Pacific Review

Tonga's new prime minister says he hopes to work with all groups in the Kingdom, including the nobility. Catholics in Papua New Guinea who are involved in sorcery related killings are being threatened with excommunication.

Reports from Papua New Guinea Highlands indicate that women and children in a remote area are in danger of being murdered after being accused of being witches and work has begun on 200 new cyclone-proof homes for communities in Tonga's Ha'apei region, which is continuing to rebuild after being devastated by a category five cyclone almost a year ago.

Mourners gathered at St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney on Friday morning to pay their respects to the victims of the Martin Place siege .

Amongst the hundreds of delegates at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission meetings this week, one group has been conspicuously absent. A Tongan political scientist in New Zealand says a strong political party system in Pacific countries is probably the best way to give voters a chance to feel as if they decide who runs their country.

Vanuatu's parliament has passed a motion to suspend 16 opposition MPs over alleged bribery. Tribal fighting in Papua New Guinea's Hela Province has died down, as reinforcements arrive for local police.

A Catholic Bishop in the Papua New Guinea Highlands says tribal fighting is causing chaos. The Vanuatu Christian Council has condemned the hanging of two suspected sorcerers on the island of Akaham in South Malekula.

A senior police officer in Papua New Guinea is appealing to the central government to send assistance to help quell a tribal fight which has claimed 25 lives so far and an Ebola specialist with the World Health Organisation says Papua New Guinea's poor health system actually reduces the chance of an Ebola-infected person trying to sneak into the country, but it also means an outbreak would be hard to contain.

This week, as Fiji gets ready for the promised elections of September we'll hear about the state of the country's media; And as PNG Police continue their operations against illegal miners at the Porgera Gold Mine, there's a suggestion another, easier solution, those stories a little later.

Diarrhoea outbreak in Solomons killing children, Pacific disaster plan may influence global blueprint and oIl search shows off PNG malaria control project.

PNG Minister for justice and attorney general Kerenga Kua denies there has been a cover up of events surrounding the riots on Manus. And, auditions are being held around Fiji to find stars for the next Bollywood film.

Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill says his government's purchase of shares in Oil Search has already proved to be a good investment. A coalition of Pacific NGOs says self-determination for indigenous communities still under colonial rule is "everybody's business".

Fiji health authorities are still battling a major epidemic of dengue fever that is concentrated on the main island of Viti Levu.

Researchers at the Lowy Institute say the decade-long regional assistance mission to Solomon Islands has achieved some impressive results but at a 'massive and disproportionate' cost to Australia.

Aid groups warn Commission of Audit paves way for Australian Government to break election promise and Former Fijian PM Mahendra Chaudhry fined $AUS 1.2 million.