Regional
Bad planning sees city streets flooded
Saturday 18 February 2017 | Published in Regional
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Streets in Port Moresby are being flooded by rainfall due to poor planning and design of recently built or reconstructed roads.
New Zealand government funds diabetes research initiatives
Saturday 18 February 2017 | Published in Regional
NEW ZEALAND – New Zealand scientists will investigate whether microbes found inside the human gut could hold the key to battling the development of diabetes.
Tongan skier fails on debut
Saturday 18 February 2017 | Published in Regional
TONGA– Tongan skier Kasete Skeen was unable to achieve a result on his debut at the Alpine World Ski Champs in St Moritz.
PACIFIC BRIEFS 18/2/2017
Saturday 18 February 2017 | Published in Regional
DENGUE FEVER CLAIMS ANOTHER LIFE NEW CALEDONIA – A dengue fever epidemic in New Caledonia has claimed a second life.
Hundreds displaced by tribal wars
Friday 17 February 2017 | Published in Regional
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – The Red Cross is helping refugees displaced from their homes in due to ongoing warfare in a remote part of the Pacific.
Christchurch fire under control
Friday 17 February 2017 | Published in Regional
NEW ZEALAND – Firefighters in New Zealand’s second-largest city have halted a wildfire after it burned down 11 houses in the outer suburbs and forced more than 1000 people to evacuate.
Government not focused on dialysis
Friday 17 February 2017 | Published in Regional
TONGA – The Tongan government does not have the finances to provide dialysis treatment but is instead aiming to address rates of renal failure and kidney disease by managing rates of diabetes first.
Chinese investment in PNG causing unease
Friday 17 February 2017 | Published in Regional
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – In the mountains near Port Moresby, a new road and a new bridge mark the site of Papua New Guinea’s most recent hydroelectricity project.
Northern Marianas shocked by abuse allegations
Friday 17 February 2017 | Published in Regional
NORTHERN MARIANAS – The Northern Marianas has been rocked by allegations its former Catholic bishop abused an altar boy when he was a priest on Guam.
Performance inspired by past life on Rapa Nui
Friday 17 February 2017 | Published in Regional
EASTER ISLAND – New Zealander Lisa Allan has a strong feeling she once travelled with ancient Polynesian mariners from Rapa Nui to New Zealand.
NZ should take refugees
Friday 17 February 2017 | Published in Regional
NEW ZEALAND – The Green Party in New Zealand says Prime Minister Bill English should offer to take the 1200 refugees currently being held on Nauru and Manus Island if Australia’s deal with the United States falls over.
PACIFIC BRIEFS 17/2/2017
Friday 17 February 2017 | Published in Regional
INTEGRITY OF CHURCH TRIAL DOUBTED GUAM – A lawyer representing former altar boys on Guam is casting doubt on the trial being held by the Vatican to investigate allegations the island’s Archbishop abused them.
Emergency declared as fire rages on
Thursday 16 February 2017 | Published in Regional
NEW ZEALAND – Hundreds of people in the New Zealand city of Christchurch have been evacuated from their homes as bushfires threaten some suburbs.
PM Pohiva should survive vote
Thursday 16 February 2017 | Published in Regional
TONGA – A political scientist who specialises in the Pacific region says the Tongan prime minister’s troubled tenure could ironically be his saving grace when it comes to defeating a looming no-confidence motion.
Fiji sevens stars offered contracts
Thursday 16 February 2017 | Published in Regional
FIJI – The Fiji Rugby Union has begun offering contracts to its Olympic champion sevens squad stars.
Runaway refugee out on bail
Thursday 16 February 2017 | Published in Regional
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – A Papua New Guinea court has granted bail to the refugee Loghman Sawari who was deported from Fiji nearly two weeks ago.
Offshore detention a 'crime against humanity'
Thursday 16 February 2017 | Published in Regional
AUSTRALIA – Australia’s network of offshore immigration detention centres could constitute a crime against humanity, according to a submission before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Official says centre will close by end of the year
Thursday 16 February 2017 | Published in Regional
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – The Manus Island immigration refugee detention centre is slated for closure by the end of 2017, a senior Australian government bureaucrat has told a court.
