The Minister for Health and HIV/Aids, Hon. Jelta Wong, MP, has warned people going around threatening and attempting to intimidate health workers will be arrested and face the full force of the law. The Minister made the comments after reports of mainly unemployed youths harassing health workers and throwing stones at COVID-19 vaccination stations. In the face of the attempted intimidation and related failed attempts at unruly protests, the Minister called on the Opposition to stop sitting on the fence and make a public declaration to condemn anti-vaccination troublemakers. “Respect must be shown for our health staff and they should not be harassed in their places of work where they are administering vaccines,” Minister Wong stated after receiving reports of agitation. “I am issuing a very stern and direct notice to these thugs that police have zero tolerance for anyone who threatens or intimidates health workers. “Offenders will be arrested and prosecuted under existing laws, and under the National Pandemic Act, that will see them face time in prison. “Throughout the country police have increased patrols around vaccination sites and have a quick response if there are any reports of harassment. “Let me make it clear to anyone thinking of intimidating our health workers, that you will be picked up and locked up. “It is only a very sick and selfish individual who would harass heath workers who are working day-in and day-out to save lives during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Minister Wong said some of the harassment of health workers stemmed from recent attempts to protest by people who are often not aware of the issues such as the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. “We have seen that a number of these people running around spreading lies and complaining about vaccines who have no idea what they are complaining about. “Firstly, vaccination is not compulsory, it is the free choice of every adult to decide if they wish to get vaccinated for the safety of our country. “To anyone trying to stir up trouble about vaccines, I urge them to go and get accurate information from health authorities and make an informed decision.  There is a lot of fake news circulating, and our people need to be on the lookout for people who will try to mislead them. “More than five million people around the world have died from COVID-19, and the best way any of us can avoid becoming a COVID death is to vaccinate.” Minister Wong called for a bipartisan approach on vaccinations which means the Opposition has to make their position clear instead of trying to hide from the issues. “I call on the Opposition to get behind our government’s strong stand when it comes to protecting workers from COVID-19. “There is no room for sitting on the fence like the Opposition has been doing since we began providing vaccines in our country. “So instead of trying to avoid the main issues, the Opposition must declare where they stand in relation to many issues relating to vaccinations, including the recent trouble being stirred up that is based on misinformation. “There should be no politics when it comes to keeping our people safe, and now the Opposition has the chance to try and be honest with our people instead of hiding from the issues that matter.”

The Ministry of Education is very concerned and notes the recent surge in covid-19 cases across the country and, especially affecting schools and the education services. “Whilst we take note of the surge and the actions that are being taken by schools and provinces during the examinations period, as Minister for Education, I would like to thank everyone for their actions taken to ensure that the examinations were completed without any major incidences and, currently the marking is in progress,” Minister for Education Hon. Jimmy Uguro said. “As Minister responsible for Education, I commend schools for the timely completion of grade eight, grade 10 and grade 12 examinations.” “Also, I would like to make it very clear as to whether classes are to continue or be suspended. There are a lot of speculations and suggestions for classes to be suspended and closed indefinitely until the end of the year. “The official position of the Minister who is responsible for education standards, services and curriculum and the position of the Government; there will be no definite or indefinite suspension of classes by any schools or provinces. Schools will remain open until the December 10, 2021 when all schools officially close for the Christmas festive season. However, Minister Uguro said, given specific situations in specific schools or districts or provinces; the established provincial covid-19 taskforce or committees can make an assessment to suspend schools in their respective areas for a short period for up to 14 days. He added that any extension after 14 days; the provincial covid-19 committees must consult with the Ministry through the Department. “There should be no decision by any provincial education authority for any suspension of schools for the rest of the year, until and unless the Ministry and Department is informed and an approval is given. Failure to do that will result in students’ learning and certification being affected; furthermore, there will be more ramifications as a result.” “As of today, the academic year still remains. We have five more weeks to go so we urge all heads of schools, school boards and heads of divisions of education to be vigilant and take all proactive measures and follow the mitigations and health measures that are in place and are being published widely to prevent teachers and students from being affected by the pandemic,” the Minister said. The Minister also called on all schools nationwide not to conduct any graduation ceremonies as such events are risky at this time and advised students to graduate in absentia. He is strongly urging every teacher and public servant in the Education System to go for vaccination. “The vaccinations are not mandatory and compulsory but based on medical advice and experience and the global practice now, we urge that every teacher go for vaccination to protect themselves, students, colleagues, and their family members.”

