Pacific Review

The company which used the run the controversial Panguna copper mine on the main island of Bougainville is now trying to reopen it, with the support of the regional government. More than 50 staff at PNG's National Weather Office who are threatening to strike, have agreed to give the government two more weeks to address their grievances over pay.

Police in PNG's Enga Province are monitoring two tribal fights in different districts closely, and tribal leaders have been warned there will be arrests if the unrest continues. Researchers from the Australian National University are investigating the effectiveness of anti-corruption messages in Papua New Guinea.

At long last Australia and New Zealand have concluded negotiations for a free trade agreement with most but not all of the Pacific island nations. Tonga's Prime Minister is so upset about the reappointment of the CEO of the state broadcaster that he is threatening the members of the board that made the decision.

The Australian government has decided not to hold an officIal 75th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Kokoda in Papua New Guinea this year. A regional media rights organisation is questioning the treatment of Papua New Guinea journalists during the recent visit by Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

The Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been accused of meddling in the affairs of Papua New Guinea. A 21 year old Iranian asylum seeker who managed to get into Fiji after leaving the Manus Island processing centre in PNG has had new charges laid against him.

Australia's Minister for International Development and the Pacific has warned Papua New Guinea that the country's aid program is not a charity. The police in Port Moresby are treating the fire that burnt down a large section of the Boroko Shopping centre as suspicious.

There are fears that an outbreak of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis near Alotau in Papua New Guinea could spread because of the absence of decent quality health facilities in the area. The re-emergence of the borer beetle in two of Papua New Guinea's highlands provinces has the potential to devastate the country's coffee industry.

More than most countries the challenge of achieving gender equality in Papua New Guinea is difficult. It's been nearly two years since Cyclone Pam bore down on the islands of Vanuatu, ravaging homes and destroying crops.

The premier of Papua New Guinea's Hela province has appealed for Australian Federal Police to be sent there to help police quell lawlessness. Tonga's Queen Mother Halaevalu Mata'aho has been buried at the royal tomb in the capital Nuku'alofa.

Possible disciplinary action against a senior doctor at Port Moresby General Hospital. The Fijian lawyer for an Iranian refugee who fled to Fiji from PNG and was deported back to PNG again recently has seen his client for the first time since the deportation.

The Fiji government has rejected a recent Amnesty International report alleging the use of torture by the security forces. One year after Tropical Cyclone Winston struck Fiji the number of people still living in temporary accommodation is frustrating the country's Red Cross organisation.

There's flooding across the South Pacific, from Papua New Guinea to Samoa. Papua New Guinea's cabinet has suspended several departmental heads and public service executives over the controversial Manumanu land deal to relocate Port Moresby's naval base 10 kilometres up a river.

An Iranian refugee was deported from Fiji on Friday. The refugees Australia sent to Manus Island say they're not surprised President Trump has expressed doubts about a plan to resettle them in the United States.

The governments of Papua New Guinea and Bougainville may have agreed to create a commission to oversee a referendum on independence in the autonomous region in two years' time, but there are still conditions laid out in the 2001 peace agreement to be met before the vote can actually go ahead. And, a pair of young Tongan men attempted to stop Melbourne man Dimitrious Gargasoulas, the man accused of driving through crowds of pedestrians in Melbourne's Bourke St Mall on Friday, leading to the deaths of five people.

A Vanuatu Financial Official rejects suggestions the country could face economic sanctions by the OECD. The new Solomon Islands Coin commemorating former US president JFK's link to the country.