian Social Movement, born out of the ashes of Benito Mussolini's wartime fascists. Aged 19, she was filmed as a party activist in 1996. "I think Mussolini was a good politician. Everything he did, he did for Italy. And we haven't had any politicians like that in the past 50 years," she told French TV. The piece even had a clip of her mother, Anna Paratore, saying she had not sought to push her own far-right views on her daughter. Giorgia Meloni later headed the student branch of the movement's successor, National Alliance. At the age of 11 she discovered Tolkien's fantasy classic, Lord of the Rings, and regularly dressed up as a Hobbit. The book was to influence her political career too. When she became youth minister in 2008 she posed for a magazine beside a statue of Gandalf, one of five wizard's in Tolkien's book. She even referenced a Tolkien battle speech at the end of her election campaign. "I think that Tolkien could say better than we can what conservatives believe in," she recently told the New York Times. Meloni is adamant that the party she formed in 2012 has no links to fascism, but some of its members appear to hold a candle for Mussolini and it retains an old logo of the tricolour flame, often thought to represent the fire on Mussolini's tomb. The new Senate speaker, Ignazio La Russa, collects fascist memorabilia and his brother was seen making what appeared to be a fascist salute at a funeral. "The hard core of the party is still far right, yet the new voters who backed Meloni are not," says Prof D'Alimonte. He believes the new prime minister is taking Brothers of Italy into uncharted territory and needs to give it a new profile. That may require a more moderate approach than she and her allies would naturally adopt. Meloni may have picked an anti-abortion minister but she has promised to fully enforce the law that protects access to abortion. Same-sex couples have fewer rights in Italy than many other European countries, and Meloni has no plans to overturn existing laws. But she has spoken out against adoptions and surrogacy involving LGBT couples. For now her coalition appears united. One look at the make-up of Italy's two houses of parliament shows the strong majority she has been able to muster with her own party backed by Forza Italia and the League. The centre and left parties failed to find enough common ground to challenge her bid for power. But that unity may not last. Forza Italia in particular could become an awkward ally, with veteran ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi consigned to little more than a walk-on part. Italian media seized on a scrap of paper in parliament on which he appeared to label Meloni as "patronising, bossy, arrogant, offensive", and with the word ridiculous scribbled out. He also wrote that there was "no willingness to change - she's one you can't get along with". Berlusconi had wanted the plum Senate job for his top aide Licia Ronzulli but the Brothers of Italy leader had refused. The two women are described as bitter enemies, which does not bode well for the future. Source: BBC News

A huge blaze has engulfed a train line and homes in Aguascalientes, central Mexico, after a fuel truck crash. Dramatic video of the fire went viral on social media, including aerial shots of black smoke blanketing a large area of the city. One video showed a cargo train hurtling through flames. Mexico's El Universal website says more than 1,500 people were evacuated. Some homes and cars were gutted by fire. There are no reports of deaths, but several people were taken to hospital. Police have detained the truck driver. A Facebook post by Mayor Leo Montañez speaks of 300 homes in the crash area, 120 of which have been damaged. It is not clear exactly how the crash happened. Initial reports said the truck had collided with a train, but Reuters news agency now says the truck hit an overpass. State oil firm Pemex has denied owning the truck, and says it is helping efforts to contain the fire. Some 200 firefighters are trying to contain the blaze, El Universal reports. One video shot from a car parked nearby showed a long cargo train passing through flames on both sides of the track. Source: BBC News

An investigation was initially launched by US authorities in 2019.A hacker who stole two unreleased songs from Ed Sheeran and sold them on the dark web has been jailed for 18 months. Adrian Kwiatkowski traded the music by Sheeran and 12 songs by rapper Lil Uzi Vert in exchange for cryptocurrency. The 23-year-old, from Ipswich, managed to get hold of them after hacking the performers' digital accounts, the Crown Prosecution Service said. Kwiatkowski admitted 19 charges, including copyright infringement and possessing criminal property. He had made £131,000 from the music, City of London Police said. Ipswich Crown Court heard that when the defendant's Apple Mac laptop was searched, 565 audio files, including the songs by Sheeran and Vert, were uncovered. An investigation was initially launched by US authorities in 2019. It came after the management of several musicians reported to the New York District Attorney that someone known online as Spirdark had hacked a number of accounts and was selling the content. The investigation linked the email address used to set up Spirdark's cryptocurrency account to Kwiatkowski. His home address in the UK was also linked to an IP address used to hack one of the devices. The case was then referred to the City of London Police and Kwiatkowski was arrested in September 2019. According to police, seven devices, including a hard drive that contained 1,263 unreleased songs by 89 artists, were seized. A document saved on the hard drive summarised the method he had used to obtain them along with a stash of Bitcoin which was seized. Chief crown prosecutor Joanne Jakymec said Kwiatkowski had "complete disregard" for the musicians' creativity, hard work and lost earnings. "He selfishly stole their music to make money for himself by selling it on the dark web," she said. "We will be pursuing ill-gotten gains from these proceeds of crime." In August, Kwiatkowski pleaded guilty at Ipswich Magistrates Court to three charges of unauthorised access to computer material, 14 charges of selling copyrighted material, one charge of converting criminal property and two charges of possession of criminal property. He also admitted receiving bitcoin cryptocurrency for the songs. Detective Constable Daryl Fryatt said Kwiatkowski was highly skilled but it was unfortunate he used his talents unlawfully. "Not only did he cause several artists and their production companies significant financial harm, he deprived them of the ability to release their own work," he added. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr said the case showed "cybercrime knows no borders". "This individual executed a complex scheme to steal unreleased music in order to line his own pockets," he said.   Source: BBC News

Commissioner of Police, David Manning, has directed RPNGC Deputy Commissioner of Operations, Anton Billie, to investigate allegations that the owner of a business in Banz, Western Highlands, was attending his public store wearing a police uniform. A video of the man has also been circulated on social media and this has prompted further questions from the public. Mr Manning said, “DCP Ops (Deputy Commissioner Operations) has reported to me that the man had no legitimate reason to be wearing a police uniform at the time he was seen in public. “The man has been identified and had the right to have his explanation heard, however he could offer no plausible reason for him purporting to be executing official police duties when he had no authority to do so. “Based on the evidence before me, this person will now be charged with a series of disciplinary and criminal offences likely under the Police Act and the Criminal Code. “Through this disciplinary process, that comes with penalties including fines, his purported appointment in the Reserve Constabulary will be subject to further investigations, and criminal charges filed.” Commissioner Manning said the incident serves as a warning to any member of the Reserve Constabulary that they are bound by a code of conduct and disciplinary measures, and these are being enforced. “Reservists around the country were stood down following the elections, after they had completed their appointed roles. The only Reserve personnel who are performing official tasks now are RPNGC specifically trained and approved reserves. “All other Reservists require formal authorization from the Office of the Commissioner of Police in order for them to wear a uniform or carry out policing tasks. “The RPNCG has undertaken a program to reform the Constabulary Reserve that included standing down most Reservists soon after I was appointed Commissioner. “Since then, we have been building the ranks of the Reserves, with appropriate training and understanding of their constitutional duties and responsibilities."  The Commissioner concluded by noting the success of the PRNGC Reservist recruitment program from 2021 has provided a number of quality new recruits who served the country diligently during the recent National General Election.