Aisake Casimira, programmes coordinator for the Pacific Conference of Churches: “This is a social problem.” Photo: Joe Yaya/PCC

Church leaders at this month’s Pacific Conference of Churches meeting were called on to help deal with the issue of HIV and AIDS in the Pacific, with a focus on family and discouraging “outdated” cultural norms.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Alex Perrottet

Church leaders must face the facts about HIV/AIDS in the Pacific and drop long-held prejudices about those living with the virus, says a regional advocate.

Steven Vete of UNAIDS said prejudice and discrimination prevent access to treatment for those most in need. Read more »

Pacific Press Release – Samoa Times

HONOLULU: Distinguished Pacific author, political scientist, scholar and educator, Dr Fay Gilkey Calkins Ala’ilima, passed away peacefully at her home on Pia Street in Honolulu, Hawaii on Sunday, August 1, 2010.

She was aged 88.

Born of a US East Coast family with strong Puritan Quaker and Methodist traditions, Fay married her husband Vaiao John Ala’ilima in January 1952 in Washington, DC, and committed her life to a Pacific community emerging from a colonial era. Read more »

Press Release – Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust

Swapping one volcanic landscape for another¸ Hawaiian artist Jordan Souza is set to arrive in Auckland in late February to take up his Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust Artist Residency. Read more »

A tsunami travel time map generated by the US National Geophysical Data Centre. Image: NGDC

Pacific Scoop:
Pacific Media Centre newsdesk

While New Zealand’s tsunami warning was downgraded to an advisory overnight in the wake of the massive weekend Chilean quake, Fiji and all other Pacific countries cancelled their warnings. Read more »

Press Release – Science Media Centre

An official tsunami warning is in place for all of coastal New Zealand as waves triggered by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile cross the Pacific and reach our shores. Read more »

The epicentre of the Chilean earthquake unleashing a Pacific-wide tsunami. Image: NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center

Pacific Scoop:
By Alastair Thompson

New Zealand is among the nations of the Pacific which is on a tsunami watch following a massive earthquake measured at 8.8 on the richter scale in Chile near the city of Concepcion at 6.34pm NZT. Read more »

Press Release – Pacific Tsunami Warning Center

THIS BULLETIN APPLIES TO AREAS WITHIN AND BORDERING THE PACIFIC OCEAN AND ADJACENT SEAS…EXCEPT ALASKA…BRITISH COLUMBIA… WASHINGTON…OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. Read more »

Press Release – Fulbright NZ

Fulbright New Zealand and Creative New Zealand invite applications for the 2010 Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer’s Residency, an award which offers a New Zealand writer of Pacific heritage the opportunity to work for three months … Read more »

The first mongoose trapped in Samoa. Photo: SPREP

Pacific Press Release – Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, 17 February 2010

In less than 24 hours after traps were laid in Samoa, a male mongoose was caught. However, the island nation is not relaxing the effort yet as this may not be the only one. Read more »

Press Release – Auckland City Council

New Zealand’s biggest Pacific event, Pasifika Festival, is expanding for 2010, with new events and new locations. Read more »