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By the time Palauans gather to celebrate their nation’s 23rd Independence Day on October 1, a diplomatic note is expected to have arrived from the United States government formally exercising its right under the Compact of Free Association to use additional lands not identified under the compact agreement. That provision obligates Palau to provide land without compensation.

Samoa’s Immigration Office has suspended an Immigration employee while they investigate the alleged sale of Samoan passports online.  David Nomereta Uaine, the suspended officer, confirmed the decision when he was contacted by the Samoa Observer. He said he was informed of his suspension yesterday.  “They already told me about it,” Mr. Uaine said during an interview with the Samoa Observer over the phone. 

Do not look at our disabilities but focus on our abilities, said Rhema Misser a person living with physical disability for 54-years during the opening of the first "Langi Ma’a: Tonga National Mental Health and Disabilities Symposium" on October 9-13. Rhema said often at times people look at them living with disabilities, with the idea they are good for nothing.

Among the conditions of a second loan for the American Samoa TeleCommunications Authority is that the ASG Employees Retirement Fund has part ownership in the spur connecting American Samoa to the new Hawaiki Submarine Cable, to be launched mid-2018. This is according to testimony by Retirement Fund officials during a Senate Retirement Committee hearing last Thursday where committee chairman Sen. Tuaolo Manaia Fruean, who is the Senate member on the Retirement Fund board of trustees, stated that ASTCA has applied for a $30 million loan from the federal government.