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American Samoa Visitors Bureau and Hawaiian Airlines have agreed to work together on a travel package, which includes airfare, accommodations and car rental, to entice visitors from the US to travel to the territory. The Visitors Bureau has hinted in the past several months of possible ways it was working with Hawaiian Air to promote American Samoa and one of them is a travel package to bring US visitors to Pago Pago. Speaking at last Thursday’s cabinet meeting, Visitors Bureau Deputy Director Vaito’a Hans Langkilde said a new plan for “industry development’ is in the works, whereby the Visitors Bureau and Hawaiian Air have agreed to work together on a travel package for visitors and tourists to travel to American Samoa.

The Fiji Roads Authority says most roads are open but repair work is ongoing following severe flooding throughout much of the country last week. Tropical depression 04F brought heavy rain, flooding, and landslides to Fiji last week causing millions of dollars worth of damage. The Authority's chief executive John Hutchinson said all emergency work had been completed and the longer term focus would include work on drainage systems.

A Superior Court of Guam judge in a recent decision rejected convicted killer Chad Ryan De Soto’s request for a reduced prison sentence. De Soto was found guilty of killing three Japanese tourists in February 2013. He drove his car through a group of pedestrians in Tumon, hitting Hitoshi Yokota, 51, who was hospitalized and died two days later. De Soto then jumped out the car and chased and stabbed bystanders, injuring 11 people. Two others, Kazuko Uehara, 81, and Rie Sugiyama, 28, were stabbed to death.

Frictions between a Parliament-appointed Commission of Inquiry and the Judiciary came to a head when Judges refused to front the Inquiry Panel. This is revealed in a report by the Commission of Inquiry tasked to review the performance of the Land and Titles Court Judges, tabled in Parliament during the last sitting for 2016, last week. A copy of the report in Samoan has been obtained by the Samoa Observer.  The Inquiry was headed by Member of Parliament and Chairman, Lopao’o Natanielu Mua, who tabled the 80-page report last week.