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.
NEW ZEALAND – Distraught family members of a Samoan woman who died of typhoid last week say Auckland health officials did not tell them she had the disease.
NEW CALEDONIA – Three more Vietnamese blue boats (pictured above) have been caught fishing illegally for beche de mer within New Caledonia’s waters.
NORFOLK ISLAND – When Air New Zealand ends its direct Auckland-Norfolk Island link in May, a company on the island will fill the void.
AMERICAN SAMOA – High schools in American Samoa are confronting a growing problem of illegal drug use.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Pirates in Papua New Guinea waters held up a boatload of people at knifepoint last week and left them adrift after stealing the boat’s engine.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Papua New Guinea’s electoral commissioner has been forced to reassure church leaders he is not asking the country’s Governor-General to evoke an apocalyptic biblical prophecy.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Audiences around the world will soon have the chance to see what life is like inside one of Australia’s offshore detention centres.
TONGA – A company looking to build a casino in Tonga has reportedly been given tentative approval from the government.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa are among eight prescribed countries whose passport holders will be allowed to hold dual citizenship in Papua New Guinea.
FIJI – The main office of one of Fiji’s main newspapers, the Fiji Times, was searched by police this week in connection with an ongoing sedition case.
NEW ZEALAND – A spindly, crooked tree that appears to have grown up out of a lake has become an unlikely internet star and the most photographed tree in New Zealand.
NEW ZEALAND – A Samoan father-of-five– who claims he was offered a job as a church youth pastor and then made to work “like a slave” in an orchard – has been deported.
NEW ZEALAND – A Vanuatu food company giving overseas seasonal workers a taste of home is set to increase its workforce as sales rise.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA – A Papua New Guinea church leader says strengthened laws and better law enforcement is needed to combat sorcery-related violence.
PACIFIC – The head of the European Union’s international development arm says its partnership with the Pacific region is at the dawn of a new era.
SOLOMON ISLANDS – Steep airfares are a major impediment to Solomon Island workers wanting to take part in New Zealand’s Recognised Seasonal Employers scheme.
SOLOMON ISLANDS – Increasing attempts to smuggle goods through ports in Solomon Islands have resulted in customs and inland revenue officials this week launching a joint operation to crack down on the practise.
TONGA – Tonga’s High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea has presented her credentials in Port Moresby during a three day visit.
PACIFIC – The Forum Fisheries Agency is urging people to stop referring to Vietnamese fishing boats poaching coastal reefs across the region as “blue boats” and instead call them “reef robbers”.
NEW ZEALAND – A plan to extract millions of litres of water out of a Unesco world heritage site, send it by pipe to the coast and ship it to foreign markets for bottling has ignited a campaign over water resources in New Zealand.