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SAIPAN, CNMI (Marianas Business Journal, Jan. 8) – Guam will welcome the arrival of a fourth submarine in early January, when the USS Ohio (SSGN-726) begins a one-year deployment. Commodore Phillip Sawyer, commander of the U.S. Submarine Squadron 15, did not disclose the date of the submarine’s arrival, saying only that it would be "in the near future."

Journal sources confirmed the Guam Chamber of Commerce will host a reception scheduled for Jan. 18. Although the location is still being finalized, the Journal understands it is likely to be held at Polaris Point.

The USS Ohio has a crew of 17 officers, 15 chief petty officers and 122 enlisted men, and is homeported in Bangor, Wash.

The sub will complement the three other submarines homeported on Guam — USS City of Corpus Christi, USS Houston, and USS Buffalo.

In a speech before the Saipan Chamber of Commerce during the business group’s board of directors installation dinner on Jan. 5, 2008 at Fiesta...

Editorial

Solomon Star

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (Jan. 7) – An attempt by the Solomon Islands Parliamentary Opposition to defy a government order for them to peacefully surrender Government vehicles is amiss.

It is unwise in a sense that our leaders are unjustly keeping state assets, which they are not entitled to.

Worst still, these very people were the leaders ordered defected ministers last year to return vehicles within days after their defection.

They are telling us that there are two laws - one for the defected MPs now with the government - another for the new Opposition.

No, law does not operate that way.

If the defected leaders can comply then why the Opposition MPs can’t do it now.

Those MPs demonstrated maturity and returned the vehicles without fuss. They were not even been given 14 days to use the vehicles as provided for under their Parliamentary Entitlement Regulation.

If these MPs complied with the PER -...

Feature

By Pesi Fonua

NUKU´ALOFA, Tonga – (Matangi Tonga, Jan. 8) - Nukuleka, a small fishing village on the northern shores of eastern Tongatapu, at the entrance to the Fanga´uta Lagoon, has been identified by a Canadian archaeologist, Professor David V. Burley, as the cradle of Polynesia.

David drew his conclusion from his final excavation at Nukuleka in August 2007 where, with his team of three archaeological students from the Simon Fraser University, Canada and a scholar from France, they found pieces of Lapita pottery that confirmed his belief.

"The big pieces of pottery are about 2,900 years old and with the others there may be 50 years difference," he said. "Tonga was the first group of islands in Polynesia to be settled by the Lapita People about 3,000 years ago, and Nukuleka was their first settlement in Tonga."

The Lapita people, the cultural ancestors of modern Polynesians, were the makers of Lapita pottery and David's research is...

NUKU΄ALOFA, Tonga (Radio Tonga News, Jan. 9) - Forty-one judges including 17 chief justices from 21 countries or States are currently in the Kingdom for the 17th biennial Pacific Judicial Conference that His Majesty King George Tupou V officially opened at 10 a.m. November 7th.

In his opening speech, His Majesty welcomed all distinguished participants to Tonga and said that it was a singular honor for His Government to be hosting this meeting.

King George said that although the Pacific region has gone through a period of instability in efforts to wrestle power from legally and democratically appointed authorities, it was comforting to know that throughout the periods of instability the Judiciary has remained independent and its integrity unassailable. He attributed this to the traditions of justice in the region in the past 100 years as well as the caliber of judge dispensing justice in the regions courts.

Of the forty one judges from 21 countries or states...