More Top Stories
Fifth weekly Sydney flight to Rarotonga announced
23 October 2024
CIIC directors seek $350,000 in damages over defamatory claims
21 October 2024
Man found guilty of rape, burglary
24 September 2024
Tenants face water bill burden
8 October 2024
BRO CHECK campaign: ‘Reach out, you’re not alone’
8 October 2024
Concerns over Minister’s role in inmate work releases: PAC
5 October 2024
Tourism contribution set to surpass half-billion dollar mark
25 September 2024
Parliament’s 12 sitting days sufficient for business: Clerk
24 September 2024
Parliament Clerk sparks outrage over deep sea mining statement
23 September 2024
Parliament’s 12 sitting days sufficient for business: Clerk
24 September 2024
Tapaitau and Charlie-Puna released to ‘family jobs’
21 September 2024
3000 companies at risk due to Act oversight: Browne
23 September 2024
Police apprehend four juveniles in connection with motorcycle thefts
23 September 2024
Deep sea dilemma: Cook Islanders weigh the cost of mineral riches
21 September 2024
Anxiety on the rise: Cook Islands faces mental health challenge
7 September 2024
Cook Islands deep sea mining poll sparks controversy
7 September 2024
Helmet safety concerns raised amid enforcement challenges
2 September 2024
MCI rejects ‘dark fleet’ label
3 August 2024
STI cases on the rise
2 September 2024
Rising seas, rising costs: Climate impacts on Cook Islands economy
2 September 2024
Inflation eases but concerns remain
31 August 2024
Prime Minister defends $659,000 MPs travel bill
23 August 2024
Taxpayers foot $659,000 bill for MPs travel and allowance
22 August 2024
Corruption report exposes ‘bribe and sexual favours’
17 January 2023
PM Brown eager to hand over Forum chair role to Tonga
13 August 2024
ICI explains road works delay in front of old Sheraton site
10 August 2024
Diaspora dismayed over lack of Te Maeva Nui livestream
8 August 2024
Everyone is a winner, says Culture
7 August 2024
Local women outshine global peers in business leadership
8 August 2024
Housing crisis hits tourism industry
27 July 2024
MCI rejects ‘dark fleet’ label
3 August 2024
Tapaitau appeal dismissed
17 July 2024
Challenging ‘rape culture’
8 July 2024
Pacific
Tahiti sailors win 2024 Regatta in Raro
Sailors from Tahiti edged over Rarotonga, proving to be very competitive taking out first place in both the Lasers and the Optimist classes, winning the 2024 sailing challenge overall trophy.
Former PM Puna first Cook Islander elected to East-West Center Board
Former Cook Islands prime minister and secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum, Henry Puna, has been confirmed as the first Cook Islander appointed to the East-West Center Board of Governors based in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Nauru medical services defended
NAURU – Australia’s Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has defended the quality of hospital medical services for pregnant women in asylum seeker detention on Nauru.
Stay calm and keep your pants on
Ignorance is a dangerous thing in a country like Papua New Guinea. But sometimes it can keep you from losing your pants, writes the ABC’s PNG correspondent Eric Tlozek.
Five islands claimed by the rising sea
SOLOMON ISLANDS – Sea-level rise, erosion and coastal flooding are some of the greatest challenges facing humanity from climate change.
Chamorro art to be shown at Te Papa
GUAM – Indigenous artworks from Guam are being collected for an exhibition at New Zealand’s national museum in an effort to promote the culture across the region.
Pasifika vulnerable to allergy attacks
NEW ZEALAND – New research shows increasing numbers of people are being hospitalised with severe allergic reactions from food – particularly Pacific islanders.
Human rights efforts challenged
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Papua New Guinea’s support for the death penalty and its struggles with gender equality and police brutality have been criticised at a United Nations review in Geneva.
Intervention in West Papua urged
WEST PAPUA– The chairman of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, Manasseh Sogavare, says the regional body is pushing for an urgent intervention by the United Nations in West Papua.
Mother, baby medivaced from Nauru
NAURU – A young Somali refugee woman is on life support in a Brisbane hospital after she and her newborn son were medically evacuated from Nauru in a critical condition.
PNG plane crash site looted
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – The investigation into a plane crash in Papua New Guinea’s Western province last month which killed 12 people has been compromised because the wreckage was looted soon after the crash.
More jobs on Norfolk than people to fill them
NORFOLK ISLAND –The executive director of Australia’s administration on Norfolk Island is disputing claims of widespread job losses in the island’s government.
Sounds of freedom in West Papua
Benny Wenda is West Papua’s independence leader, International Spokesman for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) and founder of the Free West Papua Campaign. He lives in exile in the UK from where he wrote this article for Huffington Post.
