NEWCASTLE, Australia (AP) — Samoa will head to the polls on Aug. 29, a half-year earlier than expected, after Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa’s government collapsed following a budget defeat in parliament late last month.
Fiamē, who became the South Pacific island nation’s first female prime minister in 2021 and ended four decades of Human Rights Protection Party rule, now faces a three-way political battle that has ramifications far beyond Samoa.
The snap election comes at a time of heightened geopolitical interest in the South Pacific, with Samoa viewed as a strategic player in the growing contest for regional influence between China and traditional partners like Australia and the United States.
Climate change is also seen as an existential threat for the Samoan archipelago, which has a population of 200,000 people, and is among the world's most imperiled by rising seas.
Fiamē’s FAST government fractured earlier this year after she fired party chairman La’auli Leuatea Polataivao from the cabinet over criminal charges. The move triggered a party split.
Though Fiamē survived two no-confidence votes, a combined effort by HRPP and FAST defectors to block her budget forced the early election.
Fiamē now leads the newly formed Samoa Uniting Party, facing off against her former boss Tuila’epa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi’s HRPP and La’auli’s rebranded FAST.
The Head of State, Tuimalealiifano Sualauvi Vaaletoa II, formally announced the election date on Tuesday, after the country's Supreme Court rejected a bid to allow more time for preparations.
Britain's King Charles, right, and Samoan Prime Minister Afioga Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, left, talk during the opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool, File)
FILE - Samoan Prime Minister Afioga Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, left, and CHOGM Secretary General Patricia Scotland attend the Foreign Ministers meeting at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft/Pool, File)
VIENNA (AP) — Police in eastern Austria say a 39-year-old suspect has been arrested after rat poison turned up in some HiPP baby food jars on supermarket shelves in central Europe.
HiPP, which recalled some of its baby food jars in Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic after the case came to light last month, said in a statement Saturday it was “greatly relieved” by the arrest, and would provide further updates as verified details come in.
The Burgenland State Criminal Police Office, under the direction of prosecutors, said a probe was launched after poison turned up in a baby food jar purchased at a supermarket in the city of Eisenstadt on April 18.
It said the suspect was being questioned, and that no further details would be immediately provided. The Burgenland public prosecutor’s office has announced an investigation into suspected “intentional endangerment of the public.”
In an email to The Associated Press on Sunday, the Burgenland police office said the suspect was arrested in Salzburg state, to the west.
The Austrian Press Agency reported that an expert report on the toxicity of the poison was pending. A total of five tampered baby food jars were seized before they could be consumed, APA reported.
Authorities said previously they believe the tampering occurred in 190-gram (6.7-ounce) jars of baby food made with carrots and potatoes for 5-month-olds that were sold from SPAR supermarkets in Austria.
HiPP responded by recalling all of its baby food jars sold at SPAR supermarkets — which include SPAR, EUROSPAR, INTERSPAR and Maximarkt stores — in Austria as a precaution. Vendors in Slovakia and the Czech Republic also removed all of the brand’s baby jars from sale.
The company said the recall was not due to any product or quality defect on its part, and said the jars left its facility in “perfect condition.”
Police said a customer at the time of the discovery had reported that a jar appeared to have been tampered with, but no one had consumed the baby food.
Pfaffenhofen, Germany-based HiPP said it has been a “victim of extortion,” adding that an unspecified “blackmailer” sent a message to a shared mailbox in the case, prompting it to immediately inform police.
A view of HIPP baby food on a shelf, in Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, Sunday, April 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Stanislav Hodina)
