More Top Stories
‘Nothing to worry about’: Prime Minister Brown on China agreement
16 February 2025
‘Serious questions’: Opposition challenges China partnership
15 February 2025
No-confidence motion against PM and his Cabinet faces delays
15 February 2025
Ruta Mave: People’s Republic of China red flag
10 February 2025
No debt in China deal
8 February 2025
Thomas Wynne: Haka with the taniwha or dance with the dragon?
8 February 2025
‘Paedophile’ gets 13 years in prison
22 January 2025
Thomas Wynne: Where were our leaders while children suffered?
25 January 2025
$541.7m tourism earnings
25 January 2025
Cook Islands passport proposal
6 January 2025
Top cop position advertised
7 December 2024
Police need numbers and bigger budget
9 December 2024
Niki Rattle: A call for stronger human rights protections
10 December 2024
Solid and Hazardous Waste Bill referred to Parliament committee
10 December 2024
DPM defends CIIC finance and travel policies
6 December 2024
Cook Islands has its first mosque
14 November 2024
CI Muslim opens up about her faith and journey
16 November 2024
RAC to address mosque legality
19 November 2024
I don’t expect much change: PM Brown on US Elections
6 November 2024
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
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
Anxiety on the rise: Cook Islands faces mental health challenge
7 September 2024
MCI rejects ‘dark fleet’ label
3 August 2024
Pacific
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.
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.
Journalist detained on Manus seeks compensation
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – A Kurdish Iranian journalist detained on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea says he wants compensation from the Australian government for holding him prisoner for political purposes.
Cyclone reef damage affecting fish stocks
FIJI – A warning has been sounded about depleted fish stocks in Fiji after recent investigations reveal severe damage to community fishing grounds in the path of Cyclone Winston.
PM blames palagi laws for violence
SAMOA – Samoa’s Prime Minister has attributed the growing problem of interschool violence to Samoa’s decision to adopt a number of international conventions giving children more freedom.
Save The Children vindicated
AUSTRALIA – The Australian Immigration Department has agreed to pay compensation to Save The Children after some of its workers were removed from Nauru in 2014 amid allegations they were coaching asylum seekers to self-harm and inciting protests.
Nauru appeals to refugees
NAURU – The Nauruan Government has made what is widely seen as a conciliatory statement, calling for unity between Nauruans and the island nation’s refugees.
Students protest 'constitutional crisis'
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Concerned community groups say rising tensions over a disputed arrest warrant for Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister have led the country to a new constitutional crisis.
Future bleak for tropical corals
El Niño storms seem to be strengthening due to climate change, and in turn intensifying coral bleaching. This is particularly vivid at Christmas Island, where the water has warmed the most, writes Robynne Boyd for the Pacific Standard.
PACFICI BRIEFS
report alleges ‘slow motion genocide’
Melanesians linked to ancient hominid
A recent report has concluded that Melanesian people retain DNA links to long-extinct forms of human life. The discovery, reported in the journal Science, adds to the growing body of evidence that all humans alive today are basically hybrids of ancient humans.
Noisy at the bottom of the deepest sea
CHALLENGER DEEP – Scientists have recorded a cacophony of sounds including ship propellers at the deepest part of the world’s oceans, more than 10,000 metres below the surface.
Drones patrolling marine reserve
ADAMSTOWN – Ocean-going drones are being used to help to spot illegal fishing in the world’s largest, continuous marine reserve.
Organic farming initiative
PACIFIC – More than a thousand Fijian, Vanuatu and Samoan youths will be helped to secure employment through organic agriculture with the launch of a US$1.5 million two-year programme in Suva, Fiji. Activities of the project will address the high levels of youth unemployment in the three countries through skills building in organic agriculture, income generation, food security and climate change resilience. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Coordinator Osnat Lubrani said the UN is looking forward to supporting a programme focused on sustainable livelihoods that targets youths, adding the project can open up opportunities for income generation, boost confidence and empower young women and men. “The UN is proud to work in partnership with Pacific Community (SPC) and Pacific Organic and Ethical Trade Community (POETCom) on this initiative, an excellent approach to sustainable farming and at the core is that it relates to food security and nutrition as well as climate change adaptation,” she said. “All these are closely connected to the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals.” Organic agriculture builds resilient farming systems with the ability to withstand extreme weather events and can provide yields comparable to conventional or chemical based farms. As lead implementing agency, POETCom will work with partner civil society organisations, FRIEND, Farm Support Association and Women in Business Development, and the governments of the three countries to identify suitable youths to receive training in organic agriculture and product development. Target youths are those seeking employment between 18 and 30 years of age or transitioning to formal employment within the next 12 to 24 months. The programme will address the high level of youth unemployment in the three countries, at around 44 per cent of the youth population in Fiji and 8.9 percent in Vanuatu. To do this, it will support linkages between the agriculture and tourism sectors of these countries, mapping value chains from the farms to hotel tables or retail outlets. POETCom Coordinator Karen Mapusua said: “In Fiji we are going to focus on Cyclone Winston badly hit areas helping to rebuild the economy through supporting the value chains between the suppliers (youths) and buyers (hotels and restaurants), developing menus that will use local products or the promotion of local products. “Simply, the youths will be trained to do organic farming, develop a product for example banana or coffee and be supported to market their product with the tourism sector.”
Papua New Guinea's great timber heist
PACIFIC VIEWPOINT By Frédéric Mousseau Oakland Institute
Search on for monkey-faced bat
WESTERN PACIFIC – The Australian Museum has announced a scientific expedition to the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea’s Bougainville to undertake research into a pair of unique and rarely-sighted indigenous mammals.
Social media blamed
SAMOA – Principals in Samoa coping with the latest school brawls say social media is to blame.
Goalkeeper killed by lighting
AUSTRALIA – Australian football goalkeeper Stefan Petrovski has died in hospital after being struck by lightning during training in Malaysia.
Dismissal of Fiji chiefs heavy-handed
FIJI – An academic who’s been banned from Fiji says the Great Council of Chiefs may no longer be relevant but the way it was dissolved leaves a sense of unfinished business.
Key backs territories joining Forum
FRENCH POLYNESIA – New Zealand’s support for French Polynesia and New Caledonia joining the Pacific Islands Forum is a significant development, according to the director of the New Zealand Institute for Pacific Research.
Blame game over self immolations
NAURU – Australia’s Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says refugee advocates are to blame for two refugees setting fire to themselves on Nauru in the past week.
Australia staunch on immigration policy
AUSTRALIA – Australia’s Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has hit out at “advocates and others” who he believes are pressuring refugees to “behave in a certain way”, saying the Federal Government will not be persuaded to change its border protection policies.
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