People Briefs
People Briefs
-AR Two Australian World War II veterans are angered by the lack of attention given to the 1942 Battle of Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea between Allied soldiers and the Japanese army. The fight is etched in history as the Allied soldiers' first victory over Japanese land forces during the Pacific War. Errol Jorgensen and Gordon Edwards, both 84 years old from Queensland, Australia, were in the 25th Battalion, part of the 7th Australian Infantry Brigade Group that repelled an imminent attack on Port Moresby by Japanese forces. They say too much significance is given to Australia's Kokoda Trail campaign. -AR With the approval by the board, Abe Malae, the Executive Director of the American Samoa Power Authority (ASPA) will serve for 12 months as temporary president of the government owned Development Bank of American Samoa. Gov. Togiola Tulafono asked ASPA for Malae's managerial expertise to oversee changes and improvements at the development bank. -FS Rep. Ray A. Yumul, a freshman member of the House of Representatives of the 14th Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Legislature, left Aug. 18 along with more than 80 other CNMI Army Reservists for training in Hawaii before deployment to Iraq. Yumul is not expected back until February 2006. Before departing Saipan, Yumul said he would be seeking re-election on Nov. 2005 while he still is in Iraq. -FR Dr. Leasiolagi Malama Meleisea, formerly of Apia, Samoa, has been appointed to head the UNESCO office in Afghanistan. Meleisea has been UNESCO regional adviser for social and human sciences in Bangkok since 1998. Asked why he chose to work in a conflict zone where security is a problem, Meleisea says he welcomes the opportunity to make a difference in a land that has virtually lost everything. -AT Soon Kyung Park, a South Korean national, was found guilty in U.S. Federal District Court of running a bogus "university" on Saipan. Soon was accused of collecting $5,000 from each of the 88 students from the People's Republic of China to attend a non-existent Saipan University. Park was arrested last year upon his return from South Korea by U.S. Marshals. When students arrived on Saipan, they discovered that what they were led to believe would be a sprawling campus with a golf course, hotel and new buildings near the beach turned out to be an older office building that has none of the facilities advertised. -FR After four rounds of voting spread over several days, Vanuatu's electoral college elected Kalkot Mataskelekele the country's head of state. Former President Alfred Maseng Nalo was disqualified after he was found to have a criminal record. Mataskelekele is the brother-in-law of Vanuatu's first Prime Minister, the late Fr. Walter Lini. -GJ A Samoan youth group that built water tanks that were distributed to schools and churches in Savai'i Island, Samoa won the Commonwealth Youth Development Gold Award given by the Commonwealth Youth Program (CYP). The Iva Catholic Youth Group was recognized by Samoan Minister for Women, Community Affairs and Social Development Tuala Ainiu Iusitino. They are the first youth group in the Pacific region to win the gold award and its £3,000 (US$5391) in prize money. -GJ Kiribati MP for Tabiteuea South Tebuai Uaai was sentenced to four months in prison for common assault and confining a secondary female student inside his car. Uaai, an outspoken opposition member, appealed the judgment but the court of appeal reaffirmed the high court conviction. Uaai automatically lost his Parliament seat. -BB The American Samoa Legislature has approved several of Governor Togiola Tulafono's nominations, including: former attorney general Toetagata Albert Mailo to the post of administrative law judge pro tempore; Fofo Tony M. Tuitele as Director of the Department of Port Administration; and Lolo Letalu Moliga as chief procurement officer. Meanwhile, the government is actively searching for a comptroller following Steve Kaneoye's abrupt departure in August after just five months on the job. Although Kaneoyer declined to comment about his resignation, local officials indicated he did not receive support for fiscal reforms from his superiors. -FS Richard Misech was appointed acting General Manager of Palau National Communications Corporation in August shortly after PNCC board of directors reluctantly accepted the resignation of general manager Ed Carter. Carter's resignation followed a government audit that questioned travel expenses and free or discounted communications services for board members and administrative staff. -NC Solomon Islands Minister for Agriculture Alex Bartlett is the first cabinet minister in the Kemakeza government to be charged with a number of serious criminal offenses. A former Supreme Commander of the Malaita Eagle Force, which carried out a coup in June 2000, Bartlett was charged with arson, false pretences and demanding money with menace. -MLC In August, Palau Chief Justice Arthur Ngiraklsong and judges Yoich Kohama and Leonardo Ruluked sentenced Justin Hiroshi, who pled guilty to the murders of Koror Seventh Day Adventist Pastor Ruimar De Paiva and two members of his family, to three consecutive life imprisonment terms. Hiroshi killed Ruimar and his wife Margareth and son Larrison in their home in the early hours of December 22, 2003 and kidnapped their young daughter. -NC Fiji golfer Vijay Singh is the newly crowned world number one, after winning the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston, and his second U.S. PGA Championship. Singh wrested the title from Tiger Woods, who had been ranked number one for 334 (non-consecutive) weeks. -SM Young Cook Islander and qualified aquaculturist Ian Bertram now heads the country's key ministry-Marine Resources, which oversees the tuna and pearl industries. He takes over from Navy Epati who left for the private sector to pursue his fishing business. Bertram has been instrumental in sustaining the pearl industry and marine life in the outer islands. -UM Palauan Associate Justice Larry Miller has ordered Paramount Chief Ibedul Yutaka Gibbons to pay attorney Matthew Johnson and his wife, public defender Meredith Allen, $95,700 in damages for assault with a baseball bat in January 2003. The incident left Johnson with a broken arm after he had refused Gibbon's request to leave a meeting of the Koror State Public Lands Authority. Johnson had sued for $1.8 million. -NC Suzanne Hale took over as U.S. Ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia in late August after presenting diplomatic credentials to President Joseph Urusemal. She replaces ambassador Larry Dinger. A career Foreign Agriculture Service official, she has served in U.S. Embassies in Japan and China. -GJ Richard A. Pierce, Executive Director of the Saipan Garment Manufacturing Association (SGMA), received a "Regional Administrator's Award" from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in recognition of his "extraordinary contribution to advance the protection of working men and women" in the Northern Marianas. OSHA Administrator Frank Strasheim presented the award at the Dai-Ichi Hotel on Saipan in August. -FR Contributors: Alex Rheeney, Giff Johnson, Frank Rosario, Fili Sagapolutele, Afamasaga Toleafoa, Nancy Chism, Batiri Bataua, Mary-Louise O'Callaghan, Samantha Magick and Ulamila Kurai-Marrie.
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