Regional
Vanuatu campaigning begins
Thursday 7 January 2016 | Published in Regional
PORT VILA – Several political parties in Vanuatu have already launched their election campaigns despite delays to the publication of the official candidates list.
Democracy stuck in the doldrums
Wednesday 6 January 2016 | Published in Regional
PACIFIC VIEWPOINT By Pesi Fonua Publisher of Matangi Tonga A year after Tonga’s second democratically elected government came into power at the end of December 2014, Tongan politics is stuck in the doldrums.
Tahiti flood damage costly
Wednesday 6 January 2016 | Published in Regional
PAPEETE – French Polynesia’s assembly has approved US$8 million in funds to help rebuild parts of Tahiti badly damaged by floods before Christmas.
Tonga escapes major cyclone damage
Wednesday 6 January 2016 | Published in Regional
NUKU‘ALOFA – The Tonga government has cancelled the state of emergency that was declared for the Vava‘u and Ha‘apai island groups on January 31 as Tropical Cyclone Ula entered Tongan waters.
Working on drought resilience
Wednesday 6 January 2016 | Published in Regional
PORT MORESBY – Papua New Guinea’s National Disaster Centre is working tirelessly to make the country more drought resistant, according to a report in the Post-Courier.
Making bid for French presidency
Wednesday 6 January 2016 | Published in Regional
PAPEETE – French Polynesia’s pro-independence opposition leader, Oscar Temaru, says he plans to make a bid for the French presidency next year.
Vanuatu election funds falls short
Wednesday 6 January 2016 | Published in Regional
PORT VILA – Vanuatu’s electoral office says it has been allocated US$142,000 less than what it estimates it needs to carry out this month’s snap election. The acting principal electoral officer, Joe Johnson Iati, says the office estimates the election will cost $765,000, but it has only been allocated $622,000. The election was called after the president, Baldwin Lonsdale, dissolved parliament to end weeks of political deadlock that stemmed from the jailing of 14 government MPs for corruption. Iati says the sudden announcement means that the office has had to bring forward election planning and stretch its resources. “There are a lot of challenges. Since we ran into this dissolution of parliament, we’ve had to source all the resources that we have in terms of budget and manpower and we are hoping to have everything smoothly running.” Iati says the office will try its best to run the election within its budget, but the government may be asked to provide extra if that’s not possible. The electoral office says it has received applications from 10 of the jailed former members of parliament to contest the election.
Where all the happy people are
Tuesday 5 January 2016 | Published in Regional
SUVA – Forget police brutality claims and plots to overthrow the government – Fiji has polled highly on the Global Happiness Barometer, beating 66 other countries to be listed as the second happiest country in the world for 2015.
Funding approved for elections
Tuesday 5 January 2016 | Published in Regional
PORT VILA – Vanuatu’s caretaker prime minister Sato Kilman has approved ten per cent of a yet to be passed budget to prevent the administration from faltering.
Helicopter service for Tonga initiated
Tuesday 5 January 2016 | Published in Regional
NUKU‘ALOFA – Tonga’s own life-saving helicopter service is expected to start in early 2016.
Tong's son misses out
Tuesday 5 January 2016 | Published in Regional
TARAWA – Maiana Island in Kiribati, the home island of outgoing president Anote Tong, will go to a second round of voting this week after none of the candidates got 50 per cent of the vote in last week’s initial general election.
Robots to spark seabed gold rush
Tuesday 5 January 2016 | Published in Regional
TORONTO – If Toronto-based mining company Nautilus Minerals has it their way, there could soon be a swarm of deep-sea mining robots lurking around on the ocean floor of the Bismarck Sea, near Papua New Guinea, to snatch up deposits of copper, gold and silver.
Drowned
Tuesday 5 January 2016 | Published in Regional
PAGO PAGO – A 31-year-old man who was washed out to sea while fishing in American Samoa is still missing, presumed dead.
Cyclone Ula hits Tonga and Fiji
Tuesday 5 January 2016 | Published in Regional
SUVA – The first tropical cyclone for 2016 has lashed Fiji’s outlying islands, after causing destruction in parts of Tonga.
New light shed on Polynesian origins
Thursday 31 December 2015 | Published in Regional
PORT VILA – Scientists studying skulls found at a 3000-year-old cemetery in Vanuatu say they may have unlocked a vital clue to the origins of Polynesian people.
Fiji police hot on the heels of 'plotters'
Thursday 31 December 2015 | Published in Regional
SUVA – Fiji police say they suspect that overseas residents were involved in the alleged plot to destabilise the government, according to a report in the Fiji Sun.
Cyclone Ula rings in the New year
Thursday 31 December 2015 | Published in Regional
PACIFIC – As Tuvalu recovers from extensive wind and tidal damage caused by gale-force winds, national disaster officials in the South Pacific region are monitoring the development of a newly-born cyclone.
Tuna faces collapse if nations do not act
Wednesday 30 December 2015 | Published in Regional
PACIFIC VIEWPOINT By Michael Field Nikkei Asian Review Environmentalists and Pacific Island nations are calling for new measures to force Asian fishing nations to rein in overfishing of dwindling tuna stocks that account for 60 per cent of the world’s catch.
Tropical storms threaten Pacific
Wednesday 30 December 2015 | Published in Regional
FUNAFUTI – Just weeks after an impassioned plea to the world, the nation of Tuvalu is being battered by the over-whelming Pacific.
Praised for oil spill response
Tuesday 29 December 2015 | Published in Regional
PAGO PAGO – American Samoa is emerging as a model for other parts of the Pacific for fuel pricing and management and for oil spill response.
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