Moti is not an issue: SI PM
THE Julian Moti issue was not raised in discussions between Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare and his Solomon Islands counterpart, Dr Derek Sikua, in their meeting in Port Moresby yesterday.
“The issue of Moti was never raised. The Solomon Islands government terminated his contract as attorney-general and sent him back to Australia to face charges,” Dr Sikua said in response to questions at a press conference.
“As far as we are concerned, it is a non-issue with us.”
Dr Sikua said he could not comment further as the matter was before the courts.
“He is not welcomed back into Solomon Islands,” he added.

Enga operators triple PMV fares
PMV operators in Enga have tripled their fares, claiming that they have no choice in view of higher fuel prices.
Service providers have followed suit, increasing the prices of their own services and goods.
Many people complained to The National last week that the Government was not addressing the issue with InterOil, which recently increased its fuel prices, above those set by theIndependent Consumer and Competition Commission.
Some said the Government should take tough action against PMV operators for increasing their fares.
“The fare from Mt Hagen to Wabag, for example, had increased from K10 to K15,” one councillor said.
Enga Land Transport Board chief executive officer Theo Takori said PMV operators should not take advantage of higher fuel prices to charge higher fares than those approved.
“It’s illegal and I also appeal to them to consider the people,” he said and urged travellers to report errant operators.

Minister praised in landowner benefits
PRESIDENT of PNG Forest Owners Association (PNGFOA) Dominic Evere has thanked Forestry Minister Belden Namah for his role in the increase of the landowner benefits in PNG.
He said since the forest industry was the second largest income earner followed by mining, the need to allocate more development initiatives and programmes of environmental health within the harvest areas of forest must not be overlooked together with the rights of the landowners.
He stressed that currently there were no major developments and infrastructure like airstrips, bridges and linkage of small road to the major highways in the major logging areas.

K1m for cash crop farmers
THE New Ireland provincial government has allocated K1million to support cash crop farmers in the province.
Governor Sir Julius Chan announced that the funding will assist copra, cocoa and coffee farmers who had developed a minimum of one hectare of new plantings in the last 12 months.
Sir Julius said: “The government will assist cash crop farmers to develop their yields with the injection of incentive funds aimed at increasing the revenue base of less well-off subsistence farmers in the province.”
He said K2,500 cash subsidy would be provided to individual farmers to boost their morale.
He said people relied on copra and cocoa cash income since the pre-independence period, and most plantings had outgrown their productive lives, while coffee is a new crop.
Sir Julius said: “The handout culture introduced over the last five years saw a scaling down of cash crop production, and my government intends to revive the concept of reaping the fruits of one’s sweat, by introducing the incentive to reward enterprising locals for their sweat.”

Scanner for Buka General Hospital
By ANTHONY KAYBING
THE Buka General Hospital received a timely donation of an ultra sound scanner worth K50,000 from the Autonomous Bougainville Government last Friday.
The radiology department had been without one for the last two years after the old one broke down.
Chief executive officer Dr Cyril Imako thanked the ABG for its continued support.
Dr Imako said the scanner was timely as doctors had difficulty offering diagnosis without one.
“There has been a steady increase of patients since last year and out of these, 3.6% die,” he said.
It would help with proper diagnosis, curb the mortality rate down to 2% or lower, help pregnant mothers and others in other departments.
The ABG also purchased a new bio-chemistry machine which will arrive in three weeks.

Hospital gets mobile phones
TELIKOM donated 10 mobile phones to the Port Moresby General Hospital (PoMGH) last Friday. The phones were presented to PoMGH acting CEO Dr Simon Mete by Telikom representatives Anis Pias and Paul Macquel. These will be distributed among the hospital staff for their duties. Dr Mete said the phones would also help the hospital improve communication between its staff using the 24- hour service to the
people of the National Capital District, Central district and the rest of the country. He expressed sincere thanks of the hospital management for the Telikom donation.

Family core unit for progress
PAPUA New Guinea needs to make progress towards social development for all its citizens with family and community as the core units of Melanesian societies. Community Development Secretary Joseph Klapat said this when condemning the killing in a church in Eastern Highlands earlier this month. He described the act as inhuman, as there were proper ways to settle disputes and called on authorities concerned to address the matter seriously. He said such acts should not be occurring in the community, particularly, in a church because that was a place of worship and this did not portray a good image for the community and the country.

Mysterious deaths refuted
CENTRAL administrator Raphael Yipmaramba has denied receiving reports of four people who had died of a mysterious disease in the inland area of the Rigo district. He said they had not received any reports and his health division personnel were not aware of it. Mr Yipmaramba said the officials should be reported first rather than the media. Inland Rigo district ward eight council member Ivan Namia had told The National that four people from his ward had died after succumbing to a mystery illness. He said there were no symptoms and the four died within a few hours of each other.

AIDS campaign in WH districts
DISTRICTS in Western Highlands will take the lead in the campaign against the spread of HIV/AIDS, according to the AIDS Response coordinator Joshua Meninga. The office in Mt Hagen will only coordinate while the actual implementation of HIV/AIDS programmes will be decentralised in the respective districts. All districts have to submit their plans on how they will carry out the awareness of HIV/AIDS, while his office will only facilitate funding.