Local News
![A new day on Dec. 28 with three more days before the New Year 2018, with great weather in sunny American Samoa, as the sun rose from coastline off Faganeanea village on Tutuila island around 8a.m. [photo:Leua Aiono Frost]](https://samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/Untitled%20Extract%20Pages_Page_1_Image_0002_1.jpg?itok=dS2e72bz "A new day on Dec. 28 with three more days before the New Year 2018, with great weather in sunny American Samoa, as the sun rose from coastline off Faganeanea village on Tutuila island around 8a.m. [photo:Leua Aiono Frost]")
Church services and parties top the list of activities when American Samoa welcomes in 2018 at the stroke of 12 midnight Sunday night, the last in the U.S. “family” to do so. Guam will be the first U.S. possession to welcome in the New Year.
“...may the New Year bring our territory prosperity and...
![[SN file photo]](https://samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/Pago%20Dist%20Court%20014_72.jpeg?itok=bfWRXVQb "[SN file photo]")
Thursday in court, District Court Judge Fiti Sunia raised his voice to a defendant, who is an overstayer, and who has allegedly caused a person to end up in the hospital. While specific details of the incident or charges against Sapi Osana were not immediately available, Samoa News understands that...
Utulei, AMERICAN SAMOA —The American Samoa delegation to the 14th annual Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission meeting in Manila returned to the territory after working with the United States delegation to successfully secure 100 extra high seas fishing days for American Samoa. The...
After two full days of waiting in frustration, passengers from Monday night’s flight finally left for Honolulu on Wednesday night’s flight — one of the three extra flights the airline scheduled between Honolulu and Pago Pago for the busy holiday season.
Some passengers as well as family members...
![[file photo]](https://samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/graves%20by%20sea.jpg?itok=tVVk9hdO "[file photo]")
While death is often referred to as part of the natural order of our lives, it is not an easy event to accept, especially of family members and friends dear to us, whether they were public figures or otherwise. Each loss is keenly felt and mourned, with the hope that time will heal the wound left...
![the High Court of American Samoa. [Wikipedia]](https://samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/High_Court_of_American_Samoa.jpg?itok=HwuPimKf "the High Court of American Samoa. [Wikipedia]")
The government’s case against a 53-year old local businessman, came down to whether the six-member jury believed the government and its witnesses or the defense, who argued that the defendant had maintained his innocence since his arrest.
In the end, it took the jury less than an hour to acquit...
![[SN file photo]](https://samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/AM%20Samoa%20HC_76.jpeg?itok=BKVNZsbC "[SN file photo]")
SIERRA ISAIA
Through his defense attorney Public Defender Douglas Fiaui, drug defendant Sierra Isaia entered a not guilty plea last week Wednesday to a single count of unlawful possession of crystal methamphetamine (ice).
The plea was entered during arraignment where Acting Associate Justice...
![A bullet hole is seen on the right door of a DPS unit following an incident that happened on Dec. 14 behind the ASTCA compound at Tafuna, when a person/persons fired twice at the police unit. Luckily police officers were not inside the vehicle or close to it when the shots happened. [SN file photo]](https://samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/police%20car%20gunshot_0912_0.jpg?itok=_O7hOoSu "A bullet hole is seen on the right door of a DPS unit following an incident that happened on Dec. 14 behind the ASTCA compound at Tafuna, when a person/persons fired twice at the police unit. Luckily police officers were not inside the vehicle or close to it when the shots happened. [SN file photo]")
A man, with a criminal record, accused of shooting at a police vehicle two weeks ago has been arrested and the District Court has set “no bail”, while a warrant for another suspect has been issued in the same incident, which has been described by police as a “cowardly” act.
Responding to Samoa News...
![Eti Saaga and his daughter Terri. [Photo: Monica Miller]](https://samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/eight_col_ETIweb.jpg?itok=rmEPT_03 "Eti Saaga and his daughter Terri. [Photo: Monica Miller]")
The author of a poem which is studied at colleges and universities in the Pacific region, Eti Saaga, has died .
His daughter Terri Saaga Sua said her father died at Kuakini Medical Centre in Honolulu.
He was 67.
In his lifetime, Eti had been a builder of roads, a journalist, a government press...
![[SN file photo]](https://samoanews.com/sites/default/files/styles/teaser/public/field/image/AM%20Samoa%20HC_75.jpeg?itok=rT_qV3iY "[SN file photo]")
A citizen of Samoa, who was considered an overstayer and accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year old girl over a span of nearly five months, has been sentenced by the High Court to serve six months in prison as part of several conditions of probation.
Ashley Afamasaga, 24, was initially charged...