Tokyo advocates ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ and promises economic aid By Susumu Kuronuma, Nikkei staff writer TOKYO, 04 JULY 2019 (NIKKEI REVIEW) — A war of nerves involving Japan, the U.S., Australia and China is underway over island nations in the South Pacific Ocean such as Palau, Fiji and the Cook Islands, with attention focused […]
Category: Pacific News
Posted inPacific News
Rate of child sexual exploitation in Pacific ‘appalling’
AUCKLAND, 04 JULY 2019 (RNZ PACIFIC) —New research into child sexual exploitation in the Pacific reaffirms that children are most often sexually exploited by people they know. The survey by the child protection agency ECPAT International shows perpetrators are most likely to be family members or a close family friend. It was a small study […]
Posted inPacific News
Former President Peter Christian among winners in Congressional special election
PALIKIR, 04 JULY 2019 (FSMIS)—Citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the states of Pohnpei and Kosrae voted Tuesday in a special election to fill the two vacant four-year (at-large) seats in the Congress of the FSM resulting from the elections of David W. Panuelo and Yosiwo P. George, President and Vice President […]
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The new drug highway: Pacific islands at centre of cocaine trafficking boom
NADI, 24 JUNE 2019 (THE GUARDIAN) — It is the drug route you’ve never heard of: a multi-billion-dollar operation involving cocaine and methamphetamines being packed into the hulls of sailing boats in the U.S and Latin America and transported to Australia via south Pacific islands more often thought of as holiday destinations than narcotics hubs. […]
Posted inPacific News
Taiwan may lose another Pacific ally to Beijing as Solomon Islands begins 100-day assessment of priorities
HONIARA, 10 JUNE 2019 (SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST) —Last month, after heated elections in the Solomon Islands, the Taiwanese combat support ship Pan Shi arrived on the shores of Taipei’s main ally in the South Pacific. With a flash of a thumbs up, Roger Luo, Taiwan’s ambassador, was joined by the Solomon Islands’ Foreign Minister […]
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US Congress members go to bat for islanders
MAJURO,10 JUNE 2019 (MARIANAS VARIETY) —Seven members of the United States Congress are advocating for the rights of Marshall Islanders, Micronesians and Palauans living in the United States under the Compact of Free Association. The seven members of the U.S. House of Representatives late last month sent a joint letter to Kevin McAleenan, the acting […]