Archive _{- April 2000}

SUVA, Fiji Islands (April 21, 2000 – Fiji’s Daily Post)---Air Pacific customers can now book their tickets online through the company's Website.

The website - www.airpacific.com - has online bookings to its customers for travel on its southwest Pacific and Pacific Rim services as well as with partner airlines globally.

Customers can book Air Pacific flights to Fiji and other Pacific islands, Japan and the U.S. west coast through the "BookNow" button on the Website.

Queries about the airline's network - when and where they want to travel - can also be done through the website.

The "BookNow" facility allows customers to find the best fare and best schedule for their requirements. Air Pacific's general manager of sales and marketing, Max Kruse, said that once customers are satisfied with their inquiry they can book and make payment through the airlines booking facility with their credit card.

The customers will...

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I

Honolulu, Hawai‘i

NEWS RELEASE

April 3, 2000

Asia-Pacific Culture And Architecture Design Award

A unique education center in Australia has been selected this year’s winner of the Kenneth F. Brown Asia-Pacific Culture and Architecture Design Award. The winner was announced by Dean Raymond Yeh of the University of Hawai‘i School of Architecture at a program Saturday night. The design award is the only one of its kind for culture and architecture in the Asia-Pacific region.

This year’s winner—selected by a distinguished international panel of jurors—is The Arthur and Yvonne Boyd Education Center in Australia. The center is located on the Shoalhaven River near the town of Nowra on the south coast of New South Wales.

Three Australian architects, Glenn Murcutt, Wendy Lewin and Reginald Lark designed the center. It provides living accommodations for student artists and a range of educational and creative facilities....

By Margaret Wise

SUVA, Fiji Islands (April 20, 2000 - Fiji Times)---The Tailevu Provincial Council has given the Native Land Trust Board a mandate to negotiate the proposed sale of mahogany forests on its behalf.

But it has deferred a decision on the board's proposal for landowners to take over the harvest of the forests until further details are made available.

The NLTB proposal follows a government assurance when the project started in 1965 that landowners would be considered first for the right of sale.

The board wants the logs to be processed locally. It believes a substantial sum of money would be lost overseas if the forests were sold as standing trees.

Vugalei representative, Ratu Emori Latitoga, said individuals claiming to represent landowners should be avoided. The district of Vugalei is an area where mahogany plantations are located.

"Talks on mahogany dealing should be left to the NLTB. We do not want anyone else to negotiate...

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (April 20, 2000 – Post Courier)---Rio Tinto Ltd's Bougainville copper operations would require more than $1 billion to be reignited, says Managing Director Barry Cusack.

Mr. Cusack said Rio was still unable to gain access to the mine site, which is under the control of rebel forces.

"Representatives from the revolutionary army have stated they do not wish to see any resumption of mining,'' Mr. Cusack said.

He added aside from the political issues, the economics have shifted against the Bougainville operations since their heyday.

"It has about 500 million tons of ore of which about half is pre-stripped, but Bougainville was running at a time before a lot of Chilean copper came on the market and shifted the cost curve. To restart the Bougainville operations, you would have to put in well north of $1 billion and if you'd like to put a check with that sort of number into that part of the world, you'd be pretty brave," Mr....