The Rabbitohs are through to the preliminary final for the fifth year in a row, setting up a rematch of last year's NRL Grand Final against the Panthers next weekend, after beating the Sharks 38-12 on Saturday night, Just six days after a brutal clash with the Roosters in Finals Week 1, South Sydney were a step above their opponents at Allianz Stadium, showing both impressive grit in defence and patience with ball in hand. Winger Taane Milne was a key contributor, scoring two tries and setting another up, while the accurate boot of Latrell Mitchell was important too, with the fullback converting all six of his side's tries and kicking a late penalty. The loss came at a cost though, with record-breaking winger Alex Johnston failing to finish the game due to a suspected hip flexor issue and forwards Siliva Havili (calf) and Jai Arrow (groin) being ruled out as well. After getting off to a flying start with a try inside the opening two minutes, South Sydney spent much of the opening 20 minutes defending their line, as Cronulla dominated possession but failed to find a way through. And after weathering the storm as the game flowed from end to end, Jason Demetriou's side struck two telling blows inside the final 10 minutes of the first half. Milne scored out wide after some crisp quick hands inside created space, before Cameron Murray powered through a would-be tackle from Dale Finucane to score under the posts, with Mitchell converting all three of his side's tries for an 18-0 lead. Cronulla scored immediately in the second stanza, with winger Ronaldo Mulitalo batting the ball down for his Kiwis teammate Briton Nikora to score, but Lachlan Ilias quickly cancelled it out with one of his own at the other end. The NRL Bunker ruled out a possible second for the Sharks after finding an infringement in the lead up to Jesse Ramien crossing, before both sides traded tries which left the the Rabbitohs in front 30-12 with 15 minutes to play. A second for Milne, along with a Mitchell penalty, finished the game at 38-12.

A diplomat from Papua New Guinea allegedly assaulted his wife and an employee in an apparent drunken rage at a Taipei City restaurant last month. At 5 p.m. a 44-year-old man who works as a secretary at the Papua New Guinea representative office in Taiwan took part in a dinner party with his fellow staff members at a restaurant in Taipei's Zhongshan District on Aug. 12. After a long night of heavy drinking, the diplomat at 4 a.m. got into a heated argument with his wife and began to smash her head with several glass beer mugs, reported SET News. When a male employee surnamed Liao tried to intervene to protect the woman, the diplomat waved the broken beer mug at him before throwing it at Liao. As the worker tried to shield himself, he suffered a laceration to his left arm that required six stitches. It was not until other bystanders joined in with Liao that they were finally able to restrain the diplomat on a pool table. Liao had four or five abrasions to his upper chest during the struggle with the assailant. When police arrived on the scene, they took the diplomat into custody at a nearby station. After the incident, the suspect reportedly refused to apologize to Liao, who has since filed a lawsuit for his injuries suffered. Liao told SET News that the assailant's wife suffered trauma to the back of her head and temples and appeared to lose consciousness and was unable to speak on the day of the assault. She has since reportedly declined to press charges against her husband. The suspect has served as a diplomat for Papua New Guinea in Taiwan for over 10 years and in 2018 was arrested for driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.58, reported Next TV. Although he claimed diplomatic immunity, a Taiwan court ordered him to pay a fine of NT$75,000.   Source: Taiwan News

Huon Gulf District MP and minister for Community Development, Youth and Religious Jason Peter visited the Erap Gabmazum cluster primary school's expo yesterday during the 47th independence day celebrations. This was part of his visit to schools and communities to get first hand information and the status of how basic public services are operating in his electorate. He spent an hour greeted students, teachers and parents around Erap Primary school campus before taking the stage. He was welcomed by a traditional singsing group from Erap Primary school. His message to the students, teachers and parents was to work hard and work together as a team to change education status in the district to produce competitive human resources in Papua New Guinea. On his speech, he has promised to support by funding the cluster primary schools expo in Wampar LLG and eventually to fund the other schools in the district run similar event. He was really convinced on the cluster primary schools expo staged as first of its kind event in his district. He has also promised to build a high school for Wampar LLG area. He stated that under his leadership, he is planning to build an advanced education system in his electorate which the high school would be part of the work to deliver. Jason said the plan to build the high school will be a priority. He continued on with his visit after spending three hours at the school's expo.