Queensland young gun Xavier Coates has revealed why he left the Broncos to play under Craig Bellamy at the Storm. Brisbane were desperate to keep Coates, who is still only 20 but has already played five games for the Maroons. But Bellamy went after the winger and got his man for the next two seasons, who will replace Bulldogs-bound flyer Josh Addo-Carr. Coates has played three seasons in the NRL and scored 17 tries in 32 games for Brisbane. “It’s pretty surreal – I’m real happy with the decision I’ve made,” Coates said. “I had a few chats with Craig and I feel like what he told me was the pinpoint of why I came down here. “I think the first thing when you think about the Storm is how good the people are here, particularly the staff and players, and one of the first things he told me was you won’t fit in down here if you’re not a good person. “If you surround with the people you want to be like, they will improve you. That was my first step to leading to making my decision with the Storm, and also looking at how tough they train. “I think that’s a big key on why they are so good, because everyone understands how tough they train and everyone talks about the real hard pre-seasons. “I’m sort of just bracing for it and it will get harder and harder, but I am really looking forward to the challenge.”

THE scheduled commissioning of the Oxygen Plant at the Port Moresby General Hospital that was due to take place on Tuesday, 2 November, 2021, has been deferred to a later date, says acting Chief Executive Officer Dr. Kone Sobi. Two consultants from the plant manufacturer, Oxywise, were brought in to check and conduct tests to ensure everything was in order before the commissioning and handing over of the project to Port Moresby General Hospital. “During the testing process, a technical problem was identified. Engineers are working around the clock to resolve this issue and continue with the testing process,” said Dr. Sobi. “Once the testing, which is part of the whole process of installation and checks compliance is successfully completed, we will update on the actual commissioning date,” he added. [caption id="attachment_16572" align="aligncenter" width="648"] Biomedical engineer Tracey Mandawali and senior technical officer Bobby Hekwa from the PMGH Biomedical Department doing a bubble test to ensure there were no gas leakages as Future Focus Solutions projects manager Sopheap Phin looked on.[/caption]

Girls and boys must be introduced to STEM from a young age to encourage them to pursue a career in medicine, science or engineering. Buk bilong Pikinini’s (BbP)Early Childhood Education program provides the children with foundations in numeracy, problem solving and various play-based STEM activities throughout the year. However, more needs to be done to foster future careers in ICT. With the launch of “When I grow up – I want to be an ICT Officer” BbP believes that the reader will assist with motivating school children to demystify the different jobs and skills needed in the field. [caption id="attachment_16561" align="aligncenter" width="595"] The Buk bilong Pikinini children and Ruth Nelson, NICTA Fund Manager.[/caption] This week 6-year-old Melanie, featured in the reader - and other BbP children got the opportunity to visit the NICTA Head Office together with David Valentine, the CEO of Niunet and IT Officer from BbP Philip Luke and Ridhard Bridger. The children got to see IT equipment and asked questions about how it all works. BbP Executive Officer Leanne Resson presented David Valentine and NICTA with copies of the reader, which they can use in their work to promote the interest in ITC with young children. David Valentine is featured as a role model in the reader and gently guides Melanie into what the requirements are when you would like to work in ICT. BbP has published a series of books entitled “When I Grow up – I want to be a Teacher, - Pilot, - Store Manager, -Paramedic, - ICT Officer and - Farmer. [caption id="attachment_16562" align="aligncenter" width="625"] Ruth Nelson being presented with Buk bilong Pikinini book "When I grow up I want to be an ICT Officer '' by Leanne Resson, Buk bilong Pikinini Executive officer, and young Melanie.[/caption] These new books were first launched during Book Week together with the Sir Brian Bell Foundation which has sponsored the printing and shipping of the readers. Leanne Resson, BbP Executive Officer said: “We are grateful to our partners Niunet and NICTA for their support to provide the children with vital insight into the world of ICT. We are confident that the readers will inspire the children to want to pursue careers in this field. By seeing role models in action, the children will be able to understand that they too can aim for such careers despite coming from a remote village or urban settlement. We also hope that this reader will allow more girls to see themselves in an IT role in the future. If you can’t see it – you can’t be it..” [caption id="attachment_16564" align="aligncenter" width="616"] David Valentine, CEO/CTO of Niunet PNG Limited being presented with the Buk bilong Pikinini Book "When I grow up I want to be an ICT Officer" by young Melanie.