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Gov. Togiola Tulafono has followed up an announcement, during the American Samoa Department of Education general assembly in August, by DOE director-designee Dr. Jacinta Galea'i that DOE has adopted the Common Core State Standards for this school year.

Galea'i explained that this set of expectations provide a consistent, clear pathway of what students are expected to learn so teachers know what they need to do to help them.

FORMER INSURANCE EMPLOYEES ENTER GUILTY PLEA

Two former employees of Florence Saulo and Associates Insurance Company, Priscilla Toelei’u and Herema Taupau entered guilty pleas as part of their plea agreement with the government to charges of misappropriating over $10,000 of company funds.

Although the agenda for the Fono's Special Session, set for Oct. 22, has not been formalized to date it is understood that the main purpose for the specially called session is to approve the administration's Supplemental Budget for funding not included in the approved FY2013 Budget.

The Samoa government paid over one-point-six million New Zealand dollars for the Pacific Forum Line shipping company.

Samoa’s deputy prime minister and minister for shipping, Fonotoe Nuafesili Pierre Lauofo, revealed this on a local television last night.

The move follows a call from the leader of the opposition Palusalue Faapo II for the government to be transparent in their decision to buy the shipping line.

The deputy prime minister says all other eleven shareholders of the PFL agreed for Samoa to buy the company.

Both presidential teams are tweaking their strategies and speeches as they brace for more debates and the final dash to the Nov. 6 finish line.

The first one altered the dynamics for both tickets heading into Thursday's vice presidential showdown and next Tuesday's second of three presidential debates.

Republican Mitt Romney, energized by his strong showing and gains in some national and swing-state polls, is more aggressively reaching out to independents and wavering supporters of President Barack Obama in swing states.

Take this with a grain of salt, or perhaps some almonds or hazelnuts: A study ties chocolate consumption to the number of Nobel Prize winners a country has and suggests it's a sign that the sweet treat can boost brain power.

No, this does not appear in the satirical Onion newspaper. It's in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, which published it online Wednesday as a "note" rather than a rigorous, peer-reviewed study.

(APIA, SAMOA) — A 28-year-old taxi driver was gunned down by a passenger with a handgun late Tuesday night after 11 p.m. (Samoa Time) in front of the EPC cash power vending outlet at Vaitele.

According to other drivers of the 57 Taxi Stand at Moto’otua opposite the national hospital where he worked, Ete Ete of Pesega & Taga had been working that night and his older brother from overseas who was visiting, had been with him.

All Blacks Sevens coach Gordon Tietjens has named his first squad of 12 to compete at the Gold Coast Sevens, the opening round of the new HSBC Sevens World Series.

Tietjens is taking a mix of seasoned campaigners and exciting new and unknown talent to Australia for the event on 13-14 October.

Once again the All Black Sevens will be led by captain DJ Forbes, who has able deputies in Lote Raikabula, Tim Mikkelson and reigning IRB Sevens Player of the Year, Tomasi Cama.

The Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR) began its  ‘Recycle-able Cleanup’ competition, at the start of October, with seven teams competing to date.

“We started a competition of recycle-able cleanups this month, where each team will be picking up trash such as plastic bottles, glass bottles and soda cans and also trash in general,” said DMWR Assistant Marine Debris Project Coordinator Peter Talivaa.

The ice goes on seemingly forever in a white pancake-flat landscape, stretching farther than ever before. And yet in this confounding region of the world, that spreading ice may be a cockeyed signal of man-made climate change, scientists say.

This is Antarctica, the polar opposite of the Arctic.

While the North Pole has been losing sea ice over the years, the water nearest the South Pole has been gaining it. Antarctic sea ice hit a record 7.51 million square miles in September. That happened just days after reports of the biggest loss of Arctic sea ice on record.