Former soccer player David Beckham has queued for 12 hours to see the Queen lying in state in London. Speaking from the line to see the late monarch at Westminster Hall, Beckham said it was an experience "meant to be shared". "We all want to be here together, we all want to experience something where we celebrate the amazing life of our Queen and I think something like this today is meant to be shared together," Beckham told the BBC. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder and England captain told ITV News he joined the line at about 2am local time. The wait time in the queue had increased to at least 19-and-a-half hours by 10:30pm, local time. "I grew up in a household of royalists, if my grandparents would have been here today I know they would have wanted to be here, so I'm here on their behalf," Beckham said. A woman queuing with Beckham said "big respect to him, he's stood with us and he's paid his respects how he wants to". Asked by a reporter if the long wait had affected his knees, Beckham replied, "knees are OK, it's the back". Later inside Westminster Hall, BBC footage showed Beckham sombrely bow his head as he paused at the coffin. The Queen's closed coffin will remain at Westminster Hall until the morning of the state funeral.

Prime Minister James Marape yesterday put a verbal invitation to Papua New Guinea’s Head of State, His Majesty King Charles III,  to officiate at the country’s 50th Independence Anniversary in three years’ time. In a delightful conversation that demonstrated the King’s familiarity and fondness of PNG, King Charles replied to the invitation by saying he “should have to brush up my Pidgin to be sure” and that “I hold Papua New Guinea very much in my heart”. The telephone conversation is a precursor to the in-person meeting the King will soon have with the Prime Minister as part of the events marking the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. It was made by the King directly to the Prime Minister to advise him of the change in meeting dates from 16th to 17th September between the two leaders. As Prime Minister Marape met his staff of the PNG High Commission office in London over a small ‘kaikai’ to mark his arrival in the UK and PNG’s Independence Anniversary, the call was put through from Buckingham Palace to him. Here is an excerpt of the transcript: PMJM: It is not a good time to talk to you now, in the passing of our Queen. But I am happy that you have visited Papua New Guinea four times. We are very fond of you. It is a sad time that you have taken the throne, and I am here to witness your ascension as well as be part of the occasion where we lay your mother, our beloved Queen, to rest. KCIII: It is so good of you to come all the way with your being busy with so many other things. I heard you had a terrible earthquake. PMJM: Yes, we had an earthquake. But our Queen is the Head of State of Papua New Guinea. You were there 47 years ago when we gained Independence and it is really an honour and privilege to represent your people in Papua New Guinea to mark both Her Majesty’s passing and Your Majesty’s ascension to the throne. KCIII: It gives me great comfort and reassurance to know you and other members will be here to mark this great sorrow we all face. And as you say, I have particularly fond memories of being in Papua New Guinea. I cannot thank you enough for the kind and wonderful tribute that you and others have made to the Queen. It is truly touching to me to hear and read what people have been saying. Thank you. PMJM: Your Majesty, the privilege is ours. She served us very well in the last 70 years she was on the throne. For PNG, the last 47 years; we remember very well your coming to Port Moresby on 16th September 1975. Well, it is 16th September 2022 as I am talking to you as the King of Papua New Guinea, the Commonwealth and her realms. KCIII: I shall do my utmost best for you all. I know the kind of challenges you face – climate change and global warming. We must find ways; we have to tackle it. I look forward to having a word with you, hopefully, in a day or two. In the meantime, thank you so much for your kindness. I am very touched. PMJM: Your Majesty, if you don’t mind. In three years’ time, your country Papua New Guinea will be celebrating 50 years of Independence. I would like to, on behalf of your people in PNG, place a call to you, if you can be our chief guest on that occasion. I know you are a very busy man but if Your Majesty can be gracious enough to be with us in Papua New Guinea. KCIII: That’s so kind of you, I shall see what I can do. I should have to brush up my Pidgin to make sure. But many, many thanks and my kindest thoughts and wishes to you. I absolutely love Papua New Guinea, which I hold very much in my heart.