[/caption] David Valentine, CEO Nuinet said: “It really is an honor to launch the Buk Bilong Pikinini "When I Grow Up" ICT officer series reader with NICTA, the government mandated body that deals with ICT in our country. This reader will encourage the next generation of systems, network and cybersecurity engineers to take up ICT at an early age, increasing their chances of building successful careers. Building better partnerships is how we inspire our younger Papua New Guineans to explore careers in ICT. Ruth Nelson, NICTA Fund Manager said: “NICTA through the Universal Access Services (UAS) Regime is passionate about rolling out ICT services to remote and unserved areas of PNG. We target schools and communities in rural areas so to see Book Belong Pikinini promote careers in ICT through books for young children is such a positive step forward for this country. In PNG, ICT Sector is still predominantly a male dominated career choice, to promote female participation, NICTA has a Girls in ICT Tertiary Scholarship Programme. We hope to see Melanie and a lot of other girls become recipients of this scholarship and go on to have successful careers in ICT.”

A kidney grown in a genetically altered pig functions normally, scientists reported. The procedure may open the door to a renewable source of desperately needed organs. Surgeons in New York have successfully attached a kidney grown in a genetically altered pig to a human patient and found that the organ worked normally, a scientific breakthrough that one day may yield a vast new supply of organs for severely ill patients. Researchers have long sought to grow organs in pigs that are suitable for transplantation into humans. Technologies like cloning and genetic engineering have brought that vision closer to reality in recent years, but testing these experimental organs in humans has presented daunting ethical questions. [caption id="attachment_16555" align="aligncenter" width="724"] Dr. Robert Montgomery is director of the N.Y.U. Langone Transplant Institute in Manhattan. Genetically engineered pigs “could potentially be a sustainable, renewable source of organs,” he said.Credit...Amir Hamja for The New York Times[/caption] So surgeons at N.Y.U. Langone Health took an astonishing step: With the family’s consent, they attached the pig’s kidney to a brain-dead patient who was sustained on a ventilator, and then followed the body’s response while taking measures of the kidney’s function. It is the first operation of its kind. The researchers tracked the results for just 54 hours, and many questions remained to be answered about the long-term consequences of such an operation. The procedure will not be available to patients any time soon, as there are significant medical and regulatory hurdles to overcome. Still, experts in the field hailed the surgery as a milestone. “This is a huge breakthrough,” said Dr. Dorry Segev, a professor of transplant surgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine who was not involved in the research. “It’s a big, big deal.” A steady supply of organs from pigs — which could eventually include hearts, lungs and livers — would offer a lifeline to the more than 100,000 Americans currently on transplant waiting lists, including the 90,240 who need a kidney. Twelve people on the waiting lists die each day. An even larger number of Americans with kidney failure — more than a half million — depend on grueling dialysis treatments to survive. In large part because of the scarcity of human organs, the vast majority of dialysis patients do not qualify for transplants, which are reserved for those most likely to thrive after the procedure. The surgery was first reported by USA Today on Tuesday. The research has not yet been peer-reviewed nor published in a medical journal. The transplanted kidney was obtained from a pig genetically engineered to grow an organ unlikely to be rejected by the human body. In a close approximation of an actual transplant procedure, the kidney was attached to blood vessels in the patient’s upper leg, outside the abdomen. The organ started functioning normally, making urine and the waste product creatinine “almost immediately,” according to Dr. Robert Montgomery, the director of the N.Y.U. Langone