Regional
Seat lost over sedition charge
Wednesday 28 March 2018 | Published in Regional
FIJI – Fijian opposition MP Mosese Bulitavu has lost his seat in parliament after being convicted on six year old sedition charges.
Volcano eruption escalating
Wednesday 28 March 2018 | Published in Regional
VANUATU – Residents on Ambae in Vanuatu are living in fear as their island’s volcano continues to belch fire and ash with the danger level of the Manaro Voui crater at level 3 – signifying an escalating eruption event.
Minister sticks by rugby and boxing ban
Wednesday 28 March 2018 | Published in Regional
TONGA – Tonga’s Education Minister remains adamant that girls should not play rugby or take part in boxing.
New Zealand begged to intervene
Wednesday 28 March 2018 | Published in Regional
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – New Zealand should bypass Australia and negotiate the resettlement of Manus Island refugees with the PNG government, a sick asylum seeker says.
Children traumatised on Nauru
Wednesday 28 March 2018 | Published in Regional
NAURU – A senior United Nations official has demanded Australia reconsider its offshore processing policy as concerns about detainees’ mental health grows.
Tongans pray for forgiveness
Tuesday 27 March 2018 | Published in Regional
TONGA – Tongans have prayed for forgiveness following a month of shocking murders and road accident deaths in the Christian kingdom.
Professional contracts on offer
Tuesday 27 March 2018 | Published in Regional
PACIFIC – The Pacific Rugby Players Association says professional contracts are already on the table for some of the players who attended this week’s Pacific Island combined training camp.
Roofing materials donated
Tuesday 27 March 2018 | Published in Regional
Tonga – Three container loads of building supplies from Fletcher Building South Pacific are set to arrive in Tonga to assist in rebuilding cyclone-damaged homes of people most in need.
PNG seeks deadline for refugee resettlement
Saturday 24 March 2018 | Published in Regional
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – The Papua New Guinea government wants Australia to set a deadline to get refugees from Manus Island out of the country.
New Zealands festival of Pacific culture marks 26 years
Saturday 24 March 2018 | Published in Regional
NEW ZEALAND – Organisers of Pasifika Festival, held in Auckland this weekend, want to focus the two-day event on re-connecting with grassroots this year.
Vanuatu bans single-use plastics
Saturday 24 March 2018 | Published in Regional
VANUATU – Vanuatu’s government has signed orders limiting the use of plastic and regulating waste throughout its 82 islands.
Cyclones looming near PNG and Vanuatu
Saturday 24 March 2018 | Published in Regional
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Papua New Guinea’s weather office is warning people to prepare for a possible tropical cyclone.
'Children's lives in danger'
Saturday 24 March 2018 | Published in Regional
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – More than a quarter of a million people remain in need of urgent assistance almost a month after a large earthquake devastated the Papua New Guinea highlands.
Girls rugby project promotes equality
Saturday 24 March 2018 | Published in Regional
TONGA – A Tongan community centre for young women has announced a ‘Girls in Rugby’ project to boost support for gender equality through sport.
Tonga's PM rejects girls rugby ban
Saturday 24 March 2018 | Published in Regional
TONGA – Tonga’s ban on school girls playing rugby is over already.
Highlands town 'a battlefield'
Friday 23 March 2018 | Published in Regional
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Violence and lawlessness are surging again in Papua New Guinea’s Hela province.
Outrage in Tonga over girls ban
Friday 23 March 2018 | Published in Regional
TONGA –The Tongan government has banned schoolgirls from playing rugby or boxing because the sports are deemed undignified and not in keeping with the island’s traditional culture.
Discovery of WW2 wreck locates brothers' grave
Thursday 22 March 2018 | Published in Regional
SOLOMON ISLANDS – The recent discovery of the USS Juneau in the depths of the South Pacific has provided some closure to people with connections to the warship, which was blown apart during World War Two.
'Live by the sword, die by the sword'
Thursday 22 March 2018 | Published in Regional
SAMOA – It takes the smallest of sparks to start a fire. If that small fire finds fuel and if it is not contained properly, it has the potential to develop into an inferno destroying everything in its wake.
Orion finds lost fishermen
Thursday 22 March 2018 | Published in Regional
KIRIBATI –The New Zealand Defence Force says two missing Kiribati fishermen were found 300 kilometres from the atoll they set off from.