Castaway Mariner's story translated into Tongan
Thursday 16 February 2017 | Published in Regional
TONGA – After nearly half a century, the first Tongan translation of a classic 19th century book about the life of an English by who was adopted by a Tongan warlord, has been completed.
PACIFIC BRIEFS 16/2/2017
Thursday 16 February 2017 | Published in Regional
Retired bishop to face abuse charges NORTHERN MARIANAS – Sexual abuse charges have been filed against a retired Catholic bishop in the Northern Marianas, Tomas Camacho. He is being accused of sexual abuse by Guam resident Melvin Duenas in a lawsuit filed in the US District Court of Guam. Duenas claims that the sexual abuse started in 1971 when he was about 10 years old and the chief altar boy at St Joseph Catholic Church in Inarajan where Tomas Camacho served as a priest. He said it only stopped when he ran away from the rectory sometime in 1974 and 1975. The charges against Camacho include negligent supervision and breach of fiduciary duty. Last year, Guam’s Catholic community was rocked by several allegations of similar sexual abuse by then archbishop, Anthony Apuron. MCCULLY DISCUSSES POST RAMSI SECURITY SOLOMON ISLANDS – The New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully says his country has plans for how it can assist Solomon Islands when the Regional Assistance Mission, RAMSI, pulls out in July. The Australian-led RAMSI, to which New Zealand contributed significant numbers of soldiers, police and civil servants when ethnic strife dominated life in the Solomons in 2003, has been scaling down and will withdraw completely in just over four months. McCully is in Honiara for discussions on the post-RAMSI phase and says New Zealand is ready to make commitments to help ensure the ongoing security of the Solomons. But he says he is not yet able to reveal details. “There are still some further conversations to have with the authorities here,” he said. SHARK POACHERS TO FACE STIFF FINES KIRIBATI – Kiribati Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources Development has outlined the penalties for breaking the ban on shark fishing for commercial purposes. The ministry last year announced sharks could only be fished for consumption and not for re-sale. Under the Fisheries Act 2010 together with the Shark Sanctuary Regulation 2014, severe punishments and fines will be imposed on those who are found breaching these regulations. A fine of $US6000 or imprisonment for four months will be given to offenders while fishing boats will be fined US$7643 or impounded for six months for the same offence. Kiribati has set up a large shark sanctuary to help protect the species across an expanse of the central Pacific almost equal to the size of India. The Pew Charitable Trusts estimates 100 million sharks are killed each year by commercial fisheries. DENGUE PLAGUING PACIFIC ISLANDS VANUATU – The hospital on Vanuatu’s Tanna island has recorded 115 dengue cases. A hospital manager, who is also part of the Dengue Taskforce, says 435 people were tested for the mosquito-borne disease. He says of the 115 people who tested positive four were hospitalised. He says one patient suffered spontaneous bleeding. The number of dengue cases has also risen in neighbouring New Caledonia where an epidemic has been declared. A public health emergency has been declared in New Caledonia’s capital Noumea as a dengue outbreaks keeps worsening. The authorities say all neighbourhoods of the city are now affected and more personnel is being hired to try to eliminate breeding areas for mosquitos. CHURCH INVESTIGATORS ON WAY TO GUAM FIJI – The newly-appointed chair of Fiji’s electoral commission says maintaining transparency and ensuring the fairest possible elections are his biggest priorities. Suresh Chandra was appointed to the role last week, nearly a month after the three-year term of the previous commission expired. The commission is an independent constitutional body tasked with supervising the elections office, which is responsible for preparing the vote. After the 2014 elections, a multinational observer group recommended the commission increase its transparency. Chandra says that will be one of his key priorities.“We will make sure that the transparency is maintained and we need to see that the credibility of the process is maintained and the election procedures are followed.”