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Tabuya ‘an ideal Minister for Information’, Fiji’s PM says

Fiji's Prime Minister is set to restore a backbencher to cabinet after she appeared in a private video dancing naked.

Regional

Diesel fuel aboard sunken Manawanui still unaccounted for

New Zealand Defence Force figures show more than half a million litres of diesel fuel aboard the Manawanui when it sank has not been taken off it.

Tongan gays push for law change

TONGA – For the first time, Tonga’s homosexual and transgender community will call on government leaders to revise legislation in order to protect LGBTI people in the deeply conservative Christian country.

Regional

Nauru indicted by UN committee

NAURU – The United Nations has delivered a blistering indictment of Nauru and Australia’s failure to help children in detention-like conditions, especially those driven to attempt suicide and self-harm. It slammed the Nauru’s “limited capacity” to investigate allegations of sexual assault of children and its failure to follow up complaints while also severely criticising the harsh living conditions inside Australian’s regional processing centres. The Age newspaper reports among the UN’s concerns were a lack of clean drinking water, poor sanitation, the absence of a dedicated paediatrician and the reported use of illegal corporal punishment against children at the camps. The UN’s Committee on the Rights of the Child also found that Nauru has made no progress towards honouring a promise made last year to establish a human rights watchdog. The report identified “inhuman and degrading treatment, including physical, psychological and sexual abuse, against asylum seeking and refugee children”. The UN concluded that mental ill-health, including “feelings of hopeless and often suicidal ideation”, was exacerbated by prolonged uncertainty and poor living conditions inside the hot, humid camps. There were 410 people in detention on Nauru at the end of August, according to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. The CRC issued its report based on hearings in Geneva, meetings with civil society groups, Nauru’s own submissions and a review of previously published literature. The committee urged Nauru and by extension, Australia to immediately remove asylum-seeking children and their families from the RPCs, and find “permanent, sustainable resettlement options” for recognised refugees, including reasonable access to employment. It also called on Nauru to ensure that staff working at the RPCs were adequately trained in the identification of vulnerable children and those at risk of self-harm, and to develop a system to ensure incidents of self-har

Regional

New Zealand child poverty of concern to UN

NEW ZEALAND– The UN has said in a damning report that it is deeply concerned about New Zealand’s persistently high rates of child poverty.

Regional

Fiji's Ratu Joni laid to rest

FIJI – Fiji’s former vice president, the Roko Tui Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, has been buried on his home island of Bau.

Regional

Church stands by convicted rapist pastor

FIJI – A 75 year old leader and pastor of a breakaway church group in Fiji has been sentenced to 14 years 2 months imprisonment.

Regional

Therapeutic use of steroids claimed

NEW ZEALAND– Former All Blacks Dan Carter and Joe Rokocoko both had therapeutic exemptions to use the steroids detected in their urine, according to their agents.

Regional

Access to healing water improved

FIJI – Access to a water source in a Tailevu village in Fiji that has been deemed miraculous has been upgraded by authorities.

Regional

Detention of refugee kids slammed

UN report decries treatment of children on Nauru

Regional

Detention camp film projected on high commission

AUSTRALIA – A guerrilla screening of secretly obtained film footage showing an unprecedented view of Australia’s offshore refugee detention camps was projected on to the outside of the Australian high commission in central London on Wednesday night.

Regional

Guam torn by church sex abuse allegations

GUAM – Atop a lofty hill overlooking the ocean in the US territory of Guam, a residence for the governor and a ceremonial one for the archbishop sit together, a decades-old symbol of their seemingly equal power on an island where nearly everyone is Roman Catholic.

Regional

Free and equal Pacific promoted

Pacific campaign launched against homophobia and transphobia

Regional

Nuclear arms lawsuit rejected

Marshalls Islands’ bid fails in international court

Regional

Regional

Pacific stance at UN 'shocks' Indonesia

Diplomatic discord after West Papua speeches

Regional

Fugitive sailor detained in Pago Pago

TONGA – Tonga Police have confirmed that escaped murder suspect Dean Jay Fletcher had been located in Pago Pago, American Samoa where he is now detained on local charges.

Regional

DNA discovery may have health benefits

NEW ZEALAND – A professor from New Zealand’s Massey University has proven travellers from Asia were the first people to settle in the Pacific, thousands of years ago.

Regional

Anticipation building in Apia league test

SAMOA – This weekend’s historic rugby league test between Toa Samoa and the Fiji Bati in Apia shapes as a big opportunity for fringe players to put themselves in the selection frame for next year’s World Cup.

Regional

Tongan government deadlocked, Pohiva says

TONGA – Tonga’s Prime Minister said his government was deadlocked and struggling because some chief executive officers and top officials did not like him and his government.

Regional

Four get prison for beating up woman

VANUATU – The Supreme Court in Vanuatu has sentenced four men to prison after finding them guilty of assaulting and kidnapping a woman who had criticised the behaviour of tourist transport providers in Port Vila on Facebook.

Regional

Auckland bust nets meth worth $17 million

NEW ZEALAND – A police operation in South Auckland has netted $17 million worth of the illegal drug methampetamine.

Regional

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