Transplant Institute, who performed the procedure in September. Although the kidney was not implanted in the body, problems with so-called xenotransplants — from animals like primates and pigs — usually occur at the interface of the blood supply and the organ, where human blood flows through pig vessels, experts said. The fact that the organ functioned outside the body is a strong indication that it will work in the body, Dr. Montgomery said. “It was better than I think we even expected,” he said. “It just looked like any transplant I’ve ever done from a living donor. A lot of kidneys from deceased people don’t work right away, and take days or weeks to start. This worked immediately.” Last year, 39,717 residents of the United States received an organ transplant, the majority of them — 23,401 — receiving kidneys, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, a nonprofit that coordinates the nation’s organ procurement efforts. Genetically engineered pigs “could potentially be a sustainable, renewable source of organs — the solar and wind of organ availability,” Dr. Montgomery said. The prospect of raising pigs to harvest their organs for humans is bound to raise questions about animal welfare and exploitation, though an estimated 100 million pigs already are killed in the United States each year for food. “Pigs aren’t spare parts and should never be used as such just because humans are too self-centered to donate their bodies to patients desperate for organ transplants,” said a statement from the organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA. Among transplantation experts, reactions ranged from cautiously optimistic to ebullient, though all acknowledged the procedure represented a sea change. While some surgeons speculated that it could be just months before genetically engineered pigs’ kidneys are transplanted into living human beings, others said there was still much work to be done. “This is really cutting-edge translational surgery and transplantation that is on the brink of being able to do it in living human beings,” said Dr. Amy Friedman, a former transplant surgeon and chief medical officer of LiveOnNY, the organ procurement organization in the greater New York area. The group was involved in the selection and identification of the brain-dead patient receiving the experimental procedure. The patient was a registered organ donor, and because the organs were not suitable for transplantation, the patient’s family agreed to permit research to test the experimental transplant procedure. Dr. Friedman said she envisioned using hearts, livers and other organs grown in pigs, as well. “It’s truly mind-boggling to think of how many transplants we might be able to offer,” she said, adding, “You’d have to breed the pigs, of course.” Other experts were more reserved, saying they wanted to see whether the results were reproducible and to review data collected by N.Y.U. Langone. “There’s no question this is a tour de force, in that it’s hard to do and you have to jump through a lot of hoops,” said Dr. Jay A. Fishman, associate director of the transplantation center at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Whether this particular study advances the field will depend on what data they collected and whether they share it, or whether it is a step just to show they can do it,” Dr. Fishman said. He urged humility “about what we know.” Many hurdles remain before genetically engineered pigs’ organs can be used in living human beings, said Dr. David Klassen, chief medical officer of the United Network for Organ Sharing. While he called the surgery “a watershed moment,” he warned that long-term rejection of organs occurs even when the donor kidney is well-matched, and “even when you’re not trying to cross species barriers.” The kidney has functions in addition to clearing blood of toxins. And there are concerns about pig viruses infecting recipients, Dr. Klassen said: “It’s a complicated field, and to imagine that we know all of the things that are going to happen and all the problems that will arise is naïve.” Xenotransplantation, the process of grafting or transplanting organs or tissues between different species, has a long history. Efforts to use the blood and skin of animals in humans go back hundreds of years. In the 1960s, chimpanzee kidneys were transplanted into a small number of human patients. Most died shortly afterward; the longest a patient lived was nine months. In 1983, a baboon heart was transplanted into an infant girl known as Baby Faye. She died 20 days later. Pigs offered advantages over primates for organ procurement — they are easier to raise, reach maturation faster, and achieve adult human size in six