Archive - Jan 2, 2012 - Article (News Story)

Samoa is not only celebrating the new year but 50 years of governance since gaining independence from New Zealand in 1962.

For decades, Samoa was subjected to British, German and New Zealand colonial rule and after years of lobbying to a reluctant United Nations the people of Samoa voted for independence.

This came after a peaceful resistance movement, The Mau, was set up in the early 1900s, enraging New Zealand administrators who rounded up leaders and sent them into exile.

Paul Solofa's travel plans, for his trial, were approved last week by the federal court in Washington D.C.

The U.S. Marshal Service will arrange for Solofa to depart the territory and arrive in Washington DC before Jan. 16, when his federal trial begins.

Solofa is charged with obstruction of justice and witness tampering stemming from his role in the school bus spare parts scheme during the time he headed the Department of Education business office several years ago.

Speaking on his weekend radio program New Years Eve, Saturday, Dec. 31, Gov Togiola Tulafono acknowledged that neighboring Samoa is now a day ahead of American Samoa and wished Samoa and its leaders a Happy New Year, as it was already the first day of 2012 in Samoa.

At the stroke of midnight Dec. 29, Samoa officially leaped ahead into the future to Dec. 31st, as it changed to the other side of international dateline, making Samoa one of first nations to welcome in the New Year 2012.

YOUTH LEADERSHIP COUNCIL ELECTS ITS FIRST OFFICERS

Gov. Togiola Tulafono congratulated Youth in Action Leadership Council members and their newly elected officers on his radio program, Saturday morning.

The YALC was launched last month under the sponsorship of the First Lady's Ta’ita’itama program.

Togiola challenged the members to "stay the course" despite the work being time consuming.

Two days after the Coast Guard suspended its search for a boater who went missing during a voyage from Kauai to Oahu, the boater — 66-year-old Ira Foreman of Seattle, Wash. — arrived at Honokohau Harbor on Hawaii island — two weeks late and nearly 100 miles off course but alive.

Foreman left Port Allen, Kauai, on the morning of Dec. 17 but failed to arrive at Keehi Lagoon as scheduled the next day. He was reported missing a week later.

CINCINNATI — No regular-season game in recent Bengals history has had any more meaning than the one with Baltimore Saturday. And I’m not just talking about what could occur on the field, but also with what will be happening in the stands at sold-out Paul Brown Stadium for some 40 children from the St. Monica’s Recreation Center in the Lincoln Heights area of Cincinnati.

A Fiji man has been freed in Iraq after being detained by the Iraqi Army for almost three weeks, reports the Fiji Times.

A CNN news report confirmed Fijian security contractor Kevin Fisher and fellow American contractors Jonas March and Alex Antiohos had been released by the Iraqis.

The CNN report quoted US Congressman Representative Peter King as saying the men were arrested by Iraqi forces in Mahmudiyah on December 9 but were not charged with any offence.

MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Wash. (AP) -- Tactical teams searched Mount Rainier National Park's snowy terrain for an armed gunman suspected of killing a park ranger. Other officers used the cover of darkness early Monday to evacuate dozens of tourists who had been kept for their safety at a visitors center.

About 150 officers converged on the mountain park after ranger Margaret Anderson was shot to death Sunday morning, and searchers used an aircraft with heat-sensing capabilities to hunt from the skies.

Authorities believe the gunman was still in the woods, with weapons.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A 15-year-old Afghan girl severely tortured for months by her in-laws in an attempt to force her into prostitution will be sent to India for medical treatment, an Afghan official said Monday.

Sahar Gul's mother-in-law and sister-in-law were arrested and her husband was being sought, said Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi.

The case has shocked Afghanistan, though rights activists say serious abuses against women and girls in the conservative society are common. President Hamid Karzai has said that whoever used violence against Gul will be punished.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Check-ups during pregnancy tend to focus around the waist. But there's growing debate about which mothers-to-be should have a gland in their neck tested, too.

Numerous studies since 1999 have found that an underactive thyroid can raise a woman's risk of miscarriage, premature birth, or a lower IQ for her baby - even if it's so mildly sluggish that she feels no symptoms.