Briefs
People
University of Hawai‘i men’s basketball head coach Riley Wallace and assistant coach Scott Rigot held a clinic for players and coaches at the University of Guam field house on June 21 and 22. About 30 players and 10 coaches attended the clinics, which were sponsored by the Guam Basketball Confederation. “This was an opportunity that doesn’t present itself very often,” said Robert Pelkey, a coordinator for the event.
—FW
Fidelia Miriats, head girl of the Selau Community School in trouble-wracked North Bougainville, had something to say to one-time combatants at an arms disposal ceremony recently. “When fighting began we ran away and slept in the bushes, washed by the rain, we were hungry and ate the leaves of all sorts of trees. We grew up hearing the sound of gunfire. We have seen our mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers die. Please give us a chance to be happy.” The ceremony was one of a number in the province at which weapons surrendered.
—ND
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Four Samoan diplomats stationed overseas have been reappointed for three-year terms. Receiving the nod for continued duty are: ambassador to the United Nations Tuiloma Neroni Slade, who doubles as Samoa’s ambassador to the United States, and ambassador to Belgium Tau‘ili‘ili U‘ili Meredith. Diplomat Leiataua Kirifoti at the High Commission in Australia, and Fe‘esago Fepuleai at the High Commission in New Zealand also were reappointed.
—FS
American Samoans Theodore Gebauer and Stanley Filiaga have signed contracts to play for the Pensacola Pelicans in the newly formed Southeastern Professional Baseball League.
—FS
A heavyweight boxer who represented Samoa at the Sydney Olympics, then was forced to stay in Australia to face a rape charge, has pleaded guilty to actual bodily harm in Samoa. Pauga Lalau will be sentenced later this year. He was accused of assaulting boxing official Lupematasila Nanai in May following a meeting by the Samoa Amateur Boxing Association to select the country’s team for the July Commonwealth Games. The rape charge against the boxer in Australia was reportedly dismissed.
—FS
IN MEMORIAM
The longest serving head of a government department, Magele Mussolini Crawley, was laid to rest in June. He headed the Department of Statistics in Samoa for 18 years and served 37 years in government.
—FS
— Fili Sagapolutele, Frank Whitman, Norman Douglas.