months. Pig heart valves are routinely transplanted into humans, and some patients with diabetes have received pig pancreas cells. Pig skin has also been used as temporary grafts for burn patients. The combination of two new technologies — gene editing and cloning — has yielded genetically altered pig organs. Pig hearts and kidneys have been transplanted successfully into monkeys and baboons, but safety concerns precluded their use in humans. “The field up to now has been stuck in the preclinical primate stage, because going from primate to living human is perceived as a big jump,” Dr. Montgomery said. The kidney used in the new procedure was obtained by knocking out a pig gene that encodes a sugar molecule that elicits an aggressive human rejection response. The pig was genetically engineered by Revivicor and approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as a source for human therapeutics. Dr. Montgomery and his team also transplanted the pig’s thymus, a gland that is involved in the immune system, in an effort to ward off immune reactions to the kidney. After attaching the kidney to blood vessels in the upper leg, the surgeons covered it with a protective shield so they could observe it and take tissue samples over the 54-hour study period. Urine and creatinine levels were normal, Dr. Montgomery and his colleagues found, and no signs of rejection were detected during more than two days of observation. “There didn’t seem to be any kind of incompatibility between the pig kidney and the human that would make it not work,” Dr. Montgomery said. “There wasn’t immediate rejection of the kidney.” The long-term prospects are still unknown, he acknowledged. But “this allowed us to answer a really important question: Is there something that’s going to happen when we move this from a primate to a human that is going to be disastrous?” SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES

Following the success of the Village World Cup Series there was a great deal of interest from teams to have a high-level competition that follows a similar format. To satisfy this demand, Cricket PNG is launching the Village Premier League (VPL 2021) that will be played at Amini Park on the weekend of November 20 and 21. The VPL 2021 will be run as a high-level franchise/club competition, using the Indian Premier League (IPL) as the model for teams to adopt. First prize will be PGK 10,000, the richest prize ever offered for a domestic event run by Cricket PNG. The total prize pool will be PGK 15,000, with Second Prize PGK 3,000, Third and Fourth Prize PGK 1,000 Each. Each team will use one of the names of the IPL teams: Capitals, Royal Challengers, Indians, Royals, Super Kings, Knight Riders, Kings, Sunrisers. The first team to be confirmed for this premier tournament are the Porebada Royal Challengers. Igo Dairi, cricket advocate and an administrator in Porebada Village, cited “growing cricket in Porebada and giving the opportunity to young talents to have exposure at the highest level possible and aspire to pursue a career” as the reasons for entering their team into the VPL 2021. Teams may field Kumul Petroleum PNG Barramundi and/or Cricket PNG Under 19 players so long as they are listed in their official squad. We expect to see a high quality of players across the limited number of teams that will be fighting it out to win the big prize on offer. It is going to be thrilling to see our World Cup heroes compete in this format with and against each other. The tournament will be held strictly in accordance with the Lockdown Measures, including that at no time will there be 20 or more people on the field, all participants must have been vaccinated, and no spectators will be present. All games will be live scored and streamed online. Interest for this exciting new premier tournament has been high and we will be announcing the VPL 2021 teams and more details about the format and draw shortly.

No new measures have been released as yet from the National Control Centre since the last measures were released which came into effect from September 30th – October 30th, 2021. “As we informed the country last week, today we will review those measures.” “We hope to have any amendments to be made or any new measures to be issued by tomorrow or Friday,” said the National Pandemic Controller, Mr David manning. For now, the measures that were released on the 30th of September are still to be adhered to. This includes sporting codes that have more than 20 participants must get approval from the Controller before they can continue with their Season 2021 competitions. The same goes for events that will have more than 20 people at any one time as there is still a ban on mass gatherings.

