Non-government organisations are frustrated with the Cook Islands government seabed mineral consultations that are being held in New Zealand, calling for a 10-year moratorium to allow for independent research and capacity building within the Cook Islands.
The University of the South Pacific Students’ Association (USPSA) from 14 campuses spanning 12 member countries convened in Rarotonga yesterday representing the voice of 14,000 students.
Former prime minister Bill English has been appointed to the board of Australian retail giant Wesfarmers.
Road workers have uncovered what’s thought to be parts of a pre-European Maori waka on a motorway project north of Auckland.
NEW ZEALAND – The country’s leading banks have been ordered to prove they are not ripping off their customers like their Australian counterparts have been doing.
NEW ZEALAND – Victoria University of Wellington is considering dropping the ‘Victoria’ from its name to avoid confusion with other institutions.
NEW ZEALAND – Holidaymakers may be sleeping in campervans contaminated with the toxic chemicals used to make methamphetamine.
NEW ZEALAND – Methamphetamine has become so endemic in New Zealand there are now reports of primary-age children taking the drug to school.
FIJI – A former opposition MP is one of two men who have been jailed for more than two years after being convicted of sedition in Fiji.
FIRES PUTTING FIJI’S ECONOMY AT RISK
VANUATU – The parents of a six-year-old girl who was abducted, raped and murdered in Vanuatu last week are calling for the death penalty to be introduced.
SAMOA – Samoa’s Minister of Prisons says plans are being drawn up to build a new prison on the big island of Savai‘i.
DENGUE OUTBREAK ‘NO CAUSE FOR PANIC’
FRENCH POLYNESIA – French Polynesia’s Tahoeraa party says there have been a number of irregularities on part of the ruling Tapura party in the first round of voting for a new territorial assembly and complaints will be lodged.
NEW ZEALAND – The New Zealand aid programme is in the process of equipping Pacific fishermen with electronic locator beacons.
PACIFIC – As the world watches to see the outcome of a proposed denuclearisation talks between North Korea and the United States, islands in the middle of the Pacific are hoping it will mean a stop to the constant threat of a nuclear attack.
FLIGHTS SUSPENDED AFTER EMERGENCY
AUSTRALIA – Coral reefs are under threat if atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to rise, new research has shown.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Sitting at the collision point of several tectonic plates, Papua New Guinea is ranked the 10th most disaster-prone country in the world and is regularly rattled by earthquakes.
PACIFIC – New findings show that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a rotating soup of plastic in the north Pacific Ocean, contains up to 16 times more waste than previous surveys were able to detect.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Papua New Guinea’s foreign minister says his country is looking to draw on Australia’s expertise to better respond to future natural disasters after the massive earthquake that devastated PNG’s Highlands in February.
PACIFIC – An all-female crew of sailors, scientists and film-makers are set to cross the Pacific later this year to research plastic pollution.