The Eels have dominated the Raiders to take a 40-4 victory and progress through to a preliminary final against the Cowboys next week at Queensland Country Bank Stadium. It was not only the Canberrans’ worst defeat of the season, but their biggest ever finals defeat. Parramatta young gun Will Penisini opened the scoring after a horror error from Jordan Rapana handed his rivals the ball in strong field position. But young gun Xavier Savage had to best his teammate with an "ugly moment" of his own. What seemed like a nothing play turned into a four-pointer for Tom Opacic after the ball bounced through Savage’s legs. “When he didn’t make a play at the ball I thought he was in trouble here, split his legs... huge moment in this game,” Fox League’s Greg Alexander said. “It was an awful bounce but Opacic just chased and chased,” Fox League’s Shane Flanagan said. “This is an ugly moment for him (Savage),” Fox League’s Andrew Voss said. Moments later, a bullet Mitchell Moses pass found winger Waqa Blake who scored a simple try. The Eels continued their red-hot try-scoring form with a simple effort from Junior Paulo who ran through a gap as big as the “Sydney Harbour Bridge”. “Paulo just runs through the Sydney Harbour Bridge... they were shot to bits there Canberra,” Alexander said. “They dragged them all in around the line there, it is a demolition here from the Eels.” While Savage was clearly disappointed with his error early in the contest, he bounced back in a big way to “light up CommBank Stadium”. The young gun showcased his speed to slice through the line and score from 70 metres out. “Not just a try of skill, not just a try of speed, but a try of great character as well,” Voss said. “Xavier Savage, young star lights up CommBank.” From then on Parramatta dominated, and tries to Mitch Moses and a Marata Niukore double handed the Eels a huge victory in front of their home fans. Moses left the field for a HIA in a moment that left Eels fans with their hearts in their throats but passed and returned to the field. Source: Fox News

Fiji expect their men's rugby sevens team to win. After bringing home two Olympics Golds, which are so prized the team's faces are minted on the nations $7 notes, silver at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games was never going to cut it. Losing to New Zealand at the World Rugby Los Angeles 7s final last month was another disappointment. The new head coach, Ben Gollings must've been starting to sweat but now the Flying Fijians are world champions again after their 29-12 victory over New Zealand in Cape Town on Monday. The Melrose Cup, or the "World Cup" is the most prestigious prize in Rugby World Cup Sevens. Fiji has won the title only twice before in 1997 and 2005. On Wednesday night the team arrived at Nandi International Airport, returning the cup to the Fijian shores for the first time in 17 years. A large crowd of media, officials and family greeted the tears amid tears of joy and singing, before garlands were proudly placed around their necks. "This win was special for the team and the nation," said Gollings. "The people are so happy." Gollings hung up the boots in 2011 after a decorated career with England which counts him among the best players in sevens history. He's still holds the career record for most points scored in the World Series Sevens. But he had no international coaching experience before taking over as Fiji coach nine months ago and had to prove himself with team who were the epitome of Fijian national pride. The two big aims for 2022 were a gold at the Commonwealth Games and winning the World Cup. Falling short of a Commonwealth gold, it must have been tears of both relief and joy that rolled down his cheeks as at the sound of final buzzer on Monday. In a beautiful piece of symmetry, Gollings played for England against Fiji the last time the Pacific Island nation won the World Cup Sevens in 2005. "I'm so very proud of the team and management and thankful to the support of my wife and family to make the opportunity a reality," Gollings said. "We are enjoying the celebrations and look forward to what is ahead." Source: ABC Pacific