Air Niugini Destinations Loyalty members can now earn Points with Telikom Limited when they purchase Telikom TV plan bundles. Telikom is offering customers who are Destinations members the opportunity to earn Loyalty Points when they purchase TV plan bundles at all 18 Telikom Business Offices located throughout Papua New Guinea. The number of points earned by a Destinations member will be one point for every kina spent and is only upon presenting Destination membership card when they make a purchase from Telikom’s selected TV plan bundles. The two-year partnership arrangement between the national airline’s loyalty program and Telikom aims to encourage both members and customers to use the services and also to strengthen the partnership between both State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). Air Niugini General Manager Commercial Services, Mr Dominic Kaumu said the partnership demonstrates the importance of SOEs working together to promote growth in all areas of business. “In these difficult times, business is continuously changing for all organisations including Air Niugini and Telikom. We therefore need to work together to ensure there is continuous growth. “We must ensure our airline and telecommunications services benefit both our loyalty members and TV subscribers and with a joint partnership, we can pool our resources together to accomplishing this. “At the end of the day, we support Telikom Ltd in their business and they support us (Air Niugini) in our business,” Mr Kaumu added. Telikom Limited Acting General Manager Commercial, Silas Matoli said: “Telikom is well established throughout the country offering both fixed and mobile services with Bemobile now merging into Telikom Ltd. “The Telikom TV product is a value-added service offered over IP (internet) giving triple benefit to customers through a single connectivity, i.e. Voice, Data, TV. “Since the launch of Telikom TV product in 2020, the number of TV subscribers continues to increase daily, there are plans to offer the contents on Mobile in the near future. “Through this partnership with Air Niugini we are pleased to reward our loyal customers who are destination members,” Mr Matoli concluded. Plans are in place to extend the partnership for Loyalty members to redeem points when purchasing TV plan bundles or other products and services offered by Telikom. Telikom Limited is the recent inclusion to the Loyalty program which now brings the total Destinations corporate partners to 13. It is also the second SOE to partner with Air Niugini apart from Post PNG Limited that came on board as a sales agent for Air Niugini tickets. Air Niugini’s Destinations Loyalty Program was launched in August 2009 as PNG’s first Frequent Flyer Program with currently over 123,000 active members.

It wasn’t too long ago that Kotoni Staggs was a fresh-faced new kid on the block at Red Hill, but now the 23-year-old hopes to be a leader for the next crop of talent coming through. Staggs still in his early years as an NRL player but as he prepares for his four season in the top grade, he plans on being a mentor as such for the even younger guys at the club. “I didn’t always see myself as a leader but as I’ve gotten older — and the people around me have helped me to get to where I am — I’m willing to help anyone,” Staggs told Broncos.com.au. “The young fellas coming through too, I’ve been here for about four years now and there’s new players coming in. Sometimes you can be uncomfortable in positions so it’s just (about) getting to trust somebody. “I’m there (for them) and I’ve let them know not to hesitate to come and ask for help or if you need to talk to somebody, come talk to me. I’m pretty easy going, that’s how I get around the boys, I love joking. “That’s a thing at the club that I wanted to do, being a leader.” Staggs will have plenty of help guiding the young kids at the club when new recruits Adam Reynolds and Kurt Capewell arrive. 31-year-old Reynolds has played over 230 NRL games, won a premiership and represented New South Wales. Meanwhile, Capewell joins the Broncos fresh off a premiership with the Panthers and brings over 90 games of experience as well as an incumbent member of the Queensland team. “(Those) two blokes were just in the grand final... just bringing the experience to the team, it’s something we’re looking for,” Staggs said about the star recruits. “We’re a young group so to bring older and experienced players into the group, it will help.” Staggs has had a cruel run of injuries over the last two years. He suffered an ACL injury last year and then four games into his return this season he suffered a season-ending MCL injury on the same knee. But the good news is that he is fully recovered from the latest knee injury and is ready to go for pre-season. “The injury has been going well. I’ve still been coming in during the off-season just trying to get my knee right for Round 1, but I’m on track to be injury-free for pre-season so everything’s going good,” he said. Source: Fox Sports

