The Samoa government appears to have made a compromise in their ongoing efforts to implement a new law that will tax all church ministers.

The Congregational Christian Church hit out at the law, saying ministers paying income tax went against its faith and it wouldn't pay.

However this week a bill was rushed through the House which provided that monetary gifts received by ministers during funerals, weddings and other traditional occasions would not be taxed under the new law.

Until a few months ago Abigail Gaunavou’s future for a normal life was gloomy.

The three-year old Fijian girl was born with a congenital heart defect — a hole in her heart. And until earlier this year, her parents Magret Kane and Saimoni Gaunavou Qalokivuiva were in despair. Hope for them was running out after exhausting all possible options available for surgery that may save their daughter’s life.

But divine intervention must have played a hand with the Wolfson Medical Center in Tel Aviv, Israel, Save a Child’s Heart Foundation accepting Abigail as their first ever patient from the Pacific.

And her surgery last week was a success with the young Abigail greeting the Pacific Islanders medial personnel touring Israel this week with a gleaming smile of renewed hope.

A 29-year-old man who gave methamphetamine to juveniles has been ordered by the High Court to serve a period of detention for 20 months at the Territorial Correctional Facility (TCF), after he was convicted of unlawful possession of a controlled substance —methamphetamine.

The sentence for Tinojaylann Fa’avi of Pago Pago was handed down by Acting Associate Justice, Elvis P. Patea, who was accompanied on the bench by Associate Judges Su’apaia Pereira and Paepae I. Faiai.
Fa’avi, who is the son of one of the mayors (pulenu’u) from Pago Pago was initially charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, to wit; methamphetamine, a class D felony, punishable by a term of imprisonment of not less than 5 years but not more than 10 years, and a fine of not less than $5,000 but not more than $20,000.

However under a plea bargain with the government, Fa’avi agreed to plead guilty to unlawful possession of a control substance, a lesser class D felony, punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to 5 years and a fine of up to $5,000, or both.

FA'AILOGA FA'APITOA MO LE  VASEGA FAAIUASO SAMOANA 2018