Roger Federer, one of the greatest players of all time, will retire from top-level tennis after the Laver Cup in London this month. The 20-time Grand Slam champion has not played since Wimbledon 2021, after which he had a third knee operation. "My body's message to me lately has been clear," Swiss Federer, 41, said. "I have played more than 1,500 matches over 24 years. Now I must recognise when it is time to end my competitive career." He added: "To the game of tennis, I love you and will never leave you." Federer has struggled with a knee problem for the past three years that has restricted him to only three of the 11 Grand Slams staged since the start of 2020. He has not played a competitive match since losing to Hubert Hurkacz in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon last summer. He subsequently announced he needed more surgery on his knee having previously had two operations in 2020. Only Spain's Rafael Nadal, with 22 majors, and Serbia's Novak Djokovic, with 21, have more men's Grand Slam singles titles than Federer. "This is a bittersweet decision because I will miss everything the tour has given me," added Federer. "But, at the same time, there is so much to celebrate. I consider myself one of the most fortunate people on Earth. I was given a special talent to play tennis and I did it at a level that I never imagined for much longer than I ever thought possible." As well as thanking his family, support team and fans, Federer also thanked his opponents from a golden era of the men's game. "I was lucky enough to play so many epic matches that I will never forget. We battled fairly, with passion and intensity, and I always tried my best to respect the history of the game. "I feel extremely grateful. We pushed each other, and together we took tennis to new levels." Federer made his professional debut aged 16 in 1998 and won his first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2003. He ends his career with a record total of eight men's singles victories at the All England Club. Federer's final Grand Slam triumph came at the 2018 Australian Open when, aged 36, he became the second-oldest man to win a major singles title in the Open era. After rising to world number one for the first time in 2004, he spent 310 weeks as the leading player on the ATP Tour during his career - a record until he was surpassed by Djokovic in February 2021. He won Olympics doubles gold for Switzerland alongside Stan Wawrinka at Beijing 2008 and singles silver at London 2012 when Britain's Andy Murray reversed his Wimbledon final defeat from the previous month. He was also part of the Swiss team that won the Davis Cup for the first time in 2014 and lifted a record six ATP Finals titles. The three-day Laver Cup, staged at the O2 Arena in Greenwich, begins on Friday, 23 September. Federer is due to join Murray, Nadal, Djokovic, Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas and Norway's Casper Ruud in a Europe team taking on a team representing the rest of the world. He was part of the group that created and organised the tournament, first held in 2017. Federer's retirement announcement comes less than two weeks after 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams played what is expected to be the final match of her career at the US Open. Where Federer won his Grand Slam titles Federer is the most successful grass-court male player of all-time on the back of his unparalleled Wimbledon success, with his last triumph at the All England Club coming in 2017. The Australian Open was the next most successful major tournament for the Swiss, winning six titles at Melbourne Park between 2004 and 2018. He claimed all five of his US Open titles in a row between 2004 and 2008, while his one and only triumph on the French Open clay came in 2009. Federer reached 31 Grand Slam finals in total, doing so for the last time at Wimbledon in 2019 when he lost to Djokovic having held two championship points. Federer retires - reaction The chairman of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, Ian Hewitt, congratulated Federer on a "truly remarkable career". "He will forever be celebrated as one of our greatest Wimbledon champions, having lifted the trophy eight times from his 22 appearances at the All England Club," Hewitt added. "I hope that, in retirement, Roger can look back with enormous satisfaction and pride on all his accomplishments and the high esteem in which he is held by the tennis community." Source: BBC.com

A recent joint security and crisis management forum was facilitated in Porgera specifically to address the ongoing law and order issues in the mining district. This was organised by community group, Restoring Justice Initiative (RJI). The joint law and order security forum was held on 6 September 2022 at Aumbi and included participation from stakeholder partners in the district from the disciplinary forces, business houses, mine landowners and community leaders. Enga Provincial Police Commander (PPC) Acting Superintendent, George Kakas also attended. The forum highlighted the need for all stakeholders to play an active role to support community law and order, and develop a long-term Community Law and Order stakeholder partnership engagement strategy with action plans. Contingent leads of the joint security personnel on operation in Porgera indicated that their efforts have been futile when the root causes of the law and order issues are not being addressed at the community level first. “So many State of Emergencies (SOE) and call-outs have been declared for Wabag and Porgera, and this will continue if you (the local leaders and community representatives) do not organise yourselves. “Porgera is now calm because of the presence of the defence force… If we have to leave Porgera and go, the same issue will continue.. To stop this, the onus is on all you leaders who are present here. Your plans and actions will be enforced by us”, PNGDF Platoon Commander, Lieutenant Brandon Nema told the local leaders and participants at the forum. Sharing similar sentiments, PPC Kakas told the leaders that they needed to unite and put aside self-interests and focus on addressing the law and order issue in the Valley. “We will not declare SOEs all the time when the root causes are still there. So it is up to you all to take the responsibility. “It is good to see you all come in unity to address the law and order issue. All community must corporate. It must have unity. I have to say that many of you have self-interests; looking for ways to benefit yourself in royalty, and positions, because of the packages and privileges such brings. So the focus is not given on the law and order situation in your local area. And you wait for the armies and police to come and ‘cover your sores”, PPC Kakas said. He also said that while he was the PPC in 2014, he engaged with RJI to set up the community policing concept to improve law and order in the valley and this is now the opportunity to enforce that concept. The forum started with presentations by various stakeholders on the impacts and challenges the law and order issues have had on their operations. The community based groups being the Porgera Landowners Association (PLOA), Special Mine Lease (SML) and Lease for Mining Purposes (LMP) were given the opportunity to collectively develop action plans to address the lawlessness in the valley.   PLOA representative and LMP Chairman, Timothy Andambo said law and order has been an ongoing issue for the last 30 years. He said people, including the local leaders have been running away from the issue because there was no unity to address the issue and now that leaders have come together to show unity, LMP will work with SML to find solutions. “Going forward the landowners will take ownership of the problems that exist in the valley. If we don’t take ownership, nobody will come and solve our issues. So it is up to the leaders of the landowners, particularly from the SML and LMP, plus all the other landowners from Porgera to step-up and start facing the reality and start working collaboratively to fix our own issues. Otherwise nobody will solve our problems”, Mr Andambo said.