The Papua New Guinea Special Envoy and Minister for Environment Conservation & Climate Change, Hon. Wera Mori, MP, says PNG is adamant on ceasing all logging, on a large scale, completely by 2030. He said the collective decision by COP26 to stop deforestation entirely by 2030, is an agenda PNG has always advocated for under the leadership of Prime Minister, Hon. James Marape, MP. “It is now a formal Government policy to ban round-logging by 2025 and ban logging entirely by 2030. “We didn’t know that this would be the position taken up by COP26, here in Glasgow. However, this is a blessing in disguise for Papua New Guinea. Over the years these COP summits have become exaggerated, where every year we collaborate and come up with ideologies to mitigate climate change; yet nothing practical is being done, in addressing global climate issues,” Minister Mori said. He said COP26 must change. It must not be a forum for talking and conceptualizing. It must move forward and walk the talk. “Papua New Guinea has decided to take action, simply because, our landmass covers one per cent of the global landmass, and is host to seven per cent of global biodiversity, in terms of marine and territorial landmass. “For us, it has been quite a challenge, simply because, despite the fact that we host 30 per cent of the remaining primary rainforest, we have become the lungs of this planet, drawing in carbon dioxide, emitted by industrialized countries. “That has been spelt out in our National Determined Contribution, which we submitted on 18th December 2020, having been one of the first few countries in the world to do so,” Minister Mori said. He said PNG now has all relevant enabling legislations to basically walk along that path. “The biggest question now is, monetization of our efforts – how do we get compensated? “We just simply can’t ban logging in PNG, as it is a $1 billion industry, where the industrialized world expects us to continue to be the carbon filters of the earth, when they are only good for talking but not being responsible for our climate predicaments,” Minister Mori said. He said Papua New Guinea is a member of the global community so when we decide to do that, we know what the costs are, having done our part. “We would like to see the industrialized world or the first world who are responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases, come up with financial and economic development assistance packages. “So, if the UN or the industrialized countries wanted us to terminate logging in our country entirely, they would have to make up for the revenue we raise from that particularly industry, annually,” Minister Mori said. He said for other members of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations (CfRN), I will also advocate on their behalf. They too must be compensated. [caption id="attachment_16534" align="aligncenter" width="534"] Minister Wera Mori in a pull aside meet with the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson,[/caption] “It is completely unfair that we are the victims of the climate problems we have not caused,” Minister Mori said. He also had brief pull aside meetings with the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and His Royal Highness Prince Charles, at the margins of the COP26 Leaders’ Summit, in Scotland.  

Police and the PNG Defence Force personnel in Hela are conducting awareness to ensure the general public adhere to the “Niupela Pasin” protocols to contain the spread of COVID-19 cases. Provincial Police Commander Chief Inspector Teddy Agwi said his officers and the Defence Force personnel have started awareness within the Tari township and have gone as far as Komo, Magarima, Kopiago, and Koroba informing the general public to wear facemasks and maintain social distance whilst in public places. “We are conducting awareness especially at the market places and main shopping centres where a lot of people congregate to ensure strict compliance of the “niupela pasin” protocols,” Mr Agwi said, adding that in that way they can at least contain the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant cases in the province and the neighbouring provinces as well. Mr Agwi said they set up roadblocks at the designated areas to ensure everyone wore facemasks and checked their temperatures. He said persons without facemasks are sent home whilst those with masks are allowed to go into tow. The hospital staff in the province have also set up tents and ensure those people with high temperature are referred directly to the hospital for testing. “We have 40 MS07 members from Tari and 33 Defence Force personnel who were brought into Tari for deployment in Hides to assist our local police officers and reservists in implementing the measures,” Mr Agwi said. The PPC however said they have not received any financial support from the provincial government for this operation but with the help of a small NGO group based in Hela. They are using loudhailers supplied by the NGO. A local company owned by Chinese businesses based in Tari have also assisted the awareness program with drums placed at the junctions and designated areas. Others have also assisted with 20 temperature guns. Mr Agwi believes raising awareness and educating the public is one of the best strategies to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and keep the people safe.