Sigimanu on our IP laws

PERMANENT Secretary of the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs, Ethel Sigimanu says that our Intellectual property (IP) laws are still laws of England. She was speaking during the opening of the building a national copyright system for Solomon Islands consultation meeting in Honiara, early this week. Our government has done some groundwork on IP…

Malaita care-taker govt in crisis

MAJORITY of direct employees from the reigning Malaita provincial government have lost trust and hope to the current regime, under care-taker Premier Peter Channel Ramohia. This was after employees experienced the lack of support, communication and update of workers salary payments. A senior employee of the Malaita provincial government expressed that most of them are…

Moves to reclaim Aviation land

By ANDREW FANASIA THE acting Commissioner of Lands Alan McNeil has begun the process of resuming state land in the He nderson area that were illegally allocated to an Asian businesswoman. McNeil announced this in a published notice printed in the Solomon Star today. He said the Asian developer, Mindi Zhu, has been given a…

Mua trial adjourned

THE matter of the outgoing Member of Parliament (MP) for Savo/Russell, Dickson Mua has been adjourned to Thursday next week. This was after the completion of the evidence of two prosecution witnesses who were recalled to the witness box, Thursday. Former Constituency Development Officer (CDO), Richard Duva, and former Project Officer, Dennis Akorae were grilled…

Police arrest 39 drivers

POLICE in Honiara have arrested 39 vehicle drivers following a traffic operation targeting drink driving from 23-30 January 2019. Ten drivers were arrested for careless driving, nine for driving an unlicensed motor vehicle, 14 for driving with the presence of alcohol in a person’s blood, one for driving without a driver’s license, one for driving…

TELEKOM SHAKE-UP

NPF to sell shares in Our Telekom to Fijian firm By ANDREW FANASIA THE National Provident Fund (NPF) has confirmed holding talks with Fiji’s biggest telecommunications company to sell part of its shares in Solomon Telekom to them. NPF general manager Mike Wate confirmed this in response to enquiries the Solomon Star made to his…

Water rate rise

CUSTOMERS of Solomon Water are expected to see changes in their water bills as of this month. This followed a 5 per cent increase in tariff Solomon Water had introduced, effective as from 1 January 2019. Customers in Honiara, Tulagi, Auki, and Noro will be affected by this latest increase. Chief Executive Officer Ian Gooden…

Manetoali to take plea next

OUTGOING Member for Parliament for Gao/Bugotu, Samuel Manetoali, is likely to take his plea to the conversion charge against him on February 5. His matter was mentioned in court, Tuesday where it was heard that prosecution has now obtained outstanding disclosures. The prosecution had also mentioned they will be particularizing the charge of one count…

GOOD SHOWING

Anti-corruption efforts yield positive results By ANDREW FANASIA SOLOMON Islands is the only country in the Asia Pacific region that improved its score the most from 2017-2018 with plus 5 points in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) That’s according to Transparency Solomon Islands ‘Iron Lady’ Ruth Liloqula. The CPI is a compilation of the results…