Kiribati

The lawyer for a Kiribati man who lost his bid to be regarded as a climate change refugee hopes to have his case looked at by the United Nations in the new year.

The wife of one of the Kiribati seafarers being detained in Spain for a drugs offence has asked President Anote Tong to intervene.

The Kiribati ministry of labour is reminding its nationals working on foreign vessels not to get involved with illegal drugs.

A drop in the number of imported vehicles in Kiribati has been attributed to the ongoing road rehabilitation.

The University of the South Pacific hopes a new research centre dedicated to atoll research will help save low-lying islands from rising sea levels.

A Marshall Islands-flagged Taiwanese purse seiner has paid US$2 million in fines and a donation to the Kiribati government for illegally fishing in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area.

The Kiribati Red Cross is travelling to the southern island of Tamana for the next stage of its assistance to locals still recovering from Cyclone Pam.

The only eye doctor in Kiribati says if the country is to treat high numbers of people affected by cataracts itself, it needs more equipment.

The Kiribati High Court has sentenced a French national to 22 months in jail and fined him US$3,157 dollars.

The University of the South Pacific's new Kiribati Campus is to be opened today by the President, Anote Tong.

Political campaigning is already well underway Kiribati with eight weeks until the election.

Kiribati hopes to produce a plan of action for small atoll nations dealing with climate change following positive international support at its summit in Tarawa last week.

Prince Albert of Monaco is scheduled to arrive in Kiribati today for a first-of-its-kind summit to be held in the capital, Tarawa.

Labour mobility in the Pacific will be on the agenda when the small atoll nations meet in Kiribati later this week.

The monthly climate update for the Pacific says Fiji and Tonga are expected to receive below normal rainfall over the next three months.