South Pacific Brewery has affirmed our support for the Goroka Show for yet another with a donation of K10,000 to the Show’s organising committee. Speaking at the cheque presentation was SP Brewery Highlands’ Region Sales Manager Aaron Japu who explains that the sponsorship dates to 1975. “SP Brewery has been supporting the Goroka Show since the year 1975 because SP Brewery is committed to giving back to our people.” He added that the Goroka show is the biggest event in the Highlands region and SP Brewery is delighted to continue our support. “SP Brewery will have a booth set up at the Show to drive our Responsible Consumption agenda,” revealed Japu.

Kina Bank will increase business lending rates by 0.25% effective from 1 October 2022. Kina Bank’s CEO Greg Pawson confirms the changes in rates reflects not only the macro environment in PNG but the global inflationary pressures. The changes in the lending rates are in line with the Central Bank increase of the Kina Facility Rate (KFR) from 3.00% to 3.25% due to the rising pricing of domestic goods and services owing to imported inflation. Kina will apply a 0.25% increase in the Indicator Lending Rate (ILR) to reflect current market conditions. Mr. Pawson said, ‘As the country comes out of a very challenging COVID and ongoing global supply crisis, fears of a global recession have taken centre stage in decision making.’ Initial forecasts for PNG’s inflation in 2022 was 5.00%, however first quarter inflation was higherthan-expected at 6.90% as per the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in March. Much of this inflationary pressure is imported, given the rising fuel prices and volatile commodity prices amidst a complex and unpredictable geopolitical environment. “Kina Bank’s ILR aims to provide our business customers with a transparent and competitive approach to pricing our loan book. We have worked to ensure the lending landscape remains productive. The increase from 6.25% to 6.50% reflects an increase in our cost of funds due to the inflationary environment”, said Mr Pawson. The ILR impacts business loans and overdraft facilities. Kina will make no changes to other loan products such as personal loans, home loans and SME loans. We continue to maintain the most competitive deposit product pricing and product offerings amongst commercial banks. An example if this is our recently launched Tomorrow Savings product paying a market leading rate of 4% as an incentive to promote retail saving.

Hearing the words ‘Finals Week 2’ might be enough to bring on cold sweats among some Eels fans this week, as Parramatta look to avoid their season ending in the second week of the playoffs for the fourth year in a row. On each of their four trips to the finals since their Grand Final appearance in 2009, the Eels have failed to advance past week two, and after losing 27-8 to the Panthers in last week’s Qualifying Final they find themselves in familiar territory once again this season. Parramatta skipper Clint Gutherson said while that unwanted record may be daunting to some, he is using it as motivation ahead of taking on the Raiders at CommBank Stadium on Friday night. “Every player is different, every person, every team is different. I sort of use it as motivation personally, you know where you have been, you know what you have got to do to try and get out of it,” Gutherson said. “We have been here before, a lot of players have been further, but you have just got to go out there and take it a week at a time, it’s do or die now. “We were in the game until probably the 65th minute on the weekend and then a few things just didn’t go our way and it sort of got away from us. We didn’t play anywhere near the footy we wanted to play… you’ve got to learn from it, they taught us how to play the 80-minute game. - Clint Gutherson The recent finals run is just another source of anxiety for a fanbase who have endured a 36-year wait since their last Premiership in 1986. But in better news for the Eels, their record of bouncing back from a defeat this season is impeccable, with Brad Arthur’s side having not lost back-to-back games at any stage in 2022. Prop Junior Paulo said that comes from the squad being able to process and move on from losses quickly. Source: NRL.com