Dede Sophie

 Santos PNG Orchids coach Ben Jeffries confirms his 20-player PNG Prime Minister’s XIII Women’s squad will face the Australian Prime Minister’s XIII Women in this Sunday’s clash at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane. The match will be played with unlimited interchange and all 20 players are expected to feature. Elsie Albert is unavailable for the match, due to NRLW semi-final commitments with St George Illawarra Dragons, but Orchid number 20, Gloria Kaupa, will captain the side. Jeffries says this is a valuable opportunity for the Santos PNG Orchids, who have not played a match since November 2019, and recently named a 23-player squad for the upcoming Rugby League World Cup (RLWC), featuring many new faces. Nine players will be making their first international appearance in PNG colours on Sunday, so they are seeing a new era of Orchids come through.  Coach Jefferies says this will be their toughest career test to date, playing against stars of State of Origin, the Australian Jillaroos and other...

The Papua New Guinea Finance Department and  Internal Revenue Commission IRC headquarters in Port Moresby have been locked out.  Officers from the nation’s tax office were locked out of the Revenue Haus building in downtown Port Moresby this morning by the landlord Nambawan Super Limited (NSL). This also includes the doors to Vulupindi Haus at Waigani, which houses the National Department of Finance. Both the Revenue Haus and Vulupindi Haus are owned by NSL. Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) Sam Koim told the media this morning that as a lawyer, he understands the landlord for exercising their right over non-payment of rental arrears by the Government.  He clarified that if IRC was responsible for its own debts, it would have cleared its rental arrears totalling K12 million.  However, this responsibility has been centralised to the Department of Finance.  The IRC Commissioner is unsure at this stage when the office will be reopened for normal business.  NBC New...

Countries in the Pacific, including Papua New Guinea, are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and urgent transformational change is still needed to achieve the 1.5 degrees Celsius goals under the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) or climate action plans that promote adaptation and resilience aiming to reduce emissions, countries must strengthen their plans that is due in 2025, according to PNG’s Climate Special Envoy, Ruel Yamuna who delivered a statement on behalf of Coalition of Rainforest Nations or (CFRN) at COP27 climate conference in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt. Papua New Guinea’s Climate Change Special Envoy Ruel Yamuna delivering the statement on behalf of the Coalition for Rainforests Nations. Pic supplied by CCDA Citing the NDC Synthesis Report and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Gap report 2021, Mr Yamuna finds that both reports indicated that current NDCs are not aligned to the 1.5 degree Cel...

Ford Ireland is again supporting the annual Defence Forces Band Concert which will be held in the City Hall in Cork on Friday 24 February, writes Brian Byrne. The concert is in aid of the Defence Forces Benevolent Fund, and Ford has been involved since 1989. The event was last held in 2020 and has been absent in the last two years because of Covid restrictions. This year’s concert will feature personnel from the Bands of 1 Brigade, 2 Brigade and the Army No. 1 Band. As is traditional, the concert will also feature Defence Forces pipers and drummers, who are always very popular with the Cork audience. The guest artiste will be soprano Rachel Croash. Pictured at the launch for the concert recently in Collins Barracks Cork were General Officer Commanding 1 Brigade, Brig Gen Brian Cleary and Market Lead for Henry Ford & Son Ltd John Manning.