Samoa and Fiji have high hopes in Paris
PARIS – Fiji aren’t taking anything for granted going into this weekend’s penultimate round of the World Sevens Series in Paris. The defending series champs lead South Africa by eight points with two round remaining and are well-placed to retain their overall title.
Prasad says accounts body now toothless
FIJI – Fiji’s deputy opposition leader Biman Prasad says he has effectively been removed from a key parliamentary body , highlighting a further erosion of democracy and accountability in the country.
PNG fraud squad back in business
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Detectives working for Papua New Guinea’s police fraud squad have been allowed access to their office and files again, but under tight conditions.
Samoa college given ultimatum
SAMOA – The future of Samoa’s 92-year-old Avele College remains uncertain with the government gives the Avele College Old Pupil Association (ACOPA) and teachers until next Monday to come up with an “undertaking” to find a solution to inter-school fighting.
Violence feared from refugees
PAPUA NEW GUINEA– A Manus Island MP says he fears the release of asylum seekers and refugees from the detention centre may lead to violence. Papua New Guinea immigration authorities said the 898 men in Australia’s offshore processing centre on Manus Island are no longer in detention. The men can now come and go as they please and can visit the main town, Lorengau. This is to comply with a Supreme Court ruling last month that found their detention was illegal. Australia has denied responsibility for the freed detainees welfare, despite claims they are lucky not to have been “chopped up” by locals wielding machetes. Papua New Guinea chief migration officer Mataio Rabura told Fairfax Media that detainees were now free to leave the Manus Island centre after that nation’s Supreme Court ordered the facility was illegal and unconstitutional, and the detention must end. He said asylum seekers and refugees at the detention centre had been encouraged to relocate to a nearby transit facility “where they can go and come”, adding that detainees were being bused in and out of the detention centre each day. The detainees on Manus Island say they now have the option to catch one of three buses into the main town each morning, but must sign agreements taking responsibility for their own safety. They are not allowed to walk out of the centre, because it is on a PNG naval base. They also say they may stay at an Australian Immigration-run transit centre overnight. But Manus MP Ronnie Knight said residents feared they will have to deal with unwanted bad behaviour, particularly from detainees harassing local women. “There’s been incidences already where we’ve had these people chasing young girls,” he said. Knight was unable to say if those involved in recent incidents were newly released detainees or those who already lived at the transit centre, because “they all look the same”. “It’s been happening for some time. They are assaulting and chasing women, young local]boys have been chasing them back with bush knives, machetes, iron bars,” Knight said. Knight claimed the detainees had been spared from being “chopped up” because Manus Island was a “peaceful” place compared with elsewhere in PNG. “If it was the highlands there would have been many deaths already,” he said. For their part, the detainees say many of them are afraid to leave the centre, because they fear being attacked by locals. Papua New Guinea’s deputy chief Migration Officer, Esther Gaegaming, said: “No asylum seeker or refugee is in detention. We are continuing to work towards fully implementing the orders of the Supreme Court.” But refugee Behrouz Boochani said the changes had not allowed true freedom of movement. “They are still controlling us,” he said. “Even when we want to go from Oscar to Delta (internal compounds) we have to give our ID cards to the officers “It means we are not free to walk.” Boochani said the refugees and asylum seekers were still being separated inside the centre and those deemed to be refugees could not visit the compounds where men who were unsuccessful in their refugee applications were housed. The men are only allowed to leave Manus Island if they sign an agreement to be resettled in PNG, and the ABC understands only eight men have done that. Of those, three have returned to Manus Island, saying they had been robbed and threatened when they were resettled in the mainland town of Lae. They say the could not earn enough money to support themselves. Two refugees who left Manus Island were arrested upon returning – one for trying to get back into the transit centre for refugees and another for repeatedly asking for a phone and credit to call his family. Another refugee remains in hospital in Lae after being violently robbed twice in two days. Only three men are still working off the island , while a fourth is about to start his new job. Manus Island MP Ron Knight said most “freed” detainees were too “wary” to move to the transit centre and expressed concern about their release. “You have young guys locked up for so long, they get involved in consuming home brew, womanising and involved in marijuana offences,” he said, adding island police were “weak”. He said there were cultural differences between locals and detainees, describing the latter as “pretty aggressive peo
Marine biologist promotes respect for sharks
NEW ZEALAND – While many people are terrified of sharks, the Kiwi man dubbed “shark man” regularly swims with the marine animals, and has never been attacked.
City mayor felt force of anti-Maori racism
NEW ZEALAND – As the New Zealand provincial city of New Plymouth finds itself again accused of redneck behaviour, two would-be Maori councillors say they don’t believe in Maori wards either.
Counselling needed for child victims
FIJI – There are urgent calls in Fiji for child psychologists to help deal with an increase in child sexual abuse victims.
Refugee dies in Nauru hospital
NAURU – A 26-year-old Bangladeshi refugee has died from suspected heart failure in Nauru’s hospital, Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIPB) says.
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